11:11

November 11th is the day that I celebrate my birthday. But on November the 10th I got the sweetest surprise from one amazingly wonderful husband. Sometimes a girl needs flowers. And yes, they are expensive and only last a few days, but nothing says you are special like a rose bowl delivery. Nothing says "you are so worth it" like flowers. These little beauties pranced into my office and boasted to the entire floor that someone thought that I was pretty special.

My sweet nine month old caught the tummy bug and so instead of attending a funeral, I was at home nursing a very sick little boy. And I must confess that even though I absolutely hated it for him and my heart was breaking into pieces, there is nothing better than a nine month old that wants to lay in your bed all day and cuddle. Because these days it is go go go. These days sitting still is not in Liam's vocabulary. These days the appointment book is filled leaving only the side to pencil in extra special time. But on my birthday, time stood still for a few hours. The very best present of all was snuggled up next to me, lifting only his head to sip some juice and eat a saltine goldfish.

We had planned a big birthday celebration at the house, but under the circumstances, we decided to cancel the shindig. My precious girlfriends planned a small dinner at a favorite local restaurant and I changed out of my puke-stained t-shirt, left the baby tending to my hubby and rushed out to meet them.  They were there with the wine waiting!

And gifts! An adorable salsa dish perfect for the holidays and for serving up that super secrete Dos Margaritas salsa; and the sexiest pair of Tory Burch gloves fit for Audry Hepburn herself.

It was a great evening with friends. (did I mention wine?)

A toast to a wonderful circle of friends that I truly cherish.

Robert Fowler Atwood

On Friday, November 5 we lost Bill's cousin in a tragic car accident. His death came to a shock to us all. Robert Atwood will forever remain in our hearts.

Robert was one of the most patient men and a genius when it came to computers. A special memory I hold dear is the night my mother's computer crashed as we lost her dissertation paper. This was early in my marriage and so my relationship with Robert was still pretty new. Without hesitation, Robert proceeded to spend several hours sorting through our computer via a "sharing" application over the Internet. Navigating two frazzled women through a technical world they did not fully understand and keeping them calm through the shrills of "you have got to be kidding me?" and "what are we going to do?" was no small task. Our hero was able to locate the file through the tangled mess of corrupted documents and restore the paper as well as our faith in computers.

But that is just one example of the type of person Robert was. Always willing to help out. Patient. Kind. He was truly loved by his family and friends and we will miss him dearly. On the day that we celebrated his life, a poem by Christiana Rossetti was shared...

Love is the key of Life and Death,

of hidden heavenly mystery:

Of all Christ is, of all He saith,

Love is the key.

All three times to His Saint, He saith,

He saith to me, He saith to thee,

Breathing His Grace-conferring Breath:

"Lovest thou me?"

Ah, Lord, I have such feeble faith,

Such feeble hope to comfort me:

But love it is, is strong as death,

And I love Thee.

Until we meet again, sweet friend. We love you.

Robert Fowler Atwood 1982-2010

Shopping has Changed

This past weekend, Carin and I took on the world of shopping with two bundled 9 month olds. The weather was amazingly beautiful and the company... just as awesome.

We packed an age appropriate lunch and sat outside where the birds could pick up the fallen pieces. The boys did so good.

We felt so accomplished. Like maybe we could go shopping again. Like maybe this kind of shopping, even though it takes twice as long, could be okay. That we would be okay. That two new moms could actually carry on a conversation, purchase Christmas present goodies, change diapers in a public restroom, feed lunch and eat lunch and still come out of it alive! Here's to our new way of shopping. Here's to the boys who didn't make a fuss. Here's to the adorable shop ladies who thought our littles were twins. Here's to shopping with Carin and Brooks. We had a lovely day.

To top off a great weekend, Uncle Steven and "aunt" Rachael came over for some Liam love. Liam showed off his great new skill of pushing the walker to music and was thrilled to be the center of attention. We are so thrilled that Uncle Steven is in Houston more and can come and play... ummm babysit? wink!

Halloween

I have a ginormous sweet tooth. Next to aisles and aisles of new school supplies, nothing else excites me quite like millions of individual packages of all my favorites. I do not enjoy being spooked. I am scared of creepy critters and crawlers. Spiders, snakes, devils, goblins, blood, goo, slime, and darkness are all things I can do without. Despite all those things, I can still say that the sugary goodness far outweighs the bad and Halloween can be considered one of my favorite holidays!

And why should littles under the age of one not be able to celebrate as well? For Liam's classmates, I put together a pumpkin goodie bucket filled with adorable infant Halloween socks, pumpkin apple organic baby food, a kazoo, stickers, anti-bacterial in Halloween flavors for mom, candy corn tissues, play dough, and monster bubbles! Nicole Smith designs did our favor tags. It was the perfect touch. She does amazing work.

A favorite Halloween memory is spreading out after gathering all of our loot and setting up a candy shop with my brother. We would buy, sell, and trade treats for hours until we were satisfied with the perfect mix. Mom always came up with the cutest costumes and having an artist in the family means your cat face almost looks real! I have been a cat, Pippie Longstocking, a mime, a cheerleader, raggedy Ann, and the list goes on. I had to come up with the perfect costume for Liam. I knew that I wanted something in his favorite color, green, but all of the costumes were either incredibly hot or ridiculously expensive for an infant who would most likely be in the costume for less than 15 minutes. I am a little alligator crazy and I searched high and low, but settled on this adorable little turtle.

I knew that we had chosen the perfect costume when Liam plopped down and started to scurry across the lawn. This cute little shell followed... he is one fast turtle!

Happy Halloween!

Double Can

I will not bore you with the illness episode that occurred this past week. All I can say is that the first time your baby gets sick... really sick. It tears you apart. Because they look at you with those "please make it go away" eyes and there is nothing that you can do but let them bury into your chest and sleep. With all the inventions in the world, I wish I had a mommy machine that could tell me what my little boy could not - which was that his ear hurt. I would not have tried warm baths and tummy rubs for gas. I would not have rubbed orajel on his teeth. I would have used the numbing drops until I could get a doctor appointment in the morning. After much needed rest, ear drops, antibiotic, eye drops, and plenty of fluids I had my little boy back.

We chose to take it easy and post-poned our Corsicana travel until late Friday. We made it to town just in time for cocktail hour at Gran's new place. And once again this woman does not disappoint. Despite what she says about not being 'finished' as a decorator is never truly finished... her house was impeccable. Absolutely beautiful. She has the Midas touch. Every home she touches evokes emotion. Draws you in close and wraps around you as if to say welcome home. She has a gift. Liam had a ball exploring and playing with Murphy. He was also intrigued by Gran's tricks.

We cancelled all other plans and Liam stayed home with daddy and Pop on Saturday because after three days of caring for a sick little, nothing could cure the mommy blues except a trip to Canton! And since fanny packs are so totally 80's, we strapped on the 'waist satchel,' grabbed the pull cart and hit the road!

Grandmother Billie Love had all three boys to herself while Ellen and I shopped till we dropped...

Literally. We covered almost every square inch of that place and after seven hours, we turned our cash...

into Gold! Pillow man gold that is. And stockings and smocked outfits for Liam and decorating items, linens, serving trays.... a whole trunk full of golden goodies! I have a pretty special mother-in-law that would want to shop 7 hours with me! It was a wonderful afternoon.

On Sunday, we were included in Gran's supper club lunch at the Country Club. I was so excited that Liam would get to meet my God parent's Pam and Hugh. I have so many special memories of baking gingerbread houses (as long as the firemen don't come, wink), carriage rides and candle making in Dallas, ice skating for the first time, and so many wonderful moments. As far as God parents are concerned, they were simply the very best. They were and continue to be amazing. They have been there supporting me every step of my journey beginning with the hospital at birth. I do not think they have missed a single thing!

There was always something special planned for just us around the holidays and each birthday Pam continues to top herself. I have been so truly blessed. My latest treasure? A golden baby shoe accented with garnet stones. Thank you Aunt Pam and Uncle Hugh from the bottom of my heart.

Iphone photo will have to do

Pumpkin Patch

Who can get enough photos of their little ones in the pumpkin patch? Not us!

We made one last trip to the pumpkin patch to take a few photos before they were all gone and I am certainly glad that we did. I had the bright idea to take one of the whistles I bought to hand out to the trick-o-treaters to blow and get Liam's attention. Worked like a charm! Liam thought it was the greatest noise!

The sweet Domann family even met us out there and Liam was thrilled to see his buddy Brooks! Can you believe our babies are 9 months?

Carin, Trey and Brooks have to be some of our favorite people. It was fate that we met and we are so blessed to call them our friends. Words cannot express how grateful I am for their family and friendship.

It was an extra little treat to run into the Mraz family with their new little addition Meredith. She is absolutely beautiful and Danny and Adriane were glowing. Another amazing family in our lives. And that smocked pumpkin dress. Swoon~

Great,Great Grandmother

Last Sunday, we hopped in the car and made the trip down to Pearland to visit Liam's great, great grandmother. Yes, you read that correctly. Two greats! It is truly amazing to see a vision of five generations. Both carrying the same name, Stone.

 It was wonderful to be in her presence. To watch her kiss Liam's little hands and for him to look into her eyes and know that she is someone special.

We will be making the visit more often as it was so good to see everyone again.

And Liam is almost old enough to 'ride the horse' Roy! Liam could tell immediately why all the kids love him so much!