greatest hits

guess what?  both of my kids are at school right now.  friday is the one day a week i have a couple of hours to myself.  i am blogging and listening to trampled by turtles (obsessed).  i feel giddy.

bad news: the auto-focus on my camera is dead.  kaput.   just manual focus for me now.  which has taught me one important lesson:  i am a sucky photographer.  but today is your lucky day (haha), i happen to have plenty of pictures from before my camera so rudely quit me.

1)  thanksgiving, oh thanksgiving, how i love you so.  chris' parents were in town from syracuse and our niece was in town from arkansas.  and we did everything you are supposed to do on thankgiving break.  we've got the laying-around-in-comfy-pants-to-watch-the-same-movie-over-and-over thing down pat.

 2) my parents hosted us.  just look at our sweet little turkey nugget in her "first thankgiving" dress.  oh and my gorgeous sister too.

 3) granted i am taller than my sister, but in september our twelve-year-old cousin was shorter than me.  two months later, not-so-much.  he has been waiting to be taller than chelsey for a long time.  mission accomplished.

 4) the love these two babies have for each other is unmatched.

 5) nanas make the best story-tellers.

 6) holy moly, dallas!  have you been to the new klyde warren park yet?  if not, go now. 

 {there are knitted frogs in the trees.  yep.  there are also books available from the library for you to read at your leisure.  and you can check out games to play.  and eat food from food trucks (my fav and also a new experience for my in-laws).

 and if you are crosby, you can give yourself a facial from the water on the groud (a trough for the dogs, mind you).

 7)  good-byes are the worst but their visit was the best.  happy cancels sad.

we also went to a tree farm to cut down a christmas tree (and by cut down a tree, i really mean buy a beautiful pre-cut tree from their shed and enjoy the farms other amenities, like hayrides and hot apple cider.)  but my camera betrayed me that day, so no pics.

looking forward to tree-lighting in the arts district and the dallas flea tomorrow!  woot!

how was your week?  what are you looking forward to?

love,

coco

links from chris

chris and i used to send letters to each other way back when we were just friends and well into our dating life.  then once we lived together, he would leave me little notes on a yellow legal pad every morning before he left for work.  well, now we have kids.  which means we are busy.  and tired.  so our little notes to each other have turned into emails.  chris loves twitter (it confuses me).  so throughout the week, he keeps up on all of his sports/entertainment/news in twitterland and sends me links to things he knows i will love.  i look forward to these links.  they are our modern day love letter.

here are some of the gems he sent my way.

a) these gorgeous photos.  click the link for more.

dancers among us

b) the best cam and mitchell quotes from modern family

cam: I’m sort of like Costco. I’m big, I’m not fancy and I dare you to not like me.

c) andrew bird and tift merritt singing "if i needed you"

d) tom hanks performs slam poetry about the 80's show, full house

e) this tweet by lena dunham (of the hbo show, girls)

Lena Dunham (@lenadunham)

10/11/12, 11:58 AM

I just saw Wilson Cruz aka My So-Called Life's Ricky Vasquez out the car window & Promiscuous Girl was playing on the radio & the sun shone.

f) this article about henri matisse.  he knows me well.

g) the twelve best ryan adams songs according to paste magazine.

h) this tweet from election day.

	Kathryn Schulz (@kathrynschulz)
11/6/12, 11:42 PM Elected to the Senate today: the first disabled woman, first openly lesbian woman, first Asian woman. Binder full of fucking awesome.

there are so many more.  maybe 'links from chris' needs to make a regular appearance here on the ol' blog.

what do you think?

happy thanksgiving

this year i am especially thankful for:

my snuggly baby boy's blond hair and green eyes

my big boy's love of his daddy and their favorite wilco song (see artwork below)

my niece's sweet stares

my sister's heart and strength

my momma and daddy's cornbread dressing

my husband's fierce love for me and the boys (and his lips)

my in-laws for traveling to spend the holiday with us

a new house big enough to accommodate our guests

big breakfasts

bloody marys (duh)

bedtime (ours and theirs)

grandparents (mine and my kids')

and you, for reading this blog

i feel like a lucky lady, especially lately.

i hope you have an amazing holiday, whether it be gathered at a table with your entire family or tucked away into a movie theater by yourself.  much, much love from me to you.

fyi:  ben is grateful for his whole family, his baby brother, toys, halloween, the president, the mighty t-rex, salami sandwiches, and his daddy and 'the late greats'.

xoxoxo,

coco

greatest hits

do you ever walk into your house and wonder who threw all of your family's clothes and shoes everywhere?  yea, me neither.

oh baby, has it been a week.  a mighty fine week.  here's how it went down.

a) my aggies won.  we beat the hell out of alabama (formerly the number one team in the nation.  no biggie.) by the way, thank you johnny football.  we had aggies over.  celebrated in the aggie way.  wanna see a picture?

too bad.  i didn't take any.

b) i went to a fancy-schmancy auction for ben's school where i got to dress up (never happens), wear bright red lipstick and drink a lot of wine.  wanna see a pic of my cute outfit?  sorry.  doesn't exist.

c) i went to a loooong overdue happy hour with my ladies (which lasted until midnight, mind you.)  we talked and caught up and had a fantastic time.  wanna see how cute my girlfriends are?  my bad.  no pictures.

d) my big boy started reading.  that's right, i said reading.  we bought a set of bob books and he is rocking it.  look at this sweet picture of him reading.  nevermind.  i forgot to take one.

e) last night my sis baby-sat so we could go see eddie vedder in concert.  i will always have a soft spot for long-haired grunge boys that wear flannels around their waist and smell faintly of dirty hair and patchouli.  i can't help myself.  the show was fantastic and my love for him is more solid than ever.  wanna see a picture?  here you go.  thank you, internet. (you can read about the show here.)

eddie, from back when my love started.

what eddie looked like last night.  and to think that he sounds even better than he looks.  hubba.

i did manage to take a picture of my neice trying to escape the bumpo.  but i cannt manage to get my instgram pics on my blog.  can somebody help me figure that out?

looking forward to making a million dollars at our family's garage sale so i can start christmas shopping.

how was your week?  was it as delicious as eddie?

love,

coco

a christmas gift idea

i make things.

usually for family and sometimes friends for the holidays.

i have been fantasizing about opening an etsy shop of custom gifts for a while now, but i am a little intimidated.  sales tax?  yikes.  shipping costs?  who knows?  and don't even getting me started on what i should charge.

i'll get there someday, but i am not there yet.

so i have an idea.

you will be my guinea pigs.  this here blog o' mine will serve as a tiny little test platform from which i can gauge interest.  y'all are my pre-etsy, so to speak (you know, to determine if i could really pull it off).

i am offering two custom gifts just in time for the holidays.

1) hand-cut paper silhouettes

5 X 7 for $25

8 X 10 for $30

each silhouette will be cut from high-quality black paper and mounted on a backing in the color of your choice (red, light blue, or neutral)

all you need to do is email me a couple of high-contrast photographs of your kiddo/dog/model/subject/baby daddy and we can go from there.

2) custom drawing of a house 

(be it yours/yo momma's/baby momma's/you get the idea)

5 X 7 for $25

8 X 10 for $30

 {pardon the glare.  i snapped zero pictures before they were framed and on our wall}

if you are looking for a precise scale drawing of your home, you may want to look elsewhere :)

however, if you are looking for a more whimsical, illustration-like drawing of your home, i'm your girl. i prefer to draw in pen-and-ink, but will consider adding highlights of color if there is a certain aspect of the home you would like to feature.

and there you have it!

leave a comment expressing any interest and i will be in touch with you.  we can proceed from there, my sweets.

thanks for letting me test out my little dream on you first.

love,

coco

greatest hits

operation: christmas card picture 2012 is underway.  since my money tree is dead, i cannot afford professional pictures of my boys at this time.  and knowing my baby, it'll take me a good six weeks to get a picture of him looking at the camera with even a hint of a smile.  

so forgive the photo dump of my boys playing in the yard.  phase one of operation: christmas card picture 2012 was in progress, and while none of them card-worthy, i did snap a few pretty cute ones.

here's a peek at the best of my week (by the way, more things happen throughout the week, but it isn't guaranteed that i'll remember them by the time friday rolls around unless i snapped a picture of it.  pitiful.  early-onset dementia, maybe?  i kid, i kid.)

1) this boy.  he's a fragile little bird sometimes.    the whining either makes you want to gauge your eyeballs out, or give him extra snuggles.  usually the latter.

 2) phase one of operation: christmas card picture 2012.  ben finally has it down after 4 1/2 years.  now for that other one....

 3) last soccer game of the season. thank god.  ben scored another goal.  woot!  another soccer season under our belt and a new trophy for the shelf.

 {ben's cheerleaders}

 4) my niece.  sh was a big sleepyhead at my house this week, but when she was awake she would stare at me like this.  i will never tire of it.

 5) a picnic in the front yard with my littles.

{mmmmm...peanut butter and snot.  crosby's favorite}

looking forward to an aggie game, a fancy evening out, and happy hour with my girls.

how was your week?  what are you looking forward to?

love,

coco

nine years ago

Source: aphrochic.blogspot.com via Cortney on Pinterest

nine years ago today:

me

chris

girlfriend and boyfriend

road trip

college station

walk around campus

old times sake

reminisce

bench by the library

on one knee

sweet stuff said

(of which i have no memory)

ring

proposal

oh shit!

yes! yes! yes!

tears

"meet a friend for a drink"

favorite bar

surprise!

oh shit!  again!

family and friends

hugs and tears

congratulations

pitchers of beer

more pitchers

after party

dance party

hey-ya

hey-ya

hey-ya

on repeat

off-to-bed

permanent smile

love of my life

some choices i made in my twenties were questionable, but not this one.  you know me so well, chris-bo.  i love you.

{give me a shout if you were there that day.  so much fun, right??}

greatest hits

hi y'all!  how are you?

we are good here.  we actually stayed in town last weekend, so we have been homebodies.  it feels good.  here's what's up:

1) oy.  my baby now climbs on top of tables.  tall tables.  how do you baby-proof a table?  hmmmm?

2) we waited until the very last minute to get pumpkins from our neighborhood pumpkin patch, so all that was left were the giant, million-dollar pumpkins.  we carved them (which apparently crosby thought was a total snoozefest), placed them outside only to have them immediately devoured by squirrels.  wtf?  

the great pumpkin fail 2012.

 3) the next-to-last soccer game of the season. woo-hoo!!!!  big ben scored his first goal EVER, so this game will go down in the books.

 {this is what happened when i told the boys to look fierce.  hilarious!}

 4) halloweenie!  we had a precious little moo-cow, batman and mickey mouse.

 {only one of them was having fun.  guess which one.}

looking forward to the last soccer game of the season and back-porch sitting with a friend.

how was your week?  what are you looking forward to?

{roxie, how was the park and polyphonic spree?  sounds dallas-y and awesome.}

love,

coco