Crossin' Dixie

Happy Birthday Evangeline and Ben!

In the past couple weeks, two of our good buddies have had great birthdays!

First up was Evangeline's at Incredible Dave's...which really is incredible...bowling, bumper cars, jumpies, indoor bungee jumping/trampolines, a huge arcade, playground, etc!

You old timers may recognize Evangeline's aunt, yep, it's Jamie!

The Birthday girl, Taylor [that's Megan and David's 2-year-old], and Mary Thomas

Jumpin' Jane with Evangeline

Where's Mary Thomas? Driving Nascar. She's from Alabama.

Next up was Ben's FIRST!

Ben's bash was a music party downtown at Shine...and it was great!

Mary Thomas is so happy that Dad's finally updated the blog that she "covered her boobies with her pants!"

Love to all of you who actually still read this -

Happy 2011

The new year came in like a lamb for us...which I suppose is not abnormal for parents of two and four-year-olds. My good Tennessee pals Yen and Mandy came to Louisville to celebrate downtown with friends, so early on December 31 we went down to their suite at the Galt House to hang out:

Two white girls gave one Asian a pedicure

Played makeup

Jumped on their beds...and then went home to our own.

Our perfect version of a Happy 2011!

The next morning we went back down to New Year's Day brunch at Rivue, a superb restaurant atop the Galt House designed by a fantastic young architect.

...and payed another visit to the Gingerbread Village

where they gave us the biggest lollipops we've ever seen:

All that food made Yen and Mandy need a nap:

So Jane and Mary Thomas tucked them in.

Update on Mary Thomas:

She's 98% got the hang of this and wearing big girl underoos to school all day now!

She may have a future in kayaking...

...or she may just head to the convent and be Sr. Mary Holy Water

Thanks to Gigi and Aunt Jamie this Christmas for the aprons...we've got some cooks in the kitchen!

Love,

Dueitt Christmas 2010 - Part Two

A couple days after Christmas, another 4/11ths of the Dueitts made the trip up I-65 to pay us a Christmas visit. We were SO excited to have them!! We played and partied for several days straight and had a great time!

Christmas dinner...a few days late

Uncle Julian got some lips from Catwoman Mary Thomas

[yep, Halloween costumes never really get put "away" here]

~~Shirley Temple~~ Frances and Jane

Sleepy Bennett...

...was probably tired from putting this together. I'm amazed that the baby nephew I gained when we got married is a smart young man who can now make sense of hundreds of tiny legos.

Aunt Marie's good pal Catherine lives in Lexington. One afternoon while they were here, we met Catherine and her two sons in Shelbyville for lunch - at The Colonel's Lady! That's what old Kentucky folks call the real Bluegrass home of KFC. Y'all go get ya some.

The Colonel [yep, that was his real house...with a hot tin roof too, don't ya think] still had some snow left over from Christmas. This is a big deal for the Katz kiddos, who'd never seen enough of the white stuff to play with. So...

Bennett made a snowman

Marie and Julian also happened to be in town on the big Fairmeade Christmas dinner night out, which was at everyone's perennial Louisville favorite - Pat's Steakhouse. A great, great time:

I may or may not have had three drinks before my food arrived

Great picture.

Two minutes later the Tennessee Vols blew the bowl game. We retreated to the bar promptly...

...and solved all the world's problems.

Aunt Heather, we missed you this Christmas!!! Must. see. you. SOON!

Love,

Happy Birthday Jesus!

Living Nativity

Our girls' school back in Birmingham did this and it proves to be the best way to explain the holiday to them. We trekked down to Hillview, Kentucky to see this one and it was great - well worth the drive, freezing temps, and late night to see how the first Christmas all went down.