New Orleans Part 3

Today we visited the Aquarium of the Americas... a great start to the day!  I had afternoon sessions, but then we saw an IMAX movie about the Wild Ocean.  Here are today's pictures...

1. A very candid (aka. blurry) shot of the boys holding hands while walking down the street

2. Faces on the ceiling of the House of Blues (awesome food, great music!)

3. The boys wearing their 3-D glasses before the IMAX movie started

4. Looking at a white crocodile

5. Shark Bait!!!

Hope you're enjoying these daily updates... I realize it is very unlike me. :)

New Orleans Part 2

What a fun day in New Orleans!  While mommy was in her meeting (ALL DAY!) the boys and I got the chance to walk around downtown New Orleans and soak up some of the local sights.  We walked the Riverwalk, had our picture taken with an alligator and had some really good food!  Tomorrow we are going to the zoo and we are so excited!

New Orleans Part 1

We finally arrived in New Orleans... 1000 + mile drive, folks.  The boys did GREAT in the car... and we broke up the drive into 3 days.  It will be 2 days on the way back.  We found a "quaint" pizza place (aka. hole in the wall!) and had a delicious dinner on St. Patrick's day.  The rest of the pictures are car pics... pretty much all we've done so far.

We did get to see some friends in East Bernard... including the boys' first babysitters who couldn't believe how big they are!  More to come later this week...

It's Official!

We are becoming IOWA HAWKEYES!!!

Carter was offered the most prestigious doctoral fellowship offered by the Iowa School of Music!  We will be moving to Iowa City for the fall.  I'm sure more news will be coming soon... when we find a house, pre-school... etc.  Stay tuned!  Happy spring break to everyone!!

Columbus Trip

Carter and I had a great time in Columbus!  Here are a few pictures from our trip.

-- The university sign... we were in the car so it isn't very close up!

-- Me standing on "The Oval" which is the center of campus

-- A beautiful building which is a replica of the first building on campus

-- A cool building I admired all day with the turret... it is the geology building

-- A shot of the stadium from across campus

-- Another beautiful building (sorry for all the architecture pictures!!!)

We are exhausted, but turning around today to start making our way to New Orleans with the boys for my national science teacher's convention.  This will be the first time Carter has gone to one of MY conferences... I go to his almost every year.  He gets to feel a little of what I feel when I have the boys by myself at his conferences this time!  We are taking our time on the road... we don't have to be there until Tuesday night.  We plan to stop along the way and see some friends as long as a fun stop at the Blue Bell factory for some ice cream!!  Hope you all have a wonderful spring break...

Haircuts: Before and After

We were LONG over due for haircuts... here are before and after shots to prove it!!!  I've never had their hair cut this short before... but I think they look pretty cute!

Our Iowa Trip

Here we are on the airplane (Carter was horrified that I wanted to take a picture while people were boarding!)

We actually flew into Kansas City on Southwest then drove to Iowa.  We stayed in Des Moines with our friends Mark and Sarah then drove to Iowa City the next morning.

Once we got on campus, we parked and had to walk across the river to get to the right building.  Here is CB crossing the pedestrian bridge.

If you remember last summer's midwest flood, you remember that the Iowa campus flooded terribly.  This building was the music building, but it has been condemned.  They are now meeting in the art museum until a new building can be built.

This was our crazy rental car... and again, Carter made fun of me for taking a picture of it.

Iowa City used to be the capitol of Iowa and this was the capitol building.  Now it is one of the most beautiful buildings on campus, and Des Moines is the capitol of Iowa.  (Enjoying your history lesson today???)

Carter took pictures of the stadium... now it was my turn to make fun of him!

We ate dinner at the Brown Bottle... delicious Italian food (and in Iowa... the "I" in Italian is long like the "I" in Iowa!)  I-talian food.  :)

These kids were at hockey practice at the mall ice rink... too cute.

Overall, it was a great trip.  Carter had a great audition and we are hoping to hear something early in March.  We'll keep you posted!  Carter has also been invited to audition at Ohio State!

Kill, Kill!

Palmer is a big fan of the Wii.  He started by bowling (and doing a darn good job I might add!) but recently he has taken up boxing.  Remember... he is THREE.  I think Carter showed it to him.  (At least I'll blame it on him).  When he punches his fists he says "Kill, Kill, Kill" each time he throws a punch.  I am horrified at this behavior!!!!!  He told uncle Jay on the phone last night that he had fun killing yesterday.  We had to have a sit down talk about when punching people is appropriate... which in my mind for a three year old is NEVER!  How can he distinguish between real live vs. video game?  Why am I having these conversations with him so early?  Again, blaming Carter for introducing it... although neither of us know where he came up with the "kill" idea.  I can easily see how video game induce violence... and I know that is a controversial topic.  Needless to say, boxing at our house is off limits for quite a while.  Bowling... now there's a game I can handle.

Our trip to Chicago (catching up on posting pictures!)

Carter snapped this pic as we were waiting to catch the train (the "El") on our way back to the airport.We hardly went anywhere without a coffee in our hands... partly for the caffeine, but mostly to keep warm!  Our hotel had both a Starbucks and a Corner Bakery in the building... decisions, decisions!!!  It was freezing cold... and we were lucky to get in and out of the windy city when we did.  It snowed and closed the airport the day before we landed and the day after we left.  What amazing timing!

Here we are all bundled up in front of the Christmas tree in the lobby of our hotel, "The Palmer House".  Not kidding.  The last time we stayed there we were taking shots for our round of IVF that ended with our two boys!  (And no, Palmer was NOT named after this hotel!)

We went to see "Jersey Boys" which is the story of Frankie Valli and the 4 Seasons.  AWESOME show... We bought super cheap seats, and a random man found us on the very back row and gave us 4th row tickets! They had a few people in their party who couldn't show up... we could see the actors' sweat and spit.  Highly recommend this show if you love 50's music like I do! 

Christmas Pictures

OK... this post looks weird.  I'm having trouble again today with rotating photos out of iPhoto... same problem from Flikr.  Plus, once I finally got the photos uploaded, the text I wrote beside each picture shows up at the bottom.  You'll have to put together the text with the photo.  I've numbered the text so you can at least count the pictures to match them up... AHHHHH, TECHNOLOGY.  :)

(1) The boys got a dress up trunk from Gran & Big Daddy... they had so much fun dressing up in different costumes.  The pirate was Palmer's favorite.  :)

(2)Showing off new Tech jackets from Coach and Ka-Ka

(3)All the Potts great grandkids (except for baby Jack... he didn't want to sit still)

(4)This one is for uncle Jay -- note the Davy Crockett coonskin cap :)

(5)The new puppet theatre... Harrison can't figure out that he has to hide behind the curtain!!!

Baking Christmas Cookies

Carter and I just returned from Chicago (can you say SNOW????) and the boys split the time with the grandparents.  Here are some pictures of them making cookies at my Mom's house... check out the aprons!

Happy December!

Palmer fell asleep at the Tech football game...

This one is for Uncle Jay... they call this their "dragon hair".

This should give you a good laugh. I caught Harrison reading "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" so I ran to grab the camera. He started over for me, but pretty soon Palmer couldn't stand not being the center of attention. You'll notice him crawl up on the table next to Harrison and then proceed to get stuck... almost fall... and interrupt Harrison (who never finishes, by the way). It isn't perfect, but represents their personalities SO well. :)