Playing at Nana and Papa's

Making some "tea"

Playing in the cabinets

I normally work 1 or 2 Saturdays a month at the hospital. Paul and Luke usually drop me off and then make the rounds visiting the grandparents and great-grandmothers. It is a great opportunity for Luke to visit his family. He has so much fun at Nana and Papa's. He loves to get ice out of the machine and play in the cabinets! Nana says that he has his own routine as soon as he gets to their house.

Who is that Elf?

Luke is not much for hats of any kind. But, on rare occasions he puts one on all by himself without any encouragement from us. This was the case recently when he found one of his toboggans in the dresser. Paul's 94-year old grandmother, Kitty, still likes to knit and has made several hats for Luke since he was an infant. This one reminds me of an elf hat! The fact that Luke was running around without any pants on only added to the Elf look--we just need to get him some tights!

Luke's Mega Tower!

Peek-a-boo!

Showing off his hard work with Dad

Last night after our friends left Luke did not want to leave his blocks! After we changed his diaper and were trying to put his PJ's on he insisted on going back to the playroom to see his blocks. After we pried him away he was asleep in no time!

As soon as we got home from church today he wanted to get his blocks out and play! This might be good for Paul and I!!! He seems to enjoy playing with them by himself and does not want us right there with him like normal.

Kids Christmas

Paul had his hands full with
Luke and Hanne

Luke and Emma playing with
his new Mega Blocks!

Emma loved the Rudolph nose

Cade was so sweet reading to Hanne

Christina enjoyed sitting at the kids table!

Cam and Emma enjoying a book

Saturday night we continued our tradition of having Christmas with our friends, the MacLeans and Louws. The kids drew names and exchanged gifts. Cade and Connor could not wait to open presents. They probably asked ten times when we could go upstairs and open them!

Luke got some Mega Blocks which he loved! I think he played with them for 45 minutes straight after he opened them. Nothing has ever kept his attention for that long. Cade and Connor got cool Leggo cars that required adult assembly. Cam and Rico were super excited about putting them together! Luke got Hanne a sweet outfit that we know she will be adorable in! Emma got a puzzle and some books.

All the kids played so well together! At the end of the night all the adults looked around at the disaster area in the playroom and decided that was the sign of a fun night!!! Oh, how our lives have changed...but, we love it....

Breakfast with Santa

Luke played with his woof,woof
so much it burst!

Trying to get Luke warmed up to Santa

Saturday morning we went to Breakfast with Santa at First United Methodist Church in Gallatin. It was a fundraiser for the Shalom Zone. We met Katherine, Rico and the girls. We enjoyed a good breakfast. They also had face painting, balloon animals, train rides and of course, pictures with Santa. Paul and I were really hoping that Luke would be more excited to see Santa this year. No such luck! Luke really liked looking at Santa from a distance and enjoyed running around on the stage with his "woof,woof" balloon doggie. But, when it came time to sit in Santa's lap for a picture he wanted no part of it! To top it all of a lady from the local newspaper was snapping pictures of Luke crying in Santa's lap and wanted to know if she could put them in the paper! Hopefully she will have gotten some better pictures of smiling children to use. Guess we will find out this week.

Once in a Lifetime Game

Jon, Kristen, Me and Paul

Loving the game!!!

Jevon getting attention for a bleeding arm

Leinart in action

The two QB's

Since Paul went to the Titans game a few weeks ago he has really been wanting to go back. He decided we should go this weekend. We did not have tickets and he wanted to just wait and buy them on the street. I would much rather have tickets in hand and not have to worry about. It just so happened that our friends, the Orgains, were not going to use their seats yesterday. They were kind enough to offer them to us! WOW! The seats are awesome. They are on the 2nd row on the 30-yard line. They are in the same area as the players families. It was cool to see Vanden Bosch's kids and some of the other players families. We hit the ServPro tailgate prior to the game. Our friends, the Dixons, own and operate the ServPro in West Nashville. Several of the franchises get together and have an awesome tailgate that is open to the public.

The weather was great for football--just a little on the chilly side. We had just a few minutes of misty rain. The game was incredible! Vince Young is an amazing player. To be that up close to all the action was so fun! Paul and I were both hoarse from all the screaming we did. If you did not see the end of the game you really missed out. Vince drove down 99 yards with a little over 2 minutes remaining in the game. He threw to Kenny Britt in the end zone with no time left on the clock! The stadium erupted!!! It was truly an amazing experience! Too bad our camera battery died in the 3rd quarter and we were not able to get any celebration pictures.

Once we left the stadium we were on cloud nine. We got to our car rather quickly and headed home. Unfortunately Paul dropped his phone in the parking lot. Luckily a very nice lady found it and called Paul's parents who phoned us to tell us about it. The lady agreed to wait on us to get back so we could get it. We were so grateful to her for finding it. Paul did not even realize he did not have it. If she had not found it we never would have known what happened to it.

Luke spent the afternoon with Nana and Pop. Luke has started calling Bill, Papa. Bill loves it! We do not know if it will stick or not. Lauren calls him Grandpa. Who knows? Maybe each grandchild will have their own name for Bill. We were so glad they agreed to watch Luke so we could go to the game!

Thanksgiving, Round II

Luke was very interested in picking
his Christmas present out of
this catalog.

Luke loves his Pop!

The girls got the task of "fluffing" the wreaths!
Lily, Kristen's dog, helped

Saturday afternoon we went to Gallatin to have Thanksgiving with the Troutts. Somehow we did not take very many pictures. There was a big group this year. My mom joined us which was nice. Memaw was there! It was so great she felt liking joining us. Everyone got to request their favorite food for the meal--how fun! We enjoyed Kitty's pineapple rice, Jim's sausage stuffing, my sweet potatoes and much, much more. Paul smoked a ham which I thought turned out even better than the turkey. It was a great way to kick off the Holiday season!

Thanksgiving, Round I

Luke was handing out good-bye hugs

Luke persuaded cousin Thomas
to read him a story

Luke enjoyed showing Nanny his toys.

Thomas and LeeEllen

Luke loves Cynthia because she
feeds him dessert!

Paul carving the turkey

Paul's bird turned out great!

We hosted our first Thanksgiving for my family on Thursday. Everything turned out great! Paul recently bought a smoker and we made great use of it over the holidays. The turkey was so good...very moist and tender. We did the turkey, green beans and sweet potatoes. Everyone else brought sides and dessert. We had a great time eating and visting with everyone. Luke was wonderful. As usual, it took him a few minutes to warm up to everyone but when he did he was crazy!!! We were very tired when everyone left but we managed to bring all the Christmas decorations out of storage.

I worked on Friday so Paul and Luke hung out. They met Nana and Pop for breakfast. Little did I know Paul had been planning on a Black Friday purchase for me. We got a new high efficiency washer and dryer! I had no idea. Paul, Luke and Pop installed it while I was at work. Much to Paul's dismay I did not go in the laundry room at all on Friday. I finally found them Saturday morning. I was so surprised and excited! It never crossed my mind he would do something like that. Merry Christmas to me!

First "Real" Hair Cut

Luke was not too sure about this.

He started to get warmed up to it
by the end.

Well, we finally got Luke a proper hair cut. After a few attempts at doing it ourselves I finally decided enough was enough! The only way Paul could get Luke to let him cut his hair was if he got to suck it all up in the dust buster. After our last attempt Luke looked like he belonged in Dumb and Dumber! After eating Mexican one night we walked down to a Great Clips to see if they could help us out. Luke did great! I held him while he got his hair cut and it did not seem to bother him too much. Of course, I was sad when I realized his sweet curls were gone. It is actually already starting to grow back. Looks like we will be making regular trips to the barber shop now.

Titans Game!

Go Titans!

Paul got to enjoy a great Titans game yesterday! Jon has season tickets so Paul was able to go. They had a great time! All we heard all afternoon was about how much fun they had and how hot it was. It was unusually hot this weekend. I know this will be the last of the warm days for awhile so I was glad Paul got to enjoy it in such a fun way. Considering both our college teams lost this weekend it was nice for Paul to witness a Titans victory first hand.

Luke and I went to church Sunday morning then enjoyed long naps when we got home. We had a late lunch and watched the game before heading out to do some errands. Paul actually beat us home. It is hard to believe another weekend is in the books!

Filling Our Boxes

Can you pick Luke out of these scarecrows?

Picking out toys and gifts

Paul and I have enjoyed making shoe boxes for Operation Christmas Child for several years. This year we took Luke along to help us. We headed to our new local Dollar General to do our shopping. There was virtually no one in the store since we went so early. Luke had fun helping us pick out toys and books to go in the boxes. We also picked up some hygiene and food items. Hopefully we will teach Luke how important it is to give to others.

Christmas in November???

You betcha!!! Paul has been wanting to do some Christmas decorating since before Halloween. Since we are hosting Thanksgiving at our house, I have tried to put him off. We finally settled on a compromise and put up Luke's tree. Luke loved helping with the ornaments. He likes to point out the different ones and say what they are. He also likes to see the lights turn on and off. We have also been reading some Christmas books. His favorite one so far is one I had when I was a little girl. It is called The Sweet Smell of Christmas. Surprisingly the scratch-n-sniff is still going strong after 30+ years!

Luke's attention span is getting much longer now. He will sit in your lap while you read him a fairly long story now. Gone are the days of one to two word per page books. Life with our little fella just gets better and better!

We noticed this weekend that Luke was chewing on his hands a lot. I tried to catch a few glances when he was laughing and sure enough he has one of his 2-year molars in and another one has broken through. I have heard horror stories about getting molars. I guess Luke is handling it pretty well considering we did not even know he had one!

Fun Afternoon

Eli, Bella, Sophia and Luke.

I was off last Thursday. Luke and I met the Brewers at the park to walk. It turned out to be a beautiful, warm November day. After walking we all came back to our house for lunch. I made taco soup and brownies. All the kids liked it! After lunch they all played together. It was so cute. We tried our hardest to get all 4 kids to look at the camera. After several attempts I gave up! We hope to have another playdate soon!

Excellent Weekend

The only picture we have of ourselves

Hanne and Rico

The guys played lots of horseshoes!

So we are back from an excellent weekend! Our weekend was everything we hoped it would be. We all stayed up late Friday night. The guys hung out downstairs playing pool and all the girls enjoyed talking non-stop until 1:30 in the morning! It was later than any of us had been up in a long time. Well, except for Katherine, considering she has a 6-month old! Once again we did not take many pictures. There were 4 couples there and I think we have pictures of 3 people...how does that happen?

Saturday morning we got up and cooked a big breakfast. The girls headed to the outlet mall. It was absolutely crazy!!! I do not see how there is a recession. There were no parking places. We ended up parking behind the mall where employees park. I got so frustrated with most of the stores that I walked in and right back out. There was usually a 30-minute wait to check out! Not worth it to me.

The most entertainment we had all weekend was playing with baby Hanne. She is absolutely the best baby I have ever been around. She is so sweet and cuddly. I never heard her cry! She only whimpered a few times. She did not care who held her; she would just smile and coo the whole time!

We laughed about how much things have changed since we took our first trip together in 2004. We were all up and ready to leave by 8 this morning. Baylor and Ryan needed to get back to pick up their little one early so we all decided to leave. We were home by noon!

Luke had a great weekend, too. He had a playdate with Emma, enjoyed playing outside and learning new words. Since we have been home today he has said cheese, tea and "Abbie". We aren't sure who Abbie is but he obviously likes her!

Anxiously Waiting

Are they ready yet?!?!

What if I look from back here?!?!

We are going on our annual couples weekend to Gatlinburg tomorrow. Paul and I start anxiously awaiting this weekend in July! It is so nice to get away with good friends. We usually eat a lot, sleep a lot shop and stay up late in to the night talking and talking. At least, that is what the girls do! They guys is a different story that involves lots of pool and sports watching among other things. All 4 couples are taking a 1/2 day off tomorrow so we will actually get to east Tennessee in time for supper out! Usually it is fairly late when we all make it up there.

I decided to make some cookies for us to enjoy this weekend. Luke helped me measure the ingredients and got a kick out of the hand mixer. We couldn't wait for them to get done and thought if we watched them bake that might somehow speed the process along!

Update on Luke's girlfriend situation.... Apparently yesterday she was not very happy with Luke and bit him on the hand! Now, it is school policy to not reveal who did the biting. The little girl's dad got there to pick her up right after it happened so he knew the whole story. The mother felt so bad she called my cell phone while I was on my way to pick Luke up to apologize! Since Luke and Rylee have been together for so long we wonder if they are growing tired of each other! The teachers said they separated them yesterday because they had been bickering all day....oh goodness! They are not even two years old yet!

Paul and I had a talk with Luke about being nice to his friends and not to bother them. Rylee's parents had a similiar talk with her as well. The teachers reported they had a much better day today and played well together. Yay!

Nana, Grandpa and Nonna are splitting Luke duties this weekend. We know he will have as much, if not more fun than we will! Happy Weekend!

Trick-Or-Treat

Oops....Nonna cut Paul's head off!

Which way to the candy?!?!

Luke was excited about his chips!

Making the rounds...

Last night was a lot of fun! We were not sure how Luke would like trick-or-treating. We decided to just take him to a few houses in our neighborhood and to go see some friends up the street. By the end of it he was definitely getting the hang of it! He liked picking goodies out of the treat bags. He never really said trick-or-treat until we got home and answered the door for trick-or-treaters at our house. We let him have a piece of candy but it got stuck in his teeth and he wanted it out!

Nonna came to go trick-or-treating with us and to take pictures. I think we have 50 pictures from last night! Of course, Luke would never look at the camera until after it had already taken. We enjoyed some white chicken chili when we got back. We had about 40 little ghosts and goblins that came knocking on our door. That was a pretty good turnout. We also enjoyed at Tennessee win last night!