Troutt Thanksgiving

Getting the bird ready to smoke!

Luke helping Meme with the salad

Travis and Jenny

Lauren and her friend, Emma, entertained the kids

Cousins!

Getting a piano lesson from Lauren

Today was a wonderful, busy day!  I worked for a while this morning while Luke and the kids stayed home.  Paul had to smoke the turkey for tonight's meal.  I was home for a few hours before we headed back to Gallatin. 

We had a big bunch this year which was so nice!  Holidays are always so fun and festive with a large group!  We were all so thankful for Paula's health.  This time last year she was recovering from her surgery and preparing to start her chemotherapy.  We are thankful for her healing and God's grace throughout her treatment process.  It was nice catching up with everyone.  The kids were wonderful.  Luke was so sweet and wanted to help everyone.  Katherine was her usual content self.  She played and let most anyone hold her.  She actually did really well at the meal, too.  At first I didn't think she was going to eat anything.  But, she ended up loving Meme's Cranberry Salad.  She also ate some sweet potatoes and pineapple rice.  By the end of the meal she ate a little turkey!  Yay!

Funny story...there were an assortment of pies for dessert. As per my usual I got a "dab" of a few different ones.  I was holding Katherine while I was eating dessert and she wanted some. I tried to give her some of the crust and some of the pumpkin pie which she promptly batted away.  What was she going for....the chocolate pecan pie!  I gave her little bites of the chocolate filling and she loved it!  Guess she is all girl for sure! 

We did not leave until after 8 and I still need to run in the grocery to pick up cranberries for the salad I am taking to Mom's tomorrow.  Luke was having nothing to do with going to bed if I was cooking.  So, we let him stay up and help me.  Then, he fell asleep listening to the UT/ Vandy game.  Poor fella is worn out!

The Best Helper Ever!

For the past few days I have been telling Luke that we have to do some cooking on Friday night to get ready for our Thanksgiving meals this weekend.  As soon as we got home he said he wanted to put his apron on and get to work!  And, he meant it.  We got right to work.  We made the sweet potatoes first.  I peeled and sliced them and he put them in the stock pot.  After the boiled and I drained the water he mashed them up and helped me add all the other ingredients.  It is amazing to me how much he can do now.  I asked him to get the mixer out and put the beaters on it.  He did that as well as plug it in.  He used the mixer to get it nice and smooth and help me pour it in the casserole dish.  Next, he helped me make the topping.  He used the pastry cutter to blend all the ingredients together and spread it on top.  Next, we made pumpkin pie.  I had actually never made a pumpkin pie but Luke has been wanting to since he saw it in one of his magazines.  We opted for canned pumpkin instead of fresh.  I was not channeling Martha Stewart that much!

When we finished all the cooking and were cleaning up he said "mommy, I like helping you, but I really like helping Daddy better".  When I asked what he liked helping daddy with he said "you now, working outside whacking the weeds and stuff!".  I LOVE that boy!  Hopefully he will be diverse like his daddy!

Katherine stayed pretty well occupied taking everything out of the cabinets while we were cooking.  I failed to mention that we also cooked spaghetti and meatballs for supper in the midst of all the holiday baking! 

Sweet, Sweet Bedtime

Group bedtime story

The kids got a special treat tonight.  Story time in Luke's room before bedtime.  The book actually kept Katherine's attention which is rare.  She likes books, but she would rather flip the pages than finish a whole book.  The only books she will listen to in their entirety are Pat the Bunny and Knees and Toes.  And, she usually wants those read to her repeatedly.

I put Luke to bed tonight.  After we read books, said prayers and sang songs we started talking about Christmas and different things he would like and what he thought Katherine would like.  He told me he would like a coat that came down to here (pointing to the middle of his hand) instead of here (pointing above his wrist).  Point taken....the boy needs a new coat! 

Charlie Brown Christmas

Dancing to the music

We have officially started Christmas movie watching in the Troutt House!  We broke out Charlie Brown tonight.  Both kids love it!  Katherine mainly stays on the couch and walks from one end to the other, except when that familiar tune starts to play.  That girl loves to shake her booty!  It is too cute.  She kind of shakes her booty and puts her hands up in the air and bounces up and down.  If you can imagine all that happening at one time by a girl who still isn't walking -- crazy, isn't it?

Today I had a marathon shopping day while the kids were at school.  I got so much crossed off our Christmas lists!  It is amazing how much better I feel after getting so much done. Paul is really busy at work and commented he didn't know when he would have time to do some shopping with me.  So, I took it and ran with it.  I probably hit 15 different places, in the rain, nonetheless, but I had a great time doing it!  I came home just in time to stash the goods, start a load of laundry and put a pot of soup on for supper.  Oh how I love productive days!  Never mind that house still looks like an F5 tornado came through!

Hi Mom!

This picture is pretty comical if you ask me.  Katherine is loving getting in to the ottoman these days.  I guess it is because there are fun toys in there.  Normally, she likes to take everything out and then climb in! 

Decking the Halls

Our little helper

The "drop zone"

We are still working on our Christmas decorating around here.  Luke is so in to it this year!  It is great fun.  I worked bringing all the boxes up from the shop.  He wanted to open them and take everything out as soon as I would get up the stairs.  That boy definitely loves Christmas as much as his daddy!  We spent most of the day putting the second tree up and getting all the other decorations placed around the house.  Katherine was excited about it, too.  So far she has not bothered the tree or tried to get the ornaments off.

After all that hard work both kids needed baths. They love to play in there.  They would stay for hours if we would let them.  Katherine always cries when we take her out!

Paul got a work call tonight right at bedtime.  He said Luke laid on his pallet in our room while he talked on the phone.  As Paul was talking he could tell that Luke was getting tired.  He looked up at Paul, clutching his Rudolph stuffed animal and asked Paul if he thought Rudolph would be coming with Santa Claus this year and then he fell asleep.  Don't you know he had sweet dreams tonight.  Melt my heart...

A word about why Luke has a pallet in our room.  Can't remember if I have mentioned this before.  Luke has a habit of coming in our room during the night and getting in bed with us.  That is so not fun and not something we wanted to start. So, we put a pallet on the floor. Some nights he comes in, some nights he doesn't.  If he does come in the room we rarely hear him and usually do not know he is there until we get up in the morning. 

A Date with Mommy and Daddy

Breaking for a snack in all the madness

Christmas Village wore this girl out!

Helping me with the tree

The beads broke but Luke put them all back on, one by one

Luke has been talking all week about spending the night with Nonna on Friday night.  He was excited because Nonna had bought a new Thomas Christmas movie!  Luckily, Nonna was free last night and happy to have him.  I enjoyed a Girls Night Out with Laura and Virginia!  We ate at Chago's Cantina and then enjoyed coffee at Bongo Java.  We did not leave until around 11 and then Laura and I got stuck in horrible traffic on the interstate.  So, I crawled in to bed around midnight and was wired from my night out!  We had a great time, as always!

Paul and I had plans to go to Christmas Village this morning.  We asked if Luke wanted to go but he wanted to stay at Mom's.  Just a note -- Paul got Katherine ready this morning while I was in the shower.  He dressed her in a smocked Christmas dress (without any prompting by me).  He even put her tights and Mary Jane's on --- I have one wonderful husband!!!

Paula met us at the fairgrounds.  It was packed!  We have never seen it so busy, but we normally go at night.  It was really too crowded to enjoy.  We took Katherine and she did great!  She rode in the stroller some, but we mainly took turns holding her.  She reached out for every stuffed animal and doll we passed.  She does not put up too much of a fight when it is taken away from her.  It was fun to get in the Christmas spirit but we decided we would never go back on a Saturday again.  Katherine fell asleep as soon as we got in the car!  We were all hungry because it was well past noon.  I finally got to eat at Five Guys! I have been wanting to eat there since the restaurant chain made its Nashville debut over a year ago.  The burgers are definitely great and very reasonable.

We went by Mom's to get Luke and then we headed home to start decking the halls!  We got the tree in the Bonus Room done.  Katherine basically stayed on the couch the whole time - like an hour and a half!  She would just bounce up and down and walk from one side of the couch to the other.  It was quite funny.  Luke loved helping us.  He helped hang the ornaments and he did a fine job!

It Has Begun

The marking, circling and making of lists.  Oh , how I remember those days growing up.  Well, Luke has begun his Christmas Wish List. Every afternoon when we check the mail he wants to know if there is a toy book in there.  He loves looking at all the different advertisements to see if there is something that he wants.  That boy is still mainly stuck on Thomas the Train stuff.  When we ask him what he wants for Christmas all he ever says is "Thomas toys".  I know I have said it before, but it just seems like the Thomas phase should be ending any time now.  He has yet to get in to Super Heroes or video games.  It could have something to do with us not encouraging that.  Honestly, we are so technologically behind at our house who knows if he will ever catch up!  We have friends whose kids, who are Luke's age, play on their ipads, laptops, phones, etc.  Luke will get on our desktop (yes, that is what we still have) and play around, but he does not have an overwhelming interest in it.  And, we are still hoping to delay the whole video game thing as long as we can...

Funny Katherine story, she loves the bathroom!  Most afternoons Luke has to go straight to the potty when we get home. Something to do with him not being able to do his business at school.  We totally know this is a common issues among kids.  While we were all in the bathroom Katherine got in the linen closet and got out the potty and potty rings we used with Luke.  She sat right down on there like she knew exactly what she was doing.  Hilarious!  Later, I went back in there and saw where she had put two or three medicine droppers and some wash cloths in there. Maybe that means she will potty train easy!  Heck, I will just be happy if she ever starts walking!

Cheap Entertainment!

It really is whatever it takes around here.  Luke has been playing with the laundry basket for a while now.  Paul tied a belt to it and he would drag it around the house and throw random things in it from time to time.  He decided it would be fun to put Katherine in it and drag her around.  She actually loved it and would giggle as he pulled her around.  Then he decided she was getting to have all the fun so he hopped in and let Paul pull them both around!

Today was a fun day for me.  I went to see my friend Amanda in Murfreesboro! I was supposed to have a doctor appointment but it got rescheduled.  Luke has soccer on Wednesdays and he hates to miss it so I went by myself.  It was fun seeing her and the kids.  We always talk about how we should get together more often (we should), but I am just happy that after knowing each other for 15 years we still make the effort to be a part of each other's lives.  We always seem to pick up right where we left off!  That is something I can't take for granted. 

I finished my kid-free time with several errands before getting them picked up from school.  Luke is still loving soccer. We are thinking about putting him in to a more organized program in the Spring.  We will see if that actually happens or not.

Supper with Nene!

Luke was enthralled by the train cookie jar!

Katherine loved waving to everyone from the window

Playing with a kitchen (hint, hint Santa)

Since Paula has been out of town for over a week she was itching to see the kids and Luke was so excited to see her.  We decided to meet for supper at Cracker Barrel.  Bill had something going on with basketball so he could not join us.  Hard to believe it is already basketball season again.  Luke wanted Nene to sit by him and he told her all about the pilgrims and the Mayflower!  Katherine pulled out all the stops with her eating tonight.  We all had so many vegetables to choose from and she would not eat any of them!  It was so frustrating.  She ended up eating a fruit bar and some Cheerios.  After we ate we browsed around their toys.  They have such neat things.  Luke had  blast playing with everything.  Katherine became quite attached to this rubber frog.  I really have no idea why!  They both played wit the kitchen on display.  Christmas is just around the corner...

Luke's First Titans Game!

Luke wanted to wear his hat like JonJon's

All smiles before the game!

Silly boy

Starting to wear down

Katherine was so happy to see us!

We had a treat today!  Rob called Paul yesterday to see if we would be interested in going to the Titans game today.  Since the game was at 3:00 and we did not have anything else going on we happily said yes!  Luke was so excited to be going to the "go-go".

We went to church this morning then came home for sandwiches.  We got ready and took Katherine to Mom's.  We had to go by Paul's work to pick the tickets up.  Jon and Kristen have season tickets but they decided to take advantage of the great seats and join us.  We had a great time.  It was fun hanging out with them. Luke really enjoyed himself and did well.  The Titans played well the first half.  We left half way through the 3rd quarter and it went downhill from there.  We had quiet a hike back to the vehicle.  Mom had chili waiting on us when we got back to her house.  Katherine had fun!  She took a 2-hour nap and played. It was so fun to have an outing with the three of us! 

As Paul and I were talking about the next few weeks I realized we are not going to have a free weekend to do our Christmas decorating.  We have a busy weekend next week, the following weekend we have two family Thanksgiving meals and I work.  The two weekends after that we will be traveling, so....we decided to start doing some decorating this week! 

The Bug Bites Again

Early yesterday morning Luke came in our room and said he had to "spit up".  This is what he calls throwing up.  He never did, but he got in bed with me and Paul went to Luke's room.  We thought he was going to be fine, but he ended up throwing up three times after we got up and were getting ready.  We were kind of in a pickle as to what to do.  Mom was in Tullahoma and Paula was in Florida.  My boss was out of town so I could not miss work.  Paul ended up staying home with him for a few hours until Bill was able to get him.

I took Katherine on to school and checked in with Luke's teacher to tell her what was wrong.  She said there was not anything going around that she knew of.  We happened to have pork tenderloin the night before and Luke ate a lot of it.  When he was younger he had a few episodes of vomiting after eating pork tenderloin. I still do not know what could be in the tenderloin that bothers him but it seems too coincidental. 

Last night was supposed to be our overnight Date Night courtesy of Jon and Kristen.  They had booked us a hotel room in Nashville and we had plans to eat at Kobe.  When Luke was sick I had my doubts we would be able to keep those plans.  We waited until I actually picked him up from Pop's before we decided for sure.  J and K were pretty insistent they could handle it, but I hated to expose them to any germs. And, after I saw how pitiful Luke was I just could not leave him. He ended up getting sick twice on our way to get Katherine.  And my stomach actually was not feeling very good either.  He and I ended up going to bed before 8 o'clock.  We were up a couple of times during the night but Luke was pretty much back to normal when he got up this morning.  I was a little more tired than normal, but feeling ok.

Considering all that we had a very low-key day.  I did go get my hair cut since it was way past needing to be done and she is only available two days a week.  Bill came for supper tonight and to watch the Bama/ LSU game. By this time everyone is back to normal, thank goodness!

Breakfast!

Paul recovered quickly from his stomach bug.  Katherine has not had any side effects from her shots, so that is good. Usually she will run a low grade temp the next day.  The nurse warned if she has a temp it could come as much as a week later.  I know it is crazy but Katherine seems to be eating better the past couple of days.  Here's hoping it will stay that way!

15 Month Well Visit

Playing around with brother

Happy girl

Fortunately we never saw any evidence of Katherine's diarrhea her teachers told me about. I was not too concerned since I knew we were scheduled for her well visit today.  We were supposed to be Dr. Patterson's second appointment, but that was certainly not the case.  We had to wait quite some time but Katherine did great.  I had several concerns to talk about with her and she took her time with us as always.  The main thing we realized is that Katherine has lost 1/2# since her 12-month visit and only grown a half inch.  After Dr. P saw her she said she is not concerned at all.  She feels like she is just "becoming her own person" and might just "be petite".  Considering no one in our family is petite I would be surprised at that one.  We really feel like her 12-month height measurement was inaccurate.  I remember at the time thinking it were odd that Katherine had grown 2 1/2" in 3 months, but did not think much about it until today. Her head circumference was adequate so that is good.  Overall, she got a glowing report.  My concerns over her not walking were quickly laid to rest.  She said as long as she is taking a couple of steps by 18-months that is fine.  She also confirmed that teething can cause diarrhea and not to worry about it.  Katherine still has several teeth coming in.  She finally has ten teeth!

We talked about her eating and what to do if she will not eat anything we are having at a meal.  We are going to continue on with the liquid vitamins with iron and recheck her labs at 18 months.  She got three shots, but did really well with them.

From there, we went straight to preview her pictures at Reflections.  She was so tired and hungry by this time. She ate a whole banana!  I think she heard Dr. P and I talking about her!  Her pics were good considering how poorly I thought she did at her session last week.  While we were gone Paul actually came home sick which never happens.  Hoping it will be short lived.  I could not get Katherine to take an adequate nap so I gave up and we ran errands before picking up Luke.  Katherine loves to go shopping with me.  She just sits in the buggy and points to things. Usually any type of stuffed animal catches her eye.  She squeezes on it until she spots something else she wants to try!  So fun!

Halloween 2011

Luke's gun was my great uncle's toy as a child!

His red cowboy boots were JonJon's

Minnie Mouse

Halloween was fairly uneventful.  I tried to leave work a little early to get to Luke's party at school.  On my way Katherine's teacher texted me that Katherine had diarrhea.  This is the second time in the past couple of weeks this has happened.  So, I picked her up first then we made a quick appearance in Luke's room.  The party was pretty much over by the time I got there, but I got to see them do "circle time" which was neat.

Katherine showed no signs of illness at all.  We got home and then I got the kids ready for the night.  Katherine does not mind to be in her Minnie Mouse costume at all and Luke loves being a cowboy.  Bill and Paula stopped by to see the kids on their way to Nashville.  They came in costume!  I wish I had taken a picture of them!  Paula was a witch and Bill was dressed in a funny nose, glasses and hat.  Both kids weren't sure what to think.  When Bill had the fake nose and glasses on Katherine would cry so that was short lived.  Luke would not get in a picture with them.  So silly!

Mom came and brought supper which was great.  She also went trick-or-treating in the neighborhood with us.  Luke really got in to it this year.  He loved going to each house and getting candy.  Several times he would tell me "Mom, you don't need to hold my hand anymore".  Almost broke my heart right there.  So, I would oblige him, but I also noticed as we would head to the next house he would grab my hand!  Katherine ended up in the stroller which suited her just fine.

We came back to the house to hand out candy and eat supper.  After that Mom, Luke and I went to visit Bill and Pat which has become an annual event.  Katherine was tired and ready for bed so she and Paul stayed behind.

After supper we told Luke he could pick one thing from his bag to eat.  Of all the candy, chocolate, bubblegum and so forth he chose Welch's fruit chews -- LOVE that boy!

Pumpkin Carving

We finally got around to carving our pumpkins tonight.  Luke was a little timid about getting the "guts" out at first, but he eventually got in to it.  I tried to do Katherine's pumpkin at the same time.  Jim and Claudia gave her a pumpkin decorating kit with stickers and other fun things.  She was having no part of that.  She tried to eat the glue and climb up on the table.  I eventually gave up and she and I went upstairs to play.  Paul and Luke finished his pumpkin by themselves.  I also forgot to get a picture of the finished product.  Maybe next year Katherine will be more in to her pumpkin!