A Kentucky Thanksgiving

Granny was able to come for lunch on Thanksgiving Day. She lives in a nursing home because of Alzheimer's. She carried in her own baby doll when she came in so she liked holding Carolina!

Houston gives Granny some lovin'!

This is the house that Junior lived in most of his childhood. (They built a house right beside it at some point). Members of Chad's family have been trying to restore it periodically for the past two years. It is looking sooo much better than it was! I wish I had digital pictures to show the progress. They have totally rebuilt the roof, have built up and redone the front and back porch and have torn some of the walls down to make the dogtrot like it was originally built. This weekend they added windows to the front and some other things. Junior actually found a penny underneath the house that was from 1881 which is around the time it was built. His great grandparents built this cabin (which means Lawton and Carolina's great-great-great grandparents lived here!) Junior was born in one of the front rooms. I am so glad times have changed . . . :)

Carolina and I went on a walk in the pastures . . .

On Friday night we went to watch Chad's cousin, McKale, play football in the KY state quarterfinals! Monroe County High School played a very exciting game and won 14-13! They are heading to the semifinals next week. McKale is a Senior linebacker and a super leader for the team. We are so proud of him and hope he and his team make it to the finals! It is a pretty big deal for the entire town of Tompkinsville. Exciting! Here we all are bundled up to keep warm.

Sweet Carolina was an angel! She just sat and looked around the first quarter down in between the bleachers at my feet and then slept the rest of the game! And let me tell you, the stands were rockin'!

By the fourth quarter, after eating his weight's worth from the concession stand, Lawton started to get cold and wanted to be wrapped up. Here he is . . .

and then he passes out, too! (Hunter fell asleep in the 1st quarter!)


Go, Roe, Go! (MonROE County H.S.)

If you have made it this far, keep going! I have lots of different posts below from the Thanksgiving weekend. Glad you stopped by!

A newly discovered old cabin . . .

While feeding the cows with cousin Greg (see post below), we saw a cabin that we (Chad and I) had never seen before. Junior's (Chad's dad) grandparents lived in this cabin which is on property that is no longer owned by someone in the High family. (Greg and his dad, Chad's uncle Jimmy, tend to the cows on this property that is adjacent to High land.) So. . . . we went and checked it out the next afternoon. Here are the boys being silly in the back seat - don't worry- we just drove through the fields and didn't buckle up - it was way back in the woods!

These are some pretty FAKE smiles if you ask me! (But still three of the cutest boys around!)

This is a little better - Hunter, Lawton and Houston

This is where Brents and Enna McPherson lived - Junior's grandparents. Part of the house/cabin was later moved closer to the road. (Thank goodness because it was way back! :)

This is a close-up of some of the wallpaper that was peeling off of the wall. If you look closely you can see Cartoon Follies of 1926 printed on the newspaper/wallpaper. We're not sure exactly when the cabin was built.

The boys were throwing rocks into the natural spring right beside the house. Where there are rocks, water and boys, well, you know what happens!

It must have been a big splash!

It was pretty cool seeing a part of the High history on the farm. The video in the next post gives some perspective!

Little cabin in the woods . . .

Hope this video doesn't make you too dizzy! :)

Funny note: In part of the video you can hear the boys saying "Hasta la vista, baby! Hasta la vista, (insert name). " After doing this for a while, Lawton goes, "Hasta la vista, Sugar Mama!" What? Where did he get that? It was pretty funny. (and I'm not sure if I spelled that right - from Terminator . . . you know.)

Farmer Lawton

Chad's sweet cousin Greg took Lawton under his wing and let him "feed the cows" for the day. Lawton was in HEAVEN! He has some Papa Dave/farmer in him! Here is a picture of Lawton with the "switch" that picked up the hay bales and then dropped them off in the fields. (He is also wearing my sunglasses :) Cousin Greg is in the background.

Here's the jenny (that's what a female donkey is called). Did you know that?

The cows were hungry! They sure were telling us about it!

They couldn't wait for Lawton to drop the hay!

Lawton and the switch

Lawton likes feeding the cows!

Thomas Thanksgiving

These pictures are actually from two different weekends in a row - This was taken on our "Thanksgiving weekend" of the three cousins - Luke, Lawton and Carolina.

My Dad went and got my Papa from Livingston and brought him to Lebanon to join us. I don't think Papa has ever been to our house for Thanksgiving so it was a special treat! My Aunt Kay (who lives with him) wasn't able to come because she had been sick. You can tell the three kids were movin' and a shakin'!

My Baby Girl

My parent rescued a kitten that had been dropped off at their church one Sunday morning. This is the first time that Lawton met "Tiger". He was smitten! :)

You can see how excited he was to hold Tiger. However, that excitement DOES NOT mean that Santa will bring him a kitten! Mommy has enough to take care of! :)

Lawton actually took this picture of Carolina and my Mom.

These pictures were taken the weekend before for my sister's birthday.
Have you ever tried to get a good picture of two infants? See if you can tell who the busybody is . . .

" What are you smilin' at?"

"Oh, I see. Those are some crazy lookin' people up there!"

"You have something on your face . . . let me get it for you!"

"On second thought, I'll chew on your shoe instead . . ."

"Enough already! I am not going to smile for you people like my sweet cousin is!"

Luke and Carolina play

Elf on the Shelf

Some of you may know about this book and have enjoyed this tradition with your child/children already. If not, keep reading my friends!

The Elf on the Shelf is one of Santa's helpers that enters your house around the holiday season and reports back to Santa every single night to relay the behaviors of the household. The elf, which is named by your family (of course Lawton chose to name our elf Buzz :) ) sits around the house and every morning, when he comes back from the North Pole, is located in a different spot around the house. Of course, the elf cannot be touched, or else he will loose all his magical powers. We just introduced the elf to Lawton last night, but we are already having so much fun with him. At dinner tonight, we reminded him that Buzz was watching and would tell Santa if he was eating a good dinner. Lawton replied, "but he can't see me in here!" Of course I piped up and said that he could see through walls! :) Buzz also "whispers" in our ears what he might or might not tell Santa. . . Hopefully Buzz will help us make it through the holidays/craziness/hyperactivity with good behavior!

I found the official website tonight where you can register your elf's name and even receive a letter from Santa. It has a very realistic tour of the North Pole, Santa's workshop, and even Mrs. Claus's kitchen. I can't wait to show Lawton in the morning! Click here to visit the website!

I'm excited about starting this fun Christmas tradition with Lawton and someday Carolina. Lawton is just now really old enough to truly start some traditions and remember them. Do you have any neat traditions that would be fun/meaningful to incorporate into the holidays? Let me know!

Snips and snails and puppy dog tails

Did I scare you? Sorry. You see, yesterday I was cleaning the house while Lawton was at school and I was dusting this cabinet in our living room.

I got behind the recliner, looked down and saw Lawton's rubber snake laying so conveniently, so scarily here. And I smiled. You see, I recognize this snake because he loves to take it by its tail and whip it around like a lasso, mostly right in front of Carolina's face. He hasn't hit her with it . . .yet. I'm not sure how it ended up here, but I don't think he was trying to scare me - he's not that smart and witty. . . yet.

And then I walked across the room and was dusting this shelf, just mere seconds later.

I then discovered this little salamander, one Lawton also likes to twirl around by the tail. Poor guy. He must have taken flight and Lawton couldn't figure out where he had flown to. Or maybe Lawton knew and was too afraid to tell me. I think this was a Chuck-E-Cheese "purchase". (We've been twice)

These things make me smile - he's my little boy and I'm glad that he likes snakes and salamanders - however, I'm not sure he's the type to capture real ones, though. This is the kid who stopped eating a Rice Krispy treat Wednesday night because his hands were "all gooey."

These creatures also remind me of a story I haven't shared with my blogging buddies . . .

This past April, I was about thirty-eight weeks pregnant, so I decided to stay home while Chad went to church to a parenting seminar on a Tuesday night. (I just couldn't sit there on that hard pew, okay?) Anyways, earlier in the day I had washed Lawton's sheets and had set his heavy denim comforter on the floor. I was finally getting around to putting sheets back on the bed that night. Lawton was being silly and had closed the shutters (it was pretty light outside) so the room was somewhat darkened and shadowy. I lifted the comforter to put it back on the bed and noticed one of Lawton's creatures laying on the floor. And in about a half of a second, I went through all of his "animals" in my mind and didn't recognize the shape or size of this "thing" that was on the floor. So I just flipped on the lights to confirm my suspicion and realized that this "thing" wasn't the right color of anything we owned, either.

I quickly grabbed a huge Rubbermaid tub that I had bought that day (for nesting purposes ;) ) flipped it over and trapped the huge lizard that was in Lawton's bedroom. The lizard that had been snuggled up in his comforter. The lizard that was in my house. The big, fat, shiny, slithery lizard that could have possibly crawled up and read a bedtime story that night with us. EEEKKKK! But you know what? Amazingly I kept my inner school-girl scream and shudders all inside so that Lawton would not pick up the fear that I obviously had. (He had only been sleeping in his big boy bed for about three or four months and I didn't want to take the chance of freaking him out.) I then calmly went and texted Chad. "There is a live lizard in Lawton's room." He immediately stepped out of church and called me. You see, in his mind he pictured me and Lawton standing on the bed, screaming and holding each other, the lizard slithering all around. (Which is what I wanted to do!) Anyways, Chad came home immediately (because I wasn't 100% sure that I had captured it, but wasn't going to lift up the lid to check and see) to save the day. "It's big. Really big. And shiny. And slithery. I can't do anything until it is out of the house!" I told him.

We decided that the best P.O.A. (plan of action) was to slide some cardboard all the way under the tub and then flip the tub over. It worked - and thankfully I had trapped the lizard. And you know what, it was big. It was probably nine inches long from head to tail and had a very fat body (about an inch) and was a coppery color. We released it into the wild and Lawton never knew. Seriously.

*Later Chad saw a whole family of lizards out by our barn and I even saw one peeking out from our gutters this summer. But the question is - HOW did it get in our house - and under Lawton's comforter. Heebie jeebies!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. . .

Yep, that's right . . . I've already put up some Christmas stuff. I just couldn't help myself! For some reason I'm just itching to get out all the decorations - but I have used some restraint. Two Christmas trees are the only decorations . . .so far. Probably more decorations will make it from the barn to the house this weekend. Let me explain-

You see, last year after Christmas I bought this huge box of ornaments at the end of the season at Target for $4.00 dollars I think. (Or maybe $5.00) Basically a tree in a box - perfect for a little boy. (There is a car, train, airplane, helicopter, baseball, football, soccer, and all sorts of multi-sized red and blue ornaments inside. I just put my old school Christmas tree in his room (which we usually put up in the playroom) and let him pick out some red lights (his favorite color) and some red tinsel stuff and blue ribbon to finish it out. We had so much fun decorating the other day! And he insisted that his tree needed a star (our trees have never had a star for whatever reason) so, I obliged and bought the cheapest star Target had. He was so excited!

So, of course I had to buy Baby Girl her own box of ornaments, too, last year after Christmas. I had just found out five days before Christmas that she was a girl - so I was pretty excited about getting pink, sparkly, gaudy things. (just kidding about the gaudy stuff . . . kinda.) But, I didn't have a tree for Carolina, so after searching around, I found a green sparkly, glittery, shiny four foot tree for my sweet girl for a hot $23.00! (I didn't think that was too bad). Oh, and of course I had to get some pink and silver and green polka dotted ribbon for the bow on top! (Lawton was distressed that she doesn't have a star, too!)

The finished product - Lawton liked decorating her tree, too! (Notice the heavy concentration of ornaments at the bottom? :)

Oooohhh! Look at these shiny, sparkly beads!

I love her expression in this picture! Such awe and excitement!

I liked this one, too. In case you haven't noticed - I'm not that great at capturing her smiling in most pictures - she is too busy studying everything. But here you can see how she crinkles up her nose a little when she is tickled. Love it.

These ornaments came in the kit. So sweet. And sad. (That this will be her only FIRST Christmas.) *sniff*

Oh, and did I mention I still have my Fall/Thanksgiving stuff still out? But don't tell anyone. I'm a bit embarrassed I couldn't wait until after Thanksgiving to get Christmas stuff out. Is anyone else out there crazy like me? :)

Check out the video below of Carolina checkin' out her tree!