Thanksgiving Day 2008 (Parts 1 and 2)

Hello folks,

As I am sure many of you spent your weekend visiting family and hitting the shops, we too had the traditional all Americana Thanksgiving holiday. We had a 4:30 lunch/dinner (linner?) with Chris's family aka "Mamaw and Papaw from the street" and spent the rest of the day resting, relaxing and playing video games as if we were teenagers. It was great!

I just had to add this photo taken the morning of Thanksgiving. Sarah is truly blessed with brown hair. But in many photos, as in this one, she seems to have very red highlights.

Many people at Chris's work comment on his beautiful red headed daughter. I can't usually see it, but I definitely see it here.


After Sarah's nap, we moved down the street to dine with the Coleman's. Sarah had a blast as usual with her aunt Amy.

We decided to try and take some rare Coleman family photos.

As you can see, every time I tell Sarah to say "Cheese" she suddenly gets bashful. For those of you who know Sarah, she is anything but bashful.

Now, for my favorite part of the night, Sarah and Chris had a "Guitar Hero" showdown.

Chris really got into this game. It makes me wonder if he missed his calling...

Now for Thanksgiving Part 2

Jason and Ashley spent Thanksgiving in Western Kentucky but agreed to drive home to the mountains on Friday. We decided to go for the weekend as well to have yet another Thanksgiving dinner with my parents. Below are some photos of my "front yard" from the porch on Mom and Dad's house.

Chris is taking a drive down the hill on Dad's ATV. I have many fond memories of this hill on my bicycle and sled.

Here is the view of the road from our house. I include this because the only time you can see the road now is winter. When I was a kid, there were no trees blocking this view. Now look how tall they are. Boy, time sure does fly.

Here is Sarah goofing around with her winter hat.

Sarah and Aunt Ashley.

Ashley goofing around with Sarah's hat and mittens.

Sarah spent many hours on this weekend "helping Papaw". They went under the house to work on water pressure (I know what your thinking, she is two. But she insisted that she could help and she wanted to see what they were up to under there.) Daddy went with her and said she was on her best behavior. In this photo, Sarah, Papaw and Jason are driving down the hill to get some firewood. I am glad she gets to make these type of memories. We certainly don't have these types of opportunities in the "burbs".

Sarah is definitely a "Papaw's girl"

But she still lets Mamaw spoil her and primp her like a princess as well.

On Saturday, we moved the festivities to my Aunt Nancy's home. My cousins Melody and Michael were there with both of their families. Sarah had a great time playing with her younger and older cousins. It was a rare time of "girl play," because none of the young boys were visiting on this day.

Here is Sarah's cousin, Ava. She is only a month younger than Sarah. Sarah is very fond of this young lady.

Sarah spent a lot of time following Ava's older sister, Grace around the house. Grace even played school with Sarah. She was pumped that an older cousin was paying attention to her.
Sarah loving on her cousin Ava.

Here are the four girl cousins on my dad's side of the family (except for the oldest, Tasha who was out of town)

As you can see, the girls were on their best behavior.

Here is a rare photo with me and my mom. I am usually the one behind the camera!

Melody and her daughter Jessie.
My cousins Melody, Michael, and his wife, Michelle.

We had a wonderful time reconnecting with family. I know this is what holidays are all about. I am glad Sarah gets a taste of a large family gathering every now and then.

Here is Sarah with her Mamaw and Papaw. She was sad to leave them, but it won't be long until they are down for the next big event this month, Sarah's Birthday!

Till next time,

Leaf Rolling (this should be an Olympic Sport)

This fall, Sarah has been fortunate to spend a great deal of time with her "Mamaw and Papaw from the mountains". It is nice to see her outside doing many of the same things I did when I was her age. Here is one example. I used to LOVE to roll down hills in leaves. I would seek out the best places around for this purpose. As you will see below, Sarah is a chip off the old block.






This is her first real attempt at rolling, as you will see below, she keeps getting faster with practice. Playing in the leaves is fun in the Bluegrass, but it just doesn't compare to mountain leaf rolling! The same might be said for sledding, but I don't hope to be stuck in the mountains when a large snow hits (who knows when we would get home, there are many places on the Mountain Parkway that only see a few hours of sunlight each day). Seeing Sarah playing outside Mom and Dad's really brings back some fond memories.

Turkey Tetrazzini Recipe (for that left over turkey)

I haven't tried this yet, but it sounds fantastic!
Ingredients:
· 8 ounces thin spaghetti, broken into 3-inch lengths, cooked, rinsed, and drained
· 1 1/2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese, divided
· 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, divided
· 2 to 3 cups diced cooked turkey
· 2 tablespoons diced pimientos, if desired
· 1 tablespoon butter
· 4 ounces sliced mushrooms
· 1/4 chopped cup onion
· 1 can cream of mushroom soup
· 1/2 cup chicken broth
· 1/4 cup dry sherry
· salt and pepper, to taste
Preparations:
Combine spaghetti with 1 cup Cheddar cheese and half of the Parmesan cheese. Add turkey and pimientos. In a skillet, melt butter and sauté mushrooms and onions just until tender; add to the turkey mixture along with remaining ingredients. Gently stir to combine ingredients; place in a greased casserole and sprinkle with remaining cheeses. Cover with lid or foil and bake at 350° for about 45 minutes, or until hot and bubbly.
Serves 6 to 8.

HAVE A BLESSED THANKSGIVING WEEKEND!!!

My little turkey!

Sarah has had many firsts this year and this weekend was no exception. Sarah's preschool had their annual family Thanksgiving dinner and show and she participated in her first play on stage in front of an adoring crowd. I'll bet most of you are thinking "she will be right at home on the stage, she is such a ham". Not even close. Before I get ahead of myself, I will show you photos as the night unfolded.

This is Allie. She is a little girl that goes to the same daycare as Sarah. She also attends preschool with Sarah. She is truly one of the sweetest children I have ever met!

I can safely say that this is Sarah's first best friend. Chris says that Allie is patiently waiting for Sarah at the door of Mrs. Joan's house every morning when he drops her off. Then they spend a few minutes screaming, dancing, and hugging one another until he leaves. Here is proof of their undying friendship.

We feel so blessed to have this little girl in Sarah's life. It is so gut wrenching as a Mom to drop off your children for an entire day, leaving their safety and happiness in the hands of others. We are so thankful to have a great caregiver like Mrs. Joan and wonderful friends like Allie to make our absence less of an issue.

Now, it is almost show time. Sarah's class will be turkeys for the play that is about to begin.

As you can see, Sarah is pretty excited about the night at this point. But emotions are about to change...

I moved my way into the auditorium to hear Mrs. Sabrina welcome all of the parents to the play and dinner.

They began with the ABC's of Thanksgiving.

Sarah is bringing up the rear.

Her terror is evident from the moment she walked out. She was so scared that the tears were welling up, but no sound came out. She did not move unless someone touched her.



Here is a grainy video taken from my digital camera. The teachers tried to calm her, but it wasn't working.




She did tough it out for a few minutes, but her fears got the best of her when her eyes met mine (I knew it was over). She said in a shaky voice "I want my Mommy". She came off the stage and into my lap. I tried to coax her back on stage to no avail. She said "It is so big". I was torn between telling her everything was fine, "just stay with me" and "get back on that stage". I decided to compromise. I told her that if she would walk back up on stage, I would squat down behind her. She lit up!

As you can see, I did climb on stage and sat right down behind her. She finished the play with a smile on her face! I hope this was a wise Mom moment. It made sense at the time. We shall see when the next play comes along...

Here is the end of the play. She let me go back to the front row for a photo. Check out the relief on her face. She danced off the stage saying "It's over, it's over!" I guess we don't have a budding Britney Spears on our hands (thank goodness).

Afterwards, the congregation provided the preschool families a delicious Thanksgiving feast. There are so many amazing families at North Lexington that give of great amounts of time and effort for God and friends.

We were lucky to have Amy and Mamaw Coleman in attendance. They seem to have had a great time as well.


This is Zoe, another little girl who attends Joan's daycare.

I had to include these last photos. This is Noah (or as Sarah refers to him "Baby Nono") . He is Allies little brother and Sarah's favorite little man. He is so sweet but mischevious. Here he found a nice tennis ball to play with. The only problem was, it was attached to a lady's walker!

He quickly became her sidekick all around the building until Mom drug him away from his new toy. "Shucks".

All in all, it was a fun night with friends and family. Sarah fought her fears and went home feeling successful. I cannot ask for more.

Until next time,

Movin, groovin', singin', and goofin' around

Due to the cold weather, we are spending much more time at home trying to have fun in spite of being stuck indoors. One thing that has captured Sarah's attention is YouTube. We have found a multitude of videos featuring the chicken dance, Cha Cha Slide, and the Banana Boat Song. Sarah is all too happy to dance and sing for hours as long as I play the right tune. Brandy, Caden, and Cohen came by recently for a visit, and were treated to one of these dance sessions. You can see what transpired below.




I loved Cohen in this one. Look at Sarah's cha cha moves. I am so proud!



This video was taken in a pizza place near church. When I work on Wednesdays, it just doesn't make sense to drive all the way home, only to turn right back around and drive to Lexington. The result is that we must keep ourselves occupied from 5:00 until 7:00. On this night, we hung out at the pizza place talking. When Sarah got bored, we gave her our cell phone and hilarity ensued! This went on for at least 10 minutes. She called all the Clifford characters, as well as Aunt Ashley.




Here is Sarah's attempt at a holiday greeting. She heard Dora sing this song on one of her Christmas DVDs. She asked for a microphone when she heard it on a Veggietales CD. Here is the result.
I have a ball just watching my musical toddler. I am so glad I have a buddy who likes music as much as myself!

Vacationing in the Mountains

Greetings all,

Chris and I decided to spend the last weekend shopping for Christmas presents before the Christmas rush. We thought the best way to accomplish this task was to ask my Mom and Dad if Sarah could come for another "vacation in the mountains." She was so excited, she began packing right away. We made the mistake of telling her a little too soon. She asked us every morning last week if "today is the day we go to the mountains." We also decided to take a little vacation to the Smokies. It was a great time to rest and rejuvenate ourselves and we are so glad we had the chance to reconnect for a few days just the two of us.


Let's start with a few photos from Sarah's trip courtesy of her Papaw. She went home with Mamaw on Friday morning. We met halfway home on the Mountain Parkway. She was so excited, she skipped her nap completely that day. Mom said she rolled in the leaves, chased their cat, and decorated a mini-Christmas tree, all before my dad came home from work! The next day, they treated her to her very first Circus which had coincidentally come to their town.!





These photos are a little grainy. They were sent to me via e-mail. She had a great time watching the animals. I hear the elephants were her favorite.

The circus was held at the local convention center. It is relatively new. Sarah got to visit it even before I have!

It looks like a blast! I am glad Sarah got to visit her first circus with the grandparents. I am sure they will have many special memories.

It is quite obvious that the "circus tent" theme rubbed off at home as well. Apparently this tent remained up in the living room for naps and playtime. No wonder she would not talk to me when I called on the phone. All I heard was "No, No, No, I am staying with Papaw!" Apparently she thought that I was calling to say it was time to come home! Boy, they grow up fast.

Now for our weekend vacation.
We drove straight to the Smokey's from the Mountain Parkway. We reserved a one bedroom cabin complete with a pool table and hot tub for our weekend getaway. We spent the entire first day there shopping and eating!

Here is Chris preparing to dine at the famous Apple Barn. He loves apple pie more than anyone I have ever met! Look how happy his is in this little "piece of heaven." We ended up there twice, once for dinner, and once for apple pie and ice cream! (I am more of a chocolate fan myself, but I obliged him this time).

This was our cabin. Believe it or not, the name on the address was "Hanky-Panky." Do you know how embarrassing it is to ask the lady at the front desk for the keys to our cabin and she utters the words "OK, so I see you will be staying in our Hanky-Panky cabin"? It was a nice place except for one important component. The bed. It was shaped more like a taco than a bed. Chris spent the second night on the couch! Oh well, the Coleman karma continues...

This was the downstairs of the cabin. It had a kitchen, dining room, living room with a fireplace, bathroom and bedroom downstairs. It also had a loft area with a pool table and Play Station 2! I became addicted to a game called "Columns" while there. It is sort of like Tetris. This was an obsession of mine when I was a kid. I guess being childless for a weekend brought out the kid in me. Chris had to make me stop playing at 11:30 one night so we could go to bed!

The last night there we watched the weather report just before bed. It called for snow in the upper elevations of Gatlinburg. We really dismissed it because we didn't think we were really up all that high based upon our view. We woke up to snow! We were a little concerned about the trip off the narrow and winding mountain roads in our car (we didn't think to take the Escape), but it all worked out. The scariest part was driving behind people from Indiana and Florida who are not used to mountain driving! In the mountains, proactive driving is key to not getting stuck on slick roads.

As you can see, the roads were narrow, but not that slick. The slickest part was the wet leaves!

On our way home, I noticed a spot where you could see snow capped mountains. I thought this was a beautiful photo. You don't often see fall colors juxtaposed with snow capped mountains. It seems like winter is moving in early this year!

We had a great weekend. I got the vast majority of my presents for Christmas and they are wrapped and ready to go! We rested, reconnected, and got ourselves ready for the winter rush! We have a busy month ahead, Thanksgiving, Sarah's birthday, my finals, and Christmas! Whew! I glad we rested up!

The "Coldman" I mean Coleman Family Weekend

Hey gang,
I am sorry that the blogs have been few and far between recently. Honestly, mid October-mid November has been one big blur of snot, sneezing, coughing, blisters, and general grossness. This week our lucky cold contestant is none other than Chris Coleman! He has coughed, sneezed and slept the weekend away. We Coleman's typically have about one month per year that is generally yucky and I guess this is the month. As a result, we have spent a great deal of time hanging around the house. This is great for resting up, but it is not so photo worthy. But I will share the few photos we have taken in the past couple of days.
How would you like to be cleaning house, round a corner and see this coming your way? Sarah collected some decorations that I had taken in from our front porch and decided to give me a little scare. She was very successful as you can see. (I am even spooked out just looking at this photo. I can't believe this is our little girl).

When we can't go far, we visit our local library. I snuck a quick photo of Sarah reading along with a book while characters read the story to her. She loooves books so much!

This is the machine that she is transfixed upon. Our library really is fantastic! It is so kid friendly. I am sometimes jealous of how much better kids have it today in the education arena.


We did, however, find time this weekend to drag ourselves out of the house to watch the Movie Madagascar 2 with Aunt Amy(even my sick husband came along). Sarah loves the first movie (especially the song and dance parts) and could not wait for the next installment. Below is Sarah posing with her favorite characters.

This was the first movie that Sarah truly enjoyed the whole way through in the theater. I am so happy that we can now begin to go movie watching as a family. Chris and I used to be movie buffs in our former life (PK or pre- kids).

Amy, as always, is such a good sport. I think the adults enjoyed the movie as much as the kids! It really was a great sequel.

I had to include the video taken just after the movie. Sarah is singing the theme song and interacting with the movie characters inside the lobby.

Perhaps future blog posts will present you with a healthy and happy family. This post proves that we do manage to find fun even in the sickest of moments.

Until next time,