Week 19: Thanksgiving

With a work schedule that I've been handed the last couple years, it has made us acknowledge that Thanksgiving is about just that, no matter which day you celebrate it (though I think working turkey day 2 years in a row is quite enough, thank you).
So we ended up having our 'Thanksgiving' on Saturday which was nice to have a little time to prepare and get a little shopping done in between (very little shopping, but successful nonetheless!)

The turkey Caroline is sitting with was made by my mom's mother ('Nonie' is what we called her.) We lost her many years ago, but she was lovely and I have nothing but warm, loving memories about her. The dress Caroline is wearing is the one she came home in from the hospital, it fits her perfectly now. It seemed appropriate as she is nothing but a blessing to us.




Lily was such a help in the kitchen this year. Luckily the dressing required a lot of crumbling of cornbread and biscuits...and I can't think of a better 'crumbler'! She loved every minute of it.



She also gave me a little help with my dessert...she was so excited to put her apron on. She was such a cutie-pie.


The spread.

The 'fam.'



'Classic' Lily set to help Daddy put up the lights.

2009 Nobel Laureate in Economics Elinor Ostrom

A couple of Wednesdays ago I had the pleasure of attending a lecture and seminar presented by Elinor Ostrom, recipient of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Economics. It was a great lecture and seminar. Elinor and her husband, Vincent, have an appreciation of the complexity and diversity of human beings and their economic systems. Their research explores, among other things, governance without the need for an explicit government. In addition to being a brilliant scholar, Elinor was also a very pleasant person to meet and be around.

Giving Thanks for Turnips?

Early this fall, Bob Mahan talked me into planting some turnips in the garden. We'd had fun with the pumpkin patch this year, and I'm confident I'll do better on the timing next year (one pumpkin actually did make it from July through November). Anyway, Bob said that his girls loved pulling the turnips out of the ground. Well, of course I labor under the delusion that Lily actually likes gardening as much as I do and would like to pull turnips. And to some extent, when we pulled the first of them today, she did! Now the challenge is finding out how to eat them....anyone got a good turnip recipe?

Family Pictures

Since Emily had to work today (second year in a row, but at least we're all well this year) we haven't really had our big Thanksgiving celebration yet....that will be Saturday with the Harkeys. But we have had some fun this week in anticipation of the holiday, and of course fun always follows Gran and Uncle Jonathan to town. Here are some pictures from the week.

Daddy's girls being cute and goofy.






Blowing bubbles out front.






Looking for a cozy place to take a nap....


Doing a little cooking in the kitchen with Gran....well, actually it was more of eating the ingredients while Gran tried to use them for cooking...

Week 18

Amazingly, this weekend Emily was not on call and I didn't have any work matters to attend to....so we figured we would take advantage of the beautiful fall day yesterday and go out to a football game somewhere. Well, the All-World All-Star JMU Football team was playing in Maine, Virginia Tech (who is good, but not better than JMU) was in Miami, Tennessee was in Vanderbilt.....and good old Wofford was playing at home versus UT Chattanooga, so off we went to Spartanburg!

Before the game we took advantage of some photo ops to get Caroline's week picture in the same place that Lily had her Week 17 picture taken. Lily was with Anna and Sam's dog Macy in that picture, but Caroline was able to borrow Lily's new Terrier Dog to stand in for Macy this time around. Then we got some pictures of Lily dancing with her shadow on the dais in front of Old Main....it was really a hoot. She was listening to the marching band playing something from the stadium....when we went into the game, I think I'm safe in saying that the marching bands were her favorite part!

On our way home, we stopped by to visit the Harrelsons in Asheville. This was the first time we've seen their house remodeled and it looked great. Its really them these days because Mary Hudson and Lily are old enough to go off and have a blast together.

Week 17

With the last heat wave of the season (my prediction) we took advantage of the moment and attempted to get some fun pics on the VA campus. Lily remains 'uninterested' in posing for the camera (unless the attention is directed at Caroline, of course) so there was some definite bribery involved to get her to comply and smile and look at the camera, etc. etc.

Caroline continues to laugh and smile easily, she must get that from her father :). It's so fun to watch her as she will focus in on objects, grab them with one hand and hold her locked stare while she brings her other hand to it as well. Seems like a small thing, I know, but I still feel like I should have a newborn!






And one last note, the dress Lily is wearing is fondly referred to as 'the flower dress.' It's one we got at the end of the season last year, so I'm thrilled that it still fits her. Lily has taken a particular liking to it and even tries to sleep in it...so, it is very likely she will be in 'the flower dress' in future pictures. When you have a strong willed 3 year old, she's bound to win some battles, my goal is to win the war :).

Week 16

There's no doubt we are going to get our money's worth out of the 'jumperoo'. We certainly used it for Lily, but if I remember correctly we didn't get it until she was quite a bit older. This time around, it actually was Mattie that put Caroline in something similar at her house. We thought we would give it a try and she just LOVES it. For several weeks now, she been springing along. Her toes barely touch the floor, but once she gets going, she's bouncing away. She also loves to reach out to the toys. She's gotten very good at reaching out and holding onto things lately. I really have to watch the earrings, necklaces, etc. And just for the record, though neither Dave nor I have witnessed it yet, Mattie said that she turned over today....AGGHHH! She's been working on it and I've seen her get the feet over, but I was hoping it would at least be a few more weeks, before she got those shoulders over...but apparently that is not the case...how is my little baby mobile...already!! I'm just not ready for that yet.


This weekend also marked Caroline's first snow...but I'm going to say it doesn't really count, especially because it melted by 10am and it's going to be back in the high 60's this week. It did, however, allow Dave the chance to practice his photog skills :)

We were so excited to have my Aunt Dena and Uncle Chris visit for the weekend! I believe Caroline charmed them as she seems to do with anyone she meets. Hopefully we'll get to return the favor and visit Georgia soon!