Christmas 2011

2011 Christmas was pretty special. We had an early Christmas in Franklin with the Huskins because Adam was supposed to be out of town. However, he ended up being with us on Christmas and we were together in Knoxville as well! What a nice surprise.

Cookies for Santa, carrots for the reindeer

Santa left Sophie a letter explaining why he came to her house early

Santa's Letter to Sophie

My dearest Sophia-

Thank you so much for the milk and wonderful cookies, your mom is a great baker! Did you help her with those? They tasted soooo good after a long flight. The reindeer loved their carrot and the popcorn was great too! Thank you for remembering them. I know your daddy has to be away for Christmas this year, so I brought you your presents a little bit early so he can be with you on your “Christmas morning”. I know that you have been a very good girl this year, so I have some extra special gifts the elves made just for you. I hope you like them. Be a good girl this year! Merry Christmas Sophia!

Love,

Santa Claus

(Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donder, Blitzen, and of course Rudolph too)

Franklin Christmas Morning

Sure they got toys...but Nana's Ipad is much more fun

Sophie got her first set of golf clubs from Nana and Pap-pap Hart

July 4th at the Lake!!!

Sophie and I spent another wonderful July 4th weekend at my parents house on the lake. Sophie LOVED the boat and wanted to ride on it all day long. She definitely gets that from me. My family has had a boat for as long as I can remember. Some of my absolute favorite memories are riding on that boat. In the good old days it was always a crapshoot as to whether the boat would start or not (we didn't take it out very often), but these days it starts...it's just a matter of how dramatic re-docking it is. Anyway we had a blast. Adam wasn't able to go with us this year because he was in Seattle training to fly the big planes! Go daddy go!

Hot Air Balloons

My sister finds out about the coolest things! She invited us to a VBS kick-off at a church near her neighborhood. Neither one of us goes to the church, and neither of the girls will be attending the VBS, but who's keeping track of all that anyway.

At this kick-off they had a bunch of hot air balloons tethered to the ground and they gave rides up! They also had bounce houses, hot dogs, pizza, music...all the good stuff. As we were pulling into the parking lot Sophie got very excited about the bounce castle. However, when it came time to actually enter the bounce house she was terrified. She did bounce a little bit at the end of the slide where the kids were trying to get off. She really could not have been more in the way, but oh well.

Wendy and Josie took a ride up in the Vanderbilt balloon. Sophie would have NOTHING to do with it (not that I'm surprised). I was a little bit leery myself, but if she was willing to go I would have...I swear. Anyway, even though we didn't get to go for a ride, it was still very pretty!

Nashville Sounds Game

I won something...I really did...I never win anything! Okay, so it isn't that exciting...but I won 4 free tickets to a Nashville Sounds game. Since Adam was out of town for work, we got to go with Aunt Wendy and Josie. We may have made it through 5 innings before the meltdowns began. Sophie REFUSED to go the bathroom the entire time we were there...that did not end well. But we did have a great time!

Good Lord now Josie is 3

Technically Josie's birthday fell on Thanksgiving this year. Since I had to work and Wendy didn't want her to have to share her birthday with the Pilgrims, we celebrated a day early with a Minnie Mouse party! My cakes didn't look that great because my cleaning ladies showed up much to early and I was rushed! But they tasted good!

3 iPads and a cell-phone? What is this world coming to?

Kentucky Family Reunion

We got to go to a family reunion with the Pegg family in Kentucky. It was a weekend full of good food, good wine, laughter, and lots of memories! We had so much fun visiting with my aunts, uncles, cousins, 1st cousins once removed (we finally figured out what this meant during the reunion...thanks Missy). We even saw some cousins that we have not seen in YEARS.

My favorite episode from the whole weekend was a conversation with my mother (sorry mom, but this is hilarious). We were sitting at a table eating and somehow the topic of Pap-Pap (my mother's father) and cooking came up. My Pap-Pap loved to cook. Whenever I think of him, I picture him in the kitchen cooking dinner with a gin and tonic or a martini (I can't remember which one he drank). I still miss him so much.

Anyway...I mentioned something about chicken and the following conversation ensued.

Mom: "Katie, your Pap-Pap did NOT like chicken!"

Katie: "He didn't?"

Mom: "NO...he was in the NAVY"

Katie: "Oh"

Now, mind you, I was totally confused, but I wasn't about to say anything. I'm the youngest child in the family and I have a history of natural blond hair. Sometimes things go over my head and I just let them stay there; figuring it's better to hide my ignorance than be teased relentlessly for saying something stupid. Finally my Aunt Polly (my mom's youngest sister) broke in...

Polly: "Ummm...what does being in the Navy have to do with chicken?"

Katie: "THANK YOU, I thought I was the only one who was confused"

Mom: "Well, on the ships the chicken gravy would have bones and skin and stuff in it and he just hated chicken after that."

Katie: "Was I supposed to know that?"

Now, not to throw my mom under the bus alone...my dad was sitting there nodding as well...as if EVERYONE knew why people in the Navy hated chicken. It was awesome. It still makes me laugh.

My second favorite moment was an old story about my sweet Aunt Polly. One day my Aunt Polly was talking to my Grandma in her room (I think she was around 9 or so).

Polly: Mom, when you were little, how many kids did you want to have"

Grandma: I always wanted 6 kids

My Aunt Polly was the youngest of 7 children.

There was not a mean bone in my Grandmother's body...she was simply stating the facts. When she was little she wanted 6 kids, I think she was trying to make the point that she always wanted a lot of kids, but nonetheless it upset Aunt Polly to be number 7.

We visited the Natural Bridge while we were there! It was beautiful...

Adam and Sophie enjoying the view

Wendy and Josie

Josie and Sophie

Sophie and Daddy

Sophie

The Huskins hiking around the area

This was a very long, narrow passage we went through to see under the bridge...
it made my claustrophobia act up a little bit but we all made it!

Jump Zone

I will try to post this for the 3rd time. We took the girls to Jump Zone. Josie loved everything! Sophie found a couple of things she sort of liked, as I expected from my sweet timid girl!

Christmas Eve 2009

My parents were able to spend Christmas with us in Nashville this year. They braved our contemporary Christmas Eve service (usually they attend a very conservative Catholic Mass). The girls loved the service and danced the entire time. Then we came home and made homemade pizzas! 

Nana, Josie, Wendy, and Pap-Pap

Nana, Josie, Wendy, and Jason

Sophie and Josie

Katie, Zoe, Sophie, and Adam