Christmas 2008

We are still recovering from all the Christmas fun at our house (and still trying to get organized)! Needless to say, Cade was really into Christmas this year. I woke him up on Christmas morning to tell him that Santa had been here. I don't think he believed me at first, and he said to Heath, "Daddy, go look!" But once he got upstairs, he just bounced from one toy to the next and back! He actually calls all of his new toys "Santa's toys," and is still asking about Santa Claus. It is hard to explain to a 21-month old that Santa only comes once a year...

As you will see from the pictures, we made several stops over the course of three days. He loves to go visit, though, especially when it involves opening presents:). Cade was apparently very, VERY good this year, as our bonus room now looks like a mini Toys-R-Us, between Santa coming and all of the gifts he got fom our family! One extra special gift this year was a new activity table built especially by Heath. It is beautiful! Cade loves to sit there and color, and play with stickers and Play-Doh.

On Sunday, Heath took off to Arkansas for a few days of hunting, so my dad is staying with us while he is out of school (I am a scaredy cat:) until New Year's. Cade has looooved having his Pa here to play with. We will miss him when he leaves!

Yesterday, Cade, Dad and I made a quick day trip to Memphis to see my old college roommate, Melissa at her parents' house. She and her husband were stationed in Hawaii for almost four years with the Army and recently relocated to Houston, TX. She has a precious three year old, Hannah Grace, and a little boy, Jackson, who is two weeks younger than Cade. We really enjoyed our visit, and hope it is not another three years before we see them again!

Thanks to everyone who made our holiday so special. I know that next year will be double the fun (or maybe just double the craziness!) when we add another sweet baby to the mix. I made a slide show of our pictures. Enjoy!

Hook Em' Horns!

Last Thursday, a package arrived on our front porch from FedEx. Our sweet friends, Scott (Heath's good friend from Lipscomb) and his wife, Kristy, sent Cade a suprise Christmas present. Cade loves to open presents, and first opened a neat children's CD that has his name programmed into all of the songs (which he thinks is hilarious!). Even more funny to us was this shirt. Scott and Kristy live in Houston and are big University of Texas fans. I guess they felt sorry for poor Cade that he would not have a UT team to cheer for this bowl season. So they sent him this new "UT" shirt! Thanks guys! Cade will be wearing this on January 5 when the Longhorns take on Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl:

This is his attempt to do the "Hook Em' Horns" hand gesture:)

An early White Christmas!

On Thursday night, we had an unseasonably early snow. In fact, the snow came in so quickly here, that I did not realize it was even snowing until Mom called and said that she heard it was snowing in Middle Tennessee. I assured her that I had just been outside a little over an hour ago and it was just raining. To my suprise, we looked out the window and the ground was already covered! Cade was so excited and kept saying "Snow everywhere!" It was a really wet snow, and the flakes were huge. By Fridayt morning at our house, we had about two inches total, but the Thornes (who live about 15 minutes away) had four inches on their farm. Weird weather... Cade really loved playing in the snow. Here are some pictures from Friday morning. Unfortunately, most of it was gone by the afternoon.:(

In his Rudolph hat and snowsuit


The only thing we could find to make a sled:)

Thursday night as the snow was falling...so pretty!

**We took all of these pictures with our "Christmas present," a new Nikon. If you know Heath very well, then you know he gets too excited about certain presents to wait:), especially when you have something as exciting as a first winter snow to take pictures of!**

Santa...again!

I could not help myself! I know we had already seen Santa, but every year, our country club does a fun event called "Milk and Cookies with Santa." It is always alot of fun, and the Santa they had this year looked like he flew down straight from the North Pole! Cade was really into Santa this time (I think the lamb was a bit of a distraction last week), and did not want to get off his lap. And he of course enjoyed the milk and cookies:) Here is the product of our visit:

And here is Cade's letter to Santa that he made at school today. Ms. Angela cut out lots of pictures from toy catalogs and let the kids pick some of the things they wanted to put on their list. Anyone who knows Cade can appreciate the fact that he had trucks and farm things on there, as he loves both! I am a bit confused about the stuffed animals (he rarely touches the few he has), but he pointed at it on the fridge and said "monkey" and "panda," so I guess that is what he liked about the bottom picture!

Baby #2 Update

Yesterday, we went to the doctor for our monthly appointment and got to hear Baby Thorne's heartbeat for the first time. The nurse found it almost immediately, and it was thumping away at 147 bpm. We had seen the heartbeat during our 7 week ultrasound, but this is the first time we actually got to hear it on the doppler. I can still remember the first time I heard little Cade's heartbeat, and it is defintely just as sweet the second time around! Our doctor said that all is good so far, and everything is right on track for a June 9 (or hopefully a little sooner:) due date. We have another appointment on December 31, then the big ultrasound will be scheduled for sometime in mid January. Thanks to everyone for all of the well wishes and prayers!

Happy Birthday Heath!

Happy Birthday honey! We hope you enjoy your 29th birthday (for the fourth consecutive year:)! We love you!!!

Old School 2005

Vegas 2008

Wendy's wedding

Halloween 2008

***On a side note, Heath and I got engaged exactly four years ago today on his birthday. We were in Atlanta for the SEC Championship game (UT vs. LSU). Such a fun weekend!***

Countdown to Christmas!

We are already gearing up for Christmas at the Thorne house. We actually put up our trees last weekend (we got a new tree this year, so I was extra excited to get it decorated!). Cade loves having the trees up, and always asks for the "tinkle lights" as soon as it gets dark.

Yesterday, we took Cade down to the Wilson County Farmers Co-op to see Santa Claus. Heath's sweet Grandma has worked at the Co-op for years, and let us know that Santa would also have a real little lamb, so it was a must see. Cade was indifferent about Santa, but really loved the lamb. I don't think I have even seen a lamb so up close and personal. It was the sweetest little thing, and just layed there like a little lap dog. Here is one of the pictures we took with our camera:

Visiting the mama sheep and her other lamb


Cade's favorite ornament. He always wants to take it down.

Our new super fat tree

We spent this morning shopping, and are now having the usual football Saturday. We decided to skip the trip to Knoxville (sorry Phil), in order to rest get ready for Christmas around here. Only 26 more days!

One last thing we wanted to say:

Happy Birthday Casey Mac!

We miss you and can't wait to see you in a few weeks!

Happy Thanksgiving...

...from the Thorne family. We feel especially blessed and thankful this year. Have a safe and Happy Thanksgiving!

"Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Gatlinburg 2008

Or "Gat-gin-burg" as Cade calls it. We had a great trip with the Thornes this year. Cade had an especially good time. That kid loves to go and try new things! Some of his favorites included the twinkle lights (tinkle lights), our hike- he loved the running stream and all the rocks, and riding the "boat," which is the aerial tramway that takes you to Ober Gatlinburg. Of course, more than anything, he loved having extra people around to entertain ( I thought he was going to wear his Aunt B out!). Thanks Rick and Pam for such a fun trip- we look forward to it every year! Hopefully next year, both of our kids will be good:)

Bundled up- it was a cold weekend!
Cade and Pap

At Cades Cove- High of 39 degrees!

Mama, Cade and Pam

Hiking with Daddy- he kept calling Heath a pony and told him to "Giddy Up!"

Family Hike

Tagged!

I was tagged by both Jenn Looney and Amanda Owings this time. The idea is to go to your fourth picture folder and select the fourth picture in that folder, then write four things about that picture. It is pretty random what you will find (especially if you are like me and do not organize you folders in any specific way). After that, you must tag four other bloggers. Here is what I came up with (ironically!):

1. This picture was taken in November 2006.

2. I was a little over 17 weeks pregnant with Mr. Cade, and thought I was pretty big- little did I know what was to come!!!

3. One week later, we would find out that we were having a boy!

4. Right after Heath took this picture, we went to eat at Mafiozas in Nashville with a bunch of our friends- Yum! Their ravioli sticks are extra good when you are pregnant:)

Now I tag:

1. Kami

2. Lyla

3. Casey

4. Bevin

MIA...

Cade's "Silly Face"

Sorry for the recent lack of posts! The last couple of weeks have been a little crazy. First, Cade had a cold that I did not think we were going to be able to get rid of (nothing too major, just a runny nose and cough that I thought would never end!). I even caught a little of the cold myself, although luckily the duration of mine was only a couple of days. Then last Friday, we packed up and headed with the Thorne family for a super extended weekend to Gatlinburg (a yearly tradition that we always look forward to). We had a great time, and I will post pictures as soon as I can from the trip.

As far as baby #2 goes, I think that I am finally turning a good corner **knocking on wood** as I am finally able to eat a whole meal at a time, and I do not have the all day long nausea that I had been experiencing for the past 5.5 weeks. Hopefully, I will not need anymore Zofran, Preggie Pops, saltines, gingerale, etc. for a while. I guess only time will tell. Being sick like this is something new to me, as I felt great the whole time I was pregnant with Cade. My doctor said that could be a big indicator of a girl, but I guess we will find out for sure in January!:)

On a final note, Cade wanted to say that he is very proud of his Pa's football team, the Kingston Yellow Jackets, as they just ended their 2008 season in an overtime playoff game. Way to go, Pa!

Trick or Treat!

Last night was Cade's first major trick or treating experience. Last year, since he was so little, we just stayed home and gave out candy. This year was another story. Rick and Pam volunteered to stay and give out candy at our house. Rick even gave out toothbrushes that Met Life had sent to his insurance company (yes, we were 'that' house:). Our neighborhood has TONS of houses (many that decorate their homes as much for Halloween as they do for Christmas). The only problem is that Cade walks really slow (since he is only 19 months). To solve the problem, rather than use a stroller or wagon, we decided to do a full out Halloween hayride. So we hooked the big trailer (thanks Rick!) to our car, added some hay, and invited over lots of friends to go with us. Oh yeah- Heath decided to really kick it up a notch and add twinkling lights all around the trailer. Wendy stopped by to see Cade and dubbed us as the "Griswalds of Halloween!" It was so much fun, and definitely the way to trick or treat (especially since all of our riders were three and under!). Cade did so well. He left his costume on all night and did a great job taking his bucket up to doors. He and Mamie ate their candy during the whole trip (it was a holiday, right?:) I thought he would be on a sugar high until midnight, but luckily all the fun caused him to pass out about 9:30. We had the best time and hope to do it again next year. Here are some pictures- they are a little out of order:

This was actually the end of the night, and Cade was still eating candy!
The best picture I could get of Cade, Lily and Mamie (aren't their Wizard of Oz costumes adorable?)

Jack-o-lanterns, courtesey of Heath


The witch and Cade's painted pumpkin from Ginny



Cade, "Aunt B" and Jud

On the hayride with Mamie

First one on- as we were getting ready to leave

The Halloween Hayride

Cade with his pumpkins

Cute little chicken

Are You Ready For Some Football?

Cade is! Tonight the always popular Monday Night Football game is here in Nashville, and the COLTS will be in town. For the record, this is the one game of the season where we do not cheer for the Titans (actually, I think Heath still does, but Cade and I love Peyton too much:). In honor of tonight's matchup, this is what Cade had on for school today. He calls it his "Pate" shirt. Heath and I got this jersey for him when we went to a wedding near Indianapolis last summer:

Touchdown Colts!

Mini Manning