Christmas Lights at Riverbanks Zoo

We visited the Lights at the Zoo on November 28, 2008. It was great weather about 60 degrees and we had a good time checking out the animals at night (the ones we could see) and of course all of the lights. Frank rode the carousel twice, once with Mommy, Hunter and Jordan and once with Granddaddy. He loved it. As we were leaving Frank IV said "night night zoo. Bye-bye zoo." He was really good the whole time and enjoyed seeing the sights with Hunter and Jordan,

Thanksgiving

We were blessed to have family join us for our first Thanksgiving in our new house. Grandma, Pap, Aunt Barbara, Grandaddy, Nannie, Uncle Jeff, Aunt Leann, and cousins Hunter and Jordan all came to have dinner with us. What a treat to all be together. We had a wonderful time together even if the boys did not sit much. Everyone else had too much to eat.

Hunter and Jordan brought Frank IV a police car to play with outside and all the boys had fun playing with it and playing ball. It was great when Daddy Frank kicked the ball OVER the house into the backyard. Here are some pictures of our day.

We had a great day capped off by a shopping trip to Michaels.

Thanksgiving Dressing...

So Thanksgiving just would not Thanksgiving without dressing...or so says Grandma after Frank forgot to pick up the dressing we ordered at Little Pigs BBQ. We ordered our smoked turkey but he forgot dressing. Well that is Grandma's favorite part so I had a food emergency Wednesday night.

I called in the big gun Aunt Jean to give me the recipe. Well it went something like this...

AJ: (After laughing) I am not sure what to tell you since I do not measure. I just know how to do it. Make some cornbread - you can use jiffy mix. Then get some biscuits and crumble it up.

B: What?? Do I cook the conrbread first? How do I crumble it up? You put biscuits in dressing??

Uncle Bill in the background...laughing really loudly "Tell her to cook it first!" What is she thinking.

AJ: Then you saute onions and celery in butter and add it together with eggs and poulty seasoning and chicken broth. Then you taste it.

B: It is okay to buy the celery and onions already cut up? How many eggs? What kind of chicken broth? Poultry what? ....What does it taste like since i have never had it??

***You can imagine the conversation***

However, all was well as Aunt Jean's dressing made it to the table and Mom really liked it. I am putting in a picture as proof I really did it. I may not be able to do it again but I got it done in 2008!

Jumping of the deep end of the business pool...

We are jumping the deep end of business pool and taking our web based business (CahoonsCloset.com) to a retail location...I know it sounds a bit crazy but Jimmy Buffett always said if "we weren't all crazy we would go insane..."

We have formed a limited liability company and will be taking over a store here in Columbia on January 1, 2008. It is located on Forest Drive. It is a personalized gift store, bags, baby items, some kids clothing, linens, monogrammed items, some special order invitations and we will be adding to the inventory there with our own stuff. We will continue to do our web sales as well. Remember we can personalize or monogram almost anything. We can also special order items for you.

We will be doing some special marketing things in January. Family and friends are always welcome. We need to start out the New Year with a bang!

We also have the old house listed with a realtor so we are praying to hear good news soon. Things are always exciting with the Cahoons in Columbia but we know with God on our side anything is possible! Please keep us in your prayers please as we have many challenges ahead.

Fun Give-a-way

http://pinklemonadeboutiquebags.blogspot.com/2008/11/fun-friday-autumn-bag-giveaway.html

Free fun give-a-way for cute bags.

Frank's birthday

To add to Big Frank's list...

A glow in the dark vest or belt or light to wear while exercising. Frank is going great exercising in either the evening or morning but it is dark so he needs some safety gear!

All I Want for Christmas...

Frank IV has a wish list at Target (online or in stores). Please consider them suggestions only in case you want to get him a present. I just wanted to give an idea of the kinds of things he would like and age group he was in. Plus I would like to keep him from writing on the walls anymore.

He loves to clean, play with his noisy books (with the sounds on them), read his quiet books, play with his cars and train and BALLS - all kind of balls to throw and chase. Bathtime is bubble fun time! Frank jumps around and runs crazy zometimes chasing the dogs. He now says "hut, hike" when he picks up the football. Frank can count to two! Counting things are fun as well. Character wise he likes Elmo "ee-mo", Thomas "train", Blue "boo" and Spongebob "spong bo".

As for Mommy and Daddy we just need some prayers to sell our other house and we are looking forward to visiting with family and friends over the holiday.

Its raining, its pouring ...

Yucky weather here in Columbia. Frank kept saying water (well he says wa-der?) when we ran out into the rain this morning. The whole way into school he would say "wader" or "geese on wader?" He enjoyed talking with Nannie and Grandddaddy on phone last night. I am sure he will be grumpy this afternoon since they will not have been able to play outside at school today.

Programming note for those in Columbia area...Frank will be in his FIRST school performance on December 18, 2008 at 6:00pm at Brookland. This is the Christmas program for school. It should be cute! He loves to dance and move to music so I imagine he will be moving and hopefully singing as well. Grandma is planning on coming up and hopefully we can video/take pictures.

You can win this beautiful quilt by entering at http://oldredbarnco.blogspot.com/2008/11/win-1-of-3-quilts.html.

Good Luck

Frank's Birthday List...

November 23, 2008 is Frank's 40th birthday! No sweets this year please!
If he had a list of birthday items it would be...

Best Buy Gift Cards
CD of Trans Siberian Orchestra
Tennis Shoes
Chili's Gift Card
Outback Gift Card (wait that is what Blakely wants...)

Trans Siberian Orchestra

Wow! We went to a great show on Sunday to celebrate Frank's birthday. He will be celebrating 40 years young on November 23, 2008. He has been wanting to see the TSO for several years and this year I surprised him with tickets. It was fun. Tons of lasers, flames, lights and wonderful music. I had no idea what to expect but it was really neat. We sat up high in the back but our seats allowed us to see everything. And no one was near us in our section. The only bad thing was the wait to get into the arena and the show starting and ending late (with us stuck in traffic in the parking lot - note to self to park in the back next time).

Many thanks to Kim, Jon and Andy for playing with Frank IV all afternoon so we could go! Frank did not want to leave - he wanted to keep playing with Jon and Elijah (Jon's poor lab who thought he was done with toddlers grabbing his tail). Frank IV was asleep before we even got going good on the road home.

Bumps and Bruises

Frank IV is definitely a little boy (despite the curls). Yesterday he got a bump at Grandma's house then again last night with Mommy. His teacher called me this morning to make sure he was okay. From the bump suffered in my care...not to worry Grandma. He ended up with a bruise beside his mouth on his cheek from the fall into the table in front of our sofa last night. He was wearing footie pjs and was running and jumping around. It did not look bad last night but it was purply this morning. Of course it did not bother him this morning - he was a little cranky waking up. We are still getting used to whole time change. He was getting up really early and now he is sleeping in. But I am sure on Saturday he will be up early!

Election Day

Frank IV had the day off from school yesterday so he got to vote twice! Once with Pap and Grandma in Moncks Corner and once with Mommy in Columbia. Both times he waited about an hour. In Columbia he managed to get tangled up in the power cords under the voting machine and almost unplugged ALL of the machines. That would have been really bad! We would have ended up on tv for that for sure. Plus we would not have been allowed back. After that little incident he got to help Mommy actually push the VOTE button on machine to finalize her vote.

As someone who has never missed an election since she was 18 I was happy to see so many people turn out and vote. I went to register on my birthday but the machine was broken so my card was dated March 25 instead of March 22, 1992. I voted by absentee ballot that year and the entire time I was in school. Being able to vote peacefully is a right very few people have in this world and Americans fail to understand that. I am glad both candidates were gracious in the winning and losing. I pray that our country will work together to face the challenges before us.

I will post the picture of Frank IV eating ice cream watching election returns once I download it. He is actually watching Dora not the election but it is on election night. ICE CREAM is his new favorite thing to eat. He ate a big bowl by himself then he wanted mine too!