Sweetwater Valley Farm

During the Thanksgiving break, we took a trip to a local dairy. I started hearing commercials for this particular dairy on the radio and how they make fresh cheese. So we decided it would be fun and Taryne would love it.

When we got there, we soon realized we could go in the retail store or the educational area, but there was no place to actually see a real live cow. Apparently the walking tours are not during the winter months. Oh well, we will definitely make a trip back next spring.

For some strange reason (and yes, I know this is strange because the amount of work in a dairy farm is unreal) I think it would be pretty neat to have a dairy. Not sure why since I don't drink milk. At. All. However, I have always been fascinated with dairies. I would also like to have a Christmas tree farm or a tulip/cut flower farm, but some might say those are just as crazy.

So we visited the retail store and tried tons of varieties of cheese and then we visited the educational area. Lots of good information. The video was amazing. The amount of technology in dairy farming today is just mind blowing.

Watching the video on dairy farm technology

I tried to get her to "milk" the cow, but she didn't seem to quite get it!

It really was a neat display. I cannot wait to go back and you can't beat fresh, farm made cheese. The cheese is made on site with milk from their cows. The food for their cows is grown on site, so this is a very green dairy.

Stroll in the Park

We are definitely enjoying the seasonal weather here in Tennessee. I just love that we have a great park and walking trail right by our apartment.

They are such great friends!

I love the look on his face...I wish this was not so blurry, but oh well!

He really thought he needed to lick the play equipment

Running in the leaves...

This was just one of the fun activities during Thanksgiving for the Rode's in Tennessee!

Our Elf on the Shelf

Meet Pixie....our own little Elf on the Shelf.

She has had her share of mischievous moments already! Here are some of the silly things she has done so far....

Snacking on the Pop-Tarts

Drawing all over Taryne's mirror

Hanging upside down...

Partying in the fridge with the Sock Monkey...it was "fun" cooking with green milk...everything was green: the french toast, corn bread muffins, etc.

I guess she needed some chocolate...

First day of our Advent calendar....more on that later.

Marshmallow bubble bath in Taryne's play kitchen sink

As you can see, she likes to have fun. Some days she is just hanging out on the shelf or in a basket and nothing to silly, but other days it is just crazy. We have already had an "elf emergency" and had to have a Santa send a "magic recovery kit". Thank goodness we only had to do this once.

Taryne loves looking for Pixie each morning. So far, the reminder that she needs to be good for Pixie's report has worked most of the time. This will be interesting as we get closer to Christmas and we will be traveling and not home. I wonder if Pixie will be able to find us each morning....

Things I miss...

...besides my family and friends, of course.

We randomly talk about the random things we miss from Texas. Some things you never think about until it is not there or it is different.

I can promise one thing (and hopefully my family will be okay with this), we will be eating Mamacita's as much as we can when we come at Christmas.

Things we miss (in no particular order)...

Mexican food (that is edible...we do have Chuy's but I need a little variety)
Shoulders on the roads
Whataburger
Breakfast tacos
Kolaches (fruit and meat)
Rudy's BBQ (and Inman's for my Llano peeps)
Fuego (my College Station peeps know what I am talking about)
Macy's (they don't have one in Knoxville that I am aware of)
Our family doctor in College Station (Taryne asks if we can see him instead of our pediatrician)
Shipley's Donuts
Access roads and turn-arounds at highway exits

I know there are other things, but I just can't think of them right now. We definitely DON"T miss the weather in Texas. Today is supposed to be "hot" with highs in the low 70's. I will take that any time for December over the 80's I know my College Station friends are experiencing right now.

Sick Children

What a crazy 2 1/2 weeks! Both Taryne and Hayden had an ear infection and pneumonia over a 2+ week time period and Taryne also had a UTI. BLAH!!!

It all seemed to happen so fast. No one has really had much allergy issues since we have been here (yay!!) but all of a sudden everyone was sniffling. Then I get the call from daycare that Hayden is having trouble breathing and they think I need to immediately take him to the hospital. Well, I pick him up and he is okay, but I have scheduled a doctor's appointment for him later that day. About an hour after I pick him up, I get a call that Taryne is coughing uncontrollably and needs to see the doctor too.

So, we get to the doctor (and this is a Wednesday, so I am missing my afternoon class, but Kyle meets me at the doctor so I can attend a mandatory meeting at 5) and Hayden has an ear infection and they want to try a breathing treatment for him since he is coughing so much. They finally check out Taryne and thinks she is wheezing a little too. By this time, I have to leave and Kyle stays with them both. They both come home with antibiotics, breathing treatments and steroids. Yuck!

The next week, we have a follow up appointment and both kids are doing great except that Taryne has a 102 fever at the doctor's office. What?? Really?!? So since she has been on antibiotics, they rule out strep throat (even though she has "throats") and determine it to possibly be a UTI. Great...

We get the results of the UTI test on a Sunday afternoon and guess what, she has a UTI. So another round of antibiotics for Taryne. During this time, Hayden starts having diarrhea and we think he has picked up a stomach bug from school. Joy, because I start throwing up on Sunday. Two sick kids and a sick mommy, no fun! And I was praying Kyle didn't get it.

The next Tuesday, Hayden was sent home for his diarrhea and we kept him home the next day hoping it would clear up soon. We were also getting concerned about dehydration since this has been going on for several days. But he was drinking his bottles perfectly fine, so I knew he wasn't dehydrated.

On Wednesday, I stayed home in the morning and Kyle came home for the afternoon since I could not miss my stats class again. When I came home, Hayden looked awful and had started coughing and had a fever. Well, I missed the doctor's office "open" hours by about 5 minutes and we had to take Hayden to Children's Hospital to be seen. When we got there, the dehydration (our big concern earlier) was not even a concern for them, it was his coughing/breathing. After some x-rays and seeing the doctor, they determined he had pneumonia. Yay...so another round of antibiotics.

We are home with him on Thursday and Friday. On Friday, we had scheduled a 3 year well child visit for Taryne (months ago) and we brought Hayden back in (needed a check up in 48 hrs from hospital visit) for a check up. During our appointment, our doctor asked if we had any concerns about Taryne and we mentioned that her ear was hurting her and that she still had her cough. The doctor informed us that when someone has pneumonia, the cough often lasts for several weeks. Kyle and I exchanged confused looks. And we asked when Taryne had pneumonia. Apparently that is what she had with her FIRST round of antibiotics. How did we not realize/know this?? Well, she had an ear infection. Her first EVER ear infection and guess what, another round of antibiotics because the one that she was currently on for the UTI did NOT treat ear infections. Oh and our doctor did not think Hayden had pneumonia, maybe bronchiolitis, but not pneumonia. They also took another urine sample from Taryne and the UTI was still there. Great.

We had to take Hayden back in the next morning for a follow up and he was better and I am happy to report that he is back to normal and healthy now.

Last week we got a call from the doctor's office that the bacteria in Taryne's UTI was a "tricky to treat" bacteria and they wanted to do further tests. So, I had to take the poor girl to Children's Hospital and have a catheter put in to take a "clean" sample. My. Poor. Little. Girl. How do you explain to a 3 year old what this involves? I did the best I could and she seemed super brave up until the moment they asked me to remove her clothes from the waist down. Then it started. The panic and crying. Luckily these ladies were super fast and it was over before we realized it. We talked about it afterward and that seemed to help. We got ice cream and brownies at Chick-Fil-A on the way home.

This week I got a call that there is no more bacteria and all is good.

Today, the day before Thanksgiving, I am so very thankful that both of my kids (and both of us) are healthy.

I hope we have used up our "sick quota" for the next year.

I know I am not in Texas...

...when I walk through Target and see an ENTIRE aisle devoted to SNOW fun!

Yes, that is a SNOW BALL blaster

Smoky Mountains Fall Visit

So, the day after our impromptu visit to Bass Pro Shop, we made an impromptu visit to the Smoky Mountains Park...again. We had originally planned for Boo at the Zoo, but right before we left, I checked the website. Thank goodness I did because Boo at the Zoo was only from 5:30-8 at night on certain nights. It was going on that night, but we were ready for the zoo at 1 pm...

When it became clear we were not going to the zoo, we had complete mayhem ensue and we opted for anything to get out of the house. We didn't have a plan and just drove. We ended up on a motor tour on one side of the park. It was a great little tour. There were several spots to stop and check out the view and old homesteads.

 I just LOVE the fall color here! I have never experienced this before and I don't even know how to describe this except as awesome! It is truly amazing to watch the trees change colors. Everyday it is a little different and I am pretty sure a few of the trees here were green one day and yellow or orange the next. Absolutely beautiful!

And we ended our trip at Joe's...yum-yum!!

Halloween 2012

I love Halloween!! It is just a fun holiday! This year, Taryne had planned to be Tinkerbell for Halloween. Awesome, I thought. I will make Hayden Peter Pan so they can coordinate. I had searched Pinterest and the web and had a pretty good idea of how I was going to make both costumes. Then Taryne decided she wanted to be Rosella (Ro) the Barbie Island Princess. Well, have you ever seen this character?

Well, as you can see, the costume is a bit more involved than I had wanted to deal with this fall. So I thought, if I can just find an inexpensive dress to start with, I think I can do the rest. Well, lucky me, I found the dress on ebay for just $7. A steal with cheap shipping.

I decided not to add all the glittery embellishments on the dress...then it would be difficult to clean if needed. She already had a pink tutu from the Target Dollar Spot section that was perfect for the little pink accent on the dress. I just cinched it up in the front and it was perfect. So the next major part was the peacock feathers. This posed a bit of a challenge. I decided I needed to make it with a wire form, I just wasn't sure if I should use coat hanger wire or something else. I also purchased some pink, blue and purple tulle to make the feathers. I had no idea how I was going to get it on the wire form.

Then I remembered the excellent site called Pinterest. I searched and watched videos on how to make butterfly and fairy wings. This gave me the idea for the final version: make the wire forms and use tights to cover the forms. I picked up three pairs of hot pink tights and some glitter in silver, blue and purple. After several hours of forming the hangers (had to use the heavier wire so the tights didn't collapse the wire form), stretching the tights, and adding the details, the peacock feathers were complete. Well, almost. We still had to assemble and figure out the best way to attach them to Taryne and her dress. We found some blue stretchy ribbon that matched her dress perfectly (how that happened I have no idea, but very thankful) and I made a little pocket (think holder like you would see for a flag bearer...sort of) to rest the feathers in since they were a bit heavy.

Okay, since Taryne was no longer going to be Tinkerbell, I felt no need for Hayden to be Peter Pan. So, we decided he would be Yoda. He was a super cute Yoda and best of all, I found his costume for a steal!

We managed to participate in 4 separate Halloween/Trick-or-Treating activities this Halloween season. We did Boo at the Zoo, a Halloween party by our apartment complex, a 4-H Trick-or-Treat on campus and then on Halloween, we went Trick-or-Treating in the mall.

Hayden's 1st Halloween!

And we can't forget our pumpkins! Taryne insisted that she have Hello Kitty on her pumpkin and she picked out Yoda for Hayden's pumpkin. I really like it when pumpkins are not completely cut out. I scraped the outer layer off and then scraped down the inside so the light will "glow" through. You really can't see the "glow" in the pictures, but they looked awesome! We won a free pizza for each pumpkin at our apartment pumpkin carving contest.

Happy Halloween 2012!!