Santa, The Grinch and Cindy Lou Who

Oh Santa - delightful, lovable, squeezable Santa. Well... that's not exactly the way the wee Cain ladies feel about Santa.  I really thought this year might be the year that we turned the corner and loved Santa. Now to be fair, Catherine Ellis has never ever loved mascots, ever.  They are not her jam. She doesn't want near one - doesn't matter what it is, a dog, a tiger, a duck, no mascot for her.  

However, Caroline's never really had that fear and Catherine Ellis started talking about Santa and how much she liked him for the first time this year - so I was feeling confident that this might be our year.  We were scheduled for studio pictures with the best looking Santa I've ever seen, but I showed up Friday and our appointment wasn't until Sunday.  Needless to say, that Santa session didn't happen.

So I was delighted when I found out that Alex City's Holiday Open House had a Santa at Jackson's Drugs. The Grinch and Cindy Lou Who were also there!  As soon as I found out we dashed home, woke the girls up and headed out to see Santa.  The closer we got the more unsure Catherine Ellis was, but Caroline took on the role of reassuring Sissy, so it seemed like it was all going to work out, until we walked in the door...

And sitting on Santa's lap was out of the question.  So we compromised and sat them in front of the sleigh. CE looks frightened and Caroline... well she's not happy.  Santa was such a good sport - guess he's used to this!

So we talk Catherine Ellis into sitting on the reindeer - that went well.  So we asked her if she thought she might be ready to tell Santa what she wanted for Christmas.  Nope.

The Grinch and Cindy Lou Who then rounded the corner and my children literally RAN to them... RAN. How is the Grinch not scarier than Santa??  It's so bizarre to me!  But hey, we embraced it and they were tickled to death at seeing Mr. Grinch and Cindy Lou Who and her magnificent hair do!



We decided to get our picture taken too!  Fun times!

Next thing you know, Catherine Ellis had ventured back over to Santa and was talking to him from afar. Just chit-chatting.

Here's CE's chat with Santa:

After her chat, I felt certain she was ready to sit in Santa's lap. Not so much.  So finally I sat in Santa's lap (he'll need a knee replacement soon!) and the girls joined me:

I quickly jumped out and we got the picture we'd been working so hard for!  The girls in Santa's lap, all smiles!  YAY!



Less than two seconds later Caroline was over Santa.  "All done Mommy, I all done!"

Catherine Ellis seemed to have finally warmed up for good and told Santa thank you, she then ran off to give Mr. Grinch and Cindy Lou Who another hug!  So funny!

And what do you know? Catherine Ellis ran up to Santa as we were leaving and gave him a big ole hug! Success is sweet indeed :)

We had a great time at Holiday Open House - such great small town stores and many old friends that we had the pleasure of running into!  We're starting to get excited about the holidays around the Cain house!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite times of the year!  The past few years gratitude is a perspective and attitude that I work hard to have. It is indeed true that there is always something to be thankful for. And this year we have SO much to be thankful for:

• Our health!  We are so blessed that our family is healthy.  
• David has a new job that is challenging him and growing him in leaps and bounds.
• Megann has a new job that she is sure will challenge her as well.
• We sold our first home to prepare for Catherine Ellis starting kindergarten next year.
• We found a rental close to our old home that allowed us to maintain our routine.  The landlord is amazing and our lease is finished at the end of the year.
• We've got a beautiful, healthy niece that just turned two on the 18th!
• We've got another healthy, and I'm sure beautiful niece arriving in February!
• We have beautiful godchildren that we adore!
• Our families are supportive and loving!
• We have the best village - hands down.
• We belong to a church that is the foundation of our life together.
• Our lives are filled with friends, loved ones and hobbies that fulfill us.
• We serve a God that is all encompassing, merciful and full of grace.

And last, but certainly not least we're thankful for the two biggest blessings we've ever received:

May you and yours be filled with the spirit of Thanksgiving as you share time with your loved ones today! We're sure thankful you're a part of our village!

Enter his gates with thanksgiving

    and his courts with praise;

    give thanks to him and praise his name.

5 

For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;

    his faithfulness continues through all generations.

Psalm 100:4

A trip to the Plains: We witnessed history!

We headed to the Plains a few weeks ago to visit some dear friends and family - it's been a whole year since our last game and the girls were SO excited about the trip.  We typically attend a low-key/low-attendance game, but not this year.  We kicked it up a notch and quite frankly, so did Auburn! The Auburn/Georgia game is certainly one for the books!

Meanwhile the pups were SO excited about heading to their Gran and Pop's for the weekend - they love child free weekends every once in a while just like Mommy and Daddy do :)

David and I had the pleasure - thanks to Meme! - to head down to Auburn Friday night and stay with Nancy, Doug and Dalton and attend a party that some of our good friends from our college days were throwing.  It was fun to see faces we only see a few times a year and visit the Beehive where Summer and Tricia and their families live.  Such a beautiful place.

Meme drove the girls down Saturday morning - fought traffic and me being her personal GPS and arrived in one piece.  She was the one who made the weekend possible for the girls - thank you, thank you, thank you Meme! They arrived just in time to head to Tiger Walk - which I haven't been to in at least 10 years.  It was super fun!  Aunt B knows the drill and it was good to have her as our tour guide.

 Sweet Lauren, Caroline (too mesmerized to smile!) and Catherine Ellis

 Meme and Catherine Ellis in front of the swanky new athletic dorms

 Catherine Ellis rode on my shoulders for Tiger Walk - I'm SO thankful my neck works again!

Can you tell she was SO excited?! 

 Aunt B, Aubie, Caroline and me - Catherine Ellis is not a mascot-lover

She wanted nothing to do with Aubie

 Aunt B and CE back at the tailgate

 The Greats and some squirmy girls!

Their cute little outfits!   

 This is really what they look like - never still for a moment!

After Tiger Walk and some tailgating it was time to head to the game.  Meme and Caroline headed back to her house for the afternoon and the rest of us headed to the game.  We had great seats at the top of the lower section on the aisle - a dream for four-year olds!  Dalton joined us for the first half of the game and we had SO much fun!!  I had as much fun as they did.  Dalton's Mommy, Nancy, and I are childhood best friends - it's super sweet to see life come full circle for these sweet girls.  Thanks Nance and Doug for letting her sit with us!

Catherine Ellis's ride into the stadium!  

David was SUCH a good sport - he supported us throughout the day and pretended like he cared and wanted Auburn to win - if you know him, you know that was all a facade - but he is SO sweet to pretend!  I knew when I fell in love with this man that Alabama football was important and I'm okay with that.  Hence the color of his game day shirt. HA!

 Dalton, Catherine Ellis and Me at the game

 David did a lot of holding of wee ones at the game - Super Dad!

Catherine Ellis and Dalton 

By the end of the first quarter the girls wanted to know when the game was going to be over - so we turned to food!  What's not to love!  First we started with cotton candy, then we moved to nachos and peanuts. The peanuts took at least a quarter to finish up - they were great time fillers! Next thing you know it was half-time.

 Shelling peanuts

 Me and Dalty

Once Dalton left to join her family I took Catherine Ellis to sit with the Greats for a little while. They weren't far from us at all and it was a good change of scenery for her.  We ran into Stephanie on the way - such a sweet surprise - these two sure love each other!

 Steph and Catherine Ellis

Next thing you know we were at the game of the century.  Wow!  I was certain we were going to lose and dumbfounded that we'd found ourselves in that position.  David kept saying it only takes one play, there is still time.  I had given up.... and then the miraculous play of the season happened and Auburn caught an uncatchable catch that ended up being run back for a touchdown.  The stadium went WILD.  It was SO fun to be there for that moment.  Catherine Ellis was loving the excitement!  So, what a game indeed!  Thanks to the Bendingers and the Greats for hosting us!  War Eagle!

Disney on Ice

Catherine Ellis had quiet the field trip a couple of weeks ago!  Not only did she get to go to Disney on Ice with her friends - her Aunt Holly took her!  What a treat!

Holly wanted to take her for Christmas and when I mentioned we already had tickets she was game for taking her as her chaperone for her school field trip and they had a blast!  Catherine Ellis is quiet blessed to have such wonderful god-parents in her life - Holla is no exception!  

This year it was princess themed and honestly we don't know our princesses that well because she's not really into them (we're into Paw Patrol, Bubble Guppies and Octonauts these days) - but she still had a blast. The seats were much better this year and she couldn't wait to tell me all about what they ate, drank and bought at the show - yes, we're the proud owners of another twirling light gadget!

I had the pleasure of meeting them for lunch after the show and we had a wonderful time catching up!  Thank you again Holly for taking our girl on her favorite field trip yet!  You're the best!

Opening Act - lots of fireworks from what I understand!

All the princesses and princes came out to say hello!

CE and Holly and her amazing twirling light

Minnie!  We love Minnie!

Twirling her awesome light!  Thank you Holly!

We love Beauty and the Beast!

Concentrating on the show and her popcorn!

Closing act

Aunt Holly and Catherine Ellis!

Didn't Holly do a great job with pictures?  She knows me well :)  And she didn't stop there - she even interviewed Catherine Ellis about her favorite moment of the show:

What a wonderful day!  We finished up with a yummy lunch at El Barrio downtown - Catherine Ellis was a hipster pre-schooler that Friday!  We can't wait to do it again soon!

Here, there and everywhere

Sometimes I have great pictures of our day-to-day life - no set activity, no agenda - just shots of what our life looks like on a daily basis.  I try and capture the little moments as life seems to speed by WAY too fast these days.  So here is a glimpse of what mid-October to mid-November has looked like for the Cains!

Caroline and Cain have quality reading time a lot.  She loves to read him stories and he obliges very well. The first words out of her mouth every morning are "Where Cain and Emma, Mommy?"  Sweet, sweet times with these wonderful pups.

Y'all know we love some Mexican food - cheese dip especially.  We joined Carter at Rojo one night to raise a little bit of money for United Way and their campaign - a good time was had by all!  That's the cheese monster up there and sweet Carter and Catherine Ellis below.

Rushton had their annual pancake supper a few weeks ago and the pumpkin auction is something we always look forward to!  Catherine Ellis's class had the best pumpkin!  They painted their pumpkin based on the book "A Bad Case of the Stripes" - it's precious isn't it?  The pumpkin had the book to read along as well as pictures of the class painting the pumpkin and autographs from all the sweet artists - I just had to have it:)  So naturally we were the highest bidders!

Y'all know Catherine Ellis was sick Halloween - such a bummer for her, but after two days, she really started feeling better and got ready to "run errands."  Sweet little girl!  She had her backpack, Halloween purse, sunglasses and baby doll - all the essentials for running errands!

Catherine Ellis and Holly went to Disney on Ice a couple of weeks ago - she had a blast.  I can't wait to share the blog post! More pictures coming soon!

Daddy shaved his beard for the first time in almost four years at the beginning of November.  He's participating in Movember with the men from our church and man is he a sight to see!! Check out that stache!  Catherine Ellis and her friends got in on the fun last Sunday and appeared after the sermon with staches of their own.... so cute!  She's so proud of her Daddy for raising money for those with cancer (specifically testicular and prostate).

Below is our great friend Father Geoff and some of the wee folks and their staches!  Hilarious!

Ruble Run

This past Saturday we hit the road bright and early to Jasper to celebrate the life of one of David's good friend's father.  Richie and David grew up together and he's always been one of my favorites - his sense of humor is the best thing about him and his heart of gold.  

Caroline, David, Richie and Catherine Ellis

Richie lost his father died suddenly at the beginning of the year and one of the ways they have decided to honor his father's legacy of giving (Mr. Ruble was instrumental in the recovery efforts of the tornado that hit Cordova almost two years ago) by holding a 5K race in his honor to raise money for the community organizations that he loved the most.  What a great way to honor his legacy!  

Miss Priss always fashionable...

The Ruble Run was held in Gamble Park in Jasper - Mr. Ruble would have been 53 the day before - so it was a great celebration of his life.  The weather was gorgeous, the trees are almost at their peak and the turn-out was fantastic.  Lots of people gathered to continue Mr. Ruble's legacy.  We really enjoyed our time with the Rubles and friends.

Mr. Ruble's floragram that will be featured in the Rose Parade

The float that the floragram will be placed on - the float is sponsored by 

Organ Donation Centers around the country

Caroline and I ran the 5K while David and Catherine Ellis ran the Family Fun Run (1 mile).  Steph joined Caroline and I and boy was I glad for the company.  While I run a few times a week by myself, it had been a good while since I'd run with the stroller - needless to say pushing an extra 55 lbs was tough!  But we ran and ran and ran and finally made it to the finish line.  Caroline enjoyed the run as usual - we only had to slow down a couple of times to pick up her Minnie Mouse ring and change her sun-shade position.  She's a great jogging buddy too!

Getting ready to start the race

Coming to the finish line

Smiling at our cheering section - CE and Daddy

After the race - Caroline is hiding from the camera and CE is now a puppy dog

Catherine Ellis and David ran the fun-run after the 5K was finished.  They did great!  Catherine Ellis came in 4th place!  She was SO excited as were we.  Her Daddy was a real trooper and when she got tired he picked her up and ran with her!  Catherine Ellis you are mighty lucky to have a Daddy that is as competitive as you are:)  She was out of school for two days prior to the race with a virus, so she's wasn't 100%, but with a little help from Daddy she made it!  So proud of our little runner!

Before the race

Rounding the corner to the finish line

Running as fast as she can.. leaving Daddy in the dust

Getting her sticker and spelling her name for the top six wee runners

Daddy and CE at the finish line - so proud!

CE and the other top six finishers with the Ruble siblings - yay CE!

Caroline spent a lot of time in the bouncy making new friends and playing in the leaves - who could blame her?  There was also time for face-painting - one of Catherine Ellis's favorites!

Steph and Caroline

Bouncy house fun

Face painting - she's a puppy dog

Claire and CE 

This next series of pictures cracks me up - it highlights the wild side of our wild wee, Caroline:

Isn't she a mess y'all?  Never a dull moment with this one!  While it appears she's choking CE, CE is a-okay:)  Just a little sisterly hugging:)

All in all a wonderful time with wonderful friends for a wonderful man.  We are already looking forward to next year!