Rock Star, Rupolph and Loud Banging

We've started a fun tradition of spending our Thanksgiving with our friends Mel & Sean. Since we hosted last year it was up to their house this year for a feast worthy of a belly ache.

Mase was too cool for school on his way to Aunt Mel's house.

Once we got their Mase immediately wanted to strip down to his undies and socks and bang away on Uncle Sean's RockBand gear as well as Aunt Mel's exercise ball. Nick and I are sure that when he's older he'll be the lead drummer for a band called "Undies Grunge".

Now that we're stuffed full of turkey it's time to move on to the best time of the year!! We're all decorated outside with lights, Snoopy and an inflatable penguin. We're not quite as festive inside because we have to wait for our new wood floors to go in before we put up the tree. The Christmas cards are designed and ordered, just a few more things left to do!

Mase got in the Christmas mood with a song. He forgets a few lines below but tries his best. Although you can't hear him for all of the loud banging and his hoarse voice (he has a cold).


Mase had hot chocolate last night and watched The Polar Express after a long day of Black Friday shopping. The Trougakos house did their fair share of pumping money back into the economy, that's for sure.

Nick and I are ready to sport some orange tonight for the Bedlam game. Wish us luck and warmth.

xoxo,
Steph

The Thirsty Beagle needs your help

Hello all, Nick here.

As Stephanie mentioned in an earlier blog post, I'm writing a beer blog for the paper now. I've started a fun contest on the blog to pick Oklahoma's favorite beer, and I'm trying to a.) get people to vote in the contest, and b.) get people to go to the blog to drive my hits up. So if you have a free moment, go to http://blog.newsok.com/thirstybeagle and take part in my Beer Championship Series. And you don't have to be from Oklahoma to take part.

Thanks!

Turkey Blues

Mase had a Thanksgiving Sing at his school today. They made Indian vests and pilgrim hats for the event, it was quite cute. Mason had a different interpretation of the songs than the rest of the kids. While they were happily singing along he was....well watch the video below. :)



Mason on the playground before his Thanksgiving party.

Getting ready to sing...he's not happy about the vest.

Do I REALLY have to do this??????????

After the singing the kiddos sat down for a feast. Mason was still so upset he couldn't even bring himself to take a bite.

This is the worst Thanksgiving feast ever!

Wait...this cookie is pretty good.

Matter of fact, it's delicious!

Now for the cranberries. Mason is in LOVE with cranberries. He gets so excited when we talk about them. The did an art project at school where they made a turkey and the teacher wrote "I am thankful for __________." The kids filled in the blanks. The other kids put "Mommy" or "Daddy" or "My Family" or "Grandma". Mason's turkey said "I am thankful for cranberries!"

When you don't like using a fork just pick up your pumpkin pie and eat.

This is how all of our parties end at school. All of the other kiddos are long gone and off playing somewhere but Mason is still at the table. He takes eating pretty seriously.

xoxo,

Steph

Dead Mouse Walking No More

It's taken:
- almost four weeks
- six different types of traps
- four different brands of traps
- 17 traps in total
- a lot of patience

...but we finally got that damn mouse.

Our little visitor met his maker this morning after being baited into a mouse house with Colby Jack cheese. Can't say I blame him for stealing a bite, it's my fave cheese too.

This mouse has, admittedly, gotten the best of us. It all started around Halloween when we found a half-eaten candy pumpkin on the counter. At first we thought it was Mason but deep inside we knew better. No way Mase would ever leave a candy pumpkin half eaten, he would have polished that thing off with one swoop.

It was at that time Nick finally declared it 'shock and awe' campaign time. He went to the store in the wee hours of the night to buy the trusty round traps that have never let us down before. After a couple nights of no mouse he started to add to the arsenal. After a couple weeks we had no less than 15 traps set up in our kitchen, a three-year-old stuck to a glue trap and a beagle with a pinched nose, but still no mouse.

Nick, feeling defeated, packed up all of the traps in a paper bag and put them away. He thought maybe there were too many distractions for the mouse and settled on leaving out just a few glue traps. Still no mouse.

Last night I freaked out and we brought out the arsenal again. We moved the washer, dryer, fridge, stove and cleaned/sprayed every single thing we could. We set two traps in the laundry room, four on the floor of the kitchen, four on the kitchen counters and two behind the couch. BINGO!!!!

We've had quite the battle with mice this fall. Remind me to tell you about our pet rat soon and no I'm not talking about Templeton.

xoxo,
Steph

Fall 2008 Family Portraits

- Steph

Lunch Woes

I went to eat my lunch today and someone decided to eat it before me. I was forced to send the following email to the staff:

I had a sad day today. I went in to eat my lunch and it was gone from the fridge…my poor little Ziplock bag of meat and cheese (that would have made quite the delicious sandwich) was MIA. Now my deli roll is lonely.

So, I thought I would send a friendly reminder to please not eat meat and cheese that did not come from your house. Don’t make me lick my lunch before putting it in the fridge! J

Thank you!

People, why would you eat something that YOU DID NOT BRING FROM YOUR HOUSE??!!

I wanted to post a beautiful and eloquent tidbit about how I felt during the elections last night. It was overshadowed by my missing lunch.

Steph

Happy Election Day!

Happy Halloween!

Wow, our week has been so busy we didn't even have time to make a blog post!!

First Mason wants to say thank you to Grandma for the awesome pumpkin shirt, the Zoe pumpkin, the wall hanging and the movie gift card!! Also, thank you to Livee for the giant pumpkin full of candy and especially for the wheezer. And last but not least thank you to Aunt Mel and Uncle Sean for the super cool Runaway Pumpkin book!!! You all helped make Mason's Halloween soooo spppoookkkyyy. :)

Tuesday we carved a pumpkin that we named Jack. Mase loved the gooey seeds inside and helped us get them out one by one. He got to pick the design he wanted and opted for triangle eyes, a rectangle nose and three teeth. Nick is so handy at carving pumpkins and together they did a fab job!

On Thursday night Mase decided to dress up as a penguin and go to Haunt the Zoo with his friend Sam. They had a lot of fun and got tons of candy!!!

Friday was a big day for us. Mason got to ride a school bus for the first time with his friends. They bussed the kids over to Nick's work and let them trick-or-treat around the different floors of the building. It was a fun and exhausting trip!! Mase decided to be a blue monster for his school party. He also had a Halloween party at school later that day and it was lots of fun and filled with lots of treats. Later that night we came home and Mason was thrilled to help me pass out candy to the other children. He decided he needed to be a penguin for that event.

Yesterday we went to the OSU football game with Papa Chuck, Uncle Timmy and Livee. It was so fun to watch the Cowboys beat up on Iowa State!!

For Halloween Pics Click Here!

xoxo,
Steph