thanksgiving festivities

here are some pictures from our thanksgiving

our thanksgiving decorations this year. the tree starts out without leaves and i have a table underneath it where everyone can write what they're thankful for on the leaves and tape them up.

i had prettier paper for the leaves last thanksgiving. i think i need to make a new tree out of something besides paper... it got pretty bent up.

here's the table with some of the food on it. and tom, our thanksgiving turkey. every year i write on the back of a feather the year and who visited and any special notes.

our turkey and turkey carver. i have to toot my own horn on the turkey - it was juicy and delicious! and jeremy did a fabulous job of carving it.

here is oscar eating his turkey dinner and sleeping after pumpkin pie

danielle giving aaron his first real thanksgiving dinner (he was too itty bitty last year to eat it). since the grownup sweet potato casserole had pecans on it, i made a little one with marshmallows for the two boys that arent allowed to have nuts yet. jeremy filling up a plate. we got big plates this year.. last year he needed two plates.



oscar visiting with his nana and his auntie

oscar visiting with aunt janie. she let him wear her necklace most of the day. he was also wearing nana's watch. and aaron visiting with aunt janie.

jeremy's dad falls asleep on the floor at every gathering we have. i have pictures to prove it. this time was particularly amusing since he was between the furniture and the wall.

now we're off to find a christmas tree!

cheater cheater pumpkin eater

i just finished up baking the pumpkin pies for tomorrow.. we weren't going to bother with pie this year, but how can you have thanksgiving without pie? so i cheated and used store bought crust and pie filling to speed things up. yesterday i baked pumpkin bread (no cheating on that) and jeremy has been threatening to eat it.

here's a bonus picture for you- oscar fell asleep bent over the couch like this last week. aaron's not hanging out with us this week because his mama is off for thanksgiving. we miss him a lot. every morning oscar wakes up and says 'aaron? aaron? aaron?'

baby stuffs

i stumbled onto this site and found this tutorial.. how cute it that?!

cleanin' up

i was just looking around on amazon to see what there was in the way of mop & broom sets for kids.. i was pleasantly surprised that not a single pink broom popped up.. grab your brooms, boys!

missy's favorite baby stuffs - butt paste

i'm going to try to post about some of my favorite baby stuffs.. for all those readers expecting babies (robyn.)

i may not remember how to spell it, but i'm a big fan of the boudreaux's butt paste. i've tried lots of different diaper rash creams (usually because the store is out of the butt paste), and this one seems to work the best for us. it goes on/comes off easy, works great, and has a very subtle scent. of course, having a silly name doesnt hurt either....

strings and things

besides going grocery shopping, we havent done much this weekend.. though jeremy and i did spend quite awhile trying to remember how to play cat's cradle and to make other string figures like jacob's ladder. i had forgotten how much fun a piece of string could be!

image from here.

turkey time

thanksgiving 2007

it's my turn again to host the thanksgiving festivities. i've only roasted a couple turkeys, so the idea still makes me nervous. allrecipes.com has all sorts of useful turkey tips, but i still have all sorts of decisions to make. to brine or not to brine? to stuff or not to stuff? is it silly to stuff the turkey with bread stuffing like my mom makes when someone is bringing cornbread dressing? there are all sorts of holiday things our families do differently. no mashed potatoes for jeremy's family! it makes me extra excited about going home for christmas and having a pickle tray and three kinds of cranberry sauce.

thanksgiving at danielle's 2006

how about it?

so i was going to make a post just to say how much i LOVED these umbrellas that i saw on how about orange. (especially the upper right) but maybe i should just say how much i love jessica jones' blog. she's always got fun crafty stuffs to do, and i love her style and designs. i was heartbroken that i didn't win the apron and bag giveaway earlier this month. tonight we tried out the chocolate cake in a mug that she posted about today. it was very interesting.. jeremy and his mom both finished theirs, but i'd like to try making some changes to the recipe if i make it again.

it's a good thing i'm lazy...

last weekend the dryers werent getting my clothes dry and i was sick of feeding them money. luckily for me, i had left jeremy's birthday garland up and it turned out to be a pretty sturdy clothes line.

i need a $10 gift idea for the gift exchange at work. i dont really know any of the people very well, i just know that every one of them is interested in breastfeeding.

it's oh so quiet

i was just sitting at my desk trying to finish up some work that the boys wouldnt let me get done today when i realized it was completely quiet. oscar was sleeping in the recliner, and jeremy was out at his mom's house. i hadnt realized how noisy it usually is in here.

tis the season to be eating pumpkin bread

last week i noticed the pumpkins were on sale for $1, so i picked one up to make yummy treats out of. so far i've made pumpkin bread. jeremy said it was the best pumpkin bread he ever had, and he didnt even get any hot out of the oven. (and it didnt even have nuts in it!)

i've still got about 5 cups of pumpkin left in the freezer, but i just couldnt help myself when i saw the big display of pumpkins still on sale for $1. this beauty was sitting right on top.

and it rang up as a penny! anyone have any pumpkin recipes i need to try?

a few highlights

here are some highlights from the rest of mom and dad's visit.

gramma makes the BEST tents and we all have fun playing in them

we celebrate jeremy's 25th birthday with some really ugly (but tasty) cheesecake and homemade ice cream

oscar naps with grandpa

we pack up and head to the scottish games on saturday. we have lots of fun seeing the pipe bands, watching the jousting and sheep dog demos, picking up a couple souvenirs, and eating tons of yummy bad-for-us foods.

jeremy and dad spend the rest of saturday and most of sunday playing a few war games.

(i think jeremy caught the war gaming bug - he was looking up battles online the other night.)

mom and i set oscar up for a little photo shoot for auntie margy's christmas cards.

(i couldnt resist posting this one, but i'm thinking we should have brushed his hair.)

visiting

yesterday we went for a nice long walk

we picked up pecans and ran a few errands while the boys took naps in their strollers. we also found a good place to have a picnic (maybe friday or sunday)

later that night oscar opened a present that auntie margy sent and we all had lots of fun playing with it. i think oscar would have stayed up all night playing if we had let him.

gramma and grandpa come to town

here is a picture of oscar and grandpa on our first full day of visiting. we didnt do much besides visit today.

halloween feastie

i wanted to make a special dinner for my boys since i'd been so busy with projects lately, so we had pumpkin shaped pizza and butternut squash and spicy sausage soup.

the pizza looked better than it tasted, but the soup was so yummy! i used this recipe but followed one of the suggestions to use potatoes instead of rice. also, i used butterball turkey sausage and just cut it up. we liked it so much that we decided to make it again next week! i think robyn needs to come up with a vegetarian version. i liked putting the cream on top.. i felt so fancy.

of course, there was also a nice cold glass of cider to drink. i didnt start my cheesecake in time for us to eat it last night, i'm thinking about trying it for breakfast.

here are the boys getting ready to eat.. oscar thought it was funny that i put the bib on daddy.

also, while i was at work, nana got these pictures of oscar and aaron eating breakfast. that was a nice halloween present when i put my photos on the computer last night!