Mommy Monday :: Aunties

I know this is my third post about Thanksgiving and my sisters visiting but I just can't help it. :) 

As a mom there is something so special about watching other people love your kid(s). Especially your sisters/family,  and I loved experiencing that while Jocelyn and Carmen were here. It was awesome to see them play with him and say over and over how they loved him. And also to see how much Aiden loved them being here. He was the most non-stop funny I have ever seen him- 3 days in a row! He loved their attention and would do whatever he could to make them laugh. And it made me even more sad that we live so far away and that Aiden will miss this love on a regular basis. But, on the positive we will continue to see each other as much as we can! 6.5 hours isn't toooo far. 

Making goofy faces with Aunt Jocelyn!

Dancing with Aunt Carmen!

Waiting for Jocelyn to come out of the bathroom. haha.

Wanting Carmen to come out of her room. :)

Our First Thanksgiving Meal Experience!

This year I cooked my very own Thanksgiving meal for the first time! Of course I did it with lots of help from Jocelyn, Carmen and Dan. :) It was a lot of fun!! It's amazing how much work is put in for one meal! 

The Menu:

Turkey

Mashed Potatoes and Gravy

Baked Sweet Potatoes

Green Bean Casserole

Fruit Salad

Homemade Rolls

Samoas Brownies

There will be an insane amount of photos in this post, but I hope you enjoy our Thanksgiving meal experience...

On Wednesday we started with getting the turkey in a brine. I got out the turkey on Sunday afternoon and it was still NOT thawed all the way through, so through some bathing in warm water he finally thawed out. The brine was a recipe from my brother-in-law and here we are getting it all ready. Now if you know me you know that I do not touch raw meat, so I was very grateful to my sisters for their help in this part!

Meet Eugene Jones. :)

We defied the status quo for pie & anything related to pumpkin or apple. :) I found this recipe on Pinterest, a Samoas Brownie. Here we are putting it together. It ended up being a bit of a disappointment actually, the brownie flavor way overpowered the rest and so wasn't very Samoa-y.

The finished product. Don't mind the pool of chocolate in the corner. :)

Carmen wishing us a Happy Thanksgiving with her art.

At this point the turkey is still thawing, and the wrapper with the instructions had been thrown away so here I am digging through the trash so we have some clue of what to do with this bird.

I think here we were finally successful in pulling out the gizzards and 

eventually, through unfortunate circumstances, the neck. gag.

Jonsey trying to fly away.

Wednesday night we made the rolls. Now I was a little nervous about these just because me and yeast don't always work out the best. But this recipe seemed like one we could do, also from Pinterest. Although they look like crescent rolls, they didn't taste like them. They were amazing!! It was probably my favorite part of the meal and we made 48 of them- yum.

The finished product. Butter inside and on top. Delish!

On to Thursday! We started the day by placing the turkey in a bag and in the oven. 

(I did this all by myself by the way).

Then after a couple hours of preparing other foods like potatoes and green bean casserole the turkey was ready to carve. This was Dan's job. He debated of which weapon he would choose...

Not surprisingly he chose the sword. 

After a while the long sword was a little much, so he went back to the knife. 

He did a perfect job! Jocelyn is mashing the potatoes, which were delicious as well!

Here is our spread. Perfect size for us! We were stuffed.

Aiden enjoying his sweet potato.

Afterwards we had a nice relaxing afternoon with the amazing 

warmer weather and sunshine coming in our windows.

 I am so thankful for the people in my life! 

God has blessed me abundantly with amazing family and close friends!! 

Foto Friday :: Sister, Sister

The past few days I was blessed with two of my three sisters visiting us for Thanksgiving. Last night we decided to have a little fun with my photo equipment!! I can't wait till Christmas till we do it again with everyone! :) Love you guys and miss you already!

Mommy Monday :: Fork and Spoon Here We Come!

I am now officially committing to the new adventure of teaching Aiden to use a fork and spoon to eat. AHHHHHHH. That's the way I feel about it. lol. I don't know if this whole concept just wasn't on my radar or what, but I hadn't really thought about teaching him till recently. Probably because it's just waaaay easier to give him finger foods or for me to feed him, then to go through the drawn out process of helping him get every bite onto his spoon. As you can tell I am not overly excited about this as every meal will be even more complicated and I will be eating even colder food. :) 

It is a good thing, obviously, and I know I will be glad when the hard work pays off and he can eat on his own. I also remember feeling like he would never be able to drink from a sippy cup or eat regular food or walk, but before I knew it, he was. So, I keep reminding myself that it won't be for too long. And, I still want to enjoy these extra moments I'll have with him at each meal. :)

Any advice for this little adventure?.....

Look at those messy hands. Not for long! 

(you don't even want to see what his face looks like :))

Foto Friday :: Dancing

Aiden loves music and dancing, so one of our regular activities is to dance! Aiden has three dance moves he does, bouncing with his legs, bobbing his head and waving his arms. Now he has yet to do all three at the same time which if he ever does will be hilarious. :) 

Anyway, yesterday I thought to try to capture these moments with my trusty tripod and my trigger remote. I was happy with what I got considering I was just clicking away without really seeing what I was getting. Enjoy a little peek into our days. :)

Must end with a snuggle :)

Mommy Monday :: Give Praise!

I was planning on doing a post on daylight savings and how we handled it this year and stuff. Then last night I was watching a video that someone posted on Facebook about a baby who was born with a heart problem and had to have open heart surgery at just a couple weeks old and all this crazy stuff and I'm still thinking about it.

As I was seeing the pictures of this tiny baby totally connected and tubes everywhere I couldn't help but cry. That had to be unbelievably hard for the parents and I have heard so many stories of just really hard and sad experiences that break my heart. Then of course I cannot help but think of my own son and what if that was us and I get even more sad. Then where I end is simply praising God. He didn't have to choose to give us a boy who has been perfect and healthy since the beginning, but He did. And I never want to take that for granted. Everyday we live together is a big gift from God and I am so thankful. I don't know what the future holds and it can be scary if I think about it too much. But the sweet thing is that I have a big God who never changes, who loves me and who I can trust. 

Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust 
in the name of the Lord our God. 
Psalm 20:7 

How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! 
If I would count them, they are more than the sand. 
I awake, and I am still with you.
Psalm 139:17-18

3 Weeks

7 Months

13 Months

Thank You Lord!

Foto Friday :: 65 Degrees and Sunny!

This week we were hugely blessed by some amazing weather! 65 degrees and totally sunny in November! I couldn't have been more excited. Aiden and I ventured out to a park for probably the last time till Spring. I wasn't going to bring my camera then thought "of course, I have to". lol. I took a few shots then put it away to just enjoy playing with my son. We only had one leaf eating experience, no attempts at eating mulch and he really enjoyed being there. I think a very successful day!

He loved sitting on this wooden swing.

Enough with the leaves and photos, time to play :)