Our 2008 Thanksgiving

This year was my very first time making Thanksgiving dinner. I was overly excited about what dish to bring, that my Mom suggested I take over, which is what I did. We picked out our recipes for the menu and went shopping for all of the organic groceries they bought. I was all set for 3 days of cooking! For appetizers we had veggies, fruit, nuts, crakers with brie, and chips with dip. Onion dip, a bean dip from a recipe we chose, and guacamole. Which we all had as our breakfast. I had made all of the pies in advanced. I'm kind of working backwards. For dessert we had coconut meringue pie (for Dad), a chocolate mallow pie (which was too chocolaty), a cranberry cheesecake that had eggnog in it, and my Mom bought a TJ's pumpkin pie for all the traditionalist. My favorite was of course the pumpkin pie:) But I'm a bit a traditionalist and I love pumpkin and fruit pies. Amongst those pies I also made a green bean mushroom pie for a side dish. That one turned out beautiful with the lattice crust I made. We chose an herb turkey that everyone seemed to enjoy and was pretty moist. We planned on a rhubarb corn bread stuffing but were unable to find any rhubarb since it's out of season, so I made up my own stuffing which turned out okay. I used fresh cranberries, walnuts, and the cornbread stuffing mix from TJ's. Comments on it were "interesting." I made fresh cranberry sauce which is the easiest thing to make. It took about 5 minutes and was so yummy. It's the same recipe as what went in and on the cheesecake I made. Potatoes were what everyone loved, my brother Jord made those with the recipe we chose. It was a rich Swiss cheese scalloped potatoes. I also made over 40 sour cream rolls that were yummy. I messed up on the roll recipe but it really didn't seem to matter. Good thing. Everyone seemed to enjoy dinner. We did have a fun time when the house filled with smoke because the cheese from the potatoes was burning on the bottom of the stove. That was exciting:) Brandon got the idea of going to the movies after dinner. I guess he likes the tradition that Judy and Jane have every Thanksgiving and we started it for our own family with this Thanksgiving. We went to the movies and saw Bolt with the my sister Heather and my cousins Max and Axa and her little one Rylie who is about Ethan's age, just a few days younger and is just as big as Ethan if not bigger. She's a doll. We left Sophie with my Mom and she napped while we were gone. Ethan and Rylie sat together in a seat at the theater and loved playing together all day, it was really cute. I wish I would of thought to take more pictures but I was too busy cooking. I was lucky to remember to take pictures of the desserts. Everything turned out really nice. Now it's already starting to feel like Christmas. I'm excited.

!?

Here are 5 tidibts about Brandon you're lucky to know;

1. I can say the alphabet in one long burp. When we were kids my brother and I taught ourselves to burp at will, after seeing our mom do it. Katie later joined our elite group and can burp louder and longer than anybody.

2. I listen to piano music when I am going to sleep. Chopin is the best. I don’t need it to go to sleep quickly, ‘cause I usually fall asleep in a couple minutes either way. In fact sometimes I might stay awake a bit trying to listen to the music longer, but it helps me sleep more soundly. I have some awesome nighttime/sleeping music if anybody wants some, although most of you reading this don't need my recommendations on good piano music.

3. I love and name my vehicles. It actually feels more like I find out their names after having them a while. I don’t see them as machines really; they have too much personality and I spend time with them and get to know them, so they are more than that. I try to maintain them well and it is easier to see the maintenance as a positive thing rather than a chore if the car isn’t just a machine. And like everything else, if you treat a car right it’ll treat you right, so I try to do that and I enjoy it. Many people seem to see this as aberrant behavior or maybe even a vice, but those people probably don’t mind driving in dirty, broken-down and ugly cars. I can’t stand it.
My bike is named Delilah; very sexy and dark. Our Honda is called Susan; she’s somewhat plain, but real reliable. Our Mazda is named Julie, after Julie Andrews’ Mary Poppins. She’s lots of fun, takes care of us and our kids, keeps us all safe and looks hot while doing it. Awesome.

4. This one may not be very unique; I hate wearing socks and shoes. Sophie and Ethan help me take them off right when I get home from work every day. I always wear flip-flops when I don’t have to wear shoes, no matter what the weather is like and for almost anything we’re going to do.
I’ve always been like this. My feet are pretty tough (and ugly) and when I was a kid I used to run around outside barefoot and I remember my brother not being able to keep up because my feet were used to being stabbed by rocks and weeds but his weren’t. Another time I was riding my bike home from my friend’s place, which I did all the time as a kid, but usually wearing shoes. This time I was in flip-flops though, and the heel of one hung off the pedal and caught on the ground and caused me to crash. I was pretty much hauling ass and fell on my knee real hard. It swelled up and got scarred pretty bad. I couldn’t walk much for a few weeks.

5. I can pound away ice cream. I know everybody loves ice cream, but there’s something in my blood that gives me a little bit extra. I believe it is hereditary because I have it, my father has it, and… my daughter has it. Good thing we’re all thin! I don’t much like dessert unless it’s ice cream or has ice cream in/on it. A gallon will go in a couple days unless I try real hard to take small portions. I’ll eat a bowl of ice cream and need more right after I’ve finished it. In my father’s words, ice cream is the perfect “pick-me-up, cool-me-down.”

I think I have an idea!

Yeah! Today it rained, or more like tonight. Here's the story. The kids are begging to go outside though it really is time for bed and it's pouring outside.

Sophie: Outside Daddy.

Ethan: I want to go outside.

Dad: Do you guys want to get the mail?

By the way the mail was brought in at lunch time, by Daddy.

Kids: Yeah!

Dad opens the door to show them the rain.

Dad: You can't look it's raining outside. See.

Ethan: I think... I have an idea. I have an idea. How about... how about an umbrella? Yeah.

So because Ethan's idea was so cute Dad gave in. The end.

Okay Dad did take the kids on a short walk outside in the rain, while using the umbrella. Ethan's idea came to him without us even mentioning about the umbrella in the closet. Funny little guy. After their short walk it was off to bed.

Today the kid's drove me nuts! But the little things Sophie and Ethan say make the hard times disappear. Another funny thing Ethan said today was, "watch me Mom, look my pogo stick." As he jumped around the room with the vacuum extension. Where does he come up with these things? I didn't know he knew what a pogo stick was. Crazy.

Lovely, Love My Family

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RxlJSvk_6I This song we first heard on Yo Gabba, Gabba, a Noggin show. We all love this song. If I knew how to put it on our blog as music in the background I would. The kids love dancing to this song and they'll stop what they're doing to go dance and listen to it. We now listen to a cd in the car that Brandon made for the kids that has this song on it. Great song. If any of you have watched Noggin I'm sure you've heard this song. The quality is not great but I think it's because it was recorded from the tv.

Bath Time and Pajama Time

Ethan still likes to take pictures by squinting his eyes. But take a look at those curls. He needs a hair cut but I'll be sad when all the curls are gone.
Brandon was only able to get this shot of Sophie taking a bath with her doll becasue our camera's memory was full. I guess she got out of the tub, got her baby, and threw her in thinking she needed a bath too.

Babysitting

We went on a date on Saturday night. Which is rare and was really nice. We had a young women who we really trust named Isadora watch the kids. She's watched our kids once before so the kids know her. Ethan was sleeping when we left and Sophie was upset but only for a little while we were told. Isadora told me that as Ethan was waking up he looked at her and said "Mommy you kind of look weird." He also calls her Dora. They really like her. All the nursery kids do. She's the daughter of the nursery leader and all the Mom's really like her and trust her as well. We are glad to have someone to watch our kids that we trust.

IN-N-OUT

Tonight we had IN-N-OUT for dinner since I really didn't feel like cooking. We actually were going to just pick something up from the nearest fast food to eat at home. Weinerchnitzel was close so we decided to go there but as we pulled up Ethan let us know that it wasn't where he wanted to get fries. He wanted "IN-N-OUT daddy." So we ended up eating there (no surprise there:) which is on the other side of town but well worth the drive. While we were eating Brandon asked Ethan if he liked his burger and he replied with "it's not a burger, it's a crabby patty." Maybe he's watching too much Sponge Bob. So we ate our crabby patties and fries. Yum.

Sophie's Potty Training

We want to say that Sophie is potty trained except she's not completely. She has been doing great and I kind of have done the same method that I did with Ethan. The only problem is that: 1. Finding underwear in her size.
2. She'll go and not always tell us if she needs to go if she has a diaper on. She'll let us know after she's already gone.
3. She'll sometimes have a wet diaper when she wakes up in the morning. Though during naps she is always dry.
I think she'll get it soon. She's been doing it all on her own. We have even stopped clapping and she still wants to do it. She also is starting to dress herself though she'll put on whoever's clothes and they're always put on wrong. It's too funny when she's wearing Ethan's underwear and her pajama shorts, all through one leg hole. But then she also likes to undress which is a pain when we are trying to get ready to leave. She acts so independent yet she still is so clingy. Which isn't a bad thing. She's a Mama's girl.

Halloween Fun

You can see they had a lot of fun trick or treating and eating their candy. We went to a few haunted houses with the kids and I thought they were scary but the kids didn't. Anything for candy I guess. One house had a couple of people dressed up as scary clowns that stood there as you came up to the porch. There whole yard was spooky. But before we even got to the house Sophie was waving and saying Hi to one of the clowns that had scary teeth and face make-up. I thought it was too funny. We also went into another haunted house where a fraternity lived. They had a bunch of kids popping out at you as you walked through the house. Ethan got scared when a fake skeleton dropped down in his face as we went up the stairs but that was it. Sophie could of cared less since she was eating a sucker. I thought it was pretty scary. But the kids got candy and a balloon after and were as happy as could be. They loved trick or treating and everyone was so nice. Ethan's costume got a lot of attention everyone seemed to love it. They got a ton of candy. Sophie did have face make up on but she wiped it all off. Now she gets into my make-up and says "nose." Since I painted her nose black and gave her whiskers. Sophie also wanted to give candy to whoever gave her candy. Too funny.