Thanksgiving 2013

This Thanksgiving was pretty ground breaking... we hosted for the first time!

I was pretty nervous because I had never attempted the whole meal. I had made a few of the dishes before, but not all at once and had never done the turkey or my grandparents' stuffing.

So the first thing I did was delegate. Rustin wanted to fry the turkey so I let him be in charge of that and then assigned my mom and mother-in-law a few dishes.

Our life group had a Thanksgiving potluck the week before and I brought pumpkin pie. I thought it would be a good test run, and it turned out fine! I figured...I got this. So the night before Thanksgiving, I bake two pies. Well somehow I didn't hear the timer and they both burned. Ugh.

So I had to do what I swore I would not do... go to Walmart on the night before Thanksgiving and get more ingredients for pies.

While I was having trouble with the pies, Rustin was having his own trouble with the turkey. He didn't realize you had to thaw it our for a few days and hadn't started that. So he thought he could use the one his mom had, but it was too big for the fryer. After hours of researching recipes online, he decided on one to just cook in the oven and had his mom come over in the morning to help him. I'm not really sure exactly what was going on in there because I was too stressed with my stuff to also stress about his, so all I know is that Avery and I were suddenly smoked out. Not kidding - it was pretty bad and for days after that my allergies were out of control.

So that's all leading up to the meal and luckily that is the only drama. Once everyone got there, everything was great! The stuffing even turned out ok! (I may have waited for my mom to get there so she could help me. Details.)

Casey brought over a maple bacon turkey breast he made and it was delish!

My dad carved the turkey and Colby was apparently the taste tester.

There wasn't really a good group picture where everyone was ready, but here we all are (except photographer Rustin) -

Avery even enjoyed the meal -

And of course, I have to add a picture of my NON burnt pies -

And one of the turkey cookers -

And I should add Rustin's turkey turned out great also! 

Stuff Avery Says Part 1

It seems as Avery gets older (2 years 3 months now), my blogging gets worse and worse. The only thing worse than how I keep up with this blog is how I keep up with her baby book. Full disclosure: I'm not sure where it is and don't think I've written in it since she was 6 months old.

I figure I need to update something so we can remember all the funny stuff she says and does.

So here is my attempt to remember things:

- She pronounces Cinderella like Cin-brella

- She wants to know everything's name... and I mean everything... Every person we see in a store, every animal we see in real life or on TV, every toy she owns. She asks "what's her name?" I say, "I don't know, baby." "Mommy, what's her name?" And this goes on and on until I tell her a name (most of which I have to make up.) And she always remembers the names. She has a little bear named Peter at my parents' house. One night Rustin was reading her toddler Bible to her and she asked what the men's names were who were with Jesus and he told her Peter and John. She said "That's not Peter! Peter's at Nana's!"

- She sings "Jesus Loves Me" quite well.

- Whenever I pick her up from the nursery, she tells me which kid had poopies...and then never forgets it. This one poor boy had poopies back in August and she brings it up every time.

- She knows where we are when we're driving and tells me about it. Well she tells me about everything when we're driving. She doesn't really stop talking. It sort of goes like this, "Mommy a school bus. I get older I ride a school bus. What's that dog name? I can see the trees. Lucifer not very nice (or some other random thought from a movie or show). I don't want to ride in the cart. I can't get out! (to which I reply, good - you're not supposed to get out of your car seat.) WATER!! WHERE'S MY WATER?!" (because anytime she asks for something it is a life and death situation. She's already miss drama queen.)

- Uncle Colby whistles and she's very jealous of it. When he asks if she can whistle she always says "I can't whistle. When I get older I whistle."

- I was sick the other night so my mom was giving her a bath and my dad and Colby were in there. My dad said she was preaching about Jesus. Apparently she was telling a story about how he built a tower and healed a man. Colby said it sounded more like Lord of the Rings.

- She teases my dad and doesn't ever let him hang out. She used to just tell him to "go that way" but now she is more creative and tells him things to do like "go see Willie and Lyle" (the cats) or "go sit in your big chair."

Well that's all I can think of for now. I'm sure there will be more which is why I titled it Part 1....