Happy Thanksgiving

I hope you had a relaxing and fabulous Thanksgiving. We did! Food was yummy! Company was great. Kids played with their cousins an entire 2 days straight . . . which was awesome! Our menu this year was: Appetizers - sweet & sour meatballs, veggies and dip, canteloupe, spinach and artichoke dip with chips, and cheese and crackers. Main - turkey, cranberry sauce (thanks to my MIL), stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, sweet potatoes (ones we had at our R.S. dinner), carrot souffle and rolls (flat ones cause I let them rise on the oven and they got too big and then collapsed *sigh* - my one major catastrophe). Dessert - pumpkin cheesecake, and apple pie with ice cream. I swear I gained 5 lbs. It was all so yummy! My poor baby is probably squashed in there with all that food.

My cute hubby holding up the turkey he just carved - good job!

Funny faces daddy caught while we finished getting things all ready to serve

MK and B making some more funny faces (*Yay cousins*)

Four cute kiddies at the table

Kari and Michael (no family resemblance at all --lol)

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Fun Thanksgiving Ideas

Can you believe how FAST time seems to go during the holiday season . . . from Halloween on it just seems to be one fast moving downward slide into the new year. I always find it hard to manage to fit everything I WANT to do into the limited time. Anyway, here are a couple cute quick ideas that I will probably attempt to do with my family this year.

The first one is a thankful chain. I saw this on a blog, and thought it was awesome. There are some other great creative ideas on this one too. Basically, every day during the month of November, each family member writes down something they are thankful for on a thin strip of paper, and then you make it into a loop and attach it to the chain. On Thanksgiving, you can spend some time reading all the things you were thankful for (this is good because I always *hated* being put on the spot to try and think of something I was thankful for -- plus it gives you LOTS of time to think about how blessed you are.)

Ours is clearly a work in progress and while we haven't had full daily participation, I think we have all added at least a link or two to it. I think next year I would use more orange and red and vibrant colors. I still think it is a really neat idea though.

The second is just a fun favor . . . this one is from Family Fun and I hope I will have some time to make some. They are corn crackers (like christmas crackers, but for your thanksgiving table).

DIRECTIONS HERE:

http://jas.familyfun.go.com/crafts?page=CraftDisplay&craftid=12062

What are your fun Thanksgiving traditions with your family? I would LOVE to hear about them. Leave me a comment and let me know all about it. Thanks for reading my blog. I know one thing I am thankful for are the awesome people who read my blog, hang with me through the slow times, and leave friendly feedback! Happy November!

FINALLY . . .

It's a girl! We know at last! I was so nervous that we would not be able to find out, but the technician said she can always tell and she has not been wrong so far . . . she got a great shot of our new baby girl's stuff too! Hooray! They really knew what they were doing at this office . . . the equipment was awesome and clear.

Now I get to think pink! E is SO excited because she really, REALLY wanted a baby sister. J was a little less than excited, but oh well. I am so excited that I will have 2 boys and 2 girls. No boys outruling the girls in my house. Here are some shots from the U/S today.

Profile of face

Side View of shin, ankle, and foot

Foot print

Baby Shower for Amy

The baby shower turned out fabulous. I was a little nervous about if anyone was going to come, but they did. YAY! The food was yummy to me! Most importantly, I think Amy had a good time! There were a few kids there as well, and they were all so well behaved and played quietly for a good part of the shower- which was AWESOME!

We played some games (Guess Mommy belly size - using yarn, Don't say Baby -if you do you lose your beads, Guess the Gerbers - actually kind of hard, Good Advice - where you write a problem the mom of a new baby might have, and someone else writes the solution -- pretty funny, Baby Talk words - I am always surprised by what people call things. . . too weird!), ate some food, chatted and had fun.

I think everyone liked the favors I made and the prizes, and the diaper cake went over well. Here are a couple pictures from the event.

The favors I made (sour cream containers that match the diaper cake as well as some of the invites I made for the event! I really LOVE this paper! (My Minds Eye)

Kristi, Amy and Kathy playing games

Amy opening up some gifts near the end of the shower

Amy measuring Rebecca's guess at her tummy size (she was really close but not as close as Marrene who was the winner). I love this picture cause it shows Amy's cute tummy!

Goodbye Grandma

All good things must come to an end. We took my mom to the airport this morning, but before we left, we took a couple more pictures (*something we NEVER do* lol). I wanted to have some pictures of the kiddies with their grandma. I also had J take one of me, E and Grandma (3 generations). Pretty fun! Hope my mommy had a safe and uneventful flight home. *waves*