Thanksgiving 2013

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year!!

On Tuesday, my parents and grandparents arrived. We celebrated Maddie's birthday (I'll post about that later) that evening. On Wednesday, I spent time getting ready for Thanksgiving, and Gus and Maddie were busy playing with their MiMi, MawMaw, PawPaw, and Big Daddy. Gus's favorite activity right now is listening to his "Cowboy" cd and dancing. Big Daddy (my dad) showed him how to "call" the cows, and use a whip (pretend). Gus LOVED this!!

Here is Gus and Maddie dancing :)

 He spent the rest of the week asking for everyone to come to his room and listen to his cd with him. My mom made one of our favorite things- our family roll recipe. And she also made some gravy! I cooking a pie and then made two recipes for breakfast that could be stored overnight in the fridge.

Thursday morning we got up and going to begin cooking!! Josh brined and cooked our turkey. I got breakfast in the oven, and then we were all ready to be able to sit and watch the parade in front of the fire! My whole goal in planning Thanksgiving is to be able to have as much as I can prepped so we can enjoy watching the parade. This year things went really smoothly, and I was able to enjoy the parade :) And of course Santa came- which means it is officially the Christmas season!!

We ate lunch at about 12:45. It was all delicious! Here's our beautiful table:

 I always wish I could eat more. Of course there was tons of food left over as always, even though I tried not to make too much. I have to thank Josh, my mom, and my grandmother for helping clean up the kitchen. I just put things away, and it didn't take us long to get the kitchen cleaned up. 

The kids took naps, and some of the adults too. Then it was time to watch the Cowboys play football. It's tradition! I made a few snacks after halftime. But that was about it for the day. I'm so thankful that we were able to share it with family.

We ended the night with Maddie saying "EIEIO" in Old McDonald Had a Farm! She's so proud of herself

More to come about what's been going on around here this last week!

Catching up

I have wanted to blog so many times, but I can't see to find a few minutes to get it done. I would rather sit and hold Maddie :) But, I don't want to forget things, so here are some iphone pictures I wanted to share of a few things that have been going on!

This is the morning I went to the hospital to have Maddie- I was so excited :)

Maddie meeting my parents- Big Daddy and MiMi:

Gus has some new houseshoes- they jingle too :)

My family on Thanksgiving- couldn't be more perfect!

MiMi brought a gingerbread house to make with Gus. We all had fun putting it together, and the candy sure tasted good

She often wins the battle and ends up sleeping in bed with us...

Maddie's first trip to our favorite Mexican food restaurant:

Gus is a good big brother keeping an eye on Maddie

Maddie's first trip to the mall!

Maddie's first bath- she actually liked it for a little while although you wouldn't know from this picture!

My grandparents came to visit. Maddie is quite bright-eyed to meet PawPaw.

Another trip to eat Mexican food, and I try to keep Gus entertained

My sister and her new little boy and my MawMaw

These first few weeks have been really good. Maddie isn't sleeping great, but she is doing better than Gus did. We have been so blessed. Josh had lots of time off from work and my mom was able to come stay with us too. Several friends have already brought us dinner, and we have dinners coming next week too!! It makes things so much easier for me not having to worry about cooking. I can spend more time cuddling my little girl, because I know she won't be little long. I'll try to get more on here soon. Life is good :)

Our Thanksgiving

We had a really nice Thanksgiving this year with my parents. I was able to enjoy the day without getting too worried about all the cooking. It was pretty quiet around the house this year because there were only the 5 of us. We watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and cooked the meal in the morning. Then we ate Thanksgiving Dinner around 12:45pm. We watched the Cowboy game at 3, and then we watched the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie. Here are some pictures:


And now for the food!! It was all so delicious this year! Here was what we had:
Turkey and gravy (cooked by Josh, it was the best turkey I have ever had)
Dressing (made by my mom, it is my favorite thing about Thanksgiving dinner)
Mashed Potatoes
Sweet Potato Casserole
Green Bean Casserole
Cranberry Salsa with Lime (I will share the recipe in another post!)
Homemade Rolls (my mom made these, they are amazing)
Pecan Pie
New Orleans Double-Chocolate Praline-Fudge Cake. I got the recipe in this book:
But it can be found HERE

I think Gus enjoyed his first Thanksgiving:
I was a little sad to be away from some of our other family this year, but I had so much that I am thankful for:
~Josh
~Gus
~All of our families
~Health
~ And most of all, Hope that comes from knowing our Lord and Savior

We had a great holiday and I hope you had the same!

A Greeting

I just want to say a special Happy Thanksgiving to all my blog world friends!!! I hope you can remember all of God's special blessing on your life and spend the day with those you love.

Tuesday 10

1) Do you ever say to yourself, "Why did I do that?" I was asking myself that question yesterday afternoon at about 4:30pm. I was taking food to some friends who had just had a baby, and the bread I was making for us needed to be baked. And the dogs kept barking. And Gus was fussing.... You get the picture. But, it all turned out ok in the end. I took our friends the spinach salad that I wrote about yesterday and some bread. I also made them some macaroni and cheese to put in their freezer. One of the best gifts you can give a new mom is food. You do not want to cook right after you have had a baby!!

2) So the bread I made yesterday turned out very pretty I thought!

Here is where I got the recipe.

I copied part of the recipe from the link.

Crusty Italian Bread
Recipe Source: Food For A Hungry Soul

4 cups, all-purpose, unbleached flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon yeast
2 cups warm water

Mix dry ingredients. Add water a mix until dough forms. Cover with towel and let rise for 4 hours.

Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Place a pan of 2-3 cups of water on a baking sheet and cook with the bread. Dump dough onto floured surface. Handle as little as possible. Shape and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake 35-55 minutes. Check and 35 minutes and watch until crust is at desired darkness.

I plan to make Josh a grilled cheese sandwich with this bread for lunch. I will let you know how it turns out!!

3) I made biscuits and bacon for Josh for breakfast this morning. I get so much satisfaction when my biscuits rise!!! Here is how they turned out:

My recipe comes from my favorite cookbook- Betty Crocker.
My tips for fluffy biscuits
~ Don't over knead, only do it like 5 times, the more you mix, the flatter they will be.
~When cutting them out, don't press down and twist. I saw this tip on some tv show I think. I just get the shape, and then pull them apart. If you press and twist it traps the air and they won't rise as much.

4) I got some of the Christmas gifts I ordered in the mail yesterday!! They turned out so cute! It is so fun to get gifts for people that you know they will like.

5) So the movie we rented on ITunes Saturday finally finished downloading this morning. Lesson Learned...

6) I now drink coffee every morning. I miss it when I don't have it. I put sweet-n-low and non-fat milk in it, so it isn't too bad for me.

7) I feel like I have spent most of time time the last 24 hours cleaning my kitchen.... and it is dirty at this moment. I need a button to push for a magic kitchen helper person to clean. Or a double size dishwasher so I don't run it 2-3 times a day!

8) Our menu for Thanksgiving:
~Turkey
~Dressing- my favorite, made with cornbread and biscuits
~Mashed Potatoes
~Sweet Potatoes
~Green Bean Casserole
~Homemade Rolls
~ Cranberry Relish ( I will try to share this recipe, it is almost like a Cranberry Salsa because it has jalapenos, yummy!)
~Pecan Pie
~Pumpkin Pecan Pie
~(I might make another dessert, I haven't decided yet)
These are what we usually have! Since there are only going to be a few of us, I am going to try really hard not to make too much food so we don't waste a lot.

9) I smell like spit-up right now. Gus got some on my pj pants, I need to change.

10) I am thinking of trying Pinterest. Anyone have any thoughts on it??