Thanksgiving

Our Thanksgiving dinner was actually last Sunday, but I've been too lazy to go through the pictures and write a post, so sorry.

We hosted at our house for 19 members of my family. I cannot believe we fit all of them in one room, but we did. My mom and I did most of the cooking with some occasional help. We baked the desserts Saturday night and brined the turkey, and my mom came over Sunday morning to put the turkey in while we went to have pictures taken. I have to say, it's gotten easier and easier every year (in the 13 years I've been doing it), and this year was probably the smoothest, and the 2nd or 3rd largest.

We had TONS of food (and still have leftovers). Ethan just had puffs and sweet potatoes at the table with us, but I'm sure he'll really enjoy the food next year. He was pretty good all day and entertained everyone while I cooked. It honestly felt just like Thanksgiving day.

So now for the pictures:

The table. Well, part of it.

A closer look at the runner I made that morning. It's not perfect since I was rushing, but it worked. It's basically like a pillow case with sheer fabric on top, and you leave a little opening to stick seasonal stuff in it like the fake fall leaves I used.

The entire table that took up the dining room and E's playroom.

We used our formal table, the table from the informal dining area, and an old table from my college apartment that we had in the garage.

Ethan greeting his Aunt Mary Lou.

Playing outside on the deck.

Papa ready for dinner, and being goofy for the camera.

Passing the food. It was a long process making sure all 19 people received everything at the table.

Eating.

Enjoying.

Hope everyone else had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Almost forgot - Wordless Wednesday

And then one for Papa because he wanted a picture where "the boy wasn't staring at him" (and because of his awesome shirt in honor of Thanksgiving). Sorry I broke the rules of Wordless Wednesday.

Can I tell you...

about my wonderful hubby for a minute? The other day, he calls me on my way home from work to tell me he's bought me a sussy (sussy = surprise in Amy language). I'm thinking it's a sweater that I've been coveting, but no. At home he lays out a cord and a dryer duct thingamajigger, and since I've been complaining about laundry and more specifically, how our dryer sucks, I think a) he's found some way to make the dryer actually dry clothes in less than two cycles, or b) he's bought me a new washer and dryer. I didn't want to get all excited and assume it was option b just in case it wasn't and he would feel like crap, so I kinda said, "wow, is that for the dryer" and he says, "no, you now have a NEW washer and dryer!"

How nerdy (and old) am I to be so darn excited about a washer and dryer, but you know what? I really really am. Seriously, a full hamper of clothes no longer equals 2-3 loads, it equals 1! A lady with a baby can really appreciate such wonders. I was so excited about the size of these things, I even did this:


I was really really tired after a long "Thanksgiving" day, so please don't think I'm a complete weirdo. That's all, I'm done, and off to do all my laundry. This is probably the only time I'll ever be excited about laundry.

Sneak Peek!

Check out a little teaser from our photo session this morning!

http://www.lifeinmotionphotography.com/photoblog/?p=3695

So so tired

This has definitely been one of those weekends (and it's only Saturday night!). You know the kind where you have something to do every single minute?

Tomorrow is our family's Thanksgiving. My grandpa has a chemo treatment scheduled for this Tuesday, so he wouldn't be up for Thanksgiving Day, so we changed it. It is tomorrow. At my house. Whew. We did the shopping the other day, which was pretty nice. No hunting for the last can of pumpkin or last packet of gravy. And tonight, after a morning session of cleaning and a baby shower this afternoon, my mom and I made pies and brined the turkey. Then there was a little more cleaning and some last minute sewing on Ethan's outfit for tomorrow. There will probably be more cleaning tomorrow morning after...

Our photo session!! I'm so excited, tomorrow is our family picture day with Lyndsay. Well, I'm not exactly excited about waking up at 6am to be there by 8, but I'll survive. I have been excited about this even before I knew we could afford to do it. I think the "picture taking" will be just as fun as the actual photos. It'll be nice to have fun as a family, lovin' on each other, and being happy.

Oh, and you know what else? The little man can now do this:


But usually, he can't get into that position by himself. Until tonight. When he was supposed to be falling asleep. I've been thinking about moving the crib down for a week or so now. He can't crawl, can't pull up, but I figured I wouldn't want the first time to be when he's alone in his crib. Well, shoulda listened to my instinct. He was standing there tonight just yelling. Scared the crap out of us. So, we paused the baking to move down the crib. I think Ethan just thought it'd be fun to add to mommy's stress level. Stinker.

Anyway, Happy Thanksgiving to us (and to anyone else that may be celebrating early)! I'll hopefully be back with pictures of the festivities, but for now, I must try to sleep.

Our trip to DFW

Last weekend we headed up to Southlake to visit Cory's brothers and family. We try to go every year around Halloween, but it didn't work out this year until November. Cory really wanted to make it before our niece's volleyball season was over, so luckily the last game before playoffs was on Saturday. She's definitely taken after Cory, she's got natural talent, and she got to learn some skills from him while we were there. It was great seeing her play (and win)!

Otherwise, we just spent time catching up and letting everyone get some quality time with Ethan. Since I'm an only child, these are his only uncles/aunt/cousins. Luckily, he was really good the whole time. He didn't even do his usual fussy pants routine, so we might have to visit more often.

Here are some pictures from the weekend:

With Uncle Troy

And Uncle Lyle

And Aunt Kalie

Playing with his cousins

Grayson trying to get Ethan to eat. I love the look on E's face, "Mom, who is this kid, and what is he doing to me?"

Madeline and Grayson helping Cory entertain/feed E

Ethan taking a stretch break on the way home. We only let him ride that way half of the way home ;)
(kidding, of course)

Thursday Thoughts

1. I owe you a DFW post. We had a great time this weekend, but I haven't had the chance to sit down and go through pictures. I'll get on it soon I promise. This week has been busy.

2. E and I are headed out to my grandparents today. I love to visit them, and they love that E visits, especially when no one else is around to steal him away. With such a large family, there can be fights over who gets E next. Not today. Hopefully he won't throw a fit over going to sleep this time, that is not fun.

3. Update on last week's thoughts: We ARE getting pictures done!!! Woohoo!!! Lyndsay of Life In Motion is doing them next weekend. I'm so so excited. You may recognize her work:

4. Another update on last week (is that cheating?): I think I will try an Etsy shop. Not quite sure of the details, but I'm going to give it a go. I'll probably start making stuff, and perhaps after the holidays I'll set it up. Still scared though. And still looking for ideas on what all to sell.

5. Ethan has been doing the cutest thing in the morning. When I walk into his room to get him, he's pulled down a little section of the bumper, and he's peeking through it at me. He can see our room from his room, so he just sits there whining a little and waiting until he sees me coming. I tried to get a picture, but it didn't come out too well today. Maybe tomorrow.

6. I really thought I could make it past five today. Oh well, I guess I don't have a lot to say. Plus, the kiddo is getting tired of the Jumperoo and the "ma ma maa"s have begun, which translates to, "Mama get me outta here!!" So I must go now.

Wordless Wednesday

Thursday Thoughts

A lot of blogs I read do a "ten on Tuesday" post, and since I'm scared of coming up with 10, I thought I'd just try a few today. Here goes:

1. We're headed to the big DFW this weekend to visit Cory's brothers. I'm excited and scared. E did really well the last time we traveled fairly far, so I'm hoping he repeats his performance. He'll hopefully be trying out his new big(ger) boy seat.

2. I've been thinking of trying my hand at an Etsy shop, but I'm scared. I don't know what all I would sell. I've tossed around some ideas like crib bedding, mei tais (baby carriers), other random baby/home items that I sew. I just don't know... I wish I could think of something unique, but I haven't yet. Thoughts??

3. Speaking of Etsy, I'm thinking E needs something like this or this. Too cute, and you've seen how he can really rock a hat.

4. Ethan is starting to wave hi to people. It's the cutest/oddest wave I've ever seen. He really likes waving to our friend Don, and he kind of waves like a beauty queen. I'm gonna have to catch it on video.

5. I REALLY want family photos taken. It's kind of late for Christmas card photos, but I'm working on it. We just didn't think we could fit it in the budget, but we might be able to work it out. I hope so, and I'll of course let you know if we do.

Well, I got to 5, not bad for my first try. Perhaps I'll keep it up unless you let me know that I've bored you to death. Happy Thursday!

Oh, and a couple of random pictures of the little man for you:

drooliscious as usual

In his walker. The confused look is because he can't figure out how to get the toy under him. I tried to catch him when he was leaning over trying to get it, but I missed it, sorry.

Wordless Wednesday

7 months

Yesterday Ethan was 7 months. I won't even go into how crazy that is. It just goes so so fast. Why does it have to be that humans grow the fastest in their lives when they're the cutest? Why can't we grow the fastest during those awkward pre-teen/teen years? Eh, I digress, here's our cutie at 7 months, growing faster every day it seems:






And here he is trying to get the hang of the whole crawling thing:

He really wants to, but he can't figure it out. No complaints from his parents. He can spin around on his belly and scoot a little, but he's not very fast. He still has way more interest in standing.

Other things he's doing now... He reaches for us all the time. It's so so sweet and I love it. He's also trying to eat more foods, but he's really not into any of it. He doesn't really like to eat. Nana says it's what I get for being such a picky eater myself. He's still our champion sleeper, he goes about 11-12 hours. He talks/yells all the time. He says "ma ma," "ba ba," and "pa pa" so far. No "da da" which is of course killing Cory. He doesn't seem to be growing too much anymore, meaning not as fast as it used to seem. He still wears a lot of 3-6 month stuff, except for pants. His hair, however, does seem to grow quite fast. That's really all I can think of for new stuff, he's just a happy, animated, silly, sweet little 7 month old boy!

Halloween

E's first Halloween was quite fun. We started off the evening with a brief trick-or-treating session around the cul-de-sac. Our neighbors are of AARP variety, and they really enjoy E already, so seeing him as Bevo was a real treat for them. They even made sure to give him a handful of candy too, which daddy enjoyed.

Then we headed over to my aunt and uncle's house (Mark and Diana) for a Halloween/Longhorn game party. Great food (as usual), Texas won, and Ethan was a very good little longhorn. I can't wait until he really "gets" Halloween a little more. You think I can make Bevo fit again next year? Because I don't think I'm ready to retire that costume quite yet. I'll seriously make tons of these things in all different sizes because I think it just looks so darn cute.

Hope your Halloween was fantastic too!

Our little pumpkin

In the front yard after trick-or-treating

With Nana

All of us.
Yes, I'm a ladybug, dorky, but I already had it = free. Cory has Smarties candies on his pants. Get it?? Smartie Pants!! he he. We're nerds, we know.