Gobble Gobble

Happy Thanksgiving!!

I was very excited to make my first turkey dinner this year. Michael and I decided we wanted to lay low and make an attempt at creating one of our favorite meals of the year. Lucky for me I had LOTS of help. Mom came over on Tuesday night so we could start cooking. Well at the sort of last minute the plans changed and she was here to babysit rather than cook. One of my very best friends from college came in town from California with his fiance whom I'd not yet met. Mic and I ended up going out to Dallas that night for my favorite, (not Michael's) sushi. It was a great time seeing Alan, Ashley, Scott (another great friend from college), his wife, and two other couples. It was a fun way to start my little holiday!

So back to the TURKEY. Mom and I started first thing on Wednesday morning getting everything ready. Then I took a little (3 hour) break from the fun and went to get my hair cut and mom graciously babysat again. I did my best to make sure the kids would be sleeping while I was gone. When I got back we hit the kitchen again and spent the rest of the evening preparing. It was a lot of fun cooking with her. I loved every minute of it!!

You have to start with Grandmother's recipe.

Then make sure Michael is comfortable for the evening.

With someone to keep him entertained, thanks Kyle!

They did a great job of keeping the kids laughing and having fun, out of the kitchen.

Prepare the stuffing...

Stuff the turkey and start cooking it the night before...then go to bed really late.

Thursday morning started with the boys watching a little bit of the parades.

Mom stopped for a few minutes to watch the big balloons with Tate.

Out came the beautiful bird.

A successful golden brown.

Kyle came over again to help make some final preparations before going to visit Cole.

FLUFF...the real reason Kyle came over. A thanksgiving favorite for both of us.
We stopped to take a couple of pictures before our guests arrived.

Poppy, CC, and Mama showed up for the first of 5 stops they would have today.

Mama and CC saved the day, or the gravy I should say. That was the only flip out moment mom and I had the whole 2 days we spent cooking together. We had no clue what to do and let them take over. It was SOO good!

Hats

I've mentioned before that Tate often comes home from school in hats. Tonight I took pictures of the collection I could find. There are many that have been worn out to where they were thrown away. I knew I needed to go ahead and capture what I have before they get worn out as well.

Monster Hat

Whoo...Whoo

Busy Bee Tate

Batman

Listening Ears

Turkey Tot

Little Man Tate Indian

My Favorite...Officer Tate

Pilgrim Tater (whoa baby that's a big hat)

LOOK AT THOSE LEGS...Turkey Legs
Toy Story Tate

(this one's a hand me down from Julian and his favorite, can you tell from the smile)

He has a bit of a bruise still showing on his cheek from a big fall last weekend. Daddy got to him quickly and put vanilla extract on it but missed that little area. It's amazing that it actually works. This is an old wives tale that's really true. When you do something that you can tell will leave a bruise - pour some vanilla extract on the area and it WON'T bruise. The area where Tate would have had a bruise was covering most of the apple of his cheek. My mom can also testify it works from a stumble she took a few years ago with Julian at Nicole's house.

Heidi's Shower

Today I went to a baby shower for Heidi, a girl that I worked with before I had Tate. All my favorite girls from that job were at the shower as well. Of the 7 of us only 2 are still with the company. I really really enjoy myself everytime we get together, though it's been a year since the last time I saw them. We try to make an effort to see each other during the year but now we're very spread out and have growing families so it makes it difficult to coordinate something where we're all together. Babies will bring us together for sure! I LOVE babies!!! Anyway it was a wonderful few hours and I can't wait to see them all again, hopefully sooner than another year from now.