Thanksgiving

Happy (belated) Thanksgiving!! We had a fun Thanksgiving this year. It started out a bit sketchy with a little girl who is teething and also had a cold. She forgot to sleep on Wednesday and when we got her home after our date, she woke up every hour from 1 am to 8:30. It was rough. We went to Mike's uncle's house for the big family gathering and ate and played some games. We left from there and went out to some friends house for another dinner. The smoked turkey was amazing and her potatoes... TO DIE FOR!!! I must get her recipe, something about white and gold potatoes with a sweet potato and turnip thrown in and of course butter, cream cheese and milk. OH MY!

Friday we all stayed at home and lounged, watched some TV, slept, ate some leftovers then went to another friends house for some leftover food and great conversation. We were so blessed and so stuffed at the end of the two days.

In the Spirit of Thanksgiving here are a few of the things I am thankful for (in no particular order).
1. Family. I love my small little family.
2. Health
3. Heavenly Father
4. Jesus Christ
5. Alabama football
6. a warm home that keeps me safe
7. Amazing friends near and far. (and too many are far away)
8. My sister... she is pretty awesome
9. laughter from my family
10. the internet
11. Food. We have been so blessed with awesome cookbooks that make me a pretty darn good cook
12. A husband who does dishes so I don't have too...
13. A mom and dad who bring us home to spend a whole month with them.
14. teething tablets and children's advil.
15. Men and women brave enough to go out and fight for their country, people like Mark A. Forester.

I hope everyone out there had a fantastic Thanksgiving!!

Happy Birthday

On November 4th 2011 my happy smiling baby turned 1!! It was a Friday night so we didn't do much. We sang happy birthday to her and gave her extra attention (is that possible??). I had to work that night so we kept it pretty low key. I did make her a tye dye cake. It was not bad but I realized 1/2 way thru mixing the colors I didn't buy food coloring, I bought a box of icing tubes. OOPS! oh well. I also think I forgot to add a bunch of the powdered sugar to the frosting.. my buttercream was... well buttery. Stella loved it. We took the family to the park. I was chilly but not to cold. Until the wind started. It was crazy windy. So we left Stella in the car sleeping and ate at the picnic table without her. :) We were joined by Mike's brother Jamison, his wifey Sheri and their cute baby James. Mike's parent we not there yet. So after we ate lunch we decided it was too cold to stay so we headed out to the church. Some friends were setting up for a wedding reception so we snagged on of the extra rooms and set up her birthday cake. Mike's parents met us there and we had a low key but fun afternoon. Stella really loved her cake. I stripped her down to eat and true to form the church was cold so she started shivering. I tried to take the cake from her so I could put her clothes on and she snatched her arm away and shoved the cake in her mouth. It was pretty funny. I let her shiver and shake for another moment then I cleaned her up.



The birthday cake decorated by Isabel


Birthday Girl!!


loving my cake!

We spent the next little bit playing with the kids. Stella did open up her present and got some awesome stacking/nesting balls from her aunt and uncle. She LOVES them. She also graced us with more walking and crazy laughter while playing with a balloon. Seriously, it's crazy how much fun kids can have with an air filled piece of latex.

Happy with the balloons.



The rest of the night consisted of a bit of shopping, a reception and dropping the girls off at Gma and Gpa so we could go watch the LSU/Bama game at a local bar/grill.

All in all it was a super fun day (minus the outcome of the game of course). Sunday we had our big family home evening with extended family. I made two cakes and man...they were AWESOME. My buttercream was to die for and my chocolate... oh my.

For posterity's sake
Stella is 22.7lbs and 28 in tall.

October recap

I have been waiting to have the camera to download all of our pictures and Mike takes it most everyday for work.... so.. I'm (patiently) waiting for the camera. I worked and worked the whole month and finally we were able to use our Groupon to Grant's Farm here. I had never been and I LOVED it! Grant's Farm is a 281-acre ancestral home of the Busch family, located just south of the city of St. Louis. The Farm is home to more than 900 animals representing more than 100 different species. Ulysses S. Grant founded and farmed a portion of the 281 acres. There was a tram that took you around so you could see the wildlife and it dropped you off at the center of the farm. There were places to feet baby goats, which was awesome. One of them was trying to eat the fringe off Stella's pants and Izzy couldn't figure out how to walk with them jumping on her. We went to an Elephant show, fed some chickens and saw the Clydesdale. I forgot just how GIGANTIC their feet are.



Tram ride into park


zebras


feeding goats





We also had our ward Truck or Treat party, we didn't get to stay long but the girls were cute in their matching outfits. After that party... Some great friends from back home who are HUGE Cardinals fans flew in town just for the 7th World series game. So Mike and I ran down to the stadium to watch the game just outside gates. It was so much fun. After a nice visit at Steak N Shake we finally ended that part of the night.




Halloween night we went over to our old stomping grounds and did trick or treating. Stella made friends with a really cute dog and a bunch of ladies. Izzy made a haul and will still be eating her candy in February. :)

So blogger is being funny and my preview is all messed up... Hope you enjoyed the many odd faces of Stella!