Happy Thanksgiving to You, Too!

Since this was my first Thanksgiving where I made the whole meal myself, I thought I'd document the process in a little more detail... And then, I forgot to take pictures! Oops! It was a great day, though. I managed to get enough done on Wednesday that Thursday was pretty easy (it probably helped that we ate at 6:30) - I even got to take a nap, feed Baby Siggid, and have lots of play time!

The pecan pie!
(No, we didn't start with dessert, but for the life of me I can't figure out how to get the pics to upload in the order I want them, and moving them around is so hard!)

Candied yams (surprise, there's rosemary inside!)

Did I mention I forgot to take pictures until afterward?

The remnants of the chicken...

Onion-rosemary gorgonzola rolls...so good! Thanks PW! :)

Wlnuts and brown sugar on brie

Baby Addie had to eat, too, you know

Spiced cider

Whipped cream

mmm...yummy!
not pictured: rosemary sweet-roasted acorn squash wedges,
roasted carrots and asparagus, and mom's classic stuffing

Not too bad, right?

we were there, too

and finally, the only turkey that made it to our feast :)

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

We had a great day, even though there was only four of us. Neil & Jen went to her parents. We pray your day was great also.

way too cute!

we bathed sigrid today. and she fell asleep. bathing has become so soothing for her, she can barely make it through! this afternoon, we decided not to bother her. we put a diaper on, and wrapped her back up in her towel, and laid her in the crib. usually she moves around a lot, but she stayed all bundled up for quite a while! it was just too precious. i had to share.

like i said. too cute.

b

The Day I Met My {cooking} Idol

Beej - this is for you - my pics aren't photoshopped properly but I won't make you wait any longer :)

on 10/27 my family went to the Tulsa Historical Society to meet Ree Drummond, aka The Pioneer Woman. Her cookbook was released and she was doing a "signing" from 7-9pm.

We got there at 6:30pm, thought we did good by getting there early, and it was standing room only! So many people!!!!

{this was our view - we're standing behind the chairs - and this is only about 1/3 of the people!}

Around 7:00pm she came out and did a little "Q&A" with the audience - she is SO nice, and friendly, and REAL! I loved this part - and her brother, Mike, came up with her and told her how much he loved her, gave her a hug, then just hung out at the podium for the rest of the time - it was so cool!

{my camera didn't like how far away she was!}

{Mike is the bald one :) the other man is her husband, Marlboro Man}

When that was over they started a line for the signing part - but they did it by rows - in order of when people were seated! so we knew we'd have to wait - but while waiting there were cupcakes and sodas to eat and drink. My kids were all over that! lol it's now about 7:30pm and we haven't had dinner - we planned on going to Chili's afterwards - the kids' favorite.

Once we were finished with all the goodies (no, I refrained from a yummy, chocolate, fat loaded cupcake because that would've ruined my diet) we found some empty chairs to sit in. The kids played for a while and climbed empty chairs - and actually were pretty good - I tried to find a place to sneak into so that maybe we'd get in line a little sooner :) didn't work.

{the kids waiting - trying to keep busy}

The only good thing about our wait was getting to meet Marlboro Man and have him autograph the book - he was very nice about the whole thing - and believe me, I wasn't the only one wanting his autograph! LOL


SO - after a long time of imaginative play by my kids, shifting in chairs by me and Darren - we were finally in front of my idol! I was so excited to meet her and tell her how much I love her blog and her recipes!

she signed our books.

{that is Darren's name she's writing - obviously Darren was taking the pictures!}

she posed for a picture with me and my kids.

{the beautiful, Ree with Braden (she asked if he'd sit in her lap and he was more than willing! flirt.), Hailee (wearing the shirt they gave out), and me}

she smiled the whole time. pretty amazing I think. because it's now 11:00pm!!!

so my kids had McDonald's on the way home and slept like babies. I have the greatest family in the world to do this for me :)

It was a long night for sure but I'm so glad I had the opportunity - I've never been to a book signing and I don't know if this is always how it is, but next time when we get there early, we'll plan on camping out! LOL

some sigrid stories...

You get a lot of pictures, but I thought you'd enjoy some stories. Such a little darling!

I took Addie in the shower last night, which I've done a couple of times before, but not for a few weeks. She had liked it before, and would wave her hands and feet around in the water, and just stare at the falling water. And since she was born we would run the shower sometimes when she was inconsolably upset because the sound would calm her down. So I took her in last night, because she was getting bored and I thought we could burn some time before her nap that way. She was so nervous! We got in, and she curled herself up against me, and peeked out at the water. I took her closer, and put one arm and leg under the water, and she curled up tighter. She didn't make a sound, but you could tell she was unsure about it. It was amazing to see how her reaction had changed from a few weeks ago - a product of having a little better understanding of her world! Well, I kept talking to her, and singing to her, and letting her feel the water on her back, arms, and legs, and she relaxed a little, so I went ahead and washed her body and her hair, and then put her back on my shoulder, and just talked to her some more and let her feel the water. I was just rubbing her back and talking, and I looked down, and she had fallen asleep! So, so sweet.

The last couple of days, she's figured out she can look around while she's drinking her bottle. This afternoon, though, I found that if I sing to her, she'll focus on me and stop looking around (thereby keeping the bottle in her mouth so she can drink - novel idea!). So we sang Christmas songs for half an hour and she just watched my eyes and my lips - her eyes widened when I got to fa la la la la in Deck the Halls and puh rum pum pum pum in Little Drummer Boy - and you could see her watching my tongue make the sounds. She was also very captivated by notes changing when my mouth wasn't moving, like "let e-evry-y he-eart prepa-are hi-im roo-oom" in Joy to the world. She is just soaking up the information lately!

She was playing bashful with Parker tonight. I always sit on the loveseat by the computer desk to give her her bottle, and put her up on my shoulder to burp her. When he is at the computer, she just gazes at him. He'll always talk to her and she just looks and looks, and you can tell she's listening by the way her expression responds to his. She'll smile and raise her eyebrows, widen her eyes. Tonight, though, she would smile, and then bury her face in the crook of my neck, and then peek back up at him, then raise her whole face to look at him. Then he would smile at her, and she would smile and bury her face again. Over and over. It was so cute!