the day addie found her voice...

...was last week - holy cow! the girl can yell! suddenly, i am having to relearn her vocal cues, as she has discovered she can PROJECT that little voice! i can't tell for sure if she's happy, sad, hungry, sleepy, or just listening to herself :)

please pray for the poor souls on the airplane :)

and prepare yourselves - it could be a very, um, we'll say exciting visit.

!

she looks so sweet and innocent, doesn't she!?

did you know?

yesterday, December 3rd, mom & dad celebrated their 33rd wedding anniversary??? that is amazing!!! Darren, the kids, and I wish them a wonderful {belated} anniversary!!!



we love you and can't wait to see you in just 19 more days!!!

some things are more important than others

examples:

• growing really long hair on top of your head, rubbing a bald spot on the back of your head, and shedding the hair on the left side of your head. moderately important.
  
• staring at your new stripey-stocking feet as if they are aliens. important.
  
• sucking your thumb between bites of cereal. very important.
• craning your neck to see anything that has color, or moves, or isn't directly in front of you while drinking your bottle. incredibly important.
• sleeping 16 hours a day. pretty darn important. it makes you happy.
  
• clasping your hands together when your mom is trying to lift your shirt over your head. vitally important.
  
• being so excited to go to sleep that you kick the blanket off. of utmost importance.
• grimacing at the first bite of cereal and reveling in the second. your life depends on it.
• being so excited to greet the day you can barely contain yourself and alternate between trying to widen your smile by an extra inch, kicking your legs with all your might, and clasping your hands together while you bury your face in mommy's neck and wiggle your little self. the world revolves around it.

you need to experience it to fully understand
how important such things are
in the life of a 4 1/2 month old.

but how could you not appreciate all these things
when she smiles like this?
seriously.

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