Thanksgiving Dinner

While I was pretty impressed with how The Turkey came out (we tried brining this year), I am hoping to get some more pictures from my sisters to show the real fun we had with our visitors.  I seriously have only 3 pictures from this weekend, and they're all of Scott cutting the turkey!

The kids had the whole week off and it was nice to not have to worry about schedules or homework for a while.  We did have some sickness early in the week.  Jake passed his cold to me, Eden and Andrew both had a stomach bug.  But, by the time our guests arrived Wednesday evening we were on the mend.  Dana & Guillaume caught a ride with his sister and husband, and they even made room so Michell could come from Rexburg too!

It was so nice to have the extra hands in the kitchen on the day of.  We had lots of things that would be best if we made shortly before serving.  We were shooting to eat at 3pm, and we sat down at about 3:40, so not too bad, considering all the food came from one kitchen!  There's no way it would have been all done if I had been cooking all by myself.  Here's the menu, with my own notes for next year:

turkey- saoked in a brine overnight, then we cooked it breast-side down for the first hour, came out pretty good, maybe try buttering it before cooking next year (PW makes it look so good), 11 lbs.  was a pretty good size
garlic mashed potatoes- red, unpeeled,
stuffing- added sauteed onion and celery to stovetop stuffing
cream corn- Cream Corn Like No Other from Recipes.com, remember to warm it up in the crockpot next year
green bean salad- had butter, bacon, and sliced almonds from The Girl Who Ate Everything, much better than green bean casserole, maybe use less bacon next time
spinach & cranberry salad- Jamie's Spinach salad, used store dressing, make a half recipe, since it doesn't keep well for leftovers
dessert-y sweet potatoes- from the Guthrie's, half it next year
gravy- from the drippings!
cranberry sauce

dessert: probably need to narrow it down to 3 or 4 next year, but they were all yummy, and we used our own pumpkin puree for all the pumpkin recipes
pumpkin roll
pumpkin pie
double layer pumpkin cheesecake- TGWAE
apple crisp- TGWAE, only cooked half a recipe, good thing
peppermint oreos- TGWAE, make a half recipe next year, but this was the first thing gone!

Another list for another weekend

This weekend was preceeded by a pretty nice week, minus Jake hanging on to his cold that started the previous week.  Scott was home for 5 days instead of the usual 4 and we got a few things done around the house, including Scott deep-cleaning the stove, and staining our front door.  Isn't he great?!

1.  I ran about 14 miles on Friday.  I'm not 100% committed to the half marathon in a couple weeks (I'm waiting to see what the forecast is for race day). (Which probably makes the mileage sound even crazier to those of you who already think I'm crazy.)

2.  Jacob has been sick with a cold and whiny most of the week.

3.  I was supposed to participate in a 5k with a bunch of ladies from our ward Saturday morning, but couldn't bring myself to ditch a whiny, slime-faced Jake on any of our baby-sitters (I want to make sure they actually want to take care of my kids!)  Of course, Scott had to go back to work with the morning shift on Saturday.

4.  I took the kids to the zoo on Saturday morning instead.  I used up almost an entire package of tissues with Jake.  It was pretty cold, so that didn't help his current condition.  One of the kids favorite things at our zoo, is the place called My Big Backyard.  There are a few farm animals there, and some BIG backyard items.

The kids requested that the black chicken be in the photo too.

5.  Yesterday afternoon, I went visiting teaching, which is always good, and then to Costco.  I stocked up on things (Nutella!) from the coupon book and got only a few other things that we were out of, but didn't have coupons for.  My savings were about 15% from the coupons, on top of the fact that I was buying in bulk from Costco!! The checkout guy was impressed too.

6.  I caught Jake's cold yesterday. (I know it's only just begun because it's only affecting one side of my face so far. Lovely.)

7.  Scott and I had a nice date-night at home with Shawn Spencer and Burton Guster.  Dinner was take-out from a local restaurant that sent Scott a $10 gift certificate.  The Mile-High Ice-cream Pie was delicious and HUGE.  We'll finish it off tonight when he gets home. :)

8.  This morning, Scott made crepes- SO YUMMY!-  then we played some card games with the kids.  Fortunately? I decided to stay home from church with all the kids, since Jake and I have colds (Scott's working this afternoon- of course!) I got to Skype with my mom and sister in Belgium and eat Tam-Tams with Stephen's Hot Cocoa (Chocolate Raspberry flavor if you must know).

9.  Andrew got tummy-sick. I'm glad it didn't happen at church. But now I have 2 whiny, sick boys.  Did I mention Scott's at work?

10.  I made 3 pumpkin rolls to be filled with cream cheese frosting and frozen later tonight or tomorrow.

11.  I'm having Thanksgiving at my house. I'm a little nervous about all the cooking, but we're excited for the company!  I do have a plan for cooking most of the food ahead of time and just heating it up on Thursday. It involves me doing some amount of cooking (besides our regular meals) every day this week. I really can't afford any more sickness around here.

12.  So... Not a completely horrible way to spend the weekend, but not quite the 'BANG!' I was hoping to start out the Thanksgiving Week Break the kids have.  That's right, they get the WHOLE week off, and I'm trying to make that a good, fun, healthy thing for all of us, while still staying somewhat sane. :)

For your viewing pleasure, here are some crafty things I've been up to lately (not this weekend):

The wreath idea came from my friend Jessica's blog, Sherbert Cafe.  The rest came from our ward's Super Saturday.  I was in charge of 'teaching' the Cookies for Santa plate.

 

This is vinyl stickers on a circle cut from an acetate sheet (like they use for over-head projectors).  Then rolled it up to get it inside the flattened sphere ornament and then add some 'snow'.  So easy, the kids helped me make them at home.



And here's a new 'old' post about a morning at the hot air balloon festival:
Colorado Springs Balloon Classic

1:50:06!!!

...or 1:52:30

Here I am still in the first half of the race, feeling good. And how could I not when I had a van full of fans cheering me on?

This is not the greatest view of me, but it does show my clock time. Actually, given the look on my face the last few miles, this probably is my better side. ;)  ['TMI' details on my running blog only]

I started my watch started when I crossed the start line, and paused it for one pit stop (luckily there was no line!), and I stopped it right after they ripped my tag off my bib, not more than a few seconds after crossing the finish. So take your pick- I'll take the watch-time!

And here is my fan club, these guys sat in their van for nearly two hours and cheered me on while their mom took lots of pictures, and the girls even gave up their room for me the night before the race, thanks again! I am so lucky!

The best part of the weekend was spending some time with my friend TeraLyn, I even brought my camera to get a picture of the two of us, but completely forgot to get a picture. And I discovered Noodles is a yummy place to eat! Thank you, thank you Rocknak Family!

Halloween 2010

We didn't get a lot of pictures of our Halloween festivities, which mainly consisted of our ward's Fall Festival. {Chili Cook-off, Brownie Bake-off, carnival games, and trunk or treat.} Scott and I are on the activities committee and were heavily involved in pulling the whole thing off, and I didn't even think about my camera the whole night, so we don't have many pictures.



We did have this yummy guy for dinner one night last week.  (Jacob didn't get the 'funny face' directions.)



Merlia (Barbie), Iron Man, and The Tiger are excited about the candy, just a little.

Enjoying their loot.  Jake is a major candy-monster.  If you don't want him to eat it, you better not let him see it.

huh.

Does anyone else get messages to their inbox that look like some random person has commented on a blog post, but then when you actually look at the post, the comment isn't there?  This has happened a few times in the last few months.  Thankfully, nothing obscene so far, and since the posts don't seem to be real, I'm thinking it's some kind of spam.

Museum fun with Logan

Last week, my brother came out for an ROTC convention in Denver.  He was nice enough to come a little early and play with us at the Littleton Historical Museum (the kids had another day off of school- what's up with October?).  First we stopped at a grocery store to grab a quick lunch (Lunchables are a HUGE treat for our kids).  We ate at a park right across from the museum.  The kids had tons of fun, and burned some energy so they were a little more excited for the museum after the long ride up to Denver.

Jake's favorite was this climbing wall, and he could scale it all by himself!

The museum is pretty great, and free to the public.  It is the only Smithsonian affiliate in the state of Colorado.  The museum itself has a few exhibits, including some hands-on stuff for the kids.  Then there are two 'working' farms, circa 1860s and 1890s.  It's amazing the change that 30 years could make, when that 30 years brings the railroad in.  Their website said that they have people working the farms in costume from the time period.  But, we missed all of them, I think because we waited until after lunch.  (I caught a glimpse of somebody driving a wagon at one of the farms while we were still at the park.)  So next time, I think we'll make sure we go when we can see them in action.  They keep farm animals there, but the kids favorite was a little cat they found relaxing in a window of the 1890s farmhouse.  Of course the cat bolted as soon as the house became over-run with cat-loving kids.

The kids could have spent a lot longer at these hands-on parts of the museum.  Andrew kept saying he was "The King of England!"

Thanks for playing with us Logan!  Hopefully Anna can come next time!

Fun at a 'pumpkin patch'

Scott's parents were able to visit with us for a few days before Eden's baptism.  Originally, I had picked out a different farm where we could go into a real pumpkin patch and pick our pumpkins.  But, this one was closer, with a petting farm, and a deal running for half-off adult admission.  And each admission came with a *free* pumpkin- any size.  (And I mistakenly thought there was a real pumpkin patch too.)  When we got there we found out they also had some other things to offer:

- a camel, seriously

- lots of fences for little Jake to climb (Andrew joined in too)

- a slide down into a small gorge

- pony rides (the kids also got to ride a barrel train)

 

- a hay-bale pyramid to climb on (there was also duck racing and large containers full of dried corn for the kids to play in) and *a little* of wind.  Even with Andrew's pointing finger, that is by far the best picture we got.

Notice how our pumpkins are all pretty much the same size?  Well, the 'pumpkin patch' consisted of a fenced in area with pumpkins spread all over.  And they were all pretty much the same size.  (Luckily, there was a wheelbarrow available for transporting our SEVEN pumpkins!)  A little disappointing, since I had envisioned a less homogenous display on our front porch.  But, I think we'll be making some pumpkin recipes soon- without using a can!