Our 1st Thanksgiving!

Okay, so it wasn't really our 1st Thanksgiving, but it was the first time that we hosted Thanksgiving in our home. And just looking at this turkey is making my mouth water! It was hands down the best turkey I've ever tasted! All the props go to the wonderful chef. Seriously, I didn't cook a single thing for this meal! Mitch tried a dry brine recipe on the turkey and it will forever be the only way that he ever makes a turkey again...seriously, it was THAT good. Our friends the Habrock's joined us for the day. It was wonderful to have a relaxing day at home with good friends. Mitch made homemade mashed potatoes, stuffing and sweet potato souffle with homemade gravy from the turkey drippings. No packet gravy up in this house. Tracy and Jason made a green bean casserol, dinner rolls and the pumpkin dessert. It was all so delicious. We all ate way too much!!! Jason was killing me, after lunch he permanently planted himself at the island and nibbled on the turkey all afternoon.

The kids played so great together. We didn't have to break up any fights. They watched Wreck it Ralph while the grown ups played Scene It on the Xbox in the family room. We also enjoyed some beverages. At 6:30 we bellied up to the table for a light dinner. And around 8:30 our guest headed out. It was a great day! Really hope that we get to have more Thanksgivings like this in the future!

I should add that we did have Thanksgiving with my parents, Matt, Cynthia, the kids and Aunt Laura. Since Laura's shower was the weekend before and Laura was flying out on Wednesday we just celebrated Turkey Day a few days early. Thanksgiving is whenever you have time to be with your loved ones and give thanks...Not just the 4th Thursday of November!

Fall Family Pics

I have to say that these are some of my favorite pics to date! Brooke Boyer Photography out of St. Louis does an amazing job. And lucky for me, Brooke is from Springfield so she does mini sessions up in our area at least twice a year. When she reached out to us to do Fall Mini-Sessions I gently urged her to do the shoot at Sugar Creek Covered Bridge just South of Springfield, and it was an absolutely gorgeous setting. It was an almost perfect day. The sun was shining but it was a frigid 42 degrees. The girls have dance leotards on under their dresses to help keep them warm. And you'd never know it but Kiersten was up ALL night long the night before with stomach flu...and lucky me. Leah and Hattie were both sick the next night. Oh well...got my perfect pictures and the girls were good sports. Thanks, Brooke!

 

Carving Pumpkins!

This is one of Daddy's favorite traditions with the girls. He LOVES carving pumpkins. And so far, considering their ages, they have been great little helpers. Last year we did a few traditional jack-o-lanterns and one monster pumpkin. So I got on line and started searching for somethign original that might get the girls excited and when I saw "it"...I knew we had to have "it".
Hattie took very little interest in the pumpkin carving this year, but that's okay. I think she was perfectly adorable wandering around the kitchen with a candy bucket on her head! I threw in pictures of the girls on Halloween too! Ours was pretty uneventful. We went to Charleston, and hit up my old neighborhood and then Matt and Cynthia's neighborhood. It was pouring rain, so the girls weren't out long. But they didn't seem to mind. And had a great time with Macy and Colby, as always!