Thanksgiving Photo Essay

So, when I got up Thanksgiving morning, I decided I was going to document our day in photos the best I could. I tend to start out with good intentions, bring the camera but then never take it out of it's case. This became very evident when Todd passed away and all of the holidays and vacations our families spent together were left just to our memories, because we forgot to take pictures! Pick up the camera people and take pictures of today!!!!! I did a little better this year. So here it goes. Enjoy!!


Faith and her dog intently watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade.







Kylee and Seth intently watching the parade.










Josh, intently watching the parade.









Daddy, still in bed. Yeah, I am probably going to be in trouble for this :)





Monkey Bread!!!!!!








Jasmine, waiting for daddy to get up.












Mike making eggs to go with our monkey bread. I tried to get him to take a serious picture, but not so much.







Kylee and I making cranberry relish, with the Magic Bullet. And when you use the Magic Bullet you must always do the info-mercial that goes along with it.






Got to the Mitchell's house and was greeted by a huge hairy spider!! I think I have grandma Jo to thank for that :)








Paula busy at the sink in preparation for our big meal.










Seth and Jackson playing some Playstation before dinner.







Jackson and Seth deep in conversation during our feast!







Our family eating. Man we missed Todd. I think we all made a choice to focus on what we were grateful, thankful for this day, but there was definitely a big Todd sized void.





Joshi chowing down!







Josh and Sam clinking cups of apple cider.






Faith and I posing for a picture.








Mike and I posing for a picture.








Kylee posing for a picture during dinner. How did I miss the hat at dinner???












Mike, our wine steward.









Then after dinner was over Mike took my kids home and P.'s mom took her kids home and we got to work on the ads. As you can see it is very hard work.



Paula, also busy at work.









We wanted a picture together but we were alone so here is our attempt.




And here I am after a couple hours of sleep at, 3:30 in the morning, ready to depart with our ads!

That is it, I wasn't about to leave my camera in the car while we shopped, but there is a camera phone picture out there somewhere of me in a Shiatsu chair enjoying a free message at one of the stores :)

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Pirates Island

Here is the pirate ship before it went to the party, sans sails.





























The pirate ship at the party all ready for it's final voyage.










And finally the pirate ship with cannons blazing.






Kristen

Are You Ready For Some Football?

So it's Wednesday, and it has been a very busy week!

My good friend Paula had a birthday (happy birthday friend!) as well as her twin boys (born on her birthday seven years ago). Her oldest son had a birthday a couple of weeks ago and so they had all their birthday parties this week. I told Paula I would make their birthday cakes for them, for their parties, as a present to her, for her birthday.

I bet you can't guess what the first party's theme was?

It seemed like such a simple cake but it gave me the hardest time. Partially because I insisted on using the yummy frosting that is really horrible to work with. Partially because after I finished the logo I didn't realize that my decorating bag was dragging across the cake and wiped it entirely off the cake :(

The second party had a pirate theme. We found the cake idea on familyfun.com. The pirate ship was no problem but I had read that it was difficult to keep together so I created an ocean out of a sheet cake for it to sit in. It was so easy and very cute. Lukey, one of the birthday boys, wanted to contribute his shark to the ocean so that was very fun!!

I loved giving this special gift to the boys and their mom! It was fun and I hope they all know from it how special they are to me and my family!!

I will post pictures of the pirates cake when I get them.

Kristen

Food Issues

Tomorrow we are going to hit a Greek restaurant for lunch!! I am excited about it. I can't say I have eaten much Greek food. I looked at some recipes to maybe make some but there were just too many strange ingredients that I was afraid of. Who know maybe I will try it and decide to cook it myself!!

I did make an awesome crock pot full of chili tonight which was gobbled by everyone except my one sweet picky eater. Faith has really grown and gotten to be such a great eater, but chili is just asking a little much.

Eating was a parenting issue that I wasn't sure how to deal with when we first became parents. I struggled quite a bit with food when I was little. I was determined not to create those same problems in my child, but created in the process a whole slew of other issues. I was determined not to make her eat anything she didn't want to when she was very little. I ended up creating a very strong willed not-eater.... A few years into it Mike and I changed our philosophy on parent-feeding, and things have gone a lot smoother. We began encouraging her to try new things in small bits. It was not a pretty sight in the beginning. Let me tell you there were some down right ugly meals. But when she realized our will was stronger than hers and we weren't asking her to eat an entire plate of something she hated, she did begin to try new things. We were able to slowly add more and more things and increase the amounts. We went from a child that wouldn't eat pizza with sauce on it to a child that would not only eat the sauce but ask for pepperoni on it!! Now she doesn't love certain things still, like spaghetti with sauce and meatloaf will never be a fave, but she will eat a Faith portion with very little complaint and will even thank me afterwards for making her dinner!

Kristen

Girls Night Out

Josh and Seth got to go to a birthday party Saturday night. Since it was at a Jackhammers game I thought it would be great for Mike to take the boys, while the girls and I went out for some fun.

We wanted to go and see Nancy Drew but of course the weekend we could finally go and see it, it was not playing anywhere. So we decided on dinner at Chili's then a trip to the bookstore for some browsing and coffee and dessert at Starbucks.

Dinner was fun. My girls are great to hang out with. Faith and I shared a Buffalo Chicken Salad and Kylee had a hamburger. We talked and laughed and had a great time.

Then we headed to Toys R Us because Kylee still had some unspent birthday money from Nana and Papa. She made her purchases and we headed across the street to Barnes and Noble. They both found a couple of books to take on their trip next week and we had some awesome coffee and delicious cookies for dessert.

We got home around nine and we were all ready for bed. We got cleaned up and crashed in my bed to read for a bit before the boys came home.

Thanks for the fun evening girls!!!

Kristen

Great to be Back

Did I happen to mention what a great day it was yesterday? Let's see there are so many reasons why.

Let's start with the fact that I have not been to The Orchard for several weeks because of the kids sickness and then our trip. I missed it!! It was great to be back. There is no place like it!! The service was awesome. The video was inspiring and exciting. Scott's talk was pumped up and the music was HOT!!! The first few songs had great energy and you could feel the Spirit all around. But the last song was on fire!! Mike and the team did a little garbage can banging at the beginning and end of the Noise We Make. It was so awesome. Scott even jumped up on stage and grabbed a can. I can't do it justice you really had to be there. Then, I got be a small group leader in Wahabu land. I love my 1st and 2nd grade girls!! They are so awesome. What a great day!!

Then the weather was so gorgeous, I actually drove home with all of the windows down on the van. Came home opened all the windows of the house and enjoyed the awesome breeze.

After that I threw together some Fet Kook, curry chicken and curry lentils. Todd and Paula came over and we enjoyed our meal and played some cards.

What a great day!!

Kristen

Fat Cakes

The one thing you need to understand about my good friend Venessa is she can cook like nobody's business!! I mean really cook. She can cook anything. Well, one of my favorite things that she cooks is called Fet Kook. I am sure I spelled that incorrectly since it is Afrikaans and I don't speak or spell it I am just spelling the way it sounds when she says it to me. It means fat cakes and let me tell you that is exactly what would happen if you ate too many of them. But oh man, do I love them. She makes a bread dough. Delicious. Then she makes little buns and lets them raise. Next she drops them in a pan with hot oil and continually pours the hot oil over the tops of them until they puff up. You turn them once and when they are brown you pull them out and let them cool. But not too much!! They are soooo good hot. She made me some curry to eat on it. And not just any curry but the real deal. Spices from Sri Lanka with meat and veggies, and lentils. Oh my goodness. Then we just cut open the hot cakes and pile it with the curry.

I really have to stop talking about it because my mouth is watering....


She has made this for me many times before but this time was different. I watched this time and she sent me home with spices. If you come to my house you may become a guinea pig.


I will warn you first.

Kristen