Thanksgiving Recap

Well, I think our Thanksgiving dinner turned out great! My dad commented that it tasted almost like it would if we were home, so I think that says a lot considering we can't get all our usual ingredients.

We started off the day with a bang by setting off the fire alarm in the kitchen. Totally my fault; I was cooking bacon and let it get a little too crispy. The security guy showed up in less than 5 mins, which actually makes me feel good that they get here so quick.

Lily is going through a phase where she absolutely LOVES being in the kitchen, but throws a fit when she can't see what's going on. She wants to be held, but then gets mad when I pick her up and nothing is going on (because my hands are busy holding her). We set her up in the high chair in the kitchen so she could see, and that made her happy for a little while.

Jim was in charge of pancakes.

Jim told me he was taking this picture so everyone could see I had a cheat sheet. I'm pretty sure no one actually thinks I don't use recipes!

The turkey! It was delicious. The best part of the meal I think.

Dad and I admiring our work. Actually, we were debating on whether we really thought it was done, which we discovered it wasn't. The breast was done but we had to throw the legs back in the oven for a bit.

Our little helper! I think Lily ate her weight in turkey. She kept pulling on my sleeve and signing "more" for more turkey. 

Dad carving the turkey.

It's not easy making an entire Thanksgiving meal with one oven, but we figured it out. By the way, those rolls in there turned out awesome as well, and the recipe is pretty fool-proof. If you are an inexperienced bread-maker I would recommend it. (recipe in my last post)

We also had our new neighbors over, and we had a good time. They have a three year old daughter that Lily loved following around, so the adults actually got to talk for a while.

It was a lot of work, but we have enough leftovers to last a week!! 

Thanksgiving Prep!

Somehow this is our first time to plan a Thanksgiving meal since we've been married! The first year we had just gotten married and were at my parents house in Dickinson. The following year we had just gotten back form our trip to Australia and kept it simple. The year after that we were invited to our friends place in Taipei to celebrate. The next year I went on a girl's trip to Vietnam and Cambodia and Jim went to Colorado by himself. Then last year we were living in Houston and spent Thanksgiving at my parents again.

I'm a little sad we didn't get to do all the fun pumpkin patch pictures with Lily or dress her up in turkey outfits. Remember this from last year?

Those legs!! What a chunk!!

Anyways, this is what's on the menu for our Thanksgiving:

For breakfast:

Pumpkin Pancakes If this recipe turns out well, this may become a family tradition. It's no secret I love everything pumpkin!

For Dinner:

Turkey. I'm using this as a roasting guide: click here

Stuffing. This is a source of conflict in our marriage, and I've been able to avoid it until now. I grew up with white bread dressing (aka the best kind) and Jim grew up with corn bread dressing. So, I think I found a compromise thanks to the wonderful Pioneer Woman: click here

Mashed potatoes. No recipe, this one is easy!

Green Beans. I'm keeping this one easy and using the traditional cream of mushroom soup version, but subbing bread crumbs for the fried onions because we can't get those here.

Rolls. I'm going to try Pioneer woman again on this one. I've read her recipe for dough several times and it seams easy enough but I've never tried it: click here

Deviled Eggs. A tradition for me and super easy: Eggs, mayo and dried mustard with a little paprika. 

Pumpkin Pie. Nothing fancy, just using the recipe that was probably invented by Eagle Brand: click here

It's pretty much just the basics since it will only be a few of us (and our first time to make a lot of these things). My dad is coming and I invited our neighbors over that just moved in (they're American) and they might bring something as well. I just bought our turkey this morning since we don't have the freezer space to store it, so it will immediately begin the slow thawing process in the fridge and then the counter top. 

Well, I was going to post a few random pictures of our own little Punkin, but blogger is telling me I ran out of space for more pictures! Tragic! I'll go fix that stat (i.e. call Jim).

I'll be sure and take pics of all the food and let you know how it turns out! Have a fabulous Thanksgiving!

Halloween

Better late than never! You can blame Colorado State for the lack of blogging the last few weeks. I'm taking two classes right now and they are taking up any free time I have. 

Anyways, this little munchkin got to dress up three times for Halloween! Lily didn't have daycare the entire week of Halloween due to the Eid holiday, so we tried out a different little daycare here in our neighborhood (because mama still had lots of work to do!). I've been wanting to try out this place for a while because it's so convenient, and I've heard from a lot of other moms that they allow you to just drop off your kid for a few hours in the afternoon. I need something like this for the times when both Jim and I are sick (that happened last month) or if I need to take an exam and my proctor can't do it during her day care hours. I found out they do a two day free trial, so Lily went on Halloween and wore her tutu! I figured they could just take the tutu off if it got in the way.

Later that afternoon I got her dressed up in her real Halloween costume...A Flemenco Dancer! Lily's Granny and Grandpa got this dress for her when we were in Spain this summer. She was definitely the only toddler flamenco dancer we saw :)

I got her dressed super early so I could take pictures, and she would not stand still, then she threw a fit because she wanted a cracker.

Lily and her friend Silas looking out at the construction. I never figured out why Silas wasn't wearing any pants...

We go to the playground almost every evening from about 5-6 pm. It's almost always the same moms/kids there everyday, and it's been nice to get to know other people in our neighborhood.

The mom of these two little Pooh Bears was trying her darndest to get a pic with her girls and Lily but Lily would NOT STAND STILL. Story of my life lately.

This is Lily and her friend Harry. Harry is in her class at daycare, and Harry's mom is my proctor for school.

The day after Halloween we had a party with some of our swimming buddies. I didn't take many pictures because I was barely alive. I had food poisoning the night before and was barely hanging on, but I really wanted to take Lily to this party and see some of the moms that I've become friends with. I made some pumpkin muffins for the party right before I got really sick the night before, and they were a huge hit. I even found some cinnamon chips to sprinkle on top! I don't think having pumpkin as a sweet/dessert is very common outside the US, so everyone was in love. Like seriously, I don't think I've ever had people rave about anything I've baked before like they did with these muffins.

Someone brought a ball pit to the party and Lily spent the entire time in it (here she is playing with her friend Callum). She was either in this pit or walking around stealing food off everyone's discarded plates the entire time.

It will be a few years before we get to go trick or treating, since no one does that here. In the meantime, I'm thankful to have found some friends to celebrate with!

Lily James is 15 Months Old!

My poor neglected blog! I promise this won't become a blog that is only updated when Lily turns another month old. However, that is the topic for today :) Instead of pictures for this update, I added some videos. Two are of her "talking" and one is her throwing a fit, which has become a new occurence lately!

- She can say quite a few words now: Mama, Dada, Baby, Ball, Bye-bye, Ni-night, Dog, Duck, Babo, Hi, and Up. Sometimes she gets on a roll and just keeps saying "mama...dada...mama...dada..." over and over again.

- She can also say "no" and knows how to use it! I told her to sit down on the couch the other day and she looked at me and said "NO!"

- The morning nap is officially dropped. I thought it would be a hard transition, but I kind of like it. It's easier to get out of the house more and do something in the mornings before we come home for lunch and a nap.

- She's started taking 3 hr naps almost every day. Especially after day care or swimming lessons.

- She's started sleeping a little later in the mornings, usually until around 7. Bedtime is still 7:30.

- She's becoming quite the social butterfly. I've noticed lately she prefers to play with other kids than toys when we go to the playground. Only problem is most kids her age are not quite at the stage of interacting yet, and the older kids want nothing to do with a "baby."

- We went through a rough patch a couple weeks ago. She decided she wanted to challenge everything we said and threw a fit when we didn't give in. Everything from not letting her stand on the couch, run towards the street while playing outside, playing in the trash, hitting/pinching mama. She would just sit on the floor and cry and keep trying over and over. It's hard not to question everything when that happens. Is daycare a mistake? Am I too hard on her? Too soft? I just need to learn everything is a phase.

- She's still a great eater, but she needs more teeth! Still only 6 teeth, and the poor thing needs some help chewing all this yummy food she sees that she wants.

- She understands a lot. One day I told her to run into our bedroom and say "hi, dada!" and she did it! I was shocked. Another time she was wearing one shoe and we were going outside so I said "where is your other shoe? go find your other pink shoe and bring it to mama," and the lil stinker ran into our bedroom, went around the bed, found her shoe and brought it to me. Again, shocked.

- She's getting more generous with giving hugs and kisses. She almost always gives me one when I ask now.

- She wears anywhere from 18months to 2T tops, and 18 month bottoms. Size 5 shoe, size 5 diaper, and 24 month PJs.


- She's about 27 lbs (90th %tile)

**A note for Christmas: If anyone is reading this and plans on getting this punkin' a Christmas present, don't get anything smaller than 2T or size 6 shoe. And as far as toys, she's just not that in to toys. She still loves books, and her favorites are the ones that make sounds. She has started sitting long enough to watch some cartoons on youtube, so she might like Dora the Explorer DVDs or she likes Peppa the Pig.