Thanksgiving

 Our first hosted Thanksgiving went off without a hitch! After one full day of floor to ceiling cleaning, several hours preparing delicious smelling dishes and one large turkey we welcomed 18 family members into our home for a day of Thanks giving :)  This Thanksgiving marked the one year anniversary of our Big announcement! 

One year since we took this picture

And One year since I started this Blog to document my pregnancy and our journey into parenthood

We are so thankful for this healthy happy baby girl!

And I'm thoroughly enjoying her smirk here ;)

Thanksgiving started out early as we peeled potatoes, decorated the three season room & prepared a turkey <--I did not toss my cookies but scene in the kitchen as I had to extract the giblets should have been submitted to AFHM...

Skeeter<-- our house guest for the month of December helped us peel the potatoes too

My fancy dishes from my mama finally got their turn in the spotlight :)

All gathered around the table, passing dishes family style

My Aunt Robin makes the best buckeyes!

My Uncle Johnny and Babes

And Aunt Amy

After Dinner, it was Bingo time!

Notable Bingo gifts include: A Do Rag, head scratcher, Hot sauce from a casino and an incredible amount of cat/dog treats.

Even Babes got her Bingo On

And Left Right Center

Papa Ron

Adelie & Jaxson- 5M (3 days apart)

Aunt Jamison

My granny

And when the last of the leftovers were packed away ate.

And the last of my family rolled  walked out the front door.

And when Adelie laid her sweet head down in her crib.

My cousin Elaina & I headed out into the madness of

BLACK THURSDAYFRIDAY SHOPPING

for 1.96 dvds

King Size sheets for our new bed

And Alfredo

But mostly for the people watching.

And now,

onto Baby's first Christmas!

We are in LOVE with this softer than soft Candy Cane Onesie

Thanksgiving Festiveness

When I was given the opportunity to host a family Holiday, I jumped for joy!  I had always dreamed of being able to, and never thought I would get the chance since the Holidays have always been owned by my mother and Aunts ;)  My mom was the queen of throwing parties and I am so tickled to step into her shoes for my family this year. Everyone misses her extra around Thanksgiving as it was her holiday.  She bought Brandon and I this amazing china for our wedding which we have never gotten to use because honestly we have never had a fancy dinner party. 

Well mama! I'm breaking out the china!

This is what our Thanksgiving feast will consist of

Turkey 

I'm cooking it.  Let's pray we don't have a repeat Christmas Vacation moment.

Mashed Potatoes & Gravy

Stuffing

Garden Salad

Sweet Rolls

Green Bean Casserole

Corn Casserole

Alfredo Meatballs

Buckeyes

Pumpkin Pie

Festive Punch

I think I just gained 10lbs typing that.

Decor

I'm pinteresting like a crazy person to come up with a combination of festiveness to dress up our 3 season room! Now normally during the colder months it serves as an extra large walk in cooler, but it's just too pretty to not use as our dining room! It has floor to ceiling windows and we don't get to use it nearly enough! (would be totally awesome if it were to snow during dinner ;)

For our Thanksgiving Table decor, I'm thinking a combo of branches, mason jars, elegant dishes, crisp white serving platters, pumpkins and random dashes of gold glitter!

Games

For our family it is key to have a good variety of games when we gather.  Since we're already a loud family, some of these games get completely out of hand. But holy cow SO fun. We might need to invest in earmuffs for the wee ones ;)

Bingo

Up and down, diagonal, postage stamp four corners and dirty

This is a staple at our Thanksgivings. Each family brings 10 items and we hoot and holler over who gets a bimbo bingo. And all waiting for my granny to call out that one chip that will make my brother shriek B4? B4 what?!?

Left Right Center

The dice game. If you've never played it, you need to! I have never seen adults fight over quarters like I do during this game! And the chanting! There's always Chanting! left! left! left! right! right!right!

Apparel

This will be what we will be sporting this Turkey Day! A clash of Old Navy, Gap and American Eagle :)

What about all of you? Have any fun Thanksgiving traditions or plans?

Week 22

We are starting to feel the cold coming! Snow flurries throughout the weekend! Brrrrr! Adelie is living in her nine month long sleeve onesies, leggings and slippers (she has quite the collection of those). Miss Ads is one lonnggg Babe. She is still hanging out in the 100th percentile for height and 78th for weight. Five months old on friday, she can now roll over (I think she'll be semi-crawling before she sits) oink, fake cough, make a pretty great Mexican parrot noise and is eating baby foods stage 1 for two meals a day!  

I believe we are now smack dab in the middle of the most frustrating baby stage for both her and us.  I've heard that the 4th and 5th month are the least favorite months because she wants to move but can't. She can roll over but can't roll back. She wants to sit up but isn't strong enough. Basically she wants to sit on your lap and be carried around because she wants to constantly see something new.  She even gets frustrated in her jumperoo, because she refuses to extend her frog legs and jump. (Product of being an overdue baby ;) Add teething on top of these frustrations and you have a slobbery loud busybody.

I love that slobbery loud busybody but holy cow. 

Looking forward to month 6 so the poor girl can sit up and not have to rely on us to explore :(  

P.S. Little lady officially has two teethies!!

but you can only see them when she cries, because when she smiles only her top gummies show ;) 

In holiday news we have been scouring the web for brilliant toys that will engage her and that she won't grow out of in two seconds.  I've come to the conclusion that we will be getting her a few Fisher Price toys, but I'm really into the handmade selections I've been stumbling upon!  Etsy is the most adorable marketplace for one of a kind kids toys!  I'm still on the hunt for the perfect stocking.  B and I have had our matching ones for quite a long time and trying to find a similar one has proven to be quite the challenge!

Our home will officially be home to our Family Thanksgiving this year!

We are so incredibly excited to host this year and cannot wait to have all of our family in the same place to gawk at the babies to eat great food and share lots of laughs!

A complete rundown on our Thanksgiving prep food & House decor coming tomorrow! :)

The girl is a texting fool!

Baby Steamroller

A cup of Springers makes everything better

Adelie's Birth Video

I started her Birth Video the week after she was born and wouldn't you know it, life happened and it got set aside in the I'll finish it later pile. Well 5 months late is better than never! :) 

This is what the happiest day of our lives looks like

25 Days of Festiveness

So because I absolutely LOVE this idea, we are jumping on the bandwagon and doing a 

25 days of Christmas

 this year! 

No not ABC family, although Yes, we will be watching. This 25 days of Christmas will be 25 things we will be doing to prepare ourselves for the most wonderful time of the year :) One fun festive thing to do once a day as a family every day in December until Christmas!

Here's our List,
1. Put up the Christmas tree
2. Go Buy the perfect shade of red nail polish
3. Clean all the wood floors with Pine sol
4. Make paper snowflakes to hang from the ceiling
5.Skype a family member 
6. Attend a Holiday Party
7. Host a Holiday Party
8.Watch Christmas Movies all day as a family
9.Go harvest evergreen sprigs and place throughout the house. I can smell it now!!
10. Bake Christmas cookies & Hand deliver them to Family+Friends
11.Place a mistle toe. In a few places ;)
12.Read Adelie a Christmas Book
13. Come up with a way to showcase all our Christmas Cards
14. Find the perfect Xmas Pjs
15.Go shopping decked in Red + Green
16.Make something Cinnamon and fill the house with an amazing smell
17. Buy a present for a Child on the giving tree
18.Host a Holiday Photo shoot
19.Bring a festive lunch to B at work
20.Drink Hot Coco in front of the fireplace + watch Christmas Vacation
21.Go out to eat & leave a generous tip
22. Go to a Christmas Mass
23. Give the Dogs a nice warm bath & the bunnies extra Carrots
24. Bake sweets for Santa and inform Brandon of his role
25. Make a very festive Breakfast and enjoy our first Christmas as a family of 3 :)

This is such a fun idea and we can't wait to start this as a new tradition! XO