We gave thanks

Remember when Thanksgiving happened? That was excellent. Let's talk about that.

Tim and K-tosh came. There were late nights of long chats where we tried to figure ourselves out. There were early mornings where we tried to get the most slammin deals possible on crap that we didn't know we needed until it was so cheap. And pictures. Of course, it's Tim for cryin out loud.

I had a big-girl moment when planning the menu for my first ever hosted Thanksgiving. I was dreading cooking a turkey- it takes forever, I hate raw meat, I do not care for turkey so much anyway, and certainly not for eating it for a week after the fact. And that's when it hit me: This is my house. And my party. And I'm buying and cooking the food. I do what I want. We're having ribs. And just like that, I grew up.

So Beldon grilled ribs. And it was everything I never knew I was missing from Thanksgiving. And I made my first pumpkin cheesecake with gingersnap pecan crust. It was my first, but it will not be my last.

We all loved for the Connor's to be here. It was a fantastic-ISH time that came and went all too quickly.


This is the only picture that will download....hmmmmmmm. I could keep trying to figure it out but my next Thanksgiving cheesecake will be in the works by that time.

A case of the Monday/Baby blues

Every Monday Braden has to wear his dress blues to work. Every other day he wears his flight suit (also known as the "poopy suit"- which Anabelle loves). He does not care for Mondays because it is a lot of work to prep his blues and it is not as comfortable. There I am trying to reclaim my house from the weekend madness, clawing my way out of the laundry room, and in walks this cute guy in his dress blues. And as if that wasn't enough, he picks up the babies and plays with them.

Smokin hot. I love Mondays.

Halloweek

Ahhhh! I'm days away from a holiday, I better hurry up and post about the last one.

Does anyone else feel like they go to enough parties and such during the week before that by the time it is actually Halloween night you have accumulated enough candy to redistribute to those who come to your door? At least the suckers and bottlecaps anyway. And the crunch bars, definitely. What an utter waste of calories, whoever concocted those.

Halloween itself ended up with a twist as I enjoyed an overnighter at the hospital with Lila, just for old times sake. Or because a scorpion stung her. A few days before she was in our backyard digging in her spot as she likes to do when she let out a torturous scream of pain. I found her sobbing holding her finger which had an instant blood blister and was swelling by the minute. There were no more doctor appointments for the day and symptoms got better soon so I cleaned it and sterilized it and sorta forgot about it. Until it turned into a staph infection three days later and her hand looked like a purple balloon. Braden took the first shift with her and I showed up for the night shift with Maisey. Lila was a bit sad when I got there but her whole countenance changed once she saw Maisey. I had the fabulous experience of staying up all night with a sinus infection which moved to my mouth and caused my gums to swell up over my teeth (super hot). Redeeming moment of my night came when I heard Lila talking in her sleep to Anabelle and smiling as she told her about something. And truth be told, I don't get to snuggle her in bed much so it was nice that we got to share a little bed together.

While it's true that Gulf Coast does cook up one mean omelet, I just as soon not eat another one if it means no more nights spent there.

Meanwhile, Braden took Anabelle to a few neighborhood houses. We had gone trick or treating the night before in Panama City with some new friends, the Fishes, so at least the kids got to be in their costumes. Anabelle's costume was kind of ruined without her sisters but, she scored candy just the same. She was a zookeeper, Lila was a kangaroo, and Maisey was an elephant. What's that you say? You've seen those costumes before? That's just my way of being green. I'm sickened by the thought of landfills flowing with discarded Halloween costumes so I force my children to wear the same ones over & over. Balances out the diapers we have contributed. Even Steven. What does that even mean anyway?

We didn't get to go to the ward party because that's when we had lice (still grossed out), but we did go trick or treat at Braden's squadron earlier in the week, and also to a friend's Halloween party, so we still managed to get our fill of festivities (and Almond Joy's).



World's laziest costumes.




Anabelle getting briefed on how to obtain the STS (sweet tasting substance). Love military trick or treating.











Waving bye-bye to the hospital






she does not fit in the hospital bassinet any longer. heard it squeak every time she moved all thru the night. Super restful.

Watching Elmo and pounding all the juice she can handle- really not a bad gig for her


Praying over her dinner of Ranch dressing.

Maisey gets to the hospital and all is right in Lila's world.



We went to Boo at the zoo and the real zookeeper jokingly asked her to help him get an escaped lion. Joke not well received by faux keeper. After we assured her that there wasn't really a lion on the loose she continued to get jokes about being the zookeeper. She kept explaining to all these foolish adults, "I'm not even an adult! I don't even have a job"!

fighting over who gets to hug (choke) her first

looks like she's been eating candy too


A friend gave us this fairy costume and it basically melts my heart.

I love it when really great people come to visit...

...you know, as opposed to the creepos off the street that we invite to spend the night under the same roof as our little girls.

Today is the month anniversary of when our best good pals the Jensens came to visit us from Bama. I really wanted to post about it sooner but it took me a whole month to get over the fact that they left. Plus, I've been buried in laundry up to Lila's fuzzy white head. It was in my mind, a perfect weekend. The weather was beautiful, our kids had playmates that they love, and we got to hang with Neil & Amanda into the wee hours of the morning. Sleepovers are the best. Do come again, Jensens.

Miss Maisey is 3 months old today

Squishy

Happy

Smiley

Rolley

Smothered in love

Content

How I love to snuggle my Maisey

The reason we don't have zoo passes

The above images were taken from my back yard. Where my children play. To be fair, there is a chain link fence (with wide gaping openings at the bottom) separating our yard from the lake. I had the fortunate experience of watching this guy eat lunch the other day. Took him about nine hours to chew down this ill-fated leather back turtle, who is also quite ugly himself. Actually kinda hard to feel bad for the guy- he looks so squishy and disgusting. Ugly eating ugly seems okay to me- so long as I never see him eating one of the frolicking deer or the bald eagle who comes in the evenings. I won't say I haven't felt a concern for the extremities and digits of my children. I think they are more scared of me than I am of them though. I think we've seen three different gators lurking. The big guy seems to be on to my picture stalking and has started to go in the water when he hears my patio door open.

In our neighborhood thus far we have encountered gators, deer (always running the streets and will walk along side you), bunnies, coyotes, foxes, two black bears which frequently eat our trash, wild turkeys, rattlesnakes (neighbors have recently found a 6 footer and a 3 footer coiled up in their backyards), and size 8.5 roaches (I know this because they were the size of my shoes). Braden had a very American commercial-esque moment the other day as he was outside grilling: the national anthem was playing as it does everyday at 5, two fighters were flying overhead, and the bald eagle landed by the lake. The eagle is my new favorite pet to watch, as I do not fear he will swoop up my children. There is a small sick part of me that wouldn't mind seeing him snatch up one of the many white Harons prancing out back, just to witness the circle of life.

(side note: the other day in scripture time I asked Anabelle if she knew who Harod was and she said, "yeah, those big white birds outside").

So who wants to come visit?