Thanksgiving Week Advendures

This last Thanksgiving holiday was one of the best I can remember yet! It was actually a whole week of fun adventures and outings.

The fun began the Saturday before Thanksgiving, November 17th, with Scott's parents flying into town from Utah. They didn't get in until late in the evening, so when Kyle woke up on Sunday morning and I told him to go into the guest bedroom to see Grandma and Grandpa, he was SO EXCITED! And so the spoiling began!

After attending stake conference on Sunday we came home, ate dinner and headed off to Williamsburg, VA. (Scott and I have been there a few times, but we've never taken Monte and Sherry.) Our awesome friends and neighbors, the Arnolds, let us borrow their mini-van so that we could ride in comfort. We got Kyle all settled in his pack-n-play for bed time in our motel room and then went to the room next door to play much awaited games. (I promise we weren't irresponsible parents just leaving Kyle in the room by himself. We made sure to have rooms that are literally next to each other and had a door connecting them on the inside. Along with that we had a baby monitor.) Pinochle and Settlers of Catan were the games of choice that evening. (And every other evening they were here!)

On Monday morning we got up and headed into Historic Williamsburg for site-seeing and shopping. It was an overcast day, but not too cold, and there weren't too many other tourists there, so it was totally enjoyable.

After enjoying Williamsburg all we could, we headed over to Jamestown to watch the glass blowing demonstrations. (Which is one of my favorite things to do down there. It is SO interesting to see the people make glassware right there in front of your eyes, they are so talented.) Kyle's favorite thing was to toss rocks into the river!

The day ended with an uneventful yet enjoyable drive back to Bealeton.

The next two days were spent playing games, Kyle getting undivided attention from Grandma and Grandpa, grocery shopping for the big day, preparing any food that could be prepared in advance, and baking pies. (The pie part was Sherry's job, she did a GREAT job!) Our Aunt Wendy's family drove up from North Carolina on Wednesday to join us for Thanksgiving too! (Wendy is Scott's Mom Sherry's baby sister.)

Thanksgiving dinner was pulled off without a hitch! I was in charge of the main dishes (the Turkey, stuffing, gravy, and sweet potatoes) and I had Scott's mom and aunt in charge of rolls, mashed potatoes, and a fruit salad. Other than the Turkey taking about half an hour longer to bake than I expected, our dinner was AWESOME!

(Aunt Wendy & family sitting at our pretty table!)

Friday began VERY early for me! (In more ways than one) Kyle had a rough night and woke up a few times. (I'm thinking that he was just WAY TOO overstimulated. He is deinitely not use to six extra bodies in our house, two of whom are playing with all his toys!) I was out the door by 5:30 AM to hit JoAnn's 'Black Friday' doorbuster sales. I just couldn't pass up the $.99 cent/yd flannel. It was my first time doing the whole early morning doorbuster thing, but it was pretty fun and my trip to JoAnn's was successful! I got a ton of material for an unbeatable price. Luckily I was one of the first people in the doors and I knew exactly what I wanted, so 28 bolts of flannel later I was cut and out the door by 6:45 am! (Yes, you read that right, 28 different bolts of material. It's officially an obsession.) I was home by 7:10 am and as happy as could be! Scott's mom and aunt Wendy got up soon after and then we headed out again around 8:30 or so to hit a few other doorbuster sales up in Manassas. Overall, it was a fun day, but I was EXHAUSTED when it was all over! Luckily we had plenty of leftovers from our Thanksgiving dinner and we had that for dinner again.

Aunt Wendy and her family took off on Saturday morning. We were watching our friend's son for the weekend (Jack is one of Kyle's best buddies), and wanted to get out to do something fun. We ended up going to Great Falls Ntl. Park (the VA side), and had a great time. (Any of you who live in the area and haven't been there yet need to go check it out. It it totally inexpensive to go, and a fun outing for the kids and family.) Kyle and Jack loved climbing on the rocks and were totally mesmerized by all the falls. We even lucked out an got to see a couple of kyakers (I have no idea how to spell that and it is so far off that the spell check isn't even giving me ideas, sorry.) go over the falls. AMAZING!


Needless to say, after all our adventures during the week, Sunday, a day of REST, was very welcomed.

Scott's parents left on Wednesday, Nov 28th. We had such a great visit with them. One of the best I can ever remember. It was so much fun to have them for a week and a half. The length of time was just perfect...not too long, not too short. It only took Kyle a few days to warm up to them. He so enjoyed their visit that when they got out of the car at the airport he totally melted and started balling calling for Grandma and Grandpa. It was heartbreaking. I'm not sure we'll be able to top this Thanksgiving Holiday for years to come!

The next John Stockton...

This is a little shot that we like to call 'The Lazy Lay-Up"!



Kyle's Grandma and Grandpa Walters got this hoop for him when he turned two. He plays with it all the time and had actually gotten decently good. He hits this particular shot 8 out of 10 times! It cracks me up every time. There is just something oddly funny about shooting baskets while chillin' in the window seal.

This second video is inspired by my friend Jamie (Russell Family Blog) who posted an adorable video of her daughter (22 months old) rockin' out at their Halloween party. I just couldn't resist capturing Kyle's dancing on film as well. His new style is all about the head bang. (We have no idea where he came up with this, but it's pretty funny.)

Favorite Appliance!

Seriously, how much better can it get than being able to cook three sheets of cookies at once? I LOVE my convection oven!! Is it bad to say that one of my most favorite things about our house is the convection oven? It's great!

I pretty much use it for cooking everything but bread and cakes. It cooks things much faster and preheats in about half the time as well. Not only does it cook things quicker, but because the fan is circulating you can cook on all the racks and still get even heat. It has changed my view on baking cookies...because I can do a batch in 1/3 of the time that I use to be able to! No more cooking one sheet, and then the next, and so on. The only draw back is that like I said I can't use it for cakes or bread, because it cooks the outside too fast so the insides don't get the chance to cook.

I am totally looking forward to using my double oven to it's full capacity this Thanksgiving. I can cook my Turkey and stuffing in one oven, and rolls and pie and whatever else needs to be cooked in the other. It should be fun! (Yes, I realize that I'm pathetic saying it will be 'fun' to cook Thanksgiving dinner, but what can I say? I enjoy it!)

By the way, the cookies that are in the picture in the oven are THE BEST! Most of you who read this have already made them and love them as much as I do (I got the recipe, if you can call it a recipe, from Lynette following last month's card swap that I participate in.) If you haven't had them yet...give them a try, they're a cakewalk to make and taste fabulous!!

Low-Fat Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
1 box Spice Cake Mix
1 15 oz. can 100% Pure Pumpkin
1/2 to 3/4 bag of Semi-Sweet chocolate chips
*Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Mix together cake mix and pumpkin until WELL mixed. Add chocolate chips and mix. Drop by the teaspoon full onto uncreased cookie sheet and bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until done.
(They don't make the 'prettiest' looking cookies, but they are so good that it's almost impossible to stop at just one!)

Ice Ispeees Chaleese......

Translation - Rice Krispies Please!!! This is Kyle's current food of choice. Nope, I don't even sweeten it with sugar or honey, and the kid LOVES them. He would have a bowl of 'ice ispeees' at least five times a day (okay, probably even more) if I let him. Bummer for him, I'm determined to not let him be a picky eater, so he only gets them for breakfast. What's amazing is that he can eat a 'man size' bowl of them! For those of you who have been with us from the beginning of his little life, you realize how great this is...yes, he is actually ASKING for food! I couldn't resist taking this cheezy picture of him this morning. He was so cute in his blanket sleeper overjoyed because he was eating his 'ice ispeees'!

On to Halloween...
Everybody has been posting such cute pictures of their little ghosts and goblins. I love seeing how everybody chooses to dress up themselves and their children...and the children who are old enough to choose for themselves! Halloween is such a fun holiday.

Anyway, I decided to make Kyle's costume again this year...

Destructo Boy
(Kyle's true alter ego!)

We get to meet 'Destructo Boy; every day at about 7:00 PM. He's had the nick-name for about a year now. Everytime destructo boy made his appearance this costume is what I imagined! Luckily he LOVED wearing it! It was pretty fun to watch him run around with the cape billowing in the wind behind him...it cracked us up every time.

These are a few other photos from our Halloween adventures...Trunk-or-Treating with our neighbors at their church.

*Halloween Night*

This is a picture of Kyle taking candy from our neighbors candy dish...over, and over, and over. We were all cracking up he kept helping himself one piece at a time in a effort to fill up elmo! (We gave the candy back...Kyle doesn't even like it!)

After trick-or-treating was done. Kyle and his buddy Jack Gledhill ran around our house racing their cars getting out every last bit of energy in their little bodies!