Thanksgiving 2011

This year we hosted Thanksgiving for the very first time and I cooked my first turkey!! It turned out really well, I am happy to say. Based a suggestion from some friends I decided to brine the turkey before cooking it and I think it really made a difference. We also cooked the turkey breast side down in the roasting pan, to make it extra juicy. Everyone said it was delicious!!

I wasn't sure how many people were coming, so I got a HUGE turkey to be on the safe side. I figured we could always eat the leftovers, so I got a 24 pound turkey!!! There were a few snags while I was preparing the brine and fitting the turkey in the fridge was a challenge ( I had to get Anthony to help). I also for the life of me couldn't find the giblets and thought that maybe we just got a turkey without one, but when I went to get it ready to go in the oven I found the packet of them stuffed in the neck (I had been looking in the cavity). Useful information to have for next time! :) We had so many leftovers, we gave some to Anthony's parents to take home and my brothers and were still left with two entire containers full of turkey. Tonight we are having turkey sandwiches for dinner :)

 Anthony's mom, Sharon, making vegetables.

 James with his Great Grandma Lagana.

The rest of the dinner worked out perfectly, with everyone pitching in and bringing food. We missed having my mom there, but we had fun with Anthony's parents, his grandmother, and my brothers. James had fun just watching everyone and crawling around and following the excitment from room to room.

Now it is time to put the christmas tree and decorations up and get ready for Christmas. I love the holidays!

Fun and Baby Legs

We've been having a good November! Here is a picture of James when I took him to a horse rescue a few weeks ago. He had so much fun, petting a kitten and looking at the horses, goats, and chickens. James really loves animals, which of course we are excited about!

Last night James started giving us kisses, which is so cute!! He doesn't pucker his lips at all, but he gets this serious look on his face and then he comes at you with his mouth open and his tongue right by his lips. It is hilarious!

I love this time of year, especially all of the family gatherings, activities, and parties to go to! This year our ward christmas party's theme is "whoville" (from The Grinch who Stole Christmas) and I have had so much fun getting things together for it! I found the perfect dress for me and pants for Ant at goodwill and I found this tutorial online for turning socks into baby legs for James. It is really fun to go to thrift stores, looking for crazy, wacky additions to our costumes!



Baby Giggles=Baby Crack

Last night we discovered that snorting makes James crack up!! Anthony got a video of it with his phone and when I tried to rotate it so that it is right side up, the sound disappeared, which is kind of the point of the entire video. I promise, tilting your head to watch will be worth it!

Adventures

Last month we decided to go to the beach for family home evening and take a walk by the water. We had never been to this beach before, but it was so easy to park and so close to our house, and literally minutes from Anthony's work! He even thought it would be nice to eat his lunch her some time, but I predict that will never happen :) There was also an easy geocache here that we had to grab. You have to stand next to this surfing monument and get your picture taken. Then you have to post that day's surf report when you log that you visited.

The beach sand was perfect for walking on and Anthony collected some mangroves for his tank. You can also drive on the beach if you want to and James thought it was so funny to see the cars go by! He just kept laughing and laughing when one car drove by us. Too cute! We also saw some kite surfers while we were out and it was the coolest thing! It looked like so much fun, I will definitely have to try that someday :)

Last month we also took James to the park for his first time on the swings by himself! I imagined that he would love it and go crazy, but he seemed unimpressed :) He still had fun though, especially with us making silly faces at him.

Now that the weather has cooled down, we've been trying to take more walks in the afternoon as a family. We had to get a picture of the little guy in his stroller:



Ha! He looks surprised to see us!!

Last night we made a trip to the grocery store and tried out having James sit directly in the cart instead of in his car seat on top of the cart (which he has almost completely grown out of. New car seat has already been ordered for free courtesy of swagbucks!!) He kept hanging on the sides of the cart and it made him look like he was bracing himself for a wild ride :)

We've just been having fun and adventures here in babyland!

The ultimate in cuteness smackdown: Puppies vs. Babies

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Puppies vs. Babies for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

Ah, the age old question: "What is cuter, puppies or babies?" :)  I have to say, this is a toughy for me. Before we had James, we had our two fur babies, Bitsy and Brownie, and although they cause no end of aggravation I do admit that they are darn cute! When we brought them home they were just these tiny balls of cuteness that fit into the palm of our hand. We would carry them around in our pockets and they would snuggle up to us with their puppy breath. Awwwwww! Then again, my baby does a lot more tricks than my puppies and is genetically linked to me. And is, in my opinion, the cutest baby ever made. Such a tough decision!

Luckily, the ultimate decision isn't up to me alone, it is up to America! Go online to cast your vote here: Puppies vs. Babies online contest. It is too late to submit your own puppy or baby for voting, but you can let your opinion be known.

So who did I decide would win in our own household's puppies vs. babies?....

Baby James of course!!! Have you seen pictures of him lately? That kid is adorable!! He totally would have won the contest if he were in it!  (Hmmm... that kind of makes me sound like a pageant mom). Puppies are cute and cuddly, but I don't get the urge to kiss and squish them hourly like I do James :)

So what did you decide? Go to Puppies vs. Babies to vote now! There are tons of cute pictures if you need help deciding. Plus, you get to look at all of the puppies and babies, and who can resist that? :)

Leave me a comment to tell me who you voted for!

9 Months Old

He isn't pulling up yet, we stood him up in his crib for the picture...still, looks like we need to lower the crib!

My little boy is 9 months old today! This month literally flew by and a lot of things have happened as far as his development. He finally started teething and is now the proud owner of two teeth! He got really congested and cold-like when he was working on his second tooth and as a result got an ear infection, so he also had his first round of antibiotics this month. Another big step he took this month is crawling! He started army crawling and is making his way towards getting into everything in the house:

He says "mama" and "dada" now, although not specifically at one of us. He says "dada" all the time and "mama" occasionally when he is hurt or upset. No fair! :) We are working on baby sign language but he hasn't picked up on any signs yet. He has started banging his hands on the tray of his high chair whenever he wants more cheerios, so I've started showing him the sign for "more" when he does that. Hopefully he will catch on! He loves going to the baby classes at the library and has started to really interact with the leader and the other kids. He loves to crawl up to them and touch them and look at them. Especially if they have sparkly or shiny shoes on!

He loves playing peek-a-boo and it is probably the thing that gets him laughing the most. He will even laugh if Anthony just looks away and then looks back and him and says "peek-a-boo!". One night Anthony was playing with him by hiding behind the wall and then jumping out at him and saying "peek-a-boo!" and James was loving it! Then, I guess Anthony waited too long or something because when he jumped out James screamed in terror and started wailing!! He was really scared!! I have never heard him cry like that! I guess we should have felt bad, but it was so funny we couldn't stop laughing. I know, mean parents :)

James has started to have a little bit of stranger anxiety, but he is selective. So far, it has only been with men: my brothers and a friend of ours from church. It is kind of hard that it is so unpredictable when he will get scared because we don't know how to plan for it really. Hopefully it stays mild and he doesn't get too scared of strangers as he gets older. We love how happy he is to meet new people and go to new places!