Thanksgiving '11

this was kind of a special thanksgiving. our very first family thanksgiving, ever! when we lived in st. louis we went to my aunts and grandma kathy's. our first thanksgiving here we got together with other families at church and had a big thanksgiving, after that the mozo's welcomed us in and we have had thanksgiving with them ever since. last year nikki started having thanksgiving on sunday so everyone could go everywhere they needed to go, we were in cozumel for the ironman. so... this was our first ever! along with my first turkey~ ever! i'm good at the side dishes!

at first i didn't really want to do 2 thanksgivings but since we already had one i felt like this one could be more laid back and we could eat whatever we wanted.

 i made green beans with shallots and bacon, baked sweet potatoes, grape salad, garlic red potatoes, rolls (for the boys!) and of course the turkey and 4 bottles of martinellie's sparkling cider! i didn't do everything traditional and caleb was mad about the stuffing, i didn't know he cared so much!

                                                              (sorry that's so dark)
 it turned out pretty good, i think i cooked the turkey for the right amount of time but it sat in the cooking bag for a long time and i think it kept cooking and dried out a little but i'll do better next time!

 i made a burlap banner which i really liked, think i'll save it for next year.
we had our dinner and then went to see breaking dawn. it was ellie's first movie and she was perfect. she sat and watched the moving lights for a while until she fell asleep.
they stayed at our house on thurs. night which was really fun. we got to just hang out with ellie. see her in the morning and revel in her every smile!

 she really likes this book and really looks at the pictures so we all showed it to her, it only had a few words.

 i know we are all just laying around playing with her, it was so fun!

 on fri. we went to lunch at burgers on the edge and then went shopping. we didn't want to go so early and get in the craziness especially after they tried at 10:00 thurs. night at walmart and the line was hundreds of people long. we went to target and ki and i got a dirt devil vaccuum for 32$ that was our big deal but they are great vacuums! the best part was seeing everyone you know. some people hadn't seen ellie yet and that was fun!!

 they decided to stay another night since ellie had such a good night. she slept from about 10 pm to 6:20 am. the next night she slept from 7:30 until ki woke her up at 4:30 to try and feed her . she ate a little and went back to sleep. she is such a good, happy, content baby! it was fun to see her in jammies and her bath!

 we just love to make her smile and laugh. she is so expressive. matt says to her you is kind, you is smart, you is important! from the Help and i sing her soft kitty from big bang theory and she thinks we're quite funny!

 i think for 2 1/2 months old she has so much personality!

         we had a really good weekend! grateful for our family and new baby ellie in our lives!