My parents came down this past weekend to help us decorate. Thank goodness! My mom loves decorating & loves Christmas {my whole family really does}, so by noon on Saturday, our house was Christmasified.
We’ve had good luck getting NC trees at our local Lowes, so we packed the babies up {in Christmas attire of course} & headed that way after they’d napped & nursed. We needed a fairly tall but skinny tree & found the perfect one!
The babies & my blue eyes didn’t handle the sun so well; Mom, Jason, the babies & the tree; the babies & I; Jason & our tree.
Jason tied it to the roof of the van, while I got the babies back in.
Babies’ first tree.
Mom stopped & got hot dogs for Dad, Jason & herself & I snapped photos of my babies.
Zach & Lucy
They slept on the few minute ride home then while we got the tree all set up inside {thank you babes!}.
I love the tree at night; our mantel {stockings still to be hung}; Mom decorating the tree; Jason & Lucy; Pops with Lucy. {Zach was always held by me}
They love the lights, & we have fun showing them different ornaments including the ones for them already given to them by their grandparents on both sides. It’s wonderful & completely awesome already to view Christmas from their eyes.
Since I use this blog as my therapy, my place to vent, I thought I’d list what’s stressing me out & overwhelming me at the moment.
The babies crazy drooling.
Amber necklaces or no? Where to buy? Used available?
Teething.
Starting Solids. When? How? What food? Scheduling that in our {already crazy} mornings & nights. When I’ll have time to make food. Heck, when will we have time to put together the high chairs. We have the breastfeeding routine down so well that I hate to change it even though I think they’re ready.
Solids poop. And cloth diapering solids poop. And washing solids poop diapers.
Zach’s blisters from using disposables over Thanksgiving weekend.
Night tine Routines. Our current routine is an attempt at organized chaos until they konk out. Night weaning? Sleep training?
Decorating for Christmas.
Grocery shopping. Takeout is impossible for me to do alone with both babies. We can’t live on restaurants with drive thrus. Only possibility of grocery shopping is going during my 45 minute lunch.
Cleaning my house. Heck, having the time to empty my dishwasher is overwhelming much less, the thought of vacuuming, changing sheets, mopping & cleaning bathrooms.
Finishing up Christmas shopping. Again, this will have to be done at lunch or online. & if you’re the recipient of a gift from us, it’ll be thrown in a bag if you’re lucky.
Downloading the Thanksgiving photos from the DSLR. I know I took good ones that the family wants. When will I have time to do this?!
Whew. Seeing that list makes me feel a little better that it’s out there verses rolling around in my head. If you have any helpful advise on the above, I’d love to hear it in the comments, tweets, emails or texts.
Thanksgiving to me means family & food. Lots of food. And some of the best recipes come from my mom. Luckily, she shares them with me & then I post them here {so I remember & you can enjoy them too}.
Easy Hash Brown Casserole is a family favorite. It’s a wonderful way to start out a Thanksgiving brunch; serving it with eggs or omelets. But we most often have it as a side dish with our main afternoon meal. And then fight over the leftovers {if there are any} the next day.
Hash Brown Casserole ingredients
Ingredients
2 lb shredded hash browns, slightly thawed
2 c shredded Swiss cheese
1 stick Country Crock, melted
1 pint heavy cream
1/2 tsp Lawry’s seasoning salt
1/2 tsp pepper
Directions
Mix all ingredients together in a 9×13 baking dish.
Mixed & ready to bake.
Preheat oven to 375. Bake for hour & a half hours. Enjoy!
Easy Hash Brown Casserole
{Half of my family dips this in ketchup, the other half thinks we’re weird.}
Honey Ginger Carrots are also a Thanksgiving & really all fall & winter staple around our house. There are many variations, but this is my favorite way to fix them.
Ingredients
1 lb package of baby carrots
1 tablespoon Country Crock spread
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon honey
1 /4 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
Directions
Combine all ingredients in a pot on the stove on medium. Add equal parts water & orange juice if you’re feeling fancy to cover carrots. Cook until tender. Enjoy!
These ingredient amounts for the carrots serves four. Feel free to double or triple for the size of your crowd!
Yay for Thanksgiving recipes. I’ll be sure to share more when our other dishes are finalized for our Thanksgiving menu.
Thank you to Good to Know & Unilever Spreads for being a sponsor. I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective. All opinions expressed here are my own.
Happy {super late} Halloween from my strawberry {Lucy & my banana {Zach}.
Lucy girl all dressed & ready to go {in my aunt’s arms & giving me a ‘what’s going on, Mom?’ look}!This photo captures Zach’s personality to a tee!
Their daycare had them dress up & we sticker treated from room to room. Jason, my aunt & I went to carry the babies around. And take lots of photos!
Our strawberry & her Daddy in the daycare classroom.Zach the banana & headless me in the middle of Sticker Treating.
They did great & Zach got warm & comfy enough that he slept through the last rooms in my arms.
Our first family photo in way too long! Happy first Halloween babies!
I changed them back into their costumes once we got home from daycare expecting trick-or-treater to arrive. We hadn’t had any by 7p. Of course once I got them into {non-Halloween themed} pjs, a group from our neighborhood stopped by. Oh well! I’m looking forward to us joining the neighborhood group for 2013 trick-or-treating!
My parents were in town visiting this weekend. Friday afternoon a package from Jason’s sister arrived filled with adorable puff painted pumpkin onesies for the babies. Mom & I decided Saturday was the perfect afternoon to take Lucy & Zach to their first pumpkin patch.
Almost 200 photos, two discarded baby coats & a slightly sweaty Mommy later, we had a big pumpkin & two little pumpkins. And just a few photos too cute not to share.
My attempts at DSLR photos on anything but auto were not so great. And it was brighter out than I thought it’d be. Thankfully, they were great, patient babies while I snapped away.
