The Practice Bird

This year I have volunteered myself to make the Thanksgiving turkey.  I've been pretty nervous about screwing up the main entree at our turkey day feast, so I elected to make a "practice" turkey.  Some friends of ours had an extra turkey laying around, so they graciously supplied it for us.  As it turns out, our little practice run weighed TWENTY-TWO POUNDS.  :)  I took advice from my Mom, Pam, and this website.  Amazingly, the bird turned out great.  I learned a lot!

1. When you clean out a turkey, look twice -- they frequently pack those things into any hole they can find.
2. Figure out how long you'll need to cook your turkey and then count backwards to your start time.  I made the mistake of just putting it in the oven when it was convenient for me, which resulted in me waking up at 4 a.m., 5 a.m., and 6 a.m. to check the turkey breast temperature.  Whoops.
3. The more butter, the mo' better.
4. It takes longer than you think to carve the meat off of the bird.  And it pretty much can't be done with an 18-month-old begging to be in your lap.

For fun, we had a trial Thanksgiving dinner tonight.  I made gravy from the turkey drippings and it turned out pretty good.  Ledger ate his weight in mashed potatoes.  Chris pretty much paid me the best compliment I've ever gotten on my cooking -- he said that it tastes like his usual Thanksgiving dinner.  WOOHOO!!  That's exactly what I was going for.

As I was prepping my first turkey dinner, it started snowing HUGE, beautiful, wet flakes.  The first snow of the season.  It didn't stick, but it was pretty.

If you've made it this far through the post, I'll reward you with a few photos of my favorite kid.

Ding Dong!

Yesterday we went to the doctor's office for Ledger's 18 month vaccinations.  He came in at 24.5 pounds and 32 inches tall.  That puts him in the 50th percentile for height and 30th percentile for weight -- which means he's holding steady over the last few months.  It may not seem like a lot of growth, but he has definitely outgrown most of this 12-month clothes, so we've moved up into 18-month clothes.  We also had to call our allergist and found out that Ledger cannot have his flu shot due to his egg allergy.  BOOO!!!  In order to keep him safe, Chris and I got our shots on Wednesday and we encourage all of our friends and family to get their vaccines too!

This year, Mommy is really getting in the holiday spirit.  I'm actually thinking about putting up our Christmas tree THIS weekend!  And I really would like to do some holiday cooking, but I didn't budget for ingredients... maybe next weekend.

Alright, here's a little reward for you.  You'll have to excuse the poor quality of this video.  Since a certain baby broke our FLIP camera a few months ago, we've been making due with our webcam.  He thinks that watching himself on the screen of my laptop is the funniest thing ever.  :)

18 Months and ALL Boy

Friday was Ledger's 18 month birthday.  We had a busy weekend and didn't have a chance to have a "photo session", but hopefully we'll be able to do it soon.  This weekend we visited the Vanderbecks in Pittsburg.  Ledger hadn't seen his Uncle Chris V. since June when we went to Colorado!  We didn't do a very good job of taking pictures while we were there.  On Saturday we went to a Pitt State football game.  The football team isn't having a very good year, but it's a neat atmosphere.  Ledger enjoyed getting to watch "Gus" the gorilla mascot and even had his 15 seconds of fame on the jumbo-tron!

The rest of the weekend, we just enjoyed spending time together.  On Sunday morning, we all woke up and lounged around the house for the morning.  We were able to discover the truly destructive nature of an 18-month-old BOY when he is set loose in a non-baby-proofed house.  He also managed to scrape his face on a drawer that he pulled open in the kitchen -- Go figure.  Notice the havoc in the kitchen behind him and the garage sale sticker on his forehead.

When we got home, Chris had received a large package from UPS.  Ledger was very excited about the box.  So was the cat.

Oh... and I took this next picture just before he bit me hard enough to leave a mark in my leg.

Yup, it's official.  He's a BOY!

Yummy In My Tummy

 As I wrote in a previous post, I WON a blog drawing!  This week, a HUGE package arrived with this amazing gift basket full of Dr. Lucy's cookies -- which are made without diary, eggs, nuts and other allergens!  I was really excited for Ledger to try the cookies, so today for a snack, we had "milk" and chocolate chip cookies.  He LOVED them, and I loved being able to "treat" him to a fun, sweet snack.

Trick-or-Treat

Chris and I had previously decided that we weren't going to drag Ledger out for trick-or-treating.  But we had a few requests to visit aunt Lynnda and the Simpsons, so we put ledger back into his lion costume and went out on the town.  He quickly became the "cowardly" lion because he was acting very bashful for some reason.  We decided to stop at the Daily's house on Santa Fe street because they usually go ALL OUT for Halloween and pop popcorn to give away.  (You know me, I couldn't turn down popcorn!)  They had a full graveyard and some awesome inflatables -- Ledger loved it and it helped bring him out of his bashful shell.  Since he was finally having fun, we decided to go door-to-door on Santa Fe street.  There were hundreds of costumed kids out with their families.  It was so fun for us to see that traditional trick-or-treating is still alive and well.  Ledger had a great time, and so did we! :)  Happy Halloween!!

Happy Halloween!!

This was really the first year that Ledger understood some of what is going on around him and is ready to dress up and "trick-or-treat".  OK, he's not really ready to trick-or-treat yet, but we're taking him anyway!  This year, he dressed like a LION.  The costume is really adorable, but he wasn't crazy about the hood/mane.  :)

On Friday, downtown Salina has a trick-or-treating event.  It has been pretty popular in the past, so we were looking forward to it.  It was packed with kids!  Ledger was a little overwhelmed, but interested in the costumes and all of the people.  Aunt Jaime went with us too!

And after all of that trick-or-treating, we decided Ledger deserved a treat...

He LOVED the sucker -- as you can tell from his blue lips and the empty sucker stick.  This is really one of the first pieces of candy he's ever had!

Well, it wouldn't be Halloween if I didn't share some pictures of my other child -- CHRIS! :)  As most of you know, he LOVES dressing up for Halloween.  In order to maintain my relative sanity, we have made a deal that if he does an elaborate costume one year, he has to do a less-expensive costume the next year.  Since he definitely went elaborate last year, this year he chose a more low-key costume.  He and his friend Damon dressed as Mario and Luigi.  He even managed to talk other teachers at his school into dressing up as Super Mario Bros. characters -- there was a princess, toad, and even a few "question mark" boxes. :)

You're Just Going to Have to Wait...

Dear friends and family,
My laptop has been temporarily taken out of commission by a faulty power cord.  Until I get it replaced, I probably will not be blogging too much. Hopefully I will be back online next week and I will post all of our fun Halloween pictures.  Until then....