Thanksgiving 2010

This year my sister-in-law decided to host Thanksgiving dinner at her house.  My brother bought a infrared turkey fryer through Amazon.  My brother is all about gadgets and so this fit him perfectly.  I happened to be over at his house a couple of weeks before to celebrate my Dad's birthday by going to the car show in Charlotte.  He was so proud of his new purchase and eager to try it out.  Admittedly, this was the best Thanksgiving Turkey I have ever had!  The leftovers were even still delicious.  I didn't even need gravy because it was so flavorable and juicy.  I'm so sad that I didn't get a picture of the whole Turkey.  I just wasn't fast enough to grab the camera while watching two children.

                                                  

Christian and Andy cutting the Turkey

Preparation

Shannon and Marie warming up everyone's dishes.

The Hors d'oeuvres

The Food

Family Time Before Dinner

Getting everyone ready to say the Blessing

Family Dinner

                                                             Family Time After Dinner

Parkwood Thanksgiving

The daycare center that Reagan and Madison go to invited us to celebrate a Thanksgiving dinner with her on the 23rd.  I was excited to go see her during the day to have lunch with her.  We went in a little late due to Madison eating in the dining room still so we missed their parade.  They all had Pilgrim or Indian hats.  It would have been cute to see Reagan in an Indian hat due to the fact that she is of Native American descent, but she doesn't understand that nor her teachers know.  Nonetheless, she wore a Pilgrim hat.  


The only thing that I didn't like was that Reagan was at the same table with her classmates.  The parents were asked to get their food first.  After that they sang, "Johnny Appleseed" for the blessing.  Cute.  Then the parents went through and sat at the larger tables.  I wanted to sit with her for the whole meal, but she came over and sat on my lap and shared a dessert.  It was just nice to be invited to lunch with her.

Her classmates at school.

The Blessing

A great shot of her friend Ben.  Reagan tells me that her and Ben often play make-believe and he is a monster and she is the fairy princess.

Revealing the Christmas Tree

Luckily, Andy and I had one more day off than Reagan and Madison.  We were able to put up all the decorations after Thanksgiving.  I saved a few ornaments for Reagan to hang up when she got home from school.  I knew that this year she would want to help put them on the tree.  There faces when they saw the tree were priceless.  Reagan said, "Ohhhh, Mom it is so pretty!"  This is a very common phrase for her right now.  Madison just kept yelling and after telling her no touch many times she eventually kept saying, "No, no, no, no, no."

Reagan's First Haircut

 AGAIN, I wasn't expecting to have my firstborn's first salon haircut today.  Andy and I had taken the kids to lunch and he decided that since we were right at the Peek-a-Do it was of course convenient.  The only problem I didn't have a camera, except for my phone.  ARGHHHH.  


So this is what I got.  Reagan is 3 but since her hair has been so curly there really hasn't been reason to get it cut.  She was basically bald until 18 months when her hair started to grow.  It seems like it never gets longer because it would get curlier.  However, just in the past few months the weight of her hair has started to pull down the curls.  If you get her hair wet in the bathtub it goes down to mid back area mullet style, :).  The cut even things up and we had a lot of fun at Peak-a-Do.  Expensive hair-cuts for kids, ~$20 plus tip, but once in three years not bad.

Reagan sat still watching Dora on the television in front of her.

There goes the mullet!

How pretty!

Now for the finishing touches.  SPARKLES!

Matthew and Stephen's Birthday

Yes, this is taken with my sorry iphone 3G camera.  I had my nice camera, but I had to hold my 1 year old and make sure that four others under eight would look at the camera in a parking lot.  So this is the shot.  Oh, I need an upgrade....Santa????


Our neighbors Matthew turned 6 and Stephen turned 3.  We love our Jansen friends so much!  They are the best!  It was so nice to celebrate their birthdays at our favorite, kid-friendly restaurant, Chick-fil-a.  


Happy Birthday Boys!