Farm fresh turkey goes traveling....

Last year's turkey was so tasty we decided to order another one from

Wights Family Farm in Ogden.  We cooked it about half way through

at our house and then took it on the road up to Kamas to finish cooking

there to spend Thanksgiving day with my grandparents, Aunt Kristy, 

and a few of my cousins.

Mabel and her 2nd cousin? Jack are only about a month apart

and they had so much fun playing together

Mabel likes to do "exercises" and she would ask us to name 

an exercise  (jumping, somersaults, etc) and then she 

and Jack would do it over and over again! 

It's crazy how much energy they have.

Somersaults...

This was the point where I was tired of thinking of 

exercises and told them they had to practice being still.

They did pretty good for a few minutes.

 I didn't even get ONE picture of our feast and my 

glorious turkey! Everyone contributed tasty sides

and I had waaaaay more than my share of my Aunt 

Kristy's creamed corn. So good.

This is what our food coma looked like:

Nate was so full he had to sit in 

Grandpa's wheelchair and be pushed

around the house. 

So this picture is kinda gross looking but I was 

so proud of myself for making turkey stock from  

the leftover bones/carcass. (kinda makes me gag saying carcass)

I had stuffed the turkey with onion, garlic, and lots of fresh

herbs (thyme, sage, rosemary, and parsley) and it made the 

stock so tasty. I added a few carrots and let it simmer all day.

So easy. Why haven't I done it before?

Nate picked the meat off the bones and we strained it

several times and it was done!

It made A LOT. The only bummer thing

about putting it into this container is every time 

I opened the fridge I would almost grab this thinking it 

was some kind of tasty juice.

I used the stock as my base to make turkey soup 

and we lived off of that for a few days with some 

artisan bread from Harmons.

Hallo-Thanks-Mas-4th-of-St Patricks-tines-New Years Evester

Before Rick and Georgia left on their mission to Austria we wanted 

to have one last family get together. We decided to combine all the holidays 

and have a crazy PARTY!

We had the party at Bryan and Jenna's house in Highland and Jenna

had fun decorating with our holiday mash up theme.  

She made this cute banner with different postcards that had all the 

holidays represented.  Her kitchen table had the Charlie Brown Christmas 

Tree along with some Halloween, Easter, and Valentine candy.

We were so lucky that Brady got to come to the party! He had
a work conference in Florida and was able to schedule his flight so
he had a layover in Utah on the way back home to Alaska.
The only thing that would have been even better is if Becky and
the kids could have come too!

 Eating our feast...

Brenna hanging out with Mabel and Myah 

at the kid's table.

All the siblings and their spouses wrote a letter to 

Rick and Georgia about our feelings regarding them

going on a mission. (and just how much we love them in general!) 

Lindsey compiled them into a book

with lots of pictures and we gave it to them as an 

early Christmas gift they could take with them.

 They loved it...those are happy tears. :)

We played a few of our traditional Christmas games:

The Candy Bar Game

White Elephant Gift Exchange

Their farewell talks in church were wonderful - they

were meant for this calling!

 They have been in Austria for over a month now and they seem to

be adjusting really well. The young single adults they are working 

with love them (of course!) and they are having all sort of fun adventures 

exploring the city and learning the culture. (and the language)  

Georgia said sometimes people speak so fast in German it's even hard 

for Rick to understand and he speaks pretty well!  

We skyped a few weeks ago and they gave us the tour 

of their cute little apartment.

Clock Tower in the background in the city of Graz, Austria

Lindsey took this picture of them right before they left and 

I love it. We sure miss them but technology helps with that!

We love being able to see each other via Google Hangout, 

email them, and call pretty much whenever our schedules align.

(they are about 8 hours ahead of us)

Baby #Tew

We are excited (and nervous) about baby #2 

due the first week in June 2014!

This was our first little alien ultrasound picture.

We went for our second appointment on December 6th and heard a perfect

heartbeat and saw the baby moving all around.  I have been able to feel 

little flutters for several weeks now. :)  We are seeing the same certified 

nurse midwife that we saw with Mabel.  

(Rebecca Williams at Great Expectations Birth Care)  

Mabel has so much fun at my appointments because Rebecca has

all sorts of toys and books and we have the whole place to ourselves 

for her to run around.  It makes it very stress-free for me!

I will be 16 weeks on Friday but here is my 12 week belly shot:

              Baby #2                             Mabel                    

 

I am starting to feel so much better.  It was pretty ugly for awhile there.

I was throwing up every day (and I only threw up once with Mabel), and I just

felt so awful 24/7.  The smell of the fridge was horrendous and trying to 

cook anything was a joke. Nate and Mabel lived on quesadillas,

grilled cheeses, and take out for several weeks there. Nate would come 

home and take over with Mabel and I would just pass out on the couch.

I am thinking this baby is a boy.  

We will probably find out the first week in January 

when we have our medical ultrasound.

Mabel is pretty excited to be a big sister.  She is so great 

with babies and I think she will be an awesome little helper.

I'm guessing the biggest adjustment for her will be not

having my undivided attention. 

Big Girl Bed

 We got Mabel a big girl bed a few weeks ago!

She was so excited about it and has done really well staying in it.

She never tried to get out of her crib so I was curious if she 

would stay in her bed as well.

She has only gotten out twice...both times were during the day when

she was supposed to be napping but never fell asleep.  

On both of those days I was EXHAUSTED and fell asleep 

on the couch. I woke up to a little face above mine 

saying, "Hi Mama!"

We bought the bed off KSL from a couple that 

refinishes old furniture, the bedding I got from Target, 

and I got a great deal on the mattress

the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

Voila!

Spatially it doesn't work really well in her current room 

but it will be fine for now until we move her into her new room

downstairs this summer or fall.

 

We got a little side guard at Babies R Us because 

she is a CRAZY sleeper. This picture is pretty normal

compared to her upside down diagonal positions.

The other night she started crying and when I came into 

her room she was sitting on the edge 

of the bed saying, "I fell out! On the ground!"

Someone else is really enjoying her new bed too.

Mabel's bedtime has turned into Nate's naptime. :)

{thirty-two}

Nate's birthday was the day before Thanksgiving this year.  

He was crazy busy at work that day 

(since he wanted to get a bunch of things done 

so he could enjoy the long weekend) 

but we managed to sneak him away for lunch.

Birthday club at Tucanos!!

It's a Brazilian grill with some pretty tasty

lemonade that Mabel coudn't get enough of.

Singing to the birthday boy....in Portuguese of course!

(he sang along, he can't resist an opportunity to speak Portuguese)

 Later that night Mabel helped him open presents...

 

Which somehow led to making funny

faces on the iPad...

Nate's request was blueberry cheesecake...

so Harmons and I whipped one right up.

Love these two.

 

Happy Birthday Nate!!

"I'm a little nice ghost!"

Mabel was so excited for Halloween this year.

I think the whole idea creeps her out but she 

is so curious about it too.  

We have been talking about it for months.  

She always chooses books about Halloween and 

pumpkins from the library.  Also, she is a bit obsessed 

with this youtube video and sings it all the time...

but her favorite part is the "spooky" 

whisper at the very end. 

{pumpkin patch}

{painting pumpkins}

{church halloween party}

 {halloween night}

When we first asked her what she wanted to be she

said a bat or a nice ghost.  Eventually she started only

saying nice ghost - so here is our little nice ghost!

The second we put her costume on

(for our church party the week before)

she started running round saying,

"I'm a little nice ghost!!"

I told her to make a spooky ghost face:

Nice little ghost and green guy.

Our spider web door:

We let her take her glow sticks in the bath that night

and she thought it was the coolest thing!