Casserole time!

Are you beginning to get in the holiday spirit? I am going to be totally honest and say that I have not caught the festive, holiday spirit yet. But thinking about food always puts you in the holiday spirit – right? Our family Thanksgiving meals are quite the spread. Everyone has their favorite side dish, and these ‘favorites’ seem to multiply each year.

The casserole baking dish gets quite the workout on Thanksgiving. And I LOVE it. I would much rather have my green beans covered in cream of mushroom soup and topped with fried onions…and I want the sweet potatoes baked into a creamy casserole that is covered in a delicious topping of crushed cornflakes, brown sugar, cinnamon and pecans. I have experienced a boring food spread and I have experienced the casserole spread.... Give me the casseroles!

Here is our family thanksgiving menu:

Cranberry fluff
Sweet potato soufflé
Mashed potatoes
Broccoli and rice casserole
Company casserole
Onion pudding
Corn soufflé
Green bean casserole
Stuffing

Ham
Turkey & gravy

Cheese rolls
Pumpkin bread

Apple pie
Pumpkin pie
Chess pie
Tollhouse pie
Pecan pie
Pumpkn toffee roll
Assorted cookies

Hungry yet? I feel like I have left something off....

I mainly eat the sides – who needs protein when you have a casserole?!?!

What is your favorite Thanksgiving side?

Image from Crate & Barrel

We need a bigger bed

Have you ever been to that point … right before you fall asleep… right before you nod off… only to have your entire body make a sudden jerky movement and BAM! You are wide awake. You maybe have that sensation of falling… or that you are being hit and you and trying to get away. It is annoying – right?

Think about how annoying it would be if someone else thought you were falling. That’s right. Someone else thinks YOU are falling. For the past couple weeks Mr. will grab me in the middle of the night “because he thinks I am falling off the bed.” At first I thought it was a one time occurrence – he was having a crazy dream or something and in that dream I was falling off the bed so he was trying to save me. But no... it happens almost every other night.

But when that same “dream” occurs almost every night it gets pretty annoying. And when this “dream” also involves him rolling over and smacking me with both arms in the middle of the night? Equally annoying.

I have started to smack him back and he always mumbles something in his sleep… most of the time it is about me falling off the bed. He never remembers any of this the next morning and he thinks I am making all of it up.

**Let me just say, I have never fallen off the bed. Well, except that one time in college… but that was due to one too many lemon drop shots and having my bed perched on top of my dresser and desk. 8 feet off the ground. With no railings. The person that thought it would be a good idea to give college students lofted beds had obviously also had one too many lemon drop shots.***

Maybe this is his way of taking some aggression out on me? Maybe he is trying to save me from falling?

Any dream analysts out there?

Carrot Puree

I was flipping through my newest Martha Stewart Living and came across these menu cards:

They all look pretty good and would make for a great meal… except one. Carrot puree? Really?

There is only one person in my house that eats foods like this and she is 8 months old.

I tend to think that I have a pretty broad palate, but I will have to pass on baby food look alike dishes.

Images courtesy of Annie's Eats and MSL.

Heidi and Ann

Ah...... my girl crush and one of my favorite stores have teamed up!

HEIDI AND ANN

I love Heidi Klum. She is number 1 on my list of celebs I would like to be friends with. She has super adorable kiddos, is funny, has a killer accent, a rockin' body and seems like a really fun person. This may seem like an unlikely pairing, but Ann Taylor has really stepped up their game lately. No longer are they the store for boring twinsets, but they are rocking some pretty great stuff. Mainly, I am in love with the shoes. I love all of them.

Do you have a girl crush?

Christmas Card Pictures

Yesterday we had attempt #1 at our Christmas card pictures.

I say #1 because there will be a #2 in a couple of weeks. The outfits were picked out. The location was chosen and the girl WOULD NOT SMILE!

I really wanted to take some fun pictures downtown, hopefully getting one great family shot for our Christmas cards, but out of the 235 pictures that were taken we had ZERO with the little girl smiling. This is extremely rare for her, since she is always happy and smiling.

Looking back on yesterday - what in the world was I thinking??? Her 5th tooth is coming in. She had a runny nose. We were taking the pictures late in the afternoon. It was HOT and she was in a sweater. Any one of those factors would have made for a blah photo session, much less all of them.

At least we found some great locations. And I know that our outfits look good together.

Such is life

Yesterday was one of those perfect fall days that you just want to bottle up and save for a dreary January. Not a single cloud in the sky, not too cool, not too warm and perfect for feeding the neighborhood ducks. So, when I got home from work A and I walked over to the neighborhood pond to get rid of some stale bread as well as suck up this perfect weather.

I took some pictures of a mama duck and her 12 baby ducks….

Took some pictures of the changing leaves…

Took some pictures of A…

And then I tried to take some pictures of A and me. My myself. With a big camera. Not an easy task, but luckily another mom appeared just in time and offered to take our picture. She and I started chatting and we really hit it off. *****

She was a young, fun mom – check!
And she has a little girl - check!
And she likes to feed the ducks – check!
And she is moving to Denver on Thursday – fail!

Such if life that on top of a pretty crappy Monday I would meet another fun mom that lives in my ‘hood only to find out that she is moving… this week.

Now, if I find out that my other new mom friend is moving away this week, I might never again venture out to the mall or pond.


*** I think that meeting other moms is like dating. Do they like me? Will they call me? Should I email them? How long should I wait to call or email? What should I wear? Ahhhhhh……..

****New pictures over a Baby M. ****

Pumpkins

Oh Martha… you never cease to amaze me. Yes, I know you probably don’t come up with all of these ideas yourself… and you might be a slave driver, but I still love you. Your monogram pumpkin was the inspiration for MY monogram pumpkin.

Yes, yours has pretty scrolls and even lines, but mine is real. And was carved after one too many glasses of wine. (The pumpkin looks like it is radioactive and about to blow up here… do not look directly into the light…)


And it proceeded to rot after only a couple of days. I heard that if you spray Lysol inside the pumpkin it does not rot as quickly. We did not have Lysol, so I used some organic counter cleaner…And it did not work.

Next year I need to do a pumpkin like this:

*Images from Martha Stewart or Better Homes and Gardens or MrsPreppy

The gift of cotton

Happy Anniversary Mr. M!

It sure has been a fun filled 2 years.

On this day 2 years ago I would have never predicted everything we would go through in 2 years, but I would not change it for anything. It has been a fun ride.

The traditional gift for the 2nd anniversary is cotton. Will my gift to Mr. M be something cotton??? He will find out tonight!

NEW pictures of Baby M.