Thursday, November 27, 2008

Our Two-Turkey Feast!

Gobble, Gobble...

(or should I say - oink, oink?)

Today we prepared TWO turkey dinners... TWO. (Insane!) We had all the trimmings - green bean casserole, broccoli casserole, stuffing, mashed potatoes, corn, cranberries, bread...... EVERYTHING. TWICE! We even had pumpkin pie.

We did round one for lunch, and round two for dinner. I'm not sure my kitchen has ever worked this hard. From 6:45 am (when the first turkey went in) until 10:30 pm when the last dish was cleaned, there was always something happening in the kitchen.

You're probably wondering WHY - -well, honestly there was a method to the madness. We did round one at noon because Brandon had to work this evening. He had to be to work by 2:00 pm, and we didn't want him to miss out on a yummy Thanksgiving dinner. The only option was to have the "dinner" prepared early enough for him to eat, too. Of course, eating at noon meant that everyone would be hungry again in time for dinner... and what better way to use up all the leftover side dishes than to prepare a second turkey??

Each year our Thanksgiving party seems to grow and grow. This year we were joined by a couple of Michael's friends - Mark and Sarah. Kaitlin was in a spectacular mood today - (which made things a lot of fun) and Zoey was as chill as always. And of course, our two-turkey feast wouldn't have been the same without Uncle Kevin, and Grandma and Grandpa Nincey.




We hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving! We are so thankful for all of our friends and family!

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Zoey's Ears

Best news EVER ~ we took Zoey to the audiologist today and they confirmed that she has 100% hearing in both ears! Her right ear failed the initial hearing test they do in the hospital. The doctors say it's common for infants to fail the test, but most of the time, the follow-up testing proves that everything is okay. Luckily, that was true for us! What a relief!

According to the audiologist, babies can fail the test in the hospital if they have fluid remaining in their ear or if they are too awake during the screening. Who knows what happened with Zoey ~ but at least we know she can hear us! We are so HaPpY!

We decided to celebrate Zoey's perfect ears by piercing them! After leaving the audiologist, we took her to Cherry Creek Mall. Here's the video....
I know it looks really sad, but she really didn't cry that long. In fact, this evening she's nothing but smiles again!

Isn't she pretty??



P.S. Yay us! Zoey is sleeping thru the night now! If tonight goes as planned, it will be the sixth night in a row! I think we're on a roll... Yippee!!!

smiley sleeping Pictures, Images and Photos

Sunday, November 23, 2008

More pictures!

Last Wednesday the weather was beautiful so the girls and I made our last trip to the zoo for the year. We joined our friends Tara and Bronwyn. Kaitlin LOVES her friend Bronwyn and gets super-excited when I tell her that they have a playdate scheduled!





Here at home I took a couple cute pictures of Baby Zoey and Charlie....


Remember the ones I took of Kaitlin and Charlie two years ago?


AND........ a couple more pictures!








AND..... a video! (Kaitlin sings to Zoey again):

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

♥ pictures pictures pictures ♥

Our first snowfall:


One day Kaitlin wanted to feed her baby ~ just like mommy (funny!):

Cuddled up on the couch watchin' TV with the girls:

A football or a baby?? hehe...

Is she a cutie or what?!?:

Monday, November 10, 2008

Monday Madness

This morning I took Zoey in for her two-month doctor visit. She already weighs 11lbs, 0.5 oz! She's very healthy and right on track on all the growth charts. As some of you know, we're still following up on her initial hearing screen. We took her to an audiologist last week, and have another appointment scheduled later this month. So far, the news has been good.

********* *********

Tonight we did another craft project with Kaitlin: Sun Catchers



We raided Kaitlin's crayon box and took out all the broken crayons. We peeled the crayons and used a vegetable peeler to make crayon shavings. We used the colorful shavings to make a rainbow, a flower, and a multi-colored bullseye. (A low iron setting melts the crayon wax between two sheets of waxed paper.) We even added string so we could hang the sun catchers by the window!

A fun project ~ but probably too much for Kaitlin... she kept wanting to pile all the colors on top of each other. Silly girl!

We're anxious to see how they'll look in the morning when the sun shines in the window! ;)

Sunday, November 9, 2008

Diet Soda Cake

Another SIMPLE recipe!


1 box cake mix
1 can diet soda

Mix diet soda into cake mix and bake as directed.


We made cupcakes using this recipe and they were YUMMY! Replacing the eggs, oil, water, etc. with diet soda adds no additional calories to the cake mix, but you still end up with a light and moist cake!

I used yellow cake mix and diet Sprite. (I think clear-ish sodas are best for yellow and white cakes and dark sodas are best for chocolate cake and brownies.) I still plan on experimenting with different flavored sodas and different flavored cake mixes.

And of course, I'll need help eating all this cake.....


anyone want to come over for dessert???? :)

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Night Owls

I signed Kaitlin up for a Parent/Tot preschool class called Night Owls. (For once there's a class for those of us that WORK during the day!) The class meets every Wednesday evening and tonight was our first class. The moms and kids (ages 18 mos to 4 yrs) spend an hour and a half singing, craft-making, snacking and playing. Kaitlin really had a good time and so did I!
It's fun to see Kaitlin interacting with the other kids and learning how to listen to the teacher for directions.
And, can you believe it ~ we were so busy having fun that we didn't have a chance to take any pictures!
sad Pictures, Images and Photos
(I guess sometimes you have to step out from behind the viewfinder and enjoy life!)