Thanksgiving Weekend

Tonight I'm flying solo.  No hubby.  No baby.  They're both in Wichita for the night (and day tomorrow).  Craig is there for work and wanted to give his mom some QT with her youngest grand baby.  Understandable, but it's incredibly hard for this momma.  I may have cried this morning.  Silly, I know.  But it's hard.  A feeling you never really understand until you're a mom.

I'm trying to take advantage of the quiet time.  I cleaned a bit.  Organized some.  Watched DWTS.  Tutored.  Went to the eye doctor.  And now catching up on the blog.

Did I mention, I finished my portfolio project?!  Woo hoo!  A whole 39 hours before the deadline.  That's pretty good for this procrastinator!  Now I just have three more weeks of my last class and then I'll be done with homework for good.  For life.  I. Can't. Wait.

Alright, on to the purpose of this post.  Our Thanksgiving recap.  This year was our year with my family in Iowa.  We spent Thanksgiving day with my mom's side.  My sister and brother-in-law hosted.  Though that side of the fam is the smaller side, we definitely enjoyed ourselves.  Lots of great food and a pretty interesting Game of Things.  Things I learned.  Never play with your dad.  And always play with Craig.  His answers were hilarious.

Meanwhile, Brantley and Kellen enjoyed their time together and played on the floor for hours.

On Friday, we hung out at my parents' house, watched the Iowa game, and went to the town square Christmas lighting.  It's no Plaza lighting, but it's pretty big time for the small town of Fairfield, Iowa.  Friday is when the weather decided to get cold.  Like 30-degree cold.  Colder with the wind.  But we braved the chilliness for some festiveness.

Saturday was freezing cold again.  I pretended to be a photographer and took some family photos for my sister and brother-in-law.  They turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself.  Especially considering my fingertips were freezing in the 20-degree weather!  Of course, I freaked out and took most of the pics on auto mode. Hopefully that changes after my class this weekend.

Saturday was also my dad's 55th birthday.  Check out these cupcakes I decorated!  (Inspiration from Pinterest.)  Little fishing poles (pretzels) with {gold} fish and a pond of blue water (frosting).  Happy birthday, Dad!  Glad we got to spend the day with you!

Saturday night was Thanksgiving #2 with my dad's side.  Hosted by my aunt and uncle.  My dad has 7 siblings. There are 17 grandkids and 7 great grandkids.  My point being - get-togethers can be pretty loud. Since I didn't think to get a family picture on Thanksgiving day, I got a belated one on Saturday night.

We left early Sunday morning and arrived home by 11:30.  We spent the afternoon Christmas shopping!  And boy was it fun shopping for our baby's first Christmas!  The sweet, little guy slept right through the toy aisle and had no idea his gifts were mere inches from him in the cart. :)

Oh, one more blog-worthy item from the long weekend.  Brantley has his first taste of rice cereal!  He was a champ!  Even open and closed his mouth for the spoon!  I'm not sure how much was actually digested, but it was a good start.  Here are the pics!

And a few more pics of the little man in Iowa.

I hope everyone had a great weekend!  For me, the Christmas {break} countdown is on!


 

Nesting

This baby must be coming soon because I have a major case of nesting!

Yesterday, I prepared seven meals for our freezer.  Some are new recipes, others are favorite of ours.  And I stocked up on side dishes to go with each and every one of them!  I'm so excited for Baby to arrive so we can eat these tasty treats!

Today, the baking continued!  I made these yummy blueberry muffins...

...and two more loaves of zucchini bread for our freezer.

But, the nesting didn't end in the kitchen.  I've been trying to get Baby's room organized ever since receiving those twelve bags of clothes from a friend last week.  It's hard when there are so many different pieces of baby clothing--in multiple sizes--in addition to bibs, burp cloths, etc.  The un-organization of the drawers was driving me crazy!  So I found some drawer dividers at Bed Bath & Beyond and am finally happy with how things are arranged.  Hey, this mama loves to be organized!  (Let's not forget the closet dividers and totes I made earlier this spring.)

And since there was no way all those hand-me-downs were fitting in Baby's room, I bought some totes for the rest.

Whew!  Two full days of nesting!  I wonder what I will come up with tomorrow!

(I may have found a project already--the rest of the above closet needs some organizing!)

2nd Annual Cookie & Wine Night

Yesterday I spent the entire day baking two double-batches of sugar cookies so my girl friends could come over last night for the 2nd annual Christmas cookie decorating and wine night.  We had a blast and, though I don't have any pics of us, I did take a few of the cookies.

The set up

Loads of cookies

Add caption

Look at those beautiful things!  It helps to have two art teachers decorating!

Even more!

Chiefs vs. Vikings

Now for this weekend!  We headed to Arrowhead for a perfect day of tailgating, friends, food, and football!  I say a perfect day, but in all honesty, it was a little warm for October.  When we bought the tickets in early summer, I was just hoping it'd be warm enough to enjoy the day....little did I know I'd come home sweaty and sunburnt!  I guess a little color is nice again...

What started as a mini tailgate with just a few of us turned into a pretty big deal!  I think we had about 15 tailgaters, plus some of the randoms in the parking space next to us who joined in on all the fun.  Three of Craig's friends even came from Wichita.  We cooked up some omelets, bacon, and sausage and had plenty of other tailgate snacks!  Everyone was quite impressed with the bag omelets!  Yum yum.

I was excited for the Vikings.  Not because I'm a fan of the team, but because one of my favorite Hawkeye players of all time plays for them - Chad Greenway!  (See pics below)  Yay for the former hawkeyes!  

My cookies - footballs, jerseys, and Christmas trees Arrowheads

Early morning - Brian needed a nap.  Complete with the grill cover blanket.

Maddox's first Chiefs game

He's too cute not to take photos of!

Craig and Jay

Me and the hubs

The boys

There he is - #52.

My camera has some pretty great zoom!

Here Come the...

HAWKEYES!!!

I cannot wait to hear those words in about....ummm....39 hours!  I'm always sad to see summer go, but this is the next best thing!  College football season!

We're headed to Iowa tomorrow evening (to my parent's), and then to Iowa City bright and early Saturday morning! :)  I've got bloody marys, bean bags toss, and hawkeye football on my mind!  I can't wait to walk down Melrose, see the sea of black and gold, and return to good 'ole Hawkeye country!!  Ahhhh....

Pic from last year's home opener

My fellow Hawk fans :)

I even got creative and made some cake pops-hawkeye style.  Why not, right!?  These are for you, mom!  You wanted to try them!

On Iowa and go Hawks!