Early Thanksgiving

We had Thanksgiving on Sunday with Bruce's family. Its pretty wild jamming everybody into our house, but I like hosting:) Its easier to be home with the baby thats for sure! This year I did the turkey again but I decided to try something different...I saw on food network (once again!) the secret to a moist turkey. Best thing ever I'm telling you if you are doing the turkey this year you gotta try this! Brine your turkey! For the brine: 2 gal water, 1 cup salt, 1 cup sugar, and fresh poultry herbs. Make enough to cover over the turkey and soak 24 hours. It definately was moist and yummy:) Anyway enough about that, as usual the guys played ps2 games all day! Us girls got the food ready, served it, cleaned it up, and played a board game, then put out desserts, served it and cleaned it up again! All the while the guys played oblivous except when someone walked in front of them, or if one of the kids pulled the cord out. Kinda funny they all were scrambling to get it set back up:) The little girls came down wearing a different outfits everytime we saw them. Thats what girls do I guess:) The kids pretty much ran and wrecked as much as possible which surprisingly was'nt alot! There was 2 2yr olds, 1 3yr old, 1 4yr old and 1 8yr old boys so thats why I say wreck;) Good food, good company!:)

Getting the turkey ready

Max and his "punkin pie"

Max figureed out how to use the controls

They don't mess around!

Max and Jericho with there binkies

Sophia on the table to keep Max from "hugging" her:)

Italian Night!!

So it was my night to plan the meal so i decided to try Cannelloni,which is as I found out is just Manicotti! Different filling though, sausage and hamb mix, pretty good I thought:) We also did a quick bread and a salad to go with it. The salad was kinda wierd Pan Roasted Garlic Romaine Salad- Rachel Ray. We did the same dessert that I made two weeks ago but we decided to modify it. Instead of pomegranite molasses we put pumpkin filling, regular molasses, and pumpkin pie spice. Still did the Salted Caramel. Everybody except Jimmy liked it better than the Pomeganite. Actually not really sure if he liked the other stuff either!:) LOL We actually got everything ready and done by 7:30!! So we decided to go to Boik and Lisa's soccer game which was at 8:20 so we thought we had plenty of time but of course we ended up late to the game! Story of my life I guess, I'm always running behind:) Here are the picture's...

The wierd salad:)

Cannelloni
The quick bread

Semi-freddo cookies and cream with pumpkin

Reptile Man

Freaked out mom treats kids to reptile man exhibit!!

They talked me into it! The two oldest kids came home all excited non-stop jabber about the reptile man who would be doing a show at the school tonight. It was all they could think about. I was, like, we gotta go grocery shopping. So you can imagine the scene at the store..."did we miss it?" "its dark now, did we miss it?" "If we go to another store will we miss it?" Well, we made it! I wasn't gonna go, but last minute I wanted to take pics and not sure that Bruce would remember to. Besides, I wanted to see Max's reaction to the reptiles. I was pretty freaked about the whole thing! Well, the turtle was fine... but the rest... eww!

At one point the reptile man had just put away the Water Moccasin and was telling of the world's deadliest snake: the Black Mamba. A super fast snake. He had the kids back up and sit quietly, urging that no one make sudden movements and be sure to stay beyond the "zone of death". He then began to carefully lift the box onto the table. Then he slowly lifted the lid... ZOOM!! Out shot two long black...uh...rather springy, quite fake snakes! I wasn't really prepared for that! I didn't scream, but I pretty much had a Black Mamba coming at me for the kill...as far as I could tell. My heart was pounding and on the brink of panic attack. Afterwards people could go up front and pet and hold some of the reptiles. I was worried at any moment I would turn around and have a snake in my face...so I was freaked out on edge. I couldn't even take a pic of the turtle cause it was walking towards me! The kids loved it though, so it was totaly worth it:)

alligator

Mom not the only one freaked out. :) Dad was lovin' it.

iguana

above and below: Banana Boa Constrictor

snapping turtle

face of the banana snake
(sorry Michelle)

Last Saturday's Meal

Whoa!!! Its already Friday and I'm finally getting the pictures up! It was Jimmy and Michelles turn to come up with something new to make. They chose Couscous stuffed Chicken, the stuffing also had kalamata olives, feta cheese, and sundried tomato, with an Orzo Salad. We didn't take pictures of the Orzo salad though because nobody liked it:) For dessert we made Pumpkin Bread, Yum-o :) right Michelle! So here's the pictures...try not to drool too much:)

Dippy Doughnuts!!

These are the words I hear from my kids when they got home from school on Monday....

Shane,with an evil little laugh: "Guess what Mom?"
Me: "What?" Shane: "No school tomorrow! Veterens Day!" laughing!
Me(in total panic!): "What?!?!? Are you kidding me?" I'm trying to keep these thoughts to myself!
Katiera: "Yup! No school! No school! No school!!" (sing-song)
Me: "Aw man! Now what?" I'm thinking "What the heck are we gonna do all day?"

So I was watching Food Network a couple days ago and saw on one of Paula Deen's shows the Dippy Doughnut:) So easy and the kids thought they were great!!

Saturday Night Tradition

Every saturday night we get together with Michelle and Jimmy to try out new and interesting recipes. There has been some total disasters and some that we will make again and again! We all pretty much know that if the fire alarm goes off then its almost time to eat!! Every now and then we invite different people to come and (hopefully) enjoy the food with us. It always surprises them how long they have to wait for it though:) Its usually around 8 or 9 by the time we get it ready! I think its been mayby twice that we have eaten around 6:30 or 7. We've made some pretty yummy stuff if I do say so myself like pumpkin cheesecake, Italian chicken rolls, Flank steak, deep fried pumpkin cake, and last Saturday night's semi-freddo cream with salted caramel. So good!! Anyway here are pictures from this Saturday...


Michelle making the BBQ pulled pork egg rolls

Semi-freddo cookies and cream with salted caramelPork fried rice and BBQ pulled pork egg rolls

Bens Birthday

Meg had Bens 29th birthday party last night at Mollys house. Cant believe he is already 29!! When we got there I saw a little puppy sitting on the front porch and at first I was like "great now we will have this dog tripping us as we try to get our stuff into the house!" But he is sooo cute!! I actually told Bruce we need to get one too:)!!

Kamdyn with Dad, he just doesn't care about games like the rest of the guys do:) Dan and Bruce watching Clinton (mollys hubby) play a computer game.

From left: Molly, Meg, Sonya (watching) holding Sophia, Paula, and Amanda .
Playing the genius edition of trivial pursuit! Yeah we are all that good:) LOL

Here s the puppy!! So cute right?

Max just loves Sophia! He kept hugging her and she was just bawling but he didn't care!

Sophia still crying. Max going in for another hug. Not sure if he was trying to comfort her or what, but he just wanted to keep hugging her.

More Harvest Party

This is the fourth year Danny and Stephanie have had the harvest party! Its alot of fun for everyone-carving pumpkins, bobbing for apples, caramel apples,costumes and games. Everyone brings pot of soup and bread. Its cool to see(and taste!) what soups people come up with to bring! This year I brought a Sweet Potato soup- got this recipe from Michelle- it was quite a hit! Anyway here are some more pictures...



Max peeking through the fence:)



Kamdyn, Jacob, and Hudson propped in the pumpkins!





All the little girls giving eachother makeovers! Leftover makeup from the scarecrow game we played. Ill have to add those pics later!





All of us at the table:) Trying all the different soups!

Harvest Party

Shane as Mutt Williams from "Indiana Jones"



Kamdyn Chillin' in the pumpkins!

Here they all are!!

Dont they look thrilled?! :)

Kamdyn Bruce

these are newborn pictures of Kamdyn