Our Thanksgiving

Sorry I haven't updated about Thanksgiving yet. I had family in town and then left for Toledo for Thanksgiving and when we got back I was procrastinating. It was fun to stay at my sister's house in Toledo for the holiday. Her house is decorated way cute and even though her kitchen is definitely a two person kitchen, we had a fun time making the turkey dinner for our families. I have to admit, I have a new type of respect and admiration for my mother now after Kelli and I cooked a whole Thanksgiving dinner. It's exhausting! We made maple-glazed turkey, homemade yams (my mom's recipe- the best!), sour cream mashed potatoes, green beans with shallots and garlic, homemade turkey gravy, store bought rolls (we had to cut corners somewhere!), cornbread stuffing, pumpkin pie, and homemade apple pie. To top it off, we got up at 6am the next day to join the rest of the crazies at Kohl's and Target where we got most of our Christmas shopping done (along with some screaming deals!). We went back to get the kids and husbands and went to another Target (we hit three different Targets in one day! Fabulous!) and WalMart and then ended up at the mall. The trip was a lot of fun and the cousins were able to play (and argue) as much as they wanted. We watched some movies, got Papa Murphy's pizza, played card games (which I unfortunately didn't win- I need to work on my game before Christmas rolls around!), and just hung out. I have to admit, I'm a little proud of myself (and Kelli) for making an entire Thanksgiving dinner. The turkey was delicious, the gravy wasn't lumpy but was very tasty, and the yams were just as I remembered them. I am so excited to help with Christmas dinner this year! Now, prepare yourself for the many, many pictures!
Hayden and Olivia making "turkey" place cards out of tracings of their hands. This was Kelli's creative idea, not mine. The cheeseball on th table, that was my idea. Yum-O!Our first turkey. She was big and heavy and oh so delicious! We had a lot of drippings for gravy!Uh, Hayden? I think your fork is on the floor... I used to hate the kiddie table, but I loved that they had their own little picnic so we had more elbow room at the "grown up" table (can you really call a table that Adam and Jage are sitting at a "grown up" table? I'm having issues with that...)This is my third Thanksgiving in a row where I have a picture of Adam doing this to the turkey leg. I'm feeling a little sorry for that turkey leg right now.Don't let this picture fool you. Jack enjoyed his mashed potatoes, green beans, and yams so much that he wore most of them until bath time. I just figured you all wanted to see a cute and clean picture instead of a close up of mashed potato face. See? I'm looking out for your well being.This is Jack's baby mullett (is that how it's spelled?) and Jeremiah was nice enough to wet down the back of his hair and twist it into a tail. Cute, huh? Anyway, time for Baby's First Haircut! And yes, I did save some locks just in case his hair changes color so I can prove to people later how red his hair really was!Who knew getting your hair cute would be so fun and exciting?! He leaned forward like this the whole time because it tickled and he was trying to get away. He is also giggling the whole time because it tickled, and we had to hold his head because he was so squirmy.Much better, although I think we'll have to cut his hair every few weeks now so it stays this short.