Ready for Thanksgiving!

It feels like we've been preparing for Thanksgiving for a week now! And I guess in a way we have. I went shopping last week for everything because I have no desire to go shopping this week at all. I hate shopping to begin with, and I don't want to have to deal with the holiday crowds. So I've got enough food in the fridge to last us a week, as long as the milk lasts.

Monday we cleaned the house and made the Sweet Potato Casserole. Not that the house will stay clean all week... but it was worth a try. Tuesday I worked on the beanbag nativity set I've been making for Christmas. My goal is to have it done by the end of Thanksgiving weekend. I also raked all the leaves in the back yard into a pile and couldn't help but take a few pictures of Logan in them.

Logan loved the crunch of the leaves, but loved to taste them even more! Dave took a homework break to come out and enjoy Logan's first romp in the leaves with us! He insisted in covering Logan in leaves, which only made Logan more inclined to taste them. It was so hard to get Logan to look at the camera because he was so enthralled with the leaves! He ended up with mud on his face, looking like this

Wednesday we'll bake an apple and a peach pie, go to the library, and do the three loads of laundry that's been waiting to get washed! Saturday I went with my sister-in-law Angela to a baby clothing exchange in Provo, and ended up with a huge pile of clothes that need to be washed before Logan can use them. It will be worth all the work, but it's daunting every time I walk into the bedroom and see that pile.

Other happenings this week: Logan discovered the baby in the mirror and has so much fun smiling and "talking" to his reflection. It's too cute to watch. Sometimes it even gets him to stop crying.

We also introduced him to the big bathtub. He's always hated baths, but he's more ok with swimming in the big one than the baby tub. Every time he'll whimper when I put him in, but after a few minutes he's ok. He'll play with his toys a little, but we don't get down to business until he remembers he can kick and splash. I know he is enjoying himself, but his face is such a serious/concentrating face. He'll kick and kick for about a half hour before he's done and we have to wash him up and get him out.

Pumpkin Waffles for Girls Brunch

The girls in my family decided to start up a Girls Brunch once a month since we're all home most of the time. So last Wednesday we had our first one at my house! I made some pumpkin waffles to share, and everyone brough something (fruit, home made granola, muffins, etc).

We chatted about books we've read, exercizing tips, our families, Thanksgiving and Christmas, recipes we've tried recently... Just about everything under the sun! It was tons of fun and I'm looking forward to doing this regularly. We're going to take off for December, but start it back up in January. 

I've been working on the Pumpkin Waffle recipe for a little while now, because I really wanted a good one to have for Thanksgiving breakfast. I might make this a yearly tradition. There were tons of recipes online, and most of them required a million ingredients and just as many steps to complete. I'm sure whipping my egg whites to hard peaks would make for fluffier waffles, but I'm not going to make them if they take way too long.

So I read about 15 recipes, combined ingredients from each, tweaked it a few times, and came up with an easy pancake waffle recipe that has a subtle taste of pumpkin and in my opinion is just fabulous. Especially for this time of year.

Pumpkin Waffles

2 1/2 c. flour

4 t. baking powder

4 t. cinnamon

1/4 t. salt

2 c. milk

1/2 15 oz can pumpkin

1/2 c. brown sugar

2 T. butter or margarien melted

2 eggs

Mix flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Add in milk, pumpkin, brown sugar, melted butter, and eggs. Mix until lumps are gone. Pour into preheated waffle iron and cook according to desierd crispyness. The batter can be refridgerated over night for easy cooking!

The pumpkin is subtle in this recipe, so if you're a major pumpkin lover, this might not be the recipe for you. Dave and Heather think it could use a little more pumpkin, but Mom and I both thought it was fabulous this way. And it will make your house smell so good for days!

Millions of bulbs!

This was a productive week for Logan and I. We got all our bulbs planted! We had two home depot 5 gallon buckets full of daffodil bulbs we'd dug up in the summer we needed to replant, 100 red tulips, and a box full of iris bulbs from my grandma we needed to get in the ground. Logan didn't like sitting outside wrapped up in a blanket, so I had to get these done one hour nap at a time.

It might have taken all week, but we got them done by Friday! And just in time for it to start raining/slushing. I can't wait to see how good these flowers look in the spring. When Dave redid our bed, he gave it a two layer effect, and I think that will help show off the flowers. I'm especially excited for the irises! I've always wanted some in our yard, so it will be fun to see what colors we have.

Logan also hit three months this week! He weighed in at 11 lbs 8 oz and measured 23.5 inches. He's just growing like crazy! He's finally in 0 - 3 month old clothes, but I swear he's going to outgrow them soon. Just packing on the lbs lately. Logan's also slept through the night for 2 weeks strait now! Dave and I are SUPER excited about that.

Other than that life has been pretty normal. Dave is starting to feel the crunch of final projects and is ready for the semester to be over. I keep reminding him if he survives this one, and one more he'll be done with school and can just worry about working and coming home to spend time with Logan and I. He's so glad the end is finally in sight.

Halloween!

We had a great Halloween this year. Friday night the festivities started by watching a movie with the Plastows. In years past we've watched something "scary", but this year we just watched Transformers 3. Scary to me, but not in the same way. Logan showed off his cute skeleton costume for Grandma & Grandpa before heading to bed (no fussy babies invited).

Monday after Dave got off of school we headed down to Highland to visit with the Brown side of the family. Cousins Andrea (ladybug), and Brier (lion) came down too and they had fun playing with the glow sticks Grandma & Grandpa were handing out.

Right after this picture was taken, Andrea decided she was tired of having these babies laying on her wings and leaning against her so she pushed the two of them over as she attempted to escape! I ran for the little ones, Heather just laughed, and Alison tried to get around me so she could save Andrea for the attack of the leaning babies. Needless to say, it was not happy time for any of the cousins.

Eventually we were able to get all the babies calmed down and get an ok family picture. It's so hard to get a good shot of all of us! Usually Logan's wiggling like crazy, or at leas one of us has our eyes closed.

The rest of the week went by fast. I wasn't working any more, so I was able to get the house back in order, make some meals, and even go to the library for the first time since Logan was born! Also, Logan decided this week to start sleeping through the night. He generally goes from 9pm to 6am. This was fine until daylight savings hit and now he's waking up at 5... so we're going to have to work on that!