Well, this is a little belated, but Happy Thanksgiving! It has been quite busy since Thanksgiving, I apologize for the delay in my blogging.
Our Thanksgiving was really nice. It was just the 6 of us and I cooked it all. I made executive decisions on what to and what not to have and it turned out quite nice.
I brined our turkey this year and I will do it now EVERY year. It turned out SO scrumptious! SO juicy and TENDER!! We had a wild rice stuffing, homemade rolls, a squash and apple dish, and then a yummy salad with apples and pomegranate and of course cranberry chutney. It wasn't too much food and it really turned out nice. I then made a chocolate pumpkin pie and a "mystery" pecan pie. The mystery was that it had a layer of cream cheese in it so it was like a pecan pie cheesecake.....our new found favorite! We used my grandma Stockman's china, it was really nice. Reed sure enjoyed it. He got to eat turkey too and he sure loved the rolls. The day after Thanksgiving we gave the girls a little early Christmas present. Spencer and I took them to see The Lion King on stage here in Denver.
It was SO neat!! The girls were just spellbound the entire time. I am so glad that we were able to do that with them.
We were able to get our Christmas decorations up early this year because of really warm weather. We have this tradition that when it is the first Christmas of any child in the house they get to put the star on top of the tree so, this year was Reed's turn. I think he was mostly interested in the camera light than putting the star on the tree....he's so cute!
The girls decorated the tree yet again this year. It is actually really nice to have them do it, they do a pretty good job.
They are so excited for Christmas this year, well, they are ALWAYS excited for Christmas, but I think they are more so this year. For what, I have no idea, but they are.
CJ gave a talk in primary today, it was so sweet and good. She is sure growing up fast. Her prayers changed over night (more mature sounding) and she is starting to assume more responsibilities around the house....kinda breaks my heart a little, the growing up not the responsibilities part. She is doing alright in school except with some problems with bullies. The mother instinct kicks in and I want to go kick some little tooshie of the kids that are mean to my sweetie. She seems to be making new friends though, at school, ballet, and at church which makes me happy. Every Sunday after Sacrament Meeting, this little girl in her class comes and gets her to walk with her to primary. It warms my heart. Ballet is going really good. She is in ballet 3 and she is also taking beginning lyrical this year. She is learning so fast and is doing so good, I can't WAIT for the recital this year!
Avary is bossy and thinks she's always right, as usual. She is doing exceptional in school and she says the most cleaver and funniest things of anyone in the household. Today we were at tithing settlement, and she had gone to the restroom. When she came back she was panting and I asked her why she was panting because she wasn't supposed to be running in the church. She looks at me and without missing a beat she says, "CJ was running." And she left it at that. Like it was CJ's fault that she was panting. It was so funny. Avary's ballet is also going really good. She is in ballet 2 this year and she is zooming through swimming. She takes after her mommy in that area....we were both born to swim, little fishies we are. She was tested for the AGATE program at her school. We haven't heard anything, but her teacher already has her in more advanced groups.
Reed is growing SO fast we can hardly keep up with him! He started to army crawl and was hauling pretty good at that. Then he started to sit himself up and within a couple days he was crawling on his hands and knees and not his tummy anymore. A week after he started to actually crawl, he started to pull himself up on furniture. This kid is going to be walking before we know it! He is sleeping in his own room now and he is doing great! He usually cries around midnight, but then we give him his pacifier and he goes right back to sleep, except the other night when he didn't make one peep! It was nice! He is clapping now and he is amazing us every day with his progress. He sure has been a perfect addition to our family. He just warms us all through.
Spencer is doing well in work, no big surprise there. They love him there. His boss was so impressed with the work that he and the rest of the team did that he gave them 5 extra days off next year! So, instead of 3 weeks they get 4. That helps seeing how we will be leaving on our cruise in LESS THAN A MONTH!!!!!!! I am so excited, I can hardly stand it! He is the second councilor in the Elders Quorum and is SO awesome to help me at home when he gets home from work.
I had monkeys on the side of the cake as well. I was REALLY happy with it. Especially since I think I just perfected my recipe for chocolate cake! Every time I made it it would fall......BAD! I think I found the "formula" to fix that little problem.
Anyway, that is what we have been up to lately. Just waiting to celebrate our 10 year anniversary, Christmas, New Years, and then we are off on our cruise. I am sad to leave my kids, especially Reed because he doesn't understand, but we got set up on Skype so we will be able to see and talk to them everyday. Spencer and I have been wanting to do something like this ever since we got married. We really didn't have a "honeymoon" so now we are going to take advantage of our 10 year anniversary and take an 8 day cruise to the eastern Caribbean, visiting the islands of St. Kitts, St. Lucia, and St. Maarten. It will be fun. But I'll be happy to get home, I'm sure....I'll miss my kids too much.
Love to all and I will work on being better at my blogging.
Have a Merry Christmas!!! I'll post again soon.
