A recent evening at home. I got out Laedyn's quilt (made by Lori Maxwell) so she could do some tummy time. It's not really her favorite thing to do.

Laedyn thought I was a crazy lady laying on the floor trying to get her to look at me.

Brandon saw Laedyn on the quilt and was SURE it was HIS quilt! We had to go in his room to make sure it wasn't. Then he wanted to have his out in the living room to lay on too. And since Laedyn had a pillow, Brandon thought he needed one too. He was happy that his quilt was slightly larger than hers. Aren't they beautiful??? I mean the quilts, but the kids are too...hahahaha

Here's a link to a funny video my cousin sent me in an e-mail.

glumbert - Best wedding first dance ever

Happy Thanksgiving

It was alot of work, but delicious. I guess I was too busy in the kitchen to take a ton of photos, but I did get a couple. Mom bought a 13 pound turkey & Nick did the initial prep work -defrosting it & pulling out all the yucky parts. Then he carefully peeled the skin away from the meat & stuffed pats of butter between them. This was the suggestion in America's Test Kitchen Cookbook. Anyone who hasn't checked out his book would be well advised to do so - it has ALWAYS been right! This time was no different. (Kudos to Mike & Lori Maxwell for giving the book to us several years ago. We love it!) Needless to say, the turkey was FABULOUS!!!!

After Nick had the bird settled into the roasting pan (on top of a couple metal cooling racks), I poured melted butter over top and sprinkled it with season salt. Then I poured a can of chicken broth into the roaster with some diced carrots, onions and celery. Once the turkey came out of the oven it was falling off the bones - literally. We all thought the bits of carrots were really yummy too!
The night before, I made mini corn muffins and a pumpkin pie. We used Marie Callendar's frozen pie crust & it was really good. Better than those Pillsbury roll out ones. Mom also made a pecan pie. I found a recipe that called for Maple Syrup on top of what's normally in a pecan pie. How could you go wrong with Maple Syrup??? (we're talking the real stuff that originates in a tree here) Well - this was DEFINATELY the WRONG way to go. I compared it to a toxic dirty diaper. It had this HORRIBLE aftertaste. I shudder to think of it even now as I am writing about it. We had to throw the whole pie away. SO the moral of the story is - DO NOT add maple syrup to a perfectly good pecan pie - no matter how reasonable the recipe makes it sound... You'll be sorely diappointed. I might have to make a decent pecan pie this weekend, just to make up for the fiasco!
Here's the complete spread (well the pies are in the kitchen & the toxicity of the pecan pie is as yet undiscovered). I made sour cream mashed potatoes - just because there was a partial container of sour cream in the fridge that needed a purpose. Mom made a Waldorf Salad and steamed some freh green beans. I think the Waldorf Salad was Brandon's favorite part of dinner. I also made fresh cranberries (with Splenda), gravy, and sweet potato casserole covered in marshmallows. Brandon was getting really excited about eating & banged his head. You can see he's holding a kids cold pack on it. He cried a bit, but once food was on his plate, his injury was forgotten.
After dinner we had chocolate martinis. The first batch I mixed 2 shots of vanilla vodka + 1 shot Godiva white chocolate liquor + 1 shot kaluah. Then a poured chocolate syrup on the inside of the class in an artistic design. They were pretty strong. The second batch I changed to 1 shot of vodka and 2 shots of Godiva plus the 1 shot of kahlua instead. That was a much better combination - if I remember correctly. (hahahaha. Yes that's the correct recipe.) Try it - you'll like it! Although I didn't take any pictures of it, we played some Mexican Train too. That was fun for a change. Nick doesn't like to play games, so it's nice to have someone to play with for a change.

Time to vote for the Heisman winner - go to the link below & vote for Arkansas Razorback, Darren McFadden

https://r.espn.go.com/espn/contests/theheismanvote/thanks

Nick raked (or braked as Brandon calls it) the front & back yards yesterday. Brandon & Mark helped out a bit. I took a bunch of pictures of Brandon jumping in the leaf pile, but video just captures it better (see that at the end of the post...). Brandon was having so much fun, Nick couldn't help but join in the fun - he was a leaf pile virgin until yesterday! He went all out & even let Brandon bury him completely. We brought Leadyn's exersaucer outside so she could watch AND have some activity. I think she's frustrated sometimes when Brandon's running around having so much fun & she can't join in. At least she can watch!

OK - so I'm doing another link that Amy has done. Don't they say that imitation is the highest form of flattery??? What can I say - Amy finds cool links. So, here's the newest link - the result is no big surprise. Check it out & see where you stand...

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The West Your accent is the lowest common denominator of American speech. Unless you're a SoCal surfer, no one thinks you have an accent. And really, you may not even be from the West at all, you could easily be from Florida or one of those big Southern cities like Dallas or Atlanta.
The Midland
Boston
North Central
The Inland North
Philadelphia
The South
The Northeast
"What American accent do you have? http://www.gotoquiz.com/">Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

Brandon was invited to a birthday party at River City Gymnastics. He liked the thought of the party but wasn't too sure he wanted to go to the gym. He'd gotten tired of Little Gym and thought this was the same thing. After about five minutes though, he was having a great time. In fact, when playtime was over he cried because he wanted to jump and play some more. The kids had to line up to move from the first boucy activity to the next - an obstacle course.
I have no idea what Brandon is doing to his pants here. It looked pretty funny though.
Here they are going around the obstacle course. No one got tired of doing it even though they all been around the circle about 30 times.

They even had a huge bounce house set up in the middle of the obstacle course.

This was a really long trampoline-like thing. Some of the kids ran down, some of them jumped. Brandon was a jumper every time. When they reached the end, they landed on a very soft squishy mat and then they could jump into a foam pit.

Brandon thought it was funny to land on his belly at the end of the trampoline.He never would just jump into the foam pit. He always sat on the edge & eased himself into it. Once in the pit, he like it. He's cautious, like his Daddy.When the kids were in the foam pit, it looked like they were trying to swim out. Sometimes the gymnastics ladies had to help them out. Nick sat and watched the kids running/bouncing down the trampline and then flopping into the pit. He wanted to jump in too. It DID look like a lot of fun.
At the third activity area, they had a trampoline, a foam pit and a tall platform with a couple of slides that dumped the kids into the pit. There were 3 ways to get to the top of the slides - a rock wall, a ladder and a knotted rope. Brandon got about half way up the rockwall before he wanted to get down & climb the ladder instead.

He climbed this knotted rope like a pro - but it was hard work. His favorite method to get to the top was up the ladder. It looked like the most difficult way to me, because it was pretty much straight up & down. Nick wound up spotting a bunch of kids besides Brandon who wanted to go up the ladder.
I thought this slide looked pretty steep (the drop off was nothing to sneeze at), but Brandon didn't seem to share my concern. None of the kids did. They all had a blast sliding off into the foam pit. I think Brandon must have climbed back to the top 8-10 times.
After the playtime was done, the birthday boy (Christopher) got to sit up on a tall platform where everyone could watch him open his gifts. The coordinator called each guest up one at a time & they got to sit up there with Christopher & watch him open the gift they brought for him. The coordinator also kept track of who gave the birthday boy what gift. They did this at Little Gym too - it was SO nice to have someone deal with it all so I could take pictures & talk to the other parents.
Here's Brandon watching Christopher open his gift. Brandon picked it out all by himself. It was a Hot Wheels thing with a couple of cars. The cars could go down ramps on either side and crash into each other. Brandon is all about his Hot Wheels and matchbox cars these days.

Laedyn loves her feet - more specifically her right foot. Can you believe her leg even goes that way??? She's like some kind of contortionist or something. Today she came home from daycare with two different socks because she keeps putting her right foot in her mouth and her socks get all soggy.

This just CAN'T be comfortable!

She wonders why we are all so amused/fascinated...

Mom & I made a one day trip to Ikea in Dallas on Monday. I bought bookshelves, lamps and some organizational stuff for my new office. We also took a bunch of pictures for our weekly scavenger hunt on Flickr.com

Mark has made the first major step to moving to Little Rock. He & Mom have been here about a week now. It looks like he'll be working with the kids at Easter Seals. Brandon is thrilled to have his Uncle here.


















I had thrown away this box and Brandon went and pulled it out of the recycling bin. He was so amused at putting it over his legs. He just kept laughing & laughing... Funny how kids love boxes...same as the cats!


















Jennifer was over for dinner the other night. She'd just had her hair cut & had the stylist straighten it for her, just for a change. Isn't it gorgeous??? However - I think I like her curls better.


















Here's Nick laying out the bacon for breakfast last weekend. It's always such a pain to fry it on the stovetop. He discovered that baking it in the over is much easier & the results are great. I made swedish pancakes to go with the bacon...It was a yummy breakfast.

Exercise you brain while helping donate rice to those in need.
Check out this addictive vocbulary game.
Amy sent it via e-mail & she's right - it's addictive.

I accumlated 600 grains of rice and had a vocabulary level ranging from 38-41.
I think I was at 39 when I made myself stop.

http://www.freerice.com/index.php

FAQs
If FreeRice has the rice to give, why not give it all away right now?
FreeRice is not sitting on a pile of rice―you are earning it 10 grains at a time. Here is how it works. When you play the game, advertisements appear on the bottom of your screen. The money generated by these advertisements is then used to buy the rice. So by playing, you generate the money that pays for the rice donated to hungry people.
Who distributes the donated rice?
The rice is distributed by the United Nations World Food Program (WFP). The World Food Program is the world’s largest food aid agency, working with over 1,000 other organizations in over 75 countries. In addition to providing food, the World Food Program helps hungry people to become self-reliant so that they escape hunger for good. Wherever possible, the World Food Program buys food locally to support local farmers and the local economy. We encourage you to visit the United Nations World Food Program to learn more about their successful approach to ending hunger.

Hello Exersaucer!!! We pulled the exersaucer down from the attic this past week. Laedyn loves it. She's not scared of all the little spinning thing on it in the least. When Brandon first got into it as a baby, he was very cautious & not quite sure he liked all the moving parts. Laedyn is very interested & was reaching for them right away. Maybe she's more accustomed to sudden loud noises and things whizzing around unexpectedly since she watches Brandon cavorting all the time...

Check out Laedyn's Cleveland Browns outfit. Isn't it cute? Too bad they lost today...

PEAS - Yummy!!!! Laedyn tried her first food besides rice cereal a couple of days ago. She did a great job - ate every last bite. She kept grabbing the spoon & guiding it into her mouth.

Brandon calls them Smooshed Peas. I steamed some frozen ones & then threw them in the blender on the "liquify" setting. We all tried a bite. It's 10 thousand times better than the baby food peas they sell in a jar. Nick was the only one who didn't like it - he thought the flavor was fine, but the texture bothered him. I told him to think of it as Pea Pudding... The rest of the batch is now in the freezer frozen into individual servings - in an ice cube tray. I think we might try cauliflower next.

Fall Foliage in my front yard ... One of my crepe myrtles has burst into gorgeous color in the past couple of days. Oddly enough, the other one is still green. They do this in the spring too. One blooms much sooner than the other.