Happy Thanksgiving 2012

The 5 of us had such a great Thanksgiving.  It started with the Thanksgiving Day parade while Steve and I took turns running.  Afterwards, my 3 little helpers helped me make pumpkin pie, stuffing and green bean casserole.  Next we gave our turkey a bath.  Luke loved this!  Last week he was talking in his sleep about turkey bones, no joke... so I knew he would love this part.  We made our TJ's brined turkey and he turned out perfect!  So juicy and flavorful!  I made Barefoot Contessa's gravy that was superb as well... can't go wrong with one of her recipes.  Steve and I drank our favorite bottle of wine, Des Voigne Montreux, Syrah.  We all talked about the many things that we were thankful for.  So blessed to have such amazing kids and husband!

Baking Buddies

The kids and I have been cooking and baking like crazy while we listen to Christmas tunes.  Ava and I have been wearing our matching Disney aprons that Nana bought us for Christmas a couple years ago. It has been so rainy and cozy out and I have been so sick of the kids wanting to watch TV and play on the ipads so we cook a lot together to fill up our time at home.

House Update- November 2012

It is hard to believe we will be in our new house in 2 months.  It was a year ago that we started this whole process and I can honestly say that it has all been worth it.  We are so excited to move in.  Luke, Ava and I visited the house today and I took some pictures.  They are installing faucets, tubs, toilets and the lights are working.  The Seattle Lighting package of all of our light fixtures is supposed to arrive today or tomorrow.  How exciting!  I hope it all comes together like we want it to!

Luke's Bathroom...

Master Bedroom

 Master Bathroom

Powder room pedestal cabinet

Powder room shower

Daddy's Office and 2 cuties :)

Front Transom and woodwork

Dining Room

Great Room... getting ready for masonry

Kitchen Sink Faucet

Kitchen mosaic above range

Kitchen backsplash accent tile detail

Mud Room

Conmore doors with 2 cuties again :)

Candy up the nose!

The kids did not waste any time this year digging into the Gingerbread house after we brought it home from Costco.  We had quite the memorable time as Ava thought it would be a good idea to stick one of the little round candies up her nose.  It was a dramatic 10 minutes as I tried to tweeze the candy out of there.  She was so stubborn and would not blow her nose out.  Finally after much crying, Ava yelled "The candy is going down my throat."She swallowed it and that was that!  I asked her why she did that and she said "I just didn't think about it, Mommy."  

Before

After

Cookie Decorating 2012

We had Nicolas and Naomi over the other day to help us decorate our cookies we made.  This year I changed it up a bit and Royal icing with Luke while Ava was at school.  We made 5 different colors and had a blast decorating the cookies, but most of all eating them!  Ava was really into the sprinkles this year.

Luke put the most time into decorating each cookie until there were none yet to decorate.  He did a great job trying to outline the cookie in icing.

Ava's creations...

I love these cookies Luke made!

Ava and her sprinkles!

Even Mommy had fun!  Those are the only cookies Daddy will eat....ha ha

Maybe next year Mooni and Sydney will be old enough to decorate some.

Luke's Thanksgiving Crafts

Luke loves doing projects and crafts.  He brings home tons of art everyday from school and makes creations daily at home.  These are 2 of my favorites he brought home for Thanksgiving.  The kids have been so excited for the holidays, Luke was actually sleep talking last night about Turkey bones.  He was with me when we bought our turkey at Trader Joes yesterday and was so interested in why the turkey was missing his head, how it happened and so excited to eat the bird.  He was so disappointed when I told him we had to wait a week to eat it.  The kids are so excited about physical qualities of the holidays this year like presents for Christmas and eating Turkey for thanksgiving that I am trying so hard to remind them about the real goodness of the holidays like Jesus, family, giving,  being together and most of all being thankful for everything.

Hooray to no more showings!

The house will be unlisted tomorrow and we have a renter.... hooray!  The kids and I yelled and screamed with excitement tonight that we will have no more showings!!!

The renter moves in December 21st so we will be staying in a 2 bedroom hotel for a few weeks until we move into our new house.  Now it's time for packing!

Been so busy taking care of all of the details haven't had time to take any pictures or blog but there should be something coming soon!  Just SOOOO happy we have a renter, the holidays are coming and our new home is almost complete.  What an exciting time of our all of our lives :)

Happy Anniversary to us

Steve and I celebrated our 12 year anniversary on Saturday night at Morton's.  I am so blessed to have my husband as my best friend.  We have been together since 1995!

Happy Halloween 2012!

We had such a fun halloween with all of our friends.  All 3 of the kids were really into filling their treat bags up with as many treats as possible.  We celebrated with Nicolas, Mooni, Grant, Grace, Jayden, and Julianna.