Thanksgiving

We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving, we did! We had our Thanksgiving meal with a few families from church, it was delicious and we had a wonderful time! I took just a few pictures, they follow. Also this was the first time we were in charge of the turkey! Dum-duh-dum-dum-dummmmm! You can read about our first turkey-bake here. But here is a picture of how it came out… nice a brown, it turned out really yummy. I also made pies and rolls. We were also in charge of the gravy, but unfortunately that was not really a success story… let’s not talk about that.

 

 

Apple-Raspberry pie. It turned out really good, a little tart. I think I’d put in a little more sugar next time. Recipe here.

 

Making Gravy.

 

 

This is our friend’s little boy. He was in love with my baby belly. He kept rubbing it and telling me there were TWO babies in there! If he’s right that means one less pregnancy for me!

 

 

 

Family Pictures

I asked my friend Leah if she would take some family pictures of us and thankfully she agreed! She took tons and tons of pictures and here are some of my favorites! These were taken in our backyard and on a walking path behind our house.

*Please do not use these pictures without permission. Thanks!

 

31 Weeks

 

For Grandpa Joe

 

Toddler Bed

Today we converted Asher’s crib to a toddler bed, why now you might ask? Asher has started “trying” to climb out of the crib and it’s time. He got to “help” with the bed conversion and thought it was pretty cool that he could climb in and out by himself.

Some of you might be thinking… how did his first nap-time go in the toddler bed? Well let me tell you, I think it went well. Mommy and daddy were pretty patient and after putting him back in his bed 19 times we tied his door shut. That might sound awful, but let me assure you that he didn’t even cry (though he did whine). We just took the game out of it. He would open the door, we’d walk in to put him back in bed (he is giggling) cover him up and in a minute or two the process started over again. So after about a hour of putting him back in bed we tied the door shut. Rest assured that not only did he not cry, we untied the door once we knew he was asleep so once he wakes up he can come right out and see us.  I can’t believe what a big boy he is getting to be!

Sound asleep:

 

Push-ups, Pine Cones and Basketball

With some of Ben’s birthday money he decided to get these:

Push-up things. He really likes them though. Thanks Dad!

For family night we made Pine Cone Ornaments! Here is each of ours:

Can you guess who mine is supposed to be?

Ben also got some KU basketball tickets from work. We went with two of his coworkers, Eric and Charlie. Eric is the one with the beard and Charlie, the only one of us sporting an actual KU shirt.

We were up in the nosebleed seats but the fieldhouse was small enough that you still could see everything going on on the court. It was a fun game. KU dominated Pittsburg, I believe the final score was 103 – 45.

Ahh the student sections! I do kind of feel sad that we never experienced college sports. The students were so funny to watch with all the superstitious things they did. There was a chick sitting in front of us who must have attended KU because she kept doing the same stuff. Every time there was a big shot the students would raise there arms and make an “O” with thier fingers. She kept doing that and so I kept missing the cool shots because she totally blocked my view. The curse of being short.

We left with about 4 minutes left in the game since it wasn’t a close one and we had to drive across town to pick Asher up. Our friends who watched him have cats so were were expecting his eyes to be a little puffy, seeing how we all seem to be allergic to cats, but WOW they were really puffy and red! I was really surprised. I’m sure it didn’t help that he loves animals and was petting and chasing them all night. (And then rubbing his eyes.) I didn’t think to get a pictures. It was late and I was much more worried about giving him a bath and to bed than pictures. His left eye is still a little swollen this morning but he’s a happy guy. “Cats fun!” is what he says.

 

 

28 Weeks

My sister in law Tammy really wanted to see an updated picture of the baby belly. So here you go! Just for you Tammy!

 

I had to include the second picture because it is too funny. Asher kept jumping in my pictures. Most of them he just held still with his back to the camera. But once the camera went off he’d go find something else to do. I’d set it up again and he’s run back to be in the picture. He already has picture-envy with the baby! What does that mean for the future?

 

Happy Halloween

We hope everyone had a happy and safe Halloween! For the actual festivities we went to a Trunk or Treat at our church house and then went to a few places on our street. We have a very dark street and didn’t end up with too many trick or treaters. We also got home about 7:30pm a lot of trick or treaters seemed to be done about then… at least on dark streets! I forgot to bring the camera to the trunk or treat but here are some pictures after we got home.

Ben (an English Postman) and Asher (a Pirate) coming home after trick or treating at a few houses on the street.

As soon as Asher got to the front step he wanted to show me the suckers he got. He was really excited.

Asher looking at his “treasures.”

Trying to open candy… any candy.

-Meagan: vampire, Asher: Pirate, Ben: English Postman-

I made Asher’s Halloween costume, almost entirely out of extra fabric I already had. The construction was… lacking. I was hand-stitching with a deadline. I also made a cute sword for Asher, unfortunately he wasn’t a big fan of actually carrying it around. Oh well. It was a fun Halloween and Ben was happy in the end that he dressed up.

 

Fall Colors and a Birthday!

First fall colors…

Alright! Now most of you know Ben recently celebrated a birthday.  Here are some pictures of him opening presents and his cake. Also, keep in mind that Ben had just gotten home (on his birthday) helping someone move. He didn’t have time to shower, etc. before Asher needed to go down for a nap.

Ben wanted a vanilla cake with cool whip for frosting and grated chocolate on top. I also decided to add some chopped chocolate as well. It was SO good! This cake is now in my top 5 of favorites.

Asher sneaking some frosting while I was getting the chocolate ready.

Now some video fun! Asher and me singing Happy Birthday to Ben:

Asher opening his present from Grandma Tannis and Grandpa Joe:

 

Cool Cookies and Late-Season Watermelon

My friend (and VT companion) April made these totally amazing cookies, can you tell she’s a professional baker? She gave them to us ’cause she’s awesome like that. But she also sells them. Anyone who lives locally and would like some let me know, she also does “Grumpy Snowmen” in November and December. They are adorable and are really yummy. They actually taste like you’re eating donuts! Crazy but true.

Tuesday as I was walking into the house I noticed we had two little watermelons on our watermelon plant. Apparently with the sudden warming trend we’ve had they decided to grow. Too bad it is cold and rainy now. A good reminder that next year we need to plant the garden (a lot) earlier next year.