Andrew 10 months

Can't believe in less than 2 months we will have a one year old around here!!! Andrew started saying "Mama" and "Dada" at the beginning of the month.  He says it more and more each day.  He is starting to understand more words too.  When I say "come here" and wave my arms towards myself he normally obey's and comes towards me.  Some times he gives me a weird look or raises an eyebrow.  He has climbed up the stairs twice now, with help of course.  We have a baby gate up and are always keeping an eye on him. He loves to crawl everywhere: around the couch, to the fridge where his magnets are, around the kitchen chairs and table, and around the fireplace.

He took his first steps with help from the walker.  Now he will walk around with it down the hall.  We had the Woman's Christmas Tea this month and Andrew was in childcare while I enjoyed that with friends. We also made Christmas cookies together. Okay well I made them and Andrew played but we were still in the same room :)

Last week was a rough week as Andrew had his first stomach bug.  It lasted about a week and he is feeling a whole lot better.  It's no fun to see your child sick. On the plus side he is feeling much better for Christmas and he is getting his first TOOTH!!!!  I think I"m more excited than he is lol.

Switched most of his clothes over to 12 month clothes as he is getting to long for most of his 9 month clothes.  I still kept a couple of 9 month pants out.  He is still in size 3 diapers which he will be for awhile.  Andrew is eating all table food now and loving mostly everything we give him.  He is not too fond of green peppers, onions (unless they are cooked in something) and mushrooms.  I think right now they are too chewy for him and he will need more teeth to eat those. Basically the little guy is just growing and being more adventurous! Enjoy some pictures!!!

First Thanksgiving

Hanging out at Grandma and Grandpa Kreutzer's house.

Playing hide and seek with daddy.

This is what I do when mommy is working.  I like to be adventurous!

First set of 12 month clothes!

He was looking at the Christmas tree lights.

Playing basketball with a baseball.

Hey everyone!

What's up?

It's getting harder and harder to make him sit still and take pictures!

Watching one of my favorite Christmas movies! The original 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas'

This is the best picture I got!

Hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Can't wait to celebrate Andrew's first Christmas!!!

Christmas Goody Baking and Delivery

I knew once I had kids we would be starting some great traditions and memories.  Even though Andrew is too young to help me in the kitchen, I know maybe in the next year or two he will be able to help me.  This was my first time ever baking SO many goodies for the plates.  This took an entire Saturday and I was very tired by the end of the day.  Friday night I made the sugar cookie and chocolate cookie dough because I knew those needed to firm up in the fridge for a couple of hours.

Here is a list of the goodies I made:

White Chocolate Covered Pretzels

No Bake Cookies

Chocolate Peppermint Cookies

Christmas Sugar Cookies

Marshmallow Pops

Spreads

Fudge

I wanted to make a couple of other things but by dinner time, I was tired and done! I started out making the Spreads.  Most of my recipes came from my Pioneer Woman Year of Holiday cookbook.  I will also share links to the recipes on her website.

Spreads

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/02/spreads-my-brothers-favorite-cookie/

The spreads are in the middle.  You basically make a huge cookie and then cut it up into pieces.

Fudge

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ree-drummond/quick-and-easy-peppermint-fudge-recipe/index.html

Marshmallow pops

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2012/12/marshmallow-pops/

Chocolate Cookies with Peppermint frosting

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2008/12/chocolate-candy-cane-cookies/

Dipping the cookies

Festive colors!

Matt's favorite, white chocolate covered pretzels!

Christmas Sugar Cookies

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2007/12/my_favorite_christmas_cookies_from_childhood_and_beyond/

Assembling the plates

Big pile of no bake cookies

One side of the finished plates!

and the other side!

All the finished plates!

and the leftovers for us :)

After I baked all day Saturday, we delivered everything on Sunday after church to family members and friends.  This is definitely a tradition I would love to keep going!

Thanksgiving

Overall, my first Thanksgiving was a huge success! The Tuesday before Thanksgiving, Matt's parents drove up to Gardner and stayed with us for the week.  It was nice to spend some time with them and I am sure they enjoyed their grandparent time with Andrew.  Tuesday night I premade the mashed potatoes for Thanksgiving.  Of course they were from The Pioneer Woman Holiday Cookbook! Here is a link to the mashed potatoes recipe:

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2007/11/delicious_creamy_mashed_potatoes/

Wednesday I had to work so Sandy and Butch watched Andrew.  It was a very slow day for work and since I work from home, I was able to work on the brine for the turkey.  This was my first time ever doing any kind of brine!  I was very nervous about it because I didn't know the end result!  According to everyone on Thanksgiving the turkey was delicious!  Even the white meat was moist.  The only thing I didn't care for is that we made the gravy from the drippings of the turkey and the brine had oranges in it.  I didn't like that the gravy had a sweet taste to it but it wasn't horrible.  Here is the link to the brine recipe:

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2010/10/my-favorite-turkey-brine/


Started cooking the brine at 2 pm the day before Thanksgiving.  Let it completely cool.

I place the turkey in the fridge Sunday night so it would be thawed out by Wednesday.

After the brine cooled, I placed the turkey in a trash bag (yes a trash bag) and poured it in with Matt's help.  Then it soaked in the brine for a little over 16 hours.  Took the turkey out of the brine and into the roasting oven a little after 8 am.  The key that I learned on Food Network is that you want to temp the turkey yourself and not rely on the thermometer in the turkey! Temp to 165 degrees in the thickest part of the thigh and you are good to go.

Finished result! It was delicious!

I also made some dips, got some appetizers ready, and made some deviled eggs Wednesday night.  Woke up at 7 am Thanksgiving morning to feed Andrew and get the turkey ready.  Got the turkey in, the ham, warmed up the mashed potatoes, placed all the appetizers out and everything else that was needed.  My parents came over around 930 and everyone else showed up around 1130.  We prayed and ate and ate and ate! I probably ate too much butt that's what you're supposed to do right???? Enjoy some pictures from the day!

Forgot I made homemade cranberry sauce.  No canned stuff for us!

Andrew hanging out with Grandma Sandy while mommy worked on Thanksgiving dinner.

Turkey butt lol

My dad cut the turkey.

While Matt's dad, Butch, cut the ham.

The kids colored some pictures while waiting for dinner.

Andrew hanging out with Grandpa and Grandma Kreutzer

After we ate dinner, we made out game plan for Black Friday shopping!

And ate some pies, all made by Wanda!

The cherry was my favorite!

Lemon Meurange

As stated above, we made our game plan for Black Friday shopping.  We went to Walmart first and got there at 4 pm.  They opened at 6 pm and we were out of there by 630 pm! Then we went to Michaels, some other place that I can't mention or someone will get in trouble lol, went to Kohl's but didn't buy anything because it was nuts, then finished at Toys R Us.  Got home at about 1230 and went to bed.  Got up at 7 to feed Andrew and then Butch and I headed out again.  We went to two Home Depots, Bed Bath and Beyond, then met up with Matt, Mitch, Carolyn and the kids at Culver's for some lunch.  After that Mitch, Butch, the kids and I went to a baseball card shop and then Mitch took Butch to the Legends while I wrapped up some shopping at HyVee!  I got most of my Christmas shopping done on Black Friday which I was very happy about!

Saturday I went over to my parents house in Lansing to hang out with my family.  My sister really wanted to see Andrew.  My aunt from California, Deann, was in town and we wanted to see her as well.  Other grandparents and aunts came over to visit as well.  We helped my mom put up the Christmas tree and enjoyed some more family time.

Grandpa and Andrew watching football.

Helping my mom hang up Christmas decorations.

Andrew was exploring their house.

Andrew climbing up a stair for the first time.

Sunday Matt's parents went home and I decorated the house for Christmas.  Love decorating, especially for Christmas!

We placed the tree in the corner 1. Because that was the only spot it would work and 2. Andrew can't get to it.  We placed a pillow in between the chair and sofa.

Placed lights on the house!

Love my "H" and how I can just switch out the ribbon for the holiday!

Andrew watching A Charlie Brown Christmas while I was working on Christmas cards.

So excited for Christmas this year since it will be Andrew's first!

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!