Soundtrack to cook to: Christmas Mix!
Many apologies for the tardiness of this post, but things have been pretty crazy and busy in our household. Here's a little catch up from the past few weeks:
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| No, this is not a picture of child abuse, I promise. My sister was helping me get William's footprint and handprint to frame. As you can tell, William did not appreciate this activity. At this point, William couldn't hold his own head up, so that's why she's holding his head like that. |
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| Trying to get a 2 week old's handprint is pretty much impossible. His little hand was permanently balled up into a fist and we had to pry his little hand open. I had to do it three times in order to get a decent handprint. |
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| Here's my mom using a skewer in order to carve in William's name and birthdate into the hand and footprints. |
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| Here's my mom saying good bye to Alex (I never remember to take pictures during anyone's stay, and always remember at the last minute to take some snapshots.) She was here from November 6-17. |
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| "Mama B" and Alexander |
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| Mom, getting in a little kiss to William before she had to go as well. |
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| Here I am, giving Alex a little pep talk before we gave William his first bath on November 18, 2012. |
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| Getting the little man ready for his first bath! He lost his belly button on November 17, so we felt that it was definitely time to clean our little guy. |
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| Alexander sat proudly in the tub and helped oversee William's first bath. |
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| Little man enjoyed his first bath! |
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| One happy and squeaky clean baby. |
That brings us to Thanksgiving. A day after my mom left, Joseph's parents came back to visit us and to meet our new little guy. They unfortunately missed meeting William by a few hours the last time they were here. Many thanks again to Elias, Linda, and Kristen for holding down the fort and making sure that Alexander and Oscar maintained their routine amongst all of the chaos of the baby's arrival.
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| In order to keep Alexander busy during Thanksgiving, we got him a few little gifts. |
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| He excitedly ripped out the tissue paper to see them. |
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| A turkey gel cling for the window - I used to LOVE putting these in the window of my classroom door. Alex had a lot of fun putting this on our sliding glass door with his "Nai Nai." (grandmother - Joseph's mother). |
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| He also got a couple of books about Thanksgiving. |
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| Finally, Joseph's and my favorite part of the gift bag, the turkey hat! |
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| Ha ha ha!! LOVE the turkey hat! I think it was more of a treat for us than it was for him. :) |
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| Alex, giving his "camera smile." |
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| Our Thanksgiving table |
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| Mmmm, Greek panzanella salad |
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| Ok, ok, ok...I cheated with this one. I made all of the sides for Thanksgiving dinner but ordered a pre-cooked turkey from Whole Foods. |
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| Brussels sprouts with prosciutto and balsamic vinegar I personally like to use thin-sliced prosciutto as opposed to the thick cut pancetta. |
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| Apple, orange, and cranberry sauce |
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| My mom's "berry mallow" casserole. I call it the "Barry Manilow" casserole because of how it sounds. It's got a delicious layer of sweet potatoes, sweet black cherries, mandarin oranges, cranberries, brown sugar and oat crumble, and toasted marshmallows on top. Yummmmmmmm! This has been on the Waples holiday table for as long as I can remember. |
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| This is my own little creation of corn bread, chestnut, and mushroom stuffing. I found a stuffing recipe and played around with it and loved the result. This is probably my favorite of all of the leftovers. |
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| Happy Thanksgiving! Alexander, Linda, Elias, Pete, Kristen, and me. |
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| Same crew, but now Joseph is in the picture and Pete is behind the camera. We were very thankful to have everyone at the table and that we were all happy and healthy. |
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| My sister's contribution to the meal were two pies. This one is the one that we had last year, a pumpkin pecan pie. So stinking good! |
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| This is my sister's creation of an apple pie with a turkey bacon lattice. Don't be a hater just yet! It was actually pretty good. Especially if you're a person like me who loves the combination of savory and sweet. Bravo Weez! |
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| I saw this little turkey cupcake at Whole Foods and just couldn't resist getting it for Alexander for a little treat. He had this for dessert the next day. |
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| "Eat turkey? Yes, oh yes!" |
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| Since we had some help at home, I took Alexander with me to run some errands and we had a quick little "Mommy and Alex" date at the local Starbucks. He thoroughly enjoyed guzzling down his hot chocolate. I knew he would chug it pretty fast, so I asked them to make it so it wasn't that hot. He loved the hot chocolate and the one-on-one time. Thanks Elias and Linda, for watching William so that Alexander and I could have this alone time! |
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| Oscar, Joseph, Alexander, Elias, and Linda during Thanksgiving. It was nice having them to visit, meet William, and most importantly lend a hand since things were pretty chaotic at home. |
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| Me, Oscar, Alexander, Elias, and Linda |
*Phew!* Okydoky. I'm working on trying to catch up with the rest of the pictures. It's been so nice to have so much loving family come to visit and to help us out at home. It's funny that things have gotten so crazy around the house with just one little addition. We're definitely back into a routine and things are calming down. Although it's not easy, it sure is great being a parent of two beautiful boys! I couldn't be any happier! Until next time...
Love and kisses,
Nikki
