Happy New Year

Madeleine did not make it until midnight. She sacked out in the corner of the couch long before the ball dropped. I think she looks passed out drunk here, I wanted to prop a bottle of Martinelli's up in her lap but the bottle was bigger than her!

New Year's morning we had a German pancake with sauteed apples and fresh whipped cream. Oh, so good! Noelle insisted on wearing this sweater over her jammies. She's getting so demanding these days!

Here we have my very first turkey, EVER! All the cooking and baking I've done over the years and I've actually never done the bird myself. I've even hosted Thanksgiving but someone else did that part. So, since we did not get to be together this Thanksgiving and I wanted to do a really nice meal to start off the new year, this is what I came up with.

My meat thermometer broke so I just had to eyeball when was done so it was a little dry but the flavor was great. I slaved all day making homemade rolls, mashed potatoes, stuffing, sweet potato casserole, fresh green beans, gravy, and cranberry sauce. We even had cloth napkins but when it came time to eat Noelle was having a rough time and Madeleine was screaming to nurse so we did not even get to eat together. Oh, well! Aaron really appreciated the effort and told me over and over that I am the best wife ever!

Noelle's Birthday

~Pictures from Noelle's 3rd Birthday~

After her bath in the morning she got to open her present from Uncle JoJo & Aunt Amy that had been sitting there for over a week. Talk about torture!

Her first real purse...filled with candy! I even let her eat it for breakfast. Next was a Strawberry Shortcake outfit, she was so excited she we had to immediately put it on.

Then, Auntie came over with a balloon and presents. Honestly, if she had only come with the balloon it would have been plenty. The thing still has air and she probably spends at least an hour a day playing with it. Last night she actually fell asleep holding onto the string.

After Auntie left we had to hurry over to the park to meet our friends for lunch. *A side note story about the cupcakes. I only have one muffin tin so I had to make two separate batches. The first took a long time to cool, so I put them on the bench in our backyard since it was so cold outside they would cool a lot faster. I opened the door to go check on them and I see a POSSUM scurrying away. I look down at my cupcakes and the disgusting thing had eaten half of them!!!!!! I absolutely freaked out, so gross! There were still a few in the pan it had not touched but I could not stomach using them. I still get the hee-bee-gee-bees just thinking about it. Ack! Ugh! Gag! I threw my flip-flop at it and Aaron came running out with the broom but he was long gone. We were quite the scene. I was so upset that everyone had to share but they were still tasty.

Eating leftovers from lunch before heading off to bed....It was such a fun and exhausting day!