Our First Thanksgiving!

I cannot believe Thanksgiving has already gone and passed. It was our first Thanksgiving together as an old married couple. We decided that we would have Thanksgiving at our house, since Jeff, my little Bobby (Betty) Crocker, wanted to make Thanksgiving dinner. I was able to contribute by ordering a "fresh" turkey. Neither one of us ever had a fresh turkey before and thought it was be nice to try. We didn't know the size of the turkey, since it was not going to be killed until Tuesday of that week. I know that sounds terrible, sorry. I picked up our turkey after my doctor appointment on Wednesday. Well, we got a 20 pound turkey! It was the biggest bird I had ever seen in my life. Jeff and I were worried it won't fit in our roaster pan. When I got home with the turkey, Jeff and I pulled out our new stainless-steel pan that we got as a wedding gift and discovered it did not have a lid. Jeff was freaking out at this point and said we needed to take the pan back to Bed, Bath & Beyond and purchase a pan with a lid. We went to the store and couldn't find anything that was half as nice as what we had. We talked to several people in the store and some suggested we put foil over the bird, but one said to buy a cooking bag. I wasn't excited about the foil idea, but had heard about the cooking bag from a friend from work. She said she cooks her turkey in a cooking bag every year and it turned awesome every time. We went back home with our same roaster pan. I was so tired that night, but Jeff wanted to make our apple pies. I wanted to blow it off to the morning, but he reminded me we won't have time. We stayed up until 1:00 am when our pies came out of the oven. Doesn't this guy understand that I'm pregnant and 10:00 pm is my limit?

Bright and bushy tailed my little Bobby Crocker was up by 9:00 am excited to cook his turkey. He still had one dilemma; was he going to use his mom's turkey pan, use the foil trick, or breakdown and purchase the cooking bag? The answer: he broke down and bought the cooking bag like my friend told him to do. My husband likes to weigh all his options before he does ANYTHING! I'm different or just impatient, but I make decisions based on my gut feeling (as my Dad says "I shoot from the hip") I've been like that my whole life and I think I've made pretty good decisions. I knew my friend is a wonderful cook and I trusted her suggestion with the cooking bag. I wouldn't have waited until the last minute to decide, but I guess that's the difference between men and women. Who knows?! We washed roaster pan and got the turkey ready (brushed butter all over it and stuffed it for Jeff's Dad - Yuck!). My mom always put the stuffing in the turkey and I never ate it b/c it was mushy and gross. Jeff's mom made the stuffing last year and I was so happy it was outside the turkey. I loved it! I feel bad b/c she has to make stuffing twice, but it's so worth it.

Here's some pictures of our turkey and look at my dog, Jake, in the second picture. He wanted to help with the turkey too.




The turkey finally made it into the oven around 10:30 am. Here's a picture of Jeff checking up on his masterpiece.


My brother was the first to arrive. He hadn't been over in awhile, so it was nice to visit with him before the others arrived. Marylou and Jim (my in-laws) were next to arrive. My brother and Jim watched the Lions games while Jeff and his mom worked on getting the rest of the dinner ready. I basically helped when they needed me, since I'm not much help in the kitchen. Jeff banned me from our oven awhile back, when I tried to make a Lean Pocket with the microwave cover on it in the stove. He freaked. Well, what can I say, I usually microwave everything and Jeff never uses the microwave.

Anyway, my mom finally made it to the house. She made a wrong turn and got a little lost on her way. My mom helped with the gravy, since the rest of us didn't know how to make turkey gravy. We decided to place the dinner on the table in a buffet style b/c we had so much food.

Here's a picture of our 20 pound turkey coming out of the oven.


Here's a group picture before we ate dinner.


Here's a picture of our beautiful table.


Here's my brother and mom filling their plates.




Here's a picture of Jeff enjoying his dinner.


Wow..the dinner turned out so good. My husband did a wonderful job making his first fresh turkey. We had stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, rolls, green bean casserole, and corn.

After dinner, we just hung out and looked through the store ads. I didn't find anything I really needed, so I told Jeff we were sleeping in on Friday. Jeff's sister Christie and her daughter Kennedie stopped by for dessert. We hadn't seen them in so long, so it was nice to visit with them. Everyone seemed to leave around 8:00 pm. I cleaned up the kitchen, which seemed like it took me hours. Overall, it was the best first Thanksgiving with my new family.

At the end of the night, I told Jeff we needed a picture to remember this day. I love the holidays and I really enjoy spending time with my family. Just think we'll have a new family member next year at Thanksgiving dinner.

11 Weeks Pregnant

I cannot believe I'm at the end of my first trimester. I was never so tired or nauseated in my life. I'm so glad the nausea and exhaustion are finally over. I hate to throw up and cry every time I have to do it. I still get nauseated when I smell strong perfumes and bathroom smells, but it could be worse. Some people have nausea throughout their whole pregnancy. I wouldn't be able to handle it..(my poor friend Lisa suffered terribly).

I got some maternity clothes for my birthday, but I haven't had to wear them yet. I have only gained one pound in 11 weeks, so I cannot complain. It doesn't help that I didn't exercise as much as I usually do and I didn't eat very healthy either this week. I went to Motherhood (a store in the mall) and purchased the cutiest top. I got it to match a pair of brown dress pants and thought I could wear it for Christmas, if needed.

Here's a picture my shirt (I got it in red)


My next OB appointment is the day before Thanksgiving. I'm looking forward to seeing how big the baby is getting and to hear its heartbeat again. After 16 weeks, Jeff and I will be able to find out what we're having and we decided we want to know.

Here's what is happening with my little peanut this week:

Your fig-sized baby is now fully formed — measuring 1 1/2 inches long and weighing in at a quarter of an ounce. His skin is still transparent, allowing many of his blood vessels to show through. Some of his bones are beginning to harden, and tiny toothbuds are starting to appear under his gums. His fingers and toes have separated, and he may soon be able to open and close his fists. He's already busy kicking and stretching, and his tiny movements are so fluid they look like water ballet. These movements will increase as his body grows and becomes more developed and functional. As his diaphragm develops, your tiny tenant may also start to get the hiccups. Because he's still so small, though, you won't feel any of his workouts or intrauterine gulps until sometime between weeks 16 and 20.

Our Hospital Visit

On Saturday, October 21, Jeff and I were feeling fine. Jeff made vegetable beef soup, which I ate around 2:00 pm and felt fine. Later that evening, we decided to splurge and buy ingredients to make nachos and watch the World Series. On Sunday, Jeff and I both woke up feeling like we had food poisoning or the flu. I called my dad around 8:00 am and told him I was feeling terrible and I wasn't going to church. I went back to bed for a hour or so, in the meantime, Jeff moved out to the couch. He had terrible stomach pains and was in the bathroom all morning. I was the opposite in the bathroom throwing up uncontrollably. I thought it was morning sickness and the fact that I'm so VERY sensitive to smells didn't help. Jeff stunk up our whole house! Around 2:30 pm, Jeff told me that he felt so bad that we needed to go to the hospital. I agreed b/c I was feeling so terrible that I was going to suggest it myself. We arrived at the emergency room around 2:45 pm. We both had temperatures and complained we didn't feel good. The hospital thought we had food poisoning, but thought it was unlikely since we didn't eat out. They placed us in a room together and gave us both IVs and shots. We hung out until 8:30 after having two bags of fluids each. They ordered us apple juice to see if we could keep down fluids, but it back fired. In no time, Jeff was running to the bathroom and I started vomiting again! My temperature went up to 101, so the doctor thought it was a good idea to keep me overnight since I was pregnant. They sent Jeff home at 10:30 pm. I didn't sleep the whole night b/c I had a heart monitor attached to me, plus the IV. I saw the OB in the morning, so she decided to order my ultrasound even though I told her I had an appointment for the same thing on Thursday. I didn't care b/c I wanted to see the baby. Jeff came to the hospital around 11:30 am and we finally made it down to ultrasound at 3:00 pm on Monday. It was the most amazing thing to see pictures of my baby and hear it's little heart beating. Jeff was able to come to the room and see it all too. We both cried. I still cannot believe this little human is living inside my body. It's so crazy! I got a picture to take home. Well, I didn't get out of the hospital until 6:00 pm that day. Jeff decided he was ready to eat, so we went to Olga's. Well to say the least, Olga's didn't agree with me b/c I was throwing up at 3:00 am on Tuesday morning. I ended up missing 2 days of work and my mid-term exam. Thank goodness my professor was super cool and let me take my test on Thursday evening.

I'm so happy to be feeling better. That was the worst flu I ever had. Jeff's mom was wonderful. She stayed with us at the hospital until they discharged Jeff. She even helped us out a ton when we got home. I couldn't be luckier to have such a wonderful mother-in-law.