I am thankful for....

...my boys!

Well, there is a lot to cover from the past couple weeks.
Where shall I begin......?

Lets back track to November 19th-- Steve's 28th birthday.
Steve decided that he wanted to have some friends from school over on his birthday. They had just finished their big final for their Immunology and Infection course earlier in the week. So, no body had much objection to leaving behind the books for the evening and coming over to our house for an ICE CREAM PARTY! Steve is not a huge fan of cake. So, we had ice cream with different toppings and brownies.

(If you look closely you can see the one candle glowing in the pan of brownies. We were singing to Steve in this picture).
Thats right folks.... there were 10 of us there.... and 7 different flavors of ice cream!
Quite the spread.
It was fun to get to know some of Steve's classmates a bit better.  I think Steve enjoyed having them over and showing off his little boy as well.


Speaking of the little boy...
Robby got his first bout of sickness shortly after Steve's birthday. That Saturday, he started coughing a little bit and Sunday he seemed like he just wanted to be held most of the time. Then, Sunday night, when he was already awake for the second time and it was only 3 am.... I knew I was in for a long night. I took his temperature and found that he had a slight fever around 101. Robby and I spent the next couple nights sleeping on the couch.  I wanted to be close to him, so I could keep tabs on him. Anyway, he only had the slight fever for 2 nights (only at night). Other than that, he's just had a sad little cough.  He was such a trooper through it all. Even on the days when I could tell he didn't feel well, I still got little smiles from him.

....such a little sweetie....

On Wednesday I woke up feeling that Robby had likely passed on his sickness to me... I delayed my Thanksgiving preparations that I had planned for the day and took a nap for a few hours. Luckily, Robby was still not feeling top notch either so he slept the whole time I did! Good boy.

I spent the remainder of Wednesday preparing for Thanksgiving. This was my first year hosting Thanksgiving. And so, it was my first attempt at making a turkey! I was a bit nervous...what if it didn't turn out?!?! I would ruin Thanksgiving for everyone...hahaha.

But, of course, being ME... I have to make everything more complicated than it needs to be. So, did I just rub the turkey with oil and pop it in the oven? Of course not! I decided I was going to brine my turkey for a day before roasting it! It actually turned out to be a really good thing that I decided to do this.
Not only did the turkey turn out wonderful and moist... but, had I not decided on this method then we might not have had a turkey at all! 
Why?
Well.... you see, when I pulled the turkey out of the fridge on Wednesday to put it in the brine, I found that it was still ROCK SOLID FROZEN!!! It had been in the fridge for a few days.... I really thought it would have thawed by then! Can you imagine if I had pulled the turkey out on Thanksgiving and it was still frozen solid? I would have freaked out! Luckily, since it was only Wednesday, I had time to thaw the turkey in cold water in the sink. Due to this, I wasn't able to brine it as long as I'd hoped, but it still turned out great!
I was so happy.

THANKSGIVING:
TO BE CONTINUED.....

A Trip to DC

Looks like a new tradition might be in the making. Remember when I went to Nashville last year and saw my parents (my dad had a work conference there)? Well, this year they headed to Washington DC and I was able to join them again!

We stayed at the Gaylord National hotel. Not nearly as awesome as the Gaylord Opryland in Nashville last year. But, we did enjoy plenty of good times together and even saw a few sights.

I had planned on driving, but my parents said they'd feel better if I flew since I'd have Robby with me.

And so, Robby got to experience his first plane ride! Luckily, it was only a one and a half hour flight. And he did a lot better than I had feared.

It was fun for my parents to be able to see Little Robby! They came out to Toledo when he was born, but of course he has changed A TON since then!!!

He had fun chilling with Grandpa at the hotel...

(notice he is very interested in his hands and feet lately...)

....spending Grandpa's Birthday at Mt Vernon (George Washington's estate)....

(...how the heck did my finger get in that picture.... whoops... it was my dad's phone...I didn't know what I was doing...)

...spending Sunday visiting the Temple with Grandma...

...seeing a giant man sinking into the sand in National Harbor (near the hotel)...

...riding the metro...

...which was apparently a bit frightening....

...but worth it when we went to the zoo and saw the Giant Pandas!...

(These pandas have this HUGE outdoor habitat that is amazing. We walked all around the zoo looking for the pandas in their habitat. Finally, in the end, we found them indoors.... sitting on concrete.... crazy bears...)

It was sad to say goodbye to my parents, but, at least we know we'll see them again next month! We fly out to Utah on December 19th. I can't believe we are already heading into the holiday season! Robby's first holidays... Where has the time gone?