Thanksgiving Weekend

Happy 1st Thanksgiving to our little bug.

Started out the day having a wonderful breakfast with Ryan's family.

I made a baked french toast and it was heavenly.

-thank you pinterest-

We then headed to see our Makenzie and drop off some decor.

-of course the only picture we take there we all have our eyes closed. awesome-

We then headed to visit Ryans Grandma Phillis.

Oh how I love this women. She is the sweetest and the funniest.

I have been dieing to get a generations picture so I made all these boys who are not fond of pictures sit there and smile. Tracker seems to be taking after his Dad on the not liking picture thing.

We had to hurry home after Grandmas because our friends were on their way for our Thanksgiving weekend. I was both excited and a bit nervous to host Thanksgiving. I mean its a big deal right? The table, food, presentation all has to be perfect! Well thank God Mike and Misty could care less. because it was anything but martha stewart in our house. A small kitchen, 2 toddlers and a crying infant make for everything barley being made let alone looking presentable.

We managed to have an amazing smoked turkey, mashed potato's, gravy, rolls, sweet potato casserole, deviled eggs and a horrible green bean casserole.

-of course there is a story. I have never had green bean casserole and was anxious to try it out. I bought everything for it except the crispy onions because I had some in the cuboard already. Misty made the dish and as we sat down to eat it she took the first bite, look at me with a grossed out look and said they didn't taste right.  I took a bite and almost puked. It was the worst thing I have ever tasted. It was like eating burnt plastic or something. Ryan tried it and gaged for days. Misty asked how old the onions were and that's when it hit me. I grabbed the can and saw the expiration date... So maybe I should have mentioned that when we got married for my shower I had a pantry party where everyone brought stuff to fill my pantry. and those onions came from that party. and yes we have now been married 6 years. They expired in 2009. blah! Kind of ruined the rest of the dinner because that taste didn't leave my mouth for the rest of the night.-

Ryan makes the most amazing smoked turkey. ahhh. I could eat it all the time. This was the biggest one he has ever made and I was excited to have leftovers!

First he let it sit in a brine for 24 hours

Then he smoked it for over 8 hours

Then he burned brown sugar and honey all over it.

The rest of the weekend we spent enjoying this family.

Misty and I went black friday shopping. I was extremely nervous to leave Tracker but was assured by Ryan he would be totally fine. and he was right. He slept from 9pm when I laid him down until 5am. The kid was amazing. We got home shortly after he woke and he was happy as can be.

The boys went shooting with some friends on Friday.

We all tried to take a nap during the day but that didn't really happen.

Saturday we went to show them the new sporting good store Scheels and walk around downtown and see the lights. My mind was a bit preoccupied the entire day after hearing some bad news in the morning. I felt so bad for kind of ruining the day but its a good thing they all understood.

None of us brought warm enough stuff for the kids to see the lights. I am not sure what we were thinking. but we ended up deciding to just head home after the twins kept saying... "Cold"

We spent the rest of their visit snuggling the kids, drawing, building bridges and just chatting away.

We had a weekend where we were constantly reminded just how much we have to be Thankful for.

Its not about the things we have, our job, money, if we got a flat tire or the green bean casserole almost poisoned us. Its about the ones we share our life with. The people who help us through the tough times and the people who stand by us through it all. We have so many people who make a difference in our life and we could not be more thankful.