Saturday, November 30, 2013

Texas!

Thanksgiving meant it was time for Noah to take his first plane ride and head down to Texas to see Julie's family. Julie and I were a bit nervous taking Noah on the plane, we didn't know how he would react to the plane, the people, and everything around him.  Fortunately, he did great through it all and it gives us more hope for taking him on trips in the future.

Enjoying the United Club
Watching the clouds and sleeping soundly
We apparently picked great times to fly because both the Denver and Dallas airports were relatively slow when we went through.  In fact, there was no line at all to get through security at DFW!  Noah enjoyed looking around the airport and seeing everything going on.  He also enjoyed the planes and he took nice long naps on both flights and just played quietly the other times.  Great job kid!

The tradition of us picking up the Greenberg turkey continued this year, but the cold weather reduced the number of folks who wanted to come with us.  The weather also turned away many of the other people picking up their turkey, so there was no line to get our turkey this year!  The other tradition of Bodacious BBQ continued this year, we picked it up and ate it with the Lambs.  It was great!  It signaled the beginning of the festival of eating in Texas!

Picking it up in the rain!
The first tradition was the Tamale dinner at Uncle Gary and Aunt Donna's house.  They made soup and a very tasty Butterfinger pie, it was an awesome night.  Noah played with his cousins in the middle of the floor, and just had a great time.  We ate the Greenberg at Thanksgiving at the Lambs, along with just about every traditional Thanksgiving side you can think of.  All of it was amazingly tasty.  Thanksgiving at the Reeds was also great, Gary smoked the turkeys for hours and hours.  The turkeys made the whole house smell like wonderful BBQ, and the meal was fantastic.  

Great-Grandpa Lamb playing with Noah
Reading a book with his Grandpas
Checking the structural integrity of that doll house
After-Thanksgiving walk around the lake
There is another Tyler Thanksgiving tradition, but this one doesn't involve food!  It is the Tyler Turkey Trot and takes place on Thanksgiving morning, so you can earn that turkey!  A good group of us did it this year, including Reagan! 

The Tyler Turkey Trot group shot
We unfortunately left the next day, but Julie's cousin Rachel suggested that we get some BBQ with them before our flight took off and we could not turn that down!  They knew a place close to the airport called Hard Eight that was supposed to be great, and it certainly was.   They sell their meat by the pound, then you pick some sides and desserts and enjoy.  You walk into the place through a wall of hickory smoke and it smells great.  I think we even filled the plane with the smoke smell from our clothes!  We got some brisket, ribs, and spicy sausage, and it was all great as advertised.

A giant, open pit of meat. Yes please.
We had a wonderful time in Texas, and can't believe that it went so fast. Look forward to taking Noah back again!  We hope you all had a great Thanksgiving of your own!

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

TWD: Baking with Julia - Double Chocolate Cookies

The recipe for this week was Double Chocolate Cookies and since I didn't get a recipe done last month I wasn't going to miss this one!  And, I am really glad I didn't, these cookies are great!  Super chocolatey, melt in your mouth cookies that are not as flat as a pancake!  That is something for baking cookies in Colorado.  I might have to add these to a Christmas cookie list or keep the recipe for a special occasion!  They weren't too difficult to whip up, you just have to use a double boiler for the chocolates and butter and then whip eggs and sugar and instant coffee for ten minutes and then add some flour mixture and more chocolate.  After that it is to the fridge for a good chill which kind of turned the dough into a really thick brownie like batter!  Feel free to check out the other blogs that are baking along with Tuesdays with Dorie.  Here are the pictures I took along the way, starting with the butter and chocolate!



Adding all the melted chocolate
Mixing in the flour mixture and more chocolate
Thick mixture even holds up the spoon!


The finished product!  

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Leaves for everyone!

It is that time of year again... when the trees are stripped bare of all that they wear!  And we have no other choice but to play in them!  Or watch Reagan and Breckin play in them!  Mikey raked all the leaves we had up into a good pile for the kids and they played in them for about an hour.  Jim and Mikey took turns raking them all together so the kids could jump in them and throw them everywhere!  We tried to take pictures of them jumping and throwing them, I think the one of Breckin looks really fun! Hope you are all having a nice fall too!
Stopping for half a second for a smile!
Jim using the rake as a shield 
Breckin trying to get his dad
Breckin and his super jump!
Reagan jumping as high as she can

Mikey getting the leaves gathered up one last time

Monday, November 4, 2013

Can't believe it's November Already

November means our little itty bitty baby is now 8 months old!   It has gone way too quickly and we have both enjoyed every minute with him!  He is still army crawling all over the place and crawls on his knees sometimes, but then seems to think army crawling is easier and goes back down on his belly.  He has started to pull himself up on anything he can reach.  He has had a few spills from holding on to the edge of the couch and crawling on things at daycare.  He is also babbling up a storm and we are awaiting him saying his first word.  He is generally happy with everything all the time and he loves to watch people and cars and has started to even stare at the tv.  He had a good Halloween dressed up as an elephant and wore a skeleton outfit to daycare!  This last weekend we had the unfortunate discovery of him having hand, foot, and mouth disease, which we think he picked up at daycare.  It is a viral infection that takes about a week to run its course and most kids just get a low fever and a rash around the mouth, hands and feet.  Noah got it pretty bad around the mouth and has a few spots up and down his arms and legs.  Hopefully he will be back to normal before much longer!

Here are a few pictures from the last week or so!

8 Month Growth Picture
Still likes playing on his playmat
Doing great eating in his highchair
Crawled out of his elephant pants!
Happy Halloween!
Ready for daycare
Watching every car go by

Waldo Waldo 5K

Last weekend we dressed up as Waldo and Wenda with about 2000 of our closest friends and participated in the Waldo Waldo 5K!  It was Noah's first 5K, and he did great in the stroller the whole time!   We tried to run some of the 5K, but since we had the stroller we started in the back and it was just a wall of Waldos in front of us.  They are trying to set the World Record for the most amount of Waldos in one place, but were about 1000 people short.  Maybe next year!

All the Waldos lining up for a picture
Family photo
Line of Waldos
Dad pushing Noah while he was sleeping!