Thanksgiving

It's the one week anniversary of Thanksgiving '08 so I figured today would be the best day to add some pictures from our trip to see both sides of the fam and all those cutie-patootie babies.

On Wednesday, the McHusband and I had dinner with my mom, sisters, their hubbies, and the babies. We had a very traditional meal - delicious twice-baked potatoes that Bri made, the meat of our choice (it was BYOMeat) that Nate grilled to perfection, and the yummy Seven Layer Salad that my mom brought. People were raving about the storemade rolls that I brought, but enough about me. Shannon made (and I use that term loosely) a dessert: a Cool Whip-Fudge Stripe concoction that was actually really good. Here's the recipe:

--Dunk Fudge Stripes in milk.

--Layer with Cool Whip.

--Repeat.

See why I used "made" loosely? No matter, it was still scrumptious. We don't discriminate between hard-to-make desserts and easy ones - we like them all.

Actually, I did more than contribute those oh-so-fabulous rolls. I made Peanut Butter Fudge and it was pretty darn delectable if I do say so myself.

As soon as I walked in the door, I was put to work.

As you can see by the look on my face, I was very upset to be handed the baby and told to snuggle him while he ate.

Here's Bri holding Owen. See how he's looking for me? "Where's my best aunt ever?"

Or maybe he's just nervous about that oversized freckle on her neck and trying to put some distance between him and it.

Uncles Calvin and McHusband got in on the Lyla-holding action:

Careful, McHusband, she's not a puppy.

Lyla seemed happiest sitting on the breakfast bar playing with the faucet.


















Maybe we have a future plumber on our hands? I bet she'll have the cutest plumber's crack in the biz.

New counters!

I'm going out of order here - I owe my faithful readers (all 6 of you) a Thanksgiving recap bursting with pictures, but I'm going to do a post about my new granite counters first.

I LOVE MY NEW COUNTERS!

The guys who installed the counters were here for a little over an hour so in that time I went from no counters (the McHusband and I removed the old ones last night) to beautiful granite counters. We chose New Venetian Gold granite and we actually got the pick the slabs that our counters came from. Pretty cool, huh?

Without further adieu, I introduce MY NEW COUNTERS:














A close-up with the cabinets:














We commissioned the breakfast bar - turned the island from a Plain Jane one-level island into a two-level breakfast bar. The McMom planted the idea of the breakfast bar in my head so she's glad we're happy with it or else I'm sure the guilt would keep her up at night. Okay, so maybe it's the late-afternoon coffee keeping her up, but I'm a Gen X-er so I'm gonna roll with the idea that it's all about us.

Back to the counters. Here's the breakfast bar:



















And, just because I LOVE MY NEW COUNTERS, here's another close-up showing the cranberry-ish spots that match our counters. They were the main reason I thought this pattern would work for us.














The McHusband was lucky enough to get home from work and have to get started on putting in the new faucet, which won't be done until tomorrow because my sink, which was "included" with the counters, didn't come with drains. You know, cuz a sink having drains isn't something you expect, right?

Look, who's that down there?

It's the McHusband!

Tori inspected his work.














"Sorry, bub, but the whatchamacallit's not connected properly to the whichamajiggy so your thingie's gonna leak. And you don't want a leaky thingie."

The McHusband agreed wholeheartedly on the leaky thingie matter. Nope, you can't have one of those...

Very productive

On Saturday night, with a little prompting from the McHusband, I finally unpacked my books and arranged them on my bookshelf. (I know, you're jealous of our exciting Saturday night.) I couldn't just unpack them and stick them up there all willy nilly. I had to alphabetize them by author. Luckily, I read a lot of the same authors so it wasn't too difficult to organize them even though it may have appeared otherwise.

After raking, I finished putting my books away. Each shelf has two rows deep of books and I still ran out of room. I'm going to have to look on craigslist for another bookshelf cuz you know I'm not going to stop reading.

Snow!

I can't believe it - we had snow TWICE last week. I don't know if I remember it ever snowing, even just flurries, before Thanksgiving. I'm hoping this is indicative of the kind of winter we're going to have, and I can count on spending a couple of snow days at home.




























And for all of you out there who say, "That's not snow, I've seen dandruff thicker than that!" remember that I live in North Carolina so if it sticks, even just for a few minutes, it's snow and it's newsworthy.

"That's a lot of leaves!"

So the McHusband and I were good homeowners this weekend and we raked leaves. We raked and raked and raked. And then, just for fun, we raked a little more. I don't have any pictures of the yard before, but I'm sure at this time of year it's not too hard for you to imagine what a backyard with lots of trees probably looks like.


Anyway, we got the leaves into piles and then moved them to a tarp, which we then dragged to the back of our lot outside where the fence will go to dump the leaves. By the time we were done, the pile of leaves was at least 5' deep and was almost as tall as us.




























As we said after each dump, "That's a lot of leaves!"

But it was worth it to see green grass again and to know that getting the leaves up would help us have green grass in the future.














Morgan and Tucker sunned on the deck while we prepared the backyard for their fence.




























"Are you guys done playing around out there?"















































"Wow, that's a lot of leaves!"

Chase

I have some new pictures of Chase to share. I can't wait to see him (and Kevin and Jenny, of course) next week at Thanksgiving. Jenny and Chase were in Charlotte last week and the McMom made sure to take lots of pictures. Here's one from Chase's "changing table" a.k.a. the washing machine. It was taken during the spin cycle, obviously his favorite.

And here he is looking so grown up in his Bumbo seat.



















Kevin and Chase doing the Clemson fan thing:

Judging by the look on Chase's face, it appears he's not exactly a fan of the outfit.

We have seating!

Our couch and loveseat were delivered Saturday morning. I have to give another shout-out to Hart Furniture. The delivery was scheduled for 9:15 and they actually showed up about 10 minutes early. The two deliverymen were very nice and very capable. They got the loveseat in without any problems, but the couch was a different story.

Remember, there are recliners on each end of both pieces so those suckers are heavy. Because the side of our staircase is just a few feet inside the front door, the deliverymen had to get creative and use a lot of muscle.

Tori the Supervisor would like to demonstrate just how close the stairs and front door are to each other.



















After Tori directed the guys through the door, they put the pieces roughly where I wanted them, and then I played with the furniture until I had things set up pretty much how I think they'll end up.




















The view from the kitchen - unpacked box, unfinished island and all. I'm not sure what to do about that floor lamp. I really like the lamp, but I'm just not sure if it's gonna stay in the den. An open floorplan is great and all, but losing the wall space that we had in the other house is making it difficult to find homes for my stuff.



















And, finally, the view from my spot on the left side of the loveseat. That's my spot because it has the most direct line of sight to the TV.

Yes, I know I have a problem. TV is my drug of choice and I have no plans to conquer my addiction so please don't bother with an intervention.
















Unlike with the lizards, we're saying, "Ya'll come on over, ya hear?" cuz now we've got a place for everyone to sit. And I might even share my TV with you, but only if I get to hold the remote.