Tree Hunting

Today is the first day of rifle season, Happy Hunting! In that spirit, we ventured out yesterday to hunt our own Christmas tree. We decided we are going to do this every year from now, in spite of the allergies that have attacked all 3 of us from having a tree IN the house. The memories of picking out our tree at the Christmas tree farm, combined with the genuine spirit of the season that you feel when you walk into the house and smell pine are just worth it. We want our kids to have this memory every year, and for picking out a tree to be an event they look forward to.

We visited Arnold's Christmas Tree Farm in Rye Township/New Bloomfield, and for a very good price found the perfect tree! Because I am so heavily pregnant and wanted to take pictures, and because Brady LOVES his Grandma Fischer so very much, my mom came along with us. It was blustery and cold, but Brady had a great time (as he always does) being outside. He even got to try some free hot chocolate at the end of it!


"What is this place, Grandma?"

"Hmm, that rock looks yummy..."

 



Picking out a breed...

 

"Found one!"



"Here Daddy, let me help you saw down that tree!"



"Good job buddy!"

"Ok, now hurry up..."

Victory at last!



"Peekaboo Mommy!"

As always, I saved my favorite picture for last. I cannot get enough of that little face--it belongs to the love of my life!

Delicious Feast

Thanksgiving this year was great, and particularly memorable because it was the first celebratory meal in my mom and Steve's new house. I made a ton of food, we ate a ton of food--except for the nagging headcold I battled all weekend, it was everything it was supposed to be. This year there were so many things to be thankful for, but first and foremost on my list is always this guy...

Be prepared, a photo dump is coming! Our Thanksgiving in photos...

Grandma and her Bubba

Mommy's Grandma (GiGi)

Mommy's Pawpaw

Uncle Garrett (smiling for a photo--a rare victory!)

Daddy

Uncle Dan

Grandma, Pop and Pop's Mom

As far as the food goes, you will have to forgive me. I was so consumed with eating (I am 7 months pregnant, after all!!), that I forgot to photograph all of it. The only photos I managed to snap were the things I made AFTER the eating had begun. Apologies if it doesn't look so appetizing--I can assure you it was!

Sweet Potato and Butternut Gratin 

(Skinny) Spinach Gratin

(Skinny) Sweet Potato Casserole

(Skinny) Mushroom Fennel Quinoa Stuffing

Sweet Potato Biscuits



Pumpkin Gooey Butter Cake

Mind you--these were just the things that I made. We had a lot of other amazing dishes, I'm sorry I forgot to photograph them now. What's marked "skinny" was prepared for my brother, who is on a strict low-fat diet. I was tasked with cooking for him so he could enjoy our dinner with us, which I had no problems accomodating. I get most of my "slimmed-down" recipes from Skinnytaste, which is one of my favorite blogs. While most of the things I made were low-fat, the pumpkin gooey butter cake most certainly was NOT! Being a Paula Deen recipe, it had loads of butter in it. I always make it on Thanksgiving, and I figure it can't hurt us to eat such a decadent dessert once a year. I also whipped my own cream to go with it, but again, forgot to get the photo. Dessert was a particular favorite of mine (and baby's) this year!

After dinner, we ventured out to my Uncle's turkey farm down the road from my mom's house. Being Thanksgiving, we thought it was appropriate to introduce Brady to some turkeys. While it was fun, it left me feeling a little bummed out, I'm not going to lie! All those cute little baby turkeys become turkey meat in less than 20 weeks. Such a short life for such a noble bird! Ben Franklin wanted it to be the symbol of America, after all. Thank goodness they chose the bald eagle instead, can you imagine if we ate our nation's symbol on the very American holiday of Thanksgiving?

Another photo dump coming up!

The Babies

The Big Guys (The Toms)

And Farmer Brady!

I thought that last picture deserved to be super-sized, since it's my favorite. This was our Thanksgiving in a nutshell, we had a wonderful day. I hope you did too!

A Very Fall Sunday

Being fall, and being the fact that I am just beginning my quest to become an *amateur* photographer, I have been dying to get outside in the leaves with Brady and take a gazillion pictures. The weather, however, has been less than cooperative as of late. Last weekend though, the clouds decided to part for a moment, so I jumped at the chance to get outside and take pictures. Brady and I ventured to Grandma and Pop Fischer's house on Sunday for an outdoor session while Jason stayed home and painted Baby Sister's room. Upon arrival (and to my dismay), I found that many of the leaves had already turned brown in Perry County! This was unexpected, because there is still tons of color in Camp Hill. It didn't ruin the day at all though, I still got in some great shots (in spite of a VERY busy toddler who was so excited to play outside that he flat-out refused to look into the camera lens a single time)!

While they're not perfect, I think these photos are pretty darn good! It is always difficult photographing Brady, he is an ever-moving target that wouldn't look at the camera lens if it burst into flames--there is always something more interesting to see no matter where he is. I can't stop taking pictures of him though, he will always be my favorite subject!

Meanwhile, back at home...



Baby Sister's room was turning pink!!

The photo shoot (for us) and painting (for Daddy) was only part of the day. The second part of the day was spent eating some yummy honey-parmesan roasted pork that was slow cooked in the crock-pot all day. Here is the before shot...

and 6 hours later...

As Rachael Ray would say, "YUMMO!"



Once it made it to our plates, it quickly made it into our bellies!

I paired it with some mashed butternut squash and dijon-roasted brussels sprouts. It was the perfect fall Sunday dinner. The SUPER EASY pork recipe can be found here: Honey-Parmesan Slow Cooker Pork. All in all, it was a pretty good Sunday. I hope yours was spent doing something you love too!