Lincoln: 3 Months

I feel like a completely broken record, but these months just keep going by so fast! At the end of month 3 we were in a serious transition phase as a family. I had just gone back to work, Josh started his new job as an auditor with The Bonadio Group and was a week shy of finishing grad school! All wonderful changes, but so much change to manage. That being said, it was a really fun month and 45 days later I'm trying to catch up!

We don't go back to the doctor until 4 months, but I estimate that you weigh 14-14.5 pounds.

How cute can you be???

Here are some things you have been up to this month:

-Mama went back to work half days on November 16 when you were 9 weeks old. You're spending the day with Nana, Dayton and a myriad of other little friends! Daddy drops you and brother off and mama picks you both up. We miss you so much during the day, but you're in the BEST hands.

-You nurse before you leave in the mornings and then you eat 16 - 18 oz while I'm working and then usually eat 2-3 times before bed.

-You go to sleep around 9:00 and get up around 5:45-6:00.

-You've started playing with a couple of toys. We're just waiting for you to start reaching for them!

-You experienced your first Thanksgiving, and it was a first for all of us. We celebrated at your Unca, Aunt Minda, Graham, Claire and Conner's house.

-We're pretty terrible at doing tummy time, but mama spends so much time wearing you (and occasionally daddy) in either the Tula, wrap or ring sling that we know you're working those core muscles.

-You're mama is over the moon for the cute honest company diapers we're using on you. My favorites right now are the plaid and sled dog. They have sled dog pattern diapers. Seriously!
-On December 8, you sat in your Bumbo chair for a few minutes. We're not sure how you felt about it, but you didn't cry!

Here are pictures of what you've been up to this month!

 

We love you so much little stinker!

Mama

Thanksgiving Dinner

We were so thankful to share Thanksgiving dinner with my brother and family! It was relaxing and stress free even with so much food to prepare. Here are a few pictures of the food and fun -with recipes!

Holiday Cocktails. Recipe here.

We love Heron Hill Winery, and their Unoaked Chardonnay is great with pretty much everything!

Amanda set such a pretty table for us! She loves a DIY project and took some pinecones from a neighbors yard and then spray painted them. The table is so festive without being overly fall.

The pinot noir was recommended as a red that goes well with turkey. I didn't try it because of my love of the chardonnay we picked, but I'm sure it was great.

The kids had their own fun table with plates from World Market and another DIY project from Amanda. Their little turkeys with veggie sticks are so cute!

Josh captured all the yummy food pictures. I successfully made delicious gravy!!!

Classic Thanksgiving day fail: We didn't get a picture of the beautiful bird!!! However, our turkey was local from Autumn Harvest Farm via The Good Food Collective. This is the second time we've used Good Food Collective to get a turkey, and it's always so delicious!!!

These sweet potatoes and Brussels sprouts are fantastic!!! I want to eat them again already! You can find the recipe here.

Amanda made these wonderful Oatmeal Molasses Rolls!

I have been making this apple pie for many years now thanks to a good friend sharing it with me! You must go make it now. Recipe below...

Crumb Topping Apple Pie

Pie Filling:
6 c. sliced and peeled apples, such as Golden Delicious (about 5 lg. apples)
1 (9-inch) unbaked deep-dish pie shell
1 1/4/ c. granulated sugar
2/ tbsp. cornstarch
4 tbsp. (1/2 stick) butter, melted and cooled
3 lg. eggs yolks, beaten
1/4 c. whipping cream
1/4 c. milk
Juice of 1/2 lg. lemon

Crumb Topping:
1/2 c. packed brown sugar
1 1/4 c. all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 stick melted butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Make pie: place the apples in the pie shell. In a large bowl or in a food processor, combine the granulated sugar, cornstarch, butter, and egg yolks. Mix until the sugar has dissolved.

Add the cream, milk and lemon juice and blend until smooth. Pour the filling over the apples and set aside.

Make the crumb topping: in a food processor in a bowl, cream together the butter (about 1/2 a stick) and brown sugar. Add the flour and cinnamon and process or stir until the mixture forms medium-size crumbs. Evenly sprinkle the top of the pie with the crumbs.

Place the pie on a baking sheet. Bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes or until the crumbs are lightly browned.

Coll to room temperature and to allow the custard to set. Cut into wedges and serve, accompanied by vanilla ice cream.

Serves 6-8.

NOTE: Be sure to use a DEEP 9-inch pie place or an ordinary 10-inch pie plate.

We love these boys so much! Their "Happy Fall Y'all" shirts are from the Twinkle Hearts Etsy shop with an awesome owner, Kristen, that was able to customize these for me!

These three babes make everything more fun and are teaching my boys to be wild and crazy. We love it!

Happy Thanksgiving from the Pickney and Bills Families!

Stephanie

Hosting Thanksgiving

I hosted my first Thanksgiving and did not die! And I did it with a baby on my hip -quite literally. It was a small, but wonderful gathering of family and friends. Friends? Coworkers to be exact. Well, foreign coworkers to be even more exact. If that is possible. My aim was to produce a thanksgiving meal they would remember positively and an afternoon/evening that would be full of easy conversation.

If we remember back to one of my very first posts (here), it was to use this home we've been blessed with to bless others. So as we opened our home to family and friends, this was again our goal -that our Heavenly Father be glorified through our hospitality.

So about my coworkers, one is from Spain and the other is from Mexico. Neither of them had ever celebrated Thanksgiving to my knowledge. This made for a day of firsts. I so enjoyed their help cooking. We all carved the turkey together. Everyone pitched in as Josh carved and his Grandma gave great instructions. I was trying to make sure the gravy was finished at the same time. It was beautiful, turkey day chaos!

Then we sat down and enjoyed the food, discussion about the history of Thanksgiving (Who actually does this? It was kind of fun and I want to implement talking about why we celebrate each year.) and what each other were thankful for this year.

Here's the menu from our special day:
Roasted Turkey (Fisher Hill Farm)
Mashed Potatoes
Giblet Gravy
Salad
Cornbread Dressing
Green Bean Casserole
Potato Rolls (recipe from The Kitchn)
Honeyed Cranberry Sauce with Kumquats (Nourishing Traditions)
Apple Pie
Pumpkin Pie

Not only did we have excitement because of our special guests, but it was also Dax's first Thanksgiving! We think he was pretty cute! Here are pictures of him and our fun day.

We couldn't be more thankful this holiday season!

Stephanie