First Time Hosting Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving! Mike, Cora, and I hosted Mike's dad and sister and her family this year. Having the basement finished for this event was fantastic! Our dinner was actually on Friday since Mike's sister, Christine, and her family spent actual Thanksgiving day with her husband's family. 

So consequently, our Thanksgiving Day for the four of us (Marty, Mike, Cora, and me) looked a lot like this: sitting on the couch and binge-watching football games. 

And then Friday, while Marty and Christine and her family went Black Friday shopping in the morning and early afternoon, Mike and I worked on the turkey, cranberry sauce, and rolls. We made the pumpkin pies earlier in the week. Then all the shoppers came home and made their dishes: Marty made the mashed potatoes and green bean casserole, Christine and her family made the salad and some more desserts. 

This was my first ever turkey to cook! I think it turned out pretty good, although it might have been cooked a little too long. And the gravy from the drippings turned was much too salty... I guess I should have considered that I brined the turkey when I was adding the salt to the gravy... Ha ha! Oh well. Live and learn. I used the Our Best Bites recipe for the turkey, except I didn't inject it but I did everything else. Mike's family were gracious guinea pigs to eat my first turkey and gravy. 

And since it seemed to be all the rage this year for Thanksgiving activities, we also filmed a Thanksgiving "mannequin" video. Ha ha! But some lost their poses..... 

(This post was backdated to November 27, 2016, but it was written on February 19, 2017.)

Cora: 3 Months Old

Cora is three months old today! In the past month, her smiling has really taken off. In fact, you can catch her best smiles right after she’s fed and she’s on the changing table getting her britches changed. The other facial expression she’s mastering: her getting-sad-and-jutting-out-her-lower-lip expression. A couple weeks ago, she suddenly started cooing and talking, with which we are both absolutely enamored. Cora has discovered the self-soothing-wonder of sucking her thumb! Almost every time we check on her while she’s sleeping, she has her thumb in her mouth and her other arm draped over her face. She has also taken up the habit of stroking my chest while nursing. Her dad will frequently try to “reset” her arm by placing it back down by her side, but then she just immediately moves it back up and recommences the stroking. And, amazingly, she recently went on her first camping trip and took to it without a hitch! We continue to watch her weight. Thankfully she is still gaining a little bit of weight each month, but she’s still losing ground in her percentile - she’s now in the 7th percentile whereas last month she was in the 15th. I’m beginning to think she has her dad’s metabolism! 

First Family Camping Trip!

We took Cora on her first camping trip this past weekend! It also happened to be her first snow and her first road trip. But we went south to the Saint George and Hurricane area where it was a little warmer. I was a bundle of nerves leading up to this first road trip and camping trip with Cora! But we packed up the car with all the necessary and unnecessary stuff to make the trip successful and as comfortable as possible. The road trip was definitely different from what we are used to: we had to stop every two hours to feed Cora and we'd end up sitting there for an hour or so since that's how long it takes to feed her. 

The first night of camping ended up being a bust because there was a bunch of wind up on Gooseberry Mesa where we hoped to camp, and it seemed to be everywhere else. So we checked into a local Best Western Hotel in Laverkin and went to dinner at Costa Vida. Cora did not take to the crib in the hotel very well at all, but in the end she slept okay.

The next morning we drove up to the Guacamole trails area where Mike went mountain biking first in the very frigid morning temperatures, and then after I finished feeding Cora, she and I went for a little hike on the same trail that Mike was riding.

We actually found that the Guacamole area had some pretty decent, at-large camping sites so we braved it and set up camp there for our second night. Then we drove down to the Jem trailhead where I went for a little ride, while Mike stayed back at the car with Cora. Our camping night wasn't too bad.... we made tin foil dinners over a fire, bundled Cora up, and hung out for as long as we could stand the cold. Then we all went to bed. We had Cora in her down bunting inside a little Big Bird sleeping bag that I used to sleep in as a baby/child with another sleeping bag partially folded over her. She woke up twice during the night to be fed and did not like having her diaper changed in the cold of the middle of the night.... when it was 29 degrees!

Here is our little camper in our little campsite! This morning we met up with our friends, Katie and Lloyd, and they mountain biked with Mike on the Jem trail while Cora and I hung back at the car for a bit and then hiked on the Jem trail for a bit too. Then that afternoon, I rode with Katie and Lloyd on the Bearclaw Poppy trail while Mike hung out with Cora. After that we headed home! Overall, it was a pretty good experience, I think. :)

(This post was backdated to November 6, 2016, but it was written on January 22, 2017.)

Cora's Blessing Day

Cora had a wonderful blessing day with many friends and family, but not all that wanted to come could make it and we missed them sorely.

Cora wore an heirloom blessing dress that my dad bought for my sister, Teri, back in 1959. Then all of my other sisters, plus myself and Teri's two daughters were also blessed in that blessing dress. So it has a special meaning to all of us in our family.

Mike and I invited some family and a couple close friends to join Mike in the blessing circle. Mike and I were pretty nervous that Cora would cry during the blessing and so we did everything we could to time her feedings right to prevent her from crying, but alas, we weren't so lucky. She started to cry some during the blessing for which Mike paused the blessing and stuck a pacifier in her mouth to help her quiet down. Thankfully, her cries were pretty quiet and did not overtake the blessing she was being given.

Afterwards, we had all of our family and friends that attended the blessing over to our house for a little luncheon and snacks. Cora snoozed in her car seat in the middle of all the visitors and conversations without even stirring.

(This post was backdated to November 6, 2016, but it was written on January 22, 2017.)