My 1st grown-up THANKSGIVING-2008!

I still can't believe I pulled it off! I mean, don't get me wrong; I'm not the wife that can't cook or anything like that (not hating... just saying).  I LOVE to cook and experiment, or even make up stuff with the random food left over in the pantry when I've been pre-occupied to notice that we're running low on groceries. But, I did it! My very first grown-up thanksgiving dinner! Well, it was more of a lunch cause we ate it early, but for all intentions and purposes, it was a THANKSGIVING DINNER!

The Turkey was golden, moist and flavorful, the sweet potato casserole with marshmallows was browned perfectly and not burned, the pumpkin cheesecake was delicious... the whole thing worked out! Can you tell I'm proud of myself?! LOL! Here's the thing, any good cook or recipe will tell you never to try a new recipe when you're hosting a dinner. And I did exactly that. So, of course I was nervous! Plus, it's not just any dinner... it's THANKSGIVING!!!!

So, here's how it went down. The night before, I decided to get the cheesecake ready to get that out of the way. I also followed my good friend (and awesome cook) Youlie's advice to prep the turkey so that it could soak in the flavors of the rub overnight. The cheesecake was easy. I'd done cheesecakes before, so I wasn't too worried about that. Plus, I was using a Paula Deen recipe. Can't go wrong with Paula Ya'll!

The turkey, on the other hand... well, that's the story! You know when you are in grade-school and they teach you to read instructions all the way through before you start anything?  Well, I must have been out that day cause I didn't do that. I'm already intimidated by the giant 12lb chicken-looking-bird that's sitting in my sink. It's heavy and cold and well, DEAD! I mean the whole thing is just a little bit gross! Let's just say that wednesday night I had a revelation. I'm glad I decided to skip the med school idea!

So, back to the turkey. I cut the little net thing that it's wrapped in, and cut a slit in the plastic bag. Immediately I see "red juice" (i'm trying no to be too gross ;o) and freak. But I calm myself down and remind myself that I'm really not that squeamish, so I quickly get over that. Then as  I continue to unwrap it I notice that there's a wire deal holding it's legs together. So I call my M.I.L. to ask if I can leave that on there. She wasn't sure, but figured it'd be fine. So I did. Then I proceeded to check the next step in the instructions. It said: "rinse the turkey and cavity with cold water." . Easy enough, right? Well, I'm rinsing away. Scared to death to even look inside the cavity. I had decided not to stuff it, so why even take a peek inside the dead bird's cavity. That word, cavity!?! Blech! So, I get my sprayer to shoot water in the cavity and decide to turn the turkey up side down to drain the water out of the cavity. And then... there it came. GUSHING OUT OF THE CAVITY! I started screaming at Randy: "AAAAAAHHHHHHHH... BAAAABE, THE BIRD GAVE BIRTH! I was FREAKING OUT!!!! It was the turkey's NECK! They had stuffed it in the birds cavity! WHYYYYYYYYY?????? GROSSSSSSS!!!! I was shaking! LOL! Randy was laughing at me, poor Brandon didn't know if I was laughing or in distress. He kept walking back and forth in to the kitchen. He was soo cute! So interested but clueless of what the heck was going on!

I finally calm down and decide to go back to the directions. And, there it was. Step 2: "take the turkey's neck out of the cavity...". Great. NOW YOU TELL ME! After that, it was all smooth sailing. Well, kind of. At least until Thursday morning.

So, wednesday night we had a great night of sleep. Brandon had been sick lately so he'd been waking up a lot. And finally, that night, he slept thorough the night. Awesome right? Well, yes and no.  I was expecting him to wake up a couple of times and then at like 6-ish when he woke up for real, I'd stay up with him, have coffee and get the rest of the food ready. Well, he woke up at like 7:30.  So, I was confused and out of it since my body was actually well rested and didn't notice the time.  My in-laws were coming over at 10am to help with anything I might need and just to hang.  So out of nowhere, 9:30 comes around and I'm chillin' in my PJ's drinking my coffee until Randy looks at me and goes... "babe, what are you doing?" And I'm like, why? He's like: "well, it's 9:30, mom and dad get here in 30 minutes, the house is not ready and you're in your PJ's." I proceeded once again to FREAK!  I stared hollering at  him to help me.  We put Brandon for a nap that he didn't want that morning cause he slept so good the night before, so he's crying bloody murder through the monitors, I'm grabbing the vacuum to clean the floors from all the tree branch thingys and glitter from ornaments that fell off when we were setting it up the day before.  Then Randy runs up to take a shower while I'm setting the table, putting the turkey in the oven, vacuuming, Brandon's still crying... 

10:30am:

I step out of the shower, in-laws are already having a good time complimenting the table and the house looking good and I walk down fully dressed and ready to host! 

I DID IT, PRAISE GOD!

It all worked out.  So after the "storm" passed, I thought to my self, I am so thankful for family, provision and joy in this holiday season 2008!  I hope your thanksgiving was as funny and awesome as mine was! 

With much love and thanks in this, the most wonderful time of the year:

Happy thanksgiving day! 

Emille and the Crawford Boys!

Helloooooo Friends and Family,

As some of you might have heard, we just came back from an impromptu DISNEY TRIP!!! WOOHOOO!  Disney World is my FAVORITE PLACE ON EARTH!  I just love it! 

We went to Magic Kingdom and Disney's Hollywood Studios (formerly MGM). Brandon enjoyed Magic Kingdom more and I think I did too! That place is just incredible! I mean, the Castle, the parades, the different lands. It's magical! Walt Disney is a GENIUS!!!

We had a blast!  Brandon did really good.  He was in awe of  all the pretty colors, lights and sounds that surrounded him.  We were able to ride many of the rides with him and I didn't expect us to be able to do that.  So that was awesome! We rode on Peter Pan, It's a small world, a new Pooh ride, Pirates of the Caribbean, I mean, literally, everything that he could ride, we did!   He LOVED it's a small world! His head was tossing and turning trying to see everything! Mouth wide open, like ... wow! The entire time I wondered what he was thinking.  

He didn't freak our on any of the rides, but if they got too loud or something he would hold his little ears.  Too cute!   He did it in front of another family with a little one while we were watching the Beauty and the Beast show. That mom told me that her little guy was doing that at the parks too.  Poor guys! They totally don't get the whole park deal, so to them it's like STIMULATION OVERLOAD!  

But all in all it was awesome!  I can't wait to go back! It's such a different experience with a little one! You get to do things that you wouldn't have without him and it's like experiencing it for the 1st time all over again! 

Here's a slideshow of our picts.  Brandon was super distracted by everything, so we didn't really get great picts of him.  Still, they are cute, so enjoy!

You can also go to this link to see more! http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=62091&l=62897&id=509781780 

Love you!

Emille and the Crawford Boys!

He's a walker!

News flash!!!

Little dude is a confident walker! After months of cruising- walking holding on to furniture- he let go and he's doing great! I can officially say that he walked at 12 months! Cause it was like a week before he turned 13 months ;o) !

I asked my momma when I walked and she remembers it was around the same time. Maybe a little later than Brandon cause I was such a FAT baby that she says it was hard for my chubby legs to stretch out and do their "thang" lol! And if I'm not mistaken Randy walked at around this time too!

It's so cute how he puts his hands out as if he were ready to do some ballroom dancing! I'm loving this! I'm so proud of my little toddler!

Check him out:

Fall in TN

Hey Friends and Family,

I hope you are all doing great! We are doing awesome.  Enjoying the beautiful Fall in TN! 

I LOVE living in the States! One on the reasons is the changing seasons. Growing up on an Island, where the weather is 85ºF and 100% humidity year round makes seeing the leaves change color and the temperatures drop super exciting and the views breathtaking!

Today, we went to a farm in Franklin, TN called Gentry's Farm. If you've ever watched the tv show "little people, big world", then you'll have a good idea of what we visited today. The Roloff's - the family in the show- have a farm that they open to the public during this season and they have hay rides and pumpkin patches and other fun activities for the family.


At Gentry's farm (www.gentryfarm.com), they had all of what I mentioned above, but also a corn maze. This is just what is sounds like. The farmers create a maze in one of their cornfields. The one they did this year was a four acre maze that they shaped like a cow! LOL! We went with some of the kids of our youth group from Strong tower, our church. They all had a pretty good time! Brandon was riding in the little car that his grandma and aunt gave him for his birthday and he was having a real good time!

The little man also hung out around some toy tractors for kiddoes about his age and he loved it. Check out the picts of him in his John Deer tractor!  We rode on a hay ride with no hay and took some cute pictures around the farm! Gosh... I'm raising me a country boy! Yee-haw!!! Hey, when in Rome... right?! 

I hope we can make this a family tradition just like the farm has been for this community for so many years and come back every fall! 

I hope your autumn 2008 is blessed! 

Love,

Emille

Weird and unexpected issues of parenting!

Today I came to a crappy realization. I can't clean my house unless I have a sitter to watch Brandon. Do you realize how much this stinks for a neat freak like myself?! By the way, thanks Jenny for helping me out today and Kristy for last week!

Brandon might not be a full fledged walker yet, but wether it's crawling or cruising, little dude gets around! I fear that if I try to clean with him just roaming around, he'll either drink a cleaner or he'll start chewing on the vacuum cord or something insane like that! The possibilities are endless.

So here were my previous options: There was containment. That worked for about 25 min as long as the baby einstein video was playing. And the more mobile he got, the less that worked! :oP Then there was the: "try and do it while he naps." Yeah... that one worked as long as I didn't need to vacuum. Little man is like his daddy: a LIGHT SLEEPER!!! And when do you clean without vacuuming???

So, the solution... BABY-SITTING! Today, my house was a mess and my usual "clean day" sitter, Randy, is in KY, so I called in for help. Praise the Lord, help was available! And now my house is once again clean! AAAaaahhhhh!

Thanks again Jenny! You know that tonight, I will sleep like a baby! Well, as long as baby brandon let's me!

old brandon blogs: #8- 11 months

Hello Friends and family,

I probably say this every time, but that doesn't mean it's any less true! TIME FLIES!!! He's a few days away from being one year old! It's truly unbelievable!!!

Milestone update: HE TOOK HIS FIRST STEPS!!! He took three or four steps and walked toward me in his bedroom and then he did it to his daddy while his Abuelita Lita and abuelo Millo (his PR grandparents ;o)) we're watching on skype! It was precious! He's not done it much since, but I heard this is normal until they get the full confidence to go solo. I believe it might be my fault because I got so exited and filled with motherly pride that I started screaming of joy and freaked him out! LOL! But he's getting there! :oD

He's finally saying "MA-MA" and it's music to my ears! We were out shopping today and the entire time he was just going on and on: "ma-ma-ma-ma...". I couldn't get enough! I'm sure it was probably bugging others at the store, but I surely did not care!!!

He's been eating a lot more off our plates lately and he's loving it! We sit at the table for dinner and prop him on his high chair and it's the sweetest family time! He's had chicken and biscuit casserole, rice and beans (of course ;o)), scrambled eggs, broccoli and chicken alfredo pasta... I mean the works! I don't think we have a picky eater! Praise the Lord!!!

I'm exited for his birthday party! My parents and grandma are coming along with my brother, hopefully my sister, her little guy (the neph neph! ) and my two aunts. All of which are coming in from out of town! Some of them have never met him! It's going to be a great party! I've been planning it for months now. I hope many of you reading this can come out!

Well, that's it for now! Next post will have the party picts and I'm sure a ton of new shenanigans curtesy of the little dude!

Love you all! Enjoy the picts attached as usual!

xoxoxox

Emille and the Crawford Boys!

old brandon blogs: #7- 10 months

Hello Friends and Family,

Brandon turned 10 months this 12th of July! He is as awesome as ever!!! I cannot praise God enough for our son!

I was recently talking to some friends about how while I was preggo I would pray for specifics about my boy to the Lord. Some of it was silly, like the eye color that I would like for him to have, or what features of myself or Randy I'd love to see in him. Other things were more crucial, like praying for him to be a man of God, or that he would have the joy of the Lord always! Well, let me just say that, aside from his eyes looking a little more of a brownish hue than I was hoping (they have some green in them ;o) , he pretty much has all that I asked!!!

He is a super joyful baby!!!! He squeals of joy all the time! He's got Randy's duck lips, my eye shape, he was born with hair, he's got beautiful eyelashes, he's pretty social and so many other things that I'll leave out or this e-mail will be a mile long! But what I'm looking fwd to the most is seeing how God is going to mold him to be that Godly man that Randy and I prayed for! Cause we know for sure that prayer IS ALREADY ANSWERED!

His development is on point according to the books! He's starting to babble da-da and is starting to use his "l's". No ma-ma yet, but I'm sure he'll say enough of that to drive me crazy at some point so I'm not trippin'! ;oD He's cruising big time! Randy got him a super cute truck thing that he can use as a walker or ride on it or just play with it and he LOVES IT! I sent some of you the video of him cruising on it, but in case I missed you on that list, I'll add the link to this e-mail as well.

He's got 4 teeth already and a few more rapidly cutting through! He looks so big now because of them! He's like a little rabbit- 2 on top and 2 on the bottom. He's chewing on EVERYTHING!!!! Any tips on how to get him to stop before he ruins our leather couches??!!!!

He's doing good with his eating. We started letting him try some table food, like stuff we might be eating that he could try and he's loved it so far! I gave him some green peas the other day and he was so funny trying to catch the little green balls or just plain squishing them. Too funny! I've also let him have some smashed sweet potatoes. He liked those too. He also had a french fry the other day... can of worms!!! He LOVED IT! Can't blame him! French Fries should be a major food group! He he he!

Well, I think that's all I got for now. I'll write again in a few weeks! Oh, and before I forget, especially for those of you out of state, we're celebrating his birthday Saturday the 13th of September. Details to follow. You are all invited so if you can make it, be sure to save the date!

Below are the links for the youtube videos of the little dude:


Love and blessings,

The Crawfords
Emille, Randy and Baby Brandon ;oD