Family Photo Shoot

     On Thanksgiving day, I saw it was going to be a beautiful warm November day- near 70 degrees for the high. I thought it would be the perfect time to take some photos to update the blog photo title and perhaps get some shots for Christmas cards.

     My sweet family was kind enough to play along and got ready and even coordinated their outfits to mesh well with one another. By no means do I claim to have any type of talent in photography, but I do enjoy capturing their sweet faces. I think I managed a few decent shots.

 JT

Sarah

 Courtney

Lindsay

     Capturing family photos proved a bit challenging and comical (which you will see in another post soon). We used our tripod and timer to help get a few shots. The main challenge was all of the shadows and sun. It was either too bright and we had squinty eyes or we weren't fully in the shadows and had spotty light/dark spots on our faces. Maybe we will splurge with some professional sessions for the entire family next year.

 We moved to a spot that had a bit more full shade and had better results.

 We even managed to get a few of John and I.

Loved getting all four of the kiddos together for these shots. This is one of my favorites.

Thanksgiving Feast

     Thanksgiving was a jam packed day of food, family,and fun. Me, being the person I am, woke up at 5 am and suddenly had the realization of all that I had hoped to accomplish during the day- homemade breakfast for the family, catch a bit of the parade on the TV, prepping side dishes, making desserts, and hopefully taking some family photos. With all that needed to get done, I promptly got up and started cooking my little heart out.

     I worked with great ease, enjoying the peacefulness of the house, being filled with yummy smells of muffins, cakes (for cake balls), sweet potatoes, all while Christmas music from Pandora filled me with holiday cheer. I worked like this for 2 1/2-3 hours when Lindsay joined me in prepping.

     After the rest of the house woke up and we enjoyed some family time, we all got ready for some family pictures in our yard. It was sunny, warm, and beautiful outside. I have some fantastic shots that I will be sharing soon here. If you are on Facebook, you have seen a few that I have made my profile and cover photos :)

     Then we came back inside to finish working on our desserts. Since the only people in our home that enjoy pumpkin pie are John and myself, we decided to make something else. Cake balls in two flavors and Cookie Dough M&M's Truffles.

 All the girls were ready to help me out and make some delicious sweets.

 When it was time to roll the cake balls, JT wanted to help.

 Any guess what cake we used? Red velvet! This was our scary, creepy "blood hands" photo.

After all the balls were made, we had to chill them for a while.

These are the oh so good Cookie Dough M&M Truffles prior to being covered in chocolate. I think these were the favorite dessert of everyone this year. Link to the recipe for this can be found here.

The messy, yet delicious cake balls and truffles. On my to do list, find out how to get better, smooth results with my chocolate bark.

 The Thanksgiving Spread!

 My first ever sweet potato casserole. It was so good! Taken from a Ruth's Chris recipe I found on Pinterest. Here is where you can get the recipe for yourself.

In addition to Sister Schubert Rolls, I made some Jim N' Nick's Cheesey Biscuits. They were declared a big hit by the family and quite similar to those in the restaurant. If these sound good, go here.

 Good old mashed potatoes made by John. Delicious as always.

 Simply the best bacon wrapped green beans. Made last year for the first time, these are now a regular for our Thanksgiving table.

The ham! Oh the ham! We discovered a few years ago that all of us really preferred ham over turkey for our holiday meals. So for now, only ham sits on our table.

 The Apedaile kids ready to eat. *Note on JT's plate the abundance of black olives that he placed on it. I think that was his favorite part of the meal.

Thankful Turkeys

     The big boys and I worked on a thankful artwork this week. It was a lot of fun to hear what they were thankful for and how quickly little things like milk, chairs, and the light that was turned on were added on the list. We only had room for 6, so I did some editing of their favorites.

 The turkey components- feathers, body, and beak.

 JT and Finn had a great time using the glue stick by themselves.

 Putting the feathers on. 

Time for the beaks!

Some of the things Finn was thankful for- singing songs everywhere, dinosaurs, coloring with his Mommy, and playing in the kitchen with his Daddy.

 JT's Thankful Turkey

Here is some of the things JT is thankful for. He summed up his life and things that he loves in a mere 6 feathers.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Turkey Art

     This is the kind of art project that you will only see the finished results, rather than the entire process. You should be able to figure out why in just a moment. It was messy, fun, and turned out adorable. We made turkeys using each child's hands and foot.

 Sam was having a hard time holding his artwork without crumpling the paper, so I had Finn come assist. Nearly impossible to get both boys to look at the camera at the same time. This was sweet with Sam smiling right at me and Finn smiling at his brother.

Gobble Gobble!

Play dough

     A few weeks ago, Lindsay wanted to help out with art/craft time. So she made a small batch of homemade play dough. She colored it red and blue and got the table ready for the boys.

 JT and Finn were ready to play.

 The dough needed a floured surface as it was a bit tacky and soft.

 Mason was skeptical of the play dough at first.

 He then decided it looked yummy. He also discovered homemade play dough is quite salty.

 Making a snake.

 Finn, with some help from Lindsay, made a mustache.

Mason became more comfortable with the play dough and had some fun!

JT wanted to mix red and blue.

Going a little manic poking the play dough.

The play dough was a big hit and will be played with regularly.

Thank you Lindsay for making this craft.