Rewind---just a few more pics from Thanksgiving

Here is the crew we had for dinner---notice the cute couple in the back, this is Sam, one of Chris's college leaders who lives in California so he did not go home for Thanksgiving

So this is my Turkey platter, which I have always LOVED. I have the platter, the bowl and a gravy boat that all match. I really had never considered the irony of it......a dancing Turkey----until Sam, the vegetarian pointed it out. I got a kick out of it and continue to love the platter, despite how bad we felt for the bird

Our favorite little Turkey

She's goin it!!

Do I look like I am having a blast stuffing this thing or what??

Mary Cate watching the Macy's parade with her Mema and Grandad

We got our tree!!

As you can tell from the picture above, we went today to get our Christmas Tree. We are leaving Fort myers on the 19th of December to go to Bradenton for Christmas on the 21st and then head up to the Frozen Tundra of WI for a month, so we thought we should get it as early as possible so we can enjoy the time here at our new house. Hope you enjoy the pictures of Mary Cate's outfit we put her in to do the shopping----I am a little self-concious with her in this outfit because I think she looks somewhat boyish, but still so freaking cute!!!

Mary Cate's Thanksgiving Day outfint, sorry I have yet to figure out how to rotate the picture and get it to post correctly

So every year we brine our turkey for 24 hours before we cook it---we think it makes it so delish, anyhow it usually is quite an involved process trying to figure out how to make sure the turkey is totally covered in the brine. The first year we tied it up with an ace bandage and placed it in a bucket. Here is a picture of what we did this year---we used a hair bow to tie it and then paint cans to hold it up.

More of the house

This is our bathroom and I am really into it, but it is not really baby conducive and I love me a good bath

This is one of our favorite things about the house, a great outdoor living space (notice the ping pong table and see post below)

This is where we will have our Thanksgiving Day feast and many basketball team dinners


All is well and we are slowly getting more settled as we prepare to have the Mustaine's for Thanksgiving tomorrow. Mary Cate has been such a trooper throughout this process ---- I feel like I have totally neglected her as a mom and I am so looking forward to next week when we can just hang out---especially on the back porch, which is my favorite place in the house. When we first moved in, Chris invited the basketball team to come over after practice one day (not for dinner, although he has done that twice, but to help with the unpacking) and the head coach says to him, "this is a great place for a ping pong table and I just happen to have a spare one would you like to borrow it?" Chris promptly says yes and then tells him to go get it quick before I can contest. Luckily it is such a large space I can still really enjoy the area as well!! More later

Home Sweet Home

The front of the house

The Living room, taken from the rocker I feed Mary Care in

The Family Room---notice Grandma Mary with coffee in hand, she needed lots of that with all the hard work she was doing

This is our Kitchen

I have so much to tell and so much to show, but in an effort to keep you coming back, and keep one particular aunt of mine who claims to be a blog stalker, entertained I am going to post a number of times over the next few days. I am thrilled to finally have internet and phone at the house and we LOVE our neighborhood. I wish I would have taken before pictures of the house because it has come such a long way. We had so much help and really appreciated the last minute trip Grandma Mary made, there is no way we could have done it all without her. We are in---and the pictures above will give you an idea of where we are living!! More to come soon!!---Mary Cate needed to eat and I only got some of the pictures up, I will get the rest up later!

Reunited and it feels so good

The title says it all---sing it with me---Re-united and it feels so good, that is right it feels very, very good. On May 16th Chris and I left Lynchburg, VA for WI. At the time I am pretty sure I had laundry in the dryer and a load of dishes in my dishwasher. My plan was to be back in 4 days and finish packing up our apartment for the big move to Fort Myers....who knew it would not be until November 18th 6 months later a freakin 1/2 year later I would finally see my things again. It has been great to open the boxes and begin unpacking. Some of the fun things we found were the outfits we bought the day we found out we were pregnant---one for a boy and one for a girl---to come home in form the hospital, the original baby book I bought for Mary Cate...needless to say that will come in handy the next time around, but best of all the gift cards from my baby shower in VA---those will certainly come in handy now.

I am taking a break right now because it has been an unruly day----my husband in his infinite wisdom thought it would be great to have the Fort Myers Basketball team over for dinner before their first game---no joke, we moved in on Tuesday and today I hosted 20 high school boys for spaghetti---needless to say the house was not immaculate nor put together but we had a blast and they seem like a sweet group of guys. Chris is at the game now and I am cleaning and organizing.

In other fun news Grandma Mary came in to help out and she has been working around the clock since she flew in. Last but not least Mary Cate finally has a nursery. I am so excited and although it is not totally finished we are on our way and it should be done within a week or so. We are still sleeping at the barn and just working around the clock here at the rental so we are ready to host the Mustaine's for Thanksgiving next week!! When the house is in order I will post some pictures, we have had fun decorating and live in a really neat part of Fort Myers in what I think is a really cute house!! More to come

Shout out to the Rinks

Just a few pictures to post....one with Auntie Trista who has been here helping us so much, one with MC's Godparents---Andy and Jodi Wells and last but certainly not least one of me in front of one of my favorite coffee shops in town, if only Grandma Nita had the internet to see me now~~~~