Thanksgiving

I made jerk baked beans modified from the recipe here. I used what bacon we had, agave nectar for sugar, no garlic, but 2 shallots in place of garlic and onion. I also didn't make the seasoning separate. I just put everything in the crock pot. In the seasoning part of the recipe I substituted paprika and some cumin for the cayenne. I also used an entire bunch of green onions up to the greens as opposed to just 2 tsp. Cooked in the crock on high for 6 hours, stirring occasionally.

Overall we had a good day. We played outside in the sunny snow some, cooked some, cleaned some, played some. A woke us up early and was already dressed. Hopefully she won't do the early bit tomorrow, but the self dressing would be nice. We are slowly getting over the jealousy thing, and hopefully will be able to put it behind us soon.

G is doing well. Eats, sleeps and makes diapers. Is overall a pretty chill baby at this point, and hopefully that will last.

As both kids are sleeping I should be too. Hope everyone had a great turkey day and enjoyed a tryptophan nap.

Sheer Exhaustion

A has decided that sleep is for the weak. She has started waking up every 2 hours (max) and not going back to sleep really. Consequently, she has been up since around 3 this morning and kept us up as well. This morning she and I went to the library, grocery store and then out for coffee. We have tried putting her to bed anywhere from 745 to whenever she falls asleep and nothing seems to make a difference in her sleep quality or amount.

G sleeps like a champ currently and we wake him up changing the diaper he inevitably filled. Then he is also inevitably hungry, so he'll nurse himself into a milk coma. The process then repeats with him not quite coma-ing himself in the late morning and early afternoon.

Well, since everyone else here is napping peacefully I think I'll join them.

Interesting Week To Say The Least

This past week has been interesting to say the least. We got to go for a 1 week check-up for G, and he is doing well. He has up past his birth weight already, so we're good to go there. He is slightly jaundice, but that's to be expected from breast fed babies. All measurements look good apparently. :)

A has decided that she wants to be a holy terror. She is very unsure of her place in our new family, but very much loves her little brother. She is finally calling him a little brother, not a little sister. She told everyone that she was having a little sister while I was pregnant, and she seems to want to continue the trend now. She loves to give him kisses and let's us know when he has a stinky diaper. Nothing like a 2 year old to help out on that front. We try and express to her that all of us are unsure of our new place, but that it will just take some time to figure it all out. Hopefully we figure it out sooner rather than later.

Really other than the whole new baby thing not a lot is new here. Here are a few more pictures though. 

Meet G

Welcome our newest addition, G.
8 lbs, 2 ounces, 20 inches long, born 1900 11-12-13

Homework

A has liked doing homework for a while. Last weekend I brought a few pieces of work home to attempt getting ahead for the week and ended up with a chipmunk on my lap trying to help. It was interesting, though I'm glad she can't read quite yet so it didn't break any confidentiality clauses of my contract.

Yesterday we explored the Blowing Rock. My mom is in town and she wanted to go, so we went and had fun. The colors would have been significantly better two weeks or so ago, but you can still get a glimpse of the reds we enjoyed as they are the last to go from the trees.

Happy Halloween!

Happy All Hallows Eve all! Off for candy and to save China. "Show us your war face!" And this is what we got...

Biltmore in the Fall

We decided to take a quick day trip to Asheville and visit the Biltmore during leaf season. Here in the mountains we are in the peak or slightly past the peak of leaf season, but down the mountain some there are still mainly green trees instead of the brilliant oranges, yellows and reds we have up here. It was interesting to drive down the mountain yesterday and see it. I see it every day, but Chris doesn't so it was different. When we went to Biltmore in September A was upset with us because we didn't "go to the big house." She really wanted to go and we just wandered the gardens and the village on the estate. It was funny when we got to the estate because there was another couple with a little girl about A's age, who also referred to it as the "big house." We wandered through the rooms upstairs and the basement because A wanted to see it all apparently. There were a lot of people there so we had to wait in line several places and A wasn't sure about that. Normally when we go we don't have to wait in lines to see rooms or get down stairs or anything like that. They were putting up Christmas trees in the different rooms, so she was excited to see those. I suppose we'll have to go back once the Christmas trees are really being shown off and see them then. I think we'd like to try a candlelight visit this year, but we'd need to have an early showing.

After visiting the big house we went and walked around the trails at one of the ponds. It led to a waterfall. The waterfall scared A a bit (we're at the age where lots of things are becoming scary to her and we can't figure out why) but she had her Daddy so knew she was safe. We walked and met a puppy named Zeus and had a family of five mallards follow us around. Since one of A's favorite songs right now is about ducks (5 little ducks went out to play, over the river and far away, mommy duck said, "Quack Quack Quack," and 4 little ducks came waddling back. Repeat until you get no ducks coming back) she really liked the ducks following us around.

Once again, a few pictures are posted below, but a majority of the pictures are posted here.

A took this one, but I think it turned out well.