(An Early) Thanksgiving

I know, I know it's Friday, but I'm not posting a Photo Friday. I meant to get this Thanksgiving post up yesterday, but the day got away from me. The ironic thing is I titled this post before Thanksgiving, but now it's a late one. Just roll with it. Allow me to wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving (one day late)!!!

My parents made the long drive out east to visit us last week and we had an early Thanksgiving. I should say before they even arrived they spend the weekend with Scott and Amy in DC. Then they drove south to meet us Monday night. We took them out for pizza at our favorite spot. Also in town that night were the Carolina Panthers playing the New England Patriots. We definitely didn't go to the game, but it was still fun to watch on TV while knowing the game was just a few miles away.

We had a fun couple days with my parents. We cooked, we shopped and we just spent time together. Remember earlier how I mentioned the baby is the size of a mango? Well we found mangos at the grocery store so we just had to take a picture. I agree, it's a bit dorky, but a fun memory!

On top of that we parked in the "Expecting Mother" parking spot when we went shopping. First time for us, but I know Joe's looking forward to taking advantage of this privilege in the future. Notice how the parking lot has many available spots. If the lot was full we would not have parked in this special spot. Plus it was Buy Buy Baby so there were like five "Expecting Mother" spots anyway!

This year Joe really wanted to try a different type of turkey. We wanted to try a brine recipe to soak the bird in over night before roasting. He searched online, found a recipe and we tried our first brine turkey this year. Here is the recipe we used.

Apple Spice Brine
adapted from here

Ingredients
1 gallon cold water
2 quarts apple juice
2 quarts orange juice
2 cups salt
1/2 cup brown sugar
10 whole cloves
1 tablespoon ground nutmeg

Directions
Simmer all ingredients except water in large pot for 15 minutes or until salt and sugar are completely dissolved. Remove from heat and allow to col. Add water. Place poultry in large plastic container, pour brine over top. Let sit in refrigerator for 1 hour per pound. Thoroughly rinse all brine off bird before cooking. Makes enough for 20 pound bird.

The turkey turned out delicious. Here's Joe carving the bird like always. We had to pull out the festive hats from previous Thanksgivings together. They've now become a dorky tradition that we all love.  I should also mention the rest of our meal was delicious also! We had mashed potatoes, stuffing, edamame succotash and cranberry relish. Thanks to everyone who pitched in to help.

Of course we took a few traditional family pictures. The lighting in these pictures wasn't ideal, but I didn't have anyone else helping out to take the pictures. I actually stood the camera on a ledge, set the timer and ran. And I did that over, and over again...

In time the fun hats came out and we had a lot of fun with them.

Maybe a little too much fun... When we took a look at this picture I think we were all crying laughing. Too funny!

On Wednesday we explored the city a bit. Well, but city I mean local breweries and restaurants. We did kind of a mini bar/brewery tour. First we went to Heist Brewery in the NoDa district. A place neither Joe or I had ever been, but we heard the food was great. What better time to try it out? We definitely agreed with the recommendations, the food was very tasty.

And later on we went to Olde Mecklenberg Brewery to order yet another flight of beers. Maybe not the most ideal outing for a pregnant lady, but it was a lot of fun to spend with family.  I really love this picture of my parents. Thank you both for making the trip to visit us. We'll see you again at Christmas!

Weekly Pregnancy Update (19 Weeks)

I'm beginning to get a little belly (please feel free to sing that to the tune of "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas"). Because that's what I like to do. Another week has passed and so much has changed. We're nearing the half way mark of my pregnancy and time has flown by. Before we know it April will be here and our family will grow.

Week Number: 19 Weeks, 1 Day
Baby Size: Mango (6.5 inches, 10 ounces)
Sleep: I'm still sleeping pretty well and just enjoying those crazy dreams I have very often. Some nights when I get into bed I feel a little uncomfortable, but I just keep telling myself I can't have that yet... there's lots more of that to come.
Movement: I have officially confirmed with myself that I am feeling the baby move. It's not everyday and it's not at the same time of the day when I feel it, but I've decided this odd feeling I have is the baby. At first I questioned it, thinking maybe I just had some gas bubbles (exactly what multiple people told me to expect), but now I'm convinced it's more than that.
Clothes: Still wearing normal clothes, but I have started to buy a few maternity items.
Symptoms: I did experience two days of "morning sickness" last week that was not fun (at all!) That has since passed and I'm feeling good now.

Best Moment Of The Week: This is an easy one this week, our ultrasound! I'll share more about this later on, but it was truly amazing.
Looking Forward To: Looking obviously pregnant to strangers. I feel like I'm far from this point, but the idea of people noticing my growing belly is weirdly exciting to me. Is that weird of me? Oh and of course Thanksgiving. Can't wait to eat more pumpkin pie!

Photo Friday #53

I had to share this ice carving we had at the hotel about a month ago. It was ahhhhhh-mazing! Keeping in mind I've probably only seen maybe two ice sculptures in my life, this was the top. It was for a conference held at the hotel and this baby weighed over 6,000 pounds! A couple of us from work watched at the two guys worked to put the pieces together. I guess they transported the ice in pieces to the hotel in cardboard boxes and then used water and snow to adhere them together. One of the guys is actually a professional ice sculptor and has been on the Food Network for a competition! On top of the way cool train, the hotel prepared mini martinis in 5 different flavors and placed them in little circle indents made in the ice. Oh man it was so cool. Can you tell my excitement from all the exclamation points I used in this short paragraph??

Leaves Are Falling!

It's most definitely fall in the Carolinas. We woke up this past weekend to beautiful fall leaves and a nice haze to accompany them. This was the scene in our backyard.

Now I wish these leaves would stick around for a while with their colors. Most likely they'll all be down in a week or two. And you know what that means... lots of raking!

We actually woke up to a dusting of snow yesterday morning. We were surprised when we pulled out of the garage on our way to work and saw the white covering. It was still pretty dark out so there was no chance of taking a picture, but I guess I should say we weren't too surprised. It rained/sleeted on the ride home from work the night before, plus it was very cold! Thank goodness for a warm up this weekend, we're expected to hit 70 degrees on Sunday!

Weekly Pregnancy Update (17 Weeks)

Slowly but surely I'm noticing a slight change in my body size. It's hard to tell so far, but trust me, I can see it happening. I didn't post an update last week for two reasons: 1) there wasn't much to update you all about and 2) I was on work travel all week so I never had a chance to post. I will assure you all that we continue to take pictures each week even if I don't put them up on the blog. In the end we'll have a true week by week comparison.

Week Number: 17 Weeks, 1 day
Baby Size: Sweet potato (5.5 inches, 5 ounces). Honestly, who knows what a "normal" sweet potato size is??? We buy them all the time and trust me, they're all sorts of shapes and sizes!
Sleep: I've been sleeping very well lately. I'm over the days when I'd wake up to go to the bathroom and I'm before the so called "uncomfortable" stage that affects sleep. My dreams have been very vivid lately though. I think it has something to do with my movement and waking up a few times during the night. That's when I remember my dreams. It's pure entertainment for Joe when I tell him what my dream was about, you just can't make this stuff up!
Movement: Nothing, but I know it will happen in the next couple weeks!
Food Cravings: Nothing really
Food Aversions: Nothing really, I only eat what sounds good
Clothes: I'm still wearing all my normal clothes, but I can tell I'm getting closer and closer to needing maternity ones. It really depends on the piece of clothing. Some of my work pants are high waisted that I normally wear with a shirt/blouse tucked in. Well I wore one of those pants yesterday (I think to hold on to that last piece of normalcy) and I think those might need to be retired. Only because you can't unbutton the pants when your shirt is tucked in! On the other side I have started to buy a few maternity shirts so the clothes revolution has begun!
Symptoms: Very mild and nothing I would complain about. The books were right, I'd say I'm in the honeymoon stage of pregnancy where I have to pinch myself to believe I truly am pregnant. That "icky" feeling of the first trimester (although it wasn't accompanied by sickness) is pretty much gone and the aches and pains I hear are in my future have not surfaced yet. Overall I'm feeling pretty good.

Best Moment Of The Week:Well this was about two weeks ago, but we heard the heartbeat for the first time! It was quite unexpected actually when I went for my monthly check up. The nurse came in and told me to lay down so we could take a listen. Joe and I were both shocked and excited. The nurse did say she could tell the baby was moving a lot in there. Now we're wondering if this is a sign of what's to come!
Looking Forward To: The holidays! We bought our plane tickets for our trip home to Iowa over Christmas and the plan is to decorate the house this weekend. Although I'm not thrilled about the cold front coming our way (over night temps in the 20's???) I'm really looking forward to the holiday season.

Photo Friday #52

Going out to eat is a treat. We have our "go-to" sports bar where they serve half price appetizers here in Charlotte. You add that to beer specials and we can normally keep the bill pretty low. Well now that I'm on a strict no beer  diet, we save even more money! Ha, that was my attempt to make light of the strict pregnancy rules. Here I demonstrate Joe's drink versus my drink. Trust me, I am definitely not complaining. I'll take a healthy miracle over beer any day!