Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving this year!

Normally we try to do everything and see everybody, but that's sometimes no fun.

So this year, we decided to just be with one part of the family.

We spent Thanksgiving at Nana and Rodger's house. 

It was one of my favorite Thanksgivings that I can remember :)

We started out with the annual "Turrill Turkey Trot"

(Bode, Mimi, Me, Benny, Gabe and Gabe's dog Tycho)

Mimi even did a little running herself!

Showing our muscles!

In a miraculous turn of events, Mimi let me dress her for Thanksgiving dinner in something other than her poodle skirt...

yippee hooray!

Nan and her boy:

Nana, Rodger and Bode

(Rodger LOVES having the paparazzi, Mackenzie around ;)

Rodg, thanks for being a good sport!

Then we skyped with all of the family back in Iowa! 

So chaotic (trying to get 10 people to talk over a computer at a time!) but SOOO fun :)

It was good to see the faces of our dear fam on the other side of the computer! Too bad we couldn't have all been together in one place.

The beautiful set up before we ate:

COUSINS!

Apparently Gabe and I like to pose for pictures with funny hats on:

(in Wisconsin)

Grandma, this "packer backer" picture is for you!!!

Back to Thanksgiving dinner...

It was a seriously great day. I may even go as far as to call it PERFECT.

Thanks Nan and Rodg. xoxo

****

Then, early on the day after Thanksgiving we put up our Christmas decorations (because what else do you do when your whole family wakes up at 5 am?!?!). Countless times lately Ben and I have mused that we accomplish more in our day before 8 am than most people do (people without kids that is!)

Daddy dressed this little boy that day:

Very "boy-ish" right?! Good job Daddy.

...the craziness and decorations:

My little helper

Bode the elf

This picture is reminicent of this picture:

(what is with me and comparison photos?!?! ;)

Mimi at HER first christmas decorating the tree!

Let the holiday season BEGIN!

Exersaucer Love

Do you think he likes it?! :)

Happy Turkey Day!!!!

Love, The Turrills xxo

P.S. I would've included a picture of Mimi too, but she currently is wearing a three sizes too small red white and blue halter dress from the fourth of july...she has her holidays mixed up- ...how's that for a mental picture?! ;)  But she sends her love too!

Brother and Sister

At any given moment in our house right now, you can hear shrieks and giggles coming from Bode and Mimi when they are together. 

They keep finding ways to have fun with each other.

Here's a fun new game in our house:

Why I Don't Bake

Monday we attempted to make a birthday cake for my dad's wife Rachel.

I was reminded why I don't bake...

It's always harder and more involved than it seems in the beginning.

Step one of the recipe: "cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy"

Easy, right?

Apparently I missed the whole Kitchenaid Stand Mixer craze when we were registering for our wedding. So I have yet to find a way to not get butter and sugar all over our kitchen when I try to mix things with our hand mixer. Butter and sugar were plastered all over our kitchen! And since baking is so precise, I had no idea how much of the actual ingredients were in the bowl and not on the floor. Shoot.

But we persevered on..

Until the recipe called for "buttermilk." Something I definitely forgot to get in the store during my latest grocery shop (I was probably too busy skipping...see previous post).

Luckily, since all of our Thanksgiving dishes seem to call for some kind of dairy product or another, I happened to have some heavy whipping cream. And thanks to Ben's new girlfriend Siri (the electronic voice on his iphone) she helped us find a way to make buttermilk from heavy whipping cream. 

This involved a mason jar and lots and lots and lots of shaking. 

We've never felt more like pioneers in our life.

But, eventually all of the shaking led to whipped cream. Which with a little more persistence led to buttermilk:

Oh. And BUTTER:

Crazy right?! Cool, but not exactly what I had in mind AN HOUR previous when I started out  to make a lil ol' birthday cake.

When I was done the quote of the day was from Ben who said, (looking at our messy kitchen and nursing sore muscles from all of that Mason jar shaking...)

"Remind ME to remind YOU to never bake again."

Point taken.

****

However, in the midst of baking, I did have an extraordinary helper named Mimi. 

Who was busy making her own concoction

("strawberry chocolate chip cake")

 

So it's because of her enthusiasm and this sweet face:

That I will probably bake again sometime.

(but not for awhile...yay for store bought christmas cookie mixes!)