HEY GOOD LOOKIN

Food, food, food.  This holiday is so gluttonous but I love it.We will be doing a big Thanksgiving dinner. We plan to do a simple bagels and cream cheese breakfast (with mimosas of course) while we watch the parade and then doing a couple of appetizers through out the day.

Here is what I am cookin up for the big kahuna of meals this Thanksgiving.

Squash Casserole with Herb Stuffing- I had this casserole at a friends house one time and was obsessed.  This particular squash casserole really takes it up a notch by using stove top stuffing in the mixture, not to mention lots of sharp cheddar cheese.  I double the recipe in hopes we will only eat one dish of it and I can freeze the other.

2 lbs yellow squash, chopped
1 (10 3/4 ounce) can cream of mushroom soup
1 cup sour cream
2 1/4 cups dry Pepperidge Farm Herb Stuffing
1/2 cup onion, chopped
1/2 cup butter, melted
2 tablespoons butter or 2 tablespoons margarine
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese


Directions:1Cook squash and onion together in the two tablespoons of butter until the vegetables are soft.
2Drain well.3Mix in soup, sour cream, salt and pepper.4.Combine half of herb stuffing and the 2 cups of cheese with the squash mixture and spread into a greased casserole.5Mix remaining herb stuffing with the stick of melted butter and scatter over the top of the casserole.6Bake in a 350-degree oven for 30 minutes, until golden brown.

Bacon Wrapped Green Beans with Brown sugar- these are so easy and such a hit.  Plus I do not really care for green bean casserole so hoping everyone else enjoys them too so we can give that casserole the boot!

Ingredients

• 3/4 pound fresh green beans
• 4 bacon strips
• 3 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic salt
• 1/8 teaspoon soy sauce

Directions

• Place beans in a large saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a boil. Cook, uncovered, for 8 minutes or until crisp-tender. Meanwhile, in a skillet, cook bacon over medium heat until cooked but not crisp, about 3 minutes. Remove to paper towels.
• Drain beans; place about 12 beans on each bacon strip. Wrap bacon around beans and secure with a toothpick. Place on an ungreased baking sheet.
• In a small bowl, combine the butter, brown sugar, garlic salt and soy sauce; brush over bundles. Bake at 400° for 10-15 minutes or until bacon is crisp. Yield: 4 servings.

Photo courtesy of  Pioneer Woman 

Pioneer Woman Mashed Potatoes - I have made these for years and I simply adore them.  The cream cheese and other fattening things make them absolutely delicious.

Ingredients

• 5 pounds Russet Or Yukon Gold Potatoes
• 3/4 cups Butter
• 1 package (8 Oz.) Cream Cheese, Softened
• 1/2 cup (to 3/4 Cups) Half-and-Half
• 1/2 teaspoon (to 1 Teaspoon) Lawry's Seasoned Salt
• 1/2 teaspoon (to 1 Teaspoon) Black Pepper

Preparation Instructions

Peel and cut the potatoes into pieces that are generally the same size. Bring a large pot of water to a simmer and add the potatoes. Bring to a boil and cook for 30 to 35 minutes. When they’re cooked through, the fork should easily slide into the potatoes with no resistance, and the potatoes should almost, but not totally, fall apart.

Drain the potatoes in a large colander. When the potatoes have finished draining, place them back into the dry pot and put the pot on the stove. Mash the potatoes over low heat, allowing all the steam to escape, before adding in all the other ingredients.

Turn off the stove and add 1 ½ sticks of butter, an 8-ounce package of cream cheese and about ½ cup of half-and-half. Mash, mash, mash! Next, add about ½ teaspoon of Lawry’s Seasoning Salt and ½ a teaspoon of black pepper.

Stir well and place in a medium-sized baking dish. Throw a few pats of butter over the top of the potatoes and place them in a 350-degree oven and heat until butter is melted and potatoes are warmed through.

Note: When making this dish a day or two in advance, take it out of the fridge about 2 to 3 hours before serving time. Bake in a 350-degree oven for about 20 to 30 minutes or until warmed through.

LAST GAME AT HOME

This weekend the Lacey family headed to Starkville to see the Bulldogs play the Arkansas Razorbacks in our last home game. We were so excited to have Elle come with us this weekend.  It had been a few months since her last game and it was crazy how big of a difference those months made in her tolerance interest in the game. 

The weather was the absolutely perfect weather for a good football game and Elle had so much fun.  She clapped and cheered and danced.  She loved it.  At one point I was holding onto my large cowbell and I felt it slip off my lap and it turned out to be her reaching for it and giving it a good ring.  We have a much smaller bell for her so it was so funny.

Getting ready for the game to start with Daddy.

Shaking her pom pom in support of the Bulldogs and Nick Bell.

Family photo. 

Bonding with Mommy and Daddy over a little SEC football.

She was pretty excited when Kenny went to the bathroom and she got to sit in the big chair.

Elle missed her nap so she took a little snooze on Kenny's shoulder 

after the game.  She has to be really tired to do this.  

After stopping by some tailgates we headed back to our condo to watch the Ole Miss-LSU game which was a great game.  Then a group of us headed up to the Grill to watch the fourth quarter and enjoy some cheese sticks and steak on stick.  By that time we were all exhausted and went to be at 8:30!

It was such a fantastic weekend spent in Starkville.  Kenny and I love bringing Elle to the games and spending the time together as a family.  I know these are the days we will work hard to remember.  Elle being so small and cheering on her future alma mater.

TO CHICKEN NUGGET OR NOT TO CHICKEN NUGGET

It was one of the biggest things I did not want to happen to me.  I thought we were in the clear.  Elle loved all foods when we started baby food and finger foods.  She ate most of everything.  Then...it stopped.  Now she is eating pretty much...NOTHING.

Picky, picky, picky.

Let me preface this by saying she does eat at a different time than we do and does not eat what we eat for dinner.  With Kenny's schedule being different everyday and we never know what time he will arrive home night to night week to week it is just to hard to prepare dinner, keep it warm and as a family sit down to dinner.  I hope/plan for this to change in the future but for now this is what works.  Elle eats  around 6.  Kenny gets home around then.  Then he does bath time, stories and bedtime while I make dinner for us.

What makes it even more infuriating is she will seem to LOVE a food one week and won't eat a bite the next week. I have found myself turning to all kinds of foods that I swore I would never feed my child like pasta with butter and parmesan and macaroni and cheese. Pasta is pretty much the constant.  She will eat pasta most of the time, oh, and cheese.  Today I even found myself looking at chicken nuggets!!! Chicken nuggets. Yall.  Now granted I did (in my head) say if I am going to buy them I am going to buy organic natural ones but they were $10 for 18 nuggets.  That is just crazy to me.  So no nuggets were bought...today.

I have talked to our pediatrician and we have looked at her weight gain because Elle is pretty small and she says that her weight is on the lower percentage but isn't abnormal and that being picky is normal for her age.  So I am just praying that she will become less picky in the future and I am trying my hardest not to cater completely to the pickiness and give her junky bland foods that are unhealthy.  Our ped. and I decided that on days where I do not feel like she eats anything then we will give her a Pediasure for extra calories and nutrition.

In addition: Please know I do not care/judge you if you give your child chicken nuggets.  No high horse here.  Elle eats Chick Fil A chicken nuggets once a week probably and gobbles them up. This post was intended to be more a vent about Elle being picky than chicken nuggets.  

SNIP SNIP-SNIFF SNIFF

This past weekend we took Elle to get her first haircut at a neighborhood salon, High Point Salon.  It was FINALLY time.  Her hair was very uneven and was a little mullet-y.  I had always said that I would not be that mom that would get attached to hair and would cut my child's hair when it was time.  But I was very nervous about the haircut. Not so much because it was her baby hair or her baby curls but more because she was bald so long that I felt like we had to work so hard for that hair and I didn't want to cut it and then Elle look like a boy.

But it all went great and while we could of taken a little more off I wanted to be very cautious the first time around.  It is still a great improvement and the back actually curls better now that we cut a little off. So yay!

She didn't want to sit in the big chair by herself so Mommy's lap worked just fine.

A lollipop sweetened the deal.

Making some progress. Still enjoying the sucker.

After she was finished with Elle, Kenny decided to get a haircut too so we spent some 

time crawling in and out of the really fun dryer chairs.

A picture of the back.  Probably not a big difference to yall but it was different to us.  

MY BIG BACKYARD

We spent the day at My Big Backyard/Memphis Botanic Garden the other day.  I took Elle there when she was much younger a couple of times.  Once to just walk around and be outside and another time on a play date.  This was the first time that she was old enough to really be able to run around and do a lot of it.  

It was a gorgeous day and since Elle's favorite thing to do right now is just be able to walk and walk and walk anywhere she wants to, this was the perfect outing for us as a family. Kenny seemed to play photographer on this day so there a lot of pictures of me which it is normally the other way around.

If you aren't from Memphis My Big Backyard is a portion of our Botanical Garden.  It includes a huge bird house tree house with a very windy and narrow slide that Kenny somehow managed to go down with Elle.  I was laughing so hard because I thought for sure they were going to get stuck.  It also has these little houses that encourage pretend play, an area where they simulate rain storms, and a lot of private little coves that might have a big bronze dog that you can climb all over and a slide. It is a little bit random but so fun! Check out this photo tour to get more of an idea!

We took Elle to see the GINORMOUS koi fish right when we got there.  We were told we couldn't buy any fish food because they were all sleeping on the bottom.  That was definitely not the case.  As soon as they heard us they started migrating towards us.  It was a smidge creepy.  These fish are huge and Elle kept wanting to get really close to the edge.  So we didn't stay very long. HA!

 Elle kind of has a thing for chairs right now. So she climbed up on this 

bench and took a picture with Daddy.

 This was Elle's favorite little house by far! It is all about playing music.  They have all these malettes and you can bang on everything.  She was in heaven. It was hard to get her to leave.

 I told Elle this little wooden house was a fairy's house and the fairy must of been out with her fairy friends so we stopped and had a snack and sang songs that we thought fairies might sing. (Twinkle Twinkle) And oh look! A huge chair! Elle was excited!

We stopped and had a little picnic lunch in one of the little coves before playing a little while longer. 

MOMMY TIP- ARTKIVE

So with Elle starting Parent's Day Out this August so began the huge amount of art projects coming home day after day.  Most of them are so cute.  They have used her little fingers and hands to make all sorts of creative things.  Or she has painted something pink that the teachers transform into the cutest little pig face you have ever seen.

Side note: How these amazing teachers get twelve 2 year olds to sit down and do ANYTHING all at once is a crazy undertaking to me.  Elle loves the time she spends there and I owe it all to the teachers.

Any who, so all these art projects.  I get so torn about what to do with them.  I am not a keeper of things.  I tend to not be very sentimental about "stuff" at all. (I blame it on the fact that my grandma is a true life hoarder.  Like the kind you see on TV.  No exaggeration.)  I   want to keep all of these art projects but then I start to think that if I keep these things now my house will just be inundated with this stuff and will she really even care about looking back at it all when she gets older.  To be honest I have no interest in looking back at my preschool masterpieces now that I am a adult.

Enter Artkive!!! God I love this app!!

Basically, take a picture of the artwork and the app archives it into a folder for you.  You can have multiple children, multiple ages for each child add notes and also a share circle so I when I take a picture of Elle's art I can send it to Kenny if it is really cute.  Yall. I'm serious.  This app is awesome and FREE!!! It is so easy to use and eliminates the guilt I get when I throw some of these cute pieces away.

I plan to take pictures throughout each year and then make them into a book.  Genius I tell you!!

MY FIRST TIME

ITS NOT WHAT YOU THINK!

Yes, yesterday was the first time I have voted in an election since turning 18 and being eligible to vote.  I know that is kind of shameful.  And I have a few good excuses reasons but I know that I should of been voting.  In fact,  I didn't actually plan on voting yesterday either.  I thought for a while that I wasn't registered.  Then Kenny found out I was indeed registered by checking online and sent me the address to go vote.

It wasn't until I picked Elle up from PDO and was headed to Target and I passed the high school where I thought I was supposed to vote at and turned in literally on a whim.  I was so relieved when I walked in and there were 0 people in line to vote.  But then they told me that I was supposed to be at the middle school.  So by that point I was feeling all patriotic and "this is my right" and was determined to vote.  So Elle and I trekked a WHOLE neighborhood over to the correct precinct, stood in line...

Elle standing in line - waiting our turn

and got our vote on!  It felt great! And Elle was pumped about her sticker!

OCTOBER AS TOLD BY MY IPHONE(MOSTLY)

As you can imagine October has been a crazy busy month.  It is amazing how having a child makes you truly live up the spirit of fall.  From football games, pumpkin patches, fall festivals, costumes and trick or treating we have been busy busy.  

I always feel so guilty about not blogging about every single thing that we do because this "season" of life is flying by and I want to remember all of it.  I have no excuse for not blogging this month other than my phone cord has pretty much stopped working and it is hard to upload all of our pictures.  But luckily Kenny let me borrow his tonight so here we are.  

I give you pretty much the entire month of October as told by Instagram and my iPhone.

Introducing Mack Presley Shearin.  One of the cutest newborn baby boys I have ever seen.  

We are so excited for Joe and Tracy!

 Homecoming at Mississippi State.  We won the game putting us at 7-0! In the last couple of weeks we have played some hard opponents and lost a couple of games but we are still enjoying going to one of our favorite places and watching our Bulldogs play.  We are planning to take Elle to the Arkansas game.  

 First pony ride at one of our classmate's birthday party. She loved it!

Talking to the duck at the petting zoo.

 Kenny's parents came in town to celebrate Kenny's birthday with us so I brought Gramma along with us to the birthday party.  The choo choo train was a huge hit too!

 The church playground is still one of our favorite things to do every Tuesday and Thursday after school.  In fact we might be throwing some fits if for some reason we don't go.  Ugg.  With the cooler weather comes static electricity.  Elle's hair seems to really react ha!

 Elle's school/church had the cutest little fall festival and trunk or treat.  It was gorgeous cool morning.  We had a great time.  Since Elle won't wear anything over her head, the cute unicorn costume I bought her was out.  Thanks to the Target $1 aisle she went as a fairy instead.

 Elle and I went to see the big pink fire truck that was there for Breast Cancer awareness month and decided to sign it to honor my mom a two time breast cancer survivor.

 Our neighborhood garden club has a fall festival for the kids and we enjoyed doing that one afternoon while we had THREE house showings in a row!  Elle's favorite party was the hayride and we enjoyed riding with her too.

We went trick or treating with a group of our closet friends. We all meet over at my friend's house for appetizers, dinner and beers and then when it gets dark it is time for trick or treating.  We lost Elle's wand at one of the festivals we went to so I decided she could go as a dedicated State fan instead. Let me tell you, she loved trick or treating.  Wanted to walk to every house on her own and would get upset if we tried to skip a house.  She had the best time and was completely exhausted when we got home.  It was such a fun night.  The bottom left picture is Elle and Lizzie just doing a little late night reading after trick or treating.  The bottom right picture is Elle going through her loot the next morning.  She doesn't quite understand that she is supposed to eat the candy but she loves going through it all and shaking it and laying it out to see.  I can only imagine what Halloween will be like next year!

We took Elle to the playground and lately she loves to just walk and walk and find things to pick up. We started collecting these pecans and ended up with a big handful.  Kenny and Elle spent some time cracking them and then we tossed them in cinnamon and sugar. They were delicious and Elle got the biggest kick out doing the whole shebang with her Daddy.