Blazing a Trail...: Happy Days

As mentioned in my previous post my level of happiness since becoming a mother has increased dramatically and we are having the time of our lives as a family of three.

I must say, it's been so fun to have a wee babe right as the Holiday Season was kicking off and have this festive time of year to celebrate together.

When Troy was just 5 weeks old we celebrated his first holiday together, Halloween! We picked up a little skeleton costume from the magical land of Target and introduced Troy to pumpkin patches and trick or treating. I can't wait of next year when perhaps he'll be walking and the trick or treating can be taken to a whole new level!

Lots of Halloween apparel

No the happiest of skeleton's here.

Adam's Brother Nat and Sister Katie were in town and we all enjoyed a visit to the pumpkin patch

My sleepy skeleton

As Halloween ended of course all the stores were covered in Christmas decorations but we still had Thanksgiving to look forward to, Adam's favorite holiday. Thanksgiving this year was spent with Adam's family in Santa Cruz and Fresno, CA. I was a bit nervous making a 6+ hour road trip with a two month old, but we made it. Our little guy was a champ and slept the entire way, stopping once just to eat. Looks like we will be continuing with the night time road trips for a while. We had a great visit in Santa Cruz where Troy certainly was the center of attention and enjoyed spending time with lots of family, including a wedding we attended for Adam's cousin in Fresno.

Troy giving GG Agnes a laugh

My first Thanksgiving

Adam looks a little haggard - read the story of the day to find out why

Family shot

Wedding time with Grandma Jun

Troy meeting GG Bevy

And meeting GG Lamoure

Uncle Nat working on the whole baby whisper thing

Troy and his second cousins once removed - or something like that

The tale of Troy's first Thanksgiving is one for the books. You see the Blaesser's had a mighty plan for many (maybe one too many) a dish to be served on Thanksgiving and with that many dishes to cook and only one oven and four burners you have to have a plan. Oh Adam came up with the perfect plan, because Adam and I are planners. He knew just when to get the turkey in and what dishes we would cook when. Things were off to a great start that morning and we all went out for a mid morning walk. Upon returning from the walk, we found the house filled with smoke - you see they tried to get fancy with a convection oven and use the roast setting, and well, this proved to be not the best idea. But things were getting back on track as homemade ice cream was being prepared and potatoes being peeled. We were going to try a crock pot mashed potatoes recipe to save burner space. Katie got the dough made for the rolls and seemed to be on track again. That's when Troy and I would go down for our afternoon nap. Upon waking up there was certainly tension in the air. Apparently the Turkey, despite looking up how long to cook it per pound, had been overcooked, and somehow all the drippings burned up and there would be no gravy. Which actually turned out to be ok, because come time to mash the potatoes that were in the crock pot we found they were still hard as a rock....there was not much actual mashing and whipping - rather we called them smashed potatoes...Apparently while down for our nap as well the ice cream wouldn't ever churn in the smooth and creamy delight we were all hoping for. But the rolls had cooked up very well and were cooling... well, we thought they were cooling, but they had been put on the stop top and the burner to the stove happened to still be on, further heating the bottom of the pan, an issue that was quickly resolved by removing the glass pyrex pan from the burner onto a nearby cutting board. Not five minutes later as we were trying to salvage the potatoes and find some boxed gravy there was a sudden explosion - yep - literally - the pyrex pan that had been heated on the stovetop shattered all over! Shards of glass littered the kitchen, but some how no one had a single piece land on them. But those beautiful rolls, well they were embedded with glass now.. So maybe the Turkey was a bit dry and we had no gravy to cover it with and maybe the potatoes were hard and the rolls in the trash... there was stuffing and collard greens, and cream peas, brussel sprouts, squash, and cranberry sauce. No one left the table hungry and we all still had plenty to be thankful for. Why with our family, health and gospel, I was still feeling overwhelmingly thankful that day. And since time+tradgey= comedy the tale of Troy's first thanksgiving is quite the riot now.

Now we're onto Christmas, truly the most wonderful time of year! It's been so fun as Troy will be exactly three months old on Christmas Day! He's just smiling and "talking" all the time now. It's the best! We've had some fun times already. We were asked to be Joseph and Mary and baby Jesus for our church Christmas party. We saw Santa and lots of Christmas lights. Troy is meeting more and more family. Both my brothers, older, Ryan, and younger, Rhett, were able to be here for a weekend and so we were able to give Troy his baby blessing. Another very happy day! We are so thankful to be an eternal family and raise our family with the gospel of Jesus Christ, I know now more than ever that He lives and loves us. Adam gave Troy such a beautiful blessing, I am so thankful he is a worthy member of the church and honors his priesthood.