Cooking A Turkey According To Jeylin

Jeylin's preschool teacher has each kid tell her how to cook a turkey for Thanksgiving and then she compiles all the responses, types them up and sends them home. Not so good for eating but quite wonderful for a belly full of laughs.

How to Cook a Turkey According to Jeylin...

Go the feed store and get food for your turkey. They eat a lot, like one piece a day, so buy lots. After he eats, bring him into your house, but he will poop and your parents will get mad. When he's in your kitchen, open the oven door, and make him go inside. Turn the oven on super hot. Leave that turkey in the oven for a half hour. When he is all done cooking, take him out of the oven and put him on the table and start eating him. When everyone is done eating him, put all his feathers on and you can put him back in your yard. Keep feeding him and take care of him, and let him in your house sometimes so he doesn't get cold.

Quite the imagination huh?? Here are a couple more of my favorite "not-so-recipes"...

From Claire: First you need to go to Costco and look for a turkey. You should give the lady $3.00 in money. You know, the lady who takes all the money, give her your money and then you can take your turkey home. When you get home, put the turkey on a pan. Pour some oil on that turkey. You will need to sprinkle some cinnamon and some salt. I think my mom cooks it a little like that. Put your turkey in the oven on 600 hot for 10 minutes, that's how my mom always does it. Take it out of the oven and my mom always lets it cool off for 4 minutes. Put some salt and pepper on it and then sit at your table and everybody eats it.

From Abby: Get in your car and drive to the Wal Mart store. Get one of those pushy carts and push it until you find the turkey. It will be by the clothes place. The turkey will be so big it will be 30 pounds. Put him in your cart. Give the lady $30.00 and take him to your car and put him inside. You should drive home right away so he won't melt and make a mess in your car. When its cold, cook him but don't put any stuff on him cause it would be icky because Walmart already put tomatoes on him. You put in the microwave for just 1 minute otherwise he will burn and turn black and icky. Take him out of the oven with an oven glove. Cut him all into pieces and put some pieces on lots of plates and all of your family can eat him and they will say "Mmm Mmmm Mmmm Yummy in my tummy".

Oh the imagination of 4 year olds!!! I'll have to try and find Jordyn's renditions and post those later. Hope you all got a good laugh and may you all have a very Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Now That's Self-Control

I would like for all of you to meet our fiesty cat, Maddie....

Now before I reveal to you the other pictures on this post, I would like to give you a little bit of her history. In September of 2007, the kids and I made a weekend trip to Grangeville to visit my family...no big deal, we do that often. One of those days, we needed to tend to my Grandmother's cows. Since I was 7 months pregnant and had the two young kids with me, we mostly just tagged along and watched everyone else round them up. At my Grandmother's barn, there are quite literally hundreds of barn cats. She feeds and waters them but for the most part, they are all completely wild. She had told us that in August one of the cats had kittens and we decided to show them to the kids. We completely expected them all to run away, which, they all did except for one (you see where I'm going with this)?? Well anyway, Grandma told us that little "Maddie" (she wasn't named yet) was abandoned by her Mom, thus resulting in us leaving from Grangeville with a tiny kitten. On her first visit to the vet, they determined she was around 4 weeks old and she weighed a-not-so-astonishingly 9 oz!!! We fed her well and now, as you can see from above, she's HUGE...without ever having to lift a paw!!

So to get me to the point of this story. The other day I tried to sneak some pictures of Jeylin kicking around the football in the back yard but when I went to the window, I could see him crouched down talking to Maddie. After careful observation, I realized he was giving her directions for getting this....

That's right, we had a mouse in our back yard and our crazy cat, didn't have the slightest idea what in the world to do with it. Somehow, it was either injured or sick because it just wasn't acting normally and walked around in circles a lot. At one point, Maddie got bored, walked away and laid down in the grass. After a little struggle (our grass was really long), the little mouse made it's way over to Maddie and oddly enough, started climbing on her. She jumped and ran away...it was the most hilarious thing EVER!!! My thinking is that the mouse was either blind or he really did have a death wish...of course then again, he might just know that Maddie was raised as an indoor cat. However, who would have thought that my chubby, crazy cat could have this much self control????

P.S. For anyone who cares, the mouse did die but not by the hands, or rather claws, of our Maddie. Good thing because I really think the thing was sick...hey, maybe he was on a "suicide mission"?!?!?!?!

Birthday Party Pictures...Long Overdue

I promised you all pictures of the birthday party and FINALLY, here they are!!! As you could tell from the invitation I posted earlier, there wasn't much a theme really. I mainly just stuck with the color scheme and polka-dot theory and went with that. All in all, it was a great day! We had to push her party back to 3:00 to allow for some out-of-towners to make it and quite honestly, I was glad because it gave me more time to prepare.

We were blessed by the appearances of Nana & Papa Mundt, Nana & Papa Nielson, Great-Aunt Marie, Uncle Brad, Uncle Dave & Aunt Brandy, Jaycee & Jake, Wendy Kaschmitter and three of her kids, Ellie, Thomas and Sara, and Alaina, Tristan & Natalie Simons. After the party, my parents, two brothers, sister-in-law and my niece and her boyfriend all stayed and we ordered Fazzaris pizza and the UFC match on Pay Per View. It was a great get together!!

I would like to thank everyone who came and those who sent cards and well-wishes along. I still can't believe she's a year old but I guess I'll have to get used to it. Until next year everyone...

For My Little Birthday Girl

Wow, what an incredibly FAST year we have had. I honestly can't believe that my baby girl is one today. I have been sooo close to crying today that I'm not sure I'm even going to make it through this post. If only they could stay this little forever.

On Friday, November 16th, I went in for my 39 week appointment. My family had been struggling for quite a while with my Grandfather's health and several other issues that I asked my doctor if she wouldn't mind inducing me so that I could be with them just in case something happened and, I didn't want to eat Thanksgiving dinner in the hospital...Kierra was due on Black Friday of 2007. Anyway, my doctor told me that I was able for induction being at 39 weeks and she was scheduled to be on-call the following day and I could do it then if I wanted. I was so incredibly excited...until I got home and then the nervousness sunk in. This would be my first induction. Brad and I weighed our options and talked about everything. We liked that we would be able to get our house in order, get someone to watch the kids, call in for Brad's time off from work and be completely rested before the BIG arrival and so, we called the doctor and scheduled the appointment for the following morning, November 17th at 6:00am. Beforehand, the doctor had given me all the possible details, including the fact that I might not start pushing for 12 hours after the administering of the medication...but, oh well I thought. We called all our family members, made the arrangements for the other two kids, cleaned the house, packed our bags, called and told work and then settled in for a very needed yet uneasy night of sleep.

I'll spare you all of the "hospital" details but, we were finally blessed with the fifth member of our family, Kierra Lee Nielson, at 3:29pm on November 17, 2007. She weighed in at a whopping 9 lbs 1.5 oz and was 21" long.

She was soooo adorable, of course, which newborn baby's mother doesn't think that?? Right away, she was a mellow baby and yes, she even slept through the night the first night in the hospital!!! We couldn't believe it...unfortunately, that trait did not last very long. She has since been our mellow child, and people are honestly shocked if they ever hear her cry. Let me reassure all of you folks though, she does have a good set of lungs on her! We've been through so much with her the past year and rather than bore you with the "in-type" version, we'll guide you through it in pictures.

Those pictures pretty much get you caught up to the date I started my blog. I may have some more but would have to search through my box of CDs in order to find all of them. I'll post Birthday party pictures on another post. Well, I guess there is just one more thing to say...

HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY BABY GIRL!!!

Where has the time gone...

It's hard to believe that in just two short days time, our little Kierra will be turning one!!! This year has flown by and honestly, I'm not ready for Monday to come. To me, she only feels 6 months old!! Anyway, today we are having her birthday party. I'll post more pictures from today on Monday but I thought I'd show you all the invitation for today's bash!! I was searching through blogs one day out of complete boredom and found this as the invitation for her daughter's first birthday. Since I didn't have a theme in mind, I decided to "steal" hers and viola, the party started taking shape. I had to recreate the invitation in Photoshop so it is a little different than the one I found but I still love it!! Well, look for more updates on Monday!!

Eight Years Ago Today...

Eight years ago today, Bradley and I were married. It was a very blessed and beautiful day. It's hard to believe it's been that long but look at how many changes our little family has gone through. I'm not sure how many people read this but I would like to thank each and every person who was a part of our special day, especially my parents for making it happen.

Mr. & Mrs. Bradley N. Nielson

Our First Kiss

Our Wedding Party

Maid-of-Honor

Dawn Allen, friend of the bride

Bridesmaid

Brandy Garrett, sister-in-law of the bride

Bridesmaid

Liesbeth Garrett, friend of the bride

Bridesmaid

Jodi Nielson, sister of the groom

Junior Bridesmaid

Jaycee Garrett, niece of the bride

Flower Girl

Shaundee Garrett, niece of the bride

Best Man

Korry Nielson, brother of the groom

Groomsman

Kasey Nielson, brother of the groom

Groomsman

Pat Laney, friend of the groom

Groomsman

Brad Mundt, brother of the bride

Ring Bearer

Christopher Garrett, friend of the bride

Pianist

Marsha Lance, friend of the bride

Vocalist

Jaycee Garrett, niece of the bride

Miss Kierra & the Blue Stamper

One of the downfalls of having a wonderful Halloween Bash which gives kids the choice of many different prizes (this was after we wiped her down a bit)...

The product of a mini blue stamper & Kierra's ever-loving "hand-to-mouth" motion!

Halloween 2008

Witches, goblins, ghosts and more...

Left us with candy galore!!!

This was Kierra's first Halloween and we had a blast!!! Not only that wonderful milestone but also, Jordyn did not dress up as a princess this year, talk about drastic changes in the Nielson household!

Our Halloween started on Thursday the 30th with the Halloween Bash at the kids' school. This is done every year and it is fantabulous!!! The gym is open for a two hour block and it offers so very much. Kids of all ages as well as parents and this year, grandparents (wink, wink) dress up and celebrate. You buy tickets at the door at a wonderful 5 for $1.00 price (proceeds went to the youth group) and scattered all over the gym are games for the kids to play. You receive prizes for participation and even better prizes if you succeed at the game's purpose. There is also a cake walk. Father Tom is a very talented man. He once worked in a flower shop with I believe a family member and he learned to make gorgeous gift baskets, flower arrangements and somewhere along the line, picked up baking and decorating cakes and such. I guess when you plan to live your life in celibacy, you have to know how to feed yourself and why not go all out. Anyway, there is a cake walk at this Halloween Bash and Father Tom makes all the cakes for the prizes. The first year we went he had a cupcake walk and there were over 100 fanciful decorated cupcakes to give out...they were amazing. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of that.

After about an hour into the party, Trunk-or-Treat starts in the parking lot. Parents pull their vehicles into the parking lot, decorate them up (there is a contest) and then distribute goodies to the "trunk-or-treaters". It really is nice not having to trudge door-to-door on an incredibly packed street. This year, they had a costume contest and Little Miss Kierra won her age group...when you see the pictures, you'll see why. My mom and I dressed up this year when we took the kids. She was St. Rita (fitting since she is named Rita) and I dressed up as a witch or according to some, dressed down...either way, it was fun!!

Halloween night, Brad and I took the kids to downtown Clarkston to go to the area businesses and scavenge for candy. They block off all of 6th Street and you just have a great time going from one place to the next in search of the mother load. We were about 3/4 of the way done and it started down pouring but that left us with a beautiful rainbow to enjoy! We decided we had had enough and spent the rest of the night seeing my Aunt and Brad's parents. All in all, it was a very fun holiday. So, without much further ado, I give to you our crazy bunch...