Building, Turkey, Birthday

We are so blessed to have such an amazing film maker and photographer around! It's getting a bit hectic around here and I haven't been able to blog the everyday progress of house three. Tomorrow I will get some good pics of it up. Today Bud is finishing up some of the building and tomorrow we will paint the inside. This is the first building for Bud to do with our new bricks. He is learning a lot and taking notes for the next buildings. He's been working so hard so I was thankful for yesterday when we put all aside and went and sat by the pool for a few hours. Today we are pretending it is Thanksgiving. We decided this because we have this massive turkey and wanted to enjoy the leftovers before we head to Nairobi. Also so we're not preparing such a huge feast just a few days before packing and heading to America. It's very ironic. We went to the pool yesterday, swam and got a little burnt (oops, didn't intend for that to happen) and then came home. Betsy and I baked pies, pecan and pumpkin, oh yum. Then I popped on some Elvis (yes I'm a fan) Christmas music while making cornbread and biscuits for the stuffing today. It sure doesn't feel or look like Christmas outside or around town but in my kitchen you can find the glorious smells of it! I like to get into Christmas.... not so much the commercialized Christmas, although I'm not opposed to Santa. I like the smells, the food, the tree, the music, oh most definitely the music, the movies, and no doubt thankfulness for friends, family and Jesus. So I'm not in complete shock in going from the atmosphere here to the atmosphere in America, I'm prepping for "the most wonderful time of the year". (that was me singing the song, I really prefer summer over winter) I'm all about starting the season of Christmas on Thanksgiving day. So today is a marathon of the movie Elf all day long! I've got the turkey in the oven now, which takes up my ENTIRE oven. That just says that our turkey is big and oven is small. If you are needing some last minute recipes, let me just highly suggest some to you! Just click on the titles below to go to the websites....

Turkey brining (oh please, please brine your turkey, it makes it so much more flavorable and moist, not so dry like you're eating cotton)

Cooking tips for Turkey

Stuffing (I'm using my cornbread recipe from scratch and my Toomama's freezer biscuit recipe)

Perfect pie crust (no seriously, its so flaky and yummy)

Pecan Cheesecake pie (i haven't cut into yet but it looks great, i can give you the low down of all this tomorrow after I manage to roll off the couch and get to the computer)

Incredible Pumpkin Pie (don't blame me when you make this and everyone is begging for more because you didn't make enough! Betsy made two but we dug into one last night, I'm surprised it lasted an hour. God bless you Paula Deen. And God bless you Betsy for discovering and making this. Seriously, go make it now, you will thank me later! And really, I'm not even a big fan of pumpkin pie, I just eat it because that's what you do, but this pie, OH MY!)

That's just a few to share. Now for some picture updates from Mattaw a few days ago....

Stunning eh? Christine and Georgie.

I LOVE this! It just captures so much of their relationship.

He giggled the entire time and when put down, he said "mo dada! again! again!"

We had birthdays out at Mattaw on Saturday. I'm always a month behind. Oops. So we celebrated October birthdays. I think. Elisha so badly wanted a present. I tried to explain that in two weeks is his birthday and he will get to open lots of presents from his grandparents. But he just didn't get it. So here Phil captured his little pouty face.

Ian and Charles.

We celebrated Pauline Selma's birthday

And our oldest Mercy's birthday.

And gave Kai his new birthday which is this month from now on. He really was happier than he looks in this photo. And I don't have Jose's picture yet. We also celebrated Jose's birthday.

For this birthday party I made banana bread muffins and bought soda for the kids. They were all super happy. I was a little bummed that the candles wouldn't light due to some wind. Oh well. It was a fun party! We also got out the parachute and played with beach balls and balloons. Cheap, easy entertainment. I love Africa. I love how simple life can be.