Thanksgiving Festivities

This year, and for many years prior, Matt wanted to deep-fry our turkey for Thanksgiving dinner. You have to wonder about the safety of such an undertaking when the local firefighters do news stories on how to not burn up your house while frying a turkey, and even State Farm Insurance dedicated a commercial to insuring your home against mishaps like a fried turkey disaster. So, against my better judgment and my firefighter's daughter upbringing, Matt was in charge of cooking the turkey with Betty doing the brine.

Enter Alton Brown of the Food Network. We had seen an episode of Good Eats where he shows you how to safely fry a turkey, which involves creating this contraption that includes a ladder, a pulley system, and other basic hardware supplies. I think Matt and his dad did a pretty good job at duplicating it - and even with a short scare that the turkey was undercooked (only a few parts were) we had a great turkey!


Matt's brother Nick was visiting from Reno and got to meet Miles for the first time. Claire hadn't seen him since Easter but she kept telling him "Don't leave!" when he was getting ready to head back home today.


We had some great food, watched football, played games, ate some more, and also had a visit with Betty's cousin Jay today to end the weekend. It was a great Thanksgiving, and I managed to lose 3 lbs at my weigh in on Saturday, which made me very happy since I was just hoping to maybe stay the same. Now bring on the Christmas cookies, I'm getting the hang of this!

I Hope it Lasts

Claire still seems to like Miles a lot, and wants to help hold him, feed him and burp him. Fingers crossed she doesn't have a jealous stage. I thought these were cute pics of them together.

No Fear

Claire loves to go the park, and she is willing to try every slide and toy at the playground. Her latest is going down the slide backwards (she saw one kid do it at Town Square and now she does it all the time), and swinging out on the bar at the top of the slide like she is a gymnast on the parallel bars before she goes down the slide. She gives me a heart attack at least once every time we go, but I love how excited she is to play.

Young and Vibrant

My sister called me up the other day to ask if I had any pictures of her and her husband from my wedding, when we were all "young and vibrant." That got me thinking...

I do miss the days before kids when I had the time to really get dressed up, or spend more than 10 minutes on my hair (and didn't have to do my makeup in the car on the way). I had a few pics of her from our wedding in 2005, and I found some new motivation after looking at my wedding pics.

When we go to weight watchers, people bring in their "before" pictures to show how much weight they have lost. My "before" picture is my motivation. So, in the spirit of being "young and vibrant" here are some of the pics from my sister's wedding that I just received (3+ years later). Disclaimer: I know my bangs look border-line 80s but it's because the stylist flat ironed them all weird.

Favorite Food Finds

I am still doing Weight Watchers, and as of this morning's weigh in I have lost just over 16 pounds. Our Biggest Loser competition is also going well, and mainly I am happy to have people who want to work out and provide good healthy competition. But I wanted to share a few of the food items/dinner ideas that I use to help me get quick, low point meals on the table. So, in no particular order here are my favorite food finds of late, organized by where I buy them. I know you don't all speak "points" so I added the calories when I knew them:

Trader Joe's
Tomato Basil Marinara sauce - 1/2 cup is 2 points (80 calories, 2 grams of fiber) but one full cup is only 3 pts

Chicken Gyoza Pot stickers - 7 pot stickers are 4 pts; add some rice or serve over some fresh greens with a soy dressing (Christi told me about these)

Microwave Brown Rice - 1 cup is 4 pts but it is so easy - just 3 minutes in the microwave and one bag (it comes with 3) is about 2 cups

Turkey Meatballs - 1 pt per meatball but they are large; great with the marinara sauce, serve with pasta or some toasted wheat bread

Frozen or Quick Steel Cut Oatmeal - one serving is 2 pts - much easier than regular steel cut oats that can take 30 minutes to cook; chewier, more hearty than reg oatmeal

Costco
CedarLane bean rice and cheese burrito - 4 pts each (260 calories, 7 grams of fiber, 1 g fat). Great for a quick lunch; I eat it with salsa to get in some veggies

Orowheat Sandwich Thins - 1 pt each, (100 calories, 5 grams of fiber). Great for sandwiches especially if you toast them or use for a panini. I keep some thinly sliced turkey deli meat on hand for a back up meal idea. Add some baked chips or sweet potato fries.

Sams Club
Chicken sausages (we like the garlic flavor)- calories vary but the garlic flavor is only 3 pts for 1 sausage link. I cut them up and use in pasta sauce with peppers and onions. Would be good grilled with a hotdog bun too but I haven't tried that yet.

Ground turkey - I ALWAYS have this on hand; I cut each package in half and put in a freezer bag so I don't have to defrost the whole 2.5 lbs when I need it.

Baked Corn Chips - these are really the only chips we buy now. I use them for nachos, to eat with taco soup (1 cup = 2 pts) or broken up and mixed in with eggs for Migas Tacos.

Albertsons
Weight Watchers Giant Fudge Bars - 1 pt each and they are soooo good!

Ready cook bacon - 3 slices are only 80 calories, or 2 pts. Use one slice and break up to put on a breakfast sandwich or in an omelet (thanks for the tip Kara)

Corn tortillas (most brands) - 1 pt each; we have been using these more for fajitas or breakfast tacos w/egg whites instead of flour tortillas. Dampen slightly then microwave instead of cooking in oil.

Essensia Peach Pineapple Salsa - 15 calories for 2 TB; I put salsa on everything!

Menu Ideas
I eat oatmeal or eggs for breakfast almost every day. The eggs usually involve salsa or are on a high fiber english muffin (1 pt).

To sum up, here are some dinner ideas that include some of the items above - chicken fajitas with corn tortillas, chicken sausage pasta (with wheat pasta), taco soup (w/ground turkey), turkey sliders with sauteed mushrooms and onions (buy small dinner rolls and carve out the extra bread first), soup and paninis, salsa chicken (put frozen chicken breasts in crockpot and cover with salsa) with tortillas, potstickers with rice, and nachos with baked corn chips, ground turkey and nonfat refried beans.

I am always looking for a new find - please comment if you have one to share!

And she's only 2

Claire is already telling me what she wants to wear, but I'm not ready to give in just yet. I give her two choices if she's insisting on asserting her independence - and she really sits and thinks about which outfit she wants to wear. I am going to be in for it when she's older... as in next year when she turns three! Here she is on a recent shopping trip to Old Navy, studying herself in the mirror.

Welcome Baby Gabe!

My sister had a baby boy on November 2 - Gabriel Merrill. My parent's doubled their grandchildren this year from 3 to 6 - and now Miles has a boy cousin to play with who is practically his same age. I can't wait to meet him - it doesn't seem right that I haven't been able to hold him yet. Soon enough Gabe, we'll be up to see you!

Latest Obsession

Sock puppets. Claire's sock drawer is constantly being raided. It's fun to see her use her imagination. But I am sure tired of picking up socks...

Miles - 3 Months

Miles is such a good little guy - he is very calm, for the most part, but he has his moments. Can't believe he is already 3 months old. It seemed like we had Claire on some sort of schedule by this point, but Miles is still waking up quite a bit at night and not taking long naps. Some of that could be his sister has a squeal that can break glass and scare dogs within a 3 miles radius, and she often wakes him up.

I am trying to think of a nickname for Miles - Matt calls him Toad, or Toader, which I don't love... but Matt's nicknames tend to stick, so we'll see.

I weighed him today with me on our scale, and he weighs 14.5 pounds. He also hadn't pooped for 7 days so that might not be accurate... when you become a parent you talk about poop a lot. It's kind of weird how normal these conversations seem. Anyway, I digress. Here are some pictures of Miles from this week.

October in Photos

A few more photos to sum up what a fun October we had this year - trips to see family, family and friends visiting us, a whole lot of Halloween and more!

Miles' Baby Blessing

Miles was given a name and a blessing today in our church service - Matt gave him a beautiful blessing. I wish I had written down everything he said to record it in Miles' baby book.

It might not be the best comparison, but a baby blessing reminds me of when the three fairies come visit Princess Aurora soon after she is born in the movie Sleeping Beauty. They each think of a wonderful gift to give to the princess. A baby blessing is kind of like that - it is a blessing for all the good things we want and hope for a child. If today is any indication, Miles has a great life ahead of him.

Thank you to all of the friends and family who came for the blessing - we felt very loved today!

Follow the Yellow Brick Road

You couldn't stop the cuteness that was the Hiller family this Halloween. We went as our much-loved Wizard of Oz characters - Claire was Dorothy, Miles the Lion, Matt the Tin Man and I was the Scarecrow. We managed to squeeze in three Halloween celebrations so we got the most out of our costumes. We even found another Dorothy and the Wicked Witch along the way.


We crashed a friend's trunk or treat party and Matt almost won their costume contest (down to the final 2) - we bought his costume online and it was one of those one-size fits all deals. And it was a one piece - to see a 6' 4" guy wearing something meant for someone who was maybe 5' 10 " was hysterical. Needless to say the one piece became two, and Matt just used the top portion and the hat. He spray painted his shoes, a pair of socks and some gray shorts with silver paint to wear on the bottom. He should have won - those applause-o-meter votes are never accurate :)



Claire wore make up for the first time as part of her costume (other than my lip gloss that she constantly snags out of my purse) - she had blue eyeshadow and mascara. I would kill for lashes like that - she is so lucky!

My parent's were also in town for Miles' baby blessing, and we spent time at my aunt and uncle's house for a Halloween/Kicking Cancer's Butt celebration for my Uncle Kevin. We hadn't seen them in months since Kevin's immune system was basically non-existent and he couldn't be around kids. All the cousins got to go trick or treating together - it was really fun to have everyone together.