We Fried Our Turkey

Was I skeptical when I heard the Excells would be frying a turkey this year? Yes. Was it my favorite part of the Thanksgiving dinner? Heavens yes.

Here are Eli and Jeff just before our Thanksgiving feast.

The Excells started a tradition last year to do a Turkey Shoot. We all went out to the shooting range and shot some shotguns. Are you proud Grandpa?

Believe it or not...things got a little romantic out on the range.

And when that was over, Mary and the boys got competitive.

Bryan won the Beef Jerky and Tomberlone. Toberlone. Tombylone? We had a hard time saying it. I have a hard time spelling it. I could look it up...but it's not like I have a spelling reputation to uphold or anything.

The festivities ended last night with several walks down memory lane. So Excells, thanks for the great food, fun company and for introducing me to Texas Hold 'em. I thoroughly enjoyed my Thanksgiving holiday.

For Eli's Future Wife

when she asks, "What was Eli like as a baby?"

First we have the signature hair:

Then the smile:

He always gets this excited when we talk to him:

His favorite way to sit:

                       

 He loves to talk. By talk I mean scream. Especially in church.

He's kind of a goofball:

And he's super cute (sorry it's blurry. Of course all the cute pictures turned out blurry.):

Boys Hate Pictures

I grew up with my older brother throwing a tantrum every time the words "family pictures" were uttered from my mother's lips. I thought it was just something my older brother hated.

But I've decided all boys hate family pictures. Especially Eli. He was not too excited to be woken up from his nap today to venture out in the cold for a few snapshots. "We need to get new family pictures now that Eli can smile," I said. Too bad we got more of a smile out of him during his 6-week photo shoot.

Before I unveil my mom's Christmas present (...surprise, mom! Sorry I can't withhold information/pictures like my secretive sister.), I must share a story.

Leslie is our dubbed photographer for these quick excursions. We got to her house and I hopped out to knock on her door and let her know we were ready. We hugged, our usual greeting, said our hellos, then she went to shut her door.

There are leaves on the ground this time of year. But when I glanced down and saw a brown leaf with legs scramble into Leslie's apartment just before the door shut, I had to think twice. That's right. I watched a tiny little mouse scurry into Leslie's house.

For a split second I thought, Hmm...Should I tell her a mouse just went in her house or should I hope the saying 'what you don't know won't hurt you' rings true in this situation. Maybe the mouse will find its way out on its own. 

But then I told her. And she screamed. And we ran out to get Jeff to save us. Evidence:

And here are a few...okay...a lot of pictures from our photo shoot. Mom, let me know which one is your favorite.

Thanks Leslie! Looks like we did get a couple good ones after all. Even if Eli didn't smile. And even if waking him up from his nap made him scream bloody murder for two hours after we got home. It was all worth it for the sake of a good old fashion family picture.

In Loving Memory...

We have treasured every moment with Eli's hair. I took this picture specifically for his hair because everyone told us it would all fall out. Much to our surprise, we still had (yes, I said had) a 5-month old with a full head of hair! Our baby hair-loss worries were all for nothing.

 Until this happened:

The story, you ask? Well, Jeff hates Wal-Mart with all his heart. I hate going to Wal-Mart alone with all my heart. I said, "Jeff, we need to go to Wal-Mart tonight." Jeff said, "No." Then he said, "... Okay. I'll go to Wal-Mart with you if you let me cut Eli's hair."

We have been talking about trimming Eli's hair a bit the last couple of weeks. But I love(d) Eli's hair soooo much, and I didn't want to ruin it. He kept saying he would just even it out. I was starving and desperate to go to Wal-Mart, so I caved. I should have gone hungry.

You better believe I kept a bag of his long locks.

 Eli and I are still deciding if we like the new do.

Stories of Jeff Excell - The Outburst

Fall semester doesn't have too many breaks, so I was eager to escape up to my parents' house the moment I got out of my last class before Thanksgiving. Kenz and I usually drove up together, but she had to stay a few extra days to work, so I was riding solo.

I got about half way before I noticed a text message from a number I didn't have programmed in my phone. I don't remember what the message said, but if I had to guess based on the texter's texting history, it probably said something like, "I can see you."

This was a favorite phrase of Jeff Excell's. Leslie and I were just reminiscing of these stories and wondering why we weren't more creeped out by Jeff's frequent stalker impersonating. While some of these stories do sound like the beginning of a news report where the girls get murdered in the end, we knew Jeff's stalking was usually coincidental and always harmless/funny.

So when I saw the text from the unknown number, I had a confident guess of who the author was. What I was unsure about, though, was how this shameless stalker had tracked down my number. My questions of how he got my number soon evolved into excitement that Jeff Excell just so happened to text me mere days after I had realized I was twitterpated with him.

Quickly into the conversation, Jeff texted me a quote from the TV show "The Office." I thought I was so witty as I texted him another quote in response. This continued for the next three or four hours. (Yes, I texted and drove. And almost died several times. All in the name of love.)

When I woke up the next day, another "Office" quote was waiting for me. We went back and forth all week. Jeff is a master at remembering lines from TV shows, but I think it's time for me to confess I was running to the computer several times throughout the week trying to find the funniest quotes to woo Jeff with my sense of humor.

We eventually moved on to texting more than just quotes. Soon Jeff started texting me every morning. It was such a fun feeling to check my phone and always have a message waiting for me from exactly the person I was checking my phone for.

With all of those texts, and all that attention, I really started to fall for Jeff. Really. I had kept it a secret from my roommates because we were all friends with him, and I knew they would think it was kind of weird. But one night as Kenz and I were chatting before bed, I decided to break my Jeff Excell silence with, "So....do you think Jeff Excell is cute?"
Kenz, "Yeah. He is cute. He's so funny."
Me, "He's been texting me a lot."
Kenz, "....Do you think Jeff Excell likes you?"
Me, "I don't know. What do you think?"
Kenz, "Oh my gosh! I bet he does like you! I can't believe I didn't see it before. I bet you guys will date for a while and have a lot of fun. Like a little fling, but nothing serious."

Unsuspecting Kenz was unaware of the depth of my crush and the nerve she hit. At the time, she never would have guessed I was fishing for her to tell me Jeff and I would be in wedded bliss the rest of our lives and be so cute together and live happily ever after. So this happened:
Me, "WHY COULDN'T IT BE ANYTHING SERIOUS?!?"

Silence filled the room.

Kenz soaked in the "seriousness" of my Jeff Excell crush. Then ran out of the room to tell Leslie.

Last Week of Free Designs!

Hey guys!

I have done a lot of work on my Proofred blog over the last month. If you haven't checked it out in a while, you should hop on over there. Especially because this is the LAST WEEK of free designs.

So get 'em while they're hot!

Solids

Does anyone have an instruction book on how to turn a baby's biological clock back an hour for Daylight Savings? We did not benefit from the fall backwards time change this year.

On a completely unrelated note -- Eli ate rice cereal for the first time! I was going to wait until his 5-month birthday, but then we bought the cereal in preparation for the big event. Then we saw the cereal on top of the fridge. Then we imagined how cute Eli would look in a bib. Then before we knew it we had Eli in a chair and we were shoving rice cereal down his throat.

I plan on making homemade baby food this week. We'll see how that goes.