preparing for thanksgiving!

this is the food that i ordered on monday night! arrived this morning!

the turkey!!

micah helping me to make the pumpkin chocolate chip cookies!

all ready for tomorrow!! can't wait!

happy thanksgiving!

i hope everyone had a lovely thanksgiving yesterday! we had a nice day as our friend (aunty) shiela took us to Webbs. its a garden center with a lot of stuff going on! the boys picked out their christmas ornaments as they get one each year. we had lunch there and just walked around really. it was nice to get out!

last night i had my groceries delievered and the turkey is huge! i could barely lift it!! i so can't wait to start cooking it!! we have now upped the number coming to 14 adults and 2 children and 1 infant! wowee...where to put them all? and do i have enough plates?? hmm =) i can't wait! nor can any of the others! i even have charlie brown's thanksgiving for everyone to watch as a lot of them have no idea what thanksgiving is all about!!

so today i have to start baking! pumpkin cheesecake, pumpkin choc chip cookies, the potato rolls too. tomorrow morning will be the turkey, stuffing and peeling the potatoes and carrots. so i don't think it'll be too much really. avril is bringing roast parsnips and potatoes and also a pavlova. jon and anthea if they make it in the evening will bring another desert as well!!

so much awesomeness for tomorrow!!

oh and happy black friday to any who are braving the shops!

sick sick sick

well, i had a better night last night with jonah. he slept through till 4:30 for a feed and went nicely back to sleep for me. but my tummy hurt... so i sat on the toilet, then went to get a drink of water. i laid back in bed for a bit but couldn't go back to sleep and felt like i was getting close to having to be sick. so i came downstairs and sat on the couch for a bit. was sick in the bathroom then slept a bit longer on the couch. i heard andy's alarm go off so i went upstairs and got back into bed. my tummy still hurt but i felt loads better.

thanfully jonah slept till 8 and after feeding him i was able to sleep off and on till just past 9. then noah was sick around 11ish and again at 5. he didn't eat much through the day (like nothing at all) so i think we might have some toast soon. i've had 1 toast 2 cups of tea and 3 chicken nuggets. i made andy chicken tikka masala and rice for tea. i had a few bites but am not really hungry. micah had lunch at like 2:30/3 and i don't think he is really hungry either. boy...what a day! my head hurts and i am ready for bed! that's for sure.

and just forfun:

i've just discovered...

the stateside candy company!! i am so excited =) i just ordered stovetop stuffing, a graham cracker pie crust, some candy corn, a hamburger helper mix... and so on! the only think i couldn't find was libby's pumpkin puree! oh well, atleast i know where i can get that! i am so excited!!! come on thanksgiving! this company also has loads of other things. candy, tea, crystal light, grape soda, mountain dew and rootbeer!! heaven really.

we are having thanksgiving on saturday and have 10 people coming!! i'm buy a huge turkey (they are all half price at the moment) and i have some others making the sweet potato souffle and the green bean casserole. and also making desserts. not sure what else i can give to others to make... very excited though for it.

in other news. the boys are totally not sleeping through the night. *any.one.of.them* jonah has the 2 bottom teeth showing and i believe 1 top tooth in the works. plus thes cold that the boys have too. so terrible nights. i am trying so hard not to feed jonah each and everytime that he is waking up but really? i don't know what else to do. sometimes i can rock him back to sleep but a lot of the times, he wakes when i lay him back in the cot. and he cries and cries and cries.

jonah weigh in

went to the health visitor this morning, well barely morning! we got there at 11:24 and they close at 11:30!! it was all cleaned up and the boys had no toys to play with! poor them!!

so anyway, jonah now weighs 14lb 6oz (9th percentile) and is 64 cm which i think is 25.5inches. something like that! as i was telling the HV that jonah had gotten his first tooth last week, and how sleeping and settling him down to sleep has gotten rough. i said hopefully its more teeth coming and i had a bit of a look and feel and lo and behold i believe there the next one coming! crazy!!

still no words from noah and tons from micah. he is really learning memory verses at sunday school and the songs. he can say "all scripture is given by the inspiration of God and is profitable. 2 timothy chapter 3 verse 16" he knows genesis 1v1 and we are learning hebrews ch10v12 i think. i can't remember that one yet either! we also started learning the books of the old testament in a song and he knows over half of them! its so cute to hear him saying all the big works like leviticus, dueteronomy and chronicles!! so sweet!

just starting to plan our thanksgiving. we are celebrating on the saturday the 29th. just thinking it'll be easier with people working weekdays and its not so nice to eat such a big meal after 7! we have possibly up to 12 people coming. i haven't heard back from everyone yet!! can't wait though!!

libby's pumpkin cheesecake

easy to make and delicious!! any uk people, its great with ginger snap base!

INGREDIENTS (Nutrition)
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/3 cup butter
1/4 cup granulated sugar
3 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese
1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 (15 ounce) can LIBBY'S® 100% Pure Pumpkin
2/3 cup NESTLE® CARNATION® Evaporated Milk
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 1/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 (16 ounce) container sour cream
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS
PREHEAT oven to 350 degrees F.
COMBINE graham cracker crumbs, butter and granulated sugar in medium bowl. Press onto bottom and 1 inch up side of ungreased 9-inch springform pan. Bake for 6 to 8 minutes (do not allow to brown). Cool on wire rack for 10 minutes.
BEAT cream cheese, granulated sugar and brown sugar in large mixer bowl until fluffy. Beat in eggs, pumpkin and evaporated milk. Add cornstarch, cinnamon and nutmeg; beat well. Pour into crust.
BAKE for 55 to 60 minutes or until edge is set but center still moves slightly.
COMBINE sour cream, granulated sugar and vanilla extract in small bowl; mix well. Spread over surface of warm cheesecake. Bake for 5 minutes. Cool on wire rack. Refrigerate for several hours or overnight. Remove side of springform pan.

pumpkin bread/cake

a few were asking for a recipe for this on facebook so i thought i'd post it here as it goes to my facebook page as well. this is a recipe for my mom and its very very yummy =)

cake:
3 cups sugar
1 cup oil
2/3 cups water
4 eggs
2 cups pumpkin
1 teaspoon each of cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice
3 and 1/2 cup self raising flour

mix sugar, oil, water, egg and pumpkin in order given.
mix in sifted dry in gredients.
bake in tube pan 350 degrees for 1hr 15min.
(if you use loaf pans, check in 50 minutes or if you make cupcakes 20-25minutes is enough.)

frosting:
1 8oz cream cheese
1/2 cup butter
1 tsp vanilla
1lb box 10x sugar (powdered sugar/icing sugar)

cream together and frost away =)
p.s. i made 24 cupcakes and a loaf of bread out of this recipe and only made up half of the icing as that was all the powdered sugar i had and it was more than enough! though its so so yummy, the more the merrier (and fatter ~ ha ha)
its so yummy!! the icing along, OMG!

enjoy =)

baby rice

sad news

since there are a good few perry hall peeps who read, i thought i'd post. my brother is married to kelly loftus. her sister katie and her family were involved in that big car accident in bel air friday night. katie and her son wilson were killed instantly. her husband steve was flown to shock trauma with multiple broken bones and other injuries. he was in surgery for quite awhile. ian their 2.5 year old was taken to john hopkins but has already been released. he had a few cuts but was thankfully ok.
please please please keep them in your prayers over these next few days and weeks.
here is one of the news articles. http://www.wbaltv.com/news/17934305/detail.html?taf=bal

thanks =)

p.s.
in other mullan news, jonah has his first tooth! so much earlier then the other boys!!

At the homestead

hello from belfast. we are having a nice time here in belfast. it is cold but the weathers been nice! sunny and dry =)

our trip over was fine...until we got to dublin and missed signs for the ring road and had to go straight through dublin during rush hour. a hour and a half later we got to the other side and onto the motorway. a long trip but we made it and all is well!

yesterday we just hung out with karen and luke at their house (and zach). then simon and esther and sarah came over too. nice and relaxing =)

today jo and i went shopping, then again over to karen's for a book party. found some lovely new usborne books! bought some for the boys. we got to see some of andy's cousins who have either lived in canada for 2 years or live in pennsylvania, so it's been awhile since we have seen them!

the men of the family went out to play football today and came back with a few injuries! minor so far, but philip is off to the A&E to have his foot checked out. he might have a fractured metatarsal in his right foot =( poor boy!! )

so philip didn't break any bones, he just had a bruised foot. so that was good. he even went to work on saturday at tesco's so was on his feet for 4ish hours!

saturday afternoon, us siblings went out for a meal with only the 2 babies. micah, noah, luke and sarah stayed at nana's and papa's! that was nice. we went to a country club type restaurant and it was lovely! andy and i started with pumpkin soup which was delicious, though you couldn't *really* taste the pumpkin as i guess we were thinking sweet pumpkin like in my pumpkin cheesecake/pumpkin choc chip cookies/pumpkin cake...and so on!

which by the way, i can't wait to start baking and cooking all the pumpkin stuff and thanksgiving stuff. i think this year we are celebrating thanksgiving on the saturday which will be much easier for working ones and the students. now just have to figure out who to invite!!

monday thru thursday the boys and i didn't really leave the house at all! monday was my birthday and i was told by andy not to make dinner for him and i, but to just make it for the boys... so that was fun and easy to do! when andy got home he said that we were going out for a meal and peter and becky were coming to babysit! it was their gift to us (dinner and babysitting!) so once i got jonah down around 7:45 and once micah let us leave =( we were off to nando's!! yummy. we haven't been in a very long time and it was delicious! then we walked next door to the movie theatre and didn't see a movie (as they all finished just before midnight) but got some ben and jerry's ice cream for dessert!!!! so a very yummy evening (i took a hiatus from my diet!!)

here are some photos from halloween. we had abook party at karen's and some of the children dressed up for it. micah actually dressed up in his cowboy outfit and we got there and he saw luke's outfit and he asked luke if he could try it on! so they swapped! noah didn't want to partake in the fun and i forgot to take jonah's doggy outfit. oh well! but sara stole the show in the ladybug outfit that i got 9 years ago when i was working at old navy! i wish that i had bought more outfits!




here are zach, jonah and aiden. zach is 2 weeks older and aiden is a day older then jonah!


wednesday night was bonfire night (Guy Fawkes Day). we didn't go anywhere to see the fireworks but could hear them of course. thursday night our neighbours out back and over 1 had their fireworks display and it was so very loud and annoying. micah fell asleep anyway, but noah wasn't going to sleep at all... thankfully tonight there is no one close by setting them off! so all asleep =)