Pop Goes the Birdie

Remember how Nolan's green bird died a little while ago? And we got him a new bird, which he has no clue was a different bird? I went to go change the birds water and food and it was dead. Yes, dead. I mean, really? What are the chances?

I decided that I needed to just tell Nolan that his bird died, and that we would go exchange it for a new one (Lucky for us it died before we had it for 14 days). I didn't really want to have that conversation with him. I was worried that he would be sad and crying and I'd have to explain death to a four year old. Here is our conversation. . .

Me: "Nolan, come here for a minute. I need to talk to you about something."
Nolan: "What do you need to talk to me about mom?"
Me: "Well, last night when I went to change your birdies food and water, I saw that Sprite had died."
Nolan: "Oh." (pause pause pause) "Well, why did he die?"
Me: "Well our pets and all of the animals are just like people. Everyone will die sometime, your birdie just died last night."
Nolan: "Oh." (pause pause pause) "Sooooo, how did he die?"

. . .At this point, I was suspicious of the other bird killing the last two birds. I didn't share this with him though. :) . . .

Me: "I don't know how it died Sweet Heart."
(pause pause pause)
Nolan: "I know how it died."
Me: "You do?"
Nolan: "Yeah, it sang too much."
Me: "It sang too much?"
Nolan: "Yeah, ya know? Like the bird on Shrek. It sang too much and it just popped. I think my birdie sang to much and popped.
Me: "You could be right." (What do you say to that?!?)

To me, that was hilarious. We went to get the replacement bird and when we came back home and started putting it in the cage. Nolan noticed some of the last birds feathers on the floor and on the cage by the table. He says "See mom, I think those are the birdies feathers from when he popped."

Who knew a conversation about your kids pet dying could go so well?

Come to find out, the blue bird, Nimbus, had been keeping Sprite II from getting any food. Now we have two food dishes and two water dishes in their cage so we don't have another bird die.

Turkeys, Birds, and Babies

I made my very first turkey this year! Aside from a minor (or maybe not so minor) break down, where I was sobbing to my mother. . .all went well!

We had quite a few people invite us over for Thanksgiving dinner, but Ben and I wanted to have our own dinner with just our little family. So, of course, I had to pick a somewhat complicated turkey recipe. I googled "the best turkey recipe" and Emeril's brined herb roasted recipe was at the top. I looked at the reviews and every single person who gave a review gave it five stars.

I had to put the turkey in the brine the day before Thanksgiving, to give it enough time to soak. Now, keep in mind that I haven't ever cooked a turkey. . .I haven't even watched anyone do it. It's always cooked when I get to the party! I opened the turkey to wash it off before putting it in the brine, and it didn't look right. There was a thing sticking out of it. A thing that I had never seen before, and that made the turkey look different from any cooked turkey I've ever seen. So, I called my mom to ask her about it, and during the conversation I had a little break down. I didn't really want to make the turkey at that moment, and I wanted to be in Utah for Thanksgiving. She calmed me down a little bit and told me to leave the turkey how it was and whatever it was that was sticking out of the turkey wouldn't hurt it. So I should just put it in my brine and let Ben help me with it when I got it ready to cook. And that's what I did (after calling Ben and crying to him and him calling his mom and telling her about it, and his mom calling me on skype to see the turkey. . .it was fun. . .). Anyway, this is my turkey in the brine.
The next day when I took it out, I showed Ben my deformed turkey and he told me it was the neck. They just hadn't cut it off like they usually do. Ben cut it off for me and it looked normal. :)

Here is my turkey all cooked. It turned out sooooo yummy! I would definitely recommend this recipe. Also a picture of our yummy dinner.


I never realized how much work it is to cook everything, and then clean it all up. There has always been multiple people sharing the work. It was still kind of fun to have our own dinner and start some new family traditions! I'm going to make this turkey again when Ben's mom and dad and Collin come (in 11 days)!
I also made the yummiest banana cream pie from scratch! My first pie ever! That was super yummy too!
In other news, one of Nolan's birds died. We have no clue how. Nolan hasn't even had them for three weeks! I told Ben he has to go buy him another one. Nolan would be so sad if he knew his birdie died. He just loves them. . .I'm going to have to think up a reason why the bird isn't in it's cage. . .hmm? I'm hoping it's okay to lie to your kids in this type of situation. . .because that's what I'm going to do. :)

And last but not least, and certainly the most important news is that I had my ultrasound and we found out that we are having a girl! Her name is going to Malia. . .I just can't think of a middle name that goes well with it. Any ideas? This is a picture of a picture. . .sorry it's not that great.