Extreme end of year couponing

So I have been holding on to a load of coupons that expire 12/31. Today I headed to the grocery store in Farmington and used 26  - 55 cent off coupons for store brand products! I bought 28 items for $12!! I felt like an extreme couponer. Here's my loot. So proud....and yes, I get that it's sort of nerdy to take a picture of my groceries....but 28 items for $12 deserved a pic on the blog. Here's to a coupon savvy 2012! Happy New Year!

Ella's first night in her big girl bed

We converted Ella's crib to the toddler bed today! I'm hoping it will be easy for her to transition....She just fell asleep. These pics aren't very great, but I wanted to get one for her book.

Christmas 2011 - Pictures Only!

Christmas was super busy but super fun.  Too many pictures to post, but here are some of my favorites:

Presents under the tree

The other night Ella wanted to wrap some gifts (she's been watching us wrap gifts these past few weeks), so Jay and Ella worked on some wrapping.  She decided she wanted to wrap up a few of her toys.  I wasn't really paying attention to the wrapping, but I assumed that she wanted to wrap things so she could then proceed to unwrap them.  I was wrong!  See below - after they finished wrapping something (random toys she picked) she put them under the tree! (Ella's wrappings are the small little packages on top). I thought it was sweet of her. 














Christmas countdown is in full swing.  Last night we went to see a Christmas lights "show" at a home in Apple Valley, where the lights are synched to the music.  It was awesome!  Very festive.  Thankfully, I could sit in the car with my ice pack!  Back to the chiropractor tonight.  Keep praying that I will be more mobile by Friday.

Weekending...on the couch!

So we've had a bit of a setback this past weekend for our holiday plans. You may know I've had some pretty crazy hip and back troubles since my pregnancy. Well, it happened again. Last week I saw the chiropractor and found out my right hip was again out and not rotating causing all sorts of trouble in my lower back! I was doing well and then after my appointment on Friday morning I progressively felt worse. Saw the chiro again and woke up Saturday morning hardly able to walk. Ugh. So much for our trip to Worthington. All plans were cancelled and I rotated my behind from the couch to the chair all day hanging out with my new best friend the ice pack. Things have been so-so since Saturday. I saw the chiro again last night and he's hopeful that things will start moving again (Everything is clinched tight in what us back trauma regulars refer to as a "spasm." Good times....

A couple Ella-isms: 
- She continually is asking me "Mommy, is your back sore?" 
- When I get the ice pack out of the freezer, she wants one too, which she then proceeds to hold on her back while walking around, basically imitating me, which is hilariously cute
- I have an acupuncture mat I've been using to help relax the lower back muscles, and Ella has decided she needs a mat too (her mat is a liner out of a basket).  She lays on this "mat" and then tells us that her back feels better.  So funny.  

Anyway, we did get to attend the Best Buy holiday party on Thursday night, which was pre-back spasm. Here's our attempt to get a picture with Santa. You will notice that Jay is missing. So we're standing in line and we decided (WE DECIDED) we should all be in the picture and then maybe Ella wouldn't freak out and may even smile for the camera. So it comes to be our turn, they call us over, and Jay beelines it to stand by the cameraman. What?! Nerd! He didn't realize I meant all of us in the picture. Anyway, here it is. Maybe next year.....I love that my purse is in the shot.  Nice work cameraman!

So, Sunday afternoon my back was feeling tolerable due to the insane amounts of ibuprofen I've been taking and the ice pack regimen I've been following.  I HAD to get some Christmas baking done so Ella and I sat at the kitchen table to get our cookies together.  It was fun!  Jay got a few pictures of course on my other camera, so I'll have to share those later.

I do still have a few last minute gifts to finish...and it's probably going to be at the very last minute.  I'm praying that my back will be in better shape by Thursday/Friday so I can enjoy the long Christmas weekend! 

Stay tuned for more pictures soon....

Crunch Time!

A few things of note to describe our state of mind here:

Only 12 shopping days left!
Too many gifts left to buy!
No holiday baking done yet!
Gifts to wrap!

But....our holiday cards are addressed, stuffed, sealed, stamped and (fingers crossed) Jay remembered to drop them in the mail today!  Watch your mailbox.  Hope you like them.  I'm not going to post it until I can safely assume most people have received it in their mailbox.

And, Thursday is the annual holiday event for Best Buy employees & family.  We'll be there with jingle bells on (j/k) but I hope to get some cute pictures of Ella with Santa (fingers crossed) and the reindeer! 

Holiday kick off

The holiday season is in full swing now and this weekend we've made the most of it.  Friday night Jay &  I went to the Holidazzle parade downtown (sans Ella) and stayed at the Radisson.  It was a fun night away from our "usual."  Jay had gotten me hot seats for the parade as part of my birthday gift.  And they're not lying about the hot seats!  It was really warm.  I was taking layers off left and right.  I looked at Jay and laughed telling him pretty soon I'd be sitting there in my bra & underwear!  HA!  So, note to self:  wear layers when sitting in the hot seats!!  

Let's talk about these pictures for a minute.  The one above - why does it look like I have a hotdog in my neck?  Ewww.  Even though everyone in the hot seats tent seemed festive, nobody offered to take our picture for us, and I didn't want to bother anyone.  So, the picture above was me holding the camera, which I guess causes my neck/face to create a hot dog effect.

And this is Jay's attempt at holding the camera.  We took this like four hundred times and continued to get this same shot - where I'm just about at the edge of the picture and my chin barely makes it into the shot.  HA!  Oh well....it was fun anyway!

Saturday we headed downtown Farmington for the Dazzle Days celebration - in the snow!  It was so fun, and I think the snow had a lot to do with it.  First we took a horse driven carriage ride around downtown, which Ella (and let's be honest, me too!) thought was really fun.  She said hello to horseys and goodbye to the horseys.  It was cute.  We weren't able to get many great pictures due to the snow (and lack of focus by the 2 year old!).  You'll see that I had to use some camera editing to make the pictures work.  After our horse ride, we got a family shot by the giant Christmas tree downtown, which they lit last night during the celebration.  Ella also had her first visit with Santa.  When I asked her if she wanted to sit on his lap and tell him what she wanted for Christmas, we got a VERY serious "NO!"  So, I did most of the talking, but she left with a Curious George light up wand, which she thought was so cool.  I'm hoping she'll warm up to the idea of sitting on Santa's lap - we'll try again in a few weeks. 

I also have to tell you about Ella's Saturday morning.  She had a sleep over with Annie and Andrew Friday night, and then Saturday morning Andrew took Ella & Keller to Home Depot, where every first Saturday of the month they have a free kid's project.  Ella & Keller made snowman napkin holders.  She is so proud of what she made!  Here's Ella last night showing it off.

Our holiday tradition has begun with Elf on the Shelf.  Ella & I met the elf and read the book on Friday morning.  Wanna take a guess at our elf's name?  Come on....guess.......

Say hello to Smurf.  HA!  Yes, that's the name Ella chose, so that's what he will always be.  Awesome.   Today he is hanging out on the rocking horse near the tree, keeping an eye on things.

 Now, if only I could get some holiday baking done!

Ella's Merry Christmas

Thanksgiving weekend wrap-up

I can't believe tomorrow is Monday already, back to work and the regular schedule. I've been enjoying some time off this past week for the Thanksgiving holiday.  We spent Thanksgiving in Chaska with Jay's family and had a great day.  Ella was excited to go to "Papa Paul's" house (that's what she kept saying all morning...)  We brought sweet potatoes using a new recipe I found here http://allrecipes.com/recipe/sweet-potato-casserole-ii-3/detail.aspx  (they were delicious!)  And....I made Turkey cookies!  Oh yes I did!  It was fun....but I decided to make them late in the day on Wednesday so my frosting color choices at home were limited....hence the "sort of" brown color (really looks more orangy in the picture) and lack of details.  Oh well.  They were still delicious!

I attempted some cute pics of Ms. Ella on Thanksgiving using my (supposed to be awesome) new "smart phone" however they look like crap (sort of like the cookie picture above - what are those squares!?!!) And I noticed that my earlier mobile posts using pictures from my phone look terrible too.  So.....I'm not loving this new phone of mine and sort of wish I'd held out for the iPhone 4.  I have some time yet to do a switcheroo....we'll see.

The rest of the weekend was VERY lazy for the Abbas household.  I think it was the dreary weather?  I just wasn't motivated to do much.  We did get the Christmas tree up and the house decorated, including a newly added tree upstairs this year decked out with the yearly family ornaments my Grandma Alice got each year at one craft show or another.  Those are very special to me so I am excited to have them!  Photo to come soon.

Here's a picture of the 2011 downstairs "big" tree.  Ella was a big helper decorating the tree this year.  What a difference from last year!  She wanted to help hang the ornaments and she keeps telling me to look at "her" Christmas lights.  :)  I think this is going to be a really fun holiday season with Ella.  She's very inquisitive and makes us appreciate the season by taking it all in through her 2 year old point of view.  We've got the Elf on the Shelf, which I'm planning to introduce on the 1st...should be interesting to see if she gets it or not.

I also have to tell you about this super crazy lazagna recipe I made today - Butternut Squash Lazagna!  Recipe was from the Martha Stewart SiriusXM radio Thanksgiving cookbook, and the recipe is by Emeril.  OMG!  It's really fantastic.  I should have taken a picture for you all to see.  It was a lot of work though - like an hour?  I had to break up all the steps because I was tired of being in the kitchen.  Thank goodness the end result was worth all the work.  Even Ella ate it up!  I could try to link the recipe to this post, but that seems like a lot of work right now, so search for it online if you want it!  It made a huge pan (I don't have a "lasagna" pan, so I had to use my roasting pan b/c it wouldn't fit in anything else!  At least dinner is now ready for tomorrow night too!

Our afternoon

We spent the snowy afternoon being silly, making chex mix and chocolate zucchini cake.
The chex mix of the day is called PB and Chocolate Blast (from the back of the box). Yum!
And the chocolate zucchini cake is delish too. The genius thing about the recipe I used is the top was sprinkled with chocolate chips to eliminate the need for frosting! Love!  I've never made anything with zucchini before. Didn't realize it's like a squash....
A few pics...

p.s. this is another mobile post so I can' t be sure how the format will turn out.