Novembering...

Hey, how in the world is it already November 20! 7 days after my birthday. 8 days until Thanksgiving 2019. 35 days until Christmas Day 2019 (who's counting?!)

We have been keeping busy, trying to hold out on decorating the house and listening to all the Christmas music. I will say, we listened to some Christmas tunes on Saturday and it was lovely! I love some good Christmas tunes!!

Anyway, let's recap what we've been doing so far this month because I need to keep the blog updates more current!!

We hit up Turkey Bingo hosted at the fire station a few weekends ago with our regular crew of friends. Sadly, I didn't take one picture! What in the world?!  Nobody won anything either. Bummer! Remember last year I won a turkey! It. Was. Awesome. :) 

Ella had to create a costume for a turkey (without the feathers, which they will do at school) and disguise him. She chose a chef. Introducing Chef Tom! I love crafts!!

Last week was my birthday! I had a busy day bringing Ella to the orthodontist, meeting with a broker handling a broker opinion of the house, lunch with Jay and a bit of shopping too! In between all of that, I had to bake my birthday cake!! This year, I made a delicious yellow cake (from scratch) with homemade chocolate frosting. Ella insisted upon sprinkles, which was perfect! 

We all loved it! (my pictures are not fabulous....you are welcome!)

This past weekend, my mom came to town to start some holiday shopping! We were thinking about heading to the annual craft show in Shakopee, but we decided to skip it this year and just shop retail stores. We had a good time! Found a few Christmas gifts and also some cute Christmas decorations!

Saturday night we even watched our first Christmas movie of the season (well, not counting the Hallmark Christmas movies...HA!) We watched Christmas Chronicles on Netflix and it was so good. Ella and I watched it last year, but we loved it again!

In other news, Ruby Pearl had her first official groom since she's been at our house.

The groomer was an epic fail.

Jay even showed her pictures of what we wanted!

Ready for this?!

Friday night before the big day...giving me the stink eye (LOL!)

Saturday afternoon after the visit to the groomer

WHAT IN THE WORLD?!?!?

We will never go back. She barely looks like the same dog! 

Man oh man. 

So, Ruby has been wearing a sweater most days and hoping this fur is going to grow back quick!

We have a Christmas card picture to take!!

Looking forward to:

Tonight - I'm doing a Paint & Sip class with friends. Making 2 signs and I am so excited!!

This weekend - putting up the Christmas tree and all the decorations! AND on Sunday Ella and I are going to see Frozen II with the crew! SO FUN!

October 2019

I am catching up!!! Here's some newer pictures of Ruby Pearl:

 (after a spa day, hence the bow!)

 Trying to teach her to come into the house via the garage/mud room (instead of from the back yard because pretty soon it will be full of snow!) We both sat here for like 15 minutes. She wouldn't even look at me. Like I'm a terrible person for making her come into the house this way! 

Animals are SO WEIRD!

 It's finally sweater weather!

 And she's still trying to get that squirrel!

 At Fall conferences, Ella showed us her rip art self portrait!

 Wedding selfie in a weird basement while we await food because we are STARVING!

Fall Vibes!

 Ruby loves to go for walks! Ella is getting more comfortable taking her on her own!

 Pre-dance class photo op! BOO!

And, Ella wasn't the only one who wanted to jump in the leaves this year! LOL! 

Ruby thinks it is awesome! She tears around the lawn like crazy!

Our pumpkins for 2019 were M&Ms:

Yellow - Jay

Blue - Ella

Green - Sara

I think they all turned out so cute! 

This may be one of my favorite traditions that we do each year!

For Halloween, Ella was Jessie from Toy Story, Ruby was Buzz Light Year and Jay was Woody from Toy Story! Ella and Jay each had the "ANDY" signature on the bottom of their boots, 

but it was too hard to capture in the pictures!

It was a chilly night for trick-or-treating, but Ella went out with a friend in the neighborhood (with Jay too) and had a good time! Everyone helped hand out candy when they returned. Ruby was NOT thrilled with the constant ringing of the door bell, but I ended up gating off an area where she could see me handing out candy so that helped a little bit with the barking and general freaking out. I ate a few Twix stress eating before Jay and Ella got back! A barking dog is no fun

The month of October went by so fast. 

I can't believe it is November and soon Thanksgiving and onto Christmas!

September 2019

A few additional September events: school picture day, Turkey Day in Worthington, return of Vikings Sunday football watching, visit to the apple orchard...

Picture Day! Ella planned her outfit after back-to-school shopping so she was ready for it, but the weather was awful and they had outdoor recess AND gym. Come on! Here is Ms. Ella before school

Hair did, lookin' cute.

The actual picture?? Not so great. The bow barely survived and the humidity did a number on her curls...so, we await a picture retake day!

Turkey Day 2019!

Ella and I went to Worthington and Jay stayed home with Ruby 

(we didn't think she was ready for a weekend away yet, as she's still adjusting to just being in our house!)

Only a few pictures, but here we are waiting for the racing of the turkeys down main street!

And then after the parade, we headed to aunt Pat's this year for the gathering. These 2 girls...LOL!

Found a claw machine at Perkins! 

Ruby has her own Vikings shirt to wear on game days!

And here she is sitting in her favorite spot in the house - in front of the patio door to watch for the squirrels!

She's obsessed!

We went to the apple orchard in Northfield again this year which has expanded big time!
It was super busy but were managed to find some yummy apple treats and enjoy the fall day!

 

First Day of 5th Grade!

It is our last year at our elementary school, which is just unreal to me. Ella seems to have a great teacher this year and I love that she has a bunch of friends in her class too!

 LOL! This one makes me laugh b/c Ella REALLY wanted a picture with Ruby but Ruby wasn't really interested in sitting next to her, so I did my best to capture them both in the frame. HA!

Ruby will sit pretty occasionally!

August 2019

So I bought a letterboard at Five Below (great store by the way) and we've been trying to out-do each other with our sayings!! Here are a few good ones...

 By Sara with help from the internet

By Ella with help from the internet. This one still makes me LOL!

By Sara with help from the internet

In other August happenings, Ella attended dance camp again this year and had a good time.

I didn't take a single picture, but I promise she was there. :)

After Ella got her braces off, the orthodontist told us she had a number of teeth to loose. 

Well, it has started! The tooth fairy has been busy!

August 23rd she lost a molar

And then she lost another tooth like a week later!

We headed to the MN State Fair again this year and planned to attend during the week since last year it was SO busy on a Friday that we went. The day we were there, the Farmington high school marching band was part of the parade, and we know one of the color guards, so we were able to watch (but it rained and hailed on us!!)

A few pictures from our time at the State Fair this year...

Matching Lake Superior tattoos!

 Just shy of 10 scoops tall for this 10 year old!

 Angry Birds Exhibit!!

Highlight of the day - we attending the Twin Cities Live broadcast - it was SO FUN!
Ella loved it the most!!

And we rounded out the month with a back-to-school open house where Ella met her teacher and figured out who is all in her class, including her two besties!! Talk about a great way to round out your elementary school year! Hoping for a great school year!

Found these August 30 gems for your viewing pleasure....