Thanksgiving Recap!

Happy December!  Where in the world did November go?!?  I have gotten some Christmas gifts checked off the list, but have a ways to go, and now that the calendar has flipped to December, I'm starting to panic a bit.  We only have 2 real weekends left to shop, as we'll be traveling the weekend before for various festivities.  YIKES!  So, the blog updates may be few and far between this month, but we'll see.  If I can remember to snap photos along the way, we'll be set.  :)  

Wednesday I spent the day with Ms. Ella!  Most of my morning was spent on the phone with Sprint trying to get some answers about our horrible cell phone service.  So, that was fun.  I was swearing people.  SWEARING.  Usually I can keep my cool, but I have HAD it with Sprint.  So....moving on....after my ranting, we headed to the Thanksgiving story time at the library.  Ella was so excited, since she doesn't get to go anymore.  She had a good time dancing with her peeps!

We spent the Thanksgiving weekend at home, with the big meal at Jay's parents.  We all had a good relaxing time.  And I had to share Ella's latest hat - with includes turkey drumsticks!  Hilarious.

We finally got the Christmas tree up and the house decorated.  We're missing some extension cords, which are over at Jay's parents in our storage section of their basement!  Anyway, so some of the decor isn't lit up yet.  Remember when we were going to move?  Oh yeah...that would have been nice.  I was a little bit anti about the holiday decorating Friday/Saturday and I think I have figured out why - I was thinking we would have a new house to decorate this season!   But, that wasn't meant to be.  So, I rounded up these silly people to help me get it done.

 Supposed to be decorating....having a rock concert instead.  :)

Friday morning I actually ventured out to grab some must have deals from ULTA.  I originally was shopping online late Thursday night, but the items I wanted sold out WHILE the items were in MY cart.  Annoying....so, Ella & I bundled up and headed out to brave the crowds!

 

And it was great success!  :)  

I got what I wanted and we hit up Starbucks on the way home.  

Yesterday was Smurf Elf's arrival.  He made it, and brought a Christmas CD for Ella.  

  Now I need to get some new ideas for this year's shenanigans!  

Ella loves to see what he's up to each morning, so the stakes are high! 

p.s. Ella accidentally knocked Smurf Elf off the chair yesterday and had a COMPLETE MELTDOWN because we read the book earlier and she knew that you can't touch the Elf because his magic might go away.  Oh boy....that was fun.  Finally got her calmed down and explained that since it was an accident, Smurf Elf will be able to "poof" himself back onto the chair, but since he's magic, he only does that when we're not around.  HA!

So, this week is back to the regular routine, with the added pressures of preparing for the Christmas season.  Hope it's a great week, and check back - this weekend is the City festivities and we're hoping to visit Santa!

Weekending....

Hi!  Back to a seemingly normal routine here (hurray!)  Yesterday Jay & I spent the WINDY day driving all around the Richfield/Bloomington car dealerships searching for something new for me.  We came home empty handed, BUT we got to grab lunch at the Chick-Fil-A in Richfield, which just opened on Thursday along with it's sister location in Apple Valley.  So good.  Can't wait to go back! 

And, today, we made it to church & Sunday school, and since the sun was shining afterwards, we got a few things taken care of outside to check off the good ol' list, and then Ella FINALLY got to spend some time in the LEAVES!

Love her to pieces!

Oh where have we been!??!

I started a post maybe 2 weeks ago now?  We've just been S.I.C.K. in our house, so those words are irrelevant and MUCH too late at this point.  So, let's just have a picture recap shall we?

 

Bring a friend to dance night - oh probably a month ago now!  They had a BLAST!

We did in fact get those Halloween pumpkins painted before all hell broke loose (no pun intended) at our house.  Pictures are courtesy of the cell phone, so not fabulous, but so it goes.

 The Minion pumpkin painted by Jay

The Curious George pumpkin I painted

 The Dora pumpkin Ella & I painted

 And Ella insisted that the last pumpkin had to be painted too (I was intending to leave it alone)  

But, of course she chose pink & yellow (these are her FAVORITE colors)

Our Doc McStuffins made it out for the Halloween Walk on the Friday before Halloween at the middle school.  I was sick so couldn't be there, but she had a good time I think

 

 See the treat bag I made?  Ella REALLY wanted her treat bag to be like Doc's doctor kit.

I think it turned out pretty cute - wish I would have lined the inside purple though!!

 

A few Sundays ago, Ella's Sunday School group sang during the Church service, she did great! 

LOVES to sing

 

And last week, parents were invited to watch the girls perform their "Spooky Dance" they've been working on at dance class. It was pretty hilarious.  They've got some work to do, but it was really fun and we're so glad Ella is liking it! She adores Ms. Nina and always has the hugest smile plastered on her face during class!

A few more Ella pics from Kinder Kollege

And, last, I have to share this little video of Ms. Ella from a few weeks ago!

(don't mind my terrible video taking skills)

And now it's November.  October went scary fast.  HA!

The ER

Well, sometimes things don't go as planned.  This past week/weekend was one of those times!  It was MEA last week, and Sara's was closed all week and Ella only had preschool on Monday and Wednesday.  So, we had time off early in the week and then Jolyn was going to watch Ella for us on Wednesday and Thursday, leading into a kid-free weekend including clay shootin' at the Horse & Hunt Club (WHAAA?!?!), a movie, and a wedding on Saturday.  Well, scratch all that!  Ella got sick Wednesday morning and it all went downhill from there.  We thought it was another episode of her random "get sick and go play" events, but this time no such luck.  Long story short, we ended up in the ER Friday morning and spent the entire morning there, ended up being admitted and discharged later Friday night, all due to a stomach virus which caused little Ms. Ella to become pretty significantly dehydrated.  Boo.  It was a pretty crazy time for all of us.

 Yeah....getting an IV in a 4 year old isn't fun

Poor peanut!

A funny piece of info:  Ella had an IV (obviously) but anyway, the tape they used for it was ripped off by the nurse before we self-discharged ourselves (more on that in a minute), so now Ms. Ella refuses to let us take off the BAND-AID they put on after taking out the IV.  She might be traumatized for life, and the Tweety Bird band-aid might stay on until she's 21.  :)  Also funny, on Saturday, Ella didn't want to use her arm that the IV was in.  She said she couldn't use it because of the bandage.  Oh boy.  She just let it hang there - limp arm.  It was pretty funny.

Okay, discharging ourselves.  So, they wanted Ella to go to the bathroom before they'd let us leave.  Well, we all know the issues Ms. E has with the bathroom.  Jay & I knew after about an hour of trying to get her to go (promising all sorts of things), there was no way it was going to happen.  So, we told the nurse about it and asked if we could just go, la la la...well, they wanted the doctor to see her one more time (the doctor wasn't going to be in for another 1/2 hour).  Jay told them no, we're leaving now!  Yikes....didn't want to be arguing, but at this point, we'd all had enough.  Ella was SO exhausted and we hadn't eaten anything all day.  Good thing we didn't wait.  Ella was sleeping almost as soon as she hit the couch, and slept through until  7 a.m. the next morning.  She went to the bathroom and things have seemingly returned to normal at the Abbas house.  Now I just need to reschedule a time to go shootin' clay pigeons!  :)  

Pickin' Pumpkins, Goat Phone Numbers and Oreo eating Pigs

Have you decorated for Halloween/Fall yet?  We hustled out Tuesday night to get pumpkins.  I feel like I'm a little late to the "fall" decorating party this year.  Not sure why, I think subconsciously I want it to continue to be summer for a while since it started so late this year!  Anyway, we went to Ella's favorite little mom & pop spot off Akin Road in Farmington where they also have some goats, pigs and baby cows.  Couple things about our visit:  one - when you hustle out mid-week, you forget to plan the perfect pumpkin pickin' outfit and instead wear pink pants (that may or may not be on the short side - ha!).  two - you just never know what a 4 year old might be thinking....

So, here's one of the goats.  See the tag on its ear?

Okay, I don't technically know what those tags are for or what the numbers mean.  But Ms. Ella?  She knows.  Unsolicited and after saying "hi goats - I'm Ella" to all of them, she told me that the tag is their phone number.  Oh.  Duh!  How did I never know that?!?  Hilarious.

Then, another thing that I "learned" (for real this time) is that pigs LOVE Oreo cookies.  Well, who doesn't right?  And they ARE pigs.  So, we bought Oreos from "mom" and fed them to the hungry oinkers.  Honestly, I was hoping for a real battle of the snouts....but....it wasn't really all that interesting.  Oh well.  We tried to throw some excitement into it anyway!  :)

 

This one is eyeing up the cream filled cookie goodness we were holding....

And speaking of cookies, we headed to Al's Apple Barn (the big yellow one) off of 169 near Jordan a few weeks ago now (where did those weeks go?!?!).  We picked up apples, but also had to partake in the browsing of all of the rows and rows of candy, old fashioned bottled sodas, etc.  It was really fun.  Go early if you go.  The crowds get crazy!

 Pumped and ready to get some apples!

I mean....you have to break into dance when you hear music, no matter where you are, right?!  This picture was snapped at the PERFECT moment - Ella always does that with her legs when she's dancing....is she trying to dance a jig?!?  What in the world?!

 She was impressed with this giant gumball machine...

yet she just could not take her eyes off the crowds to get the picture

 And this....the telephone booth.  She could have played here all day if we'd let her....

So I guess it's time to say it - Happy Fall, y'all! 

We have grand plans to paint those pumpkins so check back for pictures! 

Laps of Love

So I'm playing a bit of catch up on the past 2 weeks.  

The first Sunday in October, our church Sunday School program had its annual Laps of Love event, which is essentially a walk along the trails through our church property in honor/memory/otherwise of someone you love.  Last year we didn't participate - can't remember why.  So this was our first opportunity to take part, and it was pretty neat.  Each of the kiddos was given a pink heart to write the name of the person they want the family to walk for - and Ms. Ella sweetly chose my Grandma Alice (ahh....bless her little heart). 

Along the walk, there were stations featuring the various charitable organizations our Sunday School funds support.  And, as we walked, each family found the perfect spot to plant their loving heart.  Then, as we all walked, we could see all of the *pink* hearts.  Neat.

And, afterwards, I snapped this cutie with the huge pumpkins decorating the front of church in celebration of the fall festival held later that day!

She's growing up way too fast.....

Ms. Ella

Have I ever told you Ms. Ella's two favorite colors are PINK and YELLOW?  Well, there you go.  Those are her two favorite colors.  So, at preschool, they wound up lastweek talking about leaves (it's been all about FALL at preschool).  Anyway, the question to each preschooler was "what color do leaves change in the Fall?"  The answers were shared on a poster on the outside of the door so us parents could see at pick-up.  Ella's answer to the question:  "Pink"   Another 4 year old preschooler's answer: "Sparkly pink"  HA!  I love it.  And, do not tell Ella that there are no pink leaves in the Fall (or ever for that matter).  Out for a walk the other day she looked and looked for pink leaves.  She's on a mission people.  Watch out.  :)  

And lately I've been catching Ella mimicking everything I do....and repeating phrases I use...a lot.  Example, last night I put on the wireless headphones so I could hear TV better (sometimes I'm a dork like that) and anyway, Ella insisted on getting her Minnie Mouse headphones on and then she sat on the couch and watched the TV.  SO FUNNY!  I couldn't get the camera out fast enough to capture without her figuring out what I was doing....so, here's this one instead!

Other favorites from Ms. Ella lately:

"Mommy, I just have to look something up really quick" (goes to her "laptop") 
"Let me just send a message to grandma quick" (goes to her "cellphone")

I got this picture of her during preschool earlier this week.  Where's my baby girl? 

She is growing up so much!  And, if you ask Ella how big she is, she'll tell you she's "medium size"  

(as opposed to be "little" like a baby or "big" like mommy and daddy).  

I laugh every time she talks about her being medium sized!!

Happy weekend people.