Weekending....

T minus 3 days until Christmas Day!  What a week/weekend we have had at our house.  Jay was traveling for work and Ella caught what may have been influenza.  She was home from school Wednesday, Thursday and Friday last week with fever and cough.  She was otherwise doing okay, just more tired than usual.  The doctor didn't want to see her in the office, so we don't know if she had the actual influenza or a virus similar to it.  Either way, it was a long few days here!  She is feeling better and just has a cough that is lingering.  I took her in to the doctor today so they could listen to her lungs and it was all clear, so we just need to continue to keep fluids going and hope the cough will work its way out.  Sooner rather than later would be great.  

Our first major outing since last Tuesday was to Ella's Christmas program at church on Sunday morning.  She did a great job and it was fun to watch all the kids! We weren't able to get a good picture of her during the program (bummer!) but we did snap a family picture and then a picture with Grandpa Paul & Grandma Jolyn!

Ella was back to school today and it was her holiday party!  I joined in the fun to work one of the activity stations (winter clothes race, anyone?!?!)  Tomorrow is the last day of school (and work) and then we are all looking forward to a break from the normal and time to enjoy Christmas and New Years!

Weekending...

Happy Monday!  It was a busy weekend at our house.  Lots of baking for the upcoming festivities!  We are all getting excited to enjoy some down time!  Yesterday Ella and I baked and decorated these masterpieces!!

It was a fun afternoon!

On Saturday, we headed to visit with Santa at Christmas in the Village in Farmington.  We've never been before, but the weather was great (40s!!) so we headed out there.  It was muddy!!!  But we had a good time and I think it helped get us in the spirit of the holidays!

 Ella chatting with Santa (they were both wearing tall brown boots! - She thought that was super cool!)

 Merry Christmas!

 Photos in the Santa sleigh!

 Family Selfie!  Booya!

 Wrote a letter to Santa in the library with Mrs. Claus!  

She is requesting a Doc McStuffins Mobile Cart and a Barbie Dream House this year.

 Ella with Mrs. Claus

Riding the horse drawn trolley!  So fun and Ella got co-pilot seat! Giddy up!

10 days until Christmas!  The cards are going in the mail today!  Pretty caught up on baking treats. 

Now I just need to finish that shopping!!

Gingerbread House Day & Dazzle Day!

Last Friday was the kindergarten Gingerbread House Day!  Ms. Ella was so excited to have both Jay and I attend to help build a gingerbread masterpiece!

Jay made that little snowman you see above.  He was so proud of his skill!

Saturday is was Dazzle Day in Farmington. Our little downtown area was abuzz with holiday festivities, including the lighting of the City Tree and horse drawn carriage rides!  We had a fun time, but it was COLD!

 p.s. I have no idea why all of our hats looks ginormous!!  HA!

Family Selfie on the Horse ride!

Afterwards, we headed to a local pizza place for dinner and games for our little NASCAR fan!!

And we've been busy keeping up with the Elf tradition.  It's fun to do!!

About 2 weeks until Christmas!  Happy Shopping!!

Smurf Elf has arrived!

Yesterday, being December 1st, our littlest friend Smurf Elf arrived for the Christmas season!  (and thank goodness, we need some reinforcement in the listening department).  Anyway, Ms. Ella was staying at Grandma Jolyn's because Monday was a no school day, but you better believe that finding Smurf Elf was the first thing she wanted to do when she got home last night!

Smurf Elf was waiting in her room with a little greeting and a crafty gift!  (An ornament to make).  She was excited and looks forward to seeing all the crazy stuff Smurf Elf does!

Time for some updates!

Happy December people.  Where did the past month go?!  I haven't posted in a while and I have a few pictures and updates to share.

Ella and I have been spending some time with the Androidify app in Google Play to make all sorts of fun characters.  And now we can make them dance!  Even more fun!! 

I celebrated my birthday on 11/13.  Lots of grey hairs have made their presence known, so I guess that makes me wiser, right?  I thought I was going to be all cool about getting another year older, but grey hairs are not cool.  Not cool.  We headed out to Chick-Fil-A for a quick dinner (we are fancy like that) and then headed to Ella's dance practice.  It was totally exciting.  :)

The weekend was spent in Shakopee with my mom and aunt and some friends for the annual shopping extravaganza.  We went to the craft sale at Canterbury Downs and then some shopping in the snow on Saturday.  It was a nice little weekend!  Ella and Jay even ventured out in the snow on Saturday to meet us for lunch!  

And then it was Thanksgiving week (don't ask what we did the week in between there - I have no idea!)

So, Thanksgiving.  Ella got strep throat.  She was sick at home all day Wednesday (the day before Thanksgiving).  Thankfully, it was a no school day, so Jay was home anyway, but still....miserable.  We didn't know it at the time that she had strep.  We were wondering if it was a stomach virus or something.  Anyway, Ella and I stayed home on Thursday and spent some time circling deals in the Black Friday ads and enjoying our "turkey"

 ha ha!  

Since we weren't able to make it to Thanksgiving lunch, we had our own little turkey shaped sandwiches

Friday, we confirmed that Ella had strep throat.  What a bummer!  I went to find the Taylor Swift 1989 CD at Best Buy - sold out.  Another bummer!  But, we did decorate the house for Christmas.  Ella had a lot of fun helping to put up the ornaments.  Jay says it looks like Christmas threw up in our house because apparently "I don't need to put out everything"  Well.  It's a new space with a LOT more space!  You better believe I'm going to try to decorate all the spaces.  I will say though, that our yellow walls (that we STILL haven't painted) look even worse with Christmas decor all around.

Oh, and Ella and I watched How the Grinch Stole Christmas since we were just laying around on Thanksgiving anyway!  I'm not sure why I took a picture while we were watching it, but it was there so I'm putting it here.  You're welcome.

 

Jay painted the master bathroom over the long weekend, so that's exciting.  He has not yet shared the before and after pictures with me, so stay tuned for those.

In other randomness, Jay's parents had sleds from when Jay was younger and Jay brought them home after Thanksgiving for Ella to use.  She had to try each of them out beforehand.  HA!

 A crazy one with a steering wheel!

 An orange hooptie that they took for a spin over the weekend (see pictures later)

 And lastly, my favorite, the classic red sled.  Nice and safe.  

No shenanigans to be had in this one!

Here they are with the orange sled!  She loves it!

Weekending....

Our weekend was pretty jam packed with random events!  I said goodbye to my beloved Ford Escape. 

She was sold to another family to fix up for a college student.  I miss her already!!  

Driving a Dodge Journey now.  I feel like I'm just borrowing it or something - I think it is going to take me a while to realize this is my vehicle now.

Ella was a super big helper this weekend!  She helped Jay in the garage (transition out the summer stuff and make way for (gasp) snow stuff!).  She helped me with the laundry (she LOVES to press the buttons and load up the washing machine) and even washed dishes.  What a rock star!

Each family in Ella's kindergarten class had to decorate a turkey, working together using any materials we wanted to use!  Here is our masterpiece.  She is a girl turkey and per Ella her name is Bella!  :)  See the bow?  She insisted upon a bow for Ms. Bella because - SHE'S A GIRL!  There were some protests from Jay about putting a bow on a turkey, but hey, it gives her a little something extra, right?

How is it November?!  The Holiday season is upon us and everyone keeps reminding us (already) of how many shopping days (or shopping weekends) remain until Christmas.  We are talking 7 weekends until Christmas people.  WHAT?!  I am looking forward to it though.  It will be fun to fit our decorations in the new house and enjoy the holidays in front of the fireplace (this is a hint to Jay to start the fireplace!!!)  :) 

All about Halloween 2014 - Elsa

We celebrated Halloween a good amount this year!  Ella first celebrated at the Halloween Walk on the Friday before Halloween.  Here she is all decked out in her Elsa dress and Elsa braid!  Of course, right?!  We counted quite a few Elsa and Anna impersonators.  :)

Then she collected more goodies on Saturday at a Halloween event with Aunt Annie and the crew!

On Halloween, Ella partied all day!  They had a Harvest Party in the afternoon at school, so I put on my Halloween shirt and headed over to hang out with the kiddos.  It was a fun event!  Although, most of the other parents were dressed up in actual costumes, so if I volunteer in the future I guess I have to up my game!

It was a cold night for trick-or-treating, but we had a fun time anyway.  We did a quick loop through our neighborhood and then handed out candy for the remainder of the night.  I think Ella enjoyed that more than the trick-or-treating!  HA!

Ella scored a pair of green fangs which she thought was pretty sweet!

And that was about as spooky as it got for us!