Happy Anniversity!

Yesterday was our 8th wedding anniversary!  Time flies!  It was a bit of a hectic night, and Ella was along for dinner, which in hindsight, we'll try to avoid in the future!  She was without a nap and showing it!  Awful.  Oh well.  She was pretty cute about continually saying happy anniversary to us, although, as you will hear in the video clip below, she has a *unique* way of saying it! 

So.....

Happy Hump Day People!  It's been a ride of a week.  Last Thursday, Paul & Jolyn (Jay's parents) were in the O.R. a good portion of that day for kidney transplant surgery.  Paul donating to Jolyn.  Both came out of surgery okay, however there have been a few bumps in the road to recovery for Jolyn.  Paul - he went home Sunday afternoon (what a show off!)  HA!  Jolyn is hanging in there, but we all know she is going crazy still in the hospital.  But, we want her to be in good health before she gets home.  Keep those prayers coming.  So, in light of Paul's early departure from the hospital, Jay & Ella took first shift for staying at their house to help out.  I've been a "single lady" (all the single ladies....all the single ladies....Beyonce anyone?) since Sunday afternoon. SO STRANGE!  Sunday was fine - had loads to keep me busy, but coming home Monday night to an empty house was nuts.  I was twiddling my thumbs by 7 p.m. wondering what to do with myself!  Tonight we'll all get back to normal though, as Jay & Ella should be heading home and transferring their duties.  I have a feeling it will be a rough transition for Ms. Ella tomorrow morning though, I think she likes hanging over at Papa's house.  :)

Here's a few things she's been doing over there:

 Sweeping the front walk - HA!

 Relaxing in the sprinklers after all her hard work!

And...talking on the phone.  :)

Weekending...

Another summer weekend is in the books folks, can you believe it?  We had family come up for a trip to the Dakota County Fair!  :)  Grandma Deb brought Chase along for the weekend, so Ella was SUPER excited. But, before they came into town, Ella & I made a preschool visit to Anna's Bananas, which is just down the street from us.  I was impressed with the set-up and also the curriculum component seems much more solid.  So, we plan to enroll her for this fall (nothing like last minute!) 

Here's some pictures of the weekend!

 Ella won a Hello Kitty decorated cupcake from the Sam's Club booth at the fair!

Ella's FAVORITE ride was this car one - she had the biggest smile the entire time!

 Checking out the fire trucks!

Modeling their fire hats from the firefighters at the fair!

Chase (5.5) and Ella (4)

My lunch date

Happy Tuesday!  Ella came downtown today for a lunch date.  :)  She came with Sara & the kids.  It was a quick lunch at Jimmy John's (how can you go wrong there with a bunch of kids right?) but, we all enjoyed seeing everyone and chatting away.  They rode down on the light rail train, which they all thought was cool too!

 (Not sure what's up with her expression here)  HA!

 

Waiting to board the train in her Nike shoes with ruffled socks - Ella loves her girly stuff!!

Weekending....

Another summer weekend is in the books.  Can you believe it's August already?  I feel like summer just started!  Ugh....I'm not looking forward to cooler temps yet!!!  

Our week / weekend was relatively busy.  Here goes!

Wednesday (the 31st) was Jay's birthday!  He worked, I worked, Ella was at Sara's, so most of the day was uneventful.  However, earlier in the week I attempted a new recipe for the birthday dessert.  Sort of a play on strawberry shortcake.  Okay, easy right?  Well, I had never before made an angel food cake.  I didn't think it would be a big deal.  Well....I was wrong!  Big time!  

As you can see, the cake flowed well over the loaf pan.  In my defense, the cake box stated you could use loaf pans (2 - 9 inch size) in place of an angel food cake pan (which I don't own).  So, my loaf pan is larger (technically, it would be a meat loaf pan) so I went with it, filling it probably 3/4 of the way full, as I would any other cake.  BIG MISTAKE!  That damn angel food cake likes to RISE!!  Big mess.  I spent that night cleaning the oven.  Our house smelled like a camp fire for 2 days.  Eww.  Lesson learned.  No more angel food cakes in our house until I own an angel food cake pan.  :)  I was able to salvage most of the cake (it just had to be cubed up to add to other ingredients for the dessert), so all was not lost.  :)

At Hoolihan's for birthday dinner!

 

Friday, Ella & I headed to the last puppet wagon  show of the summer (sigh).

 Then we spent some time at the park...

And got a hair cut! (complete with braid & glitter, of course!)

We also went to a story hour (no pics) and then to Annie's to see Grandma Jolyn, Baby Harrison and Keller!  After our busy morning, Ella zonked out on the car ride (less than 10 minutes) home! :) 

Saturday night Jay & I went to the Twins game versus the Houston Astros.  Kind of a boring game, but it was fun to get out for a date!  And of course we took our annual BBY sponsored pic in the photo booth! 

Ella had a sleepover at Annie's (thank you Annie!) with baby Harrison & Keller too.  They had a great time....

Let me tell you about this picture.  Ella insisted that her baby had to be in the swing, even though Annie needed to put Harrison in there.  So, Annie decided to put Harrison in there WITH Ella's baby.  HILARIOUS!  I'm sure Harrison was like, WHAT THE?!?!?

And, yesterday we finally got Ms. Ella a "big girl" bed.  We'd been holding off hoping we could wait until we move, but since we're not getting any news on it, we decided we better get it going.  Last night was the inaugural night in the new bed (and then it stormed and the power went out....so that was fun!)

 

 

Happy Monday!

Weekending....

It's been a great & relaxing weekend here at the Abbas household.  Friday morning Ella & I bundled up in sweatshirts & jeans to head to the Puppet Wagon show in Rosemount.  :)  It was a bit chilly, but we still had fun!  We hit the mall for some retail therapy (and see picture below of Ella participating in her FAVORITE thing to do at the mall - one of those 'magic" pads that kids can stomp all over and the video responds to them - anyway, she had a blast0.  :) Then we went to the library in Apple Valley for a change of scenery.  We even got to visit with Annie & see little baby Harrison.  It was a fun day!  

My little lunch date has started to "pose" for camera shots now.  :)

Friday night we headed to Kelly Park in Apple Valley (chilly yet again) to run some energy off at the park.

 Love this picture!

Other random picture from the weekend- playing with the new phone camera app....

And, last, the most disgusting thing.  We have these new neighbors in the back with a million cats (ok, I think 4 cats maybe).  Still....I am NOT a cat fan.  And these people think of these cats as outdoor pets I think because these cats are ALWAYS out.  Ewww.  And, this is what I saw on Saturday morning....

DIS....GUST....ING!

Here's to another great week, hopefully with less cat encounters. HA!

Weekending...

What a weekend we had!  Some good ol' summertime fun.  Friday morning Ella & I headed to the Puppet Wagon (traveling summertime puppet shows put on by Park & Rec) in Rosemount, and then to the Farmington library for a miniature horse presentation & story hour (yeah, that was NOT really that cool) and then we saw Monsters, Inc. Friday afternoon!  Busy day!  And not a single shareable photo.  Boo.

Saturday though, we all headed out to Canterbury for Extreme Race Day!  It was a fun time!  Camel races and ostrich races - HILARIOUS!

Our little jockey!

 Camels are actually huge! (I never realized....)

 Pony rides!

We ended the weekend with some time in the sprinkler & playing outside!  Oh, but first we headed to Target for groceries and Jay was back in middle school trying to find the perfect new lunch bag!  HA!

And did you know Sunday was National Ice Cream Day?  We celebrated by making homemade ice cream treats! Yum!  Looking forward to another week of great weather!  (And p.s. Jay & I started a new workout program....here we go!)