The time I kept procrastinating about updating this blog

Oh hello there!  Yes, it has been a LONG hiatus from updates on the blog.  I had really good intentions, but things just kept coming up (like TV shows I needed to catch up on and books I was reading and just plain laziness sometimes)...but here I am!  Lots to catch you up on.  I'll try to keep my posts short.  :)

Stay tuned for the latest and greatest soon!

15 days to go!

December is flying by!  15 days until Christmas - wowsers!  I have some work to do yet, and I haven't even started baking!  Ella has a sinus infection so she has missed yesterday and today from school.  She had a fever on Monday night so I knew something was up!  We are hoping today's extra rest will help the medicine work so she will be feeling better for this weekend.  

Last weekend I was able to get what we call the Grandma Alice tree up and decorated.  It has all of the family ornaments from my Grandma Alice.  We have this in the front window of our house.  I realize the randomness underneath the tree should have been moved, but so it goes....

Also we headed to the Dakota City Village at the Dakota County fairgrounds over the weekend.  Ella was really hoping to see Mrs. Claus and write a letter to Santa like we did last year, but this year, Mrs. Claus was too busy doing some baking at the North Pole to make the trip. 

 Ella and Jay were thrown in jail for a bit! (cell phone picture did not work so well....)

The many expressions of Ms. Ella while telling Santa all about her wishes...

 this one is my favorite! :)

 Guten Tag!

 We took a horse drawn sleigh / trolley ride!

 Ella read a Christmas poem in the school house

And we all sang Christmas carols in the church - so fun!

Merry Christmas!

CrAzY HAiR dAy!

Yesterday, Ms. Ella and the rest of her fellow first graders went to Orchestra Hall for a performance of a jazzy version of the Nutcracker!  She LOVED it.  :)   And wore a sweet winter dress for the festive day! (can you tell it is like 6 a.m. in the picture?!?!)

And TODAY is Crazy Hair Day at Ella's elementary school.  First she wasn't sure she was going to do it, then we weren't sure what to do about making her hair "crazy" and then....Pinterest.  Boom.  Man, there are a lot of creative pinners out there!  So, we picked cupcakes.  She really wanted donuts, but we didn't have the supplies to make "donuts" in her hair!  So, this is what we came up with!

Apparently this too a long time (it didn't) and she was SO tired of standing.She wouldn't smile for the camera this morning, so this is the best I got.  It looks pretty cute!

The Countdown has begun!

How's it going?!  Happy Holidays!  It's been busy around our house getting ready for the holidays!  We spent Thanksgiving in Chaska with Jay's family.  I made a Cinnamon Banana Cream Pie and it was a huge hit!  It is delicious and the recipe I used can be found here.

I also consulted with Pinterest.  Ella and I turned our boring veggie tray into a Turkey Masterpiece!   

TA DA!

gobble, gobble

The weekend after Thanksgiving, Jay braved the stores for a bit, and Ella and I decorated....and decorated...and I'm still not done (have the outside to do yet!)  It takes forever to get everything decorated!!

Our 2015 Christmas Tree

We put it in front of the window looking into the backyard this year.  Last year (first time in our new house) we put it in the corner due to furniture layout, etc. but we all like it MUCH better in front of the window.  Part of the decorating included rearranging the entire living room to make room for the tree!

Smurf Elf arrived yesterday, December 1st with a little note and a gift of some Elf on the Shelf PJs for Ms. Ella.  She was super excited!

And today, Day 2, Smurf Elf was very tricky hiding in a basket of ornaments near the fireplace.  It took Ella a long time to find him!

We love the Elf on the Shelf tradition at our house - looking forward to a weekend of shopping, wrapping and heading to the City tree lighting event!  Bring on the hot chocolate and Christmas cookies! 

And another birthday is in the books!

November 15.  It's 40 days until Christmas, but who's counting right?!  The weather in MN has been so great this fall that it just doesn't seem like it should be time for Thanksgiving and holiday shopping!  We have been busy with all kinds of random things here at the Abbas household.  I wish I would be keeping better track of things and updating this blog more often! We tore down all the Halloween decorations on November 1 - Ella was antsy in her pantsy to do that!  Then, we threw up a few turkey-related items, including a new project Ella worked on.  Can you read her sign below?  By the way, this turkey plus sign has been posted on her bedroom door, where she insisted it should be (hilarious).  The sign reads "Gobble, gobble, eat more ham!"  HA!

Last weekend while in Target getting some groceries, the big guy himself SANTA (I know him!) showed up.  He must have run out of some everyday essentials...You should have seen the kids (and the checker outers) they were going wild!  Photo ops galore! 

My birthday was on Friday.  No big deal.  Just feeling old.  :)  I wanted to do something for the day though, as opposed to the typical Friday of cleaning, running errands, keeping our household in order, etc.  So, I called and made a hair appointment on a whim at a salon I've never been to before and got all my hair chopped off.  Why not, right?  Before and after below....

Before:

And p.s. cellphone makers.  I need instructions on how to properly take a selfie.  Seriously....I took a million before I got a decent one.  So, you get the idea - the hair was out of control!  

After:

 Better.  Much better.  Go Big or Go Home.  No "trims" for this chic.

(but Kaila thought the cut might have been uneven from this shot 

so I had to take another without the scarf....)

Again...the selfie is not a good idea for me.  :)

But I do like the cut.  Finally I might have found someone in my area to cut my hair!  FINALLY!

So, feeling better about my day because of the new haircut, I decided to continue this Go Big or Go Home theme and whip up a birthday cake for myself.  Did a little searching on Pinterest and found something amazing.  My version wasn't so over the top as the blogger's recipe though....

 But this cake is fantastic.  It's a perfect special occasion dessert.  I am no whiz at taking a picture of food. Everyone in my family loves it, which is a good thing because I would have been bummed if it sucked.  

No fun to have sucky dessert on your birthday!!

 It's a chocolate cake with Reese's peanut butter cups in the cake and then a peanut butter frosting with additional peanut butter cups on top!  YUM!

TRY IT!

Saturday was the annual shopping extravaganza with my mom and aunt.  We stayed in Shakopee again this year, but we skipped the craft show and headed to the Twin Cities Outlets in Eagan.  It was so fun!!  The weather was perfect and we found tons of deals.  Saturday night, that Go Big or Go Home theme creeped back into my life.  See, I had the haircut taken care of, but my grey hairs were even more pronounced now!  A few weeks ago, I ordered a hair color via ESalon.

The color showed up custom made just for me.  Just like they promised.

So, Saturday night, my aunt/stylist Vicki colored my hair in the Country Inn & Suites bathroom!  HA!  I mean, if it's going to go wrong, it is going to go wrong wherever I am, right?  It turned out great though and I'm happy to report my hair did not turn a weird shade of green!  

 With the color in - waiting to rinse (which was really messy....wish I had a stylist sink from the salon!)

Ta da!  See ya grey hairs!

So, this post had a ton of self taken cell phone pictures, and for that, I'm sorry. 

Happy Fall / almost Thanksgiving / pre-Black Friday deals week!!

Halloween and other happenings!

Excuse me, how is it mid-November already?!  A few items of note from our past few weeks and what is planned ahead:

I made the annual apple pie a LONG while ago now, but since it was so delicious I thought I'd save a spot for it here on the blog.  It may be my favorite dessert for fall.

Jay and I went to the MN Gopher vs. Nebraska football game!  It was super fun - probably the most fun I've had at a sporting event!  And now Jerrysota is no more.  Sad!  I hope the tradition he was building will continue.  

Jay was out of town the entire week following the game for a work trip, so it was just Ella and I.  Ella got to spend the weekend with Grandma Jolyn and Grandpa Paul though!  She had a good time with cousin Harrison at Sever's Corn Maze!

 She did get sick though on Sunday night - we all decided it was a case of homesickness!  Poor thing!
She was just missing us I guess!

We started the giant job of raking leaves!  But we took time to play in the big piles too!  

We painted our pumpkins too!  

This year, my pumpkin is Nemo ala Finding Nemo.  Isn't he cute?!

Ella wanted to paint her pumpkin to be a Minion!!

And Jay decided his was going to be a donut.  So...there you go!

One of those weekends in October was Confirmation Sunday and we celebrated with our nephew Kylen.  Ms. Ella got all fancied up and insisted on wearing multiple necklaces throughout the day!

She also insisted on bringing her puppy purse named Rose along for the day!

We dressed up quite a bit in October!  Tuesday night at dance, the girls wore costumes. 

Her 2 besties Julia and Emily and Ms. Ella!

There was a Harvest Party for the first graders at Meadowview!  It was a short and sweet party in the morning - a bit odd, but it worked out okay.  Ella wore her real Halloween costume - Anna (from Frozen). She decided that since she was Elsa last year it would only be fair to be Anna this year.  Pretty sweet logic for a 6 year old.  She is a kind hearted girl that's for sure!  I was working one of the event booths, so I didn't get time to take many pictures, but I did snap this one with Ella and Julia just as the kids were heading back to class.

Ella was really excited for the Trick-Or-Treating and all the fun of seeing the kids and costumes!  

A few pictures from our Happy Halloween!!

 There was a booth set up at the Middle School for Friday night's trick-or-treating event and 

Anna and Elsa were there - Ella was so excited.  :)

 

 

 I am pretty sure she had a fun time!!