Ahead of and Thanksgiving weekend!

Hey December! Well, I am a few days late on a blog update, but here are a few things of note from the time in and around Thanksgiving!

Made some fun signs at a painting class! We all had a great time!

I made two signs (a Christmas one for me and a hockey one to gift!)

I would do another class - it was really fun and not hard at all!

I'm taking weekly photos of Ruby to gage her fur re-growth. LOL!

She's looking less "shaved" and a bit cuter each day!

We're running short on time to get that holiday card, so hopefully soon!!

Ella had this cute worksheet assignment for school about "What's for Dinner?" where she had to argue what not to eat turkey. Her answers made me laugh out loud! First, because it will break up a family and then second, mac and cheese is so much better and easier she says! HAHAHAHA!

Thanksgiving 2019!

We stayed in town and celebrated with Jay's family. 

I only have one picture from the entire day.

And, it's of my veggie tray that I created in the shape of a turkey!

You better believe I was THRILLED with how it turned out. 

:)

 OMGEE!

We enjoyed a nice meal with everyone, but it was a bummer because Grandma Jolyn was not feeling well and ended up having to head to the doctor. It was still nice to see everyone and the kids even played in the snow since we had a big storm the day before!

In other news, Jay had made Ruby her own race track in the backyard with the snow blower. Only in Minnesota right?! LOL! Ruby LOVES to run so I think she is getting good use out of it, but kind of funny to see Jay out in the backyard making paths.

I did a bit of Black Friday shopping late morning which was really fun and I was able to pick up a few gifts, and the remainder of the weekend was pretty low-key. We ate dinner out Saturday night between the storms and watched the end of the Gopher football game (bummer on the loss against Wisconsin) but the restaurant had a game room so Ella got to play PacMan and skee-ball! FUN!

Lazy days in Christmas PJs with this puppy who always is nudging her way next to me

(Ella gets pretty annoyed when Ruby wants to sit next to me and not her!)

Looking forward to this weekend and Ella's performance in the church Christmas play!

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!