Electric Light Parade

Last night, we went to the Casa Grande Electric Light Parade. The girls were very excited all day for the parade, and frankly, so was I. After a bit of maneuvering through the neighborhood due to closed streets, we found a great place to park and set up our chairs. I ran into McDonalds to grab some food and we ate while we waited. It was a chilly evening by Arizona standards. The kids looked so cute bundled up. 

 

Don't mind the chicken nugget in Clara's mouth.

Right before the parade started, Sam ran back in to buy some hot chocolate, which finally cooled down enough to drink a little while before the parade was over.

We had a blast watching the floats and dancing around. The girls came home with quite the haul of candy too, which makes for extra happy kids.

Every time I would show Grant the glow stick he would open his mouth and put it in. He is such a little puppy.

Very soon, the pictures on my blog won't be so blurry. A very Merry Christmas for this mama!

Turkey Cheese Ball

I was in charge of the Thanksgiving meal this year. I actually had a lot of fun preparing everything and it all went off without a hitch so it was pretty relaxing.. I think my favorite part of the meal was this Turkey Cheese Ball we had for an appetizer. I got the idea from this blog but that cheese ball didn't sound that good to me so I found a different one that sounded better.

Bacon Ranch Cheese Ball

via Thrice the Spice

2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened

1 (1 ounce) package ranch dressing mix (I actually made my own because my dad bought the wrong stuff.)
2 1/2 cups cheddar cheese, shredded
1 1/2 cups bacon pieces

1. In a medium sized bowl, mash the cream cheese. Add the ranch dressing mix and cheddar cheese, and mix until well combined.

2. Form the mixture into a ball shape.

3. Roll the ball in the  bacon pieces.

4. Refrigerate until ready to serve, at least an hour.

I used pretzels for the feathers and body and peanut butter to attach M&M eyes and an almond beak.

Super cute and very delicious.

 

Mani/Pedi

We spent Thanksgiving at my parent's house. Philip and Merrick drove over for the weekend and we had a blast spending time together as a family. We had lots of fun eating, shopping, eating, playing, eating, talking and did I mention, eating?

 

I'm going to be honest, I didn't take any pictures of the main event and Merrick hardly took any either. I guess we were just too busy enjoying the moment to stop and take pictures. (Good excuse, right?)

 

On Saturday, the boys went to the driving range so Merrick and I decided we needed an outing too. We choose to do a lot shopping and get pedicures and we invited Abby along for the adventure.

 

We went to the perfect place for Abby to get her first Mani/Pedi. They had adorable little butterfly chairs that were just her size.

 

 

She loved it so much! Every time I looked over at her, she gave me the cutest smile.

It was so fun taking my little lady for our girls outing.

Thankful Tree

Every Monday night this November, during Family Home Evening, we added leaves to our Thankful Tree. We weren't allowed to do any repeats so it was fun to go beyond the traditional things that usually come to mind when you are thinking about gratitude.

 

We made our tree out of a brown paper grocery sack and then cut out our leaves using this template. 

 

Some of my favorite leaves included:
Jesus
My Bed
Curtains
Arizona
Dad (I'm pretty sure I didn't make the cut)

This was such a fun activity to help us focus on the amazing things we have.