Thanksgiving --

RECIPE ALERT!

Yup new ones! Under my recipes. I put up banana pudding and yes it is gluten free, dairy free and soy free and oh so delicious. Also my Nanny's chicken and rice as well as chicken and dumplings recipes. The dumplings are made with gluten free flour but her-- not gluten free-- want to save some $$ they work exactly the same with regular white flour. All of the recipes are easy to follow and very economical. The chicken and rice especially so if you watch for sales on chicken. You'd be hard pressed to find a way to make that much allergy friendly food for that budget typically.

I did also manage to sew up some lounge sets for the kids. I made 3 of the pink retro car one. One for each of my girls and one for their cute little friend. And then these brown ooga boogas for Kel. This is their favorite pattern for lounge wear. It's so comfy and so easy to get on.

Of course I cooked. And way way too much. We won't be cooking again for many days. But I have a LOT of photo shoots to do so that's a good thing! Do not forget to grab your 25% off gift cards or sessions! Here's the spread though.. overkill for 8 people but whatever it was good!

As you can see some little monkeys were photo bombing there. After lunch we also go outside and did photos of the children. Do not worry -- everyone survived! Barely... Those will be shown tomorrow because I feel like death warmed over after getting up at 1:30 am and beginning black Friday shopping online. Oh yeah.. I hit the online fabric sales... I got awesome fabric in all the colors including rainbow...and I got it half price!

I did go black Friday shopping at Walmart too and even stood in line 30 minutes for a doorbuster lol... But not for me. A friend had a boy wanting one of those imaginext T-rex toys that were half price and unfortunately her tiny town has a Walmart that had zero available at all. BUMMER... but I had plans to grab some of the cheap blu ray and dvd bargains anyhow so I got in line and got the little man a t-rex.

Off to bed now because I have totally overdone it today. been up for 16 hours now and well its TIME to call it a night!

The decorating begins..

We have a theme for decorating this year. A new theme. I will share as we slowly put it together this week. This year's theme - The Night Santa went Crazy. Yup decorating for Christmas all hallows eve style this year. Going to be fun lol. It all started in Branson, the children saw a tree covered in elf legs. Gonna guess THEIR thoughts when THEY decorated the tree was "Hey lets make it look like elves dove right into the tree!" But when we saw it.. with our lovely slightly warped minds we saw-- "Dude, that looks like some sort of twisted elf serial killer's trophy tree." And then an idea was born... yup elf trophy tree.

We love the weird Al song "The Night Santa Went Crazy" Which I will share right below this paragraph in case you haven't had the pleasure. Over the next few years we will be making and collecting much to go with the theme and starting next year setting it ALL up October 1st and keeping up til New Years to enjoy it the whole season. See I got you there.. with the new theme I can put my tree up in October... HAHAHA

So, currently in the prep stage. Starters was to dismember some little elves to scatter around the living room. You know, hanging from chandeliers and lights and frame edges and curtain rods. I mean Santa did go crazy so its undoubtable that he would make a mess right?

Next up will be those giant arms and legs to have poking out of the tree... oh and creepy Santa - yup got one will share him when assembled. I know, I know, it's not the typical holiday décor. BUT, my kids are having a BLAST decorating and don't and never have believed in Santa anyhow so why not?? Once complete I assure you, the hilarity in the design will not be lost. Yay for fun decorating!

A little bit of this and a little bit of that..

That's how my day went. Not a ton of anything finished but a little of everything. Kel got some new shirts. He is OBSESSED with the Pokémon shirt. We will be making more Pokémon shirts in many other fabric options per his request. Then I made paw patrol as well because well he insisted lol. And the cute organic birch knit I used the girls' dresses in the last post needed to become a shirt for him as well. They will all wear them in the Christmas photo... if it ever gets taken. Got so so close this weekend ... then ....

Korah - hey mom..

Me - Did you draw on your face?

Korah - Noooo

Me - I can see your face...

Korah - Oh - you got me.

So until her face doesn't have red spots since she apparently was giving herself the chicken pox we will be postponing. But here are the pics of Kel's new shirt hoard.

We did also put together a new outdoor toy for the children this weekend. It only took one entire day of Kel steeling pieces and running amuck to get it together. But .. they super love it.

Khayman even played with the littles -- but don't tell him I told... man at the faces I got when he saw I took a photo... Teenagers (or almost teens as he'll be 13 in about 6 weeks!) and their complaints about being blogged...

BTW do NOT forget... Only a few days left until the end of the black Friday 25% off sale! You can call 501-412-5107 or email admin@annsnelson.com and get booked or purchase gifts cards to use later or to give for the holidays!