Mmmmmm....

Even though they don't look like Christmas
and
Halloween cupcakes.

They sure do taste mighty good!

I decided to make some cupcakes when Carly came home from school today.
She, of course wanted to put sprinkles on them.
Well.... all I had for sprinkles, were red and green Christmas sprinkles and orange and black
Halloween sprinkles. Ha!
Oh well, she was happy. And I got them used up!

Daddy Daughter Dance 2010

Saturday night was big night for Carly and her daddy.

It was the Daddy Daughter Dance at the school.
Striking a pose, before heading off to the dance!

This little girl LOVES her daddy!

Just another pose for the heck of it!

They came home about 15 minutes early.
Paul said Carly kept asking for "momma"!
I would have loved to have gone.
Or been a fly on the wall.
Something!

I guess she had fun. That's what she told me.

Paul says she's quite popular. Several little girls were running up
to her all night. They were trying awful hard to get her out on the
dance floor with them. Carly wasn't having it though.
Eventually,
Paul did finally get her to dance a couple of times.

She seems to be overwhelmed, right at first, with big gatherings.
She does eventually 'warm up' and then she enjoys herself.

None-the-less, she missed her "momma"... Even though she LOVES
her daddy so much.

Cool giveaway.

Hop on over here to enter Kelly's giveaway. Very cool!!

Halloween 2009

I realize I've been MIA. Many things going on. Things I have needed to wrap my brain around. Or, at the very least, try to wrap my brain around.

However, Halloween did come and go and we did par take! Carly carved her pumpkins. Well, Paul carved them. Carly 'gutted' them. ;) Carly wore her Halloween day attire and then dressed up as the sweetest 'lil black kitty cat ever! We took her out Trick-or-Treating around our town last night. Which she did enjoy. Especially when she spotted an entire family dressed up as, The Wizard of Oz! The dad was the Tin Man (very cool), mom was the Scarecrow, little daughter was Dorothy and toddler son was the Lion! Way too cute. Wish I'd a thought to snap a picture of them. Carly kept saying, "Oz, more Oz"! We all know that movie by heart around this house! Carly has watched it, no less than a million times! It's one of her all time favorites, for sure.

Click image to enlarge!

Hope you all had a very Happy Halloween. I will be back, or maybe I should say, I will try to be back to blogging in the coming week. I have lots going on with the school and plan to fill you all in.

I've been tagged.

I've been tagged by Sasha to play along in the name game. Although I just realized that Tina tagged me last Saturday. Sorry Tina, I was gone away last weekend and somehow I completely missed you tagging me!

This has been really interesting, reading up on all of our bloggy friends and how they all came up with names for their children. Everyone seems to have a story behind each name. We are no different.

Ashleigh - our first born. Soon to turn 23. Yikes! Paul and I tossed around names like crazy for her. We had no idea as to whether or not we were having a girl or a boy. Way back then..LOL, doctors did not believe in doing ultrasounds unless problems were taking place. I had no problems, so I didn't get to have an ultrasound. Oddly enough, I didn't feel we were having a boy. We tossed around a couple of boy names, but I just didn't have that feeling. So, we focused more on girl names. We tossed around several. I would sit and write the names over and over. (I did this with all the kids names) To see if I liked how it looked on paper I guess. I remember tossing around Alyssa, Nichole and Ashleigh. I really wanted to name her Nichole. Paul really didn't want to. He liked the name Ashleigh best. He told me we named her Ashleigh, then I could use Nichole for a middle name. I didn't like that idea. I finally agreed to Ashleigh, but I got to pick the spelling. Again, I wrote the name over and over. With every variation you could possibly imagine. I decided on to spell her name with 'leigh' at the end, instead of the typical 'ley'. Now for her middle name...I really went out on a limb here. I decided to give her my middle name. Even though I HATED my middle name all through school. However, I really wanted to save the name Nichole for our next little girl. So, Ashleigh Louise it was. My grandpa said Ashleigh would be a senior in high school before she learned to spell her name! He couldn't figure out why I didn't just spell it Ashley.

Bradley - "Brad" as he goes by now. Brad is turning 20 in a couple of weeks. That freaks me out too! With Brad, I never had the feeling I was having a girl. Weird as that may sound. I just didn't think he would be born a she! I actually had a funny dream..well I had sevearl with him. But each time, the baby was a boy. The funny dream was, Brad kicked his foot through my stomach and I just reached down and pushed it back in. LOL...the kid kicked the daylights out of me! I did have 2 ultrasounds with his pregnancy. One at about 20 weeks. Then one a couple of days before he was born.(I was 10 days over due). Neither time did he cooperate so we could get a peek at the sex of the baby. That little stinker, turned over and crossed his legs both darn times! I couldn't believe it...again, we had no idea. Except for the gut feeling that I had had all through my pregnancy. It was such a strong feeling, we hardly ever discussed having a girl or picking a girl name. I did still have Nichole in mind. But, Kelsey was weighing in awful heavy. Until my cousin had a baby a couple of months before my due date..she used the name Kelsey. I remember saying, well this baby had better be a boy because if he's a she, she will have no name. We tossed around the name Austin. Paul worked with a guy that he was pretty good friends with and his name was Austin. I wasn't too sure about it. All I could think of was Texas!! Then, Paul suggested Bradley. He said, because it ended with the sound 'ley' it would go good with Ashleigh. And being we had a toddler whose name started with an 'A' and ended with the sound 'ley' adding a name that started with a 'B' and ended with the same sound would be kind of cool. I kind of liked that idea. The problem was, my mom had lost a baby many years ago. A baby boy who they named Bradley. Paul did not know this. He knew that my mom lost a baby, but we never even talked about the name of the baby. So, first I needed to talk to my mom and ask her how she felt about it. I had friends tell me NOT to name by baby after a baby that had died. I tried to explain that we were not naming our baby after my brother, it just so happened that Paul really liked the name. Honestly, Paul had no idea of my brother's name. My mom said she thought it would be fine to name our baby Bradley. So, that was it. Bradley it would be. As for his middle name, we chose Paul - giving him his dads first name as a middle name.

Carly - Well, she was our little surprise. We really had no plans on having another child. But we are so grateful that we did have her. Her name was a bit tougher. We included Ashleigh and Brad in this entire pregnancy. We wanted them to help us come up with names. It was both A & B who insisted that we use a 'C' name that ended with the sound 'ley'. A said, "mom you cant change it up now". They both felt we needed to find a C name. Well, that was not so easy. We could only come up with Charlie for a boy, but neither A & B were thrilled with that boy name. At about 20 weeks, we did an ultrasound. We were told "it's a girl". Actually, the tech said, "well, I've got a perfect shot and I don't see a dilly whacker". I nearly peed all over the table due to laughing so hard at that comment. So the search for a girls name was underway. The names we had picked were, Caylee, Carly & Callie. I really wanted to name her Callie. It was my grandpa's name. The day Carly was born, we still had not decided on a name. We just knew she would be named one of the three in the running. After she was born, the kids came to the hospital. Paul took them to the gift shop. They were looking for a "sign" as to what name we should give her. Well, out of the three names we had picked out, the only one that was anywhere to be found on anything in that gift shop, was Carly. The kids were convinced this was a sign. And so, Carly it was. Her middle name (I'm still kicking myself over) was picked because we liked it. It's Elizabeth. However, I now wish I would have given her my grandmother's middle name of Lucille. Drats. I was a tad bit upset afterward. Oh well. Elizabeth sounds nice with Carly.

That's it. That's the way I came to be known as A B and C's mom! If I'd a known we were going to do this whole A B C name thing ending in the same sound. I would have spelled them all ending in 'ley'. Oh well. They are each different endings. Not quite as clever as Renee was in naming her kids!

So....I'll tag a couple of people. Feel free to pass it up if you wish, but it was kind of fun to sit and reminisce on how our kids were name.

Michelle
Liz
Cathy
and
Michele

Sesame Street Live.

Last Sunday Paul and I took Carly to Sesame Street Live. Thought I'd share a few pictures. A few, of my 120..haha!

I think if you click the picture, it will make it larger.

Carly really enjoyed the show. After the first 15 minutes or so! At first, she just wasn't sure why the lights were pretty much off and why all these screaming kids (who were a tad too young to be there in the first place) were doing just that. Screaming. She eventually watched and was mesmerized with show. She also enjoyed her Cotton Candy!

Saying Goodbye.

It's been a busy weekend around here. I did tons of laundry on Friday and Saturday. Trying to get everything squared away to send Ashleigh back to Kalamazoo. We packed. Did more laundry. Packed some more...tiring!

Saturday, Ashleigh, Carly and I went shopping. Ashleigh needed some last minute things to take to her apartment. We made it fun though. We also went to Panera Bread for lunch. Their soup and sandwich deal is so yummy! Expensive, but yummy! It was the perfect day for soup too. We had some really chilly weather up this way over the weekend.

Sunday we were up and at'em early. Ashleigh needed to get her tiny little Chevy Cavalier packed with TONS of things. After it was packed (I should have taken a picture) there was just enough room for her to sit. It was packed tight and full. I did manage to take a couple of pictures of the girls saying goodbye.

After I snapped a few pictures, it was off to Sesame Street Live for Paul, Carly and me. Carly was a little upset that "sissy" wasn't going with us. At that point, Ashleigh was still doing some last minute things before taking off. Poor Carly left home with Ashleigh here, but returned to no "sissy".

Carly was a bit unsure when the show first started. She kept saying she wanted to go home. Paul and I were a little worried that this was not going to work. We kept talking to her and trying to get her 'into' the show. Finally, she was mesmerized. She couldn't take her eyes off the stage.

The show was great! We had great seats. We sat directly in front of the stage. 4th row, smack dab in the middle. I took several pictures, but have to edit them first. Then I'll share!

By the time intermission came. Half way through the show. Carly was begging, "more, more, more"! At the end of the show, they did a parade. Carly LOVES parades. Of course, she wanted "more, more, more"! Sadly, the parade was the Grand Finale. We left the show and Carly was in a great mood. She thankfully, made it through the show and was quite happy watching all of her Sesame Street friends sing and dance on stage.

I'm busy working on my Menu plan for this week and next. I'll share when I get it all jotted down on paper :o) ! It worked so well the last couple of weeks. I did change it up a couple of times. Once, Paul was sick and wanted soup and grilled cheese, so that took the place of one meal.

For now, I leave you with the girls, saying goodbye.

Date Night.

Paul and I have birthday's only 5 days apart. The kids like it because they can get us gift cards together! So last night, Paul and I had a date night. Ashleigh and Brad gave us a gift card to Smokey Bones. The meal was great and the place was packed.

After we ate, we headed to the movies. We really hadn't planned on seeing a movie, but the theater was right next door to the restaurant. We figured we'd may as well check out show times. It was 7pm when we pulled up to the sign outside the theater. We quickly read the listings and found this one. Granted, it was rated R, but we had both heard it was a really funny movie. Showtime was at 7:05..we had to hustle. I must say, it was the funniest movie I have ever seen. I had to keep wiping tears away because of laughing so darn hard. No kidding. We laughed so hard through the entire movie. Honestly, the only really raunchy part was at the very end of the movie. It lasted maybe 2 minutes. Guess that's the reason for the "R" rating.

Although this was a funny movie and you really couldn't help but laugh hysterically through almost the entire movie. A couple of parts could have been left out and the it would have been just as funny. They used that "R word" a couple of times. I believe I heard it 3 times. Will Hollywood ever learn?? Probably not.

We rarely go out without Carly. The last time we went to the movies was to see Hannah Montana. Before that we saw The Bee Movie and Horton Hears a Who...or whatever the name of it was! We did have a nice time. I only text Ashleigh twice and called once. Not bad for me...the worry wart.

Carly had fun at home with Ashleigh. I know she thinks that Ashleigh is her second momma. Although she doesn't call her momma, she calls her "sissy". They went to McDonald's and then to the park. Ashleigh was telling us that she had to ask a lady at the park for help getting Carly out of the baby swing. She said she (Ashleigh) just wasn't tall enough to get Carly out all by herself.(Ashleigh is only about 5'1"). She said it had to have been really funny for everyone at the park. Watching this little tiny short gal trying to pull a 40# 42" 7 year old out of a baby swing. Not sure why she didn't put her in the "big girl swing"! After they got home, Ashleigh said Carly started getting worried that we weren't home. She kept asking for "dumb momma and Paul". We got home and were greeted with lots of hugs. Yes, she was still up at 10:30! She's our little night owl. In fact, she was up until midnight last night. Which makes for a tired momma!

Our date night was nice. Wish we could have a few more of them. Since Ashleigh heads back to school next weekend, we lose our sitter. Although, neither of us like to leave Carly. We would much rather take her wherever we go.

Wordless Wednesday.

We were M I A...

Click on photo to enlarge.

Yes we were missing in action over the weekend. No computer and only a few tweets went out! We were much too busy having fun!

Paul and I took Carly to Splash Universe and Cabela's over the weekend. We had a really good time. Except we realized, Carly really should have had a little brother or sister. Just to have a playmate. Anyway, we went Saturday and spent the night. On Sunday, we headed to Cabela's. It's right across the street from Splash Universe.

We played in the water for hours. We went swimming in the hotel pool. Which is in another building and was much quieter. We hit the huge game room. Carly LOVED playing games. She really wanted to play the Dance Moves game, but it was geared toward an older crowd. She tried though.

Finally at 10:30 we headed back to our room for showers and sleep. The room was a 1 bed room. Thankfully, it was a King size bed. It was nice to think we would have ample amount of room for sleeping...NOT! Carly is a bed hog. She was all over that bed. Her legs flip and twist all night long! She looks like a human pretzel. No kidding!

Sunday we got up early and headed to the continental breakfast the hotel offered. It was by far the best one we had ever seen. There were so many different selections. We ate then headed back to pack up our room. We had to check out at 11. However, we could still access the splash park up till 10pm. We opted (well Paul and Carly) to just go for a few hours and then change and head over to Cabela's. I honestly had had enough of the splash pad on Saturday. My foot has a heel spur and if I don't have my shoes on, it KILLS me! So, Sunday there was NO WAY I was going to go shoeless to the splash pad. Forget it!

No doubt, we will be taking her back some day. She couldn't get enough of it. Hopefully, my heel spur will be long gone by then!

Dance Fever!

This is the way Carly and Ashleigh "hang out"! Lots of music and lots of dancing. Sometimes, even the headbanging. Although, tonight Carly decided to mix it up a bit with the dish towel. She had so much fun swing that towel round and round! If you catch it, Carly is telling me "bi, bi" (bye, bye) she says it with more of a southern drawl. Not sure where the heck she picked that up from :o) .

Please ignore the mess of my kitchen. I have been canning pickles all day long! ! I canned 7 quarts of dill and 7 pints of sweet. Big job when you're the only one doing it. That, and tending to Carly throughout the day. She was none to happy with me for working all blasted day in the kitchen. We managed. Thankfully, Ashleigh finally got home and all was well. As you see in the video.

No clue as to why Carly has nothing but underpants on! She thinks it's the coolest thing to rip her clothes off and run around the house in her panties.

While I was uploading this, I realized that Carly's hair is LONG! Holy cow! I hadn't really paid any attention. I normally put it up in a ponytail or pigtails for the summer. Sure, I wash and dry and brush it out, but then I immediately put it up. She isn't used to her hair being down either. (courtesy of Ashleigh) If you notice, she is trying to get it out of her face and push it back. The funniest thing with it being so long now. Hair gets stuck under her arm pits. Man does that tick her off!

Balloons.

Life’s too short to wake up with regrets. So love the people who treat you right. Forget about the one’s who don’t. Believe everything happens for a reason. If you get a second chance, grab it with both hands. If it changes your life, let it. No body said life would be easy, they just promised it would be worth it. Friends are like balloons; once you let them go, you can’t get them back. So I’m gonna tie you to my heart, so I never lose you.

Fun Weekend.

Saturday afternoon, park#1.


What a fun and busy weekend. Paul and I took Carly to a couple of different parks both Saturday and Sunday afternoon. She had so much fun.

She loves the water. She and Paul walked around a little. She also enjoyed watching all the seagulls.


We checked out the splash pad. Carly was a little unsure of it. We brought bathing suits, but hadn't changed at this point. We wanted to see how she would react to the sprinkling water and the spurting spouts.


She was just deciding she wanted her bathing suit...when the RAIN came. :( Oh well, we were at the park for over an hour. Carly had fun while the rain stayed at bay. We'll go back another time.


Sunday afternoon, park #2.


She climbed.


She rode the bouncy ladybug. And loved it. They had several of these at this park. A dinosaur and a four wheeler to name a few. But, the ladybug won her over.


She played inside a bee hive house.


She climbed some more!


She and daddy went swinging on the tire swing.



"Paul,Paul, P a a a u u u l l l" she kept yelling. He slipped up the center of the play structure. She was completely miffed by it! However, she insisted on trying it too. With much assistance from mom and dad, she was successful.

I wish everyone could enjoy life as much as Carly does. She is able to find joy in anything and everything. We are so blessed. For that, I'm very grateful.

Field Trip.

Yesterday, Carly's school went on a field trip. It was a really cool place called Castaway Cafe. It's an inside play scape for kids and adults. Too bad Paul had to go to work. It's right up his alley!

At first, Carly was really excited. Then, as we headed off to play and climb and climb and climb some more. She froze with fear. Too many wild kids. They were everywhere. Running, jumping, climbing and screaming too. It was a total of 2 day cares and of course Carly's class of 21 kids. Wow!

We climbed to the top. Well, near the top. Carly loved walking across a bridge. She must have walked it 10 times. Back and forth. Back and forth. Then, she decided to venture off to one of the 4 slides. She chose the pink one first. Of course, she wanted me to go down it with her. We got situated and headed down the slide. Let me just say. HOLY COW! We were zippin' so fast down that slide. We got to the bottom and Carly said, "all done"! Then she trucked off to a chair to watch the craziness going on.



It was soon lunch time. Pizza to be exact. The teacher rounded all the kids up and they ate and ate and ate. Then headed back out. Well, everyone but Carly. She is the s l o w e s t eater ever! She did eat her entire piece of pizza though. That's rare for her. Some of those kids ate more pizza than my grown kids do at one setting. Like 5 and 6 pieces each. No one seemed to end up withtummy aches. I was sure there would be a few. Finally, we headed back out to play. Carly was much happier with a full belly - of one piece of pizza!

By the time we got back to playing. The 2 daycare centers had packed up and left for the day. Carly was much more at ease playing. We, played and played. Took a break and went back at it again. When it came time to leave, guess who didn't want to go?!? Yep, Carly. (I, on the other hand was EXHAUSTED from all the climbing) She kept telling me, "No" and "More, more, more." I told her we'd come back another day and bring daddy. Of course she said, "sissy & bubba". (Ashleigh and Brad), to that I said, we'll see. Although, I'm not sure they'd enjoy it at their age!





I wish she could have enjoyed it from the get go, but she knows her limitations. Her balance is quickly tested whenever rambunctious kids get to close to her. Carly is very much aware of her poor balance. Don't get me wrong, she can climb, run, jump....and so on. However, she knows if a kid accidentally bumps her, she will likely lose her balance and fall down. So, she steers clear of major romping of other kids.

Just before we had to load the bus, we headed back up the play scape. This time Carly wanted to go down a different slide. Well. Let me just say. HOLY, HOLY, HOLY COW! That one was faster than the first one we went down. Of course, she had to make me go down with her. Good thing. That slide tossed us both around! She would have freaked by herself.



All in all, it turned out to be a great time. Exhausting for me, but fun to see her having a good time.

Huge accomplishment!

Some people take the little things in life for granted. Such as learning how to swing. On a big girl swing that is. This is something we have tried with Carly for the last couple of years. She just didn't have the strength or balance down for a big girl swing. Well guess what??? She does now! Huge accomplishment. She is so darn proud of herself.



Now, all she wants to do is swing, swing, swing. We spend much of our day at the swing set. It's well worth it though. Just seeing that smile of amazement on her face each time.



Sorry for the poor quality of this last picture. I only had my phone with me at the time. I realized that I had the camera setting set on "cloudy". Thanks to Michigan having crappy weather for so darn long.

Heading back outside to swing of course!

Happy Thursday all.

I've been absent from my blog for several days. Only because we've been enjoying time with family. And having fun over the long weekend.

We went to a parade on the 4th then to a chicken BBQ put on by the fireman. We've enjoyed bonfires, s'mores and fireworks too.



Carly for the first time ever, did sparklers. She had a blast! She even enjoyed the spectacular fireworks display that my brothers put on for us. Normally, Carly is scared to death of fireworks, but this year she actually did enjoy them.


She has a sparkler in this picture, but it's hard to see due to the bonfire in the background.

Brad had a mishap while doing some kind of firecracker. It was a colorful one, none like I have seen before. You were suppose to light them and then toss them. Well, we figure this particular one was defective. Brad lit it, but before he could toss it, it went off in his hand. It ended up ripping the tip of his index finger open. He is OK, but was in quite a bit of pain after it happened. Kind of put a damper on the rest of the night for him. We are just thankful it was just his finger. We all know it could have been much worse. Finally, you meet Brad, our 19 year old son.



Carly and daddy went canoeing down my brothers river. Very shallow river I might add. They got stuck more often than they were able to paddle down river!



On July 5, Paul, Carly and myself, along with my oldest brother, and his family, who were visiting from IL., headed to the Detroit Zoo. It was a great day to be at the zoo. Sunny, warm and breezy. Carly like the Giraffes the best. She and daddy even got to feed one!



The only thing missing was Ashleigh. Carly has missed her terribly. Although, Ashleigh is having a great time in California. Little stinker has been out yachting with some friends. Walking the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She sent me a text pic of Christopher Reeves star. That was cool! And, she of course has been laying on the beach. She is due back home late tonight. Carly is very excited!

Hope you all enjoyed your 4th of July weekend as much as we did.

ABC's of Me!

I got this as a forward in my email. Although, I have also seen it on a couple of blogs in the last few days. Anyway, thought it was fun!

A - Age: 42, for a couple of more months!
B - Bed size: Queen. Still not big enough when we have to share it with Carly every night!
C - Chore you hate: Mopping floors. Paul does it for me. He's awesome that way.
D - Dog's name: Diesel and Penny
E - Essential start your day item: breakfast
F - Favorite color: Green, I really don't have just one though!
G - Gold or Silver: Gold
H - Height: 5'4"
I - Instruments you play: the keyboard on the computer. That counts right?
J - Job title: Mom, CFO, CEO, cook, maid...you get the picture?
K - Kid(s): 3 - Ashleigh 22, Bradley 19 and Carly 7
L - Living arrangements: House in Michigan. That is way to small for us, but it'll do until the economy picks up.
M - Mom's name: June
N - Nicknames: Mom, Mama, Jones, My brother used to call me bug, but he hasn't done that in years.
O - Overnight hospital stay: Ovarian cyst removed when I was 14. Some sort of unexplainable intestine infection when I was 17 and of course each time I had my babies.
P - Pet Peeve: Rude people..who are quite unhappy at their jobs. Like that's my fault...
Q - Quote from a movie:"Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn" Now you know my most favorite movie. Gone With the Wind.
R - Right or left handed: Right
S - Siblings: 2 older brothers.. Brian and Brook
T - Time you wake up: During the summer - whenever Miss Carly decides to wake up. If she sleeps in, so do I! Otherwise, up early for school.
U - Underwear: Um, don't know what to say, other than, yeah - I wear it!
V - Vegetable you dislike: Haven't found one yet.
W - Ways/Reasons you run late: Because Miss Carly is being her charmingly stubborn self!
X - X-rays you've had: Hmm, several, but not in recent years.
Y - Yummy food you make: Chicken with whole wheat Penne pasta tossed with tomatoes, drizzled with olive oil and some Italian spices..Yummy!
Z - Zoo animals you like: Oh gosh, I like them all. The monkeys when they are playing around are the best, but you can't always count on that while at the zoo.

So, now you know me just a tad bit better. Some day I will post a picture of me, so you can all see the mom of ABandC!