Wordless Wednesday

To the circus we went..

Sorry for lack of posts. I've been so busy the last week or so. Spring is vastly approaching and I've been trying to do some spring cleaning/down sizing.

We did take time out last Sunday to take Carly to the circus. She loved it. She was a little upset though, because she wanted to see "giraffes"! They didn't haven any. Aside from her asking a million and one times to see the giraffes, she enjoyed herself.

Carly really like the Ariel Artistry.
I was surprised these girls did this stuff without nets
under them.

This lady was really good.
When she was done, Carly wanted "more mama, more"!

This little guy was making his first Circus appearance.

Ahh, the dancing girls. Another of Carly's favorites.

These white tigers were beautiful. They had a female trainer. Which for some reason really surprised me. No way would I be in the ring with 6 tigers!

The pony rides. Carly was a little nervous getting on this pony. She refused to let go of Paul for one second.

We had a very good time. Carly really enjoyed herself. Paul and I were very impressed with the show this circus put on. It was really something. It lasted forever... close to 3 hours. But, Carly did just dandy. She sat in her seat and watched the entire show. Although, Saturday, when I finally told her where we were going on Sunday, she kept telling us we were going to the "zoo". I guess she figured, you see animals at the zoo... Silly kid!

Snow fun Sunday and Wintery Cuteness!

Sunday was a beautiful day. Full of sunshine and warmth...mid 30's warmth!
Paul and I thought it was high time to get Carly outside to play.
Due to illness and extreme cold, oh and very little snow, we haven't been able to take Carly outside to play up until Sunday.

And play she did.

Sledding.

Building a snowman.

"Frosty", just in case you're wondering!

Putting the finishing touches on "Frosty"!

Hard working!

Almost done.

Frosty at his finest..
complete with a Detroit Lions hat!

*************

Then we had to capture some cuteness!

Taking a break after working so hard while building Frosty!

Saying "eese"!!

Miss Smiley!

One final pose. At this point, she was so done with me taking pictures. I took 115 pics that day!

We sure had fun. We spent over 2 hours outside that day. Paul finally had to drag Carly into the house. The snow was kind of wet..due to some really nice sunshine. Which we were not complaining about, but wet snow makes for wet snow pants.

Not sure if we'll be able to get back out and play some more in this snow. It's melting quickly with all this sunshine. Which I'm not complaining about.

Say Cheese...

This is the look we get whenever we tell Carly to "say cheese". She can't say the word quite like she should, but she does try. Her version sounds more like "eeeese". She is mighty proud of herself for the effort put forth in trying to say the word. And try she does. Every single time the camera is out!

This picture was taken bright and early this morning. After brushing her teeth...which is another story in and of itself...ugh! At least she is smiling..this time!

I've run into a problem with Miss Carly though. Every time I want to snap a picture of her sweet little face, she tells me, "no. no. no momma", then runs off to find her camera. Her Fisher Price camera that Santa brought her for Christmas. Which is fine, except...it really doesn't take very good quality pictures. Fine for fun and playing around, but too fuzzy for my liking.

At any rate. Her smiley little face brightens my day. On days like yesterday. Man, I needed her smiley face. If you're a friend of mine of Facebook..you saw her smiley little face after school yesterday. She's the best little 'pick me up' ever!

It's funny that she actually uses the word "cheese" when the camera is out. Why? Well, because Carly signs cheese when she wants a piece of cheese to eat! When I remind her that she can in fact say the word cheese...she shrugs her shoulders and shakes her head at me. Like I'm nuts for even suggesting that she use the word for any time other than picture time. Crazy kid!

So, just in case you're ever wondering why Carly seems to have this same silly expression on her sweet face in each of her photo's...it's just her way of saying, "eeeese"!

Wordless Wednesday...sort of. Dancing Queen. January '08

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Gingerbread house.

Now that my computer is up and running again...this time due to a tower outage, not our dog...I'm finally able to get back online this morning!

Carly and I made a Gingerbread house on Saturday. Her ability to stay focused with the task on hand, has improved greatly in the last couple of months. We worked on our Gingerbread house for over 1.5 hrs. Miss Carly was into it the entire time. It wasn't all that long ago, Carly's attention span would last a mere 20 minutes give or take. Now, she is up to close to 2 hours. Which is a wonderful accomplishment.

~Our finished product~

Click to enlarge!

Carly was thrilled with how our Gingerbread house turned out.

Fall Fun!

Fabulous Frenzy, of Fall Fun!!

Fascination!

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.

My lil punkin...

....with all of her pumpkins!

Weekend Get Away.

We decided to take off for the Upper Peninsula (UP) on Friday. Paul needed to get away for the events that took place at work last week. My parents were up to the UP for salmon fishing at Sault Ste Marie/ the Soo Locks. Paul and I packed up our clothes, along with Carly and headed north.

We really didn't do much. Paul and my dad did fish some. Paul slept some. Carly and my mom played and played and played some more. We watched big ships come down the St Mary River. Watched as supply boats chugged out to greet them and pass on many barrels of supplies. We sat gazing at the International Bridge that connects Michigan's UP to Canada. (the bridge with an arch is the International Bridge)I even snapped a couple of pictures of the Canadian side of the St. Mary River. Then we hit the shops in town. You just can not go to the UP without buying their fudge, caramel corn and of course salt water taffy...YUMMY!

I really dislike going across bridges with water under them. I have a very hard time with that. It really freaks me out! So, I sat and snapped pictures as we went across the Mackinaw Bridge. I only snap pictures with a head on view. I refuse to look out into the water. Scares the daylights out of me. Although I really did try hard not draw much attention to my fear of bridges. Carly doesn't need to fear bridges like her mama does!

click to enlarge collage

We headed for home here in Mid Michigan and finally arrived about 9:00pm Sunday night. I was a crazy quick trip, but a much needed one for Paul. He needed to get away and get his mind off of everything that had taken place at work last week.

There is still no word as to the actual cause of death yet for Cedric. Friday, Paul's company held a grief counseling session and a mandatory CPR training class. Paul is already certified in CPR. He did however attend this training along with his crew of workers. Today, Paul is on that very job site, going over equipment, tools, safety issues and so on. Tomorrow he will attend Cedric's funeral with the rest of his crew. Wednesday, his company resumes work after being closed down for a week.

And so, we are home from our weekend get away. Back into the groove of things. Back to school for Carly. Who developed a runny nose after she got home from school on Friday. No fever. However, Carly rarely runs a temp when she is sick. Hopefully, this will prove to be allergy related and stay just that way. More often than not, her allergy junk turns to sinus junk and then she is down for the count.

I have tons of laundry to do. Isn't it amazing how much dirty laundry accumulates in one little measly weekend get away? I also need to get my menu plan up and running. Last week sent us into a tizzy. I didn't follow my menu as planned out. Too many things were going on. So, I winged it. Now, it's time to get back to business. I also need to catch up on all the blogs I follow. Missing a couple of days really puts you behind. Ahhh, weekend get aways!

A very late Wordless Wednesday.

You can click the collage to make it larger...I think!

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.

Happy Birthday to...... ME!

Yep...Stephanie you guessed it. Actually...you're the only one! High 5 to you.

Drum roll please..... My new Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H20.



Yes, Paul got me a new camera. Yay! I've been wanting one for a while now. This one let's me capture the moment with my faster than lightening speed 7 year old daughter!! I'm still trying to figure everything out, but I think I'm going to LOVE it.



I had a great day. Well...if you minus the stupid monthly cramps and feeling like crap. You might know, old Aunt Flo would rear her ugly head today, of all days. Carly and I made the best of it anyway.

We first had to get her monthly blood draw. So please say a little prayer. Or a BIG one, that Carly's platelet count is looking better. Stable is good too, but I would much prefer a nice 6 digit number this time around. I won't have results until sometime tomorrow.

After the blood work, we had some running around to do. When we were done, guess where we went??? Carly's most favorite place of all.

MCDONALD'S of course!!




What better way to spend my 43rd birthday than with my favorite little girl in the world.

Busy, busy, busy!

Shew...we've been busy around here since Thursday. Gardening. Canning. Moving Ashleigh from one apartment to another apartment. Celebrating Paul's birthday. Having new cable installed. Taking the dog to the groomer. Swimming. Then throw in the everyday household chores...cleaning, laundry...and more laundry. You get the picture?! Just plain busy.

Carly and I just got back from the garden again this morning. We have our garden at my parents house. They only live 2 miles away.It's not too bad if we want or need something out of the garden for dinner. Our bounty today includes; cabbage, tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, summer squash and green peppers. LOVE the fresh garden veggies, but man O'man is this garden plentiful this year. Leaves me little time to do much else.

Thursday was very busy. My parents, Brad, Carly and I headed to Kalamazoo to move Ashleigh from one apartment to another. What a crazy long day that was. Carly, she just kind went with the flow. Like usual. We made a makeshift table and chair for her to enjoy her McDonald's lunch. Which she did enjoy for much of the afternoon! She extremely slow at eating!

We finally got home from Kalamazoo around 7:30 Thursday night. I stopped by a local pizza shop and brought home dinner. I was too tired to cook that night. Before we got back into our home town, I had to stop and pick up a birthday cake for Paul. I'm a big believer in cakes for birthdays. Everyone gets one. No matter their age. Usually, I bake one, but time just ran out. The bakery cake was really quite good though.

We did promise Carly swim time yesterday. She loves to get in the pool. The problem is, she doesn't ever want to get out! Seriously, she would stay in from sun up to sun down if she could have her way! She is all wrinkly each time she gets out. Oh, but she has so much fun! Sadly, I left my camera in the house. Needless to say, I got ZERO pictures of her having a ball in the pool yesterday.

I was able to snap a few pictures of Carly with her best bud Ashleigh, over the weekend. They were having a painting fest. They then, pulled out the sidewalk chalk. Carly of course preferred the painting. Messier I guess!



That pretty much sums up our weekend. Busy!

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I'm in the process of creating a menu plan for the next 2 weeks. I thought I'd give it a try. I got this idea from The mommy diaries I LOVE her Menu Plan Monday posts. I've gotten so many great recipes from her. Anyway, she has inspired me to plan ahead for our future meals. I'm hoping this will make my dread of grocery shopping a little easier to bear.

Have a great week everyone!