Happy Thanksgiving

I hope everyone has a wonderful thanksgiving and gets to spend it with family and/or friends. Danny and I are heading to my parents for lunch and then to his parents for dinner. We will be little stuffed turkeys ourselves once the day is over.

I wanted to say how thankful I am for my husband and daughter. They mean the world to me. I'm thankful for our extended families and all that they do for us on a daily basis. I'm thankful that we have a home and have all the necessities in life (especially since so many right now are struggling). I'm thankful for the church and the meaning and direction it gives. I could keep going with a much larger list, but that hits some of the highlights.

Have a good one. And Ashlyn wanted to wish everyone happiness as well. So, here she is sending everyone her kisses.

ASHLYN'S 1ST BDAY (Belated Post)

Ashlyn's Birthday was last Thursday (I know I'm a week behind). She turned the big ONE. It is hard to believe that my little girl is getting so big. (Literally, on a side note, had her doc visit yesterday she is off the charts in height 100% plus and 75% weight. Maybe a future super model. :) )

Here are a couple pics of the birthday girl.

On her actual B-Day:

Enjoy the party we had for her on Saturday at out house:


In the beginning of the cake festivities:



In the end:



She at one point was using the cake as a drum. Icing flying everywhere. To get her clean I just unhooked the highchair and took it and her together into our bathtub for a good washdown.

We had some family and friends over for yummy sandwiches, potato salad, chips, fruit, etc. Ashlyn got some great gifts. I think almost all the toys make noise. But, that is ok since they all also have an off switch!!!

WOW-5 New Posts

Lots of happenings. If you want to read the saga in order, start with Vacation Part 1 and this scroll up. :) Hope every had a happy halloween and election day.

Beaver

I forgot to write in my vacation book below about Ashlyn's little act. I was putting up her 3-6 mths closes (which I needed to do for a while since she is in 12-18 mth clothes now) in her room and she kept crawling up on me. So, I threw her in her crib to stay contained while I finished. Next thing I know I hear this little scrape, scrape, scrape and look back and I see Ashlyn just gnawing away at the bed rail like a little beaver.

Observe the damage:





I tried to buy some guards for the rails but her crib rails are twice as wide as a standard rail and I can't find anything to fit.

What really is the kicker is this was the replacement foot board of the crib because the original one had a paint crack down the top of the rail and I was scared it was start chipping and pealing the paint. So, we just recently had gotten the replacement from the manufacturer. So, we now have an eaten railing and one with a paint chip almost 6-8 ins. long. O well. i guess some repainting will be in our future.

Vacation-Part 4 Uh Oh!!!

Saturday was nice relaxing day and then Saturday night came....

Ashlyn woke up with a fever and not feeling good. Then proceeded 1 vomiting and then 3 days of a yucky stomach flu. Sunday afternoon her fever spiked to 104.8 so off we went to the emergency room. I called my pediatrician first but they sent us off to the ER anyways. Luckily, the hospital we went to wasn't busy at all so we got right in. Of course all they gave us was some motrin and 2 hours of sitting there just waiting to make sure the fever started going down. I hate to see how much a little thimble of motrin will cost us. :0)

It was so sad to see her that way. She just kept wimpering like a little puppy. Here's our little one and her first official hospital band while sick--



And that ended our very eventful week of vacation. I hope my next vacation is more boring. :)

Vacation Part 3- Furniture and Halloween

Well, danny went back to work on Thursday and I was able to try to resume the rest of my vacation. Lots of erands. Fun visits to Target and Party Shop to prepare to Ashlyn's upcoming B-day bash. Eating with my parents and a trip to Ashley furniture to finally buy a new kitchen table. After 2 1/2 hours, the deal was made. We pick it up on Tuesday. I'll post before and after of my kitchen nook then.

One thing I learned, you can get a better deal if you shop at the end of the month. I was trying to decide which table to buy and was going to wait till the next day. But, since they wanted the sale in October, they gave me an additional $50 off ( on top of the $90 I am getting off for simply donating my old table to habitat for humanities). So, $140 off the price. I thought that was pretty great.

Then, we had to finally get ready for Halloween. Ashlyn was a little lady bug (thanks to my sister-n-law offering to let Sydney's old costume be used). see the pics below. We went over to my brother's house to go tric-or-treating with them. Danny, Brad, and Danny's brother Steve hung out at the house while Stacey, danny's mom, and I headed out with the girls. they both had such a good time. It was soooo fun to watch Sydney go say trick or treat at every door like a good little princess that she is.

Vacation Part 2- WORK EMERGENCY

Tuesday afternoon (after getting back) I had to call my boss because there was a little emergency at work. Yes, believe it our not, major fires can occur in the accounting world. Well, this one was such a doozy that I had to go into work on Wednesday to handle things. The biggest bummer was that my mom watched Ashlyn Tuesday night so that Danny I could could have some nice quiet time and actually get some good sleep. Well, with the work thing going on, I hardly slept at all and was up at 4am working. Then, I went into the office around 9am for the remainder of the day (around 5:30-6).

So, danny got to get his haircut and then he headed to pick up Ashlyn. He ended up going out to Cotton's BBQ with my parents and niece and hanging out at their house in the afternoon. Oh so eventful.

My job is so stressful sometimes. I'm thankful that I have been as successful as I have in my career. But, sometimes my colleagues and I talk about maybe it would be better working at Target. Definitely less stress. The whole work/life balance thing doesn't really work when your working 50-60 hrs a week.

Ok. enough about my vacation break.

Vacation-Part 1

Last week Danny and I were on vacation. We went to Savannah, GA for a couple nights. I had been there, but Danny never had. He loves anything history related, so we headed off. Of course, it wasn't till we got there did we realize we didn't bring the camera. So, no pics.

On our first day, we headed out to get in line to get a reservation at Paula Deen's restaurant- The Lady and Sons. They start setting up reservations at 9:30 each morning of that days lunch and dinner times. So, we setup a reservation for 12:15 and went on our way.

We then took a 90 min. tour of historic Savannah on one of those trolley buses. The weather was really nice, so it was fun to sit in the open air trolley and enjoy the tour. Savannah has some of the most beautiful homes. Most of the historic district is setup in squares, so you have a these little parks.

Then we headed to our yummy lunch reservation. The Lady and Sons is still in the same building it started out in. It's been expanded to 3 floors. We ate on the 3rd floor. You can order something specific or just get her buffet. Of course, we did the buffet. It had:

Fried chicken
Baked chicken
yams
mashed potatoes
mac and cheese
collar greens
butter beans
creamed corn
green beans
biscuit/hoe cakes
salad

Then, for dessert you can choose from peach cobbler, banana pudding, and some type of chocolate gooey cake. Danny got the peach cobbler and I got the banana pudding.

though everything was really good. I have to be honest. It just was like eating at my mom's house. She makes almost everything that was on the buffet, including the deserts. So, we told my mom she should start her own restaurant. she could make a killing.

We headed back to the hotel then to crash after the lunch. After a much needed nap, we went down to River Street and took nice walk. It reminded me of St George street in St. Augustine. Our take from that was some yummy original and chocolate pralines.

The night held a trip to a cool little pizza joint right across the street from our hotel and back for danny to watch Monday night football.

Tuesday brought us packing up and heading out. Before we left Savannah, we went to Ft. Jackson for a little tour. From my perspective, if you seen a fort before, you've seen this one. There are all pretty similar. But, danny really enjoyed it. He reads all the plaques and soaks it all in.

Then back to Jax we went.

Finally

I'm sure you are all tired of opening this blog and seeing my recipe. So, here's something new. First and most importantly is an update on Ashlyn.

She is now 10 1/2 months old. She is growing fast and becoming her own self. She now is crawling everywhere (and is pretty fast too). She can wave bye-bye and clap (her clap is a polite golfer's clap-one hand hitting the other one lightly). She has stood up on her own once (that we saw) for a good 15 secs. So, I'm sure walking is in our near future. She also is loving REAL food. She's gotten to eat pancakes, waffles, turkey sandwich, rice and beans, and lots more. So far, she will eat anything you give her. So, I am very thankful for that.

She loves the outside and animals. In fact, Danny and I have to go out every Saturday to walk around somewhere just to keep her "contained" and content. Though she loves animals, she doesn't really know how to act around them. She decided to use our neighbor's cat's tale as a yanking toy the other day. I don't think we'll see the cat around to often when Ashlyn's around.

We are even ready for halloween allready, thanks to my sister-n-law. She is letting us borrow my neice's old halloween costume- a lady bug. She will be one cut little bug!!!!

Well. That's a quick update for now. I promise to try to do better. I'll do an update on danny and I tomorrow (course, not much going on there, but I'll find something to say)

So, without much ado, here's some pics of our little handful:



Enjoying her waffle:





Look at that hairdo!!!! Finally, I can try to fix it up.



Not feeling so hot and after a bath. Looks like a little Middle Eastern baby.



Loving life. Can't get many "normal" smiles lately. She's just wants to be too silly.


Hanging out in Daddy's new chair (when he was gone-sshhhhh, don't tell).



I got this shirt and pants at Target the other day. I couldn't pass up the shirt, it was just too cute.

What's for Dinner?

I got this recipe out of the weekly Publix ad and made it last night. It actually was pretty good. And made a ton of food. So, thought I would share. It would be great for families with lots of kids.

Mac and Beef with Broccoli and Carrots

1lb Hamburger
1 (14.5oz) can Beef Broth
1 cup Water
8 oz of Elbow noodles (about 2 cups)
1- 12oz can of Evaporated Milk
1/4 cup of Cheez Wiz
8 oz of Shredded Cheddar Cheese
Chopped Broccoli and Carrots (I used a box of pre-chopped broccoli and just adds some chopped fresh carrots)


1) In a large skillet, brown the hamburger meat.
2) Stir in broth, water, and macaroni. Let simmer for 10-12 min. till noodles are tender. Stir occasionally.
3) While that is cooking, cook the broccoli and carrots in the microwave according to package directions (usually just add a couple TLBS of watter and cook for 6-8 min)
4) Add Broccoli and Carrots to beef and mac.
5) Lower burner to lowest setting, add milk and cheeses. Stir till smooth and bubbly.
6) Serve and Enjoy.

9 Month Pics

As promised--





As promised

End of August Update

My little doodlebug is 9 months now. We went for her check up and she weighed in at 20 lbs, 7ozs and is 28 1/2 inches tall. 80-85% for both so. So, still a happy and healthy baby. She is finally crawling forward this week. So, we will be putting up the gates on the stairs this week. I have nightmares about her falling down the stairs. I've decided having a 2-story house with babies isn't a good mix. If we do move at some point while she or any of our future kids are little, we will definitely go 1 story.

She loves to pull up on everything. I put her on the floor and she immediately turns around, crawls over, and wants to pull up to standing. Course, she can't stand by herself and it's really moving around while standing, so it's a constant up and down. It's fun to see her developing though.

We are getting her 9 month pics either tomorrow or Monday, so I'll post some once we get them.

Hope everyone has a happy labor day weekend. Mine will be good, except I'm the closing speaker at church this Sunday. Speaking on "May the soul delighteth in the things of the lord". It's such a hodge podge talk that I'm having trouble organizing myself. I do better with one specific topic like tithing, holy ghost, etc. I guess I'll need all the hodge podge since I'm the closer. So, my talk could be 10 or it could be 25 min. Let's hope for 10.

Danny is just working and happily getting geared up for his fantasy football leagues he is in. I think he is up to 3 now- 1 free, two betting ones. He even made his cell's ring tone the Monday night football intro.

that's it for now.

Itchy

For the last two days, small red bites have been popping up on my fingers and toes. A couple of them have swollen up into little blisters where they are getting irritated. Danny nor Ashlyn have this. They look like ant bites. I'm going crazy trying to figure out what it is. We don't have pets, so no fleas. And, I just saw a story on bed bugs, so now I'm thinking it might be that- YUCK!!!! I've inspected our bed-don't see anything but I'm still washing the sheets to put nice, clean sheets on.

So, does anyone out there have any clue what these could be. They don't really bother me except for the fact that I can't figure out what is causing them. I hate not knowing.

Sorry for such a gross post. Had to reach out (webmd gave me nothing).

AMAZING!!!!!- 1/100th of a Second

I haven't watched a whole lot of the Olympics live since most of it starts after my bedtime. But, I did watch the 100M Butterfly race last night and all I can say is- WOW!!!! That was an awesome race. I can't believe Michael Phelps won again. I thought he had second as well (even his mom had two fingers up indicating second place).

Sometimes in things like this, a little bit of lucky or destiny has to play a part. I swam a couple years on teams when I was younger, so I always love watching swimming.

Now, onto the medley relay race. It should be very exciting.

Once swimming and gymnastics is over, I usually don't really keep track after that. Track and Field events don't interest me as much. But, it's been a fun week.

The opening ceremonies are great and swimming and gymnastics definitely hasn't been boring.

Tooth

Houston, We have a tooth. You can't really see it from the pics below, but Ashlyn does have her bottom left (her left) tooth in. It broke through two weeks ago, but its being really slow to really pop up. But, it is there-look close.




Sorry- I haven't been blogging much. Working way to much. Hopefully it will get better. Only seeing Ashlyn for maybe an hour if at all at night during the week, just isn't enough. Can you blame me, look at that face (taken right as I was writing this).

Reality

I am a reality junkie. Not the stuff on the main channels, but on cable. so, here are shows that i watch:

The Girl Next Door
Jon and Kate Plus 8
Little People Big World
Tori and Dean
Kathy Griffin-My Life on the D-List
Kimora, Life in the Fab Lane
Project Runway
Keeping Up with the Kardashians
The Realty Pros
and more....

I'm flipping between Kimora and Kathy right now.

I am fascinated with others lives-especially ones that are nothing like mine.

Work and Friends

My life this week and has been a whole lot of work (it's our quarter end). So, dealing with the split of our company and quarter end all at once has been interesting. Plus, since I'm not over GL again, it's my first time having to "try" to run things. I put "" around try because I've certainly screwed up a lot this week. Had to work all day today as well. 8-6. The one highpoint to that was einstein's bagels and Al's pizza. Good stuff.

Also, my friend Keira (we met at UF, she did her undergrad at Notre Dame and I at BYU. So, neither of us knew anyone at Florida and were paired on a team project. Been friends ever since). She had her hubby live in Denver. But, she was in town for another UF friends wedding this weekend. And, we happily had her crash at our house Thursday night. It was really nice to get to talk to her and just chat.

For those of you that know me, I really really suck at keeping in contact with people. So, I always enjoy a chance to redeem myself. Even if just to offer my house for one night and a dinner.

I made sure we got at least one pic together to prove she was here. I'll have to upload later. haven't put them on the computer yet.

that's been about it. maybe something exciting will happen next week.

Beach Baby

On July 5th, Danny and I decided to make our first attempt at going to the beach. Neither of us had been in almost 2 years. Yep, we live 10 min. from the beach and never go.

We have learned that going to the beach with a little one takes a whole lot of "stuff" to survive. Food, bottles, beach toys, chairs, umbrella, towels, sheet, and more. But, we had a lot of fun. Stayed for about an hour and a half. It was high tide so we were stuck sitting in the soft sand and that stuff sticks to everything.

Luckily, Danny's parents live at the beach and we were able to stop by there on the way home and go for a dip in the pool to partially get rinsed off.

Ashlyn loves to water and really enjoyed sitting in the tidal pools. They were just her speed and size.

Dad and daughter enjoying the shade.

say CHEEEEEZE!!!!
Hey, Pay Attention To Me!!!

July 4th

So, I'm a week late getting this up, but better later than never. We had a good July 4th. Had a cookout at my parents. Then, met up with the Kirks- Carson, Amber,and Grayson and went to beach to watch the fireworks. Grayson stayed up the whole time. But, Ashlyn fell asleep right before they began. O well. We will try again next year.

Ashlyn and my nephew Tyler. He's interning with KPMG right now in Jax.

A sleepy little Ashlyn and we weren't even to the beach yet.

I usually wouldn't put other kids pics up but I love this one of Grayson. What a look!!
The happy family.

Lucky #7

Danny and I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary at Ruth's Chris last night. We did an early dinner right after work so we could get home to see Ashlyn before she went to bed. Here are some pics of what we happily devoured--

This was the really, really good dessert we had-caramelized banana cream pie.

Above is what Danny got- Surf and Turf. I just had the petite fillet. How can you not like a steak brought out to you on a plate sizzling in butter.

It definitely was a good thing that our reservations were at 5:30 because we had some time to digest our food before we went to bed.

We don't splurge this big on a meal often, but it sure was worth it!!

The scenery was nice too. We ate at the location downtown and saw a family of dolphins going up the river. That was pretty cool too.

Happy Father's Day!!

Happy Father's Day to all the dads. I've been very fortunate in my life to have a wonderful dad and a husband who is a great dad as well.

My dad has been a really good example to me. Even though my brothers and I give him a hard time a lot, it is all out of love. I'm definitely a daddy's girl.

Danny has really amazed me since we've had Ashlyn. He's always loved kids, but he has really stepped right into the Dad role for her. Their is no doubt how much he loves his little girl. I have a feeling that she may be pretty spoiled (just as I was. :) )

Happy Father's Day again to the two most important men in my life.

P.S.- I'll have to do a mom post soon since I forgot to at Mother's Day for her (I guess the cooties i had made me forget).

More June Pic's-My happy little girl