Halloween

I'll skip my speach on why I haven't blogged. No good answer really. just lazy. But, we are back!! Halloween was fun. We carved a pumpkin and made ghost cookies the week before. Then, on halloween I had put ashy in a Gator's cheerleading outfit, in honor of the FL/GA game that day (FL won- GO GATORS!!!!). But, then we changed her into princess bell for her big night out with the cousins. When she put it on, she kept saying "Look at me, I cute", and she was. She did awesome. Here are some pics. (What everyone cares about)

Pumpkin with Mom and Dad (rotted on our kitchen table in 2 days- that is what 80 degree FL weather will do for ya)


GO GATORS!!! If you "Gator Chomp", she will happily chomp those hands togethers.




Now onto our princesses for the night, Bell, Snow White, and Cinderella.

Lots going on

My life usually doesn't seem that eventful. But, I was sitting here thinking, but in the world has happened in the last month and lots of things came to mind--

1) At least twice a week pool visits (that equals some tan people around here)
2) Mother's day. It was nice. My present was a few weeks earlier- WICKED tickets.
3) My dad's 75th birthday!!! He's been saying he is a gonner for 30 years!! I think he has proven himself wrong.
4) A week of vacation. Lots of bumming around the house.
5) A few trips to the beach. One with my mom, Stacey (sis n law), Sydney, and Ashlyn. Included a wave knocking my mom and the girls all over. didn't even phase them.
6) Father's day. Danny didn't get what he wanted, an eliptical. But, he did get a nice wallet and shirt!! Maybe the eliptical is in the future.
7) Finally got approval from the association to put our fence up. Now, we have to get comfortable with paying thousands of dollars for it. (darn white vinyl requirement)
8) Both Danny and I still have our jobs- in this economy, that is definite accomplishment worth notating.
9) Ashlyn got her first busted lip on Tuesday. That is what happen when her face meets a friend's pool deck. Lots of blood and freaking out. But, she was over it in 5 min. and ready to keep swimming.
10)And the MOST exciting happening. Ashlyn said her first "sentence"- I LOVE YOU (or at least her version of it). She can also be reverent and pray by folding her arms and closing her eyes. Ask "where is XXX" and happily exclaims "ALL DONE" when we finish reading a book.

here is a short video trying to show her "skills". I would upload another one but I don't have the patience. This one took me forever.

PICS-Here ya go. hopefully, I'll post before another 1mth goes by.

Daddy and Daughter-Easter.

Disney and the Dumbo Ride!!


The Orel Granddaughters- Ashlyn, Sasha, Adrienne.

Two of the Manning Granddaughters (less, Kipin): Sydney, Ashlyn


Ashlyn and her mop of hair.

Attempting to Blog

OK. I am attempting to blog with Ashlyn's face covering the whole laptop screen. She is so nosy. I finally am trying to do an update. My mom gave me the TSK TSK today about not having it updated.

Nothing too exciting has happened recently. I am finally part time now- this is week three. I am working 3-10 hour days (Monday, Wednesday, Thursday). So, having Tuesday and Fridays off is great. Tuesday is grocery shopping, errands, cleaning day. So, hopefully Friday's can be my "fun" day with Ashlyn. I can't wait till it warms up and we can go to the pool and beach. (Not that I am excited to get in a bathing suit, but I'll suck it up for her). We spent last Friday with my friend, Brianna and her kids. She has a little zoo going on at her house- dog, bird, little chicks, and ducks were in the process of hatching while we were there. Ashlyn was memorized with all the animals.

Danny is doing well. He did a fun guys trip out to Vegas a couple of weeks ago with Chris Porter and Matt Davis. Both of them managed to win some money. Danny unfortunately came home broke. But, that's alright. There were no ATM trips, so I call that a win.

Ashlyn's pics to come. She is pulling on me to go somewhere. I think I have a high maintenance girl on my hands.

Pictures

As promised, here are some pics. Just ignore Ashlyn's wild mane. She freaks when I try to fix it, so she goes 'AS IS' usually.

Pictures aren't in date order.

This is what we have been getting a lot lately from our little one. Terrible twos have started at 14 mths.




This is the newest Orel- Adrian Hope Orel.




Fun on the carousel at the Zoo:





Doing what she does best, climbing on things she shouldn't.




Posing for the camera.



Here are all the Manning grankids: Josh, Kipin, Ryan, Joel, Reed, Sydney, Trevor, Tyler, and Ashlyn.


'What are you looking at?"




The happy family on christmas eve (I've really got to start actually styling my hair).

BLOG SLACKER

I know. It has been forever since I put up a post. I won’t bore you with all the reasons (and they are all good ones, I promise) that I haven’t gotten around to providing an update on our lives. I will spare you all the boring details. But here is a quick overview of the past two months for us:

Thanksgiving Night (where I left off with my last post): Ashlyn took her first consecutive steps!!! (She is now practically running around the house (or at least speed walking).

Christmas week: I took that entire week off. It was really nice to just hang out at home and relax and not have to go anywhere. Of course, Danny and I were hit once again with a stomach bug. But, luckily, it was only the 24 hr kind and not the monster bug that hit us earlier in 2008. We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas with the families. Ashlyn got some good loot- shopping cart, baby doll and stroller, toy box, and clothes (among other things). Danny bought me a nice pearl necklace. He won out with the Band of Brothers DVD collection and a fire pit for outstide (the smores have been great!!)

New Years- Stayed at home and I fell asleep at 11:45pm and woke back up at 12:05am. So, I missed ringing in the New Year. L We went earlier that day to the zoo with Ashlyn. She liked the animals and love the carousel. In fact, I practically had to take her screaming off of it.

January- For me, this has been one big blur. My life has been work (it is year end for us, and times are nuts). One week, I got home every night that week after Ashlyn had fallen asleep. Definitely a bummer for me. Danny has been awesome. He has handled Ashlyn without much of a complaint at all while I’ve been MIA.

However, there were some good moments:

· Ashlyn has broken two more teeth (all on the right side of her month). So, I wonder what she’ll look like if she keeps getting all her right hand teeth and nothing on the left.
· An old friend from college (UF days) came to crash for the night. Nicole, it was great to get to see you. You are free to stay anytime your in town. Good luck with #3.
· We welcomed another niece into the family. Danny’s brother, Chris had a little baby girl last week- Adrian Hope Orel. Cute as can be. We can’t believe Chris is now a daddy.
· Ashlyn has hit her terrible twos earlier (she’s only 14 months old). She now will sit down and cry if we take something away or won’t let her do what she wants. I think we have some long years ahead of us with that one.

So, that about sums it up. What to expect in the future:

· Danny and I getting to go see a movie in an actual movie theatre!! A staff of mine gave us tickets as a christmas gift so we have to go use them.
· Hopefully a planned vacation somewhere in March. I’m the slacker that won’t commit to anything. I’d better soon or Danny will go on a vacation without us.
· If all goes as planned, I will be cutting my hours back to 30 hrs a week (3-10 hour days) so that I can spend more time with my little one. Yeah for me, not as much a yeah for the pocketbook. We’ll just have to stick to a budget for once. (I’ve always had a budget worked up for us, but didn’t really try to enforce us staying within it.

I’ll post some pics tomorrow. I promise.