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.

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