family date

If you ever are in the Orlando area this should be one of the first stops you make (if you haven't already.) It's delicious and full of choices and oh so perfect for a hot Florida day!
It's also the family favourite and made for the perfect family date. Now if only the trees would stop pouring their pollen all over everything I would be even happier. I've never had allergies before moving here and now....the trees have it out for me. Big time.
*ahh choo*
According to Maribel I have the "bless you's."

>^..^<

still laughing

This girl keeps me in stitches. I notice the closer she gets to the big 4 the funnier she is, and sassier...I can feel my mother's "It's only fair" coming at me from the other side...along with some "I told you so's."

>^..^<

winter camp out

'cause we're crazy like that.

I can't tell you the last time I went camping. Seriously, I think it was for Young Women's which was a couple of decades years ago. shhh. But when Maribel asked if I was coming with her and Joe and that I could sleep in her tent (which was pitched in the backyard) with her how could I say no? Especially when I could hear the excitement in her asking? So I surrendured the comforts of the indoors and picked up some weiners and 'shmellows and proceeded to have a pleasant evening.

Sure it was a little chilly (for Florida's standards-like, in the mid 40's) but we all just snuggled up in our sleeping bags and told altered Fairy Stories to include Maribel in them until we all fell asleep. I have to admit, it was nice to hear nature sing it's night time song again. The icing to my cake?  I didn't see one spider. Yessss!!!

I just might rethink the "NO camping" rule...

>^..^<

galosh by gosh

It's been raining cats and frogs all day with very little sign of letting up so instead of staying couped up inside snacking on peanut butter and crackers (a family favourite) we headed outside for a little rain play.

Joe came outside to play with us and we decided to have a little family toothpick race to help celebrate Father's Day. Maribel watched closely to ensure that everyone stayed in the game and jumped a few more puddles. We decided to head in side after a few bright flashes but before running indoors I thought it might be a good thing to check out her boots first. 

Mini puddles in your shoes. Hee Hee Just fill your galoshes and slosh around a little. It's like holding a seashell to your ear to hear the ocean. Well, maybe not exactly like that but close enough.

Happy Father's Day!  

>^..^<

sunshine and soda pop

Joe had to work the evening shift and left us girls to our own creative way to continue the day so Maribel and I had ourselves a little picnic in the park to celebrate the first day of Spring. I couldn't think of a better way to spend the day drinking soda from a glass bottle and laughing our day away.

It was absolutely perfect weather, the sun was shining with a slight breeze to keep us cool and Maribel was quite content laying on my back asking me if I wanted, "piggy tails or a pony tail?"

Thank goodness for the self timer button or this memory would be pushed out by the next adorable thing M does. It also helps me realize that it's the little things that not only make me happy but keep me happy ;0)
I wish you a memorable spring with all the sunshine behind every cloud!

>^..^<

the rains came down...and the winner is

We ran through a few practice runs of my activity for the upcoming Primary gathering and had great fun building houses on the "rock" and the sand. Oh how the rains decended and the winds blew and great was the fun watching our foolish man's house go splat.

Maribel sang the children's song Wise Man and Foolish Man (for added drama) with the actions while I created the rain and wind. She thoroughly enjoyed watching the distruction of the worldly built home. *on the sand*

*psst* if you take a close look you'll see the winner's name for my little Dear Lizzy covered inspiration book is written in the sand since my lil' monkey wasn't exactly up to performing heehee...

DL Giveaway winner from Jennifer Carlberg on Vimeo.
Don't forget to turn off the music on the side bar ==>


YAY Julie from Canana!!! I have this all ready to go, just need you to email me your details to Funky4Pickles{at}gmail{dot}com :D
Now to get my little monkey to dance her way to bed....ha!
yeah right!

>^..^<

brrrr baby, it's cold inside

We were invited to lunch at the Gaylord Palms with a tour of Ice afterwards.
Seriously, so cool! heh heh-pun totally intended

Remembering the reason for this blessed season.
This display left me breathless...


I guess this is the closest we will get to snow in Florida ;0)

Ho Ho comes this week!
Are you ready?


*>^..^<*

gobble gobble

Happy Thanksgiving

I have so much to be thankful for <3.
My happy healthy family and watching them play together, being happy and healthy myself, my faith that brings me so much peace and joy, my wonderful network of friends from all over the continent, and being Canadian so I can celebrate 2 Thanksgivings!

So what are you thankful for?


>^..^<

bitter sweet

This visit was too short! But I don't think any time frame is ever long enough when my family comes down to visit. At least in my books.

This was the first time my brother Dave has visited Florida so he had his list of must do’s which included fishing, going to the beach, and paying a visit with Mickey. The tides were rough, so rough that he lost his snorkle and came back with a broken flipper. And If it wasn't for Joe there wouldn't be any proof that he caught any fish, and well, you can see how the kid pops out when visiting the Mouse. LOLMaribel is one lucky girl! She has 2 uncle Philip’s and she adores them both! This visit Maribel really attached herself to her Uncle Phil (with 1 ‘L’). They played a lot together. It was so sweet and brought tears to my eyes on several occasions when I would sneak peeks at them playing.So this is what my dad looks like 150 lbs lighter! Such and inspiration!
This was his 4th visit to Florida and this time we took him to Disney for the first time, revisited the beach, and ended it with something extra special that I will never forget.On the last day, Dad and I visited the Orlando temple and had him sealed to his parents for all time and eternity. Words cannot express the emotions felt, so powerful and so sacred. What a way to end a trip.

Until next time dad and bros! Hopefully I’ll be the one crossing the border next time =)

a pumpkin for my punkin

With All Hallow's Eve creeping up we thought it best to hurry and pick out a pumpkin so yesterday we loaded into the car and off we went to the local pumpkin patch.


Maribel was so excited to go pick out a pumpkin that she cried when we drove by because I had to make a u-turn to get to the patch.


After it all was said and done we headed to McD's for a very healthy *cough* *cough* dinner with some much needed playtime in the playground making friends along the way.



Honeslty, I couldn't think of a better way to spend my afternoon.


Now to look up some fun pumpkin recipes. =)

button showers

Our trip to the park was thwarted due to rain. Boooo! So what better way to kick the rainy day blues then to sort momma's buttons? I couldn't think of anything either so that's what Miss Maribel decided to do.
As a child I loved sorting my mom's buttons and thought I'd join in on the fun! Oh how the memories came flooding.



Have a great long weekend! I hope it's sunny and full of wonderful memories =)

bring on september

I can't believe it's September already! That's insane in my books. But good things will happen this month, I can feel it.


For instance, my niece and nephew began school this year. Aidan was sooooo excited for his first day in Grade One. He counted the sleeps til the big day.
Sherry, on the other hand didn't share her brother's enthusiasm for starting Kindergarten.
While Aidan was very outgoing and freely talking with others, Sherry just blinked her large eyes at her teacher, her schoolmates-well pretty much anybody who looked at her. Poor thing.


Looking at these photos really makes me homesick. I would have given anything to have had my presh niece blink her eyes at me. *sigh* 2010 seems so far away.


But on a side note: did you know that it's 115 day's until Christmas? I just thought I'd share that little bit of info with y'all.
Stores already have their Christmas isles up and running so I guess I better get crackin, eh?

i love you more

6 years ago today at 1:30pm Joseph and I said our forever 'I Do's'.
Which also means I've lived in Florida for 6 years too. wow! where did the time go?!?
Tonight we will be celebrating with dinner at a cute Italian restaurant called Il Pescatore and this time I'm getting dessert! heehee Ah L'amore Y



I often ask myself how I got to be so lucky to have so much to lose. I feel so blessed to have Joeseph by my side. He puts up with a lot from me and that alone deserves an award for the most steadfast! Love you babe MUAH!!!

Eternity is a long time and I'm going to enjoy every moment of it!

Happy Anniversary sweetheart!

Thank you so much Grandma and Grandpa and Aunty Anna for watching our little boo for us.

keeping busy and receiving blessings

I'm missing our lil' Stinky Winky something awful. *sniff*

Thursday evening Grandma went up to South Carolina for the weekend and asked if she could take our little Boo with her. Who am I to deny Maribel a fun trip with her grandma? So naturally I said yes.

Hmmmm what to do... what to do...

~* Keeping Busy *~

With the borrowed time Joe tidied up the garage and cleaned the aquatic turtle tank. Good thing too because it was getting a little pungent and if I can smell it, then goodness knows who else down our street could smell it and wonder where that stench is coming from. Oi!) So he was very productive. I on the other hand was stuck at work wishing I was home, or in South Carolina with my lovelies :0)I played some more LocoRoco to pass the time. I've now found 5 little LocoRoco dudes! Woo Hoo!

Later we went to see "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince." Awesome BTW! It was my second time seeing it but since Joe hadn't seen it yet I was totally willing to take one for the team :P

It's so nice to have some time together kid free, but we found that most of our conversation was about Maribel so really, we weren't alone. Our little miracle was with us in our thoughts and words.

~* Receiving Blessings *~

Today we went to the temple to do some work for my paternal grandparents. Oh to feel the Spirit and serve our Lord. It was so awesome and humbling to be able to do the work needed for them. I only wish I had known them better. I have the memories of talking to them on the phone when I was a child and having my Dad right beside me reminding me to "speak up hunny, they can't hear very well." I would very much love to hear their English accents again. I'll just have to wait a little longer ;0)


I'm so happy Maribel comes home tomorrow. I need her little whirl wind self to play with me so we can make a mess out of her toys together. Well, not a huge mess. I just cleaned the living room. heehee


Have a great weekend!

There is Nothing More Precious Than Family

This week has been one that I will remember and treasure for the rest of my days.


Dad, Dan, Aidan and Sherry arrived via driving early June 30th. It was so exciting to see my Dad again. He looks so awesome now he is 90 lbs lighter! Way to go DAD!!!
Maribel and Sherry hit it off right away as you can see those two were as thick as theives.

We all had a surprise for Dan on Wednesday. We asked him to pick up Maribel from her dayhome and Betty Lou picked up Pearl from the airport. He was completely clueless. It was awesome.

Vic flew in late Thursday with a terrible kidney infection. Poor thing. But that didn't dampen her mood for wanting to headed out to Cocoa Beach the next day. But before we loaded our cars we had the most wonderful news. There will be another Mrs Carlberg joining our family. Phillip and Michelle are now engaged!
YAY!!!

Good Ole Cocoa Beach!

We celebrated Independance Day all day and what a blast! We finished the day with several hours of fireworks and sparklers. It was so nice to have so many of my family here to celebrate a true 4th of July!


I am truly blessed to have such a wonderful family and extended family to celebrate holidays and everyday life with. I know our Heavenly Father has a plan for us and I am so grateful that I get to live it with my families.

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to all the Daddy's out there!

The Wedding of All Weddings!

Day 3
The Wedding

Maribel and Joe were the first to wake up.
Nice and early.
And I mean nice and early.
Like 7am early.
I must speak to those two.
Seriously.

We all got ready early around 10ish and arrived at the Villanova's St Thomas chapel. Well as you can see, it's more like a cathedral. The stunning beauty and architecture really took my breath away.



The walkway leading up to the chapel was lined with these beautiful flowers.


I think this one is a Peony.


Maribel was getting a little restless so we tried to keep her occupied so she was scanning our programs under the marble Jesus statue. It was too cute to watch her pretend. When she saw the stained glass windows she asked Grandma where the monster was. Shrek has been her movie of choice the past few weeks, so it made sense. *giggle*

We told Maribel that she was seeing a princess today. She asked me every 5 minutes where the princess was so I had to tell her that she was getting dressed. Maribel then said, "Pincess is nakey. She need to get dessed." She then proceeded to tell everyone who was willing to listen. Too cute!


She started acting up so I we took her outside to let her settle down. As you can see it was a nap that she needed. Uncle Phill was so sweet and took her from my arms as they were ready to rot off from carrying her for 30 minutes.


This little guy is one of Joe's 2nd cousins and he is so stinkin' cute! I love the look on his face as he checks out his Uncle John. We think it was the mustache. LOL


I am so blessed to call these wonderful people my family! As miss Anna so often and sweetly reminds me, I had a choice. Well hunny, I'm so glad I chose well! ;0)




When Jolene came down the isle she was a beautiful princess. I couldn't get a decent photo inside so I had to wait outside for my chance. Just check out cousin David's smile! They really do make a beautiful couple!

I have to say that this wedding was one that I will remember for many years to come. Everything from the beautiful church, to the happily ever after couple to the stunning beauty of our Heavenly Father's creations, and finally the joy of being with family. I thought I would take one last look at the church before heading to the reception.


I love weddings! Now off to PARTY!!!