Melissa - Spoiled Mommy

Wordless Wednesday & Project 365

Yes, I do have other kids but she is home with me ALL day long and she LOVES the camera.

And the camera loves her too.

So do I.

And to catch up on my 365 post..

50/365

My cousin hand blows these gorgeous glass charms. His work is amazing...he can do anything you want from statues to charms.

I'm working on a website for him...look for more soon!

 

51/365

No computer, just pure family fun!

I actually played some basketball with the family outside today...after getting my butt whipped & admiring the gorgeous yellow sun setting a picture just felt like the right thing to do.

Other than some sharpening and a texture for the old feel photo look I did nothing else...I loved it just the way it was.

Most of all I love how it captured my entire day. <3

 

52/365

We spent the day in VA at my Moms...as I was taking pictures I noticed the old gas can.
I remember this when I was very very little....nothing special just something old that brought back memories to me.

 

53/365

Today we played outside...planted a few flowers, played basketball, she rode her “motorcycle”, played on the swing set and hung from a tree.
A good day indeed!

 

54/365

Her daffodil was showered by the rain today.

 

For more please visit 5 Minutes for Mom , Wordless Wednesday! & 7 Clown Circus

My Weekend Fun & 3 days of Project 365

36/365

This picture definitely tells a story!!

After my hair appointment Friday I met up with my mom, my cousin, my cousins mom (my Aunt), and 2 other friends and their moms for my Aunts 60^th birthday. My cousin had arranged dinner for all of us and then after we would go bowling…simple and fun.

That’s not how the night went.

I arrived to dinner late and when I got there everyone was already feeling a lil happy from the margaritas they were all very happily enjoying. There was so much laughter, a few happy tears and many whoaaa moments.

When we left there everyone was good…a lil tipsy, but good. I drove because I didn’t drink so my take on the night is very different then what they all remember…ha-ha!

My cousin and I thought it was so funny to see our mothers after having “a few too many.”

Who would have thought that two 60 year old women would party harder than their own daughters?  =) Not us!

At the bowling alley things went downhill extremely fast after checking in and getting our shoes.

One passed out in the bathroom on the toilet, got her up and to a seat where she passed out again, 3 fell down the alley as they tried to bowl, 1 bruised her chin pretty bad after hitting her face on the bowling balls, 1 puked on herself and another, 1 had to be carried out by 3 guys and ALL of us were asked to leave.

What in the world happened!? I don’t know but it was CRAZY…fun, but insanely crazy!

Its safe to say….. I will never show my face in that bowling alley again for the. rest. of. my. life!

 

37/365

After driving everyone home safely I headed on my way home through a nasty storm. I left Virginia at 12 something and arrived home around 3am. Wide awake I sat and watched a little bit of TV until my eyes screamed they couldn’t stay open any longer at almost 4am. At 7:20am a little girl who didn’t like going to bed without her mother at home woke up looking for me.

And so my day began.

The boy plays for a basketball association with his school; the VBA as they call it very good for him. It gives him good practice and it lets him be the big man on the court. He had a game Saturday and we all attended. He plays really well…better than I thought he would since Soccer is his sport of choice.

We had yummy homemade chicken enchiladas for dinner and for desert my little princess shared a few M&M’s with me.

38/365

To sum up Sunday….we all slept in late, the man painted the utility room, I edited a few pictures, we sat around the house, we had pizza for dinner, and we watched the Super Bowl.

Not overly exciting but very relaxing.

Busy weekend!

It was a very busy weekend!!!

Saturday morning I drove out to VA to get The Teenager who had stayed the night at her Grandmother’s house, on the way home we hit The Boys soccer game-which he lost. Once we arrived home we were picked up by The Teenagers BFF’s parents and we drove 2 hours to Greenville, NC to shoot the engagement pictures for the lovely couple whose wedding I will be photography in October.

Once we arrived at our destination I took 500 pictures of the lovely couple and afterwards we drove to watch as the bride-to-be tried on wedding dresses, where I snapped a few more pictures. Then we hit the Greenville mall and afterwards had a delicious and entertaining dinner. We ended up getting home around 10pm that night, totally exhausted! The Teenager and I had such a wonderful time with The B Family. They really are truly special and wonderful people, I laughed more than I have in such a very long time-fun times!

Sunday we headed back out to VA to attend a memorial cook out for The Mans Uncle who recently passed away. I hate that it had to be under the circumstances, but it was really nice to see family that we don’t often get to see.

Oh!!! Some super exciting news…

Well to me at least…I am the Fan of the Week over at I <3 Faces!!

I <3 Faces is an awesome photography website, if you haven’t checked it out yet-- hurry, go now…it’s totally cool!! Holy cow, I just noticed that my Lil Princess made the collage of Spring pictures…click here to see my baby!!

Of course, I couldn’t post and not give a sneak peek to the engagement photo’s….so without further ado…the adorable couple!

Ok, I’m really nervous…I love all the pictures I took but since it was my 1^st real photo shoot I truly need some honest feedback.

Which one of the 2 edits do you like better?

Should I do something different? Is the photo not good? Come on, Give it to me! :)

Kite, Cookies, and Twilight!

Our weekend recap…

Rain, rain, and more rain!!

Poor field conditions led to The Boys soccer game being cancelled Saturday.

As afternoon approached the skies cleared and the sun began to shine. This brought us all outdoors.

We all messed around in the flower beds, admired the new blooms, and reflected on the beautiful day.

On our way to the grocery store, as we were pulling out of the driveway The Man spotted Mr. Bullfrog. He jumped out of the car and onto the ground, the fight was on! We were laughing so hard at The Man on the ground in the ditch, arm stuck in the water under the driveway, feeling around for Mr. Bullfrog who has eluded our capture for nearly 3 years now.

The Man succeeded, we visited and afterwards we let him go sweetly back to his home.

Pictures of Mr. Bullfrog can be seen by clicking here.

The Teenager begged to scrub the tile on the entire kitchen floor with a toothbrush to get off of restriction.

It took her 3 hours of non-stop hard work…she did a good job and was taken off restriction.

( She was on restriction for getting having her phone in her room and getting caught texting after she was supposed to be in bed. )

***

The winds were blowing so strong on Sunday that it made for a perfect day for kite flying.

{ Don't they look alike? I love the expression on their faces. }

Afterwards we made cookies, one of the Lil Princesses most favorite past times.

 

The Teenager asked me to do a mini photo shoot with her; you can view a few of those pictures here.

We cooked a wonderfully delicious dinner on the grill, cleaned up and rented a movie.

*  TWiLiGhT   *

I fell under the spell and I am now hooked!

I loved the movie and now I want to read the books!

I still don’t think Edward is the “gorgeous hunk” other do but I definitely can see the attraction.

I mean, what girl wouldn’t want a guy to love her the way that Edward loves Bella!?

*SiGh*

Babies, Basketball, Love, Friendship & Movies

What a weekend!

Gosh, it seemed like there was something to do every day…maybe because it WAS!

Friday I watched a 2 year old little girl. It was the Lil Princesses first time having a friend over that was near her age to play with. She was so darn excited to have the little girl here. I got up at 5am so I could get on the computer write my post, edit some pictures, and read some blogs. I figured that there was no way that I would find the time to do so once she got here.

Boy was I wrong!!

Those 2 precious girls played together so well. The played dolls, rode bikes (in the house-it was 18 degrees out), had an imaginary picnic, read books/played with the magnet book, etc. Never once glancing or stopping to look at the TV or me-it was so very nice!

I got so much done around the house…dishes, laundry, cleaning the floors, and so forth. I cleaned whatever room they happened to be playing in.

At lunch time they sat side by side and ate…until Dora came on, both heads turned and they were glued to the TV.

After lunch and of course after Dora, it was nap time. Both girls went right down-completely tuckered out.

When the Lil Princess woke up from her nap the little girl was gone, her Mommy came and got her and my Lil Princesses heart was broken into pieces. I definitely have to get them together again soon.

We got dressed (we have to wear skirts to school so we had to change our clothes) and headed to the big kids’ school.

The Teenager had a basketball game. Her team won…they played awesome! My benchwarmer daughter got to play a whole 2 minutes…pathetic, but that’s another post at another time.

The Mans mother met us at the game; she came home with us afterwards to pick up The Teenager so she could spend the weekend with her and go shopping.

Saturday The Boy had his 1st basketball game, afterwards his friend came over and spent the night.

WOW…BOYS!!

So different than girls…they laughed endlessly, stomped around-seriously, it sounded like they were going to fall through the floor, and they played endless amounts of video games.

It’s rare that The Boy ever has anyone over, it was nice and I was truly happy to see him having so much fun.

Sunday The Teenager came home.

Junior, who I think was having a mild heart attack from being unable to talk or see The Teenager for a few days called me Friday AND Saturday to ask beg if he could come over on Sunday and spend time with The Teenager. The Teenager came home at 11, he got here at 12.

When The Mans mother dropped The Teenager off, she also had my nephew and niece with her. The Lil Princess was in heaven!! She loves playing with E (nephew) but what she loves even more is BABIES!! She was so in love, she just couldn’t keep her hands off of B (niece).

After they left The Teenager, Junior and I headed to Blockbuster to find a movie…NOTHING!!

I was pretty mad that there wasn’t any movie out there for all ages…family type movies!!

I was looking for something that 2 adults, an 11 yr.old, almost 14 yr. old, and 16 yr. old could watch!!

There was NOTHING or at least nothing that we hadn’t already seen. What is up with that!?

My kids are NOT allowed to watch R rated movies and even some PG13 movies I will not allow them to watch, same goes for Junior…his parents are very strict on what he is allowed to watch as well so trying to find something suitable for all of us was damn near impossible.

We left empty handed!

After that, the 3 of us spent an hour grocery shopping and headed home where we decided to watch my DVD, A Walk to Remember- Rated PG.

Junior AND I both cried!!!

Ugh, it never fails- no matter how many times (a few hundred) I’ve seen that movie; I always get that huge swelling lump in my throat and cry every.stinkin.time!!

I love it….A Walk to Remember, The Notebook, and Titanic are my 3 favorite “love” movies of all time!!

While the 3 of us were watching the movie The Man made a wonderful dinner for the 6 of us all by himself, kept a watchful eye on The Lil Princess, and played video games with the boy.

I love that man…he is such a great guy!!

After dinner my RST (red headed stepchild) aka The Teenagers best friend called and invited us to see a movie together.

The Teenager, Junior, and I met RST, her Moma, and another girl at the movies to see Bride Wars.

INCREDIBLY CUTE!!!!

The movie made us all laugh out loud. I even got teary eyed…what the heck is up with me!?!?

I guess it was because I can envision my 1^st baby, my oldest daughter getting married one day. And the vision in my head of her Daddy walking her down the aisle just makes my heart feel like someone is squeezing it to death and its going to burst out of my throat. It also reminded me of how truly great it is to have a best friend. I love the friendship The Teenager and RST have together and I hope it’s something that each of them never lose. Because, I honestly love that girl to death!!

After the movie we took Junior home.

We pull up in his driveway and he asks me if he could say goodbye to The Teenager, she gets out and gives him a hug, he holds her tightly and says I need a long hug, I sure have missed ya. The Teenager looks over at me with the look of Ugh Mommy in her face and I just sit there. After the long drawn out extremely uncomfortable hug he leans into the car to ask me if he could give her a kiss on the cheek, to which I reply “OH HELL NO!!” He laughs and says Goodnight.

Maybe it was not such a good idea to watch "love" movies with Junior.

On the drive home The Teenager and I talk. I mention something about the long drawn out extremely uncomfortable hug, she says “I know Mommy, I was waiting for you to say something…I looked over at you!!!” To which I honestly replied “What was I suppose to say? I was speechless; this is as new to me as it is you, darlin.”

She just listened. And we continued to talk all the way home.

These are the moments where I feel like I am a good Mommy, simply because the lines of communication are still open. She can talk to me, and she includes me in the things that she does, not because she always has to but because she wants too. And that alone makes my heart smile.

Arriving home to a cleaned house and a bathed Lil Princess waiting to be tucked into bed by her Mommy and Daddy, I closed the weekend watching Desperate Housewives with The Man. Because on top of everything else he did, he also managed to remember to DVR Desperate Housewives for me while I was gone.

 

Thank you lord for all the wonderful blessings in my life.

Weekend Snippets!

Friday: The teenager had another basketball in Virginia that we all attended. She played almost the entire game, as did my red headed step child aka her best friend. I was very proud of the both of them, they played very well. It was a very exciting game, with us winning 26 to 18!

WOoHOo, go girls, go eagles!

 

Saturday: Busy day! We began our day running a few errands, and then it was off to Juniors house for a Christmas party for the kids. There we made pinecone ornaments, snacked on tasty Christmas treats and played white elephant ornament exchange.

 

After the party we hurried home to find my mother waiting for us. She was there to watch the kids and spend the night. We visited with her for a little bit, teased the Lil Princess that Gma was going to sleep in her bed and then we were off back to Juniors house for the adults only Christmas Party.

At the party we had a few drinks, another white elephant gift exchange {limit $15 dollars} and lots and lots of laughs. It was a very fun and exciting night. The man fought for his SKYY vodka and I fought for my Starbucks, we both got what we wanted and came home 2 happy folks!

 

Sunday: We had a wonderful breakfast as a family. Then it was time to put up the Christmas tree. Our tradition is that we always put it up the first weekend of December, the timing came out perfect because my mother was here and able to join in as well. With the Lil Princess looking on, the boy put the top of the tree on this year. It meant a lot to him. And the Princess put the star up on the top, she was so eager to do so that it had to be done first before we even started to decorate. We all worked hard putting up the tree, it was fun, it was annoying, and it was exactly our house to a tee!

This last picture is blurry, but I loved the way it came out and the silhouette of the Lil Princess admiring the tree.

 

Weekend Snippets!

Thursday: HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

We went to my mother’s house out in VA.

We visited, we ate, company came over, we visited some more, ate some more, talked, laughed, were with our loved ones and then carried our full thankful bellies home.

As you know from this and this the man spoils the Lil Princess, so when I tell you that he also let her devour candy ALL night long should come as no surprise at all! Ugh!

Also, thanks to the wonderful technology we have these days we were able to spend almost all Thanksgiving day with my Dad/Papa.

It was wonderful, it was fulfilling and it was a very Thankful Thanksgiving!

 

Friday: Was a day of rest and relaxation. Well not for the man, he went work. I did do a tad bit of shopping online in the early morning, because I was not about to venture out in the madness of all the Black Friday shoppers. Saving my sanity means more to me than saving a few pennies.

I did go and try to snap a few Christmas card pictures…try being the keyword.

Boy can you please sit up some and Lil Princess that is not a smile.

Boy-good, Teenager-good, Lil Princess-ugh, can you please smile...I know your cold, you don’t have to do the bug eyes and brr to show me.

Different setting: BOY please stop trying to lay your head back on the Lil Princess and sit up straight. And the Teenager, the hurry Mom take the picture look just isn't working!

Needless to say, I’m going to try and take them again...hopefully. If not, one of these beauties will be what everyone will be getting.

Other than that the kids and I did absolutely NOTHING; we just sat around the house-all day!

 

Saturday: We were awakened by a phone call from Junior. He had been away on a Caribbean Cruise and had not been able to talk to the teenager for 7 whole days!! Good lord, you would have thought the boy won the lottery, he was so happy to talk to the teenager! And although she does a swell job at hiding it, I know she was just as thrilled to finally be able to talk to him too.

The boy left early in the morning to go spend the night with his cousin.

The man, Lil Princess and I did our weekly grocery shopping.

The man and the teenager watched Iron Man.

I played with Lil Princess, blogged and got THIS!

Yes, I was super excited and I talked/bragged about it all weekend!!

 

Sunday: I spent the morning on the dumb computer AGAIN…gosh, I seriously need to go to computer addicts anonymous; I got a case of the computer obsession bug…BAD!

I had to get up and look at my new header again and change a few things around. I also changed my email address to match my sassy new blog.

*Please take note it is no longer mylife.mystory but is now spoiledmommy@live.com.*

The mans brother brought the boy home from spending the night with his cousin. The boy had a wonderful time. They don’t get to see each other very much, but when they do they always get along so well.

It was pizza for dinner, loads of Wii playing, football watching, and then my girly shows at 9:00pm.

Oh, and Giants kicked some Redskins butt, my man was very happy so in turn- I was happy!

Weekend Snippets!

How was your weekend?

This was mine…

Friday: The teenager went off with my red headed step child aka her best friend. So the 4 of us chilled out at home catching up on DVR shows again that we just can’t seem to watch during the week.

Was a very lazy night!

The man lately is so tired from work that he falls asleep where ever he sits…poor thang! That meaning, he was asleep by 8:00pm.

Saturday: The man went to work~ OVERTIME!!

My Moma came out here to visit.

The boy had his soccer championship. He busted butt. We froze. His team lost. He was disappointed and sad.

Moma wanted to go by our “one hall mall” to get ideas for what the kids want for Christmas. Once there we came upon something that I didn’t expect to see already….

SANTA!

The kids were NOT dressed for pictures and well to be honest we were all looking a bit rough. But there was no way that we were going to be able to get past Santa with the Lil Princess in tow.

She was so surprised and excited! She told Santa what she wanted for Christmas…she looked adorable, she wasn’t afraid at all, and she was happy!

Now Santa on the other hand…

His eyes they did not twinkle, his dimples they were not merry. His cheeks were pretty rosy, and his nose was like a cherry but I think that was probably due to the cold! His mouth was not drawn up like a bow and the beard on his chin was not as white as snow, kinda yellow. He did have a round little belly, but nothing shook when he laughed like a bowl full of jelly. He didn’t laugh, he didn’t even smile but the Princesses happiness made it all worthwhile.

{Here is the picture they took, sorry about the scan quality.}

She didn’t see any of those things…she only saw SANTA!!

And that  is all that matters!!

Mom left, I made dinner, and the man arrived home from work.

The teenager wasn’t feeling very well, told her to eat and she would probably feel better besides I had made her favorite meal. She did, she ate…she ate it all. She complained the whole time that she didn’t feel like eating, I kept pushing. Bad Mommy! She got up from dinner, stood there, looked at me and said “Mommy I don’t feel well, I’m going to puke.”

Nooo!!!

She did!! She puked up all her dinner, all her drink, and all her breakfast too!

My punishment for making her eat = cleaning PUKE from the walls, floor, and toilet!

F-U-N!

Also, the man brought home ANOTHER one of these at the store.

And once again it turned out wonderfully delicious!

The teenager went to bed and the man fell asleep in the chair at 7:00pm.

Lil Princess complained she was cold, took temperature, and she had low grade fever!

What the?!?

Bathed her, cuddled her, watched Dennis the Menace and then I put her to bed.

The rest of the night, it was just me & the boy!

Sunday: it wasn’t a day of rest; well maybe for me because everyone else was cleaning!! WOoHOo! Bunch of thanks to the man for that  one! He cleaned and reorganized the attic, the teenager cleaned and rearranged the garage, and the boy dusted around the house!

-Spoiled Mommy Day...Hooray!-

Cleaning the attic also meant digging up old things and somehow accumulating more stuff downstairs! The man came across things that I didn’t realize, nor do I even know why  I saved from when the big kids were little.

Like this…Its Rainbow Art, a rainbow water color painting kit.

It kept the Lil Princess busy for HOURS!!

She enjoyed painting and I enjoyed all the beautiful works of art she created for me!

 

Our Sunday Football News…The man was a tad upset that they weren’t showing his team play on TV, but he was extremely happy that they played an excellent game beating the Cardinals 37 to 29!! Go Giants! Now my team on the other hand (Panthers)…I’m just going to make this short and simple, they lost 28 to 45 to the Falcons!

It turned out to be a wonderful Sunday…everyone woke up feeling better, no fever, no puking, it was like the night before had never happened. We got things accomplished around the house and we spent time together. It couldn’t have been better.

Oh, and for our laugh of the day…

The boy was in the bathroom doing his “business” when all of a sudden he yells “Mom!! We have no more toilet paper in our bathroom!!” so I go to go get him some when he yells back “Never mind, I found some that’s used!!”

At this point I begin to laugh…do what?? Used?? Huh??

“No son, you can’t use “used” toilet paper” I yell back. Franticly he starts stumbling to get the words out his mouth because he realized what he had said sounded like... “No Mom, I found a roll, its used I mean its half gone, I mean it still has some up there…ON THE ROLL!! Its not “used” like someone used it.” I just chuckle, give him a hard time, and walk away shaking my head because it’s so…well because it’s just so like the boy to say something like that!

That’s it, my weekend in a snippet!

*Clicking on pictures will enlarge them*

Weekend Snippets!

           How was your weekend?

                  This was mine…

Friday night the teenager had an away basketball game…AGAIN! So it was just me, the man, the boy and the Lil Princess. The Lil Princess was in another one of these moods…WOoHOo! So needless to say she went to bed a little later than usual. A little while later the boy went to bed, and the man, well he had already passed out on the couch at like 8pm.

Fighting to stay awake I twittered and surfed till 12am. Then I left and drove to the school to get the teenager but she didn’t arrive till 12:40!

She won her game, played an entire quarter, and even made a basket…you go girl!

It was home and straight to bed after that!

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

Saturday seemed to go by so fast. Surprisingly after 2 days of thunder and rain the weather turned out to be a beautiful 75 degrees.

The warm weather made it possible to spend some time outside where we came upon this little creature...

 

Eww…and we found this little ugly guy too... 

 

So like always we snapped a picture and laughed out loud thinking of how we couldn’t wait to show it to Papa!!

Ha-ha!

The rest of the night we just spent time together being a family.

After the kids went to bed the man and I caught up on all our shows that we had recorded on DVR…now that’s a job in itself!

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

Sunday we went to visit my Moma!

Yes, I even take pictures when I’m driving...I'm just a little obsessed!!!

My mother’s backyard is like a small little wilderness of animals that just come around and eat and play with no fear in their hearts what so ever. It’s such a pleasant site to sit at the kitchen table and have this little wilderness just come right up to the window and eat… just like a Princess Fairytale!

It was a very fun, pleasant and as always a very entertaining visit!

I took way too many pictures, the kids ate an excessive amount of candy, we scared the heck out of Catherine, laughed till our cheeks hurt, had a wonderfully delicious dinner, and as always we ended the night with pleasant conversation, coffee and crumb cake around the kitchen table.

There's just nothing like being home!

(The boy, Moma, & the Lil Princess)

( Bug hugs for Gma NeNe..we love you so much!)

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

So that was it.....our weekend in a Snippet.

~ Click on the pictures for a larger view ~

Weekend Snippets!

                How was YOUR weekend?

                        This was mine...

Friday night we just pretty much chilled out at home.

We fought with the Lil Princess to go poop with no success.

At 11:30 the teenager got back from her away game and I had to go pick her up from school. She was super excited because they won 46 to 20 AND she made a basket! I drove my red headed step child aka her very best friend home and then we went home ourselves and called it a night!

Saturday morning it was homemade doughnuts again!

The boy had soccer practice at 10 and a game at 11:00. He played his little heart out…scoring a goal then letting one get by him which gave the other team a point. The score was tied up when the other team scored another goal then right before the boys’ team was about to tie the score again the coach called the game due to heavy rainfall. Talk about disappointed-the boy was very mad!

The mans father came out to visit today and watch the boys game. We enjoyed lunch together and had a very nice and pleasant visit.

After he left and day 3 of the nice cocktail regimen that we had to give the Lil Princess she finally POOPED!!! Hallelujah!! (sing it!)

Yes, we actually partied at this moment!

The mans cousin also stopped by to visit today. He has a son who is the boys age so it was nice that they got to spend some time together as well.

And here is how the rest of the night went….

 

         Boys will be boys!

Finally after hours of that we watched Sleeping Beauty with the Lil Princess.

Yes it was her reward for finally going poop!

When the Lil Princess went to bed we all watched Indian Jones.

12am we called it a night! (The mans cousin & kid stayed the night)

Sunday was pretty much a day of rest.

We cleaned, spent time together, and watched football...

Go Giants!!

Yes he was very happy that they won!!

The man and I are still trying to get over the cold we have...mine is being a little more stubborn.

Oh-and the Lil Princess…yep, she pooped 3 times today!

HOO-RAY!!!

******

So that was it.....our weekend in a Snippet.