a la Carte

Thankful

2011-05-29T21:46:00.003-04:00

I am thankful.

Thankful that we live in a country where we are free to choose our professions and can do what we love .

Thankful for all those that have fought through the years for that freedom.

Thankful for those who continue the fight.

May we never forget. Happy Memorial Day!

New Additions

2011-02-28T06:00:00.002-05:00

We had some new additions to the farm this weekend.

Our Australian Blue Heeler momma, Foxy, had 8 puppies. What a woman! She is a great momma, this is her second litter and she has done great with both of them. What is extra special(to us) about this event is that we own the daddy too. He was the first dog that W and I got right after we married. We got him because the blue heeler that W had before we got married was getting on up in age and now we have puppies to replace Doc as he is getting on up in age. Doc has been an amazing cow dog - afraid of nothing. He always has had this mischievous look and has never let a cow - even those temper-mental mommas - push him around. We have a many of funny Doc stories (maybe I will have to share a few sometime). For a long time he was our child. HAHA.

Another thing about the blue heelers that live at our house is that they are in deed cow dogs. Those dogs love nothing else in life but to see a truck or a gator heading to the cow field because they know it is working time.

It is always interesting to watch a new litter grow and the personalities develop. It's also fun to watch their coloring develop.

But for this weekend, these two have kept a watch on the dog house and Miss Maddie has made sure that Daddy kept the dog feeder full so "Foxy can feed the puppies." Lindsleigh just ooohs at them.

Oh by the way - anyone want a puppy? :)

~sarah

Wordless Wednesday: He and I

2011-02-23T15:05:00.000-05:00

Hunk of Meat Monday: Deep Dish Pizza

2011-02-07T05:00:00.001-05:00

With Maddie playing soccer a couple of nights a week lately, I have been looking for easy, hearty meals that I can prepare ahead of time or in the time that we are home from school getting out and time to head back to town for the game. Last week I came across this recipe for a Deep Dish Pizza (get the full recipe by clicking on the link) by Christy Jordan on Southern Plate. It was a hit with the girls and William.

All you need for the filling is: Ground Beef, Pizza Sauce or Spaghetti Sauce, Italian Seasoning, Parmesan Cheese, Mozzarella Cheese, an Onion, and Pepper.

Start by browning your beef in a skillet.

Then, dice the onion and add to the browning beef.

While it is browning, prepare your 9x13 baking dish by spraying it with cooking spray and then covering the bottom of it with the mozzarella cheese.

When the beef and onion is finished browning, drain and then stir in the the pizza sauce or spaghetti sauce. Note: I chose to use just a basic spaghetti sauce from a jar because I am just not the biggest fan of pizza sauce.

Then prepare the crust mixture of All Purpose Flour, eggs, bit of Salt and a little vegetable oil. Mix those ingredients in a separate bowl and then pour over your meat mixture.

Top off with the Parmesan cheese and place in the oven to bake for 30 minutes.

While it is baking you will have time to put some clothes in the washer and help little ones with their homework.

After the pizza has baked -

and you have served it to your hungry crowd don't be surprised if you get these results from a little one who had a fight with a M&M earlier in the day.

(yes I do wash her face, but blue M&M is tough to get off)

See other Hunk of Meat Monday recipes at Beyer Beware

Wordless Wednesday: "I'm a Soccer Mom"

2011-01-26T06:00:00.003-05:00

She Twirls

and whirls

listens

and plays.

She cheers and watches.

A Bull Sale...from a 5 year old

2011-01-17T07:30:00.004-05:00

Last Saturday while I was traveling to Atlanta for American Farm Bureau Convention - Maddie and William had to go to a Bull Sale. Yes I said HAD to because we needed 3 new bulls and it is getting close to time to turn the bulls in, so we needed the bulls.

Now very early on in her life Maddie took over the cow herd and now all the cows and bulls are hers - according to her. She just lets her Daddy and PaPaw manage, feed, vaccinate, and help birth them. She doesn't even let Lindsleigh claim any. Since calving season is now on the farm every day when she gets home from school she has to get the calving report from her Daddy and if she can sneak out with him on Saturday mornings she goes on at least one cow check a week...so she is trying to earn her cowgirl stripes.
Knowing this was going to be a long day for our little 5 year old, I packed her a bag with many things to do inside. One activity I gave her was to take pictures of the bull sale so she could share it with me when I returned home. Thank goodness for digital photography because this child would break us going through film. Here are a few of the 39 shots she took -

A pen of bulls that Daddy and PaPaw were checking out:

Of course no Maddie photo shoot is complete without a shot of herself:

The sale ring:

Some of her other busy work:

And finally the new bulls made it back to the farm:

Needless to say she had a very fun day with her Daddy and PaPaw while taking care of her cow herd!

Wordless Wednesday

2010-10-21T05:47:00.000-04:00

[on Thursday due to tech difficulties :) ]

Turning Blue and Graduation

2010-07-24T22:28:00.000-04:00

On March 23^rd my lil brother left for the Army. I haven’t written a lot about it – ok I haven’t written a lot about anything (the past few months have flown by) so I will try to condense it in one post. It was definitely an interesting ~16 weeks of adjusting to him being gone like that for sure. I think my “coping “ mechanism was focusing more on the girls because until I would see him like at family weekend and then again at graduation it wouldn’t hit me how much I was really missing him being around too. Anyway, the first few weeks were interesting watching the girls adjust and interpret what was really going on.

You see they really did not get the impact that he was actually leaving, because when they said goodbye he was just getting in the car with Aunt Kylie, Granny and Grandpa and the next day they just came home without him. Maddie's first take was that the Army was a weekday job and Uncle Justin would come home on the weekends. The very first Saturday she found out that wasn’t gonna happen. “Oh,” was her exact response as she looked out the window of the car and contemplated what I had just told her. We did not know what Lindsleigh was thinking because at 15 months she couldn’t really tell us and did she really notice.? YES SHE DID. Two weeks into it Kylie was showing Moma a picture on the computer of Justin and said “there’s Uncle Justin” and L just about jumped out of my arms to look at the door of Moma’s house that we all come in and out thinking he was coming in. So yes she knew he was gone.

So finally we made it to Week 9 of training but week 11 of being gone and we were able to travel to Ft. Benning for Family Day. The girls were ecstatic. When we first got there I think L was in disbelief we were really going to see Justin she just stared at him at first.

Maddie was excited – she finally got a PT shirt just like Uncle Justin and an Army “costume” just like him too. (The poor Army their terminology will be butchered by the time M gets finished with it.) He even taught her to salute. All in all a great 2 days. Neither one really liked taking him back to the barracks but we promised we would be back in 5 weeks so Maddie and Aunt Kylie started another countdown.

Finally the countdown was over and came graduation – July 8^th and 9^th and the girls were ready to go again. When we got to the barracks Thursday morning for the Turning Blue ceremony, there were guys in training doing sit-ups and of course they were saying up-down-up-down. Daddy was toting L through the sand pit that we have to park in and he said she started chanting right along with them. Up-down is her favorite game. The Turning Blue Ceremony is were an Infantryman receives the blue cord that they wear on their shoulder of their uniform.

The next morning was the graduation. Graduation was very neat, of course M loved the band and there was also an infantry demonstration, complete with blank booms off in the woods and the sounds of rounds going off. The girls were not scared at all. I guess after fireworks they were not phased -to be honest there were some adults that acted way sillier and goofy about the noise than children did. M was just fascinated that they had pink smoke.

I have to give the Army very much credit on a hot, muggy July, Georgia morning they did not keep us out there very long. The entire graduation was right at an hour for two companies. So after a good pass in review ....

They were graduated and they girls got to give Uncle Justin his "Ranger" the bear they made with Aunt Kylie for him -

The girls had lots of fun prissing around that morning in their dresses that DeDe made for them. They even marched around the graduation field while we waited on Justin after things were over.

And that pretty much sums up the trips to Ft. Benning. Except M keeps wanting to know when are we going back. She loves going to the museum and the PX.

A Post Coming Soon

2010-07-15T15:11:00.001-04:00

A post is coming soon. I promise! There are so many things that I have not posted but I think I will take them one by one and catch up. Here is a little teaser picture for the first one.

Happy Father's Day

2010-06-20T06:48:00.000-04:00

The girls and I would like to wish all the fathers that we know a very happy Father's Day. We especially want to wish the following a great day:

The Best Husband and Daddy

The Best Daddy and Grandpa

The Best Father-In-Law and PaPaw

The Best Brother and Uncle

(*side note - yes my brother is not a father but Maddie decided at Mother's Day that it was "not fair" Aunt Kylie and Uncle Justin should not be left out of Mothers and Fathers Day and I think you can tell why in the above pictures.)

We truly hope everyone has a wonderful day!

Easter Recap

2010-04-23T08:38:00.000-04:00

Here are some snaps from our Easter this year. Yes, I know that was a few weeks ago. I finally uploaded from my camera to my computer. There was on like 120 something pics - I had to think of that TV commercial from a few years back were all the pics were wondering who was going to get deleted. It was for Walgreens or something anyway. I have to make this quick - Maddie is at school and Lindsleigh is still asleep and I want to get this done and still have time to grab the ole pen and paper and write my brother a letter. Yep - Army Basic Training has resorted us back to the old way of doing things and I need to get him a letter on his niece update.

Coloring eggs was a lot of fun. Maddie was really into it this year. Lindsliegh was great too, she sheered us on from her high chair as she ate a snack after her nap. Maddie wanted us to make the eggs as birght as we could get them - I think we pretty much did. If you can see the pecan pies cooling on the table in the background - Maddie was my key sioux chef on those too. Like I said we had a lot of fun this year.

Here we are in our Easter duds after church at Moma and Daddy's

Notice little one still had her cast on. I covered it with one of Maddie's big Sunday socks, y'all that thing was so dirty after 4 weeks.

Here is one with Moma and Daddy and the girls. I love how Moma coordinated hers and Daddy's outfits.

And just because little one had a broke leg did not mean she was going to miss the first time she could actually hunt eggs. She got out and crawled in the grass and found the eggs and put them in her bucket just like her sister. So fun was had by all. Just can't wait until next year and the new baby cousins will be able to hunt, we might just have to plan a party.

~sarah

A Tale That Makes My Heart Swell

2010-04-18T10:28:00.001-04:00

I just had to share this story from this week. My SIL Kylie (check out her blog on being an Army wife surviving with a hubby in Basic) has a Bff K (I am using anonymity, because I didn't ask before blasting this on the good ole www). K has two girls B, 11 and PG, 5. Let me just tell you, PG and Maddie are a pair together. Princesses everywhere beware. And even though B and Lindsleigh are 10 years apart the bond they have in common is they are the sisters to the Princesses. But back to the real story.

B had to do a speech at school for the Tropicana Speech Contest. Which if you know us, we truly support kids and speeches. She told me when we dropped Lindsleigh off at Kylie's to spend the night last Friday that she was doing the speech and that she was writing it on Lindsleigh. AWWWW. But in trying to get out of the house before L realized what we were leaving her I forgot to ask when she had to do it and stuff.

Well, Wednesday afternoon my cell phone rang and it was B. She was excited, she had given her speech that day and had WON her class. She told me that now she had to give her speech again on Friday (4/16) for the entire school. Note: She doesn't go to a small school. Kylie told me later that afternoon when we were walking that the title of the speech was "My Little Friend." AWWWW. Isn't that the sweetest thing. I mean all of the things an 11 year old could write about, and she chose a 16 month old. Of course I have to admit I think she is a pretty great 16 month old but she calls me Momma.

Anyway, B gave her speech for the whole school and did a great job, I can not wait to see the video K took and finally read the speech. I will probably need a box of tissue.

I have to add the cute part was watching W, after I told him Wednesday, I would see him shake his head from time to time and just say "that is so great."

~s

Wordless Wednesday

2010-02-24T17:50:00.000-05:00

Catching Up

2010-02-19T09:11:00.003-05:00

In an attempt to catch up here are a few highlights of what has been going on lately in our world.

1. Kelli and I went baby shopping for "Baby Girl." We had a blast, it was the first time I had been official baby shopping and I wasn't the one with the baby. We went to Jacksonville and after spending almost 3 hours in Babies R Us trying everything out and ohh and ahhing we were starving. So of course lunch at The Cheescake Factory was in order. And yes we ate light and had dessert.
2. Lil Miss has finally demoted crawling to her second mode of transportation and became a toddler.
3. We have had some seriously cold FL weather. Daddy always seems to have us a fire when we get to work even though he hasn't been feeling that great. He doesn't like his little girls to get cold.
4. We spent all night at the hospital waiting on Mr. Peyton Tyler McCook. I have to brag a little on Maddie. She wanted to go so bad and William and I decided to let her tag along, we ended up being at the hospital for 15 hours - that lil 4 year old was a trooper. Finally at 2:30am William got her to go to sleep (that's kinda why the bow it very kadiwompus on her head). Peyton finally arrived just after 6. Maddie never whined or was bad. And of course when we got to go back, even though she was excited to see Peyton, the person she was still the most excited to see was her Jenny. The horse was her prize for being so good. She bought Peyton a toy skunk, that rode in his bassinet everywhere.
5. This is the day after Peyton got here, Maddie and I went back to visit. We are enjoying getting some little boy loving. And now the countdown is on for Kelli's "Baby Girl" to get here in March. I love that my cousins are having babies that will be raised with my girls.
6. Not so sure about this one, but it was a cool day and Maddie decided she needed to wear her snow hat to play Dora on the Wii.
7. Maddie and William went squirrel hunting.
8. Lindsleigh and I went to the Florida Farm Bureau Women's Conference in St. Augustine this year. She had so much fun dancing at the pajama party. She even did the electric slide with Ms Nicole.
9-11. Valentine's Day at school. 9 and 10 are the gifts we made Maddie's teachers. We lifted the idea from Becky Higgins. I have been reading her blog for the last few years and she always has great ideas to do with the kids and I was so excited that we had Valentines to do this year. For Maddie's Valentine cards for her classmates she drew a picture and I scanned it in, printed it our Valentine size and we taped lolipops to them. I will have to post on that some other time.
12. And last but not least we ended up having a very low key Valentine's day because this little one was sick. A fever over 101 warrants all day in bed.

So in as quick nutshell, here is the last month.

2009 Review

2010-01-14T10:34:00.000-05:00

The other day I was blog reading and was inspired by Rebecca Cooper making a year in review video for her family, so I decided to do the same thing. What a great thing for the girls to have not all the picutres we take get scrapbooked (latley not many at all, but that's another story) but the video is a way I can include more. This excercise was good for me to explore and review my pictures and see what I had and didn't have, the way I took pictures, but most of all see how much changed over the year.

If you feel like watching I hope you enjoy.

Carte Family 2009 from Sarah Carte on Vimeo.

This video is intended for personal use only.

Happy New Year!

2010-01-01T00:00:00.001-05:00

Happy 2010. Hope it brings many blessings to you and yours.

Chef Jack's Corn Chowder

2009-12-31T09:11:00.001-05:00

This is a definite must share recipe. Thank you Paula Deen. I have been wanting to make this for some time now. I am not sure why I delayed, maybe the weather had to cool off enough, I don't know but it really was easy to make. Not to mention delicious. I did not realize that I would actually post about this, so no photos, but here is the the link to the recipe. We enjoyed our chowder with BLT's - made for a great cool night supper. Hope you enjoy.

Sarah

Christmas 2009

2009-12-29T21:41:00.000-05:00

And the stockings were hung by the chimney with care...

In hopes that St. Nicholas would soon be there. And guess what? He did come, despite the flooding rain that we awoke to that morning.

Our first happy camper arose to find this sitting in the living room for her...

So her squeals awoke the second camper, who really did not understand why all of these toys were in the living room. And she had much more fun staying close to her sister and playing with Maddie's toys than hers...

Finally William convinced her to venture over to test out some of her gifts...

but in the end until Maddie played with her she was just happy to sit and watch.

So after all the present opening was done and breakfast was on its way someone was getting a little silly and had fun making everyone laugh at her and her new spoons.

And after breakfast the rain had stopped so this one was able to go out and enjoy her new 4 wheeler

Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas

2009-12-23T19:45:00.000-05:00

Wishing you all the very best this Christmas Season, from our family to yours.

One.

2009-12-15T16:01:00.000-05:00

Happy First Birthday, Lindsleigh Katherine. Our lives have been forever blessed with you in our life.

We love you!!

Momma, Daddy and Maddie

Thanksgiving Recap

2009-12-01T23:35:00.000-05:00

Wow!! Can't believe Thanksgiving has come and gone already and well today starts December. Here is a little recap of our Thanksgiving.

We had a family first this year - we went away for the holiday. So on Wednesday the girls, William and I packed up and headed for Asheville to William's sister's house.

Maddie thought we were never going to get out of Georgia - at one point she sighed, "Georgia please get out of our way so we can go to Carolina."

All was good the next morning though when we went to the Aberdeen Inn to eat breakfast with Grandmamma and PaPaw. Tom and Michele treated us so well and the food was wonderful.

On Friday we went to the Christmas tree farm so that Maddie could help Aunt Stephanie pick out her Christmas tree. And while Maddie was busy looking for the perfect tree this was how Lindsleigh wanted to enjoy the tree farm...

We had to keep taking turns holding her because the silly goose kept flipping over like that... I guess the world just needed a new view that day.

Anyway after the all the fun it was time to come home. As we crossed the FL line on Sunday Maddie exclaimed from the back seat, "WOO HOO Florida ROCKS!"

Catching Up

2009-09-29T17:01:00.000-04:00

Wow - I cannot believe September is over tomorrow. What a crazy busy month it has been and I really am having a hard time remembering where it went but here a few of the highlights -

William turned 40 (which you already knew if you checked in earlier)

This sweet girl turned 9 months -

I can't believe how fast time is flying with this one too. She is crawling at a high rate of quickness and she is very quiet and sneaky. Baby gates are her arch enemy right now - she knows they are blocking her from the fun she percieves on the otherside. She is pulling up on everything and if she could just get the balance part completely down she would be off on two feet. Still no teeth yet though, but that is not slowing her down at all.

We also celebrated this two wonderful ladies and their birthdays this month:

And last but not least we started peanut harvesting. In short this means, I say goodbye to my husband before daylight and goodnight way after dark for the next few weeks. Except for yesterday when I was actually in the field with him. And when I say with him I actually mean I was on one tractor digging peanuts and he was on the other. So we would wave when we would pass. Sometimes him being married to this farmgirl comes in real handy - like when he doesn't have enough people and I can drive a tractor.

Anyway that is September in a nutshell (I know bad joke). October is already shaping up to be pretty busy too, can't wait to finally put my fall decorations out - I have had them all ready for several weeks just haven't got it all done yet. Soon, soon, soon, because one of my pumpkins is really into scarecrows and pumpkins this year so she is ready to get the scarecrow out.

40

2009-09-10T08:37:00.000-04:00

Today marks another milestone in the Carte house. William turns 40. It is hard to believe this is the tenth birthday that I have celebrated with him - Maddie had some pictures out the other day of us back we we first started dating 10 years ago and well lets just say - we have both changed just a little ;-)

The Girls and I just want to wish the most wonderful husband and daddy, a very Happy Birthday!!

4th Birthday and First Day of Pre-K

2009-08-31T21:35:00.007-04:00

Nothing like being a week late with this one. My computer and photo editing have not been cooperating this last week so tonight I finally got the pictures finished without a computer crash or two or three...you get the point.

Anyway - Miss Maddie turned 4 the 23rd and we did celebrate. I have to admit that this was really her best birthday yet. Now don't get me wrong the others were great, but this year she was really into it. Turning 4 and having a party was right up her alley. Everyone came over after church and William did his Daddy thing at the grill cooking up Hamburgers and HotDogs. Maddie had a beautiful Ariel (the mermaid) cake made by our friend Mrs. Vickie. And well as you can tell from the following pictures she had a blast with the gift part...

We surprised her with a horse. There are two things she completely loves at this point in her life and that is princesses and horses. This birthday was a combination of both - princess decorations and cake along with a horse as a gift. Her 4 year dream come true.

So after all that excitement, she started VPK the next day. sniff, sniff -This means Kindergarten is only a year away - oh my!

Today she came home with her papers from last week and she is already learning to write her name - nothing like growing up all at once. But it is so much fun.

Four

2009-08-23T09:36:00.001-04:00

Happy 4th Birthday, Sweet Girl. We love you sooooooo very much. XOXOXO!!!

Love,
Momma and Daddy

Wishing you...

2009-07-04T12:41:00.002-04:00

a very Happy and safe 4th of July!!!

Moments

2009-06-29T22:37:00.008-04:00

My one little word for 2009 (see here) is: moments. Taking in the moments, being in the moment, documenting the moments, living in the moments that make up life.

This is a moment that I am so glad I captured.

Look Momma - No Bumbo

2009-06-09T20:46:00.005-04:00

This lil' miss is quite proud that she is able to do this on her own now.

Happy Birthday, Moma!

2009-05-26T07:00:00.004-04:00

circa 2006

Wishing the best Mom and Granny a very Happy Birthday today. Thanks for all you do for us!

We Love You!

May so far

2009-05-25T16:20:00.001-04:00

Splish Splash

2009-05-11T22:12:00.003-04:00

I stumbled across this picture tonight and just had to post it now -

Could she be any happier that she is climbing into her new pool for the first time?

Maddie has been wanting a blue pool for - well - since last summer. We have been telling her since December that it was coming but the weather had to get warmer - since March she has thought is was warm enough. Finally on May 8th - William decided it was warm enough and suprised all of us. This is not the blue pools that Maddie has eyed in the "Star Store" aka Wal-Mart - but by the look on her face and how many times she has been swimming since Friday - she does not mind one bit that it is a blue cow trough from the Co-op. I mean what true little farm girl can go without swimming in a cow trough. (Hint her momma and aunt both did, and a few cousins)

So my little fish is having so much fun and wants to spend every waking minute in the pool - so I think "her boyfriend named" Daddy (I will explain that later) has made her summer.

So much to tell...so little space

2009-04-27T22:57:00.009-04:00

Wow - so much for posting more tomorrow - two weeks later and here we are.

Just as a recap we had a great Easter. Maddie opted to not hunt eggs on Easter because we went to an Easter egg hunt the day before and there was not anyone else for her to hunt with on Sunday so she spent her afternoon casting her new Dora fishing rod and shooting baskets.

She is actually getting pretty good. Of course Uncle Justin and I are a little jealous that we never had a cool basketball goal like that.

The weather has been great, we went for our first family cow check the other day. Maddie was worried the entire time about Lindsleigh's hat possibly blowing off. Such the good big sister. We managed to keep it on. Of course as we are riding Maddie is showing Lindsleigh "her cows, her heifers, her calves, and her bulls" -- I am beginning to think WTC might have to start a new herd for Lindsleigh because Maddie thinks the current one is hers. But I can't blame her - that is what she has been told and she did dutifully keep up with checking them this calving season.

Maddie is still enjoying going to school two days a week. She is doing so well with her letters and numbers.

Happy Easter!

2009-04-12T21:51:00.003-04:00

Just a quick photo of the two princesses today! I will give more of an update tomorrow - but for now I am one tired and blessed momma of these precious girls---

Hope everyone had a great day!

Sisters

2009-03-31T14:25:00.006-04:00

Today I was uploading some pictures off of Moma's camera for her and this particular series cracked me up. Lindsleigh is loving being able to sit in her Bumbo and Maddie likes it because Lindsleigh can be a little more in her world while she is sitting in it. But the various expressions here are priceless.

They are growing up way too fast!!

Cupcakes 101

2009-03-10T03:59:00.002-04:00

12 Things at 12 Weeks

2009-03-10T03:56:00.001-04:00

1. You are adorable and have the sweetest little personality.

2. You smile at people when they talk to you.

3. You light up and smile when you hear Maddie.

4. You have found your hands and you smack on them when you are hungry.

5. You absolutely can not stand a wet diaper.

6. You are staying awake longer.

7. Your swing and play mat are your favorite things.

8. You snort when you cry.

9. You went for your first ride on the Gator today.

10. People say you look like your Grandpa.

11. You have gone from being called "punkin' head" by your sister to now she calls you "Sissy."

12. You have added so much joy to our family.