the dooley clan

The Dock

hdooley — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 01:52:56 +0000

This dock and I have a love-hate relationship. The past four summers we have taken our family picture on this dock as the sun is setting. To get all of us showered, dressed and then head out into the blazing hot sun to try to get everyone to look at the camera and SMILE is nearly impossible. We end up taking hundreds of pictures and only get a couple good ones in the process. However, I so appreciate the memories and tradition of the dock. We are able to look back and compare the pictures on the dock and see how quickly the kids grow and change. All too soon it will be easy to get everyone to smile so I choose to enjoy the crazy process we go through to get these pictures while they are young. Here are some of my favorites from this year!

Show me your ugly face……

hdooley — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 03:18:19 +0000

Head over to my sister’s blog to see ours.

Shark Boy

hdooley — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 14:18:08 +0000

We are on our annual family beach trip to Ocean Isle this week. I was looking back on my daily posts from our trip last year and it made me want to post again. What a great way to record memories that are so easily forgotten. Last night we decided to visit the OIB pier for our nightly activity. Even though we were surprised to find out there was a fee to walk on the pier, we discovered it was well worth it. Evidently it is common to catch sharks at night because they are circling the lights around the pier. We must have seen 20 baby sharks caught in the hour we were there!! Jake was the first to ask if he could hold one and did so fearlessly to our amazement. Then he continued to ask everyone if he could hold their shark once they reeled it in and then would throw it back in the water. Maddie was next to give it try and freaked out once it started wiggling around. Even Nick Dooley jumped in there with his lifelong phobia of sharks (this was what I call exposure therapy)

Not only did we get to experience sharks, but we also met Adam. As we walked down the pier we saw a teenage boy too far out swimming in the water back to shore. A group of his friends were yelling down to him from the pier. Of course being the nosey family we are we asked what was going on and his friends said he just did a back flip off the pier and was swimming back to shore. Uncle B yelled down “I will give you 20 bucks if you come up and do it again”. Well needless to say this young lad swam back to shore as quickly as he could when he heard of the big bucks being offered. He even allowed me to capture his stupidity on camera. I must say I am questioning our decision now because as I was tucking Jake in he said, “Mom remember that guy who flipped off the pier? That was cool.”

Goodbye Chucke Cheese

hdooley — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 13:03:43 +0000

Happy Birthday Jake Dooley!!! I cannot believe my baby boy is 4 years old today! He had such fun running around Chucke Cheese playing games, gathering tickets and buying “prizes”. Each one of my children have wanted a Chucke Cheese party around this age and now I am happy to say ……good-bye to Chucke Cheese parties!

Jake with his cousin Jack…yes, his sisters think they are funny giving bunny ears.

Jake wore his spider-man mask the whole party!

Good-bye Chucke Cheese, thanks for the memories!

Camping 2010

hdooley — Tue, 18 May 2010 01:44:32 +0000

So we not only survived our third annual camping trip with the Hubatka family, but thoroughly enjoyed it! Since we started this tradition when Jake and Lucy were in diapers we are finding it to be easier each year. The kids entertain themselves in the creek by fishing for minnows, tadpoles, and this year we added snakes. We had not even seen a snake the two previous trips, but we had a couple close encounters this year. The first was a rattlesnake that Maddie almost stepped on as we hiked down the mountain. Ada Grace was the next to see a water snake while she was in the creek and froze as she screamed “SNAKE”. Thank goodness Larry was close by to rescue her. He actually ended up hunting down the snake and catching it in his net and then slipped on a rock and fell setting the snake free as he was laid out in the water. There are too many memories and funny moments to list them all but here are the highlights according to my kids. Tonight at dinner I asked them what the best part of the camping trip was:
Maddie said, “Tootie” stories by the campfire by Mr. Larry. (Last year Larry made up a story for the kids as we sat by the campfire and my kids remember every detail and couldn’t wait to hear more this year. He actually incorporates a biblical theme to each of them, it’s pretty amazing. It’s like he is a creative pastor or something)
Ada Grace said, playing in the creek, jumping off the log and having smores at night.
Jake said, “throwing rocks in the creek with Lucy”.
I highly recommend finding a family to go camping with every year. It is an inexpensive adventure that creates so many memories and allows you to enjoy uninterrupted time with your family. So here is a slide show of the Dooley/Hubatka camping trip 2010. I know the song seems like a random choice but all our girls sang it constantly during the trip (they know it from Alvin and the Chipmunks the Squeakel).

ings

hdooley — Mon, 03 May 2010 13:52:31 +0000

- Counting down the days until our camping trip…9 days, the last day of school….19 school days, our beach trip…. 6 weeks.

- Training with Maddie for the Girls on the Run 5k this Saturday.

- Feeling like the Lord is moving in our lives.

- Wondering why I shaved my husbands chest.

- Spending too much of my time reading the last book of the Twilight series.

- Planning to go to dinner and for pedicures with my mom and sister for Mother’s Day!

- Wanting to bake on this rainy day but should go to the gym instead….or maybe gym first and then bake later.

Crazy Hair

hdooley — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 02:38:54 +0000

On Saturday night we were all sitting at the dinner table trying to decide what we were going to do as a family for the rest of the evening. Everyone was throwing out ideas: play the wii together, play board games, flashlight hide and seek, then someone said crazy hair night. We took a vote and all the kids voted for the crazy hair night, so crazy hair it was! The kids told me exactly how they wanted their hair. Ada Grace styled Nick’s hair for him and Nick styled mine. Then the kids took it a step further and put on silly outfits also. We had a crazy dance party with our crazy hair and considered it a successful, affordable family night. Many people have asked for the pictures from that night, so much to my chagrin here they are. Notice Nick and I’s are the smaller ones at the bottom.

Asian Cabbage Salad

hdooley — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 17:27:42 +0000

I got this recipe from my friend Kelly about a year ago and have had so many request for the recipe I decided to dedicate a post to it. It is a great salad to serve this time of year. It is light and is a perfect side dish for cooking out.

1/2 head of cabbage chopped

4 chopped green onions

1 package of chicken flavored ramen noodles

1 small package of slivered almonds

Dressing:

1/2 cup vegetable oil

3 tbsp cider vinegar

1 tbsp sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

ramen seasoning packet

Mix dressing together and refrigerate over night or all day. Brown almonds and noodles in 1 tbsp of butter (salt to taste). Chop cabbage and green onions. Toss almonds and noodles in last. Toss with dressing about 30 minutes before serving.

It serves about 4 to 6 people so you may want to double if serving a crowd. It is not as good leftover because the noodles get soggy.

Enjoy…….

Brown Buns

hdooley — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 11:37:51 +0000

Only the grandparents will think this is as cute as I do, but I just had to post it. The way he sings this song from preschool with his deep voice and rhythm makes me laugh. You can barely understand him so let me write the lyrics out:

5 brown buns in the bakery shop, 5 brown buns with the sugar on the top, Along came a boy with a penny to pay, he took 1 bun and he ran away… 4 brown buns in the bakery shop and so on…..

Presenting Jacob Dooley……

Five things that made me smile….

hdooley — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 01:29:46 +0000

While I was cleaning the house on Friday. I decided to grab the camera and get a shot of each of these so I could remember the daily sights at this season with the kids.

The first is Jake’s night stand….You know what every 3 year old boy keeps handy. His toothbrush, lantern, piggy bank, his sister’s knife from her tea set, racecar, Steelers football (not sure where that came from, probably the Altmeyers house), rocks and coconuts (at least that is what Jake calls the acorns.)

Evidently Maddie left a sticky note for Nick on his desk in the office. They have gotten into writing each other notes, sometimes that works better than verbal conversation for the two of them! And on a Barbie note none the less. Of course I have no idea what type of cable is in the picture, but they are all over his desk.

Ada Grace’s bed with her Barbie’s and buttercup. Her silly bands are to the left also…they are the hot new must have for those of you who are not in the know.

Jake’s bed…he keeps his stuffed animals lined up at the end. So cute!

Maddie made a count down to the end of school and hung it in the kitchen. I must admit I am just as excited as they are for summer to be here!!

I am going through a blogger’s block I think. Short post with pictures will continue to be my preference for a while. I do want to continue to record memories of our life, but am having a hard time keeping up with regular posts.