Ice Cream Winners :)

We've been working hard on our homemade ice cream recipe to enter into the Ice Cream contest at our school this year. And it all paid off...we took home first place last night with our Blueberry Cheesecake Ice Cream...in fact I had a wife ask if she could pay me for the recipe because her husband had declared his new favorite thing!

So here it is

1 block of cream cheese-whip until smooth
Add 2 tsps of GOOD vanilla ( i used the stuff we got in Cozumel)
Add 1 can of sweetened condensed milk ...Whip it all up again
Add in 2 cups of heavy whipping cream (nope, this is not a skinny version:)
Add in 1 tbsp of lemon juice
Whip it until its pretty thick
(this is cheesecake layer)

Put 1 cup of blueberries on the stove with 1 tbsp of stevia and 1/2 cup water. Cook until berries have popped and its a thick, syrup like. I used a potato masher to smush the berries.

Now in a large casserole dish put 1/2 of cheesecake mixture in bottom. Layer cool whip ( i did use the reduced fat cool whip but at this point whose counting calories?) on top. Layer 1/2 blueberry syrup. Repeat...make sure blueberry syrup is last layer for visual effects. Take a knife and swirl top layer.

Freeze for at least 5 hours....AND EAT..It SOOO super rich and so STINKING GOOD!!!

What did we win? A $50 giftcard to our schools uniform store....we are gonna save that for Christmas when Goober has worn out all his chapel pants knees and has no toe left in his shoes :).

More pictures from our summer.....

My mom's parents eating with the littles at the beach house. I'm pretty sure they were both conning the adults out of their food.

Later on that night we all went crabbing. This picture is definitely not my best but I think its funny because Goober is obviously pouting. I wouldn't let him ride in the back of the truck, down the highway, with the adults :). What an awful momma!

Crabbing with Cousin Mason, Uncle Paul, Daddy, Uncle Chris, Captain, CC and momma...I think he caught 3 or 4 that night.

How we spent the 4th....Momma reading from the side of the pool...HALLELUJAH!!

Grandparents playing with the babies in the pool.

Goober doing tricks with cousin Mason.

Soaking in all that attention!

Attacking others with water guns.

Playing ball with Uncle Chris

                    Cleaning crabs for dinner that day....We all got an education ;)

                                                                    YUMMY!!!!!!!

Cockroach!!!!

This morning should have been filmed for a reality show...we would be millionaires. We were getting ready to go to the splash pad with our neighbors and I went in the kids bathroom to get the beach towels. As I grabbed them a FLYING COCKROACH flew out at me....I screamed so loud that both of my littles started doing the crazy dance and ran away screaming too. Goober ran straight in and started climbing me as I was climbing the sink. I started laughing so hard that I couldn't compose my self long enough to console the two littles who at this point were hiding and still screaming. I finally got Goober off me (who was laughing just as hard) and we ran out of the bathroom. The suicidal cockroach ran after us, thus the whole situation repeated itself but this time in Goobers bedroom. I told Goober that we needed him to be the man (bwa hahaha, come on I'm 29 begging my 9 year old to be the man :))...I even told him that if he found and killed the bug I would pay him a dollar....which is a lot to him because thats how much he gets for taking out the garbage every week :).
He was a man on a mission after that. He grabbed my tennis shoe, found that sucker and wailed on him....all the while I am cheering him on with my whole being and the two littles are screaming and still doing the tippy toe dance all around. When he killed it I walked off to grab the money and when I returned Ribbit was having her turn on the bug with the tennis shoe, saying how mad she was at that bug.
When it was all over we were all out of breath and very happy to be leaving the house :)

More pictures from our time at the beach.
My brother knew of a secluded beach with a lot of big shells....so we left Baby Boy with CC and took the two bigger kiddos for an adventure. This walk was a little longer than a mile....it was okay on the way there, on the way back it was torture :)

However, we did see some beautiful scenery....like the lagoon.

AND then we got there..look...do you see anyone? NOPE!! Do you see that big ole bird?...he stayed the whole time...it was so nice!!!

Eating some goldfish at lunch...check out that hair :)

Me and my girl!

Father Son Day

Adam and Goober left right after church this morning or Six Flags...Goober won a ticket by reading a certain amount of books and he has been patiently waiting all summer to go. Adam called me around 4:30 and said it was great weather, hardly any lines and they were soaking wet from all the water rides. It now 9:30 and they are still gone so I am assuming that they are having an incredible time. Mom and the 2 littles had a good day too....watched Veggie Tales, skyped with family (1/2 of which Baby Boy showed off his bellybutton), played bunnies, unicorns and cows, rode the horsey (mommy) around the living room several times, ate PB&J sandwiches and took shaving cream baths :). I think everyone is going to sleep well tonight!!!

More pictures from the beach...

CC took Baby Boy out in the water...he eventually started to like the water.

Oh the cuteness in this little thang.

Looking for crabs and stingrays and fish....anything he could catch in that net.

Baby Boy was still able to sleep at the beach in his dome...covered in sand :)

In fact, he was able to take several naps that week, thanks to his 5:00/5:30 wake up time every morning ...cuddling with Daddy.

Check out this video that we watched in church this morning...struck a nerve with me.

Bringing back the crazy

We tend to do "crazy" things...like adopt 3 kids in 13 months. We have been called crazy to our face for that one...oh well, God has a crazy will for our lives then I guess.
However, we also schedule crazy things for a family of 5 with a 17 month old as well..like yesterday for instance. We had Goober's "friend birthday" party...friend is in quotation marks because we already had his "family" party. He invited 3 boys along to play putt putt, ride water bumper cars, play laser tag and take over an arcade for the afternoon. We then finished at our home with ice cream, cake and presents. That wore us out...but then we headed to downtown Ft. Worth to watch not one, but two Drive In movies!!! It didn't even start until 9 when the sun goes down) so we were ALL up until 12:30 watching Turbo and Despicable Me 2......got home at 1 and CONKED OUT!!!! The kids did okay during the movie...the whining got to be a little much at one point..also I swear a large (face size) bug flew at me, bomber style, during Despicable Me 2. Adam acted as if it was not a big deal but I had a hard time paying attention after that.

So this morning came around very late and we didn't really start moving until 11ish :).

We were blessed this afternoon with several tickets to several different upcoming events and waterparks by a family at our school. So now Adam and I are cramming all these fun things into the next 2 weeks, along with dentists, doctor, eye doctor, meet the teacher and church events....these kiddos aren't going to know what hit them. We are so very blessed by our school family!!!

Belwebaba

Baby Boy is now obsessed with bellybuttons...which comes out as belwebaba...while he grabs your shirt and tackles you to shove his finger into your bellybutton. Its all funny until the neighbor boy is over and Baby Boy decides to pull your shirt down for easier access to your belwebaba.....good thing I have fast reflexes :).

I saw Goober sitting on the toilet today as it flushed...when I asked him why he said " because it makes the flush quieter". Duh mom. He has been grounded from TV this whole week...oh yeah, he did something that bad. I have been doing lots of "fixer uppers" this summer and has asked him to take out the trash that contained 2 cans of EMPTY spray paint. He came back in and said " those spray paint cans were not empty mom". They should have sent off huge RED FLAGS in my head but instead I said "yes they were". Done Deal Right?....Nope, the next morning Adam found some graffiti on the side of the house.....real close to where we put the garbage until garbage day....hmmm? wonder who could have done that? Now we have nice IVY GREEN spray paint on our white brick house.

I took the two older kids to paint pottery after Adam got home from work yesterday. Ribbit chose a little ceramic "baby kitty" to paint. SHE TALKED THE WHOLE TIME SHE PAINTED. One of my favorite lines from her hour long conversation with everyone in the store was " we have baby kitties at home too, but I don't paint them because they won't stay still".....and another " this kitty is girl baby kitty, we don't like boys, right mommy?...we are girls and so we love chothers (each other)". Everyone was cracking up as she made small talk about her kitten. When we were done that thing had 3 layers of different hues of pink on it, 2 purple bows, green eyes, heart shaped polka dots on it back and bright red finger and toenails...can't wait to see it when it comes out of the kiln!!

More pictures from our fun over the summer!

One Friday my mom watched the kids while me, Adam, Chris and Micah (LOVE HER) went to Auburn. Chris really wanted to win her over from Arkansas who is her current love :). We had such a good time and I love getting to spend extra time with my little brother...he is just so cute :).

I WAS STOKED when we walked up to Biggin Hall and the door was unlocked!!! I got to tour my old studios and see the big ole press that started my love for printmaking!!!

The lovebirds in front of the new Cam Newton statue.....oh Cammy Cam!!!

It had started to rain but we still wanted to take this picture with the National Champions sign in the background!

No visit is complete without a stop at Toomers for lemonade!!!! Adam got a Monster Drink instead.EW!

Catching Up

I'm going to try to post as much as possible before school starts....between Adam starting a new job, both kids and mom going back to school and volleyball season there won't be ANY extra time!

Almost every morning this summer, Baby Boy has woken up first, followed immediately by Ribbit. We all sit in the living room, sipping on milk and watching "The Cat in the Hat". Goober sleeps in a little but from the minute he wakes up he is going. For example this morning all 3 kids took turns being pushed in and pushing the doll strollers around the sectional. Ribbit would yell " Lets burn this candle" as Goober pushed her 50 mph around corners. She would fly out of the stroller and laugh. Baby Boy would chase them with the empty stroller and squeal as high as he possibly could.

Here is a picture from our time in Alabama. This is my grandfather listening to my dad play guitar while Baby Boy helps. My grandpa has dementia so when we picked him up he had no clue who any of us where but by the end of the night he slowly put everything together and was having a good time. 

 This is what started 2 seconds later...whirling dervishes!! Goober started break dancing and the other two joined in!

The next day was Girls Day and the 3 of went to get manis and pedis. This was Ribbits first time and she did great (minus when she touched my moms freshly painted toenails and they had to be redone).

She watched everything they did and asked lots of questions.

Relaxing :)

Look Momma!! I have pretty toenails and fingers! She chose pink and purple..duh.

Later on that day Micah (Chris's girlfriend, WHO WE LOVE) came over and brought the kids birthday presents. Ribbit wasn't too fond of Micah at first, simply because that is HER UNCLE CHRIS but after Micah gave her Princess Candy Land they were best friends!!!

Summer Panic

We are now in full panic mode....meaning, we have 3 weeks left of summer and need to get TONS done. Thats why this and next week are being spent at the doctor, eye doctor and dentist. Almost everyday has an appointment and/or school shopping assigned to it. We also only have 3 weeks to pack in everything we haven't done yet...waterpark, pottery painting, E's friend birthday party (this Friday), drive in movies, dinner with friends...and for mom re-writing syllabi and finishing up my summer reading.

Baby Boy spent the day with the lady who will be watching him this year and she said he did great. She thinks he is really smart (duh) and cute. He loved playing with other kids and didn't even notice when I left.
Baby Boy has also learned how to tackle Ribbit and he takes her down frequently...this morning alone he has stolen her milk twice and the minute he gets her down, he grabs the sippy cup and hauls butt to get away from her....its quite comical once Ribbit stops crying.

Here are some more pictures from our summer!!!

We spent one day in Pensacola visiting my Aunt Robin and decided to drop by the Naval Aviation Museum while there. I have been here several times in my life but each time is just as neat, the kids loved being able to sit in the planes and touch them.

Here they are with the Blue Angels.

Best looking Pilot I know!

I love Ribbit's face....too much personality :)

This was Goober's favorite one to sit on.

Hey MMMOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMAAAA!!!!

Next stop, Aunt Robins house....she got the kids a big bag of goodies for the beach and their birthdays. Afterwards they had fun playing baseball outside, swinging and eating cupcakes she bought them. Thanks Aunt Robin, we loved visiting you!

Engagement story

Kinzie here, Duh, but I wanted to jot down some memories from out engagement in honor of our 6th anniversary...which is TODAY!...remember its me so it may not be correct but it's what I remember :).

I was watching TV at my little (tiny) home in Auburn when Adam showed up...I was already in my PJs ready to relax. About the same time he got there my accountability partner (someone you study the bible with and pray with) called me and was in tears. She had seen her boyfriend (one of my and Adams best friends) just leave the church with another girl ( my best friend). Neither she or I knew that they were both leaving to help Adam with his proposal so she was pretty upset and I was confused. Eventually Adam got my attention and said "you might wanna take a shower" while he handed me a piece a paper. Then he walked out the front door. I forget what the paper said but I knew immediately that Adam was about to get engaged :). I told my friend " I love you but I think Adam is gonna propose tonight" and she let me go.
I showered, got dressed and found another clue in my tiny house before heading to Samford Hall, where the 2nd clue led me which said " go to the place where we first hung out with friends". When I got to Samford Hall I looked around and saw our mutual best guy friend (boyfriend of crying girl) sitting on the university sign. I remember asking him if Adam was about to jump out from behind the sign in a gorilla suit...I mean this is Adam we are talking about. Joel said No, prayed with me, and gave me another clue. It said " go the place where we first met".

I'm not kidding when I say I sat there for a good 10 minutes guessing where to go. Joel said no to every place and thought I was joking until I started to cry from being so overwhelmed and really not being able to remember where Adam and I first met. Sooooooo, he drove me there.....to the bowling alley....BIG STINKING DUH! We met in bowling class...I even tried to set him up with my bestie, which obviously didnt work out.

At the bowling alley I spotted my bestie, who was there for it all. She and I signed up for bowling together, she met Adam the first day, she figured out he was into me before I did, she was there for our first date (the pow wow and art gallery)...well not there, but while I got ready. Needless to say she was crying and hugging me within seconds and handed me another clue. It said "come home".

So I did, back to my tiny house. When I unlocked the front door Adam was standing there in a suit, with candes and flowers all around the living room. My cat Elvis had been locked in the bedroom and was throwing himself against the door so there was also the sound of "meow, thud, repeat" in the background. Adam got down on one knee, said something about a namesake which made me laugh and say something stupid like " what does that mean?"...and then I said Yes!... The best part is that he whipped out a sharpie and drew a ring on my finger....the ring he had ordered still hadn't come yet and he said he just couldn't wait to propose (now that's true love)....and by the way the ring came in 3 days later....but my sharpie one was just as beautiful (not).

Then we started calling people....I'm not sure why but our parents were out to eat together that night so that was easy and then we called friends.....friends came over, took our pictures and that was that.

We got married the next July, (8 months later), even though I begged Adam to push it back to Christmas....he said No to me, as I hyperventilated in the middle of Hobby Lobby, true story.

Six years later here we are, 3 kids, 2 full time jobs (finally) and 1 good God who has always shown us grace though we continue to look to our own strength and turn our backs on him.

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Feeling blessed

Whew, don't know about you but birthdays wear me out...especially the way we all celebrate.

I turned 29 on Wednesday and we stopped celebrating about 1 hour ago (Friday at 9)....which don't get me wrong, a girl could used to, but we are all exhausted.

On Wednesday Adam took me out for lunch and was super nice to me all day, meaning I got to watch a TV show that didn't involve cartoons, singing cats and/or transformer alien things....so I watched Wheel of Fortune, really I did it just to make the kiddos cringe :).

Thursday night we all went to dinner to celebrate at our new favorite Mexican joint. Adam told the waiter that we had a birthday and I think the guy thought he meant it was one of the kids. So out loud to the whole restaurant he announced that "Kinzie has a birthday" and then he looked at Ribbit and said " Kinzie, how old will you be". When I made a weird face and answered " 29" he got real embarrassed, dug deep in his drawer of tricks and said out loud "Awesome, everyone today Kinzie is turning 21" ....then he smiled at me like it was our little secret. Geesh, I am turning 29, not 109. I gave him the weird look just b/c I have never been asked that in a restaurant. Now everyone is going to think that Adam and I are two juvenile delinquents who started popping out children of a different skin color at age 12. Whatever, it makes me laugh just thinking about that poor waiters face as he squirmed.

Today, Adam gave me the gift of time...thats right he didn't go to work and stayed home to clean and watch the kids all day! I ran several errands, all very slowly while holding coffee in my hands :). I also finished two big projects (outdoor patio furniture and curtains for the playroom). Then Ribbit and I went off to a very girly antique mall and looked around discussing how everything was "beautiful" and why "God is bigger than tormadoes, so tormadoes can't suck up God" and that "we can do anything we want to as long as God says we can" and that "this cute little stool wants to go home with me and help baby bunnies get up into their chairs".....I thought about putting tape over her mouth but I didn't have any tape. Goober was at his last day of camp and Baby Boy got to spend the whole day with Daddy!

Tonight we celebrated with our neighborhood...man I love where we live. You see the teenager to the left of us just turned 13 on Sunday and the wife to the right of us just turned 32 on Tuesday....so WE HAD TO have a block party to celebrate 3 birthdays!! They all came over to our house and we chowed down on pizza, garlic bread, little smokies wrapped in bacon (LOVE THEM), cheesecake, cookie cake and then guzzled down soda. They may be why all of our children (6 of them) ran around like crazy monkeys and then crashed super hard an hour later. We waited until the sun went down and then set off fireworks which was a hit with the kids and a good way to end the night. We are so blessed to have believers on both sides that we can have get togethers with and share life with.

Here are more pictures from our fun fun busy busy summer!

My little artist, look at that new technique, two paintbrushes at once, both using purple!!

Goober bowling at the first day of camp ....our first day in Alabama.

Giddy up Papa!!!!!

Baby Boy prefers to take his naps snuggled up with mama...okay by me...look at that face, I could eat it up!!!!

Guys, that swimmie diaper does nothing for me!!! Let me in!!!

Getting his "farfugnuggen dinglehopper" (no clue what kind of bat this is) baseball bat from CC and Papa for his birthday.

Opening her birthday gift from Uncle Chris!! Chris took Goober out for a night of go-karting, putt putt and Mexican food for his birthday gift. When we got back from Alabama I asked Goober what his favorite thing about Alabama was and he said " my night with Uncle Chris" :)

Uncle Jason stopped by the next day and was helping Baby Boy find bugs!

Rainy Day

Today (and apparently the rest of the week) was ick.
Ribbit went to Princess Camp from 9-12 and Goob went to Adventure Book camp all day.
Baby Boy and I went to my classroom and cleaned our little hearts out!!!

Some funnies--
When we left McDonalds the other day (fun outing with all the mommas and kids from church) he put his hand on his stomach, looked at me with a gross face and said " what do they cook that food in?...Grease?"....my reply was "why Yes, Yes they do".

Ribbit inherited a ton of dress up clothes and has been putting together some great outfits all day. She decided that this one red hat made her Ms. Tuffet and we have to call her that if the hat is on. I had to apologize to Ms. Tuffet several times today for calling her Ribbit (real name).

Baby boy now shakes his head yes to everything...so you can say ...Are you a wild rhino? and he will shake his head yes. .....You can say...Are you a pretty princess and again the answer is yes. However, if you hold salad up to his face he vigorously shakes his head no :)

Watercolor painting outside (this summer has been 10x less brutal then the last 2 weather wise). My daughter is the only naked one for some odd reason, thats pretty usual though.

Clapping for himself after he made a handprint!!

The boy neighbors all together to watch the airplanes land. We love our neighbors...they are believers and all of our kiddos get along! It was funny how none of the kids wanted the dinner their parents packed, but instead wanted everything that the other families had brought.

I love this picture for 2 reasons...one Baby Boy is walking back with Jadah and Ribbit is hanging out with Dustin....a true blending of all 3 families.  The other reason is that Goober is wearing his bright orange headband that he wore for a week straight and it was a straight throwback to the exercise clothes of the 80s.

A picture I recently painted for the nursery of one of our friends. They are expecting their 3rd son in August.

I found this picture from San Antonio and thought that this is a visual testament to how active our children are. They CANNOT sit down..not one for one minute. Not in a stroller, high chair, their bed, etc. It's amazing that we haven't had more accidents with them.

2 CUTE pictures from San Antonio..as we were leaving the hotel the staff gave each kid a backpack filled with toys and an apple. Doesn't Baby Boy look like he is begging you to touch his apple so he can punch you?....BWA HAH AH A....the cuteness level is almost too much!!!