Way Behind

I finally figured out how to get Instagram photos up on the blog.  Yay!  Here's a teaser until I have more time to catch up.  It captures the spirit of our entire vacation for the whole family.  :)

And one more.  I can't leave out this cutie patootie.  

2 and 6

I'm a sucker for my niece and nephews.  Merritt in sticking with his character selected a party theme that wasn't easy to just go out and buy supplies for.  Julie had to special order a sheet to put on his cake.  I volunteered to make Ninja headbands to fit in with the Lego Ninjago theme.  They were really quick to make and super cute on the kiddos.

I of course couldn't leave this cutie out since she was celebrating her special day too.  While she's cute as a ninja, her favorite is Elmo.  So Elmo she got: 

Love those sweet kiddos.

Busy week

We've tried to fill our week with as much excitement as possible in order to make the days pass more quickly while Andy's away.
We started out with having Camy visit.

(There might be a video of Kinley and Camy "pushing" Sophie in the Cozy Coupe with the Jeep.  I caught enough flack about it on facebook, so I will not be sharing it here.  I thought it was hilarious, the girls thought it was hilarious, and they all survived just fine.  That's what matters right?)

Saturday night, the Fenders came over.  Four children four and under.  Erin said it best: "controlled chaos".

I'm stealing Erin's photos.  This one might be my favorite from that night.  

We just might manage to turn him into a Georgia boy.  His favorite color is RED.  

Sunday, I braved Publix with 3 kiddos.  The toughest part was finding space in the car for them, the groceries, and Nate's birthday balloons.  I should have photographed that, but I was pretty sure the guy loading my groceries already thought I was crazy.  ;)

We celebrated Nate and Julie's birthday with a pool party.  I have no photos.  I'm a slacker.  My sisters slack on sharing their photos.  If ever they manage to get them online, I will share them.  :)

Monday I treated myself to a babysitter and a pedicure.

Tuesday morning we were up before the sun because of these two.

If they weren't so darn cute, somebody might have gotten hurt.

Since we were up already and it was overcast and "cool", we headed to the zoo.

And Five Guys afterwards.  

Kinley ate more peanuts than anything else, and Sophie managed to eat every bite of the grilled cheese the two of them shared.

Wednesday we had another sleep over this time with Merritt.  No photos of that either.  I tried but they were all too blurry.  We had fun swimming, swinging, going to the movies, and swimming some more.

We've also been spoiled by grandparents this week.  Today will be the first day we haven't seen at least one of them in a week.

Today's excitement will be horseback riding (If the weather cooperates.  Last week it didn't.), and a trip to the airport.  Kinley's very excited!

Prepare yourself for the heebie jeebies

...

Ready?

I warned you: 

Pretty sure this was a black widow.  She had quite the web full of babies under our diving rock.  We've been noticing the growing web there for awhile but have just been avoiding sticking our hands under there.  Today when I saw the massive amount of baby spiders in the web, I couldn't ignore it any longer.  I soaked those babies with some bug spray.  By the time I came back from putting it away, the mama was trying to escape the wrath of the spray by coming out into the open.  Stacy squashed her just to be sure she was dead.  Zooming in on her is even creepier.  Note to self: keep up with cobwebs in the future.

Now that the grossness is out of the way, I'll share some cuties.

Kinley dictated what to "send" to Andy today.

 She thinks it's more fun to write capital E because then she can add all the extra lines.  ;)  I have no idea how she came up with the 19.  It was today's date, but I think that might have just been luck.

Luck is not on this child's side.  Here she is showing off that she can drink out of a straw finally and the teeth she has doubled today.  Yep, doubled.  Poor thing.  

She was Sophie two-teeth for so long, then she earned a half tooth on the upper side, and today the other upper side tooth has broken through along with two back molars.  She's pretty cranky about it too.  

Hard at work

With her trusty purple crayon.

For Nana

(And for those of you like Uncle Stacy:  The photos that look like there is something wrong with my camera are from Instagram.  It adds filters to your photos to look old and funky. )
I've posted a lot of these on facebook, but Nana will definitely appreciate them.  

I had to start with this one.  Sorry Judy.  ;)  The good news is they survived.  

Kinley took a self-portrait of her and her B.F.F.  Look at all those gray hairs!

They were wearing matching bead necklaces.  You can see a little bit of Kinley's.

What happens when you tell Sophie no:

So tenderhearted.  

Or dramatic.  

You decide.  ;)

Two and a half teeth are good enough for eating cole slaw.

I only fed it to her because she was begging for more food after I'd already shared my catfish and fries.  Plus she'd eaten her own food.  I DO NOT eat cole slaw.  I cannot even stand to smell it.  She isn't my kid.  Or it skipped a generation.  I believe it was a side dish to nearly every meal my dad ate.

Back to the 2 1/2 teeth.  Leslie captured the new half tooth here:

We had a rough week last week.  Our fridge and A.C. went out.  I didn't feel well, and the kiddos were extra crazy.  KB sweetly crawled into my bed for a nap on Thursday afternoon.  

Moments like that make you forget all your troubles...the afternoon nap might have helped too.

Then Friday, Saturday and Sunday they were different kiddos.  Playing extra happily with each other.

Note to self:  Kinley can dress Sophie:

And do her hair:

Speaking of hair, Sophie likes to put bows in her hair.  Not necessarily keep them in.

Today we were back to screaming (Kinley) and hair pulling (Sophie) firs thing this morning, so we loaded up and headed to the zoo.  We were there right at opening and could play on the playground in peace and the weather was nice and cool.  We also went to a bird show.  I've managed to avoid that one during our previous visits.  The parakeet house usually exceeds my limits of birds.

Aside from the gigantic owl flying directly over our heads and perching right behind us...twice.  It was fun.

There are a couple more photos and a video of Kinley swimming over on Picasa.

Recipes

I am not a very strong cook.  I don't really like to cook even.  It'd be fine if I didn't then have to clean up the gigantic mess I ALWAYS manage to make.  I do however have a few tried and true favorites that I enjoy making.  I thought I'd post the recipes here so that I can just forward the link the next time someone asks for them.
No fancy photos.  Read the above statements.  I can barely managed finishing said items and cleaning before company arrives.  I certainly can't manage photos too.  Maybe one day I'll come back and add some.  When my ever faithful photographer is on hand. ;)


The first I can't take any credit for at all, but it is always a big hit so I'll share the link for the recipe.  It's Rachael Ray's Loaded Baked Potato Salad.  The recipe was made for a crowd.  Like a block party crowd. I usually half it for our crowds, and it works out well.  I also cheat and use already cooked bacon pieces.
The next few are all ones Erin shared with me first.


Red Salsa:
2 jalapenos
1 can of original rotel
2 cans of fire roasted garlic tomatoes
1-2 tbls of garlic salt

Boil peppers 5-10 mins until soft, remove stems and blend with all other ingredients.

Keeps fresh for 7 days.

I buy the 14.5 ounce cans of tomatoes.  You can use any kind of tomato.  If you're feeling fancy use fresh.  Again see the above statements about my level of fancy-ness.  The original recipe was for one big can of whole tomatoes.  This is just the best mix I've found.  Depending on how hot the peppers end up you can add more tomatoes or peppers.  I use the food processor to blend it up.

Frozen Pie
12 oz. of cool whip
1/2 can- to a can of sweetened condensed milk(I think you should just add this to your personal tastes-I did about a half of can)
1 frozen drink mix(partially thawed...not rock hard, but not liquid) whatever you like...my favorite is Strawberry Daiquiri, but we've had regular and peach margarita and pina colada.  They were all good. 
1 large graham cracker crust(usually it says something like 2 extra servings on it)


Use a hand mixer to blend all the ingredients, pour into pie crust, and freeze over night. 

Thanks to Jennifer and Nicole I've added more desserts I love for this summer out by the pool.  

Not Yo' Mama's Banana Pudding and Fruit Pizza.  (Except I of course use packaged sugar cookie dough.)

I've recently discovered the blog Chef-in-training.  It tends to have pretty quick and easy recipes that work for me.

Okay I can't have a post with no photos at all.  Here's one of Kinley after finishing her 2nd huge slice of Coconut Cream Cake from the blog mentioned above.  She's pretty sad.

I can't believe I almost just forgot my most requested Buffalo dip.  

"The Dip"
2 packs cream cheese (I usually buy store brand 1/3 less fat kind)
6-8 oz shredded chicken (can use prepackaged already cooked kind or cook your own)
8 oz shredded cheddar cheese (6 oz gets mixed in 2 oz for top)
3/4 cup buffalo sauce (I use franks hot sauce)


Mix buffalo sauce and softened cream cheese, add chicken and cheddar cheese.  Cover with foil and bake at 350 for 15 minutes take out and sprinkle with last of cheese then put back in for 5-6 mins to melt cheese.  
Enjoy!

You people might have to start making your own now that I've shared my secrets.  ;)  Anybody else have any recommendations for quick, easy recipes for the summer?