So Thankful

Every year we switch Texas and Indiana for Thanksgiving and this year it was Indiana's turn.  We ended up leaving after school on Tuesday and going halfway to Indianapolis and dropped Petey off at Mr. and Mrs. Coonfield's (Rob and Aimee, newlyweds, cutest couple) and we stayed at a hotel.  It was slow going on the way up because it started snowing on us in Kentucky and traffic was slow.  Adam worked from home on Tuesday so he could pack things up and just swing by school, pick us up, and we could be on our way.  But it turns out that he didn't have the bags packed in the luggage carrier and we had to swing by the house to get Petey's leash so our plan didn't end up being that smooth.  We finally ended up at the hotel around 11.  The girls had fallen asleep in the car, but Kyle stayed wide awake.  As a matter of fact, he had so much energy that when we got there and got up to our room, he was climbing and swinging from the hotel luggage cart and we had to wrestle him down to bed.  He was looking for a party, I guess.  

 But we finally made it and the kids were so excited because it was snowing and there was plenty of snow on the ground.  

 Emilie loves when Gaga shows her how the crow bites and gets the top of her head.

 Kyle has really come around these past couple of weeks.  Steve dropped by last night to say hello and commented on how Kyle looks like a boy now, not a baby.  He's talking a lot more.  Loves to say "Beas" for please, "Tantu" for thank you, "Bobby" for Aubrie, and can say "cookie" plain as day.  He's quick too.  He grabbed a potato out of the pantry while I was on the phone and I really had to truck it to catch up to him before he threw it like a ball.

 It is always fun to stay at Grandma's house.  Especially when she gets us new pajamas.

 Nick had a birthday while we were there, so we got him an ice cream cake to celebrate.  He's not a huge cake fan...which I love.  Give me a pie!

 Kyle waiting patiently for a bite of ice cream cake.  This high chair was once Granny's high chair.  

 Granny has so many cool things at her house.  She has these wooden butter stamps.  I don't know how to describe it, except when you're at a breakfast place and they bring out a pad of individually wrapped butter...well, this stamp makes individual pieces of butter and stamps out a design on them.  Kyle got a hold of those off her shelf and thought he had something he wasn't supposed to have and we let him run around with them.  He also loved Gaga's doorstop that was a duck.  He carried that heavy thing around like it was a stuffed animal.  One of my favorite things to look at in her china cabinets is this nativity (above) that she keeps up year round.  I just love the colors.  She also has a player piano.  You put in a scroll and the piano plays a song for you.  So we just had to play a couple and have a dance party.  

Aubrie is excited about cranberry fluff.

 Thanksgiving dinner was delicious.  Amanda was a big help.  We ate at Granny's house for lunch and then that evening we went to Grandma and Grandpa Mark's house for a family dinner as well.  It's always good to see the whole family.

The girls showing off their turkeys that they made

 My mom has these two pinecone turkeys that my brother and I made when we were little and pulls them out around thanksgiving.  I wanted to make something similar that we can keep forever and that could also serve as a name card for the table.  So the whole family made these turkeys for Thanksgiving.  The girls enjoyed stringing the beads and cutting out hats.  Aubrie did a majority of the cutting and I ran the glue gun.  

 One of my favorite things about being in Bremen for Thanksgiving, is that we can go see Santa that is one block from Adam's house.  They have this little house right by the square and there is never a line.  You can just pop in and see Santa and say hello!

Aubrie told him that she wants a princess pool floaty and Emilie wants Princess Sophia figurines.  Kyle didn't say much but by the looks, maybe he wants longer shirts to keep his large tummy warm...

 We had the tree up before we left for Thanksgiving so all we had to do was hang the ornaments and get out the other decorations when we got back.  It took a whole week to get things under control and feel like we were rested and caught up.  The eight hour trip home seemed to have taken forever and the kids were really antsy.  The stretch of road from the KY border to the outskirts of Nashville rivals the horrible stretch from Memphis to Little Rock.  Just horrible and heavy stop and go traffic.  It's always good to be home!  We have a lot to be thankful about and I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

The girls wanted to help me send out Christmas cards this year, so I let them. 

Christmas card central

 Therefore, here are a few disclaimers:

1.  If it looks like a 3 year old did them, it is because she did.  You will find stamps that are upside down on your envelopes and stickers everywhere.  You will notice that some of your reindeer, snowman, and santa stickers have been decapitated because Emilie was in such a hurry.

2.  Your envelopes have been licked.  A LOT.  At first I had Aubrie in charge of stamps and envelope licking, but pretty soon her "tongue is spicy!" so I had to start doing the licking.  Then I looked over and realized that after Emilie applied stickers to the back of the envelope, she was licking the envelope again.  I don't know....

My workers and our finished pile

 3.  Some of you may have Aubrie's signature.  Emilie quit the assembly line quickly on day 1 (yes folks, this ended up being a 3 day process) and Aubrie had to pick up on the sticker application which then led to writing her name on envelopes.  (Emilie re-joined us day 2 and 3) Coach Byrd's envelope has BELMONT written on the back because she was convinced that Bruiser, the school mascot, would see it.  And she knows how to spell Belmont because of the cheer.

4.  Some of your cards may have been enclosed with lots of kisses.  Aubrie's school friends got LOTS of kisses.  Some family members got kisses.

5.  Some of your cards MAY NOT get to you!  First of all, the cute girly handwritting gene skipped me altogether.  Second, I had Emilie on the right, not sitting on her bottom (WHY CAN'T THEY SIT ON THEIR BOTTOMS???!) and she kept bumping my elbow while I was writing.  She would lean over and whisper, "How many stickers for this one?" and I would reply "Two." (Like, EVERY TIME) and she was whisper, "OK!" and then yell to Aubrie who was just sitting right there to the left of me, "THIS ONE GETS TWO STICKERS, OK AUBRIE?!?!"

6.  Kyle took advantage of me being busy and did this...

 7.  And finally, I really did enjoy doing this with the girls.  Yes, it was crazy.  Yes, I could have done it in one day while they were napping.  But they love giving and getting mail.  And they would ask me who each one was for and it was fun telling the girls all about the people that we love so dearly and are sending a card to.  I would describe the people, or remind them about how they knew them and it brought back a bunch of warm fuzzies.

I hope you all are enjoying this busy season and spending it with the people that give you the warm fuzzies.  I love you all!

disclaimer:  If you don't get a card from me, it's because I don't have your address, you moved, you aren't patient, or maybe I don't even know you and you read my blog!  PM me if you are itching for a card and we will send one your way!  You're not missing much, just a picture of the fam.

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9th Annual Apple Pie Bake Off

You can't have Fall without having the apple pie bake off.  This thing is serious and we can't move on to Thanksgiving and Christmas without it.  I can't believe we have been doing this thing for 9 years.  It all started with 2 contestants, 3 judges, and no kids.  Well, let's just say we've grown!  I absolutely love this get together and the friends we share it with.

Here's 2 out of the 3 hosts.  Beth won last year, but Jenny generously hosted it at her house with her little man, Hayden.  Dan was at a basketball practice.  I just love that little face.  (Hayden's, not Dan's.  Sorry Dan.  Your face is nice, too.)

There were a few kids there.  :)  Can you believe it?  9 years ago, we were all well rested adults that had nice things and we all thought what busy meant.  

And this is what all those kids do to Josie.  Hahaha.  The kids were all running around, playing, and Katie pointed Josie out to me.  She was sitting in that chair watching the kids with a horrified look on her face.  I had to capture the moment.  

But we still love her.  Especially since her mom, Joan, hooks us up with the coolest apron ever for the winner to take home.  This is a new tradition and Adam had to try it on to model.  It was quickly lusted after by all the contestants.  Thank you, Joan!

All the contestants: Sunny, Josie, Beth, Ashleigh, yours truly, Lesley Ann, Candice, and Jenny.  

This year the rules were to bring anything apple.  There were a LOT of good options to chose from!

The judging.

The highly coveted trophy.  Please note the basketball that Andrew burnt down to look like a pie. 

Meanwhile, my daughter was serving chips to everyone from a dog bowl...

After much tasting, counting, and anticipation....The winner is....

Ashleigh Anglemyer!!!

I'll get the winning recipe to you as soon as I can get my hands on it!

The apron immediately went on and there is proof online that it has already been put to good use.  I'm so glad Ashleigh won!

I'll leave you with my 2nd place entry recipe for Apple Bacon Pecan Sticky Biscuits.  You heard me. (Thanks Pinterest)

Apple Bacon Sticky Biscuits

from TidyMom

1 -16 oz Marzetti Old Fashioned Caramel Dip

1/2-1 cup of chopped pecans

2 1/4 cups baking mix (like Bisquick or you can make yours from scratch)

2/3 cup milk

2 Tablespoons brown sugar

1/4 teaspoon apple pie spice

3 slices cooked bacon, crumbled

1 cup chopped apples, about 1 large granny smith

Heat the oven to 425.  Spray bottom and sides of 12 muffin cups. Combine pecans and  1 1/2 cups caramel dip in a small cup or bowl.  Evenly divide caramel pecan topping among the muffin cups and set aside.  Using a medium bowl and a fork, combine the baking mix, milk, brown sugar, and apple pie spice until a dough forms.  Fold in chopped apple pieces and crumbled bacon until well incorporated.  Place spoonfuls of dough in each muffin cup over caramel dip.  Bake 9-12 minutes or until golden brown.  Place muffin pan on cooling rack.  Cool for just 2 minutes.  Place a baking sheet upside down over muffin pan and carefully turn baking sheet and the muffin pan over to remove biscuits.  Scrape out any topping that remains in the pan and place on biscuits.  Drizzle tops with additional caramel dip if desired.  Serve warm or at room temperature.  ENJOY!!!!

We went to Indiana for Thanksgiving and I'll share those pictures and stories with you soon!
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I thought you had him!

The Mark house has been a revolving door lately.  Emilie's birthday party was on a Saturday, then Halloween on Thursday, but wait, the city canceled it because of rain and wind, so Friday, we had Amanda and Nick's rehearsal and rehearsal dinner, and then we had to split to transform in to princesses and puppy dogs and get our trick-or-treating on.  

Here we are on the REAL Halloween night, all dressed up, nowhere to go.

Earlier that week we carved our pumpkin.  We were blessed to have Granny and Gaga come to town for Emilie's birthday so they stayed to hang out all week and witness the chaos first hand.

On Monday, I took Emilie and Kyle to the doctor for their ears and I left Aubrie at home with Granny and Gaga.  Granny and Aubrie spent the day playing games and visiting.  Aubrie soaked up all the attention she got from Granny.  I'm thankful for the time they get to spend with our kids and I love all the little games and songs that Granny teaches them.  Then, on Wednesday, while Aubrie was at school, Emilie got to have some alone time with Granny and Kyle got to play with Gaga.

Goofing off with Gaga

Granny had the girls cut out pictures of toys from a flyer

Playing with Granny

Belmont had their Meet The Bruins Night while they were in town and so we took Granny and Gaga to the gym to watch the teams scrimmage.  It was their first time back since Adam has played, so I took them down by the locker rooms so they could see Adam's pictures on the walls.  I remember Adam taking the girls back there and they looked at him and said "Daddy?  YOU played basketball????"  So now that they've gotten close to Uncle Steve, they did the same thing when they saw his picture on the wall.  Aubrie said, "Wait.  Uncle Steve played basketball, too???!!!"  I think it is funny how shocked kids are when they find out their mom or dad do something else other than being a mom or dad.  

When Granny and Gaga stay with us, they stay in our room and we sleep upstairs in Aubrie's room and use the kids' bathroom.  The girls were upstairs and they were supposed to be brushing their teeth and combing their hair.  But instead, they found my razor and were running it all over their faces, trying to be like daddy.  Aubrie ended up shaving off half her eyebrow and Emilie scratched her forehead.  

Not only did they do this just in time to be in Tia's wedding, but picture day was the next day at school.  Sigh.  The good news is that I thought it was hilarious.  Those kids...

So after Amanda's rehearsal dinner, which was delicious, we took off for Aunt Shel's house for some trick-or-treating.  Our friends, Mike and Marcie (kids: Teague, Trace, and Lily) were over there and we met up with them for some fun.  Aunt Shel is actually their aunt.  Marcie has an identical twin, Michelle, who just had a baby boy!  A lot happening in that family's life!

What a group!

My puppy.  I forgot to mention in the last post, but Marcie took those pictures of Emilie's birthday AND she took these pictures of the kids.  Quick confession:  Michelle and I were the last ones to walk out the door, as the others have already taken off trick or treating.  When we walked past the stairs, I heard a kid fuss.  So I stopped and looked back at Michelle's newborn but it wasn't him, so I kept walking towards the door but then I heard it again.  I realized it was Kyle, but where was it coming from???  Turns out he had climbed up the stairs when nobody was looking and was standing at the top and couldn't get down.  Third child syndrome...did anybody get Kyle?  Where's Kyle?  I thought you had him!

Belle

Cinderella

And now, finally, we are at Tia's wedding!  Tia and Nick had a beautiful wedding.  She was a stunning bride in a beautiful lace dress and I was fortunate to be her matron of honor.  Lana made the girls' dresses and Kyle's bow tie and suspenders.  Lana and Granny both made Amanda's veil which was very long (I talked her into it and it was perfect!)

Waiting for the show to start

Kyle, with dad and grandma, snacking to keep occupied before walking down the aisle.  The kids actually did really good.  They all walked nicely down the aisle and when Kyle got to the front, he turned around to head back up the isle so I had to catch him and hand him off.

Emilie moved to the top of the altar with me and stayed for a while, waved at her dad, and then casually made her way back to the pew to color.

Tia's colors were purple and orange and green.  We wore purple dresses and orange shoes.  Heather, fellow bridesmaid, said "Amanda, we love you so much that we are willing to wear orange shoes with a purple dress!"  We all gave her a hard time, but it all looked beautiful.

Emilie dancing with mom.

Sweet Aubrie

Adam's parents dancing

Adam took all these pictures on his phone, that is why the quality isn't the best.  We all had a good time and we are so happy to have Nick join the family!

So now I feel like we are all caught up.  And Adam and I feel like we've slowed down that revolving door and are enjoying time as a "peaceful" family of five.  Kyle is really walking fast now and he is into EVERYTHING.  He jerked a measuring cup of milk of the island and earned himself a morning bath a couple of weekends ago.  Last weekend he got his dad's cool cup of coffee off the counter and was splashing in it.  You can also catch him putting Petey's food into the water bowl and watching it float or if you leave the door open to the bathroom, he'll go splash around in toilet water.  That drives me bananas.

Emilie has learned about driving laws.  Or at least she thinks.  She likes to boss me while I drive.  If I pull out in front of another car, she'll scold me, "Don't cut in line, mom.  It's not nice!"  In the mornings, I can't help it.  Our neighborhood is off a busy street with morning commuters and so I've learned that if I ask her to pray first, she's distracted and won't scold my driving.  (We pray every morning when we are on our way to school)

Aubrie was in speech for the past couple of months.  She seemed to pick up some bad habits and had a lateral lisp from having constant congestion problems as a baby, before we had her adenoids taken out.  She LOVED going to speech because it was with a dear friend, one of my former volleyball girls' mom, Tracie Shelby.  She was awesome.  She had Aubrie fixed up in no time and there is a big difference in her speech.  This past Monday, she graduated from speech and we are so proud of her.  She would work so hard on her homework and she made a conscious effort to fix sounds all on her own.  She's one smart cookie.  

And that's it!  I still cook, yes it is true.  Hopefully I can share some more recipes soon.  Adam's working hard.  This is his busy season.  I hope you all are doing well.  Thank you to all who have given me kind words and have missed reading my blogs.  I know you don't read it for the recipes, or pictures, but more to make yourself feel better that your life isn't as crazy as ours.  Haha!  Just kidding.

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Emilie is 3!

My sweet little Emilie turned 3 the end of last month.  I can't believe it.  I've been really excited about her upcoming birthday because I was hoping she would just snap out of her terrible twos and be a sweet little angel.  But when we were at the pediatrician's office, he informed us that Aubrie snapping out of it and being submissive is actually not normal and Emilie's behavior is NORMAL. Say what???

He just laughed and said, "Don't worry, you only have 364 more days."

But I think there is hope.  The other day at dance, a girl was spinning and fell down and stayed down for a little bit and MY Emilie was the one who went over there and checked on her and helped her up.  MY Emi.  She must have forgotten there were cameras in there and I could watch her on the monitors.  Emilie is really good at being an angel for others and then transforming into a fire spitting monster once we get to the parking lot.  

She also has complete disregard to your questions.  You'll ask if she wants peanut butter and honey or peanut butter and jelly and she will run past you and yell something silly like "you're a junious."  So then you have to grab her next time she flies through the room, get on her level, look into her wild eyes and ask the question again.  Then you'll get an appropriate answer.  She's so caught up in keeping up with her big sister and it's hard on her.  She plays hard, acts silly, and crashes hard.

When my mom was here, she started on the "you're a junious!"  We had no idea what she was trying to say.  At first it sounded like julious.  Then it turned into junious and now it is genius.  When we were leaving the pediatrician's office and were waiting to be checked out at the front desk, she randomly turned to Adam and said, "Dad, you're a genius!" which made everyone laugh.

As Adam left for work this morning she yelled out from the other room, "Stay strong at work, dad!!"

That girl...Anyway, we had a birthday party for her and invited all her school friends plus the usual suspects.  This summer I took the kids to go see the movie Rio at one of those summer movie specials at a local theater.  It immediately became a favorite and so we decided to give her a Rio birthday party.  It's an older animated film.  Sequel coming out soon.  But we had fun.

Aubrie and Poe (her grandpa)

Higgs and Teague

We made jell-o snack cups.  The ones in the store are ridiculously expensive so we made our own and sprinkled vanilla sugar wafer cookies on them to look like sand?

Check out Petey.  He's watching diligently for a crumb.

The spread.  The cake pops were going to be the death of me.  The candy melts weren't/* melting appropriately, it was 10:30 at night, and they looked like lumpy mounds instead of those gorgeous round cake pops all the cool moms make.  

Emilie lives in her snow white costume.  It's almost like a security blanket for her.  We had to sew it back together in some places and it barely secures in the back.  She's soon to be grown out of it and then what will we do???

Sweet girl

The gang

Kyle liked the cake pops

LOVE this picture.  Trace brought Emilie a bouquet of flowers for her birthday.  What a gentleman!

Higgs.  Love him.

Love this family

We made bird feeders for the kids to take home.  We took pine cones and covered them in peanut butter and rolled them in birdseed.  But then Petey started eating the birdseed...

Andrew and Ana-Sophia

Emilie, Teague, and Aubrie.  

We had one guest that couldn't make it to the party and that was the new addition to the Kindred family.  Marcie and Mike had a baby girl in August, Lily Joy.  Lily is quite special to all of us.  She was born with Down Syndrome and we have all been anxiously awaiting her arrival.  I've had the privilege of watching her parents learn they were having a baby and then later finding out that something wasn't quite right.  Her story slowly unfolded as they found out she had a hole in her heart and tests confirmed that she would have Downs.  We watched as Mike and Marcie boldly took this news and accepted it and prepared to welcome this precious gift that God was giving them.  You can read more about Lily and the family's experience on Marcie's awesome blog, Super Hidden Hero

Anyhoo, while Lily spent some time at the Vanderbilt NICU, I got to spend more time with the boys and had a couple of sessions of Camp Kellie.  We had a lot of fun!

Teague, Aubrie, Neyland, Emilie, Trace, and Kyle

Snack time.  Having some serious conversations.

Sweet Lily was born with a FULL head of hair! 

Adam got to hold Lily WAY before I did.  But my patience paid off and we got some serious snuggle time and alone time at the hospital.  

Teague visiting Lily.

Lily is home now, getting bigger and awaiting heart surgery.  Please remember to keep her and her sweet family in your prayers.

I still have more to come!  There's Halloween and Amanda got married!!

Love to all!

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