Chicken Spaghetti

Here is a recipe I found on pinterest we are adding to the rotation as a new favorite. Steven gave it an A+ and Eli ate it up too. They both had seconds. I used mild rotel since Eli was eating it and a rotisserie chicken . It was yummy, creamy and EASY.
Chicken Spaghetti

Chicken Spaghetti

Serves 8

• 8 ounces angel hair pasta
• 2 cups chopped, grilled chicken or 1 large can of chicken
• 1 can cream of mushroom soup
• 1 can cream of chicken soup
• 1 10-ounce can Rotel diced tomatoes and green chiles, undrained
• 8 ounces sour cream
• Sprinkling of Parmesan or Mexican-blend cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Boil pasta as package directs and drain. Mix all other ingredients (except cheese), add to cooked pasta and put in a 9" x 13" baking dish. Cover with foil and bake 30 minutes or until hot and bubbly. Sprinkle with your choice of cheese and return to oven to melt.

Enjoy with a simple spinach salad and thick, crusty slices of warm French or multi-grain bread. Yum!

Enjoy and Love,

Kristin

"Handy as a pocket on a t-shirt," said Steven.

HELP!  My husband is sabotaging my business!!!  I ordered 2 CUTE time out chairs online to paint and sell.  One he put together wrong and the other he cracked!  I love him, but he just isn’t the handiest.  He claims he is as “handy as a pocket on a t-shirt,” but I beg to differ.  We laughed a lot tonight working on these chairs and we had a good time, but now I am stuck with a cracked chair and a slightly off chair that I can’t sell.  He wants another try at this chair with 4 parts, but I am not so sure.  I then had him screw in some letters on a board.  It is really cute, but I told him, “steven, make sure not to drill through the letter.”  I then hear a loud “oops” and a chuckle.  What am I going to do with him!?!   Regardless, I think I can fix the letters, give one chair to Eli and we will just call the other chair a practice round.  I am so thankful he helps me with my little projects and we have fun but I might need to invest in a secret handy man…

Here are the chairs in the raw with the primer.  I plan to paint them a fun color and put a cute saying on them.  Thankfully, my supply that I can get is unlimited...

Here are is the large "family" wall sign.  It is 90 inches long and about 15-18 inches tall.  I love oversized signs.  Cute huh!!! Selling for $70 (now Sold)

I am now doing simple tin door art.  I think I am going to sell them for $20 as long as the shape is simple.  Cutting this metal is sort of dangerous.  My hands are cut up, but I acheived the results I wanted.  Kind of messy and imperfect, but a cute, bright pop for our front door.

Enjoy and Love,

Kristin

Eduracool Towel

I have 3 parts to my blog. One is family happenings, another is Kaleidoscope (my fun hobby business) and the 3rd is called favorites. In the favorites section, I plan to put good recipes we try and good products I run across that I want to share.

Since we just went to the zoo in 105 degree weather, I want to promo an awesome product. We were in Home Depot and Steven stopped in his tracks and said "these are awesome!" He picked up this double pack tube like things and said "we HAVE to get this." To be honest I thought he was being a little dramatic and I saw $20 above the item and was thinking "seriously, this towel is supposed to stay cool after you pop or snap it...give me a break." To eat my words, these towels really do work. You wet them, ring them out, pop them and it immediately is cool. If it begins to get warm, pop it again and it is cool again. I am not sure how it works, but it does. We drapped them around our necks and wiped our faces with them all day. They would be perfect for staying to cool while working or playing outside these days. I can think of a few pregnant girls that should buy stock and wrap their bodies in these towels. You should totally buy some for your own personal use. Go to home depot or buy them here...

Enduracool-Towel
Here is a pic of the package...

Love,

Kristin

Tulsa Zoo and Aquarium

This weekend was a rare weekend where we didn't have a bunch going on.  We saw an advertisment on TV for the zoo so Steven and I at the last minute decided to take Eli to the Tulsa zoo and Tulsa Aquarium.  Parenting lesson # 10, 213...you probably should wait to take your child to the zoo when it isn't above 100 degrees.  Eli was fine and he enjoyed himself, but Steven and I probably sweat off 10 pounds while there.  We are thankful for the stroller, but when Eli wanted to be carried, we about died!  Most of the animals were inside their caves as well and with reason.  I would have been in my cave too.  Regardless, the zoo is really great and we will be going back, but probably not until the fall.  There aren't many photos of the zoo mainly because we were too hot to do anything but walk. 

The aquarium (all inside thankfully) is a different story.  It was fabulous as well, but who knew Tulsa had such a cool aquarium.  We aren't sure if Eli really understood what he was looking at, but we could tell by the many "oooooos" and squeals that he loved it.  There is the coolest shark tank that you walk under.  This got lots of squeals.  Eli tried  pronouncing the word "fish" hundreds of times.  He got really close, but it really sounded like "shhhhh."  Here are some fun pics of the weekend.

Eli telling us that this is a "dog."

Still pointing and talking.  Look at the goats face.  HaHa! 

Eli kept trying to peel my hands away to get to the "ducks."

watching the fish

This is our new smile.  HaHa!  He is showing off those teeth. 

No Steven isn't putting Eli in the tank, he tried to climb in....

Fish or should we say "shhhhh."

Still pointing and talking.

HaHa!  Cheese!

Under the shark tank.

Showing his belly to the sharks.

Love,

Kristin

Springdale aquatic center

School let out early on Friday so Stephanie and I took the boys to the new springdale aquatic center. It was awesome! It has a big pool, a splash pad, some bigger slides and a gradual slope pool (where we stayed the whole time) with little slides and cute water animal sprinklers. I have to say I was honestly not expecting it to be very nice but it was very clean and well thought out. The shallow area had a little shade over it for the babies. I guess I was thinking back to the Texarkana rolling water days and how gross that was. Every time you swam there you came home with the party favor of an ear infection. It was 100% not like that thankfully. We will for sure be going back soon.

Now, let's talk about Stephanie and RDs baby ( or should I say toddler now) Hunter. He is fearless and such a ham!!! He wanted to slide, and slide and slide again. There was a little concrete divider between the shallow and deeper area. He got up there and danced-haha! He was stomping his feet, shaking his bottom and dancing away. It was so funny. My more cautious baby, Eli climbed to the top of the slide and then he backed down. He enjoyed watching Hunter slide, he also loved walking around the shallow area and splashing.

So if you haven't taken your kids there yet, you totally should give it a try.

Here are some cute pics.
Love,
Kristin

Gulley park

I cannot believe I have lived in Fayetteville for 13 years and I have never been to a gulley park free concert! I was reading Michelle Elliot's blog and she mentioned it recently and I have always wanted to go...I would just forget. Thankfully, Stephanie Daniels reminded me last Thursday and Eli and I went with she and Hunter while the daddy's were out of town. Eli LOVED it. He was so busy. I think he pet every dog there and walked at least a mile between all the people. He also attempted hula hooping which was really funny. We enjoyed getting to see everyone and our time with Stephanie and her family. We will for sure be attending more concerts in the park in the future. Here are some cute pics from the night.

"Tractors taste good!"

Eli "feeding" Hunter

This is what we did the WHOLE time.

Hunter is such a dancer!

Sweet belly!

Love,

Kristin

Introducing Kaleidoscope!!!!

I have now named my furniture finishing business Kaleidoscope.  Thank you again the Kathleen Buchanan for naming my business!!!  She is so good at that she should start a business naming businesses.  She named my blog too!  So....why Kaleidoscope....well...it seems my hobbies continue to change, but my love keeps coming back to painting.  A Kaleidoscope changes as you turn it so that is why we named it Kaleidoscope.  With this business, I plan to sell my crates, frames, wall hangings (coming soon) and any cool old furniture I find.  I also just refinished my great grandmothers sewing table and I would like to learn to do appliques and sew a little bit.  Here is a picture...  The pic is brighter because of my flash, but I am obsessed with this peacock blue right now.  I think it is soooo pretty!  :)  Old furniture is made so well.  Not only is it heavy, this table folds out and my sewing machine pops up.  Cool huh?!

I have started an etsy store and I plan to get a button to punch from my blog, but for right now, go top www.etsy.com and look up kaleidoscopekb to see my items right now.

Also, Did I mention I now have a logo.  Thank you Chris Stinson for the help!!!

So if you need any help refinishing a piece of furniture that needs a little brightening up, let me know.  I am your girl!!!

Love,

Kristin



14 month photos with Chris Stinson

Steven, Eli and I had our friend Chris Stinson come take some family pics when Eli was walking sturdily. It was so hot but Chris was great with Eli! I am so impressed at how Chris kept up with him. He got some really sweet moments. Here are some of my favorites.  Thank you soooo much Chris!!!!

Eli loves to read!

I love this one!  Look at Steven's face as he reads! 

Bubbles!!!

A little river time.

Love,
Kristin

15 month checkup

We had our 15 month checkup today and Eli is doing great! He is above the 95 percentile in height at 33 3/4th" and 50th percentile in weight. He is starting to recognize that the Drs office means shots. He does really great though. He only cries for a little bit and then he forgets (thankfully). It about does me in every time.

When asked what a cow says, he now "moooos" and "ruff ruffs" like a dog. Along with the noise of a sheep and horse. I was told at school recently that he said "please and thank you". This makes me sooooooo proud. Steven and I are big on manners and we are trying to start him early. Some other words are yellow, purple, and a few others but if we ask him to repeat something, he most of the time tries which is fun!

Kudos to the preschool prep DVDs our friends the Stubbs gave us. They are awesome!!! Repetitive and a little annoying to us, but PERFECT for Eli.

4th of July fun!!!

The 4th of July was so fun! We were so excited to go out to the lake withthe Lesters' and Pearcys'! Eli isn't too big of a fan of his life jacket, but Ithink he got used to it. We are starting to put it on him a little in the poolwhile we hold him. Hopefully we eventually can go to the lake without tearswhen we first put it on him. The first hour he really didn't want much to dowith anyone, but eventually, he wanted to ease in with Daddy and then I wasable to get in too. I think he really warmed up to the lake toward the end.Steven and I LOVE to "bob" in the lake. I cannot image a summerwithout bobbing so hopefully he will love it as much as we do eventually.

On pinterest (Steven wants to have a "pinervention" with me-HA), Isaw a cute craft of an American flag. So after we ate a yummy dinner, the kidspainted American flag's. I wish we had gotten a group shot, but they wererunning in all different directions. I taped off the lines and the area for thestarts and the kids finger painted the white space left. Eli likes to fingerpaint, but not for too long. I had to keep running and getting him and bringinghim back to the painting. Here are some cute kids of the kiddos in action.

Lake Fun!

Hudson and Eli "cleaning up" in the puddle

Eli Finger painting

Hudson and Ashley

Lexi's turned out really pretty!

Eden the artist.

Eli

Lexi and Ayden hard at work

Hudson the artist

They all turned out a little different, but here is how Eli's turned out. I think I am going to attempt to do white hand and foot prints on the blue. Cute HUH!

Love,

Kristin