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Welcome

Welcome to my little corner of the world. I am so honored by your visit today. My name is Kristi and I am married to my college sweetheart(I refer to him here as "Mr. Incredible"), momma to my 2 beautiful girls who are growing much too quickly, a high school computer teacher, photographer, and a gardener (at times~right now I'm growing weeds). I love to laugh, drink strong Starbucks coffee, take pictures, and be anywhere my family is. Jesus is my Savior and I try so hard to be the wife and momma that He has called me to be. I often fail but He lovingly picks me up, dusts me off, and encourages me that with Him all things are possible. Feel free to join me on this journey of faith, stop in and say hello, look around, and leave a comment~I love comments. Why "Kiki's Corner?" My nephews call me Aunt Kiki and I love that too.

MckLinky Favorite Photo (I have 2 faves for now!)



Now, that I've looked through 250 of the over 600 posts and seen all the precious little ones, this momma's heart remembered an all time favorite photo. This is our Hannah playing in the mud...there is joy and delight all over her precious little face:


Welcome to my blog! I am so delighted that you stopped by!

I am participating in a fun Blog Hop and this weeks theme is Favorite Photos. This is perfect because we just returned from an incredible vacation with only a few photos...560 to be exact (I'll give more details about where we went in tomorrow's post).

OH, the torture of having to pick only 1 favorite photo. I am blessed with 2 daughters, so I had to pick my favorite photo of each one of my girls.
Rachel & Hannah are blessings from the Lord and they are beautiful inside and out!

I can't wait to see your favorite photos and read your comments. Blessings to you and thanks for stopping by!


MckLinky Blog Hop




Joyfully,
Kristi

For DIY Fireworks You Need Hamburgers and a Grill!

Hey ya'll! How was your 4th of July celebration????
We were blessed with a day at home to relax, giggle, bake, grill, and almost call the fire department...fun times and memories!

Our day started off fantastic. We slept in a little (you know you are getting older when you can't sleep past 8 am; I can remember sleeping in until at least 10 when I was a teenager) and we had a wonderful coffee cake (a Paula Deen recipe...yum!) and then the girls and I started baking.

We made 2 delicious homemade apple pies (except for the crust because how can you go wrong with Pillsbury...we rolled it out ok?!) and homemade ice cream. I enjoyed using my new kitchen aide mixer so much that we actually made 2 freezers full of homemade ice cream. One was vanilla, for the pie, and the other was peach from all of the peaches we put in the freezer last summer.

We watched Serena beat her sister in tennis and I wondered how their mother could possibly cheer for either child. I would have made myself dizzy clapping after every point for each one of my daughters. After that, I took a little nap because it was raining and taking a little nap during a delightful rain just seemed appropriate.

After my little siesta it was time for the games to begin. Mr. Incredible lit the grill, I formed the hamburger patties and then made Pioneer Woman's pico de gallo w/ guacamole...oh my goodness it was awesome!

Hannah and I were giggling about all of the smoke coming from the back porch...there was so much smoke that Mr. Incredible decided to lift the lid to see what was going on with the burgers...and that's when I saw it....a flame almost as tall as my man!

I though he had probably caught a burger on fire (which is way out of the norm for him) and had Hannah grab my camera. We always joke about men "fighting fire" for their families when they are grilling because it's macho and manly and he is good at the grilling.

Hannah jokingly asked her daddy if he needed the fire extinguisher and he just scowled.
So, being the excellent wife that I am (I'm smiling here) I grabbed my camera and took a picture of the flame:

I only got part of it because my man said in the sweetest voice ever, "Sweetheart, the grill is on fire, we have a grease fire and I need you to pretty please grab the fire extinguisher before we burn the house down!" (If you believe that is how he really sounded, I have some lakeside property for you on the moon!) It was more of a growl and why am I taking pictures...blah blah blah!


I snapped back into reality and realized it wasn't a simple little patty on fire, it was the real deal...closing the lid to the grill and turning off the gas didn't help, flames shot out the top. So, I pulled the little red thingy on the fire extinguisher, that I bought in 2000, and prayed that it would do the trick. Just in time, my quick thinking husband pulled the burgers off the grill and saved our dinner...wasn't that brilliant?

He threw me the burgers and extinguished the flames. Whew! I would have hated to have called out the volunteer fire department on the 4th of July to extinguish our homemade fireworks display because....well because we would never have heard the end of it and Mr. Incredible would have been banned from grilling forever and I like it when he fights fire for our dinner!

So, what do you do with 1/2 cooked hamburgers? You light the grill again, after cleaning off all the fire extinguisher stuff. Can you believe that? I offered to pan fry the charred burgers that were crispy on the outside and raw on the inside, but he wouldn't hear of it.

He lit the grill only to hear a loud "Boom!" "We are going to die," I said...I wish you could have seen the lovely look he flashed my way....all was fine, it was just the grill asking for us to please just give it up for the day....did we? No way, Mr. Incredible finished grilling the now Cajun burgers and we had a delightful meal.

We worried that the fire exinguisher stuff might somehow poison our burgers....so Mr. Incredible ate his first...what a man!

I have other photos too! Here is my version of the pico de gallo:

And here is my burger:


It wasn't too bad with jalapeno cheese and a lot of pico de gallo!
I made armadillo eggs too (jalapenos, cream cheese, & cheddar cheese, wrapped in pepper bacon and then baked in the oven). They were amazing....

...until Hannah ate a hot one and the tears streamed down her precious little face. She downed 2 glasses of milk like it was nothing and still felt a little burn. But, it was kind of fitting....our 4th of July was anything but boring...it was burning hot! How was yours?

Joyfully,

Kristi

A Little Sand & a Lot of Fun!

Hey Sweet Blogging Buddies,

My darling daughters are home and I am anxious to hear all about camp and get caught up on them. They LOVED their surprise makeovers...it was so fun to surprise them. Anyway, I'm taking some time off to enjoy my family. You know me, I can't stay away too long. I'll be popping in every now and then to get caught up and to get my blogging fix. I don't want to miss a thing that is going on with you. Please, don't forget about me. I'll be back soon!

Joyfully,
Kristi

I Have a New Love!

Have you tried this stuff? Oh, my merciful heavens...this stuff is incredible!
It's the perfect snack! My mom told me about it and I rushed right out to Walmart and bought 2 boxes...and I'm so glad that I did. Yummmmm!
Speaking of new loves, have you seen this video from Living Proof Live?
I agree with Boomama, you have to click here "it will make your whole day!"
I'm off to finish my yard work. Have a great weekend!
Joyfully,
Kristi

Goo Gone?

Thanks so much for all of your sweet comments about the surprise makeovers.
It was a blast and I can hardly wait to see their faces.


Keeping secrets is so hard!
Does anyone else have that problem?
(On Rachel's 2nd Christmas, Santa came on December 2nd 'cause this momma could not wait!)




Anyway, ya'll were sweet to comment about my hand painting so
I thought I would share my secret.


My inspiration for the painting came from an amazing blogger named Susie at Bienvenue.
Wow is she talented!

I started off with poster board, for Hannah's green circle
and then printed off words from my computer.
I used Microsoft Publisher to find the fonts that I liked
and then I just printed them out and cut them out.







Here is the blank wall that is just begging for some color:





And here is the start of the green circle. I used those cheap sponge brushes and then quickly changed to one of my favorite wide, flat paint brushes that I use for decorative painting.

My paint is that good old craft paint from Michaels or Hobby Lobby.





Then I used tracing paper to transfer the fonts (which didn't work as well as I had hoped...I free-handed a lot of this and all of the words on the girls' bathroom walls).






Notice anything in the above picture?


I thought I would freehand a little swirl underneath the picture....and that's when it all went wrong! The sides didn't match, so I just wiped the wet paint with a cloth and water because the paint was wet and it has always worked before. NOooooo not this time. Hello smeared paint!


What to do? I grabbed Goo Gone and hoped for a cure.

Goo Gone, you did disappoint. Here is the wall after Goo Gone:




Oh, yes that's much better! Not! I thought I would just cover it up with a poster...and then I thought again. I remembered an old can of paint in the attic that was left over from when we painted her room. Mr. Incredible was sure that a paint can that is 9 years old will not be usable but I persuaded him to try it. We shook the daylights out of that can and guess what??? It worked. Woo hoo!


Whew! That's better. Have a great weekend!
Joyfully,
Kristi



Girls Come Home! Your Surprise Makeovers are Done!

My Darling Daughters, come home from camp soon! I've been working ever so hard on your surprise room makeovers and I can hardly wait for you to see them!

Do you wanna see what I have been doing?
Okay, you can see the makeovers before my girls, but shhhh please, don't tell them!

This is Rachel's room:

She has always had this beautiful pink paint on her walls, she chose the color 9 years ago (wow how time flies!). Anyway, from little girl pink...to ever so chic!

Those are tall ceilings! With Rachel's new diagnosis this year (See Rachel's story in my index-regarding our journey as we learn to cope with Arnold Chiari I) she needs black out drapes so that she can sleep better at night. We love living in the country but the blessed moon can sure light up a room with these beautiful windows.

Here is my man braving the ladder to hang the drapes/curtains:
Someday, she would like to visit Paris and London. These pictures from Hobby Lobby were too perfect (and 50% off too!).

We purchased her bedding at Target (which is on sale this week too).

There is her photo board that I just made out of foam board (from Hobby Lobby) wrapped in thick white felt and then covered in material to match her bedding. I hot glued the ribbon and trim. Since I had some left over frames from my graduation gifts and some left over material, I quickly grabbed my left over Modge Podge and made a few frames (there are some in her bathroom too).


This is some more of my decorative painting (it's not perfect, especially if you enlarge it....did you? so you see it's not perfect...so we'll loosely call it art!)



We found this pink Christmas tree in Canton (hello Sunday House!) a few years ago and she likes to leave it out year around. I think it works pretty well right there.

A few more paris themed accessories (from the Hobby Lobby )

And the lamp shade and mirror I recovered with her matching fabric. Have I told ya'll how much I love my hot glue gun?


The extra frames in her bathroom. I got tickled when I realized I had put the material on one of her frames backwards. Oh, well...more art! :-)


Ready to see Hannah's room?



See the green circle with her name? Yes, I painted that too.
Again, it's not perfect but I like it anyway!


I love the purple and lime green against the yellow paint!







I made Hannah a photo board too. I wasn't quite sure what to do with the extra drapery pull back thingies 'cause I didn't plan to use them. They seemed kind of funky and fun on the message/photo board. Yes, I hot glued those too!
I also recovered her chair to match the zebra print.

My Grandpa made her furniture for me many, many years ago.
I love it that it now belongs to Hannah!

Here are a couple more scenes from her bathroom:
I covered this H with leftover scrapbook paper and Modge Podge:



These crosses use to be in Rachel's room (thanks Julie B) but she had already passed them on to her sister this year. I think they look great in Hannah's bathroom and they go great with her new colors!


Last picture in Hannah's room. I added some funky orange trim to this lamp shade. No, it's not matchy-matchy with the rest of her room...but that 's why I like it. It's fun, don't you think?

Whew! I need a nap. Thanks for stopping by. Have a blessed day in the Lord today!
Joyfully,
Kristi


Bathroom Beautification




(I am so pleased to join Kelly's bathroom tour today. I just adore this sweet sister in the Lord don't you? So, if you have come from Kelly's Korner, welcome! Please, stay a while. I am so blessed by your visit to my blog!)

I have been working away and enjoying every moment.
Yesterday, I showed you a lamp and photo board redo. Today, I'll give you another glimpse into what I have been working on.

I have always wanted to jazz up the girl's bathrooms but I just wasn't sure what to do, so it's kind of been on the back burner, so to speak.

I finally had an idea
(yes, thank you I know it is summer but I think
my brain has returned-and I'm so thankful)!
There has been a blank space between the mirrors and the ceiling
which was just perfect for a little scripture...a daily reminder to start the day with the Lord.

This is Hannah's bathroom wall:

And this is Rachel's bathroom wall:

The walls are not perfect, but they are fun and not boring any longer. The best part of this bathroom beautification project? It didn't cost a thing...only a little time and lots of prayer.

Well, I'm off to do some more redecorating. I'll try to post more updates tomorrow. You can click here and here for the latest updates.
What are you tackling today?

Joyfully,
Kristi




Tackle It Tuesday Meme