Our Pizza Throwdown

Jesse and Allie have a beautiful pizza oven in their backyard.  My cousin Terry, who was visiting us for a week also has a pizza oven in their backyard at home.  We thought it was only fitting to have our first pizza throwdown.  We narrowed the options to just dessert pizzas.  Let me break down the competition for you...

Here is Jesse and Allie's pizza oven

Their oven at dusk

My cousin's oven

(I know, I know...we were surprised it worked too!  Apparently, it bakes perfectly!)

The competitors...

my cousin Terry vs. my sister in law Allie...

My Cousin's dessert pizza...
I am probably going to get in trouble for butchering his recipe, but it was something like this...
A cube of butter (hello thunder thighs)
 A box of powdered sugar (can we say chunker munker)
Marscapone cheese (who knows what that is)
and Lemons (without even the effort of removing the peel)

Allie's delicatessen delight:

Pre-baked with a perfect combination of cinnamon and sugar (and a touch of butter)

A perfect spread of God's gift to the world (Nutella)

Add fresh, locally picked strawberries (thinly sliced and evenly spread across the entire pizza)

Drizzle chocolate fudge sauce artistically across this magnificent creation

Lastly, to finish the masterpiece a light dusting of powdered sugar.   

I agree, Allie, that is what I thought of Terry's pizza too!  :)

(okay, okay...the flavors were surprisingly delicious. Well, that is if one is a lemon fan.)


The verdict...

Now I am not going to say that the judging on this event was rigged or anything...but when the mother of one of the competitors is a judge...you tell me!!!  We will take the loss with pride, knowing that we did our best, but I smell a rematch.  And next time the panel of judges may have a slightly different make up.  You know...maybe some people who have a true appreciation for fine cuisine. 

Dress up girl

Aubrey Rose has not yet become opinionated about her clothes. Thank you Lord! :) I am sure that will be just around the corner. But, for now we will just soak up the easy going personality of what to wear each day.

However, her dress up clothes are starting to beome a favorite. Here she is with my little cousin Heather. Heather is five. They were ADORABLE together! I wish we lived closer to each other!

But, when it is just us at home, one of her favorite things to wear is this adorable yellow dress. She got it for her birthday. I am not sure if it is the flowy fabric or the sweet color...I don't know what it is, but it is definitely a popular one around here.A favorite for her and for me! (Thanks Jo!!!)

Family visits

We recently had family come visit us for a week. This is SOME of my moms family. There are SEVEN kids in her family so I am serious when I say this is only some of us. We had family from Canada, Arizona and Minnesota. It was a week of fun. A week of tons of food. A week full of laughter. A week of swimming every day, sometimes even multiple times in one day. A week of late nights and early mornings. And also a week of Austin deciding he enjoyed waking up 3 times a night. Now that Austin has figured out his nights and I have caught up on my sleep...want to do it again???? Can you guys all come back for Round 2?? We loved it!

These four stayed at Blake and my house. This is my cousin, his wife and their two kids. LOVE them! (Not just the kids...all four of them.) :)

The band was formed early on in the week... There were late night jam sessions and early morning ones too. ;)Jesse and Jed even stopped by at lunches during work days... Jed and Austin loved the attention, and of course Aubrey Rose did even more.
My cousin Terry, made the most amazing White Chocolate chip/cranberry scones. He also fixed a lot of things in our house. A chef and Mr. Fix It man! LOVED it! Wonderful bonding times... Lots of meals together...Lots of smiles...even from the babies...
There was not much exercising going on for the week (unless you count swimming every day all day), except for Jed doing push ups! HA!
A little In N Out deliciousness...a necessity...since they don't have it back home.
Adding an extra challenge to Garrett's game
Aubrey Rose's BFF
Kiersten
My mom's sister and brother
My mom's sister, her son and his sweet family
Pizza Time!
We swam A LOT!! So much that Aubrey Rose got swimmer's ear and couldn't swim for a week after they left. We are all better now! My brother, my dad, Blake and Austin We celebrated Aunt Ursula's 65th while she was here! These two girls LOVED being together!
Thank you guys for coming!! Can't wait to see you guys next time! Please be soon....please be soon.... :)

How do you pack???

When we packed for Carmel last week for the 4th of July weekend, Aubrey Rose helped us pack. Is this how you pack too???

Any comparison????

I am sure none of us probably recognize this little girl. I promise this is Aubrey Rose. She was 4 months old here.

Here is her brother at 4 months too.

Any comparison???? Just curious, do you see daddy or mommy in either of them?

Letter Q

I know I skipped a couple of letters in between, but I need to start somewhere, right? Why not start with the most recent! Here is the letter Q!

Our Quarterback and our Queen. We started in the kitchen...
making Quiche! First, put the pie crust in.
Then, add cheese and sausage.
Then, pour the yummy egg mixture.
Next up, making a Q for QUILT.

Then, one of the mommy's favorites....QUIET time! They actually did really great at this. They couldn't stand to be separated in different rooms, so this is where they chose. Hey it gave us about 20 minutes to do what we wanted to do! :) They got a little energy out and practiced QUICK and slooooooooooooow. Then, we had a QUAINT, little lunch
Painting with Q-tips!
They made the letter Q.

Last on the agenda for the day was finding quarters, learning about quarters and of course that means playing with coins. :)And don't forget about our other little quarterback and queen! Austin and Symphony were so flexible throughout the day! Love those two! And a little love from the Queen! (Well, Queen for only the day! I definitely told her at the end of the day she was back to being Aubrey Rose. HA!!!)