Bridal Shower invite!

Here's the invitation for my new daughter-in-laws bridal shower! How do you like them?

Some fun with the kiddos!

I saw this fun activity on a blog somewhere and thought it might be a little bit fun for the kids. I took some butcher paper and traced each of the kids on their own piece of paper and then let them color themselves.






This last picture is of Brynleigh. She wanted to color on everyone else's picture and then she decided to throw a temper tantrum and be really rude. So...she had to go to the corner. I don't know...there's something about seeing their little dejected stance that makes me want to take a picture of it. They're just cute.


Brynleigh cracks me up! I've talked to her about how it hurts my heart when she's mean to me. And then we talked about where the heart is and how it sounds. She'll listen to my heart frequently and then make me listen to hers. She got really mad at me one day and yelled out "You heart not BUMPIN'!" Oh my gosh! I nearly fell over laughing...

Reminds me of my other daughter McKenna. She's 13 now, but when she was about 3 (same age as Bryn) she yelled something VERY similar..."You not my HONEY!!" to her Dad. (He used to call her "Honey" all the time.) Apparently he corrected her about something and she didn't like it!! Oh my goodness! If you could just see their faces...Truly priceless! They were so indignant!

Mother's Day and some other goodies...

Mother's Day is so much fun for me! I love that my children make things for me. I don't know why, but they mean so much more to me than things that are bought. Tanner, my fifteen year old son who is much too cool to show emotion, made me a card with a poem on it.




You can't see it but he drew a picture of me from an old photo on the front. It pleased me so much to see that he took the time and made the effort to MAKE something for me.
Here's a photo of Emma's present to me. Emma and Joseph made one for me in preschool and they were so excited to have a present for me. They didn't want to wait for Mother's Day! They actually wrapped the present themselves! I'm sure that was super fun for them


Here's what they made for me! I love them so much!!


And aren't the hugs the best thing! I have pictures of me with everyone, but I'm not sharing!! (They woke me up out of a dead sleep!! So NOT photogenic in the morning!!)



After church I got my breakfast in bed. Buttermilk pancakes and eggs and bacon! I'm not a morning person and everytime they made me breakfast in bed in the morning I couldn't eat it because it made me sick. So....this time I asked for it after church!! Yummm.....

And then Tanner decided to do a photo shoot while I was in bed...so.....I went ahead and posed for him! LOL!!






He was so funny..."Work it Mom!" "Fabulous" etc...

I tell you, I love having fun with my kids!

Some yumminess for you!!

One of my favorite cookies in the world (o.k. my only favorite cookie) is Snickerdoodles. I don't know why but I absolutely LOVE them! Well, I haven't made them in forever and a day, and yesterday I was feelin' the itch to bake! (Doesn't happen often...) I had gone on a blog that I had found a while ago, called "Get off your butt and bake", and had seen a recipe claiming to be the BEST Snickerdoodles in the world. I thought to myself, "Hmmmmm...I wonder if it's better than the one I use?" So, I decided to write it down. (Especially since I lost MY recipe and I'd have to call my sister and see if SHE had it) At the last minute I chickened out and decided to go ahead and call my sister and see if she still had the recipe...
She didn't answer her phone (Dag Nab it all!!) Soooooooo...I had to use the recipe! (When I finally get that itch to bake, I gotta scratch it!!)
I just finished baking them and I'm going to be giving them to a friend who has had a birthday this week and to another who was extremely kind and has blessed our family quite a bit. And...I DON'T WANT TO GIVE THEM AWAY!!!!!!! I love this recipe!! These cookies are to die for!! Want to give them a try? You do?!! O.k....Here it is!!!!!



Snickerdoodles


2 1/2 cups All purpose flour
2 teas. Cream of Tartar
1 teas. Baking soda
1/2 teas. Salt
1/2 Cup (1 stick) unsalted butter- room temp.
1/2 cup Vegetable Shortening (Crisco)
1 1/2 Cups Sugar
2 large Eggs
1 teas. Pure Vanilla Extract

Cinnamon and Sugar Mixture

1 1/2 teas. ground cinnamon
1/4 cup Sugar



Sift together dry ingredients (excluding sugar)in large bowl. Mix butter and shortening until lightened( Medium speed) in color. (About 2 minutes) Add 1 1/2 cups of sugar in steady stream and mix for another 2 min. Add egg on low speed one at a time. Mixing well after each. Stir in Vanilla. Add dry ingredients in 2 additions, mixing until just blended after each. Scrape dough into clean bowl, cover with Saran Wrap and put in refrigerator for 6-8 hours or overnight.
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Roll in walnut sized balls. Combine the 1/4 cup of sugar and 1 1/2 teas. cinnamon in small mixing bowl. Place each ball in sugar mixture and coat evenly. Place 3 in. apart on cookie sheets. Bake for 10-12 min. or until lightly browned. Shorter baking time makes a softer cookie and longer would be a crispy one. Your choice...

I left mine in until I just barely saw some golden brown at the bottom of the cookie and they came out crispy on the outside and beautifully soft on the inside. MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM....I think I've had like 5 of them. Oink Oink...

P.S. I was just kidding (kind of) about not wanting to give them away! I'm still going to. It'll just be a little bit of a sacrifice. Which is ALWAYS good for you!!

My Binny-bam-boozle!

Can you tell that I am LOVING this!? I did another class and this was the outcome. I think a lot of this stuff is repetition. I just need to remember to do things like make a new layer, save in the right format and learn those millions of buttons. Not much really...just a trifle...

Here's another one!

Wow! I am learning so much in this class. Although I have to admit, this page was a bonus assignment and it should've been easy as pie, but I forgot something and it took me about 3 hours to figure it out and some help from the admin. DUH!!! This so much fun! My blogging friend Judy makes this look like it's so easy, but I'm working on a learning curve. My kids don't like it when I'm on the computer, so they pester me every minute or two. Kind of hard to work with when you have some headphones on. What're ya gonna do?!
But seriously! I am SO excited to be learning this!!!

My first digi page!

Can you believe it! I think I'm getting the hang of it. I took my first lesson on digital scrapbooking (That I paid for about 8 months ago) and this is the what I did!! I can't wait to do some more. Adobe Photoshop is so complex. I hope by doing it over and over I'll remember everything a little bit more.