Big, Soft Ginger Cookies

It is finally getting cooler outside and i felt like this was just the excuse I was looking for to break out my favorite holiday cookie recipe. Now I wish I could take credit for this recipe but alas it is from better homes and gardens. I only make it slightly better by replacing the shortening with real butter... it makes a huge difference. I can only make these a few times a year for the sake of my waistline they are Delicious!

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Big, Soft Ginger Cookies

Ingredients

4 1/2

cups all-purpose flour

4

teaspoons ground ginger

2

teaspoons baking soda

1 1/2

teaspoons ground cinnamon

1

teaspoon ground cloves

1/4

teaspoon salt

1 1/2

cups Butter

2

cups granulated sugar

2

eggs

1/2

cup molasses

3/4

cup coarse sugar or granulated sugar

Directions

1. In a medium mixing bowl stir together flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, and salt; set aside.
2. In a large mixing bowl beat butter with an electric mixer on low speed for 30 seconds to soften. Gradually add the 2 cups granulated sugar. Beat until combined, scraping sides of bowl occasionally. Beat in eggs and molasses. Beat in as much of the flour mixture as you can with the mixer. Using a wooden spoon, stir in any remaining flour mixture.
3. Shape dough into 2-inch balls using 1/4 cup dough. Roll balls in the 3/4 cup coarse or granulated sugar. Place about 2-1/2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.
4. Bake in a 350 degree F oven for 12 to 14 minutes or until cookies are light brown and puffed. (Do not overbake or cookies will not be chewy.) Cool on cookie sheet for 2 minutes. Transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool. Store in a tightly covered container at room temperature for up to 3 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months. Makes twenty-five (25) 4-inch cookies.

We've been Booed

I had my door bell rung yesterday evening and i got to the door just in time to see tail lights rounding the corner of my culdesac. I was a little puzzled as to why someone would just ring and run but I found a lovely little supprise on my door step and my confusion was replaced with a huge smile. We've been Booed ;) I have never thought of doing something like this for Halloween. When I was a kid my absolute favorite christmas activity was doorbell ditching our neighbors with Holiday treats. Ususally my little brothers Lincoln and Landon were sent to do the running (since they were the fastest) but I always loved the thrill of sneaking up to the door, praying not to get caught and then running for my life back to the van so we wouldn't ;) My instructions for this halloween doorbell ditch is to do this to at least 2 other families in our neighborhood. I am super excited to spread this fun on to our neighbors and I might not be able to help myself going to more than two houses. I honestly have been trying to get the energy to make halloween cookies with my kids for a couple weeks now (thanks to my pregnancy stealing all my energy and making me sick) this hasn't happened yet. But now I have new motivation and Oh boy is it going to be fun.

Halloween... here we come

So Jace has been talking for weeks about how he wanted to be a T-Rex for halloween. This has been quite troubling for me since we are being very strict with our budget and all the T-rex costumes I could find anyway were made for toddlers not giant 5yr olds the size of a 7yr old. So we had to put on our serious thinking caps to come up with a way for Jace to be a t-rex for halloween this year.

Honestly I was stumped. I had no idea where to even begin. My Brilliant husband came to the rescue. He found a cardboard box that was just the right size for a head and drew on teeth for me to cut out. he also cut a hole in the bottom just big enough for his head to fit through. Next we took an egg carton and cut it up to make eyes for the top. My kids had a blast helping me paint the head. We gave everyone brushed and 4 colors of paint and said ready...set...go. They did a great job.....made a HUGE mess but did a great job.

Next we needed to come up with a body. I found some old green pillow cases that were part of a failed DIY bedroom make over project I had attempted last year. They were just the right color and size. I used one for the body and another I sewed into a tail that I stuffed with an old pillow. (See honey sometimes its good not to throw everything away). The spikes were from an old sheet I had torn up to sew into something else as well. I cut up another card board box and sewed it into the spikes for some stiffness.

 I purpousefully only made small arm holes so his arms could only stick out so far since T-rexs have small arms. Hopefuly he should still be able to get plenty of candy.

After all was said and done I spent $3 on some thread and that is it!!! I think it all came together pretty nicely and judging by that smile on his face I think he likes his costme.

Front door redo

 As you can see my front door was clearly in need of a makeover... So I had a free evening and wah lah!! Just in time for christmas. Only took one pint of semi gloss paint, a foam roller, a small brush a litte painters tape and batta bing batta boom. Although something to keep in mind when you are painting your front door you need to leave it open to dry. This is something I didn't think about when I started. It was a very interestin task keeping the kiddos inside while the door was drying.

Holiday Cookies

Browned butter and cinnamon frosting on Oatmeal chocolate chip cookies

Regular old oatmeal chocolate chip cookies turned gourmet with the addition of a little drizzle of browned butter with cinnamon frosting yum!!!

1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
1/3 cup white sugar
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/3 cup white flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 cup oatmeal
1 cup (1/2 of a 12oz package) chocolate chips

Cookie directions:
Soften butter and cream with sugars. Add egg and vanilla beat well. In a separate bowl combine flour, salt baking powder and soda. mix dry ingredients with butter mixture and mix well. Add oatmeal and chocolate chips last. Drop tablespoons onto a greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 12min or till lightly browned.

Frosting
1/2 stick butter (1/4cup)
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1tsp cinnamon
2 tbsp milk

in a small sauce pan heat butter over medium heat until golden brown stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and add vanilla powdered sugar and cinnamon and mix well. Add just enough milk to make and icing of drizzling consistency. Drizzle on warm cookies

I am a potty training genious!!!

Yes I am bragging a little bit.... deal with it.

Ok I'm sure you're wondering what in the world would make me make such a bold and outlandish statement. Well... I am very proud to say that I have sucessfully taught 2 children to go potty in the shockingly short amout of time of 1 1/2 days each.

I'm sure you're all wondering how I achieved this amazing feat and I certainly can't take all the credit (I'm trying hard though) I had lots of help and advice from lots of sources. I mainly talked to my husband's aunt Diane (thanks Diane) that potty trained almost all of Steven's cousins. She had alot of really good advice for me and then I got an e-book about the 3 day potty training method.

Jace and I rocked the 3 day potty training method around christmas time. All you do is pump them full of liquids and put them in underwear. (crazy I know) It took him one whole day of accidents and the morning of the 2nd day it just clicked and he was pee trained. We did so well that this week I decided it was Nellie's turn to give it a run.

We started Tuesday and things went even better than they did with Jace! She had only a few accidents the first day but its mostly where she starts in her underwear and we run to the potty and then she finishes. They actually say thats a good sign that she is them learning how to controll their bladder. She even stayed dry through nap time!! We didn't stay dry the first night but it she got it the 2nd night and I tell you my friends (beaming with pride) we haven't had an accident since.

The best part of this whole thing is...

NO MORE DIAPERS!!!! YAY!!!!!

I'm totally up for training other people's kids but its gonna cost ya... ;)

Nellie's last picture in her diaper

Diapers... you will NOT be missed

Yes its been a while...

Sorry guys I know its been a while since we've posted... Steven changed the password on his blogger account and Its taken me a while to figure this new one out. Ok so I really just wanted to share a little piece of inspiration I got the past couple weeks.

I just recently finished a great book called "how to bake a perfect life" By Barbra O'Neal, and overall I was very impressed. I've actually looked at this book several times over the last few months every time we have been at Target. I finally decided I needed to buy it and read it and I'm so glad I did. It was a great story, easy to read, and it even came with hidden treasures... recipes. The book was all about how a woman dealt with difficult times in her life by baking bread. I have been left so inspired... seeing as how this is a very difficult time in my life this was perfect book for me. Couple this great inspiration with the

great baking book for christmas, thanks Scott and Penny I think I have a great combination here. I've already made some great Whole wheat and oatmeal bread that was absolutely fantastic (especially as french toast yum!) The only thing I'm wishing now was that I had a kitchen aid to help me with my mixing. I'm hoping for one for my birthday or christmas this year (nudge, nudge, wink, wink)I think I'm definately on to something here... baking my life better...

Super Bowl

Hurray I am finally getting to use one of my christmas presents!! My wonderful husband gave me the cake ball book for christmas and I have been dying to try every single one of them out. (i need and excuse to make the Owls. they are just so friggin adorable) But I was so happy when I found the football one just in tme for our superbowl party and they turned out so cute! I'm still working on the dipping process, (I can't quite get them from the spoon onto the wax paper with out severely messing them up) so these the bottoms aren't actually covered in chocolate but I think they will still be good. I'll have my superbowl party guests take a vote. Hurray go me for being festive

New Pictures

So I got some amazing new picture frames for christmas and I was trying to find pictures to put in them but I wasn't able to find any I liked. So I looked at my children and noticed that they were both dressed and had their hair recently combed so Hello Photo Op!!! I took them out into the back yard and got some really cute shots. Yeah I was pretty excited about it too. And now all of these pictures are up on my wall in my adorable new frames. Thanks Santa

Halloween 2010

I think Halloween is always more fun when you have kids. They get so excited to dress up and candy is so much more exciting to a 2yr old than a 25yr old =) We had so much fun this year for Halloween. Jace was wolverine, Nellie was a hula girl, Steven was an Army guy and I was a circus ring leader.

We went to 2 trunk-r-treats this year and the kids had a blast at both. I think we will do the whole trick-r-treating around the neighborhood thing next year when Nellie is a little older. Jace totaly had the hang of it this year. At our trunk-r-treat he kept saying "tricky-treat mommy" and held out his bucket. He kept comming back again and again expecting me to give all the candy we brought to him. So cute.

Nellie didn't really make the rounds with Jace and daddy but she did dance for anyone that asked. It almost looked like she was actually doing the Hula. So here's a few pictures from our Halloween adventures this year.

My wolverine enjoying a quick sip before he returns to kicking butt Hula Nellie.
Nellie actually had a huge blow out in her costume. It was absolutely aweful and we ended up having to throw away her grass skirt. It got all over her white onesie so I took it off, put her coconut bikini back on and we went home naked.

Brother Halterman was making baloon hats for the kids at the party and Nellie got a heart hat. Its about as big as she is.
Spiderman JonesMaine the cookie monster

The wonder that is Nellie

I was thinking back today about how big my kids are now. I get the idea of how big they are sometimes when they purposefully and willfully do the exact opposite of what I tell them to do. But then I have to remind myself that even though they have minds of their own and have grown so much they are still just babies.

We went to a halloween party on Saturday and a woman had a 6 week old baby in the most adorable little bear costume and it made me think about how Nellie was about that age last halloween (8 weeks) I can't believe how fast the time goes by.

She was so little last halloween but now she is so big I just wanted to take the time and write down a few things about Nellie

1. She is walking all over creation now. She started walking about 2 weeks before she turned one and no one has been able to stop her since.
2. Nellie is my little scavenger she will throw food from her highchair just so she can get to it later in the day. She actually gets mad at me when I clean up under her chair. She even scavenged for food at the halloween party under the serving table. So cute.
3. Nellie loves drinks. If you have something to drink she wants it. She doesn't even really like her own sippy cups she prefers anything else.
4. She is so sneaky. If there is something she wants but knows she shouldn 't have (like your drink) she will carefully get close enough to it then grab and run. Jace is often a victim of this tactic
5. Nellie is the happiest baby you've ever seen everything makes her smile especially Jace. They play so well together now and Jace tickles her all the time which makes everyone laugh.
6.Nellie's favorite game is peek-a-boo which she will play with anyone that gives her any sort of attention.
7. Nellie loves Katy Perry. Any time a katy perry song comes on she gets so excited and dances her little heart out. We've made it a point to have family dance time now.

Nellie's Halloween Costume what an adorable hula girl

Pretty little girl

She fell asleep like this in the car I just had to take a picture

So dang happy all the time

Nellie I love you so much my sweet little angle. Just don't grow up too fast I love you just the way you are.

Nellie's one year pictures

Since I bought my camera I've been trying to get better at taking pictures but it seems that the better I get the more mobile and uncooperative my kids get. Taking pictures of someone that just learned to walk and therefore just realizing all the freedom they have is hard work. My goal was to get some one year old pictures of Nellie but that didn't really happen. She was so not having it. I tried and tried to get her to sit still for 2 seconds and even looking at me was too much to ask. By the end of it I was so frustrated I was about to cry. But I got home and was happy that I got a couple of useable cute pictures of her but still sad that it took so much work just to get those. Nellie when you look back and wonder why you don't have very many cute pictures of yourself don't blame me. I tried my best.

Jace on the other hand was slightly more cooperative and I ended up getting in a few good shots of him too. I have got to say that he is one good looking boy =)

My favorite picture so dang cute. This is the face he makes when I tell him to smile for me.

Happy Birthday Nellie!

I can't believe my baby is 1 already! It seems like this past year has flown by much faster than I would have liked. I feel like she was just born and now here we are celebrating her first birthday. Nellie is walking all over the place now and is so amazingly adorable it is a joy to watch her grow. We celebrated her birthday with a mini party with 2 other friends from our neighborhood that are the same age as her. We did a party just for the 3 girls. I did a butterfly theme and made pick cupcakes with white chocolate butterfly wings on top. I was kinda proud of myself.

The Birthday Girls

Eden, Gwennie, and Nellie

Yumm cake!!

3 friends with 3 babies that are friends too.

Callie, Me and Kate (and Gwen too)
To clean off the cupcake mess from the babies we played in the backyard with the water on. I guess Nellie was thirsty after all that cake. And of course Jace had fun too.

Natalie's Baby Shower

I'm always excited about babies especially when its new additions to my family. Natalie and Dallas are having a new baby girl in October so it's baby shower time! Hurray

Our own water park

After all of our hard work on the backyard we figured it was time to enjoy it. We finally have grass growing and where there is grass and kids there is a waterpark. I remember tons of times growing up where we would all get our swimsuits on and run through the sprinkelers or jump on the trampolene with the sprinkeler underneath. AAAhhh such happy memories. Well now the best part about being a mom is getting to pass down those traditions to my kids. We bought Jace a slip and slide for his 1st birthday party and miraculously it survived our move without getting any holes. It is a really fun finding nemo one where you screw the hose in one end and as it fills up with water it sprays out of holes that run all the way down the whole legnth of the slide. Simple yet efective design and the kids love it. Even Nellie (who has a hard time getting wet sometimes *such a girly girl*) throughly enjoyed herself in our backyard waterpark.

Here's some pictures from our fun

You are not making me get my hair wet Mom!!

Jace jumped right in

Ok i guess i like it

Happy kids

Daddy and Nellie

It seems like I never make it onto this blog it's all pictures of the kids and an occasional Steven. So this is me making it onto the blog =)

Child labor

Yes its true I'm putting my kids to work!!! But don't worry its totally legal and they love it! Jace is my sweet helper boy. He loves to be involved in anything and everything I am doing especially when there is water involved and especially when there are bubbles to play with. I decided it would be a fun and much needed activity to wash the car with the kids. Nellie wasn't too thrilled as I had to pen her up in the play yard (she kept trying to eat all of Steven's tools in the garage) But Jace and I had a blast. And of course i got some free child labor =)

What a good helper and so much fun too

Oh a little side note. I got to go to the zoo this past week with my wonderful lovely Heather and her boys. Sooo fun I love you heather

Uncle Sam!!

No not the government uncle sam (although it is fun to say it that way) Jace and Nellie have an actual Uncle named Sam and they got to meet him this last weekend. Steven has 3 half brothers from his dad's first marriage and Sam is the youngest of the brothers. He was in town for training for a new job and I guess he heard our air mattress calling his name so he had to come stay. We had a lot of fun getting to know him. Jace especially, since Sam has a little boy himself he and Jace were best buds.

We all went swimming at Callie's condo

Hi Uncle Sam =)

Jace of course loves to be in the water he played long after we were all ready to get out. I swear that kid would be made of water if he could

This was nellie's first time actually getting in the water while swimming. We tried once before but it was too cold. I think she likes swimming...she looks pretty happy

Nellie also got to hang out with her buddy Eden. Such cute swimsuit models

Nellie's first time in the pool. I think my kids were supposed to be fish. They love the water.