I'm back...my second try!

So, I guess I win the worst blogger award! I will gladly accept and apologize to all my loyal fans (all two of you) for leaving you empty handed when visiting the past week. I do, however, have a good reason for blogging. In the past week I have read four books (1,800 pages plus a few!)

What, you ask, has been so good, well let me explain!

While on vacation my sister in law A, asked if I had read the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer. I said no and she immediately ran to get the first book for me.
I didn't want to hurt her feelings and turn down reading the book since she was s
enthusiastic about it. Little did she know that I have been secretly mocking the book for the past year of so. I mean really, I read real literature, not teenage vampire romance novels...as if people! (Even when my sister A, who is working toward a PhD in English literature recommended the books, I have to question her judgement for a bit!)

In an effort to maintain my relationship with my sister in law, I decided to attempt reading the book. I started reading on vacation and thought the first book was okay, just nothing great in the beginning. By the end of vacation I decided to borrow her copy of the book so I could at least

finish is and decide if I wanted to read the other two books. In all honesty I liked it but it wasn't my favorite book out there. I decided it would be worth reading the other books though just to see what happens.

I then go to the library to find the second book. I have to go to the young adult section to pick up the book. I have somewhat embarrassed since it was in the corner of the library and there was a neon sign that announced to the world you were entering the young adult section. (The neon sign kind of gave it a bad feel, if you know what I mean!)

I read the second book in about six hours and am totally hooked. I go to church Sunday and am somewhat reluctant to stay for a meeting I had because I want to get through the third book and see how the story ends. (I did go to my meeting though!)

So, I have to eat my pride and say I have read the teenage vampire romance novels and I misjudged them. I am quite excited for the fourth book of the series to come out. Not my favorite books of all time, but definitely a fun read and something out of the ordinary for me!




The fourth book I read was totally different than the first three I read. Left To Tell, is the biography of a woman who survived the Rwandan holocaust in the nineties. It is a great read that I would recommend to all. I read it today, while also having time to totally clean the house. It was a quick read, but was a great reminder of what true faith can be.

Sorry for my absence from the blogging world, it was worth my four books though!

I'm Back!!

So, we had a great time on vacation and made it back! More on that to come! In an effort to procrastinate going through all my pictures from vacation I will tell you about what I have been loving lately...this peanut butter!

I have really been into peanut butter lately. I can eat a peanut butter sandwich for lunch and feel full for the rest of the afternoon. I figured it worked so well for lunch, why not give breakfast a try. I have always wanted to try fancy peanut butter but have always shyed away from the price. Let me tell you, this yummy peanut butter was well worth the extra dollar or two I spent on it!

It's all natural and have such a great flavor. I love that the peanut butter has some texture to it and the cinnamon and raisins add an extra little bonus. I have also tried the dark chocolate peanut butter, good, but this one is still my favorite. Just spread it on a good piece of whole wheat bread or a bagel and you have yourself a great breakfast! Go to www.ilovepeanutbutter.com to see all their yummy products! Hope your grocery store carries it! And maybe next time I'm in NYC I'll try out their sandwich shop!

I'm Leaving...on a Jet Plane!!

Okay, it's not quite a jet plane, a minivan to be exact, and we're not headed for the sunny California beaches but we are going on vacation!! M's spring break is this next week so we are going to Pennsylvania to visit friends and then to D.C. to visit my brother and his family! I'm looking forward to spring weather and relaxing with R and the girls!

Wordless Wednesday Happy Birthday Grandma!!

Favorite Cookies!

For those of you who don't know I am a cookie lover. I don't eat just any cookie though. Buy those mass made store bought cookies and I will pass over them anytime in the cupboard. On the other had, let me make cookies, especially with my favorite little helpers, and I will be happy! Baking with my little girls is one of my favorite things to do with them. I was recently inspired by a post from Mrs. Dub to share my favorite cookie recipe. I couldn't come up with one...so here are my top three! Enjoy!

Chocolate Crinkles (My favorite as a child!)

2 cups sugar
½ cup oil (I use canola)
2 tsp vanilla
4 ounces unsweetened baking chocolate, melted and cooled a bit
4 large eggs
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 cup powdered sugar

Mix oil, sugar, vanilla and chocolate. Mix in eggs one at a time. Stir in flour, baking powder and salt. Cover and refrigerate 3 hours (or put in the freezer for one hour if you’re in a hurry for yummy cookies!)

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease cookie sheet. Drop balls of dough in powdered sugar and roll around to coat. Bake 10-12 minutes. Do not over bake! I take them out when they still look a little underdone! Enjoy. (We sometimes call these flour cookies because my daughter used to think they were rolled in flour, so the name stuck!)

Chocolate Chip Cookies

I have made many chocolate chip cookies in my lifetime but none compare to this recipe a friend gave to us when we got married!

1 ¼ cups butter flavored Crisco
4 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 ½ cups brown sugar
2 scant tsp salt
1 tbsp baking soda
1 tbsp vanilla

Mix/ cream above ingredients. Then add

4 ¼ cups flour
1 bag of milk chocolate chips (Ghirardelli work best!)

Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes. Do not over bake! Take out just when turning brown!

Banana Drop Cookies (This is a family recipe that might sound different but is so good!)

¾ cup shortening
¾ cup brown sugar
Cream these two together then add the following:

1 egg
2 cups flour
1 tsp vanilla
2 ripe bananas mashed (bananas that are too brown to eat)
¼ tsp salt
1 tsp soda
chopped walnuts (optional, but really good!)

The batter will be somewhat sticky and that’s OK! Drop cookie dough onto cookie sheets with a spoon. Cook at 375 degrees for 8-12 minutes. Do not overcook!

Frost with brown sugar frosting:

6 Tbsp brown sugar
4 Tbsp canned milk (are whatever milk or cream you have on hand)
4 Tbsp real butter
Bring to a boil. Remove from heat. Add 1 tsp vanilla. Add powdered sugar to spreading consistency. If icing gets thick before finishing cookies, just warm up in the microwave for a few seconds or add a bit of milk! I almost always double this recipe of cookies because it is so good!

Simplicity

Lately, M has been saying she never wants to grow up (because she always wants to get toys for presents) and she never wants to get married (because she wants to live with me forever)! Tonight, on the way home from gymnastics (our weekly FHE!) M and B had a fun conversation that went something like this:

M: B, when you grow up do you want to get married?

B: I get marry when I grow up...ya.

M: You want to get married? Are you sure?

B: Ya, I get married when I grow up.

M: OK, well, you just need to pick a boy.

B: Why M?

M: Because...that's what you do when you get married...you pick a boy.

B: Oh

I thought that was a cute little conversation. Good thing you don't just pick a boy...I would've had some real winners before I ended up with R! (Not that they were knocking my door down, and some were winners, I'm just happy with the boy I did pick and who picked me back!)

If life were only so simplistic... wouldn't it be great to be five and two again on certain days?!

Sunday Shoes

I think these would be so cute in the summer with a pair of knee length shorts! I like! And of course...the red goes with everything!

Wordless Wednesday

Sunday Shoes

Quite springy...don't you think!

Spring!

So, since spring has yet to find me I created my own little shot of spring! B in her cute tulip outfit, along with the sun shining helped me have a brighter day this past week, never mind the frigid temps!

Tonight, M prayed for it to not be so cold tomorrow! You know it is getting old when the little kids are going stir crazy and just want to get out and play...minus all the snow gear!

In a few weeks we will be off to D.C. to see the cherry blossoms so I know we will see spring eventually! Until then, B will have to do!

Hello!

I am sure much of the nation is waking up to beautiful sunshine and the bright colors of tulips and daffodils. Much of the nation...but not where I'm at! Hello! I woke up this morning to a blanket of snow. I had forgotten they, the weather predictors, were predicting snow, so I was quite shocked when I looked out and saw this in my yard!

And to think I was getting excited to see the grass through our snow...how presumptuous of me!

And yes...if you are wondering I am complaining! Anyone looking to hire a nuclear engineer in a sunnier climate!

Silly B

This morning I told B we had to get her dressed because her friend H was coming over so we could baby sit her. Following is the conversation that followed:

Me: B, hurry, lets get dressed and ready so mommy can go run before we have to babysit H.

B: No!

Me: B, that's not nice, why don't you want to babysit?

B: I can't sit on baby mama I too big!

Okay, I guess I never thought of babysitting in those terms! Funny, but I guess sometimes two year olds take words to mean exactly what they are. B didn't want to sit on a baby and hurt it! What a silly girl!

Easter Festivities

So the Easter activities around here were fun for all! M was so excited to dye eggs. She thought that we would actually get to paint them (as in paint brush) but quickly discovered dying them was okay too! She is such a cute little girl and loves art. She liked coloring on the eggs with the wax crayon and discovering the design on the egg when it came up!

I think B was excited because she finally got to hold an egg. She always wants me to let her help crack the eggs while cooking...but this privilege is reserved until about the age of five! (I don't like messes) She was thrilled that she actually got to hold the eggs. The only thing that disappointed her was that there was no purple dye, purple being her favorite color of late!

Our final product! M was sad that we cracked them and actually used them on Easter Sunday! I guess good things don't always last forever. She did enjoy the potato salad that they made though!

M found a little puppy in her Easter basket. She decided to name him Chocolate. Later she decided he needed a first, middle, and last name. She came up with Chocolate Vanilla Cupcake...a girl after my own hear!

B found a baby in a purple outfit in her Easter basket! She loves her "purple baby!"

M and B both loved looking for the Easter eggs the bunny hid all over the house. M was very thoughtful and saved some of the eggs for B. B however held her own and by the end was snagging most of the eggs!

B was thrilled to learn that there was candy in the eggs. For Easter dinner we went to our friends house, the L's, and had another Easter egg hunt. We just hide empty eggs for the kids to find since they all had a lot of candy already! B ran around finding lots of eggs but refused to put them in her basket because they were empty. She would open the egg and get a disgusted look on her face since there was no candy in it! It was a fun day and the girls had a lot of fun!

Easter Dresses

For all of you wondering what to put your children in when your Easter consists of thirty degree weather...here you go! You put them in whatever is in the stores...because the people making spring dresses for children assume that you are living in a climate that actually has a spring!


I wanted to get the girls matching Easter dresses but could not find two of the same dress that came in both of their sizes. I suppose I did find two dresses that would fit them both but I don't like ruffles, lace, sequins, rosebuds, bows, and hearts all on the same dress!




I really like B's yellow dress...I wish they would have had it in M's size. I found M a dress that had yellow in it so that had to do!




Both girls looked so cute and we had a great day at church. We had a lot of fun with the egg hunt and finding Easter baskets which I will post more about later! Enjoy the pictures of these pastel beauties!!

Spring is Here...I Think!

This is the scene I looked out upon this evening. Isn't this the first day of spring? Yes, we have had snow yet again today. At least it was just a bit.

This morning M was excited that today was the first day of spring. When we went out to the bus stop she got a disgusted look on her face and said...

"Mom, where is the sun, I thought it was spring?" After about five seconds she added... "and why is there still snow on the ground?"

I guess mother nature forgot to tell upstate New York that it is spring!!! Hopefully, we get the message soon!

Wordless Wednesday

Big Shoes to Fill

Last night we had our good friends the L's over for a St. Patty's day meal! After dinner the girls all found shoes that were too big for them and decided to wear them around. I thought they looked too cute so I had to snap a few pictures!

It also made me think of how quickly they are growing and some day, too soon in my opinion, they are really going to fill those shoes. (I guess M probably won't ever quite get to that men's size of shoe...but you know what I mean!) They grow so fast and are such great little girls and friends. I'm so glad I have such cute little girls all around me!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I guess when it comes to St. Patrick's day I am a bit of a Scrooge! I don't wear green to appease the leprechaun's, I don't profess to be Irish and ask for kisses, I definitely don't have a pot of gold, my name is not Patrick and I am definitely not a Saint! Despite all my anti St. Patrick's day feelings I do dress my girls in green and get excited for them.
M wanted to know why I wasn't wearing green and I told her because I was a grown up! I don't think she got the logic...o well!
I also make corn beef and cabbage with new potatoes every St Patricks day. I don't remember doing anything in my family to celebrate the Irish but R's family always had this meal...even if it isn't really all that Irish! The girls loved the corn beef...they must take after daddy!


M came home from school excited that the Leprechaun's visited her classroom and caused some mischief. (They knocked their back packs and lunch boxes off the shelves, messed up their mailboxes and stole the letter of the day!) Maybe next year I will get more into the spirit for the girls sake, but as for this year, a Happy St. Patty's day is about as far as I go!

Sunday Shoes

Thanks B

Today R and I took B to the grocery store to do a bit of shopping. While we were both unloading the cart B decided to pick up one last item. She got a pack of Rollo's and started opening it. She couldn't quite get it open so she came up to me and asked so nicely for help. She had ripped it so she could see the chocolate but just couldn't reach it. I had her take the candy to the cashier so we could pay for it and then I opened it for her! It was funny that she was so innocent and just needed a little help to get to the chocolate. I guess she found a sure fire way to get a treat...just open it while mommy is busy looking elsewhere!

Baby Snowman

About a week and a half ago R and I took B out in the snow while M was at school. R was snow blowing the driveway and I decided to go out and play with B. She loved it!

The snow was pretty deep so she had a hard time walking in it! I was funny watching her try to get around. I pulled her on the sled for a few minutes. The whole time on the sled she would put her hand over the side and scoop up snow to eat. Basically the whole time we were out she was eating snow!

Mommy took a turn snow blowing the driveway (a first for me) while R helped B build a "baby snowman." B has been requesting a baby snowman since the first big snowstorm. The snow wasn't great for snowman building but R managed to make a little one!

B loved the baby snowman! She loved it so much she decided to eat the grape eyes!! She still talks about how she ate the snowman's eyes! We had a fun morning in the snow...even if I did fall while snow blowing the driveway and again slipping on ice!!

Wordless Wednesday

Sunday Shoes

These remind me of summer so I thought I would give myself a little joy to look at while it is still freezing here!

Post Card

Yesterday morning I woke up to this image out my front door. It had been snowing for the better part of the two days prior. It was so nice waking up to bright, sunny blue skies. I think the trees make for a great post card. Of course, I'd rather be viewing that post card from a beach somewhere and not my front door! I guess I'll enjoy it since spring is supposedly only a month or three away!