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Monday, July 16, 2012

Good Family, Good Eats

My wonderful Brother Nate and I have been working on our lack of grilling expertise. I am thinking that this meal shows no such lack! AND it tasted as wonderful as it looked! Mmm Mmm!
Nate found a smoker for an awesome price, cleaned it up and modified it (as per his name 'Nate Mod Anderson'), then asked if he could store it here while he hones his skills. Seriuosly!! HE ASKED!! Gotta love that guy! I have always known him to be a special gift from God, he just seems to be out to prove it these last few years :-)

Little Man LOVES to work on his 'Vooms". Spends hours doing it even. I think he is striving to be like Uncle Nate :-)

Here is a picture taken at church with some of Mini Chips buddies.

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Baking, Watches, and Temps

I love baking!
Lemon cupcakes with Classic American buttercream icing and a strawberry to make it pretty.
I think I will call the recipe: Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes :-)

About 2 months ago, I brought Mr. Cookie's watch in to get a new battery. I got it back this week. To make a long story short, the jeweler broke it taking the old battery out, so it had to be sent to their parent stop, who had to send it to the Seiko shop where they fixed it and sent it back down the line. We went to pick it up at the parent store located about an hour away but they had mistakenly transported it to the original place. The good news: Seiko is opening a store 5 minutes from our house. No more crazy watch business. (Of course, the first battery did last a solid 6 years or more...)
He is pretty happy to have it back :-)

The other day I didn't think I was going to make it through the day when I noticed that the temperature outside was still 109 degrees at 10pm. Turns out there was only 2 hours left in that day and I made it through! :-)

Monday, July 2, 2012

Monday Musings

I baked a cake for a friends baby shower.
I love baking but it is not really the time of the year to get too carried away. It was 112 degrees outside when I seriously thought about skipping out and heading down to pick up a Costco cake. I am glad I stuck with it though. It turned out pretty cute, I think :-)

Grandpa and Grandma Cookie arrived and promptly got to playing and teaching the young ones. So grateful that they had a safe trip and are here to visit. :-)


Too cute! We were at our Pool Day with our Homeschool group and Mini Chip was getting tired. He built his own bed and tried to take a nap :-)

VBS Wrap-up Night's singing made the boy's eyes open and make him appear awake, but that doesn't mean he had to act the part. But Daddy sure makes a great recliner to safely check out the noisy business from. 

Mini Chip is plain pooped from all the learning, playing, and sweltering temperatures.


The big kids (including Mr. Cookie) swimming with Grandpa Cookie. After swimming around for a bit, Grandpa informed us that he had never been in a pool before. WOW!! The girls sure had fun showing him how fun it was to get a little excercise in! :-)

Grandma Cookie receiving singing lessons from the littlest one.

Sometimes random pictures turn up on my camera... LOVE IT!!


Oreo hanging out with her best buddies at Pool Day>

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Beef... It's what's for dinner

So, we bought a beef, cow, freezer meat... whatever you call it.
It always amazes me how much there is and how little there is. Decisions and me... :-) I tend to be able to see two or more sides to things. Sometimes this makes me look wishy-washy I think. Sometimes it makes me look compassionate. Sometimes it just doesn't matter.
Either way, what you see here is actually half of our beef.
We took Grandpa Cookie to see Mr. Cookie's jobsite. The kids can never stop themselves from playing dressup even there :-) Lol.

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Monday, June 25, 2012

Snow Cones and The Game of Life

Little Mini Chip was laughing when Butterscotch pressed this thing on his face. LOL!! It made the neatest impression. I hope you can see his sweet little face in there.  :-)

Butterscotch found this huge agate in a mud canyon while we were camping! Very cool! Except that I almost threw it out with the rest of the rocks the girls are always collecting. I will be paying better attention in the future to what kind of rocks they have fallen in love with :-)

The girls pooled their money and bought a really cool snow cone machine. It is wonderful to see them cooperating together and enjoying each others company. In this state it sure has been fun! It's like summer time "Tea Parties" :-)
It is fun to come up with different flavors and how to make them more "healthy". I am thinking we should see if cherry limeade slushies are tasty tonight :-) Definitely not "healthy" but super nummy for sure!

At church today we were reminded of the 4th commandment to keep Holy the Sabbath day. To rest. So that is what we did. We rested in each others company. Played games, laughed, giggled, and spoiled ourselves with butterscotch bars and cherry limeade. Mmm mmm yumm-o!!

God has been so good to our family! We are currently waiting for Mr. Cookies parents to arrive with our sweet Peanut Butter Cookie. Grandpa and Grandma Cookie are visiting for 2 weeks but the boy is staying and working with Dad for a while! It is hard to believe how old that kid has gotten :-) I sure am glad he decided to age for me since I think I like being young at heart :-)

Sunday, June 3, 2012

Our Favorite Mayor

This is Oreo Cookie. I would like to share with you the story of her life this past week.


Amy is the real Mayor of Junior Achievement's BizTown.
The story behind her running for mayor in the first place warms my heart and makes this Mama well up with tears.

Two weeks ago, as we were wrapping up our studies associated with attending JA BizTown, we looked over the citizens running for Mayor and DJ in the town. We discovered that there were 8 people running for DJ including our very own Butterscotch Cookie! Oh, the competition! So exciting!

However, there was not one citizen running to be the towns Mayor. This was upsetting news to Oreo. She was concerned that there could be no town without a leader. She seemed to be distracted most of the rest of that day. She approached her Dad and I late the same day and asked loads of questions, as her sweet self is prone to do, and then asked if it would be okay if she prepared a speech just in case no one else stepped up to run for Mayor. After all, if the town needed a Mayor, someone had to step up and do the job.

The next morning when we checked there were 4 others running for mayor. We went to church and afterwards Oreo told us that she had thought about it alot and was going to run for mayor anyway! So exciting!
The following day at BizTown she gave an awesome speech to her fellow citizens. She stood tall and spoke loudly and clearly. The other candidates did very well also. When the votes had been tallied, she had won! She was voted in by her peers and will make an excellent Mayor!
Due to an unforeseen and sad display of adult behavior, Amy was unable to perform her duties as Mayor that day due to absolutely no fault of her own. Many tears have been shed by her, this Mama, her dear friends, and their Mama's too. These people know who the REAL MAYOR of JA BizTown was that day. No one can change that. The life lessons, hard, sad, and real... will be with us always.

Amy is amazing to us as her parents. She is the most caring, sensitive girl we know. This has been a week so full of emotional ups and downs that it has left us exhausted. But God has got our backs! He has lifted us up, brushed us off, and prepared us for the next wonderful challenge this life has to offer. Go Oreo!!

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Homeschool Yearbook Pages

2011-2012

Here they are!

Another sign

that another homeschool year

is winding down!!






Aren't those sweet faces just sooo beautiful!!

Now to truly finish the year of school...

Saturday, May 5, 2012

Such a funny boy!

My little boy ~ not to be left out...

Momma, I was watching the Sisters and...
 ...this is what they do when they pick their bathing suits.
How does it look on me Mama?

Okay. I got this. 1 leg, 2 legs, aww man!

2 legs, 1 leg, REALLY!
Oh well, maybe I will just...
...hold it for a while :-)
Thanks Mama!
I love my new suit!!