Never again

I am not a baker. I freely admit this. In fact, I cringe whenever the kids want to make cookies. I'll cook, and it will turn out decent, but for some reason my baking skills are quite lacking. I wonder if I would have payed more attention in Chemistry if that would have helped. Anyway, there is a science to baking, and I certainly don't understand it. I'm sorry if you were ever on the receiving end of my chocolate chip cookies. They were supposed to be a thank you...not a means to make you dead. Anyway, I came across these yummy looking chocolate chip cookies on Pinterest (I'll admit to being addicted...I think Pinterest is the greatest thing since sliced bread). Caden wanted to make cookies today and so I thought I'd give them a try. Well, I will tell you one thing...I am never going back to making regular chocolate chip cookies again. Cake mix cookies are the way to go. I've never had nice looking chocolate chip cookies. They taste okay, but they look horrible. These accomplished both goals. In fact, I'm so proud of them that I'm blogging about it..because I'm cool like that :) You should definitely try them sometime. If I hadn't just run out of cake mix I would totally make you some. It was sooo easy...and let's face it...I love easy things! Try them...you may like them (If I were super cool, I would quote Dr. Seuss right here...you know the part I'm talking about...it's in Green Eggs and Ham...go read it...it's an excellent book). And don't mind my photograph...trust me..they look good!

A little Sunday Fun...back in October

Catching up with everything we did in Oct. and Nov. is hard...but they were just such fun memories! Like this for instance. I was flipping through the Family Fun magazine and came across an idea to make plastic cup rocket ships. I thought it would be fun to do as a Sunday Family activity. So, Dan drew all the rockets (and he got really creative...everything from regular ships to princess ships, ninja ships, dragons, Castles, etc. It was cute) the kids cut them out and I put the elastics on the cups so they would blast off. The kids played with these for awhile and laughed and laughed when their cup flew in the air and did something funny. Isn't it great how the simple things are sometimes the most fun? Granted, these didn't last long...they got taken down stairs and stepped on and stuff, but hey, it created a memory for me, and I loved it.

Theater Class

When we first moved here I contacted my high school drama teacher and asked her if she needed any help with anything. I was hoping to volunteer somehow. Well, she e-mailed back and asked if I wanted to teach a community theater class. Hahahaha. That was my first reaction. I'm not qualified to teach a theater class. I haven't done theater in...well, forever. But it was an intriguing idea. So, I did it! I stepped out of my comfort zone and told myself that I was qualified to teach and that I could do this. I taught two classes. A beginning class (one I was able to bring Kember too...that was fun) and a Character and Dialog class. At first I really enjoyed the younger class and the older class really intimidated me but as time went on I had a lot of fun with the older guys. I only had girls in both my classes, but I would occasionally help out another teacher with her class that only had boys in it. The picture is from the last day of class and we performed our vignettes for each other and I got picture happy! I may not have been qualified to teach the class, but I really enjoyed it. It was fun to see the girls grow a little bit and try new things. In the younger class it was fun to watch a really shy girl who didn't want to participate gain a little confidence and start to join in the activities. She was a real sweet heart.
It was a little stressful because Caden normally had soccer the same day, and most of the other things we did tended to all be on these days, but the great thing was that if Dan had to work it was completely okay for me to bring my kids along. It was awesome, and I'm glad I was able to do it!

Little Coley's Birthday

Okay, so I realize that Cole's birthday was you know...almost two months ago...but it needs documentation, right? Right. So, here is documentation of my little boy turning 3. Which, by the way, I have a really hard time remembering. I keep thinking he turned 4 and I have to think about how old Kember and Caden are to remember. Mother of the Year award, I know. Cole was super easy to shop for. When I asked him what he wanted he said Knight stuff and shoes. Awesome! Since his birthday is around Halloween the dollar store had the Knight stuff and he needed shoes anyway! I found this out by grandma and grandpa...They bought him new cowboy boots and when we went to the store to try them on we realized that he was in a size four and needed, oh, a size 7. His poor little feet. Never once has he complained about his shoes being too small. I could put them on okay, so I never really thought about it. Well, hopefully now his feet feel better! Caden was really excited to buy Cole a present with his own money. He went and bought him a Lego set. I love having generous kids. It makes my heart happy. And it's something I need to learn. Funny how they are teaching it to me, and not the other way around. With the Johnson cousins going out for ice cream for Cole's birthday. Had to take a picture with the Tow-Mater truck. It's kind of cute...just like the kids in front of it!Just a little daddy love!We had family come over to open presents and eat monster cupcakes. I didn't go all out with anything, but it was still fun. We love living close to family.

Well, happy belated birthday buddy! Thank you for your smiles and your songs. We love you!