Category Archives: Holidays!

Commence Baking!

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This month is flying and I mean FLYING by! As much as I am not ready I am being pulled into the holidays kicking and screaming. As usual I am a HUGE procrastinator when it comes to holiday stuff. My bestie Janelle reminded me that this was my make it or break it week.  Friday is the last day of school for my kids so I needed to get as much done as possible while juggling all my normal stuff as well as a gingerbread house party and two Christmas parties. No problem! I work best under pressure!

So tomorrow is the kids last day of school and I wanted to send some cookies in with their teacher gifts (I’ll post a pic as soon as they are done) so I pulled out the KitchenAid and put that bad boy to work. My favorite newish cookie, Bars Bars. I have my old standard favorites that I grew up eating and have to make every year so it feels like Christmas, but this is one I’ve only been making for 7 or 8 years. I got it from someone I used to nanny for from an old cafe recipe book she had. I love them. They have made their way into my annual cookie plates and are here to stay.  Baking this morning reminded me that this isn’t a chore I have been dreading. I love it!

Does the phrase “Cream butter and sugars together” make anyone else’s heart flutter? Because that is poetry right there.  Also, I get some sort of sick satisfaction from having obscene amounts of butter, brown sugar and chocolate chips in my pantry.

But here is a fab cookie recipe that I recommend you try. And as always if we are friends in real life I have first dibs on bringing this to any joint social function. That is the law with recipe sharing.

Bars Bars:

2C butter

4C brown sugar

4 eggs

1T vanilla

2t baking soda

4 1/2C flour

6-7C quick cook oats

Chocolate Layer:

2T butter

1 can condensed milk

1t vanilla

2C chocolate chips

 

Cream butter and brown sugar. Add vanilla & eggs. Mix well. Add flour and baking soda. Mix well. Add oats. (you guessed it) Mix well.

Spread 2/3 of the dough on a 1/2 sheet pan (12×17) (I like to line mine with parchment for easy removal/cleanup)

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Melt the ingredients for the chocolate layer in a double boiler and spread over dough.

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Drop the remaining dough over the top. Bake at 350 for about 25-30 min. These are pretty rich so you can cut them smaller than a normal bar cookie.

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These are SO SO good. So now I have cookies to send in tomorrow (should probably get started on the cake pops I promised Mckenna I would make for her party) and there should be plenty left over to send some to Omar as well. I am waiting for my Christmas cards to get here so I can start baking and giving cookies and cards to all of my local friends here.

I am rockin’ this week!

I’m Back!

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So I am a little irritated by myself because I was doing SO good posting this month and was planning on having posts ready to go for our trip so I didn’t have to worry about it. Nope totally didn’t get to it.

Oh yeah, also? We went to California! I didn’t say anything beforehand because I am paranoid of people breaking into my house. Yes, I am crazy.

Anyways, we flew to the SF Bay Area to spend Thanksgiving with some of my insanely awesome family. We hadn’t been there since 2008? Sometime before we moved to Spain, Omar was just a baby! So the kids got to see cousins, aunts, uncles, and their great-grandma! It was SO great to see everyone again. My aunt Nell threw such a wonderful Thanksgiving. Her house was packed to the brim with friends and family and I spent a wonderful day cooking with my family in my aunts kitchen. I would stop and look around at the family and friends I grew up with and say, “I can’t believe I am here!” The kids had a great time, we ate ourselves silly and spent a ton of time with our family. We are closer now to our California family now than we have been in a long time, so it won’t be 4 years before we visit again!

My biggest bummer? I left my DSLR camera battery at home. I was BEYOND angry. And since my camera is a few years old no one carries the battery. So I had to make due with my ipod (which thank goodness I had!)

Meeting the pilot on our flight!

 

Fun with tape at Aunt Nelly’s house!

 

Thanksgiving Day… Steph prepping sprouts. They came on a stalk! I was so impressed by that!

 

Mckenna and Nick on potato duty. We actually barely had enough mashed potatoes! NO leftovers!

 

Uncle Bill brings the BEST sodas!

 

Me and my beauty. Pre bake…

 

Headresses were made. They were awesome…

 

Cooking, cooking, cooking. And yes, even Aunt Nell was in on the headdress action!

 

Uncle Fred, aka the big turkey.

 

Obligatory turkey picture. It was fabulous and again, NO leftovers on a 23lb bird!

 

Me and Nell!

 

One. More. Bite. Of. Pie!

 

Omar and Great-Grandma Maryann! It was SO great to see her!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Anniversary to Us!

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Some of my favorite pictures from our wedding day. We couldn’t have asked for a more perfect fall day to get married. Really can’t believe that was eleven years ago. So happy to have the rest of our lives together. I love you baby.

 

Birthday Girl!

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Yay, it’s my birthday!

So I had no plans for my day, was just hanging out at home, but my mom would hear none of that!

She told me to get my booty outta the house and get some alone time in at the beach. I hemmed and hawed but finally got into gear and was off.

All I have to say is: Thanks, Mom. Genius plan.

 

I also stopped to grab myself some birthday lunch (T-dragon roll for the win). All in all not a bad birthday if I do say so myself.

 

Came home to some surprises left on my doorstep! Nothing like flowers to make a girl feel a little better about getting older!

From my darling husband. Man I love me some tulips! They are just starting to open and are beautiful.

Also got some sweets:

 

 

Mckenna was confused by the box. It said on the side: ‘contents may disappear after opening’.

From my mom I got some fabulously fragrant lilies.

 

Every time I have fresh flowers in my house I ask myself why I don’t have fresh flowers more often. (And then of course realize it’s because they are way too expensive!)

So even though it just ended up being me and the kids for my birthday, it was a pretty good day. Looking forward to next year when I’ll have my husband home to celebrate with.

Happy Birthday Baby!

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So today is my husbands birthday and the poor man has to spend the day away from family or friends out on a ship in the middle of the ocean somewhere. I wish he could be home with us to celebrate.

We love you and wish we could spend this day with you.  I can’t believe this is the 14th birthday that we have spent together (even if we are not technically together)! It’s been a wild ride and I am already plotting next year, when you will be home. We’re gonna do it big!

You have a family that loves you and is thinking of you all day today!

Seriously, my husband is so good looking and doesn’t look a day over 25… I LOVE YOU BABE!

 

Happy Halloween!

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We had a GREAT Halloween this year… It was Omar’s first Halloween in America. Wait I lied, he did have one before when he was a month old.  We did celebrate in Spain on base but it was not quite the same. So this year he was SUPER excited.  He dressed as Darth Vader and then decided the mask was too annoying to wear the entire night but at least I got a picture with it on.

Mckenna was a dark fairy. This is our homemade costume this year, I had a lot of fun making it and she loved it.

I also tried my best with her makeup. I am NOT artistic or good with makeup but she thought it looked great and that’s all that matters!

Although I did it a few hours prior and it did get smudged and had to be fixed before we headed out.

Me, I was pretty boring this year and did a cop out with a witch had and some awesome feathery eyelashes…

And then was irritated because the breeze kept blowing my hat the whole time we were out, AND I carried a light saber that SOMEONE just couldn’t carry.

I can’t post the aftermath sorting of candy because Omar stripped as soon as we walked in the door and sorted in his underwear. Sounds about right.

Also? People are getting WAY too stingy with the chocolate. Keep your Laffy Taffy and Twizzlers, mama wants Snickers and Reese’s!

Oh I had to go snooping for pictures from Halloween past. I can’t believe how much my babies have grown over the past few years!