The best oatmeal cookies!

The recipe I’ve been using would leave my cookies really fluffy and sort of dry. Not good. So I went on a search for chewy oatmeal cookies. Tried the first one I found and it was perfect. I’m in love! I made another double batch last night. Everyone’s addicted. So I thought I’d share with you…

2 1/4 C Flour (I use bread flour…cause that’s all I had )
1 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Salt
1 C Shortening (I use Butter Flavored Crisco)
1 1/4 C Brown Sugar, Packed
1/2 C Granulated Sugar
2 Eggs
1 tsp Vanilla
1/2 tsp Water
1 1/2 C Oats
2 C Raisins

Stir flour, baking soda, and salt in bowl. Cream shortening with sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, vanilla and water. Slowing stir in flour mixture. Stir in oats and raisins. Drop spoonfuls onto ungreased cookies sheet and bake at 350 degrees for about 12 mins.
Makes about 2 dozen cookies.

So my son is in love with tunnels. Everything is about tunnels. And a tunnel, according to Colton, is anything that goes over his head. A blanket, mom’s legs, a chair, his train tent…anything! He loves to put the blankets over his head and latley that’s the only way he’ll fall asleep…in his tunnel. Crazy to me cause I HATE having anything over my head! The only problem is he can’t seem to get the blankets over his head the way he wants. So he will either come ask us to “tunnel” him or flip out and throw things! Yes, he’s 2 1/2!! So all day I spend putting a blanket over him so he can play in the tunnel…or putting his chocolate milk (which is really just white milk…shhhh!) in the tunnel with him! Today he decided it would be great to put sissy in the tunnel with him. She thought it was a blast too…of course Colton could be spitting on her and she’d think it was grand…as long as he’s paying attention to her she doesn’t mind!

Speaking of sissy…how do babies know when mom’s about to eat? What is it? Both my kids were like this. I’ll lay her down for a nap, take a shower and then start to make a sandwich and she cries. Never fails! I eat with her in my arms…and she’s trying to grab at whatever I’m eating. Crazy thing!!

We’ve been placing bets when she’ll crawl. Colton crawled at 6 months…right after he started sitting on his own. She hates to be on her tummy though. She will sit and try and reach for a toy and topple over, ending up on her tummy and scream and holler for me to come help her! I say another month, Andrew says 2 weeks. We’ll see!

I think Colton is afraid of Elly when she cries. The slightest whimper and he will run and hide. Seriously. It’s very strange! He will hide under the table or chair or just run into his room. Even if she’s not crying because of something he did…which is what I thought was happening at first. And she thinks it’s hilarious when he cries! I made him try a bite of a carrot last night and he was crying and she was just cracking up at him. Then he got all upset and yelled at her to “stop funny me” translation…stop laughing at me. LOL

I need to wrap this up because Colton wants to watch a “Colton movie”. He’s in love with the web camera! We will talk to my mom on MSN and she has her web cam on and we have ours on. So it’s just like talking on the phone but you can see each other and it’s free. He’s ask to talk to Nana first and she’s usually at work so then he wants to watch himself! Silly boy!

I have just a couple photos to share. I ended up not doing the 2nd take of Christmas photos today. Too lazy to drag everything out again!! But I got a couple snapshots of the kids.

Enjoy your evening!!!

We have teeth!!

Yep, my little girl has her first two teeth!! I’ve been trying to get a photo of them but no luck yet. So far she hasn’t bitten me while eating…fingers crossed it stays that way! I was talking about it at my last La Leche League meeting and they helped ease my fears a little. Especially the women with 2+ year old children still breastfeeding.

Another fun milestone for Ellyana. She had her first bites of solid foods! Banana!! I was very reluctant to start solids with her. I wanted to stay her only source of nutrients for a little longer. But she was showing a lot of the signs….lunging at my food while I ate….sitting up alone….TEETH….chewing motions….so we decided to give it a try. So loves them! Next we are trying Sweet Potato. Here are some photos of her second time eating…

Oh and these are from the other night. Super cute!!

I took some Christmas photos of the kids today but I’m not very happy with them so I think I’ll do another session later this week.

We went to Gymboree on Tuesday. I have a Leader Applicant meeting for La Leche League Friday so we went Tue instead. It was Family Gym day. So there were lots of little kids and some bigger ones too. Colton had a blast. He was very OCD that day though. Some one had taken the little foamy shapes and mixed them up. Colton was very angry. He got them and matched the shapes and colors back up and then guarded them for a good 5 mins! LOL And then, a boy had the oddasity to use the basket balls for something OTHER than basketball!! LOL He grabbed the ball out of the kids hand and put it in the hoop! I had many talks with him that day about not taking things out of people’s hands. But he’s learning and it’s good to keep him interacting with other kids. This will be our last month there for a while though. With the weather getting worse I don’t want to have to risk it.

I only have one LO to share today. This photo is 2 years old but I love it. It reminds me of many good things. It was taken at my Grammy and Poppa’s house before my Grammy passed away. I took it with my FILM Canon camera! Look how little he was *sniff*!

Morning!!

I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. Our’s was nice. Long but nice!! I swear, next year we are just having pizza though! Too much work for me! LOL

So I’ll just start with some LOs…since that’s the way I uploaded everything and I’m too lazy to rearrange!

Man this was forever ago!!

{Beginning}
{Just Me}

Things have been pretty busy around here! Elly’s now 6 months old! She had her well baby check up and is 15 lbs even and 26 1/5″ tall. She’s already into size 6-9 month clothes. Her growth is so much different than Colton’s! She’s 2 lbs heavier than he was at this age. She outgrows clothes muuuch faster! Anyhow, she’s healthy and perfect! (Like we didn’t know that already!). Colton went with us (Daddy had to work) and he was so mad at the nurse for “hurting sissy!”. He cried longer than Ellyana did!

Sleepy Elly and Poppa Joe

Goodbye hugs

Father and Son Hugs from Auntie Elissa!

(right after this they kissed and Colton wipes his mouth ans says “GROSS!!” LOL)

A close up of Andrew…I just love this photo of him!!!

The kids and I the other day

Goofy Colton with rings on his face!!! He does this to himself all the time!

And sweet Elly!!!

Well I better go. Colton’s asking for eggs and toast! Have a great weekend!

My Stand Up and Scrap Layouts!!

Journaling Reads

Week 3 {What a Beautiful Mess}

Week 4 {Seeing Red}

Journaling reads:

You are so cute when you are mad. I can’t help but smile at you.

Credits:

Black Paper, Red paper for alphas, and border by Lauren GrierRibbon Fastener, Glitter Spots by Christina Renee’Circle by Gina Marie HuffCardboard Tag By Robin CarltonBubble Wrap Stamp By Emily Merritt

Week 5 {Innocence}Everything by Christina Renee Designs

Thanks for looking!!!

I hate it when I’m behind!

Phew! LOL Ok, I better go get some dinner going. Have a great week!

Fall photos!

{Mad at me cause I’m taking photos and not pushing him!}

{Smelling the leaf!}

{Such a cutie!}

{Cool boots!}

{OK, now for fun…these photos were taken EXACTLY a year ago (Oct 25th, 2006)…crazy huh?!}

{Getting so big!}

{Ack, don’t eat that leaf!}

{Why hello brother!}

{My little princess}

{Truck driving}

{Slobber Monster!}

{Then I took them to the front porch for some shots with the pumpkins}

{Aren’t they sweet???}

{LOL His face!}

{Punching the pumpkin}

{Again, LOL at his face!!!}

{I love this one!!}

Now for some scrap pages….(Click for credits)

{Pumpkin Punch}

{Sisters and Friends}

Ok…gotta run! We have to leave for Gymboree in 10 mins! Have a great day!!!

Are you ready?

{Colton loved the “tunnel”!}{Ellyana and Grandpa}{Colton and Grandpa}{In the motel room}

{Pool Time}{Grandpa jumping in!!}{I love this one!}

{Elly got to dip her toes in}{Colton loved jumping in}{Chubbs!}{Back at the house…Elly loooves her Jumperoo!}
Today we got a nice package in the mail from Nana (my mom)!! I love getting mail! Thank you Nana!!!!!!!!!Check out Colton’s new bed! Juli (andrew’s mom) gave the kids her bunk beds. So we set this one up in his room. He loves it! And look he’s NAPPING!!! LOLSo, today I had a leadership meeting for La Leche League. I’m thinking of being a leader. And after having that meeting I’m 100% sure I want to go through with it!! I think it is so right for me. The process takes a few months (sometimes a year) but I’m ready to get started!! I’ll keep you updated!

Quick Post

Hi all! Just a quickie! My dad should be here any minute and I need to get dinner started. But I just wanted to show you what Colton got today

Have a great evening and I’ll be back Sun (I hope!).

New look

I was hoping to have a new home for this blog (thanks to my dear friend Rebecca Gold) but my ISP is having troubles so I’m still here. But stay tuned cause *hopefully* I can get it working and moved soon!

So to satisfy my need for change, I’ve made a new blog header and changed up my colors. I like it and hope the orange isn’t too hard on the eyes. Let me know if it is and I can easily change it.

So, not much is new here. We have a play date tomorrow and I’m taking Elly in because she has a horrible diaper rash that just won’t go away so I need to get that checked out. Andrew’s been working on his 4Runner today. We are hoping to have it up and running soon so we can go play in the snow! Colton’s doing good. He’s got a cough that only bothers him at night. So last night he was up ALL night long. Poor guy! He did nap today though and is his chipper self. So hopefully tonight will be better.

I’m very excited! I got accepted to Oh Chere Designs team as a December Guest!! I have some more exciting news but you’ll have to wait a few days for that!

A few Layouts…. (Images are clickable…)

That’s all I have! Hope you have a great evening!!!!

Yikes!

I’m horrible at keeping this thing updated! But I finally have a minute so this will be a long one! Grab a drink, here we go!!!

So, we went to our first week of Gymboree waaay back 2 weeks ago and had a blast! Ellyana had just as much fun as Colton did! Oma met us there and played too.

Photos of that….

In the tunnel

Very pissed at me for taking his picture while he was playing!
Elly and Oma

This week we didn’t make it to Gymboree because Colton had a cold. So hopefully this Friday we can go and make up some day soon for the one we missed. We’ve been going to a Primary Connection group latley and loving it. It’s very much like a preschool but the parents stay there. Lots of kids C’s age. And even some babies too.

We sold my van. It was giving us some problems and we just took the hints and got rid of it!!! It sold fast and we bought a 1995 Volkswagen Jetta. I loooove this car. It’s a 5 speed and I have missed driving a stick so bad. It has the V6 motor and is a speedy little thing! I will miss the room the van had but this is so nice. I actually got checked out today in town! LMAO….and it was me not that car they were looking at! hahaha!!

Wanna see why I get NO sleep these days? This is how I wake up every morning. When El wakes to eat I just stick her next to me and nurse and then at 4 or 5am Colton comes in and gets in bed with us. Poor Andrew sleeps right on the edge and I’m crammed between two kids!

Look at my 3 couch potatoes!!! Colton’s so funny!!

Last night Juli and Kaili were making cookies and we look over to see this….

He had pulled his stool over and was drooling over the cookies!! Smart little guy!

Push-over Daddy!!

A sweet one of Kaili and Elly
In scrapbook news…I was accepted to another Creative Team. Sunflower Designs!! Anja’s work is so beautiful! Check her out at Hot Spot Scraps.
Here’s my first LO with her Garden Fun kit
{Grandpa Sam}
credits

And one with Angela’s Frame It Up
{Love My Daddy}
credits

And look what my little girl is doing!!!!!! She is getting better and better everyday. She’s growing up way too quickly!
{Sitting Up Already}
credits

Elly’s 4 Month page…just in time since she’ll be 5 months in just a couple days!!
{Ellyana 4 Months}
credits

This last Wednesday I hosted the blog challenge over at ElementalScraps. Shandy Vogt was the sponsor. I looove her designs! If you’d like to check it out you still have one day to get a LO in to be get Shandy’s PhotoFX for free and be eligible for the random prize. Challenge #10
Here’s my LO for my challenge
{Fall it Will Be}
credits

I just completed my 3rd LO for the Stand Up and Scrap contest. I have so happy with my pages so far. But there are a ton of amazing people in this contest! I don’t expect to win at all. But I cannot wait to show you all my pages once the contest ends.

I’ve been working on the kids’ Halloween costumes. I really need to kick it into high gear though. The days are getting away from me!!

We watched a few movies this weekend. It was Homecoming and Kaili decided not to go and stay home and eat cookie dough, ice cream and watch movies!! How could I argue?! One of the movies we watched was Knocked Up. Now, if you know me personally you know how much of a birth junkie I am! I loved this movie!! I was yelling at the TV when they told her she needed intervention! LOL And the main male character….just like my husband!! I was cracking up! I think that movie will go on my “Need to Buy” list!

Oh I think that’s all the exciting stuff that has happened since last time!!

Have a great evening!