Cookie Exchange

My mom had a cookie exchange party at her house a couple weekends ago. It was the first time I had been to one. The first thoughts that were going through my head were, man this is going to be a lot of work making 6 dozen cookies. Really it wasn't too bad. It was fun taking home 6 dozen other kinds of cookies too!

I decided to try a new recipe. I couldn't even try the cookie after I made them because I made exactly 6 dozen!

I made Chocolate Mint Thumbprint Cookies. They turned out delicious!

Here's the recipe!

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup powdered sugar

1 1/2 tsp. peppermint extract

2 egg yolks

16 drops green food coloring

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

3/4 cup dark chocolate chips

3 Tb. whipping cream

3 Tb. butter

18 Andes mints, unwrapped, cut in half diagonally

1. Heat oven to 350. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.

2. In large bowl, beat 1 cup butter and the powdered sugar with electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Beat in peppermint extract, egg yoks and food coloring until blended. On low speed, beat in flour, baking powder and salt.

3. Shape dough into 1-inch balls; place 2 inches apart on cookies sheets. Using end of handle of wooden spoon, press a deep well into center of each cookie.

4. Bake 10-12 min. or until set. Reshape wells with end of handle of wooden spoon. Cool 2 minutes; remove from cookie sheets to cooling racks. Cool completely; about 15 min.

5. In medium microwaveable bowl, microwave chocolate chips, cream and 3 Tb. of butter on High 1 minute, stirring frequently, until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth. Fill each well with about 1 tsp. chocolate mixture; garnish with Andes mint piece. Let stand about 1 hour until chocolate is set.

Snowy Day

It sure has been a nice relaxing day hanging out with my doggies and Eric.

We watched Eric clear out the driveway since AJ is out all night and day plowin for others.

Usually this is what Roy does, stands on the back of living room couch to watch someone out in the driveway. Abby decided it would be fun if she gave it a try.

We made cookies!

We took naps.

I told the dogs I would get on my gear and go play outside with them. They were happy :)

Happy Snowy Day! :)

A lil Catchin up...

Really the only exciting event that has happed lately is having Jani Sue being born!! She is so adorable and precious-we love her so much!Yes we did visit Doug, Staci and Jani in our Halloween outfits at the hospital :)

Here is what we looked like in our hand made outlet and plug outfit on Halloween..

Our masterpieces...

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

Good Times

I had to give LP (Lil Panther) a kiss while tailgating in the cold! Soon it will be a real one!!Abby is showing off her angel outfit - ready for Halloween

It was a little harder to get a good pic. of Roy in his devil outfit for Halloween. He kept chasing the tail around and soon took off his hat!

Truly Amazing

A few weeks ago Alli Rogers posted a blog about Katie.

I do not know Katie at all, but I now follow her daily. She is twenty years old and is living in Uganda now raising 14 girls. She cares for hundreds of other children in her village. Katie feeds them, clothes them, provides shelter for them, gives them medicine or any other surgery needed, and most importantly spreads her love for and through Jesus Christ.

She is truly inspiring to me. She has SO much faith and LIVES her life for Jesus. She has so much love for these children, all because Jesus has loved her.

I pray that I can be like Katie. I want to be a light to others. My heart has been touched by her.

Please take a look at Katie's blog. http://kissesfromkatie.blogspot.com/

Baby Time!

Last weekend Brea and I threw Staci her first baby shower at Brea's house!

It was very fun watching Stac open lots of great things for LP. I am getting very anxious to meet her...she will be here before we know it! :)

Here are a few pics to recap the shower.

New Hobby?

I shot my first gun. Actually that was the first time I held a gun too.

AJ showed me how to hold the gun and shoot it, but didn't give me a heads up that it would actually hurt my arm.

I tried a couple shots at first. After I rested my arm I tried again shooting clays. I didn't hit any but was pretty darn close! I will get them next time!

Car Wash

Have you ever taken your dogs with you to an automatic car wash?

I did and it was hilarious. They freaked out- Roy actually jumped to the front seat to get a closer look at the soap. It was blue and pink soap- pretty cool. Abby turned around in the back seat to watch the rear window. They followed the soap and water the entire time. I have never seen them so focused and excited or nervous at the same time.

That was the best car wash ever.

Jade Plants

We were given two Jade Plants from our friends the Willoughbys.

They are about 5 years old right now. (Willoughbys have a huge one that is 15 yrs. old!)

Usually AJ and I don't do very well with inside plants- but so far so good. I don't think I can kill this one. I kept the bigger one inside and made two smaller ones from the other plant which are outside.

Ben came earlier this summer and did some pruning for me. He made my two plants into four plants. It is really easy to start a new plant. You can either separate them (cutting the root) which new leaves come up pretty quickly. Or you can just take a leaf and stick it in water. Roots appear and there you go! I have started a couple plants for people- kind of cool.

I looked up a little more about Jade Plants. They can sometimes be referred to as friendship tree, lucky plant or Money Plant (I like the name of this one). It said under the right conditions, they may produce small white or pink star like flowers in early spring. I hope this happens:)

It had rained so had some yucky moss stuff in it.

The branch got a little wobbly so I later put a stick thing in there to hold it up.

Surprise!!

My best friend Katie Hunemuller lives in Texas. Her boyfriend, John, has been planning with me his soon to be proposal to Katie. The plan was to have a big suprise party at their new house with family and friends. Katie originally thought that her parents and her sister would be coming up to Texas this week (Wed through Sunday) to see her graduate.

Katie kept asking me and asking me about me coming with them to visit. I kept telling her I had a school training thing I couldn't get out of. Yup, that was a lie.

Anyways, last Sat. the 8th, I drove to Texas with Katie's family. We stayed the night with her sister Krista and her husband who aslo live in Texas. It was weird not seing Katie that night being in Texas. I wanted to just call her up and say, "Hey I'm here!!" But couldn't do that!

We couldn't see her until Sunday night when the suprise party was happening. There were all of Katie and John's friends at their house cooking away. They were making all this homeade bbq sauce and chicken and much much more...it was amazing.

Finally, after about an hour and a half at her house Katie and John show up from shopping. He told her to go in the front door which was kind of unusual for her. But she did. While she was unlocking the door John told her he had one more suprise for her.

She came in the house, looking down and noticed someone's purse on the floor. Her first coment was, "You got me a new purse!?" Ha not quite.

She then looked up and saw everyone, including me. I defintely started crying. Yes and of course she did too.

John then got on one knee and asked her if she would marry him. Of course she said yes! She then took the ring from his hand and put it on her finger all by herself :) She was in the moment and a little excited!!!!

It was awesome and I was so happy to be there for all of it! It was very short trip but well worth it.

I love her to death. Soon she will be Mrs. Katie Peacock :)

Here are some pictures leading up to the proposal, a video of the big question, and a few pics of Katie and I together!

Hungry?

The dogs get a little excited when I bring home their 50 lb. bag of dog food that I can barely carry in the house. So excited that they can't even wait for me to put it in their bowl to eat...has to be right from the tub!!

Let Me Sleep!

"You can't find me...."

Abby's new thing is to cuddle with this orange pillow (and chew on it- not bite it really, but enough to slobber it up)

"Here I am..innocent I promise"

"Just let me go back to sleep..."

The other day Abby came into the living room seeming very proud of what she brought me... the orange pillow in her mouth all goobered up!!!! I was very upset, she knew it right away. Smart girl walked right into her kennel without being told :)

Summer So Far

I must say I thoroughly enjoy being a teacher with the summer off. Last summer I taught summer school but a break was much needed.
The first week of summer I participated in a 5 Day Autism Training. It was a great training and I learned so many good ideas that I actually can't wait to get back in my classroom and implement!

One day last week we took a few friends to see AJ's grandparents at Lake Delhi. That was when it was in the upper 90s so boating felt amazing!

We decided it was time again to shave Roy- this time not quite as short. He gets very hot in the summer. He was a good boy and waited very patiently!!

Sturgis Falls was a fun but busy weekend. It was our 5 year reunion so that meant our good friend Ben who lives in Texas was going to be in town. We picked him up Saturday morning at the CR airport and took him back Sunday evening. And we had our first open house that day!!

These are good friends that go back from elementary: Annie and Lyssa!!

And here is Ben!

Ok last thing! We had a birthday party grill out last night for my birthday, Abby's #1 birthday, and Aj's parents dog Charlie's #4 birthday!! We also have had my brother's dog over so it was a little bit of a zoo :)

While I was Gone

This is kind of a late post, but I love the pictures too much that I needed to put it up :)

AJ seemed to have way too much fun Memorial Day weekend spending most of the time having parties/hanging out at his parents house. I was in Nebraska with my parents meeting my brother at a half way point- he lives in Colorado.

Aj and Jacob decided it would be fun and rather amusing to switch clothes.

You will have to look at Jacob's feet- Aj made him keep his pinky toe outside the sandal since that is how it is officially worn by Aj.

He is lookin pretty good to me ;) Maybe they will do this more often!?

June 10, 2006

Wow I can't believe we have been married for 3 years. I think it was this past year that seriously flew by.

I have loved our busy life together. We always have some kind of project instore for us.

The next one I believe is putting our house up for sale and building?!

I told Aj, "I thought we were just going to relax next." But then I thought, duh I am married to AJ- we just don't do that :)

Here's some pictures down memory lane....

Painting the House

The house color needed a change. We didn't want to put new siding on, so we painted. Luckily and thankfully we had some help from our wonderful friends and family.

Here are some before pictures.

Here are a few pictures of some of the hard workers!

Here's AJ taking down our beautiful basketball hoop that was never used until that day when Joe played some one on one with our dogs.

Joe and Wil had some relaxing time together.

Kelli did great on the white trim!

Here's Nikki riding Abby :)

Now here's some pictures of the mostly finished product. We still need to paint the white trim up top on the house everywhere and a few touch ups. Then of course get new gutters. There is always something to do!