Reece a.k.a. Turd Bomb

Case and point.

Peanut Butter Genius

I saw this commercial on TV for the new Reese's Peanut Butter Cups Minis. These babies come unwrapped and ready to eat! Seriously. They just upped the bar here.

I grabbed one at Meijer. They aren't in the baking aisle like I was thinking. These were right next to the other mini candies. Duh.



My plan was to bake with them. Believe it or not, I was a little baked out the last few days. So they sat in my pantry. And yes, I did have to call my family off them. "These are not a snack!"

Today after lunch, it was time.

I dug out my go-to family peanut butter cookie recipe. But no Crisco! I know. How do we survive? On butter, baby. Paula Deen: EAT YOUR HEART OUT.

But what's even better? After you're done adding all the fat and peanut butter, you add more SUGAR. Yup, these puppies are rolled in sugar and THEN baked.

Best part of homemade baked goods: there isn't a wrapper with a calorie count to stare you in the face.

What would you do with these? Not even buy a bag? Bake with them? Eat them by the handful?

Beat of our own drum

I recently laughed with friends about how raising a young family can be so unpredictable. At the drop of a hat- all hell breaks loose, leaving you surround by chaos, wondering- what just happened? Did I miss the freak out memo?

Yup. We laughed about it. It's not really all that funny, most of the time.

So this past week, all hell broke loose at my house. But it was the good kind. Birthday party, business was busy, meeting for kid's camp this summer, snuggling a cute new baby...






YES. I HELD A BABY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (My entire family just fell from their chairs.)

Other than my own and my niece, this is the only other newborn I have ever held. It took courage I tell you. I started to get sweaty and the chills as I we got closer to their house.

But he is so darn CUTE!



And cuddly! He really does like to cuddle. And he looks just like his Mommy.





My husband started snapping pictures immediately. But I didn't think to take a single one of him. Sorry, Dan.

I really enjoyed our visit. So happy for our friends to finally have their baby boy in their arms.

Guess what's in my living room...

Need a clue? No, it's not a giant ovary.



Nina (what the kids call my mom) picked this beauty up at Costco today. It's one and half times bigger than Sophie and consumes my living room. Yup. That's my not so tiny couch in the background looking not so biggy.



They love it. Reece likes to bounce on top of it. And I love it. They are totally occupied.



The "Jumbo Fun Ball".

Happy Valentine's Day!

I decided that I would let the kids have their own cookies to make and decorate. I have been feeling guilty about not letting S help me with the nice cookies. So... I committed myself to let go and let them have fun learning how to be creative with food.

I'm pretty sure that all S thinks you can buy sugar and flour in are 25 lb bags. Some people buy 25 lb bags of dog food, we buy 25 lb bags of sugar and flour. Along with the 5 lb bag of chocolate chips. I. love. Costco.



S is really coming along. She likes to roll the dough out herself and now cut and place the cookies onto the cookie sheet. I was very impressed. This is a huge change from her days of mounding the dough together and calling it her "best cookie ever".



Can you SEE the concentration? She's just like her momma.

And that cute "assistant" in the corner.... he's dangerous. A hazard to all things organized... like cookie making.



The Assistant... he assisted in eating.



All around it was a good time. S really enjoyed doing it "all myself." Mommy got to relax and enjoy sharing something she loves with her kids.

And the recipe... ahhh. That's top secret. Like get me ex-communicated from 'The Fam' top secret.


jess

About dang time....

My sister has been begging me to start a blog, like seriously begging me. And I have been too scared. I love to read other blogs. I am obsessed. But I really doubted that anyone would want to read what I have to say, even find it interesting enough to KEEP reading it.

I give in.

And I'm kind of excited.

I think my facebook friends will be relieved. She finally got a blog to put all of those status updates in!

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Tomorrow Dan and I are having dinner at Woodshop in Clarkston. My parents are taking us there in celebration of both wedding anniversaries. I'm super excited. Kid Rock uses their catering. And I'm all about catering. Well, I'm all about food.

I promise to have pictures and our experience tomorrow.

jess