Menu Monday

What's in my cookie jar?

If you haven't noticed, my Menu Mondays kinda take on a cookie theme every so often.

What can I say...I'm a cookie monster,

I'm married to a cookie monster and

I birthed 2 cookie-a-holics.

Nay do I meet a cookie that I don't like, but rarely that I TrUlY LoVe.

Cade is our baker and Gracyn the taste tester.

She enjoyed her first WHOLE homemade cookie this afternoon and

was quite pleased with her brother's toils. "I'd like to order 4 more please, same size."

She was so happy, and so was I.

Tried and True Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
1 C. Shortening
1 C. Brown Sugar

1 C. White Sugar

1/2 t. Baking Powder

1 t. Soda

2 Eggs

1 T. Vanilla

1 t. Imitation Butter Flavoring

2 C. Flour

1/2 t. Salt

1 1/2 C. Oats

1 pkg. Ghirardelli Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

Cream shortening and white sugar together. Add the brown sugar and cream once again. Add eggs, vanilla, & butter extracts followed by all dry ingredients except the oats. Mix well. Add oats and chocolate chips last and mix by hand. We use the lg. Pampered Chef cookie scoop and bake at 350 degrees for 13 minutes for a perfect golden brown. Depending on the size of scoop you use, bake for 12-15 min. These turn out perfectly chewy on the inside and crisp on the outside every time!

Three down...one to go

Eclipse is officially checked off my reading list and Breaking Dawn awaits me (i hope and pray) on some shelf at Wally World manana!

Do I really want these to end?

Easter Bunnies

For Easter the kiddos and I travelled to Dallas to be with our family! As you noticed from the above photograph, Steve and my Dad spent their holiday at the Masters tournament in Augusta...tough, right!!

I am so proud of myself, I got so many great pictures of the festivities this year!

It never fails that I will forget my camera or leave it in the car and never get a photo! However, this year is an exception (thank the Lord) and I truly enjoyed recording all the wonderful memories we made this year!

Cade and Gracyn hunted eggs at Mimi and Grandpop's house on Friday and at Uncle Cody and Aunt Manda's house on Sunday. Cade has an "eagle eye" for egg hunting and Gracie...well she'd just follow us around while we hid them, pick them up, pop them open to see if they were stuffed with teddy grahams for her...which she would consume in record speed and them move on to the next egg while still chewing feverishly!

NO SHAME IN HER GAME!!!

Needless to say we are up to our eyeballs in plastic eggs here at Casita de Alaniz! Hmmm...there maybe a plastic egg Easter wreath in the works for next year :)

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

The Masters

Living the life in Augusta Georgia!

Bitten

I am hooked.

Hooked I tell you.

This is not the usual genre of books that I read, but I absolutely, hands down am intrigued by the story line, characters, and plot within this novel.

I read it in 3 days, which IS fast, but doesn't even compare to my sister-in-law who finished the book in 2 days...right Cindy?

It has almost 500 pages kids!!!

I am antsy to start the next book in the series, but Barnes and Noble was sold out of the paperback edition and I am too cheap to buy the hardback so I'm off to Wally World tomorrow with my fingers crossed that they'll have The New Moon waiting for me on one of their shelves.

Feeling the need to fall into an interesting story filled with twists & turns, beautiful allusions, captivating characters and a little romance?

Pick this one up...

Maybe you'll even beat my 3 day record!

Fun Fridays...my favorite things

A GIVEAWAY

Let's just be honest, who doesn't LOVE free stuff?

Ummm...I do.

Especially when it involves blog design!

Kristi,

my super sweet,

uber talented,

preschool teaching,

blog designing,

great food cooking,

furniture refinishing,

house decorating,

sick kid nursing,

friend...in every sense of the word,

is offering a COMPLETE BLOG MAKE-OVER to one lucky winner!

So, if you need to add a little spring bling to your blog for F-R-E-E,

then go HERE to enter the giveaway for yourself!

Going to the zoo, zoo, zoo...how about you, you, you?!?

We polished off the last day of our Spring Break with a trip to the zoo! I decided a little slide show was in order to share some highlights of the road trip! It was Gracyn's first time to visit a zoo and Cade's second. The sun was shining, a breeze was blowing, the animals were majestic, and the only stinky area was the elephants...so fun times were had by all.

Cade reported that his favorite animal he'd seen that day was the sloth and Gracie reported her favorite thing that day was eating all the snacks out of the snack bag! HA!

Enjoy

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com