Girls Like Monster Trucks

On Saturday Tony took the girls to the Monster Truck Jam. One of my mom's clients gave them tickets and pit passes. Even though Lilly loves playing dress-up, barbies and babies she also loves playing with cars and monster trucks. Kyla was the same way when she was Lilly's age. Both my girls are really girly but they also have a tom boy side, they love to fish, catch bugs to feed to their salamander (that lives in the garage), and get dirty. Being able to do "boy" things with the girls has been a blessing for Tony since he thinks that his world has far too much pink in it!

I think Lilly was licking cotton candy off her fingers

Food Blogger Wannabe

Something I love to do when I have "down time" is to scour the internet looking at my favorite food blog sites for new recipes to try. I particularly love the sites that include step by step photos of the recipes that they feature. Many times I often think about and aspire to start a food blog of my very own that would also incorporate party ideas, printables, products and resources. I have much to learn about blogging, using my amazing camera the hubs bought me and cooking in general. It's nice to have aspirations though.... right? That being said, Lilly and I decided to have some fun the other day making White Chocolate Chip Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies and decided to take photos along the way to post. We are definitely amateurs to food blogging.... but still fun to act on our (well my) food blogger wannabe passion! I first made these cookies over Christmas break when we took a family trip up to Paradise at Mt. Rainier to go sledding. They were the perfect treat to have after exhausting ourselves on the sledding hills!

White Chocolate Chip Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies

Here is your line up of ingredients (minus the baking soda because I just plain forgot to include it in the picture... remember.. amateurs!) I think that the lovely ingredient model makes up for this oversight though!

Let me introduce you to Pearl. Pearl is our Kitchen Aid mixer bought for me last Mother's Day by the hubs and my wonderful girls. Kyla decided on the name Pearl, given because of the pearly sheen to the color of the mixer. You will often hear my girls chant "go Pearl, go Pearl" when she is getting her mix on!

Combine the sugar, brown sugar and butter. Mix well to cream together

Add in the egg and vanilla extract and mix until combined. Then add the cinnamon, baking soda, salt and flour and mix well.

Fold in the oatmeal, dried cranberries and white chocolate chips making sure that all ingredients are uniformly distributed

Roll dough into 1-inch balls and place 3 inches apart onto a greased cookie sheet. Bake at 375 degrees for 10-12 minutes, just until the edges are slightly golden

White Chocolate Chip Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies

Ingredients:

3/4 c. sugar

1/4 c. packed brown sugar

1/2 c. butter (softened)

1 large egg

1/2 tsp. vanilla

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

1 c. all-purpose flour

1 1/2 c. quick-cooking oats (not instant)

3/4 c. dried cranberries

6 ounces white chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees

2. In a large bowl using an electric mixer combine the sugar, brown sugar and butter; mix

well to cream together

3. Add in egg and vanilla extract and mix until combined

4. Add the cinnamon, baking soda, salt and flour and mix well

5. fold in the oatmeal, dried cranberries and white chocolate chips making sure that all

ingredients are uniformly distributed

6. Roll dough into 1-inch balls and place 3 inches apart onto a greased cookie sheet and bake

at 375 degrees for 10-12 minutes, just until the edges are lightly golden.

New Years At The Beach

We packed up the family on New Year's Eve morning and headed to the beach to bring in 2011. A friend of ours family has a house in Ocean Park near Long Beach and they were nice enough to let us use it. Our family, along with Kyla who brought her friend Taylor as well as my sister Ellen's family and my nephew Austin's friend Carter who joined us spent a fabulous, fun filled (and slightly chilly...brrr!) weekend there.

After arriving Friday afternoon the boys took the kids to the beach which was a short couple blocks away to go digging for razor clams while my sister and I unpacked and got settled in. The boys and kids made a successful haul of razor clams that afternoon which we enjoyed in a clam chowder feed at my sister's house later the next week. That evening we all cozied up inside and prepared a dinner of steak, crab and truffle fries ( I will be ordering the truffle oil and salt to make these again!). For dessert my sister brought designer cupcakes in a variety of flavors from a bakery boutique. We rang in the new year that night drinking wine, chatting and playing Just Dance 2 on the Wii (See video at the bottom of this post for the Just Dance 2 show down of the best of the best!). The kids and grown ups alike had a blast, got competitive and burned off our delicious dinner!

Saturday after a great breakfast we headed into Long Beach to outfit the kids with kites. We spent the afternoon on the beach flying kites and looking for more razor clams. After a chilly afternoon at the beach we headed to Chico's Pizza Parlor in Long Beach for some pizza.... yum! We returned to the house and put the younger two kids down for bed, while the older kids watched The A-Team the adults watched Devil.

Here are a few pictures of our fun filled weekend of ringing in 2011!

Kyla, Lilly and Taylor

Lilly scored this new shovel from her dad after flashing her smile and batting her eyes

Lilly flying her kite

Kyla and Taylor

Kyla was such a natural at flying kites that she decided to fly two!

My handsome nephew Austin

Carter and Austin

Cole getting ready to fly his kite

Cole and my brother-in-law Jesse

Lilly was Uncle Jesse's spotter while digging for razor clams

Cole and Lilly glad to be back from the beach getting warmed up