End of Year Gifts, Goodbye Party and Welcome to the Neighborhood Treats!

Man. What a range of emotions over here. We have been saying goodbye to teachers, good friends and welcoming new ones. Luckily all can be done better with a batch of Kristen's cookies.

I am proud to say that my cookie fluffiness has been pretty spot on lately. Kristen's chocolate chip cookies were my go to for teacher gifts this year and I'm pretty sure I gained 5 pounds in the last week of school from eating so many of them. They really are just the best. 

McKenna on her last day of school. Love that kid's style.

For McKenna's teacher I gave a beach towel and mason jar cup with her name on each one. I then filled up some brown paper sacks with cookies to give each helper.
I found this super cute printable that said, "thanks for making me one smart cookie." I printed them off on sticker paper and they were perfect for sealing the cookies up.

Ella loved the cookie idea and wanted to give some to pretty much every teacher she had in her school. Art, PE, Computer, Music, lunch ladies, janitors, office staff and principals. Makes my heart happy to see that her love language is gift giving. Since we had so many to make I put 3 cookies in smaller paper sacks that I found in the dollar bin at Michaels. The labels worked perfect on these too. 

For Ella's teacher and our favorite office ladies, I put together an orange themed gift. I feel in love with this printable and wanted to use it. I found these super cute orange summer scarfs from Charming Charlie's and added some fun orange nail polish with it. 

Ella also wanted to give a little something to her classmates so she made them these cute mini diplomas with smarties. I saw this idea on Pinterest and thought they were so cute! 

Ella wrote everyone a little message on each one and then we rolled them around the smarties. 

Ella received the most perfect Character Trait Award at her graduation. Creativity!

I am so proud of her! Her sweet teacher talked about how Ella is the one to count on to color, dance, design, add flare and beauty to anything. She said that Ella makes the world more colorful and fun. I couldn't agree more and it makes me so happy to see others recognize Ella's gifts and talents. Her teacher put a verse with each character award and the one she said with Ella's was Romans 12:6. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them...

I love watching Ella take the ordinary and turn it into the extraordinary. I can't wait to see how God uses her gifts for His glory. 

My sweet friend Suni is moving to Oklahoma in 9 days. Boo. Suni was my very first friend to meet when we moved here and we are so sad to see them leave. Suni has a love and talent for cooking and baking. She whips stuff up that is always incredible and makes it look so easy. A dessert for dinner farewell party seemed perfect for her! The theme was Don't Dessert Us! It was with our church and everyone was asked to bring a dessert. It was awesome. I wish I had taken pictures of all the tables full of yummy desserts. Wish I had some of the recipes too. 

I made the Don't Dessert Us banner using my silhouette and made some cupcake liner bunting to go along with the dessert theme.

Since they are moving to Oklahoma I thought it was perfect to make a sign that said "It's OK to eat dessert first!" 

It was a fun night celebrating such sweet friends with lots of yummy sweets. We will miss them so much! 

Residency life is crazy because people are always coming and going. We will be here for one more year and it's so sad thinking about that as we have and continue to make so many wonderful friends. We actually just got some new neighbors just yesterday that are part of the residency program. Jackie is about to start her first year of residency and she is married to our very good friend Andy! Kristen and I met Andy in college at ACU and he was always one of our favorites. Then when Bob was a dorm director after we were married, Andy was one too. Bob and Andy became best friends and we made some good Abilene memories with him. Andy and Jackie got married last summer and we are over the moon that they moved here and are only 12 houses down from us! This is going to be the best year ever! It takes us under 4 minutes to walk to their house! My girls love Andy and Jackie. They helped me make them a welcome sign to put in their yard and we even snuck in their backyard to add a little sidewalk chalk flare. 

We walked over yesterday to deliver some cookies and a list of some of our favorite spots in town. Mostly revolved around food but also the best places for haircuts, spray tans, and popcorn. Ya know, the important stuff. 

The girls and I walked back home to get dinner ready last night while Bob helped scrap some popcorn ceilings. Then we all ate dinner together and even watched a little of the Bachelorette. It was just the best day! 

Hope everyone is having a great start to summer! 

Victory!

If you have been reading this blog for a while then you know how many times I have attempted Kristen's famous chocolate chip cookies. A lot. 

When Kristen makes them they are huge and fluffy with the perfect amount of softness in the middle. Every single time I have made them they are flat as a board. Sometimes so flat that the chocolate chips sink to the bottom. I have tried every trick in the book and every tip I've heard.
Well….the other night, the girls and I decided to make some cookies. I pulled out Kristen's recipe. Trying to create the perfect cookie wasn't even on my mind this night. It was more of a fun activity to do with the girls. Before pouring the flour in, they had a little fun with it.
I don't know what made the girls want to cover their noses in flour but it then led to McKenna covering her entire face and body. (and floor)

I wasn't even measuring things out too perfect. (which is very unlike me, I am a crazy recipe follower) Once I began to mix the batter I could tell something was different. I kept saying to Bob, somethings not right, these might not be edible cookies. Little did I know that there wasn't anything wrong at all. Everything was right about them!
The girls watched as the cookies baked and when the timer went off I was beyond shocked at how fluffy and huge the cookies were!

Could this be real life?! Did I really just make the famous cookie the right way?! It's true folks. I really did and I can't tell you how happy it made me. I immediately texted Kristen and then ate myself sick with cookies.

The only bummer is that I'm not exactly sure how I did it. Was it the whateverness of my measuring, the germs help from my children? Who knows? Even if it never happens again though, I am still so happy that it did at least once.

Here is the recipe if you guys want to give it a shot. Let me know how yours turn out!

Kristen's Chocolate Chip Cookies
1 1/2 cups butter (salted)
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 1/4 cups brown sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla
2 eggs
4 cups of flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 cups of milk chocolate chips
Bake for 9-12 minutes at 350

I think I can, I think I can, I think I can...

For those of you that are on the edge of your seat about my latest fluffy cookies, here is an update.

First of all, thank y'all SO much for all the cookies input! We love getting comments and it was so fun to get ones with cookie tips! It is because of y'all that I have made any progress at all.

Sweet Julia commented and attached a link to a recipe that she said solved her flat cookie problem. When I read the ingredients I was very surprised to see vanilla pudding and crisco in the recipe. Those were both new to me but I was ready to give it a shot so the next morning I went straight to the store to get my pudding and crisco.

Ella has been loving this lets bake cookies every day phase I'm going through.

It really worked! Look how beautiful my cookies turned out! Thank you Julia! Click here to get recipe.

I have nothing bad to say about these cookies, they really were so good and the perfect amount of fluff. But...Kristen's cookies can not be toped. They really are the best cookie I have ever had. So now that I know I am capable of baking a fluffy cookie I am going to give Kristen's recipe a few more tries with some of y'alls great tips! On a random note, all this talk about fluffy has made me think of my favorite book called A Porcupine Named Fluffy. I read it to Ella tonight and she loved it too. It's pretty funny so if you are looking for a good children's book you should totally check it out.

Anyways, thank you guys so much again and I will keep you updated.

cabin fever

 We are on day 9 of McKenna's tummy bug and it has been a long 9 days...

She has finally begun to improve each day but still not 100%. My mom came in town Friday to help me out for a couple days and it was so nice to have her here. Unfortunately she now has the tummy bug. Sorry mom.

While my mom was here I started working on Ella's halloween costume. I don't have it all finished to show you yet but it involves a dress with patches sewed on, two mismatched knee high socks, brown boots,  orange hair spray, two braids and a coat hanger:) 

Some other inside activities that I have attempted (and failed at) over the last 9 days are perfecting my chocolate chip cookies and crocheting. 

Thank y'all so much for the tips on my flat cookies! I wish I could say they worked. I think it's me, not the ingredients. I have bought all fresh ingredients and even put my dough in the freezer for about 20 minutes before baking them and still my result is always the same. flat as a board. After seeing this cookie recipe on pinterest I really thought my luck was about to change. The caption under the picture said "fluffiest, chewiest, most amazing chocolate chip cookies." The recipe called for cornstarch which was supposed to be the magical ingredient that made them so fluffy. I don't doubt the recipe at all. I am sure that 99.9% percent of people that make these cookies have full success. I am that .1%. Next time Kristen and I get together she is going to stand over my shoulder while I bake. I am not giving up on this.

Then I watched youtube videos for hours learning how to crochet bows and flowers. Once again I need Kristen standing over my shoulder. She's a pro.

Maybe next time I should make the big and chunky one for my big girl and the small and dainty one for my baby. 

You guys remember my Granny's chairs that have been on my to-do list for months now?

I still have to paint them and recover the cushions but I at least got them sanded down and ready for the next step. 

My plan was to paint them a very light grey (or is it gray? I never know how to spell it) but because I already own a bucket of white paint in the garage that just sounds easier so they will probably end up white just like I did the dining room table.

I have no idea what fabric to recover the cushions with. I already had this navy and white stripe fabric from ikea but it might be a little bold for the chair. 

I don't know, I will have to see what it looks like when the chairs are white.

Anyways, hope everyone is having a great week and staying well!

come back kristen!

Kristen and the kids have been out of town for about a week now and we are so ready for them to come back! Me and Ella miss them so much. Two things happened today that made us realize just how much we miss them when their gone.

The first thing that happened was this morning when Ella woke up. I had just gotten a dvd made with all the little movie clips I have of all the kids playing together. I was so excited to play it for Ella cause I knew she would love it! I was expecting her to just giggle with excitement when she saw her friends Ben, Sawyer and Aves on the tv. As the dvd is playing I look over at Ella and she is glued to the screen with tears in her eyes! She misses her friends so much that she got sad when she saw them on tv. I of course then start crying too. It was so sweet to see so much emotion in her with how much she loves and misses her friends. She is so ready for them to come back home!

The second thing that happened was tonight. Kristen is definitely the baker in our friendship. She makes the best chocolate chip cookies ever and I have tried and tried to make them as good as hers and it never works out for me. Sometimes I can get them close but tonight for some reason I was very far from close. It was my worst batch yet! I did everything Kristen does and my cookies came out flat as a board and over done. The chocolate chips didn't even stay in the cookie, they would fall out of the bottom when you picked one up, so weird. Lucky for Ella they still tasted good, she loved them! All this to say.....we can't wait for Kristen and the kids to come back. We miss our good friends and cookies!