Stamps and Chats

This month's Stamp & Chat was as fun as always. We made amazing cute cards, had delicious foods, and loads of laughs. Its just such a fun night! 

Conference Card Weekend

Happy Conference weekend, everyone! I hope that everyone enjoyed the messages shared and had a lovely time. I spent the time of conference making cards as a way of staying awake/paying attention. Even though we just had card swap, I decided to get super ahead and make them for the May card swap. I like how they turned out:

I'm always just so happy when I'm done with my cards, I feel so accomplished.

The Baked Bear

You guys, I have found a new amazing place to eat. It's called Baked Bear and it is in Lehi. (I hear one is coming to Provo, but really can't be sure) It's a cookie/ice cream place and it is DELICIOUS.
Basically, here's what you do: pick the cookies you want, pick the ice cream you want, and they make an amazing sandwich. There is also brownies and donuts to make the sandwich, and I haven't tried them yet. But here is what it looks like:

I just love this place so hard. I went back 3 times in as many days, I just can't get enough. I hope it moves here soon, the drive is the killer!

Darth and Gecko

Got some good pics of the jokers this week, guys.

 This is Darth on a morning drive to drop off Daddy. Look at this smiley fella.

 Gecko recently loves slides.

When he wakes up from naps, his hair is just crazy.

Running Bib-Palooza

I have many running bibs from over the years. Since I started racing in 2009, I have done around 7 races a year. Some years more, some less. I originally had then on a cork board, but I have since outgrown two of those, and needed to find a new way to display them. Luckily, I found an idea on the internet.

It involves getting a wire and clips from IKEA, and then I had to have Husband help me. This is where it took a long time. Because I needed his help, it took me an ENTIRE YEAR to get this up. Yeah, I'm serious. But finally, we got it up, and then this is what it looked like:

It looks so good! I really like how it turned out. I also redid my medals, but I forgot to take a pic of those, and I am just too lazy to go do that right now. Maybe I'll save that for a later blog post, that's good enough. But I am just so happy about how it turned out, and I have so much room for new bibs!

Raspberry Chocolate Chip Cookies

I wanted some raspberry chocolate chip cookies recently. But the only recipe I could find online only made 12 cookies, and were a "healthy" cookie and to be honest, those cookies aren't always that good, they taste just as healthy as they're supposed to be, so ugh. So instead, I decided to make up my own recipe. And guess what? They actually worked out! They are delicious! Here's the recipe:

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 3/4 cups quick oats
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 1/3 cups packed light-brown sugar
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 large egg
   
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup canned raspberry pie filling
• 1 3/4 cup chocolate chips
• 
  

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a mixing bowl whisk together flour, oats, baking soda, salt, set aside.
• In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, whip together butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar until creamy.  Blend in egg then blend in vanilla extract and raspberry filling. With mixer set on low speed, slowly add in dry ingredients and mix until combined. Mix in chocolate chips. I then put the dough into the fridge for about 15 minutes, so the oats can absorb some of the liquid. It will be a little sticky! 
• Scoop dough out, I used a cookie scoop that is about a tablespoon, and drop onto parchment paper lined baking sheets, spacing cookies 2-inches apart. Bake in preheated oven 12 - 14 minutes. I did 13 for each, and then when I took them out of the oven, I left them on the sheet on the top of the stove for another 10 minutes, because they were still pretty soft. 

And that's it. So then I was nervous, because even though they were smelling tasty, I was nervous they wouldn't taste that good. But! They did! They were actually really yummy and soft and delicious. 

Of course the batter was pink from the raspberries, but these were really delicious and I totally recommend them. 

Last Day

Today is the last day of vacation, I flew back to Utah tonight on a late flight. So during the day, Darth fell asleep for a nap super early, and Gecko had no interest in sleeping. So he and I went on a small walk, while their mom cleaned up the mess from lunch. I kept setting him up in positions to take pictures. Here he is, waiting for a bus.

Basically, this kid is so emotionless. You can set him up in any position and he doesn't more or make any kind of face about it. He's like a small mannequin. After we got about a quarter mile from the house, he snuggled into me and then fell asleep. Of course. So I headed back into the house, but luckily it had started raining, I got back just a minute or so after the water fell. Then we had an afternoon of the boys napping, and I just packed up everything. I had such a fun time, but it wasn't long enough, I would like a longer vacation! But with school, there's just never any time, hopefully this summer we can see each other.