Layouts, Cookies, and Smiles...Oh My!

Wow - I had a fantastic day! My hubby and I exchanged babysitting so that we could go to the temple together. It was a much needed lift for me, and sooo beautiful. It's so nice to have a refuge from the chaos of the world and just sit quietly, with my thoughts. Lovely.

I was big-time in the mood to play more with my K&Co. papers and embellishements, so I sat down tonight to scrapbook a little. I only finished one layout, but oooh, I love it! I really love these photos my husband took of my 6 year old and I on her birthday. I was waiting to scrapbook them when I felt my creativity flowing. The quote says "A daughter is just a little girl who grows up to be a friend". I thought it went so well with the photos, and it also says just what I hope to have as a relationship with my girls when they are grown.

Often I'll scraplift layout ideas from scrapbooking magazines to get me started, or just to get DONE, but this one is 100% from my brain! (hm... does it mean I'm a little swirly and flowery inside?) Never would have guessed it. Anyway, couldn't wait to share it with you, my friends!

Oh, and I baked some super delish chocolate chip cookies.... Mmmmm, can you just taste them?

The recipe is a simple one (I'm sure you've got your favorite recipe), but here's the tricks of getting the BEST chocolate chip cookies:

1. Use real butter instead of margarine. Soften it until just slightly soft - NOT melted.

2. Use Milk chocolate chips instead of semi-sweet. You'll thank me for the difference!

3. only add 1/2 the chocolate chips to the dough. Pour the other half in a shallow bowl. As you roll the balls of dough, dip the top of the ball into the chocolate chips. Then bake as usual. That's a neat trick I learned to get those "picture perfect" cookies.
4. Bake only until ALMOST browned - when you remove them from the pan, they will continue to cook a bit so this way they will stay moist and chewy. MMMMMMmmmm chewy chocolatey goodness. YES!

I'll leave you with some sayings from little 3 year old "Bayboo". She never fails to make us smile with all of the wisdom she exudes:

[Pointing a toy dragon at me and making a "whoosh" noise] "You're Fired! Mommy, you're really fired!"

(no, we don't watch the Apprentice at our house..)

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"Mommy, how old are you?"

"29"

[with wide eyes] "You're almost 100!"

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

And today at breakfast, while discussing our dreams from last night (a kind of unwanted ritual at our house)

"I dreamed I was in a forrest, and not a bad forrest, or a scary one, or a monster one, or even a PUMPKIN one! Just a nice forrest..."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *