My Favorite Cookies

My Aunt Jill has made these cookies every Christmas since I can remember. If I'm not able to go to the family Christmas gathering, she always makes sure she saves some for me. They are my absolutely favorite cookies! This year, I finally got the recipe, so I thought I would share it with you! There's only one catch, if you do make them, you have to save one for me!

Cake Mix Cookies

1 Box Cake Mix
1 Egg
1/4 cup oil
1/3 cup milk
Chocolate chips ( I like it with mint also)

Bake at 350 on an ungreased cookie sheet (she didn't say for how long, so just keep checking them)

Top with melted white almond bark with mint extract to taste.

Enjoy!

More Sister Pictures

So Fun!!! (Also known as a rambling post!)

I had such a good day yesterday! First I went to church and saw my friend Wendy (the friend I've been friends with longer than anybody!), she was visiting from out of town. Then my "adopted" little sister, Stephanie was also visiting and I got to see her adorable baby.
After church I got to spend an absolutely delightful afternoon with four of my closest friends from college. They all live in another state so I don't get to see them that often. I was thrilled when they said they were coming to visit for the day. They are the kind of friends that even if we hadn't seen each other in a year we can just pick up where we left off and have a great time. We went to lunch at the Olive Garden, which happens to be my favorite restaurant (I had a gift card which made it even better). My wonderful friends brought me a gift basket with fun stuff for the girls (they used their bubble bath this morning!), goodies for Ryan and I, and my favorite part, two books for me (Three Cups of Tea and The Secret Life of Bees), and Starbucks gift cards! It meant a lot to me that they thought of my girls and Ryan and I!
After a delicious lunch we went to see a girl movie and laughed and cried together! We even got to do a little shopping at Target.
All in all, it was a great day! As my previous post explained, I wasn't feeling too great this weekend, but I had some wonderful friends that really made it a special weekend. (Thank you Rachel, for taking nursery duty for me so I could have this time!) Thank you Dee, Karen, Kim, and Becky for coming and making me feel so special! I love you guys and miss you already! My only regret was that we had so much fun, we forgot to take pictures!
I also wanted to thank my friend, Sarah for a fun play date at the mall Friday morning and Becky for a fun dinner Friday night!
Saturday we had our Women's Ministry Fair complete with a chocolate fountain. We had a good turnout and all the ministry heads were able to share about their ministries. We also had a "get to know your Pastors wives" game, which was a lot of fun.
I'm working on uploading my pictures from our beach trip last week, but I'm having trouble with my USB port on my computer. I will share those as soon as I can though.
My shredding has left me with a painful knee so I have been hobbling around all week. I borrowed a knee brace from my Mom today and it seemed to help during my shred tonight.
We had a nice dinner with Ryan's side of the family tonight. It's so great to see my Mom-in-love feeling better and getting stronger!
My favorite part of today was hearing Rylie tell Jesus, "I believe that you are the one true God." Priceless!

Thankful

I haven't posted the last couple of days because I didn't know what I wanted to say, or how to say it, or if I wanted to say it. This weekend was my due date for my baby that is in Heaven. I know it wasn't really the day my baby was supposed to be born, because all along God has had it planned for things to go as they did. Still, the day means something to me. And, although I am at peace with God's sovereign, loving plan and am happy that my baby is so much better off in Heaven than, here, I am still feeling sad.
But, the title of this post is "Thankful". I'm thankful that God is holding my precious baby. I am also very thankful for thoughtful friends. A special thank you to Dave and Michelle who made a donation to Carenet in our names (and made us a delicious dinner)!

Happy 11 Months!

Anna's New Ride

Anna's older cousin, Bryan gave her his old Fire Engine the other day. I put her on it hesitatingly with my hands poised behind her to steady her. Turns out, she doesn't need my help at all. She just took off and self propelled herself all over the house. She wanted to eat lunch on it even, she loves it!

In these pictures she found Rylie's mirror (that she had painted and decorated). She was so cute, she kept kissing her reflection!

We are off very shortly to have some family time at the beach! Our friends have a vacation house there that they are graciously letting us use for the next three days. (We have an alarm system for all you crazy stalkers out there!) We are very excited to spend quality time with the girls and have some relaxing time. (And, yes, fellow shredders, I am bringing my workout with me!) This does mean though that I have to miss Becky's shower (sorry Becky!). Have fun though!

Congratulations Donna and Mario on the new baby. . .you have to talk to them to find out the goods!

Superstar!