Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Brownies and a Dumpster (Not Related)

The title is weird. Oh well.

Last night, we had some dear friends over to our house for dessert. Beverley and I have been friends since 8th grade. She's one of my best friends and I love getting together with her. Our husbands get along great, too and we had a really good time. The kids were all in bed and we were able to have uninterrupted time to catch up. Do you know how rare that is these days? If you have kids, of course you do. Anyway, they were able to come for dessert and coffee. And by dessert, I mean this:

It's brownie on the bottom, cookie dough (egg-less) on the top. In other words, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Brownies. Thanks to Recipe Girl. Really, it's supposed to have a chocolate drizzle on the top but something told me it was going to be sweet enough without it. Might have to try the drizzle next time, if for nothing else but to make it more photogenic. I did take a shortcut since I was low on time and used a boxed brownie mix. Who cares, right? Not me. And not Beverley.

Let's move on to less appealing topics. Such as trash. The kind of trash that comes from renovating your house and ends up living in your garage for two years.

I was so excited to be getting a dumpster delivered to my house yesterday. I had called and told them that we needed a 3 yard dumpster. After talking to my husband, we realized that wasn't going to cut it and I called back and changed it to the 6 yarder.

Bank account charged, ready for delivery.

Dump truck delivers, I don't look outside.

Chris gets home, mentions that the dumpster looks on the small side but I'm busy and don't double-check.

I leave for the grocery store at 5:10 and realize, awesome, we got the 3 yarder. Even more awesome? The garbage company is now closed and won't reopen until 8am on Monday. We decide that we will not give up our productive weekend and so we fill it anyway. Half of our garage looks great. The other half, not so much. When we're able to put the rest of our junk in another dumpster, I will take a picture of my cleaned-out garage.

The stinkin' 3 yarder.

I'm excited about being able to park in the garage. Although, I probably won't for a while because there's no garage door opener installed. And, I'm not all that anxious to manually open it so I can back out, then get out of the van to close the garage door behind me ... every time I come home or leave. Can you blame me? So, our garage door opener sits in a box in the garage and it will stay in that box until Chris decides he can do it. I believe in him. I also believe that I am an excellent cheerleader (such a nice word - better than nag, don't you agree?) when I'm [this close] to being able to do something I have never done before. Parking in my own garage will be huge for me. I know, I live a very simple life.

With tears of boredom streaking down your cheeks, I will stop writing about my garage. You're welcome. And goodnight.

Snickerdoodle Cupcakes & Company

I made Snickerdoodle Cupcakes tonight from here.

This is my version. They would have been prettier if I would have busted out my frosting tips and all that. I didn't have time. They were pretty on the inside. Trust me.

Ben's a fan. Okay, he licked all of the frosting off of his then broke the cupcake up into a million pieces. One day he'll learn which part of the cupcake is truly the best.

They were very good and very easy. I was worried because I didn't have cake flour like the recipe called for, but after doing a little research I just removed a couple of tablespoons of all purpose flour and sifted the flour first. The cupcakes turned out great!! Usually cupcakes from scratch, at least in my experience, are dry and dense. These weren't at all! I will definitely be making these again. I didn't have the time to make the icing from scratch but I will try that next time, too. I ended up just mixing cinnamon into a container of vanilla frosting and it was still good.

I had my parents and my sister and her family over for dinner and dessert. We don't get together very much so it was a lot of fun. Fun and loud. My sister, my parents and I all live about a mile from each other, almost in a perfect triangle. You would think we get together all the time living so close. I guess that shows how busy life can be.

Wow, two posts in one day. I'm not kidding around, am I?

Let's try this again...

After two years, I'm going to come back to blogging here. So I've been a little busy. You know, baby-making and baby-raising. Since I recently got my full night's sleep back, I figured I was ready to tackle writing things down. Things I know I will regret not writing down if I don't start now. I've already missed too much.

Ben. Ben is almost 19 months old now. I am more in love with him now that I have ever been. He was such a high-maintenance kid from day one - still is to an extent. But he is such a happy thing...and he's a riot! I could just watch him all day. The other night, after I had been at work most of the evening, Chris and I just laid in bed and talked about how adorable Ben is and the funny things he does. Makes me sentimental, weepy even, to think of my last baby growing up so fast.

Anna. She is almost 3...and she's good at it. It's drama central over here lately. Not fits in the classic sense. But crying fits. Crying and crying and crying... Wait. What a bad way to start off talking about my sweet girl. Let me try again. We love Anna very very much. She is smart, funny, and artistic (what? yeah). She keeps us on our toes, but all of her affection more than makes up for it. Usually at least once a day I can count on her giving me a hug and kiss and saying "I love you, Mommy." Never, ever gets old.

Caleb. Caleb just turned 8 and he is a lot of fun...and challenging. The age gap throws us (Chris and me) a little. The different ways these kids need love and discipline is clear, yet muddy. We're stumbling through, learning as we go. I feel like it shows, at least Caleb can't tell...usually. :) Caleb adores his Dad. From the time Caleb gets home from school, I sporadically hear "When is Dad getting home?" Dad = All fun, Mom = Homework and chores. Can't blame him, can I? He loves to read. He just finished all of the Diary of a Whimpy Kid books and loved them. He and I watched "Judy Moody and the Not So Bummer Summer" the other night. While in Marshall's tonight, he saw a Judy Moody book so we let him get it. He didn't put it down until I pried it out of his hands at bedtime. I hope he keeps this love of reading.

Okay, off to get my full night's sleep. Well, at least until 6am when Anna decides my bed is more comfortable than hers and poking me is more fun than sleeping.

Goodnight!

M.I.A.

Sorry I've been a little MIA on here lately. Chris and I have been working to get the house in better shape. Well, it'll take years to get it where we want it but it's slowly improving. We painted the front door and the front door and window trims white. Makes it look SO much better. And Chris has been really great about trying to get our yard looking better. He mows our lawn every week and he's put Weed and Feed on it. We have A LOT of dandelions. The previous owners/renters didn't care about maintaining the yard at all so Chris mows often to cut the weeds back until they die/are pulled. We're hoping to till up, even out, and seed the backyard soon. The kids can't play in it until that's done. Too many little potholes, they could sprain an ankle.

Last week Carrie and Brandon and little Reese came over for dinner while they were in town. It was so much fun! I wish they didn't live so far away. Caleb had so much fun playing with "ReeseMuff" (his nickname for her). And she is the most adorable little thing!! I loved watching her running around, she's the prettiest, smiliest little girl and very well behaved. The visit was too quick. I posted pics of our kids together on Facebook if you're curious.

Anna will be 1 tomorrow! Did that go quickly or what?! She's really starting to walk a lot more too. After pulling up, instead of crawling, she walks some steps first - sometimes quite a few. And she's saying - or trying to say - so much! She says "doggie", "please (peese)", "Daddy", "Mama", "Anna (nana)", "flower (fla fla)", "baby", "Where is it (is it?)"....And if you ask her "What does (any animal) say?" she says "Baaa". We're working on that one. :) She sleeps 11 hours straight at night - occassionally she wakes up around 5am just wanting cuddle time with me. I rock her for a few delirious minutes then she's off to sleep again.

Caleb is loving t-ball. He told me yesterday "Mom, I think they're going to put me on TV really soon because I'm so good at baseball." :) He's a very athletic kid. He also loves playing basketball. I think he'll want to play that come fall. He and Chris like to get out in the backyard and shoot hoops. I love watching them do that. Such a father/son thing to do. :)

Baby boy is doing well. Getting bigger and stronger. I can now watch his aerobics from the outside of my belly. He's getting closer and closer to having a name. I wish I could say that Chris and I are such planners that we've had names picked out for years but we don't. We never pick out our kids' names until after we are pregnant and know what we're having. Makes it a little more difficult. But, we have a #1 pick that might turn out to be it. Just need to roll it around on the tongue a little longer and make sure it's what we want. I'll let you know when we've decided for sure.

I guess that's it. These updates need to be more frequent -they're always too lengthy. Have a great weekend! (Oh, it's only Wednesday, oh well.)


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My Fun Caleb

Caleb is loving his new school, but especially his new neighborhood. Chris and I have had to let go a little bit and extend his boundries when he plays outside. He loves to go down the street in front of our house and play basketball in the road with "his friends". Normally, playing basketball in the road would not be something Chris and I would approve of for a six year old. But this road is not busy at all and all the neighbor kids play in it. We've had the whole talk with Caleb about being safe, and it helps that this road is right in front of our house so we can see if Caleb is being safe and playing well.

That's where the quotations around "his friends" comes in. The "friends" he was playing with (Caleb calls everyone his "friends" - even if he's never met them. If they're kids, they're automatically his friends) are 4-6 years older than him. So you can imagine how that goes when he tries to play basketball with them. They're nice kids, they're never mean to him. But Chris and I thought it'd be best if he just play basketball on the hoop on our back patio. Then he can practice dribbling and granny-throwing as much as he wants.

There's a neighbor boy who Caleb also plays with, he's eight, and he has Asberger's. He must be highly-functioning because you wouldn't know he has it. He and Caleb get along really well. Although I'm not used to kids walking up to my livingroom window and knocking on it instead of the front door. Or interupting our dinner to see if Caleb can play, or wondering what time we'll be back from the store so he can come over and play with Caleb when we get back. Comes with the territory, literally, I guess. I'm glad Caleb has a friend to play with.

Caleb's in T-ball and loving it. I think he mostly enjoys getting out in the backyard and practicing throwing and batting with Chris. Have I said yet that I love having such a great sized (for Oregon) backyard? I love it. He hasn't had a T-ball game yet, but I can't wait to watch him play. Watching him at practice, I think he'll be pretty good.

He's a really great big brother and helper. He willingly, with a great attitude, does so many things when it comes to Anna. If I need him to play with her so I can get some things done, he's more than happy to do it. I don't know how long this will last, so I'm enjoying it while it does. :)

We have gotten into the doing-whatever-I-want, "I forgot", showing-major-attitude stage. I shouldn't say stage, this will probably be something we'll have to deal with to some degree until he leaves home. But, we're dealing with it. We have a great kid, it's just the inevitable discipline issues that rise up from time to time. Being parents isn't always fun! :)

Alright, congratulations if you read all of this. I realize it won't be fascinating for everyone but I wanted to do it for family. Have a great week!

Bear with me, please.

I've been needing to do a post about the kids and what they're doing and all of that, while I remember, and because I want to keep relatives living far away up to date on them. This first post is all about Anna.

My Sweet Anna

Anna is crawling/cruising everywhere. She's not at all interested in walking, guess she figures she can get where she wants to go by crawling so why bother learning something new? She has a love/hate relationship with Caleb...already. Sometimes she follows him around everywhere and loves to play with him and sometimes she doesn't want anything to do with him and she takes a whack at him if he comes too close.

As I've said before, she loves her food. She sits with us at the dinner table in her Bumbo and eats bits of whatever we eat. I finally have her trained so she doesn't yell at us when she wants more. Now she says "ease" (Please). I've tried to teach her some baby signs, but she's never done any. Caleb was like that too, as a baby. He talked so early that he'd rather say it than sign it. She loves to talk jibberish. It's usually non-words that end in "ish". She loves making that sound. If you ask her where your nose is, she can point to it. She can also point out your eye and she can say "eye". If you ask for a kiss, she'll kiss you - mouth wide open so watch out.

And I should point out that as much of a Mommy's girl as she is, she has not said "Mama" yet. She says "Daddy" and she has a word she uses for Caleb (something like "Daybe" - sounds nothing like Caleb). She's saving the best for last, I guess. ;)

It figures, her hair is hopeless. She has beautiful hair in the back of her head but on the top, it sticks up in funny places and it's so fine and light that you can see through it. (We call it a baby mullet.) She has to wear headbands because there's no way a bow will stay in it. Oh well, she'll get hair eventually and then I can have my fun. :)

Whenever she hears music, she dances. Bobs her head up and down, then shakes it side to side.

I can't believe she'll be a year old in a month and a half! Where did the time go?

A perfect example of her hair...

Scavenger Hunting

Well, we are moved in. Unpacked, no. But all of our stuff is now in one place and that place is our house. We're slowly whittling down the pyramid of boxes in the garage. We didn't think things through enough on that end. A week ago when we had only been living here for a couple of days, we had no towels, toothpaste, or pans to cook in. So Chris was out in the garage more than he was in the house, it seemed, looking for the necessities. The highlight of the week was finding the box with towels in it. It was one of the first boxes we tried to find and Chris had to really hunt to find it. I like to think he had fun with his little scavenger hunt. ;)

Has anyone ever told you that it takes FOREVER to line kitchen shelves with shelf liner? Well it does. It's worth it, but it feels like a complete waste of a day while you're doing it. I just had to keep telling myself that I should be thankful for so much cabinet space.

We've been slowly meeting our neighbors here. One of our neighbors, who lives a couple houses down the street in front of us, came over with his 7 year old son on Saturday wanting to know if Caleb could come play at their house. I talked to him for a good 20 minutes. Turns out he remembers Aaron and Julie (good friends of ours who we go to church with) from when they used to live in the house across the street from us. Small world. Anyway, Caleb played over at their house for a couple of hours. I'm glad he'll have some friends in the neighborhood.

Caleb lost his tooth. He and I were taking a much needed break from unpacking. We were sitting on the couch, eating popcorn and watching "E.T." when he said "Ew, Mom, what's this?" I looked down and he had his tooth in his hand. I said "That's your tooth." He was thrilled that 1) it didn't hurt when it came out and 2) he didn't swallow it.

Chris and some guys from church went snowboarding last Saturday. It had been a couple of years since Chris had been. He woke up the next morning barely able to move. Who knew you used so many muscles when snowboarding? I'm sure some of the soreness was from a little bit of falling too. :)

Baby and I are doing fine. I don't think I've felt any movement yet but then again, I haven't been paying any attention. Sometimes I forget that I'm pregnant and then I look down at the new belly that's popped out and remember. Two kids, moving into a fixer, and working makes me a little busy. :) I'm getting more excited to welcome a new baby. As most of you know, the idea is something I've had to get used to. I've always wanted three kids, but #'s 2 and 3 so close together wasn't the plan. It'll be wonderful, it's just a new experience that will take some getting used to. I'm very thankful for my family and what this new little person will bring to it.

Anna is doing well too. She's getting a little fiesty. Sometimes she'll be in Caleb's room playing with him and then I'll hear her just yell at him. It's just a "Ahhhh!" but you know she's irritated at him for something. And what an eater! She can put away the groceries and still want more. She never refuses food, ever. And she loves everything. There hasn't been a food I've given her yet that she doesn't like. It's really amazing how much she can eat. We have to cut her off a lot of times. :)

As usual, it's been a while since I've updated so this is longer than I intended. I hope you all have a great week.