Rocky Road Surprise Cookies

Rocky Road Surprise Cookies:

1 ¾ C. flour
¾ C. cocoa
½ t. baking soda
½ t. salt
½ C. butter, softened
1 C. sugar
1 large egg
½ C. milk
1 t. vanilla
12 large marshmallows, cut in half horizontally
walnuts
Chocolate Frosting

In a bowl, cream together butter & sugar. Then add egg, milk, and vanilla. Beat well until combined. Add dry ingredients and mix well. Drop dough onto non-greased baking sheets, about 2 inches apart. Bake at 350 until cookies begin to spread and become firm (10-12) minutes. Don’t over bake! Remove cookies from oven and place a marshmallow, cut side down, in the center of each cookie, pressing down slightly. Return to oven and continue baking until marshmallow begins to melt. Put walnut in center of marshmallow if desired. Transfer cookies to a wire rack and cool completely before frosting. Spread chocolate frosting all over cookie to cover marshmallow (you know...so it's a surprise!). Makes 24 cookies. YUM!

My little helpers!

...this is how we do dishes :-)

Romeo and Juliet

On Saturday Aaron and I went up to Brighton for some fun on the slopes (it was part of his b-day present from me). Aaron snowboarded and I skied. Usually skiers ski with skiers and boarders board with boarders so you could say Aaron and I are like Romeo and Juliet; one boarder and one skier in love..., but no one died...although we had some close calls :-) This was my first time skiing in Utah. The snow was snowy, the sun was sunny, and the slopes were slopey! We had a blast!

What a GREAT view of the mountains...and a pretty good view of a studly snowboarder too :-)

Snow FUN

It's been snowing this week so we didn't miss the opportunity to go sledding on Friday. Although our yard had tons of snow the sledding hill about 2 miles from our house was sparse. The grass poking up through the snow kept us from going as fast as we like. One by one the kids wandered over to the play equipment. Here are some pictures at the park...in their fluffy snow suits :-)

"Sam da MAN"

Kaeli

Rylie

Sara

Just a swingin'...

a SUPER Birthday!

Yesterday we celebrated Aaron's birthday! He was treated with breakfast burritos and hot cocoa in the morning. We went swimming as a family in the afternoon. (Thank goodness for indoor pools). He also had his favorite dinner, Chicken Spaghetti (its a spicy, cheesy, chickeny casserole sorta thing)! The kids were so funny. They had bought him gifts a week or so ago with their own money and were so excited about their purchases that they had picked out all on their own. But they decided they didn't want their dad to know they had bought him anything. So all week they would randomly say things in front of Aaron like, "Oh no! We forgot to buy dad presents!" or "Dad, I'm sorry you won't have any presents. That's so sad." Aaron would respond in a very cheesy tone, "That's OK. All I need is your love." So here are some pictures of Aaron's SUPER day!

Here he is posing with the wiffle bat and ball Rylie picked out for him. I love the Superman balloon in the back ground and the Mater hat (you would think he was turning seven!).

Getting some of that birthday love

And here I am trying to cut a homemade ice cream cake. I eventually gave up and Aaron finished the job. The frozen cookie crust was no match for his super powers!

It's POTTY time!

Sara has been using the potty quite a bit the last few weeks. She's totally got #1 down. And loves to go potty and get a tootsie roll as a reward. Her favorite panties have Tinkerbelle on them. Sara calls her "tinkerbow" and is a little obsessed with the little pixie. Once we figure out #2 we'll be set in panties for here on out. Any way, I had to snap a picture when I saw her sitting on the potty with a princess tiara and veil on. So funny! Is it just me or this little girl 2 going on 20? Here's my pretty little princess bride...on the potty: Way to go Sara!

Cab Ride

I'm a little behind on blogging. Last Saturday we drove up to Park City and rode the cabriolet up to the Canyons ski resort. Why? Because it's fun to ride the cabriolet! And maybe we were a little desperate to find something fun to do that didn't cost anything.

Here are the kids riding in the Cab:

Daddy and Sara enjoying the view from up high:

This kids at the Canyons:

Maegan the WHITE

OK so I can't believe I'm going to admit this, but here goes... I have been finding stark WHITE hairs growing on the top of my head! Not gray ones...WHITE! I plucked 2 last week and last night I found 2 more!!! Interesting to know...I had four white hairs and I have four kids! Coincidence? I think not! I wonder how many other white hairs I have that are just hiding? Maybe I should stop plucking each one I see...I might not have any more left to pluck if I keep this up! Any way, I was trying to look on the bright side of this (not an easy thing to do), and I thought of Gandolf the Gray. If you're not a "Lord of the Rings" fan you probably have no idea who I'm talking about. So in a nutshell...Gandolf the Gray is a wizard with gray hair. While fighting a demon they fall into an everlasting pit and everyone thinks he's dead. He fights the demon and miraculously returns. He comes back with white hair and has become Gandolf the WHITE. So basically he got a promotion! I thought mommies didn't get promotions (until they became Grammas of course). I guess I was wrong. Although it was just a few white hairs I consider myself promoted to white. Congrats to me! But I think I just might cover it up with "Dark Ash Brown" so we can keep this promotion just between you and I :-)

The Draper Utah Temple

We had the coolest experience this morning! As a family we were able to attend the Draper Temple Open House. This is when you get to tour the temple before it's dedicated, so anyone can attend. For the first time the kids were able to walk the halls and rooms of the temple and view the beautiful paintings, chandeliers, wood and stone work. I was touched as I entered the Celestial room with my little family and I hope that we will be able to return as a family many more times in the future. It is a heaven on earth. What an amazing experience.