i forgot!

ever since our first valentine's day together, i have made jason a card every year. 

i forgot to include it in my vday post, so here it is!

i found this vintage valentine at the flea market, and knew it was perfect to go on the front of jason's card.

love, love, love it.

also, since i was asked, here is the recipe i used for the fortune cookies.

ok, no more vday posts from me, i promise!

fortune cookie valentines

sunday night, the fam and i made valentines for grandparents. i saw a version of this on a blog, but i thought it would be more fun to make the fortune cookies instead of buying them. jason made me fortune cookies for my birthday one year, and he said they were easy and fun to make. can't beat that, right?!

 i no longer have "server hands" that are used to really hot surfaces, and so handling the hot-out-of-the-oven fortune cookies didn't seem so appealing. thankfully, my husband has tough hands and took over for me once they came out of the oven!

(he stuck them in the muffin tin so that they would hold their shape)

the kids each took turns dipping the fortune cookies in chocolate, mommy put sprinkles on,

and tony took pictures while jason kept folding!

can you guess who was the hardest to keep out of the chocolate? ;)

cutesy little heart shape!

i'm not even a "heart" person, but i like these!

yummy heart day!

day 56: u-g-l-y

i can cook. really, i can...

but i make ugly pancakes.

they taste good,

but they're ugly.

i can never get them perfectly round,

and i'm a little awkward at flipping them sometimes.

they do taste good, and i suppose that's all that matters in the end,

but i don't like ugly food.

how am i supposed to achieve june cleaver status someday 

if i can't get consistently round, evenly cooked pancakes?

i bet it's the apron.

maybe i just need to whip a full apron up...

(since i never use my half apron)

i bet that will help...

and maybe a pretty dress, too.

please don't judge me.

i'm going to go eat the evidence now.

day 54: peter pan

in this house, peter pan peanut butter is the only peanut butter, per my husband.

apparently, the love of it has been passed down.

jaxon joined jason in the kitchen this afternoon

to finish our jar off--

on his own, he crawled up onto jason's lap, laid down like this,

started smacking his little lips and said, "Buh." (bite).

so cute!

day 42: marshmallow pops

i spent part of the afternoon making these as valentines 

for the girls' vday party tomorrow with our other homeschool friends.

i also made enough for their cousins...

and extras for home! ;)

day 14: focaccia bread

i made focaccia bread squares tonight to go with our potato soup.

it's a little thicker than it should be because i didn't have the right pan size.

it sure is yummy, though...

there's nothing like homemade bread!

recipe here

day 3: breakfast of champions

Let's hear it for Christmas gift cards and the best breakfast place ever!

a week of thanks

this evening finishes up the third of our thanksgiving celebrations in a week. we have been truly, truly blessed this year. here are just a few of the pictures from this week:

ps i'm tired of using capitals...and for my majority type a this is big not to make sure everything is perfect.
just thought i'd throw that out there.

Cocoa Dolce

I was going to title this post Decadence, until I read the definitions:

Dec-a-dence
-noun

1.	the act or process of falling into an inferior condition or state; deterioration; decay: Some historians hold that the fall of Rome can be attributed to internal decadence.

2.	moral degeneration or decay; turpitude.

3.	unrestrained or excessive self-indulgence.

That made me sad--except for maybe the third definition. I think it could fit.

I got some chocolate from Cocoa Dolce in my stocking at Jason's parents' house. I was so excited--I've always wanted to try it. Up until these pictures were taken (about 10 minutes ago), I still hadn't tried it.

Why, you ask? Well, just look at them:

Beautiful.Chocolate.Perfection.

You can't just eat that without appreciating it, so appreciate I did.
I took pictures, and then indulged.

Sugar Cookies

Syd and I made some fall sugar cookies last week in the shapes of leaves, turkeys and pumpkins. My favorite part was the dough. Hers was the decorating. =)