Day 20

Cody and his grandpa enjoying Wyatt's vocal and band concert.  

Day 19

Yum!  Salsa!  

Day 18

When these two get a hold of my phone........  

Day 17

Last night we all met at a restaurant for D's mom's bday.   It's rare that ALL 10 grandkids are together so we had to get a pic!    

Day 16

I loooove a clean house but I will miss finding dinosaurs amongst the boots someday!

Day 15

The one set of decorations I really don't want to take down.   This set of trees defines my style so perfectly.  

Day 14 | Sugar Cookies

It seems every Christmas season, I try a new sugar cookie recipe to find THE perfect cookie.  This year, according to our family, this is it.   I tweaked both a cookie recipe and a frosting recipe to come up with this combo.

Soft Sugar Cookies with Vanilla Frosting

Soft Sugar Cookies with Vanilla Frosting

Sugar Cookies
2/3 cup shortening
2/3 cup softened butter
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a medium bowl cream the butter, shortening and sugar.  Mix in the eggs and vanilla.   Combine the flour, baking powder and salt and stir into the butter mixture until the dough forms together.  Roll into walnut sized balls and place them on a lightly greased cookie sheet.  Slightly flatten dough balls with the palm of your hand.  Bake for 11 minutes and cool on a wire rack or a towel.   Cool completely before frosting.

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Vanilla Frosting
1 tsp salt
2/3 cup milk
2/3 cup shortening
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1 bag powdered sugar

Beat first 4 ingredients with an electric mixer until creamed.   Add in the powdered sugar and slowly mix slowly until all is combined and smooth.   Frosting may be tinted with food coloring if desired.

Frost cooled cookies.   If adding sprinkles, be sure to sprinkle on right after frosting a cookie because this frosting sets quickly.


These will stay soft for over a week when stored in an airtight container.

Day 13

Cody's crooked, cheesy smile

Day 12

A good man!

Day 11

It's an I-want-to-play-with-every-single-toy-in-the-house kind of a day.  

And no, we don't usually have dining chairs in the living room but we're baracading Cody while D is working on the house  😄