My Healthy-Yummy Oatmeal Cookies
(sorry no picture but we ate them all)

In my quest to find healthy but still tasty oatmeal cookies I have combined and tweaked several different recipes and come up with these delicious cookies. We add different add ins each time and often divide the batch in half and make chocolate chip craisen for Pearl and I and raisin coconut for Mike and Rose. This is actually for a double batch and I usually freeze at least half of the dough in small balls on a cookie sheet. Press them flat before freezing so they defrost easier. Once the balls are frozen (about an hour) I toss them in a gallon freezer Ziploc and then can pull them out as I need them. I usually let the frozen cookies set out on cookie sheet about 10 minutes while the oven preheats.

If you don't want to freeze them you can cut the recipe in half.

Cream together
2c. butter softened
1c. brown sugar
1/2c. white sugar
4 eggs
4tsp vanilla

Mix dry ingredients
1 1/2 C, White flour
1 1/2 C, Wheat flour
2 tsp. Baking SODA
1 tsp. salt
2 Tablespoons Flaxseed

Combine wet and dry ingredients well then add
6 Cups of Oatmeal ( or one whole container of small size 18 oz)
(at this point you may want to split the batter in half to make two different types of oatmeal cookies)

Now add any other ingredients such as
Craisins
Raisins
nuts
Coconut
Chocolate chips

Bake at 375 degrees for 10 min.
Makes about 60 cookies. I use my pampered chef scoop to make them nice and round.
My girls love to have these for breakfast. They tell me they are healthy so are good for breakfast. I am sure they are better for them then many sugar flavored- artificially colored cereals.

Violet is 11 months already!

Violet you are 11 months old and the light of our lives. Your sisters love to play with you and make you laugh and you let them know (especially Pearl) when you have had enough hugs. You love to be kissed and tickled and have the best laugh. You are a happy independent baby and love to crawl around exploring your world. You love to play in water and try to get in the tub each time you are in the bathroom. If we are not looking you will be happy to just splash your hands in the toilet water. Speaking of toilet you are very good at using it for the proper use too. Since you were about 6 months old mama began putting on you on the potty if you had to poop and you quickly became quite good at peeing on the potty also. While you are not potty trained you do pee in the potty several times a day when I put you on it. Now if only you could tell us when you want to sit on the potty. That won't be to far off as you are following in the footsteps of your big sisters and showing signs of being an early talker. You can say baby, Hi Dad, bye, duck, quack, cracker, clap, good job (well sort of), doggie (gigi) and have even said strawberry and Cherrio once. Occasionally you say mama, but you are definitely a daddy's girl. You also use baby signs for several words, more, all done, potty, dog, bird, wind, rain, duck, swing, tree, flower. You love to go in your swing in the backyard, play with your baby dolsl, put the balls in your ball popper and call daddy on my cell phone. Anytime I am on the phone you yell "dada-dada-dada" no matter who I am talking to and try to take the phone away from me. You push things around the house to practice walking including push toys, your doll stroller, stools and even dining room chairs. You are not really interested in walking without holding on yet but have started to stand up without holding onto things until you realize what you are doing. You eat regular food and usually just have what we are having. You do seem to be a bit pickier then your sisters when it comes to eating veggies and prefer to smush your peas rather then eating them. You are almost weaned from nursing and drink whole milk from a sippy cup throughout the day. You weigh 21lbs and are wearing 6-12 months and some 12-18 months. And as sweet as you are you have an awful temper when you don't get your own wa,y but we love you and won't give into your little fits. Some day you will thanks us for that. We are praying that when you grow up you can use your strong will for helping others. We love you and are so glad God blessed our family with you.

Cinco de Mayo

Five and a HALF!!!

This past Sunday Rose celebrated her 1/2 birthday!

She got to spend some special time with mommy.
She loves all things crafty, so I took her to paint pottery.

She had fun painting a crown piggy bank.

She painted it all by herself. I had to get my own project to paint so I wouldn't not tell her what to do. Haha!

The top of her crown bank. Anyone that has painted pottery knows it is not easy to write with the paint pens. I think she did a great job. We also got to go in the back room and see the kilns and the steps in glazing the pottery. She is excitedly waiting to pick up her finished piece this Sunday. The colors will be much bolder and shiny.

This is a picture of Rose outside of the factory in Franklin where the pottery store is located. Isn't she gorgeous and so grown up. We keep asking her were did our baby go and how did she get so tall.

While Rose and I were out Daddy and Pearl baked this 1/2 birthday cake for her!
Tomorrow is Pearl's 1/2 birthday! More surprises coming soon...

Violet is 9 months old!

Momma is so sad because her baby is growing up too fast!

She has been growing some dark hair!

I hope her eyes stay this violet blue color.
I love the combination of dark hair and blue eyes.

She is crawling and has figured out that she can follow me from room to room.

She is very sweet!

She has learned to pull up on anything and practices "walking" by pushing the girls step stool around on the kitchen floor.

She melts her our hearts with her smile.

Violet is happy most of the time as long as she has her own way.

She puts up with her big sisters lovin on her but lets them know when she has had enough!

Violet loves her dollies so much that she has learned to say "Baba" for baby doll. She also says "baba" for bye bye when she waves. Her other favorite word is Dada. We are also teaching her some sign language her favorite signs are milk, banana and more.

She has learned to clap and loves to clap when she hears music or people clapping on TV.
While we were watching the Olympics Hockey game between the US and Canada she was clapping away when Canada won because she heard all of the people clapping.

Violet has the cutest rolls and weighs 20 lbs now. She is a great eater and is now eating mostly table food. She has 6 teeth three on the bottom and three on the top. Haha.

She loves to have her toes tickled especially by Dada.
We love you very much precious baby girl!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

...or not! Violet throws some pretty good tantrums! (ALREADY!)

Trying to get a good picture of three kids is impossible!

Since the baby was the only one looking at the camera I just cropped her sisters out of this one!

For breakfast Mike bought us some Irish soda bread.
It is a little dry, but anything is good with cream cheese and sugar sprinkles on it.

Pearl trying to figure out how to celebrate Easter and St. Patricks's day all at once.

Actually she is trying to be Laura Ingalls Wilder (notice the braids) but this is as close at they can find to a bonnet. The girls (especially Pearl) are OBSESSED with pretending that we are the family in "Little House on the Prarie." Mike and I are Ma and Pa, Rose is Mary, Pearl is Laura, and Violet is baby Carrie. Funny how they won't obey right away when I say Rose go to the bathroom or Pearl time for bed, but if I say "Mary go use the outhouse and Laura go climb in the covered wagon for a rest." they obey so quickly. HAHA!

JOY
These girls bring us so much JOY! I had the wonderful idea (if I may say so myself) a few months ago that this year for our Christmas card I would get some letters to spell out JOY and have my girls each hold a letter. I bought the letters a few months ago and even spray painted them silver. However between getting our house ready to sell, packing, hosting Thanksgiving, moving, sniffly kids and the fact the we don't even have a new permanent address yet we never got around to taking the pictures or sending out Christmas cards. I also did not really get a any good pictures of the girls over Christmas so on Sunday nearly two weeks after Christmas we took our Christmas pictures. I really wanted to get one of the five of us but we didn't get around to that yet maybe next month. Anyway here are a few of the pictures that you may have seen on your Christmas Card if we had sent one out this year. May your New Year be full of JOY!