Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies

This morning Kingston and I were ambitious enough to make cookies. I never get up earlier than 9 am so this is a big deal. I was up and awake by 7:30. I think it is because Kenna never woke me up once last night. Normally she will wake me up around 3 am and make me lie in bed with her for an hour. It is crazy how that extra hour in the middle of the night can totally throw you off. Anyway, here is the recipe:

2 sticks of softened room temperature butter
3/4 cup of white sugar
3/4 cup of light brown sugar
2 eggs or egg substitute
2/1/4 cups of flour
3-4 packets of brown sugar oatmeal
1/2 cup of peanut butter
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1 teaspoon of salt
1 package of semi sweet chocolate chips (optional)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Meanwhile, mix in a large bowl, flour, salt, baking soda, and oatmeal. In a mixing bowl combine, butter, vanilla, white sugar, and brown sugar.Mix on medium high speed until fluffy and creamy. Add eggs one at a time until well mixed. Slowly add in flour and oatmeal mixture. If desired, add in chocolate chips. Drop a small spoonful of dough an inch apart on a baking sheet and cook for 7 minutes or until lightly golden. Remove from cookie sheet and allow to cool for a couple of minutes before eating. Enjoy!

These cookies were just made up in my head but they are super healthy. Peanut butter contains protein and is really good for natural energy. I use egg substitutes in all of my cooking and they are not only delicious, but they do not contain the high cholesterol that normal eggs do. I have a lot of delicious recipes for egg beaters if you would like. Don't be afraid to cook with them. It is basically all just egg whites but they look and taste like normal eggs. In these cookies I also used oatmeal. Yes it is brown sugar flavor but hey they ARE cookies! I made sure to use the oatmeal that had a high fiber content. High fiber in your diet will keep you regular, makes for a healthy heart, as well as gives you energy. I hope you enjoy :).

Fourth of July!

I love the fourth of July! This year we were supposed to go to Idaho Falls to celebrate. When we made our plans to go, we also found out other family would be in town. I cant tell you how much I have missed Idaho. Such a wonderful place for me because it is filled with some of the best memories I have had. I mean, I met some great friends there, had my most favorite job there and made wonderful memories there, met my now husband, bought and had my first house built, and started a family. So we were all ready for our trip up there when plans started falling through, I still had not healed well enough, and Kenna came down with some sort of a bug. SO, we nixed the trip and ended up saving our money for some better plans in the future. Maybe a trip to Europe?? We will see. So since my mom was still in town and she was excited for Idaho as well, we decided to come up with alternative plans that were fairly easy. Since we only live an hour and a half from St. George, we decided to get a condo for a couple nights, swim, hike in Zion, and enjoy some fourth of July festivities. The first night we swam at this awesome water park in Washington County. It is seriously the coolest indoor water park I have been to and the kids love it. St George gives me warm and fuzzies inside. Definitely a family town and I love it. Not to mention, the scenery is gorgeous. Anyway, the next morning we went to Zion and hiked a pretty easy trail and waded in the river. It was my first time at Zion and it was breathtaking. So beautiful and peaceful. Kingston kept asking who made all of this and I would say, "God". He thought that was cool. Chez bought a hiking backpack for Kenna right before we went to the park and Kenna ended up loving it. It was really cute. While we stopped to have a little snack, one of the many very unafraid squirels, came right up to me and started digging in to my food. This little guy was just chowing down. Now, I did not feed him, he literally stole it from me. It is a no no to feed tht animals so I guess they arent afraid to help themselves. The next morning we went to this really fun and cute carnival. It was like totally country. I loved every bit of it from the snow cones, eating competetions, homeade food, and cute little rides, to the farmers made train for the kids. We had a great time. We drove home that afternoon, swam at Chez's resort, got some pizza, and went home to light off fireworks. All in all a great holiday.

The End Of June

So I had my niece here for a week which was fun. She is 12 years old and a mighty old 12 if you ask me. I definitely spoiled her rotten but she deserved it. She helped me take care of the kids while she was here so that was nice. I took her shopping, went to some nice restaurants and as sort of the grand finale, we took her to Serendipity. It is one of the best ice cream/dessert restaurants. A little pricey but thankfully the desserts are big enough to share with lots of people. The next week, we said goodbye to my niece Kailey and welcomed in my mom. She stayed for about two weeks. The first week I slept in a lot and got some good rest which was awesome. We did things here and there and I surprised her with a trip to the beach and Disneyland. I also took her to my new favorite restaurant which is located inside of a nice locals casino. They serve the most delicious meal I have ever tasted. In fact, it could easily be my last meal if I ever had to choose one. It is called the crab pan roast. It is a bowl filled with rice and literally drenched with a thick, buttery, saffrony, savory sauce and topped with the most delectable crab legs. They have the crab legs in the bowl for the presentation but the meat is already out and ready for you to devour! So we had a good remainder of our month of June. The kids enjoyed having grandma "Karen" in town.

Lost posts

Real quick I thought I would let anyone wondering know, I accidentqlly deleted a good portion of my blog posts. I've not been able to post new ones except on my phone so I tried deleting drafts and somehow deleted more than just drafts. I will be posting about our 4th and anything else as soon as I can get it all figured out again.

The King and Princess (Read post below)

On Mother's Day...

My kids have been the sweetest. On most days they have ups and downs of bickering and loving but today it was all love. As I was getting ready for church, I noticed Kingston brushing Kenna's hair and put a bow in it. He was carressing her cheeks and whispering, "kenna you are a princess". I am not exaggerating either! He also got into my jewelry box and pulled out her bracelet she wore when she was a couple months old for her Uncle Garrett's wedding. Once she was all dolled up, Kinsgton took her hands and started dancing with her. When he was done, he hugged her. It was so sweet to watch and a wonderful mothers day present. Later I asked Kingston, "is Kenna your princess?" He replied, "yes and I am her King". They are little buddies that will grow up together and have their ups and downs but have a great bond and love for each other. Happy Mother's Day!

Snippets from my books..

So my writings are all over. Mostly on my phone but some on my computer (I guess I am a geek haha). As I mentioned before, they are for my kids. Everyday it seems I learn a new life lesson. Rather than keep it as a mental note, I have began to record everything. So for today this is what I want to share: You will always come across people who are negative. It will seem impossible for these people to ever see happiness. They will teach you that yes in the real world, there are so many different types of people out there. Some are good, bad, ugly (mentally), pretty, cold, bright, happy, cheerful, depressed....The negative people will teach you that life is not a happy place when you dont see the positive side of things. These negative people, unless they change, will not go far in life and they will be sad inside. All people have the ability to change so keep being an example of light in life and it could wear off. Remember this- there will always be good times in life and bad. Just try to make sure to remember that there are almost always more good times than bad. The good times will get you through the bad. The bad times will be a tool in helping you learn if you overcome them and become stronger as a person. Strive for happiness and light. Life will seem so much brighter and you can accomplish anything.