Just things...

Things are moving along normally here. Working out the kinks in our new school things. Tomio has been so busy at work. He's been leaving at or before 6 and not getting back till 10 or later(!) The kids barely get to see him. It's hard to imagine  now that that's how things were normally. For YEARS he never got back from work before 10, if not at 11. He only started getting home earlier when the economy went bad at the end of 2008. Things are doing better at Honda now, but I really don't want to go back to that again. At least today he got to leave at 7 :)

Now if you are wondering what these scrumptious looking bars are, they are Cinnamon chewy bars that Leah made :) They were super yummy. Leah had fun and looked so cute too :) She's wearing the apron and kerchief that my sister and and gave her for Christmas. She also made her her own cute recipe book and that's where Leah got the recipe.

They were thoroughly enjoyed by everyone. Leah likes  to make things for Tomio especially, which of course always makes him happy. She usually makes sweets, though, but she surprised him and made his favorite hamburger steaks for Valentine's day: :) I just guided her while she did it all herself. Tomio was SO happy :) 

Well, I hope your week is going well :) With the really nice warmer weather we've been having lately the kids have gotten to play outside more. And that pretty much makes for a happier everyone :)

Thanks for stopping by!!

cookies, cookies, cookies....

We have a sort of tradition. I say sort of  because we just started it a couple of years ago, and I don't know exactly how "official" it is. Anyway, it's a tradition of making and decorating cookies for Christmas. Sometimes we make sugar cookies, sometimes ginger cookies. But the point is to have fun. Eating yummy cookies is of course an added bonus, but the actual yumminess of the cookies is not all that important :) So that's what we did today. We made and decorated sugar cookies. All the kids including Miss Emma. And it was established ahead of time that yes, it was ok to make a mess. Good thing too :)

It started out calm enough....

But then things got a little out of hand :).....

Since there wasn't enough room on the counter, we moved to the living room table.

We used cookie cutter shapes and made our own...unique designs :)

 Emma really enjoyed the colored sugar....

see, hands!

making a candy cane...

                          What's wrong with making hotdogs out of the dough?!

I'm making a big doughnut!!

I think it might have taken me just as long to clean up as it did for them to make all the cookies....but it was definitely worth it :)

 Don't you think? Hope you are having an awesome-ly fun day!!

yummy.

Before Leah decided she wanted to be a professional golfer when she grows up, she said she wanted to be cake-baker :)Even though it's only second place now, she still likes baking things. These are the first cinnamon rolls she ever made:

They were super delicious. The whole batch barely lasted a day :) Since she enjoyed making them, especially cutting them with the string :), I thought I should offer her the chance to make them again...today. heehee.

Thanks for stopping by. I'm still trying to catch up with normal stuff over here. I hope to make some more tags today though. Our tree is filling up with presents :) Do you have yours up yet?

just quick

I'm going to have to be quick today! After we get some studies done, we are heading out to Costco! Not nearly as convenient as an actual American one, but still fun :) I REALLY want to get lots of different kinds of cereal...but here all they have a Frosted Flakes and Bran Flakes...seriously?! There are SO many others they could have, I mean, they don't even have Rice Krispies for Rice Krispy treats!! But, they DO have HUGE boxes of oats, for at LEAST a quarter of  the price we would find it anywhere else in Japan. You can be sure I will getting those :)

Anyway, we will be off :) And since I don't have another card loaded up to share yet, I'll just have to show you a picture of the yummy "creature cookies" that Leah made :)

Why, yes, they really were that good.:)
Thanks for popping by!! I hope you are having a super day!

the best ever.

We've been having perfect baking weather lately. Cool crisp mornings and evenings. It's really a shame NOT to bake something... right? Soooo, we made these yesterday. And a I managed to snap a couple of pictures before.... the kids all gobbled them up :)

Okay, seriously, these are the best oatmeal cookies. ever. really. I've tried making several different kinds of oatmeal cookies, and they would okay, but not great. You know, the chewy, spicy wonderful-ness that they should be. But these are. And since these are just.that.good....I thought it would be cruel not to share the recipe :) Oh, and the amount of cinnamon and the baking temp are the key :)


Awesome Oatmeal Cookies

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup shortening
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 3 cups rolled oats

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets.
2. In a medium bowl, cream together the shortening, brown sugar and white sugar. Stir in the egg, water and vanilla. Combine the flour, salt, baking soda and cinnamon, stir into the creamed mixture. Finally, stir in the rolled oats. Drop by rounded spoonfuls onto the prepared cookie sheets.
3. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes in the preheated oven. Cool on baking sheets for a couple of minutes before removing to cool on wire racks.

I make them with margarine instead of shortening most of the time since that is so much more readily available here.

Be sure to let me know if you try them :) They are super easy.

Thanks for popping in! We are SO close to the weekend :) Leah and I have hair appointments this weekend. Should be a fun girls' day out. Heehee :)

sometimes you feel like a...

cupcake :) No new cards to share today, but I did make something else just as yummy. heehee :) Sometimes you just need a cupcake, don't you think? We didn't do anything fancy, just yellow cupcakes with chocolate icing, and sprinkles :) I absolutely LOVE this chocolate icing though!! Super easy and super yummy. My all time favorite. Even Tomio and the kids agree.

Yes, everyone enjoyed them immensely :)

Here is Miss Emma trying to pretend she didn't have any cupcakes :)

And Levi getting ready to dive in to his second one :)

They are all gone now. But I'm pretty sure we'll be making something sweet again tomorrow :)

(I hope to have some cards to show tomorrow, but Tomio has informed me that for the rest of the week he needs my scrapping desk at night for his work.  Since night is when I usually get some scrappy time, we'll have to see if I actually get any done :))

Thanks for stopping by!! Hope your week is starting off nice and sweet :)

it had been awhile...

Ever since my decision to bake something each week when Emma was just born, I have actually made something each week. Sometimes something new, sometimes just chocolate chip cookies, but SOMETHING. Except last week. Too many people with mumps not wanting to chew, and me a little too tired to think about it. So this week it seemed like it had been a long time since we baked something. I decided to make ginger cookies since that seemed Christmas-y :) They were quite yummy, and yes very Christmas-y:) They didn't even last 2 days though, so I'm thinking we need to bake something else. You know, to make up for last week :)

Now don't you want to make some? :) Or at least eat some?

Here is a layout I made of Miss Emma recently. I had some fun doing some hand stitching on this:

All the hearts sre hand stitched. The cute paper is K& Co. Valentine's paper.

Thanks  for stopping by! I haven't had nearly the scrapping time I would like lately, so I am hoping to get some time the next few days. I hope you are having a crafty week :)

supplies: cardstock: core'denations, pattern paper: k&co, diecuts: quickutz other: gems, floss

Baking

I have continued to bake at least one thing each week like I decided I would. It's so fun to have a sweet treat around to eat :) Lately, they haven't been lasting very long so I have *had* to make a couple of things instead of just one :) It just seems so sad to run out lol.  It's especially fun to bake when it is chilly and rainy outside. Last week we had cinnamon rolls:

They were SO delicious!! I'm ashamed to admit that before this I don't think I had ever made them at my house since I have been married. I had made them at my mom's, but never at home for our family. So I think that made everyone extra happy to eat them... and the whole batch barely lasted a day lol.

Then this week we made ginger cookies :)ooooh, heavenly:

I actually wanted to get some more pictures of these but, they didn't last that long lol. I will definitely be making the cinnamon rolls and the ginger cookies again! I'm hoping to get some recipe cards made up for these too. I love having the cute, pretty recipe cards to go with the yummy treats. What could be better?!lol Do you do much baking in the fall and winter? What are some of your current favorites? (oh, and if you're interested in the recipes for any of these, just leave me a comment and I'll post them :))

Oh, and here is picture of Miss Emma at the park the other day:

Thanks for stopping by!! Hope you are enjoying some yummy homemade treats this weekend :

oatmeal cookies and layouts

wow, it was SO much cooler today!! I love cool fall evenings:) so much better than hot summer nights :)

Anyway, I made some oatmeal cookies the other day :) I am always wanting to find THE perfect oatmeal cookie recipe--moist, chewy, full of yummy spices...ahhh :) But I haven't yet... So I thought I should just start trying a few different recipes and go from there. This time I made some that are actually called "Cowboy cookies". But I didn't add the chips or raisins it calls for because I wanted to try them plain. It wasn't full of spices, but it was definitely yummy! The key is to not over cook them so they are still nice and chewy in the middle. The kids all loved them too. And since it made a nice big batch they actually lasted for a couple of days AND we were still able to eat some dough :) Don't they look heavenly yummy?

I haven't made a recipe card for them yet, but I definitely will be :)
I was noticing that I have been sharing alot more cards than layouts here. Which is actually interesting, since if I HAD to choose, I would say I prefer making layouts. And I do make them just as often really. SO, I thought I would try to share more layouts ( I think the main reason is probably just that cards are easier to take decent pictures of, so its quicker to upload them...)ANYWAY, here is a layout I did recently:

I love how it turned out. These were some of my favorite pictures of Leah and Emma that I have taken recently. It was fun to make such a girly layout :) I also really enjoyed using my stamps on a layout. I love my stamps, but I usually end up using them mainly for cards. Now I really want to try to use them on some more layouts:)

I have also been really into adding a little bling lately :) I love adding just a few gems or rhinestones here and there. Just a fun touch. The pattern paper here is some Fancy Pants paper I had kind of been hoarding :) It was just so cute he he, but I am glad I finally used it! There's not point in having it just to keep in my drawer, right?! ( I know I'm not the only hoarder out there though!! what do you hoard? buttons? ribbon? I'm definitely the worst about my pattern paper :))

I did the journaling on the computer--tons prettier than my hand writing will EVER be :)

Thanks for stopping by!!

supplies:
cardstock: bazzill basics
pattern paper: fancy pants
diecut letters: quickutz
label diecut: spellbinders
stamps: papertrey ink, verve
buttons: sei