Hump Day!

Elder Landon Carroll has officially been on his mission for exactly one year!!!!  Now that's cause for celebration.  It's hump day!  I decided to make and send Landon some camel cookies on honor of Landon's hump day.  I seriously am not a fan of making sugar cookies as some of you may already know.  I think they are a whole lot of work for very little pay off.  As a matter of fact I think I wrote a blog post about it a few years back.  You can click and read about it here if you need further enlightenment.  Anyway...back to the cookie adventure...

I borrowed my friends' camel cookie cutter and began the long, tedious process of creating these little treats.  It was going to be worth all the effort because they were going to my missionary, someone who I admire and respect.  He deserves the best.  I made a few calls to my sister, Janelle along the way for help because she evidently IS a sugar cookie making expert and many people have claimed that she makes the best sugar cookies in the business.  I used a special Royal icing to glaze the tops of the camel cookies and even put the frosting in special squirt frosting bottles to help in the process.  Who knew they had such specialized tools for this nonsense. Of course I found that information on Pinterest and it was helpful in getting the professional results that you see in the picture above.  When all was said and done....the cookies turned out great!  Stephen and Easton thought they tasted awesome so they must have been good.  Well....I must close this little write up and head off to the post office.  I have some camel cookies to send to an awesome missionary serving in North Carolina!

Icey Mess

It seems like every winter in Georgia we have a cold weather adventure.  Last year school was out for a week with snowy, icy frozen roads.  This year is no exception...the cold hit on Monday night and freezing rain covered everything.  I took this picture Monday evening as the icicles started forming on the trees.  All you snow people out there laugh and mock us for our intolerance to cold weather conditions but this ice stuff is serious business!  All schools were shut down Tuesday and the kids cheered with the extra day off.  When the ice covers the trees the branches get super heavy and snap, sometimes landing on power lines.  So many people were without power, some for over 24 hours.  When it's 20 degrees outside that gets pretty cold in your house over a long period of time.  We were fortunate to not have our power out for very long, just a couple flickers in the evening and then one half hour time period around 3:00 am.  We did have a few of our decorative trees uproot and tip over in the back yard but nothing too major for us.

 The trees in our side yard were totally covered with ice.  It was actually quite spectacular.  When the sun shined on the branches they just glistened.  I looked out the kitchen window once and the sun was hitting the ice on the trees just right that little rainbows were bouncing off the icy branches.  It was an incredible sight.  I tried taking pictures of the moment but the camera just didn't catch the rainbow effect.

 We definitely couldn't open the gate!

A little Lovin'

 Our small little family enjoyed an evening out for Valentine's Day!  Of course you know that a family that eats steak together stays together!

We miss our other children scattered around and think of them on this special day of love and every day throughout the year.  Stephen and I have been very blessed with wonderful children that we get to love!

 I posted 14 reasons why I love Stephen and Easton on their doors during the days leading up to Valentine's Day.  I wanted them to be reminded each day that they are loved and appreciated.

 Stephen added a sweet message at the bottom of the page on Valentine's Day to me, so sweet!

The heart that Stephen drew at the end of his message is the BEST!  We got a good laugh out of it.  He said the door was bumpy!  haha

There were so many awesome things to say about Easton.  I loved thinking of him each day as I wrote something special about him that I love.  He's a great young man with a great future.

Simply Delicious

I made these beautiful chocolate covered strawberries for the very first time today.  I needed a treat for my visiting teachers and this just popped into my mind for a really delicious Valentine's Day culinary creation.  It was super easy and almost full-proof.  I used Guirradeli milk chocolate chips, melted them over the double boiler, then dipped the strawberries.  That's all there was too it!  I let them sit over night and we were ready to wow and impress the ladies I visit teach.  I think I will try a darker chocolate next time....and yes, there will be a next time.  Stephen and I devoured the extras!  So yummy!