A great way to start February by making Butterscotch Chocolate Chip Cookies.

So happy that it is now February! January seemed like a really long month to me. I found this recipe today and couldn't wait to try it.  The dough turned out great and I can't wait to see how they taste. I might have to do a tasting of these with the kids when they get home from school.

The dough turned out really dark from using all brown sugar.

These cooled for 15 minutes before I took them off the pan.

My little book worm!

Butterscotch Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
1/2 cup dark brown sugar; firmly packed
3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 egg
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 cups semisweet chocolate, cut in small coarse chunks (Lindt or Ghiradeli
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
In a mixer, cream the butter with both sugars until very well blended. Mix in the vanilla and the egg very well. Then fold in the salt, flour and chocolate chunks.
Form into small or large balls (walnut-sized or golf-ball-sized, as desired).
Place on the baking sheets and press down slightly. Bake on upper rack until done, about 10 to 12 minutes. Cool on racks.
Makes about 2 dozen large cookies
Disclaimer-
I love fresh baked cookies from the oven. I froze half of the dough for a later use. I also let the cookies cool and placed them in ziplock bags to go with the kids lunches later on this week. We all tried a warm cookie with cold milk and loved them! Yum!

Christmas Vacation

We were able to go home for the first time in 7 years at Christmas time. It was so nice celebrating Christ's birth with extended family. We had such a great experience with both sides of our family. We were able to go on lots of family outings, watch our niece's Christmas program, celebrate 2 family Christmas parties and have many lovely, family dinners. We even got to go to downtown Portland for a date night and movie!  I loved getting to go on running dates with Mark, hiking with family and enjoying the beautiful weather in Central Oregon. It would be chilly in the morning and up to 50 by mid-day.  The most important part was just being together. I continue to be amazed by my sister Steffy and how well she is doing. Thank-you God for the special time we had with our families! It was such a blessing to all be together.
Now back to school and the real world as of tomorrow morning!


Anna and her sweet cousin Calvin





One of my favorite memories was sitting and talking with my precious sister.





Jonathan and Sawyer were great  buddies.



My handsome boy!



My sweet and lovely sisters!



Hiking in Central Oregon





Beautiful day with my family.



Cousin time at the top of Beacon Rock





Hiking at Beacon Rock in Wa.

A week to cherish...

Cuddling..



Ready to go to Radiation



This little boy melts my heart!

Love this family so much.





My Sisters

Love the darling Pixie cut!

I recently returned from a trip from Oregon to see my sister. I spent 10 glorious days with this precious family. I am so glad I had the opportunity to spend so much time with my sister. I drove her to radiation every day, spent countless hours talking to Steff and playing with my precious nephews. I was able to see for myself how she was "holding up"! She is doing remarkably well. All of the Dr's. are amazed at how her body is handling chemo and radiation and how her spirit is handling cancer. She is truly the example of a godly woman. She is finding joy through this trial and coming out victorious. 

Lovely

Tomorrow

Tomorrow is the big day. Tomorrow my sister starts radiation. My sister is at such peace about all of this. She is truly putting to test all that we have been taught about trusting God through trials in our lives. I am so proud of her. Steffy recently had a friend offer to take family photos for them. I love how they all turned out! It captures her spirit and the joy that radiates out of her. Love you sister.

My sister

 It has been a rough month on our family. My beautiful sister was diagnosed with Glioblastoma Mulitforme Brain Tumors at the end of August. I had just posted about the wonderful time I had at home visiting our family. It is crazy, shocking and unbelievable. How does such a HUGE change happen in just a few short weeks? There is no answer. Sometimes this just happens to young, healthy people.

I am standing on Gods Word. God does not change his character no matter what happens in our lives. I am believing and trusting in my Saviour for the days, weeks and months ahead. My sister is amazing. She always has been from the time Jenny (my baby sister) and I were little. She is the best story teller and would make up amazing stories to tell us. She is kind, encouraging and such a wonderful Mom. She is humble and graceful. I always wanted to be just like her when I was little.

My beautiful sister and her husband.






When friends come to town...

Making Brownies with Anna

 Girls night

Enjoying a visit and espresso

My friend Holly came to visit this week. I had such a great time catching up with her. She moved away a couple months ago and left a big hole in my life. She has been one of my running friends for the last couple of years. It worked out that she was able to stay a couple days with me. We did so many fun things together. We got to go on several runs. She has become quite the speedster. We definitely challenge each other in our runs. We also got to do one of our favorite things. Goodwilling! When she lived her we would go several times a week after the gym. It was such a fun day. On Tuesday night we had our friends over for an appetizer/wine evening. Holly and I both love to cook and share recipes. We spent the afternoon preparing for our special dinner. She made Ina's Brownie Pudding with Anna. YUM! It was an absolutely lovely evening visiting with friends. I did something that I never do on a "school night". I went to a 9:30 movie with several of the ladies. We all wanted to see the movie "The Help" and didn't think our husbands would enjoy it very much. I am glad I drank the espresso at 3:00 PM to keep me awake for the movie but I wish that I had been able to fall asleep before 2:00 AM. I guess that is the side effect of coffee too late in the day. Holly had to head home today. It was such a good visit and I can't wait for the next one!

The many adventures of summer on a farm.

We just got home from a two week vacation to Oregon and Wa. We go home every summer to visit our families. It is definitely one of the hard things about being so far away from "home". Our kids don't get to spend a lot of time with there grandparents. The kids had an especially good time this year.
Anna loves helping in the garden, gathering eggs, riding the neighbors horse and feeding the sheep at my parents small farm. It is so fun seeing her having so much fun with her baby cousins and soaking up time with my parents. They even took the kids camping and on a fishing trip.
At the other grandparents house they played with cousins, picked blueberries from some of there many bushes, rode the four wheelers and played in the woods. Marks parents live on a wooded lot and it is great for building forts or just having adventures with the cousins that are all the same age.

Oregon Coast

The cousins at the beach



Farmer Anna gathering eggs



Mark got to borrow Papas jeep for some adventures.

Jonathan and his cousin Sawyer. They became wrestling buddies!

feeding the sheep

My sweet sister met us at the airport for our last "goodbye"!

Anna and Addy 2 peas in a pod!

Grandpa with his two oldest grandkids.

Anna and our precious Calvin

Celebrating Steff's birthday. Check out her beautiful kitchen.



Dinner with Papa and Grammy.



Cowgirl Anna

Family time

Anna and Calvin

My darling niece Laura!

The cousins!

It would be great to live closer to our family and maybe one day it will happen. I am so thankful that we can go home to visit and pick right up where we left off last summer.