Double Delicious Cookie Bars

I think this recipe has been around for awhile, but this was my first time making it. It was a hit at Thanksgiving yesterday! (I think it is very similar to Magic Cookie Bars without the coconut).




1/2 cup butter
1 1/2 c graham cracker crumbs (I used Oreo cookies crumbs)
1 14oz can of sweetened condensed milk
1 12oz bag chocolate chips

Heat oven to 350degrees. In a 13x9 inch pan, melt butter in oven on low heat. Sprinkle crumbs evenly over margarine. (I used a little more Oreo crumbs than called for to make more of a crust). Pour milk evenly over crumbs. Top with chocolate chips, press down firmly. Bake 25-30 mins or until lightly browned. Cool, cut into bars.

SOOOO easy and yummy!!!

One of those days, Thanksgiving style....

Why is it, that the day before the day of the year when we are supposed to be SO thankful, I have a bad day. I am just having one of those frustrating days. I wouldn't trade my life for ANYTHING! and as I tried to explain my frustration to Tommy, I just felt guilty. The thing is, other jobs in the world, allow for sick days, vacation days and paid time off. AND if someone is just plain having a bad day, they can even lie and call in sick. I tried that, the stay-at-home mom HR line was busy this morning.

Homemade Ornaments

This year the kids have been very involved in our Christmas tree, from arranging the garland, to rearranging the garland and rearranging the garland some more! Now we are making homemade snowman ornaments! I have really enjoyed watching Olivia have so much fun with this and I love that she has a lot of pride in what she is making! She loves to put them on the tree and I can tell she has a real feeling of accomplishment. I am so blessed that Tommy has an un-ending bucket of patience he brings with him to the craft table!

Tommy's Ornament

Olivia's ornament

Logan's contribution: dumping all of the stickers. Thanks Logan! As I was walking away I heard Tommy say "Don't do that Logan, now mommy has to pick them up!" (Excuse me????)

And then Logan locked himself in Olivia's room AND this am he ran out of the front door and was half way down the cul-de-sac before I could catch him! While in his jammies. This has been a rough day of being in a lot of trouble for our little guy!

Olivia's picture: "Mom, this is a picture of my bones, these are my hands, my arm and my jaw!

My baking tip of the day (better write this one down, I don't have many baking/cooking tips!): When a recipe calls for a 9x13 pan, you really should use a 9x13 pan. I wouldn't recommend using a smaller pan while trying to adjust the ingredients. It didn't work for me today! I will post my yummy recipe (it still tastes good, but looks terrible) when I get a new pan.

Olivia is 4!

Today is Olivia's actual birthday, but she is taking after her mommy and we have been celebrating all week!

Happy Birthday Sweet Girl!

Please tell me no one saw that!!!

Do you ever have one of those moments where your reaction to a situation is so embarrassing, at least you think it was, because you really had an out of body experience? Today I noticed a tear in a garbage bag full of garbage in our garage. So I got another bag to double-bag. While I was in the process of placing the first bag in the second, a MOUSE jumped out of the bag! I was screaming and doing some sort of jitter-bug dance. Olivia was mortified. I pray that no one else saw my reaction, but how can I ever be sure? I am still not over it! EWWWW!!!!

LOVING this time of year!!

Last night we kicked off our week-long celebration of Olivia for her birthday (but really don't we celebrate the kids EVERYDAY???) by putting up the Christmas tree, having a fire in the fireplace and snuggling up all together to watch Charlie Brown Christmas. I put the tree and the lights up and Olivia decorated with the garland she picked out herself! Today she has been adding more garland-type decorations and re-arranging them over and over. I am thinking we should leave the tree up forever and just use it as entertainment!

Olivia is also busy saving the world today as Kimpossible (sp?). Running from couch to ottoman to chair, yelling "I am saving the world!!!" Whew, we can all rest easy tonight. Does anyone recognize the dress? This is the dress from last year that Olivia literally wore EVERYDAY for about 4 months, I washed it almost every day and when it got cold she would layer. She found it the other day (I must keep it to show her when she gets older) and has been wearing it as a short dress with pants.

Tommy surprised the kids and came home for lunch! Logan got a new "Jay, Jay" as he calls airplanes and couldn't wait to show dad!

A good love story

Tommy was gone tonight for a work function, so I put the kids to bed early and watched Made of Honor. CUTE movie! Good chick-flick for all of you with husbands like mine who ROLLED their eyes when this particular movie came in the mail (Netflix). I love a good love story, makes me remember the early years of my own love story. (Wow, apparently they also make me sappy!) OK, back to real life, where a kiss with my hubby involves two little people pulling on our legs, asking for a "bubby and sissy sandwich" (We hold them in the middle and have a family hug). Right now this stage of my love story is perfect.

New dance!

I know most of my posts have been about the kids lately, but that is what I am into right now! HA! Tommy and Olivia made up a new dance one night while I was working at church. One thing I LOVE about Tommy is that he PLAYS with our kids! Olivia IS very persistent, she will ask and ask and ask, and he RARELY says no.

One a side note, I can NOT wait to put up our Christmas tree! I get so excited every year! Olivia's birthday is next Friday and I think we will put it up as part of our birthday celebration! Please let me know I am not alone in wanting to rush this process! We have several small birthday celebrations with family around Olivia's birthday and Thanksgiving. HOWEVER, she informed me today that we will be inviting everyone we know and everyone we don't know. Wonder if she will notice that it is just us!

This is it...

I think today maybe the last warm day of the season. I can't believe it is November and I am saying that! We have really enjoyed playing outside in the leaves in sweatshirts instead of winter coats!

Quote of the day:

Olivia: "Mom, will you ever be as big as dad?"

Me: "I hope not."

(She thinks when you are as big as daddy, you can do ANYTHING! So apparently I fall short. :))

Noises in our house...

Oh my! Olivia "heard" a noise and is scared in our house. She hasn't left my side for over an hour!!! Here is her explaination (I am typing as she tells me):

"I'll tell you about the noise and you will know why I am scared. I will tell you what it looks like. It went "googgellyy mooogeelly" and it is big and purple and bigger than a bear. And it jumps really high into outer space and it is super-duper real. Its real mom. It is in this world. I heard it and it went (wierd expression and even wierder noise) and I heard it! It is really strange and that is why I need to stay by you. What I am talking about is in Indianecklace (Indianapolis)! I am not kidding, I am serious mom. Can you help me solve the mystery?"

Ah HAH! Now I think she just wants to keep playing. I was seriously getting worried, wondering what had her so spooked!

We went to Sam's today and have alot of boxes (diapers, wipes, tp, etc) and she has them strewn all over the living room, and then pillows and it is path and we were solving a mystery. I set the timer and played with her, full attention! Now that the timer has gone off and I am working around the house, she is scared... hmmm... Pretty sneaky, but good creativity, sis!