One yummy Cookie!!!

We have been having Wednesday night church for the teens at our apartment in hopes of drawing more teens. In addition to this I make it a point to have some sort of dessert to entice them further. Last wednesday I made Apple Cinnamon Chunkies and they were a huge success!! Carter especially loved them and he usually is a one cookie only kind of guy, he loves them so much that he had to throw them away on Monday so he would stop eating them every time he walked by.

Here is the Recipe

1 pkg (18 ounces) refrigerated oatmeal raisin cookie dough. {I made homemade oatmeal cookie dough because my picky hubby doesn't like raisins}

1 cup chopped dried apples


1/2 Cup cinnamon baking chips {These were really hard to find but oh so worth it, I finally found them at Albertsons, I never even knew there was such a thing!}

1/2 tsp apple pie spice *or substitute 1/4 tsp cinnamon, 1/8 tsp nutmeg and pinch of allspice or cloves.

1. Let dough stand at room temperature about 15 minutes. Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease cookie sheets.
2. Combine dough, apples, cinnamon chips and apple pie spice in large bowl; beat until well blended. Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls 2 inches apart onto prepared cookie sheets.
3. Bake 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on cookie sheets 2-3 minutes. Remove to wire racks. Cool completely
4. Eat, enjoy, taste the deliciousness, and feel like it's kinda healthy since there are apples!

Impact NW Youth Retreat

This past weekend we took 8 teenagers (wohooo that's a big number!!) to Impact NW which is a youth weekend sponsored by the Lakeview Church of Christ in Tacoma, WA. This is our second year to take teens and I think that they enjoyed it! Despite the 8 hour trip with all of our stops we considered it to be a bonding experience! The main speaker was Brian Simmons and he did a great job talking about how our sin seperates us from God and causes us to make poor decisions that hinders us from "experiencing" God. I  know that this challenged me personally and I'm hoping that the kids took something from it as well. Carter's parents let us stay with them and provided us with more food then we could eat so I want to send them a big Thank YOU for their amazing hospitality!! One of our favorite parts was the comedian they brought in on Saturday night. His name was Thor Ramsey and I haven't laughed that hard in such a long time and it was truly wonderful!! Now I will leave you with some pictures from our weekend.

Van trip

I'm missing somebody, so the group minus 1

Brian dragged Crysta around in this chair to prove some point

Try to get all 5 people in your group on one bucket

Let's try that again!

Hanging out at the Davis'

Hunter is too cool for school.

Some girlies!

Our traditional Red Robin Lunch stop!

Happy

Although there are many things that make me happy, for Mandy's photo Friday I am entering in this picture from the Tiki Room at Disneyland. I last visited there in October and am soooo excited to get to go back there again in May w/ Carter. Even though I am 23 years old I still get incredibly happy upon entering Disneyland and the Tiki room is one of my stops that I have to see and enjoy and happiness is something I always experience as I sing with the birds in the "Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki room, in the Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki room, where the birds fly high and the flowers bloom, in the Tiki tiki tiki tiki, tiki room." (Now try getting that out of your head for the rest of the day!)

How to start your day off right

Starting a day off right does not include helping a 3 year old who is not in my preschool class strip off his poop covered sweater while not trying to touch his poop covered hand while not wearing gloves because they for some reason have stopped buying them. Let's just say this morning consisted of quite a few hand washings...

"mmm good, what a yummy graham cracker"

This week in preschool we are talking about books and reading in honor of Read Across America day which is today, which is also Dr. Seuss' birthday. So, I've been having my kids make their own books. This consists of them illustrating pages and then dictating their story to me. Most of the kids just told me what they drew for the words like, "this is a cat on the bed" or "this is the yellow sun" but this one little girl had a full out plot (well as much as you can have for a 5 year old). So I thought I would share it with you and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

I'm pretty sure the last page is my favorite part. I especially love it when she told me what to write and I have to keep a straight face while making sure that she wants that in her book. Especially the "mmm, that's good, what a yummy graham cracker" part. Gotta love the little guys!!