Bakery Style Chocolate Chip Cookies

This is my favorite recipe. The whole thing yeilds 12 big cookies!! And they are super delicious! I promise.

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

1.Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets or line with parchment paper.
2. Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, cream together the melted butter, brown sugar and white sugar until well blended. Beat in the vanilla, egg, and egg yolk until light and creamy. Mix in the sifted ingredients until just blended. Stir in the chocolate chips by hand using a wooden spoon. Drop cookie dough 1/4 cup at a time onto the prepared cookie sheets. Cookies should be about 3 inches apart.
4. Bake for 15 to 17 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the edges are lightly toasted. Cool on baking sheets for a few minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

I Love This Kid

He is such a fun and clever boy. He really does make me smile everyday. He is helpful and silly. And I super duper love him.

Valentine's 2012

So you know the tradition right? Fancy fancy fancy fancy. Well this year was the same :) Dating our kids on Valentine's Day is something we all look forward to as a family.

Handsome 4 yr old

Pretty (and slightly toothless) 6 yr old

So cute 8yr old

Dad who is NOT 30 yet

Mom who is 30! (sigh) and who doesn't know how to act like a grown up in front of the camera .... proof below

Me and my valentine. :)

And the following shot is what usually happens at some point when we are trying to do family pictures...

It was, yet again, a great night. Going around the dinner table taking turns naming things we love about each other and God. This year it made me cry.. probably for womanly hormone reasons, but it was still sweet and memorable. :)

These little people will only be under our roof for a short time. They are on loan from God. I hope they feel treasured and loved.

Kitchen Helpers

I love to have my children with me in the kitchen (well pretty much everywhere.. I'm weird like that). The kitchen especially though. I feel like we talk so much, and they learn so much. As long as their intentions are good, the messes don't bother me. I love to watch them feel empowered as they accomplish something. It is one of the coolest feelings to see them growing before your eyes.

Many times in the past I would say No to requests to help out. I felt like I was in a hurry or couldn't find anything child friendly for them to do. But a friend reminded me, I'm in no hurry. I am home with these little people all day long, everyday. Why not let them help?

Best advice ever. It is quality bonding time. Not just with me but with each other. Friday night was Pizza night - and we decided to bake cookies. I hung out and supervised, they did the rest! And we ALL had fun!

The Cookies:

Teamwork

The Pizza:

Look at the concentration in that face :)

This is the good stuff in life people!

She Turned 6!

Ok so it happened like forever ago.. well not really forever, more like 6 weeks ago. Her birthday falls in that whirlwind time between Christmas and New Year. You know, the time where it is really difficult to pull a party off because all her friends are out of town or busy with Holiday stuff.

We've been on a rotating schedule it seems like with the birthdays. It looks like one year we do a family party, one year we do a big party, repeat. So this year was just us. And it was lots of fun. J's birthday request was to go to Chuck E. Cheese's and to watch a movie. Totally doable.