Lamentations 3:22-24

My sister, Jeannine, asked if I wanted to memorize a verse with her (and my mom) for the month of January.  We picked Lamentations 3:22.

So for February, I memorized verses 23-24!
Pretty cool promise that the Lord gives us!

The Past Few Days

Payton and I played "salon" and I gave her a pedicure.

She kept calling me "Miss Mommy".  It was cute.

While we were doing that they big boys went mountain bike riding.

The trails look so bare in the wintertime.
Dylan did really well and rode about 5 miles!

We got to FaceTime with Gigi.

And Payton was making silly faces.

Waiting for the bus to come.

All smiles!

Ry and I were at the market and I had to use the restroom.
This is the first time I have used one of these seats.

I love this picture because he looks so scared to move.

I went to Burger King (which I never go to) and got their $ .25 iced coffee.
It was good, but I went too late in the day and ended up awake most of the night. Boo!

I laughed so hard when I saw this on Pinterest.

Sweet sleeping baby.

Here he was laughing at me while I was trying to get him to sleep.

This was my view waking up one morning.
So sweet.

And he now "dances".

Homemade Cheez-Its {recipe}

I'm a Cheez-It addict.
There, I admitted it.
Don't leave me unattended with a box of them, cause they will disappear . . . way too quickly.
So of course, when I came across a "Homemade Cheez-It" pin on Pinterest, I knew I had to make it.
And with last week being Winter Break (part 2).  It was the perfect thing to do with the kids.
This is a super easy recipe.  The only thing that took a little bit of time was transferring the squares to the pan.
You will have to try it, at least once!

Start with shredded cheese in a food processor (I used the awesome Ninja).

Add some butter.

Then flour and salt.

Then start pulsing.  I though I had messed it up at this point, but didn't - whew!

Keep pulsing.
See?  It's coming together.

Keep pulsing.
Bigger chunks.

And finally a ball.

Dylan wanted to point to it while I took a picture. =)

It was about a total of a minute of pulsing and we had our ball of dough.

We rolled it out between 2 pieces of wax paper and cut it into little squares.

Then we poked holes in the center of each square and transferred them to a cookie sheet.
Sprinkled each with Kosher Salt.

And baked them.

This batch not as long.
Definitely watch them the last 3 minutes, they brown quickly.

Yummy!

Verdict?  Very fun.  Worth doing.  And yummy.  Dylan said they were the best.
We will be making them again.  But they still won't take the place of my box of Cheez-Its.
Now that I know how easy it is to make crackers, I will try out some others!

Homemade Cheez-Its

6 oz shredded sharp cheddar cheese

4 tablespoons butter

3/4 cup flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

kosher salt

Pulse first 4 ingredients together in a food processor until it forms a ball.

Place the ball between 2 sheets of wax paper and roll out until it is 1/8" thick.

Cut dough into small squares.

Poke a hole in the center of each cracker using a toothpick.

Transfer to a parchment lined baking sheet approx 1/2" apart.

Sprinkle with kosher salt.

Bake at 350ºF for 8-12 minutes until lightly browned. (Watch carefully because they turn brown quickly at the end.)

Cool on the baking sheet and store in an airtight container.

Original recipe can be found here: Cooking ala Mel.

A Peek Into Our Week

This past week we have had Winter Break (Part 2) and have done a lot of fun things.
Here are some (okay a lot of) pictures that I took.
I made and we ate Pink Velvet cupcakes from a mix that Gigi sent us.

And made some crafts that she sent too.

We had lots of snuggles (especially at bedtime).

And made brownies with my favorite helpers.

I took the kids to the library.
Dylan read The Tale of Despereaux this week - in 5 days actually.
Now he is reading the first of the Warriors series.

I held a sweet sleeping baby.

Here's my view.

Made Homemade Cheez-Its.

The kids played and laughed.

Ry Guy walked with his walker.

We went to a bounce house.

And had some friends join us.
Can you see Payton and Sawyer holding hands?  {too cute!}

Here's The Bounce House boys!

That pooped Payton out.  She fell asleep right when we got home.

Ry and me.

We made gingerbread cookies.

Rylan pushed that chair all around karate class.

Went to the doctors first thing in the morning.

Rylan had a double ear infection {again}.
=(

Dylan had earned a free meal at IHOP for his grades.
So we had breakfast for "Linner" (lunch/dinner).
Sweet boys.

Us girls!

Ry was there too.

Payton has the cutest butt.

I helped Chris package some marketing stuff.

SWBC Mortgage mugs with candy in it.

We went to Helen, Georgia for an afternoon.
Helen is similar to Solvang in California.
Not sure why I took a picture of the parking lot, but there you go.

Waiting to eat lunch.

Such a happy boy.

My sweet "Baby-da-girl" as daddy calls her.

 Two of my 3 most favorite guys.

We walked thru some shops.

It's a Bavarian/Austrian town.

 Very cute and very pretty.

My hubby and me.

 Here's a "selfie".

Here's a picture on the way home from Helen.

It was gray, cloudy and still beautiful.

The mountains are amazing.

Trying to get this guy to sleep has been such a challenge lately.

He does everything BUT relax.

It can take some time, but I will still win!

So that was a glimpse at our week.  Now back to our regularly scheduled programming!