DETAILS...

I am convinced that creating a house into a home is in the details.

Thanks to Pinterest for the ideas and my own creativity to put a personal touch on things, this is what I have been up to.

 To keep things organized I have assigned every one a color in the family. It helps with little things around the house. Me (purple), Husband (Dark Blue) First Born (Baby Blue), Second Born (Green). I used yellow to express Joy as we are a family. I used these extra canvases that I had laying around and made some refreshing wall decor.

 So these cute little blocks can absolutely kill your feet if you step on them. They had to go. But they were too cute to throw away. So this project was inspired by Pinterest but I put my personal touch on it. I love that this project cost nothing ( had everything at home) and only two of the trees from the table were pulled off by my son.

 Before the legs got screwed back on.

 More decorative uses for the blocks.

 Despite the toys being every where. I love how we have the boys room decorated!

 I get totally annoyed reaching for a diaper for one child and pulling out the wrong size. So I put a label on it!

 Learning to recognize pictures and what sounds certain animals make. Large front hallway is perfect for killing time with the toddler.

Fresh flowers are a must for me. Thank goodness for Farmers Markets. You can get amazing flowers like these for only 10$.

Thank you Ann!

Ann Romney's M&M's Cookies 
(courtesy family circle)

MAKES 3 dozen cookies
PREP 15 minutes
BAKE at 325° for 18 minutes

1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups crunchy peanut butter
1 tablespoon light corn syrup (such as Karo)
3 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 1/2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
2 teaspoons baking soda
6 ounces chocolate chips
2/3 cup M&M's candies

1. Heat oven to 325°. In a large bowl, cream sugars, butter, peanut butter and corn syrup on high speed until well combined.  Beat in eggs 1 at a time.  Beat in vanilla extract.
   
2. In a separate bowl, mix together oats and baking soda. Stir into peanut butter mixture until combined. Mix in chocolate chips and M&M's.
   
3. Using a standard-size ice cream scoop, drop dough onto baking sheets (about 9 per sheet). Bake at 325° for 18 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool 2 minutes, then transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.

There was a bake off between Michelle Obama and Ann Romney for the best cookie, per tradition between the presidential hopefuls since 1992! I would just like to say 'Thank you Ann' for showing everyone how a cookie should be. The Karo syrup really adds a moist - chewiness to the inside of the cookie! My husband could not get enough of these!He actually preferred these over his previous favorite "Monster Cookies". (Image, courtesy of Bing images)

A blessing...

This past week I was having a particularly hard day with my kids and dealing/understanding our current circumstances in life when I heard a light knock at my front door. At first I thought it was just a package being delivered but to my surprise a neighbor who I have never met came over with her 3 year old son to introduce herself and to give me a piece of carrot cake that she had made.

After a nice conversation and being able to get to know her and think outside of myself for a moment; I realized how God had sent her to show His love. What a tender mercy it was/is to know that I and my little family are being looked after. I have never really liked carrot cake. But this piece was amazing!

Thank you dear neighbor!

Hawkins Family Cookbook 2012

You might be wondering what /where I have been for the past couple of months. Well I have still been creating despite the craziness of life. I assembled a family cookbook for my side of the family. Everyone offered there favorite recipes and it came together quite nicely. What ended up being a small project turned out to be 160 pages of wonderful memories. Above is the cover of the book!

Christmas Gift for Hubby

So I had found this website HERE via Pinterest. I loved this idea! Especially because our kids are so young.I liked how mine and my hubby's fingers are intertwined and how little the kids hands are. My man loved this! It made for a cute gift. Didn't take too long. ( Excuse the poor lighting, you know how apartments can be on an overcast day in Seattle.) hahaha

The Perfect Cookie

Chocolate Chip Cookies (modified slightly from the New York Times)

2 cups minus 2 tablespoons (8 1/2 ounces) cake flour
1 2/3 cups (8 1/2 ounces) bread flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt (I used kosher salt)
2 1/2 sticks (1 1/4 cups) unsalted butter
1 1/4 cups (10 ounces) light brown sugar
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (8 ounces) granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons natural vanilla extract
8 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, chopped into chunks
4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, grated
8 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips
sea salt

1. Sift flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Set aside.

2. Using a mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream butter and sugars together until very light, about 5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in the vanilla. Reduce speed to low, add dry ingredients and mix until just combined, 5 to 10 seconds. Stir all chocolate into dough using a wooden spoon. Press plastic wrap against dough and refrigerate for 24 to 36 hours. Dough may be used in batches, and can be refrigerated for up to 72 hours.

3. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat. Set aside.

4. The original recipe recommends using 3 1/2 ounces of dough per cookie and baking six cookies per baking sheet, but I thought that made for an entirely too large cookie. So I dropped the dough by tablespoonfuls on to the prepared cookie sheet, then sprinkled lightly with sea salt and baked until golden brown, but still soft, 10-12 minutes. Transfer sheet to a wire rack for 3-4 minutes, then slip cookies onto another rack to cool a bit more. Repeat with remaining dough, or reserve dough, refrigerated, for baking remaining batches the next day.

COURTESY of THIS BLOG is where I found this recipe and picture. Because her picture is better than mine. But my batch of cookies truly turned out like hers and they taste amazing!! Brad took some to work and people had thought he had bought them.

Christmas Gift

So I know it is a little early to be posting about Christmas, but because I am , anxious/compulsive I have been working on my Christmas gifts as of recent. One of Brad's (my hubby's) favorite memories of his childhood is that he and his dad had matching aprons.

Sooooooo......
I made matching aprons for Brad and the boys!

Merry Christmas! a little early!