Silly me

I was cleaning out Luke's closet yesterday and found something there amongst the stuffed animals piled on the shelf-a Webkinz!

I have a black bear that was so cute and I cannot for the life of me remember where I got it from but there it was-with a Webkinz tag that I have not noticed for probably years? (talk about unobservant!)

We of course know about Webkinz because Madison and Hannah (Luke's cousins) have several of their own! They even gave one to Momaw (Aaron's mom) for Christmas! So now we have one too-well, she is Luke's Webkinz now, her name is Lulu. How fun is that?

Cousin Tre

Tre's bathtime pictures:

He looks alot like his momma (my sister Amanda).

What a Cutie!!

"Stuntman"

I was making the bed, changing the sheets-all that. And I had our blankets and pillows on the floor. This is was followed:

He was doing this for several minutes-so cute!

Flat Stanley, Take 2

Our niece, Madison, sent her Flat Stanley to come visit us this past week, (don't worry Madison-he's on his way home!!). These are some of his adventures here:

First we went to Giordano's, where he not only ate with us, but he also got to go back in the kitchen and help make Chicago style deep dish pizzas!

Then we went into Chicago and took pictures with some landmarks: Aaron and Stanley are posing here with Michael Jordan's statue in front of the United Center; he and I are standing in front of Oprah's studios.

Vaguely here you can see the Sears Tower in the background!


Stanley was lucky enough this visit to go sledding with our youth group! We had a lot of fun:

Stanley even made his own Snow Angel!

Thanks Madison for sending him here! We had a great time. Love you!

P.S.-If you want to see our visit with our other niece, Hannah's Flat Stanley, Click Here.

Brrr....

The Chicago weather just highlighted our area-Aurora on the news tonight. Why? Because this morning our temperature was -20 degrees. Yep, that's right it is very cold here. Very, very cold.

Big Boy Tre

My sister Amanda's son Tre eating with silverware!!

Yeah Tre! Good job. We are so proud of you.

I am a USCG Sibling.

YN3(Yeoman) Amanda Jenkins and Seaman Cody Durham(soon to be ET3-Electronics Technician).

These are my younger siblings in their United States Coast Guard graduation photos.

They are both stationed right now in California, very close to each other-which is awesome!

This summer my family is planning a big vacation to California for Cody's graduation from A-School, and we also get to see my sister Amanda 9 months pregnant! I am so excited.

I believe most of you know (or at least know of) Amanda and Cody, and so I thought you might like to see these pictures. I am so proud of my brother and sister (not just because of their decision to serve in our military, but that is something to be proud of).
Remember that our military is not composed of nameless faces; they are sisters, brothers, cousins, parents, sons and daughters and so on. Please keep them in your prayers!

Apple Pie Cookies

This is a picture of one of my first batch of Apple Pie Cookies. My Grandmother gave me a Beta Sigma Phi Recipe book called, "Comfort Food-All Time Favorites". This is the first recipe I have tried and it has become a definite in the "Top 5 Greatest Cookies of All Time" in my opinion. So I am sharing it with you-so print this and get out your rolling pin!

Apple Pie Cookies
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
Filling (see below)
2 cups confectioners' sugar
milk
cinnamon to taste

Beat the shortening and granulated sugar in a bowl until light and fluffy. Add the egg. 1/2 cup milk and the vanilla and mix well. Combine the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt. Add to the shortening mixture gradually, beating constantly. Divide dough in half. Wrap in plastic wrap. Chill for 2 to 3 hours. Roll each portion of dough 1/8 inch thick on a floured work surface. Cut with a 2 1/2-inch cookie cutter. Place half the cookies 2 inches apart on a cookie sheet. Spread 2 teaspoons of Filling over each cookie. Top with a second cookie. Crimp the edge to seal. Bake at 375 degrees for 10 minutes or until brown. Cool on the cookie sheet for 1 minutes. Remove to a wire rack to cool completely. Mix the confectioners' sugar with enough milk in a bowl to make of a glaze consistency. Stir in the cinnamon. Drizzle over the cookies.
Yield: 3 dozen cookies.

Filling Ingredients:
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 teaspoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
3 tart apples, peeled and grated
3/4 cup water

Filling Directions:
Combine the brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, apples and water in a saucepan. Cook over medium heat until the apples soften and the mixture thickens, stirring often. Cool completely.

They are fantastic! And great with Ice cream. Giving due to the creator of this amazing recipe(according to my book): J. Wiggins, from Ohio.
You should definitely try them!

Bonner Look-alike Meter

Well, this is just for fun, I copied a friend of mine...what do you think?

MyHeritage: Celebrity Collage - Geneology

whew

Blogger has done an amazing thing: they can translate into several different languages-the whole site, for users! Very cool. Even Hebrew, which flips the entire page, because Hebrew is written in the opposite direction.
For fun, I clicked Ukrainian. Wow, that looks different! Then I clicked Hebrew, whoa-very different. But, uh-oh...now I can't read the language names to get back to English!
Well obviously I figured it out, but it took a while. lol. Funny.