I love my Donna

Sandy and her boys came to see me off the morning I left Louisiana. I love my Donna. 

And I got to relish in my birthday regalia one last time :). I'm such a lucky girl.

A Big Giant Cookie Jar of Love

Before I left Louisiana to head back to Austin, I bought a huge cookie jar and filled it full of my kids' favorite homemade cookies. YUM! When they eat one they can think of how much their mommy loves them.

Two favorite recipes:

Emily's Super Awesome Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
  1/2 cup butter, softened
  1/2 cup butter flavored shortening
  1 cup brown sugar, packed
  1/2 cup granulated sugar
  1 tsp baking soda
  2 eggs
  1 tsp vanilla
  2 1/2 cups flour
  1 bag of Ghirardelli semisweet chocolate chips

Directions
  1) cream together the butter, shortening and sugars. Add baking soda. If you're using unsalted butter, add 1/2 tsp salt here too.
  2) mix in eggs and vanilla.
  3) add flour, then chocolate chips.  I love adding nuts too.
  4) Bake at 375 degrees for 8 - 10 minutes. This is key here - don't over or under cook them. Keep an eye on the first pan and be sure to pull them our just as soon as the centers aren't shiny anymore and the edges are goldening up.


Emily's Super Awesome White Chocolate Chip Cookies
(same exact recipe, but substitute the chocolate chips with Ghirardelli classic white chips)

Enjoy ;)

Happy Birthday to me - again!

Elle showed me how to My wonderful mother in law gave me the best birthday present on my birthday! She taught me how to make her famous gumbo recipe. MMMmmm! It turned out SO yummy! I am so proud to know how to make it for myself here in Austin when I'm missing my Louisiana family and friends.

Elle even stepped in to help us cutting the onions just right. She actually did a really good job, with a butter knife to boot!

The entire day of my birthday I got to take it easy with my kids and my Voisin family. We just hung out at Sarah's house being with each other. Roland and Ellie fancied up Aunt Sandy.

Elle helped her grammy doll up too. Grammy said, "Elle came to help Grammy put on her make up almost every day that she slept over ... It was one of her favorite things to do with Grammy while she stayed in LA this summer :) . xoxoxo"

And she wasn't to be left out. Check out that long luxurious golden hair!