Recipes: no butter cookies

I had a craving for cookies and there were no butter sticks in the fridge. What is a pregnant woman to do? Well I went to Google and looked up cookies with no butter. I found 2 cookies that we tried and they were quite satisfying so I thought that I’d pass along the recipe.

Stir-N-Drop Cookies

2 large eggs
2/3 cup vegetable oil, plus more for oiling glass
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
3/4 cup granulated sugar, reserve 1 tablespoon
2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
2 teaspons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Heat oven to 400 degrees.
In mixing bowl, beat the eggs, using a fork. Stir in oil, vanilla and lemon zest. Set aside your reserved sugar and add remaining to the oil mixture.
Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Add to the egg mixture.
Drop the dough by teaspoonfuls about 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets. Stamp each cookie flat with the bottom of a glass dipped in the reserved sugar, continuing to dip the glass as you prepare the cookies. (Oil the glass before dipping into sugar.)
Bake for 8-10 minutes. Remove the cookies at once from the cookie sheet.
Makes 60 thin 2-inch cookies.

We made ours a bit bigger and added our own stamp as well. I think that if you were to try making the cookie cutter imprint that it may show up better if you were to dip the cutter in colored sugar. We’ll give that a try next time!




Low-Carb Peanut Butter Cookies

1 cup low-carb or natural peanut butter
1 cup splenda
1 egg
(I used real peanut butter and real sugar!)

Heat oven to 350 degrees.
Mix all ingredients together. Make little balls and place on cookie sheet.
Criss-cross fork impression on top of cookie to flatten a bit. Bake for 8-10 minutes.

Birthday: Hannah's Party

Hannah's Birthday Party! She invited her family and her friends. She told me who she wanted to invite and then helped me make an evite invitation. Hannah was very excited about people coming over to eat cake with her.
This picture is the only one I got without food in her mouth. She liked the cake!


After cake and Ice Cream we opened presents. What fun. Hannah got such nice gifts. A big thank you to all that came and to those that gave.


Caleb wanted a picture of him taken.


Hannah just loves dresses and skirts. She wore one of these dresses for the rest of the day and has been wearing them since. The purple one is the one she likes most. :)


Abrianna is so much fun to watch. She has the biggest smile. She had a good time playing with Grandpa.


I made Hannah a necklace to go with the skirt I made her. She liked it! Her face shows that. :)



These are Hannah's friends and Sarah too. Looks like a good crowd!


Uncle Jonathan and Aunt Christie came and our little cousin Ethan too. We had fun watching Ethan laugh and smile.


What a fun afternoon and Hannah had a great time.

Sarah's Birthday is next.... too many birthday's in a row!

Birthday: Hannah is 4!

Happy Birthday to Hannah!
We had a fun family day today. I made a cake with balloons on it. (That is what Hannah wanted on her cake.) We had pizza for dinner. And I made her a skirt. It was a good day. Here are a few pictures:



I made this skirt from a skirt that I wore in high school. It was a size 9 and I've been holding on to it in hopes that I'd reach that size again. Well I gave up on that so decided to make Hannah a skirt with it! She just loved it as you can see!




We are having a party with friends and family on saturday. So more pictures to come!

7th Heaven: 3

Cerclage is in and keeping baby put! I had the surgery on Wednesday and have been taking it as easy as I can for the last few days. Staying on my back as much as possible so that the cerclage will heal in place good and I can get back to taking care of my children. (And the house!)

I'd like to thank those of you that brought me dinner!!!! I could not have made it without you... well, I'm sure that I would have survived, but you know what I mean!

They surgery went will as it always does. However the anastealogist (sp?) did a very bad job on my back! My back is still in pain from the epidural. While in "holding" (getting ready for surgery, IV set and all that fun stuff.) I asked the nurse to find out who did my epidural in '03. I had a bad experience with whoever that guy was. She 'looked' in my chart and then called to medical records and couldn't find my record. She tells me that it is Dr. Reed that will be doing it.
I know that name and knew that he had done it before on me, but couldn't remember who he was. Well, as you can guess, he was the one from '03. He hurt me so bad! He put the first numbing med in 4 or 5 times and tried 2 different spots on my back with the epidural. (The other 3 times that I've had this done there was only a total of 2 shots.) I have a bruised spot on my back from one of the sticks. I could feel stuff that you shouldn't feel while he was doing it. I've had this done several times now and he is the only one that has a problem with my back. He kept saying that my bones were close together.
The reason that I know it was the same guy from '03 is because while I was in the recovery room after the surgery was over the nurse has to go through my chart and do her thing. I asked her how I could find out who has done my epidurals for these procedures. She gave me some ways and then while flipping through my chart found a sheet that had my '03 information. She said, "Well I can see here that in '03 you had Dr. Reed, funny how history repeats itself." I couldn't believe it! It was in my chart! Well I learned a lesson there. To not take "I'm not sure," for an answer. Know I know the guys name and won't use him again. And I also know to be more persistent when it comes to the safety of my body. I am not saying that Dr. Reed is a bad Dr. or shouldn't be doing this practice. I don't think that he is good with however my back is shaped and shouldn't practice on me! :) I'm going to find out who has done my other ones and request one of them if we are in this situation again.

I am alive and baby is safe - can't ask for more! We got home on Wed at about 1:30.

While in surgery you have to where this nice looking cap to keep your hair out of the way. I asked to keep it to bring it home for my kids to play with and one of the nurses said that I'd need more than one! She got me more and some other fun stuff too. The kids had great fun when I got home and gave them their gifts.






Baby's growth this week:
14wks: Baby can smile and frown now and is beginning to make primitive breathing, sucking, and swallowing motions. Kidneys are working and are starting to produce urine. Eyes are starting to take on their life long color. If we are having a girl then her ovaries have formed, if we are having a boy then his testes have formed in the abdomen. The inner ear is forming and you can see the eyelids and the start of lips opening and closing. Nose is beginning to form as well.

I think I should have stated where I am getting this information. Knowing week by week is from a calendar that was given to me by my Dr. it is made by Baylor. Also info is coming from a great magazine; As Your Baby Grows From Conception to Birth by American Baby.

I'm still trying to take it easy, because my back is in much pain. I'd like to ask for your prayer - a speedy recovery. Last friday I had a tooth removed and my mouth still hurts from that too. Thank you for your prayers in advance.

Birthday: Hannah's mail

Aunt Rachel sent money with the kid’s birthday cards. We documented Hannah's experience.

Hannah loves to get mail and she has really enjoyed birthday cards this year. Aunt Rachel had money in hers and Hannah was very excited.


We have been talking with Hannah about what to do with your money when you get it. That you give 10%, save 10%, and do whatever with the rest. To make it easer for little people to get though we just break it up simple, for example, with these 4 dollars that Hannah got we were talking about giving one dollar, saving one and spending 2. (The church that we are going to is doing a "save money in a bottle" for the new children’s area playground.) Hannah wanted to give 2 dollars and spend 2. We couldn't argue with giving God half your money. So she put 2 dollars in her bottle.


And then it was off to the store to spend! We love Targets Dollar spot so that is wear we went. Hannah had so much fun looking and picking out items that she wanted to have. We had about 8 items and then sat down to pick out only 2. She picked out a tiara and journal that had an H on it.


Then we bought them.


We got home and Hannah was so excited to show Daddy what she had bought.


Then wanted to have fun.


Thank you Aunt Rachel for your gift, it was much appreciated and Hannah loved it.