Inspire. Create. Share 2015

Last week I went to the Stampin' Up! convention. Sarah and I had a great time with our group of girls from Edmonton!

The first day we toured the home office. Both Sarah and Kristi-Lee have been there before, but I hadn't, so we decided to go look around. 

We of course, had to take a picture with the sign:

I made several samples for the display boards. 

(I'll post individual pictures in another blog post soon)

At awards night, there was a Gatsby themed after party. 

Sarah and I:

We ate at a lot of really great restaurants, but my favorite was the Red Iguana. I love Mexican and this place is the best!

We always have such a great time in Salt Lake City!

Peanut Butter Cookies

I made the best cookies last night and I just had to share the recipe with you. The recipe is from my Bouchon Bakery cookbook. I love Bouchon! It's one of my favorite restaurants.

I had to adapt the recipe slightly, the original recipe called for strange amounts of things (like 1 1/4 cups flour + 2 1/2 tablespoons) I don't bake like that, so I had to make some changes. Luckily it all worked out and the cookies turned out great!!

Mix together:

2 cups butter, softened
1 cup crunchy peanut butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Once that is creamed together, add:

2 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda

2 cups quick-cooking oats

Bake for 12 mins at 350F

Cool cookies and add filling:

1 cup butter, soft
1 cup creamy peanut butter
2 cups icing sugar

This recipe made 32 sandwiches (or 64 individual cookies)

Canola Fields

I've always loved the bright yellow canola fields against the blue sky. So one day after daycamp, the boys and I stopped for a little photo shoot. It was so sunny and hard to look without squinting, but we got a few. It was a picture perfect day!

Michael's Birthday

For Michael's birthday this year, the two of us did a cooking class at Sorrentino's. It was really fun! We made a salad, main course and a dessert. It was a great date night!

Our main course, chicken risotto:

Happy Birthday, Michael!!

Family Camp 2015

We just returned from another great year at family camp!

We always have so much fun with our family and friends. The boys love being at the lake and they definitely make the most of our week out at camp. Lots of activity jammed into one week! 2 church services each day, lots of friends, swimming, boating, playground, tuck shop, riding bikes, playing games, fireworks, fishing, sunsets, and more!!

One of the things that the boys love to do is swim out to the yellow dock. Once they are out there, they try to push each other off. For some reason, this is fun for them ;)

Levi cheering for himself when he got the 2 big boys off.

Jake and 2 of his buddies:

Even in the rain, its fun to swim:

Another one of our favorite things is boating with the Sagerts :)

Levi, Michael and Zack went for a pretty wild ride!

Zack can't get enough of tubing!

One of the afternoon activities is a water fight. Jakob loves to get wet! 

He even bent down so Abby could dump a bucket on him!!

Trying to get Opa wet:

This was Zack's face when he was spraying Opa:

Zack loved the water fight!

Canoeing:

More tubing:

Me and my girls:

We really have the best sunsets:

On Canada Day, Levi and Zack went to bed earlier, but Jakob stayed up. We watched the fireworks, fished in the dark and hung out with our friends. Jakob was so happy!

Everyday the boys would buy themselves a little treat at the tuck shop:

Lots of great memories!!