Christmas Baking 2014

I'm positive that if you googled the word "disaster" right now a picture of our kitchen would appear. Both sides of the sink are full of dirty baking pans and bowls. My feet crunch as I walk across the kitchen floor---I have one word for that... SPRINKLES. The counter has chunks of dried on cookie dough and more SPRINKLES and how the entertainment center in the living room is covered with flour... I DON'T KNOW. So what better time to just sit down for a minute and post few of my favorites from cookie baking this morning? No time like the present, right?

Milk & Cookies

A couple of weeks before Thanksgiving I dressed these two in Christmas jammies and put them out in a middle of field to grab a few model shots for Christmas Minis photos (which ended up being a HUGE success BTW). :)

 Oh don't worry... There were bribes.

Pinterest: Noodle Painting

It's time for another Pinterest post and this one like many others this one promised a mess!

Who would have thought spaghetti noodles and finger paint? I pinned the idea from HERE.

I wasn't sure how this would go over especially with the texture of the noodles and paint. At two years old a lot of children have aversions to sensory and some children don't like to get dirty. Harrison was a little hesitant at first, but after a little reassurance from me he dug right in. This is definitely the most fun we have both had painting. After snapping a few shots I dug in too.

 Love these two faces--he's getting so expressive!

After noodle painting we baked a batch of peanut butter mini chocolate chip cookies---so yummy I thought I would tease you with this photo:

Happy Monday!

Pinterest Post: Sugar Cookie Bars

Another pin from Pinterest.

Between cookies, pasta, birthday cake and sugar cookie bars---there isn't a whole lot of room in our tummys for all of this food at our house, so we made treats daddy could take to work.

The cookie bars ended up being a 5 out of 10. The problem with my bars is the thickness. I didn't have the right dimension pan that the recipe called for....If I recall correctly it wanted something like a 16 X 22 inch. I ended up using a 10 X 15 pan. The only other size I had that came close was 18 X 24 and I was afraid the bars would come out too flat using the bigger pan. So either thick or flat, these bars were doomed from the very beginning.

Harrison and I busily baked while daddy was out enjoying the Super Bowl game on Sunday. Way to go GIANTS!

Yep...totally in love with the shot on the left.

 Helping with clean-up.

 Guess clean up didn't last long....on to cuteness.

 We missed a lot of in between with this Pinterest post....but check out this ABC post and you will totally know why.

Want to know a big fat secret?
I cut these bars with a pizza cutter. The recipe called for it and it worked perfectly...I am trying this with brownies next!

Want the recipe? Click here.