Cookies

So, being pregnant has given me the urge to be super busy all the time, and one of the ways I keep busy is baking. Here are a couple of cookie recipes I found recently that are so good!


Chewy Coconut Cookies

1 1/4 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 1/3 cups coconut

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine flour, baking soda & salt; set aside. In medium bowl, cream butter, white sugar & brown sugar until smooth. Beat in egg and vanilla until light and fluffy. Gradually blend in flour mixture, then mix in coconut. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 8-10 minutes, or until lightly toasted. Cool on wire racks.

Cameron LOVED the coconut cookies! They were so good, so easy, and definitely a nice change from the same old cookies.

Lemon Sugar Tea Cookies

3/4 cup butter
1 cup white sugar
1 egg
2 tbs corn syrup*
1 tsp lemon extract*
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup white sugar

In medium bowl, cream together butter and 1 cup sugar until light & fluffy. Beat in egg, corn syrup & lemon extract. Stir in flour, baking soda & baking powder. Cover dough and chill at least 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.* Roll chilled dough into walnut-sized balls. Roll balls in 1/2 cup sugar and place on cookie sheet. Bake 12 minutes or until lightly browned.

*Honey is a good substitute for corn syrup if you don't have any. I used a little less than 2 tbs and the cookies still came out great. Also, if you have lemons on hand and no lemon extract, you can substitute 1 tbs of lemon juice and 1 tbs of lemon zest for the extract, and the cookies still taste good. I also didn't have any parchment paper on hand, so I generously sprayed the cooking sheet with cooking spray and the cookies came off nicely.

Laundry Blues

So, I had to write about this, because it is soo frustrating and ridiculous...

We live in an apartment complex that has 60 apartments. There is a coin-op laundry room that only has 6 washing machines and 6 dryers, and that is supposed to be enough for roughly 60 tenants, if all the apartments were occupied at once. Well, it's not.

Today I went to do laundry because Cameron needed his clothes for work washed, and since he does the laundry all the time, plus goes to school and work, and I had already finished doing everything else, I thought I would be nice. Now, I'm 6 months pregnant. Doing every day things isn't really a big deal for me, it's just slightly more straining than usual. But laundry is the killer. Cam normally does the laundry because we have to walk down the stairs out of our apartment and across the parking lot to get to the laundry room, and by the end of the week, those laundry baskets are pretty heavy. I didn't think the load I had was that heavy, and I was only going to take one at a time. Well, carrying that load of laundry down seemed a lot more difficult after I got to the laundry room, only to find that 5 out of the 6 dryers were being used...by one person. The only one left was the tiny, crappy one that barely fits anything. Seriously? People really can't be more considerate and do 1, 2 loads max at the same time? I know laundry is a pain, especially where we live, but come on! There are other people waiting to do laundry, you're not the only one that lives here.

It's a BOY!!!

Cameron and I are having a little boy! We are so excited! Since we couldn't find out at our doctor's office, we went to an ultrasound clinic. Coolest thing ever. They did a 20 minute ultrasound(side note: the jelly that they put on your tummy was SO WARM, I know, minor thing, but it was so nice to have it warm and not ice cold!) and we got to see the baby in 3D/4D...it was amazing. We got a CD of photos and printed photos, a DVD of the ultrasound set to music(so cute)and a gift package with a photo album and all kinds of stuff in it. It was such a neat experience to be able to see our baby move around and yawn and do all these cute things that normally we wouldn't be able to see. I wanted to hold him right there, it was awesome.

His name is going to be Ammon Michael Thomas. We are so excited, we can't wait until he is born. May can't come fast enough!

He had his hand in front of his face the whole time during the ultrasound! This was one of the few pictures where he didn't have his hands up. Even though we didn't see much of his face, I thought it was cute...he's camera shy just like his mom!

He is such a little thumbsucker! Looks like I won't need pacifiers now! :)

My New Obsession

I saw these in Wal-Mart today, so of course I had to buy a box. They are AMAZING. They taste like Cocoa Puffs or any other chocolate cereal, but they're not sugary like the other cereals. So good. I think I've found my new favorite cereal.

Growing!

10 week ultrasound

20 weeks! Halfway there! :)

SNOW!!!

Time for an update! The month of November flew by! We have been so busy, but we are loving life right now!

I went to the doctor for a 14 week appointment the week before Thanksgiving and we got to hear the baby's heartbeat! It was so amazing and it was such a fast heartbeat! I've heard that means it's a girl, but who knows? Anyone want to cast their vote? We'll hopefully be able to find out whether it's a girl or boy on December 17th when I have my 18 week appointment. I hope so, I am so excited to find out and start planning for the baby!

We spent Thanksgiving in North Carolina with my mom and step-dad. We had such a good time, the weather was nice, the food was so good, and it was so nice to get away and relax for a few days. I'm excited to go back for Christmas and see everyone again and MY BROTHERS are going to be there! I can't wait to see them!!!

Christmas has officially begun in the Thomas household! Actually, it started when I started listening to Christmas music in October, but now the tree is up and we decorated the apartment! It looks so cute, I love Christmas!

We made Christmas cookies with Brooke and Justin last night, it was fun! We got pretty creative with decorating them and they were so good, I'm surprised we still have some left!

Cameron is almost done with the semester! He is beyond excited, he can't wait to be done with classes. His last final is December 18th and then he's done until January 7th.

I felt the baby move the other day! Nothing big, just a little flutter, but it was such a cool feeling. I am so excited for this baby, I can't wait to meet our sweet little one!