A New Nom.

My sister and I made these cookie bars for my Aunt’s birthday and I cannot stop thinking about them, so I am posting the recipe here. They are:
Chewy Gingerbread Bars!

**Note: If you would like to double this recipe, use a large jelly roll pan and bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes. Allow the bars to cool, then frost and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before cutting.

Gingerbread Bars:
3/4 C butter, melted
1 C sugar
1/4 C molasses
1 egg
2 C flour
2 t baking soda
1 t cinnamon
1/2 t salt
1/2 t ginger
1/2 t cloves
Cream Cheese Frosting:

4 ounces cream cheese (half a brick), softened
2 T butter, softened
2 C powdered sugar
1 T milk
1/2 t vanilla
dash salt
INSTRUCTIONS!
1. Pour the melted butter, sugar and molasses into your stand mixer, or large mixing bowl. Beat until well combined. 
2. Add the egg and beat until smooth. 
3. In a separate bowl toss together all of the dry ingredients. 
4. Pour the dry ingredients into the mixer and beat, just until combined. 
5. Spray a 9x9 pan with cooking spray and press the dough into it. 
6. Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes, do not over bake. Stick a knife into the center of the bars. If it comes out clean...remove the pan from the oven and let it cool completely. The bars will continue to cook a bit as they cool. Once frosted the bars will be put in the fridge for an hour...this will also help the bars to set up and not be too doughy. 
7. Mix all frosting ingredients together in your stand mixer. Beat until nice and smooth.
8. Spread the frosting over the top of the cooled bars. Refrigerate for one hour, cut and serve!
Store leftover bars in the fridge, or freezer.

A little bit of our May

We successfully survived a 16 hour roadtrip with a toddler.

Twice!

We drove to Utah and back. Only had two throwups.

WARNING: Tons of random pictures!! I didn’t get pictures of all the things I wanted. But I took a lot.

Pippa sleeps at Grandma’s house in Ontario.

Pippa and Jane.

Pippa and her friend in Highland.

Me and my friend Sabrina.

Me and one of my favorite girls from Ukraine serving her mission in Temple Square!!

 

Micah looking jolly by the reflection pool.

Micah surprised me by taking me to Heber and Park City for our 4th anniversary.

Eating at the fancy new Cannon Center at BYU.

Ran into THE BEST mission companion in the HBLL!!

Saw my favorite person ever. You ain’t seen the last of me Kathy Lee!

Ate macarons at Margaret’s baby shower!!!

YUMM!!

Ate cake with my Aunt Betsy!

Picnic’ed at the park with siblings!!

Swimming in Grandma’s pool!!

Easter and other randomthingblings

SPRING IS FINALLY COME.

We go to the park a lot.

Pippa loves her friend Vivien.

They had an Easter party for kids at the Mall.

The Easter Bunny came and gave Pippa some new clothes and toys.

People at church gawked at Pippa as if they have never seen an Easter bonnet before. Such a sad culture we live in.




Church days are long and hard for Pippa. She was not in the mood for pictures.

BUT WE WERE BECAUSE WE ARE SO GOOD LOOKING.

Pi(e) Day Aftermath (hahahah get it, aftermath?)

HAHAHAHAHAH.
Math jokes are the best.
Micah finally got to eat some pie.

 

This year I made 10 pies.

It was RIDICULOUS!
 
AND DELICIOUS!!!

The Jello did NOT want to come out of the mold. FAIL.

But the cherry pie looked pretty good.

There was even a LASER ETCHED pie in attendance! This was truly unprecedented.

A grand pie day indeed!!

PORTLANDIA!

You guys.
Portland.
Tastes so GOOD.
Seriously, the food was amazing. Beyond amazing. For example, spinning doughnuts:
 


I didn’t take pictures of all the food, because I was lazy, and it would probably disgust you to see how much we ate. Haha! The minute we arrived there we went to Pok Pok, what Micah says is the most authentic Thai food he’s had in America. Then we headed to our hotel, where we had an amazing view of the river:


Pippa like to hide in the TV cabinet..

The next day we headed to the Oregon coast to the Tillamook cheese factory. Few people understand the importance of this pilgrimage. I have eaten Tillamook cheese all my life. I owe my life to their cheese. I even learned something cool while I was there. They weigh all the blocks of medium cheddar before packaging to make sure they are the correct weight – but if a block is underweight they will add a “patch” to make it the right weight. I have always wondered why, sometimes, there is a loose piece of cheese at the top of the block. WELL NOW I KNOW!!!

Pippa the farmer.

Micah was brave and took a picture out by Haystack rock. The weather was crazy windy and I just stayed in the car.

We actually didn’t have ice-cream at the Tillamook factory (I know, I know) BUT Micah found a place that had his favorite ice-cream flavor: Black licorice! Too bad it’s like the hardest flavor to find! But boy was he happy! I think it is disgusting.

Pippa eats everything.

We thought she would be thrilled by a Merry-go-round. She hated it.

She did like hanging out on the balcony of our hotel.

The night we came back from the coast, the hotel valet pointed us to the trees where he said there was a bald eagle. Well it seemed that we would be visible from our room, so we went up and I took like a million pictures:

IT WAS SO COOL!!!!!

Another cool thing we saw: the Grotto. It was beautiful, despite the cold and rain.


The sun came back as we headed to Seattle.


WE APPROVE OF YOU, PORTLAND!! Not that you need our approval…..