quickly becoming one of my favorites.

a nice { and } chunky cookie with white chocolate chip, walnuts { and } coconut.

 the girl was in tee-ball this summer.

 which meant a lot of playground time for the boy { and } the baby.

then there was disney.

 to say these kids enjoy escalators is a drastic understatement.

 we got multiple days in at the magic kingdom this year.

outside the grand floridian.

face painting at animal kingdom.

the view from our room was fantastic.

 there was a lot of rain, which actually helped – no ridiculous beating sun all day every day.

many character signings.

lots of pool time this year.

a lot of time at disney is spent waiting.  for the monorail.  for the bus.  for the ride.  for the casey anthony trial to be on a break.  you name it, we waited for it.

 more rides.

{ and } more rain.

 disney 2011 was an awesome trip, it’s been years since we went during summer { and } it ended up working out great.

 my best friend sarah got engaged so i took her { and } paul’s engagement pictures at the beach where he proposed.

this little man became a big brother.

 in the form of my close friend jen’s baby.  so freaking adorable.

some friends got married.  congrats vick w { and } chris.

 the wedding was celebrated with great friends.

there was celebrating of leaving my job of over 12 years.  i couldn’t have made it through all these changes without the support of my closest { and} best friends.  this lady is no exception.  i owe her big time.  probably in the form of coconut cupcakes.

 pretty flowers grow in my sister’s backyard apparently.

 { and } a new addition to my sister { and } brother-in-law’s brood.  meet payton johnson.

 wrapping up summer with a lifehouse concert at ravinia.  if you haven’t been to ravinia, you should go.  it’s fantastic.

 { and } the girl started kindergarten.  she’s growing up  s o  fast.

moving, new job(s), lots of change happening in the make { and } take world.  i’m looking forward to what fall { and } winter bring..

i’ve taken a break from blogging.  { and } baking.  at least a break from baking new things to blog.  i made these chocolate mint cookies a while back to use up these dark chocolate mint chips that i snagged around the holidays.  they were delicious cookies.  kind of like those crispy mint ones those swindlers girls sell you.  only in a soft cookie form.  yum. 

i decided that i am going to start sharing more than just food photos on my blog.  i used to use flickr { and } loved it.  i think it’s a great way to share your pictures { and } be inspired by other people’s photography.  then facebook came along { and } i slowly stopped posting on flickr.  i didn’t renew my account a few months back { and } will probably not go back to it.  however, i do enjoy sharing my photos with more than just facebook.  this all came to fruition in my head last night when i went to grab some pictures to email to a friend off of my external hard drive.  i am  v e r y  diligent about backing my photos up on that hard drive.  i copy, double check, open, triple check, etc. before deleting the downloaded pictures off my computer.  when i went to get those pictures last night, my external hard drive decided that the 2011 folder of  a l l  of my 2011 pictures was corrupt.  seriously.  complete meltdown.  fifty dollars { and } a recovery program later,  s o m e  of my pictures have been recovered.  not all { and } certainly none of the corrupt ones from that hard drive.  but, i suppose these things happen.  luckily i do post pictures regularly onto facebook { and } should be able to download decent size files of those pictures.  crisis not averted, but i just had to deal with it.  hopefully people will enjoy the pictures i’ll post on here.  for now, though, back to the cookies. 

chocolate mint cookies.

{ since these chips are obviously a limited edition, if you don’t have them you could substitute with bittersweet chocolate chips { and } add some mint extract }