Crack Crackers...I mean Goldfish Crackers

So any mother of a toddler knows that Goldfish crackers are the be all-end all of snacks. 

But, as we all also know those little bags of crunchy, yumminess are quite expensive. Not mention when half of them end up in the uncharted lands under the car seat or ground into your living room carpet. 

Imagine how excited I was when I found a link to a make your own goldfish crackers! So today I decided to give it a try. In all honesty making the little goldfish cutter made me the most nervous. I'm a klutz; I could seriously loose a finger. I am proud to announce though! One cookie sheet full later I have all 10 digits and a full belly of cheddar goodness. Below is how I did it. 

First you need a goldfish cookie cutter. The easiest way is to cut a strip out of a soda can. Cut a strip about half an inch wide; shape into something that resembles a goldfish. Tape tail pieces together.

The recipe is as follows.

1 cup Flour
4 Tbls Butter, cut into small pieces
8 ounces Sharp Cheddar Cheese, grated
3/4 tsp Salt
2 Tbls cold water

 In a food processor pulse the first 4 ingredients until they resemble something like course sand; slowly adding water one tablespoon at a time. 

Roll mixture in plastic wrap and chill for 20 minutes. 

Roll out dough and cut into little fishes using your fishy cutter. You can make the eyes and smile using a toothpick if you like. (My dough wanted to crack if I rolled it out to thin. I just mushed it all back together and re-rolled it.)

 

Bake crackers in a 350 degree oven for 14 minutes or until puffy and firm. 

 Remove and ENJOY!!! These things are delicious!!! To me they taste like cheese straws. Super easy, super yummy and gosh darn cute!!

Also, if you need an idea for a fall get together the mix turns out a great pumpkin cracker! 

Family Time!! What's that?

So as some of you know and some of you don't we are a U.S. Navy family. That means 24 hour duty days, rotating shift work, long deployments, under ways, and having to cancel or change plans last minute. Every military member knows how it works. You can have something planned for months. The day before or the day of it can change at the drop of a hat. Something broke, there is some sort of training or someone did something wrong and EVERYONE is being punished for it. Story of our life. So family time is something that is VERY precious to us. 

Wonderful husband of mine planned us a day at the lake yesterday on his day off. Yes, mega brownie points for him. :) He however did not plan on the massive bus load of Boys and Girls Club of America kids being there. Not the most relaxing situation. Whatever we will make the best of it. Well, we spent the next hour doing the following....

1. Yelling "Watch out for the baby!" every 5 minutes.
2. Speaking with their camp counselors since EVERY TIME we walked away from our stuff one of the kids would steal one of our sand toys. 
3. Staring! Oh my, did they stare. Every time we took out a snack 1 or 2 would come stare and watch us eat. ( Kinda sad considering some of them probably don't get their 3 meals a day but still creepy.)

  
So yeah it didn't turn out to be the day we had originally hoped for. However even with all the hiccups and extra "wild things" running around the lake we had a blast. Family time for us 3 is a very, very precious thing and comes very rarely. I'm blessed to have the time we have and shouldn't take it for granted. In 3 years it will be even rarer. So right now Little Dude and I will take Daddy however we can get him :o) 

And He's OFF!!!

So Little Dude is going on 14 months now. He's becoming a big boy and starting to do big boy things. One of those being WALKING! Dad and I were super excited when he took off the other day. All on his own! Clapping, cheering him on, we were just so excited! Huge Milestone right?! Another huge milestone...running from Mommy in the store....silently hiding in little corners of the house you never thought he could get too....throwing EPIC tantrums to get outta the stroller! I swear children need to come with warning labels stamped on their cute, little, wrinkled old man tushes when they are born. People warn you but you really have NO CLUE until it starts! On a positive note for me I've heard this will make me loose that last little bit of baby weight! SCORE! 

 

So here it goes.....

So as people close to me know scrapbooking used to be a great pass time of mine. I LOVED it. I mean my upstairs office is bursting at the seams. Every kind of paper, adhesive, sticker and tool you can imagine. Probably enough do to at least 10 albums without buying anything new. 
I envy those mothers who can scrap their child's/children's every adventure, school function, or daily milestones. Not to mention the never ending cuteness! I however have to come to the realization that that is not going to be me. *insert sigh & sad face*  I want to be able to store the memories somewhere so I'm gonna give the internet a try. I think I'll like it. I mean I don't wanna scrap a page about how Little Dude got him self stuck upside down in a pop top storeage box. But Hey, a blog would be great! Plus, we can share it with all the people we love and some we don't even know. So here we go!!