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New and improved!

2011-05-06T16:42:00.003-06:00

I've been waffling between sticking with this blog for awhile, along with my other 2 blogs and it's just a tad too much. I still want to do what I do tho; so I decided to just merge this with My Pookie Designs and simply continue on with my random fun there. :) I'm beginning to like WordPress a little more and plus I didn't want that site, that I set up in memory of my baby, to just sit there. I will leave this blog up for all my previous posts, but from here on out I will be on Pookie Designs. :) I would love to see you over there! And might as well get a head start on the awesome contest/giveaway I'll be having soon, and become my friend on the "Google Friend Connect" bar on the bottom to follow my blog. :) :)

I'm excited for this transition and look forward to keep sharing many much fun stuff that I love! :) See ya on the other side.........

Baby Shower

2011-05-02T09:01:00.009-06:00

To end the week we had a baby shower for my sil who is having a boy....now it will be 5 girls and 2 boys. It was fun to do a boy one for a change, even though girl stuff is much more fun, we still came up with some fun ideas!

My amazing sister hosted it, it was fun to help her! We did a car theme decorating with:

* Paper cars
* Dump truck (we were going to serve the fruit out of it, but didn't happen)
* Tires spelling out his name
* Fun lookin pom poms- polka dot is my favy
* apothecary jars filled with peanut m&m's which happened to match the color theme perfectly
* Styrofoam covered in "grass" paper and 'dirt' oreos. Which was the holder of the WAY cute Cake push pops! Super cute, right?!
Tam and I were giggling like little school girls when we found the push pop containers and were so excited to make them! Very fun to put together. We made some mini trifles in them; half strawberry shortcake and other half snicker trifle. MMMMMMMMM Very fun and very tasty! I'm so looking forward to trying some other things in them like yogurt/smoothie pops! We found ours at etsy.com.

I'm looking forward to meeting my cute little nephew in a few weeks!! It's a given he's going to be cute, cuz look at his mommy! :)

Get your game on

2011-04-30T17:35:00.006-06:00

Last night was Tim's nerd party! I "dressed up" in one of his many nerd shirts....yes he has a collection of nerd shirts. I figure if I can't understand what it means, it's his nerd shirt. hah
I made some gaming/nerd glasses for pictures....there were some pretty winner nerd faces. :)

We had different games set up on 4 different tv's like DDR, Wii, Ps2, nintendo..playing Mario was my favorite! I love the old games, they're classic. Tim was in heaven having a whole night just for computer games with friends and family!

29 years ago....

2011-04-28T10:33:00.009-06:00

....A sweet, good lookin', intelligent, talented, generous guy was born and I was the lucky one to marry him.

My sweet hubby's birthday was yesterday! He's been sick with a nasty cough from bronchitis for almost a week, but luckily was better in time for his special day :)

In addition to some nerdy computer games (hehe) he wanted some Bucky Balls! Don't underestimate its fun-ness....tiny magnetic balls have never brought such amusement to us before.Just be careful to supervise kids! They are dangerous if swallowed. I told him I'd get them for him if he left them at work. Hopefully he's getting some work done. ;)

His request for his birthday dinner was Indian food. We love Indian food. Anyone been to the Bombay House? Yum. I have never tried cooking it before, but was determined to find a yummy recipe and try my hand at it. This recipe for Chicken Tikka Masala and Naan bread from Mel's Kitchen was absolutely phenomenal!
I bet to everyone that when my dad came back to eat it he would say "this just screams with flavor!" So when he got back and started eating, I asked him how the flavor tastes...he said it was good. hmmm... We sat there talking and when he was finished we hear, "wow, that just screamed with flavor!" hahaha We all just bust up laughing making him wonder what in the heck was wrong with us. It was too perfect. I guess you had to have been there, but trust me it was funny :)

Screams with flavor it certainly does. Sometimes the weirdest combinations make the best food. Don't knock it til' you try it! It might just become your new best food.

Don't even get me started on this yummy Mango sticky rice dessert...which my mom now calls "YuMango dessert" lol. She has all the fancy stuff to prepare the sticky rice and made this for Tim, he was very grateful and full of ooohs and aaahhs and yuuums while eating it. :)

It's safe to say Tim was very happy with his meal, it was fun to make it and even more fun to see how much he loved it! All that work was totally worth it.
I'm grateful to have him in my life! He is my knight in shining armor...he's a nerd but so am I, and we are two happy nerds in a pod. :)

Easter Egg Hunt

2011-04-28T10:08:00.008-06:00

It's a few days past, but I still want to post this :)

This was Faith's second Easter egg hunt and was lovin the excitement of it. Mostly the candy...I think she downed it all in record time. It's no wonder why the kids were hyped up in Primary. I'm thinking the "Easter Bunny" should come AFTER church, not before....think of the teachers! hah :)

Speaking of the "Easter Bunny", who tells their kids there is one? I was talking to my sil about it and when she said they don't do the Easter bunny, the more I thought about it, I thought, you know...that's probably a good idea. I mean come on, a giant bunny rabbit?? Bringing you eggs that it doesn't even lay? How ridiculous is that. If we're going to get technical, it should be the Easter Chicken....a little more scary than a cuddly bunny, but makes more sense right? Santa is more believable than that, and at least he represents something....or Someone :) Faith doesn't really care if her easter basket is from the easter bunny or mommy and daddy as long as she gets her candy! :)

Cute little kids, I love to see their excitement. It makes me feel like a kid again, reliving my childhood through them.

Why are these hunts just for kids? Next year I'm doing one for adults who still like to have fun! :) Except the eggs will all be chocolate! ha

Freebie Spring Digi Kit!

2011-04-24T20:43:00.007-06:00

My Pookie Designs site is under a bit of 'construction' right now, so I'm going to post this on here for now.... This isn't necessarily an Easter kit, more so Spring, so it's ok that I'm late :) I could actually say I'm early because Spring seems to not have arrived yet. (boooooo!)

I used to not like Tulips, weren't my favorite type of flower, but just this year I've been blown away at how bright and beautiful they are. Temple Square always has them in abundance, and they look beautiful right along with the cherry blossom trees...oooh don't even get me started on those! Anyways, tulips and sheep gave me the idea for this Springy kit. Don't ask me why about the sheepy, just because I wanted to draw one. :)

Because I don't have a great photo of tulips.....

LOVE these trees!

So, here's my kit, Tiptoe Through Tulips. Hope you likey :)

Free for Personal Use Only.

Click on image to download. Thanks!

Cream filled chocolate eggs

2011-04-21T21:11:00.000-06:00

YUM!!!

This is what we're having for our dessert for Easter!
They are just as good as those cream filled cadbury eggs, but more of a chewy creamy than liquidy creamy. This is stayin' on my list of traditional Easter treats! So yummy!!

Look at that smooth, creamy center....mmmmm

Store in refrigerator like it says, but take out to soften a little bit, so it will be more creamy in center...I like them better that way :)

Chocolate Easter Eggs
Source: Monique

The recipe can be made in advance and refrigerated.

1.5 lbs of icing sugar
1/4 lb butter melted
1/2 can Eagle Brand Sweetened Condensed Milk
2 Tbsps. corn syrup
1 Tbsp. vanilla
1/2 lb of unsweetened or semi sweet chocolate melted

The original recipe called for adding paraffin. Monique didn't use the paraffin so neither did I.

Mix with Kitchenaide or other mixer. Shape like an egg and place in fridge till hard.

Melt chocolate. Dip each egg into melted chocolate, and place on tray lined with parchment or wax paper.

Colour some of the filling with yellow food color if you would like a "yolk" centre. Store in tins (between sheets of wax paper when cold).

Note: Double the recipe to use up the full can of Condensed Milk. A double batch makes approximately 32 two ounce eggs.

These don't take long to make, so there's still time to make some for your Easter dessert!! :) Not that I'm going to stop making them after Easter. hehe :)

Hangin' with my Peeps

2011-04-19T19:58:00.006-06:00

I just went to the Wood Connection for the first time. Why I haven't made it there before now I don't know, but it is one of my new favorite places!
I got these cute little bunnies to do...Hangin' with my peeps...because they look like peeps marshmallow bunnies. Cute huh!
Faith was super excited to help paint and glitter one, doesn't the purple one look especially awesome?! :)

My last decoration before Easter.....which is in 5 days and I'm not ready!! Anyone else feel my pain? ;)

Oh and here is a pattern I traced of the bunny for you to use! Have fun!

DIY String Easter Baskets

2011-04-15T12:36:00.010-06:00

I don't remember a whole lot from my elementary years, but I do remember making these string baskets for Easter, funny eh! I had just thought about them last year but didn't get around to making them, so I was excited to try them out this year! They are fun to make, kinda messy and really sticky, but it's a fun one for your kids to do....unless they are clean freaks like their moms and hate being messy. lol Faith had to keep washing her hands every 5 minutes.

The result was worth it though, aren't they cute and fun?!!

Want to make one for/with your kids for Easter? You need the following:

Balloon- blown up to the size you want
String or yarn. String works better; I used 12 bundles of crochet thread, 2 different colors.
1 cup warm water + 2 cups granulated white sugar- stir til dissolved

Hang balloon up with some string and place newspaper or something underneath.
Dip string into sugar water mixture and wrap around balloon. The fun thing about this is you don't have to get it perfect, just keep wrapping it around in different directions to get a web-like design.
You can use more string than me to make it more covered, that's all the string I had so I stopped there, but I like it this way, just my preference.
Let dry over night.
When strings are all completely dry and stiff, pop balloon and either pull out carefully through holes or wait til next step.
Cut a hole for front of basket, where the Easter Bunny will place the goodies! ;) Faith was extremely excited about that part! If you didn't already, pull out your popped balloon now.
Be creative and decorate with whatever you want!
To make it stand up, just lightly press bottom down on hard surface.

This is how Faith wanted hers---> I hot glued lace around hole to cover up raw edges and hot glued bow on top. I love the way they turn out!

And you got yourself a fun, unique Easter basket ready for all those yummy goodies.... which include Cadbury eggs, right?!? They are the BEST! :)

If you do one, let me know, I want to see!! I like to find different ideas!

Oreo Cheesecake Cookies

2011-04-13T21:28:00.006-06:00

Oreos? Yes! Cheesecake? Double yes! Oreos AND cheesecake? Heck yes!

Warning: Making these could result in consuming the whole batch all by yourself! :)

Oreo Cheesecake Cookies

½ cups Unsalted Butter, Softened
3 ounces, weight Cream Cheese, softened
1 cup Sugar
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1 cup All-purpose Flour
½ cups Mini Chocolate Chips
1 cup Oreo Cookie Crumbs
½ cups White Chocolate Chips, Melted (optional)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Set aside.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and cream cheese using a hand mixer until they are well combined.

Add the sugar and vanilla and mix until ingredients are well combined. Add the flour and mix on low until the flour is incorporated. Stir in the mini chocolate chips.

Scoop the dough into 1″ balls (I used a scoop to insure all measured the same) and roll in Oreo cookie crumbs so cookie is covered. Place covered cookie balls onto the prepared baking sheet. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, or until the edges are golden and the tops are slightly puffed.

Cool on the pan for two minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool. Once cool, drizzle cookies with melted white chocolate. Enjoy!

Paint swatch Egg garland

2011-04-09T12:57:00.008-06:00

I've seen a few of these floating around blogland and thought how clever is that!

If you don't have a bunch of these stocked up for one reason or another then, like me, go to the hardware store and pick out a bunch... I felt a little guilty taking them, but that's what they're there for, right? For crafting purposes. :)

Cut out an egg shape onto some paper and use that as your stencil to cut out the swatches.

Poke holes at top of eggs and string onto some rope, ribbon, etc and hang up for everyone to see!

Pretty cute, eh!
I think my pro painter Dad would be proud of me, right Daddo?!? ;)

Vinyl shirts

2011-04-07T20:37:00.003-06:00

When I heard about this heat transfer vinyl, I was so excited to try it out! The fabric way is fun to do too, but this is a lot faster! So easy. Just put the vinyl on cricut mat, cut and iron on shirt! Check out their video for instructions. Can't wait to try out more with it, I got 5 colors, so have lots do with if anyone wants to do one too! :) Any one else tried this stuff?!?

Faith was so excited, I couldn't get a normal smile out of her ;)

Me likey. :)

Salsa...

2011-04-04T19:33:00.012-06:00

Has got to be one of the most addictive snacks ever!
I've been stuck on regular salsa all this while, which is good, but I started venturing out on other kinds of salsa and it's opened a whole new world for me. :) It started with this amazing mango salsa that my sister made once upon a time, which I will share later, but for now, feast your eyes upon....

Balsamic Black Bean Salsa

{Recipe from Mel's Kitchen}

1 (15 ounce) can black beans, drained and rinsed well
1 (15 ounce) can whole kernel corn, drained well
½ medium onion finely diced (about 1/3 cup)
½ cup finely chopped fresh cilantro
1 (7 oz.) can salsa verde (I used Herdez brand)
Juice of 1 lime
½ teaspoon cumin
¼ cup balsamic vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste

Mix all of the ingredients together in a medium bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let the salsa marinate for a few hours (or overnight before serving). Drain most of the liquid from the salsa before serving. Serve with tortilla chips.

AND...

Apple Berry Salsa with Cinnamon Chips
{Recipe from Pampered Chef}

CINNAMON CHIPS
4 (7-inch) flour tortillas
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

SALSA
2 med Granny Smith apples
1 cup strawberries -- sliced
1 kiwi fruit -- peeled and chopped
1 small orange
2 tbsp packed brown sugar
2 tbsp apple jelly

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. For cinnamon chips, lightly spray tortillas with water. Combine sugar and cinnamon in flour/sugar shaker; sprinkle over tortillas. Cut each tortilla into 8 wedges; place in single layer on cookie sheet. Bake 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned and crisp. Remove to cooling rack; cool completely.

For salsa, peel, core, and slice apples. Cut apples into quarters; chop with food chopper. Slice strawberries and chop kiwi. Place fruit in 1 quart bowl. Zest orange and juice. Add orange zest, orange juice, brown sugar and apple jelly to fruit mixture, mix gently. Serve with cinnamon chips.

They're both sooo tasty! This was my first time making tortilla chips, the cinnamon kind are awesome! Now go feast on them! :)

Cruisin'

2011-04-02T20:52:00.020-06:00

We just got back from a super fun cruise yesterday, that's why I've been so busy! :) I don't think it's very smart when people announce they'll be gone before the fact, I wanted to wait til I got back to tell ya all about it! I've got lots to tell and even more pictures and only posted half of them ;)

Tim and I and my parents went on the Baja cruise, leaving from Long Beach, CA, we visited Catalina Island and Ensenada, MX. Besides Tim, it was our first cruise! I've been so terrified of the ocean but realizing more how short life is I decided to buck up and go. I'm so glad I did! Tim was such a sweetheart to plan it all. It was so fun to be with my parents, I'm glad they came. Of all people they most deserved a vacation!

We got to visit Hollywood a little bit when we arrived, it was fun to go up to the "Hollywood sign". Next boarding the Carnival Paradise. The view of the city from the boat reminded me of NYC on our way to the Statue of Liberty.
The ship was so beautiful, me and my parents were giddy like little kids :) We went to the front of the ship waiting for us to sail away and decided to enact the Titanic scene. The guys pretended they didn't want us to jump. haha
We were pretty excited when we got to all the food buffets, woa! That was one of our favorite things to do there :) they had some gooood food!
The ship looked amazing at night with all the lights, there were lights everywhere, so pretty!

After a rather rough night of stomach problems for my parents and I, we were grateful to get to land in the morning. They took Dramamine after that and were fine from then on. First day we woke up in Catalina. I must say this was my favorite, it was gorgeous! There were some amazing flowers! My favorite is the redish one in the middle.

We rented a golf cart and got to ride it around and explore, super fun! We went to the Botanical Gardens, lots of neat different cacti and plants. My dad is standing by some crazy twisted cactus and the "Old Man" which they have; we've had it forever but we didn't realize how tall it gets!
Tim's favorite was the "Prickly pear", it's cool how the old ones change.

My mom and I got to drive the golf cart back to town while the guys browsed around. If we had great weather all the time, I'd opt for getting a golf cart, they're so fun ;)
Look how buff and tuff the guys are holding up the ship, hahaha :) yea right, that ship is beastly HUGE!

Tim's favorite buffet on the ship was the mongolian, it was pretty tasty!
That night on the ship we had a formal night and got to dress up for dinner! Our waiter was awesome and brought him out a dairy-free dessert, a marinated pear which he said was great!
I was excited to see the sunset from the ocean, I've heard it's just amazing when you're out there. It did not disappoint. Stunning!
That bottom picture I was taking a pic of Catalina when a seagull flew right in the shot, ha! Not a very shy bird, but a great poser! :)
Tim took me out walking on top of the ship at night and went to the front to look out, but it was so completely dark and no moon out, all you could hear was the waves below, kinda creepy, call me crazy but I like to be able to see it to enjoy it.

The next day we arrived in Ensenada, Mexico! It was so foggy, we thought it would be cold, but not so, I got burnt while on the horsies. Yup, we went horse back riding, fun eh! Believe it or not, I know my way around with a horse. My horse was named "Baio", not sure of the spelling, but not as great as my dad's horse...."Bud Light". haha We joked about pulling him over for "riding under the influence". lol We rode for about 1 1/2 hours, it was so gorgeous on top of the mountain, foggy below, blue sky above with the sun shining through and the ocean right over the cliff, that's where the fog was coming from.
Sadly my mom didn't do too well on the horse, so they took her back, she was a trooper for trying it out! It was hilarious to watch my dad try walking when we got off the horses, haha I'm sure I looked just as funny, my knees were really hurting so when I tried to walk felt like they started to buckle up, I felt like an old granny. :)

Thank goodness Tim knows Spanish, it really came in handy. We were able to find an alternative ride up to La Bufadora besides the tour bus which was ridiculously priced. After walking a few blocks away from all the touristy stuff, we found a stellar guy named Oscar to drive us around. He and Tim were able to talk which was good or it would've been an awkward 45 minute ride. I could pick out some of the conversation with my limited Espanol. Si, hablo espanol. :)

Up at La Bufadora was the "Blow hole". It's a crevice in the cliff where the waves come in from ocean, some magical science stuff happens that I don't understand and Poof the water shoots up! Pretty sweet lookin! I was taking a picture of my mom and I when it went off really high and sprayed us! That was my next favorite part of the trip.

We got to look at the market up there and Tim did the bartering :) That's not my thing. I got a sweet cowgirl hat and a hat for Faith...which my dad is wearing. hehe Tim got another Frank Sinatra hat and some gnarly sunglasses since he left his other one's in Catalina. :(

The last day was spent at sea. It was the best weather in the whole trip, absolutely perfect day! A little too perfect, cuz I stayed out a little too long and got a little too burnt :( Yup, I came back a baked lobster hardly able to walk from the pain in legs. Silly me, I never learn. It was so nice to just sit out in the sun, read a book, run to the buffet for a snack, come back out a repeat :)
My mom got that pretty blue dress from the market in MX and it was the perfect day to wear it, nice and airy and light, she looks great in it!
Every time we came back in to our room, it would be all cleaned up and there would be a different "towel animal" on our bed each time. They fold towels up to look like an animal, they're so cool! I didn't want to take them apart. The pic here is a lobster. they did an elephant, dog and stingray also, so clever.

If I didn't make it obvious enough, I'm a fan of cruises! The staff there was AMAZING, they were all from different parts of the world, it was fun to meet them, they were all so nice and so helpful. The whole cruise was very neat, orderly and organized, which is right up my alley! The best part about the vacation was we didn't have to clean up anything, good thing the cruise wasn't too long or I don't think they could've gotten me off the ship. JK
This was my first time ever to be on vacation without Faith and it was so hard to leave her. I missed her like crazy and have never been so excited to see someone before, when we got back! I'm not one of those parents who's excited to get a break from the kids, nope, no more vacations without my little sweet pea. :)

If any of you have not been on a cruise, I highly recommend you go!! You can get some incredible prices! Do it, you won't regret it...unless you get sea sick, just take some Dramamine and you still won't regret it :)

Am I ready to get back to normal life? No, but I will anyways :)

Spring crafts!

2011-03-26T16:01:00.006-06:00

So wow, it's been a bit busy lately, but I did manage to get a few crafts done. I have a bunch of things I wanna share, but won't be as fast as I'd like, so please be patient with me for a bit. :)

I don't know about you, but I'm soooo ready for Spring. Winter, once again, has overstayed its welcome. ;) Here's some fun Springy these I made:

This cute lil pomander flower ball. So springy and go well with my cherry blossoms!

My sister and I made some fun easter eggs! Get some styrofoam eggs (I like the smooth ones, got mine at Hobby Lobby), paint (optional, but so cute!), dry, spray with adhesive and sprinkle glitter evenly all over. Poke hole in top and hot glue ribbon on. Show off wherever you want, I hung mine on some branches I spray painted white with white glitter and stuck in a tall vase. Love it!

Aren't those boingy carrots so cute?! Got them at Tai Pan.

Chocolate ice cream wraps

2011-03-19T21:06:00.018-06:00

When I went on my little excursion to AZ, we visited my favorite shop there called The Orange Patch. I think I love about every store that ends in "patch". :) Just a cool word!
We noticed some chocolate wraps and thought what would you use those for?! The awesome owner shared an idea, making us very eager to get back and try it out. We cleaned them out of their last 2 packages... I sorta felt bad for the lady behind us who was eyeing them also, but not bad enough to give them up :) It's not like I can go there everyday.

mmmmm Yum, right!

What you need:

* Chocolate wraps (recipe at bottom)
Ice Cream (your choice of flavor)
Whip cream/cool whip
Fudge/caramel sauce
Strawberries

Thaw ice cream. Smother ice cream on wraps
Roll up, wrap the wrap in saran wrap....HA :)
Put in freezer for a couple of hours til set up.

Slice the rolls, top with fudge sauce, whip cream and strawberries. Better yet, skip the whole cutting part and eat the whole thing yourself! ;) FYI, do more than one wrap, trust me, one is not enough!

I don't know where you can buy chocolate wraps around here (bummer!) so I found a recipe you can use to make your own!

* Chocolate Tortilla

1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa (get high quality cocoa like Ghiradelli)
1/4 cup milk
2 eggs
1/4 cup coconut, melted (or vegetable oil)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 dash salt

Combine ingredients until smooth.

Cover and store in refrigerator for 2 hours.

Heat a nonstick skillet over medium heat.

Pour 1/4 cup tortilla mixture in center of pan and tilt to spread batter into a circle.

Let cook for 2 minutes then flip to cook other side for another 1-2 minutes.(Be careful not to burn or else the tortilla will be too stiff for folding.).

Let cool to prevent ice cream from melting during assembly.

Thin Mint Truffles

2011-03-16T22:00:00.005-06:00

Everyone get their girl scout cookies?!? I definitely got stocked up with mine :) Everyone's favorite is Samoa's right! ;) Thin mints is a close tie.
I couldn't resist trying these thin mint truffles and they are as good as they look! Great treat for St. Patty's..... and every other day :)

Thin Mint Truffles

9 oz box of Thin Mints
4 oz (1/2 block) cream cheese, softened
Dark chocolate almond bark or dark chocolate candy melts
Nonpareils

Crush the Thin Mints very finely. You can do this by placing them in a large Ziploc bag and rolling them with a rolling pin, or use your food processor, which is what I did.

Once they are crushed, pour them in a large bowl and add the cream cheese. I would like to say that you can just mix it up with a wooden spoon, but if you want to do things properly you are going to have to get your hands involved. Squish them up real good until it's thoroughly combined and the cream cheese is no longer visible.

Roll into 1 inch balls, place on a wax paper lined baking sheet, and refrigerate for about 30 minutes.

Melt almond bark or candy melts and using a toothpick, dip truffles completely and twirl to allow the excess to drip off. Place back on lined baking sheet and sprinkle with nonpareils before set. Refrigerate until firm.

*Makes about 24 truffles.

St. Patty's cookies

2011-03-15T11:15:00.000-06:00

Faith and I spent half the day baking up some fun treats for St. Patty's day. I thought these rainbow and shamrock cookies were super cute! Definitely a fun one to include the kids in! More fun than play dough cuz you can eat it! :)
Recipe found HERE.

For some reason, the purple looks blue in the pix...hm

"Despicable" party!

2011-03-12T19:29:00.008-07:00

Given a few choices, Faith picked Despicable Me as her theme. Not surprised, as she watches it at least 3 times a day. It was fun to plan though and it was gender friendly too, not just for girls. The best way to plan a Despicable Me party is to play off the minions with the color scheme of yellow, blue and black. Those little guys are my favorites.

These are the invites.

For treats we had:

Minion Goggles (mints)
* Girl Scout Cookies, named from the movie (Coconutties, Choco Swirlies, Minty Mints, Lemon Cremies, Berry Munchies) turned the boxes inside out and wrote names on.
* Minion twinkie cakes (aren't they the cutest things ever! Thanks to my sister Tam, I didn't have to spend all day doing them by myself)
* Anti gravity Serum (Lemonade)
* Dr. Nefario's juice (where he says "Do you want to explode?" favorite line in our house)
I found some test tubes for cups and flasks for pitchers, after the longest search ever found them HERE. They worked out perfect!
Vector's crazy straws

hahah what more can you say about the Box of Shame :)

For favors, I gave every child a balloon attached to Moon Dough. Went along with the theme of Gru stealing the moon. Tried to redeem myself from sending them home with loads of candy last year from Faith's sweet Candyland Party.

Games played:

Gru Says (like Simon Says)
Knocked Over (3 tries to knock over "spaceship" with ping pong balls.)
Annoying Sound Contest (based off part in movie where Gru says 'No annoying noises' and girl says 'Does this count as annoying'.) We got a movie of this, pretty fun.
Carnival game (throw big ball through moving hula hoop.)
Steal The Moon (someone hides 'moon' [spray painted styrofoam ball] and the rest try to find or "steal" it.)
Watched Despicable Me movie after gifts and cake.

I love my sweet girl she was so excited for her party and to see everyone. Thanks to all you who could make it, wouldn't have been a party without you!

Lucky charm shirt

2011-03-10T19:16:00.009-07:00

I'm not all that big on St. Patty's, but I will wear green so people don't think they have reason to pinch me (although I'd just pinch them back no matter what I'm wearing haha). This holiday's usually so close to Easter that it's not worth decorating for, Easter's way better. I do love to have fun with the food however! (recipes coming up!)

When I saw this tutorial, I thought what a fun, different way to do a shirt! I had fun trying this out...and nearly passed out from all the bleach fumes. hah Best to do this in the garage/outside.

Now my little sweet pea can ward off all the pinchers out there in style! :)

If you want to use the pattern I made, download it over at My Pookie Designs!

Happy Happy birthday Faithy bug!!

2011-03-09T08:21:00.000-07:00

Sweet Faithy bug,

I can't believe you are 4 years old today! Life was even more happy when you came into our lives. It is no coincidence we named you Faith. My faith grew right along with you from the very day I found out I was pregnant with you.

At 4 years old your favorites include:

COLOR: Pink (it changes every day so I think it's all the bright colors!)

MOVIE: Despicable Me, Cars, Veggie Tales

CEREAL: Lucky Charms

SONG: I love to see the Temple, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

FOOD: Chicken nuggets

FRIEND: Mikkie (duh! :)

TOY: Ponies, flowers, Mikkie frog

BOOK: The Mercer Mayer Little Critter stories

THINGS TO DO: Preschool, games on Zoodles, dance, violin, play with Kuzco (aka chase him around with things that scare him), memory games (SOOO good at these!), road trips (hehe as long as you have the iPod).

You are an extremely smart, bright, fun, funny, talented little girl. Or should I say big girl! You amaze me every day and bring daddy and I so much joy!

Happy Birthday Sweet Pea!!

I took advantage of the amazing weather in AZ, got a fun birthday outfit and went to the Mesa Temple for a photo shoot. We came back to the cold, depressing weather and I thought how glad I was we did her pictures there! Faith was excited about her cowgirl boots! The only thing that would have made the pictures even better is a cowgirl hat and our little rocking horse. Darn it. Oh and a pro photographer of course, I'm not pro by any means but I think they turned out pretty good. Faith did very well after continually being bribed with a yummy treat after or in my exact words, "Whatever you want!" haha How's that for a bribe?! I said that knowing very well she would be completely content with a cookie. :)

BRB

2011-02-28T22:14:00.005-07:00

So much goin on and so little time to do it all! I'm in sunny AZ right now, soakin up the glorious sun with the gals!! I'm so not looking forward to going back to the cold.
I have some fun stuff coming up, so I'll brb later! :)

Funny story: Driving into Arizona and Faith sees a cactus and says, "Woa, look at that crazy tree!" hahaha First time seeing a cactus. She's quite the little traveler and likes it here so far!

$100 YouTube contest!

2011-02-21T09:55:00.000-07:00

Do you play the piano?

Do you want $100?

Do kitty cats meow?

Then you should enter into this fun YouTube piano challenge with the amazing Dale Jessee!
Check out the details here to enter! Good luck and have fun!! :)

Valentine dinner

2011-02-14T21:24:00.006-07:00

Since we celebrated Valentine's early (and it's too crazy to eat out on Valentines!!), Faith and I made a fun, festive meal at home! Tim was quite surprised and loved every bit of it.
Our menu included:

Pizza with heart-shaped pepperoni
Salad with heart-shaped carrots and 'cupid arrow' tomoatoes
Heart cut-out apples (we need healthy with all the bugs going 'round)
Dairy-free chocolate covered strawberries, special for Tim
Berry smoothies with 'cupid arrow' straws!
Sparkling cider, of course

Ever since we discovered how yummy and EEEAASSYY pizza's are on pita bread, we can't get enough of it! I'm never making homemade pizza dough again! And it's fun to have our own personal pizzas to put whatever we want on it, Faith looooved having her very own pizza.

Anyone else stay home and do a fun dinner?! Or breakfast?

Happy Valentines!!

2011-02-14T15:03:00.004-07:00

I RUFF you!

Happy Valentines Day!! :) :)

Cream-filled strawberries

2011-02-10T14:33:00.012-07:00

Ever heard of mascarpone cheese?
Mascarpone pronounced mas-kahr-POH-nay is a soft unripened cheese that belongs to the cream cheese family. It comes from Switzerland and Italy and is a thick, buttery-rich, sweet and velvety, ivory-colored cheese produced from cow's milk that has the texture of clotted or sour cream. It delicate and mild flavor is great with fresh fruit and is probably best known for its use in Tiramisu.

.....Uh, YEA! That screams delicious! I would suggest trying the mascarpone over cream cheese, it's very delicious!

Cream-filled Strawberries
Recipe from: CafeJohnsonia.blogspot.com

12-16 (more or less depending on the size) large strawberries
4 oz. cold heavy cream
4 oz. mascarpone cheese (or cream cheese, room temperature) {I found the mascarpone at Smith's with all the specialty cheeses.}
2-4 Tbsp. confectioner's sugar (make is as sweet as you like)
1 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
a little vanilla extract

Beat the mascarpone (or cream cheese) and confectioner's sugar with an electric mixer. Add the heavy cream. Continue beating until the mixture thickens. Add the lemon juice and vanilla extract. Continue beating until stiff peaks form.

Cut an "X" into the bottom of each strawberry.

Fit a pastry bag with a star tip and fill it with the cream. Carefully pipe the cream into the center of each strawberry, allowing some of it overflow from the cuts you made on the strawberry.

Serve immediately, or cover with plastic film/wrap and refrigerate until ready to serve.You can't stop at just one with these!

This makes a nice light, but addictive little treat for that special someone! :)

Want a cute tag to go along with it?! Go HERE to download!

Red velvet bonbon truffles

2011-02-07T22:12:00.011-07:00

Just sittin' here eatin' my bonbons....literally. :) Of all the truffles I've tried, this one is by far one of the best! You think the oreo truffles are good? (and they are!) You'll love these! A hard, crunchy shell along with a melt-in-your-mouth-creamy, smooth center, the best of both worlds. Mmmmmm.

My centers don't really look as red in pictures, but they are red.

Don't have a tag to go along with these, but nothing says "I love you" louder than chocolate truffles, eh! :)

Red Velvet Bonbons

Original recipe by Lindsey Johnson
MAKES 18

For the centers:

8 oz. milk chocolate
4 oz. bittersweet chocolate
4 oz. heavy cream
4 oz. cold cream cheese, cut into 16 pieces
1/2-1 tsp. red gel food coloring (I used Wilton)
1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract

For dipping:
8 oz. tempered white chocolate (at about 80 degrees F.)
8 oz. tempered bittersweet chocolate (at about 88 degrees F.)

Chop chocolate and place in a large, heat-proof bowl. Add the cream. Set the bowl over a pan of simmering water. Stir until smooth. (You can take the bowl off the heat when there are still some larger chunks--they will melt.)

Remove bowl from heat. Add the cream cheese chunks. Switch to a whisk. Whisk until smooth. Add the food coloring and vanilla extract. Let cool to room temperature. Press waxed paper to the surface and chill overnight or at least 5 hours.

Line a baking sheet with waxed paper. Use a small ice cream/cookie scoop and drop evenly sized blobs of the ganache onto the waxed paper. (You should get about 18.) Place baking sheet in freezer for two hours to harden.

Once the chocolate blobs are firm, remove them from the freezer. Dust your hands with cornstarch and roll into smooth balls. Put the balls back on the baking sheet and chill again for a few hours.

Instructions for dipping:

Take one ball of ganache at a time, and drop them into the tempered chocolate. Carefully turn the ball around in the chocolate so it is uniformly covered with chocolate. Use a regular fork, or chocolate dipping fork to remove the ball from the melted chocolate. Drag the bottom of the fork over the edge of the bowl to remove the excess melted chocolate.

Place the bonbon on the waxed paper. Repeat with remaining balls. Drizzle leftover chocolate over the tops of the dipped bonbons. Let harden in the fridge until ready to eat.

Store in the fridge in an airtight container, or layer bonbons on waxed paper in a freezer-proof container. Let some to room temperature before serving.

Chocolate mousse filled cupcakes with chocolate ganache

2011-02-03T22:00:00.017-07:00

Does that name catch your attention or what?!? :)

My mom told me that cupcakes are goin' out and pies are the "in" thing now. Well, not for me, especially with these. I do love a good pie, but this is not your ordinary cupcake! I've been wanting to make filled-cupcakes for a while and decided to try it out with my chocolate mousse.

I found this handy little gadget, specifically designed for filling cupcakes, at Orson Gygi. (my new favorite store!) Some of the gadgets I see though I think, come on you'd have to be really lazy to buy this! :) You could easily just scoop out centers with a spoon, but I'd rather poke it and twist it than spoon it. :S

As I was writing this, it reminded me of the game "Bop It". If you've heard of it, you'll know what I mean....bop it, twist it, pull it. :) I forgot to show the "dip it" part, that's the funnest (it IS a word ;) part!

Aren't they so pretty! They're so good, even my milk-allergic hubby couldn't pass one up! Poor, poor guy. :)

hehe. :) That may or may not have been me who devoured that.

Chocolate mousse-filled cupcakes with ganache
*One box cake mix (I used devil's food)

Follow instructions on cake mix box. Once cupcakes are cooled, make mousse.

Chocolate Mousse
(from my mousse cup recipe last year)

Whip 1 pint heavy whipping cream to medium stiff peaks. Stir in 1 pint jar of Kraft double fudge topping and 2 teaspoons cocoa.

Make holes in center of cupcakes (whichever method you prefer). Fill with chocolate mousse. Refrigerate til it sets up a bit.

Chocolate Ganache
2/3 cup heavy cream
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Put cream in double boiler. When it starts to simmer a little, take off heat and add chocolate chips. Stir until smooth.

Now, the fun part. Take cupcakes out of fridge, dip tops into ganache making sure it's all covered. Sprinkle with cute pink nonpareils or anything of your choice. This may be too much chocolate for some (is there such a thing!), but I tried doing buttercream frosting on it, and there's just no better way to do it. The ganache goes very well with the mousse. Put in fridge to set up.
Hurry and stick in these cute cupcake toppers I made and give to a friend before they all magically disappear. :)

Strawberry Popcorn + printable tag!

2011-02-01T11:18:00.009-07:00

Thinking about the other popcorn recipes I've seen and tried, I looked around for one for Valentines but found nothing really. I decided to experiment (I don't do this hardly ever, especially with food) and see how my idea of strawberries and cream popcorn would turn out.

I got some chocolate and found some strawberry extract and started. 2 minutes in, I stopped. haha Nothing worse than seeing your smooth chocolate instantly turn chunky (well, I guess it's far more worse seeing yourself instantly turn chunky, lol). I figured since peppermint extract worked for the peppermint bark popcorn, this would work. Not the case..supposedly it's water-based. Oh, poop.
Orson & Gygi have everything, so I called to check and I found something even better than extract.....strawberry flavored chocolate! Perfect!

I started off with strawberry popcorn, drizzling white chocolate for my strawberries and cream. Then I thought it might be too strong, so I did vanilla popcorn drizzled with strawberry chocolate. Then I thought....HEY, chocolate covered strawberry popcorn!....woa :) It's as good as it sounds! I took a poll for people's favorites and the verdict was:

#1 White chocolate drizzled with strawberry.
#2 Close tie was chocolate covered strawberry.
They're all good though, in their own way. :)
Not only is it yummy but it's such a bright, pretty color of pink!! I love it!

Strawberries & Cream Popcorn

15-16 cups popped popcorn
1 lb. of either strawberry flavored chocolate or white
white, strawberry or milk chocolate for drizzling
So many possibilities!

Melt 1 lb chocolate and pour over popcorn. Stir around til it's all coated. spread out on wax paper to dry. Drizzle with chocolate of choice using a fork. let dry. Break up in chunks and eat! :) Or wrap it up cute, print off these fun labels I made to go with it and deliver to a friend or special someone!

Valentine card #1

2011-01-30T22:39:00.004-07:00

So I just thought it would be fun to make Valentine cards/tags to go along with the Valentiney recipes I share. I am posting them on my design site, My Pookie Designs. I just posted one to go with the Eclair Squares; go print them out and have fun with them! :) Keep checking back there after I post recipes here, for a card to go along with each one!

Faith's super cute new room!

2011-01-27T13:52:00.027-07:00

This was such a fun project to make the dreary month of January pass by more quickly. I was SO excited to incorporate my ideas I had in mind. I gotta say, redecorating/painting rooms is my most favorite thing to do....next to planning parties of course. :D

My dad had a brilliant idea he wanted to do in memory of Mikkie. He's pretty much the best contractor/painter there is and has hook-ups with Sherwin Williams. I took a bunch of different paints and mixed them up, when I came up with the colors I liked, my dad took them in and had them named after Mikkie. "Mikkie Pink" and "Mikkopotamus"! How COOL is that?!? If you want these same colors, you just have to go ask for these names!! They're available to the public. I was so excited to have some meaning go into this.

Faith was uber excited about getting a new room and was a pro at helping me paint. She's had practice helping her Grampa before. :)

Her drawers before and after! Complete difference, eh! And these knobs I found at Hobby Lobby.....Perfect!!

What's more fun than Polka dots! Seriously. This was time consuming, but so worth it. It was my favorite part. After trying different things and not finding any easy way to make perfect circles, I found THIS tutorial and it worked like a charm. See those nice, crisp edges.
Before and After. Refreshing change, huh!

Faith painted most of the little cubby all by herself!

I took down her toddler bed and repainted my old bed. She's very excited about her 'big girl bed'! It was just a very hard day taking down Mikkie's crib. :'(

We finally got this girl some blinds! It was very much needed and I think it's helping her to sleep better. Yay!

I love the zebra print in the quilt, so I found a valance to go with it. CUTE!
Searching around for a light fixture wasn't easy either, I knew it when I saw it though. This bright chandelier added the perfect touch to the room! ahhhh I'm so excited all over again! :)

Needless to say, Faith is a VERY satisfied little girl. So happy she started dancing! :)
I love it so much, I'm thinking about swapping rooms with her. :) Her and her daddy can both not sleep together. hehe ;)

Perfect room for my sweet girl!

Eclair squares

2011-01-24T17:41:00.006-07:00

I LOVE eclairs, but they can be a little time consuming (totally worth it though), but these scrumptious puppies, you get basically the same thing, a different way, in half the time! So easy. So yummy. I got this from my friend and was totally stoked to make them! I could eat a whole pan of these because they're so light and fluffy and creamy! *For the record, I did NOT eat the whole pan....but I could....just sayin' ;)

Eclair Squares

1 stick butter
1 Cup water
1 Cup flour
3 oz cream cheese
4 eggs
2 T milk
1 large pkg vanilla pudding
1 1/2 C milk
8 oz cool whip
chocolate syrup

Crust

Boil 1/2 Cup Butter (one stick) & 1 C water. Add flour and eggs, beating well after each one. Spread onto a greased pan. Bake at 400 degrees for 20-25 min until puffy. Let cool.

Filling

Beat cream cheese and the 2 T of milk. In other bowl mix pudding with 1 ½ C milk. Combine with cream cheese mixture and mix until creamy. Fold in cool whip. Spread over the crust and refrigerate til it sets up a little. Drizzle with chocolate syrup and ENJOY!

Introducing......

2011-01-20T22:46:00.000-07:00

I got a new site up, called My Pookie Designs, named after my Mikkie. I wanted to have a place specifically for my designs. I'm SO excited about it! My digi scrapbook kits will now be sold for only $2! I will still do occasional freebies and giveaways! What I'm most excited about is my fabric, coming soon!! Trust me, it's going to be cute. :)

I already have a Valentines kit up and some freebie Valentine's subway art. So head on over and stay tuned for some more fun stuff!! :) Hope to see you there!

I've been featured!!

2011-01-20T20:13:00.002-07:00

I'm sure most of you know Ucreate, right? Who doesn't know Ucreate! :)
It's been kind of a fun quest of sorts to try and get on her blog. She was kind enough to put me up there... I'll leave you alone now Kari, hehe Maybe. ;)

If you haven't been to her site before, you must check it out, she shares so many cute things. I've found most of my blogs I follow through her.

Thanks again Kari, I feel priviledged to be on your blog!

Potted heart flower!

2011-01-19T22:00:00.001-07:00

These were extremely fun and cute to make! I was squealing with excitement through the whole thing. :)

What I used:

2 bunches small fake red flowers
dowel
green foam
styrofoam heart (I couldn't find one, so I cut a heart shape from a styrofoam disc. worked out great-you don't even see the underneath anyways.)
peat moss
1 small plant pot
ribbon
paint

Pluck all flower heads off stems, dab hot glue on end and stick into styrofoam heart. Continue til heart is covered. Paint dowel and pot (I used heirloom white). When dry, stuff green foam into pot, push dowel into bottom of heart and then into the green foam in pot. Top pot with a little peat moss, tie ribbon around dowel and you got yourself a cute potted heart flower!

Perfect addition to my mantel!

Mini wreath stand

2011-01-17T23:09:00.014-07:00

I've seen a bunch of tutorials for those cute wreath stands and as I was looking at my candle rings, I thought it would be fun to hang those up.

I wanted to come up with a different style of stand. Here's what I used:

1 wooden heart plaque
15 wooden wheels
1 wooden ball
1 metal hook

I got all these from Hobby Lobby. I used wood glue to glue all wheels on top of each other (it's better to glue a few together at a time, wait til dry, then glue a few more on, etc..or it will slide and become crooked). Once all dry, glue them in center of heart plaque and glue ball on top. Let dry completely. Screw in hook. Spray paint. I spray painted it candy pink first, let it dry, then heirloom white. I sanded it on various places and it brought out the pink underneath.

Hang your candle ring or any other small decor and enjoy your cute Valentines wreath stand! Things are so much cuter when they're mini, no?

Candy heart ball

2011-01-15T19:23:00.003-07:00

This was a low-energy, simple task for Faith and I to do while stuck sick in the house this week. Gluing candy onto a ball...doesn't get much easier {or tastier} than that. :) It's a great activity to do with little kids, I did the glue and she put them on the ball, she had lots of fun doing it and she was so proud to show daddy our decoration we made when he got home!

After these messages......

2011-01-11T20:24:00.002-07:00

I'll be right back! :)

Does anyone else but me remember that from tv commercials back in the day with the clay animation characters?? Maybe. Maybe not. :) :)

Anyways, I feel like I'm not ready for the holiday vacation to be over, but I'm so ready to get started on the many projects I have in mind! But thanks to the nasty bug that's creepin' around, I gotta take it easy (as much as I don't want to)... hopefully this will be a quickie so you will have some fun things to look at here soon :) Time to go take some bug 'repellent'. ;)

Hope this bug hasn't and doesn't find you!

Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam!

2011-01-02T19:44:00.004-07:00

This little girl is in Primary now!!
I can hardly even believe it! My first born in the wilderness is all grown up! *sniff sniff* :)
She was so excited, after just the opening prayer she says "Ok, I go to 'pie-mary'!" :)

Crazy how fast they grow!

Goals!

2011-01-02T19:01:00.009-07:00

I love making goals. I love when I accomplish them even more! :)

First off, overview of 2010 goals:

January: Be consistent in establishing some type of workout routine and make it a habit

Check

February: Study a topic in the scriptures each week and really become familiar with it.
Check

March: Read! See how many books I can read in this month.
Check

April: Give all attention to getting our square foot garden prepared and planted!
Check

May: Learn to crochet and make at least one thing.
Check

June: Give even more time to my kids
Check

July: Learn how to swim.
Check...ish. Let's see if I can even go near a pool again though.

August: Set up an Etsy shop and sell stuff.
UNcheck

September: Get more serious about my writing. Have at least one or two stories done.
check?...uncheck? I don't know.

October: Learn how to do Family History.
UNcheck

November: Memorize Morse code....could come in very handy.
UNcheck- although this wasn't really an important goal anyways...Instead I did a tree for Mikkie, I think that was an even better goal.

December: Serve more.
UNcheck

Although most of those goals were good, in retrospect I think there were more important things to focus on. I think of good, better and best. That last goal leads me into my goals/focus for the year 2011, which is:

SERVICE!

I have picked out a different thing to do each month and will write my experiences/progress on Mikkie's blog, since this was my promise I made to her on her birthday.

Ready, Set, Achieve! :)

Happy New Year!

2011-01-01T20:00:00.002-07:00

Hooray for a new year! Even though last year was pretty much the most rotten year ever, a lot of good things happened; I ache for last year though when I think this coming year will be the first whole year without our sweet Mikkie. *sigh*
I forced myself to look beyond the worst and find the good times.

Highlights of 2010:I hope everyone had a happier year than us and here's to hoping that in this new year:

the good will outweigh the bad, the happy will outweigh the sad, the positive will outweigh the negative, success will outweigh failure, and the pleasure will outweigh the pain.

I wish you all the best in 2011!

On another note, last night we had some friends and family over to bring in the new year, there's nothing better than that! We wanted to do something different for dinner, so I made some Thai pineapple coconut curry and it was GOOD!!
We met our new friends, Derin & Phil just a month ago and we are the best of friends, they are so much fun! I'm so glad they could come along with part of my family!
Party animals! :)
Am I the only one that doesn't watch the "ball drop"? I can't remember the last time I've seen it, makes no difference to me though. Happy New Year!!

Christmas traditions!

2010-12-25T10:49:00.008-07:00

Every Christmas Eve we go to my parents for a formal dinner and exchange gifts. My mom makes pj pants for everyone out of the most comfortable fabric ever, they are so goochie soft and warm! Last year the boys complained that the girls always get to have the fun and requested fuzzy soft pants like us. So this year my mom did just that and found a fun shirt to go with it, they all turned out awesome!! I love this tradition, one can never have too many pj's! :)

Our traditional jammie pix!
It wasn't quite the same without Trent and his family, missed having them there!
I love the pic of Faith and her little niece, 'Baby Kelsey' as Faith still calls her :) Faith didn't want to hold her at first cuz her hands would get wet from Kelsey's spit-up-shirt. haha so cute!

Faith is such a pretty little princess. Some say she looks like Shirley Temple here. :)

This is either example of Patrick's creativity or not having enough to do :) hahaha it's funny tho

I made these Cranberry Cinnamon Chip Bars for our dinner and they were very yummy!
Cranberry Cinnamon Chip Bars
Recipe by Our Best Bites

1/2 C (1 stick) real butter, melted
1 1/2 C graham cracker crumbs
1 14oz can sweetened condensed milk
1 1/4 C shredded coconut
1 C cinnamon chips
1 C white chocolate chips
1/2 C chopped pecans
1/2 C dried cranberries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Pour butter into a 9x13" pan and spread with spatula to cover the entire bottom of pan. Sprinkle graham cracker crumbs over butter and spread into an even layer. Press down gently with fingertips. Pour sweetened condensed milk evenly over graham cracker crumbs. Continue with the remaining ingredients: cinnamon chips, white chips, pecans, and cranberries, sprinkling each in an even layer. Press down gently with fingertips over entire pan.

Bake for 25-30 minutes until bubbly and slightly golden on top. Let cool completely before cutting.

Once again, Merry Christmas to you all!!

Merry Christmas to you from us!

2010-12-24T09:49:00.007-07:00

Merry Christmas everyone!

May your Christmas be full of joy as you remember the true meaning of Christmas!
I know as I think of my angel Mikkie, my mind turns to Christ because that is who she is with.

I made this video last year of one of my favorite Christmas songs, and wanted to share it again! Hope you like it.

Freebie Christmas digi kit!

2010-12-24T09:00:00.001-07:00

** NO LONGER DOWNLOADABLE FOR FREE **

I had so much fun making this kit! This whole month has gone by crazy fast, which is good most the time. I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and hope you enjoy every minute with your loved ones.

Enjoy!

For Personal Use Only

Glass Block Jello

2010-12-22T10:14:00.000-07:00

I felt as giddy as a school girl when I saw these, they're bright, fun, tasty and so festive! I love how the jello squares look, they make for some cool pictures. :)

Glass Block Holiday Jello

4 3-oz. packages assorted Jello (in coordinating colors)
2 packets unflavored gelatin
1 14-oz. can sweetened condensed milk

Spray 4 small food storage containers (like Tupperware/Gladware/Rubbermaid) with non-stick cooking spray. Set aside.

Bring 5+ cups of water to a boil. Combine 1 c. boiling water with 1 package of Jello, stirring until dissolved. Place the dissolved Jello in one of the prepared containers. Repeat with the remaining packages of Jello. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours, preferable overnight.

When the Jello has set, bring another 1 1/2 c. of water to a boil. While the water is heating, sprinkle 2 packets of unflavored gelatin over 1/2 c. of cold water. Allow to stand for about 4 minutes. When the water is boiling, pour 1 1/2 c. boiling water over the dissolved gelatin and stir to combine. Add the sweetened condensed milk and mix well. Allow to come to room temperature.

Lightly spray a 9x13" pan with non-stick cooking spray. Carefully cut the colored Jello into cubes and gently toss to combine in the 9x13" pan. Pour the cooled milk mixture over the colored Jello and, if necessary, rearrange some of the colored Jello to make sure it is evenly distributed and not sticking out of the white mixture too far.

Place the 9x13" pan in the refrigerator and chill overnight. Cut into squares, rectangles, or various shapes with cookie cutters and serve.

Gift boxes and family party

2010-12-19T22:57:00.000-07:00

What I love even more than making treats (besides eating them :) is making gift baskets with them. I had lots of fun putting them together. I found these frames at Ikea for 99 cents and spray painted the middle with chalkboard paint. I just think they're super cute, so I had to make one for myself too :)

Tonight we just had a Christmas party for the Harper's. I always have fun with them. We've got some very talented, creative people in this family! It was fun to hear Tim's cousin play a song he made up with his ukulele!
I was lucky enough to get these few pictures before my battery decided to run out of juice..what's that all about, thinking it needs to be charged or something.. :)

Faith with her Gramma who was in town!

Ryan and cute lil' Sophia

Timmah and Jen- their family was so festive wearing santa hats, so fun!

Jen, Tim, Lisa and Sophia....sorry Tim, that light liked you no matter what angle I tried :)

The cousins chillaxin'.
Spending time with loved ones is what I love best especially around the holidays!

Mad Gab?

2010-12-19T21:43:00.000-07:00

** k I posted this up yesterday, woke up this morning suddenly and said aloud "Oh duh, I put the answers on!" haha Tim was like what are you talking about?! So if you didn't see it yet and hopefully I didn't totally spoil it, here's the game withOUT the answers..:) let's see if YOU can guess them first!**

Who's up for some fun ol' Christmas Mad Gab? You ever played the Mad Gab game?
Puzzles consist of a set of unrelated words that, when read aloud, sound like familiar phrases, names, places, etc. in this case, Christmas related words/songs.

Well I was in charge of coming up with a game for my family Christmas party and decided on Mad Gab, Christmas style. Only problem was I could hardly find anything online. So most of these I made up on my own. It was actually fun to do, the following night my dreams were all in Mad Gab. lol
So if you want to have some fun and play, go ahead and leave your answers in a comment! Try to only answer a few so other people can have a shot at it. :) Have fun!

1. Oak Grissom Mistreat

2. Mill Can Goo Keys

3. wears then or the pull

4. Car Lend

5. TO US THIN I'D BEEF FORK WRIST MISS

6. THUG IF TOUGH THEM MADGE EYE

7. EGG WRIST MASK AIR ILL

8. DULL IT ELM HATCH GRILL

9. THUG WREN CHEWS TOLL CRISP MISS

10. THIN HUT CAR RACK HER HAND THEM HOW SKIING

11. Sigh Land In Height

12. Rude Olive Their Head Knows Rained Ear

13. Caw Dressed Deem Air Reach End Almond

14. A Wayne Aim May Injure

15. Lid Dolled Rum Herb Poi

16. Sill Verb Else

17. Far Oz Teethe Is No Man

18. Joint Tooth How Hurled

19. Fall Lease Snuff Eat Add

20. It Cay Map Pawn Amid Nigh Tickle Ear

21. Oak A Mocha Me Manual

22. Could Keen Gwen Senseless

23. Owe Calm Mall Leaf Hateful

24. Baugh huh mob ugg

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Faith's violin recital

2010-12-18T15:48:00.004-07:00

Faith had her first real violin recital, even if all she played was 5 notes it was so cute to see her play! She is such a quick learner, I can't wait to see how far she comes by next year at this time! She is one talented little chica! :) i'm grateful for everyone who came to support her, it's so fun for her!

Tim had a recital too, but I didn't get a video of it because I was accompanying him, but he sung "Let Him In" by Michael McLean from Forgotten Carols. He has a great voice and sung it so well!

Peppermint candy cane brownies!

2010-12-17T19:33:00.000-07:00

Have you ever been to Kneader's and had one of their delicious peppermint brownies? You no longer have to go there to get one, these are exactly like them, but you get a whole pan for the price of one! I ate half a pan by myself and it was goooooood! :)

Peppermint Candy Cane Brownies

Brownies:

4 squares unsweetened chocolate (4oz)
1 C butter (2 sticks)
4 eggs
2 cups sugar
1t vanilla
1 1/4 C flour
1/2 t baking powder

Frosting:
2 C powdered sugar
4 T butter, softened
1 1/2 t peppermint extract
1 T milk pink food coloring

Chocolate Glaze:
6 oz (about a cup) semi-sweet chocolate chips ,you could also use dark
6T real butter

Additional: 1/2-1 C crushed candy canes (Use Bob's NOT Spanglers!)

First, the Brownies: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. The chocolate you want is baking chocolate, which is sold in bars by the chocolate chips. Make sure it is unsweetened. If you're not familiar with baking chocolate, it comes in squares. Give those squares a rough chop so they'll be easier to melt. Then place them in a microwave-safe bowl along with the 2 sticks of butter (also chopped).

Melt in 30-45 second intervals, stirring in between, until melted and smooth. Set aside. Don't accidentally stick your finger in the melted butter and chocolate combo because it will laugh at you for forgetting that it is unsweetened. In a stand mixer or with electric beaters, beat eggs for about 3 minutes until thick and frothy.
Add sugar and vanilla and beat to combine. Then add in the melted chocolate and butter that you set aside. Combine flour and baking powder and whisk into brownie batter by hand until just combined. Pour into a lightly greased 9x13 pan. If you want to make the job much easier, line your pan with foil first.

Bake for 20-25 minutes. Test with a toothpick for doneness and don't over bake! When brownies are done, cool on a cooling rack. When completely cool, pop in the fridge to chill. (makes the frosting spreading easier)

Next layer is the frosting: Combine all frosting ingredients and beat until light and fluffy. Add extra milk by teaspoonful if you need a little more. Spread evenly over cooled/chilled brownies and place back in the fridge to chill again while you do the final step.

Chocolate Glaze: Place chocolate chips and butter in a microwave-safe bowl and cook in 30 second intervals until smooth.
Set aside for a few minutes, stirring occasionally, so it can cool off just a bit. Remember in the first step when I told you to not accidentally let your finger fall in the chocolate butter mixture? Totally doesn't apply to this chocolate butter mixture. Quickly spread on top of brownies. I say quickly because the frosting is cool and the chocolate is hot. If you take your sweet time and over do it, you'll make a big gooey mess. Just spread it on quick.
Sprinkle the crushed candy canes on top and return to the fridge until chocolate is set on top.
Remove from fridge a few minutes before serving.

Go ahead, eat half the pan like I did, you'll be addicted! :)

Elf yourself!

2010-12-16T09:39:00.001-07:00

I remember doing this a couple years ago, they've gotten some new dances since then. We got some rockin' moves, eh! :) Faith was laughing hysterically when she watched it, especially at Kuzco being in there. :) Fun stuff!

Free iPad?!?!?

2010-12-15T18:01:00.002-07:00

So....just saw this awesome deal at No more Rack to win a free ipad if you get 400 people to click on your link.... awesome, no?! What's even MORE awesome is that if I get it, I'm going to GIVE IT AWAY!!! So click away and let's see what happens...worth a shot, eh! :)

CLICK HERE! :)

Free Christmas Cards!

2010-12-11T23:08:00.008-07:00

I was trying to get these out earlier, but obviously didn't happen between the million other things there are to do around Christmas! ahhhhhh 2 more weeks! :)

For those of you who haven't sent off their family Christmas cards yet, feel free to use my free Christmas card templates! If you don't know how to put your picture on these or just don't want to, feel free to email me your picture and tell me which template you like and I'd be happy to do it for you! my email is lmjharper@gmail.com.

When you click on the download link, the preview on 4shared will look funky cuz they're photo generator is weird, but the file is fine, it will pull up fine in your program. :) But let me know if you have any problems.

Hope you like them!

P.S. You have been getting a sneak preview of my fun digi Christmas kit coming soon! :)

Download
Download

Download

Download

Download

Download

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Christmas Subway Art

2010-12-08T23:09:00.000-07:00

I've seen a lot of these around but none were available to download so I decided to just make my own! Feel free to download them, print them off and display them or whatever! :) Just click on each picture and save the picture to your computer! Each one is 8x10. I got some cheap frames from the dollar store and spray painted them white to put them in. They would make cute gifts too!

Hope you like them! :)

(Isn't that stocking advent calendar the cutest?! I only wish I could say I made it :) )

Christmas shirts!

2010-12-06T21:08:00.001-07:00

As I was making Faith's turkey shirt, I started thinking about some fun Christmas shirts to make and got started on them right away! They are so fun, and I must say the reindeer one has got to be my most favorite! Isn't it cute?! :)

Present shirt

Reindeer shirt

Christmas Tree shirt

Want to make some? You can download my patterns HERE for FREE! :)
Just the reindeer and tree of course, the present is just a square :) Let me know if you make some, I'd love to see what you do!! :)

Peppermint Bark Popcorn

2010-12-06T09:20:00.005-07:00

I'm just a fanatic about peppermint as I'm am with pumpkin, there are so many oh-so-yummy peppermint desserts out there and I'm going to try just about all of them! :)
First up is Peppermint Bark popcorn from Our Best Bites. ummm...yum! Another two of my favorite things put together! I didn't have a whole lb of almond bark, so it turned out a little dry, so you should definitely use the full amount of everything that's called for and get the full experience! :)
Notice my candle and plate in the background? See I am a complete peppermint fanatic! But can you blame me!? :) It would make a very cute, yummy, festive gift for someone!

Peppermint Bark Popcorn
Recipe by Our Best Bites

16-20 C popped popcorn (fresh, or about 2 bags microwave popcorn)
1 lb Almond Bark
1 6oz box candy canes, crushed. (About 1-1 1/2 C total and Bob's are the best!)
2 tea. peppermint extract, or a few drops of peppermint oil

3/4 C semi-sweet chocolate chips

*one bag microwave popcorn has about 10 cups in it, so if you're air-popping, do about 20 cups.

Place popcorn in a very large mixing bowl. Unwrapping the candy canes to crush them is the most labor intensive step of this easy treat, so you can do that ahead of time if you want too. I put my candy canes in a large zip-lock bag and have a whack with a heavy marble rolling pin. One they're crushed, dump them into the bowl with the popcorn.

To melt the almond bark, follow the instructions on the package. I just break it up and put it in a glass measuring cup and microwave on 1 min intervals until it's nice and smooth.

When your almond bark is melted, add the peppermint extract. It will seize a little bit (get kind of lumpy) but it's totally fine. If you use a peppermint oil it shouldn't seize at all, just make sure to only use a few drops as oil is stronger than extract. Pour over popcorn and candy canes. Stir it up really well until the candy is evenly distributed. Pour the popcorn out onto a piece of waxed paper, parchment, or foil. Spread it out into an even layer and leave it alone!

While the popcorn is setting, place chocolate chips in a microwave-safe bowl and microwave in 30 second intervals until melted and smooth. I really like dark chocolate to counter-balance the sweetness of the almond bark, but I know there's a lot of dark haters, so do what you want!

Drizzle the melted chocolate over the popcorn. You can use a fork, or put it in a zip-lock bag with the corner cut off.
Leave it until the almond bark and the chocolate is hardened. If you need to hurry it up, do this whole process on lined cookie sheets you can pop in the fridge. When chocolate is hardened, use your hands to break up popcorn into chunks. Toss in a bowl, a jar, a cute package, or in your mouth :)

Festival of Trees!

2010-12-02T19:25:00.001-07:00

Monday was the day we set up Mikkie's tree at Festival of Trees! It took a lot longer than I expected. Thank goodness for the help I got otherwise I would have been there ALL day. I think it all turned out so cute!

There were 7 of us (my mom, sisters, SIL's and cousin) but not everyone could make it Monday, but they all contributed so much and I'm so grateful to them for that and to all those who were able to make some donations with Mikkie's song. I truly, truly appreciate it! You all helped this become a reality! It just sold today, I'm SO happy!!

Anyone who has read my poem/heard Mikkie's song and knows Mikkie can see all the symbolism in here: Butterflies, shoes, lipgloss, gumballs, bright, fun, and glittery! That little girl was so full of life and was as fun as can be! I really hope she likes it, I could totally see her having fun with something like this, both her and Faith would be in heaven......well now, I guess one of them is, huh. :)

Now for everyone who's been asking for pictures....here you go, finally! :)

My mom made the cute skirt and the tree skirt, my cousin Delaina made the hair bows and my SIL Kristen made the rag quilt and all did a SUPER job on them! Super super cute!!!

List of Gratefuls!

2010-11-30T20:07:00.006-07:00

It's not too late to post our Thanksgiving 'gratefuls' is it? Good, cuz I'm going to post them anyways :) I finally had time to sit down and do my blog stuff, not only post things but updated it and got it all decked out for Christmas! wahoo! :)

I saw this idea on a blog and liked it so much I want to do it too. :)

We have so much to be grateful for!

Gobble Gobble!

2010-11-30T09:15:00.002-07:00

This year for Thanksgiving we decided to do something different and head up to Oregon to be with some family from Tim's side. We had a BLAST! All except the ride home, but I don't even want to talk about that except for 18 hours is way too long to be in a car and can make a person go crazy. Faith did great! It was I who was the crazy one. LOL :)

I'm much better today I promise :) The drive was totally worth it to see our family, they are some of THEE coolest people I know, I love them all! Everyone did a great job in helping cook the food, it all tasted heavenly!
I got talked into going shopping for Black Friday. I asked Tim if he wanted to come and he said 'I don't know, do I want to come?' I said 'yes you do'. He said ok and came. hah I was not expecting him to come, but he did and we actually had fun and got some fun stuff! We left at midnight and got back at 5:30... crazy shoppers :)
They have an amazing home, it was like staying at a resort, there was always something to do!

Faith was so excited to see everyone, she couldn't stop talking about Oregon, driving there and everyone there...she names everyone there over and over....including the dog, Cocoa :) She had so much fun with her cousin Lucy. They played so well together, it was fun to see.

You see that flat tire below? Yea, so when we are about a half hour away from their place, we stop to fill up with gas and some trucker dude shows me our flat tire. Tim filled it up with air, when we got closer we stopped to check it and it was getting flat again, we were going to fill it up but all the air pumps were frozen! Weird! So we drove on hoping it wouldn't completely pop underneath us :) We had just barely gotten new snow tires before we left. Tim went to go get it fixed and they found scissor tips in it, yikes! We tried to think of where that might have happened and we remembered the construction site we drove through right after we left our house.....if that's so, we were driving on that for almost 800 miles. Woa, someone was watching out for us. :)

I love these gals! We're missing 2 in the pix, but I love them all! Thanks for a great holiday weekend everyone!!

Freebie Fall Digi Kit!

2010-11-25T17:18:00.002-07:00

** NO LONGER DOWNLOADABLE FOR FREE **

Seems like Fall was shorter this year....oh well, I really enjoyed it while it lasted.
I hope everyone's day was as awesome as mine, And enjoyed this holiday spending time with all your loved ones and eating lots of yummy food! :)
What a great time, there is so much to be grateful for!

This is a simple kit, but I hope you like it! Enjoy!

Free for Personal Use Only.

Cranberry cake with warm vanilla butter sauce!

2010-11-22T17:30:00.003-07:00

When I saw THIS yummy recipe, I started droolin' right then and there. :) My picture doesn't look as appetizing as hers, I was having a hard time getting in a good picture before slices started disappearing. ;) but it was still GOOD!! mmmmm I loved the tartness of the cranberries combined with the creamy sweetness of the warm sauce.
We had a family thing last night and I had to bring a dessert....perfect! It got all gobbled up, so I'm thinking it's a keeper. Do try it, you'll be glad you did! :)

Ingredients

Cake:
2 cups all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons butter, melted
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup milk
2 cups fresh cranberries

Sauce:
1 cup butter
2 cups sugar
1 cup cream or half-and-half
2 teaspoon vanilla extract

CAKE:

Preheat your oven to 350.

Mix together all cake ingredients but the cranberries.
Start with the dry ingredients and then add the wet ingredients.

After your cake batter is combined (don't over mix) fold in your cranberries.

Divide into greased loaf pans.

You can use 1 large and two small or two large loaf pans or a large 9x13 glass pan.

Bake for 25-30 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.

The smaller pans will bake faster.

After baking, let cool for 5 minuntes in the pan. Invert the cakes from the loaf pan onto a cooling rack.

If you used a 9x13, just let it cool in the pan.

This cake is served room temperature. The sauce will bring the warm element.

SAUCE:
Combine all ingredients in saucepan over medium low and cook 10 minutes or until sugar is melted, stirring frequently.

After the sauce cools a bit, I put it in a squeeze bottle for drizzling.
Slice cake, drizzle with warm sauce and serve!

I think I'm ready to go make some more of this and eat it all by myself! hehe

Anniversary surprise!

2010-11-20T21:10:00.004-07:00

So this makes surprise number TWO this year...I am really slacking, which means Tim is getting more and more shneaky. After 5 years, he's finally able to surprise me. :) I think it's fun and he does a great job!

Tonight Tim had a recital. He's taking voice lessons, but I'm not allowed to post the video of his performance :) But he did a great job! After his performance he started telling everyone it was our anniversary yesterday and asked me to stand up so everyone could see me..to which I just stayed sitting and said "Hi everyone!" haha Then he asks me to come up and sit in the chair, I started to think, what is going on.... I sit down and someone brings him his vase of roses, beautiful, bright pink roses that he hands to me. Wow! That was a surprise! And THEN.....music comes on and he starts singing "L....is for the way you look at me....." WOW! Even more of a surprise!!! Seriously I almost started to cry cuz it was the sweetest thing! I know that sounds corny :) I didn't know what to do while he was singing and moving around me, I could feel my face all flushed as everyone was focusing on us two. I didn't dare look at anyone. When it was over I gave him a big hug and everyone clapped for him. It was so! stinkin! sweet!

Quite the romantic sweetheart, eh!

Snowman Topiary

2010-11-20T20:32:00.004-07:00

I came up with this idea all on my own! I'm pretty happy about it :) It could use some more embellishing, but this is good for now! Besides being a bit time consuming, it's eeeeasy and fun! I wanna get a fun topiary pot to put it in and stuff with fake snow to set it in.
Here's how I did it:

1. Need- glue gun, pencil, squares of fabric and styrofoam ball
2. Poke pencil in middle of fabric square, dab hot glue on end
3. Stick it in styrofoam ball
4. Repeat all over ball until it's as full as you like it
5. Cut 2 small dowels for each layer and stack on top of each other
6. Embellish with button eyes (I tried to find some grey ones that look like coal), carrot nose (I carved a piece of wood to a cone shape and painted orange, stuck a nail in end and poked through styrofoam), and stick arms (remember all those fall branches I got? I got some perfect arms from them and spray painted them black).

That's it! what do you think?

Once upon a time.....

2010-11-19T15:38:00.009-07:00

[read in a low, movie-announcer's voice and yes, this is supposed to be corny...but mostly true :)]

............in a land people call the ‘Mormon state”, there was a nerdy girl who loved all things bright, sparkly, fuzzy and beautiful. One of her brothers, slightly cooler than her, set up an arranged date for her and one of his fellow nerdy friends. She dreaded the arranged date, but went anyways with low expectations. She came to find that not all arranged dates are all that bad, this particular nerd was quite dashing, the only one in fact. He swept her right off her feet and 10 complicated months later, they married in a beautiful Temple. Unlike fairytales, this marriage had problems and arguments, weaknesses and faults; it’s been the most roughest, toughest, trying journey of their lives, especially losing one of their most precious, valued treasures, which was tragically taken from them, but will soon be returned if they live as they ought to. There have been times when they felt like giving up; there is this evil plan from satan whom is trying to thwart happiness and break families apart and get them to be miserable just as he is. The nerdy-yet-not-so-bad-looking couple, recognize his cunning ways but would have none of that, so they continue on with faith, hope and much prayer and with God on their sides, and only because of God, do they continue to make it to the next day.
These have also been the most rewarding and happiest of times. Tim still continues to this day to fight dragons and conquer battles for his sweetheart, making him her biggest hero. Despite all they’ve gone through together, they are still madly in love and anxiously await their happily-ever-after ending….or should I say, their new beginning. ☺

To my wonderful, loving, kind, caring, understanding, virtuous, benevolent, etc.. hubby, I love you! I feel completely blessed and grateful to have you in my life. You are the greatest husband and adorable father to our sweet girls. (and Kuzco...he's quite fond of you too :) If we can make it through what we've been through these past 5 years, we can get through ANYTHING! :) Thanks for making me one of the happiest women in the world.

Happy 5 year Anniversary to us!!!!!

Turkey shirt

2010-11-17T09:03:00.004-07:00

I just loved this shirt I found here, that I just had to copycat...what DON'T I copycat! haha

Someday I'm gonna start coming up with my own cute ideas like this.

You do the same thing as with the Halloween shirt I did, but she actually gives you a template to download to cut the fabric out with. I got these cute fabrics at Gardner's, of course, too fun!

Pretty cute huh!

But the cutest thing of all is this little girl! She's so stinkin' cute! Don't you love those boots?!?! I about died with giddiness when I saw them! ;)

I also about died with giddiness when I realized Thanksgiving is NEXT week! ahhhhhh

mmmmm.... Gobble Gobble! :)

Happy Birthday Mikkie Angel!

2010-11-13T21:25:00.009-07:00

November 10th was a very hard day. Our sweet Mikkie would have been two years old. My parents came with Faith and I to the grave. Faith picked out a balloon and I picked out some nice, bright pink flowers. Perfect!

We had a party tonight for everyone to come to. I'm so grateful for all our family and friends and their love and support! It's nice to talk about Mikkie and share fun, sweet memories of her. I think the night turned out very well and we enjoyed the company of so many loved ones.

We met at the cemetery first and gathered around her grave while sharing memories and a few journal entries (by me) about her. Then we gave everyone one of the bright colored balloons and had everyone write one thing they promise to work on. I think after this we all feel like being a better person and already a better person for knowing Mikkie (at least for me anyways). So we wrote it on the balloon with permanent markers and let the balloons go all at once, up into the sky.....right up to Mikkie. :) My promise was to do more service, I better get crackin'. I love this idea and am going to keep this a tradition for all the years to come. (Yes, I realize the biggest picture in this is blurry, Dang it, I'm still mad about it. :(
Then we came back to our house for yummy food. I tried to stick with the theme of my poem I wrote for her, that we basically use for a lot of things about her now. I made some Rainbow cupcakes (remember these from Faith's party?) and a giant one just for her.... I could just see her stuffing her little face in it, enjoying it to the very last crumb. Since it was a chilly night I got some hot chocolate ready, this is the first time I've tasted the candy cane one...pretty good! All the other delicious food and goodies were brought by others that came, which I'm so grateful for! I was bakin' those cupcakes for hours, they are one of the most time-consuming things to make, but so worth it, aren't they so fun?!?! :)

I hope she liked it, I tried to give her a better party than last year. Wish I didn't wait... Sometimes there just isn't a 'next time', so no more slacking for me. :)

Happy birthday my sweet angel, I love you so very much!

Peach Pumpkin Soup

2010-11-07T22:19:00.005-07:00

You think it sounds weird? So did I, but don't knock it til you try it! It quickly became on my top 5 soups list. ;)

When we were in CT, Tim's parents took us to a nice lil restaurant and Terri told me I just had to try the peach pumpkin soup. I did and looooved it...if I haven't made that clear by now. :) She was telling me that people had bugged and asked the restaurant for that recipe so finally one year they gave it out. I now have that recipe!

PEACH-PUMPKIN SOUP

- 30-ounce can sliced peaches in syrup (try blending them a little before adding to break them up easier-make sure to leave little chunks though...gotta have the chunks. :) )

- 30-ounce can solid-packed pumpkin, not pie filling

- 1 quart heavy cream

- 1 quart apple juice

- 1 ounce pumpkin pie spice

- 2 teaspoons cinnamon

- 4 cups brown sugar

Mix and simmer all ingredients for about an hour. Whisk often to break up peaches.

Serve into bowls and top with whip cream! mmmmmmmmmmmmm!

Makes 12-16 servings (makes a good amount. I doubled it and got a HUGE pot-full)

Go ahead and try it and let me know if you become a fan too! :)

Halloween festivities!

2010-10-30T14:20:00.029-06:00

I love when it's time to start all the holiday traditions!

A couple weeks ago we had our Pumpkin carving party with Tim's family. This year we thought it would be fun to see everyone in their costumes, you gotta wear them as much as possible right? :) We're glad they could come, it was so much fun! Great job on the pumpkins everyone, love them!
How fun and creative are those Bug exterminator costumes?! Love it!

Our Spooky Menu: (these are just the things I made, Lisa and Kristen brought some yummy fruit and salad (thank you!)

Then last night we had our 'Annual Halloween Party' for my family. Costumes are always required of course. Some may hate me for that, but the fun of Halloween is getting to dress up! :) I love hosting parties, and one year my house (inside and out) is going to be decked out in Halloween in every nook n' cranny. haha Tim probably thinks I have more than enough decorations, but he hasn't thought about the front yard... heheh :)

With the help of everyone, we had a yummy menu planned, I didn't take pictures because I'm going to share those recipes on their own post....you know what that means, they're that good. :)

Everyone's costumes- they all turned out great, way ta go y'all! This was the best picture I could get of Kuzco-puppies are not very cooperative. You should have seen Krista and I try to put his costume on. :)
I keep forgetting to have everyone vote for costume awards, I think it's fun to do, so I'm just gonna do it this time. :)

Funniest: Obama on Vacation- haha :), Hawaiian Hippies and NERD.
Scariest: Vampire, Head Devil & Soldier ;)
Best Couple: Woody & Jessie- Great job making those Jen!
Best Group: Pac Man Family- Also, great job making those Delaina!
Best Original: Bee, Ladybug, Devil (Marcie), Strawberry
Prettiest: Aphrodite, Flapper Girl and Fairy
Most Creative: Super 'T's (Trent and Truman...get it? :) and Jamaican
Cutest: sorry, have to be biased on this one...Little Witch and Little Devil. :)
ok....I'll make one for me too :) - Most weird and funky: Head Witch :) :)
EVERYONE'S was AWESOME!! There's many that fit into several of those categories.

One of my bestest friends, whom just returned home from Air Force training, came and it was SO good to see her. It's been 5 months, way too long! So technically her uniform is not a costume, but I let it slide...just this once ;)
Tim's aunt came up with some fun minute-to-win-it games at Bear Lake and I thought they were so fun I wanted to do them at this party. I think everyone had fun....they sure did good!
I can't get over those teeth, Paul. haha
Thanks for coming everyone, it wouldn't have been a party without you! I'm already looking forward to next year's party! :)
Anyone else have fun traditions they do for the holidays? I love them! Bring on the next holiday!

Freebie Halloween Digi Kit!

2010-10-29T09:41:00.005-06:00

** NO LONGER DOWNLOADABLE FOR FREE **

Happy Halloween!! I just barely got this kit done in time, whew. Here's to my favorite, pumpkins, and to one of my very favorite holidays! Hope you enjoy the kit!

For Personal use only!

Thanks! :)

Trip out East!

2010-10-27T12:43:00.027-06:00

The nice little gap between this post and the last is the result of a wicked awesome vacation! :) It was a refreshing break from real life and was great to see Tim's parents again. They always treat us so well and make sure we have a good time. Not very many people can say they enjoy being with their in-laws, but I can and do, it was an absolutely great trip!

I got about a bazillion pictures, but narrowed it down to just a zillion for you. :) I've always been a shutterbug but especially so when I have beautiful, gorgeous scenery around. I'm trying to get better at my picture-taking skills and get better photos...not all are great, granted some were taken in a train and car, so maybe they would've if we stopped.

Here's my tour of our vacay in 4 different states!

Bruce & Terri were kind enough to watch Faith for us while Tim and I went to experience New York for the first time. We took our first real train ride and in a couple hours there we were....tourists lost in New York.

The Statue of Liberty was amazing, I think I took pictures from almost every angle. ha

That picture of Tim frowning is him pointing to the national debt clock. ha I would've never noticed it; leave it to him to find something like that. :)

I never saw the World Trade Center in person, but I sensed the sorrow and calamity that went on those many years ago. I can still remember the day that it happened....

For Dinner we decided to check out Little Italy and Chinatown area. Chinatown was Tim's favorite, and of course Little Italy was mine... now I just need to visit the real Italy!

They had a whole load of street vendors everywhere and we found some good deals on scarves I liked and hats for both of us! But man those people sure know how to bombard you with temptations to buy their stuff.

I think being on top of the ESB was my most favorite....you know I'm a sucker for pretty scenic views. It was UH-MAZING! I couldn't believe how gorgeous it was and I couldn't believe how stinkin' cold it was! Tim stayed in most the time while I forced my frozen hands to keep taking pictures. I'm glad I did. There's nothing else I can say other than WOW!

Next day we started off by getting us some warmer jackets. I've always wanted one of those long black ones so when we found a sweet deal, we jumped on it. Now we're starting to look less like tourists and more like New Yorka's....right? ;)

Then we took a jaunt up to the Brooklyn Bridge. Pretty sweet, all those ropes around gave it an interesting look.

If you've been noticing all these pictures of birdies.....it's because when I'm resting my feet, what else am I supposed to do besides snap some shots of these feathery friends. I almost got dizzy just by watching the pigeons' heads go back and forth like a chicken. :)

That other sign Tim is pointing to says "No horn honking. $350 fine" sheesh! You could make bank if that were your job in that city.

Another one of my favorite places....Central Park. Like Tim said, it was cool to be in such a calm, open space amidst a crazy, fast-paced, smoke-smelled city. Seriously I about died from inhaling all that smoke, I have zero tolerance for that smell. We didn't get to go too far into the park, we probably barely nicked the surface, it's gigantuous.

We were able to see Times Square lit up at night on our way back to the train station. That was pretty cool lookin' too. That's a lot of electricity. I could imagine what a difference it was during that blackout.

We ventured into the M&M factory and got a dispenser thing for Faith, she loves those. It was a pretty fun store, but I couldn't believe how expensive their M&M's were! We waited to get to Walmart to buy some to fill up the dispenser. :)

We didn't really get to see the main part of the train station when we got there, so we were quite surprised how beautiful it was in there!

I thought it was just a movie-thing when cabs would nearly run people over, but nope it's for real. They're crazy I tell ya, crazy, they wait for no one. :)

Needless to say, after two days of walking non-stop all around we were dead tired. The first day my upper legs cramped up so bad towards the night, and the second my feet were just throbbing...I haven't walked that much in forever and probably won't again until forever. :)

Amazingly enough we weren't incredibly dead the next morning, so we took up the offer to go to Rhode Island for a bike ride. We went 13 miles on a beautiful trail surrounded by amazing fall leaves! I loved it!

It was Terri's birthday, so we went to eat at a nice restaurant after. It was a great day! From the looks of the last picture you can tell we were pooped out after.

There's a Butterfly Conservatory in Massachusetts that I just loved! It was so cool to see all these butterflies fluttering around some stunning flowers and vegetation. My favorite was the green and black one, but it would not cooperate and stop for me, so I had to chase it around trying to get a good shot.

Check out those fuzzy pink thingamabobs....aren't those totally awesome?!? I bet you didn't know those were my favorite. :)

More gorgeous flowers and butterflies.

I didn't see this happen, but Tim said with a sad face that a butterfly landed on his back without him knowing and he sat back and SMASHED it! Faith said 'Dad you smash the butterfly?" hahah I couldn't help laughing, it was sad but kinda funny too.. :) So that one pic is the butterfly guts on his shirt... He didn't want me to take a picture and be reminded of that..lol

He's the one who smashed their friends yet they all flew on him, I only got one on my purse. I was thinking maybe the blue one liked Tim cuz he felt he was being camouflaged.....maybe a little too much, careful there lil guys. :)

We stopped by the Yankee Candle Co after. That was a fun place! I got some yummy smelling candles for the holidays. I love the smell of candles burning in a warm, cozy home. ahh :)

As always, vacation went by way too fast. We had a very nice time!

The ride home was rather looooong. 6 hours to Vegas and 1 1/2 hours to SLC. I'm done traveling for a while. At least we got seats by each other this time. On the way there, we were delayed, therefore late to our connecting flight and there were not 3 seats together. I told Tim I'd sit with Faith, so he took a seat while I scouted out a place for Faith and I. Nothing. All these one-seaters. So the flight attendant asked over the speaker if someone could move to provide seats "for a mother and her child". I felt beyond awkward. Not only were we making them wait from our delay, but now we're making them move seats. No one even jumped up at first...I was thinking 'Oh come on people, what is the matter with you?!' Finally after what seemed like forever, a guy got up and moved. See, it wasn't that hard now was it. :)

I love riding home when the sun's setting, you can get some cool shots up in the sky! I also loved how thick the clouds were, they are some of my favorites.

While Tim was snoozing Faith and I had some fun with the camera. :)

I tell ya, having an iPod on that trip was a life saver!!! It kept Faith entertained the whole trip, it was definitely a good purchase.

We came back home to freezing cold and snow! NO, not yet!!! :(
If you haven't been over East, you need to go, it's so gorgeous over there!

Spooky Alchemy potion bottles

2010-10-15T22:39:00.001-06:00

I thought these looked like a fun project and would add the perfect spooky touch to my mantle.

I downloaded labels from THIS site, there's some cool ones HERE too.

I didn't have a color printer or tan/tea stained paper. So I had to do it my own way. I just printed them b&w, cut them out, crumpled them up really good, layed out and brushed some distress ink over various parts of it. I used:

Then I just used gloss modge podge and glued them to the jars. I had a HARD time finding corks, finally found them at Hobby Lobby...that place has everything, and I should've just gone there in the first place. Fill jars with water and food coloring...experiment and you can come up with some cool colors. Some of the smaller jars in front I got at Walmart, bigger ones at Hobby Lobby and the rest I had saved from old soy sauce and spaghetti sauce jars. Two I bought with labels already on them.

Shots at day time, then night time with the black lights....gives it more of an eerie look. Love it! I put in a black light that shines right over the mantle also.

Eyeballs in jar and Skull head make a great touch!

I wanted to make som spooky spell books to put next to them but I'm running out of time! Maybe next year.

I'll Think of You

2010-10-13T20:17:00.008-06:00

Remember the poem I wrote for my little Mikkie for her funeral? I had a few people saying I should make it into a song, but it wasn't until my brother Dale said something that I really began to take it seriously. He is incredibly gifted with music and I had no doubt at all that he could come up with something beautiful. It didn't take him long at all and the first time he played the melody for me, I couldn't contain myself...tears just kept streaming down.

We had to change my poem a little to make it fit the music, and I had to come up with the chorus. It took me a while til I found the words that felt right.

We had the music done then talked of recording it. It was missing something. Singing. Someone has to sing the words, that's what the song is about. I immediately thought of a gal in our ward who has an amazing voice, Stephanie Hill. She has some cd's she's recorded and I remember hearing her voice before. She was so kind and willing enough to do this for me.

Well, last Friday we did it. We recorded it and I have my very own cd of the song. I've always thought it would be cool to put my poems to music, but cannot compose to save my life. I'm very grateful to Dale and Stephanie who have helped make this a reality, and perfect at that. The song could not be more perfect. I never have a dry eye when listening to it.

I put together a little slideshow that goes along with the lyrics. I know it's not professional, but I tried my best.

I am going to do a tree in memory of her for the Festival of Trees this year. I'm very excited. I'm going to sell this song for $1 and all of the proceeds will go to help with it....which will in turn go to Primary Children's Hospital....the place that tried so very hard to revive her. Most of all I'm hoping this song will touch others' hearts, as it comes from the heart of a mother who lost a most precious, angelic baby girl whom she loves more than life itself.

If you would like to purchase this song, you can click the Donate button below or on the top right hand side of this blog. You can purchase it for $1, and any donations will greatly be appreciated. All proceeds will ultimately be given to Primary Children's Hospital. The song will be emailed to you within 24 hours of payment.

Thank You.

Cutting fabric with Cricut

2010-10-12T15:30:00.006-06:00

First step: put your fabric onto heat n' bond or something similar. Follow directions to iron it on. (paper side should be face down)

Step 2: Place ironed-on fabric onto Cricut mat (paper side against mat and fabric right side up facing you).
Step 3: Set your Speed to maximum and Pressure to maximum. Cut.

Peel off and voila!

Now go iron it on a shirt or bag or whatever to dress it up!

I stitched around the edges of hat, band and buckle to make more durable, and added a cute button spider.

Inspired by THIS picture.

Goes great with the pumpkin flower I made her!

Oh yea, she's ready for Halloween with style. :)

If you want to use my hat, you are more than welcome to download it HERE and make one of your own shirts...or whatever! :) Included is SVG files of the hat, band, buckle and the SCUT file for Sure Cuts A Lot. You don't have to have a cricut to use the pattern; print it out and use it as a stencil! Have fun! :)

Svg video tute

2010-10-12T13:30:00.002-06:00

I've had a few people asking for a tutorial on cutting fabric with your Cricut.

I'm going to start off showing you how I cut one of my own images by turning it into an SVG. You need Sure Cuts A Lot to use images from your computer. But if you just want to cut out something from one of your cricut cartridges onto fabric, I'll be doing that in the next post. :)

For some reason it takes 10 seconds for video to start.

This is my first video tutorial ever, so don't laugh too hard :) Hopefully you find it a little helpful.

Bakin' fun, Oreo Truffle Cookies, Princess Girls

2010-10-09T18:10:00.011-06:00

Usually I'm in a hurry to get something baked, whether it's to rush somewhere or just to hurry and get it out of the way so I can relax. Today I decided to make the time to have Faith help me and it was so much fun! Not that she hasn't helped me before, but this time she stayed the whole time and I made more of an effort to let her do more by herself. She kept saying how much fun it was. It was then that I realized I need to do that more often. Include her in more things. Here's some of our bakin' fun time together this morning, making 3 dozen pumpkin cinnamon rolls and 2 dozen Oreo Truffle cookies.....which I am about to share the recipe on.....once again from my favorite Picky Palate.

Yes, we had a flour fight. So what if it makes a big mess, the important thing is that we had fun doing it, right? :)

Chocolate chip cookies are good, but man when stuffed with oreo truffles?!?! Can't get much better than that. Although my cousin and I thought it would be so yummy to put fudge or caramel in middle of the oreo truffle......woa, I don't know that may be too much. ;)

Oreo Truffle Surprise Cookies

2 sticks softened butter

3/4 Cup granulated sugar

3/4 Cup packed brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 Tablespoon pure vanilla

3 1/2 Cups all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 Cups chocolate chips

21 Oreos

3 oz softened cream cheese

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a stand or electric mixer beat butter and sugars until well combined. Add eggs and vanilla; beat until combined.

2. Place flour, salt and baking soda into a large bowl; mix. Add to wet ingredients along with chocolate chips. Mix until just combined.

3. Place Oreos into a food processor or blender, mix until finely ground. Place into a bowl and mix with cream cheese until dough forms. Take 1 Tablespoon of dough and roll into a ball. Continue until all dough has been rolled, you should get 36 balls, enough for all of the cookie dough.

4. With a large cookie scoop, scoop dough onto a silpat or parchment lined baking sheet. Press a little hole into center of dough and put Oreo Truffle inside, cover cookie dough around Oreo Truffle so it’s hidden in the middle. Bake for 13-15 minutes or until edges of cookies just begin to turn golden brown. Remove and let cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to cooling rack. Now…..eat up

36 large cookies

I took these for a family picnic get-together tonight and they were all hoovered! The bottom's were a little more crunchy than I liked, so I am going to bake them for only 13 minutes next time.

So our family was sitting there eating and I saw a man in line I didn't recognize, but not wanting to stare to find out, I turn to my cousin next to me and whisper "who is that guy?" She laughed saying she was thinking the same thing. Come to find out, no one knew him or invited him, just some homeless person that decided to help himself. We watched as he piles his plate up high with food and then walks off. haha How random is that?! Not that I minded, if he's that hungry then by all means...take some food, it was just funny. Gotta hand it to him. :)

Faithy has her cousin over for a sleepover tonight! She's been soooo excited for it ever since I told her. They're both all about the princesses, although I think Shay is a little more. :)

They were very excited when I said I was going to put some makeup on them and fix their hair

Princess Shay

I need to work with Faith on the posing thing.

Princess Faith

They both got their own rose (provided by Tim :)

Girls are so much fun. It's been a fun day!

Blue Lemon

2010-10-01T21:10:00.004-06:00

I got a coupon for this restaurant so Tim and I decided to check it out tonight. We're glad we did, it was great! We loved the feel of the place, it had a modern, classy feel with a touch of casual. Just crisp and fresh. They are all about presentation too, we ogled at our plates of food thinking we had just spent about $25 a plate (when really it was half the price) they were that professional, they looked amazing! Then we sunk our teeth into it and it was even more amazing!

I got this dish below, the Artichoke and Tomato Chicken. Party.In.Your.Mouth.

Tim got the Southwestern Salad and loved it! They even grilled the lemon, making it look awesome. We had their sweet potato fries with their special sauce, tried several of their fun, unique drinks, and I had a cookies n' cream brownie....uhhhh, need I say more?! :)

Needless to say we give it two thumbs way, way up! And we recommend you try it! There's one in Highland or SLC.

After, we went to the store and we came back out to our van, we both got in, sat down and thought why the heck does our van smell like smoke.....and when did we get seat covers? We immediately realized we got in someone else's van, got out started laughing and found our own van. :) Funny stuff. Fun date.

Halloween advent calendar

2010-09-28T20:10:00.005-06:00

My sister and I were browsing around Gardner's village one day and saw a cute advent calendar and thought it would make a fun project! Cute, yes. Fun....eh, maybe if I had a pattern of what to do. I had to figure out on my own how to do everything, making it look not so professional, but hey I tried my best, if I made another one, which I won't, it would def. look better than this one. But for wingin' it, I'd say it's not too shabby....just don't look too closely. :)

I wouldn't expect anyone but me to notice that this skeleton is MINE! :) Remember my skully I made for last year's Halloween digi kit? Yup, that's him! I've got to do a post alone on how to cut out fabric with your cricut! It's so much fun! Or maybe everyone already knows how to do it and I'm comin on board late.

So, because I was trying to figure out what I was doing as I went along, I did not take any pictures or write down how to do it, but if anyone is just itchin to make one, I can help my sister finish hers and use hers as the tutorial, now that I sorta know more what I'm doing. :)

Can't wait to fill these pockets up with yummy treats.....and just hope Faith doesn't find them and eat them all in one day! :)

Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls

2010-09-26T22:27:00.002-06:00

Let the pumpkin baking begin, yay!!!

I just tried this awesome, amazing of a dessert that I found here. They are absolutely fantastic!! I love cinnamon rolls, pumpkin makes them even better!

Besides waiting for them to rise, it's fairly quick and easy to make. Try them, you know you want to! :)

Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls with Cream Cheese Icing

roll dough adapted from King Arthur Flour

makes approximately 15-16 rolls

Ingredients:

Roll Dough:
1/4 cup warm water (not hot, about 110 degrees)
1 package (2 1/4 teaspoons) active dry yeast
1/3 cup warm milk
1 large egg, beaten
3/4 cup pumpkin puree, either fresh or canned
1 tablespoon melted butter
2 cups (approximately) All-Purpose Flour
1 1 /4 cup Whole Wheat Flour (just use white flour if you don't have any)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom (I omitted this as I didn't have any)

Filling:
1 stick butter
2/3 cup white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon each of allspice and ginger
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon cloves

Cream Cheese Frosting:
4 ounces cream cheese
1 stick (4 ounces) butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 teaspoon lemon juice
2-3 cups powdered sugar

Directions:

In a large bowl, stir yeast into water to soften. Let rest for 5 minutes before stirring. Add milk, eggs, pumpkin, butter, 2 cups flour, brown sugar, salt, cinnamon, ginger and cardamom to yeast mixture. Beat vigorously for 2 minutes.

Gradually add remaining flour, a little at a time, until you have a dough stiff enough to knead. Turn dough out onto a floured surface. Knead, adding flour as necessary, until you have a smooth, elastic dough.

Put dough into an oiled bowl. Turn once to coat entire ball of dough with oil. Cover with a towel and let rise until doubled, about 1 hour.

Combine the white sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, allspice, ginger, nutmeg and cloves in a small bowl, set aside. Transfer the risen dough to a lightly greased work surface, and pat or roll it into a 16" x 12" rectangle. Spread softened butter over dough and then sprinkle with the sugar mixture.

Roll the dough into a log the long way; it'll stretch to about 20" long as you roll. Using a very sharp knife, slice the log into 15 slices. In order to cut down on drag, it helps to rinse the blade in hot water, and wipe it off, between slices. Place slices in a greased 9x13 inch baking pan (or in two 8 or 9 inch round cake or pie pans). Cover with a towel and let rise until almost doubled, about 45 minutes.

Bake in a preheated 375°F oven. Bake the rolls till they're brown around the edges and beginning to turn golden brown across the center, about 20-30 minutes.

While rolls bake, prepare the cream cheese frosting. Add the cream cheese, butter, vanilla, and lemon juice to a small food processor. Blend until smooth and combined. Add the powdered sugar 1/2 cup at a time, blending in between, until well mixed and desired consistency is reached. (I used 2 cups powdered sugar)

Frost warm rolls with the cream cheese frosting and serve immediately.

For night before prep: Prepare the rolls up to the point where you roll and place in the pan. Then, cover in plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. In the morning, remove the pan from the fridge and proceed with the instructions where you left off. Rising time may be slightly longer than noted in the recipe due to the dough being cold vs room temp.