FHE

So last night for family home evening we started working on our personal history books. It's important to have a journal (of some sort), pictures and written stories of your past so that one day your children and grand-children will have something to look at and read about. I was telling the boys that they're lucky to be growing up in the same town they were born. Myself and Ken were military brats, we moved a lot. All we have are memories.
So we made a list of important places in the kids lives (so far) and went to take pics of them there, like their school, hospital (born), etc...


Time was running short, due to the sun, so we'll have to make this a two parter. Next we'll finish the list and then print the pictures. We will then make a book for each of them. Then one day their kids can see where they went to school and where they spent most of their summer (baseball field). I think once a year we'll update the book with pictures.
After our drive we made those Monster Cookies

Here's the recipe
Pre-heat oven to 325. This is a very rich cookie. Their is an altered version if you want to cut back on the sugar/sweetness. Try both and then decide which you like best. (This makes a LARGE batch!
Ingredients
6 eggs
2 1/3 cup brown sugar
2 cups white sugar
1 stick butter
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 tbls karo syrup
4 tsp baking soda
3 cups peanut butter
mix together well until creamy. then add
9 cups quick cook oats (I only had 6 cups-it worked)
12oz chocolate chips
2-3 cups of plain m&ms
mix well (your gonna need a strong arm).
spoon onto greased/non-stick cookie sheet. Use back of spoon to flaten cookie. Cook for 12-15 minutes (until edges are brown). Let cool, then eat and enjoy!

Altered
1 1/3 cup brown sugar
1 cup of sugar
1/4 cup butter
keep everything else the same.

Layouts, What!?

Yes, I actually made it to the scrapbook night and got some layouts done. Amazing! I haven't scrapped in months (try 6) and even when I did I didn't get much done! Well I have to be honest, the night started of rocky. I was working on this layout...

I started it almost 2 years ago and I could never figure out how to finish it. Then I found out about this new cricut tool

Markers! It's the coolest thing! And yes, it helped solve my problem!
Then I kept the juices flowing with this layout. I kept it (them) simple.
Just happy to get them done!

Bummer!

So Christina woke up with a little fever! Man! That means no workout, possibly no scrapbooking tonight and no shopping today! Bummer! Well maybe I can get caught up on tv shows. I'm behind on Lost (1), Private Practice (1), Smallville (2) and Hereos (too many to count)! That's what happens during baseball season. I'm never home, but I am enjoying the sun! Wow, I saw my white legs last night and they are in some desperate need of SUN!

I took these pics yesterday! Tina just can't wait till her brothers come home from school. She's all over them! This is Kenny's jacket, she can't get enough of him!

Spring Cleaning

I spent all day yesterday cleaning my sewing/craft area. It took all day! I still have a few more bags of scrapbooking stuff to sort through.
The question is always should I keep it? By the end of the night I had a huge trash bag of TRASH and GIVE AWAY stuff!
I'm trying to decide if I should have a garage sale. I have a TON of stuff that I could get rid of. If I did, it could really help to pay for the boys scout camp this year. Seeing as, they raised the price and last year I only had one son going.
Garage sales are so much work though! We'll see!
I'm just so happy to have this space clean and organized! Especially since I'm going scrapbooking this Friday!

Before

After

It might still look crazy under the table, but it really is organized and I know where everything is at!

Clean, Create & Consequences!

You know how your just so busy and then one day you realize how dirty your house is...today was that day. I spent most of the morning cleaning; laundry, laundry room, dishes, kitchen floor, more laundry, etc...
Luckily Tina had playdough to keep her busy!



The other night I taught the girls (at church) how to Mod Podge. I found these recipe boxes at Michaels for $1.
BEFORE

AFTER

I forgot to bring my camera, I wanted to take pics of the girls' boxes. They turned out so cute! This is the one I made Mateo for his Journal Box.


Okay so at my last parents class they gave us another tip.
It can be called the Chore Jar, Chore Drawer or Chore Box (as i'm doing)
You put a list of extra chores for them to pick out when they miss behave or don't listen. So I had these two tupperware boxes with a red and yellow lid. They reminded me of Stop and Go/Bad and Really Bad!
The yellow box has extra chores and the red box has chores they hate. It just depends how bad they're in trouble! They might just have to take out the trash or they might be on dog duty (poop)!
I'll let you know how it works out!

Here's the dog, Buddy! Can you even imagine what kinda poop he lays! LOL!

FHE

Hey so this is what we did the other day for Family Home Evening. We talked about the First Vision. Joseph Smith was looking for a church to join. He was visited by Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. My friend, in our fhe group, made this box. The kids were able to act out the scene as it was told. It was a lot of fun! For treats (I forgot to take pics) we made Sacred Grove Trees.
Recipe:
4 cups Cheerios
3 cups marshmallows
3 tbs butter
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp (it's too much I would cut back)green food coloring

Make just like rice krispies. Melt butter & marshmallows. Then add vanilla and food coloring. Stir well. then form into trees on wax paper.
The kids loved eating these!

Showing Support

I found this dress made out of bandanas on this site. And I thought, "I can do that" ! So I gave it a shot. It was pretty easy! The directions were easy to follow.

Tina will be wearing this during Mateo's game to show our support. Mateo's first game was this past Saturday. He ended up pitching his first Majors game and we were soo nervous! He went out there and killed it! He did great! He has been waiting to step out of the shadows of his older brother. I try never to compare them and let him know that he is his own person. I think he finally felt like he was no longer in the shadows! Great Job, Mateo!

Sidenote: We got so many compliments on the dress tonight! It was fun!

3 Sweet Things!

Here are 3 sweet things, 2 of which are good for you (in moderation)!

We love strawberries! It makes a great and healthy snack. It also taste sweet!

Today my friend made these Monster Cookies. I have to get the recipe. They're soo yummy!

These are my new fav! Sweet Potatoes! They're soo sweet and good for you. Of course I add a little brown sugar, so I think that takes away the health factor!
What about you and your sweet or healthy kick?

More Sewing!

Okay so I saw this fabric and it said, "Buy Me"! I've been wanting to make a new table cloth. It's almost done, I'll post soon!

This is a project I've been working on with my sister-in-law. I was teaching her some sewing basics. It's finally done! She did great! It's a organizer for the babies room.

So I haven't done too much sewing or crafting lately.I'm ready to go! This week for young womens we'll be mod podging some boxes. I'll post pics when they're done.

Pay It Forward

Pay it FORWARD
--
How it works:The FIRST THREE people to leave a comment on this post will receive at some point during this year a handmade gift from me.
What it will be and when it will arrive will be a total surprise--to both of us.
The CATCH is that YOU MUST PLAY TOO!
So write a pay it forward post on your blog to keep the fun going (you can cut and paste these instructions).
Then come back and let me know that you are going to play, and sit back and anticipate the arrival of your gift. It's THAT easy!
Remember, only the FIRST THREE comments will qualify.

Good luck!

Great Site!

Okay so I just found this amazing site. I'm trying so hard to keep my family home evenings going. I'm always searching for new and fun ideas. This site looks like just the thing! You should check it out.
Last year I organized a group to swap lessons. I'm getting ready to start our next group and I'm so excited! I need to put up picks of our last FHE. It was on The First Vision. My friend came up with the cutest idea! I'll post soon!

Where's Waldo?

Okay so tonight for our youth group we went up to the mall. Crazy!
We played Where's Waldo?
We had 6 leaders hiding in the mall, 4 teams looking and some rules!
They were told (of course) not to run, pull fire alarms, behave in stores.
The leaders were told which stores they could go in, it was unclear if we could move from store to store (I stayed posted in JcPenney furniture department) and then meet up at 8pm. When the kids found us we gave them a puzzle piece and the first team to find all leaders won!
The kids had a blast! It wasn't too boring sitting in Penneys. I wish I had a book or something!

Well I thought I would pull out a journal question;
What is your most embarrassing moment? Well I'll give you my top 3 most embarrassing moments!
1. In 7th grade I was at a cheerleading clinic and I was trying to do a back flip...well I farted during it! Everyone heard even my poor spotter (which was a cute older guy)! I was soo embarrassed!

2. I was in HIGH SCHOOL, I believe freshman year, spanish class. I was on my monthly and BOY do I get gassy then! Well I was bloated and let one out! (it's not like gas is manageable)! Really embarrassing!

3. Okay fast forward to my first child birth. You know when you get to that point where you don't care what's going on, you just want it over! Well I didn't know my brother was in the room, still and saw EVERYTHING! I also farted during labor! Another embarrassing moment!

Can anyone beat that!

Busy, Busy, Busy!

Sorry I haven't had anytime to post. I've been super busy!
Let's start with this last Friday. I took some pics of my friend Ande's baby. They turned out so cute! I also had the pleasure of taking her sisters pics when she was a baby. It's nice to be apart of the picture memories. That is when I get satisfaction in my hobby!
Here are just a couple of them.



Okay then came Saturday, oh my! I was talked into running with some girls I workout with. We ran 3 miles! Okay that may not be big for some but I haven't ran in MONTHS, try 6-8 months! I was did really good, though. I almost ran the whole thing and boy did my legs feel it! I was sore for 3 days! I complained every moment of those 3 days, too!

Yesterday I had my parenting class. We talked about preventive teaching. We usually expect our children to act a certain way. But did we really teach them when, where, and how to act during certain times? No, we usually just assume that they know what we are expecting.
Come on, we know they're not mind readers! I forget that their little minds can only hold so much information at once! Their little minds are not as developed as ours! We really must re-teach these things often. Continue to imprint them in the brain so that when they do have developed little brains they can use that info!
So funny, so simple!
That's why I'm enjoying this class. It's called Common Sense Parenting!
We also need reminders on how and when to teach our children!

Wrangle a Kid Before Dinner!

So I'm making dinner and turn around to find this!

She really was enjoying it!


So I tried a new recipe today. I got it from this site. It was a hit so I'd thought I share. If you want step by step instructions see the site.

Mini Meatloafs
Ingredients: 1 lb ground beef, 2 slices toast, 2 eggs, 1 tsp garlic powder,
1 tsp Tabasco (optional) , 1/4 cup picante sauce (use 1/2 cup if you don’t use antipasto), 1/4 cup antipasto (optional), 4 slices bacon

Mix everything together and put in a muffin tin. Place bacon on top of meat and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Voila, your done!

Pick-Up-Box Idea!

Well Tuesday I had my parenting class again. We learned about effective praising. Often we forget to praise our children and they even pick up on it.
Recently one of my sons asked me, "Mom, why do you always see the bad stuff I do!"
I believe my hubby said the same thing! Ouch!
Well we do notice the good things we just always don't tell them thank you and what a great job!
What's funny though, have you noticed for very young children we constantly tell them what a good job they're doing?
Like, "thank you for being such a good helper" and "you did such a good job on that".
We must work harder to let our other family members know when they are doing things that please us. Then they might be more eager to behave and do kind things!
Okay so we also got a great tip for cleaning. You know how kids leave things all over the house...well you now use the "Pick-Up-Box"!
This is how it works. You tell them they have 15 minutes till pick-up-box time. They must pick up all the toys, clothes, books and put them where they belong. In 15 mins you go around with a box and pick up everything that is out of place and should have been put up. You hold on to the box for a week and when they need that missing something you tell them they don't get it back for a week.
(just like the garbage bag threat you Mom might have given you)
In a week you give them an hour to retrieve their items (from the box) and put them away. If they don't put them away then you have the choice to never return it!
You just might de-clutter your house this way!
Hopefully they miss things and will remember to put things away.
I'm really enjoying this class. It has given me a new look at parenting. It's also nice to get out with adults and talk about how we're all going through same thing!

Something Good!

Okay so I found this site and it is for a good reason that I'm passing this on! This Mom has cancer, so they set up a site to earn money to help pay for the treatments. Please go and see what you can do.
The site is receiving donations and you can bid on items. There's a lot of great stuff!

Back on the Band Wagon

Well we haven't been having our family home evenings as much as we should. Bad, I know!
Sidenote: That's where we set aside time for the family and have a small lesson, games and dessert!
Well we finally made time and went over our new family charts I've been working on.


Nothing fancy, no time for that!
Just something to keep track of what they are doing.
We also talked about the importance of journal keeping. I explained that one day they will want to look back and remember important dates and events. Also one day they will have children and grand-children that will want to know more about them. So I gave them a journal jar/box with questions. Tomorrow we will be designing our jars/boxes (whichever they choose). The jar/boxes will hold questions for them to pull out and answer in their journals or blogs.
I'll post pics when their finished.

Okay so I thought this would be fun for me also. Even though I blog I could pull out a question and answer it.
So here goes...? Have I ever stood up for what I believe, even when it was hard? When?
Well this takes me back to HS.
One day this kid/friend in my class says to me, "How come you never cuss?"
I said, "Because I choose not to, it's not me!"
He said, "That's great, be you, don't change for anybody"!
Sidenote: this was freshman year!
Then came our senior year.
Same guys says to me, "I'm so amazed that your the same, you haven't changed. Don't ever change, stay sweet and unique"!
It amazed me that he watched me all those years! Good thing I stayed true to myself!
So what about you?