Cookie time

Ever year me and my aunt Leshia have a tradition of making sugar cookies. No matter how busy we are, what the weather is like, what we have going on we make time to do cookies. This year we had wonderful weather so yesterday I was off and Leshia took a half day and we spent all afternoon rolling, cutting, and baking.

We made 25 dozen cookies!! That is 2 batches. WOW that is a lot of cookies!!!  This is just a few of the cookies. After we got done baking all those cookies we had to clean up :( That part was not so fun but had to be done.

This is me and m favorite Aunt and I after baking all the cookies and cleaning up. When we finished up we when in town and did a little shopping. We went to a thrift shop and found a cute lamp for her granddaughter and I found a few supplies to make some crafts with. I also found a great sweater with a big Christmas kitty on it for a gag gift to my little sister. She is going to hate it!!! I love it!!

So that was a busy day off but I had so much fun!! Now for the next family tradition Frosting all the cookies with my nephews and niece. Can not wait for that. The babies are going to be big enough to help this year!!

Giveaway winner!

The winner of the JOY block set is Laura Beth!!! I will get your block set out right away.

 Thank you all for entering.

 

Block Giveaway!

Here is the "Block Party" like a promised. I have had many many orders. Here is a few pictures of the first set of orders.

(Please excuse the mess)

 

I am now going to start working on the second set of orders.

 

 

 

Now for the exciting news:

I am going to do a giveaway!!! This is my first giveaway so here are the rules. You will get one entry for every comment and one entry for following my blog. I will close the giveaway on December 5th and pick the winner after 7pm on 12/5/12. I will notify the winner and get your address and mail our your blocks the next day.

 

The blocks you will win is a Block set that says JOY and it will be in Christmas theme.

Best of Luck to you all!

Block party

I will be posting tomorrow about all the blocks I have been making! I am excited to show you all my blocks.

Mom's Birthday Gift!

Today is my mommas 49th birthday!!! I called her bright and early....ok more like 9:00 when I rolled out of bed to wish her a Happy Birthday!! She was happy to hear from me. I told her that we were all coming over and bringing supper and cake. After I got off the phone I thought shoot I don't have a gift for her yet :S

I got up and went to the craft room and started searching for what I could make for her. Then I remembered a pin from pinterest that I had seen on how to make a fun painting. So I got all the stuff and started.

You need a canvas (Any size will work) Paint in as many colors as you want, a paper plate, round sponge brushes, Black or brown paint pen that is used to draw branches, and spray paint in any color for your background color.

Once you got all your supplies ready then get started. I chose not to paint my background because it is going in a white room. I just drew random branches on the page. (I can not believe how great of an artist I am)

Then after you draw in your branches start adding the color dots! You can add as many or as few as you like just keep going until it looks just right. I am very happy how it turned out!!

So after supper we opened gifts and my mom was very happy to see the painting. She is planning on painting the living room in the upcoming weeks so she was excited to have some new artwork to hang on the wall.

I am so glad Mom had a great birthday. Thanks for taking the time to stop by and check out my blog!!

What I have been doing.

I have been working like a busy bee lately. I had a lot of block orders because I ran a sale on them until the day after Thanksgiving. I finished the last of them up this morning at like 2 a.m. I then went to bed and woke up to 3 more orders. I am glad to be done with all block orders now.

I can now move on to finishing up the last few Christmas gifts that I need to make. I will be posting some more pictures and stuff coming up. I swear I will post more because I have been slacking.

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!

Happy Halloween 2012

I want to wish all of you a Happy Halloween!!!

This was the first year in about 6 years that I decided to dress up. Then I had to try to figure out what to dress up as. After a lot of thinking I came up with Penelope Garcia I have always loved her style!! I like the bright colors and her fashion.

I think I pretty much nailed the look!!!

I even took a cute picture with my niece!!

 

 

Happy Halloween!

My Birthday Project

This year for my birthday I wanted to do something different. I wanted to give back instead of getting. I told Brian about this Facebook site called The Birthday Project and said I wanted to do 28 Random acts of kindness for the 28 years I have been alive.

I started off making up a list and getting all my supplies ready to do my RAOK projects. Then I decided that I would spread this out over a week because if I were trying to do it all on my birthday I would not be able to do it all on my own. So we started the Saturday before my Birthday.

1. Send coupons to over sea solder families. They can use coupons that are 6 months expired. It is a wonderful place to donated to for more information go to Coupon donation

 

 

2. Give the mailman a thank you candy bar.

 

     3. Leave change in a vending machines. This one was fun!!  When I walked back by someone already used it so I put more up.

 

4. Leave a gift for our server.

 

 

 

5. Leave diapers and wipes in a changing station. I did this at the changing station in a outlet mall. I hope whoever found this enjoyed it!

 

6. Smile at everyone and give out complements. This one made me feel great about myself because everyone smiled back.

 

7. Take coloring books and colors to waiting room of the houspital. I took these things in and the nurse at the nurse's station was happy to let me put these things out for the kids!

 

8. Made banana bread for a few friends. They were happy to get these.

 

 

9. Leave a box of sidewalk chalk at the local playground.

 

 

10. Tape lotto tickets to gas pumps that say it’s your lucky day. I wonder if they won anything off it.

 

11. Tape lotto tickets to the inside of a bathroom stall that say it’s your lucky day.

 

12. Put quarters in toy machines. I seen a lot of kids walk by and get toys out of them they were all smiling and it made me so happy to see.

 

13. Hold the door for everyone I see.

 

14. Tape happy signs to bathroom mirrors.

 

15. Sent a birthday card and gift to an Internet friend.

 

16. Leave an extra big tip for our server.

 

17. Returned all the carts in the wal-mart parking lot. This one I about didn't do because it was raining out but I did it because I said I was going to so I did.

 

18. Leave pennies at the local playground for kids to find.

 

19. Left bubbles with notes for the kids who find them.

 

20. Leave coupons on items at the grocery store. I liked the idea of this because it is always nice to save a little money when you can.

 

 

21. Sent a card to someone I haven’t seen in a long time. I forgot how nice it feels to write a letter to a friend the old fashion way.

 

22. Put change in every charity bottle I seen.

 

23. Picked up trash wherever we went.

 

24. Pay a strangers tab at a restaurant. This one was fun to do but the waitress didn't know what to think at first but she was so happy to deliver our message to the little family that we paid for.

 

25. Tuck happy notes in windshields of cars in a parking lot.

 

26. Opened the phone book and mailed a card to someone I randomly picked.

 

27. Leave a thing of laundry soap and quarters at a laundry mat.

 

   28. Put change in Automatic riding machines. I knew this one would bring joy to a lot of kids.

 

This made me think of how luck I am to be able to do this. What if BIRTHDAYS became less about getting stuff, getting attention, and getting older and more about MAKING THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE?

 

I will be doing this again next year. I don't even think I will wait until my next birthday to do some more Random Acts of Kindness.

 

 

 

 

National Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Day.

October 15 is National Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Day. A day when across blogs and facebook and twitter and support groups, friends and family are paying remembrance to the children who have changed their lives.

Some honor their losses through a balloon release, others lighting candles, others a trip to the cemetery, and others still with a simple picture and a prayer whispered to the wind. Some visit the place where ashes have been spread, some pay tribute in places where a tree has been planted– a living tribute to a child who is not.

One in four women have endured a miscarriage. which means it's still a pretty common occurrence.

Today is the day we remember. Today we recognize the pain, the love, the anguish that so many have felt so much. Today we raise awareness.

Today we remember our four little ones that we lost to early. We lit a candle and said a little prayer.

My heart goes out to anyone who has lost a child.

Color Run

It is coming upon our 3 year wedding anniversary and we wanted to do something fun and different that we have never done together. I had a few friends run the Color Run 5k in Minnesota this summer so we decided that would be something fun we could do together. So we signed up and yesterday was the day.

We got up to a cold yet sunny day. With it being so cold we had to add a few layers but we still had fun. We got there about 11:30 and stayed in the car until 12:15 and then we decided to brave the cold and go get in line. We were about in the middle of the pack so we had to wait longer.

Once we got started we were getting passed left and right. We had already decide that we were going to walk/jog the whole way because we are not runners. We came up to the first color station and I didn't get my mouth closed all the way so I got some in my mouth and it was like eating chalk! We finished and we had such a blast!! My parents came to watch us and take a few pictures. I am glad they came I know a 5k is no big deal but it was nice that they came and supported us.

After the race we went to the car and pretty much stripped down and changed into other clothes. My running clothes were not as dirty as Brian's but I think that is because we stayed close when we walked and they mostly aimed at him when we went into the color station. When we changed and finally got out of the parking lot after about 45 minutes we headed for Jethro's (BBQ place) It was some yummy food and we were both so hungry because we didn't eat anything since before we left the house at 9.

                                                   Here are a few pictures from the race.

Me ready to go!! I added gloves and a scarf for the race.

Brian doing a little dance to keep warm.

Ready to go.

Here we are at about the finish line. Not a great pic but it shows how colorful Brian is compared to me.

I would half to say this is by far one of the funnest things we have done for our anniversary. If you ever get the chance to do the Color run I say DO IT!!!

It's time for Blocks again

Last year around Christmas time I started a side business making name blocks. I quite enjoy this because it gives me a chance to use my crafting skills! The extra money at Christmas time doesn't hurt either. Last year I had a total of 32 orders for block sets and I hope to double it this year. So far I have had 10 orders. Now for the fun part....showing them off! Here are a few well OK more than a few pictures of the blocks I have completed.

I hope you enjoyed taking a peek inside my block making shop :)

Old time recipes

I asked my mom the other day if she had the recipe for the Carmel popcorn that Brian loves so much. She said let me look and took 20 minutes digging through her recipe box! She was saying the whole time under her breath god I wish these were in some kind of order....I should put these in a book. That got me thinking with Christmas coming up I should make her a recipe book!

Mom and Dad are on vacation this week so it was a great time to go get her recipes and copy them. I went today and got the recipe box and wow you are not kidding she has a ton of recipes in there. I also found a lot of Grandmas old recipes and by old I mean over 40 years old! I was very glad to find all of those recipes because it brings back great memories.

So now comes the hard part. Organizing and categorizing and trying to figure out how and what I want to do for a recipe book. I am open for suggestions... I need to get started on this to get it done in time for Christmas.

More family time

We spent about an hour and a half driving all over the city and calling all the liquor stores looking for Templeton Rye. This is how our day started off. We did end up finding it at Target of all places. I know we should have been trying to find a Birthday gift for Brian's dad sooner than today the day we are doing his birthday but up until today we were not sure what we were going to get him. (He loved it by the way)

Today we had a good day we spent the day with Brian's family. We spent the day celebrating my father-in-law's birthday. We had lunch at Bang-Bang's (Mongolian grill) This was my first time eating anything like this. I have got to say not to bad not my favorite but I would go back for Brian if he wanted. After a long lunch we went bowling! It was the first time my niece had ever been so she had a blast! Brian won and he had to gloat a little bit :) All and all we had a fun day and It was nice to get to spend time with Brian's family because we don't get to see them to often.

...The one part of the day that made me tear up a little was after we got done eating and we were sitting around talking. Brian's dad had his granddaughter on his lap and they were looking at each other and smiling and he was like Papa loves you and she said I love you to Papa. I hope that one day we have a little one and he or she will be able to sit on Papas lap and tell him how much they love him. It is time's like this that make Infertility suck so much!

French Toast bake

With the days getting colder and the nights longer I wanted to make something good for breakfast that made the house smell amazing. I was looking through my pampered chef cookbooks and I found a great recipe for Overnight French Toast Bake.

Gather all your ingredients

Cube your bread

Poor the mixture over the bread and put in the fridge overnight.

This is the amazing yummy you get when you bake it in the morning.

 

Recipe

4 eggs                                             a dash of cinnamon

                                      3/4 cup milk                                   10 slices of bread cubed

 

Mix eggs milk and cinnamon in a bowl then cut your bread in to cubes spray your covered dish and cut your bread into cubes. Put the bread in the dish and poor the mixture over it and put it in the fridge overnight. In the morning take out of the fridge and poor a bit of syrup over the whole thing and cook at 350 degrees for 30-45 minutes until done.

Plate and enjoy!!

  

A baptism and a Birthday

The time was finally right for the twins to get baptised. I was asked to be the godmother of my niece Carly. I was so excited I am already the godmother of my nephew Caden. Sunday was a beautiful day for it the weather was amazing and everyone looked great all dressed up.

Carly wanted no part of being in that beautiful dress and being held by anyone but mom. She cried very loudly thought the whole thing. It was kind of comical when the priest kept asking if she wanted to take over and run the show or when he was like well that's not nice don't call me those names. At least he had a seance of humor.

When we were all done we went back to mom and dad's house to have taco's all the kids loved it. After lunch we went to the bowling alley for Caden's 4th birthday.

Caden wanted a Piggy party (he is such a farm boy at heart) he even asked me to make all the decorations for the party. I was not sure how all this pink piggy stuff was going to work out but I think it turned out pretty cute if I do say so myself.

I think my piggy ears and Piggy snout was the best decoration. I also think the big kids liked it as much as the little kids!

We had a amazing weekend and it was so fun to get to see family. It was nice to take a little break from our busy life and a weekend to slow down and enjoy the little things.

Crafty projects

I have been working on a few craft projects the past two weeks. I am going to post some pictures they are not going to have tutorials with them or anything but I want to show you all what I have been up to!

This is me and my sister working on a canvas that she asked me to help me her with. She says I got all the crafty genes in the family.

This is Mitch, Megan, and Brian trying to help figure out how to place the flower pedals on that onsie.

This is what it looks like when it is done. I love making these they are so so easy and so cute.


I am now starting to work on more blocks. I already have some orders for Christmas. I will do a blog post on my awesome blocks in a few days. Hope you enjoyed these pictures