2010 has come and is about to go!!!

2010 you have been an AMAZING year! You have brought so much joy and heatache to our small little family, but I wouldn't change a thing! I'm grateful for all the fun times and the hard times. For all the happy times and the depressing times. For all the belly laughs and the tears that have been shed. You have shown me that I can do ANYTHING that I put my mind to. I'm a better person,wife, mother, daughter, sister, and friend. Here is to another AMAZING year... 2011 I hope you can live up to all my expectations since 2010 rocked my world!

Highlights from 2010:

*I powered though all my 2010 resoutions! HOORAY!!!!!

#1 No more soda (did it!)

#2 Run the Disneyland Half Marathon (did it!-pregnant)

#2a Run the Del Mar 10 K (did it! with the greatest of friends)

#2b Do the Riverside Tin Man (did the swim part!- it was cancelled after that)

Ham and Potato Casserole

*Do you have lots of ham left over, and you don't know what to do with it? I was in this predicament today and so I decided to search the Internet for a NEW yummy recipe, and this is what I found! IT IS AMAZING!!!!

Leftover ham, chopped

3-4 med. potatoes, sliced thin

1 onion, chopped

1 recipe white sauce (to follow)

1/2 c. grated Cheddar cheese

1 tsp. parsley

Salt & pepper to taste

Butter a baking dish and line bottom with a layer of potatoes, top with onions, on top of onions put a layer of ham, then repeat layers. On last layer, place ham around edges, leaving a space in the center. Pour white sauce in the center and shake gently so sauce will run down into the other layers or take a knife and make holes for the sauce to run down. Place cheese in the center, sprinkle with parsley. Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes and then uncover and bake for 30 more minutes.

WHITE SAUCE:
3 tbsp. flour

3 tbsp. butter

1 1/2 c. milk

Salt & pepper to taste

Melt butter. Add the flour until mixed well. Add milk, salt and pepper. Stir until thick on medium heat.

Our Girls

As you can tell our girls LOVE being best friends! Lizzie loves being the mother hen, and telling on her little sister. I think it is quite funny! Lizzie has become my drama queen, and Krislynn has become the tough one, and wrestles Lizzie to the ground. It usually ends with Krislynn pulling Lizzie's hair or biting her. I think she is finally getting her back for all the fun stuff Lizzie has put her though. All in all they are the greatest of friends. Krislynn loves to mimic Lizzie, and they love to get into trouble together. When you find my house quiet you know they are into something since they love to use their LOUD voices 24/7. I'm grateful for these girls, and the smiles they bring to my face daily, hourly, minutely, and secondly. They love to cuddle one second and the next they are wrestling each other to the ground. Thank goodness they are so cute!!! Guys are going to need to be super tough to date these girls to even last in our household.

Christmas

This year we had a great Christmas. Santa came and delivered all our presents on time. Lizzie was a little worried since she saw presents under everyone else trees and not ours. I kept reminding her she was on naughty watch with Santa, and that no presents would be delivered unless she tried harder to be good. Well she tired extra hard to be good... thank goodness or we would have a bare tree. The girls loved opening all their presents, and Lizzie got a little present happy. Every time she saw a present she would start unwrapping it even if it wasn't hers. We had to remind her all presents were not for her, and everyone needed a chance to open something. Lizzie LOVES her Leapster, and Krislynn loves her Tangled quad. Lizzie loves to drive her around on it. We hope your Christmas was as magical as ours.

Another Christmas Craft

This is a super easy Snowflake craft!

What you need:
*A snowflake coloring page
*white glue
* salt or sugar
*a paintbrush
*9x13 pan

How to do it:
Step 1: get all your supplies together
Step 2:squirt glue all over snowflake
step3: have the child use the paintbrush and cover the entire snowflake in glue
Step 4: pour in either salt or sugar (depending what you have on hand)
Step 5: have the child move the pan around so the salt or sugar will spread over all of the snowflake
Step 6: let the snowflake dry. (You could cut it out and make it an ornament)

Enjoy!!!

Another Christmas Craft

This is everything you will need for this craft (picture,2 eyes,pom pom, 1 brown pipe cleaner, 3 craft sticks, a red ribbon, and a glue gun)
glue all 3 sticks together in a triangle shapeTrace triangle shape on back of picture

Cut out triangle shape and make sure it fits within the triangle

This is how to make the reindeer antlers

Cut one brown pipe cleaner in half, and follow pictures on how to do the rest.Them glue antlers to the back of the triangle frame. glue picture over the backside of the antlers

this is what it should look like after gluing the picture on the triangle
Then glue on two eyes

glue a pom pom for a nose
Take the ribbon and glue the ends together, and then glue to the back of the picture
Reindeer picture art!!!

ENJOY!!!

SHHH... Christmas Presents

So I saw these and had to make some for my girls as Christmas gifts. The girls love purses and stuffing a zillion odd and end toys in them. So these will be perfect! They are SUPER easy to make too.
What you need:
*Canvas bag (I got mine at Walmart 3 for $5.00)
*Fabric
*Felt
*Button
*Heat n Bond (got it at Walmart a yard for $2.00)
*piece of wax paper
*Napkin
*pencil
*Scissors
*Word document program

What to do:
Open a word document program and type the child's name you want to make the bag for. Enlarge the print till you get the size you want, and print it out. Cut out the letters, and then you will trace the letters onto the back side of your fabric. (REMEMBER to flip your letters over so your letter won't be backwards after cutting them out) Cut each of the letters out. The you will place the letter on the heat and bond adhesive and cut out a large enough square to have your letter fit on it with a little room surrounding the letter. Turn on your iron (Make sure there is NO steam) Place your wax piece of paper down on your work station to iron on. Place letter on top of wax paper with print facing down. Iron over letter for a couple seconds. Then peel the letter off the wax paper (Make sure the letter is completely stuck to the Heat n Bond paper) Continue with this step till all letters are done.Wipe off your iron with a napkin to get any wax off before continuing. Grab your bag and position the letter how you would like them to look when finished. Peel off backing of each letter and place on canvas back. Iron over letter for a couple seconds till it is bonded to the canvas. Continue this step till all letters are bonded. If you want to add the felt flower cut out 4 flower shapes of different felt pieces. Put a little glue on the on each flower piece to hook them together. Then sew on the flower button. Cut out two felt leaves and glue them to the back of the flower. Then glue the flower to the bag. ENJOY!!!

Lizzie's Weather Chart

So Lizzie is really into the weather, and I have been dying to make her a weather chart. I saw this on Little Gene Green Bean and thought Lizzie would love it! Every morning we sing our Day of the Week song, and then we check out what the weather is like. Now we have a way to chart it, and everyone is a happy camper!!!

Merry Chrismtas

Another Christmas Craft

So today we did marble art, and I forgot how fun and easy it is. Lizzie loved watching the different designs she made as the marbles went back and forth across the paper.

What you need:
*9x13 pan
*marbles
*paper
*paint
*scissors
*tape

How to do marble art:
Place a white piece of paper in the 9x13 pan, and put a couple dots of paint (multiple colors work great) on the paper. Then place 8-10 marbles in the pan, and have the child move the pan back and forth until they get the design they want. Then pull the paper out of the pan, and set it out to dry. Once it is dry you can cut any kind of designs you want, but Lizzie wanted to make a Christmas candy. so I cut 2 white triangles, out and taped them the the back of the painted circle. ENJOY!!!

Tugboat Party

This is the highlight of our backyard!!! The girls LOVE it, and could spend hours going on adventures to far away lands, fighting pirates, and swimming in it, what more do you need?

Ward Christmas Party

We had a party with Santa

Some of our AMAZING moments

but the highlight of each Christmas party...

Cartwheel party on the back lawn at the Stake Center

this was our 2nd Annual Cartwheel Party, and let me tell you it was AMAZING!!! we had everyone from babies to grandpa's out there with us. To all the people who didn't participate this year... be practicing your cartwheels for next year's party!

Oh yeah... and Jenna had an accident!

Today's yummy treat

Well today was full of adventure as you can tell. I needed to make something for the lady I visit teach, and I thought these would be perfect!!! Who doesn't love pretzels covered in chocolate and sprinkles. They are super easy to make, and the crowds go WILD!!!!

What you need:
*Pretzel rods
*dipping chocolate
*sprinkles

How to make them:
First you will need to melt the chocolate (follow directions on the bag), then once the chocolate is ready you will dip the pretzel rod giving it a good covering of chocolate, and then sprinkle them! And lay them on a cookie sheet covered in wax paper, and put them in the fridge for about 5 mins to harden the chocolate. SUPER EASY!!!
ENJOY!!

Today's craft

Today is another super easy craft, yet so fun!!! Today's craft is a hand print reindeer.
What you will need:
*Brown construction paper
*1 googly eye
*1 brown pipe cleaner
*ribbon
*red pom pom
*glue

What to do:
Trace child's hand print on brown paper and cut it out. Then glue on eye, nose, and ribbon. Grab your pipe cleaner and cut it in half. Fold on of the halves in half again, and slightly bend both ends. Then glue onto thumb/head.
Then cut out a little tail and glue it above the pinkie finger, and color the hoofs. Lizzie and Krislynn wanted to use glitter glue that is why some of the hoofs look funny. ENJOY!!!

Another Christmas Craft

Here are some more easy crafts to do with your kiddos. Snowflakes are ALWAYS fun to make. The first one is with pipe cleaners and beads, and the second one is with Popsicle sticks. To make the pipe cleaner snowflake cute 3 or more pipe cleaners the same lenght (depending how many points you want your snowflake to have) then wrap them around each other to form a snowflake, then have your child string the beads onto the pipe cleaners. When you get to the end of the point save about 1/2 inch and and fold it down, and place another bead over the bend piece to help keep the beads in place. Finish each point, and then hang on your tree. While we were on our cruise Angie, my friend, made the Popsicle snowflakes with the girls. You get Popsicle sticks and glue them together to form a snowflake, and then let your child use different materials to decorate them. Enjoy!!!