Goodbye

This is my last post for December and my last post for 2010! How crazy is it that another year is over?

Are you guys goal setters? I became one during college. I would set goals for things that I would want to have happen during each semester and things I wanted to accomplish. It was fun to look back and see what I was able to accomplish. It also helped recognize how the Lord helped me grow and change. 

Last year I had three goals, that I remember anyway.  I'm not as dedicated as I was during college but I still try.
1) read the Book of Mormon by the year's end based off the challenge given to me in Relief Society- COMPLETED...today :)
2) Write in my journal everyday- FAILED
3) Write 4 posts a month-AVERAGED out to four posts a month.


Here are my  2011 Goals:
1) Start a new blog that doesn't contain our personal info....I just keep getting stuck deciding on a title for the blog. Any suggestions??
 -Keep up with four posts a month

2) Instead of just reading the scriptures,  I want to focus studying one topic a month.

3) Healthy cooking.  Are you shocked?? My sister would be since I always tend to make desserts laden with cream cheese and I've recently learned that everything is better with butter.  But  my dad was just diagnosed with diabetes.  I decided I need to be better for both Victory and myself.  We both have parents who have diabetes.  Even though I love my yummy fattening foods I need to learn to cook some more healthy meals and desserts... without cream cheese. I'll share any good recipes I find!  And if you have any good suggestions for where to find good recipes let me know!

4) I know this is whimpy, but since I've gotten out of the habit these last few months, I'm going to only set my goal at exercising at least once a week.  Hopefully that will get me started and I'll get back into the desire to exercise more often. :)

Good luck setting and achieving your new year's resolution!! Goodbye 2010!

HALLELUJAH!

I think this video is so awesome not to mention that I LOVE this song. But there's something about it being in a place so ordinary with ordinary people singing that makes it that more touching. I was practically weeping when I first watched it.

Crafting fool

Here are a few things that I've been working on over the past few weeks...except for the gift I made for Victory which I won't be posting about today...but I'm quite proud of it, I just hope he likes it.

So here are the things that I've been busy with.

Christmas ornaments for the sibling ornament exchange. Really, it's probably cheaper to just buy an ornament than to make them not to mention the time and burnt fingers that come along with making them. Hope they know they were MADE WITH LOVE!!!

Christmas wreath out of Lima beans. My friends used acorns, which might have been the better route. A friend made a comment about these type of wreaths in general about how they look like scaley. I didn't think that first but I'm definitely seeing it now. I might have to spray paint it to help it out...maybe. At any rate, lots of hot glue and burned fingers. You'd think I'd learn.

Christmas count down blocks from the ward craft day, that I ended up missing so I had to do all the crafts on my own. This comes with a base as well but it didn't seem to work with this shelf. And can I note, that my favorite Christmas decoration that I own is that snow globe? I love it. It makes me happy every time I see it.

 Christmas plate made with fabric. The idea came from the ward craft day. I don't think this plate will be very useful for everyday use but they did use them to serve cookies at the Relief Society dinner tonight.

 Christmas card clothespins. Love this. I am anxiously awaiting your cards in the mail so that I can hang them with all of these cute clothespins. *wink*wink* jk. I'm not very good at sending them out but I sure love them when I get them.

 Foam beaded Christmas trees. I think I might suggest not doing this one. It seemed to take forever, however when I got to the last one it seemed to go faster. BURNT FINGERS. Not only would glue get stuck to your fingers but the beads would too. HOT TAMALE!  I do like them. Victory says they look like moldy corn on the cobs. :)

Well anyway, that's all folks. I'm taking a break from crafting for awhile. I'm pooped. My glue gun needs a rest. And I need sit back and enjoy the Christmas season.  (But when I do get crafting again THIS is will be one of the things that I do)

Until next time. :)

Family

I know its been awhile since I've blogged. I'm going to have to pick it up if I'm going to get reach my goal of 4 posts a month.  I have been busy crafting. Crafting like a crazy fool. I think I'll have to take a break for a few weeks. I think I've gone through at least 50 glue sticks and tuckered out my poor hot glue gun.  I think I have enough Christmas decorations for our little apartment. I'll post pictures sometime this week.

Before Thanksgiving we had our family pictures taken by a guy in our ward. He did a great job, especially with the added challenge of trying to shoot fairly awkward people and then having to deal with the wind and cold. Sorry, there are a lot of pictures but I didn't feel like deciding which ones to put up.

happy hearts

I love the holiday season. I love that it starts off with Thanksgiving. It's my favorite holiday but I love the Christmas season. I love the trees, the lights and the music. It just makes my heart happy.

My sweet girl waiting for her Thanksgiving dinner.

 Our Thanksgiving craft. I love how many different ways there are to decorate a styrofoam cone.

 Trotting out to find our Christmas tree....

Our Tree.  ahhh happiness.  I love the magical ambiance a christmas tree brings. I'm so excited for this Christmas season!!!

Another Yum

For the pampered chef party I made a little treat to eat with the food our Chef made us. I picked a recipe that kinda went against my rules. It calls for Oatmeal Cookie Mix. I hate it when recipes call for pre-made things that I could make myself for a lot less-just tell me what I need.  So I spent $2.50 on a stupid cookie mix...doesn't sound like a lot but it adds up.

To me, this dessert was pretty good but it wasn't like melt-in-my-mouth-can't get enough-WOW! But the girls at the party seemed to like it and wanted the receipe. So here it is, thanks to Betty Crocker!

Pumpkin Streusel Cheesecake Bars

Cookie Base

1	pouch (1 lb 1.5 oz) Betty Crocker® oatmeal cookie mix
1/2	cup crushed gingersnap cookies
1/2	cup finely chopped pecans
1/2	cup cold butter or margarine

Filling

2	packages (8 oz each) cream cheese, softened
1	cup sugar
1	cup canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix)
2	tablespoons Gold Medal® all-purpose flour
1	tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
2	tablespoons whipping cream
2	eggs

Toppings

1/3	cup chocolate topping
1/3	cup caramel topping

	Print these coupons...
	About Concordance™

1. Heat oven to 350°F. In large bowl, stir together cookie mix, crushed cookies and pecans. Cut in butter, using pastry blender or fork, until mixture is crumbly. Reserve 1 cup mixture for topping. Press remaining mixture in bottom of ungreased 13x9-inch pan. Bake 10 minutes. Cool 10 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, in large bowl, beat cream cheese and sugar with electric mixer on medium speed until smooth. Add remaining filling ingredients; beat until well blended. Pour over warm cookie base. Sprinkle with reserved topping.
3. Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until center is set. Cool 30 minutes. Refrigerate about 2 hours or until chilled.
4. Before serving, drizzle with chocolate and caramel toppings. For bars, cut into 6 rows by 4 rows. Store covered in refrigerator.

Ideas, I'm feeling crafty

Every Thanksgiving at my parent's house, the girls work on a craft. So I've been searching blogs for some great ideas. Here are a few of my favorites for thanksgiving and a few that I want to do on my own.

I think this idea is so cute by Somewhat Simple and I really want to capture my daughter's profile because I just can't get enough of it. It's just soo adorable.  I'm not sure I'll do the glitter part but I think it'll look great anyway.

Holiday Clips from Somewhat Simple. These will be cute, as she suggests, to be used with a string to make a garland of your Christmas cards you receive.

Acorn Wreath- A friend pointed this one out from MADE. I'm not sure about using acorns for a couple of reasons 1) the acorns around here have tops and the ones she uses do not, and 2) apparently, there are maggot-y type of bugs that live in them that began to come out. yuck.  Others have used lima beans or red beans.  She then spray painted through out the year.

Or a cranberry wreath from Martha Stewart

Crayon Cozy from Creative Crate will be fun to have in a few more months...although I'm not sure I'm ready to give her crayons...maybe another year or so. :)

Peppermint Trees from BHG. Also saw this done with buttons-cute but more expensive and I can't seem to find the link for it.

Personalized Candles from the Idea Room

I better get to work...Christmas is just around the corner. :)
AND if you have any craft ideas let me know or good blogs, I'd love to take a look!

Chef'n it up!

Hey guys! I'm having a pampered chef party tomorrow night (Thursday, November 4) at 7:00. Come if you want some free food you don't even have to buy anything. Just call me if you want to come. If you don't want to come and just want to order some pampered chef products you can do it online. Just enter my name for the host and you can click on the button at the top right to shop online.

In only actually own one pampered chef product so far but I LOVE IT! The baking stone is amazing. I have the rectangle stone and it makes the BEST cookies. It cooks them evenly so there are no burned bottoms. Not to mention it is so easy to clean.

Anyway. thought I'd share.

Sweet little Halloween

Hey! Hope you all had a fun Halloween weekend. Halloween is much more fun with kids, isn't it? I know it will only get better as Bekah gets older.  Here she is trunk or treating.

This year I have developed a few pet peeves about trick or treating. If you're old enough to go trick or treating by yourself then you're too old, in my opinion. However, if you are teenager taking a younger sibling then I'm okay with it. But if you're a group of teenagers, take a hike. I obviously don't have the guts to say no but I think I'll just be handing out a lame tiny piece of candy to them. 

The other pet peeve is that kids are just reaching into the candy bowl and grabbing the candy. And maybe that's just how everyone else does it but I grew up with them handing that candy to you or dropping it in your bag.  I find myself fighting a pessimistic view that kids are growing up greedy and without manners.

ANYWAY, we also went to get a pumpkin at a nearby, free, kinda lame pumpkin patch. But it got the job done, we got a pumpkin and got some cute pictures. Sadly, we never got around to carving it.

Mr. Pumpkin Head...I guess that was Victory's  costume. :)

As promised, that if my family ended up having their Halloween party, I'd share a picture of my costume.

1950's Housewife

 I'm happy to report that I did pretty well in the donut eating contest this year.  I came in second, after my brother. Victory, well, he didn't do so well I think my three year old niece beat him. He claims the contest was rigged. hmmm.  

That was our sweet little Halloween week.

Let's Celebrate!

WE MADE IT A YEAR!!!! It's amazing that it's been a whole year since our girl came into the world.

 It's hard to believe she was ever that small.

She's is the funniest, cutest little girl around...of course I'm biased.

She didn't really get into opening gifts. At first she was just going to walk past this one. Until I made the toy make noise, then she worked to get it out. 

I was talking with my mom and sister about whether or not we should have a party for her or not, I said it's more of a celebration for Victory and I that we made it a whole year! My sister laughed and said, you mean mom and Becky (Bekah's babysitters while I worked) made it a whole year. True, we definitely couldn't have done it without them . THANK YOU!  But to make myself feel better, I've been a stay-at-home-mom for six months if you include my maternity leave. It probably sounds lame but I'm still proud to say we have made it a year!

In the end, since our apartment is so small we just had family over to celebrate.

 She didn't really get into the whole cake thing. I ended up cutting a slice and she ate a little. I also stuck her hand into the cake and she just looked me like "what did you just do" and started crying because she had frosting all over her hands.

This was our cake. It looks much more amazing than it tasted. The frosting had 2 CUPS of butter.  IT tasted like chocolate butter. GROSS. If anyone wants cake, come on over, I've got half of it left over. Next time, I think I would make a cool whip frosting instead.

It was a fun birthday celebration! We're happy she's a part of our lives!

An almost perfect fall evening

Tonight Bekah and I got to go to a Halloween party. I was so excited to go to this party. I got to be with friends and have something to distract me from a lonely Friday night.  I used to not get into the whole costume thing but I've actually enjoyed dressing up these last few years-even though I figure it out at the last minute. This evening I was a 1950's housewife. I think it turned out pretty good-sorry no pictures. If my family has a get together I'll dress up and get some pictures. Bekah got to be a butterfly. I was amazed that she left all of her accessories on except her butterfly bracelet that I made for her.

Her little butterfly friend. I love the ribbons she put in her tutu. And the antennas! So cute! Need I say more?

I love this look on her face. She was so distracted with everything and everyone, I couldn't a very good picture.

 Look at this cute Peter Pan! Ca-ute! Their whole family dressed up as characters from Peter Pan.

She kept me busy following her around and around their house making sure she did't get into anything she shouldn't. It was an enjoyable evening with good food  (yummy chicken tortilla soup!) and cute costumes. I just missed Victory, thats all.

Victory was off at a football game in Kearney. The whole time I was away at the party I was hoping that they wouldn't make playoffs. Based off some wildcard point system they could win their game tonight and still not make it to playoffs....this would have been the best case scenario for me and more or less for Victory (He still really would have liked to make it to playoffs) Anyway. He just texted me annnnnnddddd .......wait for it...........they lost. Sad for them but YAY for me! That just means I won a week with my husband! :) 

Stranger no more

We're back! We've been without internet for a few weeks since the people who had a reliable open network connection moved. Bummer. We actually have to pay for the internet now. But that means I finally get to play again!!


We really haven't been up to too much exciting just everyday stuff. Victory is hopefully at the end of his football season. This is the last game unless they go to play offs. Is it terrible that I'm hoping his team won't make it to play offs so that we can have an awesome week long fall break?  I've already started making a list of things we can do to fill up the week. I think I'll be a disappointed girl if they actually make it to play offs.

(Her poor fat lip she got yesterday when she misjudged the distance between herself and the end table.) :(

She has been definitely been keeping me busy. She's been waking up mulitple times a night. If I don't just nurse her she absolutely loose it and I'll still end up feeding her. Sometimes she won't nurse so then I think she is teething, so I give her orajel. When that doesn't work I give her tylenol. And when that doesn't work I go back to trying to nurse her. She is Ca-razy! Sometimes she takes me to my wits end!

But then I get her fun, happy, silly side and I'm completely filled with joy and I can forgive her for going crazy and keeping me up for hours during the night. 

I hopefully won't be stranger anymore and be able to view and post on all of your blogs. I'll catch up, Promise! I have very much missed the blog world.