Thin Mint Cookies

These are a staple at our house during the holidays...I always have these ingredients: Ritz Crackers and Andes Mints...Crushed peppermint if I have it. Thats all you need and they taste just like Girl Scout cookies;) Melt the Andes Mints, dip the Ritz cracker in it, sprinkle crushed candy cane and refrigerate until it is set. Thats it my friends! If you love mint, this will be a favorite!
Here is a quick easy way to package them up...this is an old formula can, cleaned out with some cute Christmas paper wrapped around it.

Advent Calendar

I had to share this fun craft I did...it only took me FOREVER to do...mostly because I'm lazy and my 5 month old isn't letting me do anything these days:) This was an easy craft, just lots of cutting and gluing. There is a fabulous tutorial on what to do on Splitcoast Stampers.
Here are your materials...

5 papers for the big squares

black cardstock for the big squares and letters/numbers

3 pieces of cardstock for the scalloped circles

1 paper for the circles under the numbers

1 paper for around the tin

24 tins...I used Wiltons favor tins...for weddings

24 pieces of velcro

lots of glue

Terrifically Tacky Tape (like 4 rolls of it)

16x20 canvas

Here is what I put in my tins:

Some were filled with candy

Some have "read a Christmas book" on it...I wrapped all our Christmas books and the boys get to take turns opening one up.

The rest of the days have an event to do for that day:

Decorate the Christmas tree

Go to the Ward C-mas Party

Go to the Nativity at the Stake Center

Write letters to Santa

Go to Holiday in the Park at Six Flags

Drive around looking at Christmas lights

Decorate Gingerbread Houses

Watch Polar Express and drink hot cocoa

Make sugar cookies

Watch Grinch

Have a special Christmas FHE

Make Reindeer sparkles...oatmeal and glitter...sprinkle on the lawn

Make treats and pass out to friends

Read the Christmas story

Hope this gives you a few ideas on what to do this Holiday season!

Come on Barbie, Let's Go Party...Take 2

The day after the Chuck E. Cheese Birthday was the Family birthday. This party had much more work involved and I had so much fun putting it together!

Here is the banner I made...got the idea off of Polkadots & Pirates.
The cake. I loved making this! Fondant isn't something I have really ever played with. I have made one cake with it, so I was a bit nervous. I think I will forever make cakes with fondant. Loved it! You can hide your mistakes so easily!
A close up of the top...yes, I used feathers and some pink glitter balls and the Barbie head was off of the invites that Whitney made.

The treat table was outside...I couldn't put the banner outside because it was so windy and the cake had to stay inside or else it would be destroyed. On the right I put cute little votive candle holders on there filled with milk and then a cookie on top...I didn't put those out till right before. For those of you who want to know what is on the table:

I made paper cones and filled them with Crunch 'n Munch,

Chocolate covered Pretzels

Pink and White Marshmallows

Circus Cookies

Strawberry Whoppers

cookies and milk

strawberry gummies

Oreo truffles (one bag of oreos and one 8oz. pkg. of cream cheese...mix together, freeze, dip in milk chocolate, freeze and then you can drizzle pink chocolate on them)

good and plenty
This is just a funny that Dr. Brown wanted me to post on my blog...we love the fake flowers in her planters;)

Thanks for letting me help with the party Dr. Brown...I hope you liked everything!

Halloween Crafts

Just wanted to share the love of some cute Halloween crafts that I have done lately.

This is a darling little countdown that I've seen all over the place. You need (2) 4x4's and another slab of wood to fit them, grab some vinyl (you will need 2: #1, #2 and make sure the #3 and 0 are on a different block.), 6 different sheets of paper and modge podge the paper and then add the vinyl. Voila...cuteness
I made this several Halloween's ago at my friend Gwens for a little craft night...love LOVE love it. It is a paper mache house that I got from Hobby Lobby and then you just put cute paper around and modge podge it:)
EEK letters, again, 3 pieces of wood (duh) and vinyl letters and modge podge (what would I do without this stuff???)

Cuteness

This was for Noah's teacher...I think they turned out cute! My new favorite thing is rub-ons. They truely are the greates thing ever!
I used my cricut for the "Lift"...gotta love the cricut:)

Suck-Up Gift

For the first day of school Caden gave his teacher this cute little gift. On meet the teacher night we saw that her room was decked out in Dr. Seuss things, so we went with that. We did hand sanitizer with star rub ons and I glued/modge podged the Dr. Seuss on there.
This cute little thing is a canned good filled with red and blue M&M's ...there is a great tutorial on Not So Idle Hands to see how they are made. These were so much fun to do!!

Family Tray

I made this project the other day and I love the way it turned out! I got the idea on a blog that I just love...Livin' Life. The one she shows is a Christmas Cookie Tray. Just think of all the possibilities!! You can change out the paper for Birthday, Summer Time, Halloween, Thanksgiving, etc. These were so easy to make. If you have a Cricut (which I just got one:) Yeah!!) You can do even more!!
This was so easy to do. Just get an 11 x 14 picture frame, make a cute scrapbook page depending on the season and then frame it. Get 2 pieces of cabinet hardware and then screw them into the picture frame. You might want to make sure that the picture frame is wooden...

Its a fun, quick craft you can whip out in no time!

I Think I'm Nesting??

Over the last couple of weeks I have been out of control.  I think it is due to Nesting...Or maybe they finally figured out what was wrong with me (dizzy, passing out all the time, can't breathe, etc) was I had low iron (what makes me mad is that I had this with the other 2 boys and they never figured that one out?  I mean come on!!  I have had to quit driving towards the end of my pregnancies...all I had to do was take a simple iron pill??  OK...I'm off my soap box).   So, since I have had so much energy, I have been sewing, painting, cleaning, organizing etc.  So here's a sampling of what I have been up to:

Some burp cloths and binky clips.  There is a tutorial on how to do the binky clips on Little Birdie Secrets (I love them:)
Bibs, burp cloths and diaper/wipee holders.  I just LOVE this fabric.  
More cuteness...
Burp cloths, bibs and tagee blanket.
Framing the amazing pics my friend Ambyr took of the boys.
A sneek peek of the babies room.  Tonight we are getting the chair rail up.  When that's done, I get to hang everything on the walls, like these guys:
I got the idea from the Nesting Place.  For some reason the link she gives is taking me some random something...Anyway.  They have been fun to make, I have 3 more that I am making.  Can't wait to get them hung...if only I could figure that out.  It's made out of styrofoam.  Should be interesting, but I WILL figure it out:)  

Anyway.  That's what I have been up to.  Thankfully the boys get really excited when I make anything for their brother and not mad at me.  I did have to make them a cute blanket made out of the rockstar/flame fabric above.  That made them excited.  I think we are all ready for this little guy to come.  I have 12 weeks left.  Ugh.  It's going to be a long 12 weeks.  It is already 92 degrees outside and it is April.  That can't be a good sign.  At least I'm not in Colorado where it is still snowing!!

YW Birthdays

I needed to come up with something cheap for my Laurels for their Birthdays.  They said they wanted me to make them cupcakes and then we sing, "Happy Birthday".  But things get too busy and thats alot of cupcakes to make:)  So, I thought and thought and came up with this.  I got a BIG Mason jar, put the cakemix in that and then typed up the recipe for them.  Then of course just made the jar look cute.  I also got them some frosting and wraped paper around that as well.
This is the final product.  I just wraped the two in some cellaphane and tied it up with a bow.  This whole thing probably cost about $2.  Not too shabby!  The girls were pretty excited about them!  Just a thought for all you YW leaders out there, or even good for VT or for a friend.  You could even add cupcake liners, candles, put it in a cute basket with that crimpy stringy paper on the bottom.  Just a thought!!

Bridal Shower, Recipe Box

Last week I went to a good family friends Bridal Shower. Every person invited was given a room as their gift assignment. I got the kitchen. I got her a bundt pan and this cute recipe box. I gave her all the recipes I had that would go in the bundt pan, and some other tried and trues...Anyway, I know I have posted some of these before, but this one turned out so cute, I had to post it!!

Costumed Candleholders

Wanted to share another little Halloween craft I did...Pumpkin Candleholders. Of course it is from Martha...They were really easy to do, you just have to make sure that the hurricanes you use are flat, strait up and down, no curves. Otherwise the tissue paper will not stay down flat! Also, make sure you have a really good exato knife...there are some tight corners you will have to cut out!

You can also see the Halloween banner that is peaking out. I got it at Hobby Lobby, but for all of you who can sew...have at it! I have seen lots of banners lately, the scrapbooked ones are so cute! That may be a project for another day...

Leave Me a Message!!

I found this cute idea from Mish Mash...I saw this picture frame on her blog and thought they were adorable! (If you have not been to her blog...have fun looking! Give yourself a good couple of hours to get through all her great ideas!) Then my mind started thinking...I could do a Halloween theme, Christmas, Valentines Day, St. Patty's Day, Easter, B-day, An Everyday one, etc...So, I am in the process of making one for the different holidays and I keep it right by my phone so I can take down messages and give myself different reminders!
I found the 10x10" frame at Michaels for $5. I found the paper and ribbon at Hobby Lobby. I inked the edges of the paper to make it stand out a little bit more. You don't have to dress them up too much because you want to leave enough room for messages.

BOO!

This is just a fun little craft that I did last year, but since my blog did not exist then, I get to post it now! I got the letters at this amazing store called Recolections, unfortunately they closed down:( You can find paper mache letters at JoAnn's or Hobby Lobby. Get creative on how you make each letter! First step you have to do is paint the letters, I chose black. Then I had an orange glitter paint I painted on top to give it some bling.
I do not know why this picture is this way...everywhere else it is the right way, it just wants to make me mad...sorry! Anyway, all the letters were chalked with orange. I used lots of ribbon and some cute Halloween buttons that I found. This O has orange glitter for some of the stipes
This O is a fun spider web, chalked the edges, lots of ribbon. Once all the paper is on, modge podge it so it can have "the look".

Welcome to Texas!

***UPDATE: I totally forgot to add where the tins idea came from: Dannie's Designs and you can buy the tins here!

My brothers new in-laws were coming to Texas for the Houston Reception and we wanted to give them a little welcome bag...we put some fun Texas stuff in there, lots of snacks, chocolate, as well as a list of hot spots in Houston that they could visit and eat. Here are the tins I made.
They are just Hershey Nuggets wrapped in cute paper.
Also we wrapped matching paper on the water bottles and added a little "to go" Crystal Light flavoring.
Here is the final product. We got this idea from my sister-in-law, Ainsley. When her and Josh got married, we had a bag waiting in our hotel room. We loved it and thought it was so nice to have. We had maps to get us everywhere...loved it. Thanks for the inspiration Ainsley!

Paper Bag Scrapbooks

Just wanted to share a fun idea with you! I'm sure you have all seen these and probably made one...but, I was excited with how cute this turned out! We were making these for YW and I needed a sample for them so they could whip them out quickly (because with out a sample, it would take forever!!). So, this is what I came up with!
I used lots of rub-ons...those are great! My new favorite thing!
I must say that it is all about the ribbons! Lots and lots of ribbons, and buttons, and crystal brads.
On the right you can see a little tab...you just pull it out of the paper bag opening and you can journal on that.
Just as an FYI and you are going to make one: make sure that when you are putting the bags together, lay them going alternate ends. (Opening on the left and then on the right). A good resource is here.

Recipe Boxes

I just wanted to share these adorable (if I do say so myself:) recipe boxes I made for the YW who are graduating from High School. I had all the YW leaders make some recipe cards to put in them and voila...cute gift (hopefully the girls will like them!)
The three different styles I did...
Inside the box
What the recipe index looks like. The stamps are from Stamp'n up.