Friday Favorites 09/23/11

Friday Favorites!!!

So I've finally tried out Pinterest.  And I'm loving it.  Instead of printing out every recipe/craft/decorating/anything idea that I love I can just Pin it.  Then I organize these links onto boards of my choosing.  I haven't yet begin searching through Pinterest.  I think once I do, I'm in trouble (I foresee long nights ahead!)  I've just barely started this but here are some of my favorite finds this week:

Food:

This Pumpkin Monkey Bread from Sugar Crafter looks perfect for fall time!

Oreo Peanut Butter Bites from Kraft
I cannot WAIT to try these out!!! I have a favorite oreo truffle bite but adding peanut butter! YUM!

Crafts:

Fabric Pumpkin Tutorial from Creation Corner looks easy and SO cute! Great for Fall! 

I LOVE this spider cake in a jar for Halloween from I am Baker! How FUN! 

Family:

Now that Winter is coming I can't wait to plan some group dates to keep us entertained.  I LOVE this "Clue" Date from Dating Divas!  I must also mention I LOVE that movie (yes I'm cheesy like that)!

I enjoy finding new ways to tell hubby how much I love and appreciate him.  What a GREAT idea 

THE FIVE SENSES GIFT by Dating Divas.

Just a few of my favorites this week.

Tomorrow is a big trip to the city and hopefully I can stock up on some craft items and cross off some of these "to-dos."

FHE - Heavenly Father Gave Us Commandments Because He Loves Us

Family Home Evening

Heavenly Father Gave Us Commandments Because He Loves Us

(Adapted from Family Home Evening Resource Book Lesson 2)

(I am in no way speaking for the Church, or teaching doctrine. I had simply adapted the lessons found in the resource book to work with my small children and created some visuals. This items are for your personal use and are my personal opinion.)

Scripture: “He keepth the law, happy is he.” (Proverbs 29:18)

Song: “Keep the Commandments” (Children's Songbook p. 146)

Reminder: The younger the child, the smaller the attention span. It is better to do one or two activities that keep your child's interest than attempting to do everything listed and getting frustrated. If your child isn't interested in an activity or discussion, skip it and find something that works. What works for my children won't always work for yours.

For the Parent: One of the hardest experiences in life is watching someone we love break the commandments and follow the path to unhappiness. As parents we can help protect our children from following such a course by teaching them early that the commandments are one of the greatest gifts our Heavenly Father provided. We need to show our children that the commandments keep us on a path to eternal happiness. These commandments ensure prolonged freedom. The commandments are not meant to be a burden to us, but a beautiful blessing. They are gifts from our Heavenly Father who loves us and wants to keep us safe and help us return to him in Celestial glory.


If you want a PDF version of this FHE Lesson you can find it here.  Please remember to print off the graphics in addition to the lesson. 

Preparation:  Print, color, and laminate Happy and sad children. 
                Print and laminate Stairs to Happiness.
                Print and laminate Stairs to Unhappiness.
                Print story of Mama Bear.
                Create clues for a treasure hunt. (I used 7 relatively easy clues for my young kids.)
                Have a treasure treat for kids at the end of the hunt.


Lesson: Talk about how much you love your children. Tell your children the hopes and fears you have for them. Discuss with them different rules that you have established to keep them safe. Examples include not crossing the street alone, not touching a hot stove. Then talk about the rules to teach good behavior such as sharing and serving others.

Read the story of the Mama Bear.

Talk about how much Heavenly Father loves us and wants us to be safe and return to Him. Explain that is why He gave us commandments. They are our “clues” to how to return home.

Explain that some people feel the commandments are hard and trap us. It sometimes looks like those who break the commandments are having fun. At first the commandments seem difficult. Read Alma 41:10: “Do not suppose, because it has been spoken concerning restoration, that ye shall be restored from sin to happiness. Behold, I say unto you, wickedness never was happiness.” (Emphasize the last sentence, “Wickedness never was happiness.” Discuss how Satan makes it look like fun to break the commandments, that those who don't follow the rules benefit. Explain this is temptation. At first it looks like you have more freedom when you don't follow the rules but it actually traps us and it gets harder and harder to follow the right.

Show both stairways. Explain how the more and more choices we make the farther the pathway we go. When following the right, this makes keeping the commandments easier to follow and gives us more benefits and blessings. When following temptation this dark path eventually traps us making it very difficult to escape. Show your doll cut-outs and come up with situations that will lead up one of the stairways. (We gave ours names and I told a one or two sentence story about a choice they made. Example: “Chris's little brother broke his favorite toy. Chris was frustrated and sad but he took some deep breaths and left the room so he wouldn't do something unkind.” We put Chris on Control your temper.) Have the children match the situation to the commandment or sin. Then try to match the blessing or consequence that comes with that choice. Continue this with as many of the choices as your children have attention for.

Make sure you explain that even though Satan tempts and tries to trick us every thing we do is our choice. My son once told me that he hit his brother but it wasn't his fault because Satan made him do it. We must teach our children that we all make our own choices no matter what Satan does, we control ourselves. Also explain that even when we make a bad choice and begin to follow the pathway to unhappiness we can always repent and if we are sincere and faithful Heavenly Father will forgive us and we can try again. We all make bad choices at one time or another, none of us is perfect. Tell of a time when you made a bad choice and how it made you feel. Then explain what you did to repent and how it felt to have that burden released.

Tell of a time when you kept a commandment and it resulted in a special blessing. (Children LOVE to hear stories about their parents. It's a good idea that your children know that you have messed up too, because it will make it that much easier for them to tell you when they've done wrong.)

If you still have their attention tell the story of Nephi and the gold plates. The commandment he was given was incredibly hard but because of his faith and obedience him and his family were greatly blessed.

Talk about commandments that you are grateful for. Ask your children commandments they are grateful for.

Talk about how commandments are like “clues” to return to Heavenly Father. They aren't always simple, but if we follow and succeed we will find our ultimate “treasure.” We did a treasure hunt that of course ended at dessert. I made treasure brownies.

We said a closing prayer and enjoyed our treat.

The paper doll graphics and the stairways are 100% my creation.  These are for non-profit use only.

The graphics for the Mama bear story were found here.

(I didn't create a link to our treasure clues because they were so personalized.  I found the treasure chest clipart at MyGrafico.com here .)

Happy Family Time!!!

Book of Mormon Paper Dolls - Nephi

Book of Mormon Paper Dolls

Nephi Set 1

My kiddos LOVE the Book of Mormon stories, but in between them all, they kinda get them mixed up. What better way for them to learn than using dolls to recreate the stories?

I got this idea from The Red Headed Hostess. She has some free printables too. Her's are generic and you mix and match and add the clothes and accessories. I LOVE hers, but I wanted something more specific so my kids can act out each specific story. So based on her ideas I came up with these:

I must admit my hubby and son were pretty disappointed that Laban's head isn't detachable, perhaps I will have to recreate to appease.

I created a wilderness scene and a city scene. And the following characters: Lehi, Sariah, Nephi, Sam, Laman, Lemuel, Laban, Zoram, 2 soldiers, Angel, there's also Jesus and some children that aren't geared for this story but are useful for many others.

I also created some props: A stick (Laman beats Nephi with), the Gold Plates, Laban's sword, cup of wine, bags of riches, and Laban's cloak that you can put over Nephi.

I printed out the backgrounds, colored and then glued them onto manila folders before laminating. I printed everything on cardstock and then colored and laminated for durability.

I plan on created more stories but started here since it's the first.

Here are the free printable links:

City Scene (2 Pages)

Wilderness Scene (2 Pages)

Nephi Set (4 Pages)

Happy Creating!

An Apple for the Teacher Shareable

An Apple for the Teacher

AGAIN with this HORRIFIC weather! BOOOO! It's almost March. And I do believe that rodent was LYING because Spring is no where closer. And when the weather gets me down, I bake. I bake a lot. So I need a home for my baked goods, because if they all went in my tummy, well, I'd be in even more trouble and there's no way I'd last through my races this year.

So, I whipped up some apple bread. You can find the recipe HERE. It's one of hubby's favorites, it makes 2 large loaves, or 6 mini loaves. **If you're at a high altitude like me you gotta change some things or your bread will probably fall, it'll still taste great tho ;)**

I asked the kiddos who we should take these to, and Hailey says, you give apples to teachers. So I thought, that's a great idea. So I came up with this cute little label:

Get the free printable HERE.

It's super simple, in fact, I designed it while the kids were eating breakfast before school, so nothing fancy. But the kiddos had a blast taking them to their teachers.

HAPPY SHARING!

Crush On You Gift

So for V-Day today, hubby and I agreed we couldn't spend any $, it had to be all homemade. So I did a little combo treat and coupon book creation.

I used a 6 pk of crush bottles.

1. Drink them all. Yum (for the first one, I got pretty sick of soda after number 3 since I was doing it all in 1 day)

2. Wash and I used goo-gone to remove the labels.

3. Turn upside down and let dry, if you start pouring candy in while it's even a tiny wet, you will have a nasty mess and not a good present.

4. While drying, spraypaint or use scrapbook paper to cover box.

I printed mine using Crush that I found at scrapbookbytes.com and then glued on.

5. I designed a front, back and sides, as well as the handle. I've seen these spraypainted and wrapped with a ribbon and it's just as cute.

6. Once bottles are dry fill with yummy candy matching your colors, I did red and pinks for

v-day.

7. Tie a ribbon around each bottle and your treat is ready.

I did an accordian coupon card to go with it. You can find more info and free printables for those HERE.

I did this for Valentine's Day. But this works for anytime you wanna tell your sweetie you love him!

Cold Hands, Warm Heart Printable

So, it's really NO secret... I despise winter. The cold, the snow, the ice, the SUBZERO temperatures (if you live in the Basin like me). I like California winters. Where you can still wear flip-flops and sit in the jacuzzi for new years. My biggest problem my lack of outdoors because you really can't run in -35*.

But alas, I am reminded over and over things like, "Bloom where you are planted." And of course the best remedy for feeling sorry for yourself is to instead feel love for others. So Hailey and I decided the best course of action on the days you look out the window and groan, or at the thermometer and see a -24 is to make something for someone else. I came up with this fun sharable:

The kiddos and I made chocolate covered spoons (I found my spoon mold with the little heart at Michael's, I wrapped in mini treat bags [2x3"] first - you can find those at Michael's in the candy section too) and chocolate hearts and then filled bags with these, hot cocoa (what else is better on a chilly day?) and marshmallows.

Since it was February when we created these, we found heart shaped marshmallows. I've also seen snowmen, or Christmas variety or of course the original minis. These make a fun February giveaway, but any time it's cold works! In order to share the love a little farther, here's the bag topper I came up with, just print and add to bag. (I use 6x6" bags I found at Papermart. I buy in bulk by 1000, because we do this kind of thing ALL the time. )

So fill your bag with hot cocoa and goodies, print topper:

HERE

and

Share the love during the cold and then maybe those of us that hate winter won't find it so depressing!

HAPPY SHARING!

(To design this shareable I used Just Freezin Kit by Just So Scrappy)

Cleanliness Wheel

If you're a parent of toddlers and preschoolers, then you probably know how DIFFICULT it can be to get them to clean sometimes! Well I am always coming up with something new because everything works for some amount of time, and then it loses its glory and kids no longer respond to it.

I came up with this wheel and each color has a consequence, good or bad. That way the kids can see how they are progressing and know what each one means.

The kids have to clean every evening before dinner. I give them 20 min. (they would take 2 hours if I let them) and then they stop when the timer rings. Wherever the arrow is pointing are the consequences they get.

For example, in our house:

Black = Go to bed early and no books to read in bed (a HUGE for Hailey & Luke)

Brown = Go to bed early

Red = Regular bedtime but no storytime

Orange = Regular bedtime only 1 book for story (Mommy picks)

Light Orange = Regular bedtime, 1 book each for storytime

Yellow = Regular bedtime, everyone gets a story, best cleaner gets 2

Light Green = Regular bedtime, everyone gets story, best cleaner gets 2 & DESSERT!

Dark Green = Regular bedtime, everyone gets story, best cleaner gets 2 PLUS a candy & ICE CREAM SUNDAES FOR DESSERT!

So there are both good and bad consequences. My favorite part about this... NO YELLING required! I hate trying to yell to get my kiddos attention. I make a little noise (upscale or downscale depending on which way the arrow is going) and move the arrow. No yelling. No talking even. The kids are responsible for their own actions and I no longer feel like the bad guy harping on every move they make.

Here's the free printable:

Cleanliness Title & Arrow

Cleanliness Wheel

All I did was print, color, laminate, and hang. I used a brad to secure the arrow for spinning. You could cut around the circle, but I liked the look leaving it on the square background.

Good Luck getting those kiddos to clean!

Happy Cleaning!

Golden Oreo Truffles Recipe

So techincally these should probably go on my recipe blog (and they will), but I added them here too because they make SUCH a great gift and there is such an ENDLESS array of options! Decorations, flavors, etc!

So all you need is this:

1 pkg. golden oreo

1 8oz pkg. cream cheese

melting chocolate (I used almond bark)

& decorations (optional)

Or... This:

For Chocolate!

(Double Stuff is harder to work with, but if it's all you have, work it!)

First take your food processor, or heavy duty blender, or some strong arms a large gallon ziploc bag and a rolling pin and crush those cookies!

I use 36 cookies (we usually eat the rest or save for dipping!)

Mix, blend or roll until fine crumbs.

On a side note, isn't my new food processor BEAUTIFUL!?! (Thanks MOM! Christmas Gift :)

After you have fine crumbs, cut the cream cheese into chunks and add to food processor.

Then process. You will know it's all mixed when your fine crumbs turn into one GIANT BLOB!

It WILL be gooey! I take my food processor bowl, in the state and stick it in the fridge for a good 10-15 min to chill.

This isn't necessary for taste, but makes it MUCH easier to work with.

After done chilling. Roll into balls.

I use my cookie scoop, scoop and roll in hands then set on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper.

After I have all my balls I put this back in the fridge or freezer (if you have room). The colder you have the balls the easier it is to dip.

While they are chilling (about 30 min. in fridge or 10-15 in freezer), melt your chocolate.

You can use candy coating, almond bark, baker's chocolate (make sure it's SWEETENED), even chocolate chips.

I prefer these:

But if you live in the Basin good luck finding them! You can order them but they usually melt. However if you find yourself in SLC or Orem, pick some up! I like them better because they melt faster, easier, and they taste better. But the almond bark does better than chocolate chips. But use whatever you have. Just be careful to melt slowly and stir frequently!

You can melt in a double boiler (safest method) but not everyone has one, a small pot will work, but melt on LOW and stir frequently to prevent scorching. You can also melt in the microwave, but only melt for 30 seconds at a time, stopping and stirring in between. If you don't you will end up burning sections of the chocolate and then when you mix, it's all ruined.

(Trust me, I've done it!)

And P.S. make sure all your pans, bowls, utensils are dry, any liquid will solidify the chocolate defeating the purpose.

Now this part lacks pictures because you got to work quickly!

As soon as your chocolate is melted, remove your chilled dough balls and dip in chocolate. I say dip, but that's not what I do. I usually use one spoon to hold the ball (on the tip) and another to poor the chocolate over the top. I've heard of people using two forks, but when I tried that half my dough ended up in the chocolate. I've also actually painted the chocolate on which worked well but was pretty tedious. So whatever you feel most comfortable with. But these balls are gooey, as soon as the feel heat they start to get doughy again so whatever you do, do it quick.

I melted white almond bark and after I did some in white I added a few drops of red food coloring to make pink. Dipped some more, and then added even more food coloring for a darker pink. Add your sprinkles right after or they won't stick to the chocolate.

I used 16oz of chocolate (8 of the 2oz squares), and had some leftover. But that's always good. Cause there's always something that tastes better dipped in chocolate, like strawberries or pretzels, or remember those extra oreos?

mmmmm

This recipe is so universal. You can use any flavor oreos, like mint, or even nutter butters for a peanut butter flavored truffle. You can use any flavor melting chocolate, and any kind of decoration, for flavor or color.

Oh, the possibilities!!!

Enjoy!

Hubby Valentine's Day Accordion Coupon Card

For Hubby's gift this year I actually had a night away planned. But Murphy's law applied and the week before Valentine's Day we had to buy a new computer monitor, so night away cancelled. Must find fast, easy and cheap gift for hubby.

Enter Coupons.

We love them. They are a common gift among our home because let's face it, a cop doesn't do it for the $!

This time, I wanted to do something a little different and had those darn envelopes I was trying to get rid of, and came up with this.

It folds up accordion-style. All the pages but the very top have a pocket to store coupons or love notes.

First take your first two envelopes. One flap side down and one flap side up.

The take the bottom envelope's flap and glue under the top envelope.

(Sorry, blurry picture!) So the top envelope has an open flap at the back and the bottom now has an open pocket with no flap.

This is what the back looks like.

Repeat gluing the top flap under the above card for as many pockets as you want.

I glued the very top card's flap over the 2nd flap just so it would stay put.

Then decorate.

I designed mine using Crush that I found at Scrapbookbytes.com

Here's what I came up with (and the printable links):

Here's my cover:

And I did a back. You don't have to, I just liked how it looked when it's all folded up both front and back are decorated.

Here's the back:

And the pocket decor:

Printables for the card here:

Valentine's Day Hubby Card 1

Valentine's Day Hubby Card 2

And the inside coupons:

See those ones hiding to the right? There's a reason they're hiding ;)

You can print the ones I've made, or I also made a blank set.

Valentine's Day Hubby Coupons Set 1

Valentine's Day Hubby Coupons Set 2

Valentine's Day Hubby Coupons Blank Set

I'm not all done with Hubby's gift yet, but the rest will be posted after Vday just in case he's sneaking a peek ;)

Happy Loving!

Valentine's Day Kids Coupons & Coupon Cards

Valentine's Day Coupon Cards for Kids

Free Coupon Printables

So yesterday (3 days before Valentine's Day) my daughter asks me, "Mom, are you going to make us a valentine this year like you do for daddy?"

Doh! Finally at that age where they notice stuff like that.

In my house our deal for V-Day is it has to be heartfelt and usually we agree, homemade.

So, 3 days, homemade and mean something to the kids. So heartfelt coupons are a BIG go-to in my house between me and hubby. We usually can't afford anything and there isn't ONE big

thing we could do that would mean a lot, but there are a lot of little things.

So here's what I came up with...

First a car card for hunter...

I did a clipart car from my DJ Inkers Clipart. You can't really read the wording on the back section but it says "I wheelie like you." (Cute huh? I got the phrase from Mique at ThirtyHandmadeDays.)

So for this one, I printed out my clipart and then cut an extra sheet of cardstock in the same shape. Then I glued all around except around the door, this way the back acts as a pocket.

Insert coupons here.

Next I did a Dino Card for Luke.

I did his a little different. I printed out clipart (another DJ Inkers) on cardstock and cut out 1x all around the dino and name. This is where I went a little different.

I have all these little envelopes that I never really use for anything (why I bought them I don't know). So I decided this would be a great way to hold the coupons and less work!

So I cut the top triangle flap off the envelope and then glued the dino to the front. Super easy!

I had a hard time deciding between a puppy and a kitty for Bella, but she was running around with her kitty at the time, so kitties it is!

I did the same envelope back with the kitties (again a DJ Inkers clipart).

Hailey's I did a little different. She's my book worm and originally she wanted a camel card. When I asked for another idea she said an ostrich. I finally got her to go with snake, which I eagerly agreed to because I thought of an easy greeting.

But since my little Hailey is SUCH a bookworm! I thought how fun would it be if her's opened like a book. But I still wanted to put in coupons and still wanted to use the blasted envelopes.

So here we go.

When I printed the clipart I printed on the far right of the page. Then left enough room for an extra envelope. I folded the paper and put 2 envelopes (don't forget to cut those flaps), facing opposite ways on the inside. A card with 2 pockets. Maybe I'll add a heart in the middle.

Anyway, so those are my cards. Since I didn't really do anything special, just basic clipart, I didn't do a printable for those.

BUT....

I did do a printable for these:

These fun coupons! Now there are some girl and some boy, mostly uni. And I did some blank too, so you can write your own.

I designed these using art from Love in the Park I found on Scrapbookbytes.com

There are 3 sets and a blank set.

Valentine's Day Coupon Set 1

Valentine's Day Coupon Set 2

Valentine's Day Coupon Set 3

Blank Valentine's Day Coupon Set

Just print out on cardstock and cut! Put in card or wrap with a ribbon and you're done!

Have fun creating for your loved ones!