Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Mushy Brains

With all the holiday festivities, I'm afraid our brains have gone a little mushy! I found a few great activities for the kids today and printed them off and told they had to sit and do a few winter worksheets to pass some of time and exercise their brains!

Fun little Dot to Dot. Who doesn't love a snowman?
Or how about a fun little Winter Word Search.
I found a ton of great worksheets here.
Nothing much, just a few things to do today. Check out our sidebar under the things for the little people. Lot's of fun stuff there also. We have a few other things we are working on, but I will post them as we go.

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Straw Snakes

This is one of the easiest activities I have ever done!! It seriously took just a few minutes, I had the supplies on hand and Tyson was entertained all day! I originally got the idea from World Preschool Mom. If you have a few minutes today, go check out her sight. She is full of fun and innovative idea's. I will be doing more projects from her blog soon.

What you need is straws and some kind of string. We used shoelaces, it made this activity a little easier for smaller hands, because threading straws onto yarn is hard!! First I let Tyson cut the straws into pieces. Any size he wanted. He had fun because the straws would flip into the air and they were all over my kitchen.

Then you just string them onto your yarn or shoelace. You can do patterns or just random placement. When your done, just tie the ends off and you have a fun straw snake!

Craft Bucket Organizer

I saw this idea a couple of years ago in the Family Fun magazine and knew I had to do it for BayLee. All it is is a bucket(ours is a food storage bucket) and a tool organizer(we found one at Home Depot on clearance). It makes it so easy for her to keep track of everything and it helps her to be more independent when she wants to draw or paint, she can just pull out her bucket and do it. About once a month I go through the bucket and get rid of the reminants of projects and organize the markers, crayons, etc........ It is so handy and the cleanup is easy enough for her and not overwhelming. We gave it to her for christmas and bought the Crayola stuff in August while everything was on really good sales, so start thinking about easy Christmas presents and this is great!!!!





Monday, December 28, 2009

File Folder Games and How to Recycle Work Books

** For the next week we are going to repost some of our favorite posts from our archives. This was one of the very first posts I did and it is also one of the most searched for in google! Please enjoy our oldies but goodies!**

I love file folder games. I have a love affair with contact paper. The stuff is dang useful. I went through a phase where I made tons of them. I fell another of the phases coming on as Tyson goes into preschool! All of the ones pictured here are one that I made for J.D. several years ago.

This is my favorite one that I have ever made. I actually found it on a church website, Sugardoodle. J.D. loved this one to. You could use any colorful candy, but you have them sort them, obviously, into color. There is also a place that older children can write the number of each group. Dry erease markers are another favorite have to have item in our house. The best part of this game is that I let the kids eat the M&M's afterwards. But this kid, Tyson, he's weird. Note that he is holding a bag of lemon drops in his left hand. He passed up the chocolate for lemon drops! Piper and I happily ate his M&M's.


This is also a fun one. You can practice addition with goldfish! This is a good one to take to church because we take goldfish every week.
Mormonchic ~ Large variety of games.
Sugardoodle Educational Lesson Plans ~ To get the two games above you have to actually go into the gospel themed lesson plans. For the Goldfish one, you will want to go here and then scroll down. For the M&M sorter, go here and scroll down.
This is a great idea! I actually got this at a yard sale and have since done it with other books. Gradelevel workbooks are expensive. Why not reuse them? Tear pages out and put them into sheet protectors and use a dry erease marker for writing! This is another thing that goes over well at church.

Hopefully this gave you a few idea's that you can do at home! I love that all of mine are being well loved by many kids!

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Monday, December 21, 2009

Prep and Landing: Worth Watching Agian

Cute, cute show! Did anyone else see it a few weeks ago when it aired on ABC? Well worth watching agian. Give yourself a 22 minute break and let the kiddo's watch it and you go take a nap! Or if your me, I'm going to go wrap presents and hope they keep entertained and don't come looking for me!

Friday, December 18, 2009

Igloo's


I can't take any credit for this idea. That all goes to Tyson's fabulous teacher, Marnie. I thought this might be a fun craft for the holiday break.
All you do is take a snowball, frost it with white frosting and then attach mini marshmallows. Add a powdered donut for the door and a few teddy graham's for Eskimo's and you've got one super cool Igloo!

Thursday, December 17, 2009

A Christmas Tale for Mom's

'Twas The Night Before Christmas...Mom Style

'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the abode
Only one creature was stirring & she was cleaning the commode.
The children were finally sleeping, all snug in their beds,
while visions of X-Box & Barbie flipped through their heads.

Yes, and dad was snoring in front of the TV,
with a half constructed bicycle propped on his knee.
So only the mom heard the reindeer hooves clatter,
which made her sigh, "Now what is the matter?"

With toilet bowl brush still clutched in her hand,
She descended the stairs, and saw the old man.
He was covered with ashes & soot, which fell with a shrug,
"Oh great," muttered the mom, "Now I have to clean the rug."

"Ho Ho Ho!" cried Santa, I'm glad you're awake."
"your gift was especially difficult to make."
"Thanks, Santa, but all I want is time alone."
"Exactly!" he chuckled, "So, I've made you a clone."

"A clone?" she muttered, "What good is that?"
"Run along, Santa, I've no time for chit chat."
Then out walked the clone - The mother's twin,
Same hair, same eyes, same double chin.

"She'll cook, she'll dust, she'll mop every mess.
You'll relax, take it easy, watch TV and rest.
"Fantastic!" the mom cheered. "My dream has come true!"
"I'll shop, I'll read, I'll sleep a night through!

"From the room a bove, the youngest did fret.
"Mommy?! Come quickly, I'm scared and I'm wet.
"The clone replied, "I'm coming, sweetheart."
"Hey," the mom smiled, "She sure knows her part.

"The clone changed the child and hummed her a tune,
as she bundled the small one in a blanket cocoon.
"You're the best mommy ever. I really love you.
"The clone smiled and sighed, "And I love you too.

"The mom frowned and said, "Sorry, Santa, no deal.
That's my child's LOVE she is going to steal.
"Smiling wisely, Santa said: "To me it is clear,
Only one loving mother is needed here.

"The mom kissed her child and tucked her in bed.
"Thank You, Santa, for clearing my head.
Sometimes I forget, it won't be very long,
before they'll be too old for my cradle and song.

"The clock on the mantle began to chime.
Santa whispered to the clone, "It works every time.
"With the clone by his side, Santa said: "Goodnight.
Merry Christmas, dear Mom, you'll be all right."


As a mom we do the work of so many. It's easy to get discouraged and there are day's that I want to sit down and throw a temper tantrum alongside my darling 2-year-old. I know that I have had day's when I have wished for a clone or a little more help.

Sometimes we forget that we have the greatest gift, ever given. We have the gift of baby's and kisses, chunky fat rolls and belly laughs. Games of hide n ' go seek and the privelage of wiping tears away and kissing owies. We have the gift of being a mom! As hard as it it being the mom, I wouldn't trade it for anything in all the world.

Now go find you kiddo's and give them a hug!

Found via Hope Studio's.

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Candy Cane Obsession

I've got an obsessions with candy canes. I have a few cookies I make with them, but I stumbled across this and had to share! Go here for your candy cane fix!

Santa Clause Stories

I love Christmas books. I love stories about baby Jesus and about His birth, but I also love a good Santa Clause story. Check out 3 of our favorites. Click on the word book to be taken to a direct link to each book. I know it's to late in the season to get them for this year, but they are definitely, must haves!

This book is hysterical and makes me laugh out loud. The little boy cracks me up. I especially love the illustrations. The one of him in his pajama's is so funny.

Armed with the facts, young Alfie sets out to prove to the world that Santa Claus does not exist but no one pays attention, especially his sister Noelle, whose only request of the man in red is a nicer big brother.Cantankerous child Alfie F. Snorklepuss, who tells everyone who will listen that Santa Claus doesn't exist, gets a much-needed attitude adjustment from the man in red who takes him on an eye-opening journey to the North Pole.


We just got this book from the book order! I love it! We bought the companion book last year and they are both just really fun stories that the kids enjoy.

Knowing that he will need some help pulling his sleigh around the world on Christmas Eve, Santa begins to meet with an array of animals to find just the perfect group to assist him with his very important, high-flying task.




I bought this book last year and my kids loved it. It's so funny. When Santa attempts to hire additional employees to help with the very busy season ahead, he finds it difficult to find the suitable workers he needs as the mermaids make the gifts wet, the fairies leave glitter on everything, and the wizards accidentally transform him into a frog. We used it for a present exchange last year. Every time we said the word toys the kids had to pass their present to the right. Super fun!


Monday, December 14, 2009

Easy Cookie Plate Treats

Chocolate Dipped Oreo's

1 pkg. Oreo cookies
1 bag of almond bark, can use white or chocolate

Melt chocolate down in the microwave, stirring occasionally until smooth. Dip oreo's in chocolate, shaking off the excess. Place on wax paper and sprinkle with Christmas sprinkles. Place in the freezer to dry chocolate quickly.

Place on your neighbors treat plate and steal one for yourself. But only one!! Those puppies are addicting!

Friday, December 11, 2009

Neighborhood Gifts

We've been busy! Did a few big boxes of goodies for my husband's work and several companies that he works with closely! It's so much easier to go big and give to all the guy's at work, rather than give individual plates. I am not doing goodie plates for neighbors this year. It's to crazy! To many people, so here are a few things that we have going on.
Homemade freezer jam and bags of Lehi Roller Mills bread mixes. These are bigger gifts for the Young Women's presidency and advisers. Love those ladies! We spend so much time together and they have all gotten to be my good friends! On the lids of the jam, it says "Hope your holiday's are "Jam" packed with Christmas Spirit!"

For everyone else, they get pasta! Any kind of pasta will do. You could even attach a can of spaghetti sauce to this and make it an even nicer gift.

In case you can't read the tag it says "Have a "pasta-tively" Merry Christmas!"
What are you giving to the neighbors?

What do you do with empty frames?

Oh, the things you can do with a picture frame. It's amazing the things you can make. My friend, Shelley, makes darling bow holders out of frames. They use chicken wire across the back, similiar to what Creative Crate does.

This is what I did with my empty frame.
I picked this frame up at DI for $2.00. It was missing the backing, so it was just the glass and the frame. I sanded it down and painted it black. Then we used a glue, similiar to Gorilla Glue to glue the glass to the frame. I had this vinyl left over from last year, so I put it onto the glass, and then I hung it above all my nativities.

I LOVE it!! Although, I don't recommend using vinyl that has been sitting. Geez, made this project take a lot longer than it should have, but that's okay. I really do love it! Simple, yet very beautiful!
My friend, Andie, did this with her empty frame. She let her kids make a nativity scene on the glass and then modge podged over it. Super cute and something they will treasure forever, becasue they did it together!

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Butterscotch Haystacks

Butterscotch Haystacks

1 pkg. butterscotch chips
1 pkg. chow mein noodles

Melt chocolate in the microwave. Stirring occassionally until smooth. Add chow mein noodles and stir until well coated. Place on wax paper and allow to dry.

Easy Peasy Holiday Cookie to share! Just be sure not to eat them all yourself!

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Hush Puppies

First of all, I do not claim that these are healthy, in any way, shape or form. But boy, are they TASTY! My mom used to make these for us when we were kids and I have made them once before, but it was years ago. So I thought we would try them again. And they were a hit!
Take left over mashed potatoes, (they have to be cold to make this work) and form into small patties. Coat the patties in flour, seasoned with salt & pepper. Coat both sides of the pattie. Throw them into a frying pan with a little bit of butter and brown on both sides!

That's it. Easy Peasy! It's something fun to do with leftover potatoes and a fun way to spice up a meal.

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

5 Minute Hug

I got this little parenting gem from my friend, Andie, whose parents used it on her and her sisters when they were small. Whenever your kids are hitting and fighting with one another. Have them hug for 5 minutes, while you time it. I am loving this. When we were kids my mom would give us pillows and let us fight it out with pillows. Eventually we were all having such a great time pillow fighting that we forgot we were mad. This works like that to.

Notice the 7-year-0ld scowling. He's a grump. My 5-year-old is just happy to be there. He smiles through the whole th ing.
Still Grumpy! I might change his name to Grumpy.
Smiling! Everything's forgotten.
Brotherly Love.

Monday, December 7, 2009

Blogging Break

This is Mandee. I need to just apologize for my slacking in the blog area. I just have been taking time to get my priorities straight and I know that the blog will still be here when I get it all figured out. Brandy is so good to keep this blog afloat and I feel bad that I am not able to do as much as her but I have reached the point where I need to focus on other things. I have been overwhelmed with PTO, church callings, a new job (Tupperware consultant) that keeps me more busy than I thought -which is good, being a mom, a wife, a maid, a shrink.....and the list goes on. I have to remind myself that my family comes first and the blog is just a hobby for me. I promised myself that once a blog become a chore and not a hobby I would reevaluate.
I love blogging. I would give anything to have an hour a day to blog. Heck I would love an hour a day to craft or bake so I have something to blog about. I miss the laid back days with the kids when we would craft and bake the day away. I miss the laid back days of popping in a good movie and watching it. Slowly priorities are being refocused and soon I will be able to blog and craft. Thanks for being patient....most of all thanks to Brandy for putting so much hard work into this blog. I really am a slacker.
Thanks for coming by our blog and leaving great comments. That is what makes blogging fun.

Friday, December 4, 2009

Tile Picture Gifts

I am crazy sharing these because some of my friends and family do read this blog. Some of you may be getting these for Christmas and some may no. But they turned out so cute, so I had to share. Last year Mandee and I did these for our mom's. I took this idea and did a little different twist for some of my friends this year..

I got the idea for the temple pictures from The Idea Door. She has quite a few pictures that you can print out and use for this project. I went to lds.org and pulled off different temples and put them into picnick to edit them. I wanted to do the temple that each couple had been sealed in. For some who haven't been to the temple, I did pictures of just the temple. And for some I did photo's of them and added to the top. Est. and the year they were married.


I was going to do these on wood and use ribbon to tie them, but then I remember the tiles and thought why not? A little less work, no cutting! Mandee had some little tiles so I borrowed some and got to to work. They were a off-white color to start with, but I painted them black and then just modge-podged the picture to the tile. Then I went over it with a couple coats of modge podge. Easy!!

So you'll notice that I have 2 different things going on here. Some of my pictures did not want to print off small enough to go onto the tiles. FRUSTRATION AND TEARS! So I went looking for bigger tiles, but couldn't find what I needed. I was in the dollar store and I saw these cute little Christmas tin decorations and I grabbed some because they were about the right size. Painted them, and did the same thing. I just need to add some ribbon to the wire and they will be ready to go! I just printed these off at home and used paper to print them on . It bubbles. The picture of my friends is really bubbly. I will probably do that one over.(The next morning the air bubbles had worked out and it looks awesome! Patience is a virtue!) Last year when we did the pictures on picture paper, we didn't have that problem. You can use the pictures from lds.org, because they are copyright free, so it would be worth it to print them off at Costco. Believe me, the 13 cents will be worth it.

As an after thought, I believe I will make some gifts out of these, go check out this awesome word art that you could print off and use to make fun sayings. I like this one and this one. Oh, oh and this one! Lot's of options here. Oh, and this is one of my favorites, although who would put this on the wall?Funny stuff!!


Here are a few of the photo's I made up. Feel free to save them and use them, if you'd like.




Thursday, December 3, 2009

Holiday Gift Tags

Type in free gift tags and you will find so many on the web. Here are a few of my favorites and wehre to find them.
These first ones are my very favorite that I have found. Found them at Crafty This and That. You can download both sets there.
These beauties come in 3 color schemes, courtesy of Paper Crave.

Love Living Locurto.

These darlings are available, via Delight.

Found these cuties, available in color or black and white at mushy.

These cute mittens come from Tricia-Rennea.

Courtesy of Paper Seed.

To see some more fun ideas, click here and visit a post of Christmas past! I used the sarcastic ones last year for all of my adult relatives and they were a hit!

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Christmas Tree's revisited

This is a project from last year. Mandee did them and didn't they turn out darling? What a fun craft, I had to reshare this. If your interested in making it, please visit this post. I wanted to share it early enought that you would have time to make some!

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

I love to shop

It's no secret, that I am a shop-a-holic. Do I always have money to buy? No :(, but I love to look and I had a few fun stores book marked on my computer and I have to share them with you. Great gift-ideas this holiday season!! And affordable, that is always high on my priority list!
Tres Chic Boutique carries a variety of items from jewelry, home decor, baby girl clothes, and chic neck ties for guys. This website totally makes me think of Mandee. She loves big chunky, funky jewelry!! This particular set is only $ 10.99. That's necklace and earrings, what a steal!!
Cammi over at Scribble it is amazing! I have a huge wishlist from this store! I have won 2 giveaways hosted by her in the last several months. I used my recent win, a gift certificate, to help me purchase the metal nativity set. And it is darling!!! She has really easy craft kits that you can put together and give as Christmas presents to your family and the great thing is, they are affordable!
Accessory Ave. has the cutest scripture totes, scripture & hymnal cover, darling purses and super cute hair accessories! And she is affordable! Loving her stuff! She even offers custom orders. Definitely a must see.