Epic Fail #2

Yet another idea I found on Pinterest.... I wanted to try these from the moment I saw them. They were so pretty. I decided to make them Monay for our anniversary. That way we would have them leftover for Tuesday night when the missionaries came over for dinner and still have enough to give away a few as gifts. 

Yeah, they didn't work out so well. 

The first batch was okay but I really use that term lightly.

then they got worse.

The good news is that they tasted good and my family didn't care what they looked like!

Christmas sugar cookies and teacher gifts

This year I really wanted to learn to do fancier cookies. I love the look of sugar cookies decorated with royal icing in more intricate patterns. I knew I wouldn't be able to do them like the pros but I wanted to give it a shot. 

Abi and I decided that we would make them for her teacher and the teacher she had for her substitute at the beginning of the year. If they didn't turn out we would do something else. 

They took quite a while. I got the recipe for the cookies (different than my normal sugar cookie recipe) and royal icing from Doug's mom. We made the dough one day and then refrigerated it and made the cookies the next day. It took me quite a while to decorate them all but I had so much fun doing it. 

And I was really pleased with the results!

I gave Abi all of the leftover frosting and she decorated the cookies she made all by herself. She loved this!

We packaged them up and I was very happy that my cookies had turned out well so we could use them as a gift. I wish I had remembered to take a picture of the basket of gifts I took over to the school Monday but I forgot. 

We also gave gifts to all of Abi's other teachers. She has a music teacher, art teacher, gym teacher, library teacher, 2 classroom aides, the principal, and a counselor. I didn't have enough cookies for all of them so for those 8 I got a package of red gatorade. I made a cute tag that said, "Thanks for "ade"-ing me in my education" and we tied it on with a cute red bow.

Polar Express Night

We had a Polar Express night for advent. I made little North Pole cupcakes.

And I did make tickets that we punched. The top one is Abi's- Honest. Maddy's word was Joy. My word was Calm. Doug said to put Merry Christmas on his. Yeah, I put an M. My hand was tired by that point.

Epic fail #1

One of the things I like about myself is that I can usually make do. When I am doing or making something and I have no idea what I am doing, I can still usually make it turn out decent. But occasionally I do something that I think will be easy and it turns out terrible.

Example:

I saw these powdered donuts made into snowmen on Pinterst. Easy enough. But I didn't have any chocolate frosting. Now if I had been thinking I would have melted the chocolate chips and piped the eyes and mouth on with that... but I wasn't so I just stuck some chocolate chip eyes on and called it good. I gave Abi one with candy eyes. 

I believe my snowmen belong more to Halloween than Christmas.

An early Christmas

Last week Doug's parents were able to come out for a visit. We had such a great time having them here. While they were here we decided to do Christmas early so we could be together when we opened presents.

The girls were very excited to get to be able to open some gifts early!

Abi was thrilled when she pulled this puppet theater out of the bag.

The puppet theater comes with a bunch of felt pieces so you can create your own puppets for each show you do. It's very cool. They also gave Abi a fairy and a unicorn puppet. Abi said, "How did you know unicorns were my favorite animal?"

Then she got to pull out the gift I knew about and was very excited about... her very first sewing machine! It is an actual Singer machine but kids size with a little pink pedal. The needle is encased in plastic so she can't get her fingers with it. It was in that cute little pink case and also had some scissors with it. She wanted to start sewing right away. I told her I wanted her to wait until her Christmas break from school so we can go over the users guide together and I can have the time to teach her.

Maddy was having a hard time sitting still to pull her gifts out of the bag so Abi helped her a bit. They were both excited about the mixer she got to add to their new play kitchen.

And she got some more magnet dolls. She loves these.

The girls also got to open their gifts from Uncle Mark (Doug's brother) and Aunt Callie. We pick names in the family and we had them this year and they had us too. Both girls were given really cute books. Maddy really loves hers and has kept it near her bed since and looked at it and counted every day.

Then Doug and I began to get our stuff out of our bag. We got the cutest cupcake pan that makes beehive cupcakes...

Doug got some cute lounging clothes...

I got a beautiful red coat and we also got one big gift.

After we were done we gave them their gift. 

I bought one of the Hallmark Christmas books that you can record yourself reading the story. It was The Night Before Christmas. Abi and I sat down a few weeks ago and I recorded her reading it for them. It was so cute to watch them open it and see Abi waiting for them to hear it with a big grin on her face. Everyone's reactions were priceless.

After gifts I got Maddy to bed and then we remembered they hadn't opened their stockings from them yet. We decided we would let Maddy do it the next day but let Abi get hers. She got an orange and a beautiful pink nightgown. After changing into it, she and Grammy put together puppets to have a puppet show.

The next day Maddy got to open her stocking. She also got some oranges and a matching pink nightgown.

We spent a lot of the time they were here working on projects that Doug has been trying to get done like the basement and garage. We also did some shopping and ate out a lot. But it was really nice to also have time to just sit around and talk. One of Doug's favorite moments of the week was playing chess with his dad...

We were cleaning out our food storage and organizing it a little better. Maddy was having a great time stacking oatmeal containers. A few minutes later, however, she did drop one so hard it opened and oats went everywhere.

She was really excited when she put on her new nightgown. She loves pretty things.

I took this shot of all the gifts from Doug's parents. You can see my red coat and I also got that tan thing that is kind of like a little throw you put over your shoulders when you are cold but don't want a full coat. They also brought us some toffee-ettes that were gone way too quickly.

The gifts from Mark and Callie- Abi's book Theodore is so cute. We loved the story. Maddy's book is the number book and they gave us a pizza stone. I have never used one but we make pizza once a week so I am excited to try it.

And the big gift I mentioned... a microwave that goes over the stove. We had it wired for one but never got around to getting one. I love how much more counter space I have and how much nicer it has made this area of the kitchen look!

One of Abi's favorite moments was the night Grammy taught her how to make homemade whipped cream. It was great!

Sometimes it is really hard for us to live away from our families but it makes it a little easier when we get to have such great visits.

Homemade uncrustables and Butterfingers

I took some time yesterday to replenish my homemade Uncrustables supply and to try a new recipe for homemade Butterfingers.

I love making the sandwiches because even though it is not very hard or time consuming to make a simple peanut butter sandwich, it really simplifies things to be able to just grab a frozen one each day and throw it in Abi's lunch as well as take one out for Maddy. 

But the store bought ones are so expensive for what you are getting. When we were in Utah Doug's mom showed me her sandwich tool and later sent it to me.... it is from Pampered Chef and makes the sandwiches look just like Uncrustables.

First I lay out all the bread and put a layer of peanut butter on each side. One side has a little more on it... the other side is just a thin layer to keep the jelly from leaking.

Then you put the sandwiches together and use the tool to seal them and make them cute.

Then I pile them in an old Uncrustables box in the freezer. They look just like them but this is so much cheaper and with two loaves of bread I make 24.

So for the Butterfingers I was a little hesitant. This recipe calls for a 16oz. jar of creamy peanut butter, a bag of chocolate chips and a bag of candy corn. I do not like candy corn so I had a hard time believing that it could taste like a butterfinger. 

First you melt the candy corn in the microwave and then mix it with the peanut butter. Then you put it in a pan lined with parchment paper to cool. I put it in the fridge as recommended on the recipe to make it cool down quicker. When it was completely cool I was able to just take out the parchment paper which made it so easy to cut into squares.

Then I melted the chocolate chips and dipped each square in it. Then I let that cool, in the fridge as well. This is what they look like.

and yes, they DO taste just like a Butterfinger!

Peanuts day

Yesterday was National Peanuts day... not the food but the comic strip.

So we celebrated that in the morning by watching It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown and eating Charlie Brown!

I made him out of pancakes, eggs, candy eyes, and chocolate chips.

Then Abi and I played a few rounds of the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown game. So fun.

We spent the rest of the day relaxing and watching conference on the computer. 

I wish I could say that the girls were like this the whole time.....

but really they were only like that for about 30 seconds. I tried to keep them occupied with activities during each session but they ran around a little too.

I had some Enter at your own risk tape and Abi asked for a piece. She was busy for awhile with some paper and tape and markers. Later I noticed this by the garage...

I'm not sure if she is telling herself to be careful or signing her warning note... but either way I thought it was really cute.

Doug catches up with me!

Thursday Doug finally turned 34... I say finally because I always get to be older than him for 6 months...

He doesn't really like cake but Abi told him you can't have a birthday without cake, especially if the other people in your family like cake. Funny. 

So, he requested a Smurf cake. It was terrible. I had to squeeze it in between making homemade pizzas and fall cleaning and it was so ugly. But it tasted good and he appreciated it.

We got him the Star Wars movies on Blue Ray and some marshmallow pop things...

Maddy made such a mess with her cake!

Then the girls did some coloring.

More school prep

Tuesday night was very productive for us. After our exhaustive search for navy blue mary jane shoes and any kind of cute casual shoe that would go with lots of colors Abi and I finally found both at Shopko! We also found hair bows in the colors we were looking for at Hobby Lobby. 

These are the extra school supplies we had to pick up.

Yesterday we made some snickerdoodles to give to Abi's teachers. I let her pick which kind of cookie we should make.

All packaged up...

S'mores Bars

During our camping week I promised to post the recipe I used to make S'mores Bars.

These are very yummy but also very sweet. It makes quite a bit as well so it's good to make for a group. I made it just for us which meant having some two days in a row and then throwing out a bunch.

Here it is:

1 stick butter, room temperature

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup sugar

2 King sized Hershey's milk chocolate bars (or 4 1/2 regular sized bars)

1 large egg

1 jar marshmallow creme/fluff (I had trouble finding this but finally found it at Target)

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 and 1/3 cups all purpose flour

3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs (about 7 full sized graham cracker sheets processed until fine)

1 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

Pre heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8 inch square baking pan or line with tin foil (for easy cutting and removing from pan). Use an electric mixer to cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla. Set aside. Meanwhile, whisk together flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking powder, and salt. Slowly add flour mixture to the creamed butter mixture until combined. Divide dough in half and press half into an even layer on the bottom of prepared pan. Place chocolate bars over the dough. Spread chocolate with marshmallow creme fluff. Place remaining dough in a single layer on top of the fluff. It is easiest to press it flat in your hands and then place on top. Bake 30-35 minutes or until lightly browned. Be sure to cool completely before cutting into bars. 

I don't remember where I got this recipe. I think it was a blog but when I wrote it down I forgot to write the source. So, let me know if you know where it is from!

5 meals in an hour

 Recently I discovered an organizing blog that I love so much. When I was looking around on her site I saw a button for a website that said "Make 5 dinners in one hour".
I was intrigued so I clicked on the button. The freezer cooking that I occasionally do ends up taking an entire day and my entire freezer but I love having meals prepared ahead of time. We eat a lot healthier that way.
This blog has a system where you pay $15 for a few months worth of meal plans. She emails you the meal plans broken down weekly with the prep and cooking instructions as well as the shopping list. If you visit her blog you can request a week free trial.
I decided to try it out last week and enjoyed it enough that I thought I would let you guys all in on it.
I don't think I am going to be doing this every week but I am interested in doing it for a few nights a week and perhaps our busier weeks.
The goal with her meals is to have family friendly meals that are easy to prep and cook and are well balanced.
It took me just under an hour to make the 5 dinners. I spent a lot of time getting out my measuring cups though so next time I will read through everything I have to do and have the specific cups/spoons, etc out and pre measured when I begin.
The cost for all the ingredients for these 5 meals was  just under $70. I spent more on this shopping trip because I was also getting things for our other meals but I thought the cost was pretty good. Also, some items I didn't need much of for the recipe but I was out of or didn't have so the next time I will not have to buy them.
I have been struggling with a very picky eater (Maddy) so I was curious to see if she would eat these meals.
Here is the breakdown of my trial week:
1) Mini Honey Mustard Meat Loaves served with mashed potatoes and peas. This was a great meal. I don't usually like meat loaf except for the one recipe I grew up with and this was very different. But it was great. The kids loved the little personal meat loaves and both of them ate all of their dinner.
2) Chicken and Broccoli Bake served with rice and salad. Maddy would not eat the salad but enjoyed the rest of it and even ate the Broccoli. Abi loved every bit of it as did Doug and I.
3)Crispy Pork Chops served with broccoli in cheese sauce. Maddy wouldn't eat the meat but did eat a little of the broccoli but then began spitting it out after a few bites. Abi and I both liked it. Doug loved it.
4) Chicken Caesar Salad Sandwiches served with carrots and ranch dip. I also served jicama. The sandwiches were really good... not for a hearty meal though. They are more of a lunch or summer/spring dinner. Abi ate part of it but didn't love it. Maddy wouldn't eat any. We learned that Abi doesn't like ranch dressing anymore and neither girls like jicama at all. I had to promise never to serve it again. :)
5) Slow Cooked Shredded Beef for Tacos served with chips and salsa. This was great. I loved that the tacos called for slices of avocado because I love it! I didn't give it to Maddy but Abi loved the taco as much as Doug and I did. Really good.

If any of you are interested in the program I have put the button on my right sidebar.

Baking Cakes

My mom wanted to make a birthday cake for me so she enlisted the help of the junior chef and they got to work after our outing.

Such a little poser...

Here is the decorated Spring inspired cake! Apparently I was turning two!

In between baking and decorating, Abi took some time to chase Maddy around. I think this picture is crazy because Maddy looks like a little girl to me, not a  baby!