Yikes! Christmas Post!

I cant believe it's been a couple of months since my last post..you know, life gets in the way sometimes.

I started a new job this Fall, after being laid off, late last year. I watch 2 children in the neighborhood, and it has been really good for Jacob. I also have been busy with my gluten-free blog, and networking to get my site up, and eventually get my cookbook published.

Jacob started pre-school this year. He goes three days a week, and I have to say, I love my me time! I cant believe he is going to be in Kindergarten next Fall!

Kate is in 2nd grade, and has lost 2 teeth this past month. The Tooth Fairy has been busy in our house! She will be Baptized next summer, and we can't wait for this milestone.

Lydia is 13 now, and got her braces on in August. Her teeth have improved so much already. Can't wait to see the finished product. She is still playing the violin in Orchestra, and is way into drama, at home, and in Drama class....Ha!

Derek is still working Inpatient Care, at Utah Valley Regional. We are still looking for an Outpaient Position with the Geratric population, which is his specialty.

Derek and I will be celebrating our 19th anniversary on the 23rd. Im not sure where all those years went, but I'm glad we are still together, and we love each other. He really has been there for me the past few years, which has had it share of challenges.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Rolled Rice Krispy Treats

Okay, I have to admit, I love my sweets! The past month, I haven't been baking much. I am eating healthier, and losing weight in the process.
I find if I bake, I eat! Dont get me wrong, I do splurge one day during the week, usually a Saturday.

I was watching Studio 5(Amy Richardson) a couple of months ago, and they featured this variation of a Rice Krispy Treat. My SIL came to me, and asked for a good treat to serve her Celiac co-workers. I tweaked the recipe a bit, and here it is.

Warning these are so addictive. I usually slice them up, and wrap induvidually in foil, and hide them in the freezer for later :)


5 tbsp butter
5 1/2 cups Gluten Free Rice Krispie Cereal
1-10oz package marshmallows
1/3 cup peanut butter (White Chocolate Wonderful, Peanut Butter & Co.)
1- 4oz bar of chocolate, melted (Hershey or other GF milk chocolate)
1- 4oz bar white chocolate, melted
3/4 cup coarsely chopped cashews(get these in the bulk isle, they are cheaper)
1/4 cup prepared, or homemade caramel(I like Mrs. Richardsons)


Method:

· Butter a small flat baking sheet(I used my broiler pan from my oven,remove the insert, of course)
set aside.

· In a large saucepan, melt butter over low heat, add marshmallows and stir until smooth. Remove from heat, and stir in peanut butter.

· Fold in cereal.

· When evenly coated, pour into prepared pan. Press to flatten slightly.

· Sprinkle cereal mixture with half the nuts. Drizzle half of the chocolate, white chocolate and caramel over the nuts.

· Refrigerate for 5-7 minutes, or until chocolate is slightly set.

· From the small end of pan, lift cereal and roll, jelly roll style. Pressing lightly to compress. Smoothing edge to seal.

· With seam side down, drizzle remaining, chocolates, and caramel over the top of roll, finishing with remaining chopped nuts.

· Refrigerate until firm. Slice into rounds when ready to serve.

Makes 10 pieces

Dollar Store Craft

I am so into the Dollar Store. Some of it is total junk, but finding holiday decorations, is pretty easy. Sometimes you might have to modify, or give it a coat of paint, and if you mess up..hey it's only a dollar right?
I was looking for something cheap and creative to go on my mantel for Halloween, and happened upon this idea in Martha Stewart Living Magazine.
Of course they used real pumpkins, but I thought why not foam? You would be able to use them year after year. I spent 4$ total for this project.
(3 pumpkins+plastic ping pong eyes)

I began by painting the pumpkins in my desired colors. It took about three coats to cover.

I then took my trusty cake decorating tip(the largest one) and indented the circle into the foam. This gave me a guide to cut out the eye sockets. I used an exacto to cut out the circles, then used my bone folder to poke the excess foam out of the socket

.

I then touched up the eye area with more paint.(the interior foam was white)
Then I hot-glued the eyeballs into the sockets, and used a sharpie and white marker to draw on the mouths.

This was a really quick project that my kids even helped me with. Enjoy!

Birthday girl

My Kate turned 7 this week! Seems like yesterday, I held this tiny, colicky, infant in my arms...she is so much more pleasant now, let me tell you!
We had a small family party in the backyard, complete with a slip-n-slide and kiddie pool.
We filled over 100 water ballons up, and bombed each other. We also had about 13+ water guns, and chased/tried to soak each other. Apparently, I got some really bad water guns..lol.
I love small family birthdays. Not much pressure there :) Kate got some art supplies, jewelery, Bendaroos, Play-dough breakfast set, and a "Tangeled" braid that my friend Bobbie, help me make.

4th of July

The 4th of July was low-key at our house, in fact we weren't even home! Derek's sister, Diane, lives in Orem on a large cul-de-sac. They jokingly call it the cul-de-sac of fire on the 4th. Well, they weren kidding.
One of the neighbors had rigged up a rocket launcher(I'm sure it was someone's scouting/eagle project,) and the kids were able to make paper rockets, and launch them. I helped Jake and Kate make theirs. They went really high!

The fireworks started about 9:30 pm, about the same time that the rain started. Yes, I said rain! Where the heck does it rain on the 4th?
Apparently in Utah!

It was quite comical when the big fireworks began. Although, I had a umbrella over my head, I would have to tip it back, in order to look up to the sky, which resulted in water in my eyes. After about 30 minutes of this, I gave up, and went inside to finish out my 4th!

desk makeover

*DISCLAIMER* I just now realized that this is not the picture I took for my Before picture, but you get the jest of the idea..lol.

I picked up this old wood desk for free off of KLS. My brother helped me drive to Mapleton to load it. That sucker is heavy!
BEFORE

I started out by taking the old handles off, cleaning, and giving it a light sanding. Then I got some black paint(original huh?) and started rolling it on. I put on about 2-3 coats. After the paint dried, I applied a 2 layers of polyurethane. I purchased some drawer pulls on sale at Hobby Lobby and attached them. Viola' a new desk for under 10$ total.

AFTER

Now, to find a decent office chair :)

U2 concert

How did my life get so busy? When Spring comes, I am so busy with the yard, and other projects. Add in all of my children's activities, and I have no time to blog!
I need to keep up!

Last night, Derek and I got to see U2, one of the bands on my (bucket) list! This was a picture I snapped of the opening band The Fray. the guy was reaaly good and even hit all the high notes.His outfit reminded me a little of the guy from Coldplay!

Can I just tell you, they put on one heck of a show. They had this huge stage with supports that was 162 feet high! All of the lights and the big screen were attached to the structure.
It had these really cool, small, hexagonal squares(hundreds of them)that made up a huge screen. At one point in the concert, the hexagons separated and came all the way down to touch the stage floor. It surrounded the band, and they used the backdrop as a really cool screen to show images and lights on.


U2 didn't take the stage until 9:30, but it was totally worth it. They played a lot of the oldies: Where the street has no name, Pride, Sunday Bloody Sunday, a few from the Zooropa album, Mysterious Ways, Stay, Vertigo, and quite a few from the newer album, like Evolution.

We have some video, but blogger is having trouble recognizing it, so that will have to wait for another day. Maybe Facebook?

The Edge can really play that guitar, and I was totally mesmerized by Larry Mullins' drum playing. You could tell they were still a tight band, and that they cared about each other. Bono would talk between songs, and talk about what kind of projects they were all doing. He said the Edge is the constant in the band. It was nice to go to a stadium where there wasn't drugs and booze everywhere, and I noticed there were lots of families there. U2 is one of those few cross-generation bands that is still making the best music around.

It was exciting, as this was Derek's first real concert. It was a perfect birthday gift, for his 41st birthday. We picked up a couple of t-shirts to remember the night

We are still here!

Okay, yes I am a slacker! It's not that our family has not been doing anything, but I have just not had the time to keep my blog up! A few things that have happened in the last few months.

1.Unsuccessful potty training. What is it about boys? Why are they so hard to train? Is the extra parts? lol.. I've come to a conclusion, Jake is stubborn, just like his momma!

2. Shocking end-of year grades. Okay how does one fail English? Apparently Lydia did not turn in some essential assignments this year! She buckled down and turn some assignments and got a B.

3. One failed job interview Derek had a fantastic opportunity to help run a IHC clinic in Orem. Apparently said interview did not go as well as we thought. Boss calls him in to tell him what he could have done better. Doesn't be a great therapist count for anything?

4.Niece moves in for the summer.

5.Kate gets checkup and has astonishing 5 cavities since last year. Someone lied to me when they told me there was fluoride in our water...lol. Spent a pretty penny getting teeth fixed.

6. Planting a garden Spent the better part of 2 weekends weeding, hoeing, and removing grass and landscaping screen from play area in backyard. Finally got plants in yesterday. Hope we have some success in this high
mountain desert!

7.Celebrating Derek's birthday. Had a birthday BBQ at Di's house in Orem. Way too much food, but a lot of fun. Played games till late. Sure do love having them nearby!

8 Went to see U2 in concert! Enough said!

So that's just an inkling of what's been going on!

Easter Banner

I was able to go down to Hurricane for Spring Break and see my friend Christen. She made me the cutest Easter banner. I had to hurry and put it up,
since there is only, 1 week until it is here! I am soooo not ready! And to top it off, I volunteered to teach the lesson in Relief Society that Sunday.
What was I thinking??? lol.

sledding

It's been a while since my last post! We have had several big snowstorms move through in February and as a result, a LOT of snow! After a while we stop counting in inches, and moved over to feet! We haven't built very may snow men, but did attempt a snow cave, which was pretty cool. We also have discovered the joy of sledding and have quite a few good hills in our area.

On this day, we went to PeetNeet Academy in the nearby town of Payson. They have great hills. As you can see from the pictures, the kids were a little scared at times! Unfortunately, Kate fell of her sled into a very large pool of water, so she wasn't too comfortable the rest of the time..lol..

Overall, the kids had a good time, and so did Dad :)

love craft

Saw this cute little craft on a blog online...thought I would share my
version that I tweaked a little.
Bought the kit at Crafters Corner in American Fork.
I began by sanding down the rough edges on the letters and board.
Then I choose my papers for the project, All Dressed Up stack by DCWV.



I painted my letters, and board black. Then using the letters as a guide, traced and cut out the letters from the patterned papers.



I then used rubber cement to attach the decorative papers to the front of the letters. I also used my Cricut and some vinyl to cut out the letters for the quote on the front. I used the cartridge "Base Camp" @ 1 inch.

Here is the finished product on my mantle :)

thanks for looking!

Valentine's Day cards

Valentine's Day is coming up fast, and I realized I don't have time to make them this year. I went on Smilebox, and found these cute templates. Just drag and drop your pictures, and you have super easy, personalized, valentines.
Cant wait to pick them up from Persnickety Prints. I'm sure they will look great!

Make your own free picture collage

Personalize a picture collage

Free digital collage generated with Smilebox

books books books

I love books. I love how a new book smells, the crack it makes as you open up the binding. Heaven.Sometimes I read for fun, or to just learn information on a topic i am interested in. This started me thinking how many books have I read in 2010. I wont say all of these were great reads, but I read them, nonetheless.

The Help
The Counterfeit Convert
Luck of the Draw
Charlie St Cloud
Perfect Shot
How to Stuff a Wild Zucchini
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society
Vampire Diaries- Stefan's Diary
When Crickets Cry
Freedom Factor
Mockingjay
Searching for Pemberley
Summer in Paris
The Dead girls Dance
Glass Houses
The Book Thief
The Count of Monte Cristo
The Girl Who Could Fly
American on Purpose

What's really funny is some of books I read were so boring, I can't even remember the titles! Oh well, 2011 is a new year :)

New Year

Don't know what's wrong with me. I just can't seem to get my year going. Of course I have goals, which are probably about the same as yours.

The tops:
lose weight
spend more time with my children

More specifically:
learn to love Utah
be more forgiving
get my cookbook published

The list could go on, and on. I'm seeming to have a problem with getting the simplest of tasks done. Maybe its just the winter blahs shining through.
It's about the only thing shining here in Utah..lol.
I'm ready for Spring and the warmer temps. Hurry up Spring!