General Conference word-clue game

I love conference weekend where we listen to our church leaders give talks all weekend. It is so refreshing to hear the Prophet of God speak to us! We have a 4 1/2 year old who struggles to sit and listen for 1 hour, let-alone for 4 whole hours on Sunday! So, I found this fun idea online and decided to incorporate it into our General Conference listening today.

Our conference word-clue game. Every time we hear keywords: Temple, family, prophet, faith & scriptures, we get a piece of candy. just over an hour into conference today, and we are out of faith candy. I think they've said that a lot! Evie's listening so good. We've had to combine faith and scriptures. They've only said scriptures just a couple times....

 

Posted with Blogsy

Looking like spring...for a few days anyway!

Spring means: It's a perfect time to spay paint!!!

Spring Means: It's time to put up the trampoline!! (it does have a net on it now, I just snapped the picture before that happened)

Spring means: That it can still snow -- even if the calendar says it's spring!!

Super Evie has rolled into town. (she went to a super hero party and this is the costume I made for her. Yes, I even pulled out my sewing machine!! Reversible cape, waistband, wristbands & Iron on vinyl was used to make the "E".)

Spring Means: It's easter time!! Happy, happy Easter!

 

Posted with Blogsy

Roaster ovens ROCK!

Our oven has been on the brink of dying for awhile now. The stovetop still works but it has finally bit the dust. RIP Oven. My mom offered her Roaster oven for me to borrow. Since we are moving, we don't want to go out and buy a new one because our new house might have a perfectly good one for us. We just don't want to take that chance. I complained to a friend about my oven and she said she could go days without turning hers on. I thought about it and I realized I turn mine on everyday, and sometimes for every meal. For example: Breakfast german pancakes, lunch to heat up a frozen pizza and dinner baking chicken. So, it's kind of devastating to my life. Being a homemaker IS my job and it's almost like my 10-key broke down if I were a banker. It's a major tool for me to run my job.

So, I researched Roaster ovens a little and found out that you CAN bake in them! I whipped up a batch of sugar cookies and proceeded to try it out. You just heat up the roaster to the temp on the recipe, place the cookie sheet (a smaller one, so more batches...ugh) on the rack and place the lid on the roaster and bake according to the time on the recipe. It worked!!! So easy too! besides having to do more batches because it's smaller than an oven, it was just the same! So cool.

Here they are baking.....(well, with the lid off. The lid has to be on to work...)

Finished product!

Happy {heart} day!

 

Posted with Blogsy

Time Out for Women with my sisters!

 

this weekend was so much fun! I went to Time out For Women with all of my sisters! Monica flew in from North Carolina and so the 5 of us stayed at Meg & Rach's apartment which was right down the street from the conference center where TOFW was held. It was a weekend full of inspirational speakers and music.

I pulled into my parent's house to get Monica, and my dad had made these 2 gigantic snowmen with the huge piles of snow they have received (this is what he does in retirement....ah, what a life!) He even dug a snow tunnel for monica to crawl through so her kids could see all the snow (remember they live in 70 degree weather right now!)

Here's the companion snowman on the other side of the driveway.

so adorable!

And thus begins our weekend. We had pedicures and lunch, and then rushed to drop off our stuff at the apartment and then headed to the conference. How uplifiting! how glorious of a weekend to experience these speakers & music and all with my sisters! I love them so much! It was just the weekend I needed!

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

The month of L–O–V–E

A simple heart or XOXO sure says a lot, doesn’t it?  Here are some shelf-sitter blocks I made this year.  Happy {heart} day!

fun in the snow!

We went tubing on Friday with my sister's megan and rachel! Went went on the little hill in my parent's backyard, but you would have thought we were on a major hill! What fun it was for Ev's to play with her amazing aunt's!

 

oh let it snow!!!

 

Posted with Blogsy

Christmas Blessings 2012

We are abundantly blessed.  What a beautiful holiday season this has been.  Many trips to see santa.  Lots of exciting activities.  And overall a fresh reminder of just how much my husband loves me.  He lovingly and willingly joins us for each outing with a smile and joy on his face.  I know this just isn’t his first choice of things to do, but WE are his first choice, and so he joins us happily.  He certainly loves me.  I adore him. 

This Christmas, I think, will be Evie’s first memory of any Christmas at all.  I think 4 is when I started to really learn what Christmas means and how it feels.  I hope she remembers.  We visited the reindeer at Thanksgiving point.  I am certain they are the real ones.  Evie is too.  I think we could have watched them ‘til we froze to death.  They didn’t do anything special; they were just special and magical to watch. 

During the summer, we had visited Thanksgiving point.  Evie loved playing under the huge water tower.  Every time we drive by, she points it out.  She requested this picture of her under the water tower.  Funny child.  But, so adorable. 

Mom and dad needed their photo taken….and who better to take it than the resident pro!  (Evie….btw, we kept scooting lower and lower to make sure she didn’t cut off our heads!)Our local Chick-fil-A's facebook feed announced that Santa Cow would be present at their location for pictures.  We are HUGE chick-fil-a fans…. (check out our fun halloween from last year), and so we just HAD to get our picture taken. 

Last week, we visited the Homestead in Midway where we went on a sleigh ride.  What a magical experience!  Our driver was so fun, and it was chilly, but we stayed warm with a nice lap blanket and bundled in coats and together.  Near the end, the driver announced that we were arriving in the North Pole and that there were elves waiting for us!  Evelyn was so excited!  She asked if they were real elves.  Of course, we replied!  She was fascinated. 

When we stopped at the North Pole, the driver held up each child to the horse to pet it and then lifted them to sit on the horse.  Look at that face!  It just added to the magic of the day! 

These darling elves were so kind and welcoming to us!  Evie even had to run back to them to show them the candy cane she received from Santa.

CHRISTMAS MORNING

Santa Claus was BUSY at our house!  We woke up to a trampoline in our living room!  15 whole feet of trampoline just took over our living space.  AMAZING!  Justin and I kept saying to each other: “We have a trampoline in our living room!”

It’s going down tomorrow (4 days after Christmas), and it’s been so fun.  Once spring arrives it will be a blessed addition to our back yard!

Evie received a “real camera” for Christmas.  It has a couple games on it and can take videos.  She loves it!  Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!