Merry Birthday and a Happy Christmas to Jaime!

Jaime's birthday is on Christmas Eve. She usually doesn't get to spend time with friends on her birthday, because of the holiday and travel.

This year, Marianne and I wanted to start a new tradition. We decided to take Jaime to breakfast on her actual birthday!

After considering the usuals, we finally decided to try something new, "The Egg Factory". The restaurant it's self was nothing fancy, but had a variety of menu items that were reasonably priced.

Marianne and I decided on the "Oatmeal Cookie" pancakes, while Jaime opted for the good ol' standby, Buttermilk pancakes.

Avery (Jaime's daughter) decided to join us, leaving the boys at home. She chose the french toast sticks and mommy's lap.

The restaurant was busy and seemed to be a popular place to dine. As we left, several parties were waiting at the door to be seated. I think they were happy to see us FINALLY leaving.

If you have "The Egg Factory" near you, I'd recommend trying it.

It's yummy!

Krissi

***This post is over due. I should have posted this several weeks ago. ***

I had BIG plans for us.... plans of crafting and making gifts 24/7... or at least most of the hours of the day.

My good friend Krissi (from Post Falls, Id) came to visit the first week in December and got to stay for a WHOLE week! ---We take turns going to see one another. We usually get to see each other about twice a year. Once at her house, once at mine. Such a fun, special treat our husband's and families are so sweet to endure.

We shopped a little, decorated a 13 year old's locker and bedroom, tried to go to lunch at "The Melting Pot" (but ended up going to dinner, when they were actually open), attended a family Christmas party, made yummy Christmas treat pretzels (of 2 varieties), taught pre-school, babysat, read a little, played a lot, relaxed, visited and actually DID get around to making a few Christmas gifts. ---Krissi took home 30+ cute bookmarks for teacher/friend/neighbor -type gifts!

This was my first time at "The Melting Pot". It was yummy and oh so very expensive. :)

Here we're painting canvases to go in the windows of Rylee's room.
These were extra yummy pretzels. Krissi cooked the carmel from scratch (a process that took WAY more time and patience than I have for cooking) which is why Krissi did it.
After the carmel started to set, we cut it in strips, then took the carmel and wrapped it around a pretzel. Next we dipped it in chocolate, then drizzled white chocolate on top for decoration.
Do they remind you of corn dogs.... or cat tails??? They tasted much better I assure you.

These were the second pretzel treats we made... I've seen them referred to as "bellybuttons". Bellybuttons are my kind of treat.... quick and easy.

Arrange the pretzels on a cookie sheet, plop a Hershey kiss in the middle of each one, put in a 200 degree oven for approximately 5-7 minutes, then take them out and press an M&M into the top of the kiss. Let cool.

Voila! A wonderful combination of salty and sweet. It's hard to eat just one. If you start, it's very hard to stop.... not that I would know. :)

Verdict: Second pretzel treat takes WAY less time/effort to make, almost equally yummy.

During the week, I felt that I wasn't being "productive" enough... that we weren't accomplishing what we set out to do. Now as I look back on the week, I see it differently..... many things accomplished, lots of fun had and many memories made.

Thanks for a wonderful week Krissi! And thank you Steve and Goodmansen Family for letting me take your wife and mommy for a week.

Krispy Kreme with Cousins

During the time J.C. (Jason's youngest brother) was working in the Boise area, his family came up to visit for a few days. J.C. and Julia have 4 cute boys ranging in age from 7 to 1 1/2. It was fun for Treyson to finally have some balance in the boy to girl ratio, in the house. Lots of time was spent with cars, bad guys and superheros.

For FHE that week, we went to Krispy Kreme. The "HOT" sign was on when we pulled in, but we were afraid that when they saw us coming they would turn it off and deny us a free doughnut. We were lucky to catch the last of the doughnut production of the night AND get our 12 free doughnuts!.... along with another dozen that we purchased. :)

Cool Cameron
Awesome Adam

Marvelous Matthew

J...J...J...Joshua!

(Sorry couldn't come up with a good adjective starting with J.)

The whole crazy cousin gang.

We were so glad to have them come visit. The kids shared lots of fun cousin memories.... and I got some good scrapbooking time in with Julia . :)

12 Days of Christmas

As a gift to my primary class this year, I gave them the 12 Days of Christmas. A fun way to count down to Christmas and remember the Savior during the season.

The original idea was to use a real nativity set and leave a new piece on the doorstep each night, along with a poem about the piece. I knew that wouldn't work for me since I have 12 kids in my class.... too much money and too much delivery time.

So I did the affordable thing. I printed off this cute nativity set onto cardstock, cut them out and put a magnet on the back (so it could be displayed on a refrigerator or magnet board.)
Then I wrapped each piece individually, with it's corresponding poem and numbered them in the order they were to be opened. I put them into a large envelope and wrapped the envelope with wrapping paper, so it felt like a "real" Christmas gift. (I secretly hoped they weren't disappointed when they opened it.)

I've had several mother reports that the kids DID like it and are enjoying opening a new piece each night. Whew. Maybe it's the mom's being nice... or maybe they really are getting into the "reason for the season".

Merry Christmas!!!

My Kind of Gingerbread

I don't LOVE the taste of gingerbread or all the time and effort it takes to make, roll, cut, bake and put together gingerbread houses. (I do LOVE the way they look and smell though.) My kind of gingerbread houses are the graham cracker kind! It has become somewhat of a tradition in our home. No baking required... just lots of fun decorating! This year, we had cousins at our house overnight (Tim and Karen went on a little 24-hour staycation for their anniversary) and I thought it would be fun to do it with them.

I read on a blog that I frequent, that you could hot glue them together. This sounded like a great idea, so I glued and assembled the night before. It worked great! The houses were more durable and had less set up/drying time. I'd highly recommend it if doing this project with kids.

At first, my kids were worried that I had put glue on their food. I told them they didn't have to eat the glue... just the crackers and candy. (It seemed like it would peel off fairly easily when it did come time to eat.)

Get ready... get set... decorate!

Audrey's ready

Katelyn says, "Ta-da!"

Abree's excited about the candy cane, but hasn't decided where to put it.

As soon as Treyson's was completed he asked, "Can we eat it now?"

I told him he had to wait for a few days, so it could decorate our house for Christmas. It didn't take long for it to be picked at and dilapidated looking.

Rylee had to piece hers back together, after a candy light mishap.

Taylee came up with the idea of using a Tootsie Roll for a chimney. She angled it so it would fit just right.

L is for Ladybugs & Lollipops

When it was my turn for pre-school this month, I had the letter L.

The first day we talked about ladybugs. We colored a picture, made a counting book (with fingerprint ladybugs) and played a "site word" ladybug BINGO type game. (Some of the girls are starting to be able to recognize the site words! Some still don't really care.) :)

The next day we talked about lollipops. I had this idea about making lollipop sugar cookies.
Plan A : roll the dough into "snakes". Then wind them around in a swirl creating a lollipop.

The dough was WAY too crumbly to do this. Soooo....

Plan B: Form different sizes of balls squish them into circle shapes onto the sticks.

They were supposed to be edible, but they didn't taste very good in my opinion (a new cookie recipe that someone on the internet raved about). Maybe too much food coloring??? They were pretty bright! :)

We also made these little lollipop magnets. This was my last minute brainstorm that ended up being so cute.

I had the girls glue the circles together, sandwich the craft sticks between 2 yellow circles, put a clear plastic bag over, tie a bow and stick a magnet on the back.

---I was happy to use the little craft sticks and little plastic bags I bought on clearance... I didn't have a use for them at the time. I have LOTS more. Anyone NEED a lollipop magnet???