Christmas Diy Gift tags and Gift Wrapping

I've seen so many cute gift wrapping ideas around on pinterest and blogs the past month I'd thought I'd switch it up from my regular Christmas themed wrapping paper. 

First I made the gift tags.I think my favorite tag is the round blue,brown and white one with mistletoe...

Heres some more cute ideas:

PomPom wrapping paper: 

No bow gift wraping:               

Simple stamp gift wrap:

Post Thanksgiving Dinner Crafts

After Thanksgiving dinner is over, and the boys are watching football, is a perfect time to get Christmas crafting with your family!

Heres some easy and cute ideas!...
(click on the titles for the link to the tutorials)

Make snowflake ornaments out of pipe cleaners:

Make Christmas gift tags:

Rolled Rosette Christmas Trees: 

Felt Ornaments:

Christmas tree banner:

 Christmas Pillows:

Christmas Wreath:

Snowglobes:

Quick and Easy Recipe for Soft Homemade Playdough

Kaylie and I are in love with this playdough. It is so soft. It already seems like it doesn't get hard and crusty fast like the playdough from the store. It was so easy and quick to make. You'll have all the ingredients on hand too!

Creamy Potato Soup

I've tried a few potatoes soup recipes since my married dinner making days began. This one I kind of just put together and it turned out be probably my favorite batch I've made!

• 4 cups chicken broth
• 1 large onion, chopped or 1 tablespoon onion powder
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 4 large russet potatoes, peeled and cut in 1-inch cubes
• 1/2 pint half and half
• 1/2 stick of unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup shredded medium cheddar cheese
• about 8 slices of bacon
• Dried parsley
• Salt and pepper to taste

Peel and cube potatoes and boil for 10 mins. Drain. Mash to your liking, I mashed about 1/2 the potatoes. Let sit in strainer.

cook bacon until crispy, chop.

Pour in 4 cups chicken broth into large pot over medium heat. Add butter, cheese, half and half, onion and garlic. Stir until butter and cheese are melted. Add in potatoes. In individual bowls sprinkle parsley and bacon pieces.

I actually bought bread bowls for this soup to go in but I forgot about them until the next day, but the soup was really good in the bread bowl!

Living Room Evolution

I've learned when you buy a home the decorating process can take a long time. Here's where we're at so far

Click "read more" for the pictures of our house evolving....

Love it List

These jeans from Old Navy

Boo Sign

Supplies:

Piece of wood

Painters tape

Black paint  (spray paint)

White paint

scrapbook paper

sparkly pipe cleaners

hot glue

Big Girl Bed

The big girl bed came yesterday! Kaylie's been talking about this for weeks! The room has already been rearranged a couple times.

Amish Friendship Bread

A couple years ago a friend of mine gave me the "starter" for some Amish friendship bread, with a page of instructions. Amish Friend Bread is a sweet and delicious breakfast cake type bread thats kind of like banana bread.

The starter is a cup of batter in a gallon sized ziploc bag that has secret ingredients that they say only the Amish know. (but the internet knows everything and here's a link to the recipe for the starter,the instructions on how to make it, and the rest of the recipe). You wait 5 days and add some ingredients then wait 5 more to add the rest of the ingredients then you can make the bread. The 10 day recipe really is fun to do because you get to share it with your friends.

You've been booed

When I was younger our neighborhood would do the "You've been Booed" tradition. I thought that was a lot of fun, to get door bell ditched with treats and then leave treats at two neighboors door's and door bell ditch them. It really kicked off the season and got us excited for Halloween!
With the help of my mom we put together a cuter "you've been booed" sign than the one that was passed around when I was a kid.

The sign explains it really well but i'll explain it just in case anyone's confused.

-Start by printing off two copies of the "you've been booed" and two copies of "we've been booed" signs.
-get two treats, could be a basket of halloween treats, something homemade or just a candy bar and leave on the door step of two neighbors.
-tape the "you've been booed" sign to their door. with the "we've been booed" sign behind it, but make sure they can see it so they know there's a paper behind the front one.
-leave the treats at the door, ring the bell, and run!

Have so much fun!

Save images to desktop open in word and expand it to the size you want then print:

Halloween Candy Holders

I got the sudden urge to make a halloween craft during naptime the other day; And I wanted to make it RIGHT then.  I had a little box that I got from something in the mail. I also had two kleenex boxes.  This is what I came up with. I did go out and buy the candle holders to attach to the bottom of them to give them height, and the candy.

Under $5 halloween craft

I wanted to make a halloween craft and I had this idea come to mind. At first I thought i would get wood and cut it out with our jigsaw. but this was faster and cheaper,since i'd have to buy wood. But, this project would be a lot more durable and last for years if you used wood instead of cardboard. Either way though I love how it turned out and I am thinking i'm going to hang it o our pantry door to see every time we come in the kitchen!

                               

Last years Candy Corn Costume

Last year on halloween Kaylie was 15 months and didn't have any opinion on what she wanted to be. This years she's been talking about how she wants to be "A witch and a wand and a silly nose and a witch hat!" so I guess I need to start working on a witch costume. She does already have a Rapunzel dress up outfit so all we would need is a long blonde wig (even though she already thinks she has rapunzel hair).

Last year she was a candy corn and I got the idea from Chica and Jo. Go there for the super easy tutorial.Seriously, everyone we trick or treated to and at my parent's ward trunk-or-treat died over how cute she looked. Even random grown men were like this is the cutest costume ever! it was pretty awesome!!

Spicy Cashew Chicken

  *This has been pinned on Pinterest over and over as a crock pot recipe, i'm not sure who started that but I just want to be clear for anyone looking for the crockpot recipe that this is made in a wok, not a crock pot :)*

This is one of those recipes that you try and your like "this is a new staple in our menu".  We first had it when our friends Eric and Cynthia invited us over for dinner. He told us that his favorite dish was Spicy Cashew Chicken from Cheesecake Factory. I had never had it before so I wasn't sure how close the recipe was to C.F. But, he had made up this recipe to match it. When we started eating my husband and I were like "We NEED this recipe". A year or so later we went to Cheesecake factory I decided to try their Cashew Chicken....Eric's recipe blows Cheesecake Factory's out of the water,for real. After making it 100 times i've changed it a little here and there, mostly just the amounts of the ingredients, like i like to add a little more soy sauce than he had originally just because I like more sauce. But, here is my version of his Spicy Cashew Chicken. Try it, I know you'll love it!

Fall Wreath

Even though it's still in the 100's here most days,it is cooling off a tad and I have gotten in a Fall-ish mood! So, I took off to hobby lobby to get stuff to make a wreath. I kept grabbing stuff and putting it in my cart as i got ideas and then would take them out and put different things in but in the end I decided to go with fall colored fabric and dark burlap and just decide what to do with it till I got home and this is what I ended up with. It gets me excited for the upcoming holidays!!

Linked up to: Lil' Luna, I heart naptime, organize your stuff now, uncommon slice of surburbia, nifty thrifty things, polish the stars,cherished treasures, skip to my lou, keeping it simple crafts , southern lovely, brassy apple, mommys sweet confessions.

The "Bainbow" Cake

While getting ideas around the internet I thought a rainbow party would be fun. Kaylie was super excited about her “bainbow cake” for weeks before her birthday. To see it turn out pretty much how I imagined was so fun!

Happy Birthday Part 2

The week of her actual birthday we spent in CA (La Jolla and Huntington) on a family trip. We had a fun time going to different beaches, eating out, had a bbq on the beach and just walking around to the different little stores. We had her party at a park in Huntington Beach.

She LOVED both of her parties and all her presents. She was super Spoiled/loved and got rapunzel dress up, rapunzel and ariel dolls, adorable clothes,couple pairs of new shoes, a play kitchen, coloring books, and her favorite the ($5) minnie mouse camera. 

Happy Birthday Part 1

I can’t believe my little girly is 2!!! It seriously is mind boggling how fast time goes. Kaylie and I have a very close relationship, I just pray it always stays that way!  She’s such a sweet, silly, adorable, smart little girl!

Utah grandparents came into town a week before her birthday so we decided to have 2 parties. One with them while they were in town and then the second one on her actual birthday while on vacation in California.

She totally looked forward to her birthday this year which was so fun. For about a month before her birthday everyday i’d hear,”A birthday, a bainbow cake, a peasants, kaylie two”.

We celebrated her birthday by having her party, going to the Sea Life Aquarium, and then the Diamondback’s game! It was a lot of fun!