Brady just might earn his Eagle Scout

This was Brady's last requirement for his Star Rank - choose a project and have his family help:

He planted some plants from our old house to the new house - Keaton was very enthused to help ;)
So, yeah, Grandma really directed:
As well as did the work:
And Brady got credit ;)
LoL Thanks Grandma =)

Corsages

I don't know how much corsages cost these days, but for $2 I bought a wrist band found in the wedding section:

And minimal tulle, ribbon and beads cost $1.50 for both corsages. The flowers were in the Christmas aisle and had sparkles and glitter on them - perfect - and cost $1.20 each because I only used 1/4 of each stem.

Pink is the color Brady gets to wear and so I made this for Danee:

Keaton is wearing silver, but there's also purple in Olivia's dress:

Lesson learned from shopping with the boys at a craft store: don't buy 'other' supplies while trying to convince boys that a silk corsage will look just as elegant as real flowers. I purchased colored pipe cleaners and they told me 'that's not going to look good mom'!

They were worried, but now they're not ;) I should twist a pipe cleaner in the corsage just to tease them ;)

Pumpkin Pie

Here's my pumpkin pie recipe:

Makes 1 9-inch pie or 26-28 mini ones.

I added in 1/2 of a caramel for the mini crusts - I think I'd do a whole one next time.

Combine:

1 cup brown sugar

1 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp ground ginger

1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground clove

1 tsp ground nutmeg

In a mixer with above ingredients, mix in 1 1/2 cups pumpkin puree until well blended.

Add 3 eggs, mix well

Add 1 1/2 cups evaporated milk, mix well

Pour pie filling into pie shell(s) over the caramel and then top it with turbinado sugar before baking for 10 minutes on 425 degrees, turn heat down to 350 degrees and continue baking for 30 minutes. Bake mini crust for only 20 minutes more.

I whipped 1 1/2 cups whipping cream with 1/2 cup powdered sugar for 5 minutes or so and then removed all of it into a separate bowl. Then I added 4 oz mascarpone cheese with 1/2 vanilla bean scraped and whipped it together until the cheese was smooth in the bowl that used to have the whipping cream mixture in it. Then I added the whipped cream back into the bowl and mixed together. Ummmm, yum!

If the pie is still hot, don't add the cream to it - I just did this for a picture:I put a dollop of cream, more turbinado sugar and also added a caramel apple candy corn on top for funness =)

Talent Show at CHS

Brady with Nick singing and Jordan on the drums:

Rhythm of Love

Brady Senior Pics

Whitney took Brady's Senior Pics downtown Duvall and did a fabulous job at an awesome rate!

This is Brady's personality that showed most in any photos:

so, it's my fav!

Star Wars will never go out of style

Stole this photo from Paul's facebook - can't stand how precious the boys seem when they were little - hehe

Happiest of grins because they got to have 'weapons' with their costumes! BOYS ;) LoL

Lemon Ricotta Muffins

Emily brought these yummy muffins to a RS potluck and shared the recipe - YUM!

2 cups flour (I used 1 cup rice flour and 1 cup all purpose)

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup brown sugar (recipe calls for white)

1/2 cup butter (recipe calls for unsalted)

2 tbsp finely grated lemon zest (recipe calls for 1)

1 cup ricotta cheese

1 egg

2 tbsp fresh lemon juice (recipe calls for 1)

1/2 tsp almond extract

1/3 cup thinly sliced almonds (which are now sold at my Costco - yea!)

Line 12 muffin cups with liners and preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Whisk the flour, powder, soda and salt until combined. Beat sugar and butter together until fluffy, add zest and ricotta and mix well. Beat in the egg, juice and extract and then stir in dry ingredients. I will add in poppy seeds next time I make these!

Fill liners evenly - I sprinkled the tops of my muffins with turbinado sugar and then the almond slices - nice crunch to it! Bake 20 minutes.

Mummy Buddy

Keaton & Jordan are in most of this video written and filmed by their friend Andrew. Brady &

Chester are at the end of it.

VT Message October 2010

We moved and that was a huge task, but I miss blogging, so I think I'm back!

Here's a handout for the VT message for October on temples:

October 2010 Ensign found here.

Youth theme 2011

Here's my first attempt at the new LDS youth theme for 2011:

It's based on the 13th Article of Faith. I'll probably play around more with it later.

Want the poster - it's found here.

Fall ball

Brady's playing a few weeks of Fall basketball:

He really loves playing!

VT Conference Tags

One of the sisters on our committee is knitting 2 little circular kitchen scrubbies for each sister for our VT appreciation dinner and I designed these tags to go with them:

I'll hole punch the tags at the top between the words. After I see the final product, I'll take a photo and post here later.

VT Conference handout

I used this layout for our VT appreciation dinner:

Our theme is based on the song 'A circle of a woman's reach' by Deborah Fechser Hamilton.

Red Velvet Cupcake & Frosting

I altered a cake recipe for Red Velvet:1 1/4 cups cake flour

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

Combine all the above dry ingredients well.

1/4 cup chocolate chips

1/2 cup heavy cream (or buttermilk or evaporated milk)

1 egg

1/3 cup mayonnaise

1/3 cup olive oil

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 oz - 3/4 oz red food coloring

Start beating the egg, mayo and oil in a mixer while chocolate chips and cream is melting in the microwave (takes about 1 1/2 minutes) and then add the chocolate/cream to the mix. Beat until blended and then add in the vanilla and red food dye. Add the dry ingredients and mix together for 3 minutes.

Makes 18 cupcakes - bake 350 degrees for 17 minutes.

And the frosting is my own:

1/4 cup butter

3 oz cream cheese

4 oz mascarpone cheese

1 vanilla bean - scrap out the insides

3 cups + powdered sugar (depends on the consistency you're going for)

Beat until blended and then frost when cake is cooled.

VT Message September 2010

This picture came from Jeani, so precious:

September VT message.

August VT message

I have a new web site for handouts, etc. - still under construction. Jonathan is building & customizing it and he's so clever!

www.jackshandsjillsheart.comThere are some Relief Society images there too as I got a new calling on Sunday! So, I will still be creating handouts for the YW lessons for you to use if you wish.

Worthy for temple worship is August's message for VT.
handout found at www.jackshandsjillsheart.com (only have to buy the image once, then print out as many copies as you need - but please don't share or redistribute the file - thanks!)

piggy cupcakes

It was Isabella's birthday, so I made cupcakes for the YW to match the theme of the lesson and my handout. First I made pigs out of Marzipan:They turned out cute:
The frosting was brown, looks a little greenish in the photo. It was a lot of rolling the Marzipan into little balls . . .

I followed the instructions found here.

Butter cream frosting - yum:

1 cup butter, softened

2 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp salt

3 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1-2 tsp milk

Cream together and frost.

Inve$tment

This week's YW lesson will be A Heritage of Righteous Traditions. I found a cool quote that says 'the time $pent with your family creating traditions is the greatest inve$tment you will ever make'. I added the dollar signs so I could make a piggy bank handout:

The pig graphic came from Stackable Crew, the tin containers I found at Specialty Bottle and the pink boa and pipe cleaner I got at Michaels Crafts. Jonathan cut into the tin can with a hack saw, the opening was too big for anything but a quarter. The nose of the pig is a separate piece - so it really looks dimensional with all different layers.

Jonathan asked me 'what do you think the girls do with all your handouts?' Think he's worried they don't appreciate the time it takes to design and make all of them?
Oh well, I still enjoy making them for the pleasure it brings me =) I think the pig is cuteness!

What can you do with a TP roll?

mod podge bracelets with cut outs from magazines =)

I didn't have the girls add beads/charms to theirs - but they are cute without too.

I cut each toilet paper roll into thirds and then slit out places for the ribbon to go through. Cut out images from magazines and mod podged it on - let it dry. Punch holes for the jump rings to hold charms or beads. I hot glued my ribbon and then tied it in a knot - does look cute with just a bow too. You could also finish the inside by mod podging another strip of paper on it.

Bookmarks with themes

My step-mom, Michelle, is going to Girl's Camp as a cabin mom in Oregon and they have 1 theme a day and asked me to make some bookmarks for her girls - so here they are for you to use too:

Super cute to add a ribbon at the top or a charm at the bottom of these!

Revelation - Take 5

I saw an idea where they used a Take 5 candy bar with this lesson because it had 5 points to ways to prepare to receive revelation. That's not good enough for me ;) I saw the lesson had 5 points on methods to receiving revelation too - so I got creative and put a letter with each of the main points and will use one on each side of the Take 5 candy bar - the 5 is an S in my case:

I used this layout to match the first handout I made and I'll give out as well.

Front and back of the candy bar:

Probably would have looked cuter if I would have used a red theme instead of blue . . . oh well =)

Fasting - get 'filled' with the Holy Ghost

I used the same layout from VT for July for my Fasting lesson in YW:

I am using the handout shaped like this to use on a take-out box:

And this on a pair of chopsticks - the kanji character is for pray - couldn't find one online (quick enough) for fasting:

I filled the take-out box with 3 fortune cookies dipped in white almond bark and sprinkles.

On the back of the take-out box I hot-glued a magnet (as well as the chop sticks at the top) so it can go on the fridge as a reminder when fasting =) But it doesn't hold up when the cookies are in it - too bad they'll have to eat the cookies first ;)

Maggie helped with this lesson, so she came over to make the handouts and dip the cookies with me!

Funnies

Scene: Sitting by the camp fire

Andrew: Do you want to sit here?

Me: No, I want to sit by my husband.

Andrew: That's not your husband!

Me: What is he then?

Andrew: {Pause . . . (thinking)}

Andrew: He's your step-husband!

LoL

I guess that makes sense since Jonathan is the boy's step-dad, he must be my step-husband ;)

Kids are too smart!

This is the fire that the kids built . . . and yes, the adults took some off before lighting it - LoL

Scene: Waiting for the fireworks to start

Andrew: Howl like a coyote

Me: {hooooooooooooooowlllllllllll, howl, howl, etc.}

Andrew: {looked at me}

Andrew: No, like a real coyote!

LoL

I guess I'll have to work on my howling technique ;)

Scene: Kitchen cutting strips of dough for little smokies - making pigs in a blanket

Me: {Using a knife to cut strips of dough}

Stacy: {gets out pizza cutter to make the process faster & better}

Me: ahhhh, I've never used a pizza cutter

Colten: What? You've never used a pizza cutter?

Kids are great for the soul!

There were more things that made me laugh, but I didn't write them down and I forgot them! So, write down the funny things your kids say because if you think you'll remember them all, you're wrong ;)

Dips . . . for chips and crackers

Nat's favorite dip and she even called grandpa Mike to get the recipe - she's been using it for every gathering since ;) I had to add some (okay as you can tell from the photo it's actually A LOT) of dill weed and it definitely made it perfect!

Dill Pickle Dip

1 cup low-fat mayo (Nalley's is the best!)

1 cup sour cream (Darigold)

3-4 tbsp dill weed

1/4 cup dill pickle juice (from the jar of pickles you're using)

10-15 pickles diced or chopped (I used Vlasic baby pickles because I am a pickle snob - hehe)

A little bit of cream cheese, mayo, parmesan cheese, fresh minced garlic, artichoke hearts, bacon, green onion, dill weed (surprised? hehe) and serve with crackers:

Slideshow - 1 song

Here's one song that I did for the slideshow at Girl's Camp - the whole slideshow was 1 hour long with more than 1000 pictures!

Would have liked to have done some effects or captions with some of these pictures - but time restraints prevented anything more fancy since we did the slideshow on the 3rd night of camp.

Jean Flower Corsage

We made these at Girl's Camp too:

You can wear them as a corsage, in your hair, on a bracelet - possibilities are endless:
Found the instructions here.

Washer Anklet or Bracelet

Here's another quick craft I did with the girls at camp:

They LOVED these the best. Some were able to make 2 and were SO happy! LoL

I bought the washers and hemp here. And the clasps, clamps, jump rings and charms here.

Lantern Jars

One of the girl's camp crafts we made this year:

Directions found here.

I used baby food jars so that part was free.

One of the YCL's, Clara, drew templates of hearts, flowers, stars, etc. and the girls traced the patterns out and cut them out of contact paper.

YCL key chains

The YCL's at Girl's Camp got to have their own craft that the other years didn't get to make:

Everyone's charms were the same, but the beads and background to the seahorses were different.

Hot Fudge Sauce

This recipe came from my friend Jodi - super yummy! Wish I had a picture of it over some ice cream . . . but I don't ;)

We had ice cream sundaes with the Bishop today for our lesson.

Melt together on stove top:

1 bag of caramels

1/3 cup milk

Add to melted caramel:

1/2 cup chocolate chips (I used dark chocolate)

When chips are completely melted add:

1/2 cup heavy cream

1 tsp vanilla

Stir until smooth and refrigerate unless using right away.