BIG M&M Cookie Recipe

These are twice the size of a normal cookie - they baked out well and are super yum!

I used my snickerdoodle recipe, then I added 8 oz of M&M's to the dough, rolled them into big balls and then squished 5 more M&M's on top.

I first baked them up for my sacrifice lesson. When the girl's played the game and got an answer correct, they got an M&M. At the end, we talked about things we have to sacrifice for goals. I said are you willing to sacrifice these M&M's to reach your big goals? They all agreed and we went over the definition of sacrifice and then I told them they gave up something little for something bigger in return and pulled out the cookies. Of course they were all happy with their decision to give up the M&M's. Seemed to be an impacting object lesson ;)

Funny Sign

I was getting gas at Safeway and saw this sign on the gas pump:

What's pretty funny is that someone actually must have done this and then tried to make Safeway responsible for the damage it caused! So they were forced to post a sign - wondering how common it really is?

YW Bulletin Board item

I used this saying in Activity Days 2 years ago, but I thought it applied for YW too =) I am trying out out scribd to see how it works! I'll be adding this to our YW bulletin board.

Safe Place

Bookmarks with elastic

So, I saw these bookmarks in a store and what did I think, yup, I can make these all by myself =)

If you drop your book, you won't lose your place because it doesn't come off unless you take it off.

Cut your elastic to the desired length, loop a charm, bead or shrinky dink on the end and tie it in a knot, then tie a knot at the top . . . and that's the extent of the instructions. Anyone can do this - that's the best part!

I made one 15 inches, 20 inches and 24 inches as I took the average of most of the books in our house ;) The longest one is good for a school text book.

I'm going to give 3 bookmarks to each of my Beehives on their birthday for 2010. Super inexpensive. One down, only 17 sets to go - haha (we have a lot of girls and 4 new Beehives coming in this year).

These were shrinky dinks - that part did take the longest. But oh so cute =) I bought the paper at create for less for ink jet printers. Again the site for the cutest graphics for scrap booking is found here.

YW Game & Handout (idea) for Sacrifice

Building the Kingdom of God, Lesson #3, Manual 2

Here's a fun little handout I'm going to give the girls - I wish I could share the graphic, but it's copyrighted. If only I were an artist, I'd share the image with ya ;) I guess if you are a member at www.stackablecrew.com I could share/send the image with you =)

Someone had an idea to make a game out of the Sacrifice lesson, so I made a game board (how dare someone have an idea and not do the work - haha)

Board 1 found here and board 2 found here.

And here are the game cards:

Page 1

Page 2

Page 3

Page 4

YW Bulletin Board pocket

I guess our YW President wanted a pocket with papers for the girls to write what they're thankful for - hehe And I insisted on creating one so it would match:I will hang the pocket up and then as the girls fill in what they're grateful for, we can staple those up on the bulletin board.

YW Bulletin Board

I used shower curtains to cover the bulletin boards as they were cheaper than material by the yard, even on sale ;) And ribbon to hide the seams. Paper kept ripping and it is a pain to keep replacing. I designed everything you see (except the colored cubes logo).

YW theme we recite each Sunday (what, I should have ironed the material before putting it up? LoL):

YW President wanted this scripture up:

Value Focus for the month:

Calendar:

YW purpose:

2010 youth theme:

Logo for 'Be Strong' - youth theme:
Second bulletin board, YW motto & activities/events:
Pictures were hanging up, but we still need to cut them out and take quite a few more photos as some girls weren't there the Sunday they were taken by the stake. That and the fact that someone drew goatees on a few of the girl's pictures - have to reprint those ones.

Okay, so I cut all the girl's pictures into egg shapes to create flowers. I used a lady bug pin stuck in the middle to hold them up:

And someone actually stole the 'girl's camp' and 'standard's night' word art - rude! ;) I suppose they just didn't realize how many HOURS I spent trying to make it look nice and matching!

Invite for YWIE NB combined

Visiting Teaching Handout Jan

Found a cute web site with scrap booking images - http://www.stackablecrew.com/

January's VT lesson is 'Becoming Self Reliant'. Great message! Of course my lion handout doesn't have the copyright wording, so it turned out pretty cute ;)

Snickerdoodle Recipe

I changed up a Snickerdoodle cookie recipe and it turned out yummy =)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup butter flavored shortening

Mix butter and shortening together until combined.

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar

Add sugars to butter mixture and whip for 5 minutes until batter is fluffy.

While that is mixing, measure and sift these 4 ingredients together in a separate bowl:

2 3/4 cups flour

1 tsp cream of tartar

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

Add to butter mixture:

1 tsp powdered vanilla (can add liquid)

2 eggs

Mix until combined.

Add flour mixture to the butter bowl and again mix until combined.

In a separate smaller bowl combine these 3 ingredients:

1 tbsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground nutmeg

3 tbsp turbinado sugar (coarse sugar that gives a little crunch!)

Roll cookie dough into balls, dip into cinnamon concoction and lay on ungreased cookie sheet, bake for 11 minutes. Makes 36 cookies.

2010 Youth theme bookmarks

I just shrunk down the original image I designed to make a bookmark:

Want to print out some for your youth? 4 to a page - google doc found here.

These bookmarks are found here. The t-shirt logo for the 2010 theme is the 10 colored blocks with 10 different languages that say 'be strong'.

Primary theme 2010 necklace

Nat is visiting, so we made her a Primary necklace to match the theme of 'I know my Savior Lives':

I made a bottle cap necklace with a paper bead to match.

picture is blurry when I enlarge it, but it looks perfect when it's shrunk down for the necklace:

I used fonts Kristen, Amy, Stacy, Cheri, Sarah - Natalie's mom and aunt's names!

Want to make your own? Google Doc found here.

Reptile Zoo with Nat & Andrew

Seattle Aquarium

A cool patterned starfish:

Slideshow (click on it to show the photos bigger):

Face Painting - Andrew got a Seahorse and a Octopus:

Natalie got a penguin without actual eye pupils and an otter that looked more like an embryo - LoL

Andrew posing as a jellyfish - yes, it's blurry, but it's funny because I didn't notice the position of his hands until I looked at this photo for the 3rd time:

Natalie as a jellyfish:

Andrew as a cheesy jellyfish:

We went to Pike Place after the aquarium and ate fish and calamari for dinner! Andrew liked the fish & squid, Nat did not like the fish and didn't even try the calamari =)

A Christmas Spirit Movie

I put together a Christmas slideshow, but couldn't share it online, so I then had to revamp it into a movie =) I showed this to my Beehives on Sunday and they loved it!

Opened an early present

Brady says he already has 4 belts, so he's not happy with his gift. I said 'I only ever see you wearing 1 belt'. Brady says 'yeah, I only like white belts' - LoL Maybe we'll have to go and exchange his brown belt for a white one =) Teenagers and the rate they change their minds ;)

Oh, this white belt?

Someone's thinking they're pretty cool in their skinny jeans ;) Which he was only allowed to wear on one spirit day during spirit week. I think they look disgusting! LoL

Moral: Don't shop too early for Christmas presents because it won't be what they want in a month anyway!

Keaton's funny story:

'Ms. Samoni has a zebra print Snuggie at school but she won't wear it any more because Josh wore it to the bathroom one day.' Keaton was laughing very hard which made this story even funnier for the rest of us ;) I asked why she just didn't bring it home and wash it - Keaton said that the kids already suggested that but she hasn't done it.

I wonder if Keaton asked for a Snuggie on his Christmas list was because his teacher has one - we've never even talked about one nor known anyone to have one! Costco had one, so I didn't have to look very hard at all.

I see someone likes their Snuggie a lot already, wore it playing video games & at nap time ;)

Chocolate Souffle Recipe

Ummm, yumminess =) I altered a recipe and made it my own, the only original things are the butter and the eggs.

butter 6 ramekins and then dust with powdered sugar

Separate 5 egg yolks from their whites, keeping 2 yolks together and the 5 egg whites in another bowl, discard the 3 extra yolks.

In a saucepan, combine:

3/4 cup melted butter

1/2 cup cake flour

Cook butter and flour together for about 3-5 minutes - until a frothy film appears.

In a separate pan cook:

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup evaporated milk

and bring it to a boil, then add it to the butter mixture. Cook until a smooth paste forms.

Cool slightly, then whisk in the 2 egg yolks.

Melt 5 ounces chocolate and add to the base.

Whip the 5 egg whites to a stiff peak and fold them into the mixture. Pour into ramekins and bake 375 degrees for 20 minutes. Dust tops with cocoa powder.

For fresh whipped cream - whip 1/2 cup cream, 1/2 tsp powdered vanilla and 1 tbsp powdered sugar for about 3-4 minutes - spoon on tops of souffles when ready to serve.

Mexican Rice Recipe

My kids think my Mexican Rice is tastier than Azteca! What a compliment!

2 tbsp olive oil

4 tbsp fresh minced garlic

1 onion, diced

2 tsp cumin

4 cups jasmine rice

4 tomato bouillon

4 cups water

6 oz Cotija cheese

Heat oil with garlic, onion and cumin and saute for 5 minutes or so on med-high. Add rice and cook until rice turns transparent. Add bouillons and water. Bring to a boil. Turn heat down to simmer and cook for 20 minutes. Crumble cheese and add to rice. Serve! Yum . . . you can also half this recipe - we just like the leftovers and we never throw any of this stuff out because it doesn't stay in the refrigerator long enough to spoil ;)

Cookie & Cupcake Snowman

I made a treat for our last Beehive activity out of a sugar cookie, mini cupcake and regular sized cupcake:

Frosted them and sprinkled white chocolate that I grated with a vegetable peeler (I would have done clear or white sprinkles, but I didn't want to go to the store - hehe) - I was trying to make the frosting look like snow ;)

I was going to get some Reece's peanut butter cups for hats, but didn't have time. The girls could have cared less - hehe The eyes are mini M&M's and the carrot nose and coal mouth is dyed frosting, the buttons are those one butter mints - don't know the name!

Brady's Free Throw to tie the game

Can you say 'pressure's on'? Geesh! Brady was fouled with 1.4 seconds left in the game and his team was down by 1 point! He missed the first free throw . . .

But made the second:

And his team went on to win!

We did youth baptisms at 9 am, had Brady's game at noon, made a pie for the ward Christmas party, finished lessons Jonathan & Cheri both had to prepare for Sunday and then took the boy's & Nick G. out to Ixtapa after the party . . . it was a full day!

Greek Salad

Visiting Teaching Handout Dec

Visiting Teaching message for December is Nurture through Compassionate Service. I made a handout:

right click to save image
OR

you can make an ornament out of it:

and find that google doc here.