Wednesday, November 20, 2013
Gratitude: Being a stay-at-home mom
I'm so grateful that I get to stay home and raise my kids. I can't imagine sending them to daycare, or having anyone else do it. I love them so much and I love watching them learn more everyday. They love to play together and that makes my heart so happy. I am so grateful that my husband has provided me with this blessing and opportunity.
Recipe: Cherry Chocolate Thumbprint Cookies
Oh my holy goodness! These are divine and PERFECT for your holiday cookie exchange!
Chocolate Kiss Cherry Cookies
1 Cup Powdered Sugar
1 Cup Butter, Softened
2 teaspoons Maraschino Cherry Liquid
1/2 teaspoon Almond Extract
4 Drops Red Food Coloring
2 1/4 Cups Flour
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1/2 Cup Maraschino Cherries, Drained and Chopped
48 Milk Chocolate Candy Kisses
1. Preheat oven to 350ยบ
2.Combine Powdered Sugar, Butter, Cherry Liquid, Extract, and Food Coloring in a bowl. Mix well
3.Add Flour and Salt. Mix well
4.Stir in the Cherries
5.Shape Dough into 1" balls
6.Place 2" apart on ungreased sheets
7.Bake for 8 - 10 minutes or until you can see that the lower edge is a light golden brown
8. Remove from oven and press a candy kiss into the top each cookie. — with Barb Livingood Bahr and 3 others.
Chocolate Kiss Cherry Cookies
1 Cup Powdered Sugar
1 Cup Butter, Softened
2 teaspoons Maraschino Cherry Liquid
1/2 teaspoon Almond Extract
4 Drops Red Food Coloring
2 1/4 Cups Flour
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1/2 Cup Maraschino Cherries, Drained and Chopped
48 Milk Chocolate Candy Kisses
1. Preheat oven to 350ยบ
2.Combine Powdered Sugar, Butter, Cherry Liquid, Extract, and Food Coloring in a bowl. Mix well
3.Add Flour and Salt. Mix well
4.Stir in the Cherries
5.Shape Dough into 1" balls
6.Place 2" apart on ungreased sheets
7.Bake for 8 - 10 minutes or until you can see that the lower edge is a light golden brown
8. Remove from oven and press a candy kiss into the top each cookie. — with Barb Livingood Bahr and 3 others.
Happy Baking!
Thursday, November 7, 2013
Upworthy.com
I'm not sure if any of you have heard of upworthy.com, but chances are, you have. In a world of bad news, this website brings insight to good people doing good things. It only reports, or has articles, of things that will brighten your day and make you happy, or make this world better. People doing good. We all need to find the good people in the world.
I'm totally grateful for this website! Full of things that are "up worthy".
check it out! You wont be sorry.
Happy reading!
I'm totally grateful for this website! Full of things that are "up worthy".
check it out! You wont be sorry.
Happy reading!
Product Review: Nature Box
I know a lot of you have heard of Nature Box, but you seriously need to try it!
I was at a friend's house one day and she pulled out a bunch of her Nature Box snacks. They ALL tasted good! I couldn't stop eating them so I had to walk away. Luckily they are super healthy. It a great way to snack, and it's guilt-free.
I got home and ordered my box right away! Your first box is a discovery box, and it comes with 5 full sized bags of deliciousness. You can get your first box for $10. That's two bucks a bag, people! (After that its $20, but you can still find coupon codes for $10 boxes. You can also cancel or pause your box at anytime.
After you receive your discovery box, you can customize your box and choose which snacks you get! It's cool. I chose two snacks and want to have the rest as a surprise. They have a lot of options!
In my first box I got:
Masa crisps: corn chips with flax seed
Vanilla Macaroon Granola: my personal fave
Pistachio Power Clusters: nut squares with almonds, cashews, and pistachios
Roasted Kettle Kernels: Honey coated toasted corn
and Cherry Berry Bonanza: a medley of dried cherries, cranberries, and blueberries
You can choose all vegan snacks, gluten free snacks, sugar free snacks, etc. I like them all.
Go check them out! Here's a link to get your first box for just $10!!
http://fbuy.me/mWF1
I was at a friend's house one day and she pulled out a bunch of her Nature Box snacks. They ALL tasted good! I couldn't stop eating them so I had to walk away. Luckily they are super healthy. It a great way to snack, and it's guilt-free.
I got home and ordered my box right away! Your first box is a discovery box, and it comes with 5 full sized bags of deliciousness. You can get your first box for $10. That's two bucks a bag, people! (After that its $20, but you can still find coupon codes for $10 boxes. You can also cancel or pause your box at anytime.
After you receive your discovery box, you can customize your box and choose which snacks you get! It's cool. I chose two snacks and want to have the rest as a surprise. They have a lot of options!
In my first box I got:
Masa crisps: corn chips with flax seed
Vanilla Macaroon Granola: my personal fave
Pistachio Power Clusters: nut squares with almonds, cashews, and pistachios
Roasted Kettle Kernels: Honey coated toasted corn
and Cherry Berry Bonanza: a medley of dried cherries, cranberries, and blueberries
You can choose all vegan snacks, gluten free snacks, sugar free snacks, etc. I like them all.
Go check them out! Here's a link to get your first box for just $10!!
http://fbuy.me/mWF1
Healthy and Delicious Snacks - New each month!
http://www.naturebox.com
I love the healthy snacks I get from NatureBox. You can sign up too and save $10 by using code SHARE10 for a discount off your first NatureBox! If ...
I love the healthy snacks I get from NatureBox. You can sign up too and save $10 by using code SHARE10 for a discount off your first NatureBox! If ...
Or use YDLV3 at your checkout.
Happy Snacking!!
REUNION!
Although Mike couldn't make it to the reunion, we still had a blast! Mike was the only person in his entire family that wasn't there.
Let me tell you a little about the vacation home we stayed in. It had 7 bathrooms. seven. It was gigantic. The kitchen sat 20. It had a movie theater with 9 couches in it. I think the screen was 120 inches.
The backyard was my favorite part, it had a pool, a soccer field (yes, you read that right) an in-ground trampoline, a playground, a putting green, a BBQ area, fire pit, and much more. Let me go back to the trampoline. Underneath it was a sandbox. To get in the sandbox you had to go through a tunnel, and it was a slide. To get out you climb through another tunnel. The place was amazing.
Also in the back yard was a another building. This building had a basketball court, another bathroom, and a separate room with air hockey, fooseball, ping pong, and a giant TV with a Wii. Also so weights to exercise.
We didn't need to plan any activities because there was already so much to do! But let me tell you a little about the most special part of the reunion: the temple.
As you know, Mike's parents adopted a 12 year girl named Colette. In our religion, we get sealed to each other as families so that we can be together in Heaven. We went as a family to the temple and Colette got sealed to Dave and Debbie. It was such a special day. We are so grateful to have Colette in our family.
Let me tell you a little about the vacation home we stayed in. It had 7 bathrooms. seven. It was gigantic. The kitchen sat 20. It had a movie theater with 9 couches in it. I think the screen was 120 inches.
The backyard was my favorite part, it had a pool, a soccer field (yes, you read that right) an in-ground trampoline, a playground, a putting green, a BBQ area, fire pit, and much more. Let me go back to the trampoline. Underneath it was a sandbox. To get in the sandbox you had to go through a tunnel, and it was a slide. To get out you climb through another tunnel. The place was amazing.
Also in the back yard was a another building. This building had a basketball court, another bathroom, and a separate room with air hockey, fooseball, ping pong, and a giant TV with a Wii. Also so weights to exercise.
We didn't need to plan any activities because there was already so much to do! But let me tell you a little about the most special part of the reunion: the temple.
As you know, Mike's parents adopted a 12 year girl named Colette. In our religion, we get sealed to each other as families so that we can be together in Heaven. We went as a family to the temple and Colette got sealed to Dave and Debbie. It was such a special day. We are so grateful to have Colette in our family.
Trip to Utah
I just got back from being in Utah for a week and half. I'm so blessed to have two children that travel well on airplanes. Neither of them cried at all and they slept most of the time.
My in laws were having a family reunion and Mike and I were the only ones that were going to be there. I was so sad and so was Mike. My in-laws decided that they were going to pay for my plane ticket to come home, and I am eternally grateful because I was getting homesick. My mom got me a buddy pass, and flew out here to pick me up. With the help of both sets of parents I got to go home!!
Day 1 of our trip was just traveling down to Dallas, which a friend of mine, Heather, drove us down with her because she needed to go down for the weekend to compete in a fitness competition, which she placed 3rd in. So a big shout out to Heather!! And a big Thank You, too. This was also a special day for us because it was Ellie's 7 month birthday. I can't believe how fast these months are going by. Kristen bought Ellie the cutest little robe. She said that Ellie picked it out and just needed it.
Day 2 of our trip was a saturday. My mom flew in to hang out with us. We spent most of the day at Ikea. I love that place.
On sunday, day 3, we flew home. We had a big family dinner that day. My cousin and his family came, and Calvin got to play with his cousins. He LOVES playing with his cousins.
The rest of the week was pretty much low key. We went to a Halloween party at our neighbor's house, visited friends at SkyWest, hung out at home mostly, until Halloween. I took Calvin Trunk or Treating at my mom's church building. He loved it! He didn't like dressing up so much, and he never said Trick or Treat, or Thank you. If fact, I'm pretty sure he didn't say anything, which is rare. But he was just taking it all in. And now the kid is hooked on sugar. Oh well...
That night we went to the reunion, which was also in St George. We were so excited to see everyone and Ellie got to meet the rest of Mike's family. I will post a new post just for the reunion, because there were a few special moments.
I left on saturday night to go back to my parents so we could go home early on sunday morning. We got to the airport and got all unloaded, but didn't make it on the flight (we were flying standby.)
All of the flights for the rest of the day (and next day) looked awful. We tried again on monday, out of Cedar City, and we were going to get on and make it all the way home, but our plane had mechanical problems and we wouldn't have made our connection, so.... we went back home.
Then finally on Tuesday we took a flight out in the afternoon, (Alyson flew home with us and was such a big help! Thanks sal!!) and got back to Texas on Tuesday night. Mike and Kristen picked us up.
Home again, Home again, Jiggety jig.
My in laws were having a family reunion and Mike and I were the only ones that were going to be there. I was so sad and so was Mike. My in-laws decided that they were going to pay for my plane ticket to come home, and I am eternally grateful because I was getting homesick. My mom got me a buddy pass, and flew out here to pick me up. With the help of both sets of parents I got to go home!!
Day 1 of our trip was just traveling down to Dallas, which a friend of mine, Heather, drove us down with her because she needed to go down for the weekend to compete in a fitness competition, which she placed 3rd in. So a big shout out to Heather!! And a big Thank You, too. This was also a special day for us because it was Ellie's 7 month birthday. I can't believe how fast these months are going by. Kristen bought Ellie the cutest little robe. She said that Ellie picked it out and just needed it.
Day 2 of our trip was a saturday. My mom flew in to hang out with us. We spent most of the day at Ikea. I love that place.
On sunday, day 3, we flew home. We had a big family dinner that day. My cousin and his family came, and Calvin got to play with his cousins. He LOVES playing with his cousins.
The rest of the week was pretty much low key. We went to a Halloween party at our neighbor's house, visited friends at SkyWest, hung out at home mostly, until Halloween. I took Calvin Trunk or Treating at my mom's church building. He loved it! He didn't like dressing up so much, and he never said Trick or Treat, or Thank you. If fact, I'm pretty sure he didn't say anything, which is rare. But he was just taking it all in. And now the kid is hooked on sugar. Oh well...
That night we went to the reunion, which was also in St George. We were so excited to see everyone and Ellie got to meet the rest of Mike's family. I will post a new post just for the reunion, because there were a few special moments.
I left on saturday night to go back to my parents so we could go home early on sunday morning. We got to the airport and got all unloaded, but didn't make it on the flight (we were flying standby.)
All of the flights for the rest of the day (and next day) looked awful. We tried again on monday, out of Cedar City, and we were going to get on and make it all the way home, but our plane had mechanical problems and we wouldn't have made our connection, so.... we went back home.
Then finally on Tuesday we took a flight out in the afternoon, (Alyson flew home with us and was such a big help! Thanks sal!!) and got back to Texas on Tuesday night. Mike and Kristen picked us up.
Home again, Home again, Jiggety jig.
November??
I can't believe it is already November. I'm so excited! This year will be a new experience for me for Thanksgiving because I have never not been with my parents or Mike's parents. This year, we are celebrating with our Air Force family, and I honestly can't wait! Everyone has such great recipes and ideas, and I'm excited to try something new. I'm excited that all the wives want to be in the kitchen helping and that a lot of them will be here! We might also have some of the international pilots come and it will be their first Thanksgiving experience. My sister Kristen will also be coming up and I am SOO excited for that. I don't think I've had Thanksgiving with her in the past 5 years. I'm excited to start new traditions and see what other people do for their family traditions. I'm also excited to blog about this experience later this month.
On a lighter note, it's also Movember. I hate mustaches.
On a lighter note, it's also Movember. I hate mustaches.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)