Wood Conversation Hearts

What's Valentine's Day without Conversation Hearts? Conversation Hearts are probably the most recognizable Valentine's Day candy ever....So I decided to make my own version of the popular candy! Only mine are not edible! :)

My version of a Conversation Heart

I love how they turned out. So fun and festive for Valentine's Day!

Check back Wednesday for the Tutorial.

1 1/2 weeks post lip repair

Charlie is doing wonderfully. It will be two weeks on monday since his lip repair surgery and he is as adorable as ever. :) He has his cranky moments, but for the most part he has been such a trooper throughout the last two weeks. Here are some recent pictures of my little man:

: . Favorite Things Friday . : Wii Active

As most of you know, I just recently had a baby. And that means that there is weight to lose! For me....A LOT of weight to lose. I can't believe I'm sharing this on my blog...but I gained almost 50 pounds when I was pregnant with Charlie. Only 7 of those pounds was baby! :( So you do the math! :)

By Christmas I had lost 30 of those pounds, but then I just stopped losing the weight. With Hannah I gained almost 50 pounds as well. But I lost all 50 pounds within weeks of giving birth because I was breastfeeding. Well, Charlie wasn't able to breastfeed because of his cleft and so I haven't been able to lose the weight as easily as when I did with Hannah. I still want to lose the last 20 pounds that I gained during my pregnancy. Going to the gym is impossible for me. I have 2 small children and go to school. There is virtually no time for me to go to the gym! So my hubby bought me one of these for Christmas!

If you are like me, you HATE to work out. I have never been an athletic person and I have always hated to work out. But this is different. This makes working out at home so much more fun and it actually kicks my butt! There are so many different activities and it is only a 30 minute workout. Which is manageable for me!

My favorite things about this program are:

**Different difficulty settings. I am on the "easy" setting which is NOT easy for me. But My husband does the "medium" setting and it kicks his butt! So it's great for men and women.

**It has fun things like mountainboarding, mountain biking, and basketball exercises. This makes it way more fun! The mountainboarding is my favorite, but it is HARD!

**It makes you set goals. I love this because it makes me accountable for something! :) And I am a very goal-oriented person.

I was doing this religiously for 2 weeks and lost 4 pounds! Then Charlie had his surgery and I kind of fell off the bandwagon. So I am going to start back up again this week!

They have this program for all the gaming systems on the market today and I would have to say it is well worth the money. I even got the hubby hooked on this thing! And it kicks his butt too!

Food For Thought Tuesday-90's Flashback

I hope you are ready for a 90s flashback! :)

I can honestly say I have been cooking since I was 3 years old. This picture was taken when I was about that age. I was helping my mom open beef bouillon cubes for a roast she was about to put in the oven.

This is one of my earliest memories and I thought about it the other day and had to find the picture! My mom was able to dig through all of our pictures and find it for me. I was a little apprehensive about posting this picture because LOOK AT ME! You can totally tell this was in the early nineties! My pants alone give that away! :)

This is Hannah helping me cook and she is the same age!

My mom is truly the one that taught me how to cook....well that and the Food Network! That has to be my favorite channel. When there isn't anything on TV I always resort to that channel! :)

I am so grateful that my mom taught me how to cook and I am trying to do the same with Hannah. She loves helping me in the kitchen and I try to include her every time I cook dinner. She helps me chop things, (with a butter knife) she loves to stir anything and everything and loves to put the salt and pepper in for me!

If you want the recipe that I was making when this picture was taken you can find it here.

Favorite Things Friday: Nikon D5000

I got a brand new camera a couple weeks ago and I LOVE it. It is awesome. I got a Nikon D5000 and it has not disappointed. My pictures are so clear and the quality is amazing.

I am still learning how to use it and have been taking a ton of pictures. I'm sure Hannah is just about sick of me taking her picture! Here are some of my latest pictures of Hannah with the new camera.

It was fun taking her picture with my mom's antique rocking chair. I remember sitting in this rocking chair when I was her age!

It was definitely worth the money in my opinion. I am currently in a photography class this semester and we are using 35mm film cameras and can't wait to make my own prints! I'm sure you will be seeing a lot pictures in the next little while! :)

Charlie's Lip Surgery

Charlie had is surgery on Monday and everything went beautifully. He is doing so great! All of his nurses couldn't believe how well he was doing. We came home Tuesday and everything is going great! He eats like a champ and hardly ever fusses. He is still swollen and it will take about a week for it to go away. He hates his arm restraints, but other than that he's almost back to his happy self. We got him to smile a few hours after surgery and he even started giggling at my husband the day after surgery!

Right before surgery

Right after surgery

The day after surgery

I just wanted to thank all of you for your thoughts and prayers for little Charlie. You guys are awesome! :)

Paper Fan Heart Wreath .: Tutorial :.

I may be a little obsessed with making things with old book pages. My last craft projects have all consisted of old book pages. I love them! They are just so vintage looking and I love old vintage looking things!

Can I just say that this project took way longer than necessary!!! But with two little munchkins, I didn't really have a choice! :) This took me two days to complete. If you know me, you know I that when I start a project I like to finish it the same day. I just hate having projects laying around the house. So it was killing me when I had to stare at it for two days on my table unfinished!

I got my inspiration from one of my previous projects.....you can find it here and you can also find the instructions on how to make a paper fan.

Tutorial:

Supplies:

Old book pages

11 red hearts (different sizes)

Distressing ink

11 black buttons

Hot Glue

Large piece of cardboard

Paint

Twine

Mini clothespin clips

Scrap paper

Step 1. Make your paper fans. Make 2 different sizes!

I made about 12, but only ended up using 11. You can find my tutorial here.

Step 2. Make a frame to glue your fans to. Map out your heart than draw a hear onto your cardboard

Step 3: Cut out your frame

Step 4: Paint your frame. I only did this because I didn't want brown cardboard showing through.

Step 5: Hot glue your fans to your frame. (it's easier to map it out first so you know what you are doing when you are glueing)

Step 6: Make the word "love" out of scrap pieces of paper. I actually printed on some scrapbook paper the word love and then cut it out and glued it to some red cardstock.

Step 7: Tie your twine to your frame from one side to the other

Step : Hang your letters with the mini clothespins.

That's it! Super easy and super affordable. I didn't have to go out and buy anything for this project, which is a good thing because who knows when I would have made it to the store! :)

I have mine hanging on an angle--like in the picture. I like it better this way rather then straight up and down.

I am linking up at:

Sister's Stuff

Show and Tell Wednesday

Whatever Goes Wenesday

Show and Tell Saturday

Weekend Wrap Up Party

Food for Thought Tuesday-Ham and Potato Casserole

I found this recipe in a book my sister gave me for Chrismas, but I tweaked it to make it my own.

Recipe:

Ham and Potato Casserole

1 bag frozen hashbrown potatoes (square kind)

2 cups of cooked cubed ham

2 cans of cream of mushroom soup

3/4 cup of milk

2 1/2 cups grated cheddar cheese

1 cup grated swiss cheese

1/2 tsp onion powder

Salt and pepper to taste.

In large bowl combine all ingredients except 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese. Put in greased casserole dish and bake 350 for 1 hour then put reserved cheddar cheese on top and bake another 20-30 minutes until bubbly.

Review:

We really liked the recipe, but it made way too much food for my family and we don't do well with leftovers! So in the future I would definitely half the recipe. Or make the whole recipe and freeze half for another day.

The original recipe did not call for swiss cheese and it said to cube the cheese rather than grate the cheese. I didn't like the cubed cheese because I would get a huge chunk of cheese when eating it and I would rather it be cheesy all over. The reason I added swiss cheese is because swiss cheese goes so well with the flavor of ham. Overall, I liked the taste and I will make this again for my family.

thoughts and prayers

Monday is the big day. Charlie is going to have his first surgery. It was last July that we found out that our little boy would be born with a cleft lip and possible palate.

I remember when the Doctor told me something was wrong with his little face. My heart sank. When she said that he had a cleft lip, I started crying. My whole world stopped. I looked at my husband and I could tell that he had no idea what that even meant. I knew exactly what a cleft was and I was in complete shock. The doctor told us that it wasn't a huge deal and with the technology we have today that it would be an easy fix. I wasn't convinced. I was completely devasted.

I then started to do the "what if" thing. I played out a whole bunch of scenarios in my head about what if this and what if that. Throughout my whole pregnancy I always felt something was different. Something I couldn't figure out. I was super apprehensive about announcing my pregnancy because I always just felt something was going to go wrong. I never would have guessed that my little boy would have a birth defect.

I cried a lot. Sometimes out of the blue, I would just think about it and start to cry. It took weeks for me to accept the fact that something was wrong with my little boy and that there was nothing that I could do about it. I couldn't fix it.

It wasn't until a month or so after the diagnosis that I finally felt like everything was going to be ok. That there was nothing I could have done to prevent this. I knew that my Heavenly Father wanted me to have this wonderful child and knew that I would love him unconditionally. I KNEW I would love and nurture this child no matter what. How could I not? I already felt completely in love and attached to this little human being.

After months of waiting, this little miracle boy came into our lives and when I saw him for the first time, I felt the most powerful and the most pure love for this child. All of my worries throughout my whole pregnancy melted away and all I wanted to do was hold him and care for him.

Two months have passed and now I have to see him go through surgery. I would be lying if I said that I'm not scared. I am really scared. I love his "wide" smile and it makes my heart melt every time he looks at me with his "happy" eyes. I don't want to see him in so much pain. I don't want to hear him cry in pain. I know it's a common surgery and everything will be okay, but I am still scared and worried that something will go wrong. I love him so much and would be devastated if anything were to happen to him.

Any thoughts or prayers for Charlie would be so appreciated. We are hoping he will have a swift recovery and will be back to his happy self in no time!

"Favorite Things Friday" awapuhi--wild ginger

My first "favorite thing" is my newest love. When I say love....I really mean I am in love with this product!

It is a hair care line by Paul Mitchell and it's called "awapuhi--wild ginger"

It is AMAZING! What got me hooked was the smell. I have never ever had a shampoo that smelled so good. It not only smells great, it works great. It is a moisturizing shampoo and it has made my hair so much more healthy.

I have never been one to spend a ton of money on hair products, but when my sister became a cosmetologist.....things changed. I now spend more on hair care products than any other beauty products.

This line of hair products is not cheap and I am savoring every last drop. I don't let anyone in my house use it but me! :) The other great thing about it is that you don't need to use a lot of it when washing your hair. So it should last me a while--which is a good thing because my husband about died when I told him how much I spent on a bottle of shampoo and conditioner! :)

So now I am asking you--what is your absolute must have beauty product?

Love Coupons--Free Printable

I love celebrating Valentine's Day! Which is funny because I'm not a very romantic person---but my husband is VERY romantic! I think that's why I like it so much, because I know he always has something fun and romantic planned for me each year!

As you know we are "poor college students" :) and we can't always afford to go all out like we used to for Valentine's Day. So I came up with a solution this year. I am making my hubby these love coupons!

I used my new graphic design skills to whip these sweet things up! :) I had fun making them. I know they aren't super amazing, but I am still a beginner and I have to keep practicing or I will forget all that I learned!

Aren't they fun? I can't wait to use them! You can be as romantic as you want or you can just have fun with them!I thought I would make them into a PDF so that anyone that wants to use these can for free. You can print them here.

I am participating in:

Whatever Goes Wednesday

Sister's Stuff Link Up

Show and Tell Wednesday

Weekend Wrap up Party

Show and Tell Saturday

Weekend Wrap Up Party

Food For Thought Tuesday-Homemade French Toast

A month or so ago, I made some homemade bread and I froze a loaf to save for another day. Well I had to clean out my freezer in order to fit all of my freezer meals so I got out the bread and made french toast for dinner! It was delicious. There is nothing like french toast made with homemade bread. I used this bread recipe if you are interested in making some for yourself!

I don't have a special recipe for french toast. I just dip my bread in an egg and milk mixture and brown it on a hot buttered griddle pan.

I topped my french toast with strawberry syrup and powdered sugar! YUM! So easy and super good! A thousand times better than french toast made with store bought bread! :)

Whenever I don't know what to cook for dinner I ALWAYS resort to breakfast. My family loves eating breakfast for dinner. I think we have it at least once a week because it is so easy. I always have breakfast food in my fridge/freezer. These are some of the things I always have in stock:

Ground sausage

Bacon

Ham

Hashbrowns

Tortillas (for breakfast burritos)

It makes my life so much easier when I know I always have these ingredients in my freezer. This way when I haven't the slightest idea what to cook for dinner, I know I can always count on Breakfast! :)

What's your favorite thing to make for breakfast?! If you have a delicious breakfast casserole--I would love the recipe. I am always looking for new things to make for breakfast.

My New Year's Resolution!

All of a sudden I have really wanted to start blogging again. In fact, I have made it one of my top New Year's Resolutions! And I decided if I posted it on my blog then I would HAVE TO keep it, because I would feel really STUPID if I didn't! :)

In the last couple of weeks I have decided a couple of things about blogging:

1. i love to blog

2. blogging is a lot of work

3. sometimes i hate to blog

4. blogging makes me happy

5. i love blog stalking

6. blogging is my -- "me time"

7. i love sharing my ideas with other bloggers

8. blogging takes a lot of time

9. i love getting feedback from my blog readers

10. blogging keeps me sane.

I have realized in the past couple of weeks that I won't be able to do craft after craft after craft......Crafting takes TIME--and for me it takes a lot of time because I'm a perfectionist....and well let's face it I have 2 children now and I have almost NO time!

I still intend to craft, because this is what I started this blog for, but I also want to include other things that I love and enjoy doing!

Here are a few things I'm going to start on my blog:

**I wanted to start a new series on my blog that is all about my current favorite things. It's going to be called "Favorite Things Friday" I am doing this in hopes of maybe starting a linky party every friday that will feautre your "favorite things" I haven't the slightest idea how to do a linky party...so you will just be seeing my favorite things for a couple of weeks.

**My next series is all about the food! I love cooking and trying new recipes so I am going to start to do "Food for Thought Tuesdays" In this series, I will review and share recipes. I also thought it would be great if anyone would want to guest post and share their favorite recipe!

**last of all, I am going to start CRAFTING! I hope to do at least 3 crafts a month. This is why I started my blog and this is what a lot of my readers like to see and it's what I love to do! So it's a win win situation!

I wanted to thank all my readers for sticking with me even though my posts have been super sporadic and sometimes non-existent! I really do love blogging and I hope this new plan will work! :) If not, I apologize ahead of time! ;)

Freezer Meals

I haven't ever really done freezer meals before, but my sister introduced them to me not too long ago and I am hooked. When I was pregnant with Charlie, I had this awesome plan about making a TON of freezer meals before he was born so that we were prepared and didn't have to eat out every day. Well, he had other plans. He decided to come the day before I was going to make everything!

His first surgery is scheduled in about a week from now, and I am much more prepared this time! I have made 5 different freezer meals. (i would have made more, but my freezer is not big enough!) I wanted to do this because I know the first week is probably going to be the hardest and he is going to most likely be hurting and in pain, so I want to be able to give him all the attention he needs and not have to worry about cooking a good meal for my family.

I just wanted to share my most favorite thing to freeze that helps me out tremendously during the week. I started to do this about two years ago and it is a lifesaver. I am talking about shredded chicken. I use shredded chicken in a lot of dishes that my family enjoys and so I came up with this recipe so that I can have shredded chicken anytime and not have to wait for it to cook all day long!

This is what I do.

**I buy boneless, skinless chicken when it goes on sale. Usually $1.59 a pound and I buy a TON of it!

**I cut all the fat off of all the chicken.

**I use half of the chicken for shredded chicken the other half I filet and freeze into portions that work for my family

Here is how I cook my shredded chicken:

You will need

6-8 boneless skinless chicken breasts

8 chicken bouillon cubes

1 large onion chopped

2 tsp chopped garlic

Salt and Pepper to taste

Water

Place all your chicken in your crockpot and add the rest of the ingredietns. Add just enough water so that it almost covers the chicken. Cook on low for 6-8 hour or until it shreds.

Now, this is how I freeze it.

I put the portion that works for my family in a freezer ziploc bag and add a little of the juices from the crockpot to keep it moist. I label the bag and put it in the freezer.

When I need to use that chicken, I just take it out to thaw a few hours before I'm ready to cook dinner. These are some of the meals that I make that require shredded chicken:

*Chicken Enchiladas

*White Chicken Chili

*Hawaiian Haystacks

*Cheesy Chicken and Rice Casserole

*Spinach Chicken and Artichoke Casserole

*Chicken and Broccoli Casserole

Cheesy Chicken and Rice Casserole

This recipe will make a 9 x 13 casserole dish

3-4 cups of cooked long grain white rice

2 cans of cream of chicken soup

1 cup sour cream

2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

1 cup shredded monterey jack cheese

2 cups shredded chicken

1 tsp garlic powder

Bread Crumbs**optional

Salt and Pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients and put in a greased 9 x 13 casserole dish. Sprinkle with breadcrumbs and bake 350* for 45 minutes or until hot and bubbly. Serve with your favorite vegetable or a side salad.

Chicken Enchiladas

This is the first time I have done these freezer meals so I hope they turn out!

My sister gave me a freezer meal cookbook for Christmas and so I am trying a bunch of new recipes this week. I will post my reviews of those recipes later this week. :)

Recipe Book 2010

This year I made another recipe book for my family members for Christmas! I love recipe books! Sometimes when I'm bored I will just thumb through a recipe book...I'm weird I know! :) I was born into a family that LOVES food and who LOVES to cook great food. Whenever we get together it's all about the food! We love cooking together and we love to share recipes. So this is always the perfect gift for my family.

I did about 35 recipes that I made in photoshop and then had them printed at cotsco. Here are a few of the recipes:

These cards make the perfect gift for anyone. I have many family recipe books and I am so glad that I have them! Here is some advice if you are going to make these for Christmas next year.

*Start putting it together now! I know that seems like a lot of time to do a recipe book, but I always start too late and then I'm rushing to get it done by Christmas!