Behold Your Little Ones

For Christmas, from my little brother, I got the LDS nursery manual "Behold Your Little Ones." I think it is a must have for any family trying to plan FHE with young children. Even if your kids are in nursery and will be learning from this manual, repetition in how the gospel is taught. You just need to switch up the order is all. The whole lesson is planned out for you. Even your children out of nursery will still enjoy these lessons. FHE made easy. And you can purchase it for only $5.50. Chick here for the link to purchase it. We are starting to use it for baby D this Monday. I know he's only 14 months, but I think it is a great idea to start a habit of FHE, more for me and my husband R than for D.


If anyone has any other FHE ideas, please email us at fun4mommies@gmail.com

Note: I just discovered that you can print them out for free at LDS.org. Click here for the link to that page. Now you have no excuse not to have an FHE this Monday. :)

Christmas Breakfast

These are such cute ideas!!!
Go check out some fun Christmas Breakfast ideas from Ramblings of a Crazy Woman. They are all so cute. I think the French toast tree is my favorite, even though she didn't think it was one of her best. If any of you have some fun family traditions, please share.

White Stocking

It wasn't that anyone had really been forgotten, not children had been slighted or made unhappy and no adult had been forgotten. The presents had all be distributed and all the stockings were beautifully filled, all that is except one; It was the stocking intended for the child of Bethlehem. Of all the people belonging at that Christmas gathering, only he had been forgotten. Only he had been left out of the festivities. This didn't seem quite right, inasmuch as it was his birthday that was being celebrated. This year. The little white stocking will be hung in a special place in our home. On Christmas Eve, we will gather the family together and each of us will write on a piece of paper, a gift for Jesus to be placed in the stocking. It will remain in the stocking until next year's Christmas Eve, when we will pass out the papers from the year before. Then we will see how well we gave to the Savior through our gifts.

This is a new family tradition of ours. This story is placed in a white stocking and hung up.You don't have to share what you are giving the Savior, or tell everyone how you did on your gift last year. We don't. It's personal to us. Aand you don't have to use a stocking. Use a gift box and place the gift under the tree. Or, make a family gift, like more regular FHE or more reverence during church. What a great tradition to bring the Savior closer to your Christmas celebration.

Neighbor Gift

OK, so a neighbor gift is not so much a fun activity to do with your kids, but I saw this idea last year on Studio 5, thought it was a great one, but could never find a great tutorial later. That is, until now.
Personalized soap dispenser. What a cute idea!!! Your older kids could help with the project if you wanted. Click here to see the full tutorial. Thanks to Schlosser Designs for sharing this great idea. When I saw it on TV, they put the family's name on the transparency.

Microwave Fudge

I love fudge, but have always been to scared to make it. Now I make microwave fudge! It's easy and not too bad either.

The basic ingredients are :
one bag of chips (chocolate, peanut butter, white chocolate...)
14 oz can of sweeten condensed milk
1 Tablespoon unsalted butter
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
Extras (nuts, marshmallows, craisins, etc)

First, line a 9x9 pan with aluminum foil. Spray the foil lightly with PAM.
Place chips and sweetened condensed milk in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave until melted, stirring ever 30 secs or so. Add butter cut up in small bits. Stir in till melted. Add salt and vanilla (NOTE: if you don't have unsalted butter, try using your regular butter and not add salt) Now you add whatever extras you want. Pour into you pan and sprayed smooth. Place in your refrigerator for 3 hours. Once the fudge has set up, flip the pan upside down on a cutting board, peel off foil, and slice into bit size pieces. Enjoy!

I made chocolate walnut, pistachio craisin, and peanut butter. The peanut butter is way yummy!

Neighbor gifts are now done!

If you have any questions or if you try different "extra" that turn out great, email us. We would love to hear from you.

Edible Christmas Wreaths

You need:
1/2 cup of butter
3 cups of miniature marshmallows
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon of almond extract
green food coloring
4 cups of corn flakes
red hot candies (or another red candy)

I made it in the microwave, but I am sure you can do it on the stove too, just like rice krispie treats. First, in a microwave safe bowl, microwave your butter until it is melted. Then add the marshmallows. Cook in increments of 45 seconds stirring every time until they are melted. Then add the extracts. You can use all vanilla if you want, but J and I are big fans of almond extract, so we add it to a lot of stuff. Then add the food coloring. Make sure you make it a deep green because once you add the cornflakes, the color will lighten a lot. Then add the cornflakes. Make sure to just coat them so that they don't get crushed. Cover a cookie sheet with foil and then spray with Pam. Then just plop the mix by the spoonful onto the cookie sheet and shape into wreaths. This recipe doesn't make very much, so I did 6 medium sized wreaths. Cover with red hots and let stand until set. I hope you could follow that. I am obviously not cut out for writing recipes.

Salt Dough Ornaments

A Feathered Nest has a cute idea to make salt dough ornaments with you kids. Check out her recipe here. I's a cheap and fun holiday activity.