School Pictures

School is starting soon, and I recently saw a idea I like in a magazine. Most parents take pictures of their kids on the first day of school, but what about taking their picture on the last day of school too? Take it in the same spot you took the first day of school picture. This way you can really see how they have changed and grown over the school year.

Yummy Potato Soup

I love potato soup, but I never make it because I think it is hard to make and it's really not all that healthy with the heavy cream and all. But I found a yummy and easy recipe for potato soup. The best part is that you make it in your crockpot.

Potato Soup
2-3 lbs potatoes
small onion (around 1/3 cup chopped)
2 cloves of garlic (I used about teaspoon of the pre-crushed kind I have in my fridge)
2 cans chicken broth
1/2 teas. black pepper
1/2 teas. red pepper
8 oz lite cream cheese

Peel and dice the potatoes and dice the onions. Place potatoes, onions, garlic, broth, black pepper, and red pepper in your crockpot (you can add seasoning salt if you like, but with the salt in the chicken broth I didn't feel like it needed any.) Cook on low for 8 hours. NOTE: ***Because I work full-time, I knew there was no way I would get all this done in the morning. I did all the prep work the night before and covered it with plastic wrap. Make sure you press the plastic wrap down on the top of the food. This helps get all the air out and helps keep your potatoes from getting brown. In the morning I just put it all in the crockpot and turned it on and left.***

Once the potatoes are tender, smash with your potato smasher. (I wish I had a hand held immersible blender because I think it would have made the soup creamier) Once the potatoes are smashed, add the cream cheese in 1 inch pieces. Cook until the cream cheese is melted. Serve!

It's serves about 6 people. Only around 350 calories per serving. Serve with a yummy salad and you have dinner. We topped ours with a little shredded cheese, but bacon bits sounded good to. If any of you try this, let me know what you think or if you have any suggestions.

Summer Advent Calendar

I found Chocolate On My Cranium last fall. She is a great resource. Check out her FHE ideas. One of the ideas I really loved was her summer advent calendar. Check it out here. She will explain what different ideas she uses. Even though she has a beautiful and elaborate calendar, you can make yours as simple as you want. You could even just stick different ideas in different envelopes and have the kids randomly pick on every day. Good luck this summer. If you have any fun summer activites, please share.

All-Purpose Spice Rub

About a year ago I found a recipe for an all-purpose spice rub on MarthaStewart.com. We love it! I use it on chicken and veggies all the time. By making so much ahead of time, it makes it easy to spice up your dinner (pardon the pun). I store it in my old baby food jars. The kids can help you make it too. I put all the ingredients in a large Ziploc bag and let the kiddos shake it up to mix everything together.

• 1/3 cup coarse salt
• 1/4 cup packed light-brown sugar
• 1/4 cup paprika
• 2 tablespoons ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons dried oregano
• 2 tablespoons dried thyme leaves
• 1 tablespoon cayenne pepper (optional if you want a little spice)

This is a very versatile recipe. Feel free to try different spices. We have used rosemary and red pepper flakes instead of thyme and cayenne.

One of our favorite ways to use this rub is to make roasted cauliflower. Place the cauliflower florets in a baggy. Pour in a tablespoon of oil (I use olive or canola because they are the healthiest for your heart). Then our in some of your spice. Shake the bag till all of the cauliflower is coated. Bake at 450 degrees for 20-25 minutes, turning once. Yummy! Yummy!

FREE R.A.M.P. Days at Treehouse (and other free activities)

The Treehouse Museum in Ogden, Utah has three free days this year. The dates are June 6, July 18, and August 1. If you have any questions, visit their website or call the Treehouse Museum at 801-394-9663.

To get the whole RAMP schedule of free activities in the Weber county area, click here and click on the download for the RAMP Summer activities calender.

Toothpicks With Lunch

Just wanted to share an idea I discovered. My 18 month old has become a lousy eater. After two bits, he wants out of the highchair. He would rather play than eat. I have found an easy solution to this. Use toothpicks! I now cut up food into bit size pieces and stick a toothpick in every piece. He loves it! He thinks it is s fun to eat the food off the toothpick. For lunch we had cheese and ham and fruit. He ate it all and asked for more. I'm thrilled! I'm sure I will be going through a lot if boxes of toothpicks, but that is a small price to pay.

If anyone else has a great idea on how to make food more fun so baby D will eat better, I would love to hear about it. Thanks!

Fun blog find

I found this totally cute blog that has a ton of homemade projects. My favorite is the binkie clip! And if you don't like to make things, she sells a lot of her projects on etsy. Check her out!

Want to earn some extra money?

I have just recently had the chance to be a stay at home mom to my 3 kids. And what a fun adventure that has been! Ever since this change, funds in our household have been very tight. We have had to learn to live without a lot of luxuries that we were used to having. I guess you could say we have been "living on love." Well, my husband and I were just recently introduced to a company that has helped us make a little extra money. If you are interested in learning more, go to www.myefusjon.com/jhancey or http://www.efusjonenergydrinkclub.blogspot.com/. You can also check out this video to learn how the program works http://mikebalzotti.com/Efusjon.html. If you have any questions, please email us at jash017@hotmail.com.

Bows!

I know it has been forever since we posted! I came across this blog by accident. This lady makes bows that I think are very well priced. I got six of her simple bows and three headbands, plus shipping for $16! That is the cheapest I have found!!! I just wanted to spread the word to help her out. Check it out! http://whodoesntlovegirlythings.blogspot.com/.

April Conference

A friend of mine sent me a link to SugarDoodle.net. They have a fun April Conference packet you can download for your kiddos. What a great way to get them involved in General Conference. They even have a Spanish version, in case you know anyone with Spanish as a first language. Enjoy. She did a great job on the packets!

Days of the Week

OK, I know I've been a slacker. I have no real good excuse, but I have a lot of not so good ones.

I thought I would share a cute free download I found. It's at www.livinglocurto.com. She's a graphic designer and mother of two. She has lots of free downloads. The free download I want to share with you is the day of the week tags. It's a great way to get organized in the mornings. By choosing the weeks clothes at the beginning of the week, it makes it easier for your children to know exactly what to wear and you don't need to worry.



If you don't want to use the downloads, have your child make some of his or her own. It would be a fun craft project and a great way to teach your child organization.

Recycled Bows

Aren't these bows cute, despite the fact that I'm a lousy photographer? They are way easy and cheap. They are made from magazine pages! All you need is an old magazine, brads, scissors (I used a paper cutter), and a sharp item to poke a small hole. Here are the directions. They are way fun to make. If you have older children, they would enjoy this too. Talk about a way to save money. Put your kids to work. Next Christmas you shouldn't need to buy a single bow. Have fun!

Beginning Quilt

I've always wanted to learn how to quilt, but I have always been a little overwhelmed by the idea of starting. I really got brave after finding the blog crazymomquilts.blogspot.com. She is an amazing quilter. I've even emailed her with questions I have about quilting and she always has great answers. She never makes me feel like it's a dumb question.

Then I started searching online. I found this great pattern. It's a baby blanket. (Actually it makes three baby blankets) I finally decided to dive in. You can download this pattern for free. (yeah!) Here are the three blackets I made my my siser's kids. I thought it would be fun for each of them to get a gift when baby #3 is born. All I have done is pieced the quilts. I haven't backed them or quilted them yet. What do you think for a first time?

I haven't decide who gets what quilt yet. My sister might have to help me decide. Happy quilting!

FHE 2009

A friend of mine sent me PDF file of 48 FHE lessons that coordinate with the 2009 primary theme “MY ETERNAL FAMILY”. It is a wonderful resource. If any of you would like me to email you the PDF file, please let me know. Even if you think your children are too young for these lessons now, you can always use them in the future. You can follow the schedule of the primary, or use them as you see fit. Email us at fun4mommies@gmail.com

Food Storage Helper

A friend of mine sent me a link to this website. It is a free website that you use to help you rotate your food storage. This is what the website has to say about it.

"My Food Storage currently* has a very basic feature set- it keeps track of food expiration dates. You enter food items and their expiration dates, and My Food Storage will send you email reminders as you approach those expiration dates giving you enough time to use up your food storage as well as replace it.

My Food Storage was created to be an easy-to-use, "set it & forget it" type of application that will help you remember to rotate your food ensuring that you have fresh food storage."

I think this is great!!! I know I need food storage for not only emergencies, but to save money so I can buy a lot when prices are low, but I'm lousy at getting it all together. I know I find cans of food all the time that I have bought years ago. (Some from when I was first married. Yikes!) What a great organizing tool for the naturally unorganized, like me. If any of you try this site, let me know what you think of it.

Check it Out: www.myfoodstorage.info

One Cookin' Mama

When reading one of the many blogs I am subscribed to, I came across a link to an amazing blog. That is if you love to crockpot like I do. (I suppose crockpot isn't a real verb, is it?)

A Year of Crockpotting

She has a tons of great crockpot recipes. I can't wait to try some of them! I think using your crockpot is such a time save. Throw everything in in the morning and come home to a great diner.

Plus, if you or any of your family members have celiac, all her recipes are gluten free. This is wonderful! I was diagnosed with celiac (Lucky for me it was a misdiagnosis and we dicovered the realy problem a year later) and it is tough to find good gluten free food that your whole family wants to eat. (Note: If you are eating gluten free, she reminds you to check all your labels because manufacturer change ingredients without warning.)

Storynory

I just found a great website I wanted to share with you all, storynory.com. It is fantastic. they have tons of audio books for children that you can download for free. They have fairytales, classic, and even some original stories.

Here is how to download them onto your computer so you can burn them on a CD. (I only share because R had to tell me how to do it) When you pick a category then pick a story, the script of the story is there. above the script is a play button, so you can play the story from you computer while following along in the story. Above the play button it says "Download the audio" (or something close to that. It's different for every story) You want to right click on that (or control-click for a Mac). Click on "Save As" or "Save Link As." This should allow you to download it onto your computer.

What a great thing to listen to in the car. I'm planning on making a CD for B and S to listen to next time they come down. Plus, I bet you have children's book of many of these stories. You children can follow along with the book. Don't worry if the story isn't quite the same. Your young children will love to follow the pictures.

Thanks Storynory!