More Valentine's Sugar Cookies!

I too made some festive Valentine sugar cookies! (Click here for Devyn's recipe that she already posted.) Ah, they were so fun. I used store bought frosting...sorry to disappoint. They still tasted YUMMY!!!

Valentine's!!

This year I wanted to help Hayden send out Valentine's to his cousins, other family and close friends.  I wanted to make it as easy as possible, make something and print it out from the computer, have him color it, add a picture of him, send and done!

HOWEVER!  The day I'm going to start the Valentine's, my week old printer DIES!!  I was so mad.... its a week old!  So now Im waiting for our new one to come...and I had to do the cards the old fashion way.  I still think they turned out super cute though!!! 

The beginning stages....

I traced and cut out his hands, cut some hearts and folding the paper in thirds...

after I glued everything, and having Hayden stick on some of the hearts, he colored and colored and colored... :)

 

and drum roll please..... the finished product... :)

it says:

(front)I LOVE YOU.....

(inside)THIS MUCH! Happy Valentine's Day! Love, Hayden

 We just got our family pictures done a little while ago, so we sent a picture of Hayden and one of our family with the card.(at Walgreen's right now if you buy 25 4x6 prints you get 25 free!)  (HERE is the photographer that did our pictures. She is AMAZING!)

THIS and THIS was another idea I was thinking about doing for Valentine's... maybe next year! :)  Martha and Family Fun has all sorts of brilliant ideas!

Hi! It's Devyn again :) Isn't it nice that Megan let's me crash all here posts! LOL... we made our Valentine's this year too. Well, I made the outsides and the kids colored on the inside where we put a nice little note! They turned out really cute! (I wish I would have seen Megan's first though, because they are super super cute!)

We also sent a picture. But I made them into Valentine's.. I printed this on a 5x7 and cut them apart. The insides had cute scribbles in them. I think they turned out really cute!
HAVE FUN  and make your own VALENTINE's! Show the people that mean the most to you how much you LOVE THEM!!!! -Devyn

Will you be mine....again??

Welcome to "The Woo"

The Woo is a monthly post about marriage. How to "woo" your marriage to eternity!

The theme or topic will always be the title of the post and then you will always see this cute heading on the post to let you know THIS IS IT! Please enjoy! We are excited about this monthly post, because we all want to be the best mommies, BUT we KNOW that the best thing we can do for our children is to LOVE our HUSBANDS!

WHAT DEVYN SAYS:

I love the title this month. I feel like that sometimes when I'm trying to think of things to do for my husband... what could I do.... again? Don't get me wrong I love doing things for my hunny, however, sometimes I don't feel like he is getting that I really am doing it because I LOVE HIM still.. and not just doing stuff because I should or have to. I've figured out that its the little things that matter the most and show him that I truly love and care for him.

I found this cute little story from LDS.ORG that I want to share. I think she is so right, and I admire how great they were at spending quality time together as husband and wife! DATING AT HOME might take a little thinking, but I think that it might be really fun! Please read this story...

(Geok Lee Thong, “Dating at Home,” Liahona, Jun 1999, 16)

"In Malaysia, the idea of dating one’s spouse after marriage is almost unheard of. My husband and I first learned about this counsel from books and magazines and from American Church members who lived in our branch in the city of Kuala Lumpur. When we heard of the good that can come to a couple who continue to court each other after marriage, we decided to try this “foreign” idea.

In the beginning it was easy for us to spend an evening together because we had no children to worry about. However, when our children began to come one after another, we had to devise new ways to date each other. Because finding a baby-sitter for the evening is difficult, we have had many dates at home after the children are in bed. These home dates are in no way inferior to those we occasionally have outside our home.

We have found a number of activities we enjoy doing together. Sometimes we watch a videocassette while munching snacks and sipping soft drinks, just as we would at the movie theater. Other nights we play computer or board games. Our evenings spent in these activities always end with laughter.

One regular activity is putting together our family photographs on a large poster. Later we frame the finished poster and hang it on our stairway wall. We now have quite a few posters, so we rotate them from time to time. Evenings spent making posters are not only fruitful, but they also bring warm and sentimental feelings to our hearts.

One Valentine’s Day I prepared a candlelit dinner for two. With soft music in the background, the atmosphere was truly romantic. Dating each other regularly has helped increase the romance in our marriage.

Our list of activities for home dates continues to grow. We have found that dating each other is about finding ways to spend time together and about taking time to build and nourish each other. When days are difficult and challenging, I look forward to our home dates when we can spend time together just talking.

My husband and I have found this “foreign” idea to be of great help in strengthening our marriage."


Dating at home ideas: Romantic dinner, playing a game, baking together, watching a movie with popcorn and blankets, dancing, etc.. What are some dates you've had at home?????


WHAT MEGAN SAYS:
Ahhh, Valentine's Day.  Have you felt the love in the air this month?  I think Valentine's Day is such a fun holiday.  Especially now that I'm a wife and mom(to be honest I use to hate it...but now its a blast!).  The hubby and I have been married 2 years, and unfortunately sometimes I feel like the romance has been sucked out by what I like to call... "THE ROMANCE VACUUM'S"

Exhibit A:

Is he not the cutest little thing ever?!?!  And we love him to death, and can't get enough of him.  But if you have kiddos you can understand me.  By the end of the day I am covered in some white crusty something,(spit up maybe, left over banana?), I am exhausted from playing "chase," "cars," "monster," and a variety of rough, loud, noisy games the little man likes to play.  And I wouldn't have it any other way... But by the end of the night when Cory(the hubby) gets home from work I am pooped!  I just want to veg out and eat treats and not move until the next morning when I get to see that busy boy's happy little face again :)

Exhibit B:
School, work, homework, work, life......BLAH!  Cory works long days and then has school work on top of that.  So not only am I exhausted so is he.  And if you are anything like us exhaustion=grouchy, well sometimes...

Life is just so hard and chaotic sometimes, and it's hard to focus on what really matters.  My relationship should never come second to housework, homework, or even the little man... it should be FIRST. all. the. time.  And unfortunately I forget sometimes.  But not ANYMORE!!! Thanks to New Year's Resolution's, the help of this "woo" post, and some of YOUR brilliant ideas(I know you have some so please share!) our marriage is going to be first!  I want Hayden and the rest of our children to know how a marriage works, and how we all work together....

So this year for Valentine's Day we had to do it early because I am going out of town for the weekend.. BUT I had some V-day surprises ready....I knew we couldn't go out and do anything, because by the time Cory gets home from work it is WAY to close to Hayden's bedtime, and two we don't really have anyone to watch him.  But I had our fancy, chill, romantic, night in all planned out in my head what it was going to be like... We were going to have a picnic on the floor with a homemade heart shaped BBQ chicken pizza, with sparkling apple cider stuff, and his favorite cookies, and treats, and we were going to watch our wedding video,  and massages, Hayden and I "heart attacked" his door and wrote a bunch of reasons why we loved him, the house would be spotless.. it was going to be perfect.

It WAS going to be perfect...but things don't ever come out how I want.  I got almost everything done that I wanted.  Here is Hayden "helping" me "heart attack" daddy :)

Then everything was clean and ready to go... I had wrapped his presents.  I got the game Scattergories from Walmart for 20 bucks!  And Hayden gave daddy the movie Sandlot :) So I started dinner.  Umm there are no pictures after this point because... well... I set my kitchen on fire.  Well, not the whole kitchen, just a pan with bacon in it.  Hayden had fell and smacked his head and I ran to resuce him, leaving the pan of bacon.  So, ya, fire..which makes LOTS of smoke, which sets off the fire alarm, which scares Hayden, which makes lots of crying... umm ya... so sorry.(no one was hurt, it wasn't that bad, just LOTS of smoke.)  So needless to say, dinner wasn't even close to being done when Cory got home.  Which ended up being BETTER!  I had the pizza dough all done, but Cory helped me put together the pizza which was so much fun!  It's funny how things work out....

So in the end it was a hilariously funny, chill, romantic night.  We played our new game(so fun),  made and ate the yummy pizza, watched our wedding video and reminisced about how long ago it seemed, gave relaxing massages and just talked and talked(the rule was not to talk about work or school or anything like that though).  It was so fun!

Feel free to steal the pizza, picnic, game or whatever ideas you want.. I would suggest leaving the fire and smoke out of it though.  And pretend I have a picture of my pretty table, with the presents and treats and hearts and candles here :) see it? ohhhh so cute....

Anyway......
THIS is the pizza dough I made.  THIS is the recipe for the bbq chicken pizza. And THIS is one of Cory's favorite treats, he had been begging me to make them for weeks(they are seriously addicting, so you've been warned). THIS is the fun game I gave him or us really... I didn't want to do the traditional V-day gifts.  One, Cory doesn't really care about sappy, cheesy stuff like that...and two, we can use the game for more fun dates to come!!

Hope you have a happy LOVE day! :)


WHAT SARAH SAYS:
When it comes to Valentine's Day, there's just not much excitement or surprise year after year sticking to the traditional ideas of Valentine's Day gifts. If I wrote my husband a poem, he'd probably throw up. Not because of me expressing my feelings, he's just not a very sensitive, sentimental guy. Chocolate, sure. But not very exciting. Dinner? Well, who is going to watch the kids, especially this year on a Sunday? I could get him a gift, but if I want to make him HAPPY with a gift, it would likely be too expensive for us to afford.


On occasions like this, we've found it most enjoyable to DO something we both like. We know it's unrealistic that we are going to get each other the 'perfect' gift. It would just be disappointing if that was the expectation.

Last year, I made 3 invitations for my hubby that I left in his car throughout the week. One was an invitation to lunch that I put on the steering wheel before he left in the morning, and I met him at his school in Salt Lake with a couple of subway sandwiches. The different atmosphere was exciting and SO romantic! The next was a game night invitation. We played monopoly while watching one of our favorite movies, and I made chocolate covered strawberries. The third was for a 'picnic.' I set up a romantic, candle lit dinner in the living room on the floor! Our girls attended that one, dressed in princess dresses. Each one of us took turns dancing with the 'Prince.' It was a very special Valentines that none of us will forget, and all for the small price of food! Now how much more meaningful is that compared to a box of chocolates or a wrapped present?

I came up with a list of DATE IDEAS. I think spending time together and creating memories is the best Valentines gift you can give your loved one!

1. Surprise him at work by showing up with a lunch you made including some of his fave foods, or send a lunch with a Valentine's note inside.

2. Book a hotel without him knowing. Call ahead and have dinner set up in the room before hand with flowers and dessert.

3. Dedicate the night to getting to know each other. Ask each other 30 questions each over a relaxed meal or steak dinner.

4. Have a reminiscing night; look at photos of when you first met, watch your wedding video, or listen to some of your favorite songs, and talk about the memories you've made. All this while drinking hot chocolate by candlelight.

5. Take your man to a nice restaurant, but have him blindfolded before getting in the car until he's seated at the table. Have a thoughtful note waiting on his plate.

6. Cook dinner together with your left arm tied to his right. Enjoy a night of laughs and good times!

7. Make a picnic on the living room floor. Lay out a blanket and light lots of candles around the room. Make heart shaped pizza and serve fresh fruit with fondu.

8. Have a progressive dinner. Eat an appetizer at one restaurant, main course at another, and dessert at another. To make it sentimental, go to restaurants that are memorable and that you would frequent while dating.

9. Go shopping and pick out gifts for one another.

10. Take your sweetheart for a carriage ride. Bring a blanket and hot chocolate, and cuddle the evening away.

11. Try something you are both new to, like ice-skating. You'll have a ball learning something new together.

12. Print out a list of '10 reasons I love you.' Leave them in various places you know he will find, like the mirror, his car, his pillow, etc.

13. Go play in the snow at midnight. Have a snowball fight or build a snow man. Then finish the evening with lots of cuddling and warming up!

14. Instead of your usual 'going to a movie' routine, go to a concert or play, and get dressed up for it.

15. Go skiing together, then warm up afterward in a hot tub.

16. Fill up the bedroom with balloons; helium balloons to cover the ceiling, and regular balloons to cover the floor. Have a board game and popcorn on the bed with some music playing.

17. Leave a 'meet me' card in his car for when he gets off work to somewhere in the community, like a bakery. When he gets there, have a cake ready for him with a note of another place to go. Have the final destination be your home. Be all dressed up with dinner ready!

18. Clear an area in the house that would work for dancing. Have soft music playing while you eat dinner, then dance the night away!

19. Go to a museum or planetarium, or any place conducive to hand-holding.

20. Give him a 'HEART ATTACK!' Cover his car or room with hearts that say things you love about him or words of significance to your relationship...or cover his car with chocolate kisses while he's at school or work!

21. If it's warm where you live, rent a canoe and watch the sunset on the water.

22. Print out coupons for future dates like 'one free massage' or 'one candle lit dinner'. Make an entire booklet and let him pick which ones he wants to use on Valentine's day.

23. Have a camp-out at home.

24. Play scrabble, only require that all words must have to do with romance or your relationship.

25. Get some magazines and each cut out pictures that remind them of the other person. Make a collage out of the pictures!

This was site that had tons of ideas.

Have the BEST Valentine's Day ever!!!!!!

DARLING Cookie Bouqets

Our great friend Lora sent us this cute cute idea! And I fell in LOVE with these cookie boquets! Thanks Lora!!

I just got done making these DARLING cookie boquets and I thought I would share them with you! They are fun to make espessially with little kids, I have noticed that in the past when I let little kids decorate them, they come out WAY cuter!


Receipe for Sugar Cookies
1 1/2 cups Sugar
2/3 Cups Butter

2 Eggs

2 Tbls Milk
1 tea Vanilla
2 1/2 tea Baking Powder
1 tea Salt
3-4 cups flour (I usually use a little more so the cookies don't spread out so much).


Bake @ 400 degrees for only 6 minutes (if you bake them too long it will make them hard.)


Frosting
1 pound Powdered sugar
1/4 cup Light corn Syrup + 2 tbls
1/4 cup milk + 2 tbls

The frosting is pretty runny but with the corn syrup in it it makes it perfect to be able to place in a bag to make your boquet!

When I make the cookie dough, I roll it out pretty thick (because you are going to press it on top of a stick so you don't want to be able to see it.)

Then when I frost them I am pretty careful, because like I said the frosting is pretty runny...

Aren't those the cutest things you've seen in a while?

I also made sugar cookies yesterday. Mine aren't as creative, but I have to say that my recipes are delicious! So I wanted to share too :)

Soft Sugar Cookies

3 1/4 cup flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 cup butter

1 cup sugar

1 egg

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

1/2 cup sour cream

Into a bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, and salt. In a mixing bowl, cream butter, sugar, egg, and vanilla with an electric mixer. Beat for 2 minutes. Add sour cream and half of the dry ingredients; beat 1 minute. Stir in remaining dry ingredients with a wooden spoon. Divide dough in half and roll each portion out on a lightly floured surface to 1/4 inch thick. Cut with floured cookie cutter. Place cookies on greased cookie sheets; bake at 400 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes. Store sugar cookies in an airtight container.

Cream Cheese Frosting

2- 3 oz. pkgs. cream cheese, softened (or 1- 8 oz. is what I do :)

1/2 cup butter, softened

2 tsp. vanilla

4 1/2 to 4 3/4 cups powdered sugar

Beat together cream cheese, butter, and vanilla until light and fluffy. Gradually add 2 cups powdered sugar, beating well. Gradually beat in enough remaining powdered sugar to make frosting of spreading consistency.

(Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting- Prepare as above, except substitute 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder for 1/4 cup powdered sugar.)

Then, I like to separate my frosting and color it different colors before using :)I know, fun! Right?

I will also use that same frosting for my cupcakes that I make. I will post a picture here when they are done, just so you can see how cute they are :)

What is so great about sugar cookies is that your kids can help you with them. Rolling the dough out, using the cookie cutters, and eating them :) They will LOVE how the flour gets all over and the memories they are making with you! A family that COOKS together, stays together... right?

(Just had to share my love birds at the end...)

Strawberry Cupcakes

Here is where I got this recipe!
You need:

1 3/4 c all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 c sugar
2 eggs
1/2 c vegetable oil
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 pkg frozen sweet strawberries or 1 cup (10 oz) crushed fresh strawberries mixed with 3 Tbsp sugar
red food coloring as desired!


Mix together flour, baking soda, and sugar in a bowl. In another bowl, beat together eggs, flavoring and oil until well blended. Add strawberries and beat at slow speed of mixer until berries are partially broken. Beat in flour mixture slowly until smooth.

Pour batter into muffin tins, filling to half.

Bake at 350 deg F for 30 minutes, or until they test done.

I just couldn't resist smothering them with chocolate! Then powdered sugar for a pretty finish.

Then I added the Valentine's Day flag. I am so festive!

February's Home Art....

I love the idea of having my kids art as art work in our home.  Framed for everyone to see.  I hope it makes them feel special and lets them know how proud of them we are.  I am also hoping that by the time I have kids in elementary this will help eliminate a million coloring pages on my fridge....

Once a month I make a coloring page for Hayden to color, paint, stamp, sticker, whatever.  He is only 13 months so what he does right now isn't to much.  But he LOVES it.  He loves feeling the crayons and experimenting scribbling on the paper.  He loves the huge hugs and kisses he gets from me after he makes a beautiful masterpiece! :)  It's also a great learning time.  I can draw shapes and talk to him about them.  I can color with him and talk about the colors.  We draw people and I we talk about their eyes and nose.  I love arts and crafts, its so easy to make learning fun and the possibilities are endless of what to teach.

With his finished masterpiece I bought a cheap frame and it's now hanging as part of my Valentine's Day decor.

If you would like this page for your own kiddos here is the one I did with Hayden:

I also made one for any of your kids that are older.  It just says, "I love my..." and then they can color the words and hearts and draw a picture(s) of what they love.  Mommy, their stuffed dog, speedy the turtle, tater tots, sunshine, makeup...whatever :)

Here is the link to download both coloring pages:

Hi! It's Devyn.. I asked Megan if I could go in on this post with her. I thought she had a great idea to have the kids color something and then display it in a frame on the wall. I have a spot in my kitchen that this will work perfectly! Only one problem, I haven't got the frames yet. SO the cute picture just went up on our fridge (where it was supposed to stay off of with this great idea) LOL and heaven knows I need help cleaning off my fridge!! Thanks Megan!!

Chocolate covered HEART brownies!!!

I was inspired by my friend Kaylee to try covering something with chocolate. What better than brownies? These are so cute and perfect for Valentine's Day!

1 pkg brownie mix (and ingredients required on directions. I know, I'm a cheater!!!)
3/4 package of vanilla almond bark
red food coloring
decorative sprinkles
wax paper

Start by making brownies according to directions on box. Allow to cool COMPLETELY.


Use a cookie cutter to cut out shapes in the brownies.

To keep intact, use a spatula to remove cut-out. Put brownies on a sheet of wax paper.

Heat almond bark in a sauce pan on low, stirring to prevent scorching. Mix in food coloring to desired pinkness.
Plop a blob of the bark onto a brownie.
Use a small spoon to GENTLY spread over entire surface.
Sprinkle immediately after applying coat. Allow to sit until almond bark is hard.
Cut around the edges once dry. Then serve...enjoy! Makes about a dozen.