Gingerbread Kits!

So I bought this Gingerbread House Kit from Costco a few years ago with the absolute intention of making it. A Christmas would go by and we still hadn't made it so this year I decided that I was going to make it. I didn't know how long they were good for so I looked for the expiration date. It read use by March 07! Yep we'd had it since Dec 06. Well I decided to make it anyway. Of course I told the kids that they definitely couldn't eat any of the candy or they might die, it was so old. I got all the pieces out and we got started.

First off it did not smell like gingerbread at all. Now I am guessing that's cause it was so old. It smelled pretty unappetizing. Your supposed the heat up the frosting in the microwave so I did and let me just say, the frosting was like playdoh! It wasn't sticky at all. It was super hard to get any of the candy to stick to the house. If you touched it after you got it to stay it would just fall off. So after a while I gave up and got out my own frosting.after that things got messy cause it was way too runny. Little D lost interest after the roof. Probably because you couldn't eat any candy. After all that's what makes gingerbread making so fun. But Little A and I kept on going. Little A even finished the Gingerbread Men that came with it. (pictured above) So here is what it turned out to look like. Not the best but oh well that's what you get with a 2 yr old kit. Needless to say I threw it away the next day.

Warmth..... and Pom Poms

So this is the scarf that I made for Little A yesterday. It turned out really cute. It's an early Christmas Present. It's been so cold here that I didn't want to wait.


But it has a hole in it you say? Well I did that on purpose.



See now it wont fall off! It was kinds tricky to figure out how to put a hole in it. I'm not an experienced knitter. I even cheated and used my knifty knitter!




But I didn't use any special tools for the Pom Poms. The hard part here was how to get them to be secured to the scarf.

Birthday Presents!

So my birthday was on Sunday and it was really fun! We had some friends over and we had the chocolate fountain going. It was yummy! With it being on a Sunday we didn't go out to eat or anything. Saturday we did go to Big J's work party at the Seven Oaks Country Club for Dinner. And the night before that was the Ward Christmas Party. So it was nice to not have to cook dinner for 3 days! That's always the best.

Its usually hard to say what is a birthday present because my birthday is so close to Christmas they usually end up being combined presents. But my parents bought me one of those 4 inch memory foam mattress toppers from Costco for my Birthday/Christmas present! I LOVE IT! It is so comfy! Big J didn't see the point in getting one. I bet he does now. And Big J got me flowers (Shown above) and a Kitchen Aid (pictured below)! I know its so cool... I can't wait to use it. I haven't yet cause I have to finish Christmas stuff first. But I am glad that now I can make bread. The kids got me Knifty Knitters. I have already made a cute scarf with it. My next blog will probably show that. And Last but not least My sister gave me the most awesome apron pattern! I am so excited to make one. I'll post a blog about that once I make one. The Fordham Five also gave me a little something. It is a cute little photo album with a cute quote about families.
Thanks everyone for all my gifts!

My Hardworkin' Dad

So while my parents were here my Dad was a workin' fool. He did so much for us the short time that he was here. First he put our Christmas lights up on the house.

Then he went right to work cutting down all the trees and brush in the backyard so that I can grow a garden this spring! Even though I will have no idea what I am doing! But the yard looks awesome! Everything is cut down and cut into pieces and put into piles all that is left to do is get the stumps out and till the dirt! Sadly I forgot to take a before and after picture.

He also had to fix our Microwave. Sadly we were living with a "Ghetto" Microwave. Ours is one that goes above the stove and it had a handle on it at one point but it broke off a while ago. After that I had to use pliers to open it up! The handle sat around the kitchen for like 2 months. Then one day it was gone. So when my Dad saw this it was no Bueno for him. He took me to Home Depot to look for a new handle. Do you have any idea how much a handle for a mirowave cost? We figured that it would be like 10 or so dollars. No! Not even close! $60! Thats what they wanted for a measly handle! I was like I might as well buy a new one for that price. Our Microwave is like 15 years old $60 is more than its even worth. So we opted for these.....

He he he! We didn't tell Jeremy and it took him like 2 days to notice. Just goes to show how often he is in the Kitchen. So anyway it may be silly but that only cost us like $10 vs. $60. So anyone that comes over and needs to use the microwave at least you don't have to try the pliers!

Poor Christmas Tree!

So our Christmas Tree this year is lookin' pretty sad. I thought that we needed a new one last year. What with half the lights burnt out, but Big J said no. So this year I thought for sure we would get a new one. I also thought that we would get a bigger one. I wanted to put it in the living room this year. I thought for sure that once we got it out and set it up and after Big J saw that the lights didn't work anymore we would go out a get a new one. But no. He just got his little light fixing gun and turned most of them back on. The ones that were actually burnt out didn't come on though. Anyway when we set it up it looked so silly in the living room because its was so short and we have such big ceilings. So my Mom suggested that we put it on the table in the corner of the room. Now that it decorated it doesn't look so bad, but I will definitely get a new one next year! And it will be tall and beautiful. (Oh and the big yellow ornament is of Big Bird. Jeremy made me put it on the tree.)

Christmas Garland

As some of you may know my parents were here for a few days after Thanksgiving. They arrived on Saturday and left on Wednesday. We had fun and the kids loved that Grandma and Grandpa were having a "sleep over". While they were here we tried to cram a whole lot of things into one weekend. My Mom and I set up all the Christmas decorations that I had, which isn't many. She came up with some really good ideas. I called her a Decorating Genius! She helped me put up some garland. I've always wanted to put some up but it never turned out very well and so it never stayed up. But she had no problems. We also went to Michaels and got some supplies for a garland for around the door. (Again I've always wanted but nails are hard to get into stucco, and once its in it falls out.) But we managed to get some in there and it looks great. Here it is.


We Found some garland that was on sale at 50% and we bought 2 so it was only ten dollars for that and then we got 2 berry garlands which were on sale also at 50% so they were 10 dollars for 2. Then we weaved them together with wire and added this great bow and Wallah! I wish I would have payed attention to what she was doing when she made the bow. Cause it was like 2 seconds and it was done. Must have come from all those floral arrangements she made when I was younger.

Thanks for helping me out Mom! I love it and I get a lot of compliments about it.

Dream Room!

While we were in Arizona we got to see Bro P.K. He was a member of the Bishopric of Big J's singles ward when he was baptized, and helped pay for most of Big J's mission. It was fun to see them and after having visited them I totally know exactly what my dream craft/sewing room would look like. You should have seen it.... one wall had a built in case with fabric neatly stacked and color coordinated, while on the next wall was a rack with just about every thread color imaginable! All color coordinated as well. A serger, a sewing machine, wall to wall tables, and a supply closet probably stocked with everything one could ever need to craft anything! I wish I had had a camera. I'm sure that my mouth was on the floor in shock! I would probably never come out of a room like that. I told Big J that's what I wanted and they all laughed.... I was totally serious..... Just imagine how many crafts one could do with a room like that! AMAZING!

Thanksgiving Update.

So our trip to AZ was so fun! It didn't feel like we were on vacation there. Its hard to explain. But we felt totally at home. I realized how much I missed driving on the freeways. Crazy I know but when there aren't at a stand still they are so fast and convenient. And in Phoenix they set up the city so nice that its hard to get lost.

Mossy and Mossy Wife were fun to hang out with. After the invasion of ticks they had the first night it was cool. (I wasn't too worried about them) Mossy Wife and I had a lot of fun crafting and decorating their house and Christmas Tree. I had made her 2 things to hang on her wall, which I will blog about next, and then we used this idea and made her some Christmas ones. It was fun.

Turkey day was fun too. We spent all day getting things ready and then we went to put the turkey in. You would have thought that 4 days in the fridge defrosting that everything would be Okay. But no. Turkey was still frozen! So what do you do 4 hrs to the biggest meal of the year? You send your hubbies out to the store to look for a defrosted turkey! We were lucky that they did end up finding some but all they had were GIANT ones! So they came back with a 21 lb. turkey. And can I just say that while cleaning it, all I could think was that the turkey looked a lot like the one that Joey got stuck on his head in a Friends episode! HE HE HE! Anyway, so we had our turkey and the only bad part now was that my bro had planned for us to have dinner at the same time as the rest of the family that were in Portland. We had everything set up with the web cams. The only problem was our turkey would be late. To make a long story short, We let the Oregon people eat and waited for our turkey. Only it was taking so long that we decided just to eat and have no turkey. So even though our turkey wasnt done it was still yummy. And we did get to eat it for left overs. Mossy wife and Mossy now had cooked 2 turkeys and had TONS of left overs! I'm glad it wasnt at my house. I don't need all that turkey laying around.

We had a good time and hated leaving. We hope to go back soon. Thanks Mossy and Mossy wife for letting us crash at your place. I learned at least one thing while there. I learned that you should ALWAYS check your turkey the night before just in case you need to put it in the sink to thaw!