Free Turkey Recipes

Click here for a link to a free downloadable recipe book for all those turkey leftovers. Found it while blog-surfing and thought I would pass it on.

Creative Outlet

I needed a creative outlet today, so here's what I did. I have been wanting to make a Thanksgiving sign like my Boo sign, so I cut out a phrase and leaf with my Cricut, added some stickers to spell "give" and voila!

Then I didn't want to waste the leftovers, so I put together a scrapbook page.

Here are the Christmas cards I made last week for card group.

And here are a bunch more I just made mostly with scraps I had laying around. I've decided I really like making cards because I'm never really behind like I ALWAYS am with scrapbooking. Plus, I don't like to throw bits and pieces away so it's a great way to use scraps!

Just a little blogging and a recipe

Nothing much is happening around here, but it's been over a week and I feel guilty that I haven't blogged. Today is laundry day, so I after I get my first load over to the dryer I'll have a quick shower and then run a couple errands before Evie gets home. We're almost out of milk and I need some green chilis for our white bean chili tonight. Cream of chicken soup and albacore tuna are also on sale at Walgreens (of all places), so I'll go get my limit of those. Here's the Heavenly Chili recipe that we got from a friend at BYU - we love it and get requests for the recipe everytime we share. Thanks Karen!

Heavenly Chili or White Chicken Chili
Karen Meeker - BYU

1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken, cubed
1 med onion, chopped (or dried, minced onion)
¼ tsp. garlic powder
1 Tbl. Vegetable oil
3 cans (15 ½ oz.) Great Northern Beans, drained
1 can (14 ½ oz) chicken broth
1 sm. can chopped green chilies
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. dried oregano
½ tsp. pepper
1 cup sour cream
½ cup whipping cream (or evaporated milk)

Saute chicken in oil. When well cooked, add the spices, green chilies and broth and bring to a boil. Add the beans and bring to a boil again. Reduce heat and let simmer for 30 minutes. Remove form heat and stir in sour cream and whipping cream. Serve immediately for rave reviews!

Flashback

So, I was working on a project for pirmary and I decided to show you all what a cute kid I was. We are using school-age pictures to introduce each of the new presidency to the kids and here is mine...age 7 1/2.

Which one of my girls do you think it looks like?

Crafty Giveaway

So my friend is doing another great giveaway and you can enter here. She is so creative and I want to be like her when I grow up! Here is what she created this time.

Evelyn the Cooker Girl

So while I was busy neglecting my child and our need to eat lunch while blogging, she put together a little surprise for me. She came downstairs, told me to stop typing, close my eyes and come upstairs. This is what I found (at 2 in the afternoon I'm ashamed to say). She has learned how to make her own quesdillas and corndogs (both take "5-0" seconds in the microwave) and the sweetie had made us lunch! I told her I would put it on the blog (ironic, huh?) and she suggested the title. My baby is growing up!

I think I am caught up now, so I better go pay attention to my kids. The big girls are home now and seem to have forgotten that they're supposed to be doing homework!

Aren't we trendy?

So here are the promised pics of Shawn and I in our new glasses. Shawn's look great and fit his"big heed" perfectly and mine have a cute little bit of bling on the side (though this isn't my best side).

And... I copied my friend Chelsea and we held elections for dinner last night. Shawn cast an absentee ballot since he wasn't with us after school and the girls were pretty excited to out-vote the grown-ups for once. Little do they know, Platform 2 will be served tomorrow night anyway.

The Master Weaver

Evie got a weaving kit from Grandma for her birthday and we got it out the other day after kindergarten. She did great setting it up and I showed her how to do the weaving and she just took off! I was amazed at how quickly she caught on and how perfectly she did it. I had to figure out how to get it off the loom, but she did all the weaving herself. Thanks for the fun activity Grandma! I found the finished product later hanging from her doorknob.

Activity Days Pumpkin

Felicity divided her pumpkin from activity days into three sections and decorated each section. One was a jack-o-lantern face, one some Halloween shapes and one the word pumpkin.

Random Pictures

Crafting on the kitchen floor - I'm not sure why, but they prefer to put the "plasti-crafti" tablecloth on the floor rather then the table.

My mother's day flower from preschool in May - it brings a bit of sunshine to the cool fall days.

My adaptation of the Boo sign on several craft blogs.

The colors we are using in Felicity's room - a work in progress.

Pumpkin Patch

Our trip to the pumpkin patch was bittersweet this year. We went to a new patch, and picked from the pumkins that were left. We always seem to go maybe a week too late and the "good ones" are all gone. It was a beautiful day at least and the patch had a hay maze and a red barn with homegrown produce samples. The watermelon was yummy, but we didnt get any because Shawn was already out the door. If it looks like he was a little grumpy, well he was. But I'm glad we got to go and he is a good daddy for bringing us and for carrying all the pumpkins to the car.

Homemade Uncrustables

The girls take an Uncrustable (or Jamz as they are found at Sams Club) almost every day in their lunches, so we decided to try making our own. I got the little pastry sealer from Pampered Chef and we went to town. We used 2 loaves of bread and filled a bread sack back up again with all the "crusts" we cut off. Then we bagged up the sandwiches and popped them in the freezer. It worked and is probably cheaper than buying them, but if we were to do it again, we'll just make sandwiches and cut them in half so we don't waste such a sickening amount to bread.

Old vs. New

Old Curtains

New Curtains

(Found at Ross for $10 and are much nicer, don't ya think?)

(The models are pretty cute too)

Carving Pumpkins

Halloween Dinner

Halloween Pictures

Joan of Arc

Spider Geisha
Pink Fairy

Indiana Jones

October Update

October was a very busy month for us. I’ll try and fill you on what has happened since I last posted. Shawn and I both went to the eye doctor and got new glasses. I’ll try to post some pictures because we look snazzy! Lydia had two cavities so she had to go get fillings two separate times. She did great and we all got a kick out of her crooked mouth when she tried to say “Rubber baby buggy bumpers.”

We went to a new pumpkin patch this year and carved our pumpkins a few days later. Our tradition is to have the girls “design” them and clean them out, and then Shawn is the “Master Carver.” Felicity also got to go to a pumpkin patch with the Activity Days girls. Felicity woke up with the flu one morning, so she stayed home from school and I sent our Heavenly Chili to the ward Harvest Carnival with Shawn and the Girls. The girls had their Spooktacular (Halloween parade and carnival) at the school on Wednesday. My favorite part was watching how seriously they took the fortune teller. Oh, if you could’ve just seen the look on Lydia’s face and Evelyn wouldn’t say a word to her! Hilarious! I usually dislike going to things like that, but I was pretty “zen” about it this year. I figured we were there for 2 hours no matter what, so I just let the girls decide what to do. We spent the first 45 minutes on the first 2 activities, but it went a little quicker after that.

We had our primary program. The chorister hurt her arm the day before the program, so I ended up leading the songs for the kiddos. The girls all did a great job on their parts and Shawn played his guitar in public for the first time. He was a little nervous, but once he got going it sounded really nice.

I went to parent-teacher conferences and the girls are all doing great. They all have little things they can still work on, but they are 3 smart cookies! Felicity and Lydia both met and surpassed their AR goals and Evie constantly points out words she can read and spell.

The girls and Shawn got all gussied up for Halloween and Shawn took them out trick-or-treating. Shawn was Indiana Jones, Lissy was Joan of Arc, Lydia was a Spider Geisha (clearance costume) and Evelyn was a pink fairy. It was pretty warm (for E. Idaho October anyway), but it did start raining when they were almost done. We don’t get many trick-or-treaters at our house. I think our circle must look kind of dark from the main street, so maybe people just skip it. Oh well. If you want some candy, we have plenty left over!

Stay tuned for pictures!

Jewelry Giveaway!

I know I am way behind, but my friend is having a giveaway on her blog. Go check out her cute jewelry and other crafts and enter for your chance to win (or not, cuz then I will have a better chance!) You can see her talents displayed here. I am drooling over these bracelets and this necklace.