Halo Heaven

I'm not going to be doing many posts over the next 2 months because baseball season is here and that means anywhere from 4-6 games/practices a week. But, I wanted to let those of you know about the best website ever to get your crafty supplies called Halo Heaven. I already know some of you already are aware of this awesome site, but for those of you who aren't, they have everything girly you can think of from adorable petti skirts, to feather boas, to tiara's, princess capes, gloves, hair bands, hair barrettes, and a great selection of cute flowers to make hair or other accessories. And, everything is super inexpensive! The only down side is that shipping is $8.00, but if you do what my sister and I do and order together with someone, it's only $4.00! Anyway, hope that is valuable information to those of you with girly needs!

I want one of the Boa's for Sadie, but don't think she'd appreciate it yet.

(I got this for Sadie and LOVE it!)

Tickets Go On Sale April 16th! Mark Your Calendar!!

Summer Movie Fun Tickets go on sale on April 16th. This is one tradition that the kids look forward to every summer. Hope you have fun going too!

Happy Valentines Day!

I hate Cheesecake. I have ever since I got sick after eating it once as a little girl; the experience ruined the appeal it has for me. However, as I have gotten older, and seen how much other people LOVE it, I keep wanting to like it. So, whenever the opportunity arises I take at least one bite, and every time it makes me ill. Anyway, so when I found this new recipe, I was hopeful that since it's a cookie, I might like the whole "cheesecake" aspect of it more. SUCCESS! These are really yummy! And I'm posting the recipe because with three cherries on each, they look like little Valentine Hearts. So, enjoy!

Cherry Cheesecake Cookies

Makes about 4 ½ dozen cookies

3 ½ cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 (8 oz.) packages cream cheese, softened
20 tablespoons (2 ½ cubes) butter, softened
1 ½ cups sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup graham crackers crumbs*
3 (20 oz) cans cherry pie filling

MAKE DOUGH: Combine flour baking powder, and salt in bowl.
With electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat cream cheese,
butter, and sugar until smooth and creamy, about 2 minutes.
Add eggs and vanilla and mix until incorporated. Reduce speed to
low, add flour mixture and mix until just combined.

HEAT OVEN: Adjust oven racks to upper-middle and lower-middle
positions and heat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets
with parchment paper. Place graham cracker crumbs in a
shallow dish.

ASSEMBLE COOKIES: Roll dough into 1 ½-inch balls, then roll in
crumbs. Place balls 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheets.
Using tablespoon measure, make indentation in center of each
ball. Place 3 cherries in each dimple. Bake until golden around
edges, 12 to 14 minutes, switching and rotating sheets halfway
through baking. Cool 5 minutes on sheets, then transfer to wire
rack to cool completely. (Cookies can be stored in airtight
container for 2 days.)

*To make graham cracker crumbs, process 8 whole graham
crackers in a food processor until finely ground.

Kill them with Crafties...

So, I believe I may have O.C.D.

Last week I won a blogging tutorial for an adorable bubble skirt pattern. I was busy all week and didn't get to making it until this weekend, but I love the final result. It only took me an hour to make and it's reversable so it's 2 skirts in one. If you like it, you can get the pattern at her Etsy shop found HERE. Then, once I made the skirt, I decided she needed a flower to match her flower skirt.

So, I searched through my computer files for the many different fabric flower tutorials that I had downloaded and started making flowers. And once I started, I couldn't stop. This just a sample of the ones I made. Oh, yes. There are more.

And once I was done with that, I decided she would need a purse to go with the outfit, so I went to work with a pair of Sawyers old holey jeans and quickly made her this.



Here she is in her new outfit.

Worth it! I didn't accomplish anything around the house, but felt seriously crafty.

Know what makes your house smell like heaven?

Old Fashioned Pecan Pie, a.k.a. the best part about Family Home Evening. Sure I stink because I'm blogging and trying to do a lesson for FHE and making dinner and doing dishes and laundry and a grocery list and battling 4 kids who are home from school today...But man, oh man, does my house smell good.

Old-Fashioned Pecan Pie

1 cup maple syrup
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon molasses
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 large egg yolks, lightly beaten
1 1/2 cups pecans, toasted and chopped
1 (9 inch) unbaked pie shell chilled in pie plate for 30 minutes

1. Make the filling: Adjust oven rack to lowest position and heat oven to 450 degrees. Heat syrup, sugar, cream, and molasses in saucepan over medium heat stirring occasionally, until sugar dissolves, about 3 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool 5 minutes. Whisk butter and salt into syrup mixture until combined. Whisk in egg yolks until incorporated.

2. Bake pie: Scatter pecans in pie shell. Carefully pour filling over. Place pie in hot oven and immediately reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees. bake until filling is set and center jiggles slightly when pie is set and center jiggles slightly when pie is gently shaken, 45-60 minutes. Cool pie on rack for 1 hour, then refrigerate until set, about 3 hours and up to 1 day. Bring to room temperature before serving.

The Dress:

My Favorite things from this Christmas:

Now that Christmas has come and gone, and we've had time to try out some of our new stuff, here's what we each like the best:

Jeramy has recently taken up road biking and has been struggling with it because the only bike available for him to use was a Mountain Bike. It works and does the job, but is very slow going. He desperately wanted to get a new Road Bike but those are extremely pricey. Luckily, things worked out in a good way and miraculously we were able to use some extra funds to get him this awesome new bike. He just got it yesterday so actually hasn't had the chance to use it yet, but is very excited to start next week.


Jeramy's parents gave us this wonderful little "flip" camera. If you haven't seen or heard of them (I hadn't) it's really cool. It just uses 2 AA Batteries, and can hold up to 2 hours of video. Then when you want to remove them from the camera, you simply plug it into your computer and move the files over. It's teeny and fits in my purse. So, while you can't do any fancy videoing with it, it's perfect for capturing those little moments that you have during the day!



Santa brought me this great baking cook book because I love to bake and really wanted to learn how to make lots of different breads. It's awesome! All you do is mix up a master dough that will sit in your fridge for up to two weeks and all you have to do is break off a grape fruit sized ball, shape it and bake it. I love it! It has tons of different rustic bread recipes and they are so easy and end up looking professional! (See my photo's below of the bread I made this morning.)







Every year Santa leaves little presents in the boy's stockings that are fun and small. This year along with sonic gift cards and "Backugon" collecting cards (apparently the new "Pokemon" craze that I don't understand) he gave each of the boys a CD from "They Might Be Giants." I Love that group and how weird and quirky their music is, but these are kids CD's that they have come out with in resent years one is about science and has songs that remind me of the things I learned in 7th and 8th grade science class like "Roy G. Biv" (colors in the rainbow) and "Elements". Then the ABC's has songs like "E eats everything" and " I C U" with says things like "I C U, N U R O K." (The entire song is just letters, very creative.) And the 123's is hillarious too. The boys LOVE these CD's and I recommend them to any mom looking for music that will appeal to kids who are outgrowing "The Wiggles" and "Sesame Street", but not quite ready to listen to "Taylor Swift".




Here is a video (taken with the Flip Camera in our car as we were driving) we took of the boys enjoying these songs. Cooper is in the backseat and is the one belting it out on the "Roy G. Biv" song.






One last thing I'll mention that Jeramy got and has loved, is some software called "Delicious Monster" for Mac's. This software found here uses the camera on your Mac Computer to scan any bar code on any book, movie, cd, electronic device, computer, etc.etc.etc. that you own and categorizes it for you. It's really cool for insurance because you have everything you own basically cataloged for you. And if you use Carbonite to back up your computer, you're all set in any emergency. Jeramy thinks it's the neatest invention ever and has been running around scanning everything from games, to clothing with this new software. He loves the scanner and is like the little kid playing with a new toy that he thinks is amazing. Very funny to watch on my end!