Prayer and Kindness

For the last week, a girl in Hannah's class has been mean to Hannah telling her she doesn't like her. Well, after a
week of hearing about this on a daily basis I decided to email the teacher and see what was going on. Hannah isn't one that every says "mom, I don't want to go to school". In fact she cries when she can't go to school. But his last week, she has told me many times, she didn't want to go to school. But Hannah's teacher handled the situation great. She encouraged myself and Hannah to tell her when things like this happen so she can make the situation better and make the classroom a happy place.

The next day Hannah came home and said "Mom, your email worked. The girl apologized to me today." Then she said, "I prayed to Heavenly Father this morning that SHE would be nice and she was." I of course emphasized that Heavenly Father answered her prayer. Then she said she needed to tell Him "thank you". So, I said do you want to say a prayer to tell him thank you? So Hannah sat at the table and said a little prayer to Heavenly Father telling him "thank you" for answering her prayer and making "the girl" be nice.

This story is great for so many reasons. My daughter learned that Heavenly Father hears and answers her prayers. She thought all on her own to thank Heavenly Father for answer her prayer. I love that! And after the teacher talked to the girl (and I guess her mom and Hannah) Today Hannah came home with a homemade note from the girl apologizing for hurting Hannah's feelings. I thought that was so nice of the girl, her mom and the teacher to help Hannah feel good again.

Logo Complete

I wanted to share my latest logo for Chelsie Renae Photography. I love this woman's work. She captures babies just beautifully and the way she photographs eyes is to die for. Each pictures captures the light in people's eye... I love that she does it in each picture she takes. She was a pleasure to work with and I love the logo she choose.

Throw'n it together

My in-laws are visiting for a few days and they love desserts in the evening (who doesn't right?) So, for our Sunday evening dessert I had a lot of sourdough bread that wasn't going to get used so instead of letting it go to waste I thought BREAD PUDDING! And to make it even more exciting, my in-laws brought with them my new Rachel Ray Bubble and Brown Bakeware. It is always more fun to cook with new things. but back to my baking endeavor.

I found a great recipe on this site but decided I needed a bit more "dessert" (which really means chocolate), so I threw in a bunch of other ingredients and came up with a very rich, decadent but oh so yummy bread pudding.

I wasn't sure if it was going to taste good, but i have to say this is a real keeper and will be used as one of my go-to desserts. It was that good.

Here is the recipe and what I did to alter it just a bit.

old fashioned bread pudding & vanilla-caramel sauce

pudding ingredients:
4 cups (8 slices) cubed white bread (although i used sourdough bread)
2 cups milk
1/2 can sweet condensed milk (I added this ingredient, anything was sweet condensed milk is ooh soo good).
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1 tablespoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 cup chocolate chips (again added these)
1/2-1 cup shredded coconut (and added these)

sauce ingredients:
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
1 tablespoon vanilla

heat oven to 350°F. combine milk and 1/4 cup butter in 1-quart saucepan. cook over medium heat until butter is melted (4 to 7 minutes). pour milk mixture over bread; let stand 10 minutes.

stir in all remaining pudding ingredients. and then added chips and coconut. Pour into greased 1 1/2-quart casserole. bake for 40 to 50 minutes or until set in center.

combine all sauce ingredients except vanilla in 1-quart saucepan. cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until mixture thickens and comes to a full boil (5 to 8 minutes). stir in vanilla.

to serve, spoon warm pudding into individual dessert dishes; serve with sauce (and even better add a little ice cream while hot). store refrigerated.

Again, this recipe originally came from Kelly. I just added a few more goodies to the mix.

Activity Days - Etiquette Night

Last night we had an Etiquette Night for our activity. I printed out this cute place setting by Martha Stewart. I had the girl cut the pieces out and arrange them on a piece of paper the way they think you should set the table. Then we went over what each item was and how it was used. Then we placed in the right order and glued them to the piece of paper. The paper was 3-hole punched so they could put it in their binder.

While the girls were doing this, we went over the rules of dining etiquette. Asked them true and false questions and they learned what they should and shouldn't do at a restaurant or dining at someone's house.

Then I bought plates, napkins, utensils and cups at the Dollar Store and had the girls set their own table. We then served them a light meal, so they could practice what they had just learned. We gave them a salad, roll and Martinellis to start. Then we brought out a slice of pizza and had them eat it with a fork and knife. And then mini cheesecakes for dessert.

I think it was fun and the girls learned a lot, since they didn't know any of the etiquette rules.

A little imagination

I found this cute oven over at Creative Crate and was very impressed. I love it and think it is about the cutest kitchen around. Such imagination on the mom's part and endless days of playing imagination for her daughter. So so cute!

Snow Days

Before we headed up to SLC for Christmas, Hannah talked a lot about building a snowman while we were there. We told her if it snowed we would do it. So, when we arrived there was snow on the ground, but we had to inform her that it was old snow and hard and we wouldn't be able to make a snowman out of it. But the good news is that we got a lot of fresh snow while we were there, so Dad and girls headed out to build Hannah a snowman. Well actually a snow MInnie Mouse.

They made a snow man that quickly turned into Minnie Mouse. Hannah was so proud of it! Ella loved being out in the snow even though she refused to wear a coat (she always does). So, Ella was outside in 20 degree weather for about 45 mins without a coat. Only gloves and a hat to keep her warm (which she was not). When I went out to join them, she was shivering and blue. I was finally able to convince her to come inside. I swear that girl is such a kick. Honestly!

I do wish we had snow (only briefly), so Hannah could build more snowman. She talks about it all the time! She kept asking for coal and a button for the eyes and nose. We told her rocks would have to do.

Kept Me Busy

A few years ago, my daughter received a wonderful christmas present from her aunt. It has been one of the best present we could have gotten to help my girls learn the names of their family members and it is just so much fun to look at too. It was her very own personal ABC book. The book had pictures of her family members and herself for each letter of the alphabet. She still loves to look at this book.

So, this year I decided to give my nieces and nephews the same book. We all live in different states and only see each other about twice a year (if we are lucky), so this book is perfect for them as they are learning/remembering the names of the aunts, uncles and cousins.

But what a task. To make five individual books for each kids, lets just say it was time consuming, but fun and not too hard. The hardest part was finding the pictures for each book. 250 photos total. I was glad when i was done and didn't miss a person or letter. Here are some ABC examples:

G - Granpda - a picture of the child with grandpa
X- Xtra Sweet - a picture of the child eating cake
I - Ice Cream - a picture of the child eating ice cream
Q - Quiet - a picture of the child sleeping
C - a picture of all the cousins together
K - a picture of the child being kissed by his/her mom or dad

you get the picture (no pun intended).

2009 Logo Wrap Up

I finished several logo projects at the end of the year. I wanted to share some of my work with you. They were all such great clients and as always i had a blast working with them and creating their brand. And it looks like 2010 is going to be just as great. The start of a new year has brought many new clients already. I love it. This year is starting to look great when it comes to logos!




This client decided on three logos to brand her products individually. We went with the dress for her children line, the purse for her adult/mom line and the flower as a "catch all" logo for everything else, but yet it still ties everything together. I love the use of her logos and the whole comprehensive look!

Christmas Projects

I thought I would quickly share some of the projects I was up to this holiday season.

here are the treats I made for our friends. they were so easy to make and the girls loved to help. And who doesn't love pretzels, chocolate and nuts.


My sister-in-law taught me how to make this adorable sock monkey. I am pretty sure I wouldn't be able to replicate it again, but it is so cute and luckily she made one for Hannah, so we have our very own (since I gave the one I made away for Christmas).


I made this Christmas Countdown Blocks at a Super Saturday activity. I thought they were fun and festive and who can't use more Christmas decorations around the house.


Here is our Christmas card display. So simple (ribbon and tacks and a door). I loved how it looked especially as the ribbon got longer and longer as more and more cards arrived.

I have one more project to share. This is the project that kept me the most busy this holiday season. Coming soon.

Activity Day - Goal Setting & Journal Writing

To start out the year on the right foot, this week for Activity days, I decided to help the girls come up with some New Years goals. I decided to break it down into 5 categories.... physical, social, spiritual, mental and intellectual. I created this worksheet so we could write down a new year's goal in each category.

I love the quote I read from Pres. Harold B. Lee.... "a goal not written, is only a wish" Love that!

Another goal for the year is to help the girls write in a journal once a week. In their binders, they have a journal section and I printed out about 50 questions to but in a cute jar (I got at the Dollar Store). This will be their journal jar and each week they can pull out a question and write about the answer and any other interesting things that happened that week.

And I included a quote about journal writing for the girls to put in their binder.

What a way to start the year.... new goals and a fun activity!

Super Girl

Super Girl has visited our house several days in the past few weeks. Hannah dresses up in everything she can find and says "I'm super girl". My sister made her an apron and she uses that as a cape. I wish I had made Hannah a cape for Christmas had I known her alter ego would become SUPER GIRL!

He came!

I am trying to catch up on life, so the next several post will be of Christmas past. Christmas morning was wonderful. Hannah was so happy to see that Santa brought her an easel. Ella loved her Fairytopia Wings and Jake just loved being a part of it all. But Santa did bring him a stuffed moose.

The night before Hannah made sure that we left the reindeer food out on the lawn so that Santa's reindeer could find us. Also, it was just as important to have cookies and milk left for Santa, which we know he appreciated.

On Christmas morning, Ella opened about half of her presents and that was it, she wasn't opening anymore. We kept asking her if she wanted to open a present and she would have nothing to do with them. So, the next day we asked and we got one more present opened and that was it. About the third day after Christmas, we got her to open her remaining gifts. I am pretty sure things will be different next year.

Ella also has this horrible habit of twisting her hair. She twists it and twists it until it is in a huge knot. She has done thing since she was one years old. Well, Christmas morning she had a doozy of a knot in her hair. It took days to get it out (thanks to Nana's persistence and a fork). In the picture of Ella on Chris' back you can see the knot).

I love canvas!

About 6 month ago, I won a blog contest. I won a huge (254X36) canvas from Canvas on Demand. I have been waiting to redeem my prize so that I could use it for a picture of all three kids. But as time passes and Jake still was too small to be in a picture (without his sisters smoothering him or dropping him) I decided to use this picture and finally redeem my prize. It came the other day and I put it up in my den/playroom. I love it! It is so big, so cute and so much fun. I love canvas pictures! And the best part is they look better when they aren't framed. I can tell these will eventually fill my house!

PS - don't mind the mess on the table... kids live here!