Resurection Rolls...

A couple of years ago, my girlfriend sent me a recipe for resurrection cookies. I thought the idea was great for kids... You read scripture with each ingredient, explaining it's importance to the story (and cookies). You put them in the oven, bake, then turn off the oven, and keep the door closed until the morning, when the cookies are revealed, and are "empty" inside. I just love the idea. This year, I'm gonna try something similar for a brunch that I'm attending...

Check out the Resurrection Rolls, and the tutorial offered by feathersfrommynest.com. I think they look very yummy!!

Water, Water, EVERYWHERE...

For a couple of weeks, I've noticed that the hand towels that take up residence under my sink were just a little damp. And I thought, "Oh No!". We'd dealt this this before (in our old house) and it was short of $1000 to fix our kitchen sink and all the other sinks in the house to keep them from leaking!! But, upon more investigaging, I realized that the problems we'd experienced before, were not happening this time. So we tried a few other theories and nothing produced leaky pipes. Until one day earlier this week. I reached under the sink and found ANOTHER wet towel (after they all had been washed and replaced) and I was ready to take another look. And look what I found!!

At first glance, you might not see what I saw, but between the bottom of the drain and the silver piece, there is a BROWN piece of metal. And although I'm not that "handy" I know that metal shouldn't be brown! So I pulled the white pipe down just slightly, as I'm doing in the picture, and you can see UP INTO the drain and sink!!! The brown part is RUSTED threads of the drain that are rusted ALL THE WAY AROUND!! Holy Smokes! No wonder the towels and under the sink is wet all the time... because we put water down the sink, and the pipe is simply sitting directly UNDER the drain. So any water that misses the drain goes onto everything below! When we bought the house, we saw that the cabinet under the sink had had some water damage, but we "assumed" it's been taken care of. NOPE!!

However, luckily with the help of Facebook, I had a friend take a look at the picture and he advised how to help us, and Ken was able to remove the damaged piece, clean them all up and then make a temporary fix until it could be fixed later in the week with new parts.

Baby Curls...

I love curly hair. I always wished that I had it. I have what most people call "wavy" hair. But really it's bone straight until it wants to be mean to me and then it starts to kink in wierd places. However, I am very pleased to see that my sweet darling daughter is developing beautiful curls like her daddy has. I love her curly hair. I think it is absolutely beautiful. Unfortunately, she has areas of her hair (mainly right behind her ears) that simply stick out and are bone straight, while the rest of her hair and curly.

If you've always wanted curly hair and don't have it... drink in these sweet baby girl curls!

Happy Easter!!

I really like Easter. And each year, I enjoy it more and more, as I take in the meaning and really reflect on the death and resurrection of Jesus and what that means in my life.

With that said, I am also a candy-connoisseur of sorts. Ok, I just like to eat candy. And there is just something about a small piece of cadbury chocolate that is enrobed in a candy shell and painted like a small bird egg that is just so delightful in your mouth!! Any who, we're spending the holiday with some family for the first time in a long time. So, needless to say, I'm pretty stoked! And I love putting together little "somethings" for everyone. I'm a huge fan of party blogs and wish I could just plan and host parties off of the super amazing ideas that you can find on the internet. So instead, I decided to make these!!

If you want to make these yourself, just check out these links for free downloads. :)

Bunny Tails

Peeps

First Couponing Attempt...

A couple of weeks ago, Ken and I decided that we would try to save some money on things we already buy, and purchase using coupons. So, I've taken a crack at it. I've bought a couple of papers and subscribe to a couple of websites for help. And I think I'm getting the hang of it. But will definitely give it a couple more weeks before I make a definite decisions on if we'll do it long term.

Here's my first attempt break down: (all of these were from Target)

• Huggies Diapers: $4 =$8 (target sale price) - $1.50 (MC) - $2.50(TC)
• Huggies Pullups: $ 5 = $8(tsp) - $1.50 (MC) - $1.50 (TC)
• Circo Socks: FREE = $1 - $1(TC)
• Easter Candy Eggs (4 total): $.50 each = $1.00 each (x4) = 4 - $1/2 (MC) x2
• Skinny Diet Pepsi Cans (8 cans): $1.99 = $1.99x2 - BOGO coupon (MC)
• Suave Deodorant (2 sticks): $.94 = $.97x2= $1.94- $1/2 coupon = $.47 each
• Tweezers: $.24 JUST ABOUT FREE! = $2.24-$2(MC)
• Kraft Ez Mac (4pack x 2packages): $4.58 = $3.04x2 = $6.04-$1.50(MC)
• Kraft 8oz Cheese (2 packages) $1.58 ($.79c each) = $2.04x2= 4.08- $1.50 (MC) - $1.00 (TC) ** only one is pictured above because my princess was carrying it around**

And then the MOST exciting news... I spent $21.74 of goods, while saving $20.97... And I took part of that $$ and bought some pants... 8 pairs of pants to be exact (see photo). These are Circo, double lined pants, retailing for $7 a piece, and I got them all for $1.75 a piece, for a total of $14 for 8 pairs of pants. Super excited about this purchase. All different sizes, and colors... Super excited about that!!

I'll keep you posted on other deals.

Also, post comments on other helpful hints to help me with my new "hobby". :)

Feeding of the Five Thousand... Ok, maybe just 12 of us!

Have you ever seen a miracle happen before your eyes? Have you ever witnessed something that you've only just heard of and found it so completely fascinating? Well, it's happened to me.

It happened at Christmas 2010, to be exact. The hubs and I (and kiddos) and gone up to MI to celebrate Christmas. While we were there we had visitors almost every day to see us and spend a few moments. The Monday after Christmas had been the day we'd decided to "celebrate" our family Christmas. We would have Christmas morning all over again so we could do it together as one big family of 9. Mom and Dad had prepared to have roast beef that night, something Dad had been preparing all day with his special recipe and method. Mom would make mashed potatoes and vegetables.

Right as dinner was coming together, there was a knock at the door. My cousin and his girlfriend had stopped by. I hadn't seen him several years and they had come for a visit. My brother in law had also stopped by for dinner. Soon our number of had grown to 12. How did this happen? And was there enough food? As I looked at the roast beef, it was hard to make out that there would be enough for just 7 of us. Dad had originally cut the large cut of meat into 7 thick slices. The little kids would share one leaving one good size piece for each adult. And from the looks of it, it just wasn't enough. But now with 3 more adults to feed, (one of whom is a lumberjack -- figuratively not literally) we would just have to see how it played out...

The plates went around after we thanked the Lord for the food and we were enjoying our time. It was a squeeze at Mom's table in her new dining room, but we made it work. When everyone had served themselves, and had seconds if they wanted, I glanced down at the roast beef plate and saw that there were 3 pieces left on the plate. WHAT?? Literally it was a miracle. Dad had cut all of the pieces in half after realizing that there wasn't enough. But after everyone had had what they wanted, there was still beef left over, and not just the scraps.

Later that night, Dad and I talked about it, and we both seemed to comment about how we were afraid there wouldn't be enough food for everyone, or that we'd run out. But sure enough, it was a smaller scale version of the story, I truly believe that it was a miracle. Not a Christmas Miracle, but a miracle just as powerful as the feeding of the 5000 were on the hill that day.

Happy Birthday, to Me!!

On Sunday was my 31st birthday. I know, I'm 9 years from 40. Crazy, if you ask me. But Ken and I were talking the other day, that when I'm 40, Finn will be 13 years old!! Holy Smokes!! Even more crazy!!

This birthday was unlike any other birthday I've had. I'm in that category of people that if they don't get something for Christmas, they can always just wait and ask for it again for their birthday. Well, I had a hard time for a Christmas list this year, and then when my birthday rolled around, I really didn't have anything that I wanted. Literally, nothing I'd had my eye on, or something that I thought I wanted, or something that I thought would be fun to do. NOTHING. Which in reality, really stressed my husband out. And to be perfectly honest, I was sort of melancholy about the whole thing anyway. I thought that there were people in my life who would forget my birthday, as it does sort of sneak up on people.

The day started off as a bust. The babes that I birthed, decided that 7am would be a good time to get up and my darling husband decided that it would be fine to have all 4 of us "rest" in the bed together... needless to say, having 4 people (two of which are prone to squirming) in a double sized bed, wasn't my idea of a happy birthday! Then, we tried to get out the door for church, at the last minute... UGH, i was NOT in a good mood. Anyway, church helped to change my perspective (as it always does) and our day ended up very nice. We arrived home from church to find TWO surprise gifts at my door. Some lovely flowers and chocolates left by my sweet friend Alison, and my darling friend Jen dropped off a little gift... simply priceless friends, they are!

I made dinner (Yummy Turkey meatloaf, mashed potatoes and green beans) and Ken took us to Starbucks, Blockbuster for a movie (just like the old days) and then to Kohls for a bit of a stroll. After sunday dinner, the kids napped and we watched Avatar in BluRay (which I highly recommend) and enjoy some bakery cupcakes that Ken purchased for us. It was a nice day, and I spent it doing what I always want to do... spend time with my husband and enjoy his company!