Recent Happenings!

We went to the zoo in Columbia, SC. Stu loves the animals! He was so proud of himself for feeding the goat!

Stu helping mom make pizza!

His new favorite place to hide.

The Atlanta aquarium, it is seriously awesome, if you are ever in Atlanta, you must go there!

Stu got one piece of candy from the pinata, he was excited!

He loved swinging the broom!

He had a cars cake,(the pink cake was for my cousin, it was her birthday too!)

He loved the watermelon.

It was a great day, we are so happy to have been able to raise Stu for the past two years!

blushing basics

so there is a girl in our ward who has just started up a blog about basic beauty tips and she is so cute and so good! my favorite has been dry shampoo... check it out if you get a chance!

JON'S QUIET BOOK

My little boy was turning one... and I wanted to have the perfect gift. What better gift than one from the heart? (Que sentimental music...)

I had so much fun making this quiet book for Jon's first birthday. Everything was really easy... it just took a long time to do it! But I think taking time for the details was worth it. I love how it turned out. However, now that I've done it, I can think of lots of things I could have done better!

THE COVER

I wanted the book to always be Jon's book, so I did simple embroidery on the inside cover to mark his territory.

PAGE 1
You can tell that page one was a design by Brooklin... not as creative as my stolen patterns. But there HAD to be a page with sports in a Healy book!

The letters of his name can be buttoned off and on; the balls each come off and on with Velcro

PAGE TWO
The tree was the most time consuming, but I love how it turned out. There are five birds singing good morning that he can take on and off... so far we still have all five tiny birds!!

PAGE THREE
The flower garden turned out pretty girly-- sorry Jon! But he really likes grabbing the buds and twisting them around the buttons.

PAGE FOUR
I love how the spaceship page turned out! Obviously I stole this pattern...

PAGE FIVE
What would a quiet book be without a page all about colors and shapes? Each shape comes off via Velcro and the shape is embroidered on the page in the matching color. Someday he'll be able to match them back up!

PAGE SIX
Fun at the farm..

The barn doors open and three finger puppets are inside, ready to play!

PAGE SEVEN

The mailbox was fun-- inside is a letter from Mom and Dad. Again... the flowers are so girly, but the buttons add texture to the page that Jon enjoys. And the flag for the mailbox can be buttoned off and on or twisted up or down. The grass is sewn to the page at the base, but then is free to be man-handled.

PAGE EIGHT
The last page was a little way of saying good-night. The stars in the night sky are just 'Xs' embroidered with silver thread. The window flaps lift up to show to friendly bears on their camp out.

Unzipping the tent only reveals the 'good night' wish. I wanted to add a fire like the example I had, but my page was too small and Brian disagreed that I could put the fire inside the tent.... so no fire for these bears!

The inside of the back cover is done with simple embroidery, wishing Jon a happy first birthday from Mom and Dad. But let's face it... did Dad pour any sweat and tears into this book? ;)

MY BASICS
*My finished book measures 8x8 inches. When I cut all my pages I used a 9x9 pattern on folded muslin... laid flat it was 9x18 inches. Mentally 'cutting' it in half, I made two pages on the piece... make sense? Just make sure you allow for your seams on the outer sides. After my canvases were ready, I sewed two large pieces together (right sides together, then turned right side out). I wound up with two sheets with four front to back pages that I sewed to the 'binding' of my cover. If those instructions are confusing... check out Modest Maven's site- her instructions are better than mine!
*My pages are made from white muslin-- I used interfacing to keep them sturdy.
*The cover is lined with interfacing on the inside and batting on the outside-- I added ribbons to tie the book closed.
*All my book pieces were made from felt.
*Any pieces that come off are double-felt- two pieces stitched together so they are sturdy
*I used only buttons or Velcro to attach pieces. If I had more time to learn to attach snaps I would have loved to have some of those!
*I used the blanket stitch on almost every edge of felt-- very easy and cute
*I used very simple embroidery to 'write' on the pages

RESOURCES
Of course I didn't come up with all of this myself!

The bulk of my inspiration came from Homemade by Jill. Her ideas are awesome! She provides a few page patterns at her blog. They are for a 12x12 book. I had to scale the patterns down accordingly.

Other sources of inspiration:
Quiet Book Blog
Modest Maven
Naptime Journal
Crafty Chic

Delicious Homemade Tomato Soup

My husband found this recipe off of foodnetwork.com. It is one of our FAVORITE recipes. It is easy to make, super healthy and taste deeeelicious with grilled cheese sandwiches. Another great thing is that is freezes well. I usually make a double batch then portion out single servings in quart size freezer bags. That way it's easy to grab for lunch when I'm running out the door for work.

Here are some pictures to get your tastebuds thinking. The recipe is at the bottom :)

Diced tomatoes roasting in the oven....mmmm.... can you smell the garlic?

Fresh healthy vegetables cooking down in a pan.

Add them all together and simmer.

Blend and enjoy!



(The recipe calls for cream and butter, I leave them out and have never missed the taste or the calories. I also add more broth or extra water to thin the soup out a little bit).

THANKSGIVING TURKEY

To get Reagan into the holidays I've scoped a few ideas from various websites. For November, we made a turkey's body and have been adding a feather to him daily. Each feather is written with something she is thankful for. When we ran out of feathers, we started decorating the wall with cut-out leaves. It's been a fun thing for us to do every morning-- wake up and think of something new that we're thankful for. I think this is a tradition we'll have to continue every November!



I half made-my-own pattern and stole from some websites. What I used was from here and here.

PICK UP FAIRY

If you're like me.... you get sick of cleaning up after people-- especially when you know they are capable of doing it themselves. I'm not asking for spic and span... just take the toys off my floor and dump them in the toy buckets!! I got this idea from an article I read in Family Circle... maybe it was Parents magazine.

THE PICK-UP FAIRY

At the end of the day when play-time is over and you're winding down for bed, you probably ask your sweet children to help clean up the messes they made throughout the day. If your kids willingly help.... well, then I hate you!

We told Reagan about the "pick-up fairy" (whom she calls the 'hiccup fairy'). This fairy comes to the house while we're sleeping and picks up all the toys that weren't put away and she takes them to her house. In a few weeks when the pick-up fairy is done playing with her found toys, she might bring the toys back if the little owners are being good children.

So far, the mere threat of one of her toys being swiped by the fairy in the night has motivated her enough to clean up at the end of the day. Sometimes it's even a game to hide the toys from the pick-up fairy. I love it-- I wake up in the morning to a clutter-free house in the morning-- can you say BLISS?

ps-- I also believe this trick can work on husbands. I do it sometimes to Brian as a joke... but with a hint of seriousness. Example: He often comes home from work and takes off his dress shoes, leaving them in the entryway. If they're still there the next morning after he leaves for work with a different pair of shoes on, I'll hide the clutter-shoes. I have a great time watching him look for them later in the week. HEE HEE.

Healthy Visiting Teaching Treat

Hi Everyone!

I've been trying to think of something worthy of posting and thought this idea was fun and easy.

It's fun to bring a treat to people every now and then, but in my zeal to be more healthy I try to avoid bring cookies and other unhealthy junk food.


This is what I brought to the sisters I visit teach today:

Wrap up an apple with an individual cup of caramel apple dip and peanut butter. It only cost about $1.50 total and looks totally cute, not to mention is much healthier than a plate full of cookies.

Hope you all enjoy!

Cinco de Mayo

Even though Ross gets upset about Cinco de Mayo (he served in the Mexico City mission) because people think all of Mexico celebrates it (and apparently they don't) we are going to have fun with the holiday anyway. Apparently Cinco de Mayo is kinda like Utah's 'Day's of 47' if we went to New York and said Happy 24th of July - they would look at us like we were crazy. Any who, tomorrow I am going to make mole - if none of you guys had tried mole, it is yummy, super easy and a traditional Mexican dish. There are lots of different kinds of mole - but this is Ross' fave. Give it a try :)



Chicken Mole Poblano
1 cup salsa
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1/4 cup raisins
1 small chipotle chile in adobo sauce (from 7-oz can), seeded
1/2 cup chicken broth
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
2 tablespoons semisweet chocolate chips
2 tablespoons ground ancho chile pepper or chili powder
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into strips/chunks
4 flour tortillas
1 avocado, pitted, peeled and thinly sliced
1/2 cup crumbled queso fresco cheese or fresh mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup sour cream

DIRECTIONS

	In blender or food processor, place salsa, peanut butter, raisins, chipotle chile, broth, garlic, chocolate chips, ground chile pepper, pumpkin pie spice and coriander. Cover; blend until smooth.
	In 12-inch skillet, place chicken strips; add salsa mixture. Heat to boiling over medium heat, turning chicken occasionally to coat with sauce. Reduce heat to low. Cover; simmer about 20 minutes, stirring sauce occasionally, until juice of chicken is clear when center of thickest part is cut. Heat tortillas as directed on package. To serve, place each tortilla on serving plate; spoon 1/4 of the chicken and sauce mixture onto each tortilla. Top with avocado, cheese and sour cream. Fold tortillas in half over filling. Serve immediately. **We aren't huge cheese or sour cream fans, so we usually just serve it with avocados, rice and beans (Plus the rice and beans is all Annabelle would want to/can eat) . And this says it makes four servings, but we get more out of it.**

I am planning on making horchata to go along with it as well. You can always buy an horchata mix from the grocery store (by all the other Mexican food) then all you have to do is add water.

Since I am not asleep, (I'll share a great syrup recipe!)

This is the best syrup in the world for pancakes and waffles, I mean we are talking good! It is super easy and super fatty, but just don't eat it all the time!

1 cube butter
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup buttermilk (I learned a trick for this, if you don't have buttermilk, (i never do) just add 1 TBSP white vinegar to one cup milk (in this case 1/2 TBSP vinegar to 1/2 cup milk) and let it sit a few minutes, it looks sorta chunky but every recipe I have used it with works!)

bring all those ingredients to a boil,(it gets a little foamy I think because of the baking soda) and then take it off the heat

add 1/2 tsp to 1 tsp coconut extract (or to taste, i even put a little more in!) and if you don't like coconut you can just add vanilla extract, but man o man is it good with coconut!

Someone must try this and tell me how they like it, Mike wants pancakes or waffles every weekend with this stuff on it, we love it!

Sleeping! (or I wish I was!!)

Ok ladies, as a first time pregnant person I need some advice. I wake up every morning around the same time (between 3 and 4). I have to go to the bathroom or I am uncomfortable but then I have the hardest time going back to sleep. Any advice? I guess looking at blogs at 3:30am is fun, but shoot I need some sleep, I get so tired during the day!

Temper Tantrums

Just thought I'd throw this out there. Does anyone have good advice on what to do when your 3 1/2 yr. old throws temper tantrums? I feel like I've tried everything. Ignoring, time out, swearing:) Nothing seems to work. Help!
Holls(a.k.a. boobsweat) since brooklin brought up the brick bench i thought I'd reminisce.

FHE

Hi Ladies!!



Lately I've realized how important FHE is. 2008 my new year's resolution was to have FHE every monday night. I was good for a little while but I didn't feel like Landon was getting anything from it and slacked off. I got the idea a few months ago to do the same topic all month long and so far it's worked great. The first Monday I do a quick review of the topic and the next week we review and add to it. Also, I will keep the visual aid stuff I used on the lesson out all week and talk to Landon about it. I am very impressed at how much Landon has learned/reatained this way. If you have a hard time deciding what to have your lesson on, the Friend has a page with sharing time ideas that work great. They are on the theme for that month and there is a new idea for each week of the month. I love it-the lesson and topic are already prepared, I just have to read through it and put everything together.

St Patty's Day Fun

I thought I'd post some fun thing we did with the kids on St Patty's Day. The "Leprechauns" (sp?) left us some lucky charms for breakfast and put greeen food coloring in our milk. We had green jello-new flavor of watermelon, cantaloupe, and honeydew with our lunch. We also make the pillsbury 3 leaf clover sugar cookies. Also for dinner we had green french toast-nothing too fancy, gotta do something the kids like.

When the girls woke up they were sent on a treasure hunt and at the end found green bowls with gold wrapped candy and a green hot wheels car in them.

Of course we all wore green that day too. Cambree was so excited to celebrate another holiday.

TRAFFIC JAM

I just sent out a bunch of author-invites to random people I know, hoping to encourage some action on our friendly blog. If there is anyone you'd like to add to the list of authors, let's sign them up!

BABY TAGGIE BLANKET

My first attempt at something like this and I have to say it went pretty well.


INSTRUCTIONS

1- Cut two 12 x 12 inch squares of fabric, preferably something soft and cozy. I used that really soft fabric (I don't know the name) on both sides, but have also seen them done with flannel or silky fabric on one side for a contrasting feel.

2- You need coordinating colors of ribbon, cut into 4 inch strips. I did a total of 32 ribbons (1 on each corner and 7 on each side) but depending on the width of your ribbon you can use less. Try to find a variety of patterns and textures in your ribbon combo.

3- Lay your fabric right-side up. fold the ribon strips in half and pin them to the edge of the fabric, with the folded edge toward the middle. Pin the ribbons in the middle first, then the corner ribbons diagonally over the corner.

4- Sew around the edges of the square to attach the ribbon tags, taking out the pins along the way. Backstitch on each ribbon to secure them to the fabric.

5- Take the other square of fabric and place it right-side down on top of the tagged one, pin it together. The tags should be inside and the blanket should look inside-out.

6-- Sew around the outside, starting in the middle of one of the sides. Sew all the way around the square, leaving a 2 inch opening for turning right-side out. Don't forget to back-stitch at start and finish.

7- Trim around the edges and cut a diagonal edge on the corners.

8-- Turn right-side-out, making sure to square the corners off. Iron it flat.

9-- Either top-stitch around the edges for a finished hem-look, or hand-sew your opening shut.

Snuggle and enjoy!