Three A's and a C

Movie Night - Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

2011-12-03T14:49:00.004-05:00

I posted our newest movie night, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, over on my Disney blog, Disney in Our Blood. One of my favorite parts of the movie night was a very last minute idea.

I had bought Sierra Mist Cranberry Splash (some of the best stuff ever!) because I wanted a yummy red drink for the night. I had an idea to make it more festive right before my daughter woke up (I like to have everything ready during her nap/quiet time). So I found a picture of Rudolph through Google and made a quick label. It says "Rudolph Fizzies... To keep your nose looking its reddest."

Christmas Decorations

2011-11-29T11:29:00.004-05:00

I found some very cute Rudolph wrapping paper at the Dollar Store a week before Thanksgiving and couldn't pass it up. I knew it was early, but I didn't want to risk it selling out and them not getting more. I'm a little obsessed with Rudolph. :) Anyway, I got the idea to use it as the mat for a printable I found online.

I just took out the mat from my frame that I use for all my printables for each season/holiday/mood, traced it on some of the wrapping paper, cut it out, and taped it on. I love it! I'm still working on decorating my house, so I'll share more soon. What are your favorite decorations so far this Christmas?

Photo Friday

2011-11-18T10:32:00.003-05:00

My Memories is letting me tell you about some wonderful freebies they have! They change up their freebies every couple of weeks, and there are a couple to choose from, so I'll be able to bring you free layouts for digital scrapbooking every Friday!

Here are 2 Quick Pages that come with the papers and elements used to make them! Click here to download !

These layouts are not only good for My Memories Suite, but for any digital scrapbooking program! If you are looking for a great digital scrapbooking program, though, I really do love My Memories Suite. You can buy it here and use the promo code: STMMMS78470 to get $10 and a $10 coupon for the My Memories store!

More Thanksgiving Decorations

2011-11-14T03:00:00.001-05:00

I found a great printable for Thanksgiving over at Today's Fabulous Find! I printed it out right away and put it in the frame I always use for cute printables. :)

I got the craft kit for the tree and scarecrow at Target's Dollar Spot. We made it in October, but when paired with the little scarecrow it was perfect for after Halloween, too.

My Memories Suite Winner!

2011-11-12T09:35:00.005-05:00

The winner of the My Memories Suite digital scrapbooking software giveaway, according to random.org, is {drumroll please}...

Comment 11, Jillian! Congratulations! I will be contacting you soon with your code for the software. :)

And even if you didn't win, remember you can still purchase My Memories Suite v2 software with the promo code STMMMS78470 to get $10 off and a $10 coupon to their online store! Thank you to everyone who entered.

Photo Friday

2011-11-11T03:00:00.001-05:00

My Memories is letting me tell you about some wonderful freebies they have! They change up their freebies every couple of weeks, and there are a couple to choose from, so I'll be able to bring you free layouts for digital scrapbooking every Friday!

Here are 2 Quick Pages that come with the papers and elements used to make them! Click here to download!

I took one of the background pages and a couple of embellishments to make this.

These layouts are not only good for My Memories Suite, but for any digital scrapbooking program! If you are looking for a great digital scrapbooking program, though, you can enter my My Memories Suite giveaway! It ends tonight at 11:59 PM, so hurry!

You can also buy it here and use the promo code: STMMMS78470 to get $10 and a $10 coupon for the My Memories store!

My Memories Suite Review and Giveaway!

2011-11-04T03:00:00.002-04:00

I recently had the chance to review My Memories, a digital scrapbooking program. I love scrapbooking but haven't found the time to do it for quite awhile now. I have wanted to try out digital scrapbooking for awhile, but honestly thought I wouldn't like it nearly as much as good ol' scrapbooking. So I knew this would be a perfect opportunity to try it out.

I have to say I was pleasantly surprised when I downloaded My Memories Suite. It is very user-friendly and a lot of fun. At first I was just messing around, checking out all the options, and I created this page.

I picked the layout, background page, and some embellishments. I loved how cute I could make it with pictures straight from my computer in just a few minutes! There is a nice selection of layouts, backgrounds, and embellishments to choose from with some free things you can download from the My Memories website. There is also a ton of stuff you can buy to create the perfect scrapbook page!

Here is one of the ready made templates available that I thought would be great for a page about my little ballerina.

Not only can you make simple scrapbook pages like the ones above, but you can make an interactive scrapbook with audio, video, and web links! You can have them put on a CD or DVD and your family can experience your memories. How cool is that? There is so much to explore with this software and I'm just beginning to scratch the surface myself. I must say, I'm loving this digital scrapbooking thing and am really looking forward to using it to catch up on everything I've been wanting to scrapbook!

You know the best part? My Memories is letting me host a giveaway for their digital scrapbooking software ($39.97 value)! Here's what you have to do:

Mandatory entry:
1. Go to My Memories and check out their digital paper packs. Come back and leave a comment saying which one is your favorite.

Optional entries (leave a separate comment for each extra entry letting me know you did them):
2. Follow My Memories on Twitter.
3. Follow Three A's and a C on Twitter.
4. Like My Memories on Facebook.
5. Follow Three A's and a C through GFC (on the sidebar).
6. Tweet about this giveaway.

THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED. WINNER WILL BE ANNOUNCED IN A SEPARATE POST. THANK YOU TO ALL WHO ENTERED!

This giveaway will end at 11:59pm EST on November 11, 2011. Good luck! And even if you don't win, My Memories is offering a great promotion for Three A's and a C readers! Order the My Memories Suite Digital Scrapbooking Software (available in both digital download or CD version) and enter the promo code STMMMS78470 to receive $10 off the software and a $10 coupon for the MyMemories.com store! That's an awesome deal.

My Memories provided me with a complimentary copy of their software for review. All opinions are honest and my own.

Happy November!

2011-11-01T13:49:00.005-04:00

Halloween and Thanksgiving merged in our house today. I was gathering all the Halloween decorations from around the house to put away, but I also couldn't wait to put up some Fall/Thanksgiving decorations. I was inspired by some stuff I saw on Pinterest and came up with this.

I got the leaf and pumpkin doilies from the dollar store as well as the tall glass vase. I got the pinecones from around our neighborhood and the chipmunks are salt and pepper shakers that were my mom's. I put the doilies together with some double-sided tape I had just so they wouldn't have to be adjusted 1,246,973 times a day. That would totally get annoying.

It is simple, but I think I'm loving it. And for a grand total of $3 and just minutes to put together, it works for us! I would love to see pictures of your fall decorations. If you have a link to them, please leave it in the comments!

Movie Night - Nightmare Before Christmas

2011-10-29T13:51:00.002-04:00

I just put up everything about our Nightmare Before Christmas movie night over at my Disney blog! I would love for you to go check it out! Here's one tip I love that I used during our movie night.

It's getting cooler here in Florida and I know it is downright COLD some places. I love hot chocolate when it's cold outside but I always have to wait forever to drink it so it cools down a little and I don't burn my mouth. We have some whipped cream in the freezer and if you put a spoonful or two straight from the freezer into your hot chocolate right after you make it, it makes it extra delicious and cools it down just enough to drink right away! We're also loving the addition of a special Peep during Halloween season. :)

tap tap tap Is This Thing On?

2011-10-27T18:13:00.004-04:00

Well, hi there! Remember me? I'm the girl who completely abandoned this blog for, oh I don't know, 4 months? I'm sorry. I just felt very uninspired and frankly didn't feel like any crafty type stuff I did was good enough. I always go back and forth between feeling that way and then realizing that maybe, even if my crafts aren't perfect, maybe they'll inspire something great from someone else! You never know. :) I think the holidays are partly to ~~blame~~ thank for this. There are so many crafts and fun muffin tin meal themes and whatnot that it's hard not to want to share something I find or make. Oh, and I think being obsessed with Pinterest helps with that, too. ;) Anyway, I have some fun muffin tin meals planned, holiday crafts, a giveaway coming up, and more so I really hope you'll jump back on the Three A's and a C train with me. :)

*added* Oh, and if you want to see some of the movie nights we've been doing, I've been posting them over on my Disney blog, Disney in Our Blood!

A Quick Tip

2011-06-23T14:50:00.004-04:00

Maybe everyone does this and I'm just late to the party, but I thought I'd share something that I do when baking. When whipping up a cake (I almost always use a cake mix but I'm crazy like that lol), of course I use the same measuring cup for the water and oil.

image from Amazon

But I also use it for one more thing. Instead of breaking out a separate bowl for cracking the eggs in (you know, to check them for impurities before dumping them into the batter) I just crack them into the measuring cup (after I do the water and oil) and dump them in from there. I'm all for using even one less dish! What simple but useful kitchen tip(s) do you have?

Muffin Tin Monday

2011-06-20T03:00:00.000-04:00

I threw together a simple lunch for Ashlyn yesterday. She loves getting her meal in a muffin tin. :)

I made her a Mickey Mouse peanut butter and jelly sandwich, provolone cheese, and veggie chips. She ate almost all of it except the cheese. I think I never did muffin tin meals very consistently because I wanted to do these elaborate themes for Ashlyn but whenever I didn't have time to come up with one I just wouldn't do it. But I've realized recently (I made her a quick MTM last week but forgot to post it) that she gets excited just over a simple one like this! I still have fun making elaborate ones for her every now and then but I've gotten okay with the fact that I just can't do that all the time. I may not always post the simple ones on here (though I will sometimes) but I'm excited by the "new" idea that she'll have fun with even the simple tins. :)

To see what others did this week, head on over to Muffin Tin Mom!

An Update and Father's Day Decorations

2011-06-14T15:39:00.004-04:00

Hi everyone! Things have been, and are going to continue to be, CRAZY busy around here. Last week we were in Florida house hunting. We found a place that is great for us and hope to close in about a month. Please keep us in your prayers that it all works out with all the last little details! On top of trying to buy a house while living in a different country (sometimes it makes things a little extra difficult but everyone has been so willing to work with us!), we will have our stuff packed up and shipped in 2 weeks and then 2 weeks after that we will be moving! It's going to go buy so fast! I am really wanting to get at least one movie night in before all our stuff is packed as well as a couple of crafts. So keep a look out for those!

Today I finally put up a couple of Father's Day decorations. I can't believe that's already this coming Sunday!! I don't exactly have any Father's Day decor, but remember those cheap frames I have that I switch the picture or printable out for each holiday? Well, you know I couldn't not find something super cute for Father's Day!

I found the printable from Holiday Snob. In the smaller frame I put a super cute picture of Aaron and Ashlyn that we took while in Florida last week. I had seen other sites where people put some tools next to their printables as decoration and while Aaron is my handyman and likes to work on stuff when it breaks, I wouldn't say it's his #1 passion. He loves computers and Warhammer/WarMachine/Hordes. So I ~~stole~~ borrowed some of his guys from one of those games (I've tried more than once to learn to play both those games but it's just not my thing I guess) to guard the frames.

He hasn't seen it yet so I hope he likes it! He'll of course get to choose the meals on Sunday (not that he doesn't have a say the rest of the week, but you know what I mean). I feel bad but he probably won't get a special dessert. I have two cake/cake pop orders for this weekend so we will probably eat what extra ones I make. He's never complained before, though. :) Ashlyn is also making him a present, but I'll share that later considering Aaron reads this blog sometimes. He knows he got a computer game he's been wanting, but I have to keep something a secret! ;)

Pinkalicious Book Night

2011-05-26T10:48:00.000-04:00

You know how we usually do movie nights? Well, I had been seeing a lot of birthday parties based on the book Pinkalicious and decided to pick up the book at the library this past week. It is a very cute story and Ashlyn loved it! So I thought it would be fun to do a book night instead of a movie night. It was a lot of fun so we're going to be trying to do at least one book night and one movie night a month.

Anyway, in Pinkalicious a little girl eats too many pink cupcakes and turns pink herself! The doctor says the only cure is to eat green food. So for dinner we had pink and green foods.

We had our favorite sandwiches... pesto (green) mayo, provolone, and tomatoes on sourdough bread. We also had grapes, celery with peanut butter, strawberries (half of them dipped in pink chocolate), and of course pink cupcakes!

As you can see in the picture, two of Ashlyn's stuffed animals joined us. It looks like her pig and puppy ate one too many pink cupcakes! ;) (That pink puppy was the best purchase we could have made while waiting in the Jacksonville Airport a couple of months ago... she LOVES him!! And she immediately named him... wait for it... Pink Puppy. :D )

We read the book before and after dinner. Ashlyn even read it to us once or twice. She has just started to really like "reading" to us. She memorizes things really quickly and actually gets really close to saying the whole story on a lot of her favorite books!

And if you decide to do a book night with Pinkalicious, just make sure you don't let your little one into the kitchen with unguarded pink cupcakes. Because you might just see your little one walk into the living room, licking frosting off her fingers. Then you might, let's just say, walk into your kitchen to find this.

Wordless Wednesday - Thinking Disney Thoughts

2011-05-18T10:30:00.003-04:00

I've been in a very Disney mood lately, so here's a sweet picture from January. Ashlyn was star struck when she met Aurora, her favorite princess!

Muffin Tin Monday - Springy!

2011-05-16T11:19:00.004-04:00

Yay for Muffin Tin Meals! They're definitely fun. I haven't been very good at doing them every week, but I did manage to throw together a simple one today for Ashlyn's lunch. I guess it ended up being a kind of spring theme.

She had a butterfly-shaped peanut butter and jelly sandwich, watermelon, key lime pie yogurt with butterfly sprinkles, and blueberries. Sounded yummy to me, but Ashlyn's not big on blueberries or watermelon. Weird kid. ;) I think she'd love watermelon if she gave it a chance. She took one bite the day we bought it and she hasn't tried it again. Oh well, I'll keep offering it! I've made watermelon popsicles before and she absolutely loved them so maybe I'll just have to do that again. They were definitely super yummy!

To see what others made for MTM this week, head on over to Muffin Tin Mom!

Time4Learning

2011-05-14T12:36:00.004-04:00

Recently Rockabye Butterfly, one of my favorite sites to go for inspiration on homeschool-type activities for Ashlyn, held a giveaway for a 30-day trial to Time4Learning. And guess what... I won!

So I've been invited to try Time4Learning for one month in exchange for a candid review. Time4Learning can be used for homeschool, afterschool and summer skill sharpening. Be sure to come back and read about my experience!

Decorating with Frames and Free Printables

2011-05-13T13:31:00.006-04:00

I believe it was last Thanksgiving that I fell in love with all the free printables that are available online, especially around holidays. I went to the store and bought a cheap frame (it is an 8 x 10 frame with the mat but the picture area is 5 x 7) with a particular Thanksgiving printable in mind. The frame was about $5 but I know you could find one cheaper at a thrift store or dollar store or something (we just don't exactly have an abundance of those here... or any). I put the printable in the frame and decorated around it (I can't remember who I got this exact one from, but I found similar ones here).

And after Ashlyn made a super cute craft, I put that there, too.

Anyway, I loved it so much that I wanted a printable for every holiday! I don't have pictures of any of them between Thanksgiving and now because, well, I didn't think I would blog about it! But it really has been a great addition to my decorating. For example, even though I don't have any other decorations (yet) for St. Patrick's Day, I printed up 2 printables I found (and I promise now that I want to share the different things I put up, I will remember who I get these printables from so I can give credit and you can find them, too), bought a smaller frame, and put them up on our moveable island and completed it with a piece of greenery. Sometimes in the smaller frame I put a picture instead of a printable, like on Mother's Day I had a picture of my mom and me with a beautiful quote in the bigger frame.

I started to miss having something there in between holidays so I found another printable with "Keep Calm and Bake On" to put in the larger frame, put a picture of Ashlyn and me baking together in the smaller one, and put my stress cupcake with it! I bought the stress cupcake at Bake It Pretty, one of my favorite baking supply shops, but as of today I couldn't find it on their site. They have a ton of other great things, though!

I love it. :) It is cheap to do and easy to change for different holidays or moods (and our camera battery charger is nicely hidden behind the big frame ;) )! I am also very much looking forward to having access to thrift stores, dollar stores, craft stores, etc. to decorate this space (and all other spaces) better. Yay!

Movie Night - Sleeping Beauty

2011-05-06T03:00:00.000-04:00

image from Amazon

We had our latest movie night on Wednesday. We've been busy and distracted lately with our move coming up (I will update on that when we get some definite information) so I ended up not planning a whole lot and before I knew it, our movie night was here! We watched Sleeping Beauty.

There's our beautiful little princess. :) She loves playing dress up so she was excited to put on her Aurora dress and tiara. We had banana and chocolate chip pancakes and sausage for dinner (sleeping - breakfast - it worked for us!).

Aurora is one of Ashlyn's favorite princesses (Rapunzel and Aurora go back and forth with her for the #1 spot) so we had plenty of toys to decorate with.

There was more I could have used, but this was perfect for our laid back movie night. :)

I wanted to have a craft of some sort, at least a coloring page, but it just didn't happen. Like I said, I just didn't sit down and plan for this one like I like to do. Oh well, we still had fun! What movie do you think we should do next?

Muffin Tin Meal - Mmmmmm

2011-05-05T08:51:00.004-04:00

Well, I was slacking and didn't make Ashlyn a muffin tin meal this past Sunday, but I made her one on Wednesday. Each week I teach Ashlyn a new letter (she recognizes all the letters but I'm also teaching her the sounds they make as well as numbers, shapes, etc. She LOVES school!) and this week is the letter M. So I decided to make her a letter M muffin tin meal!

She had Macaroni and cheese, corn dog Muffin (recipe from Once A Month Mom - I add corn to our corn muffins), and M&M's all in Muffin liners on a Minnie Mouse plate. The M&M's were from a color sorting/counting activity I did with Ashlyn and I told her that she could have some of them for a snack so it inspired me to do this. The rest of the meal just happened to be leftovers from the night before so it was really easy and she loved it!

For more muffin tin meals, check out Muffin Tin Mom!

(Not-So) Wordless Wednesday

2011-04-27T08:45:00.004-04:00

I'm going to sign Ashlyn up for the next session of dance classes today, so here' s a picture from her last recital. All the girls love the "Tigger Jumps" they do to "The Most Wonderful Thing About Tiggers." In the end of the song, Tigger growls so the girls all growl, too. :) That's what she's doing in this pic. ♥

Head on over to The Adventures of Goober Grape and Monkey Man for more Wordless Wednesday!

A New Look

2011-04-26T10:19:00.003-04:00

Notice anything different? No, not that. Yes, my blog has a new look! My good friend over at Momma's Playground designed it and put it together for me. I absolutely LOVE it! It really is perfect for me and I couldn't be happier with it. I think it will help motivate me to post more, too, knowing I have a cute blog to look at when I do! :) Thank you SO MUCH, Jamie! ♥

Oh, and she also made me a new, super cute button (that you can find in the sidebar). If you already have my button, it should have changed already so you don't need to redo it. But if you don't have one yet, feel free to grab it!

Muffin Tin Monday - Hippity, Hoppity, Easter's On Its Way! (Or, Was Yesterday... Either Way)

2011-04-25T10:00:00.000-04:00

Happy Monday! I hope everyone had a fabulous Easter weekend. We sure did! I was also able to make Ashlyn a muffin tin meal! Technically, it was just our Easter dinner in a spring-like muffin tin, but I knew Ashlyn would love it. And I totally wanted to get back into the MTM swing of things so I thought it would be a good start. :)

Ashlyn had a Hawaiian roll, homemade garlic mashed potatoes (since the first time I've made mashed potatoes from scratch, I just can't go back to the boxed stuff), ham, and corn (her favorite vegetable). Saturday we had made Rice Krispie treats and cut them into spring/Easter shapes. We left one for the Easter Bunny (along with a carrot) and she got one in her tin, too! Her little cereal bunny also has a cute little mini marshmallow tail. :) She also got the ears to her chocolate bunny. We found a really cool bunny (Snapsy by Hershey)

that breaks apart really easily and is small, so it was a nice addition to Ashlyn's Easter basket and she totally gobbled up those ears!

To see the cool tins others have made, head on over to Muffin Tin Mom!

Happy Easter!

2011-04-24T03:00:00.001-04:00

HAPPY EASTER!

Changes on the Horizon and A New Obsession

2011-04-22T20:18:00.003-04:00

I am in LOVE with Pinterest! I have wanted to make an inspiration board for a long time but just never got around to it. Now I can make them online and add to it while I find things that inspire me while I find them! I also really enjoy seeing what others have "pinned" and get inspiration from them, too.

We are in the market to buy our first home here in a few months (I'll take you along for our journey) and I am planning on (trying) to make it a wonderful, beautiful place for not a lot of money. Lots of DIY, sales, etc. I would love to share what I come up with with all of you, too! It's a scary change coming up in our lives right now (I'm sure I will share more later), but it is also very exciting. We are looking into getting a 3 bedroom house and that 3rd bedroom will be Ashlyn's playroom until she grows out of having one (then I'm not exactly sure what it will turn into at that point, but I'm not in a hurry for her to grow up so I'm not worried about it!). I am most excited about decorating this room! I have so many ideas and am looking forward to picking a house and really starting to plan everything out.

Anyway, I do love that Pinterest helps me organize some of these ideas all in one place and is easily rearranged, added to, whatever. I always thought when I did get around to doing an inspiration board (or two or five) that it would mostly be crafts and baking. But with us getting so close to buying a house, it is mostly house decorating ideas. lol Who knew? So much fun but VERY addicting!

(Mostly) Wordless Wednesday

2011-04-20T09:19:00.002-04:00

She went to the Minnie's Masquerade Party at the Disney Store right before this so that's why she's in her Rapunzel dress and a crown. :D

(Mostly) Wordless Wednesday

2011-04-06T03:00:00.001-04:00

Hibiscus tree in our backyard.

We'll be spending some time with my Daddy these next couple of weeks so I'm not sure I'll be posting. I'm going to try and at least post some pictures while Ashlyn naps, though. I'm looking forward to really getting back into MTM and doing movie nights more regularly when we get back, as well as some other stuff. I'm not even quite sure myself what that "other stuff" will be... I'll be brainstorming while I'm gone. Maybe getting off the island for awhile will help me see things from a different perspective. :)

Tangled Movie Night

2011-04-01T12:26:00.007-04:00

**I've been trying to get this post up since Wednesday morning! Sorry for the delay, but for some reason it just would not let me upload pictures!**

So I'm guessing many of you know that Disney's Tangled was released yesterday! *happy Snoopy dance* I was so excited because I ~~absolutely love this movie~~ I knew Ashlyn would adore it. We saw it when it first came to the island, but we have an outdoor movie theater which means movies only at night. So Ashlyn fell asleep part way through. But anyway, we decided to have a movie night to celebrate the release!

For dinner we had angel hair pasta with Maximus's meatballs, braided breadsticks, and Rapunzel lettuce salad (a nod to the original fairytale).

We also had, though I didn't take a picture of, Pascal's key lime pie (hubby really wanted some key lime pie so it became Pascal's) and hubby and I had The Snuggly Duckling's ale (blackberry merlot - The Snuggly Duckling is the tavern they go to).

I put Ashlyn's hair up in a braid with flowers like when Rapunzel and Eugene (Flynn) went to the kingdom.

I really liked how our decorations came out. Simple, but cute.

On the bottom I had two paper lanterns (with battery-operated tea lights in them), Rapunzel, and Pascal.

On the top I put up a banner I put together (idea and template from Supermom Moments - her Tangled party was awesome!) and since Rapunzel loved to paint on the walls of her tower, I put up some of Ashlyn's artwork.

And of course no movie night would be complete without my friend Jamie's movie tickets! Always an awesome addition!

As for activities, we ran out of time and didn't get to do nearly all I wanted to. We did the coloring pages (Ashlyn kinda helped color Pascal, but was much more interested in coloring Rapunzel) and really that's about it. I wanted to let Ashlyn decorate the lanterns with stickers and stuff as well as go outside and play with sidewalk chalk, but it just didn't happen. I also really want to make this Rapunzel tower, but I just didn't have the supplies and the NEX doesn't carry them. So down the line when we do Tangled movie night again, that's high on the list of activities. :) There are also a lot of cool Tangled activities we may do to mix it up a bit on the Disney site (whether for a movie night or just for fun).

All in all this was a great movie night that we all enjoyed. Ashlyn just LOVES the movie (the Mickey and Minnie version of Rapunzel in her Disney storybook is her favorite) and I'm sure ~~I'll~~ we'll be watching it many, many more times! (I kid, though I am in love with this movie, so is Ashlyn! She wanted to watch it again immediately after it ended {and the day after, and the day after that...}. Aaron really enjoys it, too.)

Wordless Wednesday - Baking with Ashlyn!

2011-03-23T08:58:00.003-04:00

Ashlyn LOVES baking. :)

Muffin Tin Monday - Big and Little, Short and Tall

2011-01-24T08:09:00.006-05:00

Whoa... it's been awhile since I've done anything with this blog! I logged on to post and I still had my Christmas layout up! So for now it's just going to be a generic layout until I have time to do something more me. Sorry about all that! We went on vacation for about 2 weeks and I got sick the last day and just felt horrible for awhile. I got better a week or so ago, but just still had absolutely no energy and just began to really feel like myself again a couple of days ago. So, I'm back and starting back up with Muffin Tin Monday! This week's theme is Big and Little, Short and Tall.

Ashlyn had a big heart and little heart peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, big flower and little flower apple slices, and a big marshmallow and mini marshmallows for dessert. I also used a combination of small and large muffin liners. She ate everything except maybe two small bites of sandwich. :)

To see what everyone else is doing this week, check out Muffin Tin Mom!

Oh, and remember that today is Peanut Butter Day! We're trying to celebrate more little random "holidays" like that, and I thought it would be fun to do this one. I'm going to be making peanut butter cookies with Ashlyn this afternoon. We're making Peanut Blossoms (I think that's a fairly common name for them...), where you make the peanut butter cookies and push in Hershey's Kisses when they first come out of the oven. My mom knew them as Brown Eyed Susans but every now and then she would call them Brown Eyed Christinas for me (since I have brown eyes). Ashlyn has gorgeous brown eyes, so I think of these cookies now as Brown Eyed Ashlyns. ♥

Wordless Wednesday - Lights on Harbor Hill

2010-12-15T03:00:00.001-05:00

Muffin Tin Monday - Christmas Again!

2010-12-13T03:00:00.001-05:00

Hi there! It's that time again... no, not for that, silly! It's time for Muffin Tin Monday! The theme again is the holidays which, for us, means Christmas. :) Last week I saw this adorable reindeer sandwich over at Family Life, which led me to this wonderful reindeer sandwich over at Little Nummies. Now, I may or may not have mentioned my love for Rudolph and reindeers in general, but I just HAD to make Ashlyn a reindeer sandwich! And I may or may not have told hubby that I might make one for myself one of these days. ;) And the wonderful, sweet hubby he is, he offered to make one for me himself that very afternoon. ♥ But you didn't come here for side stories.... this time.

Hmmm... now that I upload the picture I see that his eyes aren't exactly perfect. *head tilt* Oh well! I still absolutely adore him! Along with her peanut butter and jelly Rudolph sandwich, Ashlyn had Craisins (reindeer poop - totally hubby's idea :D ) and carrots for the reindeer. And this is the first time I remembered to flip the muffin cups inside out so we could see the design (I don't use actual muffin liners very often so I was excited to do something a little different today). I got that idea from Muffin Tin Mom. :) Oh, Ashlyn ate most of her lunch, so that's always good.

Want to see what others did this week? Head on over to Muffin Tin Mom!

Wordless Wednesday - Reading In Bed

2010-12-08T03:00:00.001-05:00

Looking Ahead to New Years

2010-12-07T13:25:00.004-05:00

For a few days at least, the Christmas festivities have calmed down. Starting this weekend and on through, well, almost mid-January, we will be super busy. Which is why I'm thankful that today is the day I found out about the Day Zero Project because I actually have a minute or two to sit down and think about it. The Day Zero Project is pretty much where you create a list of 101 things you want to accomplish in the next 1001 days. It can be as simple as making dinner for a friend through visiting all 7 continents. It is very easy to add to and edit your lists right on the website, too. And it's all free to use! There is also a "Done" list for things you find that you've already done and a "someday" list for things you find or think of that you don't think you could accomplish in the next 1001 days (approximately 2.75 years) but want to do in the future.

Anyway, I'm still working on getting to 101 on my list (at this very second I'm at 33... just started... and you totally don't have to do a full 101, I just want to) and have a handful on my done and someday lists, but I had to stop and let you all know about it! I think it's an awesome thing. Everyone has stuff on their "bucket list" but rarely give it a second thought. For me, having a timeline to get these things done will help a lot. I don't have anything on my list that involves a whole lot of advanced planning, like visiting all 7 continents, mainly because we'll be moving fairly soon to who-knows-where and we just don't know what's going to happen in the next year. But I have some awesome things listed that I'm already excited to do and I'm going to officially start on January 1st.

I had already planned to complete the 365 Project and when I saw that it was one of the top 101 on the Day Zero Project, it inspired me to add it to my list, too. I also added to "read the Bible in 90 days" since I have already committed myself to that (you can see the button on my sidebar). There are also other things like "make a snowman" or "plant a window box herb garden" that I have always wanted to do and now have extra motivation to go ahead and do!

Anyone else doing or planning to do the Day Zero project?

**update: Nah... totally starting the Day Zero Project today. :) A few things I know I won't be doing until the start of the year (like the 365 Project I want to start on the 1st of the year) or until we move, but there are plenty of things I can start working towards and there is no time like the present!! I also plan on blogging about this every so often. Should be fun!**

Muffin Tin Monday - Christmas Trees

2010-12-06T03:00:00.000-05:00

I was so excited to find out that the next three weeks of Muffin Tin Monday, the theme is going to be the holidays! We've been majorly in the Christmas spirit around here (which I know will only grow when hubby comes back from school) so I knew this would be so much fun! Ashlyn has been absolutely obsessed with Christmas trees so I decided to focus on that this week.

Ashlyn had a Reese's peanut butter tree (which, as always, was taken out of the tin before I gave it to her to make sure she ate the rest of her meal first), a peanut butter and jelly Christmas tree, tree-shaped cheese, and some crackers. Nothing too creative, but when she started eating, all of a sudden she just cried out "TREES!" :) She ate everything except one or two bites of sandwich.

Sunday was also Walt Disney's birthday, and since we had our muffin tin meal on Sunday, I made sure to include a little hidden Mickey on the Christmas tree sandwich.

Now to start brainstorming on what to do next week... But for now, head on over to Muffin Tin Mom to see what others did this week!

Wrapping is DONE! Now Only About 1,492,048 Things Left To Do...

2010-12-04T03:00:00.002-05:00

My wrapping is all finished! Well, until hubby comes home with more stuff he's getting the little ones (gotta make sure our cat has something, too!) while in the states for work/school. I wanted to share a few things that I did.

I saw this reindeer bag on Family Fun and really wanted to make it. I was going to put one of Ashlyn's gifts in it, but Santa's bringing all the small things to put in her stocking. So I thought how cute would this be for Aaron's gift from the kids (again, including the cat :) )? Because I didn't really know what I was doing yet, I made it while Ashlyn was sleeping.

I didn't have pom poms so I just used a crayon to draw the nose. I love it! I'm definitely going to try out the tree and snowman next year, too!

I also made a few gift tags. Nothing crazy, just some stamps and embossing stuff I had lying around. I hadn't embossed anything in YEARS (since before I met Aaron) so it was fun breaking it all out again.

(I thought it was cute to hang the gift tag from one of the antlers.)

Aaron's been needing a hammer (we both swear we had one, but the elves took it to use in their toy workshop in the North Pole or something) so I got him one. Don't worry, it's okay that I say that on here, and this is why.

I didn't want to just throw it in a bag and I didn't want it to hang in the stocking because I'd be paranoid that it would fall and break something or someone. So I thought it would be fun and silly to just wrap it like this. So I made a silly little tag to go along with it, too.

I usually always just wrap things, slap on a tag, and be done with it. So it felt really good to get creative and have fun with my wrapping. I'm definitely going to be doing that more often, all year round.

How is your Christmas wrapping going?

Good Company, Hot Chocolate, and Christmas Shows!

2010-12-02T12:06:00.006-05:00

Ack! I can't believe that I'm a day late telling you guys about this! I'm sure many of you know, but ABC Family started their 25 Days of Christmas programming last night with How the Grinch Stole Christmas. But after mentioning it to a friend, and finding out that she had forgotten about it, I had to make sure to remind everyone!

Now, I don't know about you, but Christmas shows and movies are one of my favorite parts of the season. I love listening to Christmas music while decorating, baking cookies, wrapping presents, etc. and then sitting down to watch Christmas shows in the evening. It really helps put me in the Christmas mood. My absolute favorite of all time is the original Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. I have it on DVD, I have a singing Rudolph set out right now (which Ashlyn plays over... and over... and over again), and I just love reindeer in general (not that you'd know that from my header or anything). Now, my daughter goes to bed at 8pm every night so she misses the main show for the night, but they are still showing fun things before that. Like last night, before the Grinch, they had a Dr. Seuss marathon starting at 6. Then tonight, while they're showing The Santa Clause at 8, they have A Flintstone Christmas at 6. So I am really excited that Ashlyn still gets to see some cool Christmas shows! I fondly remember watching holly jolly shows with my parents as a kid, cuddled up on the couch with some hot chocolate, and am so excited to continue that tradition with Ashlyn this year! If you love Christmas shows like I do, I really recommend checking out the schedule for ABC Family's 25 Days of Christmas!

What is your favorite Christmas show or movie?

Frosty the Snowman

2010-12-01T11:17:00.004-05:00

Welcome to December! Ashlyn and I did the first Christmas craft of the season yesterday and I think it turned out so cute! I kept going back and forth on what I wanted to do. First we were going to make a Santa, then I decided on a snowman, then a different snowman, then a Christmas tree... and we ended up doing a snowman that was a combination of a few different crafts I've seen around blogland.

All it took was three paper plates (fairly different sizes), buttons (I knew I bought that pack of random buttons YEARS ago for a reason!), black and orange construction paper, red pipe cleaners, cotton balls, glue, and a hole punch!

I cut out the hat and the nose during Ashlyn's nap and got all the other supplies together. The black dots we used for the mouth were just made by taking a regular hole punch to the scraps of the black construction paper I used to make the hat. I put glue down where all the items were to go, and Ashlyn put them on. This would be cute just gluing the paper plates together in a snowman shape, but I remember like last year I saw a snowman put together like this (except probably with ribbon or something) and thought it looked cool. Sure, I helped a lot, but putting everything on the drops of glue (especially the small black dots) took some good hand-eye coordination. She did awesome! Ashlyn had a blast and it looks great hanging up on the small wall by our front entrance area! I think it's my favorite craft that we've done in awhile. Hmmm... it may be hard to top this one this Christmas!

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas!

2010-11-26T11:41:00.003-05:00

It's officially the beginning of the Christmas season (at least in our house)! I'm putting up the Christmas tree during Ashlyn's nap today so it will be all set up and ready to decorate when she wakes up. She's so excited about the Christmas decorations that have been up at the Navy Exchange for a couple of weeks now so I can't wait to get the house decorated! Our house isn't the only thing transforming with some holiday cheer... I'm going to be changing the background and stuff like that on the blog, so if you come visit and things look a little funny, it'll look better soon. ;) I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and have a great Christmas season! Time to plan some fun Christmas crafts and get ready to enjoy all the activities coming up!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2010-11-25T03:00:00.000-05:00

Photo source

My family and I wish you and yours a very happy, blessed Thanksgiving! Have fun, be safe, and chow down!

Heeeeere Turkey, Turkey, Turkey!

2010-11-23T14:04:00.005-05:00

So remember my list of baking I want to do in the next few weeks? Well, I completed one of them! I made Bake at 350's turkey cookies! I used her sugar cookie and royal icing recipes and they turned out perfectly! Here is the finished product.

Sorry it isn't that great of a picture. My piping/decorating skills aren't perfect by any means, but I still love my cute little turkeys! It was easier than I was anticipating and SO YUMMY! I've always been fine with sugar cookies, but this recipe is just better than the plain ol' recipe I used to use. We took some over to a friend's house the night I made them and they were impressed. Not only with how they looked, but how they tasted. My friend's husband said he isn't a sugar cookie fan, but he really enjoyed those! I already have plans to make snowflake sugar cookies for my Christmas cookie exchange coming up for people to nibble on. If you've never decorated your cookies with royal icing, I highly recommend trying it out. It is so much fun!

Happy 4th Anniversary, Aaron!

2010-11-22T13:05:00.005-05:00

Today marks 4 years that I have been married to my best friend. Aaron, I want to thank you.

Thank you for making me smile every day.

Thank you for always being able to make me laugh. Even if it's while feeding me to the ducks.

Thank you for being a part of my family and being there when I need you, whether that means sharing in my joy or helping me put together my broken heart.

Thank you for being the best Daddy to our two little girls.

Thank you for supporting me in anything I decide to do like trying out cookie decorating or a new belly dancing class. Thank you for our movie nights. Thank you for showing interest in whatever I may be obsessed with at the moment, even if that is Twilight! Thank you for understanding my undying love of Disney, and even feeding that obsession.

Thank you for always looking for special things to surprise me. You know me so well and always know if I'd enjoy something.

Thank you for loving me. Thank you for being my everything. I love you with all my heart.

Muffin Tin Monday - Thanksgiving

2010-11-22T11:50:00.005-05:00

It's Muffin Tin Monday!

This week's theme is Thanksgiving. Yay! I prefer to do our Muffin Tin Meal on Sundays, but I wanted to include my turkey cookies (which I had intended to make on Saturday) and didn't get them done until Sunday. AND we were going to a friend's house for dinner so a dinner tin wasn't possible. :) But that's okay... we had a lunch tin today!

Ashlyn had a cornucopia made of biscuit and filled with turkey and provolone cheese, apple slices, blueberry Craisins, and a turkey cookie! I wanted to make the cornucopia out of croissants, but the NEX was completely out (they were out of a lot of things this close to Thanksgiving). Can I just say that making the cornucopia with a biscuit is much harder than I was picturing it would have been with the croissants? Maybe I just didn't know what I was doing. ;)

Check out Muffin Tin Mom to see what others did this week!

Toilet Paper Roll Turkey

2010-11-20T03:00:00.003-05:00

I told a friend that I would watch her 4-year-old daughter for a couple of afternoons this week. So I decided to choose some crafts for the girls to do! I saw this toilet paper roll turkey over at Just For Fun and thought it would be perfect! Especially since I tend to save toilet paper and paper towel rolls every now and then specifically for crafts. Honestly, I wasn't feeling brave enough to have both my 2-year-old and my friend's 4-year-old paint the toilet paper rolls, so before the other little girl came over, I covered the rolls in brown construction paper.

Then I cut out the pieces for the head, wings, and face so everything would be ready (though I did forget all about the feet... I may add that to Ashlyn's).

Then both girls put the pieces all together (with a little help from me, putting on the drops of glue) and colored some paper (which was then folded accordion-style) for the tail. I thought it turned out super cute, even with the forgotten feet! :)

Keep Calm and BAKE ON!

2010-11-18T11:25:00.005-05:00

One thing you should know about me is that I love to bake! I love to try different cookie recipes and decorate my creations. I have a few new things I'm going to be trying out here in the next month or so.

First of all, I am hosting my 2nd Christmas Cookie Exchange! I tried a new cookie recipe last year (Red Velvet Shortbread cookies) and am going to make a new one again this year. I have two recipes I want to try and in the next few weeks (with a short break because my husband is going to be leaving for school and he ~~sneaks cookies as soon as I get them out of the oven~~ is my taste tester) to decide which one to take to the cookie exchange. Choice number one is Alfajores (Argentine Caramel Sandwich cookies).

photo from Better Homes and Gardens

Choice number two is Cinnamon-Sugar Roll cookies.

photo from Better Homes and Gardens

How delicious do those look? I can't wait to try them out!

Now, I've made many batches of cake pops and have even decorated my daughter's 2nd birthday cakes (two regular cakes and two mini cakes). I LOVE making cake pops and the cakes were generally very fun to make (though I honestly did get frustrated at times since it was my first time). I also really admire all the cookies Bridget makes over at Bake at 350. I have finally decided to try out decorating cookies with royal icing! Yeah, I'm sure I'll get frustrated at times since I really have no idea what I'm doing, but I'm excited to try it out. Maybe I'll find a new passion! Then again, if I fall in love with it, I'll be making cake pops and decorated sugar cookies for every get together I go to. Not that anyone has ever complained that I bring cake pops wherever I go. ;) Anyway, since Thanksgiving is a week away, this weekend I will be making these cute treats.

photo from Bake at 350.

Well, I'll be trying to make them, at least. :) Like I always say, even if they don't turn out cute, they'll still be yummy!

Stay tuned because I will definitely be posting how everything turns out. First up... the adorable turkey cookies!

Muffin Tin Monday - No Theme

2010-11-15T03:00:00.000-05:00

It's Muffin Tin Monday again! This week's theme is the Food Pyramid/Nutrition, and I had a slight idea of what I wanted to do, but I kinda went my own direction this week. I didn't really follow a theme at all. I just put Ashlyn's food in a cute, buggy tin.

Ashlyn had (starting from the top and going clockwise around the tin) broccoli, ranch dressing to dip, half of a turkey and provolone sandwich on sourdough, strawberries, the other half of the turkey and provolone sandwich.

Ashlyn didn't eat much, but she seemed to enjoy it. She has tried strawberries before and didn't like them, so we tried again. Hubby put a tiny sprinkling of sugar on them to help with any tartness, so I'm not sure if she liked them because of that or she has just developed a taste for them now. I'll break some more out for snack today or tomorrow and see how she likes them. :)

To see what others did this week, head on over to Muffin Tin Mom!

Get the Perfect Christmas Card or Gift from Shutterfly!

2010-11-13T16:52:00.004-05:00

I have to say... I LOVE Shutterfly! I have ordered prints, photo mousepads, and calendars from them and everything has been wonderful quality. They even ship to APO/FPO addresses, which just makes my life (as a military wife living overseas) that much easier. We are always excited to get our new calendars. 2011 will be our 3rd year ordering one and I can't wait to finish it up and order it! And each year they change up their available backgrounds so you can make sure you have a different, awesome calendar each year (at least this has been true for the soon-to-be 3 years I've been making them). Here are a couple of shots from our 2010 calendar.

It is a blast picking out the perfect background and layout for our pictures.

This year will be the first year I'll be ordering Christmas cards. There are a ton of options and I am still deciding what to choose! Here are 3 of my favorites... which do you like best?

Retro Kaleidoscope

Get Glowing

Oh Holy Night

Disclosure: I will be receiving 50 free Christmas cards from Shutterfly for writing this post. But the opinions are 100% mine.

Bloggers get 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly… sign up: http://bit.ly/sfly2010

Ashlyn's "Hand" -ywork! (Corny, yes, I know)

2010-11-09T16:26:00.004-05:00

I have seen this project all over the place but can't remember where I first saw it. But anyway, I wanted to do a cool fall project with Ashlyn and this seemed perfect.

I just traced Ashlyn's hand and part of her arm on brown construction paper and glued it onto white cardstock. Then I cut out some tissue paper squares. I put down a dot of glue and Ashlyn would put the tissue paper squares down. This was our first time doing a craft involving glue. She enjoyed it for a minute or two but quickly lost interest so I had to fill it in a little. I love how it turned out, though!

Muffin Tin Monday - Tea Party

2010-11-08T10:49:00.004-05:00

It's that time again!

This week there was no theme for MTM. I knew for awhile that the next no theme week I wanted to do a tea party. Well, I felt a little uninspired by the time I got around to doing it (yet again I wasn't able to do it on Sunday like we like to do, so she had lunch in a muffin tin today) so I did just a quick little meal.

Ashlyn had apple hearts, tea pot turkey and cheese sandwich, and Babybel cheese with a flower cut out. She really enjoyed it and even nibbled on the Babybel cheese! She hasn't really liked it before (maybe she ate some of it in her pumpkin tin, but not much), but I figured I might as well try it out since she's starting to really like cheese now. She used to not like any cheese at all. Weird kid, I know. :)

Head on over to Muffin Tin Mom to see what others came up with this week!

Muffin Tin Monday - Trees, Leaves, and Harvest

2010-11-01T14:37:00.003-04:00

This week's Muffin Tin Monday theme is Trees, Leaves, and Harvest! We usually do our Muffin Tin Meal on Sundays, but I didn't want to do a fall tin on Halloween. Even though the base did trick-or-treating on Saturday night, I wasn't ready to be done with Halloween yet! So today Ashlyn had a muffin tin snack.

top row: apple tree (broccoli with red M&M's and ranch for dipping... I got the idea from a MTM post awhile back by Muffin Tin Mom), apple slices, Reeses Pieces (fall colors)

bottom row: cucumber flowers, grape tomatoes, apple slices

Ashlyn tried everything. The broccoli and cucumbers were new for Ashlyn. The tomatoes were reintroduced because she didn't like them a long time ago. Well, she didn't like the tomatoes. Oh well. Worth a shot! She really enjoyed the cucumbers and you know what her favorite part of the tin was? The broccoli!!!! Yeah, I KNOW! I was shocked, too. Well, okay, the Reeses Pieces were probably her favorite, but she really did just LOVE the broccoli. :)

Head on over to Muffin Tin Mom to see what others did this week!

Muffin Tin Monday - Halloween

2010-10-25T08:34:00.005-04:00

It's MTM! Yay!

This week is the Halloween theme and I've been looking forward to it for a long time now! But, unfortunately, all three of us have been sick this weekend so I didn't do the tin I really wanted to do. :( Oh well, I was still able to throw a little something together. Ashlyn doesn't have much of an appetite when she's sick (like her Mama) so it was very simple.

She had a witch-shaped piece of toast, some chicken noodle soup with princess shapes (she's going to be Cinderella for Halloween), and a special treat... a pumpkin cake pop! Not the best cake pop (it had fallen off the stick and my food safe marker was dying on me) but she loved the little surprise. :)

A Look Back

2010-10-14T10:11:00.003-04:00

Over at Funny Days with Mommy and Maddie, Amanda is reminiscing about past Halloweens and what her cute little girl dressed up as. I thought I'd join in! I know I have pictures of Ashlyn in her Halloween costumes on my header, but I thought I'd talk about them more. :)

October 2008
Ashlyn was about a month old and we didn't want to get a "real" costume for her. One day I was walking through the NEX and saw the cutest ladybug pajamas that came with a little hat, complete with antennae attached! It was just perfect.

October 2009
Both Aaron and I fell in love with this costume the moment we saw it online. We could just imagine how adorable she would be as a little tulip fairy! We were right. :)

October 2010
I know Halloween hasn't come yet, but this is her Halloween costume for this year. She has already worn it to our latest trip to Walt Disney World (last month) and she just loves dressing up in it! She'll also have a chance to wear it to the library's Halloween party the night before Halloween. So I know she'll enjoy that. I know you can't see her face in this picture (and I like the one in the header better) but I just LOVE how she's picking up her dress to look at her shoes. SO. CUTE.

Go check out Maddie's costumes over at Funny Days with Mommy and Maddie and submit your own pictures!

Precious Paper Pumpkin Painting Project

2010-10-12T03:00:00.003-04:00

I had been trying to figure out for a little while now what Halloween/fall crafts to do with Ashlyn. I was about to throw out some poster board that I had used for a contest type thing for Ashlyn's birthday party last weekend when I realized that I could totally have her paint on the other side! I hadn't tried painting with her recently because it was just such a pain. I didn't have a set up that worked for us.

Late last week, I had an idea! We bought an inexpensive sheet awhile back to use as a drop cloth for messy crafts. That way we can just throw it in the wash and even if it doesn't get all the stains out (which we haven't had an issue with yet) it's only used for crafts so no big deal. Anyway, so I used pushpins to put the sheet on the wall. There was plenty to lay on the floor, too, in case any paint fell on the floor. After drawing a pumpkin in pencil on the poster board (on the back side that hadn't been used yet, of course), I taped the poster board to the sheet at Ashlyn's level. Then after pulling her hair back and putting a little apron on her, I let her paint!

After the masterpiece was dry, I outlined it all in a Sharpie and cut it out. It is now up above our TV as a wonderful decoration.

It would be really cute decorated as a jack-o-lantern, but I would like to keep it up through Thanksgiving, too, so I kept it as is. We both enjoyed the experience so much more than any past painting projects just because the set up worked very well for us. We will definitely be painting more often now!

Muffin Tin Monday - Pumpkins

2010-10-11T03:00:00.001-04:00

Things have been crazy around here for awhile, but I'm happy to be getting back into Muffin Tin Monday!

I've missed it and I think Ashlyn's gotten to the time for her where she will have even more fun with all the themes and just switching things up. I am very happy that I'm able to jump back in with Pumpkin week! :)

Ashlyn had some pumpkin-shaped Reeses peanut butter cups (which honestly I didn't really realize how big they were until I put them in so she ended up just having one), a pumpkin-shaped tuna sandwich, and some crackers and Babybel cheese. I didn't have mini pumpkin cutters or I would have probably cut some cheese in shapes, but since I don't I just tried carving the Babybel into jack-o-lanterns. It didn't come out perfectly, but it at least resembles one! ;)

One Down, MANY To Go!

2010-10-08T03:00:00.001-04:00

I have a pretty decent-sized list of projects I want to do. And that's just ones that I want to do right away... I have a ton of ideas bookmarked that I'm not even going to look through until my first list is done! So I finally sat down, physically wrote out the list of the most important ones (and/or ones I can do without having to order stuff and wait for it to arrive), and designated Thursdays during Ashlyn's nap time as my craft time. I had to set a specific day otherwise I would always put it off to do "important" things like "housework." :P

Anyway, yesterday I completed my first project since designating Crafty Thursdays! For awhile now I've wanted to turn an old Quaker Oats container into a cute, fun container to hold Ashlyn's hair things. Well, at Ashlyn's birthday party this past Saturday, a good friend of mine made Ashlyn the CUTEST bow holder! I put it up in Ashlyn's room and was re-motivated to make this container for all of her ponytail holders.

All I did was adhere some scrapbook paper around it (I used a different, coordinating pattern for the lid), hot glue some cute ribbon along the tip and bottom, and put some stickers on to spell out her name. I had all the supplies lying around already so this was free to make! It's not perfect, but I really like it. And I'm already excited to tackle my next project!

Getting Into the "Spirit" of Things

2010-10-07T10:21:00.006-04:00

Wow, I've been neglecting my blogs lately (this one and my Disney one)! Things have been a bit crazy lately, but it's settling down and we're getting back to a schedule. I'm going to be diving back into Muffin Tin Monday this coming Monday and am starting to decorate for Halloween today! With that comes searching the internet for cool projects to do with Ashlyn as well as inspiration for decorating.

While searching for great Halloween ideas I came upon this simple but fabulous idea at Redberry Barn.

Framing a napkin! How cool is that? It gave me one of those "why didn't I think of that?" moments. But it also gave me one of those "I must do that NOW!" moments. :) I'm going to go find a frame... see you all later!

Giveaway at kara's party ideas!

2010-08-23T14:44:00.002-04:00

Okay, so I LOVE the site kara's party ideas.

I am always inspired by the parties she features. Every so often she also has some awesome giveaways. Right now is one of those times!!! She is giving away... get this... a Silhouette Craft Cutter!!! I've been wanting a craft cutter for about forever now. Not only for scrapbooking, but I would love to make some vinyl wall decor as well as create some etched glass designs for my family as well as for a special gift. Go check out the giveaway!!!

Muffin Tin Monday - ABC's

2010-08-23T03:00:00.000-04:00

Themes are back for Muffin Tin Mondays! This week it is the ABC's. I did a simple snack tin for Ashlyn.

Apples, Bananas, and (dried) Cherries. She loves fruit and we have recently found out she likes dried fruit as well, like Craisins and dried pineapple. I really wanted to get fresh cherries, but the NEX didn't have any. It turns out she doesn't like dried cherries. Oh well, I'll try a few more times just in case.

To see what others did, check out Muffin Tin Mom!

Muffin Tin Monday - Swap Package

2010-08-02T07:00:00.004-04:00

Hello there! I was so excited to make a meal using the things I got in my Muffin Tin Swap package! I have used a lot of it since I received it, making rice animals for Ashlyn, using the sandwich cutter, etc. Today, though, I decided to make her a simple breakfast tin.

I could have arranged everything better and made it cuter, but my baby girl was not shy in letting me know she was hungry!!! Ashlyn had half a doughnut, banana, and apples. She loves bananas and apples and ate them before even touching the doughnut. I was able to use one of the Bento boxes I received, an adorable food pick, silicone cup, and a vegetable cutter to cut the apples. :) I'm extra motivated now to make cute lunches or snacks for Ashlyn more than just once a week!

To see what others did this week, head on over to Muffin Tin Mom!

Muffin Tin Swap!

2010-07-30T07:48:00.004-04:00

I got my package yesterday from my Muffin Tin Swap partner! And I just have to say... I got HOOKED UP!!! My swap partner was my good friend Jamie at Momma's Playground. I was so excited to learn she was my partner!

Anyway, my "wish list" was Bento stuff. I didn't have anything Bento but love seeing other Bento lunches and wanted to do Bento lunches, too! (I'm sure I said Bento enough here... Bento...) This is what Jamie sent me:

WOW! I just love everything! I would post pictures of each individual thing, but that would be a long post. :) So here are a few.

Look at these super cute princess cookie cutters! Jamie totally had Ashlyn in mind when she saw these. :)

I thought these liners were the cutest things ever! I almost don't want to use them. :)

I love these picks, too. So cute!

There were also two Bento boxes, more picks, dividers, cutters, and rice molds. I used one of the rice molds last night, actually! We decided to have rice as a last minute side dish with dinner and I made a rice bunny for Ashlyn. She's not eating much right now because she's teething so she didn't eat it, but she still thought it was cool! I can't wait to use everything! I'm going to be doing an extra special Bento MTM this week! :) Thank you so much, Jamie!

Fingerprint Pals

2010-07-27T13:27:00.007-04:00

Awhile back I found a really cute craft idea on the Family Fun website (I always get such great ideas from that site/magazine). I put it on our Countdown to Disney chain we made when we were 100 days away from our upcoming Disney trip. Anyway, the craft is called Fingerprint Pals. The site talks about putting it on t-shirts and I've seen it elsewhere to make custom stationary, too. I really do think that the onesie idea is such a cute idea if you're expecting a little one (*ahem* Jamie *ahem*). For us, though, I decided to create a little barnyard scene.

All three of us did the fingerprints so we had little animal families. I LOVE IT!!! Now I'm trying to decide what exactly to do with it. I don't want to just put it in our box of Ashlyn artwork after a time on the fridge. I'm not sure if I just want to stick it in a frame and slap it on the wall, either. Hopefully I'll be able to come up with something cool to do. :) If you have any suggestions, let me know!!

Muffin Tin Monday - Happy Birthday, Daddy!

2010-07-19T10:37:00.005-04:00

We usually do our Muffin Tin Meal on Sundays and I always set it to post for Monday morning, but this weekend has been very busy and we ended up actually doing MTM on Monday! We had a going away party for some friends on Saturday and all day Sunday we were getting everything together for Aaron's birthday party! Tomorrow is his actual birthday so today's MTM theme is Happy Birthday, Daddy! He's gone at work right now (he has a VERY busy week this week) but we're definitely thinking about him. ♥

Ashlyn had some leftovers from the party. We got some "party platters" from Subway so she had part of a sub, some macaroni salad, and part of a red velvet cupcake. She really enjoyed it all. Especially, the cupcake, of course. But she really liked the sub. I'm not surprised, though, because she did yesterday, too.

Kinda off topic, but I've been so proud of Ashlyn the past few days! Well, I'm always proud of her, but lately she's been saying "please" and "thank you" without having to be prompted!

To see what others have put together for MTM this week, go over and visit Muffin Tin Mom!

Celebrating Fries!

2010-07-14T08:22:00.004-04:00

Yesterday was National French Fry Day! We made sure we had some french fries with our dinner as well as a special dessert.

I made some pound cake, cut some into strips, and poured some melted red candy melts on top as ketchup. It didn't look quite as cute as what I pictured in my head, but it was still fun.

After dessert, Aaron said that he was expecting just pound cake with candy melts on top (which would have still been yummy) but that it tasted better than just that. He said it was better than the sum of its parts.

I have an idea for the leftover pound cake, too... you know, besides just cutting it up and eating it. :) I'll be sure to post about it after we try it out.

Did you do anything for National French Fry Day?

National French Fry Day

2010-07-13T12:26:00.002-04:00

Today is National French Fry Day!! (You can find out all sorts of random holidays at Giftypedia.) We are having fries with dinner as well as a special dessert so I will post pictures of that tomorrow, but I wanted to let you know in case you want to celebrate today, too!!

Muffin Tin Monday - Week in Review

2010-07-12T03:00:00.000-04:00

I am really excited to have finally gotten back into Muffin Tin Monday! I honestly started feeling that everything was just chaotic and I couldn't get a hold of anything. Especially housework. Our house never got filthy or anything, but I would always panic when I would find out someone was coming over. But a couple of websites I was looking at (FlyLady and Couponing To Disney) inspired me to start off small and I'm already feeling so much more in control of not just the housework, but life in general! It's been fabulous! Couponing to Disney has inspired me in other ways, too, but that's a different story. :) So anyway, it has helped me feel more excited about MTM again.

This week we made our own theme... The Week in Review!! Sure, you could call them leftovers, but what's the fun in that? ;)

So Ashlyn had macaroni and cheese, popcorn chicken with ranch for dipping, and pretzel sticks with chocolate for dipping. The chocolate isn't melted in the picture because I wanted to melt it right before she ate it. I also always put the dessert part in different cups so I can put it aside and make sure she eats the healthier stuff first. The macaroni and cheese was just random from earlier in the week and the popcorn chicken and pretzel sticks were from our Sword in the Stone movie night! I've recently made a site dedicated ~~to my Disney obsession~~ to Disney and you can see our The Sword in the Stone movie night there!

To see the wonderful tins others made this week, check out Muffin Tin Mom!

Wordless Wednesday

2010-07-07T16:04:00.003-04:00

This is what happens when you leave the living room close to naptime to rotate the laundry. ♥

For more Wordless Wednesday, please visit 5 Minutes For Mom.

Kohl's Cares Program

2010-07-02T16:49:00.009-04:00

Wow, it's been awhile since I've posted, huh? Well, I finally have something super cool to share with you! Kohl's has a new set of books through their Kohl's Cares Program! If you've been reading my blog for awhile you know how much I adore this program. (Thanks to Jamie from Momma's Playground for letting me know they got some new books!)

This time around Kohl's has 4 Winnie the Pooh books and 3 stuffed friends (Tigger, Eeyore, and Winnie himself). And as always, each thing is $5 each! This was one of my favorite Disney movies growing up. Eeyore has always been one of my favorite characters, too. :)

Rocky Road Brownies

2010-06-17T03:00:00.001-04:00

You know those recipe books that are always sitting up by the cash registers at the grocery store? Some are by Betty Crocker, some by Pillsbury, and so on and so forth. Well, I have a confession to make.... I am obsessed with those things. Every time I see one, if it looks even kinda like something I might like, I get it. Anyway, I found the recipe for the Rocky Road Brownies I made for our 100 Days Til Disney night in one of those recipe books by Hershey's.

What You Need:

1 1/4 cup mini marshmallows
1 cup Dark Chocolate Chips or Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
1/2 cup chopped nuts
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup Hershey's Cocoa
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt

What To Do:

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease 9-inch square baking pan.

2. Stir together marshmallows, chocolate chips, and nuts; set aside. Place butter in large microwave-safe bowl. Microwave at medium (50%) 1 to 1 1/2 minutes or until melted. Add sugar, eggs, and vanilla, beating with a spoon until well blended. Add flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt; blend well. Spread batter in prepared pan.

3. Bake 22 minutes. Sprinkle chocolate chip mixture over top. Continue baking 5 minutes or until marshmallows have softened and puffed slightly. Cool completely. With wet knife, cut into squares.

4. ENJOY!!! These are very good and just right when you need a chocolate fix. :) This is definitely a keeper recipe for our family.

Wordless Wednesday

2010-06-16T03:00:00.000-04:00

This is what Ashlyn did when we asked her to act like a lion during our Lion King movie night. :)

To see more Wordless Wednesday, check out 5 Minutes For Mom!

M-I-C.... K-E-Y...... M-O-U-S-E!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2010-06-14T19:50:00.000-04:00

For awhile now we have been thinking and thinking and obsessing (well, maybe that last part was just me) to try and think of 100 things to do for the 100 days leading up to going to Disney World. The plan was putting the ideas on links and making a fun countdown calendar! Well, Sunday night we finally finished up and put everything together.

Monday we pulled off the first link.... 100 DAYS LEFT!! We had a special dinner to celebrate. I decorated our kitchen island thingy like I do with our movie nights.

The digital photo frame in the middle was going through pictures of Ashlyn with a bunch of characters.

For dinner we had Princess Pink Lemonade...

... Pirates of the Caribbean Grape Cannonballs...

... Mickey pizza (one regular and two personal)...

... and dessert was Rocky Road Brownies.

I was originally going to make sugar cookies and cut them out as ghosts to be Hitchhiking Ghosts. I had been meaning to make these brownies for awhile so Aaron suggested just making them and cutting them out. Well, the topping is way to sticky for that, so they are just the rocky road the hitchhiking ghosts have to travel on. :) Whatever it is, it was super yummy! I'll share the recipe soon... it is incredibly simple, too.

The Lion King Movie Night

2010-06-13T03:00:00.002-04:00

Last night was our latest movie night! We watched The Lion King. Ashlyn enjoyed it but she actually didn't sit through the whole thing. I'm thinking maybe she just wasn't in the movie mood. She normally has a really good attention span and will usually watch a whole movie. It had been quite awhile since I've seen the movie, but my Daddy sent me a copy recently. I was incredibly excited!!! I had been looking around EVERYWHERE for a copy to borrow since it is in the Disney vault right now and I didn't feel like buying it on ebay. I knew it was a fabulous movie, but I forgot how fabulous.

So here is our table. I decided not to decorate the dining room table this time and just focus on our kitchen island thingy. We didn't have much, but I thought it was cute. Baby Simba didn't stay up there for very long. He is one of Ashlyn's favorite stuffed animals (it goes between him and her stuffed Princess Aurora doll) so she wanted to carry him around. :)

I knew exactly what dress Ashlyn was going to wear. I just thought it was perfect for the theme.

Before dinner we went on Safari for Simba!

Where's Simba?

We kept it simple. Aaron took Ashlyn into the kitchen and once I hid Simba in her doll bed and then once in her princess tent thing. After that she didn't want to give him to me to hide. She wanted to carry him around. :)

For dinner we had Wildebeast Steaks, Pride Rock Baked Potatoes, and Forest Broccoli Trees! (We had a very last minute guest and we just had enough broccoli for 2... Ashlyn had dinner earlier... so that's why it's so skimpy. haha)

For dessert was Rafiki's Banana Pudding! I alternated the Nila Wafers with animal crackers to keep with the theme.

Monday marks 100 days until our upcoming Disney trip! We are in the process of making a countdown calendar to hang up on Monday and we'll have a special dinner. I'll be sure to post about it afterward! Have a great weekend. ♥

A Whole Lot Of Changing Going On

2010-06-05T11:55:00.002-04:00

I just wanted to let you know that I am playing around with the look of my blog. I've been having fun trying to figure out how to make my own header and I am trying to figure out how to make a matching button and all that fun stuff. So please bear with me if you come visit and it looks a little funky! :) Thanks!

Muffin Tin Monday - Oceans and Ponds

2010-05-31T03:00:00.001-04:00

It's time for another Muffin Tin Monday!! It is a "No Theme" week, but I decided to do my own theme. This week we did Oceans and Ponds (sounded better than Bodies of Water or something that incorporated both shrimp and ponds that I had in mind). :D

Ashlyn had popcorn shrimp, carrot reeds around a ranch dressing pond, fish eggs (cut up grapes), and goldfish!

I took out the goldfish crackers before giving her the tin because I wanted her to actually eat her healthier stuff. She never really had grapes before and didn't particularly care for them. We found out recently that she likes shrimp, but she only took a couple of bites. She ate all those carrots, though, and was really light on the ranch. She just munched away like a little bunny! Then, of course, she gobbled up the fish crackers, but that wasn't really even a question. :)

To see what other creative people did with their tins this week, visit Muffin Tin Mom!!

Also, HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY!!!

Muffin Tin Monday - Seeds, Plants, and Flowers

2010-05-24T03:00:00.001-04:00

It's Muffin Tin Monday! This week is another part of the Springtime mini-series. This installment is all about Seeds, Plants, and Flowers!

I made a peanut butter and jelly flower with a mini marshmallow center (inspiration here), a pastrami, turkey, and cheese flower (inspiration here), Rice Krispies "seeds," extra flower cheese, and broccoli "trees." The broccoli had some cheese on it so maybe we can say the "trees" are bathed in "sunshine?" lol

Ashlyn didn't eat everything, but I was very proud that she tried everything!

To see what creative tins other people made, head on over to Muffin Tin Mom!

Pocahontas Movie Night

2010-05-23T19:38:00.003-04:00

Last night was our latest movie night! Aaron picked Pocahontas and I was so excited because I had never seen it before! We decided on this movie fairly last minute so I didn't get a chance to put too much together, but here is our table. I have our Thanksgiving decorations in our back closet since we don't have many to begin with so I pulled out the leaves. And those flowers are ones that Aaron surprised me with a few days before. ♥

For dinner we had a mini Thanksgiving dinner. We had turkey, cranberry sauce (for Aaron), mashed potatoes, corn, and even some pumpkin pie. Yum!

I found a cool Earth Day craft that I thought would be great to do with this movie. We made a wreath with Ashlyn's handprints, put some lyrics from "Colors of the Wind" in the middle, and all three of us (though mainly Ashlyn) decorated it with water, animal, and plant stickers.

The lyrics we used were "The rainstorm and the river are my brothers. The heron and the otter are my friends. And we are all connected to each other In a circle, in a hoop that never ends."

Our next movie night is planned to be The Lion King! I'm hoping to be able to make it a really cool night.

Muffin Tin Monday - Birds and Nests

2010-05-17T03:00:00.000-04:00

I hope you are all nice and rested and ready for a new week! We didn't really do a whole lot this weekend, but it ended up being wonderful. A nice, relaxing weekend where we just spent time having fun together as a family. :) All three of us had colds during the week and were starting to feel so much better this weekend, so it was really nice. And what better way to start the new week than with...

MUFFIN TIN MONDAY!!

This week starts a spring mini-series and this week is all about birds and nests.

Ashlyn had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich (that is supposed to be a bird... obviously I haven't bought cookie cutters yet), a rice krispie treat nest, and strawberries to act as little eggs (though I put the extra slices in their own cup). This is only the second time she's tried strawberries. She tried a couple of bites, but wasn't really digging them. She didn't hate them, though. I think she just needs to get used to the tartness of them so we'll be giving her bites every couple days or so.

Now, next week's theme is going to be a difficult one for me, but hopefully I'll think of something fun. We have finally decided that our next movie night is going to be Pocahontas, so I'll be in planning mode this week anyway.

To see what others came up with for this week's MTM theme, check out Muffin Tin Mom!

Monsters Inc. Movie Night

2010-05-14T16:06:00.005-04:00

Well, whoops. It's been almost a week since our Monsters Inc. movie night and I completely forgot to post about it! In my defense, Ashlyn and I have both had colds and I am just now beginning to feel human again (I think of Beauty and the Beast every time I say that).

So anyway, like I said, we watched Monsters Inc. Before dinner and the movie, the three of us did a little craft. I bought three poster boards and we each painted a door. For Ashlyn's door I taped some paper in some strategic places so when I took it off you could tell that it was a door. Here is her creation (all the purple is her and the yellow is from us making the door details stand out).

Here is Aaron's (you can see where Ashlyn felt his door needed a little purple).

Here is mine.

I really didn't have anything for decorations besides some green plates, green forks, and blue spoons, but the doors acted as decorations. And you know what? I had the. cutest. decoration. EVER! Our very own life-sized Boo! ;)

For dinner we had Boo's Mini Meatloaves (a fabulous recipe I found in Kraft Food & Family magazine - we've only tried the Fiesta ones but all three of us really like it) and Mike's Mashed Potatoes. Quite awhile ago Aaron asked me to make homemade mashed potatoes and once I did, we've never gone back to boxed. They are so good!

To drink we had Sully Punch. We got some of the clear Kool-Aid and put some blue food coloring in it (I don't know if they make blue Kool-Aid but they sure don't sell it here) and had purple ice cubes (grape Kool-Aid). Sorry you can't really tell the colors in the picture, and you also can't tell, but the ice cubes are Mickey Mouse shaped!

For dessert we had Eye Scream Sundaes. It was just so much fun. I still don't know which movie we'll be doing next week, though! Eek! We're going to decide this weekend, though, so I can start planning everything. I really wanted to do The Lion King because Ashlyn just ADORES her stuffed baby Simba, but I can't seem to find someone here who owns it and neither the library nor the little video store thing has it. My dad is sending us a copy, though, so we'll do that soon.

I also wanted to let you all know that tomorrow is NATIONAL CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE DAY!!!!! Heck yeah! I am totally making a batch tomorrow to celebrate. I was trying to decide whether to do something like oatmeal chocolate chip cookies (I have something I want to make with the oatmeal container so I need to use it!), Congo Bars, or what. But you know, this time I just want to make good old fashioned regular chocolate chip cookies. You can't go wrong there! Unless you're out of milk... but with a 19 month old in the house, we stay pretty well stocked with milk. I am also making rice krispie treats on Sunday because I'm using some for Muffin Tin Monday, but I'm sure we can find some poor, unsuspecting person to burden with our extra cookies and rice krispie treats. ;)

Muffin Tin Monday - No Theme (Mother's Day)

2010-05-10T03:00:00.000-04:00

Since Sunday was Mother's Day (happy belated Mother's Day to all the mommies out there!) there was no theme for MTM this week. We didn't really do a tin, but Mother's Day breakfast was MADE in a tin. Does that count?

The three of us had delicious chocolate chip puffins for breakfast!

To see what others made this week, please head over to Muffin Tin Mom!

A Wonderful Cinco de Mayo Meal

2010-05-06T11:53:00.003-04:00

Man, I wish I took pictures but alas, I did not. But I still wanted to share with you a quick, DELICIOUS meal that we had last night in honor of Cinco de Mayo. Which also gives me an excuse to give you the links to the great recipes.

Our dinner:
Beef Enchiladas
Spanish rice
Churros

Nothing crazy complicated, just simply good food.

Anyway, the beef enchilada recipe I got from The Pioneer Woman. She has amazing recipes, as many of you know. This is one that is in our regular rotation. Aaron requests it often (as well as her meatballs, but that's another post).

The spanish rice was, honestly, a box of Rice-A-Roni Spanish Rice. The only difference is that we chop up a beautiful, fresh tomato to put in instead of canned. I have nothing against canned tomatoes, but in this we can taste the tinny can flavor more than in other dishes.

My friend over at Momma's Playground shared the churro recipe that she found. I was a little nervous while making it, just because I had never made churros before. I always have some level of nervousness when making a new recipe. But holy cinnamon-y goodness, Batman, they were GOOD!!!! All three of us just loved them and I know I'll be making those again soon.

Ashlyn will be going down for her nap in about 30 minutes and then I am going to heat up some leftover enchiladas for lunch. Mmmm... now after writing this I may not be able to wait until she takes a nap! But if I make it now, she'll end up eating half of it. Decisions, decisions....

Kohl's Cares For Kids

2010-05-05T12:21:00.003-04:00

Awhile back I posted about Kohl's and their program, Kohl's Cares For Kids. This is where they sell children's books, as well as coordinating stuffed animals, for $5 each. 100% of their net profit from the sale of these items goes towards children's health and education initiatives nationwide. A great deal AND a great cause? Count me in. They change up the merch from time to time, too! Too cool.

Image from Kohl's website.

Right now, they have two Toy Story books as well as three different (very cute) stuffed toys. You can bet I'm getting both books for Ashlyn. I'm also going to get at least 1 stuffed toy... I'm just not sure which yet. She hasn't seen the movies so I can't say which is her favorite. Maybe I should just get all 3 and let her choose. ;)

Ashlyn In Wonderland

2010-04-26T08:34:00.006-04:00

We had our latest movie night this past Saturday. We watched Alice in Wonderland and had SO much fun!! Here was our table, all set up.

I had made signs for our walls.

Ashlyn helped out by coloring a beautiful picture of Alice and the Cheshire Cat.

I used Ashlyn's tea set to create a mad tea party...

... had mini pinwheels in the vase...

... and a mouse found his way into the tea pot!

For dinner we had chicken caesar salad bites (sounded like good tea party food to me!) and some garlic & olive oil vermicelli.

For dessert we had Caramel Apple Oatmeal Cookies...

...and our drinks had to have tags on them. :)

I am loving these movie nights more and more each time we have one. I mean, seriously. I start asking Aaron what movie he wants to do next before we've even done the upcoming one!! I just have so much fun planning them. Especially when most of our plans for our Walt Disney World trip are already made. 5 months without Disney planning? I don't think so! I'm going to REALLY start planning Ashlyn's birthday party here shortly, too. We know it'll be a Disney princess theme and her party will probably be the first Saturday in October. Plenty of time to plan, but it's time to start looking out for sales and deals for party stuff!

In two weeks we'll be watching Monster's Inc! I have dinner and a craft planned, but am not sure about dessert and need to work on decorations! I don't really have Monster's Inc. stuff lying around. If you have any ideas, please comment! I would love to hear them. :)

Hollywood Cookies

2010-04-19T15:30:00.004-04:00

So awhile ago I got an email that said the PTO was throwing a Hollywood Extravaganza party for the kids that go to the elementary school here. They were asking for volunteers to help out as well as people to donate baked goods. I perked up at that part! Of course I would bake something to take to the elementary school! I'm always looking for a reason to bake.

Now, I couldn't just make any old cookies. Oh no! I had to do something cute. So I bought a couple of those aluminum cookie sheets (that way they could toss them afterward without having to worry about returning my pans to me). These things were FLIMSY and even with two stacked on top of each other I had to be really careful so it wouldn't just tip over. I also borrowed some cookie cutters from a good friend of mine because, believe it or not, I have very few cookie cutters! EEK!!!! I only have a few mini ones and Halloween ones. How the heck that happened, I don't know. But I am starting to collect more. My first major purchase will be a kit with the basic stuff like numbers, letters, circles, holiday themed, etc.

Anyway, I took one of these tins and some blue and green construction paper. I trimmed everything to make it look like sky and hills. Then I cut out letters to spell out "Hollywood" and put the letters among the hills. That's right.... a template for the Hollywood Hills.

I then made sugar cookies and cut them out to spell "Hollywood" and made a bunch of stars. I frosted the letters with white frosting and tinted the rest yellow for the stars. I only frosted some of the stars because, well, I was lazy. But it ended up looking really good with every other star yellow. This just didn't look like enough cookies to take, and I happened to have an extra box of cake mix on my hands, so I made a quick batch of Cake Mix Cookies (I've seen this recipe on many websites, but this is the very first place I read about it). It was the first time I made these and they were pretty good! I had strawberry cake mix sitting around but I think it would be even better with chocolate. Yum!!! Anyway, here is what it looked like once everything was done.

I was pretty proud of my creation! I wish I could have stuck around to see how the kids liked them!!

Wordless Wednesday

2010-04-14T00:00:00.001-04:00

Our first date (without Ashlyn!) in almost a year. Celebrating 5 wonderful years since we started dating (our 4th wedding anniversary is this November).

For more Wordless Wednesday posts, visit 5 Minutes For Mom!

I'M BACK! And Starting With Muffin Tin Monday!

2010-04-13T13:46:00.005-04:00

I'm really glad that I took a short break from this blog. I realized that I was trying to be someone I wasn't, afraid to say something or write about something that someone else may not be interested in. Well, that made me uninterested in this blog. I want to be myself. I want to be able to write a post or two all about Disney if I want to! And it may be the caffeine talking, but if I want to be silly, well I'm going to be silly! :D The only person who was holding me back was me. I'm going to try and not let that happen again.

I'm going to go ahead and start back up with a post about Muffin Tin Monday. I may be a day late posting about it, but better late than never! This week was a Rainbow Theme. How fun!

I made Ashlyn a quick little breakfast tin yesterday morning with Trix, yogurt, and fruit. She ate all the cereal (plus seconds) and the yogurt but didn't want the fruit. Oh well, I tried. She usually will eat the fruit but I guess she just wasn't feeling it yesterday.

To see the other great tins that people made, visit Muffin Tin Mom!

Stepping Back A Little

2010-03-18T08:55:00.002-04:00

I know it's been awhile since I've posted... sorry about that! Our trip to Disney was incredible! It was wonderful seeing my dad and having him meet Baby Girl. Indescribable, really. That trip was way too long in the making. It's hard to explain, but it made my life even more complete than it already is. It makes me feel better that my dad has finally met her. :)

I've been thinking about this blog for awhile now. For some reason I have not had much inspiration or desire for posting. I don't want to put up posts that I am not 100% into and that don't represent who I am. So I am going to hang up Book Fan Friday for now and probably not post as often as I used to. I am still going to post, but only when I am truly excited and inspired about something. Actually, we have another movie night coming up this weekend that I am excited about, so I know I'm going to want to share it with you! But I am wanting to concentrate on new activities, crafts, and recipes. Baby Girl is also able to do more and more different crafts and activities every day so that is exciting. With all this, I hope that soon I will have plenty of stuff to post that I am truly passionate about. Everyone needs a break every now and then to recharge, right? :) I appreciate your understanding and hope you'll be excited about the new stuff to come!!! ♥

Book Fan Friday

2010-03-12T00:00:00.000-05:00

Let's see... it's Friday... that means today we are checking out of our hotel at Walt Disney World and driving up to Jacksonville to get ready for our flight back home tomorrow. Next week I will be sure to post pictures and stories from our trip! But right now, it's time for...

Since we were at Disney this week, I decided to post about The Jungle Book 2.

Baby Girl actually picked out this book. We went to the library to pick a few books a couple of weeks ago. Hubby came, too, and we decided to pick out 3 books. I found one right away, and as Hubby was looking for one, Baby Girl found this book, picked it up, went to one of the floor pillows in the kid area, and sat down to flip through it. We couldn't leave without that book!! It was so sweet. It is broken up into three sections which are the perfect length for Baby Girl so she doesn't lose interest. The pictures are beautiful, too.

If you have found a great book, children's or otherwise, I would love to see what it is and what you thought about it! I will leave the link-up open all week so feel free to join in at any time.

Book Fan Friday

2010-03-05T00:00:00.001-05:00

It's already Friday!!! I'm sorry for the lack of posts this week. Our travel dates got kinda messed up and we've been scrambling to figure something out. I'll fill you in on everything when we get back. I'm not sure when we're going, but soon we'll be at Disney World! My Daddy will be flying in, too, and I'll be seeing him for the first time in about 2 years. AND he'll be meeting Baby Girl for the first time! Holy cow I'm excited! So I won't be here next Friday, but I am going to have a BFF ready to post while I'm gone. This week, though, is Peanut Butter and Jellyfishes by Brian P. Cleary.

I really enjoyed this book. It is very colorful and fun, which Baby Girl loved. It goes through the alphabet listing some very silly things like "rafting red raspberry rivers." I guess that's why it's called "A Very Silly Alphabet Book." :D

If you have found a great book, children's or otherwise, I would love to see what it is and what you thought about it! I will leave the link-up open all week so feel free to join in at any time.

Book Fan Friday

2010-02-26T07:30:00.004-05:00

I've been horrible at posting BFF when I want to! I really said to myself last night "Self, you need to get that BFF post set to post tomorrow morning!" Well, obviously that didn't happen. Sorry!! But it is here now!! Yay!!! Hubby, Baby Girl, and I all went to the library last week to pick up a few books. One of them was Beach Bunny by Jennifer Selby.

It was pretty cute, but not my favorite. It felt a little slower paced than most books I've been reading Baby Girl. It's about a little bunny and his mother going to the beach and the little bunny liked to be prepared for everything. It was cute how whenever he got scared or startled by something he was all of a sudden tired of that activity and wanted to move on to the next. The end is very sweet, too.

If you have found a great book, children's or otherwise, I would love to see what it is and what you thought about it! I will leave the link-up open all week so feel free to join in at any time.

A Twist on the Basic Pigtail

2010-02-24T13:45:00.006-05:00

I tried something kinda new with Baby Girl's hair today. It's just a little twist on the pigtails I usually do. I got the idea from Babes In Hairland. LOVE that site. :) You can get great directions on that site, but basically you make a top ponytail and have it a little to the left. Then take the rest of the hair and make pigtails, putting the hair from the top ponytail into the left pigtail.

Now, I did not get it done perfectly whatsoever. Baby Girl was squirmy and wanted to play with everything on the bathroom counter. Her part isn't completely straight or anything, but it still turned out pretty cute. I'll definitely be trying it again. Here she is from the front:

The back:

The top:

I also decided to put in some bows, but she never leaves those in for very long:

I figured I'd be better off taking baby steps. I didn't mean to pull the pigtails out all the way, but oh well. Next time I'll try pulling them only part way like on the website. Next I'm going to find something a little more complicated to try. It may wait until after I get back from Disney because I have a lot to do between now and then. We leave in less than 2 weeks!!!! YAY!!!!!

My Little Lovebug

2010-02-23T00:00:00.000-05:00

I know I haven't posted about playing with Baby Girl's hair in awhile but, well.... I lost her comb. OH NO! One night she was playing with it (she likes to comb her own hair - SO cute), I didn't see it after that, and Hubby said he thought he put it somewhere but couldn't remember. After searching and searching it was nowhere to be found!!! We think our cat, Ali, stole it and hid it somewhere. She's a vain little fuzzball and likes to keep herself looking nice. ;) Anyway, do you have any idea how hard it is to make decent looking pigtails with a soft-bristled brush? There were a few sad looking pigtails with crooked parts but mostly I just brushed her hair to the side and put a clip in it to keep it out of her face.

We went to the NEX on Saturday and while we were there we finally got her a new comb which, of course, means that I will probably come across the old comb this week. So of course I had to put her hair into pigtails on Sunday. Nothing new, but I was excited. Oh, but I do have little bow ponytail holders for her hair now that are too cute!

This face is new for Baby Girl. Recently whenever I've asked her to smile she scrunches up her face and looks like this:

She's just so silly. I love her to bits. But I was able to click REALLY quickly and actually get a real smile.

Aahhhh, she just melts my heart. So after I put her hair up I realized how long her hair has gotten since the last time I put her hair up properly. Look at it curl under! So I think it's time to bump her hairstyles up a notch. I'm going to try out a few new things this week and, good or bad, I'll share them with you. Let's hope I don't embarrass Baby Girl too much. :)

Muffin Tin Monday - Orange

2010-02-22T00:00:00.002-05:00

It's another MTM! Yay! This week is all about the color ORANGE, but before I get to that, I thought I'd talk about last week's MTM. I didn't get around to posting it, but we did do a RED muffin tin.

She had quite the variety for the RED tin. There were tomatoes (just to try), strawberries (she'd never had these before, either), Jello cheesecake stuff, and red berries yogurt (although it looks more purple). She of course loved the Jello stuff and the yogurt but didn't dig the tomatoes or strawberries. She's just not used to it so I'm going to have to try those again another day.

For ORANGE this week, we did a little snack tin because we do our tins on Sundays and we were about to head out for brunch but still wanted to get a little bit on her tummy since we weren't leaving right that minute.

She had goldfish crackers, oranges (never had these before... didn't eat them), and the orange gummies from a pack of Finding Nemo fruit snacks (I know they look red in the picture, but I promise they're orange :P).

To see what others have come up with for MTM this week, head on over to Muffin Tin Mom!

A Sparkly New Book Fan Friday

2010-02-19T06:52:00.004-05:00

I had a hard time deciding which book to do this week. Hubby suggested this book since it is definitely one of Baby Girl's favorites. She only has board books around that she can reach so she doesn't tear the pages. She's usually very gentle with books, but every now and then she gets a little rip happy. She brings this book to me multiple times a day to read. My Pretty Pink Purse by Tim Bugbird.

The whole book, inside and out, is sparkly and glittery. Using the flash helped show that.

This isn't a storybook, but it's cute and fun. The "purse" is full of everything pink, of course. Baby Girl just loves it. As I write this she saw the book on my lap and started asking me to read it. I definitely recommend this as just a little something fun if you have a girly girl in the house.

If you have found a great book, children's or otherwise, I would love to see what it is and what you thought about it! I will leave the link-up open all week so feel free to join in at any time.

Movie Time!

2010-02-16T08:20:00.004-05:00

After reading a bunch of ideas on a Disney discussion board I frequent, hubby and I have decided it would be cool to have a movie theme night once in awhile... every 2 weeks or so. We kept our first theme "night" pretty simple. I already have plans to make them much more elaborate as Baby Girl gets older. We were planning on watching 101 Dalmatians since we just purchased it. And instead of a movie night, we had a movie morning on Saturday. We had chocolate chip pancakes...

...and dalmatian milk.

To make the dalmatian milk I used a pastry brush and "painted" some chocolate syrup on the inside of a clear glass (all we had at the moment were our wine glasses) and slowly pour milk into it. We ended up not watching our movie because while we were cleaning up from breakfast the power went out. Our netbook was fully charged, though, and we have a few movies on the hard drive so we went ahead and watched Up instead.

Sunday we finally got to sit and watch 101 Dalmatians. After the movie I sat down with Baby Girl to do a little activity. I had printed out a picture of one of the dalmatians, got out some circle stickers I had lying around, and I let her "Put the Spots on the Dalmatian!" It was her first time doing anything with stickers and she had SO much fun!

In a couple of weeks we are going to do a night for either The Little Mermaid or Finding Nemo. How about a poll? Comment and let me know which movie you think we should do (and you know I'll definitely be posting about it after we do it) and I'll pick whichever one has the most votes!

Happy Valentine's Day

2010-02-14T00:00:00.002-05:00

♥♥ I hope you all have a wonderful Valentine's Day. I wanted to share with you the gift Baby Girl made for her Daddy.

I traced her hands on some red paper, cut them out, and put them in the shape of a heart (I got the idea from a friend, but she's doing a special surprise so I won't reveal who... I don't want to take the chance in ruining the surprise! But you know who you are... thank you!). I taped them onto a piece of paper, then taped a bigger white heart on top of that. That way when Baby Girl painted on top of it, I could take the white heart off and her handprint heart would still be there.

It turned out SO cute and I have to say, she had a blast painting! I am going to be picking up more paint when we go to the states next month (they don't sell washable type paint here) and doing more projects. It just melted my heart to see her laughing and smiling so much while making her Daddy a special gift.

We are planning on going to the beach this afternoon. Baby Girl has been quite a few times, but has always played in the water. She drooled a lot as a tiny baby so if she played in the sand it would just be one big mess. blech We haven't had a chance to go much at all lately so we bought her some beach toys and are going to let her go for it! And, of course, the cat will be getting a can of tuna. :) ♥♥

Book Fan Friday

2010-02-12T06:55:00.006-05:00

Goooooooood morning! My wonderful mother-in-law has been sending us a few boxes lately filled with some pretty cool stuff. She's been making and collecting little Disney things for our upcoming trip. She also included some cute things to go with our new sewing machine. I am definitely going to be picking up some fabric when I'm in the states next month to try sewing something for the first time!

Anyway, in one of the boxes she got Baby Girl a really cute book that we all love. It is A Cuddle For Little Duck by Claire Freedman and Caroline Pedler.

It's just a cute little tale of a duckling cuddling with his mommy and playing around in the meadow with his friends. This was Baby Girl's bedtime story the night we got it! I definitely recommend this.... SO cute.

If you have found a great book, children's or otherwise, I would love to see what it is and what you thought about it! I will leave the link-up open all week so feel free to join in at any time.

Pretty Pretty Princess

2010-02-09T08:06:00.005-05:00

I just had to share this picture of Baby Girl. She's is such a girly girl already. Among other things, she has developed a love of "lipstick." She sees me put on my Chapstick each morning and after two or three times she decided she wanted some. So whenever she would see me pull it out she would run up to me (still crazy that she walks and everything now) and ask for some. One day she found Hubby's chapstick that he left in his hat after he came home from work one day. Thankfully the cap stays on for now, but she was walking around putting it on. She puckers up her lips and everything.

Man, we're going to be in trouble when this one gets older! She's too pretty! But, I am a little biased, too. :)

Book Fan Friday... With A Little Extra Story Thrown In

2010-02-05T00:00:00.000-05:00

I'm not sure if I've mentioned it or not, but we're planning a trip in March to go to Disney World.... ooohhhh, actually I just looked back a few posts and I mentioned our trip in October. Well, first of all, for a few reasons that changed from late October to late September. AND I have some super exciting news. We're going this March as well! Hold on, don't get too excited yet. That's not the best part. I'm going to be meeting MY DAD there!!!! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!! Okay, a bit of background might be needed here. The last time I went to go see my dad was shortly after my mom passed away (she was only 56 - cancer sucks) and I was 7 months pregnant. That means I haven't seen him in 1 1/2 years AND he's never met his one and only granddaughter. Which means he finally gets to meet her!!!! I am beyond excited, let me tell you. And I feel very happy that I get to take him to WDW because, well, I get my Disney obsession from him and he's always lived in Cali so he's gone to Disneyland in Anaheim hundreds of times but he's never had a chance to go to WDW. So I think that it will be incredible for him to see it for the first time and to see it through Baby Girl's eyes. Please excuse me if I'm rambling. I just wanted to share my joy with you.

Actually, I decided to share this story today (as opposed to, say, this weekend) because it actually kinda has something to do with Book Fan Friday this week. Well, we already know that Baby Girl's 2nd birthday is going to have a Disney princess theme (Hubby's the one that suggested it! ♥) and she has had her picture taken with all but 4 of the princesses. I thought it would be cool to do something with those pictures to use as decoration or a game for her party (I have some ideas I'm playing with, but that's a different post). Anyway, I figured she still needs her picture taken with Princess Tiana (LOVE The Princess and the Frog), Pocahontas, Mulan, and... Princess Jasmine. Which brings me to....

Since I was thinking about this today I decided to showcase one of the books in the Enchanted Moments series, Aladdin.

I love this story. Fabulous movie and music, too, I might add.

If you have found a great book, children's or otherwise, I would love to see what it is and what you thought about it! I will leave the link-up open all week so feel free to join in at any time.

Mickey Oreos Revisited

2010-02-03T16:45:00.001-05:00

Remember these tasty little treats? Remember how I said I had BIG plans for them? Well, I tried to take that pretty little picture I had in my head and make it reality. Did it work? Ehhh, let's just say please keep in mind this was my very first time working with fondant, not to mention I was super excited and was probably in a hurry to see the final product!

Does this give you an idea of what I did? No? Okay, how about this...

Still no? Okay then.

You know you have the Mickey Mouse Club March stuck in your head again. And you're welcome. :)

I know it is far from perfect, but I'm proud of it. I know what I did wrong and how to fix it next time I work with fondant. I have a new project in mind with the rest of the fondant I ordered. Nope, nothing to do with Disney. It'll be a Valentine's Day treat. We'll see how it turns out! Practice makes perfect, right?

New Layout

2010-02-03T11:22:00.005-05:00

As you can see, I got a new layout!! YAY! I'm super excited. I worked with Jessica over at So Stylilized Blog Designs and this is what she created for me. What do you think? I'm still playing around with where things are and all that, so bear with me, but I'm really enjoying it. I even got a favicon and a site button! Cool!

Muffin Tin Monday - Dr. Seuss

2010-02-01T00:00:00.001-05:00

Hi there! Holy goodness, is it February already? Seriously, how did that happen? I have so much to plan and look forward to that I just know this month is going to fly by! (And the fact that there is only 28 days this month doesn't hurt.) This week's MTM theme is Dr. Seuss. ♥ How fun! I used a few different books for inspiration.

In the top row is flower-shaped cheese for Daisy-Head Mayzie, green scrambled eggs for Green Eggs and Ham, and more flower-shaped cheese. In the bottom row is 1 fish, 2 fish, and then all the rest of the fish from 1 Fish, 2 Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish (my personal fave).

I'm really excited to see what cool things people came up with for the Dr. Seuss theme! Head on over to Muffin Tin Mom to check it out with me!

Three A's and a C

Movie Night - Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

Christmas Decorations

Photo Friday

More Thanksgiving Decorations

My Memories Suite Winner!

Photo Friday

My Memories Suite Review and Giveaway!

Happy November!

Movie Night - Nightmare Before Christmas

*tap tap tap* Is This Thing On?

A Quick Tip

Muffin Tin Monday

An Update and Father's Day Decorations

Pinkalicious Book Night

Wordless Wednesday - Thinking Disney Thoughts

Muffin Tin Monday - Springy!

Time4Learning

Decorating with Frames and Free Printables

Movie Night - Sleeping Beauty

Muffin Tin Meal - Mmmmmm

(Not-So) Wordless Wednesday

A New Look

Muffin Tin Monday - Hippity, Hoppity, Easter's On Its Way! (Or, Was Yesterday... Either Way)

Happy Easter!

Changes on the Horizon and A New Obsession

(Mostly) Wordless Wednesday

(Mostly) Wordless Wednesday

Tangled Movie Night

Wordless Wednesday - Baking with Ashlyn!

Muffin Tin Monday - Big and Little, Short and Tall

Wordless Wednesday - Lights on Harbor Hill

Muffin Tin Monday - Christmas Again!

Wordless Wednesday - Reading In Bed

Looking Ahead to New Years

Muffin Tin Monday - Christmas Trees

Wrapping is DONE! Now Only About 1,492,048 Things Left To Do...

Good Company, Hot Chocolate, and Christmas Shows!

Frosty the Snowman

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Heeeeere Turkey, Turkey, Turkey!

Happy 4th Anniversary, Aaron!

Muffin Tin Monday - Thanksgiving

Toilet Paper Roll Turkey

Keep Calm and BAKE ON!

Muffin Tin Monday - No Theme

Get the Perfect Christmas Card or Gift from Shutterfly!

Ashlyn's "Hand" -ywork! (Corny, yes, I know)

Muffin Tin Monday - Tea Party

Muffin Tin Monday - Trees, Leaves, and Harvest

Muffin Tin Monday - Halloween

A Look Back

Precious Paper Pumpkin Painting Project

Muffin Tin Monday - Pumpkins

One Down, MANY To Go!

Getting Into the "Spirit" of Things

Giveaway at kara's party ideas!

Muffin Tin Monday - ABC's

Muffin Tin Monday - Swap Package

Muffin Tin Swap!

Fingerprint Pals

Muffin Tin Monday - Happy Birthday, Daddy!

Celebrating Fries!

National French Fry Day

Muffin Tin Monday - Week in Review

Wordless Wednesday

Kohl's Cares Program

Rocky Road Brownies

Wordless Wednesday

M-I-C.... K-E-Y...... M-O-U-S-E!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Lion King Movie Night

A Whole Lot Of Changing Going On

Muffin Tin Monday - Oceans and Ponds

Muffin Tin Monday - Seeds, Plants, and Flowers

Pocahontas Movie Night

Muffin Tin Monday - Birds and Nests

Monsters Inc. Movie Night

Muffin Tin Monday - No Theme (Mother's Day)

A Wonderful Cinco de Mayo Meal

tap tap tap Is This Thing On?