Blue Skies Ahead

Conversation Hearts Pancakes!

2012-01-31T20:00:00.000-08:00

Now, I've got to warn you on this one...I think the idea is great, but the execution could be a little better :) I decided to share it anyways, hopefully someone more artistic than me could take it to the next level! ;)

Ever since I discovered putting your pancake batter in a condiment bottle to make shapes, I have been looking forward to a fun Valentines Breakfast! I decided to whip up some colored hearts and make our very own Conversation Heart Pancakes.

All I did for these was to make one batch of pancakes. I split the batter into 5 seperate bowls and added 2 drops of food coloring in each (a little bit goes a long way!) Then once it was mixed up I poured them in the condiment bottles and made up a bunch of different colored hearts.

Once they were completely cooled, I took some red frosting and wrote some little sayings on each pancake. This is where they get a little sketchy...but you get the idea!

All in all...I don't think my kids will notice that my frosting work isn't perfect or that the hearts aren't perfectly symmetrical (at least I hope they won't!!:) I think they are going to flip when they see these, hopefully its a great way to kick off our Valentines Day.

Chocolate Playdough Valentines

2012-01-31T10:54:00.001-08:00

Here is one more cute Valentine idea we came up with. I love this idea because its NOT a treat, and you can make large quantities for pretty cheap with stuff you probably already have in your pantry.

Remember at Christmas time we made Holiday Scented Playdough as gifts?

Well what would be more perfect at Valentines than Chocolate Playdough?!

One of my MOST favorite blogs to find fun craft ideas for kids, The Imagination Tree, has a great Chocolate Playdough recipe. It takes less than 5 minutes and one batch made enough for 8 valentines. You can check out her link for the playdough recipe, it is super easy and the kids love to help make it.

Once the playdough had cooled I simply rolled baseball sized portions in a ball and put them in some cute cupcake liners I had on hand.

I whipped up this printable on Picnik, feel free to print it off if you want it! I like that is makes sure the kids know its NOT to eat...because this stuff smells seriously good! :)

And there you have another fun, unique idea for your kids Valentines!!

Thank you so much for coming by Blue Skies Ahead today! I have had a few people that are interested in doing blog swaps...if you would like to as well please email me! If I get enough interest I would love to start doing it weekly. It is a great way to find new blogs with more great ideas :)

Have a wonderful day!

It's a good life

2012-01-28T21:39:00.001-08:00

All week I have been thinking about a conversation I had with some family one day when we were leaving Disneyland just a few weeks ago. We had spent all day trying to make precious memories with our kids. It was a wonderful day, but by the end the kids were hungry, tired and grumpy! My little Skylar was especially upset when I told her no more soda for the day and said something to the effect of "this is such a hard day!!"

Seriously?

I was discussing this with my aunt and uncle and they said something that really struck a chord with me. They said, "It's 99% yes all day long, and then 1% no...and thats all they remember!" I remember thinking this was SO true! As we continued to discuss/vent/laugh about how dramatic kids can be I had a very interesting thought.

Isn't it possible (even probable!) that our Heavenly Father may feel the same way in regards to His children?

So often in our lives we focus on the ONE thing in our life that is not going the way we would like.
I will be happy when I can lose the rest of this weight.

I will be happy when we can get into a home.

I will be happy when my kids are all in school.

You get the idea :)

Is it possible, that just like my children, I am guilty of forgetting the 99% "Yes", and dwelling on the 1% "No"? And in reality, often times Heavenly Father's "No's" are really "Not Now's" or "Not this way".

I haven't been able to stop thinking about it. This is a good life. It can be a hard life, but its a life full of love, growth, challenges and mercy. Heavenly Father has given me so much, things that may not seem like much to others, but that add to my 99% "Yes".

I am vowing to live my life with gratitude and realization of that 99%. It doesn't mean the challenges and trials aren't real, and that they are not hard. It simply means trusting in a loving Heavenly Father that knows me better than I know myself. A Heavenly Father that WILL give me that 1% "No"...because He knows it will help me become the woman I need to be. It means trying to live every day concious of the fact that this TRULY is a good life.

I loved this thought so much I made up a little printable I'm going to hang in my loft surrounded by pics of my family. Sometimes we all need this simple reminder :)

Have a wonderful Sunday everyone!

My attempt at Valentines Decor :)

2012-01-26T17:15:00.000-08:00

Oh my goodnes...I have crafted ALL day long. Well, as much of the day that you CAN craft when you have 4 little ones :) And if you don't believe me, come look at the disaster that is my home :) Although its rare, most of my projects turned out alright and I thought I would share.

I was inspired by a lot of different bloggers. I patterned my LOVE frame after the one at Crap I've Made...hers is absolutly adorable!

I also was inspired by the darling garland from A Pumpkin and a Princess, it is just precious.

With those credits given, here is my take on Valentine Decor. I have a few more finishing touches for tomorrow and then I'll post a complete finished photo.

As you can tell my colors are turquoise, hot pink and light pink. I wanted to have different textures so I added a bunch of burlap and yarn...their not popular or anything, are they?! ;)

I simply wrapped some styrafoam balls with yarn and glued the end on and then wrapped a styrafoam wreath form with burlap strips and topped it off with some hot pink tulle. SO easy...all of it took me about 45 minutes.

I blogged my Kind Words printable earlier this week, next to that I just wrapped some more yarn around a glass vase I had in my basement. I actually LOVE how it turned out.

It adds a modern, funky look to our decor...I am loving the yarn!

For my LOVE frame I just spraypainted a large black frame white. Then I covered the cardboard with burlap and hotglued it on the back. Then I ModPodged the chipboard letters with some fun coordinating fabric and it was finished. I LOVE this big, eye-catching piece!!

Finally for our garland I just glued two doilies together, laced a piece of yarn through them and had myself a cute little garland to tie it all together.

It all came together quite nicely, I must say!! I guess that is the upside to being a VERY inconsistent crafter...you are thrilled when something actually works out! :)

Snowflake Ice Cube Fun!

2012-01-25T17:35:00.000-08:00

We did a really fun activity that my kids absolutely loved! It was inspired once again by the fantastic blog, Meet the Dubiens. Seriously...she is so cool! If you want to see some amazing photography and even better ideas...check out her blog ASAP!

I loved the idea of making colored ice cubes and playing with them in the snow, and was even more excited when I realized I had a way to make it go along with our theme (seriously, I LOVE a theme!:)

I had some snowflake-shaped silicone baking trays and thought they would be perfect! This really is as simple as it sounds. Mix some water with food coloring and pour it into your molds.

Let them freeze completely and then these cute little guys pop right out! Sidenote: make sure your kids know they are NOT popsicles...Britton may or may not have eaten half of one :)

First of all I gave my kids some old mittens I had, the food coloring WILL get on their hands and takes forever to come off! Then I gave them some big sheets of white paper and let them "paint" with their snowflake cubes.

Yes, Britton refused to wear mittens...what can I say? He's 2 :)

When we finished painting we decided to take the rest of the cubes outside for some fun in the snow! It was cool to see the cubes melt and leave the different colors in the snow...the kids loved it!

Of course if you play outside in the snow, you know snow angels are just inevitable.

And then its just a matter of time until the snowballs start flying!! :)

Thank you so much for stopping by today! This was a great activity that took little preperation and filled an afternoon with fun...total success in my book! :) And you KNOW we enjoyed some Snowflake Soup when we were all done :) Have a great day!

Kind Words Printable (perfect for Valentines!)

2012-01-25T04:02:00.000-08:00

I had an idea yesterday that simply COULD NOT wait! :)

If you remember, earlier in the year I posted about our family motto for 2012. You can read all about it HERE.

The motto we chose is Love is Spoken Here. I feel very strongly that home needs to be a safe place, a place where you always feel loved and important. Seeing our motto up in my living room made me think about last year around Valentines Day. I did a fun Family Home Evening that used conversation hearts to tie in the importance of using kind words. I wanted to do something similar this year when I thought up this idea last night.

First of all, I wanted a printable that talked about the importance of words, kind ones especially! I FIRMLY believe in the importance of words. They have the utmost ability to build you up or completely tear you down. Saying something kind is something SO small we can each do in our own lives to bless those around us. I have some people in my life that thing I am really awesome. They think I am more awesome than I am :) But because of their kind words...I want to try and become that awesome person they think I am . THAT'S what words can do for us!

I made this printable using one of my favorite quotes from Mother Teresa

After I had my printable all ready to go I placed it in a frame for this purpose:

Starting February 1st, every day we will pick a kind word or phrase that we will focus on for the day. Using a dry erase marker we will write that word on the frame to help us have a constant reminder. We will continue to pick a new word every day until Valentines!

I am so excited to see how using more kind words will change the spirit in our home. I am excited to focus more on the words I speak to my children and husband, and everyone else in my life. If you want to join me in this challenge, I made some printables for you too :)

All my Valentines Decor is in Aqua, Hot Pink, and Light Pink. In case you are a little more traditional with your colors, here is one you may like too :)

In the spirit of this post...THANK YOU so much for all of you that take the time to leave me so many kind words on this little blog! It always brightens my day and makes me want to be better.

I hope you enjoy these printables and that you FEEL the love more in your home as you focus on Kind Words!! :)

Snowflake Soup

2012-01-23T20:24:00.001-08:00

This week we are learning all about snowflakes! Couldn't have come at a better time, since quite a bit of snow got dumped on us today :)

Today I thought of a fun little play on the traditional "Snowman Soup"....instead, I made Snowflake Soup. I think my kids are going to LOVE this as their after school snack tomorrow.

If you are going to make Snowflake Soup...all you need are some Powdered Snowflakes :)

Or in other words...some French Vanilla Hot Chocolate :)

You just take a warm cup of milk, add a few scoops of Powdered Snowflakes, and you have your very own Snowflake Soup.

Just because everything is more fun when its cute, I spray-painted a mason jar lid blue, added some polka dot fabric tied around the middle, and printed off a little label to top it off.

Hope you are having a great (and snuggly!) day! :) Thanks for stopping by!

http://funkypolkadotgiraffe.blogspot.com/2012/01/too-cute-tuesday-linky-par-tay-67.html

http://jaysonandashley.blogspot.com/2012/01/tell-me-tuesday-32.html

What a trip!

2012-01-23T11:04:00.000-08:00

Wow! We have been gone for 2 weeks and it is SO great to be back home! You really see how blessed your life is when no matter HOW fantastic your vacation is...your favorite place to be is home :)

We have a bunch of new followers...thanks so much for stopping by! I hope you see some things you like, and as always, PLEASE contact me if you have any question or are interested in guest posting or blog-swapping!

We had quite the adventure on our vacation, starting with a day at SeaWorld, then one week at the beautiful island of Maui, and ending with 3 days at Disneyland! Yep...I'm exhausted :) I took about a bizillion pictures at all of these places, but tried to contain myself when posting them :) Here are some quick highlights of our very first trip without the kiddies in HAWAII!!

(and yes...I do realize there are a lot of pictures of me...feel free to scroll down if you want!;)

I have always wondered if they really give you a lei when you get off the plane...wouldn't that be incredibly expensive?! Luckily I got my lei when we arrived at the hotel...I would have been seriously dissapointed! ;)

This was the awesome view from our hotel room, we had a great patio with two loungers and a table with chairs. I loved waking up (fairly) early in the morning and going out to read, listening to the waves crash on the beach....SO relaxing!

We were exhausted the first day we got there and ended up taking a nap in the late afternoon. This is what we woke up to out our patio...

One really fun thing we did was to go golfing at one of the gorgeous courses by our hotel. It was my first time and I totally loved it! I want to take lessons so this spring and summer I can go out with Paul. It was a great place to have your first experience, just driving around the beautiful course in the cart was fun!

This is what we saw when we came out of our hotel every day...isn't it just amazing! I was constantly saying to Paul, "I can't believe we are in Hawaii! We are golfing in Hawaii! Can you believe we are whale watching in Hawaii?!" It is just so incredibly gorgeous.

The final night we were there we attended a Hawaiian Luau at a stunning villa RIGHT on the beach. It was rented out for the night and is officially my new dream home :)

These tables are where we sat for dinner, then the dancers came out with the trees and ocean as their beautiful backdrop.

One of the coolest things about going to Hawaii right now is all the whale watching you can do! We were lucky to go out 2 times, the first time was a combination whale watching and snorkeling excursion...we liked it so much we went back out again a few days later to see more whales. I loved this catamaran that we rode on...it was so fun!

Paul's favorite activity in Hawaii was learning how to surf. He was REALLY good at it, I was very ipressed. Since I am really uncoordinated and really bad at swimming...I layed out on the beach and took pictures :)

One of my favorite things about Hawaii?! Getting all dressed up! As a busy mom I am usually the last one to get ready, it was fun to take the time to get all ready to go out on the town with my guy :) And the shopping before Hawaii was pretty fun too :)

The best part about our trip was spending so much time with this guy. After almost 10 years of marriage and 4 beautiful children, he is still my best friend. I laughed every time someone asked us if we were on our honeymoon, but really, I still feel like we are. Every marriage has its struggles and is a lot of WORK, but all that work makes for the best reward. An eternal companion that I would never be complete without, I love you Paul! :)

Thanks for indulging me and all my pictures! I am excited to get back to real life and post some fun things I have had stewing in my head while I was gone. Thank you so much to everyone that emailed me or left comments while I was gone, I try to respond but I am sure I missed some of you. Stay tuned for lots more fun stuff at Blue Skies Ahead!! :)

Bath Paint...Fun in the Tub!!

2012-01-20T05:00:00.000-08:00

I found this great idea on one of my favorite blogs, Meet the Dubiens, and knew immediately it was something my kids would love.

Homemade Bath Paint!

All you need to make this is baby wash, corn starch and a few drops of food coloring!

All you do is mix 1 C of body wash, 4 TBSP of corn starch, and one drop of food coloring. Really...just one! A little bit goes a long way, and this way there will be no staining!

I put them in some small tupperware containers I had on hand and store them in my kids bathroom. When we want to use them I pull them out, give my kids some paint brushes and they will play for EVER in the tub!

I also think these would make fun birthday gifts or party favors too. I know my kids may be getting some in their Easter baskets later in the year :) Have a wonderful day everyone!!

Disneyland Autograph Books

2012-01-18T05:00:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone!! If this whole scheduled-post thing is working we are actually on our vacation right now, but I still wanted to share some fun things we did in the last year that you may not have seen before. We have a bunch of new followers here and I must say....THANK YOU so much for taking a few minutes out of your day and stopping by!

We are spending a few days at Disneyland with a bunch of family so I thought I would repost my Homemade Autograph Books I made last year for a trip. These were so quick and simple, and my kids LOVED them! It was a fun way to personalize something with their favorite characters....and mine were a little bit cheaper than the ones at the Magic Kingdom ;)

All you need to make some of your own are some of those 4x6 plastic photo books, I got mine at the dollar store. Then you print off your kids favorite character, add some wording and finish it off with some coordinating scrapbook paper!

In ours I just kept a handful of index cards in my bag. When we would see a character I would hand my kids a pen and their index card. Once it was signed I put it in one side of the picture book, then when we came home I printed out pics with that character and put them on the other side.

My kids loved their autograph books! I let them each pick out what characters they wanted and I LOVED that they only cost me a dollar a piece! :)

Thanks for stopping by today! We will be home soon and I have some fun craft ideas, activities for the kiddos and LOTS more!

More Candy Heart Jewelry...Rings!!

2012-01-16T05:00:00.000-08:00

These cute rings are JUST as easy as the Candy Heart Earrings I posted awhile back. All you need are your candy hearts, some glue, and some dollar store rings!

I got a bunch of those dress-up rings at the dollar store and popped out the gems. Then I let the girls pick what sayings they liked the most and we hot-glued the hearts on them. Don't you just love how the simplest things can make our kids so happy! :) My girls loved their rings and wore them for days.

That's it! :) Pretty simple, right?! Have a great day everyone! )

Pineapple Waffles and Tropical Green Smoothie

2012-01-11T07:33:00.000-08:00

We had a simple, fun breakfast last week that I thought I would share today! We were still learning all about Hawaii and this little gem came to me as I was driving to the gym in the morning...isn't it funny how our crazy minds think of things?! :)

Pineapple Waffle and Tropical Green Smoothie

The whole thing took about 5 minutes to throw together...a must for any breakfast in our home!

First up you have your smoothie. My sis in law made these for us at our last girls weekend and I LOVED them! Its so simple, you just toss in the blender 2 handfuls of fresh spinach, one banana, half a bag of frozen fruit (I used mango and pineapple) and some V8 Splash juice (I used the mango peach). Blend it all up and enjoy! Yes...it is kind of a yucky color but my kids LOVE them and I love that they are chugging a cup full of spinach first thing in the morning :)

Add a fun little tropical umbrella and the kids think its really something special :)

For the pineapple I just made some whole-grain toaster waffles, shaped up the sides, and used apple slices to make the top.

Nutritious, filling, and FUN! Hope you enjoy! :)

Homemade Hawaiian Lei

2012-01-09T07:38:00.000-08:00

Aloha!! :)

Right now me and the hubbs are vacationing, but I wanted to share some fun Hawaiian-themed activities we did last week.

The kids kept asking me where Hawaii was, and what it was like there, so I thought it would be fun to forget the cold and winter for a week and teach them all about Hawaii! They had a great time and I LOVED this craft. It is a combo of a few different ideas I had seen, and it came together just as I had hoped. Here are our Homemade Hawaiian Leis!

I LOVE how they turned out! I'll walk you through how we made these...starting with the funky colored noodles!

I found on THIS blog a post about dying pasta to use for beads. I have had it pinned for a while and was excited to finally give it a go! I used penne pasta for the spacers inbetween the flowers and opted to dye the noodles and then just have white flowers...I love the effect!

It was super easy to color the pasta, all you do is mix 2 TBSP rubbing alcohol in a plastic bag. Then add your food coloring...I doubled what she recommends :) I wanted those colors to POP :) Then you add 1 C of pasta to your bag and shake until completely coated. After that you spread your pasta out on a cookie sheet to try and then you have your own hand-dyed beads! Seriously...people are SO smart! I am never buying beads for kids crafts again!

Once our noodles were all ready to go I simply used a large flower punch to create the white flowers, hole punched them in the center, and then we started stringing!

Here is a close-up of the first one we made together. I love activities like this because you have something usable to play with after, its great to work on colors and patterns with your kids, and its just plain fun! :)

Here's Kendall rocking her lei...they were so cute in them! You could make bracelets or anklets as well.

These would be fun party favors or crafts to do at any type of Luau or Hawaiian-themed party, and after a little bit of prep they are actually quite simple :)

Thanks for checking out our Homemade Leis, I hope your having a wonderful week and check back soon for more Hawaiian themed fun! :)

Candy Heart Earrings

2012-01-06T04:02:00.000-08:00

Okay, are you sick of Valentines stuff yet?! :)

I am usually so behind on stuff like this, but knowing we aren't going to be back to normal life til the end of January has motivated me to get some project done I've had on the brain.

Do you guys read Delightfully Noted? If not...you need to! Jennifer is hilarious, has great ideas and is incredibly talented! She had a post HERE about making some simple earrings and I thought I was brilliant! It inspired me to make these SUPER easy Candy Heart Earrings!

Lets see...all you need for these are some Candy Hearts, Flat Earring Posts, some Mod Podge and some glue! Easy, right?!

I did a light coat of Mod Podge on the candy hearts...just so they would be shiny and to act as a shellac of some sort :) I'm sure theres a better way...but thats what I had on hand :) Once they were dry I glued the posts on the back and had myself a couple of pairs of earrings:)

My girls LOVE these! They want to wear them every day, but I am mean and am making them wait until at LEAST February :) These would be fun little gifts for friends or party favors.

Thanks for checking out Blue Skies Ahead today! I am going to be posting some really fun Hawaiian-themed crafts next week, so make sure you check back!

Mini-Chalkboard Valentine

2012-01-05T04:00:00.000-08:00

Ok, this one was super fun, easy and has a TON of possibilities!

This cute little valentine is a fun way to give a small, inexpensive gift that is NOT candy. Don't get me wrong...I love candy as much as the next person, but sometimes I think its nice to have other options :)

To make our Mini-Chalkboard Valentine I needed the following supplies:

Small Wooden Hearts

Pink Chalkboard Paint

Chalk

All you do is paint the hearts with the chalkboard paint and let it try overnight. Then once it has dried you cover the whole thing in chalk and wipe off with a damp cloth. This helps is set in...or something like that :) Once they were painted I let Skylar write a short message on them and then placed the heart in a cellophane bag with a piece of chalk.

Finally I made up a tag that says "I hope your day is "CHALK" full of love!", tied it up with a ribbon, and DONE! :)

If you didn't feel like painting the hearts with the chalkboard paint, this would be super cute with some sidewalk chalk as well! I'm also thinking there's got to be some sort of cute way to tie this into a teacher gift...I'll get back to you on that one! :)

Have a great day everyone!!

Outer Space Valentines

2012-01-04T06:59:00.000-08:00

I warned you I had Valentines on the brain! :)

Skylar and I put these Outer Space Valentines together yesterday and I think they turned out pretty cute. My daughter is at the age where she is VERY silly about boys...so this was a great valentine for her to give to her little boy friends that is not too mushy :)

These valentines are made up of Glowsticks, Pop Rocks and a little Astronaut eraser. I got all of the items at my local dollar store and they call came in packs of 3 or 12...so its not too spendy either!

I made this simple tag on my Sihouette, attached it with some ribbon, and there you have it!

I always have great intentions for doing cute Valentines with my kids, then before I know it its February 13th and I have done nothing! :) Hopefully this year I'll be a little more on top of it! Have a great day everyone!

Out of Town Activity Bags

2012-01-03T13:57:00.000-08:00

My husband and I have a big milestone coming up in our lives.

We are going on a trip...without the kids.

In almost 10 years of marriage we have only been away from them for a night here or there...and most of those were nights I was in the hospital having a baby! :)

My great hubby won a trip from his work to HAWAII...oh yeah...I am excited! And my amazing mom is watching our kids for 6 days. She has 3 little boys of her own so she is definitely going to have her hands full :)

One of my friends from high school did THE cutest thing on her blog a while back, and I totally copied her! :) You can check out her original post HERE

She created little kits to give to her kids each day she was gone. I thought this was brilliant. I am hoping by giving my kids these kits it will give them some entertainment, and take the pressure off my mom...even if its just for a little bit! :)

I did 4 different themed bags for each of the days my mom will have the kids that my little brothers will be in school.

First up we have the Spring Bag! It includes:

Bubbles

Yo-yo's

Suckers

Mini-Frisbees

Sidewalk Chalk

My mom lives in sunny Cali so this all works :)

The second bag is the Outer Space Bag. This bag has:

Glow Sticks

Astronaut erasers

Pop Rocks

Glow in the dark Stickers

Mini Milky Way Bars

Next up is the Circus Bag. It has:

Clown noses

Circus stencil kit

Circus animal crackers

Silly glasses

Cotton Candy

Finally we have the Cowboy Bag. This includes:

Western Stickers

Cowtail treats

Bandanas

Growing horses

Licorice Ropes

Sheriffs Badge

I am so excited for the kids to open up these little bags while we are away. I know they'll be fine, I know its good for us...but I'm gonna miss them like crazy and I want them to know I am thinking of them!

Thank you so much for taking the time to stop by today! For some reason I totally have Valentines Day on the brain so I will have some cute ideas throughout the week if you want to get a headstart :) We are also doing some cute Hawaiian themed crafts so make sure you check back! Have a great day!

My 2012 Word of the Year

2012-01-01T08:35:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year's Everyone!

We had such a wonderful day yesterday, it was the perfect way to end one year, and start another.

I love all the possibilities of a new year. I love a fresh start and the feeling that anything is possible. I also LOVE choosing one word to keep in my mind all year long, something I hope to focus on to help me become closer to the person I want to be.

This year the word I have chosen is CHERISH.

My life is such a beautiful gift, but am I truly cherishing it?!

I have a wonderful husband that provides for our family, not only supports my choice in staying home with my children, but LOVES that I do, and tells me everyday how much he loves me....do I truly show him how much I cherish him?

I have 4 fantastic, loud, wacky, dramatic, precious children. They have given my life purpose that I had never known, they have made me better and each has stolen a piece of my heart. Do I show them daily how much I truly cherish being their mother?

I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Do I cherish the opportunity I have to serve? Do I cherish the chance I have to listen to a modern day prophet, read sacred scripture and commune daily with my Heavenly Father? Do I cherish the covenants I made in the temple and attend regularly to serve there?

There are so many more things in my life to cherish. I think we get in a rut sometimes of thinking "I will just be happy when...." I don't want to waste a minute of 2012 waiting for "when...."! I also tend to get a little nervous when things are going well. Anyone else? Almost like I'm waiting for something bad to happen, because really, isn't that how life can sometimes be? But really, how can you cherish your life if you are just waiting for something bad to happen??

Life can be SO hard! Some days I feel completely overwhelmed, inadequate and underappreciated! But on those days all it takes is to look around, see all the things I have been blessed with, to see there is truly SO much to cherish.

So if you are picking a word this year, I wish you luck!! I am excited to begin my year of recognizing, appreciating and CHERISHING all that my life has to offer. Life is not perfect, but it was never intented to be. Without the trials and tribulations there would be no growth, no progression. And looking back on my life and thinking I didn't learn a thing is scarier to me than those inevitable twists and turns anyway :)

A very Happy New Year's to you all and may we all have a very cherished 2012!!

New Years Eve Balls!

2011-12-30T10:29:00.000-08:00

We are getting SO excited for New Years Eve at the Johnson home!! We are doing something very special earlier in the day, but I'll get into that next week :) Later we plan to party hard to ring in the new year...with our little ones of course ;)

My oldest has been talking alot about watching the New Years Eve Ball drop, and since I don't QUITE think she'll make it up that late, I wanted to make some New Year's Eve Balls for us so she could still enjoy the glitter and glam of New Years!

The best part about this project was that I got almost all of the supplies at Walmart in their 75% off Christmas clearance! Gotta love a deal :)

I somehow forgot to include the styrafoam balls in the picture...they are only the most important part ;) But to decorate these cuties I used a garland of silver tinsel, black paint and glitter, and silver mini-bows.

My favorite ball was the glitter ball. I painted it black and while it was still wet dumped WAY too much silver glitter all over it :) Once it was dry I hot glued a white ribbon to the top so we could hang them up until tomorrow.

The tinsel ball was just as easy. I just hot glued it around and around til it had a full look that I liked. Then I trimmed a little bit of the fuller parts to make it more circular.

Finally the mini-bow ball! I just hot glued little bows all around the ball...pretty self-explanatory right?! :)

I absolutely LOVE how they turned out and think I will be making these in all different colors to decorate for Christmas next year! :)

Thanks for coming by today and I hope you and your family have a wonderful, SAFE, New Years!!

Linking up at

Whipperberry

The Grant Life

Bacon Time with the Hungry Hungry Hypo

The Answer is Chocolate

LollyJane Boutique

Family Motto 2012

2011-12-29T15:16:00.000-08:00

I LOVE the start of a new year! A fresh beginning, a chance to be better in some things, and let some things go.

Paul and I decided this year we wanted to choose a family motto that would help us as we strive to grow closer as a family, and have a better spirit in our home. As I was thinking about what our family really needed, a tune kept coming into my head. I mentioned it to Paul and he thought it was perfect for the Johnson Family Motto of 2012!

Love is spoken here!

As we talked about how we want our home to be, I thought about how home should be a safe place, a place where no matter how harsh the world is, you can always go and feel loved and special.

In an effort to make that more of a reality for us I made this printable and quickly painted this old wood frame to display on our mantle all year long!

I love how it turned out, but mostly I love the wonderful reminder that it is for me. Honestly...right after I put it up my kids starting fighting upstairs over which characters they were from Backyardigans (does anyone elses kids do this?!) and I was about to yell up at them to knock it off (not so nicely :) One look at my sign reminded me that our home NEEDS to have that spirit of kindness, patience, charity and LOVE.

So tell me...do you choose a family theme at your house? If so, what is it?! I would love to hear what is working for you in your home and your great ideas! Thanks for checking us out today and enjoy this New Year's with the people you love the most!

Linking up at

A Creative Princess

Gluesticks

Crafty Blog Stalker

New Year's Neighbor Gifts

2011-12-28T08:03:00.000-08:00

Hey Everyone!! I hope you all had a most fabulous Christmas with your loved ones! We certainly did. I loved that Christmas fell on a Sunday this year...we woke up, ate breakfast and headed off for church. I couldn't believe how good the kids were about waiting to open presents, and it was the perfect way to kick off the day, celebrating the birth of our Savior.

The week before Christmas was a little bit crazy at our house. A nasty stomach bug ran its course and threw all my plans for a loop! Some things had to be put on hold...and one of them was neighbor gifts for Christmas. I figured I can't be the ONLY one who dropped the ball, so I thought I would share my super easy New Years Neighbor Gifts :)

Yep...that's it! A bottle of Martinelli's, snowflake ornament, matching ribbon and tag! Doesn't get much easier than that!

I made this super simple tag using the Silhouette and just printed them out, hole-punched, and tied on with a fun ribbon and matching snowflake ornament.

Simple and quick, but still shows those awesome neighbors how grateful you are for them!

Thanks so much for stopping by Blue Skies Ahead today! I have some fun projects coming up that I can't wait to share. I LOVE the start of a new year and all the organizing, revamping, and crafting that comes with it! Hope you all have a VERY happy New Years!

Elf Hunt!

2011-12-21T21:04:00.000-08:00

One of our favorite holiday traditions is to go to Gardner Village and go on our annual Elf Hunt! This year we decided to go a little bit more prepared...

Big Christmas pencils tied to clipboards with the elf hunt attached...made the elf hunt MUCH more enjoyable for mom :) And yes, there is a little 2-year old in the background crying his little heart out. Should have been my first sign it wasn't going to be easy! I actually took this pic yesterday...halfway to our destination my little guy threw up everywhere! We had to reschedule our elf fun for today, but I am SO glad we did!

Even though it was freezing, we all had a fantastic time searching high and low for those silly elves! I was really proud of my kids, they had a wonderful time in spite of the cold...in fact, they didn't want to leave :)

Everyone perked right up once we went to the bakery and got some hot chocolate to warm us up!

Do you remember being little and the magic of trying to catch a snowflake on your tongue?! I am so in love with this picture.

I am so glad we were able to make it out to Gardner Village today. I kept thinking of all the things I needed to do, and how cold it was, and literally talked myself out of it 3 or 4 times. However, my love of tradition got us there, and it was truly magical. Christmas music playing, a light snow falling, the smell of hot chocolate in the air, and my kids with bright red noses and huge smiles on their faces :)

Happy Holidays everyone!

Chocolate Candy Cane Cookies

2011-12-20T20:32:00.001-08:00

Need a simple, tasty, last-minute cookie recipe??

You have come to the right place! :)

My friend told me about these babies over the weekend and I have made several batches since. They are simple, quick and YUMMY...all my requirements for cookies :)

Chocolate Candy Cane Cookies!

These are basically homemade Oreos with a twist. Here's what you need to get started:

Devils Food Cake Mix

2 eggs

3/4 C shortening or margarine

Candy Cane Hershey Kisses

First up you mix up your cake mix, eggs and shortening. Cook these babies for 8-9 minutes at 350 degrees.

Then instead of whipping up some frosting you are simply going to unwrap a bunch of these little yummies...

And place 2 on the baked cookies while they are still HOT out of the oven.

In just a few minutes they will start to melt and you can use a butter knife to spread them around to cover the top of your cookie.

Once your kisses are melted you add another cookie on top and you are done!

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Holiday-scented Playdough Gifts

2011-12-20T05:28:00.001-08:00

My kids LOVE giving little gifts to their friends and cousins every year, and every year I try and come up with something fun, that they can help put together, and isn't too sweet! This year (thanks to Pinterest :) I found a great idea that we tweaked a little to give to all the cute little ones in my kids lives :)

I'm sure you have all seen the Gingerbread Playdough making the rounds on all the blogs out there :) Well, I made it last week with my kids and they LOVED it!! We had so much fun playing with it that we thought it would make a great gift as well. Because I can't do anything simple I thought it would be fun to make some other scents as well...Peppermint and Wintergreen. We packaged them up, added a cookie cutter, and here they are!

First up...you have to make your playdough! This was so easy and fun, if you haven't made the homemade stuff before...DO IT! Your kids will love helping and they will feel so proud that they made their very own playdough! I used the Gingerbread Playdough Recipe from HERE

And to make the Peppermint and Wintergreen Playdough I used THIS basic playdough recipe with my special ingredients...

Food coloring and flavoring to give it that wonderful holiday smell! For the Wintergreen we used green food coloring and Wintergreen flavor, and for the Peppermint we used red food coloring and, you guessed it, Peppermint flavor. I just found the different flavors in the baking aisle at my local grocery store...just make sure your little ones know these are JUST to smell...not to eat :) Because of the different spices in the Gingerbread Playdough you don't need any food coloring..it comes out a nice, pretty brown all on its own.

Now comes the fun part...the wrapping!! I wanted to get my kids in on the fun as well, so here is what we did!

Remember my love for brown paper sacks?? They're back! This time I took a cookie cutter (candy cane for the Peppermint Playdough, tree for the Wintergreen Playdough, and gingerbread man for the Gingerbread Playdough) and got out my acrylic paint. Then I let my kids make stamps on the paper bags to their little hearts content...I think they did a great job!!

Once our bags were all dry, I put a ball of playdough in a plastic baggie so it would stay sealed, dropped it in the paper bag, punched holes through the top and tied it off with ribbon and a fun little cookie cutter!

I don't know how I missed getting a picture of the Peppermint Playdough, but you get the idea :)

I loved that my kids could help with every part of this gift for their friends, including the handing out which we will be doing today!

Oh, I hope you are all just having a wonderful Christmas season!! We have a little stomach bug going rampant at our home, but I am just thankful we are getting it now and not this weekend :) Thank you so much for stopping by and checking out some of our last minute gift ideas!

Star-Themed Primary Class Gifts

2011-12-19T12:53:00.001-08:00

In case anyone is like me and wanted to do a last-minute gift for the wonderful kids in their primary classes...here's a simple gift I prepared this morning for mine :)

I am all about using brown paper sacks for gift-giving this year! To make it a little more personalized I cut letters on my Silhouette and used them as a stencil. Then I just stamped the stencil with acrylic paint and added a little bit of glitter for the girls. I left the boys without glitter on this one :)

For inside the bags I made Rice Krispie treats and then used my cookie cutters to get them in these cute star shapes. If you are running low on time (who isn't?!) you could totally use the premade Rice Krispie treats as well. I wish I would have thought of that earlier...;)

Inside of the bag I put a card that says

"For hundreds of years Heavenly Father promised His children the birth of a Savior. The Star was the symbol of His fulfillment of that promise. Everytime you see the star perched high atop a Christmas Tree...remember this: Heavenly Father ALWAYS keeps his promises."

Then I included a personal note and tied it up with ribbon.

To complete the gift I got some matching ribbon and star ornaments. I got the ornaments at WalMart, $2 for 12 ornaments.

Then I just punched 2 holes in the bags, tied the ribbon in one knot, then added the ornament and knotted the ribbon one more time.

And there you have it, a simple gift for the kids in your life, with a great opportunity to bear your testimony that Heavenly Father loves us, knows us, and ALWAYS keeps his promises!

Thank you so much for stopping by! If you are last-minute like I am, keep checking back this week! We are making some super cute gifts for the kids' friends, yummy neighbor gifts, and a SUPER easy, delicious cookie recipe too! Have a wonderful day!

Pinecone Christmas Trees

2011-12-14T16:21:00.001-08:00

Have you been looking for a simple, fast, FUN craft to do with your little ones this Christmas?

Look no further!!

This is one of those crafts that is so simple you feel silly blogging it...but I can't be the only mom that loves these kinds of things so I figured I would share :)

I found something HERE on Pinterest that inspired this little craft. We changed it up a bit to work better for small hands.

I love crafts that don't take a ton of prep or supplies...this one is simple in both aspects. Here are the fun Pinecone Christmas Trees we made.

These are as easy as the look :) All you need to get started are some pinecones spray-painted green. I used some of the cinnamon scented ones...my kids loved that they smelled too!

Then I just dumped out a bag of Mini Pom-Poms to use for our ornaments.

From there I let the kids go at it. They played for about an hour, decorating their little Christmas Trees. Once they finally settled on just the way they wanted them I hot-glued the pom-poms to the pinecones. My oldest daughter didn't want hers glued so she could decorate it again tomorrow :)

Yep...probably one of THE easiest crafts we have done, but the kids loved it. Just goes to show you sometimes simple is really best. Maybe I can keep telling myself that... ;)

Have a wonderful day everyone and thank you SO much for stopping by!!

Check it out!!

2011-12-14T13:11:00.000-08:00

In a post HERE I wrote about the amazing experience I had attending the Time Out For Women conference in November. Since then I have loved following their blog and enjoying posts from Time Out presenters, stories from regular women like you and me :), and checking out the blogs they feature.

To my utter shock and amazement, yesterday they contacted me to see if they could feature MY little blog!

YOU BETCHA!! ;)

HERE is the link if you want to check it out, it is a wonderful blog that has so many inspiring stories and thoughts, a great way to stay on track and remember what things are really important in life.

Thank you so much Time Out For Women...its an honor!! :)

Christmas Symbols Countdown

2011-12-13T14:15:00.001-08:00

One thing I have tried to do with my children since they were very young was teach them about the symbols of Christmas. I have tried to do this a bunch of different ways...but several years ago I finally found something that is fun for our family that has become one of our favorite traditions.

We have one of those little tabletop trees that newlyweds have in their new, teeny-tiny apartments :) One year I realized it would be fun to get different ornaments to represent the different symbols and hang them on our little tree. That simple idea has transformed into an advent of sorts and something we all really look forward too. All you need to do this fun activity with your family is a little tree and the following ornaments:

Christmas Tree
Bell
Wreath
Candy Cane
Gift
Star
Red ornament
Green ornament

There are more symbols of Christmas but these are the ones I use. I wrap up each ornament and every night starting on December 16th we unwrap one ornament, discuss what it symbolizes, and hang it on the tree. On Christmas Eve I always make sure we unwrap the Gift ornament, and we talk about the symbolism of the Greatest Gift of all time...the birth of our Savior and his Atonement.

I took pictures of each of the ornaments we have and put what they symbolize as well. I use THIS story to get the meanings of all the symbols.

This has become a precious tradition in our family and a wonderful way to help my children understand the true meaning of Christmas!

Thank you so much for stopping by today, I hope this maybe gave you one more way to celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Decking the Halls!!

2011-12-12T16:51:00.001-08:00

Well...better late than never, right?! :)

This year took us forever to get our Christmas tree, but we had such a great night it was definitely worth the wait.

We went to a local family farm to pick out our tree. Their prices are the best and they make it a great experience for the whole family. They give you free hot chocolate and candy canes while you warm up by the bonfire after your tree is picked out and getting loaded onto the car.

The most exciting part of our night was the drive home. All of a sudden, a car pulled out behind us, and guess who was driving it?! Oh yeah...it was SANTA CLAUSE!! I kid you not, he had the hat, the beard, the red coat and everything. He waved and winked at the kids...you cannot believe the screams of excitement heard in our van! :)

This year I dropped all my OCD and perfectionist tendencies that flare up when decorating my Christmas Tree and let the kids do it all by themselves. Yep...I haven't even moved any of their decorations yet. I did add a few to the top where they couldn't reach with the chairs, but thats it. And you know...I absolutely love it.

We always watch "Elf", one of our favorite Christmas movies, while we decorate the tree. Once all our decorations were up we ate our YUMMY eggnog shakes from Arctic Circle (seriously, so good!!) and put the little ones to bed.

Such a wonderful night for our little family.

I say this every year...but I think this is my favorite Christmas season yet! :) The kids are so precious, and everything is so magical to them. I feel incredibly lucky to have them. I hope you are all having a wonderful holiday season as well!

Candy Cane Cupcakes in a Jar!

2011-12-06T15:52:00.001-08:00

This week we are doing some fun Candy Cane activities and crafts and I thought it would be fun to remake my Candy Corn Cupcakes in a Jar into something for the holiday season! You can click on the link to get a tutorial...but they really are super easy.

All I needed for these was a mixed white cake mix, some red food coloring, cool whip and crushed candy canes. I seperated the cake mix and used the red food coloring on one bowl. Then I just alternated different layers until the jars were filled halfway. Cook at 325 degrees for 45 minutes and then let cool. Once it was all done I scooped out the top, added a dollop of Cool Whip and topped with my crushed candy canes. A quick, yummy treat that would be perfect for neighbors this time of year...or just for yourself! :)

Thanks so much for stopping by today, hope you are having a lovely holiday season!!

Christopher the Elf!

2011-12-05T08:53:00.000-08:00

So is everyone else on the Elf on the Shelf bandwagon?! We certainly are! This is the first year we have done it and the kids are loving every second of it. I have to say...my husband and I are too! :) Its fun to wake up every morning and see the joy and wonder of where Christopher will be that day. And I personally am loving Pinterest...its where I found each of these ideas.

Christopher in the fridge, turning our milk green.

Making snow angels in the sugar he dumped out on the table.

This was our favorite so far. The kids woke to Christopher holding a red marker with a note that says Go look in the mirror. They couldn't believe what they found!! My 4 little Rudolphs :)

So please share...what are some places your little elf has shown up? I have big ideas for our little guy...but I can always use more. This morning Kendall said, " I will be so sad when Christopher has to go back home." I just love the magic of little children and Christmas!!

Handprint Christmas Tree Craft

2011-12-01T12:04:00.001-08:00

We did a craft yesterday that the kids loved and provided quite a bit of entertainment for my little ones :) Since this week is all about Christmas Trees I thought we could make our own using our handprints. I've said it before and I'll say it again...I LOVE handprint crafts. It is so precious to look back on these little hands and remember when. It was also quite entertaining to see all the green handprints on the wall leading to the bathroom...thank goodness for washable paint!

These were as simple as they look, I helped the kids make the trees using their handprints and then they got to stamp the star using a foam stamp I had. Then I painted on the trunk and wrote their names and the year on each one.

Once the trees were dry the kids got to go crazy "decorating" their trees! Using their fingerprints they made ornaments and did some fun shapes with more stamps.

Here are our finished Masterpieces...the one in the middle is mine :) Britton was having a temper tantrum at this time so no picture for him ;) Besides that, we all had a wonderful time and I have these handprint treasures for years to come.

Happy December everyone!! :)

2011-12-01T09:05:00.000-08:00

I'll be back with some EASY, fun Christmas Tree crafts to do with your kiddos. Have a great day! :)

Christmas Tree Snacks

2011-11-30T06:28:00.000-08:00

I have been desperately trying to find some fun, healthy snacks for my kids this holiday season...and I'll tell you why :) Obviously, I want my kids to be as healthy as possible, but honestly...I just don't have the willpower to resist all these yummy unhealthy treats floating around! So, I'm hoping by dressing up this healthy food the kids will get more excited about vegetables and I will be able to stick to my eating plan.

First up I found some mini peppers at Costco the other day. I love red peppers so I grabbed a bag and munched away. All of the sudden I was looking at my pepper and it hit me...these totally looked like Christmas lights! Wierd that I think of things like that, right?! :)

I used the mini peppers, part of a snap pea, and black beans to make these fun treats. Best part? the first day I brought these peppers home the kids wouldn't even try them. Yesterday after school...they were FIGHTING over who got the lights :) SUCCESS!!

This next idea I found on a great blog called Little Nummies. It was so simple to make and a fun snack to eat while we did our Christmas Tree craft. Again...I am so grateful for creative people that share all their fun ideas!

For our Christmas Tree all we used were snap peas, cheese cut in the shape of a star, and pretzel sticks. afterwards I thought it would have been fun to use craisins and raisins as decorations too! :)

Thanks so much for stopping by today! Please share if you have any fun, healthy holiday snacks you give your kids...I need all the ideas I can get! :) Check back tomorrow for a really fun, messy Christmas Tree craft. Have a great day!!

Christmas Tree Family Home Evening

2011-11-29T11:32:00.000-08:00

We had a really simple, fun family home evening last night that was a good way to get my kids into the spirit of Christmas and especially the spirit of giving this holiday season. Also we are learning all about Christmas Trees this week so it worked out perfectly!

Our lesson was based on the book "Why Christmas Trees Aren't Perfect." I found a link online where you can view most of the story if you can't make it to the library.

I absolutely love this book. It talks about the evergreen trees in the Royal Forest, and how each hopes to be the most perfect tree so they will be picked by the queen. Small Pine is the most perfect of all, until she gives of herself so animals of the forest will have protection, shelter, and food. Even though she is no longer perfect the queen chooses Small Pine to come to the castle, because "living for the sake of others makes us most beautiful in the eyes of God."

The message this story shares was a great one for our family. This is a season for giving to others that have little, while we truly have so very much. I also love teaching my children that our Heavenly Father cares more about our hearts then what we look like on the outside. My husband made a great point as well: sometimes the best gifts we can give are not things. Sometimes what someone desperately needs is simply a friend to talk to, a way to not feel so alone, or to hear your testimony.

After we finished our lesson we did a fun activity that I saw years ago in a Family Fun magazine. All you need for this are some ornaments made out of paper ( I cut mine with my Silhouette and put double-sided tape on the back)

And some green and red crepe paper. We didn't end up using the red but it would be cute for next time.

Once you have your supplies ready to go you get to decorate your very own Christmas Trees :) We just wrapped the crepe paper around the kids and my husband (he really is such a great sport) and tried to have them hold their arms out a little to make a tree shape. Once the crepe paper was up we all took turns sticking on different ornaments.

I had originally just planned to make my husband be the tree, but the kids thought it was so much fun they all wanted to get in on it too!

Short and simple, just the way FHE needs to be with 4 kids 6 and under :)

Thank you so much for visiting today! I hope you found something you liked or that gave you some great ideas of your own. Please share if you have any favorite holiday family home evenings in your family, and stay tuned for a great service project we will be doing next week, fun Christmas Tree crafts and treats, and the Symbols of Christmas. Have a great day!!

Santa Pancakes!

2011-11-27T20:44:00.001-08:00

Now that we are almost to December I wanted to share a fun, simple breakfast I have made with my kids the last couple of years to kick of our favorite month of the year! It's a fun way to get them excited about Christmas and celebrate December 1st.

I give you....

Santa Pancakes!!

These are about as easy as you can get. You just make up a bunch of pancakes, then slice up some strawberries and get a can of whipped cream. Use the strawberries to make Santa's hat and the whipped cream for the rest of his hat and beard. Top it off with some chocolate chips for the eyes and you have your very own Santa Pancake :)

I love the Christmas season and am excited to share some of the ways we are trying to make it special in our home this year! I have a really fun Christmas countdown using all the symbols of Christmas, some great crafts for the kids, and lots more.

Thanks so much for stopping by and hope you are enjoying this beautiful holiday season so far! :)

Choose to Become...

2011-11-22T06:10:00.000-08:00

I had the most amazing opportunity this weekend to join the women of my family and attend the Time Out For Women conference in Salt Lake City. Words don't quite do the experience justice, everything sounds too cheesy or cliche. But honestly...I came home changed. The speakers touched my soul, the music stirred my heart, and I was (and still am!) filled with more knowledge, desire, gratitude and love.

The theme for this year was Choose to Become. Could not have been more perfect for me. One of the things I love about the gospel of Jesus Christ is the doctrine about free agency and choice and accountability. I feel it is SO empowering...I HAVE THE CHOICE. I can choose every day to become the woman my Heavenly Father expects me to be.

One thought that kept coming to me as well through out the entire weekend was who I was before I came to this world. I believe we were all sent here with missions, divine works we are appointed to accomplish with specific spiritual gifts given to help us along our way. The thought kept coming to me as I pondered who I was choosing to become...perhaps I am choosing to REDISCOVER who I had already promised my Father in Heaven I would be. I am not trying to become someone I have never been, instead remembering who He promised me I could be. It was a pretty powerful recognition for me.

Joining me at the conference were my most amazing Johnson girls!! I am so blessed with my family. I was born into an amazing family and count my blessings every day for them. I am also lucky enough to be apart of the Johnson family. I feel as close to them as my own , and I know I was meant to be a part of them. I just found them through marriage instead of birth :)

Here are some pics of us gals at the hotel our AWESOME father-in-law paid for...what a guy!:)

Bet you wish you could have been a fly on the wall to hear all our conversations that night....actually...probably not ;)

A really fun tradition we have started at our annual Girls Weekends are to do our Favorite Things. We try to keep it at a dollar a person, but you think of one of your favorite things that you could share and give one to everyone. It is so fun to learn more about everyone and also get a bag of favorite things to take home!

How lucky I am to stand in the company of such amazing women!

I wanted to share with you some of the most inspiring words that I heard this weekend, I hope these can help and inspire someone as they did for me.

"One who chooses Christ chooses to be changed."

In regards to our Savior..."We need to remember not only what He has saved us from, but what He has saved us FOR."

"God's delays are NOT denials."

The above were all quotes from the amazing Brad Wilcox. He spoke about our Savior as our Redeemer,and His ability to mold and transform us. It was truly beautiful.

The person I was MOST excited to hear from did not disssapoint!! I LOVE Sheri Dew. I love her boldness, her faith and her ability to make me want to be more simply by listening to her. She had some very powerful things to say as well...

"There is not one cell in my body that is neutral about the gospel of Jesus Christ."

"We need to become seeking women, not silly women."

In regards to what to tell someone when they ask us mothers what it is that we actually do all day....you simply say, "I'm nurturing 4 children along the path to exaltation...how abou you?" :)

I have a journal with pages FULL of these quotes and so many more! The thing that was truly amazing about this weekend was that out of 8 women, we all heard exactly what WE needed to hear. Sheri Dew said "The Holy Ghost is the great translator" and I know that is true. He is able to take the message that is given and translate it into our hearts so we can hear what we need.

The other thing this tells me is that Heavenly Father knows ME. He knew what I needed to hear, if I would only listen. Within minutes of hearing the first speaker a word kept coming to me over and over. Throughout the weekend I kep thinking of this word as I pondered who I was choosing to become. When I came home I was impressed to read my patriarchal blessing. I was surprised to realize that same word is repeated over and over, and it had never really stood out to me before. I knew that Heavenly Father was telling me exactly who I could choose to become, because He knows exactly what I am capable of, and WHO I am capable of becoming.

The same is true for all of us. He knows you. And as we strive to become whoever we choose, He will be with us every step of the way.

Thank you for stopping by today. I know that not everyone that looks at my little blog is of the LDS faith, but I believe these concepts are true for ALL of us. We were all born with a divine nature and limitless possibilities...the challenge in this life is seeking those out and trusting ourselves and our Heavenly Father enough to let it all happen.

Turkey Family Home Evening

2011-11-21T10:43:00.001-08:00

If you have followed this little blog for a while, you may have already seen this family home evening. However, since a lot more people have found us, I thought I would post it again if anyone needs a last minute family home evening for tonight. This is what we are doing at my home tonight :)

I originally found this story on Sugardoodle and made a few changes so the wording was a little more simple for my young children. I typed it up for you here, so you can just copy and paste into a word document and print off. I always love to have a visual, so for this story I printed out and colored turkeys in brown ,red, blue, purple, green, yellow, and white.

Then I just made individual feathers in all the different colors to stick on Tom as he gets each new colored feather...this will make sense after you read the story :) I just used tape to attach the colored feathers to the brown turkey.

The Turkey With the Terrible Temper

Once there was a little BROWN TURKEY who had a TERRIBLE TEMPER. He often flew into rages and ranted around until he was a nuisance in the farm yard. One day he lost his temper about some little thing and got so angry he flew into a rage and went RED as a beet. The other turkeys laughed at him and said: You're RED, RED RED as a BEET: RED from your head to the tip of your feet. Tom Turkey didn't like anyone or anything so he ran away and hid. He sat and sulked for a long time. When he calmed down and came out of his hiding place he was really RED all over. His head was RED and his neck was RED- he was RED from head to his feet.

He hurried to the edge of the farm to visit Dr. Owl how was wise and knew all the answers to everything. "You will have to learn to control that temper of yours!" hooted Dr. Owl. " If you don't remember in time you will end up being a very sorry turkey." The next morning Tom Turkey was brown again except that he had a red feather in his tail. He was very glad to be brown again, but he still thought it was everybody else's fault that he gotten so angry the day before. Tom's mother called him to help with the Monday wash.

But Tom got the BLUES as soon as he started working. He moaned and groaned until his mother said he was acting like a baby. You can guess what happened next- he lost his temper again. This time he went BLUE ALL OVER! As he was running away to hide all the other turkeys yelled: You're BLUE, BLUE from your head to your toe, BLUE all over wherever you go. This time Tom Turkey sat and sulked and blamed his mother for losing his temper.

By morning he was BROWN again but now he had a blue feather next to the red one in his tail. You can guess what happened the rest of the week. On Tuesday Tom didn't want to clean up the yard. He said he hated cleaning up with a PURPLE passion. Just as soon he had said he was in a rage he turned PURPLE all over. The Turkeys shouted: You're PURPLE, PURPLE, that's all we can see, you'd better go hide under your favorite tree. Of course Tom Turkey sat and sulked and blamed everything onto to everyone else. On Wednesday morning he was BROWN again but he had a PURPLE tail feather added to his the RED and BLUE one. He was beginning to feel ashamed that he couldn't control himself when he wanted to. He went out for a walk when he saw a big ear of corn that his turkey friend was eating. Tom was GREEN with envy.

He thought the farmer had no right to give someone else the cob of corn. And before he knew it he had turned GREEN all over, and was in another terrible temper tantrum. The turkeys all turned on him and yelled: You're GREEN, GREEN GREEN as the grass. Why don't you get wise and stop all the sass? And of course again, Tom Turkey went to his hiding place to sulk and feel sorry for himself. On Thursday morning he was BROWN again but now he had a GREEN feather amongst the other brightly colored tail feathers. But something was happening to Tom Turkey. He was really beginning to want to change. He wanted to keep his temper. He didn't feel like being ashamed of himself. He was determined to try hard and do just that. Of course all the turkeys liked to tease Tom and while they were playing a game of Gobble and Waddle someone called Tom a coward. Before Tom started to think he had flown into another tantrum.

This time his face turned YELLOW and his neck was YELLOW and the turkeys were saying he had a YELLOW streak down his back. They yelled: You're YELLOW, turkey. Just like we said, Why don't you go home and hide under the bed? Tom Turkey had turned YELLOW all over because he had forgotten to control his temper. But this time he sat under a tree and thought a long time about everything. He had only himself to blame for his mistakes. He was beginning to realize that he was the only one who could make things better. When he awoke in the morning he was brown again with a new yellow feather in his tail. He didn't say a word to anyone, he just went about his business and said to himself: " I can do it, if I try hard enough !" Mother Turkey asked Tom to keep an eye on the little turkeys when she went to the store on Friday. While she was gone all the baby turkeys ran through the house with muddy feet. When Tom saw what they had done, Tom almost lost his temper.

But this time he just held his breath as long as he could. He turned as pale as a ghost , but he didn't lose his temper. The turkeys yelled: You're WHITE, WHITE but your temper didn't show. Maybe you're changing, we really hope so. All Saturday and Sunday he kept calm and was tickled PINK to think he had gone two days without a terrible temper tantrum. He was still a little BROWN turkey, and a very happy one too. He reported back to Dr. Owl on Monday and Tom Turkey thanked him for his help. Dr. Owl told Tom he had earned the right to wear the brightly colored tail and that he should show it off proudly from now on. So when you go to the farm and see the turkey with his fan shaped tail all unfolded, remember this story about the turkey with the terrible temper.

Isn't that a wonderful message? I absolutely love anything that can help me reinforce to my children that they have a CHOICE! I think young children often feel helpless and out of control, I want my children to learn the things that ARE within their control. They may not always have life go as they want, but they can always try to choose happiness and make the best out of whatever comes their way.

We LOVE to make these fun Turkey Cupcakes, and here are some pics from when we made them last year. They are SUPER easy, you can get the recipe from Family Fun here:

http://familyfun.go.com/recipes/sweet-t-o-m-turkeys-687045/

Hope you have a wonderful Family Home Evening with your dear ones. I will be back later with an awesome post about how I spent my weekend...it was amazing!! :)

Living the dream...

2011-11-16T09:46:00.001-08:00

We just got back from a wonderful weekend of visiting family in San Diego. We had a fantastic time and were a little sad to come home. As I was going through these pictures I realized something quite amazing. Usually I look at pictures and realize I only captured the good moments...quietly ignoring all the tantrums, breakdowns and fights that always occur with young kids and trips! However, as I looked at these pictures, I realized they WERE a true representation of our trip. The kids were abnormally well-behaved, we were lucky to be joined by my super fun brother and sister-in-law, and I really feel just like the title of this post says...I am living the dream. Or at least, MY dream.

I only have about a million pictures, so sit back and enjoy!! :)

Our big adventure was taking the kids to SeaWorld. The weather was perfect, no crowds, and lots of fun. What more could you ask for?!

We didn't have room to bring our huge stroller so we just rented one they had there. It was perfect because Avrie loved looking around and the big girls could sit on the footrest when they got tired.

2 of the loves of my life :)

This is my brother Tim. He is awesome. I couldn't believe how much patience he and his wife Sara had for our kids. It made our trip a million times better having them with us.

One of the kids favorite things to do was feed fish to the sea lions. I couldn't believe they would grab those stinky little fish and launch them at the sea lions!

Here are some of the beautiful sights at San Diego SeaWorld!

They had THE cutest Sesame Street Playland and we all LOVED going on all the rides together.

How can you NOT smile when you take a break from pushing the stroller, look down, and this is what you see?!

I love the smiles on my kids faces...priceless!

I think this was Paul's favorite part of the day,he loves a good rollercoaster. I was glad he had Tim and Sara to go with him ;)

A huge bouncy-house for Britton to go crazy in? Yes please! :)

Man, we had a great time!! I am so grateful for this little family of mine. They have made my dreams come true, even though,lets be honest, some moments feel sort of like a nightmare! ;)

I am finding a deep contentment in my life RIGHT where it is. There is so much to work on and improve, but meanwhile I am grateful for all that we have been blessed with. I love this time of year to reflect on all these beautiful feelings of gratitude and thanksgiving, and try to treasure every minute of living my dream :)

Indian Corn Fun

2011-11-08T22:03:00.000-08:00

Today we had SUCH a fun day doing some activities that all had to do with Indian Corn! Other people must have had the same idea because when I went to the store this morning I nabbed the very last Indian Corn :) I wanted to give my kids a visual of what we were going to be learning about, aren't those colors gorgeous?!

After we talked all about how the Indians taught the Pilgrims all about corn and some of its different uses we decided to make our very own Fingerprint Indian Corns. I printed off the template HERE and then just traced and cut several corns. Then I put a little bit of paint on a plate for each child and let them go to town!

I loved the finished product on these, this one was Skylar's and I thought it turned out SO cute!

The kids always love any kind of fingerpainting or mess-making so this craft was definitely a hit! It was also perfect if you have a range of different ages. My 6 year old did hers almost perfectly while even my 2 year old had a fun time...and just look how precious those little hands are! :)

Once we finished with our craft we made a fun treat that I found years ago on Family Fun. I modified it a little to go with ingredients we had on hand and I think it turned out great!

First up you make the traditional recipe for Rice Krispie treats...only you substitute Corn Pops for Rice Krispies (very tasty!!)

Once you have it all mixed together you add drops of red and purple food coloring throughout. Don't mix it too well...you really want the different colors throughout.

Once its cooled a little you take a popsicle stick and mold the treat around the stick in the shape of a corn cob (or something similar ;)

Finally you take a green fruit roll-up and cut some triangle-sized pieces to make up the corn stalk. Your treats will be very sticky so it will be easy to attach those stalks :)

These were a yummy after-school snack that the kids had fun helping me make. I love how excited they get about learning and that as soon as Daddy comes home they are excited to tell him all about Indians, Pilgrims and Corn :)

I hope you are all having an absolutely wonderful Holiday Season so far. We definitely are, and I am trying to just soak up every single minute with my little family. I have been humbled and overwhelmed with so many feelings of gratitude this month, and a desire to not let one mundane, average moment of my life go by without acknowledging the blessings I have been given :)

Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls

2011-11-03T20:44:00.001-07:00

Oh my.

These are (or I should say WERE :) delicious!! I found the recipe on Pinterest HERE when I was searching for something to make using some leftover pumpkin I had in my pantry. They turned out just perfect for me...they were super moist and had that yummy hint of pumpkin flavor, and not being a huge frosting I fell in love with the Caramel Glaze.

Do you have some pumpkin laying around in your pantry too??

Here's what you need to make these beauties...

Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls with Caramel Glaze

1/3 cup milk

2 tablespoons butter

1/2 cup canned pumpkin

2 tablespoons sugar

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 egg, beaten

1 (1/4 ounce) package dry yeast

2 cups bread flour (you can use regular all purpose flour but bread flour makes them lighter)

1/2 cup brown sugar, packed

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

2 tablespoons melted butter

CARAMEL FROSTING

1/4 cup butter

1/2 cup brown sugar, packed

2 tablespoons milk

1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

1 dash salt

3/4 cup sifted confectioners' sugar

First up, you want to warm your milk and butter until it is starting to melt, stirring constantly.

Meanwhile in a mixer add pumpkin, sugar, nutmeg, pumpkin pie spice, and salt. Add your milk and butter mixture and mix well. Then add your beaten egg and packet of yeast.

Once you have that all mixed together you are going to start adding your flour. Here's a tip: it says in the recipe to use bread flour. I never have bread flour on hand but by chance did this one time....it made a HUGE difference. These cinnamon rolls were so light and moist...so try out this flour :) Add once cup of flour and mix well, then slowly add the second cup, while you are scraping the sides.

Once you have mixed all the flour in you will have a very soft dough. Put this in a greased bowl and let rise until it doubles in size, about 1 hour.

Once your dough has risen roll it out on a floured surface into a nice rectangle shape. Once you have done that brush with the melted butter and top with your cinnamon and brown sugar mixture.

After that, simply roll up your dough and slice into 12 sections, placing on a greased pan, cut-side up.

Yeah...I'm really not a baker, so make sure you check out the original posting for these yummies...her instructions are MUCH better!

Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes. Mine baked for 15 minutes exactly and came out perfect.

Isn't it pretty?! :)

Now you may remember I mentioned something about a Caramel Glaze? Oh yes...its a must!

Simply heat your butter until melted, then add brown sugar and milk. Cook this for one minute, stirring constantly, over low heat. Then transfer to a mixing bowl and add vanilla, pumpkin pie spice, salt and confectioner's sugar. Use an electric mixer to blend well, and feel free to add more sugar or milk to get the right texture. Once you do drizzle a little (or a LOT!) on top of your cooled cinnamon rolls. Then get an ice cold glass of milk and ENJOY!!

Thank you for stopping by Blue Skies Ahead! I feel like its taken me this whole week to recover from Halloween and get caught up on the things in my life that needed some catching up on :) Now before I know it I'll be saying the same thing about Thanksgiving! Please check back later for some fun with the kiddos, a great family tradition to celebrate Gratitude, and lots more!

The Happiest of Halloween's

2011-11-01T13:54:00.000-07:00

Oh my goodness...what a Halloween it was! Usually when a holiday is over I am a little sad and wish we would have done more fun things...not this time:) We soaked up every single bit of fun that October had to offer and I am excited to look forward to different things coming up with Thanksgiving. But before we get to that...here's a recap of our awesome Halloween!

The kids woke up to our traditional ghost pancakes, these are so easy and always sure to please :)

Then we had to hurry and get our big first-grader ready for our very first Halloween School Parade! We had so much fun looking at all the different costumes and seeing our little Skylar strut her stuff :)

Once Skylar got home we went to Paul's work to show off our cute kids and do a little trick-or-treating. I may be biased...but is my husband totally a hot 80's rocker or what?!

Finally after a few more acitivities we ended our Halloween with good, old-fashioned trick-or-treating! I cannot remember the last time it wasn't raining or snowing on Halloween, but last night was absolutely perfect weather. We stayed out until Avrie demanded to go home and eat.

I hope you all had absolutely wonderful Halloween's with your families and loved ones. In the big scheme of things we really only have so few years with our little ones to celebrate these special days ...I hope I can make the most of them! :) Happy November everyone!

A little Spooky Service...Trick-AND-Treating!

2011-10-27T08:24:00.001-07:00

I usually try to not post ideas for activity's until we actually do them...but since we are doing this on Halloween I wanted to post beforehand in case anyone wants to try it out in their own family :)

Years ago I was serving in the Young Women's organization of my church and we did a really fun activity. The week before Halloween all the girls dressed up in their costumes and we went to several homes in the neighborhood to go Trick-AND-Treating. We would do a service project at each home (the trick) and leave them with some goodies (obviously...the treat :) I thought at the time that would be something really fun to do with my little family but my kids were still a tad too young.

This year my sis-in-law did this same activity with her YW and it got me to thinking...I really want to try this with my family. I tweaked it a little, but this is how our family is going to try and add some Spooky Service to our Halloween!

First up, I called around to a few local nursing homes in our area. I thought it would be wonderful for the kids to get all dressed up, make some treats, and deliver them to the people at the nursing home...all while providing a few tricks as well! ;) Make sure if you do this you talk to the activities director...then you can make sure they don't have anything already planned for the same time.

For our treats I wanted to do something simple,so we just bagged a bunch of store-bought Lofthouse Cookies and tied them with ribbon and a cute printable that said Happy Halloween. Then came the fun part....

The kids loved preparing their "Tricks" for all the cute people we will visit in the nursing home. We spent hours coloring pictures, practicing reading fun Halloween books and singing songs. They are so excited to share their tricks AND their treats! :)

We originally planned to do this earlier in the week, but things with work came up and we couldn't all make it (you gotta get there early before all the cute old people go to bed!) so we rescheduled for Halloween itself! It will actually work out perfectly, the kids will already be dressed up and ready to go. It will give them the opportunity to think about others and hopefully share some of the joy the give to me every single day to some people that could really use it.

Thanks so much for stopping by today and please let me know if you try this out with your family. I am hoping this is something we can do every year...a little Spooky Service to finish out our Halloween season!

Halloween Sugar Cookies

2011-10-26T12:14:00.000-07:00

On monday we did one of our absolute favorite holiday activities....we made Sugar Cookies! I have so many memories of being a little kids and LOVING making and decorating sugar cookies. I am so glad my children enjoy it too and I love spending time in the kitchen with my cuties. I have to admit...its hard for me to get started. Sometimes it feels overwhelming to think about all the work and all the mess its going to cause, but I NEVER regret it after :)

Today I am going to share my recipe for these soft, chewy, delicous sugar cookies. These are from my previous neighbor Jeanette. If you know Jeanette, you know everything she makes is absolutely divine...and these cookies are no different. I know everyone has a sugar cookie recipe they swear by...but if you want, give these bad boys a try! :)

Here's what you need to get started:

1 C butter

1 C sugar

2 eggs

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 C sour cream

3 1/2 C flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

First up, you want to mix your butter and sugar together. Once you have done that then you add your eggs and vanilla. After those are combined you add the flour, baking soda, salt, and baking powder.

Once you have mixed all that together add your sour cream.

Now when you take it out of the mixing bowl it is going to be sticky. That's ok. :) Just make sure your surface is very well floured and don't be scared to add more flour once you start rolling it out.

Once you have rolled out your dough grab all your fun Halloween cookie cutters!

Just a sidenote: I made these while my kids were sleeping. I took half of the dough and put it in the fridge. That way when it was time they could still use the rolling pin and cookie cutters on that dough, and while those were baking they could be decorating the other half that I had already baked.

Once you have got your shapes ready to go bake your cookies at 375 degrees for about 9 minutes. You do NOT want to overcook them so watch them carefully and don't let them get too brown.

Oh man...don't you just want to take a bite?! :)

After that I mix up the frosting with a few drops of food coloring, get out the sprinkles, and let the kids go to town!

Yes...more frosting definitely ended up in Britton's mouth than on his cookies!

Let me know if you try out these cookies...they really are delicious! Have a wonderful day everyone and thank you SO much for stopping by this little blog :)

Hello again! :)

2011-10-25T12:52:00.000-07:00

Well, its been a little while hasn't it?!

Last week was full of pretty much one thing....

Laundry. And then a little more laundry. And then aLOT of folding said laundry.

I honestly have no idea how I got so behind! But its all caught up now and I am so excited to have this last week before Halloween to spend with my family doing the stuff that really matters. I'm excited to share my all-time favorite sugar cookie recipe, a wonderful activity to help your kids learn the joy of service this spooky season and some fun things to do with the kids while we countdown to the big day!

So until tomorrow....I will leave you with this complete overdose of store-bought, absolutely NO craftiness on my part, so-NOT-making-my-kids-their-costumes-this-year collage of cuteness :)

Man,I love them.

Barnyard Boo!

2011-10-20T22:18:00.000-07:00

I don't know what it is this year, maybe my kids are just at really fun ages...but I can't remember a fall where we had so much fun! Usually I am anxious for Christmas to get here, but this year I don't want October to end!

One thing I absolutely love about where we live are ALL the great family-centered activities around. This week we braved the UEA crowds and went to Thanksgiving Point to the Barnyard Boo. They had a bunch of fun halloween activities along with all the normal things we love to do at the farm.

Seriously?! So precious!

They had a bunch of fun games the kids loved playing...and a bunch of cheesy prizes and treats that they loved even more! I think the pumpkin bowling was probably their favorite :)

Can't forget this little princess!! She truly is an angel, she loves to just sit in her carseat and play with her little toys.

And then when she gets tired she just pulls her little sleeping mask down and takes a little snooze ;)

Although it was an hour wait, my kids just LOVE getting their faces painted!

And finally....I found my newest food obsession. They had a little stand selling these fresh out-of-the-oven mini donuts...they were AMAZING!! We may be making another trip next week, thank goodness we have a season pass ;)

Cornbellys 4-pack Winner!

2011-10-20T06:41:00.000-07:00

Thank you all so much for taking the time to enter! The random generator picked number 9 to be our winner which means...

Jenny P

is going to Cornbelly's!!! I will email your tickets to you promptly and congratulations!

Witch Scavenger Hunt

2011-10-19T06:50:00.000-07:00

Have I mentioned I love Gardner Village?! :) I know...only about a million times or so! But honestly, this place just has an amazing feel to it and has provided my little family SO many wonderful memories. Although we had already been once with friends, we decided to go one more time for the season and go on the Witch Scavenger Hunt. The weather was perfect, kids were well-behaved and darling, and the day ended with cookies and hot chocolate...perfection!! :)

Isn't it gorgeous there? Makes me want to go back again :)

The kids always look forward to taking bread and feeding all the ducks...I always look forward to surviving the duck feeding without one of my children falling in the water. Success!

Then the Witch Hunt begins!! There are so many fun witches to see and the kids each have their favorites. The top 3 would have to be the hula-hooping witch, Witchy Poo, and the one having a hot dog and a Diet Coke :) I am STILL obsessing over that one witch we couldn't find....where ARE you witch with the "eye" phone?!?!

You can't see that fun witch hula-hooping without getting in on the action yourself :) My kids rocked the hula-hooping...see for yourself! :)

What a wonderful afternoon! Avrie was there...she just slept in ther carseat the whole time :) I love doing things like this with my kids. It takes all the mundane out of motherhood and replaces it with joy and excitement. I'm so lucky to have these little kids of mine, they are perfect for me. If you haven't gone to Gardner Village and you live here in good ol Utah....GO!! Just maybe wait until after UEA, we went then last year and it was a total madhouse :)

And if you ARE looking for fun things to do with your family, enter my Cornbelly's 4-pack giveaway! The contest ends tonight and I can't wait to give one lucky follewer this great prize! Have a wonderful day everyone :)

Cornbelly's Giveaway!!

2011-10-18T12:25:00.001-07:00

I am absolutely THRILLED today to be participating in this wonderful giveaway!

In our family we have made going to Cornbelly's an annual fall tradition and we all love it. There are so many things to do and so many different ways to enjoy this wondeful season with the people you love most!

Cornbelly's has generously offered to giveaway a family 4-pack of tickets, valid for all the non-spooky fun for any day they are open now until October 29th. Amazing, right?! Here's all you have to do to enter:

Make sure you are a follower here at Blue Skies Ahead and answer this trivia question correctly:

What is the name of the worlds largest cornfield maze company that had their original cornmaze in American Fork, Utah?? (Hint...the answer is under the About Us tab at Cornbellys.com :)

I will randomly select a winner from all entries that let me know they are following us and have the correct answer! Hurry up and don't be shy...you only have until Wednesday October 19th to enter for your chance to win!

Weekend Wrap-up!

2011-10-17T20:10:00.001-07:00

And what a weekend it was!! You already saw how we spent our Friday night, enjoying our first of what I hope to be an annual Witches Night In party. Saturday was packed from start to finish and was a truly fantastic day.

First up: we had the girls last day of soccer. I was happy that they both played and enjoyed it so much...and happy that it was over! :) I am excited to have our Saturday's back again, but I know they will miss it too. Here is my fave pic from the whole day: all 3 of my big kids looking at the camera and smiling?! NEVER happens! :)

Now on to one of my FAVORITE events of the year...Witches Night Out! This is the 5th year we have attended and it has become a Johnson family favorite tradition. I am so lucky to be apart of such a wonderful family. I don't think I always realize how amazing it is that I get along with my in-laws so well, but I truly do. My sisters-in-law are my best friends, and my mother-in-law is honestly one of the most sweet, giving, and accepting women on the face of the planet. I love them all dearly and look forward to spending this night with them all year long! :)

We always start off the night by going to dinner at the Spaghetti Factory. Delicious!

Then comes my favorite part of the night...The Witchy Awards! Years ago Camille and I thought it would be fun to give awards to each woman that attended our Witches Night. It has evolved into a wonderful tradition where we honor each other and celebrate what we love so much about all the amazing women in our lives. There is always one woman that gets the "Witch of the Year" award, and she is then responsible for doing the awards the next year. It has been so fun to see what different people do, one year everyone was given a color that represented them, one year a princess, one year a type of shoe, and this year a word that best described them. I always leave the awards in awe of the amazing women we have in our family and full of gratitude for having them in my life. I love you girls! :)

After that its time to head over to Gardner Village and Party! Well, maybe not party completely, we are some of the more reserved ladies out that night...but we still have a great time :)

The highlights from Witches Night Out 2011?

Learning that once again, you really can use duct tape for anything :)

Getting my pic taken with Winnie from Hocus Pocus ;) (Skylar about DIED when she saw it!)

Asking myself and all the others around me..."DO we care about bosoms??" :)

Another weekend for the books! I'm so blessed to be completely surrounded by friends that became my family and my family that have become my best friends.

"Witches Night In" Party!

2011-10-16T08:14:00.001-07:00

Well, our "Witches Night In" party was a success! I just have to say...my kids are so fun! :) They get so excited about everything and totally play along with all my goofy ideas...I love em! :) We had a wonderful night together and really, it was pretty simple and very inexpensive to put together. This will definitely be something we do every year.

First up we had to have our Witchy Dinner, consisting of Brains and Eyeballs (spaghetti and meatballs), Witch Fingers (breadsticks with pepperoni nails), Witch Hats (sugar cones filled with candy on top of a cookie), and Witches Brew (rootbeer with dry ice). They were VERY relieved when they saw what was for dinner :) All day Skylar was saying, "Mom, they're not really eyeballs right? Because you would have to kill someone to get eyeballs....you wouldn't kill someone, right?!" They are too fun :)

Here are the kids doing their best witch impersonations...this is Britton's go-to face for pictures now :)

After dinner Paul took Britton out to do some "guy stuff", I put Avrie to bed, and we danced to some of our favorite Halloween songs like Thriller and the Monster Mash. The girls got decked out in their Witchy Headbands and their fabric tutus we made a while back...too cute!

Finally we put on our favorite Witchy movie "Hocus Pocus" and pigged out on our Spooky, Slimy Popcorn! Okay, it was really homemade caramel popcorn with eyeballs made out of mini marshmallows and mini chocolate chips, and man was it tasty!

I must be getting old because when Paul got home with Britton the movie was almost over, the girls were sitting on the couch totally entranced, and I was in the middle of them dead asleep on Skylar's shoulder! Those little witches wore me out! :)

What a fun night I had with my little witches, I am already looking foward to next year!

Witches Night In Party sneak peak...Witchy Headbands!

2011-10-14T07:40:00.000-07:00

Every year all my sisters-in-law and I go to a local annual event called Witches Night Out. It is a wonderful tradition that we all look forward to. Every year Skylar is sad that she can't go with me so this year I thought I would have a little Witches Night In party with my girls the night before :) Our party is tonight and the kids are SO excited!

Originally I thought it would be fun to get everyone witch hats we could decorate, but then I saw the "hat" my sister-in-law Camille got for herself :) It was the cutest little headband with a small witch hat on top...I loved it! I thought something similar would be just right for my little witches and I wanted to share it with you today!

I'm sorry I didn't take any pictures while I was making this...I am not quite that talented. But all you need is a headband, small witch hat (Hobby Lobby:), tulle, feather and hot glue! My kind of project!

I didn't know exactly how I wanted this, but the way that ended up looking the best was glueing the feather down first, then putting a few pieces of triangle-shaped tulle on top of that. Then I glued the Witch hat on with another piece of tulle scrunched up on the back of it. I finished it off by adding some beads around the middle of the hat and there you have it!

It was so simple and I can't wait to put them on all my little girls tonight! Stay tuned for more Witches Night In fun...I love taking something simple like watching our favorite Halloween movie and turning it into a night we will all remember :)

Pumpkin Pie Bites

2011-10-13T20:14:00.000-07:00

Okay, last pumpkin activity for a while...I promise! :) I found these years ago from the AMAZING Bakerella and thought they would make for a fun treat this Pumpkin Week!

Everything is cuter mini...and pumpkin pies are no exception!

You can click on the link for Bakerella's tutorial, but mine were really as simple as rolling out refrigerator pie crust, cutting with a pumpkin cookie cutter, stuffing into a mini-muffin tin, and filling with canned pumpkin pie mix :)

Then you bake them for 12-15 minutes at 350 degrees and you come out with these little cuties! :)

Thank you so much for visiting Blue Skies Ahead this week! We have done so many fun pumpkin activities...I am excited to see what next week holds for us (probably TONS of housework since I kind of slacked on that this week ;)

Pumpkin Bracelets!

2011-10-12T20:23:00.001-07:00

So...are you sick of pumpkins yet?!

We're not! :) Today we did a VERY simple craft that ended up being really fun, the kids could do it all on their own, and it was actually quite educational too. I give you...

Pumpkin Bracelets!!

All you need to make some of your own are different colored beads and some pipe cleaners. It's really that simple.

Once you have your supplies ready to go let your kids string beads on the pipe cleaner until they have enough to cover their wrist.

Once they had enough I just twisted the two ends together and then stuck green beads on to make a stem. I wrapped the remaining pipe cleaner in and around the pumpkin bracelet so it would stay put!

Not only did these turn out pretty cute, but as I said it was a great educational activity as well. We worked on patterns with the girls and for my little guy it was a great way to practice fine motor skills and color recognition.

Sometimes (alright...almost all the time) with young kids these simple crafts are the ones that turn out best and that they enjoy the most! :)

Glad you stopped by today, we have lots more fun stuff coming up! I never blog this much...but this is just such a fine time of year I feel like I don't want to waste a moment or an idea. Have a wonderful day!!

Pumpkin Soup

2011-10-11T21:30:00.001-07:00

This week we read THE cutest little book called Pumpkin Soup by Helen Cooper. In it the characters Duck, Cat and Squirrel love to make pumpkin soup. They learn important lessons about friendship and how important it is to let everyone help...even if it makes a bigger mess in the end :) We loved the story and the illustrations that were in this book...so much, in fact, that it inspired us to make our very own Pumpkin Soup!!

Before we get started you just have to know....this soup is AMAZING!!! I had never made it before, but man, it is delicious!! And also, what's better than homemade soup? Homemade soup with homemade rolls!! My favorite to make our the Lion House Rolls, http://dealstomeals.blogspot.com/2009/02/my-favorite-roll-recipe.html,

they come out perfect every time!

Ok, now on to the soup! Remember before we get started, the WHOLE point of this is to let your kids help! Its gonna get messy, its going to take way longer than it needs too, and they are going to be SO proud of what you did together :)

My sister-in-law Becky's Amazing Pumpkin Soup

2 large onions, chopped

1 lb bacon, chopped

2 15oz cans pumpkin

2 C water

4 C apple cider

1/2 C brown sugar

8 cubes chicken buillon

2 apples, unpeeled and chopped

salt, to taste

1 tsp ginger

First up:

While your bacon and onions are cooking chop up your apples. Sidenote: I did all my chopping while the kids were napping and then put them in baggies. Then when we were ready to start my kids dumped everything in the pot and didn't have to stand around while I chopped.

Once your bacon is almost completely cooked through drain most of the grease and put in a big pot. Then add pumpkin, water, apple cider, brown sugar, chicken buillon, apples, salt and ginger.

My kids favorite part? Taking the wrappers off the buillon cubes. Whatever works, right?! And how precious are those little hands?!

Once you have all the ingredients in the pot you want to cover and let simmer for 1 hour. The soup needs to be stirred frequently, so it was actually quite nice to have 3 little helpers...they all got plenty of turns!

Doesn't that look gorgeous?
Once your soup is done simmering you want to blend to thicken it in blender-size batches. Why no pictures of this step? Maybe its because on 3 different occasions my delicious pumpkin soup exploded out the top of my blender and covered a good portion of my kitchen and myself...maybe :)

But besides the blender debacle, the entire process was a blast! True, I have a mountain of dishes to tackle this morning, but we had a great time and a delicious dinner. My kids were so proud of THEIR pumpkin soup, and it was fun to spend some good quality time with them in the kitchen.

Even though the book was for them, it reminded me that everyone needs to feel important and capable, and by letting our children try things they can't do quite perfectly yet, we are helping them take pride in themselves and their accomplishments.

Thank you so much for stopping by today!! We have lots more pumpkin fun coming up and maybe another yummy pumpkin recipe or two :)

Perfect Pumpkin Dinner!

2011-10-11T13:08:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we kicked off our week learning all about pumpkins with a really fun family home evening and a perfect pumpkin dinner! It is super easy, the kids love it, and its a fun way to get everyone excited for the season.

Who doesn't love pizza?! Let's take it one step further....who doesn't love pizza shaped like a pumpkin??

All you need to do is whip up your favorite homemade pizza crust recipe and the rest is pretty self-explanatory :)

Once you have polished off your pumpkin pizza, its dessert time! I made these years ago, and I can't remember where I got the idea (if it was from you...please let me know!:)

All you need for this dessert is butterscotch pudding, banana cream pudding, ad some whipped cream to top it all off!

Super easy and super yummy too! Thanks so much for stopping by today, I hope you all have a fantastic week and that you'll come back and visit again soon!

The Parable of the Pumpkins

2011-10-10T20:09:00.000-07:00

I had to share this family home evening with everyone tonight in the hopes that it will be as successful in your home as it was in ours! I got the idea for this fhe years ago as I was praying for a way to help my then 4-year old realize the importance of telling the truth. I revamped it this year, wrote this poem, and tonight it was a wonderful lesson on repentance, doing our best, and finally being made clean through the atonement of our Savior.

I give you....The Parable of the Pumpkins

by Tonii Johnson

(I have a link below so you can download this for yourself if you like it!)

Once in a pumpkin patch, not far from here,

There were two little pumpkins, both friends so dear.

They were so much alike, both orange and round,

They both had a stem, and they both grew on the ground.

But that is where the similarity ends,

You see, there is one big differene between these closest of friends.

Patty the pumkin is not always nice,

She often tells lies, hits, screams and fights.

She never says sorry, and she really is quite mean,

Though she looks fine on the outside, her insides are not clean!

Then you have Perry, our other pumpkin friend,

Perry is someone on whom you can always depend!

Perry can make mistakes like all of us do,

But Perry says he's sorry, and you know what he says is true.

He tries his very hardest to be the best he can,

It's not always easy, but he has a plan!

He knows how important it is to be truly clean,

Not just on outside, but also where it CAN'T be seen.

He knows of the importance to stay clean and pure,

By saying I'm sorry, repenting, telling the truth and more!

As we leave our two pumpkin friends, there are great lessons to learn,

Our actions WILL determine what kind of insides we earn.

We all make mistakes, that is for sure,

What makes our insides different is our DESIRE to be pure.

As we strive our hardest to be the best we can be,

There will be rough times, days we have to say "Sorry!"

But just like in the pumpkin patch not far from here,

The way I want my insides is SO very clear!

I'll choose Perry over Patty every day of the week,

Even though I may look okay on the outside, clean on the inside is what I truly seek!

You can click

http://www.4shared.com/folder/G4JOhpiW/The_Parable_of_the_Pumpkins.html to download your very own printable version of The Parable of the Pumpkins.

Once you have your printable all ready to go the next thing you need are the two stars of tonights family home evening....Patty and Perry!

Don't laugh too hard...I think I have mentioned before that free-hand painting is not my strong suit! :)

After you have decorated them you want to scoop out all the gunk from your Perry pumpkin so he is nice and clean.

Patty pumpkin...not so much! Leave it all in there and hope its a super slimy one! :)
After we read our story we talked about how we want OUR insides to be. Then I let the kids pull of the tops of the pumpkins and see the insides. Their faces were priceless! It actually made me tear up (no big surprise) because you could see that they just GOT IT. They understood what we were trying to teach them, and there was no way they wanted their insides to look ANYTHING like Patty's!

I think the most successful part of the night was when we talked about how even though Patty had some yucky insides right now, through a loving Heavenly Father and the atonement of our Savior she too (and all of us!) could be made clean once more. I feel so strongly about teaching my children this principle. The fact is, they will sin. They will make mistakes. And they HAVE to know there is a way back, that it is never too late.

Thank you so much for visiting Blue Skies Ahead! We have SO many people visiting from SugarDoodle and other sites, I hope it has been worth your time :) I am grateful for a place like this little blog where I can share and cultivate some of the things I am passionate about like teaching my children, enjoying this crazy journey and striving to follow my Savior.

Weekend Wrap-up!

2011-10-10T07:26:00.000-07:00

Well, another great weekend has come and gone. It was the perfect mix of family, fun, work, and best of all...date night! :)

Friday night we had a mellow night in with the kids. I've got to tell you....if spinning were an olympic event, my kids would be some tough competition! This is what we did all night on Friday...watched them spin around the living room. Believe it or not...quite entertaining :)

In between spinning Skylar was having a great time getting abused by Avrie...slobbered on, hair pulled, you name it. Skylar loved every second of it :)

I was lucky enough to win some tickets on Facebook to Gardner Village's dinner theater show. And even MORE lucky to go with this handsome guy...

We had to stop by Sweet Aftons to get our fudge-fix. And if you're curious about the results of our taste test they are...Heavenly Hash came in third, Cookies and Creme a solid second, and the grand prize went to Creamsicle. SO good! However, they were all out of Root Beer and that one definitely would have got my vote:)

We were a little nervous about the dinner show at first. Poor Paul was one of 4 males under the age of 50 in the entire place. He's giving me looks like "You owe me BIG time for this....", but I am happy to say once it got going it was hilarious. We are still laughing about the tribute to boy bands of the 90's :)

I told you it was a great weekend :) I hope yours was as well and I also hope you'll stop by tomorrow for a really great fhe, and lots of fun pumpkin activities and crafts this week!

Pumpkin Spice Hot Chocolate

2011-10-06T16:17:00.001-07:00

Yep...its as yummy as it sounds :)

Sad for us here in Utah, but the weather is a-changing! Today it was in the 40's, which only means one things. Hot Chocolate Time! And since I am clinging to fall with everything I've got, I wanted to add some yummy fall flavors.

This is easy. Like...ridiculously easy. No gourmet recipe here, all you need is milk, pumpkin pie spice, hot chocolate packets, nutmeg, and whipped cream. I poured a packet of hot chocolate mix in my mug and then sprinkled in a few shakes of Pumpkin Pie Spice. Then once I warmed my milk I poured it in my mug and stirred very well.

Then I topped it all off with lots of whipped cream and a shake or two of nutmeg. It was amazing!

For the kids I added these humongous marshmallow pumpkins. Well...they are supposed to be pumpkins, but my kids didn't believe me :)

This was a fun treat to have when my kids got home from school, it would also be great to have after getting back from a pumpkin patch or trick-or-treating! Thanks for stopping by today, have a wonderful day!!

Chic Fabric Covered Pumpkins

2011-10-05T14:40:00.000-07:00

So yesterday I saw some fabric-covered pumpkins on one of my favorite blogs Love Sweet Love. They are darling and she posted a fantastic tutorial....I knew I had to have them :)

I've been trying to redo my Halloween decor this year, I'm going for something a little more chic that will match what I already have year round. I love purple for Halloween and since my living room is already blue and green this fabric was a no-brainer. This is what my finished product looked like :)

Like I said, Love Sweet Love has an awesome tutorial so run over there if you want to make your very own! All you need are some fabric scraps, ModgePodge and a cheapy fake pumpkin.

Once you have painted the stem black and got all your fabric on you have these darling pumpkins that totally pop!

You can find this adorable Keep Calm printable HERE :)

I am so excited to finish the wreath and garland I am making to go with these cuties...hopefully they turn out and I can post them soon. Although the chances of me having 2 projects in a row that actually turn out is quite slim, I'll keep my fingers crossed ;)

Big thanks go out to Love Sweet Love for sharing this great idea...that is why I LOVE blogging!! Hope you all have a Fantastic Fall day!

Wax paper leaves

2011-10-04T20:31:00.000-07:00

This week we are learning all about leaves, and I found an adorable craft idea HERE that we tried out today. My kids LOVED doing this craft and I think they turned out pretty darn cute :)

I have never done the whole melting-crayon-between-wax-paper crafts...but I LOVED it! It was so fun to see what the different colors would look like after they melted and the kids really enjoyed it.

First up was my kids dream come true...I was actually telling them to pick the wrappers off the crayons instead of getting after them! :)

The blog I linked to has some great tips for when you actually do the ironing, I would definitely check it out if you have never done these before.

Can you believe how gorgeous those colors are??

Also, on that link she has a leaf template you will want to print out so you can trace your leaves.

These were so fun to make and I loved that they used items you always have laying around the house (unless you're me...then you just send your kids to your awesome neighbors to borrow some wax paper :). I foresee aLOT more wax paper creations in our future :)

Thanks so much for stopping by today! I have to say...I am so grateful for all the wonderful inspiration I have found on so many of YOUR blogs. I am amazed at the creative, unselfish people in the world that so gracefully share of their talents, making my life easier and more beautiful. So keep up the great work you do and keep all the wonderful ideas coming....I will if you will!;)

October Service Project - Welcome to the neigh"BOO"hood!

2011-10-04T06:16:00.000-07:00

Well, I am happy to anounce that we actually had another service project last night! Usually when I try to do things like this I have great intentions and not such great results :) Maybe this one will actually stick!

In our neighborhood we have had a bunch of people move in the last few weeks. I thought it would be fun to serve our new neighbors and get to know them a little bit better. First for our lesson we learned all about The Good Samaritan and talked about how important it is to be kind to our neighbors no matter what they look like, where there from, what church they go to or what language they speak. Then we put together a few things to take over to them :)

First of all....the treat! :) We love making these Nutter Butter ghosts...they are super easy and quite tasty too!

They are pretty self-explanatory. Dip em in melted white chocolate and use mini chocolate chips and frosting to make eyes and a mouth. Cute!

Then I stuck them in a jar just because I love jars. But it wasn't quite doing it for me so I spraypainted the lid purple and added a bunch of ribbon,

After we had the treat ready to go we put together a file folder to take to the neighbors. Earlier in the day we had driven around and picked up all sorts of papers they might find helpful. I got a ward directory, papers from the city offices about who to contact for your utilities, library calendar and storytimes, copies of the local newspaper, takeout menus from local restaurants and maps. Then we coverd the file folder with fun Halloween paper, added our yummy treat, and there you have it!

Our very own Welcome to the neigh"BOO"hood gift for all of our great new neighbors!

I was really excited at how this turned out. We have always been the type to keep more to ourselves, but after having some truly great neighbors it has made me want to be a better one myself, and teach my children the same thing.

Thank you so much for stopping by, and please share! What are some family service projects YOU have done..especially with young kids?

Farm Week

2011-10-03T10:00:00.000-07:00

Farm Week was pretty successful! I found some fantastic new resources I can't wait to share with you and we did some fun activities that our entire family enjoyed :) Get ready for picture overload!

First up we enjoyed reading Eric Carle's The Very Busy Spider. This is a darling book that shows all the different animals you will see at the farm and what sounds they make. My kids loved taking turns looking through it and making the different animal noises that went with each animal.

There's no better way to learn about a farm then to actually go to one! We headed off on Monday to see all the different animals we were going to be learning about.

We recently discoverd a discovery area at the farm that is SO fun for the kids! They learn all about how food is planted, harvested, delivered to stores and then purchased and brought home. They can plant the seeds, pick them, and put them on the truck to go to the store. My kids loved every bit of it!

Once we got done playing there we went to feed some of the animals and practice the animal sounds we had read all about that morning! Here were some of our favorites...

A trip to the farm would not be complete without pony rides

And of course snacktime. I made sure to bring snacks that were grown on a farm to reinforce the idea that our food comes from farms. Fresh fruits and veggies for us! :)

Later on in the week we learned all about pigs one day. I found this fun craft online HERE. You can print off your very own pig template and then she used brown paint to simulate the pigs rolling in mud. I thought it would be more fun to use chocolate pudding...then the kids could REALLY get good and messy! And they did!!

Another really simple activity we did was to use the barn that we made for our A"cow"ntable Family Home Evening earlier in the week. Then I got out all of our Little People animals and had the kids put the farm animals in the barn and all the other animals on the table. It was a good way for them to practice sorting and reinforce what animals are found on a farm.
Finally I found this amazing website, 2 Teaching Mommies, that has free printable themed units for children! I printed off their entire farm unit and was thrilled with what it included. The great thing was they had two seperate units for younger and older children...so there really was something for everyone! This particular worksheet had all the different farm animals and the color they were supposed to be. It was a great way to work on colors as well as the different farm animals.

It was a great week and I think the kids learned alot. Thanks so much for stopping by today! I hope you have a wonderful week and keep checking back :) I am going to have a fun family service project idea, and a giveaway for all my wonderful followers!

Weekend Wrap-up!

2011-10-03T07:45:00.000-07:00

And what a wonderful weekend it was! Fall is my favorite time of year...mostly because there is SO many fun activities! One of our favorites is going to Cornbellys. They have so many different things for the kids to do and its a great place for the whole family. This year did not disappoint!

They have a Princess Playland where the girls can dress up like princesses, listen to the pumpkin princess tell a story, climb up into a Pumpkin Carriage and play in a castle. It is SO cute and my girls totally loved it.

ALL my kids were excited to go on the Cow Train. How cute are they?! :)

And we can't forget the cornmaze. Paul really wanted to do it with the kids...I was a little unsure. It was actually really fun...and we made it! I was impressed with the kids, by the time we finally found our way out we had been in there for over an hour and it was dark. They did great and minimal tears were shed ;)

Saturday was full of soccer games and General Conference. Busy and fun!

Sunday was a wonderful day full of tradition, inspiring messages and the great outdoors!

We started the morning off with our tradition of Conference Socks and Creme Brulee French Toast. Yum!

Inbetween sessions we took the kids on a drive up the canyon to collect some leaves and listen to Conference on the radio. While were were driving we stumbled upon Bridal Veil Falls...can you believe how gorgeous that is?

It was so wonderful listening to the words of our prophets and being completely surrounded by so much beauty. I couldn't help but be filled with gratitude for the beautiful world a loving Heavenly Father has blessed us with. I am inspired and rededicated to being better. Showing more charity, diving into my scriptures, and boldy declaring with my words AND actions that I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

I hope you had a wonderful weekend wherever you are too :)

Witchy October Advent!

2011-09-30T06:06:00.001-07:00

I LOVE advent calendars! They make holidays so fun for the kids and keep the excitement going all month long! Yesterday I realized I couldn't find my Halloween Muffing Tin advent I made several years ago...something had to be done! So I ran to my local Dollar Tree, picked up a few things, and while my kids napped threw together this cute advent.

Now, if you want to do this remember...tomorrow is October 1st! You've got to get cracking! Because I have NEVER started an advent after the first day...or in the middle of the month...or 3 days before the actual holiday...;)

All you need to make this Witchy October Advent are some small cauldrons (packs of 8 for a buck), white paint, some type of basket, and a little tulle or ribbon. Easy, right?!

Now, I did say it was easy. I didn't say it wasn't a little bit time consuming :) I am not so great at doing anything freehand but I did paint all the numbers on the cauldrons. It really wasn't too bad and since it was for Halloween some of the ones I messed up on actually looked kind of cool and creepy :)

Now each little cauldron is filled with either an activity to do that day or a little treat for the kids. I set mine up as a calendar instead of a countdown...I didn't want to have to try and do the math each day :) Plus, this way if there are things I already have scheduled on our real calendar they can be our activity for that day.

Once I had all the cauldrons painted and filled I spraypainted this Dollar Tree basket with some purple spray paint and placed all the cauldrons inside.

Then I just tied some tulle around the middle and hot-glued it until I had a kind of bow that looked semi-decent :) Its very simple, so you could definitely add some more decorations to
spice it up. I like simple, so this works in our house.

So there you have your very own Witchy October Advent! Super cheap and super simple :)

Oh, and here are some activities I put in there if you're trying to come up with some:

Watch our favorite Halloween movie

Print Halloween pictures to color

Go to a pumpkin patch

Windowshop for Halloween costumes

aMake Halloween sugar cookies

Make footprint ghosts

Make spooky spiders (styrafoam balls and pipe cleaners)

Decorate Haunted Gingerbread houses

Read a Halloween book

and lots more!

Thank you so much for stopping by today! If you can't tell I kinda like Halloween so come back soon for more fun crafts for the kids, yummy treats and more!

Frankenstein Caramel Apple

2011-09-29T06:14:00.000-07:00

What a boring title, right?! I was trying forever to come up with a clever name for this little guy...but these were the best I could come up with:

Frankenstem. Ummm...that's kind of a stretch. And my kids didn't get it.

Frapplestein? Really...that's the best I've got.

But regardless of the name, he was still a pretty cute, yummy treat for the kids after school yesterday. We love making caramel apples and this one was super tasty and easy for the kids to help with.

I just dipped the top of the apple in caramel and then rolled it in mini chocolate chips. I used icing for the scar and mouth and white chocolate chips with a touch of icing for the eyes.

Please let me know if you can come up with a better name for this guy....I think he deserves one :)

Have a wonderful day everyone and thank you so much for stopping by!!

Orange Pumpkin Treats

2011-09-27T19:32:00.000-07:00

I almost feel silly posting these...that's how easy they were! And I have to give all the credit to my 4-year old Kendall. Last week we had some of those little oranges and she peeled one, stuck it on her thumb, and said "Look mom, its a pumpkin!" I could totally see her vision, so I came up with these fun, HEALTHY snacks for fall :)

Yep, this is all you need. An orange and a slice of celery. I told you it was easy.

My kids loved having these when they came home from school today. It was nice to see them excited about an after school snack that wasn't full of sugar and empty calories (not that we don't love those ones too!:)

Thank you SO much for stopping by Blue Skies Ahead today! I hope you will come back again as I have lots of fun things planned and some great ways to enjoy one of my favorite months of the year with my kids :)

Linking up at:

BreLyn Boutique

Southern Lovely

Weekend Wrap-up!

2011-09-25T07:24:00.000-07:00

The whole reason I started this blog years ago was to document my cute kids and all the things that go on with our family. Today I wanted to return to that a little bit :) I love sharing family home evening ideas, crafts I attempt, and ways I am trying to get healthier. I ALSO love remembering the sweet times our family has together. That was what this blog was created for, so here goes! :)

Last night was the General Relief Society Broadcast. It was amazing. President Uchtdorf said SO many things I needed to hear. The thing that stuck out to me most was his message to be happy in our lives NOW. He spoke of how many of us are constantly waiting for things to happen in our life so we can be happy, and meanwhile we are missing small, precious moments that can bring so much joy. As I was looking at ALL these pictures, I thought about the small moments this weekend that brought ME much joy. Our life is not perfect, my children are not perfect....and I am not even close :) But, there is still so much joy to be found, if I can remember to look for it

Yesterday both of the girls had soccer games. Kendall is a hoot on the soccer field. Her little team is full of friends from her preschool class, and once you actually get her on the field (it takes a LOT of coaxing) she has fun.

Skylar's game was after and it was her best game yet!! She completely owned the goal...didn't let ONE get past her! I was really proud of her...she gets VERY tired but she didn't give up and ran the whole time she was out on the field.

Inbetween the girls games we had an hour break and the girls LOVED the swings. I love how carefree and joyful they are.

After the soccer games I talked Paul into taking the kids to Thanksgiving Point to go to the Harvest Festival (he wanted to be responsible and do yard work...I won :)

They had so many fun things to do: free crafts for the kids, bands playing, .50 ice cream cones, face-painting, and a giant pumpkin contest.

I have definitely passed on the Chamberlain family love of ice cream to my children. Seriously...the size of our ice cream scoops are legendary :)

I had to post this picture just to prove that we DO take Avrie out of her carseat occasionally. Extremely good babies result in extremely FEW pictures :)

My kids love having their faces painted. I think we gave the artists some beautiful canvases :)

Hope you are all having a fantastic weekend as well! I'm excited to be posting a fun family home evening idea, lots of fun farm activities for the kids, and whatever else I throw together this week :)

Don't let one minute of Conference go to "WASTE!"

2011-09-23T13:20:00.000-07:00

Every year like so many of you I love to put together Conference Baskets for my kids. I always include a Conference Activity Packet, new crayons and some yummy treats that we very rarely have in our house (partially due to trying to be healthier, but also because I am really cheap!:)

This year I happened to be at Target and found some super cute waste baskets on clearance for .75 each! I thought they would be perfect for this year's baskets.

Don't you just love the look of that blue mesh waste basket??

This is the little printable I made up....Don't let one minute of Conference go to "WASTE!"

I love how these turned out and I KNOW my kids are going to be excited to get them (I know, because they came down while I was taking pictures and started freaking out :)

I hope you all have a fantastic weekend, thank you so much for stopping by!

Candy Corn Cupcakes in a Jar

2011-09-22T19:29:00.000-07:00

I had to hurry and post this tonight since I thought it might be a TEENSY bit hypocritical to post it on the same day I do my Fit Friday posts :)

I found the inspiration for this idea on one of my favorite blogs, Running With Glitter. Yep, hers are way cuter, but I still thought these were very fun and festive for the season.

Candy Corn Cupcakes in a Jar!

These are SO simple, very tasty, and a fun way to celebrate the season.

First I mixed up a yellow cake mix, divided it in half, and added a little red food coloring to one bowl.

Then I got out my mason jars and filled them each halfway with yellow on the bottom and then the orange. Ok...honestly...FIRST I filled them almost to the top and then baked them and had cake pouring out the top all over my oven. THEN I remembered you only need to fill them up halfway...very important step :) You place them on a baking sheet and bake for 45 minutes at 325 degrees.

Once they are done cooking and have cooled you scoop out the top, add your favorite white frosting (I don't like frosting so I used Cool Whip) and you have your very own Candy Corn Cupcakes in a Jar!

Have a great night everyone!!

Linking up at

Gluesticks
The Crafty Blog Stalker

Halloween Scrappy Fabric Tutus!

2011-09-22T09:38:00.000-07:00

Last night I got together with my amazing friend Hollie and we crafted the night away! I LOVE getting together with a good friend, chatting, and letting the creative juices flow :) Hollie made some ridiculously cute frames with fabric flowers...seriously adorable. I wanted to make something for my girls for the upcoming holidays...and this is how they turned out!

I have 3 little girls, so naturally....I LOVE tu-tu's! However, I am kind of over the tulle ones. Not that they are not adorable, but I feel like they get worn once and then they are completely squished and deformed! Plus, I think they are cuter on babies and I wanted something for my older girls too. I decided to try something I had seen somewhere on Pinterest...a Scrabby Fabric Tu-tu!

You make this just like you would a tulle one...all you need is an elastic waistband, some cute halloween fabric and you are all set to go.

After I knotted all the strips of fabric I fit it on Kendall and then finished cutting all the strips at an angle so it would have a funky, layered look to it.

I was THRILLED with how this turned out!! You can just use fabric scraps you have laying around, and I think for Kendall we just might add a witch hat and have her costume all ready to go! :)

Thank you SO much for stopping by and let me know if you try one of these out for yourself! It doesn't get much easier than this ;)

I can be a"COW"ntable Family Home Evening

2011-09-20T08:33:00.000-07:00

If you couldn't tell from the play on words, we are learning about all things FARM this week :) This fhe was inspired by one of those books you get at Deseret Book that has family home evenings all done for you, you just have to copy them and cut them out! I have a bunch of those books that I browse through to get some idea. This book already the cows so I just cut them out and laminated them. If you DON't have the book you could just print out cows and write different scenarios on the back.

To make this a little more fun I decided to make a cute little barn we could use as a visual. We are actually going to be using this for a bunch of farm activities this week so it will get plenty of use. All you need is a empty oatmeal container, some contruction paper and a little white paint.

You simply cover the oatmeal container with red contruction paper and then use the white paint to make a little door and window. To make the top I traced a large circle and cut it out. Then you just cut a line to the center and fold the paper around to make a cone. I found the original idea HERE.

After my barn and cows were all ready to go we talked about what the word Accountability means. I explained its knowing the difference between right and wrong and taking responsibility for your actions. We asked the kids some different things that they have to be accountable for (praying before bed, brushing their teeth, treating everyone with kindness) and especially focused on NOT blaming others when you make a bad choice. This seems to happen a lot in our home :) Then it was time for our activity.

Each child would take turns coming up and picking out a cow. If the scenario on the cow demonstrated being accountable, they could put the cow in the nice, warm, cozy barn with its family. If it was NOT being accountable the cow had to go outside the barn in the cold weather all by itself.

Finally to finish off I took a bunch of scenarios that have happened lately in our house. I gave the kids cow-shaped paper plates I found at the store that I had cut the eyes out of. When I said a scenario that showed someone being accountable I told them I wanted my a''COW'ntability Cos to stand up and MOOOOO as loud as they could. If it wasn't being accountable to sit quitely on the floor. The kids LOVED this part and had lots of fun standing up, sitting down, and moooing their little hearts out :)

Some of our scenarios were:

When I went outside to play I went down the street to the neighbors house without asking mommy.

Even though I was already in bed, I reminded Daddy that we forgot to read our scriptures.

When I heard the baby crying I gave her a binky without mommy asking me to.

When I got in trouble for hitting I said it wasn't my fault because my sister yelled at me first.

I think it really helped the kids to use real-life things that had happened recently so they could understand what accountability truly means.

I hope this gave someone an idea for a different and fun way to teach your kids what I believe is an incredibly important principle. Thank you SO much for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

Apples Week

2011-09-19T10:37:00.000-07:00

Well Apple Week was a hit at our house! We started off the week by reading this fun book with Dr. Suess.

My kids thought this book was SO funny, we read it about a billion times last week. They even ran to the fridge and tried to balance apples on their head...they couldn't quite get up to ten ;)

We were lucky enough to find an apple orchard that was fairly close to us where you can go pick your own apples! Unfortunately when we got there the hours were different that what was online and they were closed. However, the owner happened to be there and was so sweet to us! Not only did he let us pick whatever apples we could find and take for free, but he also gave us a tour and free samples of their very cool Cider Press. It was fun to show the kids how apples are turned into cider and it was even more fun letting them pick their own apples off the trees.

The owner said his father (who started the farm years ago) was passionate about teaching children where things REALLY come from, showing them how things grow so they don't think they just show up in grocery stores. It was very informative for me as well and the kids absolutely loved it! I will definitely be doing business with this family farm again! :)

One day we talked all about the different ways you can eat apples. We had whole apples with our breakfast, for our snack we had apple slices dipped in peanut butter and for dessert that night everyone made their very own apple pies :) I am NOT a baker so we just used refrigerator pie crusts, cans of apple pie filling, and little pie tins I found at WalMart.

The kids loved squishing the pie crust in the tin and then spooning the apple pie on top.

They also loved pinching the top and bottom crust together (and sneaking bits of the pie filling ;)

They turned out quite yummy and the kids were SO proud that they had made their very own apple pies!

Finally their favorite activity we did involved apples and a bunch of these....

Yes, those are Mr. Potato Head pieces :) We wanted to make our very own Mr. and Mrs. Apple Heads...and they turned out adorable!

I loved Britton's...anything with a mustache usually gets a laugh from me.

Kendall had to accessorize of course...love the hat!

And this was my little guy...cute, right?! I was surprised how much they enjoyed this, they named their apples and played with them all afternoon. Yes, it was a little sticky and I did have to wash all the pieces, but totally worth it in the end! The only hard part was keeping Britton from eating his guy....:)

Thank you so much for stopping by today! I hope this inspires you to do something FUN with your kids and enjoy them just a little bit more...I know I am trying to. Later I have a fun idea for Conference Baskets for your kids and a fun way I am trying to Cut the Chaos at the dinner table :) Have a great day everyone!! :)

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Apples Week