WOW!!! Where have we been!?

Wow! It has been a while! As many of you know, we have been a busy little family! 2013 has been a crazy busy year for all of us! Starting up with Thirty-One Gifts, New jobs, Baseball, Softball, camping, this and that with the kids and so much more! I am hoping to start up again and keep everyone posted on our family through our blog! Hope to see you around as well!

Craft-A-Holics Anonymous Exchange

      So I saw a post on Facebook that was a 'Swap' I LOVE Swaps! (I do a yarn swap with a group once a month and LOVE it to death, So this swap sounded sooo fun!) As you know, I love to Crochet! I even have a page on Facebook... www.facebook.com/hookdonyou Yep go check it out! Anyways, I was randomly selected to have a lady from Oklahoma. After talking to her and getting some information I decided to make her a throw.  I didnt want to make her a hat or anything like that because you never know if it looks good on one person, if it will the next! So why not a blanket! Anyone can use one! I would love to have one for all my days at the ballpark. (one day it is freezing cold and we are in coats, and the next day we are sweating our guts out! Thank you Utah!) 

    Okay, back to my throw! I was testing a pattern for the Fancy Hooker, Yep she is AMAZING! I love her patterns! So this throw was working up so beautifully that I decided I needed to make one for Miss S! Okay and tada, here it is!

sorry for the crappy picture, I have not edited it yet!

Oh, A Give-a-way!

As you all know I am a BIG, I mean BIG fan of The Happy Scraps! Amy is doing a give-a-way to Thank all of her followers! Who doesn't like to win FREE Stuff!? Go on over to THIS post and enter to win some great prizes!
GOOD LUCK!!

Card/Tag Exchange

So I do ALOT of following on my blog and/or GOOGLE Reader and Amy with The Happy Scraps is one of those GREAT people that I love to Follow! She has been doing a Handmade Card Exchange for a couple months now and I LOVE it! I used to do a card exchange once a month with my mom and sister in law and AbSoLuTeLy miss it! So when Amy started this, I had to jump in! (I don't know why I do the cards, because I HATE giving them away because they are so cute!) Here are a couple of my favorites from the 1st month. There was not a theme for October.

In November we had a theme.... Thank You! Who would have picked a better theme for the cards in November! Again, I got a handful of cards and fell in love with them as well. I hate using these cards!

For the month of December, Amy is doing a Tag exchange... I have the cutest idea and cant wait to get started on them! If you are interested in joining (there are people all over the US that join! Come have some fun! And get to see how others 'craft' and Scrapbook!) go to The Happy Scraps and look for the post Titled "CHRISTMAS GIFT TAG EXCHANGE" Deadline is December 3 for sign ups! Hurry! Join the fun!!

Christmas Decor

I have had so much fun decorating our house and getting it ready for Christmas! As some of you know I am ADDICTED to Pinterest! Love that place! Not only am I an Addict to Pinterest, I am an Addict to The Wood Connection! I love all the ideas that I can find in both places.

My Santa that I have (sitting on a chair) is getting ready to go on my front door. Hopefully the wind will be nice this month so I can hang it and it wont blow off.. (Dang Spanish Fork wind!)

Oh my topper! I went to a craft fair over Thanksgiving weekend and saw this Hat and sat there for about 15 minutes deciding what I would do with it.. The lady that was selling it was laughing at me and said that she has the green one and put it on her tree. I could only imagine how it would look on mine! It would make my tree look bigger than it is.. (Note: In our old house we couldnt have a very tall tree because the ceilings where a little low... Now in the new house we have vaulted ceilings and it looks extremely small!)

So after buying my hat, I went and got me a bunch of ornaments to match it. I love Red and Black, so that on my Christmas tree was PERFECT!

I LOVE stars!... Thanks again to the Wood Connection!

JOY... again another Wood Connection Craft! Oh how I love that place, Thank goodness it is in SL and not in Utah County! I would be POOR!

On Pinterest, there was a picture of a window that had ornaments hanging from it. I have the perfect window! Add some Tulle and Tada!

More posts to come of all the decorating!!

Blog Stalking Recipes!

So I have been trying to make dinner every night (not just pb&j or ramen noodles!).. And try new things. I blog stock this blog called Kevin & Amanda, She has posted some recipes that I SOOOO want to try! Well tonight, I did one.. Mine did not turn out as BEAUTIFUL as hers, but it was sure tasty... AND all the kids (Harley, Oakley and Erika) scarfed it down!

*I did not take pictures of mine, because I was to busy making dinner and chasing around an 8 month old.. so I borrowed this from the blog I got it at!*

Cheeseburger Macaroni

This delicious, incredibly cheesy dish is another one of our favorite weeknight dinners. It’s beefy, hearty and whips up in less than 20 minutes. Hope you love this one as much as we do!

Start with one pound of lean hamburger meat, browned and drained.

Add a package of taco seasoning.

And one can of this. The good stuff.

You don’t even have to bother to drain it!

Gosh, I really like Rotel.

Add two cups of beef broth.

(You can also just use water if you want.)

And one cup of elbow macaroni. You’ll be glad you did.

By the way, I’ve tried other shapes of pasta in this recipe, and none of them seem to work as well as good old macaroni. Gotta love it.

Stir to combine, and heat to boiling. Reduce heat and cover. Simmer for 12-14 minutes until the macaroni is tender.

Meanwhile, melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a saucepan over medium heat, then add 2 tablespoons of flour.

Whisk to combine, and continue to cook, whisking until the roux is fragrant and light brown in color, about 5 minutes.

Whisk in 3/4 cup of milk.

And bring the sauce to a boil. Whisk until smooth and thickened.

Remove the saucepan from the heat, and add 1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese.

Whisk until melted. Heaven help me.

Now one last step for the sauce, this stuff needs some seasoning! Add 1/2 tsp each of salt and pepper. I love this seasoned salt and pepper.

Here’s what your hamburger and noodles should look like after 12-14 minutes. Don’t worry if there’s still some beef broth in there. You may want to taste test a noodle for doneness at this point.

If you like it, go ahead and pour in the cheese sauce and stir gently to combine.

Glorious! Beef. Cheese. Rotel. Taco seasoning. Does it get any better than this? Enjoy!

Cheeseburger Macaroni

1 lb lean hamburger meat
1 pkg taco seasoning
1 can Rotel tomatoes and green chilies (or petite diced tomatoes)
2 cups beef broth (or water)
1 cup elbow macaroni

Brown and drain hamburger meat. Stir in taco seasoning, Rotel, beef broth, and macaroni. Heat to boiling. Reduce heat and cover pan. Simmer 12-14 mins until macaroni is tender.

Meanwhile, make the cheese sauce….

2 Tablespoons butter
2 tbsp flour
3/4 cup milk
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

Melt the butter in a saucepan. Whisk in the flour and cook, whisking for 5 minutes until fragrant and light brown in color. Whisk in the milk and bring to a boil. Whisk until smooth and thickened. Remove from heat and stir in the shredded cheddar cheese until melted. Add the salt and pepper to the cheese sauce. Pour the cheese sauce over the hamburger mixture. Stir gently to combine.

Serves 4.

***PS... I like the pictures! It helped me be able to see what MINE was supposed to look like! ***

Brighton- 8 months

I can't do a post about the older kids and not put a couple pictures of B on here! He is now 8 months old and weighs 23 lbs! CRAZY I know.. where has time gone?! He is the happiest baby I have ever seen! I thought Harley and Oakley were happy, but B is SOO Happy! And how can you not say NO to this face?! yes, he is climbing up and walking around the couch...

1st day of School....

I had to go through TWO days of FIRST days! Not the funnest! Here are some pictures of the kids on their first day of school.. Harley is now in the THIRD grade, and loving it.. She is meeting new friends, since she is the NEW girl at school! Oakley is in Kindergarten and is in the same class as his friend at daycare. They get to ride the bus to and from school, which is nice but in a way not.. Harley started school last Monday, and Oakley today... Oak has been asking for a week when he gets to start school.. He has been so excited! Today I asked him if he was excited to go and he said..."I am excited for tomorrow... Because I get to ride the bus with Berklie!" WHAT? not the first day of school, but the bus?!
I have to laugh.. sorry if you are one of these parents... There was a couple parents (okay really one while I was there..) that was crying because her BABY was going to school.. Me? I couldn't be happier! Oak's school is during B's naptime, so that means ME time.. (on Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays!) Well I was helping Oakley get his bag in the right place today, we put the bag on the hook and he said..."Okay mom... You can go now.. bye..." Wow, Mr. Independent! Glad that he is ready to go to school and actually liking it!
Harley is another story! She has loved school since Pre-school.. and has always been excited to go.. This year, not as much. She has fun, but she says that it is boring.. I am thinking that she will grow out of the boring school stage, and it is just because she is new to the school, and only has a couple friends (luckily a couple of those couple are in her class!) Well, Ill be done with my NOVEL and let you check out pictures.. For those couple of you that actually read my blog!


I am not big on making breakfast for my kids before school because we are always in a hurry to get ready and off to work and daycare, that they get cold cereal... BUT since my day off is Mondays, I thought that I would make them Crepes!
Brighton was even happy about it!

Harleys First day of School..
(didn't you know we lived in WINDY city USA!)Sitting in her class
Oakley and Erika's first day of Kindergarten
These two are best friends, and are not even in the same class, OR time...

Lexi wanted to get in the picture with them!
Oakley in front of his Classroom! He was so excited!
Oakley and Berklie

The New House...

Well... it is about time that I post this.. people have been asking for pictures of the new house.. We love it and are happy that we have moved here.. The kids love it, that makes a difference! Sorry about the picture OVERLOAD! But here you go!










SOOOO much better than HOUSE at 335!