Lion House Rolls

♫Oh the weather outside is frightful...♫ Actually it really isn't all that frightful, but bad enough for be to make some soup and yummy rolls! Lion House Rolls is my favorite yeast recipe to make-they turn out so pretty and tasty every time. I recently watched this video to try and perfect their method of making them so lovely. I'm a ways off perfect, but closer than I once was.
I love this dough!

Before 2nd rise:

After rise, ready for the oven:

Yummmy! Don't forget to brush with butter when they're hot!

Playing with my Cricut and some vinyl

Christiann and I are teaching a class this week on how to use the Cricut. Well, turns out upon researching that I didn't know half of what that machine can do! hahaha. Needless to say for the last couple of days I've been having a good ole time cutting stuff out! Here are a couple of things for our display table:
Santa plate-this one I'm not sure I'm loving. I may have to redo it later

Be tile

Coaster tiles? Not sure what I would use these for, but I had some tiles laying around just asking to have some vinyl slapped on them

I've also been making tags by the dozen (thanks to the "fill page" feature that I didn't know about and now do...I will post pictures soon.

Christmas "Muffin Tin" Advent

My friend Jeni made the cutest advent using a mini muffin tin! I love it! Here's my attempt at one.


I used little magnets to keep the paper circles on, but I think I may add some double stick tape once I put the treats inside. Speaking of the treats, I plan on putting a little piece of candy and a slip of paper with an activity we can do that day- Gavin and Lily love doing little projects and going places so hopefully I can come up with 24 ideas! So far I'm thinking of things like making cookies and watching a holiday movie. If you have some ideas, I'd love 'em!
*Now looking at the pictures I'm thinking that as we get closer to Christmas, the tin is going to look pretty plain-I might punch out some more circles for the bottom of the cups.

Lily's 3rd Birthday Pictures

It's a miracle and a 1st! We actually got some really cute shots of her today. Every other time we have gone to get some taken, it's been a nightmare at best. So, today I went with low expectations and came out very pleasantly surprised!

Taste of Colorado

Yeah, so I'm just going to jump back in like I haven't been MIA for months on my blog. :) We had a wonderfully busy summer! So busy in fact that I didn't take many pictures, which makes me a little sad. Anyway, one thing we love to do each year at the end of summer is go to the Taste of Colorado.

The corn was Lily's favorite!






Gotta have a turkey leg...
Our self-portrait, the only way I can get in a picture.


Donuts!

Disney 2010

We went to Disney this year with mom, dad, Steven, Jenn, Dylan, Hazel and Seth. So fun!! We did Disney's Give a Day Get a Day and traded them in for special fast passes to each of the parks. What a way to go! I think Steven said, the longest line we waited for was the bus. It was so nice to go to the front of the line on a lot of the rides. Only downfall I'm seeing now is that none of us took very many pictures. And not once did all of us pose together. :( Dad and I agree we need to go back and fix that! The kids had a great time and got along so well, although we knew they would-they play so good together. The grown ups had fun too-dad, Jenn, Steven and I went out a few nights without the kids and had a blast. This was our shortest trip, 6days, and we did more this trip than we have ever done before! We had so much fun! I don't have dad's pictures yet, but I'm sure there are some great ones that I will post later. For now here are a few of mine, I put some on Facebook too.
Epcot:
We went to the princess breakfast our first morning there-so magical! The girls (and boys) loved it! Grammy made them special dresses to wear and they were so cute! The hard part about these character meals, is that there isn't much room to move around and get good pictures. But, the kids have so much fun and get to spend time with their favorites!
Aurora:

Ariel:

Cinderella:

Snow White:

Belle:

Kissing Nemo:



Magic Kingdom:
We had breakfast at Crystal Palace with Pooh and friends:




Animal Kingdom:
Pluto
I bought the leash for Lily, but only made her wear it this one day. The park was so crowded and I wanted her to be able to get out of the stroller when she wanted to.



Hollywood Studios:


This was my favorite picture that I took, they both love these movies so much:

Some of our favorites this time:
Anthony: usually he golfs a round or two, but this time he didn't. he loved rockin' rollercoaster (again) and loved riding it with Gavin this time. he got a trading pin with the word "boobies" on it and would tell anyone who would listen about it. we got to meet up with one of his high school buddies and his family and that was so fun.
Becky: love, love, love Toy Story Mania! Thanks to our fastpasses and our baby swap prowess, we rode this ride 4 times! such a great ride! i also enjoyed space mountain this time since they seemed to have made it more smooth. rockin rollercoaster was great too. my all time favorite though is still Mt.Everest. wow. love it.
Gavin: rode just about everything this time. (missed tower of terror because we were done that day and didn't have time) his favorites were rockin rollercoaster, star tours, splash mountain and dinosaur. he loved trading pins for others-he was constantly on the look out for what others were collecting. so thoughtful that sweet Gavin. he did so good walking almost all the time, which is quite a change from last time. he loved being on vacation with his cousins.
lily: what a difference a year makes! last trip she was pretty unhappy. she didn't want to be in the stroller and she didn't want to be held on rides. this time she was great at both! she was great on every ride she went on. she loved buzz lightyear and toy story mania. again she loved the characters, any and all. her favorite thing each night after dinner was to pin trade. we would head down to the gift shop and she would find salespeople to trade with. she didn't have any favorite pins, but had fun picking whatever she wanted in the moment.

Fun Gift Wrap Idea

I love love love wrapping presents. Sometimes they turn out cute, sometimes not so much. I went to a shower the other day and when I was shopping for the gift at Babies R Us, they had these reusable bags for sale for $1.50. Can't beat that for a gift bag! Anyway, I made the tag to go with it and I was really pleased with the end result.

Candy Cake

OK-so this cake was super easy! I totally copied the idea from the internet (I just googled candy cake and a few like this one came up). I just made a yellow cake, frosted it with chocolate frosting and put on the Kit-Kats and M & M's. I made it for the YW auction-I hope someone bids on it! :)

Crazy Thankful

I am so thankful for my childern. Not just today, but everyday. They are the first thing I am thankful for when I say a prayer. Having had 3 miscarriages, each one being harder than the last, I know what a miracle my kids are to me. But, after having come across this blog yesterday, I can't stop being extra super crazy thankful for my children. I can't get this family off my mind and pray not only for them, but for me and my kids. Check it out and say a prayer for them, then hug your kids. :)

Cards

Sorry the lighting is soo bad in these pictures:
For Christmas Reagan got me the Hello Kitty Cricut Cartridge and I love it! This is a Valentine card for swap last month. I used the cartridge to do the whole thing.

This is one of the cards I'm doing for a workshop this week. I saw this card and loved the idea of using this stamp set for something other than Valentine's.
All products are Stampin Up!
Paper: Whisper White, Certainly Celery,
Pretty in Pink, Tea Party DSP
Stamps: Sweetheart
Punches: Full Heart, Small Heart, Scallop Edge
Ribbon: Certainly Celery
Ink: Pretty in Pink

Another card for the workshop using the same stamp set.
All Products Stampin Up!
Paper: Real Red, Whisper White, Pretty in Pink
Stamps: Sweetheart
Punches: Full Heart, Pinking Hearts Border
Ink: Real Red
Heart Treat Cups

This one I did just for fun-I saw this card and loved it! All products are Stampin Up! again.
Paper: Kraft, Bashful Blue, More Mustard, Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla
Stamps: Trendy Trees
Ribbon: Chocolate Chip
Ink: More Mustard, Chocolate Chip, Bashful Blue
Silver brads
Scallop edge punch

And, one more Valentine card courtesy of Hello Kitty :)

Some Christmas Pictures

We had such a fun Christmas! Gavin woke up around 6:30 and we made him wait until 7 to wake up Lily who wasn't too thrilled to have to get moving. The kids played with what Santa brought for awhile then we went over to the Cook's for a yummy breakfast. (man I love having them so close) We came home for a few hours, then headed to Grammy's where we all got spoiled!

Gavin and Lily checking out what Santa brought them:


Lily right after she opened her Little Mermaid set. She immediately put on the necklace that sings and I swear she didn't take it off the rest of the day! Anytime we wondered where she was it seemed she would push that button and answer our question. (We are now a week and a half after Christmas and she still wears that thing most days)

Gavin with his guitar from Lily. This present caused him the most stress before the holiday-he wanted to open it so bad!

My Little Mermaid:

Gavin and Daddy put together Lego's most of the day:


Lily dressed and ready to go to Grammy's-still sporting the Ariel necklace:

Gavin got this from Dylan-he was soo excited! I overheard him later telling Dylan that what he got him was awesome!

Lily got this super cute doggie from Tinsley (in the background) and she loves it! It barks and sings and is so soft.

End of the evening-I can't remember why she was crying, but if I had to guess I'm thinking she was just plain old tired. Missing a hairbow, but still wearing the lovely singing necklace.