::Timing::

Recently, the Hubs and I have decided that I need to renew and reactivate my real estate license. It's something we've contemplated for a really long time, and now feel like its a good time to do it. This feels like the best step for our family at this time. In light of this decision, it requires a lot more of my personal time, time that I usually spend blogging, and trying out new crafts, projects or recipes. Therefore, with this exciting time in our lives, I have to cut back on my time spent dedicated to this blog. I know I don't have that many followers, so I won't be disappointing many people, but I did want to thank all of you who follow my blog and read my craziness! I will still be posting projects that I get to when I can, so still come back and check in. Thanks for following!

::Helpful Tip Tuesday::

~Cleaning your Produce~

The Hubs and I have been into picking up Bountiful Baskets recently, and since there is so much produce in the basket, I wanted to find a good way to clean it all right when I got it.

I found this pin on how to wash all your produce at once, and was very excited! It comes from A Pretty Life, all you have to do is fill up your sink with lukewarm water and 1 cup of vinegar. Let them soak for about 10 minutes and then rinse them. They will be good to go!

Here is my fruit soaking:

I did my veggies separate because I had too much for all of it to fit in there at once!

::Makeover Monday::

~5 Healthy Fat Busting Smoothies~

Ever since the Hubs and I got on our healthy lifestyle, we have really been into making smoothies! OK, so more so him than me, but I won't turn one down when he makes them! ;) 

I found this link to 5 delicious detox smoothies that will help you shed the belly weight and keep you healthy! I was super pumped when I saw this pin, so I thought the Hubs and I should try some of them. Gonna have to make one up tonight after his basketball game!

This pin comes from Life With Nature, and the 5 awesome smoothies are:

Silky Mango

Brain Healthy Blueberry Dream

Strong Bones Green Almonds Smoothie

Heart Healthy Choco-Raspberry Smoothie

and

Healthy Dessert in a Glass Smoothie

They all sound great, but some require almond milk, or almond butter or hazelnut butter, which I don't have, so I'll have to either improvise or go buy some! Check out these recipes and enjoy being healthy! 

::Family Time Friday::

~Conversation Starters with your Kids~

I'm big on improving relationships and getting to know my 5 year better. You think you know your own kids, and then they say something that leaves you either speechless or laughing! That is how my little Iz is! She cracks me up sometimes with the stuff that she says or does and I just wonder what will happen next! Today's Family Time Friday comes from iMom, and its a post titled 20 Pillow Talk Questions for You and Your Child. I was excited about this article, and it made me realize I rush through bedtime way too much and just want to get the girls in bed so I can have some ME time, but I also need to realize that those moments when they are laying in their bed are the perfect opportunity to talk and reflect on the day.

Here are some of the questions that really struck me as something I will definitely be asking my 5 year old:

*What are you most proud of yourself for?

*If you could change anything about yourself, what would it be and why?

*Who is the kindest person you know?

*What do you like most about your best friend, and why?

*If you were an animal, what would you be and why?

*If you could only keep one thing, out of everything you have, what would it be?

*What's something that really makes you angry?

I love that these questions can open up some good discussion, and it gives you that one on one time with them that kids so need! I'd like to think I would know how she would answer some of these questions, but after asking her the birthday questions I asked (see that post here) I'm not so sure!

And just for fun, here is a random pic of my cutie! Love you baby!

::Tasty Thursday::

~Zucchini Cups~

What to do with all those garden zucchini you have? We don't have a garden (bad idea for me:) but we have very generous friends and family. I've already made a super fattening zucchini bread that is super yummy so I thought I'd better find something a bit more healthy. I found this pin when I did an actual search for zucchini recipes. This recipe comes from the blog Kalyn's Kitchen. 

All you do is cook up some meat with green peppers, onion and garlic. Then add some tomato sauce, hollow out your zucchini, add your meat and top with cheese. This was so delicious, and the family loved it!

Here is a picture of Kalyn's zucchini cups, I forgot to take a picture of ours before they got gobbled up! My 5 year old LOVED them!

Thanks Kalyn for the great recipe, can't wait to try out some more recipes from her blog too!

::Want it Wednesday::

~Headband Holders~

We have A LOT of headbands at Casa de Nuttall, and they always tend to end up in the weirdest places! I did try to have them somewhat organized in my 5 year old's room, but come on when they are somewhere she can reach, and she likes to dress up a lot, then they get played with and not put back in the right place all the time. Enter, a super fun, cheap and easy headband holder! I found this project from The Gaines Gang. Kate took an old oatmeal can and covered it in fabric, ribbons and bows to make this super cute headband holder:

So, since I have empty baby formula containers, every other week I've been saving them for this purpose! Iz was so excited to make it match her "brown blanky" and her bow holder which you can see here. We also cut some length off a feather boa we had to put on the top with a nice dark pink jewel. I let her have free reign on how she wanted this thing decorated and she picked lots of different colored ribbons. Look how happy she is with the result:

(Please excuse the messy room!!)

This project was so easy, and I made one for my baby too! I am also going to throw one together for me since I've got more than a few headbands myself! Thanks Kate for the super fun and easy project!

::Helpful Tip Tuesday::

~Tangled's Messy Hair~

When I saw this post from Cookie and Claire I was super excited. We only own 2 barbie dolls in our house and of course one of them is Rapunzel and all that hair! She doesn't get played with a whole lot, but when she does, watch out! She looks like she's been in a cat fight! Luckily for all of us, Cookie has found the solution, and its easy and free (if you have fabric softener!) 

Check out her before and after pics:

 

Seriously, awesome! Who knew if could be so simple!?? I can't wait to try this out on my little ones barbie and who knows, maybe all those My Little Ponies will need to stop by Salon de Sarah as well! Thanks Cookie for your brilliant idea! Go stop by Cookie's site, she has some great ideas on there, this girl does it all, sews, crafts, AND cooks! 

Makeover Monday

~Hair cut time~

I had my glorious hair appointment last week and I needed a change! I knew I wanted to do something a little different but what to do? Thank goodness for pinterest and all those fun hairstyles I've posted! Here are some of the ones I liked the best:

This last one was a lot more short than I was daring to go, even though I've had my hair shorter than that before! I loved the top pic the best, but knew my hair wouldn't turn out anything similar cause mine is super fine and thin! Well, this is what I ended up with and I really like it, all the layers are really fun and a lot more than I've done, probably ever.

(Please excuse the crappy pic, I HATE taking pics of myself!)

Go follow me on Pinterst, I've posted quite a few different hairstyles!

::Family Time Friday::

~Be a Better Wife~

This is constantly on my mind, how can I be a better wife to my husband? How can I show him how much I love him? What little things can I do to show him this love? I have found a few things on pinterest that can help me in my quest to be the "perfect" wife or close to it at least! :)

I recently found this article through pinterest, it comes from HubPages, it is titled, 101 Ways to Tell your Husband "I Love You". I was really excited to read this, and while I was reading it, I realized that I already do some of the things listed, like:

*Offer to give massages

*Spontaneously send a text or an email

*Show appreciation for all he does for your family

*Pray for him

But, there are some things on there that I KNOW I need to work on, and some things that would be fun to do. Here are a few of those things: (Warning, I'm showing how imperfect I am here :) )

*Laugh at his antics-those little things he does that make him, him! I need to remember this one!

*Don't expect him to read your mind-seriously need to work on my convo skills!

*Brag on him in front of HIS friends- I hate to admit this, but I mostly say sarcastic remarks about him, so I need to work on this one!!!

*Don't criticize him in front of others- another one I'm not so good at, I sound so mean, but really I'm not! :)

*Keep yourself attractive-I need to remember this on my days off I don't always get ready by the time he gets home!

These are just a few I need to work on, but I know there are a lot more on that list that I need to try harder at or try period! I think that keeping these things in mind will strengthen your relationship and help to get you to a better level of trust and love! Its easy to fall into a habit of parenting, work, house work, etc and not work on your marriage. I feel like it is so important to keep the FIRE strong and the SPARK there so that our marriages can last! So check out the list and see if there are any ways you can improve and show your husband just how much you love him! Good luck!

And just for kicks, here is a photo of the Hubs and me enjoying a night of watching fireworks! Well, I was enjoying, he was tolerating. Not his favorite thing to do, but he knows how much I love it. That's another thing I'm trying to work on, finding and doing things HE loves, that I may not so much! ;)

::Tasty Thursday::

I don't know about you, but summer time makes me want to make a bunch of s'more treats, all summer long! There has been an abundance of s'mores treats posted on pinterest and I seriously want to try every single one of them! A few weeks ago, we went camping with my family and we were told we couldn't have a fire! No fire!? For camping! That's absurd! But I understand why, all the fires and what not. So, we had to find a s'mores treat that we could all enjoy so we felt like it was true camping.

I found this super yummy s'mores bar treat and my Mom made them to share with everyone! They turned out super yummy and so good. They would have been better right out of the oven, so they were all gooey, but still good served hard right from the fridge! Everyone loved them and they were gone so fast! Something we may have to whip up in the middle of winter to remember our fun summer days and nights!

This recipe comes from Endless Simmer, and from the looks of there awesome blog they post a LOT of comfort food. I can't wait to try some of their other recipes, like their cast iron snuggle food, and their smackaroons! They both look delicious! Here is a pic from their website of their bars (since, I again did not get a pic) 

::Want it Wednesday::

~Seriously~

If I had a million dollars...The one thing I love and hate about pinterest is all the fun outfits I see on there. I totally want all of them, but know I can't afford to buy any of them! So I pin them, hoping one day I might be able to buy this shirt here, or that bracelet there, or those great boots! This is one of my favorite summer outfits that I've seen on pinterest lately:

I LOVE everything about it, I mean check out that skirt! If you know me at all, you'd know that my favorite pattern right now is chevron. The Hubs has learned pretty quickly what chevron is and how much I love it! And those bracelets! To die for! Seriously!!! 

Then I have to think, well if I can't afford to buy these outfits, maybe I can use what I have in my closet to put together something really close to these outfits! That is how I have to think about these pins. But look at this cute outfit that would be perfect for work:

So not a gold girl, but I am diggin this outfit! That shirt is so girly and those shoes look awesome! (even though I could totally see myself falling flat on my face if I wore those, not to mention I'd be like 6" taller than the Hubs!) So, for now I'll look, and covet and wish really hard to be able to afford some of these pieces, if not all of them! Happy pinning! ;)

::Helpful Tip Tuesday::

~Making your Towels like New~

I don't know about you, but I feel like my towels get so hard and crusty after a while and they start to smell funky. I don't have a really big budget to go out and BUY all new towels, so I was really excited when I saw this pin from lifehacker. Kevin Purdy wrote this article on the Top 10 MacGyver time saving cleaning tips. A lot of these sound awesome, and I was so excited about the "baking soda and vinegar to clean funky towels". 

I took all my towels, lucky today was a towel washing day :) and threw them in the washer with 1 cup of vinegar and hot water. Run it through that cycle first:

Then you need to run it through another cycle of hot water and 1/2 cup of baking soda. This process will break down all the detergents and softeners that have built up on the towels over time.

 They look so much better and smell better too. I just threw them in the dryer after the second cycle, no dryer sheet and they came out great! I'll have to do this more often, maybe every six months or so!

::Makeover Monday::

~Spaghetti Squash~

I'm on a new "try new things" kick! We recently decided to get a Bountiful Basket and see how we like it. I have NEVER liked cherries in all my life and I tried to get my 5 year old to try one, so I ate one to show her they could be good, and guess what?? They really are! Ha ha. We also got a cabbage, which I have never liked and don't even know what to make with a cabbage (besides coleslaw, which the Hubs does not like!) So I went online and found a Cabbage Stew recipe, didn't turn out so good, but it was really healthy! 

That takes me to Spaghetti Squash. We did not get one in our basket, but I've been seeing a lot of pins on Pinterest for recipes that use spaghetti squash. I am excited to try it out, since it is a healthy alternative to pasta (which I LOVE!) I found this pin with 7 different ways to cook up your spaghetti squash, and I'm so excited to get one and try these out! This pin comes from none other than Martha Stewart, and the first recipe on there sounds amazing, Roasted Spaghetti Squash with Herbs. Look at how yummy this looks:

Go check out the rest of the recipes, they all look so good. I think I might have to pick up a spaghetti squash at the store today! Yum!

::Simply Sarah Saturday::

~Hello Kitty Sleep Masks~

My sweet little Izzie LOVES Hello Kitty! All she wanted for her birthday was Hello Kitty stuff, and of course a Hello Kitty birthday party. When we started planning the party, we weren't quite sure what we wanted. She has been to 2 birthday parties this year that were pajama parties, and so she really wanted to do that. I got to work finding ideas on pinterest, and sadly didn't find very many. I saw a lot of re-posting the same thing over and over. That is when I decided to come up with these. (Sorry, I couldn't get it to turn)

I remember reading somewhere about how this lady had made some Hello Kitty Sleep Masks, but don't remember where I read it, and she never posted pictures. I had to come up with these on my own.

First, I found a picture of Hello Kitty's head online and printed it out.

I gathered all my materials that I needed, they are:

~White, Dark Pink, and Black Felt

~Small and Medium sized buttons, any color

~1/4" White Elastic

~Fabric Glue

Next, I cut out the head as a template and cut out all the masks for the party.

Then I printed out a second head for the bow template:

I cut all of these out too, I used a hole punch to punch the holes in the bows, that worked better than cutting out by hand.

Next, I let my little girl pick out the buttons for the noses and the ones to put on the bows. Then I cut out small ovals for the eyes and long strips for the whiskers.

Finally, I sewed on all the elastic for the masks and they were ready to put together. The girls had so much fun doing this on their own, and my Izzie said she loved it!

Here is my Izzie making her mask

Here are some of the girls at the party with their masks on! So cute!

I Linked up to:

Sumo's Sweet Stuff

I Heart Nap Time

::Family Time Friday::

~Frisbee Golf From the Dating Divas~

A few weeks ago, we went to Heber Valley Girls Camp with my family for the night. It was a lot of fun to spend time together, and let the girls be with their cousins. I knew there would be some down time, so I went on the Dating Divas website, remembering that I had seen a fun Frisbee Golf Game on there. I had to alter it to work for my family and not just for a date night.

I used the fun print outs that are found on their site here. Then I made sure to bring some big boxes up to use as the "holes". We split up into 3 teams and played! At each hole, when they got the Frisbee into the box, they had to answer a question about grandma and grandpa before moving onto the next hole. If they got it wrong, they had to do some form of exercise, like jumping jacks, toe touches, squats, etc. 

Everyone had so much fun, plus they learned some more about grandpa and grandma! Thanks to the Dating Divas for the super fun idea!

::Tasty Thursday::

~Campfire Treat Cones~

Last week, we went on a family camping trip. It was so much fun, and I was actually excited about it (which is big for me, because I don't like camping.) We were able to borrow our friends trailer, so it made it so much more enjoyable for me. In the preparation stages of getting ready to go camping, I thought I'd put some of the fun camping recipes into use that I had found on pinterest. 

When I saw this pin, I knew we had to try it, camping or not! I was so excited to get these babies in the fire and see how good they turned out. They did not disappoint, they were fabulous, and an excellent twist on plain old s'mores. This idea came from Kids Activity Blog, by the Quirky Mommas. They used waffle cones, which I couldn't find at the store I went to, so I got sugar cones and they worked great, just a little too small. Next time we'll for sure use waffle cones so we can stuff more ingredients inside. We did this the second night we were camping, and then pulled them out again the third night when The Hubs Bro and family came up. We even experimented with different fillings, I had a vanilla chex mix that I think The Hubs and his Bro tried out, my little 5 year old only wanted marshmallows and chocolate chips, and I wanted the works-strawberries, bananas, chocolate chips, and marshmallows! They were delicious and gooey and really fun! Thanks Rachel for the fun idea!

**I just realized we didn't take any pics of us making our treat cones :( I totally thought I had, go check out The Kids Activity Blog to see their pics!**

::Want it Wednesday::

~Pretty Bows~

Recently my MIL asked me to be in charge of putting together some bows for a baby shower for my SIL. We were all going to make bows for the Mom to be, so I needed to come up with a bunch of different ideas for people to put together for her. One of the bows I made came from a pin I found from The Mother Huddle. I fell in love with this fabric bow and knew I had to make one of my own and one for my SIL. 

Here is what mine turned out like:

Super cute, right?! And the bow is pretty cute too! (ha ha) I changed mine up a little bit from how Destri made hers, I didn't have the long fabric ties. Instead, I just attached a thin piece of elastic to the back. I love the cute little rose bud flowers (the white ones), they were super easy. All she did was take jersey knit material (I used an old T-Shirt) and tied knots from a thicker strip and clipped the ends off. Super cute and super easy. Thanks Destri for sharing this super cute tutorial with us! Go check out her blog here and see all the other fun stuff she has done!

::Helpful Tip Tuesday::

~Organizing your Recipes~

Last year, before I got pregnant, I decided to take on the daunting task of putting together a family recipe book. I asked everyone to hand in their favorites from growing up, as well as some favorites that their own families like. I compiled it all together in a power point program, but never did anything with it after that. 

I was so excited when I saw this pin from Maia The Bee for a recipe binder. I can't wait til I can get my computer fixed so I can print them all off and put them in a nice neat binder. It's nice to have them on the computer, but mine isn't in the kitchen, therefore I need them in a binder to be able to see them!

Look how cute Andrea made her binder:

Thanks Andrea for sharing your awesome idea! If you go to her blog, she has created these fun tabs and has  them ready to print off for you too!

::Makeover Monday::

~Beginners Running~

First of all, sorry for the lack of posting the last few days of last week, we went camping and were enjoying ourselves too much for me to even think about posting, and couldn't because of the lack of service in the mountains! (thank goodness for those little vacays from EVERYTHING!) Now, onto Makeover Monday!

Right after I had my second baby, a few days before Christmas, I knew I needed to start working out to get my body back into shape. I wanted to get down to the size I was when I got married, and I'm nearly there! I also wanted to feel better, and do something that I would enjoy doing. My friend and neighbor, Ali, asked me to sign up for a 10k on the 4th of July in January, so I had plenty of time to get my body ready to run. I was not a runner in any sense, and actually never really liked it. But, I always heard how great it is, and how you can loose weight quickly by running, so I thought I should give it a try. 

I found this pin on pinterest and decided to give it a try to get my body used to running. This pin comes from a tumblr page, tan & toned, and I don't have the original source. But the idea behind it is to slowly work up to running for a full 30 minutes in just 8 weeks. I really enjoyed this and thought it was really easy to achieve this goal. Give it a try, and you'll be surprised at how much you could fall in love with running. I totally have and really enjoy it, its my release, my therapy, my girl time (thanks Ali), and of course my exercise! Get out there and do some running, you'll feel better and find that you really can enjoy it!

::Want it Wednesday::

~Knotted Jersey Headband~

I love these so much, aren't they adorable??

And super easy to make! I found this pin from Leslie at Little Mookie, she guest posted this tutorial on Love Stitched . I love that she up-cycled old T-shirts for this project. I have a bunch of old T's that would be great for a project like this. I am also in charge of putting together some fun bows and headbands for my SIL's baby shower this weekend, so I thought I need to try these babies out!

Here is my finished project for my little sweetie, what do you think? She is a super cute model, huh?! She couldn't/wouldn't let go of that bottle! Loved how easy this project was, thanks Leslie!

::Helpful Tip Tuesday::

~Organize your Jewelry~

Look how amazing this idea is:

I LOVE it! I found this pin from Mini Manor Blog, and Ashli had this awesome idea to use cutlery trays to organize her jewelry! I love this idea so much, mostly because I have very limited space in my closet and this would be perfect! I am going to have to try this, super soon since all my necklaces are in a makeup bag and I have to dig through it to find what I'm looking for, and I forget about half the jewelry I do have cause I can't see it all! Thanks Ashli for the super awesome idea! Can't wait to try it out!

::Makeover Monday::

~Little Girls Hair-Dos~

This post is dedicated to my little one, who turned 5 this last weekend! She cracks me up with her hair. We are currently growing it out and the only hair-do she likes to do is "one pony", one little inverted ponytail on top of her head. This is the hair-do we do almost EVERYDAY! I would love to be able to do lots of different hair-do's but she just likes her "one pony"! So, when I came across this pin for this cute hair-do I was excited to try it. I found it right before Valentine's day and she totally let me do it. I was really sad when I clicked on the pin to see the directions, because it's an incomplete pin. Here is the link to my pinterest page, if anyone knows the original poster that would be great. (I like to give credit where credit is due!)

Isn't it adorable?? I love it, and my little one did too. We've done it a couple more times since then, and had so much fun with it. Good luck! And hopefully your little one will let you try it out on her! ;)

::Family Time Friday::

~Temple Square Scavenger Hunt~

Well, I was really excited when I found this post. My SIL and I are in charge of planning a family fun day for the Hubs family, and we decided to plan a day of playing tourist downtown at Temple Square. We had thought it would be fun to do a scavenger hunt of some sort, and when I came across this, I was so glad I didn't have to plan it! 

This comes from Jana Friel, she posted it on Sugardoodle and I'm so glad she was willing to share this. It is going to be a super fun activity and I think keep the kids interest a lot more while we are downtown exploring the beautiful grounds of Temple Square. Thanks Jana for sharing this super fun activity!

::Tasty Thursday::

~Buttermilk Syrup~

I saw this pin about a week ago, and knew I had to try this out. My daughter's birthday party is today, and we are having a pajama party. We decided to serve pancakes, her favorite, for dinner. I didn't want plain old maple syrup, how boring, and when I saw this recipe I was so excited to try it. This comes from Chef in Training, and Nikki posted this recipe with her Grandmother's buttermilk pancakes recipe. I love when people are willing to share family recipes, it just makes the world a better place!

We are going to add some food coloring to our syrup to make it fun and festive for the party! Can't wait to try it out! Thanks Nikki for the great recipe and being so willing to share it!

::Want it Wednesday::

~Kids Tee Pee~

I actually saw this idea originally on 'Studio 5' and fell in love! Look how cute this thing is:

Well, since my little Izzie's birthday is coming up, I wanted some sort of tent to set up with books, pillows, and blankets in it so the kids could sit in there a read until the whole party showed up. It's a pajama party, therefore we'll be reading "bedtime stories." So, When I saw this idea I knew I had to make it. I went on Studio 5's website to track down this tutorial, its from Pink Parlor Designs and I love it! Amy is a girl after my own heart, since the first thing she says about herself on her blog is that she LOVES Diet Coke! She has so many great ideas on her blog and great tutorials too! I love it, go check it out, you will too!

On to the tent! I have all the materials needed to make it, and am excited to put it together tonight! Thanks Amy for the super fun, easy, and cheap idea! Love it!!!

::Helpful Tip Tuesday::

~Camping Tips~

For those of you that are already camping savvy, you probably already know all this stuff! But for someone like me, who grew up NOT camping at all I really needed to find these tips. The Hubs really wants to be a camping family, as much as I don't want to do it I understand that it can be a fun experience for my kids and a great getaway with lots of bonding time!

I saw this pin not too long ago and was super excited to have found it. We are heading up to the mountains to do some camping, my style. Thanks to some great friends for loaning us their camper, we'll be camping in style! Tipnut put together a list of 35+ Camping Tips, Tricks & Treats to help the not so camping literate to have an enjoyable and safe time. I love all the different tips that are on there, from food, first aid, homemade bug spray, organization tips of the many different things you need to bring, I mean the list goes on and on. It is a really great resource and one that I am definitely using in the next couple weeks.

Go check out Tipnut for all your Camping needs. as well as anything else from your household, cleaning, gardening, health & beauty, food and crafts! Thanks Tipnut for all the great Camping tips!

::Makeover Monday::

~Lose those 10 last pounds~

I came across this pin from My Fit Station and thought it sounded awesome! It is an 8 week plan to help you get rid of those last 10 STUBBORN, hard to loose pounds! Believe me, it took me a lot longer to get those last 10 pounds off, than it did to drop the first 10. I haven't tried this out yet, but thought it sound really interesting. I might have to lose 10 more pounds just to try this out! (I'm good with that :) 

So go check out My Fit Station for all the workouts and suggestions on helping you to achieve your weight loss goals, and good luck!!!

::Family Time Friday::

~Date Night~

I know this doesn't involve the whole family, but sometimes we all need a good date night. If you are like my Hubs and I, where we both work and have people helping us out already with babysitting, it's hard to get a babysitter. We also have a tight budget and don't have the extra funds to pay for one either. So that is why I love 'The Dating Divas'. They come up with fantastic date night ideas all the time. 

This date night idea is called Date Night in a Bag. The idea is to have this bag with a date put together in it ready to go for anytime. I think these would work best for after putting the kids to bed and doing something fun with each other, rather than just sitting down and watching TV. Here is mine all put together. I love how it turned out:

I decided to use this Victoria's Secret bag for mine because it's wider and really durable. I printed out the list of ideas that 'The Dating Divas' put on the end of their post and picked a fun one. After I had this all together, I set it out on Friday so that the Hubs would see it when he got home and know that I had a date night planned for us the following night. Now we can have more dates, at home and not have to worry about getting babysitters! We'll see if he actually uses it for me! ;)

::Tasty Thursday::

~Grilled Cheese Rolls~

Around our house, grilled cheese and tomato soup is a staple! We have it almost once a week. (Well, not as much as that since the lifestyle change) but still a lot. I saw these Grilled Cheese Rolls from Care's Kitchen on Pinterest, and thought I'd give them a whirl. I thought they were super yummy, and extra cheesy, but my Izzie was a little weirded out by them. This coming from the girl who wants a different shaped sandwich every time I make her one!

They are super easy to make, and are perfect for dipping in your favorite tomato soup. Go check out Care's Kitchen for the great tutorial on how to make these delicious bad boys! Thanks Carolyn for sharing this great idea! Love it. Here is a pic of Carolyn's grilled cheese rolls for your drooling pleasure:

::Want it Wednesday::

~Hello Kitty Treat Bags~

Well, my little Izzie is turning 5 in a few weeks, and all she has been able to talk about for the last year is how much she wants a Hello Kitty party! I've been collecting ideas forever now, and we are so excited to get this party into motion. 

One of the ideas that I came across on Pinterest are these adorable Hello Kitty Treat Bags from I Made Time. They are so stinkin cute, and super easy to make! I can't wait to get them put together for my little girls party! Thanks Chelsea for the super fun idea! Here is a pic of Chelsea's bags she made:

::Helpful Tip Tuesday::

~Repairing Scratched DVD'S~

If you have DVD'S at your house that are scratched, then this will be super helpful. When I saw this pin, I was super excited. We have quite a few DVD'S that are scratched, and it makes my almost 5 year old so mad when she watches a movie and it stops or skips. (I just have to laugh, because she is the one who scratched it!) So this tip comes from The Handmade Dress, and Samantha has figured out the secret to fixing scratched DVD'S, it's Kids Crest Toothpaste! When I read that, I was floored, its so easy and I already have that kind of toothpaste on hand, so FREE!

Let's give it a try. I took a scratched up DVD, which in our house happened to be Beauty and the Beast. Here it is before using the toothpaste:

And after:

I don't know if you can see a difference on the actual DVD, but watching it we totally can. I knew right where the spot was that it skipped, so we turned it on and tested it out, and it worked pretty good. I think we need to clean it again and see if it works better, but now my little girl won't let me turn it off! This tip will also come in handy for Library DVD'S too. My little stinker loves to get movies at the Library, and those ones are ALWAYS scratched. 

Thanks Samantha for the awesome tip. Go check out her blog and see some great posts on crocheting, cooking, embroidery and other fun stuff. 

::Makeover Monday::

~A Twist on Big Wavy Curls~

When I first joined Pinterest, I found this No Heat Curl tutorial and thought I'd give it a try. My hair was longer then, and it was easier to try it out then. I didn't take any pics, sorry. I found the pin from The Paper Mama, the idea behind it is to put it up at night, and let it sit while you sleep. I have never liked having to curl my hair this way, even when I was little and my Mom would put sponge curlers in my hair (remember those? they always made my hair look like Miss Piggy!) But, I was excited to try it, because Chelsey has stick straight hair that doesn't hold curl well like me, so I couldn't wait to see how it worked out on me. Well, this is a fun and easy enough method, if you aren't paranoid of ruining it in your sleep like I was, and you don't mind the jabs from your hubs about how your hair looks after you put it up! ;) Mine didn't turn out near as good as Chelsey's did, but hopefully if I try it again, it will work better! 

Go here for the tutorial, and let me know if you tried it and liked it. I'm thinking of growing my hair out again, (I constantly go back and forth on this). I'd love to hear more fun ideas on how you do big wavy curls too.

::Giveaway on Very Jane::

If you are a Very Jane subscriber, or even if you aren't you should head over to their facebook page and enter to win a $50 American Express Gift Card. Who knows, you might just be one lucky winner! Good luck!

http://www.facebook.com/veryjane/app_228910107186452

::Family Time Friday::

~The Simple Life~

Sometimes the funnest things to do together are the most simple, and the time spent doing them. I recently had to work two weeks straight, everyday when I normally am in the office only 3 days a week. So on my first day off after those two weeks, I decided to just spend time with the girls! First of all, we headed to the aquarium, which my Izzie loves. We have a pass and I think about going there more since we do, and just never make it up there as much as we could. She had so much fun leading the way and seeing what she wanted to see. It cracks me up the things that she says, so it was fun to just see what she thought about all the different sea animals and the questions she had. 

After the aquarium, we stopped at McDonald's, and actually went INSIDE! This very rarely happens, and makes her day when we can eat inside so she can play too. When we got home that afternoon, she asked what else we were going to do, so we set up a tent umbrella and I let her play in the backyard with whatever toys she wanted to, again the coolest idea ever! We ended the day with a nice warm swim at the neighborhood pool! 

When I was tucking this little one in bed that night, she told me all the fun things we did that day and said she had so much fun! I need to remember to just take the opportunity to SPEND TIME with my girls and show them that just being together, no matter what we are doing is the most important thing to me! Thanks Izzie for helping me remember that! Love you stinker!

::Tasty Thursday::

~4th O' July Cake Pops~

My little girls birthday is coming up soon, so for my family's 4th of July party I volunteered to make cake pops so I could practice! I found this idea on Pinterest and knew I had to try them out! Firecracker cookies from Lizard & Ladybug. All Staci did was combine poprocks with sprinkles! I saw this pin and thought it would be so fun to put that mixture on cake pops! What a fun party treat! Here is my finished product:

I used a white cake with cream cheese frosting and dyed my almond bark blue! I love the way they turned out and they were pretty good too! Fun 4th of July treat for the family!

::Want it Wednesday::

~Want it Wednesday Update & 4th O' July~

Happy 4th of July! I love this Holiday! Can't wait to celebrate later on. I've already done my 10k and now we are headed over to a park to have some fun. Then we will be going to a family BBQ and watching fireworks!

First of all, a few weeks ago I posted about making a fun Father's Day picture for my Dad. I finally got it finished and wanted to share my project with you. Here it is:

I am putting this saying with it. It was the saying that was on the picture from Brassy Apple. You can see my original post here.

I love Independence Day! Such a fun holiday, with fireworks, BBQ's, family, parade's, and lots of good times. Today's Want it Wednesday is dedicated to the day of Independence! I found a few projects on Pinterest I wanted to try out this year. 

The first one is simple, but so fun. I don't even know where it came from, the pin has no source, but I love the idea! Make a stencil out of poster board or butcher paper of a big star, place it on your front lawn, sprinkle flour inside the stencil! Viola! Instant white stars on your lawn. So cute, I love how it turned out:

The second project I wanted to try was to make some popcorn treat cones. This came from Pizzazzerie, Entertain in Style. Courtney got the idea from Martha Stewart. Go here for the template to make your own. Aren't they adorable?

Here are the ones I did, I just printed out the template on regular paper and then used my own scrapbook paper to make them in fun different colors and patterns!

Well, hopefully you have a great holiday and have lots of fun celebrating our country's Independence! And remember to be safe! Happy 4th of July!