{Recap} December 2015

Ah! December! Tis the season, to not feel like Christmas?

This year, the weather has been so un-winter-like that it never felt like Christmas to me.

Yes, the decorations were hung and Christmas activities where happening, but no snow? Boo.

Friends down south? How do you do it? 

Just like it doesn't feel like Christmas without snow here, I bet you would feel the same if there was snow on Christmas! Right?

 And yes, this is how I felt of most of December and January! 

Pregnant with baby number 4... Is hard!

To help being "busy pregnant" I made baby boy this awesome center out knit blanket. 

It's so squishy I want to make a giant one for me! 

Just a little something I put together for Carter's teacher for Christmas.

Fun glittery pencils, an insulated cup and then filled with gel pens!

Simple yet adorable, and I know she would use it all!

My boys LOVE Lego Star Wars, and my husband remembers seeing the movies when he was a kid and started watching them with them. So when we needed cookies for a school Holiday party, and I saw how easy these were.  Chewbacca cookies it was! 

These are chocolate sugar cookies, not gingerbread men. They were a hit at the party too! 

A simple gingerbread man cookie cutter, and fork make the hair. Chocolate frosting and sprinkles! 

And yes, I was that mother using tweezers to pick out five sprinkles of one color! 

Lastly, the table is almost complete! 

My husband really took his time with the table because the wood was no kiln dried. 

So he wanted to let the wood acclimate a day or two in between steps to try to prevent warping and pulling. Hence, the table upside down in my dining room!

{Recap} October 2015

October, where it starts to feel like fall.

Routines fall into place. Or out the window, again.

This was also the month we found out we were welcoming another boy to our family! 

So if you are keeping track that makes three boys and one girl!

Anyone else with me? Once you have a baby of one gender and go to have another of the same gender, doesn't it make it so much harder than picking out a name for the opposite gender?

October was also the month of Applesauce making!

All these years we thought it was a crab apple tree. Sure enough, it wasn't! We think because we moved our apple trees, it helped pollinate it! So we made lots of applesauce!

Ah, I am loving going through my pictures to share.  

I was working with Wyatt on his letters, and e wanted nothing to do with it.

I started to feel like his fine motor skills needed some work, but he didn't want anything to do with pencil and paper.... so out came the chalkboard, chalk and a wet q-tip to erase what I had wrote!

Worked like a charm!

October is the time of picking the last of the garden before frost threats!

Itty bitty squash anyone? 

This year the kids could not decide what they wanted to be for Halloween. 

I could ask daily, and it would be so different than the day before.

So this year, I sucked it up and just bought their costumes.

At first I had mom guilt. But I couldn't have made them for $10 each and thats all they cost!  So no tutorial on what I made them!

But! I did make these for Carter's Halloween Party at School! So fun right?!?!

Some of the kids loved them, others thought they were too gross to eat! Ha!

{Recap} August 2015

August is always a pretty busy month around here.

End of Summer, Two birthdays in our house plus friends and family birthdays too, Gearing up for School, and Winding down the Garden.

Last year, a local beach (at a lake) was re opened. I remember going as a kid, and then not going for years. I am so happy they reopened this beach as it is the perfect size for my kids! The first set of buoys goes maybe up to my 6 year olds waist! The second set of buoys maybe go up to his neck!

Makes it that much easier for me to feel comfortable, even with all their swim gear on I am always doing a head count!

My second son, Wyatt celebrated his 4th birthday! And he is all about Batman! 

This was my first attempt at fondant and I have to say it came out pretty well! 

Everyone warned me that the black would be hard to get dark enough (fondant is marshmallow based) and I didn't have a problem! What I did have a problem with? The bat logo! So hard to cut out! I tried over and over and ended up using a tag from one of he shirts we bought him as a gift! Ha!

Love when things just fall into place!

This picture just makes me smile! Actually the whole album it's from does.

This is from my great aunt's 90th birthday parade!

Yes. We gave her a parade! 

My only "big" potato. Darn root vegetables you stump me!

{Makes} Spring Egg Nests

These were so cute, I couldn't share!

But also so easy, that I felt silly to write a full pic-by-pic tutorial.

To make Spring Egg Nests:

Mini Twist Pretzels

Melting Chocolate of your Choice

Spring Colored M&M's

The biggest task for me was finding Peanut Free Melting Chocolate!

I used to love making candy, with CandyMelts but they are processed with Peanuts, so they are a no go in out house. So, I went with good old fashioned Chocolate Chips, and a small amount of shortening. 

You can use a double boiler, crockpot, etc to melt your chocolate. I went with a small pot on the stove, on low. Just keep an eye on it or it will get crunchy. Once melted I dropped a handful of pretzels in the pot and flipped them over with a fork, then pulled them out.

Here's where you will learn from my mistake! See the pic? I put the chocolate covered pretzels on my cooling rack, while it wasn't a complete disaster, it was not as easy as I thought it would be to get the pretzels back off once cooled! Next time I will do wax paper instead. 

Before your chocolate cools all the way, place an M&M in each hole of the pretzel, leaving them towards the middle make them look more like eggs, rather than standing straight up and down or laying down. 

Because your chocolate isn't boiling hot, I think kids could help with the M&M part!

That's it! A quick, easy, cute spring treat! I think these would be cute for any spring event, baby showers, birthdays, bridal showers! Or Easter (like I did!)

Bakes & Sweets: Spooky Skelton Candy

Ever make candy? It's super easy with Candy Melts!

Pick out your mold, melt, fill, chill, done!

So when I was working on my #spookyspaces for Halloween and Joann Fabric and Craft Store, I knew candy would be included!

When I went shopping at Joann's I made sure to check out their molds.

Seriously, there are so many awesome molds for candy, you can make it for any theme!

But sticking with spooky and Halloween, I picked up some skulls and skeleton fingers.

When I was making the skulls, I thought how could I make more without using more chocolate?

Fill them? And what better to fill skulls with... but brains?

So I started plopping cherries into the skulls, and the effect is perfect!

Look at those eyes! Love. 

The perfect amount of spooky for my little ones!

And how about the fingers? Looking good in that jar!

Now, I wont give these to any trick or treater, because they are not wrapped. 

But friends, family that I know... Absolutely!

Headed to Joann's? Thinking about trying your hand at candy making?

Don't forget to use the coupon!

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Joann's Fabric and Craft Store. I was given a gift card to Joann Fabric and Craft Stores to create a #spookyspace for the Celebrate the Season Campaign.