• Smiles Spread Cheer

    I enjoy making smiley snacks for the girls especially when they are not expecting the fun surprise.  They were outside playing last week and I decided to make something healthy for them to munch on.  Smiles spread cheer and excitement when they are delivered.  They ate their smiles at the picnic table while talking and giggling. You can make a smile snack with anything that you have at home.  Both girls had a big smile matching their plates when I handed them over.

    Here is what was on each smile snack plate today:

    • 1 Banana
    • 6 Chocolate Covered Almonds
    • 1 Cherry Tomato (from our garden, one of the last few)
    • 2 slices of Zucchini
    • 2 Raisins
    • 4 Baby Carrots
    • 1 Mozzarella String Cheese Stick (cut up)

    Add a smile to your kids food today and see how excited they get over it.  Life is short, have some fun.

  • Gift Giving: Allowing Kids to Give from the Heart

    My husband took the girls out recently to pick out gifts for my birthday.  They had a certain amount of money and found the presents with a little Daddy supervision.  They came up with practical and fun gifts which made my day.  It was sweet hearing about their adventure shopping to find the perfect gifts.

    Here is what they gave me:

    • 2 Christmas Hand Towels – practical and pretty (love them)
    • 2 Jar Candles – Vanilla Cookie and Spiced Apple (they smell awesome)
    • 2 Adorable Bars of Soap – Ice Cream Cone & Gingerbread Man (pictured above)
    • Set of Colored Pens – so I can write notes

    I think the girls were more excited than I was to celebrate my birthday and they had a lot of fun going shopping with Daddy.  It is a great opportunity to teach them about money and giving.  If you haven’t done this with your kids, even if they are little, try it!  Explain to them how much money they have (you will probably have to remind them at the store) and guide them in the choices but allow their creativity to shine through.  We typically stick to one store to make it more manageable for the girls.  They truly give from the heart and love it.

  • Gift Giving: Homemade Handprint Ornaments

    Are you looking for great gifts to give but are on a tight budget?   This is a simple recipe that uses a few items from your pantry and makes a thoughtful Christmas Gift.  Last year for Christmas gifts we made Homemade Cinnamon Handprints for Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles, and extended family members.  They were inexpensive, easy to do, and the girls had a lot of fun. You probably have all the ingredients already.

    Cinnamon Handprint Ornaments:

    • 2 cups Flour
    • 1 cup Salt
    • 5 teaspoons Cinnamon
    • 3/4 cup Water

    Combine dry ingredients in a bowl.  Stir in water gradually to make dough.  If it is sticking to your hands, add more flour or if it is too crumbling add more water.  Knead dough for approximately 8 minutes until smooth.  Refrigerate for 30 minutes.  Roll out dough to desired thickness (typically between 1/4 to 3/4 inches thick).

    We used a football cookie cutter for the oval (you can use a circle or anything big enough that they can fit their hands in) than lightly floured their hands before making a slight indention on the clay.  We took a stamp and pressed their first initial in the bottom of each palm to help us remember who it belonged to.  Since my girls are twins their hand sizes are almost the same!

    After making the handprint in the clay use a straw to make a hole in the top so you can hang the ornament.

    Bake at 325 degrees for 45 minutes to 1 1/2 hour.  (Thicker dough will take longer to bake).  They are done when the clay is dry, you notice a slight change in color.  Cool and add a ribbon of your choice!

    Optional: Once cooled you can use spray on polyurethane for extra shine.

    Ours still smell great even after a year.  We made more than one batch since we have a large family but you can do as many as you want.  With the extra dough we made Christmas ornaments so we could hang them on the tree.

  • Book: “Speaking Mom-ese” by Lisa Whelchel

    This book was given to me after I had the girls, Speaking Mom-ese by Lisa Whelchel.  The first few months after the girls were born were a blur after having 12 weeks of bed rest, followed by an early delivery, complications, and time in the NICU.  It was encouraging to have a devotional from a Mom’s perspective even though a lot of the stories were regarding older kids.   The devotionals were short, sweet, and hit home during those exhausting months.  Since then I have gone through the book again and different devotionals touched my heart this time around.

  • Giving Thanks

    I am blessed!  There are so many things in my life to be thankful for today and everyday.  Life may not always go as planned but I do have a lot of blessings in my life.

    I am thankful for…

    • My husband who is my best friend, loves me, makes me laugh, encourages me, cheers me on, lifts me up when I have fallen,  takes care of me and our girls and so much more.  Love him to pieces!!!
    • Our kids bring a lot of laughter and joy to my life.   Each one brings their own dynamics to the family and I am proud of my girls.
    • Fun Memories with my family and friends.  I have blessed with a lot of amazing memories, events, and great times with the people in my laugh.
    • Family is an important part of my life both my immediate and extended family members.  Thankful to have so many family members that love us, pray with us, and are an active part of our lives.
    • Friends who have been with me through the joyous parts of my life as well as some tough times while being an encouragement, blessing and prayer partner. I am thankful for those true blue friends in my life.
    • A Home to live in and provide shelter for my family and a place to host fun events with family, friends, and neighbors.
    • Our Pets have been a blessing in my life, whether it is relaxing on the couch with my hubby watching the fish or taking a walk with Skipper.  They all have left a mark on my heart for which I am thankful.
    • Neighbors because they have become part of my life and provide opportunities for us to help, pray, and encourage others.
    • Food we have never had to go starve or go without a meal.  My husband is an amazing cook and I love it when he cooks for the family.
    • Clothes we have always had plenty of clothes to wear.
    • Hugs & Kisses are a true treasure.  A hug from my girls or friend and a kiss from my husband are a blessing.
    • Snuggles provide the quiet time with my family I enjoy very much, whether it is reading, watching a movie or just sitting on the couch and talking I am thankful for these precious moments.
    • And Most Important God’s Involvement in my life, He has shown me a lot of love, grace, and mercy in the past 30 plus years for which I am very thankful.

    Thanksgiving is a great time to look at all the blessings in our lives.   Let us try to remember all the good things in our lives everyday.  Life is more enjoyable when we have a positive outlook.

    HAPPY THANKSGIVING!


  • The Exploding Spice Cabinet

    It had become apparent over the last few weeks that our spice cabinet was overflowing with goods.  We try to keep a stocked spice cabinet (buy ones we use when they go on sale) and haven’t had any problems until recently.  When my husband went to get the garlic salt out of the cabinet and a whole mess of stuff came tumbling down I decided it was time for organizing.

    Our regular spices have always been in alphabetical order on the first shelf.  (It really does help when you are trying to find a spice for a special recipe, my husband loves it that way too).   That shelf was in pretty good shape.  The second shelf holds baking items, sprinkles and bigger containers. This shelf was a little crazy and appeared to where most of the items were falling from lately.  The third or top shelf was where we stored the spices we buy in bulk or extra spices when they go on sale.  I pulled everything out and found what was causing all the commotion.

    The problem was that since having kids we have purchased more “sprinkles”!  When I pulled all the sprinkles out of the cupboard it was amazing how much extra room we had for everything else.  We had Princess Sprinkles, Cars Sprinkles, some for Halloween, Fall, Colored Sprinkles, Holiday Sprinkles, Balls, Shapes, and more sprinkles.  We had different 19 containers of just SPRINKLES (and none of them the same so we couldn’t just consolidate)!  The girls love to help me cook and a lot of their cookies or goodies they make have sprinkles on top so while they are necessary it had gotten out of control.

    The Solution was to go through the sprinkles, find out which ones were almost gone and put them in smaller container or set them aside to use soon.  After re-organizing the sprinkles I even had a little empty shelf space left in the cupboard.

    Sprinkles make everything taste better!  Have you ever tried them on pancakes and waffles?  We love our girls and sprinkles!

  • Song: “I Want to be Just Like You” by Phillips Craig & Dean

    What a great song! It is not always easy being a parent. We will leave an imprint on the lives of our children. What will that imprint look like?

    Thankfully we have a wonderful heavenly Father that helps us daily demonstrate God’s love to our children. The amazing part is He still loves us (and our children) even when we fail, which is often. Our children watch us everyday. My prayer is that our words and actions have a positive eternal impact on their lives and hearts. May we learn to be better examples of Christ’s love and grace to those in our lives.

  • Ouchy Toy Box

    As our kids got bigger we began to notice a trend pop up.  Their toys began to break, batteries died, books got torn and so forth.  Almost daily (or at least it seemed) our girls were bringing “broken” toys to have us fix for them whether it was gluing a broken toy, taping a book, sewing, or replacing batteries it took time to get fix them.  The girls would often hover around during the fix up process causing more delays in getting them fixed or shedding in tears when the toy truly was broken beyond repair.

    In our effort to streamline the toy repair in our house we created an “Ouchy Toy Box”.  When a toy, book, or game broke, required repair, or was due for new batteries they would bring it to us like in the past but instead of fixing it on the spot or having it sit on our desk for days we would put the toy in the Ouchy Toy Box.  Once a month or when the box was full we would set aside time to fix the toys in the Ouchy Toy Box.  The best sight to see is an empty Ouchy Toy Box!

    To create an Ouchy Toy Box find a cardboard box, crate, or any container that will hold a dozen or so toys.  We use a small cardboard box with the words Ouchy Toy Box written on the outside.  When a toy is broken the girls ask to put it in the box.  Our box is up high on a shelf in the office so they cannot look into or dig through the box. The saying “Out of Sight Out of Mind” works well in this situation.

    Here are our steps to repairing the toys (once a month or when the box was full):

    1. The night before, after the kids are in bed, we go through the Ouchy Toy Box and clean out all the toys that were broken beyond repair and throw them away.  Many times they have been in the toy box for at least a couple weeks and the girls no longer remember them or ask about them.  This helps us clean out the broken ones without the trauma and tears over the broken toy.
    2. The next day we set aside time in the evening to fix the broken ouchy toys, usually after dinner and baths.  We begin the process while the girls are awake so they can see what we do to fix the toys.  It gives us the opportunity to talk about why the toys are broken and how to take care of the things God gives us.
    3. We lay the toys out on the table or desk with a combination of tools such as glue, batteries, screwdrivers, tape, needles, thread, scissors, and anything else that we may need so we are ready to fix the toys.  (This allows us to get all the repair tools out only once a month instead of getting them out and putting them away every day).
    4. We begin fixing the toys.  As they are fixed the girls have an opportunity to play with them and then put them away in the toy box or book shelf.  Depending how many toys you have to fix and the extent of the repairs we do several while they are watching us.  We often start on the minor repairs first in case not all of them are fixable.  (ie. taping a page in a book, sewing a button back on a stuffed animal, etc…)
    5. We tuck the girls in bed before finishing all of the toys.  Typically, it is much quicker to repair once they are in bed especially if you need a steady hand, are using a drill or other sharp tools.
    6. Once the toys have been repaired we line them up on the table or fireplace for them to enjoy in the morning.  It spreads the excitement and they have fun reunited with their toys.  It helps teach them that it takes time to repair the toys, to trust us to fix their toys, and an appreciation for what they have.
    7. They will often play with the toys for hours after being fixed  Which is another added bonus.  Rarely do we have to fix the same toy multiple times.

    One of the most interesting effects of this system, which we didn’t anticipate happening when we first started doing it, was that they have fewer and fewer toys that need to go into the Ouchy Toy Box.  It could be that they have learned to take better care of their toys (turn them off after using so the batteries don’t wear down, be gentle with their books, pick up the toys so they are not stepped on), maybe they don’t like going without them for several weeks, or it could be something entirely different.  Whatever the reason, it is has worked at extremely well with our kids.

    Doing this monthly or regularly once the box is full streamlines the process especially if you have all the tools ready to complete the task at hand.  It prevents the tear shed of toys that have to be thrown away and it allows an opportunity to teach a lesson about taking care of the toys.  You are not pressured to fix it now since you have a system in place.  Many people that have come into our home office have laughed initially at seeing a box labeled Ouchy Toy Box, however, several of them have since adopted the system for their own families.  It works, try it!

  • Twin Sisters Productions

    Our girls have enjoyed many of the Twin Sisters Productions CDs and products from the ABCs, relaxing, fun, learning languages (German & Italian) and more.  Since we have fraternal twin daughters of our own we are thrilled to support a wonderful business started by fraternal twin sisters. To get an idea of what their songs are like you can listen to them prior to purchasing.  Sing & Learn (Multipacks) by Twin Sisters Productions is a good mix that of songs that the girls have been listening to for several years even though they know their Alphabet, Numbers, and so forth.  These make great gifts for little ones that like music and they have a variety of neat products for a reasonable price.