December 2011
  

Top 10 Posts of 2011

These are our most visited posts of 2011: 1. Vintage Strawberry Shortcake Dolls & How to Restore Vintage Strawberry Shortcake Dolls 2. Oreo Cheesecake Apple Truffles 3. Window Seat/Bench Cushion Tutorial 4. Rainbow Cookies 5. Owl Cupcakes 6. How to Make a Paper Triangle Banner (Bunting) 7. Teddy Bear Cake 8. Easy, Healthy Yogurt Popsicles 9. Talia's 3rd Birthday Party (Fairy Princess Tea Party) 10. Chocolate Apple Gifts for Teacher Thanks to everyone who reads this blog, and who supports it through sponsorship in different ways, it's been a fun year of growth for this blog & we've made a lot of fun memories along the way :) I'm looking forward to finding out what 2012 has in store!

Thursday Thoughts (Making Amends)

I like pretty boxes. Last year I bought this cute little Christmas box, to bring out at Christmas time, to use as a decoration, to wrap a gift, just to be a happy addition to our Christmas atmosphere.

This year, Talia decided to make it into a little home for some pet reindeer. Unfortunately for me (and my box), she decided these pretend reindeer needed air holes in their box...



It wasn't a fun discovery. I wanted her to understand that it's not okay to go about poking holes in things, so I expressed my sadness and told her that the box was special to me & that I had spent money on it and was sad that she had wrecked it.

That evening I came up to bed and found her piggy bank on my bed, with a note:



If you can't tell from the picture, the note reads:

Forr U mom To Bi a Noo Bocs Love Talia

Oh, how I love my sweet girl. :)

Limbo Snowman!

On the day of our first snow, Talia headed off to school and Katrina & I came home to build a snowman. Here she is with our tall-standing snowman:



By the end of the day, the poor snowman looked like it was doing the Limbo!


And miraculously, it stayed like that for several days! We thought we'd find it fallen over, but it stayed firmly in limbo-stance until the temperature warmed up & we woke up to no snowman at all.

Monday Moments (Cheese Your Head)

Katrina, overheard while taking pictures:

"Cheese your head!"

&

"Dad, you're a really good cheeser."


Merry Christmas!

Have a Beautiful Day Today!

and remember the reason. :)

Dad's Root Deer

Here's a little something I made for Ken for Christmas, with his favourite Root Beer:



The girls helped & thought it was a great idea ;)

Thank you, Pinterest! :)
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If you're looking for more gift ideas for men, check out this Love Letter Book idea!



Or make a Sock Bouquet!



or click here to see a list of 100 great gift ideas!


Homemade Christmas Advent Calendar (Make With Kids!)

We have a tradition to make our own advent calendar every year. We do the same type of thing each year, but they're always a little different.

Here's what we did this year:



What You'll Need:

- plastic shot glasses (find at dollar store)
- tissue paper
- stamps for dates/numbers (or write them on)
- glue gun
- cardboard (save an old cereal box :)
- paint
- candy

First the girls painted a piece of cardboard:


Then I hot-glued the cups to the cardboard in the shape of a Christmas tree. Next the girls helped me to fill the cups with candy (left over from Halloween)


While the girls were busy, I squeezed white glue around the edge of each cup.


Then placed a circle of tissue paper on top (when you trace these, turn your cup upside down, and be sure to cut the circle out leaving it a little bigger than you traced). I stamped the dates on this year (in the past I've stamped numbers 1-24, but this year we started late, and went to New Years ;)


Next, bend the edges of the tissue paper over the edge of the cup & press.


Now you have a fun advent calendar, ready to go! Each day, let your kids poke their finger through the tissue paper to get the treat inside!



Tutorial Tuesday (New Year Interviews)

Happy Tuesday! :)
Today I'm over at HowDoesShe, posting about our New Year Interviews!
Come visit me there, to hear what we do :)


Tip Junkie Handmade Projectsabc button

Monday Moments ("Bored" Games)

Ken: "Do you want to play a board game?"

Talia: "Why do I want to play a bored game? I want to play a fun game!"


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Welcome back to our sponsor, Barnwood4u! We're happy to have them back this month, and I want to show you what I think is the cutest thing in their shop:

I love this framed print!

Sharing Time (December 2011)

Sharing Time is visual again, thanks to InLinkz! I hope you enjoy it! :)
I can't wait to be able to "SEE" your entries again- just in time for Christmas!

New features: You'll be able to choose a photo from your post to put with your link. You can describe your link & should have enough room to put your blog name as well now. You will need to put a direct link to the post you are linking to (not just link to your main blog page) and you will need to include a link back to this blog from your blog- you can do a text link, or just use the sharing time button provided). Please leave me a comment if you have any problems, I'm excited to try this out! :)




Giveaways Open Now:

Mary Kay
Canvas Giveaway
"All Through the Night" Lullabies CD Giveaway

Congratulations to the Slugs N Bugs Giveaway Winner!

Rachel



Mary Kay (Review & Giveaway)

Today I want to send out a big welcome to our newest sponsor, Pamela, who is an independant Beauty Consultant for Mary Kay Cosmetics!

Pamela sent me a filled compact to review, with eye shadow shades to match my eye colour, blush, and lip gloss.

Let me tell you my favourite part about the eye shadow: It came with a little diagram & instructions on how to do two different looks using the three shades that came with it!! (I LOVE this because I'm always questioning myself on how I apply eye shadow!)



I have been having fun using this new makeup every day! If you aren't familiar with Mary Kay Compacts, the cool thing is that they're refillable (so they are magnetic & you can remove the different eye shadows/blush/etc. and replace them with other ones depending on where you're taking it & what you want to have on hand.

Here's the great news about the giveaways:

Giveaway #1

Pamela is holding a draw at the end of this month, for someone to win a free, filled compact of their own! All you have to do to enter is click here to visit her facebook page, and then like it!


Giveaway #2:

ALSO, there is a SECOND Giveaway! If Pamela's facebook page reaches 150 likes before Christmas, she's going to giveaway a lipgloss to the 150th person to like her page AND to the person who referred her!


So, get over to her facebook page, like it, and start telling your friends! Let's see if we can get her up to 150 likes in one week! :)

A Night in Bethlehem & Acting Out the Nativity

This year our family got to participate in our church's "A Night in Bethlehem". It's a tour/journey kind of experience where those who attend travel with a guide on a journey to pay their taxes. Along the way they experience & observe some of the things that would have happened at that time and they end up being present at the manger scene.



Our family portrayed a family that had fallen on hard times during their journey to pay their taxes. This is a picture of the girls & I in our costumes. It was a great experience, I think. We got to go through the whole thing as a cast at the end of the night (with each group stopping to act out their own stop along the way). I love the opportunity to focus on Christ and what really happened, and what Christmas is really about!

Do you have any traditions that involve acting out the nativity?

Thursday Thoughts (Charity & Video Clip: The Coat)

It's Christmastime & I'm thinking a lot about what we can do for others & how we can teach our children about charity, especially at this time. I want them to connect Christmas with these things.

This is a sweet video (no words, just music & illustration- I think your kids will like it)..

Opus 2 Music (CD Review & Giveaway)

Hello again! I hope you enjoyed the little video clip I shared with you yesterday; I have another little clip to share with you tomorrow. But today I have something else lovely to share with you! I introduced our new sponsor on Monday, and today I want to tell you a little more about their CD of lullabies called, "All Through the Night".



All Through the Night is a collection of beautiful, peaceful lullabies played on flute and harp. Our life gets busy sometimes, and I know you relate! When that happens, things can get a little stressful & it's nice to have a calming influence! I was so happy when Steve Adler sent me a copy of his CD to review- I thought I would use it in the girls' room at night (and I will) but for now, I'm enjoying it as background music. I'll put it on while the girls are playing together and I love the peaceful, relaxed feeling that comes into our home with it playing softly in the background.

Opus 2 Harp and Flute Duo is comprised of Julie Gaisford Keyes of Bountiful, Utah and Steven Lucera Alder of Mesa, Arizona. All of the original arrangements are by Emmy-award-winning composer Kurt Bestor, and the CD cover photography and digital artwork is by Mark Mabry. All Through the Night is now available at Deseretbook.com, Seagull Book, iTunes, Amazon.com and at www.Opus2music.com.

I'm so happy to have Opus 2 Music for a sponsor here at the blog, and excited that they want to give one of you your own copy of their new CD! If you don't see the entry form below, just click on "read more" and it will appear for you :) Good luck!

The Spirit of Christ(mas)

What it's all about. I just wanted to share this little video with you today.

Monday Moments (Quiet Sneezes) ...and a Kindle Fire Giveaway!

Katrina, on that feeling you get that says you're gonna sneeze... and then it goes away without a sneeze:

"Wowser, I got a sneeze in my nose!"
*sniff*
"Just a quiet sneeze, Mom, just a quiet one."



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I want to give a warm welcome to Opus2 Music, our newest sponsor! Julie Gaisford Keyes (on the harp) and Steven Lucera Alder (on the flute) have created a beautiful new CD of lullabies called All Through the Night that is now available to order for Christmas, through Deseret Book.



To increase awareness of this, they are giving away a Kindle Fire on December 20th! Just go to their facebook page- it takes one click to enter!

Sharing Time (December 2011)

Sharing Time is visual again, thanks to InLinkz! I hope you enjoy it! :)
I can't wait to be able to "SEE" your entries again- just in time for Christmas!

New features: You'll be able to choose a photo from your post to put with your link. You can describe your link & should have enough room to put your blog name as well now. You will need to put a direct link to the post you are linking to (not just link to your main blog page) and you will need to include a link back to this blog from your blog- you can do a text link, or just use the sharing time button provided). Please leave me a comment if you have any problems, I'm excited to try this out! :)




Giveaways Open Now:

Canvas Giveaway
Slugs N Bugs Kids' CD Giveaway

Congratulations to the Scentsy Giveaway Winner!

Bree

November Sharing Time Features

On the first Friday of each month from now on, I'll be featuring 4 of the most popular posts from the previous month's Sharing Time Linky . You can click on the photos below to visit the original posts. Thanks so much to everyone who participates in Sharing Time- I love seeing the fun activities you do & ideas you have!






In 2012, on the other 3 fridays of each month, I'll be doing a "Feature Friday" post, featuring one blogger & their blog. If you have a blog that you'd like to see featured, please send me an email to raisingmemories at gmail dot com to submit your blog.

How To Make An Easy Holiday Appetizer! (Bacon Wrapped Water Chestnuts)

Last night we took a trip to the Superstore to get some ingredients for a holiday appetizer recipe I wanted to try.



I first found the recipe on the Schneider’s website, but sort of merged it with another recipe that used different sauce ingredients. Here’s the recipe I came up with:

Bacon Wrapped Water Chestnuts

Ingredients

1 8oz/227 mL can whole water chestnuts, drained
1 65g Package Maple Leaf Fully Cooked Bacon
½ cup ketchup
½ cup brown sugar
½ tsp. Worcestershire sauce


Directions

1. Wrap chestnuts with bacon, use toothpick to hold in place
2. Arrange in shallow microwaveable dish

3. In saucepan, combine ketchup, sugar, sauce, heat just to boiling, pour over bacon & water chestnuts

4. Let sit for 15 min.
5. Cover w/paper towel & microwave 20-30 seconds or until hot



These were really easy to make (I had never bought fully cooked bacon before, so that was a fun experience ;) and the girls liked them! I liked them too, but found the sauce very flavourful to the point that I probably wouldn't eat more than two (which is probably good since they're just an appetizer ;) haha

This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias. All opinions are my own.

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