February 2015

Kiwi Crate & Tinker Crate (Unboxing)

Last week we shared a couple of little unboxing videos and this week we're back with more! Today I'm sharing unboxing videos for kiwi crate and tinker crate. I had heard about this monthly subscription box called Kiwi Crate quite a while ago, so I was excited to check it out!

Kiwi Crate

Kiwi Crate is an open-ended learning crate for ages 4-8. It comes with 2-3 creative & educational products, a magazine, and step-by-step instructions for the activities. We made a little video of Katrina unboxing the Kiwi Crate so that you could see what kinds of things come in each box:

Katrina LOVES art, so this crate was right up her alley. She had a great time designing her little snowman blocks and coming up with funny ways to mix & match the sides- she even made a dog head for one of her "snowmen". :) I was really happy that the box came with more than one activity too, because that meant that it wasn't just a one-time thing. This gave her enough to do on more than one occasion- and the snowman craft/game took longer than one sitting to complete, so all in all, this crate provided days of after-school fun for her!

Thursday Thoughts: Working at Happiness

I was recently asked to share my favourite scripture. I don't think I really have one specific scripture that I would choose, but on that occasion, the one that came to mind is from the Book of Mormon and the reference is 2 Nephi 2:25 which says, "Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy." It's a short verse that I memorized in high school for Seminary (an early morning gospel study class that I would attend every morning before school). We memorized quite a few scripture references, but that one really stuck (because it was short and easy to remember ;).

It also stuck because of the message. This life is full of challenges and difficult situations. I think it has to be that way. We learn and grow through those experiences and so much of who we are becoming is because of how we deal with the difficult things in our lives and what we manage to learn from them. So I find it comforting that although we are meant to go through "trials" in this life, we are also meant to have joy.

I've written about happiness on the blog before- in terms of being happy "now" and not waiting for good things to happen in the future to make us happy. The same goes for waiting for material items to make us happy.

I have been reading a new book by Jeffrey R. Holland called To My Friends; Messages of Counsel and Comfort (published by Deseret Book). Chapter 18 is called: "To my friends who seek happiness". He quotes Aristotle as having said, "Happiness is the meaning and purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence." Then he focuses the rest of the chapter on how we can "pursue" happiness.

How to Make an Olaf Cake for a Frozen Birthday Party

Disney came out with a new movie just over a year go that you may have heard of called Frozen... ;) My daughters both wanted to have Frozen-themed birthday parties this time around, so I have several Frozen birthday party idea posts coming up for you. Today we'll start with an Olaf cake tutorial. I know that "drawing" something onto a cake with icing can be a bit daunting, so I thought I'd take step-by-step photos of how I created this one for you so that it will be easier for you to attempt if you want to recreate it. :)

I started with a white cake mix (made with egg whites- no yolk). I made one purple round cake and one blue round cake. I also made a basic buttercream frosting recipe. I guessed on the amounts that I would need for frosting the cake and decorating the cake.

To Assemble the Cake:

February 2015 Sharing Time - Week 4

Welcome to February's Sharing Time Linky!

Before we get to the party, here's a quick recap of the week:

At the beginning of the week a shared a HUGE list of St. Patrick's Day Fun Ideas!.
You can visit that post to add YOUR OWN St. Patrick's Day posts to the list!

The winner was chosen for the Lightscoop Deluxe Giveaway, but the people at Lightscoop have extended the coupon code for you until February 27th! You can get 15% off of any purchase on their site with the code RAISING15!

I posted about Kitchen Closet Organization earlier this week as well.

I also shared our Valentine's Day.

...and a fun unboxing video of Nerd Block Jr. for girls :)

Now, on to the link party- I can't wait to see what you share! :)

Please join the Raising Memories Sharing Time & add a link to your latest and greatest blog posts
about activities to do with your children or fun projects that you have done!

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If you're participating, please share the button on your blog & "hop over" to at least one other blog post that's been linked up- let's support each other!

An InLinkz Link-up

Below is a link to a Link Party Dedicated just to St. Patrick's Day Ideas!
(Can't wait to see your green, rainbow, shamrock, & leprechaun related ideas!)

Thanks for visiting my blog!

Please subscribe or follow to keep in touch.

Nerd Block Junior for Girls (Unboxing)

Are you aware of the youtube trend of unboxing? People post videos of themselves opening things? Well, when Nerd Block Junior sent us a couple of their monthly subscription boxes for kids, we thought it would be the perfect thing to make an unboxing video of ;)

This subscription box is for kids aged 6-11 (there's a girl version and a boy version). You can buy a subscription for 3, 6, or 12 months (cost ranges from $11.19 to $12.59) or you can buy individual boxes for $13.99 each plus shipping.

I looked up some of the items in the January box and they are worth more than the cost of the box, so the box is "worth it" in that way. When I peeked at the box contents before giving them to the girls, I wasn't sure how I felt about it- I questioned whether I would want to order a box of random toys and trinkets (after all, don't we have enough of those things?) But after watching the girls open the boxes and hearing their reactions, I can definitely see the appeal for kids (if not for their parents ;).

Here's a video of the girls opening January's box:

This is what was in the box:

Our Valentine's Day

This year for Valentine's Day, both of my girls chose some free printable Valentines to make for their classes. Katrina made these bookmark valentines (with my help) which we found here. She also made handmade Valentines from construction paper with little drawings and notes for each classmate and teacher (I so wish I had taken a picture of them because they were so cute!)

Talia decided that she wanted to make bracelets for each of her classmates (Katrina & I ended up helping her out as we got closer to the day and the bracelet count wasn't high enough ;) We found these free printable valentines for her to use.

In the morning while we were getting ready for school I remembered that I had saved some Valentines that were leftover from another year, so I snuck away and put together a couple of little Valentines to put in the girls' lunches from me with a bit of candy :)

While the girls were at school, I made Rice Krispie Hershey Kisses. I used a funnel (greased with butter) to shape them, wrapped them in tin foil, and made little tags from waxed paper with "I (heart) Talia" and "I (heart) Katrina" written on them. That was their after school treat. :)

That's how we celebrated our Valentine's Day this year :) I'm so happy to have these two little Valentines in my life! :) (Ken & I are waiting until later to celebrate our Valentine's Day this year- we are both getting over sicknesses right now and he is busy finishing up his thesis. Hopefully soon he can get it handed in officially and we can breathe a sigh of relief and celebrate! :)

How did you celebrate Valentine's Day this year?

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How to Organize Kitchen Cupboards & Leftovers

I have been on a continual journey to figure out how to best organize my kitchen ever since we moved into our little town house. It is a small kitchen so I have had to get creative about how to store things and be careful about not storing things that we don't use very often. (Things we don't use very frequently tend to end up either donated or down in the basement- and that is a problem for another blog post!)

Today I'm sharing how I organize our container cupboard. It has taken a lot of thought and reorganization to find a system that works, but I'm happy to say I have found a great way to organize it (and I even know where to put (& find) each lid!) You can see in the photo below that all of my lids aren't together, but they are all in a place that makes sense to me!

- Some lids stack with their containers
- Some lids fit on their side, beside their containers
- Some lids fit in a lid rack on the cupboard door
- Some lids fit best on their container
(in the case of the pitchers & the glass containers on the bottom shelf)

I'm pretty happy with the collection of bowls and other containers that I have gathered over the last decade, but the one problem I have been trying to solve is finding storage containers that I can use for leftovers. I have tried a few different types and they have all fallen short for different reasons. Through trial and error, I have determined the following wishlist for food storage containers:

February 2015 Sharing Time - Week 3 plus A Special St. Patrick's Day Link Party!

Welcome to February's Sharing Time Linky!

Before we get to the party, here's a quick recap of the week:

I shared photos from a little 1st Birthday & Cake Smash photoshoot
that I did with my sisters' girls:

There is a Giveaway this week, for a copy of 52 Weeks to Fortify Your Family!

I also shared a recipe for a great Valentine's Breakfast/Brunch of Lunch! This is a simple but delicious Strawberry Crepe Recipe!

This week there are two parties- the first is our regular February Link Party & the button below that is just for St. Patrick's Day Ideas!

Now, on to the link party- I can't wait to see what you share! :)

Please join the Raising Memories Sharing Time & add a link to your latest and greatest blog posts
about activities to do with your children or fun projects that you have done!

---------------------------------------

If you're participating, please share the button on your blog & "hop over" to at least one other blog post that's been linked up- let's support each other!

An InLinkz Link-up

Below is a link to a Link Party Dedicated just to St. Patrick's Day Ideas!
(Can't wait to see your green, rainbow, shamrock, & leprechaun related ideas!)

Thanks for visiting my blog!

Please subscribe or follow to keep in touch.

Cake Smash with Two Babies

Last week, my sister came to visit from the U.S. It was so good to spend time with her and her three girls! Her youngest daughter turns one year old this month (and so does my other sister's daughter), so we decided to take advantage of everyone being together and do a little cake smash photoshoot. I'm so glad we made this happen- it was so fun and I love the photos that we got from it!

We started out with a few individual shots of the girls. This is Tori with her little stuffed bunny:

Poor little Alexis was sick and kind of miserable when we started, but you would never know it from this photo! I'm so happy we managed to capture it!

Here's another of cute little Tori before we put the fluffy rug down:

You're Irreplaceable

Madilyn Paige is a singer-songwriter from Provo, Utah who gained popularity when she competed on the TV show, The Voice. She has just released an album, Madilyn Paige.

Themes throughout the CD and lyrics are loving yourself, being yourself despite what everybody else is saying, recognizing that there are others around us going through hard things even when they don't show it, and slowing down to enjoy the small things in life. There are some great messages in her writing!

Daily Routines & A Giveaway

We made a goal at the beginning of the school year, to pray and read scriptures together as a family every morning. We've been doing pretty well and I'm happy with how well we've been sticking with it. One of the things I have liked about it is that Katrina has become more and more comfortable with reading from the scriptures.

I think it's great for children to have the opportunity to read from the scriptures even when they're young and don't understand all of the vocabulary. It's a great opportunity for us, as parents, to stop and explain what things mean (teaching them about words and about the contents of the scriptures). It also helps them to become familiar with the language used in the scriptures so that as they grow older, it will not feel foreign to them.

I had the opportunity recently to review Nicole Carpenter's new book, 52 Weeks to Fortify Your Family. This is a book full of weekly themes that includes an entire year of quick and powerful daily devotionals using scripture from the Bible and the Book of Mormon.

Simple Strawberry Crêpe Valentine Breakfast

When it comes to smaller one-day holidays like Valentine's Day or St. Patrick's Day I think it's fun to do little things to make it fun for your kids. I don't usually do anything too major, and sometimes it's kind of an afterthought (pink heart-shaped pancakes or green milk with brownies.. that sort of thing), but even small touches like that can make the day special for your kids (and for you!).

One of my absolute favourite things to eat for breakfast are crêpes! It's not a dish I make up very often, but I love to eat it when I do! :) This would be a really fun Valentine Breakfast to have with your family this year- and it's a bonus that Valentine's Day falls on a Saturday, so your morning is likely to be less rushed!

This month as Gay Lea Ambassadors, we're using Gay Lea’s Real Whipped Cream products and I went with Gay Lea’s Real Whipped Cream. When given the choice, I prefer the taste of real whipped cream that I whip myself to whipped cream in a can (which are often not really whipped cream). What I love about Gay Lea's Whipped Cream is that it is actually made with real cream- and it tastes great!

Now, moving on to the recipe, here's what you'll need:

February 2015 Sharing Time - Week 2

Welcome to February's Sharing Time Linky!

Before we get to the party, here's a quick recap of the week:

There is a Giveaway this week, for a Lightscoop Deluxe! <--learn all about why that's cool in the post :)

... and I also shared a photo of the snow we had Monday morning when we had a Snow Day!
(and a funny little Monday Moment).

Here's the link to a Collection of 25 Free Valentine Printables :)

Now, on to the link party- I can't wait to see what you share! :)

Please join the Raising Memories Sharing Time & add a link to your latest and greatest blog posts
about activities to do with your children or fun projects that you have done!

---------------------------------------

If you're participating, please share the button on your blog & "hop over" to at least one other blog post that's been linked up- let's support each other!

An InLinkz Link-up

Thanks for visiting my blog!

Please subscribe or follow to keep in touch.

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