Fun Little Recipe to do with the Kiddos!

Little Holiday Pretzel Treats

Ingredients:
Bite-size, waffle-shaped pretzels
Hershey's Kiss or Hershey's Hug
M&M's candy


Step 1
Heat the oven to 170º. Set a number of bite-size, waffle-shaped pretzels (one for each treat) in a single layer on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, then top each pretzel with an unwrapped Hershey's Kiss or Hershey's Hug.

Step 2
Bake for 4 to 6 minutes (the white chocolate will melt more quickly), until the chocolates feel soft when touched with a wooden spoon. Remove the cookie sheet from the oven and quickly press an M&M's candy into the center of each Kiss.

Step 3
Allow the treats to cool for a few minutes, then place them in the refrigerator to set, about 10 minutes. Place handfuls of the candies in clear plastic bags and tie on colorful ribbons.

Getting FURTHER and FURTHER Behind...

in my blogging! Hope you all had a very Thankful Thanksgiving! We enjoyed a yummy lunch at my mom and dad's and just hung out there the rest of the afternoon. Rob & my Dad watched most of "It's a Wonderful Life" while Mom and I browsed the after-Thanksgiving sale ads and I did some word search puzzles. The boys just played. That evening we went to Rob's parents for supper and ate some more yummy food.

That's all for tonight! Got to get to bed!

Just a couple photos...

of Jacob's Thanksgiving party today at pre-school! And, a photo of a turkey that Matthew made in school last week. Maybe a longer post tomorrow!

Ten Random Thoughts/Things That Happened Today

1. Rob left for work at 6:50 am. I fell right back to sleep and woke at 7:40. Got Matthew to school (with his shower taken, by the way) at 7:54. We live 1 1/2 miles from school. This happened only one other time and Matthew was to school on time at that time as well!

2. I absolutely love a rainy, fall day.

3. Jacob & I played 3 games of CandyLand today and 2 games of Diego.

4. Our school, St. Paul, collected over 500 boxes for Operation Christmas Child!!!!

5. Had the boys circle some things in the Lego catalog to put on their Christmas wish lists...needless to say, I have LOTS of choices!

6. I fixed spaghetti w/garlic bread for supper. Always a hit.

7. Will be doing most of our Christmas shopping on-line this year...so much easier and lots more choices.

8. For those of you with kids, I got a neat little idea from my sister, Elizabeth, today, on doing a "moving" nativity with your children. Basically, at home, you set up your nativity like you always do, leaving Mary & Joseph and Baby Jesus, out of the nativity. Each day then, you put Mary & Joseph in a different spot and let the kids find them...basically to symbolize their travels. Then on Christmas Eve, they arrive at the nativity. Baby Jesus appears in the morning. I thought that was so cute and such a fun way to relay the message of what happened on that first Christmas.

9. Looking forward to substituting for Matthew's teacher on Friday & Monday!

10. GREAT mail day!

Recap of a FUN, BUSY Weekend!

Friday night started off with a fun craft night that a good friend of mine put together! Rob and the boys stayed home and watched movies and went to bed early! Here's a photo of what we made. The first project, on the left, is a Christmas card holder or mail holder...I didn't put the handles back on yet so it's missing those. The second project was a Christmas planner...although I think I'm going to use mine for displaying photos, we'll see. It was a fun night with about 10 ladies showing up! Thanks, Julie!

Saturday morning, Rob & Matthew got up around 4:00 am to go deer hunting...they didn't see a thing except for squirrels. Went to pick Matthew up around 8:30 am...he'd had enough! Rob continuted to hunt the rest of the day. That afternoon I took the boys to a bowling birthday party...they had so much fun.

Then, as soon as Rob got home we headed to some friend's house for supper and to plan an adult only trip! We had so much fun...we got a map out and just looked it over and jotted down a few places that we're considering and are going to do some research on!

Today we played cards, put together Operation Christmas Child boxes, and now the boys & Rob are at AWANA at our church. I'm spending my alone time doing laundry, straightening up around the house, and just stuff like that!

I've got another recipe to share...would be great for dessert at your Thanksgiving dinner!

Pumpkin Crisp

1-15 ounce can pumpkin
1 cup evaporated milk
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 box butter-flavored yellow cake mix (I used BC's Super Moist Butter Recipe Yellow)
1 cup chopped pecans
1 cup butter, melted
Cool Whip

Stir together the first 5 ingredients. Pour into lightly greased 13X9 inch baking dish. Sprinkle cake mix evenly over pumpkin mixture; sprinkle evenly with pecans. Drizzle butter evenly over pecans. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hours to 1 hour and 5 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven, and let stand 10 minutes before serving. Serve warm or at room temperature with Cool Whip, if desired. Makes 8-10 servings.

Heather...the last recipe that I posted for muffins...I took some out of the freezer and just let them thaw...they were as if I'd just baked them!

Have a great week!

MMMMMMM...You Gotta Make These!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

2 cups oil
2 cups brown sugar
4 cups sugar
Beat Together, Then Add:

8 beaten eggs
1 1/2 Tbsp baking soda dissolved in 1/3 cup warm water
4 cups pumpkin
7 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp ginger
2 tsp cloves
2 tsp nutmeg
4 tsp cinnamon
Mix, Then Add:

1 cup warm water
3 cups milk chocolate chips

Bake @ 350 degrees for 15-20 (mine actually took about 25) minutes...as soon as they start to brown. Do not overcook.


I have my last batch in the oven right now...I halved the recipe and it made 34 muffins (cupcake size). They were so yummy I had to have two with my milk tonight! They would be excellent to freeze as well.

One-on-One Time

I LOVE nights like these...don't get me wrong...I LOVE spending time with my whole family...but nights like these are special...spending a little one-on-one time with my boys. Rob needed to go out to our farm and plow some fields...Jacob really wanted to go so we let him since he doesn't have pre-school tomorrow. Matthew was totally fine with that...he was like..."Mom, let's play some kickball and drink hot cocoa!" Well, if you know me...you know I LOVE hot cocoa! So, after Rob & Jacob left, we played kickball outside for about an hour. Then we went to the library to check out a couple of books & videos. We came home, did some math homework, ate, and drank hot cocoa while watching about an hour of Superman. It was then time to do some reading...and work on spelling words. Then, we watched Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving, which is a hoot by the way, and then it was bedtime. What a fun night for Matthew & me!

Good Morning! I just spent a few minutes reading a blog from a fellow scrapbooker who is also a Mormon. I wouldn't normally post comments from an LDS Conference, but this one really struck me this morning. It was directed to parents about the time spent as a family, by Elder Dallin Oaks, LDS General Conference, October 2007:

Some of our most important choices concern family activities. Many breadwinners worry that their occupations leave too little time for their families. There is no easy formula for that contest of priorities. However, I have never known of a man who looked back on his working life and said, "I just didn't spend enough time with my job."

In choosing how we spend time as a family, we should be careful not to exhaust our available time on things that are merely good and leave little time for that which is better or best. A friend took his young family on a series of summer vacation trips, including visits to memorable historic sites. At the end of the summer he asked his teenage son which of these good summer activities he enjoyed most. The father learned from the reply, and so did those he told of it. "The thing I liked best this summer," the boy replied, "was the night you and I laid on the lawn and looked at the stars and talked." Super family activities may be good for children, but they are not always better than one-on-one time with a loving parent.

Family experts have warned against what they call "the overscheduling of children." In the last generation children are far busier and families spend far less time together. Among many measures of this disturbing trend are the reports that structured sports time has doubled, but children's free time has declined by 12 hours per week, and unstructured outdoor activities have fallen by 50 percent. The number of those who report that their "whole family usually eats dinner together" has declined 33 percent. This is most concerning because the time a family spends together "eating meals at home [is] the strongest predictor of children's academic achievement and psychological adjustment." Family mealtimes have also been shown to be a strong bulwark against children's smoking, drinking, or using drugs. There is inspired wisdom in this advice to parents: What your children really want for dinner is you.

One more thing!

Matthew got his "behavior" card turned today at school. He was acting like a cat by meowing. His teacher said, "Matthew...we don't act like animals in class". It could be worse...what was he thinking!?!? :)

Happy Halloween...Night 2!!!

Wanted to share a few more photos of our Halloween fun...night #2.