Snowflake Cookies

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I made these cookies last winter and everyone loved them.  They weren't very hard to make either.  First you need a pattern of a snowflake.  I just drew one, but you could definitely find one online.

 Next place the snowflake design under wax paper.

 Melt some white chocolate bark - 30 seconds at a time in the microwave.  I used one square to make a bunch of snowflakes.

 Put the melted chocolate in a ziplock bag and cut a small hole on the corner.

 Trace the snowflake design with the white chocolate.

 Carefully pull the snowflakes off the wax paper after they have hardened.

If you flip the snowflake over, it will be smooth and flat.

 If you don't flip it over, you'll have a little more rustic looking snowflake.

 I went with the rustic look :)  I had baked some cookies so I decided to add the snowflakes to the tops of the cookies.  You could add them to cupcakes or any other treat you want to add a little something special.

Mommy Moment: Tell Me A Story

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Lately my daughter has been requesting my husband to tell her stories all the time.  He'll always ask her what she'd like to hear a story about and she normally lists off different family members or something.  Well the other day she was on the couch and she said, "Daddy, tell me a story about your shirt....."  My husband said, "About my shirt?" with a confused look on his face.  Then she responded, "Yeah with Jesus on it!"

No my husband wasn't wearing a shirt with Jesus on it, but it did have a guy on the front.  Who was it you ask?  Mr. T saying "I pity the fool."  Ha ha.  I guess he has a beard, but other than that I wouldn't say there's much of a resemblance.  It made us laugh really hard.

Blanket Fort

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When all else fails, build a fort.  Seriously, this blanket fort took 1 minute to put together and it entertained my daughter forever.  The fort made everything special - reading books, eating a snack, singing songs even lying down on the floor.

Glue Snowmen

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Okay I saw something like this on pinterest a while back and wanted to try them out.  It seemed like a fun craft to do with my daughter and with all the snow outside, I thought it was a good time to make them.

They didn't turn out perfectly, but I did learn some things along the way that I thought I'd share :)

Materials:
Wax paper
Elmer's glue
Tape
Buttons,
Paper
Oogly Eyes
Glitter
Other decorating supplies

The first thing I learned was that your wax paper needs to be totally flat and not wrinkled at all....woops!  Because my paper wasn't totally flat, I ended up with a large "crack" in my snowman because the glue just slid off of the high point of the crease.  So make sure your wax paper is flat and to ensure it doesn't get any wrinkles, take it down to your pan or whatever surface you're using.

I set my face and other embellishments out on the paper so I could figure out how big my snowman needed to be.

 Then I drew the outline of my snowman,

Next I filled it in.

 Then I put the face and other decorations on top of the glue.  Here is another lesson I learned....honestly...felt is not so great.  It absorbes the glue and leaves very little for the actual body of the snowman so he was a bit weak around the neck area.  I'd use foam or paper instead.  

 My daughter enjoyed decorating her snowman too.

Then you just let the glue dry.  FYI this pretty much takes all day long.  Also.....if you use foam like I did for the hats, you'll want to peel the hats up a little bit after a few hours to let the air get to glue so it will draw quicker.  Once the glue is completely dry carefully feel the snowman off of the wax paper.

This is my daughters finished snowman.

 Here is mine.....notices the crack due to the crease in the paper?  Boo.  The good news is that it's an easy fix....all you have to do is glue it back together...ha!

Doctor's Orders

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So I have a question....My sister-in-law has a 6 month old baby boy.  At his last doctor's appointment, the doctor said that they should only give him 3 meals a day of table food and nursing right after and no snacks throughout the day.  His reasoning was because of obesity in America.  What are your thoughts?  Does this seem crazy or like good advice?  How often to you feed your babies?  Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Mommy Moment: Comments?

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Today at church my daughter decided she didn't want to be in nursery any more.  She told her teacher she needed to go to the bathroom to get out.  As soon as she came to me she said she didn't need to go to the bathroom and just wanted to stay with me.

During the lesson, some people were sharing their thoughts.  After several people had talked, the teacher asked if there were any more comments.  My daughter responded (quite loudly), "NO!!" Haha.

Snow Day

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Sorry, I'm callin' it a snow day today.  My husband and I both aren't feeling well and I'm too tired to do a real post.  Sadly, when winter comes so do the colds :(  Yesterday we had quite the snow storm.  I took a couple pictures of my daughter experiencing the first real storm of the year and this one is my very favorite.

I think the reason I love this picture so much is that this is exactly how I felt about the snow.

Covered in Kisses

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I did a photo shoot the other day of my friend, Lyndsey's 1 year old daughter.  Lyndsey always has the cutest ideas. She had seen something on pinterest about having little kiss marks all over your baby.  We tried it out and I just love how the picture turned out.  So I had to share it with you guys.

More Copycat Jamba Juice Recipes

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A friend of mine sent me this link.  It has a ton of different recipes for copycat Jamba Juice smoothies.  You better believe I'll be tryin' them out!  I'll let you know what I think and if you try them you tell me what you think.  Deal?  Deal!

Copycat Caribbean Passion Jamba Juice

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So I found the recipe for a copycat Caribbean Passion Jamba Juice a while ago and today I've been craving it like no other.  Since I wasn't able to make it for myself, I thought I'd share the recipe with you so maybe you could taste the goodness :)

1 Cup Passion fruit mango juice blend

1 Cup Frozen strawberries

1/2 Cup Frozen peaches

1/2 Cup Orange sherbet

1/2 Cup ice

Put all of the ingredients in a blender and blend on high until it's "smoothie" consistency.

SO easy right?  I will admit, I couldn't find the right fruit juice so I ended up using Dole's Orange Peach Mango juice and it was simply delicious!  I had to add a little more juice to get it to the right consistency.  You should definitely try this recipe out!

**A friend of mine gave me some tips about Jamba Juice Recipes**
- He said that the base that Jamba Juice uses is super sweet, so if you want your smoothie to be more powerful, rather than adding normal juice, buy the concentrate for the juice and add less water than it calls for.  Then your base will be super sweet too.

- He also said the normal formula for Jamba Juice recipes is:
12 oz. juice
2 scoops sorbet/sherbet/whatever
3 scoops fruit
1 small scoop ice

Wish I'd Known: Diaper Raffle

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I wish I had thought of this great tip from Callie for my baby shower:

Do a diaper raffle at your baby shower

She got so many diapers at her baby girl's shower that still after 3 months she hasn't had to buy diapers and she thinks she won't have to for another 2-3 months.

If you're wondering what a diaper raffle is, for each pack of diapers a guest brings to your shower, they get a ticket put into a raffle for a prize.  It's a great way to get stocked up on those diapers!

Mommapproved: White Noise App

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Today's Mommapproved Item is a White Noise App

Jessica says the White Noise App found on itunes made by TMSOFT is seriously a fantastic tool for newborns.  There's a trial version too.  When my son Isaac was born, he'd sleep fine on his own during the day, but would only sleep on us at night.  I finally realized the difference was I'd open the windows during the day, and there'd be all sorts of commotion, whereas night time was silent.  We downloaded this app and Isaac suddenly was able to sleep on his own at any time of the day!

Thanks for this suggestion Jessica!  Whenever I take pictures of newborns I always have white noise playing.  It really does make a difference.  It looks like there is a trial version that is free, a normal version that is $1.99 and a pro version that is more expensive.

Mommy Moment: Christmas List

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The other day I asked my daughter what she wanted for Christmas.  Her response was "The temple!"

The past few months she has been totally obsessed with the temple.  She keeps asking if we can go to the temple and get married.  All of us - mommy, daddy, her and her brother ha I don't think she quite knows what it means to get married, but she sure is cute talking about how fun it will be to go to the temple.

Garden Bounty Tortilla Soup

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This soup is good for you and it's delicious.  Plus, it's a great way to get your kids, spouse or anyone for that matter to eat their veggies.  I am a picky eater and really don't like a lot of veggies, but I love this soup!  The only downside is that it requires a lot of chopping, but it makes a TON.  I actually freeze half of the recipe.

Ingredients
8 cups chicken broth (you can use chicken bouillon cubes - 1 cube to 2 cups of water)
1 red onion, diced
2-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 large carrots, pealed and diced
2-4 potatoes, peeled and diced
1/4 cup tomato paste (more if desired, to taste)
1 bay leaf
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 whole pepper of the canned chipotle chile in adobo sauce (I use the La Costena brand)
1 jalapeno, seeded and minced
1 tsp oregano
1/8 tsp cumin
1 tsp salt
1 tsp white pepper
1 small to medium zucchini, diced
1 yellow summer squash, diced
1 Red bell pepper, chopped
1 Green bell pepper, chopped
1 Tbs chopped fresh cilantro
2 Tbs freshly squeezed lime juice
2 Tbs freshly squeezed orange juice
Fresh, frozen or canned corn - optional

In large stockpot over high heat, combine chicken broth, chicken, onion, carrots, potatoes, tomato paste, bay leaf, garlic, chipotle pepper, jalapeno, oregano and cumin.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to low and simmer for 20 minutes.  When the chicken is cooked, remove from pot and shred it.  Add salt and white pepper.  Add zucchini, summer squash, bell peppers and corn if desired.  Bring to a boil again.  Reduce heat to low and simmer 15 minutes.  Add cilantro, lime and orange juice.  Stir well and remove from heat. (When I reheat the extras the next day, sometimes their isn't as much juice so I just add a bit more chicken broth)

Garnish: Tortilla chips, shredded cheese, chopped fresh cilantro, sliced avocados, jalepeno rings, lime wedges.  (I usually just do chips, cheese, cilantro and a bit of lime juice).

**When I freeze it, I leave out the potatoes (since they really don't freeze well) and the chicken.  Then I just add them when I cook the soup.  When you're ready to eat your frozen soup, thaw it and then you can either cook it in a crockpot on low for 4-6 hours or you can cook in on the stove and boil it for about 30-40 minutes.

Makes approx. 3 quarts

Hand Warmers

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My sister got married today.  She married a really great guy and I'm so excited for them.  I'm pretty beat from all of the celebrating, but I wanted to give you a quick for winter weddings, since that's the upcoming season.

Whether you're getting married, your sister is getting married or you're just part of a wedding party....hand warmers are a great purchase.  When I got married, we bought some little hand warmers and put them in my husbands jacket.  That way I could warm my hands up quick and easy while taking pictures in a blizzard :)

Me and my beautiful sister

Thankful For 1: Laughter

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Throughout the month of November I'm going to be doing posts about things I'm thankful for on Thursdays, maybe more often....we'll see how it goes.  I would like to include some guest posts of things you are thankful for as well.  So if you have something you are grateful for as a mother, please send them in!

For day 1 of my thankful list I am thankful for:

Laughter

There are few things that can make me happier than hearing the sound of my child laughing.  I'm pretty much willing to do anything to get a cute giggle out of my kids.  Honestly, I don't care if I look/sound like a crazy person because I am LOVING the beautiful sound of their laughter.

Here's a little video of my son laughing because I'm being ca-razy.

Halloween Kiddies

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I love Halloween because I get to dress up my kids and there's something about a little face paint and a costume that makes your kids that much cuter.

My daughter was Minnie Mouse and my son was Charlie Brown.

She was SO fun to take trick-or-treating.

 My daughter's best friend was also Minnie Mouse.  How fun!

I thought it would be fun to post pictures of your adorable kids all dressed up.  Here are the photos that were submitted pictures.  Seriously, how cute are these photos???

The 3 Amigos

Luke, Leia and an Ewok

A Metro Card - From NYC.  She made this using the freezer paper stencil technique.  Wishing them well as they try to recover from Hurricane Sandy.

The whole Peter Pan Crew.  So cute!

Ken, Barbie, Woodie and Buzz - So fun!