What We Are Thankful For

Here are the top ten thirteen things we are thankful for this year (they aren’t in the order of importance we couldn’t order them, it was too hard). What are you thankful for this year?

1 - Each other (of course)

2 – Our great parents

3 – Our loving Heavenly Father

4 – Our testimonies of our Savior Jesus Christ

5 – Bon Jovi (is it okay to list this with the last two, hope so, because we are thankful for all three)

6 – That we both have stable jobs

7 – That we have a good education so we could both become Registered Nurses

8 – Our husbands

9 – Our wonderful kids

10 – Our in-laws

11 – Bounteous food on our tables

12 – Safe and warm homes

13 – Caffeine (c’mon, we both work nights right now)

During this holiday season, there is a message we would like to share with you. If you are interested in learning why we have such strong testimonies of our Savior Jesus Christ and a loving Father in Heaven, click here:

There will always be a button on our side bar that you can access the website for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints from our blog if you want to visit it in the future.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL OF YOU!!!! MAY YOUR LIVES BE BLESSED!

What’s Cookin’ Wednesday: Micki’s Pumpkin Torte

Just in time for Thanksgiving here is a recipe for Pumpkin Torte that they made in my son's class:

It's so yummy!!

crust:

yellow cake mix less 1 cup

1 egg

1/2 c. melted butter

mix together and pat into bottom of 9x13 pan

filling:

3 cups pumpkin pie mix (not just pumpkin)

2 eggs

2/3 cup milk

mix together and pour on top of crust

topping:

1 c yellow cake mix

1 t. cinnamon

1/4 c. sugar

1/4 c. margarine (room temp)

crumble together and sprinkle over the top of the filling

Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 40 mins. Top with whipped cream and serve.

Today in class they just used it all as topping instead of crust so the picture looks a little different. I prefer it with the crust. Enjoy!!!

Mystery Monday: Thanksgiving Traditions and Micki's Fall Floral

Our Thanksgiving traditions include eating, eating and more eating. :) Our mom and mothers in law are great cooks. We love to spend the holidays with family, both of us are away from our parents right now, and so the holidays are extra special when we get to see them. For years on the day after Thanksgiving we decorated the Christmas tree with our dad. It's quite the hodge podge of ornaments, especially fisherman Santas, vintage elves and homemade ornaments by none other than yours truly (there's even a Grumpy dwarf ornament that we gave him one year when we were in college, because he had been grumpy a lot that year). Now when we get to go home Grandpa decorates the tree with the grandkids.



Now for the mystery......What are your Thanksgiving traditions?

I made this centerpiece last night at like 2 am. I work the night shift right now and can't sleep, so I craft. Here's the mess I made while making it and the finished product. :) I love it, and I had to have an owl because my sister did. I bought a Christmas ornament from Michaels that was an owl.

Teri’s Fall Feature Friday

I love fall. I love the colors of fall, I love the smells of fall, I love the weather of fall. I also like to decorate for fall. I wanted to share a couple of my new fall decorations I made this year.

These harvest blocks are one of the crafts we did last week at craft day. Please excuse the atrocious Mod Podge job. I didn’t realize how badly it had bubbled until I tried to take pictures. The little pumpkin I picked up on the Michael’s clearance for some insane amount like 39¢. I think it looks cute on my letters.

The floral arrangement I made using fall stuff that I got on clearance at Michael’s for 80% off. What a steal. I got everything pictured at Michael’s, except for the ribbon, and including the ribbon I paid about $18! Can you believe it! It turned out better than I had hoped. I LOVE it!!! I needed something large and decorative like that. It’s quite big, it measures about 15” wide by 26” tall. I love the little owl, he was a definite prize! It needed something around the raw edge of the pumpkin that I had cut off, and I wanted moss, but I didn’t have any, so I found this fall ribbon I had purchased at Hobby Lobby I think, and created this ruffly trim by hot gluing it down in segments. I think it added just the right touch. I hope you agree (if not, oh well, I love it).

Last but not least is my new fall wreath. I didn’t make this one, I couldn’t have made it for what I bought it for I don’t think. I purchased it last week at Michael’s. It was on clearance at 80% off and then I had a coupon for and extra 15% of a premade floral. Making the grand total just under $5. I would never have thought of this grey blue as a fall color, but I really think it works here. Plus I love the owl ribbon. Who could resist the touch of bling? This isn’t my front door, I couldn’t get a decent picture of it on my front door, so pretend the door is white okay?

This post is also linked to Frugalicious Friday at Finding Fabulous and Frugal Friday at The Shabby Nest

Tadpole Tuesday: Tardy Halloween

So, I wanted to post this way before Halloween, but being forgetful I forgot to take a picture before it went to school. It's back home now, so I can tell you all about it. :) My little guy had to make a "Harvest" pumpkin for school. They were told they couldn't carve them. So we thought we would get one of the craft ones from Michaels and decorate it so we could keep it. First we mod podged red tissue on it. Then we colored and cut out the face (He designed and colored it all by himself!!!) and modpodged it on. Then we put stickers all over it (He loves stickers) and put another coat of mod podge on for good measure (can never have too much mod podge). Then hot glued the yarn on and gave him a "haircut". :)

Guest Day Thursday: Halloween Wreath

I told you last week that my darling friend Anna would be back this week, and so today’s the day. A couple of weeks ago Anna and I were blogstalking and we stumbled onto this darling Halloween wreath. We knew we HAD to make our own. In this post Anna describes how she made hers, and shows you the finished project.

This was a fun Halloween project, so easy and inexpensive!

I got 2 yards of black tulle and one of purple and green each. If you are fortunate enough to live in a place that sells orange tulle nearby, I think that’s be fun to add, too – since the main colors of Halloween are orange and black!

I bought a 50 cent grapevine wreath from DI. It was spray panted bright gold. It was 50 cents… so whatever.

I used my hot glue gun and about 2 ½ sticks.

With my roller cutter, board and ruler, I cut all the tulle into about 4x4 squares.

As I started gluing the tulle on, I realized that the gold was peeking through. I didn’t want that so I used several 2 inch strips of scrap black fabric to wrap around the wreath.

By gathering a square of tulle into a point from the middle (imagine how you would put your pointer finger into a tissue so you could dab at your eyes…

This is not the greatest photography, but you get the idea of what I’m describing).

…And adding a dollop of hot glue to it, stick the point to the wreath. Hold for several seconds. Repeat. Many many times.

Till your finished product looks like THIS

Or something close to it, or even cuter! I’m still in the process of looking for the perfect embellishments to add, like some small pumpkins or bats. That’s the beauty in doing your own projects – the sky is literally the limit!

…And if you have a friend like Teri, your wreath can look as fun and frightening.

Her hand painted spooky eyeballs and dark gothic chain are the perfect accessories for my favorite Halloween decoration!

Happy Halloween all!

Isn’t she so cute!!! When she originally sent me this post she had mentioned that she wanted some embellishments and I was at Pier 1 and saw these and knew they would be perfect! I however wasn’t going to pay $5 a piece for them, so I made them of course! They are just Christmas ornaments that are spray painted black with eye balls painted on! I found the chain on clearance at Lowes and spray painted it black too. I love the way the masculinity of the chain contrasts with the femininity of the tulle. I used the technique of tying rather than gluing my tulle and ribbon on, like was mentioned in the inspiration piece. Here is how mine turned out. It’s fun how each can be so different when based on the same idea!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!!!

We are participating in :

and Frugalicious Friday on Finding Fabulous

Tadpole Tuesday: Teri’s Halloween Trees

Remember these ghosts that we made with the kids?

They are hanging outside our house with some decoupage Halloween ornaments on our Halloween Trees (aka dead sticks we “planted” in the ground).

We made these as a family and they were fun and not too difficult. To find out how to make them, visit Blue Cricket Designs.

We also coated them with glow in the dark Mod Podge and sprayed them with polyurethane. Then we tied monofilament to the loops to hang them. Voile!

Close ups of some of my favorites:

There is one there from each of us….perfect in their imperfection (I’ll let you guess who’s is whose).

This is about the extent of our outside decor, except for my favorite jack-o-lantern riding a spider which was pictured here.

We are joining Kimba @ A Soft Place to Land, click the button below and feast your eyes on all kinds of greatness!!!

We will probably join more parties as the week goes on, so we will add links here :)
and Halloween Suprise Party @ The DIY Show Off

What's Cookin' Wednesday: Micki's kitchen

Okay, Whatever Goes Wednesday, has officially changed. We aren't apprently creative enough (aka, we don't have enough time), to fill every day with projects. Wednesdays will now be known as What's Cookin' Wenesday, and we will share some of our favorite recipes with you....hopefully you will tell us where we can find some of your favorites.

Since it is fall and getting colder in a lot of places. I decided to post one of my favorite soup recipes. It's my mother in laws potato soup and it's soooooooooooooooo yummy!!!

In bottom of stock pot melt 1 cube butter and cook one large diced yellow onion until soft, do not brown. Then add enough diced potatoes to fill stock pot 3/4 full. Cover potatoes with chicken broth and add a little extra bullion for extra flavor. Cook until potatoes are soft. Then use immersion blender or hand mixer to mix ingredients and puree potatoes. Then add enough warmed half and half to make it the consistency you want it to be and enjoy. It's great topped with shredded cheddar and served with fresh french bread!!!

Linked to these great parties:

Foodie Friday @ Deisgns by Gollum and

Feature Friday

Featured on Friday is the letter “F”

What we may post about is anyone’s guess

Today our Fall Favorites we’d like to share

Maybe a spider or pumpkin too cute to scare

Organic Fresh Fruit that’s locally grown

Aren’t they pretty in green and red tones?

Flower bulbs ready to go underground

Next Spring color will be all around!

Let’s not Forget the month’s crowning event

What are your Favorite Fall things, please leave a comment!

Guest Day Thursday-Laurels Beads

Micki's mother-in-law makes beautiful lampwork beads. Here is a showcase of some of her fall focal beads. Here is a link to her etsy shop so you can see her other creations