Family

Friday Favorites

March 30, 2017

It's Spring in Utah which means we can feel each of the four seasons in ONE day. Really though, its beautiful and sunny one day and freezing cold and raining the next. So, I'm living in layers, anything blush colored, (like this scarf) and breaking in my Rainbow Sandals for the new warm weather season. I'm told they are the most comfortable flip flop around, but the verdict is still out.

This weekend is Conference Sunday which means a leisurely morning, a delicious breakfast, and time spent with family members as we watch televised messages from leaders of the LDS church. You can check it out online if you are interested. So, I'm planning a waffle bar with fresh berries, whip cream, and Smuckers Strawberry Syrup. Its a nice change from plain old maple, and it makes your breakfast look as good as it tastes.

Saturday night we typically have our semi annual "girls night" with our mom and all of our sisters. We go out to eat or go see a movie. But, our mom recently fell, had to have knee surgery, and is currently bedridden for 4 more weeks before she can start physical therapy so Megyn and I have been dropping by for visits, bringing dinner, small treats and gifts (Thank you Target Dollar Spot) and doing anything we can to help cheer her up. It is frustrating for her to not be able to move for so long and to have to ask for help for nearly everything she needs. The past few weeks watching her has made me re evaluate the things I choose to complain about. Sure I'm tired from life with littles but at least I can walk, take care of my family, drive, shop, shower, etc all of the things that you take for granted until you can't do them.

So, life has slowed down a little bit as we take time to visit with her and try to keep her spirits up the best we can. We have little ones that run wild at Grandmas house so sometimes I'm not sure how helpful we are but we do keep trying. Because under the circumstances its nice to have people care and have people show they care. So this Saturday night in place of our girls night we'll probably bring dinner and/or dessert to her from our favorite local restaurant Kneaders, and finish the night off chasing our kids around making sure they don't bump into her injured leg or take off with her crutches to play hide and seek with them. :)

Have a good weekend all!

March 9, 2017

Easy Eats, Family, Holiday, Kids, Saint Patricks Day

We make these cookies several times a year and they are usually gone in one sitting. They are just so good. So for St. Patty's Day we tinted the frosting green and called it a Holiday treat. ;) You are welcome.

Homemade Oreos

1 Devils Food Cake Mix

1/2 Cup Shortening

2 Eggs

Tub of Vanilla Frosting

Mix all ingredients together.

Roll the couch into dime-sized balls and place on a cookie sheet.

Bake at 350 degrees for 8 minutes.

Cool cookies.

Place desired amount of frosting in-between two cookies.

Optional- use green food coloring for St. Pattys Day.

March 2, 2017

Art, Children, Craft with Kids, DIY Holiday, Family, Family actives, Holiday, Holidays Traditions, Kids Crafts, Party Ideas, Saint Patricks Day

The kiddos are just starting to understand what a Leprechaun is so we had a Leprechaun party to search for Leprechaun Gold, build a Leprechaun Village, and snack on green treats. Fingers crossed we have a visit to our village sometime from a sneaky little leprechaun leaving treats.

I made a quick trip to the dollar store for a few themed St Patty's Day items. Gold coins, mini green hats, stickers, and some sparkly green shamrocks. I also picked up a rainbow of paint swatches.

Then I pulled out random things from my house and crafty stash. Popsicle sticks, yarn, clothes pins, cookie cutters, green and gold paint, and a footprint stamp I use for baby showers.

Finally, I keep a box of just random stuff. Used hot chocolate cans, baby food jar lids. Just weird random stuff so when the time comes for the kids or myself to create something we have a box of go to building stuff. Saves money and makes you be creative.

We laid out our goods and got to work. We built a village fit for any Leprechaun and had so much fun doing it. We pulled it off the kitchen table and put it on the floor out of the way where the kids can play with it for a week or so until its time to move on to the next holiday.

For our party snacks we put some Wiltons Green Melting Chocolate on the kids favorite pretzels and added some green sprinkles.

When we were done village building we headed outside to search for leprechaun gold. We hid pieces of gold and the kids put it in little "Lucky" sacks we made with glue and glitter. Easy easy.

February 17, 2017

Beach, Beach Beauty, Beauty, Family, February, Friday Favorites, Kids in Tow, Lifestyle, Littles, Motherhood, Vacation

We just got back from an awesome, long awaited vacation to San Diego and let me tell you the sun on my skin felt like heaven, the sand on my feet was my yearly pedi and traveling with two kids was no joke, a crazy train on crack (the crazy crack train being Jared and I)! All joking aside they did awesome but there were definitely some crazy moments, but it sure was fun to get away with our little family.

I wanted to round up some Friday Favorites that I've absolutely loved from the vacation!

This baby wrap comes with special magic sleep dust and allows mama to be hands free to chase after a crazy blonde toddler child.

Love, love, love the instant color, no smell, and longevity of this stuff! My bronzer always seems to wear off mid day and this tanner defiantly helps a girl out with pale sickly white skin.

I have green eyes so I've been around the block a time or two in the plum eye liner department; this stuff is a keeper, the color doesn't fade or rub off on your upper lid!

Traveling without our white noise machine so we pop on this baby on our phone; we haves used this for two and half years now. I love that it is customizable; my kiddos especially love the crickets and ocean waves.

Of course I had to grab a swimsuit for Brookes; right now Gap is having a 40% off everything sale!

Picked up this water activity pad for the plane ride and my two and half year old held still for a whopping 40 minutes! We pulled this sucker out for restaurants, church, and long car rides . . . life saver!

Now we just gotta get over our post vacation blues. Happy weekending my friends!

XO, Megs

May 10, 2016

Adventures, Family, Family actives, Fitness, Hiking, Lifestyle, Moab, Nature, Nature Photography, Outdoors

Delicate Arch, Arches National Park

Our little family recently returned from Moab, Utah. We were craving warmer weather, sun on our skin, and a 3 hour drive with a toddler (yeah....not so much the latter). We hit Arches National Park , Dead Horse Point State Park , and Canyonlands National Park. It was a fun family filled vacation, I am sure we will be visiting again where we may have to try out some jeeping or white water rafting.

Here are a few tips that I learned on our trip:

We went in March the weather was right on point before the desert climate starts to heat up on those lovely red rocks usually reaching the 100+ degrees.

We have the National Parks Pass which got us into Arches National Park and Canyon Lands National Park.....not essential but we didn't have to wait in the 30 minute line to get into the park.

We didn't bring a pack for our toddler (which I don't know how much she would have ridden in it...she loved walking along the trails) but I wish we would have had the option for it especially on the long hikes and especially especially for when she conked out on dad's shoulder half way onto the trail.

We had so many comments from people telling us that they wish they would have started traveling with their littles when they were small....so get out there! Don't let your kids keep you from traveling!!

You have very limited options of dining in Moab, it is your typical outfitter town so instead of hitting the select few chain restaurants hit the local restaurants. We went to Paradox Pizza....big thumbs up!! Thank you Yelp.

We always try to get a souvenir on our trips (usually it is a Christmas tree ornament....if I can find one that matches my tree) and lets be honest it's always fun to do the touristy things like walk main and check out all the neat shops.

Make it an easy trip by packing light, especially when it was only a two day trip this will make you want to travel more often if it wasn't a pain in the butt to get ready for. We took 1 suitcase for all 3 of us (you can probably tell with all my wardrobe changes).

Take enough photos, whether that be on your phone or camera, looking back on my pictures I wish we would have brought our tripod...we have 1 family shot. You can get some breathtaking images along the red rocks with the snow crested La Sal Mountain range in the backdrop.

The drive wasn't that bad, we made sure to load up the iPod, had 1 or 2 new toys for the toddler which easily held her attention for awhile, and packed our cooler with drinks and snacks.

Of course remember all the essentials, sunblock, hats, hiking shoes, snacks, packs, jackets, cameras, sunglasses, long sleeves for babies/toddlers for sun protection, plenty of water. It's not the end of the world if you forget these, there are markets along main.

When we got back to the hotel we crashed but I wish we would have headed back out to the Arches to catch the sunset on the red rocks and stars coming out.

Hit up the Moab Information Center on main street, where you can load up on maps and ask questions.