Kids Valentines 2015

The last few years my kids and I have tried to be creative and make fun valentines instead of buying them. I blame this on Pinterest! Everyone was happy with buying a box of valentines, but now we all get to be creative. :) I actually do really enjoy it. It's kind of fun and my kids love planning and making them with me.

Last year we made rubber band bracelets for everyone in my kids' classes. That was a lot of bracelets! I blogged about last year here and here.

A few years before that we did this lollipop valentine.

I was just going through some pictures of the past valentine's day and I just found this picture from 2011. Holy cow, kids are growing so fast. Slow down, please!

Can you believe that this little 1st grader is now a 5th grader that made all the kids in her class duct tape bookmarks this year?

I bought a bunch of light sticks from amazon to use for the boys' valentines. I didn't consult my 3rd grader. When we finally got around to making his valentines he would have preferred to do some kind of a Seattle Seahawks theme. Instead, he humored me and went with a Star Wars theme. There are lots of cute glow stick valentine ideas but too lovely dovey for a 3rd grade boy.

We found this on pinterest, printed it, cut it out and stuck the light stick in it. Easy peasy.

My kindergartener's valentines were most fun for me to make. He was Yoda for Halloween last year, so I made a photo collage valentine and printed it at Costco. All we had to do was tape glow sticks on top of the lightsaber in the picture.

Still haven't figured out what we're doing for actual Valentine's day tomorrow. The kids have great expectations, but I usually come up with a plan the night before or early the morning of before the kids wake up. It'll probably involve heart shaped pizza, little chocolate hearts on their pillows and maybe a small surprise.

I'm excited to live so close to the temple and am going to try to go to an early session. What a perfect way to start a long weekend!

I'd love to hear about your v-day plans! Have a great one, friends!

One Hour Rolls

These rolls are amazing! I've been making these rolls since 2001 when I was a newlywed and my sister-in-law shared the recipe with me. The rolls are light, fluffy, easy to make and they only take one hour! And delicious too! I've made these rolls more times than I can count, so I've perfected the art of making them. Here are some step-by-step instructions with pictures for you. Here's what you'll need. I buy pretty much all of the ingredients in this recipe at Sam's club, thus the huge containers. You need warm water, yeast, oil, sugar, salt, egg and flour. In the mixer bowl, add warm water (not hot), oil, sugar and yeast. Mix together. After ten or fifteen minutes the yeast mixture should be puffed up like this. Time to add the salt and beaten egg. Then mix in the flour. (I've used a mixture of half wheat and half white flour successfully.) Keep adding flour until the dough is manageable. It will be a little sticky, b

Don't like your house to smell like food? I've got a kitchen tip for that!

I have a smallish, one story house and if I cook food that is kind of smelly, like onions, the smell tends to linger in every room. This is a pet peeve of mine and (also my husband's). Over the years I've found a few ways to cook smelly food without smelling up the kitchen. Use your garage! I use my garage quite often to cook things in. I open the window and it airs out, especially when you open the garage door. I'm sure my neighbors wonder what I'm cooking. I've used two different kitchen appliances in the garage: my crockpot and my food dehydrator. Crockpot - I did this very thing today since I'm simmering chicken, onions, carrots and celery to make chicken noodle soup tonight. I don't want my house to smell like onions all day, so I plugged it in on my husband's workbench. Food dehydrator - when I make jerky, I plug the food dehydrator in in the garage. I don't really want my house to smell like meat for hours

Chicken Angelo

Don't forget to enter the Whirley Pop giveaway . It ends tomorrow! Am I the only person that asks their friends what they're making for dinner all the time? That's kind of why I started this blog, because I want to know what my friends are making for dinner. The other day I asked my friend, Juli (who is great cook), what she was making for dinner. She told me she was making Chicken Angelo. Then she told me what's in it. I knew I had to try it too because she has some picky eaters at her house like I do. I figured if they'll eat it then maybe it was worth a try at my house. This Chicken Angelo pasta has my favorite things, artichoke hearts and mushrooms in it. But don't be fooled into thinking that my family likes these things too. Because they don't. They won't touch an artichoke or mushroom with a ten foot pole. That being said, my family loved this pasta dish. They even gave me the go ahead to make it again. They loved the ch

What is on your menu this week?

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