Tea Light Santas

Why is crafting so fun? I love doing crafts around christmas time- it's my favorite! Well, I saw these adorable things on pinterest and I just had to make them.  They took a total of 30 minutes too! score!

Here's how you make them:

What you need:
-Tea lights (however many you want or have)
-A piece of felt
-Red ribbon
-Hot glue gun

Instructions:
1. cut out 6 equal circles for the eyes.
2. cut out 9 equal smaller circles for the mouth
3. glue those on, and then glue on a strip of ribbon around the tea lights.
4. To make the hats: cut out 3 equal circles for the bottom of the hat.  Then cut 3 equal strips and roll them up to make the hat. glue together.
5. glue ribbon around the hats, and then cut 3 equal strips of ribbon to make them ornaments.

WALAH! cute as a button. I think so anyway. plus they only took about a half hour. wooot!

One of the joys of Christmas

I love crafting.  My dream someday would be to open up my own shop with crafts I've made.  We'll see if that ever happens :)  I saw these cute gems at porters and i fell in love.  They were super easy and were a total of $20.

SCORE!

The best part about them is the strobelight lights at the bottom of the tallest one :) I love christmas- it is so fun to decorate!!!

So...how do you make them?
1. Buy or make 3 cones out of cardboard
2. buy the colors of yarn you want.
3. get any cute decorations you want for the trees (stars, boa, garland)
4. either a hot glue gun, E3000, or glue dots.  I actually used all 3 haha

*put hot glue, E3000, or glue dots on the entire cone, or in parts if you want.  I started from the top to the bottom.  Wrap your chosen color of yarn however you want. the trick here is to sort of pull the yarn and twist while you set it in place so that you don't find holes later.
*Leave space at the bottom if you like the Boa idea, and put a whole circle of got glue to keep them in place.
*After you've wrapped them all, it's time to decorate! (like a tree!) haha. I've always enjoyed the light up necklaces, so I wrapped one of those on the bottom of the red white and green one, then on the red one I just found a cute beaded garland, and the green one I left plain.
*Last step, glue on the stars! And you're done! So cute.  I currenty have them sitting on the backdrop where our oven is.

This took me a total of 1.5 hours! not bad!
ENJOY!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving this year was wonderful, as always.  We spent thanksgiving day with my brother jaxon and his family, my brother tanner, and my mom and dad.  Thanksgiving day was super relaxing.  We just hung out and watched football until dinner at about 3.  We devoured 8 delicious pies....hahahaha.  They were so yummy! I went black friday shopping with my brothers, and man after this years experience I'm not so sure if I'll go again...haha.  I stood in line all by myself for 2 HOURS! And I was wearing sandals, and a light jacket.  Yeah not a good idea, but I was not planning on doing black friday shopping.  Anyway, I guess it was worth it driving home in a hot car.  We played games all night long- probably my most favorite thing to do with my family.  

On Friday Jax and I took my nieces to the arcade, and guess who won the jackpot...yep...me.  It was hilarious.  The girls loved it.  We had so much fun that Me, Tanner, Jaxon, Megan, and Tanner went back and played arcade...yes we did and it was SO fun.  I secretely love arcade games.  Then us 4 went to Captain phillips which was SOO good...I would recommend it to anyone. And then we went to Costa Vida for dinner.   We came home and played more games...till 1 am.  Yeah tanner and I were worthless Sat morning. :)

Saturday we went out to Ashton to be with Tanner's family. We just relaxed out there, watched Despicable Me 2, and played lots of games.  Today we had ALL of his siblings together- that's always so fun.  We took famly pictures, and had a feast for a meal. I'm very thankful for the 2 families that I have- they are the best!!

Unfortunately, this is the only pictures I got.  But it's awesome right?!

First homemade pie

So I found this recipe online and it looked DIVINE so I decided to try it.  I was feeling a bit domestic when I got home from church.  Here's the recipe:

Granny's Cocoa Cream Pie

1/2 C. cocoa
1/4 C. cornstarch
3 egg yolks
1 1/2 C. sugar
1/4 tsp salt
2 C. milk
1 tsp vanilla

Mix cocoa, cornstarch, beaten egg yolks; sugar and salt, ten add milk gradually, while stirring in a pot over med-high heat.  Cook until thick, beating it smooth.  Cream pies take some time to thicken so stir...and stir (10-15 min). Using a heavy bottom pan really helps.  Keep stirring until it's super thick.  Pour into a pre-baked pie shell.  Put in the fidge to chill, add whipped topping....YUM!

Here's the finished product:

I also found a delicious pie crust recipe.  Here it is:

All Butter Crust for Sweet and Savory Pies

2 1/2 C. Flour
1 C. unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1. tsp. salt
1 tsp. sugar
6 to 8 Tb. ice water
*This crust recipe makes 2 crusts so I just froze the other one.

The most amazing bread EVER

Ok so lately I've been having a bread feddish, for a few weeks thats all i cooked was bread.  Not healthy I know haha. But it was delicious.  Anyway, my wonderful sister in law Megan introduced me to this bread recipe, and it is so easy and seriously tastes like Harpers. It's made now at pretty much all family gatherings.  I've had many people ask for the recipe so here it is:

Homemade Harpers Bread

3/4 hotttish tap water
1/4 c sugar
4 1/2 tsp. active dry yeast(not instant)

Put these in your bowl to let the yeast proof (get bubbly) about 5-7 minutes.

Add:
2 2/3 c hottish tap water
1 TB salt
1/2 C. Softened butter
7-10 c flour 

Add about 4 cups of flour to the mixture and mix in your mixer using
the fough hook until combined. Then continue adding cups of flour
until the dough begins to pull away from the sides (it is okay for it
to be a little sticky). I have found that for my bosche mixer (and all are mixers are different), that the perfect amount of flour is about 8 1/3 cup. I've found this to be the most delicious batch.

Now you can either let your mixer knead the dough for about 10 minutes
or you can knead it by hand for the same amount of time. I just leave it in my mixer.

Put in a large greased or buttered bowl and cover with a clean
dishcloth or greased Plastic wrap. Let rise until doubled (about 1
hour) put it in a warm place away from drafts.

The fun part: punch the risen dough as hard as you can.  I let Tanner do this part hahaha. 
divide into three equal portions and roll out to get rid of any bubbles.
Shape into 3 loaves.  Place in 3 greased bread pans.
 Cover and let rise again- for about another hour.

Preheat oven during this time to 375.
Bake for 30 minutes.

Turn out of pans immediately. using a stick of cold salted butter, rub
the tops of each loaf until shiny and delicious looking. let cool on a
wire rack (if they last that long).

After they cool, place in plastic bags and secure. If you do not let
them completely cool, they will sweat in the bags and get mushy and
nasty. The same thing happens to the bottoms if you don't put them on
a wire rack to cool.

Side note: I never wash my bread pans. Just leave them. They shouldn't
have any crumbs, only grease, which is good!! This keeps them nice and
seasoned for every batch!

Enjoy!

Here's the masterpiece.  This was my very first batch so they don't look perfect...haha but they were still yummmy

So I found the Texas Roadhouse's honey butter recipe and it is DIVINE on this bread.  Here's the recipe:

Texas Roadhouse Honey Butter

2 sticks butter at room temp
1 C. powdered sugar
1 C. honey
2 tsp. cinnamon

Whip the butter until fluffy.  Then add powdered sugar and honey and mix together. Then add the cinnamon.  Mix altogether until light and fluffy!

A month for Gratitude

Well, this morning I find myself being very grateful.  Grateful for trials. No trial is easy, but we all have them.  God doesn't give a person a trial that he knows they can't handle.  That's a really comforting saying for me. One that I've latched onto for quite a while. This morning as I was struggling to find comfort, I stumbled across a couple blogs. One was about a couple that's been struggling with infertility for 3 years, and their long and hard journey with that.  Another was a family friends daughter's blog. They lost their baby girl after she was a few days old due to many complications.  It was very comforting reading these blogs.  It made me so GRATEFUL for what I DO have right now. I have found that positive thinking trumps negative thinking.  So here are some things I have to be grateful for.

1.  I have an awesome husband, who never ceases to make me laugh. He is the hardest worker I know, and he never ceases to amaze me with his weirdness. haha.
2. I have wonderful parents who love and care for Tanner and I. They are such amazing people, I love them.
3. I have loving in-laws who never cease to amaze me.  They care for and love everyone around them, and it strengthens me. They raised just the son that I wanted to spend forever with.
4. I'm grateful for the job that I have.  A relaxed job that helps me de-stress and ponder about life.
5. I'm grateful for my schooling.  Online dental assisting is a bit difficult, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, and I'm excited to help people with their teeth!
6. I'm grateful for family. For the knowledge that I have that Families can be together forever.  So comforting.
7. I'm grateful for the gospel. Grateful that I can turn to my Father whenever I need him.
8. I'm grateful for life.  Grateful for my mom, who basically gave up her entire self to get me here.  Life is such a sacred and special thing.
9. I'm grateful for modern day medicine.  Without it, Tan and I would probably have no chance of having kids.
10.  I'm grateful for my husband.  Yes, I know he's on here twice, but he deserves it.  He is my everything, and I don't know what I'd do without him. He never complains, even when he has to work 8-9 hours in the freezing cold 5 days a week.  He knows when and how to comfort me. He's such a goof ball, and I'm grateful for that.  It makes our marriage more fun.  I'm grateful for him, for being married to such an emotional me.

If we didn't have trials, how would we become stronger?
This church is true, and I'm grateful for everything I have.

I just got to thinking, the gospel is a powerful thing.  I don't know how on earth I'd get through my trials if I didn't have the gospel to turn to.  What a blessing.

-Maddie

I love this.

Happy Halloween!!

So...this Halloween didn't exactly go as planned.  Tan and I invited his little sis Aubree and her boyfriend over to watch a scary movie and make Halloween truffles that night. Well, Aub got in a pretty bad accident and ended up in the E.R. I got a text from my mother-in-law that said that they were in the emergency room, and that Aubree got bucked off a horse. Her feet slipped out of the stirr-ups, and she landed on her hip and head.  She started seizing and the ambulance rushed to her. So I rushed up to the hospital as soon as I could, and me and her boyfriend pulled up at the same time.  He was a mess.  I gave him a hug, I felt like he could use it.  The nurse wouldn't let us back because it was too crowded. So we were left with nothing, except that Aubree was really hurt. Finally they let us back there, and said all the x-rays came back fine, there was no internal bleeding, just a bad concussion and some bruising.  WHAT A BLESSING.  I was really nervous not going to lie.  Tanner called me and thought that she was for sure going to have some brain damage.  That really scared me, I must've said a billion prayers in a half hour. The nurses all said that Aub got really lucky.  Such a blessing that she is okay, love ya Aubs!

We all went out to the Stevens just to be with Aub to make sure she was alright. We watched a scary movie called, "Mama," and I made homemade bread. yum.

Oh, I can't even explain how grateful I am that nothing serious happened to Aub.  I was so nervous, and after what Tanner said I just couldn't let that happen to her. SOOO glad she's okay. God lives, and He definitely saved Aubree's life yesterday.

Happy Halloween!