Baby Mouth to Mouth

No we are not talking baby CPR here...we're talking about the latest controversy of Alicia Silverstone feeding her 11 month-old son food that she pre-chewed and then "spit" into his mouth.  We are all moms here (at least I'd be surprised if we weren't) and I'm curious what your opinion is.  Is it natural?  Gross?  Safe?  Sanitary?  Do you do it or is Alicia alone on this one?  Take a second and leave a comment!

Summer Reading

We love summer reading programs at our house.  My kids love keeping track of how many minutes/books they've read and the incentive prizes that the library gives them.  I love that they are having fun learning.  This summer is especially fun because my daughter has started reading books on her own too.  Our goal this summer is to read every kids book we own (that's a lot!)  We've taken them off their dusty shelves hidden back in the bedroom and brought them to our book nook in the living room.  Then once we've read the book it goes back on the (hopefully) less dusty shelf.  We still have a long way to go...good thing we have all summer!

For those of you Mommies unfamiliar with TumbleBooks I wanted to share a link with you.  TumbleBooks is a great source for the kids to go to when you're making dinner, mopping the floors, calming the baby, mowing the lawn, showering, dusting the bookshelves...you get my drift.  It's basically the computer reading to your child and depending on the reading level shows the illustrations as well.  And let's face it...it's a nice change from video games and movies.

Happy Summer Reading!! 

You've been EGGED!

Anyone looking for a friday night family activity?  A group of darling Young Women from our church targeted families with young children and "egged" their houses...without the mess.

They hid 12 plastic eggs in our front yard and then doorbell ditched a basket with the following sign:  "We've been egged!"  My kids were so excited and now every time someone rings the doorbell they scream "Maybe we've been egged!!!"

The idea was rounded up from HERE and there was a cute easter basket sitting on our doorstep with the sign and poem.  We'll definitely be doing this next year for others.

Happy Easter!

Dressing (or not Fully Dressing) Little Girls

You may have seen this great editorial, but I love how he really expresses that there is no need for little girls to be dressing inappropriately and if they are doing so, it is most likely because adults are buying them questionable clothing. It is a great and thought-provoking quick read and I thought that the implications he lays down at the end for the early "sexualization of girls" is so sad, I hope that parents will reconsider what they are letting their kids wear.

A Natural Mother

We recently discovered that you can watch a live stream of Eagles from Decorah, Iowa online.  It is INCREDIBLE!  There are 3 eaglets that hatched in April and it is so interesting to see the mother eagle care for her young.  The father has brought back fish and rabbit to the nest and we have seen the mother feeding it to her young.  We keep the live feed on while we are playing in the living room and often check on our new friends.  You can even turn up the sound and listen to their hungry chirps...which doesn't sound anything like my young when he's hungry!

It has been a great source of education in our home with my kids but it has also instilled in me a deep gratitude for my role as a mother and caretaker of little ones who depend on me for life. 

Click HERE to see for yourself and enjoy!

Shredded Beef Burritos :) YUMMO

So the roast you made for french dip sandwiches the other night made up a lot more meat than you thought. Have no fear! This recipe is a perfect way to use up that leftover beef. Or if you used all your meat with the sandwiches and are looking for a good shredded beef burrito recipe, this is the one for you! This recipe comes from allrecipes.com and I've done a little tweaking. I will let you know what the tweaks are when I get to them! Here's what you'll need: 1 Tbsp vegetable oil 1 onion, chopped 1 clove garlic, minced (or 1/8 tsp garlic powder) 4 tomatoes, chopped (We're talking small to medium-sized tomatoes, not big massive ones or you'll have tomatoes coming out your ears.) 2 c. shredded cooked roast beef 1 (8 oz) jar taco sauce (I bought the Taco Bell brand at Walmart.) 1 (4 oz) can diced green chili peppers 1/2 tsp cumin 1/8 tsp red pepper flakes (optional) 6 flour tortillas, warmed 1 1/2 c. shredded Mexican blend cheese (The original recipe called for Cheddar, but I like the taste of the mixed Mexican blend cheese you can find in the bag.) 2 c. shredded lettuce the green chilies really make the flavor so try really hard to put those in! What to do: Heat the oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion and garlic. Cook for about 5 minutes or until everything is transparent. Then mix in the tomatoes. (PS If you're not using the onion and using garlic powder instead of clove, heat up the oil then just add the tomatoes.) Then add the roast beef, taco sauce, green chilies, cumin, and red pepper flakes. Bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium and let it simmer uncovered until thickened. (The recipe says to let it simmer for 25 minutes but mine only needed to simmer for about 5 minutes. Huge difference! Just let it all thicken up a bit and you'll be fine.) Add about half the cheese and mix together. (This wasn't in the recipe but I did this and it was rockin'.) Put the tortillas in the microwave one at a time for about 10 seconds. Fill each one with about 2/3 c. of the mixture. If you would like them just as these are, sprinkle a little more cheese in it and add lettuce and sour cream. Roll it up and enjoy. OR after you put the mixture in the tortilla pinch in the sides, roll it up like a burrito, and put it in a glass baking dish. Do this for all the tortillas. Then pour the leftover mixture over the top of the burritos and put them in the oven covered with foil for 15 minutes on 350 degrees. Take them out of the oven and sprinkle the rest of the cheese over them. Allow the cheese to melt before serving. (This was the way I made them. They were SO good!)

Motherhood Blog

Hi everyone! So I'm putting up another link, sorry, but this one is a little too great not to share. One of my friends has been really researching the role of motherhood and the divine characteristics of womanhood. She has been putting up her findings on her blog and her findings have been strengthening me in my efforts to be the best mom I can. I hope that you enjoy reading some of her great insights!

Housewife MacGyver

So, the adorable Lorene of Just Lu fame has come up with a fun series for 2011:



She is going to be focusing on different self-reliance ideas each month to help us all learn more about utilizing our resources more efficiently. I love this idea and know that I will find out a lot of interesting things from this fun series. I hope that you are all having a great 2011 so far. Happy new year!

Breakfast Casserole

32 oz. frozen shredded hash browns
3/4 cups melted butter
Pinch of salt
2 cups cheddar cheese
2 cups jack cheese
3 cups meat (ham, breakfast sausage, or bacon)
1 cup evaporated milk
6 eggs
1/2 tsp. seasoned salt

Grease 9X13 pan. Pour hash browns in pan. Pour melted butter and a little bit of salt over hash browns. Mix. Press in hash browns to form crust. Bake at 425 for 25 min. Fill with layers of cheese and meat. Beat eggs, milk and seasoned salt together well. Pour over potatoes. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes or until knife comes out clean.

Countdown to Christmas!

This year we've decided to do an activity advent calender to help count down the days to Christmas. I had the kids decorate 24 envelopes and each day they get to open one and we do that activity. We have all been looking forward to it and so far it has not disappointed! I realize I'm late in posting this but you could always modify it and do the 12 days to Christmas countdown!

Some of the activities were easy to decide on...I just looked at my December calendar to get ideas of things already planned (like going to see the Rockettes- YAY!) And if I decide one day that I'm just not up for the activity then I can always stitch it out without the kids knowing.

Here are some of our ideas: Write letters to Santa, pick out a christmas tree, wrap christmas gifts, play a family game, snuggle under blankets and read christmas books, color christmas pictures, cut out snowflakes, make a Rudolf craft, go to the ward party, go to the temple to see the lights, walk around the neighborhood to see the lights, take a picture with Santa, go ice skating...and the list could go on.

While I love Christmas more than any other holiday I'm really hoping it doesn't come too fast this year because we have a lot of fun planned beforehand!!

Book Help

Let's just get this out in the open right now: I am pretty sure that I am going crazy. When we lived in Minnesota there was a book that I loved to read to my little girl (who is now getting too big!) about a girl who was small enough to do things like play under the table and get help with things, but she was big enough to do some things by herself. It was so cute and was illustrated with adorable pictures showing a redheaded little girl and mother. Anyway, we loved this book and checked it out a ton (it was a board book at our library), but now I was thinking about getting it for a Christmas present and I cannot remember the title and am having no luck in searches. Does this book sound familiar to anyone? MN girls any ideas - it was at the Roseville Library? Thanks for indulging me and I hope that everyone is enjoying fall and getting excited for the holidays!

Pumpkin rolls!!

SO we have family dinner every month and this month was at my house and we were doing a fun theme.... pumpkiney :) hahaha I just made that up, but I decided to make pumpkin rolls and they are the most scrumdidilly I have had!!! So I googled pumpkin rolls and came across this recipe!!! Enjoy!!!! oh and most people wont even know that there is pumpkin in them!!! hahaha so for those picky eater children.. here ya go!

36 Servings
Prep: 30 min. + rising Bake: 15 min.
Ingredients
2 teaspoons active dry yeast
1-1/2 cups warm water (110° to 115°)
1-1/4 cups canned pumpkin
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/3 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons salt
2-1/2 cups whole wheat flour
4-1/2 to 5 cups all-purpose flour
Directions
In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add the pumpkin, butter, sugar, eggs, salt and whole wheat flour; beat until smooth. Stir in enough all-purpose flour to make a soft dough. Turn onto a lightly floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.
Punch dough down. Turn onto a lightly floured surface; divide into three portions. Roll each portion into a 12-in. circle; cut each circle into 12 wedges. Roll up wedges from the wide end and place pointed side down 2 in. apart on greased baking sheets. Curve ends to form crescents.
Cover and let rise until doubled, about 30 minutes. Bake at 400° for 12-15 minutes. Remove to wire racks. Yield: 3 dozen.

Halloween Question

This year Halloween falls on a Sunday, I know there are a lot of religious people out there so I was wondering if you will still trick or treat on Sunday. I live in Arizona so there's not really one of those unspoken rules about everyone trick or treating on Saturday, but what is everyone else doing? To trick or treat on Sunday or not????

Howl-o-ween!

Typically I hit the day after Halloween sale and pick up costumes for the following year. I didn't do that last year so instead of steering my children to love the costume we picked a year earlier I found myself asking them what they wanted to do. I sighed a huge sigh of relief when they both picked costumes from our dress up clothes (CHEAP!) So on Halloween this year I'll be hanging out with Cinderella, a ferocious Lion, and a sweet baby zebra. Who will you be hanging out with?

Bananas and Sprinkles

Bananas with sprinkles is a fun treat that my husband had growing up. We've continued the tradition occasionally with our children to the point where they now expect their bananas to have sprinkles on them. This morning we had Halloween sprinkles on them to get us in the holiday mood!

It's easy and fun! Just cut up a banana into a bowl and let your child add the sprinkles!