Mom's V-day Cookie Bouquet!

One last fun thing I'd like to share with you if you want to give a fun/tasty gift for Valentine's Day, or you want an edible arrangement in the center of your table :)

I grew up with my Mom making these cookie/gumdrop bouquets around Valentine's Day.

I made some yesterday for my Young Women cause it was birthday sunday (a leader brings a treat & we sing happy birthday to all of the girls that celebrate their birthdays that month).

The girls LOVED them :)

SUPPLIES:

- Keebler Fudge Stripes shortbread cookies -

- skewers/kabob sticks -

- any sort of large gumdrop/jelly candy -

(I chose cinnamon hearts)

It's as easy as 1-2-3 :)

Just be careful when pressing the top gumdrop down on the cookie...as you can see they break easy. I broke about 5 cookies on my way to make 30-ish flowers...

Ta-da!!

Thanks for the wonderful idea mom! I love traditions!

And mason jar vases :)

The GREATEST Love of All...

Today in Young Women's (youth organization at our church that I'm a leader in) we were given yummy rose-scented bath salt along with a beautiful scripture (John 3:16) just in time for Valentine's Day. God's LOVE for us truly is the greatest love of all. Just thinking about how He gave His Son so that I can "live happily ever after" forever with my family, put's a phenomenal yet tender feeling in my heart.

This Valentine's season has been extra sweet now that I get to share it with two men ;) And even though I LOVE the romance of the holiday, I also think it should and can be a time to show love to everyone around me...share the love I feel from my Heavenly Father and His son Jesus Christ.

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Also at church today, I went to a "Family Relations" class for the 2nd time. My sweetheart would have been with me, but he stayed at home sick :( It's a wonderful class that is based around a document put out by the leaders or our church in 1995... "The Family: A Proclamation To The World"...to read it, click here) I really enjoyed the class today and was excited to share with Adam what we learned and discussed :)

I learned that 1+1 = ONE

"What? How does that work?" you ask :)

ONE husband and ONE wife can become ONE...in purpose, in love, in desires, in faith...

It doesn't mean we become clones of each other, but it means that we appreciate each other's differences and we can be of one heart. I know Adam and I are not perfect and we are constantly working at unity, but I know because of it our marriage is a beautiful thing.

And I LOVE this quote our teachers shared with us by our past, sweet prophet Gordon B. Hinckley:

"Marriage, in its truest sense, is a partnership of equals, with neither exercising dominion over the other, but, rather, with each encouraging and assisting the other in whatever responsibilities and aspirations he or she might have."

Oh, and we have homework in that class ;) It's the BEST HOMEWORK EVER: We are to go on a date this week, and court each other. Adam has been amazing at courting me from day one (opening doors, giving me his jacket, asking about how I was feeling and then listened, you know the-works)...but I am SO looking forward to this romantic date with LOTS of love, flirtatiousness, and good ol' courting :)

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One more thing...yesterday I had a surprise birthday party for my Valentine :)

Adam's birthday isn't until the 23rd...but having it early made for a better surprise! We had a rockin' good time!! ;) You'll see what I mean when I post the pics and videos tomorrow...oh yes :)

Happy early 25th love!!!!!!

* homemade valentine's *

I've been excited to take full advantage of making homemade valentines now that we have our little boy :) And after seeing my awesome friend Rachel's valentines from her adorable girls to their grandparents (and realizing V-day is this Monday!) I knew I had to jump on something with Brooks!! Go see what she did here...you will die and go to Valentine Heaven ;) Their's was made on a much larger scale (if you go check it out you'll know what I mean) and with how wiggly Brooks is I knew we'd have to do something a little different...

PAINT:

check

NO SHIRT:

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TICKLE HANDS WITH PAINTBRUSH:

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PRESS & CUT:

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CUTE VALENTINE READY TO BE MAILED:

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And guess what friends??

My kissing polaroid garland was featured over at The Idea Room!!! (woohoo!)

Go here to see some other adorable ways to decorate and make creative valentine's with pictures of the people you love!

PS - I'm linking up to Whipperberry...go and see some other sweet Valentine's projects, decor, and recipes! Oh and stay a while...their site makes me want to throw the most fabulous parties all.the.time. :)

Fruit Stripe gum + photo booth

While I was replenishing my gum supply at the store yesterday (I'm only slightly addicted), I saw [sugar free, woot woot!] Fruit Stripe gum!! :) Do you remember that stuff??? Even though I knew the flavor would last approximately 3.7 seconds (which it did) it was still totally worth it to taste the sweet flavor of a childhood memory. PLUS I was excited to do use the wrapper to do the tongue-tattoo thing with Adam when he got home! (I'm such a kid)

We decided to have a little fun with it...

[his zebra was on a baseball diamond & mine was surfing...who remembers doing this???]

Then we played with photo booth's ridiculously hilarious effects...

I know some of these are pretty embarrassing photos....but we were laughing SO hard last night and I want to laugh that hard again every time I look back at them :)

[wow. Check out our uni-brows, butt-chins, and don't I look kind of like the Grinch. haha!]

[apparently we both pull-off the extremely large eyes,

and the heinously long noses ;) ]

[and we finished it off with kisses and fishy-lips]

I love how much fun we have together :)

Goodness I love that man.

What do pancakes and earrings have in common??

nothing.

Except that I LOVE them both, and they'll both be in this post :)

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Yesterday I made Brooks and I some wheat blender pancakes with the recipe that my sweet sister-in-law Katie shared with me.

Oh we were both happy campers...they were DELISH.

And since everyone deserves to be happy campers (makes me think of my Dad:) I want to share the recipe!

Here's all you need:

You can get whole wheat kernels at any whole foods store...or at Walmart if you live in Utah and food storage is at any basic grocery store ;)

Blend and pour...mmmmmm, sizzling pancakes :)

BLENDER PANCAKES

1 1/4 cups water [I used 1 2/3 cups]

1 cup whole wheat kernels

1/4 cup nonfat dry milk (optional) [I didn't add any and it was just fine]

1 egg

2 tablespoons margarine or oil [I used salted butter]

1/4-1/2 teaspoon salt [I didn't add]

1 tablespoon fresh baking powder

In blender, MIX water, wheat kernels, and dry milk on high for 3 minutes. ADD egg, butter, honey, & salt. BLEND for 20 seconds. ADD baking powder. PULSE three times just enough to mix. Mixture should foam up and become very light. COOK immediately on a hot nonstick griddle.

Cook: 3-4 minutes

Yield: 16 2" pancakes

Tip: If you want it to be semi-dairy-free, just add more water and omit the milk. OR skim milk can be used instead of water and nonfat dry milk. Batter also makes delicious waffles.

We topped our flap jacks with pure maple syrup (my favorite) and apple sauce (for Brooks) I canned last fall.

Brooks seemed to thoroughly enjoy his extra happy pancakes ;)

I'm linking this tasty dish to the lovely WhipperBerry!!

Go see what other awesome recipes, decor, and crafts people shared!

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Remember how I shared my excitement of figuring out how easy it is to make unique, ornate button earrings?? I wear mine ALL the time by the way :)

Well a couple awesome ladies tried it themselves, and their earrings turned out great!!

First, Alli at Reasons to Smile made these golden lovelies back in January :)

I LOVE the cameo-looking ones in the back!

And then my friend Lauren at S'andL Days made some gorgeous dangly earrings last weekend! Using hooks instead of posts...they turned out awesome! I'm running some errands today and I'll putting earring hooks on the list for sure.

I'm SO glad Alli & Lauren had fun making them...both came out with such unique, pretty jewelry :)

Has anyone else had a chance to make them?? :)

Valentine's Dinner/Tea Party

Saturday evening was much needed...filled with valentine's outfits, pearls, tea cups, laughter, great food, wonderful discussions, and more laughter...all with these wonderful ladies!!

Oh it was a LOVELY night to say the least!!!

{my cute friend Penny brought favors for everyone!...butterfly bath fizzes for the ladies and bracelets for the girls}

While sipping pink hot chocolate from our tea cups, we enjoyed a lasagna I made (1/2 vegetarian and 1/2 ground turkey), fresh baked herb bread from our Smith's bakery, and a DELICIOUS spinach and strawberry-banana-blueberry salad with a homemade vinaigrette that my mother-in-law made.

FANTASTIC FOOD + WONDERFUL WOMEN = perfection.

I'm sad I didn't get more pictures especially of the people!...I need to figure out how to host AND photograph everything :) I guess I need more practice...more tea parties at my place?? okay!

For dessert we enjoyed some cute pink mini cupcakes my great friend Penny made, and of course the Hearty Cinnamon Twists I made last week. (except, instead of using two strips of dough we just used one...smaller, but just as sweet;)

{from left to right: Katie, Penny, Mandy, Mama Kjar, me...sorry, not going to share the sweet little girl's names}

I've been so excited to have my sisters-in-law Katie & Mandy meet my friend Penny!! My mother-in-law had met Penny a few times when they swapped watching Brooks while we were away on our cruise). And it was fun to see my nieces play with the sweet girls Brooks and I play with, er watch every week ;)

We all had such a great time together!!...from sharing tender experiences, to hilarious stories. By the end of the night our cheeks hurt from laughing so hard! Adam and Brooks even joined in at the end, which made it even better :)

I can't wait for our next ladies get together! Home-spa night, oh yes :)

(click here to see the tea party last summer with the lovely Kjar ladies)

Our True Identity

"Think of where you come from. You are sons and daughters of the greatest most glorious being in the universe. He loves you with an infinite love. He wants the best for you. This knowledge changes everything. It changes your present. It can change you future. And it can change the world. If only we understood who we are and what in is store for us our hearts would overflow with such gratitude and happiness that it would enlighten even the darkest sorrows with the light and love of God."

-- Dieter Uchtdorf

Those words were so comforting to me today...they come from a leader of our church as he retells the classic story of the ugly duckling and urges us to reflect and really seek to find our true identity: sons and daughters of a glorious Heavenly Father.

Below is a beautiful video of some poignant parts of his talk...I've watched it now about 3 times, and am listening to it in the background as I type this :)

You can get the full talk here.

Last night I had a little Valentine's Dinner/Tea Party for these lovelies...I'm excited to post about it tomorrow :)

I can't help but be SO grateful to have such wonderful women in my life who truly know who they are. They feel their Savior's love, and they pass it on to EVERYONE around them. Each of them have various struggles...but they do not let them affect their knowledge of their individual worth or of their potential. They're such examples to me...such blessings in my life :)