Seems like forever & Color Challenge

I think it has been months since I have done anything creative. I want to but I have been having a hard time finding a moment where I can sit for any period of time and just create. That's part of why I love the Christmas break. My kids are home, there's no scheduled activites, the bigger ones can help keeping Jesse occupied. Giving me time to sit and play. The last thing I did before this last week was make a couple of cards.

A couple of days ago I made this.

And after seeing Kristina's color inspiration for this week I was ready to make my cards for my next swap. I know it isn't exactly whisper white but for me it's close enough. And these aren't even due until Jan. 22!! Yay for me!!

Flavorful Friday

One of our favorite meals around here is my Dad's Tuna Noodle Casserole. It makes for an easy fall-back meal for those days when you completely forget about defrosting something. I always have the ingredients on hand. I personally love it with the red bell pepper in it but none of my kids do so it's usually left out. Plus as much as I love the peppers my body doesn't and I end up burping the rest of the night. So I guess the kids not eating them is a good thing... for everybody.

I like to serve this with some green beans and rolls. This recipe is easily doubled and fits well in a 9 x 13 pan, just increase the baking time to 25 minutes.

Tuna or Chicken Casserole
from: My Daddy
serves: 4-5

6 to 9 oz. Pasta (large shells, rigatoni, or noodles)

1 or 2 small cans of tuna or chicken

½ C. mayonnaise

1 C. chopped celery

1 C. shredded Monterrey jack cheese

¼ C. chopped red bell pepper

½ C. milk

1 can cream of mushroom soup

bread crumbs

Directions
Slightly under cook pasta, drain. Combine pasta, meat, mayonnaise
and vegetables. Blend soup and milk, heat. Add cheese to soup
mixture to melt. Add to pasta mix. Turn into 1 ½ quart
casserole dish. Top with bread crumbs and bake at 425` for 20 min.

The Twilight Before Christmas

Ok... Shelley sends me some of the funniest stuff. Tonight it was this! OMG I died laughing!! Every twilight fan will love this!

Flavorful Friday

I thought I'd try doing something new here. I've been seeing a lot of my friends share recipes and I wanted to share some of my own. So I'm starting up "Flavorful Friday"! Let me know if you guys like it and want me to keep going with it.

Last night we went to our ward's Christmas Party. We all had a lot of fun. The kids each had to do something for the entertainment portion. The little kids all got to sing, Zac was one of the Wise Men for the Nativity scene, and Emily, along with the young women, sang. I got to make a dessert to take. One that's always a crowd pleaser is Zebra Cake.


Zebra Cake

1 small box instant chocolate pudding
1 small box instant vanilla pudding
2 C. milk
8 oz. Whipped topping, thawed
2 to 2.5 sleeves of chocolate graham crackers
1 C. Chocolate chips

In two bowls mix puddings separately with 1 C. milk each. Let stand for 5 minutes. Then fold 1/2 of the whipped topping into each bowl. In an 8 x 8 pan layer grahams, 1/2 the chocolate pudding mixture, grahams, 1/2 the vanilla pudding mixture. Repeat. Finish with a layer of graham crackers. Refrigerate for 6 hours. Melt and spread chocolate chips on top. Serves 6 to 8.

So much to do!

As the hours count down to Christmas I have been trying to better this year and get stuff done before Christmas Eve. I have all these crafty ideas in my head and loads on my to do list that is making the holidays a bit overwhelming. Not to mention that we are having car problems with the Durango and we are now forced into being a one car family and that car has only FIVE SEATS! This makes daily kindergarten pick-up and church on Sunday very interesting.

So to keep me working and not playing I'm posting my list here so you guys can keep me in line.

Christmas to-do list:

• Wrap Presents. The piles in my closet are getting to be larger than I want and is now taking over so I can hardly get to my laundry. Plus the kids will be excited to see something under the tree.


• Finish Cards. I need to make 12 cards for a swap that's due on the 15th. I've just got to get it from my head into actual paper creations. Also figure out what I'm going to do about our cards this year. Is anyone doing them? I haven't recieved one yet...


• Christmas Lists. Finalize who's getting what with DH so that we can finish shopping.


• Cruise Stuff. DH and I are really going! The only way we pulled this off is that work is paying for it. The whole IT dept. is setting sail next month for Baja Mexico. DH and I need to figure out what we will be doing in Cabo and Ensenada. If anyone has some good tips please let me know!


• Passports. I really think we should get these. Not just for this one trip but hopfully for future trips as well. Technically we can get away with out them for this trip, but still...


• Cookies. I was not very good about this last year. I made some but not nearly as much as I wanted. The kids and DH are already pestering me about it. They want their Christmas goodies and treats like Chocolate covered peanut butter balls, Russian Tea Cakes, Thumbprints, Fudge, Chocolate-Carmel Goodies, and whatever else I can whip up.


• Clean. I swear it takes only 0.2 seconds for my kids to trash a room. I need to help them recover the floor. I know it's somewhere under the piles of backpacks, jackets, toys and blankets they must use every day.


• Dessert for Ward Christmas Party. I'm making Zebra Cake for tomorrow night's party. It's a pretty easy recipe. I just need to remember to make it in the morning so it has time to refridgerate. Oh and don't let me forget my fluffy pink robe for Zac... he's being a wise man in the Nativity scene. What!?! Wise men can wear pink!


• Make Trees. I really only put this one on so I can say that it's done! CHECK! Yay me!! I made my own version of Cathie Fillian's tree. You can see her's here. Her's looks way better but this fills some space and makes it look a little more like Christmas in the office. We'll see if DH gets annoyed with it tonight and asks me to find a new place for it. Hee hee!! I made one to go by the front door so I could hide all the extentions and plugs for the lights.

I'm sure there's more but I can't think of anything else at the moment. So help keep me motivated so I can check off something every day.

Scribble It Giveaway @ Grosgrain

I don't know if any of you ladies have seen some of the work over at Kathleen's site Grosgrain but it is some pretty amazing stuff!!! She's always doing these awesome giveaways just about every week. Mostly I just lurk because they are handmade outfits for little girls like these.

Aren't they just stunning!!

But today she's offering a $20 giftcard for some way cute vinyl by Scribble it. You can check it out yourself here.