Zombie Makeup using Household Items {Feeding the Craze}

In all honesty, I watch more kids cartoons than any other TV.... like by a long way more.

But that doesn't mean I don't hear about what the real world is watching. And even I know that another season of The Walking Dead is about to begin! I've heard Taron and Keaton talk about how awesome this show is, so today I decided to be a part of the craze and join my favorite bloggers for a special zombie edition round-up inspired by The Walking Dead! If you're cooler than me (highly likely!) and could tell me all about the show too, then you'll love these ideas:

Brain Shaped Ham and Onion Cheeseball‏ from Happy Hour Projects,
Zombie Warning Yard Sides from 4 You with Love,
Zombie Warning Door Hanging from It Happens in a Blink;
Middle: Free Zombie-Inspired iPhone Wallpaper from Pitter and Glink;
Bottom Row, from left to right: Friendly Crochet Zombie Doll from Repeat Crafter Me,
Free Printable Zombie Valentine from Do Small Things with Love,

and me...

at least I think ;)

Simple Valentines Gum and Washi Tape Arrows

I might have all boys around here, but lucky for me, they dig Pinterest. :) Oftentimes they look over my shoulder for ideas for boredom busters, or costumes... or Valentines. Cooper happened to see these Valentines arrows...

 and got super excited! He immediately decided he wanted to give arrows to his classmates instead of Nerds :) I actually lit up over them too- super cute. I wanted to be able to make them our own! (We actually tried using the tinsel at the base and it got really frustrating.) 

And so, this cute cute washi tape version was born! Cooper can actually help put these together, beyond just signing his name, and he loves that part. They are pretty self explanatory, but I'll share some more details just in case. :)

Wood Creations of Idaho Falls Giveaway!

Last month kinda got skipped and I'm glad to be back in the swing of sharing a Wood Creations giveaway with you! I LOVE their Valentines collection- had a hard time picking this month! I decided on this super door hanging decor above and made it my own, as usual ;) 

(This was my second favorite!)

Simple Boredom Buster for Kids & Dollar Tree Value Seekers Club $100 Giveaway

This post has been sponsored by Dollar Tree. All opinions will always be 100% mine.

You already know that we love Dollar Tree! It’s literally the boys’ favorite place to go in town and works awesome as a reward for them.  The most productive cleaning days around here seem to have that Dollar Tree light at the end of the tunnel! :)

Ok, ok, it’s true… it’s a reward for me too. Dollar Tree gets my creative wheels turning somehow. The Dollar Tree Value Seekers Club can help with that… each month they send an email with a whole bunch of ideas using items from Dollar Tree.

All of the sudden, when we walk into the store, I no longer see candy, glow sticks, tape and glassware. No, no, no- instead I’m seeing DIY home décor, tips and tricks that turn me into SuperMom, and boredom busters galore. For a moment at least, I feel a little cooler than I really am!

Party with Personality #RubbermaidSharpie

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So here's the thing: we're honestly not so much sports fans around here. My husband records hunting shows, not football playoffs. And I don't know which I'd prefer to suffer through with him- ha!

However, we'll take pretty much any good reason... maybe even any somewhat mediocre reason... to invite people over for a party! I also happen to have a Bachelors degree in Public Relations and Advertising and can remember when watching the Super Bowl was an actual assignment! So there you have it- Super Bowl shindig at our house, football watching optional, commercial watching likely :) 

'Might as Well be Nerds Together' Valentines

I might be surrounded by boys around here, but somehow Valentines is still a favorite holiday. Cooper absolutely loves this time of year... before Christmas, he actually asked me how much longer there was until Valentines- silly boy :)

At night, when I lay with the boys to get them to sleep, he and I brainstormed ideas for what he could give out to his class. Last year we came up with his fun Valentines Snakes. In the process of coming up with an idea this year, he mentioned that he loves "those little tiny candies in the mini boxes." He meant Nerds- one of my favorites too!

Heart Owl Valentines with your Kids' Art

Why does it feel like it's been so long since I've had #myfavoritebloggers over for a get together?! It's really only been a month... it's just that a lot has gone in that month! It's time already to get into Valentines mode and this post gets to start the love day train around here!

It hasn't come soon enough for Cooper- this is his favorite time of year! We've been brewing Valentines ideas and I have some fun stuff to share in the works! For today, I get to share a cute, simple heart idea, along with these awesome gals:

From left to right, top to bottom: Marilyn from 4 You with Love, Me! , Adrianne from Happy Hour Projects, Bethany from Pitter and Glink, Lauren from Thinking Closet, Tara from Suburble, Nancy from Do Small Things with Love, Emily from The Benson Street, Kara from Happy Go Lucky, Sarah from Repeat Crafter Me,  ChiWei from 1 Dog Woof,  Melanie from It Happens in a Blink, and Kara from Petals to Picots.

Winter Fun, Inside and Out

Time to share my beautiful boys with you again :) We've been doing some fun things lately in the snow specifically! I've also been trying to get more pictures of them... I used to practically follow them around behind the lens, but with all my blogging goings on, I feel like I've photographed more staged stuff these days. And I want to make sure it's all in balance... that they are my real focus, more than whatever is sitting in front of my makeshift photo backdrops :)

Blessedly, we've had snow off and on intermingled with the cold- makes winter much more bearable for sure! Ryder's been asking when we can go to the beach or the park a lot lately- he is a summer kid for sure!

Recently we were at the grocery store and he asked if we could "stop on the way home and get ice cream at that cart with the chairs around and the straws." (Something along that line.) It didn't compute... I crouched down in the busy aisle and got him to repeat himself, tried to ask questions that would give me more clues about what he meant. And finally deduced that he wanted to get snow cones! See what I mean- you don't have an August birthday and not live for the summer I guess! :) He melts me...

Silly :)

Birthday Card Gift Box with Hallmark Value Cards

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I wish I could give a gift everyday.

I love that good feeling inside from creating something for someone else

and especially from actually giving it to them.

Maybe what I really wish is that I had the energy and free time to create something to give everyday- ha! 

When I had the chance to go to Walmart and look for the new Hallmark Value Cards to stock up for birthdays and share with you, I was in! I had the thought that the cards themselves could even be their own gift. This whole post has been right up my alley- these cards are only 47 or 97 cents each and there are a lot of really attractive choices! I got sucked in in a hurry...

Quick and Easy Cheddar Chowder

Winter makes me want to make soup for dinner. I guess this season is probably the reason soup even exists, really... Gotta love eating something that just warms you inside when it's cold outside. :)

Haven't shared a recipe in a long while, so I thought I'd share this one today. This quick, easy, cheesy version of potato soup has been a go-to for me for the past few winters. I've even made it in huge batches for functions for Stephen before and it's always been a hit.

I know I sometimes look at recipes like this, that are labeled 'quick and easy', and think that they are not really quick enough or easy enough honestly! But, please don't let this recipe scare you off from the start- it truly does come together super simply and includes ingredients you very likely have. I like that there's no fake junk involved here either :) If you want to print this recipe card below, just click, then right click the bigger version and save. Paste into your document program and print. Sure hope you enjoy this as much as our family does!

Masculine 2014 YM/YW Theme Printables

I rather like themes. I'm always excited to see what new theme the organizations in our Church will have for the coming year. For Primary this year, it's Families are Forever. And for the youth, it's the beginning of Moroni 10:32- 'Come unto Christ, and be perfected in Him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness..."

I love this- I feel like it has power to motivate teenagers in a hurry, or anyone of us really. I've given Taron and Keaton small printed cards of the theme for the past couple of years... I wanna say in their Easter baskets. And every time I buy those cards, I have to seriously scour that small section of the Church bookstore to find anything without flowers or scrolls or loopy cursive and such. If I'm remembering right, I think I actually settled for a slightly girly one last year... still totally worked, just wanted quite as "guy-ish" as I'd have liked.

Word of the Year 2014

Truth: I'm really just kinda kidding myself every January when I make any sort of resolutions.

I know full well I'm not great at even setting, let alone achieving, goals.

I just kinda put effort into what seems right, try to get inspiration in a decisive degree,

and then just... go with it. I think I try not to sabotage myself. I really hope. ;)

So I won't bore anyone, least of all my own self,

with any list of goals that I'm just pretending at anyway.

But, I do really like coming up with a word for the year.

Seems more solid to me or something.

Last year: control. Hmm... ya, let's just not really even go there...

This year...

My husband works a full time job and owns/ manages a full time business. He's away from home a lot. Maybe not on some business trip across the country or anything, but just gone from home, working right here in town at the retail shop, or answering pages to the hospital (he's a medical equipment technician). After he got a page on New Years Eve, I had the silly thought run through my head, "I'm just gonna pretend he's a doctor." Ha! No, it didn't solve anything, just needed something random to think of in that moment I guess.

The reason I mention it at all is because, as a result of his "spread-thin-edness," I found this year to be one of plenty of disappointments. Lots and lots of goodness and joy and success too, for sure. Just also a lot of defeated expectations mixed in. We can't plan on going to a movie, or having a a family game night. As sure as we do, Stephen gets called back in to the hospital or the shop has to be open late. I've cancelled enough babysitters and consoled bummed little boys enough this last year to know...

Of course, we still have date night and family play time... we just do it more on the fly, more impromptu. In this way and others, I've learned in the last year that I need to be more flexible during this next one. I don't want to feel upset, or at least not fan the flames of my upset, as a result of things that we can't change. The last thing I want is for Stephen to quit one of his jobs. Our business certainly can't go and the full-time job can't either... So I can't be getting down on him when I have to tell the boys they won't get to see their Dad until the morning again. Or when an activity has to be be cut short so we can turn around for him to go to the hospital that's a half an hour in the opposite direction. Or when he needs me to pick up an order at the airport because he simply can't be there himself after all.

I just need to be more flexible. We live in an area that several trips in and out of town really is no big deal. It's not like it's any massive drive really. And my boys truly seem no worse for the wear either- they still think their Dad hangs the moon somehow. These examples and lots more are the reason I chose this word for 2014- Flexible.

I've always been someone who just needs to 'lighten up.' Flexibility doesn't necessarily come easy to me, I wish it did. But I am capable of acknowledging when I need to be being flexible, even if I have to work myself down out of a tither to do it after the thought. I truly am grateful that our life, my husband's specifically, is so full, that as a result we are blessed more than ever before with the security I crave. With that gratitude needs to come more flexibility. And I know if I can be better at being flexible, I'll feel the measure of our blessings, and be able to play a part in increasing them even. Time to start stretching already...

If you have a word for this year too, I'd LOVE to hear it!