Baby girls

Sometimes I wish time would freeze.  This past year my twins have been oh so hard.  And yet every once in awhile I am blessed with a moment in time when I just want time to stand still forever.  This morning was one of those moments.  As my twins get older, I'm starting to see more and more of those sweet moments.  I wasn't one of the lucky ones that got many of those in our first year together. I have loved them their whole little lives, but our first year was HARD.  I cherish my baby girls.  Having 5 children, I know how fast they grow up.  My oldest will turn 10 in a few months and I already feel like we've blinked and 10 years have gone by.  I will blink again and she will be moving out and going to college.  I'm so not ready for that. So, even though the days and long and sometimes I feel like the baby days will never end, I'm going to try and find those sweet moments a little more often.

 This is how I spend a lot of my day.  I love that they snuggle up to each other as they fall asleep.  I could've stayed here and just held them for hours if I didn't have SO much to do when they sleep.  Just love my twin girls.  My heart is full!!

Light Stick Bats

My son was asked to bring a treat to preschool (to celebrate his "birthday" since his birthday is in the summer) and so we gladly started thinking about what to take. Since Halloween is just two weeks away, we decided to do something with a fun and festive theme.  I gave him a few ideas about what to do and he decided he wanted to do something with bats.  So we got thinking and this is what we came up with. Light stick bats!

There is actually a little candy attached to the back, you just can't see it.  :)

As you can see, these were really simple to put together, and the kids loved them.  They get a little treat to eat and then a light stick to have later.  I just drew the faces on with a black permanent marker.  I used a hole punch to punch a hole through the candy bar wrapper and used bakers twine to make a necklace that would hook the two together as well.  I cut the bottom of the tissue paper to look like bat wings, but once they were crinkled up you really couldn't see it that much.  If I would've had more time, I would've cut the ends of the wings into a point as well, but I just ran out of time.  My husband reminded me that the kids were 4 and wouldn't care. Lol!!

Happy Bat Flying!!

Animal Print Minky Blanket

We are so in love with this new blanket.  It is the softest minky ever.  We had such a hard time mailing it away, but we did it anyway.  It is made of neutral tones that compliment each other perfectly.  It also has just a subtle animal print which gives it fun personality and character...but isn't too overpowering.  This material is also great because it washes so well.  It can be used, loved, and then thrown in the washer and it will come out like new! Head to our shop at goldenhillshop.etsy.com to check out this blanket and other great products.

This blanket is so soft and snugly it will force you to sit down with your favorite beverage and book or movie and relax for a while!  It will keep you nice an comfy through the chilly months of fall and the cold winter months as well.  With its basic earthy tones it's sure to match any home! Don't wait any longer...head to the shop before its too late!! :)

Pick Your Poison

Teachers.  There aren't many people who work harder then teachers.  Ok, I totally have a biased opinion because I used to be a teacher, but it really is true.  Teachers work so so so hard.  For not very much money and not very much recognition.  They do it because they love the children.  They love to see them learn and progress.  To meet their goals and advance in ways that even the child have no idea he or she could.  Its a pretty amazing job.  It is, however, a very tiring and stressful job.  I wish more then anything I could send a teacher gift everyday to my kids' teachers.  They deserve it.  Heck, I wish I could send them on a trip to the Bahamas! But this is reality and since I use to teach, I REALLY don't have the money to send a gift every day or send them on a fancy trip! Lol!! So, I try to send something every once in awhile to tell them thank you for their hard work and brighten up their day a bit.

Becca had the the cutest idea  to send something fun for Halloween.  Instead of sending a teacher gift, she thought it might be fun to send something the teachers could use in the classroom as a reward system or prize jar.  We found jars at a local craft store that had chalkboard labels attached.  They didn't have enough, so we found some plain jars and some chalkboard labels and attached our own! Sometimes you have to improvise! Then we filled it with Halloween candy, and prizes from the craft section that included spider rings, googly eye rings, erasers, and other little trinkets.  The kids went nuts over them!

Going Golden

This year Becca and I are all about GOLD! I have loved seeing gold in every store and in almost every department.  Becca brought me a super cute black and gold chapstick yesterday that I was head over hills about!  How cute is that?  I'm pretty sure you'll be seeing lots of gold incorporated in our shop as well as our decorating.  We just can't get enough!

So I decided to try a few new things that I've seen on floating around on pinterest.  Its nothing new to many of you, but I've never spray painted pumpkins gold and black before....and they turned out super cute!

It was actually quite simple and fast.  Just a little spray paint, thumb tacks, ribbon, glitter spray paint and done! The tacks were the most time consuming but that just depends on which pattern you decide to do.  Completely up to you! The big pumpkin on the far left was just plain gold spray paint.  The little guy next to him was gold paint with gold glitter on top. Then black spray paint with gold thumb tacks in a chevron pattern.  Then on the right, the large pumpkin was plain black spray paint.  The little one was black with gold glitter spray pain on top with gold tack polka dots and the last was plain gold spray paint.  Then ribbons on all.  How are you decorating your pumpkins?

General Conference Traditions

Each year our church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, has two Sundays where we stay home from going to church and get to watch our modern day prophets speak to us on tv.  This is called general conference. There are several meetings held in Salt Lake City, Utah, where many members meet together to listen, as speakers give talks that are broadcast all across the world.  It is a favorite Sunday because we love to hear from church leaders. When I was growing up, we looked forward to these special occasions for a few different reasons.  Not only for the great messages that were given, but we also loved being together as a family.  It was fun to have a change in the normal schedule and be able to stay home.  We started off the morning with a very special breakfast of  crepes! So of course this is a tradition I have carried on with my family.
We make breakfast crepes twice a year.   The two mornings of conference and everyone looks forward to it.  We have lots of choices of fillings and everyone makes crepe after crepe because they are so good! We have some that make up a savory time crepe and then most are like a dessert crepe but it is only twice a year, so why not?! Some of our fillings include: scrambled eggs, hash browns, broken up bacon and sausage, fresh strawberries, fresh raspberries, we really like raspberries so we usually do a can of raspberry pie filling also, bananas, applesauce, spray whip cream, powdered sugar,  chocolate chips, and nutella. I have also done a cottage cheese and lemon cream mixture that was super yummy and put fruit on top.  You can be creative here and put in whatever flavors you like.  Like I said, we are a raspberry family, so that is always our favorite, but every time I am always surprised how much I like the banana and applesauce together with a little powder sugar and a dollop of whip cream.  So delicious!

Crepe Recipe:
(This recipe is taken from the booklet that came with my crepe maker.  I've tried several different ones and they are similar.  Find one that you like and if you are using a crepe maker it is important to find a recipe that works well with that maker.  Some recipes are sticky or thicker.)

Basic Batter:
Batter can be used immediately.  However, an hour or two standing time will produce slightly more tender crepes.  Or, refrigerate batter up to three days for use as needed.

1 cup all-purpose flour
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup water
1/4 tsp salt
2 Tbs butter or marg, melted

Place ingredients in blender container in the order given. Blend 30 seconds, stop and stir down sides. Blend 30-60 seconds until smooth.  Or, mix in bowl with wire whisk or mixer, first combining flour and eggs, adding liquid gradually.  Beat until smooth; add other ingredients.  Makes about 16 crepes.

We usually double this recipe.

Blintzes:
1 batch crepes
2 cups small-curd cottage cheese
1 egg, beaten well
1 tbs sugar
1 tsp grated lemon rind

Combine Cheese, egg, sugar and rind.  Place spoonful of mixture in the center of each crepe, brown side up.  Fold crepe sides over filling to make a tight envelope. Place on plate seam side down. Heat 1/4" oil in skillet over medium heat until hot but not smoking.  Fry a few blintzes, seam side down, then turn.  Watch carefully as they will brown and crisp quickly.  Drain on paper towel and serve hot. If desired, top with sour cream, applesauce, fresh fruit or confectioner's sugar.

*We eat these without frying them.  We make the filling and then top with fruit.  They are just as delicious!!

My kids love our crepe tradition.  They get so excited and can't wait for conference just as I did when I was little.  However, a few years ago I noticed that they needed something a little extra during conference to help keep them entertained so I could listen.  I came across the idea of Conference Bags that helped me a ton! I loved the little felt bags.  I loved the idea of something new and exciting that could easily entertain them with each speaker.  So I got busy.  I made the cute little bags and found free printables and bought a few cheap things from the store that they would find new and exciting.  They were a HUGE hit!!  This past weekend, my kids were once again begging for conference to start so they could get to the conference bags.  I bought a few sticker books, some colors books, I printed match the prophet cards, and some other free printables online.  The favorite this year was the masks I found at Wal-Mart.  I told them it was a special bag to be opened with President Monson.  They were special masks that they needed to wear and listen to his talk.  They loved it!  They were so excited to watch and listen quietly while wearing their special masks.  Worked like a charm!

 15 Conference Felt Bags

Masks in the last bag.  They had to sit quietly and watch the last speaker.  They were so excited!

Nothing better then a cuddle when you need it! Love my family!