Yogurt Pops

These are great warm weather treats that are not super sweet.

Yogurt Pops

from Health Magazine

Ingredients

1 lemon

½ cup water

½ cup sugar

1 ½ cup plain 2% reduced-fat greek yogurt

2 tablespoons honey

2 cups blackberries, raspberries or strawberries

Popsicle mold (mine were from the dollar store)

Directions

*Rinse and peel lemon; reserve flesh for another use (I made a quick glass of lemonade with the flesh)

*Combine sugar and water in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat until sugar has dissolved, stirring well.

*Add lemon peel; reduce heat, and simmer 5 minutes.

*Cool syrup to room temperature and strain syrup through a fine-mesh sieve (honestly..I just took out the lemon peel..)

*Chill in refrigerator

*Add yogurt and honey to the chilled syrup and stir well

*Divide the 2 cups of fruit among molds

*Pour yogurt mixture evenly into molds, leaving ¼-inch space at the top.

*Add in top pieces of the molds (or sticks) and freeze 3-4 hours

On another food note, my mom made these resurrection rolls last week. They were really good and the tomb was empty! He is Risen! Now if only I had a child to share that visual with...anyone have one I can borrow? : )

Resurrection Rolls

from Feathers from my nest

Ingredients

Frozen dough for dinner rolls - found in the freezer section of your grocer

Marshmallows - regular size

Melted Butter

Sugar and Cinnamon Mixture - I recommend about a 4:1 ratio. (4 being the sugar...mmmmm)

Directions
1. Thaw rolls - Spray a cookie sheet with non-stick cooking spray. Arrange dough balls, leaving about 2 inches between each ball. I usually plan on 3-4 rolls per person (we snack on them later in the day) so I place about 16 per cookie sheet. Spray some plastic wrap with non-stick spray (so the wrap doesn't stick to your dough) and cover them as they thaw. This will keep the dough from drying out and getting a hard crust. My house was fairly warm the day I made these and it took about 1 and 1/2 hours for them to thaw.
2. Add Marshmallow - Before the dough rises, flatten it to a 3" diameter circle. Place your marshmallow in the middle and pinch the dough closed around the marshmallow to completely cover it up. Roll the dough ball in the palm of your hand to smooth out the closure and seal it.

3. Roll dough covered marshmallow in butter. (Or brush it on.)

4. Sprinkle on cinnamon & sugar mixture. Or you can do like my family does and roll it on. We like them super flavorful, sweet and yummy. (By the way...I typically use raw unbleached sugar which is why mine has a darker color and a more coarse texture. You can use whatever style sugar you keep on hand.)

5. Place them on a greased cookie sheet, cover them again with your non-stick coated plastic wrap and let them rise until they double in size. This takes approximately 30-60 minutes depending on how warm the environment is. And not to worry...if they don't rise they'll still taste yummy. I'm not sure why yet...but it isn't often that I actually get my rolls to rise as they should. This particular time would be one of those times. They barely rose but left one of the better 'tombs' I've had in my rolls.
6. Don't forget to pre-heat your oven during the last 10 minutes of your rising step. When they are ready to bake, place them in a 350 degree oven for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.
7. When they are done baking, remove them from the pan and cool on a wire rack.

8. Enjoy them together.

"The angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay." Matthew 28:5-6

It's the little things...

PLUS

EQUALS

What's one of your simple joys?

Healthy Strawberry Pie

My sweet MIL started making this pie a long time ago and we love it! Its a healthy but yummy dessert alternative.
Ingredients:
*Graham Cracker Pie Crust
*SF Strawberry Jello (I used two small boxes..I'm sure one large box would work as well)
*Fresh Strawberries
*Cool whip
*Low Fat/fat free cream cheese (at room temperature)

1.Mix Jello as directed on the back of the box (you may want to slightly reduce the amount of water used)
2. Place Jello in fridge to set. Meanwhile, slice strawberries.
3. As soon as the jello begins to change thickness at all, mix in strawberries.
4. Place back in fridge until mixture begins to look thicker.
5. When mixture is slightly thick, pour into crust. Then place back in fridge to set.

6. Mix together cream cheese and cool whip until desired taste is achieved (in all honesty, I added some powdered sugar to mine too and it made the pie WAY too sweet so don't do that..)
7. Spread over set pie and place back in fridge to set

Rolo Treats

My mom always makes these and they are so addicting! Originally when she started making them, M&M had egg shaped plain m&ms for Easter, but they no longer do so now we substitute with 2 plain M&Ms.
Ingredients
*Square pretzels
*Rolos
*M&Ms

Directions
1. Place pretzels spread out on a cookie sheet
2. On top of each pretzel, place an unwrapped rolo.

3. Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Allow rolos to soften but not melt (it took mine between 2-3 minutes).
4. Remove from the oven and place two m&ms in the top of each rolo.

5. Place in fridge/freezer to set

Take Me Out to the Ballgame

On Saturday afternoon, Cody and I headed up to good ole College Station with our friend Brad. While there we got to see some of our favorite friends, eat some yummy BBQ and watch the Bears play the Ags. It was a great day!

Meagan and I

Nick, Sarah, me & Cody

Cody, me, Danee and Warren

Crafts that destroy books: Book Wreath

While I was ripping up books, I figured that I should just continue by making this wreath from Jones Design Company tutorials. I am so glad that I did because I LOVE the finished project!
There are not any step by step pictures because I was so unsure of whether or not it was turning out correctly. (Check out the Jones Design Company tutorial though as she used a lot of pictures). I will tell you that it was time consuming, but it was not a craft you really had to concentrate on (ie: work on it while you watch a movie)
Supplies:
-A book with thin pages
-hot glue & hot glue gun
-wreath form (I think mine was 12")

1. Tear out book pages
2. Bend the pages (I did this in several different ways, but settled on rolling half of it and then bending back the other half).
3. Glue together the layers of the page
5. Attach the page to the back layer to the wreath form
6. Keep going all the way around the wreath until a base layer is formed
7. Flip it over
8. Begin bending the pages in half and attaching them to the front of the wreath
9. Fold up and attach the inside of the bottom layer
10. Continue to bend and attach layers until you have desired fullness (I think that I had one extra layer from the tutorial).
11. Go back and fill in the holes
12. Attach a ribbon with pins and hang it

We have a small wall above our living room that is open above (to the loft) and below (to the living room) that needed something to add a little decor and this seemed perfect

When Life hands you lemons...

Well, when you buy a bag of lemons, you should make lemonade. Sunday felt like a perfect day for some lemonade, so Cody and I made some!

(Yes it is in a McAlister's cup, but we really did make it. Props to you McA's for the great cups though!)

(Just a warning that this recipe did not make a lot, so if there's more than two of you, you may want to double it)
Ingredients:
1 qt water
2/3 cup sugar
4 lemons

Directions (like you really need them..)
*In a 2 quart pitcher, combine the water (slightly warm) and sugar. Stir until sugar is dissolved.
*Squeeze (or juice if you have a juicer) the 4 lemons and stir into the pitcher.
(I've decided we need a citrus juicer...)
*Refrigerate until cold (or add ice if you're impatient like we are)

You might just see us with a stand one day on the end of our driveway...

Crafts that destroy books: Book Letters

As a kindergarten teacher, I spend the first couple of weeks of each new school year teaching children how to take care of books, how to love books. This being said, my students would be shocked and gravely disappointed to know how this craft came about (but I guess the same can be said about this book canvas craft I made for Alex). Maybe they don't read my blog...
One of my friends found this book letter craft from Little Things Bring Smiles.

Materials needed: White letter (mine are from Michael's), book, hot glue gun, hot glue, scissors
*Tear out the pages of an old book
*Cut the strips to match the width of the letters (with curvy letters, I cut as I went)
*Roll the paper strips
*Put a dot of hot glue at the end of the paper to make it stay (look @ the little things bring smiles blog as she has step by step pictures if this is confusing)
*Hot glue your paper roll onto the letter (If you have a straight line letter as opposed to a curvy one, I would place the rolls on horizontally)
*Continue until the entire face of the letter is covered
I made our monogram. When I got ready to attach it to the wall, I discovered that the color of the paper matched too closely to the beige of our bedroom. I ended up getting a small canvas and attaching some dark brown material that I already had before gluing on the letters. I also used her flower tutorial to add a little color.

Squirrel Hunters

In case you didn't know already, our pups are amazing squirrel hunters. Now I'll concede that they have never actually caught a squirrel (praise God!), but they are very focused when at work. A few weeks ago, Ellie came SUPER close to catching a squirrel, but thankfully it got away. The squirrel only made it to a tree in our backyard where Ellie proceeded to stalk it for the next hour. (If you look closely, you can see Ellie under the tree and the poor squirrel close to the top.

Going Green

Well friends, I am going green. After feeling guilty trip after trip to my HEB, I have finally invested in some reusable shopping bags so that I'm no longer "that girl" who walks out with tons of plastic bags. I of course could not buy the typical bags. We came across some bags called envirosax while we were shopping in DC. I researched a little more and found them on Overstock.com. There are only 5 bags, but they are so big that on my grocery trip Sunday, I managed to fill only four (and that was not a small grocery trip either). Now if I can just remember to make it in the grocery store with them each time...

Pinwheel bows

One crafting blog that I love following is Eighteen25. I used their tutorial on Pinwheel bows to create some hair decor for Erin.
This is such an easy one!
*Start with several different colors of felt sheets
*Cut them into 3x3" squares

*Pair up the squares with another color (2-3x3" squares)
*Cut 1.5" squares from the corners going towards the center

*Get out your glue gun and put a dot in the middle, folding every other corner in (adding a little glue each time)

*Once the four corners are in, add another dot of glue and place the button on top. (Some of mine stayed down better than others..on a couple, actually adding the button made the bow stay together better)

*Hot glue your clip to the back

3

This Saturday our precious little niece turned 3!! Erin is such a blessing in our lives. She is beautiful, sweet and spunky, her smile is absolutely infectious, she loves to entertain and seems to be taking well to her new role as big sister.

1st birthday

2nd birthday

3rd birthday

Happy Birthday Erin Grace! We love you so much!