Some Layouts to Share

Olsen Christmas Party

On Saturday the 22nd, we attended my family Christmas party. All my siblings and their kids gather at my Mom and Dad's where we share a big yummy dinner. We each bring our own meat to grill and a side dish to share. Then Santa comes and calls each child to come up and get a present. Each parent is responsible for bringing a gift for each of their children for Santa to give out. The kids LOVE it and we always get some great photos of the kids on his knee and fun ones of the adults too. I'll need to scrapbook a bit with the pictures I got of the kids and then I'll share. We also enjoy visiting as a family while we assemble graham cracker houses. We get a great mix of candy to accessorize with because each family brings some and then we all share. Here is a layout of the candy houses we made.

Tree Trimming

Here's a layout I made of our family decorating our Christmas tree.

Something I got for Christmas

Ok so this was a gift I received many years ago for Christmas. I decided to get it out during this Christmas break and Savannah has loved playing with it.

Let it Snow!

I can not believe the amount of snow we have had over this Christmas break. I thought it was magical to get such a wonderful storm on Christmas Eve. My kids have loved playing outdoors. Here are a few layouts of the snowy fun!

Santa Came!

HO HO HO! Guess we were good little boys and girls!

I had to laugh at this picture of Clayne on Santa's lap. Look closely at what he is holding in his hands. Yep, it is an Ariel Mermaid Barbie. Too funny. I only noticed it when I was putting it on the blog. He was still trying to unpackage it for Savannah (she got it when she went up to sit on Santa's lap). Guess he didn't even think about the fact that he was holding it and it would look like he was getting it from Santa lol. This was at my family Christmas party last Saturday. More about that in another post.

Here is what we really got from Santa on Christmas morning.

I had a hard time deciding if my kids would get a play station for Christmas. We have an old Sega and so I figured that was good enough. But the kids just kept asking for one and they didn't even get greedy and ask for a wii. They just asked for Playstation2. Pretty cheap really. They were so excited when they got up and saw it on Christmas. The TV has been on almost constantly when they are awake - and not for TV viewing! Tonight is the exception though. Morgan is watching the big Patriot game. Hence my few moments to blog!

I have to admit that the PS2 is a mixed good/bad thing. There is some whining and crying when others feel that they are not getting their fair turn. I have to set timers sometimes. When school starts we will certainly have to set limits. It ought to be interesting when they don't get to play it tomorrow (Sunday). I am amazed at how much better the graphics are on the PS than on sega. And yes, I'll admit it... it is way fun to play the American Idol game lol. Cheyenne had to beg me to give her the microphone back. Simon doesn't like me much -cry! Paula is always nice though lol. I'll have to keep practicing.

Anyway... we had a fun Christmas and everyone was very happy with what they received and the joy of my children made it fun for me. I'll be sharing more photos and blog entries over the next week.

Grocery Deals - week of Dec 26

Albertsons
$1.99/lb Half Boneless Pork Loin
10/$10 Albertosn's 18oz oatmeal, hunts spaghetti sauce, american beauty pasta, reser's chip dip, swiss miss 10 oz cocoa, 4 count cinnamon rolls
Frito lay chips buy one get one free
3/$5 Nabisco snack crackers


Smith's
$1.98 Nabisco Ritz crackers
3/$5 Nabisco snack crackers
$1.89/lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts
49cents/lb broccoli or cauliflower
99cents/doz large eggs

Done Christmas shopping? CHECK! and weekend plans

Just a quick entry for anyone who may even still be in blogland with Christmas so near. I should actually be wrapping presents, but then what would I do on Monday lol. All the shopping has been done for a while and that is a wonderful feeling. Speaking of shopping, I finished a layout of Morgan doing his shopping at the dollar store. Used that wonderful freebie kit that I posted the link for earlier this month on my blog. Still LOVE that kit and thought it made a great page.

Did I mention freebie downloads hehe... I am so addicted to grabbing all this great free stuff on the net. I found another great site this last week and thought I'd pass it along to you in case you are wanting to grab some free goodies too. I liked this site because it has everything in categories so it would be easy to find something specific when you are working on a layout. Anyway here is the site link. http://digiscrapdepot.com/ Happy downloading!

Tonight we had Clayne's company work dinner party at the Whitewater Grill over by the falls. I had the coconut shrimp and it was delish. I was proud of myself for passing on ordering desert. I am always a bit overwhelmed by the amount of food I eat at the holidays. Thank goodness for aerobics!

Tomorrow we go to Malad to my parents for the family Christmas party. We will be making graham cracker houses and having a big dinner (more food!!) and then Santa will come. That should be enough festivities for us for the weekend lol. Hope you are all having a great weekend too.

Grocery Deals - week of Dec 19

Albertsons

5/$12 Coca-Cola 12 packs
5/$11 Pepsi 12 packs
$1.69 each Albertsons butter, pillsburry crescent rolls or cinnamon rolls
99 cents/lb Cook's shank portion ham
4/$7 buy 4 post cereals and get a coupon for free milk too.
$3.99 marie callenders fruit or cream pies

Smith's

1.49/lb John morrell spiral sliced half ham
3/$5 Smith's butter
99 cents/doz. large eggs
5/$12 Coca-Cola 12 packs
5/$11 Pepsi 12 packs
69 cents Philadelphia cream cheese
39 cents/lb large navel oranges
3/$5 Nabisco snack crackers or frito-lay chips
$1.99 each when you buy 4 Sara lee pies or private selection ice cream

Our Christmas Card and a Layout

So I am an addict to digital scrapping now lol. I would spend even more time on it if I had it. I want to share my latest creation. I entered a challenge at digital candy. Yep, I made this page all by myself lol. A challenge - not a contest lol. Not ready to start competing with my limited skills in this area. Here is the site for the challenge http://www.digitalcandy.ca/shoppe/ Click on forum to go to challenges.

If you become a member of their community and enter the challenge they give you this really cute kit that I used to create this layout. The challenge is that you use everything that is in the kit to create your layout. Kind of fun and I thought this kit was way too cute. It also got me to get a page done - even used photos from a few years back.

Our Christmas Card

While I am at it, here is the front of our Christmas card that I sent out this year. Inside it said:

Merry Christmas!

Wishing you happiness and joy at Christmas time. Here's just a spot of news about each of us:

Savannah is 5 and loving kindergarten. She loves riding the bus like the big kids, but feels a bit ripped off that she only gets to go for half a day.

Carson is 8 and is in third grade. He continues to hold the title of "class clown" and is good at it because he really is funny!

Morgan is 9 and is in the fourth grade. he is a very social boy and we have a hard time keeping him home unless we have a good football game on tv.

Cheyenne is 12 and started Jr. High this year. She is loving it and making lots of new friends. She's still playing the piano and getting real good at it.

Tiffany is still staying home and keeping very busy there managing the kids, and Clayne too. She is learning a bit of digital scrapping and serves now as the Relief Society secretary.

Clayne is still working as manager at Bonneville Collections to support himself and his 5 dependents - guess that didn't keep him busy enough because now he serves as 2nd counselor in the Bishopric.

We (Tiffany) have/has a blog now so drop in and see what we are up to any time at http://www.tiffanybodily.blogspot.com/ We'd love to get your email address too. Have a very happy Christmas Season. - Much Love XO

Recipe Share

My friend Shelly http://shellyabrown.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/12/a-bright-idea.html?cid=94049156#comment-94049156 has started a recipe extravaganza to share our favorite recipes. I have already been posting many of mine, but here is one more. I'm trying to go back through my posts and add labels (tags) to my previous posts of recipes so that you can easily go back to them if you missed them. Wish me luck lol. Ok so I don't know how to make a list of labels to go on the side of my blog yet, but if you just click on the label "recipes" at the end of this post it will bring up all previous posts with a label of "recipes" and you can scroll through them and grab the ones you want. Someday I'll figure out how to add my label listing on my blog - if any of you can help me in this endeavor, email me please.

Chocolate Dipped Oreo Balls

1 Package Regular Oreos
1 Package of Cream Cheese, softened

Pulse Oreos in blender until resemble a crumb mixture. Add in cream cheese and blend until smooth. Roll into balls and chill before dipping in chocolate. White chocolate is a nice contrast for dipping the oreo balls into. You can then melt milk chocolate in a zip lock, trim corner and use to drizzle over the white chocolate. Very pretty!

Hodge Podge of Stuff

It has been a busy week and there are things that I really wanted to get posted here so I am just going to take the time and do it. Here is a quick page to show our gingerbread house activity. We have been cheating the last few years buying the Wilton kits where the house is all assembled and you just add the decorations. One of these years I am going to use the molds I bought from pampered chef. (first I have to remember where I stashed them)

I wanted to share the recipe that we used for our cookie making activity last week too. It is a great classic sugar cookie recipe. Jen shared my other sugar cookie recipe on her blog a while back but in case you missed it I'll give you it too. This one is called Carol's soft sugar cookies and they are super tasty too. I love the cream cheese frosting. The reason why I sometimes go back to the classic recipe is that they are easier for the kids to decorate and the frosting sets so that you can put them on treat plates and the frosting doesn't stick to the plastic wrap. Happy baking!!! If you make them... bring me one.

Classic Sugar Cookies

1 cup butter flavor shortening
1 ½ cups sugar
½ cup brown sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 Tbsp milk
4-5 cups flour
1 ½ tsp baking soda
1 ½ tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp salt

Cream the shortening and sugars together. Beat in eggs one at a time; add milk and vanilla. Combine flour, baking soda, cream of tartar and salt. Mix into creamed mixture until well blended. Chill for one hour. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Roll out 1/3 of the dough at a time, to about ¼ inch thickness on a floured surface. Cut out with cookie cutters. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheet. Sprinkle with colored sugars and decors or leave plain and frost when cooled. Bake for 5-6 minutes, or until edges are slightly golden. Remove immediately to cooling rack. Makes about 5 dozen cookies.

Buttery Cream Frosting

In a medium mixing bowl, combine 4 cups confectioners’ sugar, ½ cut butter flavor shortening and 1 ½ tsp vanilla. Slowly blend in 6-7 Tbsp milk to desired consistency. Beat on high speed for 5 minutes.

Carol’s Soft Sugar Cookies

3 ¼ C flour
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
½ C softened butter
1 C sugar
1 egg unbeaten
1 ½ tsp vanilla
½ C thick sour cream

Sift flour, soda and salt. Cream butter, sugar, egg and vanilla. Mix sour cream into creamed mixture along with half of the dry ingredients. Add remaining dry ingredients and stir by hand. Heat oven to 400 degrees. Divide dough in half, roll out and cut. Bake for 8-10 minutes. Cool before frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting

½ C softened butter
1 tsp vanilla
½ lb cream cheese
3 ¾ C powdered sugar

Beat butter and cream cheese together until well blended. Add vanilla and sugar; beat until smooth.



And finally, I have been wanting to share my "home improvement" with you. Remember that red wall I was going to paint? Well, I did it and I love it. It was a treacherous wall to do up and down the ladder worrying about dripping red paint on the carpeted steps below me. I had to put a stack of books on a stair to make a platform to put the ladder on and every time I climbed that ladder, I read the label on it that warned about incorrect use leading to serious injury or death. That was a comfort - NOT!

I went to Four Sisters in Shelley and had the vinyl lettering done with the scripture from 3 John 1:4 and I am so happy with it. Wish photos did it justice, but they don't so if you are ever able to, you should come and see it for real. Whew! I feel better to have all this posted - not that you aren't all too busy to read it lol.

Ok and one more little goodie.... I love http://www.pandora.com/ You can listen to any kind of music you want to there. Check it out! Now I am off to help my kids make their gifts for grandparents. Have a great weekend.

More 2008 Calendars

So after looking a little bit more at my downloads from the legacy lady site (see previous post) I also downloaded a calendar set from the blog of Erin Lynch http://www.erinboberin.com/blog/ At the top of her page click on "templates and tutorials" and you'll be able to download her cute calenders. I liked that these could be printed as regular size photos and I found acrylic frames at Walmart (both self standing ones that could go on a desk top and those with a magnet on the back for the fridge.) They were less than a dollar each. The cost of the photos will be minimal too and I'll have a personal and inexpensive gift for grandparents. I sat down and in less than an hour added photos to them - so it is quick too. I still love the CD calendars that I posted earlier, but I think those might work best just for myself. I plan to give grandparents both types of frames so they can choose how they want to use them. Anyway... here are just a couple of the months that I added my pictures to. Cute huh?

She posts, "It's a set of 12 4x6 Calendar quick pages. It's the perfect size for a picture frame, just rotate the months through. I like to put them in one of those cheap magnetic acrylic frames. Last year I gave the grandparents calendars for their fridges and they loved them, and requested them again this year too! All you need to do is add your pictures and print. I found it works best to print them on regular paper at home. When you've got 12 lab printed pictures in one of the frames, it's a little heavy for the magnet."

Grocery Deals - week of Dec 12

Smith's
3/$5 Butter
99cents/doz. large eggs
10/$10 sour cream 16oz, hormel little sizzlers, eggo waffles
8/$10 General Mills Cereals or nature valley granola bars - must buy 8
$2.79/gal. milk

Albertsons
8/$12 General Mills Cereals, nature valley granola bars, betty crocker fruit rolls/snacks, fiber one bars- must buy 8
99cents/lb. Cook's shank ham
$3.99 Northern bath tissue

Another way cute gift idea

I totally loved this idea on the legacy lady blog. Super cute gift idea and I'm gonna need to have one on my scrap desk too. Go to her site to get all the links for the downloads.

http://thelegacylady.typepad.com/the_legacy_lady_online/2007/12/got-2008-calend.html

Got 2008 Calendars???
On the tangent of fabulous and inexpensive Christmas gifts, checkout the cooperative efforts of the pclayers team - sharing these fabulous 2008 CD Case calendar Freebies! All you have to do is visit each blog and download a quick page for each month of 2008 (some blogs will have two downloads). Then you can easily drag and drop your photos into the templates, print them out and insert them in a CD case opened so that the part that holds the CD is supporting the calendar - they make great gifts - all for the cost of printing - so enjoy!!

Our Holiday Happenings

Just wanted to post a few layouts that I made from quick pages (the only way to go when you want to get them done fast to share on the blog!) These are some of the activities that we have enjoyed together this past week for our Christmas Countdown. Hope you are all enjoying the holiday season too. Gotta make this quick since I need to get FHE going - we have a gingerbread house to make tonight!!

Told you a while back that I'd share my 25cent neighbor gift find. I got Betty Crocker cornbread muffin mixes at Winco. We added a cute tag that said, "You're getting "muffin" for Christmas from the Bodily's." The kids were really good about helping me prepare them and deliver them. So nice to have that done already!

Letters to Santa

Had the kids "write" letters to Santa today. Decided to just do it on the internet for a change this year. This was a pretty fun little site http://www.emailsanta.com/ Where the kids just finish filling in a letter and then after submitting it, he sends a reply right back. There is an option to print them out and the kids are having fun re-reading them. I think I'm going to put them in a binder so they can look at them again next year too. Anyway... if you feel like reading more, you can read Morgan's letter and Santa's reply below. Have a great day and remember Santa is watching so BE GOOD!

Idaho Falls, Idaho,
United States

Dear Santa Claus,
My name is Morgan. I am a boy and I am already 9 years old!! I live in the great city of Idaho Falls. Of course, that's in Idaho, United States, but I'll bet you knew that!! This year I've been so good that I should really be on the 'Nice' List!!
Santa Claus, some things I might like for Christmas this year are:- Playstation2 for family;- Collage football game; and,- Randy Moss jersey.
Santa Claus, I almost forgot to say... Hope santa will not be fat next Christmas!
Love, Morgan


Merry Christmas Morgan!

Idaho falls, Idaho
United States
#1, Rudolph Way
North Pole, Canada
HOHOHO

Thursday, December 06, 2007

Dear Morgan,
Thank you for sending me your email all the way from Idaho falls! The Net sure is wonderful because now I never feel lonely all the way up at the North Pole. I can get those wonderful Christmas emails any time of the year now, but it's always special when I get one from you, Morgan.
Well tickle my whiskers, Morgan, I can't believe you're 9 years old already! You're getting to be quite a big boy! I'm really glad you still wrote me though because I'm sure some of your friends have said things about me. Of course, I'll bet they never got a magic letter like this directly from Santa Claus himself! (*wink*) I also hear you've been a good boy. (Of course, you won't mind if I do a little checking, will you? HO!! Ho!! ho!!).
Let's see what you put in your letter for Christmas wishes: 1. playstation2 for family; 2. collage football game and; 3. randy moss jersey. Can I tell you a little secret? I love playing games on my PlayStation -- reindeer games that is! HO!! Ho!! ho!! They are a lot of fun aren't they! I guess that's why so many good little boys and girls asked for the same thing as you! I just wish there was room in my sleigh to give everyone one.
Well, I better go feed the reindeer and polish Rudolph's nose with nose wax. Have to make sure everything's ready for the big day! Take care Morgan and don't forget to come back and visit me here at EmailSanta.com on Christmas Eve!! And remember... only 19 more sleeps until Christmas!!
Lots of Love,
Santa

P.S. The reindeer say "Thank You!" for the nice treats! I hope you don't mind, but I had a bit of carrot and celery too. After all, even Santa eats his veggies!

P.P.S. I've attached a special postmarked copy of your email below so you can print it off and show it to all your friends or put it on your fridge.

Other COOL STUFF at this site
Write a letter to Santa
Check the "Naughty or Nice" List
Count down to Christmas
Get Santa's Autograph
Send your pet's email to Rudolph
Play Rudolph's Christmas Trivia
Vote for who'll guide Santa's sleigh
Send Christmas Cards
Watch Christmas Webcams
Read live emails to Santa
Try out Santa's Advent Calendar
Laugh at silly Elf Jokes
Watch the 'Rudolph cam'
Sign up for 'Santas Top 10'
See Santa's Magic Photo Albums
Colour these Christmas pages
Play "YuleSearch"
Download Christmas Software

Scrapbooking stuff and sites to share

Isn't this a lovely free digital download scrapbooking kit? It is by Rita Massela and here is her blog address http://ritamassela.blogspot.com/2007/12/mais-novidades.html Just scroll down and find the "download here" under her kit and you'll be on your way. I thought it was fabulous and wanted to share it with any of you who are getting into digital scrapbooking. I am amazed at all the talent out there on the web and that there are so many designers that share for FREE! I can't wait to create something with this kit.

Another site I am loving is Sketch This http://janellerichmond.typepad.com/sketchthis Where they post a sketch each week and several examples of how designers have used it. Here is a sketch from a few weeks ago and a layout they posted. Cute huh?

Grocery Deals - HoHoHo Save Some Dough!

Albertsons


It's the big Quaker sale - plus
Buy 10 for $25 and get an instant rebate of $10 - makes it 10/$15
Aunt Jemima syrup
Quaker oatmeal breakfast or mussin bars
Quaker oatmeal to go
Quaker granola bites
Quaker granola bars
Quaker sweet & salty bars
Quaker life cereal
Quaker oats
Quaker breakfast cookies
Quaker Cap'n crunch cereal
Quaker simple harvest hot cereal
Albertsons cereal
Albertsons orange juice
Albertsons instant oatmeal
Albertsons fruit and grain or chewy bars


It is also the mega meat and seafood sale.
Several cuts of meat, roasts, steaks, chicken breasts, etc. are buy one get one free.

Smith's

$1.29/lb. Bone in country stylw bork ribs or pork roast
$1.89/lb. boneless, skinless chicken breast
$2.79/gal. milk
10/$10 Duncan Hines brownie mix
4/$5 Hershey's baking chips
99 cents/doz. large eggs
$1.88 Dorito chips
3/$5 Hot pockets/ lean pockets

A Bit of Christmas Cheer

Last Wednesday we attended the Nativity Display at the stake center by the Temple. This has become one of our family traditions to kick off the Christmas season. We like to strongly reinforce that the Christmas season is all about the birth of our Savior and the gift of his atoning sacrifice. Looking at the dozens of nativities collected and displayed at the stake center helped us to remind our children of this. We so appreciate all the work that it takes for this display to be available. In conjunction with the tradition of attending the Nativity display, we have also started a tradition where the first holiday decoration (aside from the lights on the outside of the house, which are preferably hung before the first big snow storm) that we display in our home is the Nativity. At the beginning of December we hold a special family night and have a lesson about the Nativity and then we put our figurines out. Not until the Nativity has had a few days to take center stage, are the rest of the decorations and the tree put up. From my last post you will see that yesterday we put out our Nativity. Tonight we will attend the First Presidency Devotional. I am excited to see and hopefully hear from our beloved Prophet.

Today in Relief Society we had a wonderful lesson about family traditions. The spirit was very strong and it was a beautiful message. Thanks Shelly and to all the sisters who shared in the lesson. I am grateful for the traditions that we have in our family and I hope that as my children grow up that they will carry some of them into their own families.

Now a little gift to you for reading my post: I attended a super fun Christmas party this weekend where we all exchanged goodies. I took my gingersnap cookies which are already posted here on my blog as well as some yummy caramels. I promised to share this recipe on my blog. I had just enough left over after the party that I decided to wrap them up and put them away for the Relief Society holiday open house coming up this week so I am counting on all of you to enjoy this recipe, but not to take them to that party. (Sorry Heather B., but I have to take them to the party so that I won't finish eating all of them myself!!) With that said.... Here is the recipe. These are way easy. No candy thermometer involved and just microwaving for the cooking!!! Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas!!!

Microwave Caramels

1 cup margarine
2 1/4 cup brown sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 dash of salt
1 tsp. vanilla

Melt margarine in microwave bowl 1-2 min. on med/high. Stir in brown sugar, corn syrup, milk and salt. Cover with plastic wrap. Cook on high 10 min. Stir and cook uncovered 12-15 min. on med/high or until forms a ball. (Take a spoon and drip a small amount into a cup of ice water. See if it forms a ball.) Add vanilla and pour into a greased 12x7 pan. Cool and cut.