Team Francks

Advent Highlights...

I promise we're almost done with Christmas posts!  I just want to journal this so I don't forget details.

I loved loved loved our advent system this year... worked out so well!  And I'm soo glad that I stuck with 15ish activities (instead of trying to do 25)... it was the perfect amount for us! It wasn't too stressful or overwhelming because I planned ahead and knew what was coming up (why can't I do this for all things in my life!).

As I mentioned in this post I wrote out our 15 activities on little cards that I had on hand... the night before an activity I slipped it in to the appropriate pocket. He's little enough that it wouldn't have been a big deal if I'd put them all in at once... but I can see as he gets older that its easier if they don't know what the upcoming activities are (in case there are last minute changes).

Our 2011 Advent Activities in review:

• Toys for Tots Family Home Evening

Met up with some friends for dinner and then went and dropped off the toys... There were many tears on the way home when he realized he didn't get to keep the gifts. He hasn't quite grasped the concept of service yet. :)

The moment when he realized the gifts were staying in the box and not coming home with us!

• Ward Christmas Party

• snowman craft

• make magic reindeer food

• Family date night... dinner out and Christmas lights at our local park

• make thumbprint ornaments to send to Grandparents

• Decorate Tree and house

• Watch Elf (our favorite!)
  

• Letter to Santa

• Brunch on Christmas Eve at Cracker Barrel

• Decorate cookies and hot chocolate date with our neighbors

• New Christmas PJ's and read the story about the birth of Jesus on Christmas Eve

• Visit Santa

• Special (dress up) Candlelight Christmas Dinner and Family Home Evening
  

 

Activities that didn't happen this year:

make paper snowflakes

Live Nativity at Cowboy Church - its only one weekend a year and we only had one night we could go and it happen to be the weekend that everyone had a nasty cold.... so we'll try again next year!

make handprint ornament - I'm still planning on doing this one in the next week... I just ran out of time.

And there you have it... our very fun, very successful Advent activities for 2011!

 

advent activities...

We're breaking in our new advent calendar this year (last year we didn't get it in time to use it for Christmas)... I definitely want our Christmas season to be focused around memories and the magic and meaning of the season versus stuff. 

Joey's not here most of the time so I tried to keep the activities very simple and age appropriate for a three year... I'm also hoping to get some more service activities in there.

I was hoping to type them up in a cute font ... but alas for this year they are handwritten on a little cards I had on hand.

I put them in the advent the night before the activity... that way if work gets too crazy or I have to change things up a bit nobody is disappointed.

I'm not doing 25 activities this year... I'm picked about 15 activities to do this year... on the days that there are no activity in our advent calender there will be a piece of candy.

Here's our list for 2011:

• Toys for Tots Family Home Evening
• make paper snowflakes
• make handprint ornament
• Ward Christmas Party
• Live Nativity at Cowboy Church
• a story and snowman craft and/or reindeer foot craft
• make magic reindeer food
• Family date night... dinner out and Lights at Loy Lake Drive
• make ornaments to send to Grandparents
• Decorate Tree and house
• Watch Elf
• Letter to Santa
• Brunch on Christmas Eve at a favorite restaurant
• Decorate cookies and hot chocolate date with our neighbors
• New Christmas PJ's and read the story about the birth of Jesus on Christmas Eve
• Visit Santa
• Special (dress up) Candlelight Christmas Dinner and Family Home Evening (the Sunday before Christmas)

Over the last year I've collected a big list of Advent ideas... these were my favorite blogs posts for advent ideas:

http://kimmccrary.blogspot.com/2010/12/activities-advent.html

http://www.pinkpistachio.com/25-days-of-christmas/

http://heatherannmelzer.typepad.com/heather_anns_web_land/2009/12/christmas-spirit.html (great ideas in the notes too)

http://heatherannmelzer.typepad.com/heather_anns_web_land/2010/12/happy-december.html

Happy Advent-ing! 

Pioneer Day...

Pioneer Day was a couple of weeks ago (July 24th to be exact)... and as all good Mormon girls from Utah do we celebrate Pioneer day (for those who have never celebrated... Pioneer Day is a huge celebration in Utah (and surrounding Mormon areas).. fireworks, parades, rodeo's... the works... It celebrates the day that the pioneers entered the Salt Lake Valley and it was declared that "This is the Place!"

Although I live in Texas (and love Texas!) you can't take the Utah out of the girl!

We invited our neighbors (100% Texans... and never having celebrated before) over for a fun Pioneer day celebration.

- We had a Family Home Evening on my great great great (I'm not sure how many greats) Aunt, Nellie Unthank who lost her parents on the Trek to Utah.  Her legs were so frostbitten that they had to be cut off at the knees, healed poorly and spent the rest of her life walking on stumps.  She raised a large family and kept an immaculate house.  An inspiration for sure.

- We had a fun dinner... tin foil dinners, rootbeer in a bottle, biscuts, corn on the cob, homemade cobbler and ice cream.

- We made awesome covered wagons out of graham crackers, marshmellows, pretzels and life savers. 

A super fun festive Pioneer day celebration for all!

 

Festive table...

mason jars + pinto beans + tea light = simple cheap center pieces

Two very hungry pioneer children... I know this because they kept saying "we're huuuuuungry!"

Tinfoil dinners... I know it looks gross but they were sooooooooo good!! 

Lovely neighbors with their covered wagons

Our covered wagons... which were all eaten by the almost three year old when his mama wasn't looking.

Our awesome covered wagon.  Awesome.

This is the recipe I used for the tin foil dinners... I ended up having to bake them for an hour and half... the bacon never crisped which kind of threw me off... but they were so sooo sooooo good!!!

recipe found here.

all you need is love...

Valentine's is coming!  yay!  Do you have anything fun planned?  I'm in the midst of planning our family valentine's dinner.  Something to look forward to while its so cold and yucky out.

One of my very favorite parts of the holiday/celebration festivities is the decorating... I try to keep my decor clean and simple.. its easy to go overboard... but I'm really trying to give it a classy look instead of "Valentine's threw up all over my house!"  I also go through my stuff each year and get rid of the stuff that I don't love anymore...

I always love to peek in to other peoples houses/blogs to see how they've decorated... so here's a peek in to my house and my valentine's decor. 

This is my favorite thing... its an 16x20 subway art print free from Eighteen25... one of my very favorite blogs.  Printed it out at Costco for $5ish and then put it in a frame I got on sale at Hobby Lobby.  love love love it!  They did one for Christmas too and it was so cute.  I just rotate things in and out of the frame all year.

  

I love decorating with family pictures... I love the personal feel.

Cute jars from Ikea for less than $3... sad that the candy cost more than the jars!  I rotate holiday stuff in and out of the jars all year as well.

I got the little meatal XO on the "after season" clearence at Target several years ago for a dollar. I never ever ever pay full price for holiday decorations.  I refuse :)

How are you celebrating this year???

Groundhog Day festivities...

We had a little Groundhog Day Party this week and invited Buddy's very best friend "Wexi" and her family over for the party.  Super easy and fun party...

1. Groundhog Stew for dinner (It's really beef stew... but I found the idea online and went with it... a bit gross imagining eat groundhog... but the stew was good and much much better than the groundhog shaped meatloaf I found online :)

2. Tracing shadows and hanging them on the wall until spring arrives (big rolls of paper at Ikea for just a couple of dollars.  We've gotten hours of fun out of that big roll of paper!)

3. "Dirt" for dessert with a groundhog peeking out.  I learned when making these that my talents do not extend to making groundhog cookies.  I ruined multiple oreo's before finally getting any that were worth serving (they ended up looking like devil cookies..haha!).  I gave up the good fight. 

Stepping on my soap box for a minute... a friend (not the friend that came to the party) was mocking/teasing me a bit for doing these dorky little things.  He wanted to know why I'd waste my time with things that "don't matter". 

Because it does matters to me.  Yes, it's just a dorky groundhog party (st. patty's day party, st. nicholas day, first day of summer celebration, etc, etc).. But I'm creating memories for my family.  I'm creating traditions.  I'm celebrating the small little things in life.  I believe that life is not meant to just be endured... I believe among other things that its meant to be enjoyed.  And I believe that the little tiny things make life fun.

And I love hearing my son and his best buddy giggle when they get their "shadows" traced and her begging to hang it on her wall.  I love creating a meal for my neighbors and sitting around the table talking and enjoying their company.

So that's why i do those things.  Because I believe that they do matter.   

Happy Groundhog day!

Highlights of Christmas 2010

In no particular order:

Our family service project for December was to do the 12 days of Christmas to a family who could use some Christmas cheer... I don't know why I thought it would be easy... it so wasn't easy... but we had lots of fun sneaking gifts on to their porch and mailbox each night.   It might be a couple of years though before I attempt it again though. 

The Christmas Book Basket... one of my favorite things of the season.

Buddy on Christmas morning... a wagon, a bouncy horse, a Caillou doll, a tent... talk about overload... but it was so fun to see him get so excited.  He kept clapping and saying "Oh wow!"

 

We had several opportunities for service this Christmas... a few days before Christmas we found a family that wasn't going to have much...  so Christmas Eve morning we got to put together a Christmas dinner and a few gifts for this family and then got to deliver the gifts with the missionaries from our Church.  

We also got to join in as they shared a Christmas message... we didn't understand much of the message as it was all in Spanish but the spirit of Christmas was there so strong and it was one of our favorite highlights of the whole season.

Little man all bundled up in his jammies and coat with his pink doggie and silky ready to look at Christmas lights…. How he exclaimed “oh, wow!” and “havay! (hooray)” over and over again at all the pretty lights… and I always want to remember how incredibly magical Christmas is with a two year old.  

 A little lesson on the birth of the Savior and then the gifting of the Fisher Price Nativity to Buddy... I love love love this nativity set.  

Breakfast at Cracker Barrel on Christmas Eve morning... random but totally fun.  You should try it sometime.

 

Authentic Tamales from our favorite Mexican Bus for Christmas Eve dinner... 

Sprinkling magic reindeer food...

 

My new stocking board that holds my cute cute stockings! (stockings made by Liberty)...

Cookies for Santa

My other favorite purchase of the year... our new Advent calendar...  Love love love it!  Next year it will be filled with fun activities to do every day during December.

Tracking Santa... technology is so fun!

 

Every morning when Buddy woke up he'd run in to the livingroom, put his little chair in front of the tree and say "Lights, Mama!  Lights!"  One of my favorite memories of the season.

And just overall joy of the season... so much happiness with this little one!

I'd love to hear your traditions and favorite memories of the season!   

Hope your Christmas season was Merry and Bright!!

Tis the Season...

... for the Christmas List!!  We had so much fun with the Summer List (which I'd still love to finish posting about!)... we thought it would be fun to do a Christmas List.  Help us focus on the fun, meaningful things we wanted to do as a family during this wonderful holiday season.

Just like the Summer List it will be printed out (at Costco) and hang on our fridge... the little circles will be filled in as we complete the items (some of which have already been done!).

I love this time of year!!!  Ho Ho Ho!

The Christmas List page was created with a kit by The Ettes... speaking of The Ettes, they have a new store and a new newsletter... If you're a digital scrapbooker, want to be a digital scrapbooker or just like buying cute kits be sure to sign up for their new newsletter... there just might be a little gift for all of their newsletter subscibers later this month!

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Things I Love Thursday: Thanksgiving Edition

1.  My new table. I love love love this table.  I've been looking for this table my whole life... ok really like a few years... but when I saw it I knew it was to be mine.... the table of my dreams.

I wanted a square or circle table.  Square or circle allows for better conversation... too hard to talk to everyone at a rectangle table.  Found it on sweet clearance at Sam's club.  Love love love it!!

2. My favorite Thanksgiving prints... hanging on my dining room wall.  Have I told of you of my deep deep love of all things Norman Rockwell?  Thanks to cheap prints at All Posters and half off frames at Hobby Lobby my dining room looks all festive and Thanksgiving-y.

3.  Decorated porches that make me happy.

4. An awesome Thanksgiving with fabulous friends... this year we're celebrating five years of Thanksgiving dinners together!  After too much food we all left and went to another friends house for games and Dessert.  I so love Thanksgiving and our traditions! 

 

5.  My husband and son.  My extended family.  A free country.  The Gospel of Jesus Christ.  And more blessings than I know how to count.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!!!

 

 

2nd Annual Texas Cousins Thanksgiving

On Saturday the Texas Boone's all headed north (to our house) for an evening of cousin bonding, feasting, talking, rock-banding and enjoying each other and our many blessings and gratitudes.

So fun... love it when we're all get together! Gobble, Gobble!

 

St. Patty's Day fun....

Y'all knowI love a good party.... minor holidays included!

How we celebrated this year:

1. Leprechaun Kisses (shamrock stickers) on sleeping foreheads (necks and elbows too!)

2. St. Patrick Day shirts (of course!)

3. Green Milk (pesky little Leprechauns!)

4. Lucky Charms for breakfast

5. Gold for my husbands work bag for him to find later (I created a cute digital topper on the computer ... but when I printed it out I didn't realize I was out of colored ink... so I had to make do with this bland homemade diddy.  It was 2am.... please don't judge my creativity on this one.)

6.  Lunch with my Visiting Teacher (and dear friend)... she wanted to do her visit and it's her favorite holiday so we celebrated with lunch.  We couldn't find any St. Patty's celebrations going on around here so we settled for Mexican food and dined on GREEN guacamole.  We're good at making do :)

7.  Corned Beef and Cabbage, pistachio pudding and Leprechaun Punch for dinner (recipes below and attached so you can print it at the bottom.)

8.  This was my first time making Corned Beef and Cabbage... I used this recipe here.   It turned out SOOOOO GOOD!!!  The vegetables were soooooooo yummy!!!  I tweaked things a tiny bit... my notes included.

Corned Beef and Cabbage

 

3 pounds corned beef brisket with spice packet

10 small red potatoes

5 carrots, peeled and julienned

1 large head cabbage, cut into small wedges

 

Place corned beef in large pot or Dutch oven and cover with water. Add the spice packet that came with the corned beef. Cover pot and bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Simmer approximately 50 minutes per pound or until tender. 2. Add whole potatoes and carrots, and cook until the vegetables are almost tender. Add cabbage and cook for 15 more minutes. Remove meat and let rest 15 minutes. 3. Place vegetables in a bowl and cover. Add as much broth (cooking liquid reserved in the Dutch oven or large pot) as you want. Slice meat across the grain.

My notes:

All the reviews I read suggested adding a can of beer or a can of beef broth for added flavor... since I don't keep beer on hand I went with the beef broth :)

Pu I put the beef in the crock pot, covered with water and cooked on high for 6 hour… I wasn't going to be home all day and needed it to be cooking while I was gone.  After the meat was ready and I was ready to cook the vegetables I dumped all the liquid and meat from the crock pot in to a pan on the stove…brought it all to a boil,  put in the potatoes and carrots and cooked them for ten minutes and then added the cabbage and cooked for another 10 minutes.  Turned out great!!!

9.   

Leprechaun Punch

·       2 liters pineapple juice

·       2 envelopes unsweetened lime Kool-Aid

·       1 liter lime sherbet

·       2 liters ginger ale or 7-Up soda

In large punch bowl combine pineapple juice and Kool-Aid. Stir. Add sherbet in scoops. Slowly add ginger ale or 7-Up. Let stand 15 minutes to froth.

10.  I love celebrating the little things! Happy St. Patrick's day!!

Download Corned Beef and Cabbage

Download Leprechaun Punch