Cute Inexpensive Christmas Ideas

Walgreens.com is having a huge sale on all photo gifts! I just love personalizing Christmas gifts. I just bought 7 personalized calendars for a ridiculously cheap price. Sale ends October 30th so act fast!

Zip'n Steam Bags

These little bags are a life saver when time is running short for lunch or Dinner. Just throw your veggies, or meat with your favorite seasonings into these bags and pop them into the microwave. The bag has suggested cook times for about anything you can think of. I love how it can cook a bake potato in 4 minutes and a frozen piece of chicken in 7! Its fast and super healthy! These would be perfect for a collage student or someone who only cooks for oneself.

No Gas Beans

So I love beans. People always joke about beans giving you gas, but with this little secret there will be no gas. So you can eat all the beans you want without the consequences. This little secret is called Baking Soda! Just mix 1/8 teaspoon baking soda into your water that you will be soaking your beans in. In the morning just rinse as usual. Bye-bye bloating!

My Favorite Make-up tip

Don't leave you make-up around, because this could happen. My silly girl just loves getting into my make-up.

Fast drying nails!

As a Mother I am always on the run. I am also a woman who can't stand to have naked nails. Having my nails unpainted or having chipped polish makes me feel half dressed. Sad..... but true. This little trick ables me to pick up a screaming baby off the floor in minutes after painting my nails! It sounds a little weird but it totally works so don't laugh! The trick is called Pam. Yes, the cooking spray. After you finish painting both hands or both feet depending on what your are painting, spray some Pam over your nails. Make sure to hold the can about a foot away, otherwise it will not save you anytime because it will leave little bumps on your nails and you will have to repaint them. Believe me, I know from experience. Just rub your hands together after a few minutes to add a little moister to your hands and cuticles.

Healing Diaper rash and Insect bites

If you do not have any diaper ointment on hand when your child has a diaper rash, Corn Starch does the trick. Just sprinkle on as you would baby power.

The make the itch go away on a nasty but bite just mix a small amount of corn starch with a few drops of water to create a paste. Rub on irritated area and in a few minutes swelling and itching will be gone!

Killing Bactria In your Sponge

There is nothing I hate more than a stinky sponge! You can kill Bactria that

is living in your sponge my microwaving it in a bowl of water for 5 minutes. Let it cool a few minutes before removing. You should sanitize your sponge as often as you can. I like to do mine at least every other day.

The power of Ketchup

While getting things ready for my Grandmas 80th birthday celebrations I pulled out a tarnished serving dish. I worried about getting it to look presentable in time for the party. My Dad told me to rub ketchup on it. I laughed thinking he was joking he insisted that he was serious. Sure enough it worked. After about 20 minutes of rubbing it looked good as new! You can do this with any tarnished piece of silver.

Chocolate covered cherry cookies

Joe's Mom made these once and I tried one only to be nice, because I am not fond of cherries, but these cookies are amazing! They are probably my favorite cookie.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter
1 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 10. ounce jar of maraschino cherries
1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 350' degrees
2. Beat butter and sugar together. Add egg and vanilla and beat well. Add flour, cocoa power, salt, baking powder, baking soda, mix until its smooth.
3. Roll into 1 inch balls and place on ungreased cookie sheet. Press middle of cookies with thumb, creating a dip.
4. Drain cherries and save juice. Place a cherry inside each indention.
5. In a sauce pan, heat condensed milk and chocolate chips until the chocolate is melted. stir in 4 teaspoons of cherry juice.
6. Spoon mixture of each cookie covering the cherry.
7. Bake for about 10 minutes.

Bye-Bye foggy mirrors!

After I shower, before I get dressed, before I do my hair, the very first thing I do is put on my make-up. I take such hot showers that my mirror is so foggy when get out I cant see. One day I got out and the mirror was clear! I asked Joe if he cleaned it for me and he said he rubbed shaving cream on it. The shaving cream creates a film over the mirror so no moister can stick to it. And now my mirror always looks sparkly clean!

The magic of a slice of bread

Have you ever left your cookies out for too long and they got hard? Or even slightly over cooked your cookies or brownies or a cake? Well.... I have. This is one of my all time favorite tricks! Put a slice of bread into your container of bake goods over nite and it will put the moister back into them. You can also do this with your brown sugar!

Fuzzi Bunz!

Ike and Man wearing their Fuzzi Bunz!

Nifty little sprayer that connects to your toilet.

My Mom lives out of town, so when ever she comes to visit she likes to spoil her Grand babies. Last time she came she asked what they needed/wanted. I told her I was interested in using cloth diapers with the twins and she bought me some of these diapers I wanted. NO..... I AM NOT A HIPPIE! haha but seriously the average American spends $700-1000 on diapers a year! I have twins so double that! I realized how much money I could be saving if we tried cloth. Everyone told me not to do it. That it was too much work, and that the money you pay for disposables is worth it. They said they leaked, gave rashes, and were too hard to clean. But the people who told me this didn't realize how much cloth diapers have changed since they used them. The new cloth diapers requires no pins! They are make them with buttons or Velcro to make changing easy. They also have invented a nifty little sprayer that attaches to your toilet to make rinsing the soiled diaper a piece of cake! My boys wore the more 12 hours straight because they slept forever. I thought surely the would have leaked, but NOPE! And for the record they have not had a single diaper rash since we have changed to cloth diapers. You have to take care of your diapers and wash them in detergent that is made for cloth diapers, otherwise your child will receive diaper rash. And they are better for the environment. If you decide to buy cloth diapers its best to buy them new unless you know they have been properly cared for. Some of them are even adjustable so grow with your baby, no more needing to by cloth diapers in a bigger size = saving even more! Cloth diapers can pretty pricey but I see them as an investment. My favorite called Fuzzi Bunz run about $20 a piece. You only have to buy them once and they can last through all your kids. Yes, you do need to wash them everyday and it can be a pain for some people but I do at least 2 loads of laundry everyday whats another load? I love cloth diapers! I only wish I used them with Sophie. I also think they are much cuter looking than disposables. You can learn more about fuzzi bunz here http://www.fuzzibunz.com/ learn more about cloth diapers and how to care for your cloth diapers here http://www.diaperjungle.com/

Homemade Chicken Noodle soup

Today I had the rare opportunity of serving the Bishop and his wife. They were both feeling sick and his sweet, little, hilarious wife was about to go to the store to buy canned soup. I wasn't going to let that one happen! They serve the people in our ward 24 hours day every day I wanted them to get a little taste of the service that they give. They also happen to be close friends/adopted parents. I like to call them my Alamo parents. They live close to us so we like to share goodies with each other, We have gone on double dates with them, and I know I could call them at any hour and they would be here in a heart beat. They are amazing people and not to mention hilarious! Most of this recipe came from Joe's Grandma, Irma Infante. I say most bc I never follow a recipe. I like to take somethings from them, and add some of my own ideas.

Grandma Irma's Chicken Noodle Soup

-Boil 10 cups of water
-4 chicken breasts- cube and boil in water
-2 Chicken broth cubes
- Add whatever spices make you happy. I like to add parsley, basil, garlic, and celery seeds.

Bring these ingredients to a boil on medium-high until chicken cooks.

Then add the following:

-2 medium sized cubed potatoes
-2 medium sized carrots sliced
-1 cup fresh peas

While this is cooking you can start on your noodles. Making noodles sounds like it could be lots of work but its totally simple!

All you need is 1 Cup Flour, 1 extra large egg, and a pinch of salt!
Mix everything in a mixer.


Then roll out on some floured parchment paper to make clean up simple. Roll out dough pretty thin. Not too thin bc it will tear, but not too thick bc they will thicken as they cook. After all the dough is sliced, place noodle one by one into the pot. In about 1o minutes everything should be cooked. And there you go, Chicken noodle soup that will make anyone feel better.