Mother's Day gift from ward

So it totally doesn't matter, but I think it's fun to hear what wards give to the women on Mother's Day. My ward gave out a handful of Lindt truffles and Ghirardelli chocolates wrapped in cellophane with a quote from President Monson. Definitely had a woman's touch, though I could be wrong about that. Maybe it was all created by the brethren?

What did your ward give out?

Gifts for your kids

Last year I got some really great ideas from this blog for gifts for my toddler. One of my favorites was a wallet that I filled with gift cards (with no money on them) and pictures. I think that was Steph's idea, thanks! I actually used several ideas from others last year. I wondered if anyone has any creative ideas they are utilizing for their kids this year. One thing that I'm a bit excited about is a 4x6 photo album for my two year old filled with photos of all the people she loves. I think it will be a nice thing for her to look at in the car or at church. Happy gift giving!

Awesome CD Give Away!

If you would like the chance to win this CD (multiple winners)
go here and leave a comment!

This is an awesome new CD with great songs that both you and your kids will love. The tracklist includes: I'm A Believer; Rubber Ducky; Popcorn Popping; Sing, Sing a Song; When I See An Elephant Fly and some really great originals. To hear some samples go here.

Gift exchanges

Does your family gift exchange? How do you do it? A friend of mind told me the other day that her Mom called for a "green" gift exchange this year. They each give to one person, it must cost $5 or less, and must be made or bought at a garage sale or thrift store. How do you do it?

Give Away

In honor of conference I've got a give away on my blog.

What did ya'all think of conference? What messages stuck out to you?

going away presents

We're moving soon and I'm trying to figure out what to do for my daughter's babysitter and family.  This woman has taken care of my little girl for over a year and a half two days a week and loved her like she was her own.  Her three girls think of my daughter as their sister.  I want to do something nice to thank them and show them how much they mean to us but of course, we're moving, things are tight right now.  Any suggestions?

Toy Purse idea

This post is kind of for Linz. I wasn't sure if anyone would go back and read the post Toys for Tots. I just wanted to share an idea that I am doing for Christmas, for my (will be) 15 mos. old. I can't take credit for the idea, I got it from a friend in my old ward. Anyway, since my little one is OBSESSED with my purse, and everything in it-keys, wallet, pens, etc. I am putting together a purse for her. The idea I got from my friend is you take a wallet or billfold that has a lot of slots for credit cards, and you make your own cards. She had pictures of family members, Christ, animals, etc. You just make the pictures the size of a credit card, and then laminate them. Little tots will happily pull out the cards and examine them all day long! Anyway, it becomes a good alternative for getting into my OWN purse, (and real credit cards) as well as a good quiet activity for Church, etc.

Does anyone know of a kind of toy keys that are more realistic then the plastic colorful baby ones they make?

Gifts for tots

Most of my child's favorite toys are ideas that I got from others. Her friend had a cute little Elmo push 'n ride toy. I got her a Winnie the Pooh one and it's wonderful: tons of things to press and pull, a lift-up seat you can fill with things, plus you can ride on it or push it. I highly recommend it for a 1 year old. I bought mine at Costco for $21.99. Another example is this little Dora futon that she plays on everyday. I also recommend this Fisher Price toy where you stack on four star rings. It makes a pretty noise and flashes lights every time you get a ring on and, at the end, you put a star on top and it plays one of the toy's classical tunes. It's about $12.99 at Toys R Us. When she was 9 months old, she would just pull the rings off and press the button that played the music, but now that she's older, she puts the rings on herself. My mother-in-law introduced me to this toy as well as the Fisher Price ball popper! It's so fun. She loved to watch it at 6 months and then grew to love putting the balls back in and pushing the red button that plays the music and gets the ball rolling. Basically kids at every age love playing with it. I've even seen 5 year olds play with it.

Okay, anyway, I am looking for some ideas for my 14 month old (will be almost 16 months at Christmas) for toys for Christmas. If you've had a child at this stage, I would love suggestions on what toys your kids have loved. I know personality plays a part, but I'd just like your general suggestions from a developmental standpoint. Think 18 months old.

Oh...and if you have great suggestions for any other age group (6-12 months, 2 years, 3 years, etc.), maybe others would find that helpful as well!

Homeade gifts

Help! I know it's not even November yet, so I apologize to those of you who are thinking it's WAY too early to be worrying about this....

This is about the time when I start thinking about the holidays, and even start a little of my Christmas shopping. I like to put time and thought into gifts, so I'm not rushed. (And so I'm not buying everything at once!) Anyway, we started a new tradition on my husband's side of the family. We aren't supposed to buy each other anything, but instead make thoughtful, homeade gifts. Last year was easy because we had this awesome Craft Day at our Ward with several projects that were exactly that-thoughtful and homeade! However, I'm now in a small branch that doesn't do a craft day, and I'm not so good at coming up with ideas on my own!

Some examples of gifts we exchanged last year were:
-I made wooden blocks with sepia photographs on every side for each family member. The blocks stacked on top of each other, and they looked pretty neat!
-My sister in law framed a Proclamation to the Family for each of us, with our own custom borders of photographs of our families
-My sister in law also made one of those fleece sacks with rice and little objects in it, for kids to "search for" the objects during church, etc.

Hopefully that gets the creative juices flowing and PLEASE send your ideas my way!!! :)

In-Law Birthdays

It's my father-in-law's birthday this week. I don't know about yours but my husband is no help in this area and my FIL is hard to shop for!!! When I come up with ideas that I think are brilliant, they get vetoed. A few I have overridden and done anyway and ironically they're usually a big hit! Anyway, some men are tough to find gifts for and mine is one of those! Any suggestions??

Half Price Bookstores

My daughter's 1st birthday is coming up. I want to give her some gifts (not that she really cares) but I don't have a lot of extra money. Last week I went to a Half Price Books. I didn't get to spend as much time there as I wanted to, but the few minutes I spent there were great. They have used books there for cheap, but even brand new books were at half price. I went straight to the board book section and found many I was interested in. I purchased a few new books that were like $2.98 each. If you're looking for a specific book, I'm not sure that you would always find it there, but if you just need to spice up your collection with a few new ones, this is the place to go. Unfortunately it is not in every state, but if it's not where you live, maybe you'll find one the next time you travel. This picture shows you the states where they currently have stores with more store openings coming soon.

Mom's Day and Dad's Day gifts

I'm sorry if this is an inappropriate question but I'm just curious. What does your ward/branch give to the men and women on Mother's Day and Father's Day? I was actually pleasantly surprised when the moms in my ward got a bar of soap, a bookmark, and some Ferrero Rochers. I'm used to the single carnation that inevitably breaks before church ends. But then I was a little jealous today when my husband got three different delicious cookies and a Mr. Goodbar. My mother-in-law said that in her ward they gave out mini-pies today. We obviously don't need to get anything, but I just think it's kind of interesting. What do you get?

cool gift idea

Snapfish is now offering collage posters from $6.99. I experimented with it for just a few minutes last night and thought it was so way cool. I loved the layout they chose for the pictures I selected. If you already have Snapfish albums, it's a matter of moments to create a collage.

Graduation Gifts

I'm looking for good ideas for a high school graduation gift? Do you have any?

I like gifts that are creative and fun yet useful. When I graduated from high school, I could have done without Chicken Soup for the Graduate's Soul or a Class of 2000 beanie baby, ya know? (I hope that doesn't offend anyone.) My favorite gifts were a shower caddy, a suitcase, a little change box labeled "Laundry Fund", and a huge, super-comfy, personalized fleece blanket. I have probably forgotten a few others.

Any ideas for college graduation, too?

Homemade Cookie Bouquets

I have always thought cookie bouquets were such a neat gift idea, but they're pretty expensive so I decided to try to make my own a couple of weeks ago and was happy to find they were fairly easy to make. I just thought I'd share what I did since I know I'm always looking for cute, easy, unique, and inexpensive gift ideas. I am NOT a crafty person at all, but somehow these turned out pretty well.

Here are a couple of pictures of the ones I made. I made three Easter ones, but you could really make them for any occasion.

I bought the buckets for $1 each at Wal-mart. Inside the buckets I put a piece of green floral arranging foam and covered it with Easter grass (the foam pieces were about $1 each too).
I then made some regular sugar cookies and slid a bamboo skewer in the bottom of each one as close to the top of the dough as possible before cooking them. I wet the bamboo skewers ahead of time because I was afraid they'd burn in the oven or something. I baked the cookies, let them cool on the pan some and then transferred them to a cooling rack to cool completely. I then made some icing, decorated the cookies (I got ideas by looking at professional cookie bouquets on the internet), and put them in some clear craft bags that came with twist ties. Then I just arranged the cookies in the foam and they were done. The little Happy Easter sign is just some cardstock taped to a toothpick.

An important side note:

I would put something heavy in the bottom of the buckets next time since they were pretty top heavy. I loaded them all into a pan to carry out to the car for delivery. It was really windy that day and when I got outside a big gust of wind came and knocked one of them all over the ground and the other two just fell over in the pan. It looked like a little bunny massacre. I was only able to salvage one of them. Oh well. It would probably also help to use something sturdier like popsicle sticks, but I like the height of the bamboo skewers.

Here are the recipes I used:

Sugar Cookies

• 1 c. sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 c. butter
• 1 c. sour cream
• 3 c. flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt

Mix sugar, egg, and butter together. Add sour cream. Mix well. Add flour, soda and baking powder. Roll on floured surface and cut into desired shapes. Bake at 350 degrees for 8 minutes.

Icing

• 1/2 c. Crisco
• 1/2 c. butter
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• 1 tsp. almond extract
• 1 tsp. lemon extract
• dash salt
• 5-6 c. powdered sugar
• Milk

Mix shortening, butter, extracts, and salt. Add powdered sugar and enough milk to make a good spreading consistency (I used a few teaspoons, but it could take a little more). Mix until light and fluffy.

Uncommon Gifts

After I posted the question about baby shower gifts, I decided I wanted to start getting more original in all of the gifts I give. Especially to my nieces and nephews. While I was flipping through a Child magazine I came across this nifty website, http://www.uncommongoods.com. Some of the toys have won awards, so I thought I would check it out. There are some really fun looking toys, although some of them are a little bit pricey. You can search for unique gifts by age, occasion, and price range. Gotta love the online shopping!

Gifts

I really enjoy giving unique gifts, but I feel like my creativity has run out. I need some ideas, specifically for baby showers. I have made blankets and burp cloths, and everyone really enjoys those shoe socks that Linz told us about. But I don't want to give everyone the same gifts, I like them to know that I put thought into their gifts. I have a few showers coming up soon, and if anyone has any creative/unique/fun ideas for gifts that I can make or buy, please share!!