Top 5 posts from 2013

What a wonderful year that was.

We had the opportunity to meet so many new people, see new places, and make wonderful memories.

Not everything was rainbows and unicorns, we did have a few hard times, stressful times, and sad times.

But, there were many more happy times, and I'm so thankful for that.

Two big events were when our second son was born, and moving back to Utah.
This was my first full calender year having my blog, so I wanted to send out the year with a list of the top 5 posts.
These are the posts that I posted this year that received the most views from all of you.

Hoffman Academy Review and GIVEAWAY!

Disclosure: I got this product as part of an advertorial.

When I was younger my parents had me take piano lessons. I think I was 10...
I remember I could play "Tale as Old as Time" from Beauty and the Beast, and I was so proud of that.
Fast forward years later and no more piano lessons, and now I can only play "Mary had a little lamb", "Hot Cross Buns", and "Heart and Soul".
I have wanted to take lessons again for a really long time, and this past year I thought about putting my son in lessons as well.
Piano lessons in our area were a little on the expensive side, so I turned to the internet to see if there were any ideas on where to start.
I came across Hoffman Academy.

After receiving the materials for Unit 1 my son and I sat down and went through lesson 1 together.
We loved it!
It was easy to follow and understand, and really helped me explain to my son some of the basics.
We started with the worksheet.

Easy DIY Clay Ornaments

First off I just have to say how much I LOVE that chunky little footprint :)

Ok, so for Thanksgiving on my family's side after we had our big dinner we helped my parents decorate for Christmas. Since we were all together we thought it would be fun to make some Christmas crafts as well. 

We usually do a craft on Christmas when we all get together, but this year we wanted to do it on Thanksgiving so we could admire our little decorations all season long!

Lego Star Wars Birthday Cake

I know, I've got Christmas posts and non-Christmas posts going on here. 

I'm just all over the place :)

So I already posted the Death Star Pinata from my son's 5th birthday. Now onto the cake!

This is my third time using this decorating technique for cakes, so I have a few more tips for you this go around.
Check out our Avengers cake here and our birthday cupcakes here.
Before we got started it took me a while to find a coloring book page my son liked, and we actually ended up picking two pictures and I just put them next to each other on the cake.
I of course realized afterwards that the Emperor is facing the wrong way.
Oh well.
Ok, scroll down to see all of the pictures!

So I started out by taping the pictures to the underside of a piece of glass.

An Extra Stocking

Christmas is my most favorite time of the year.

It's even more magical with children :)
With all of the exciting things going on it's really important to us to keep Christ at the center of our Christmas.

We want our son to remember the true meaning of Christmas.

When I was growing up, every year at the beginning of December my parents would take my doll's cradle and get some hay. Throughout the month of December we would do acts of service for each other, and each time we did we would put a piece of hay in the cradle.

On Christmas Eve we would place a doll (representing the baby Jesus), in the cradle with all of the hay.

The hay was symbolic of us giving back to the Savior by serving others.

Last Christmas I decided I wanted to start a new tradition, I liked what my parents had done for us, but I didn't have access to any hay.

My son had just turned 4 at the time and on the first Monday in December we had a Family Home Evening where I explained to him that Christmas is when we celebrate Christ's birth. The Wise Men took gifts of specific importance to the baby Jesus because they knew who He was. I then told my son we needed to give a gift to Him as well.

I then told my son that when Jesus was on the Earth he told the people to love one another. So a gift to we could give to Him was to be kind to one another, love one another, and serve one another.
I wanted to somehow keep track or our service to one another, so this idea was born.