DAY # 14 The Rest of our Elf on the Shelf

As you can probably tell, I'm catching up with all of my posts now that the holiday is over.  I've been dreading this, just because I've taken so long to do it.  So here's the next one. 

I know i promised to post this on Christmas Eve, but I've been crazy busy for the last week.  Here are the rest of our ideas....


A friendly game of Checkers....

 A "snow ball" fight...

 Elf hide and go seek....

Snowflaking the bathroom...



A game of cards...

 Elves left a Candy Cane Garden Kit...



A nerf gun fight... Muggins is a sniper, Tattle is a camper, and Farkle got shot  LOL

 Coloring some Christmas pages...

 Crape papering the kids doors on Christmas Eve.  LOL  they were supposed to bust out but my kids all crawled under  :(

Pinterest saved my booty when i was out of ideas!

???  Pinterest Win / Pinterest Fail  ???
A WIN for me!  ;)

DAY # 13 Elf Donuts

Like many other mommies I was scrambling for more elf on the shelf ideas when it came down to the last week before Christmas.  I came up with many ideas but saved a few until the last few days before Christmas.  This was one of them...Elf Donuts.  I thought it would be so fun for the kids to make these alongside the cookies for Santa.  My kids were stoked.  Problem #1, I thought i had white frosting in my pantry but it turned out i only had chocolate, so i tried to make some up really quick but it wasn't as thick so didn't work out quite so well.  Oh well, the kids had fun making them and that was the point.  Here is our first comical fail.

Here was the original pin:
http://pinterest.com/pin/6051780718913056/

So here are the pictures of our attempt.   LOL

Yep!  We nailed it!  LOL  Oh well, it was worth the effort!  :)

???  Pinterest Win / Pinterest Fail  ???
It was a FAIL for us!  ;)

DAY # 12 Crack Potatoes

I'm sitting here watching the Jeff Dunham Christmas Special and I can't stop laughing so if at any point this post doesn't make sense, it's because i was just typing and laughing and not paying attention.  LOL

I saw a pin the other day called Crack Potatoes and after following the link and seeing the recipe, i knew i had to plan a meal around these potatoes.  So i settled on grilled pre-seasoned chicken thighs, fresh steamed broccoli, and the taters.  Luckily with the "Christmas Run" on all of the groceries in the store (people stock up on the weirdest things), I found ONE last bag of frozen hash browns after digging through the half stocked freezer.  Oh and YAY for getting to use my new baking dish again  :)

We halfed this recipe and we followed the recipe on this one except we added a little extra cheese and a little extra potatoes.  Here's the recipe....

2 containers (16oz) Sour Cream
2 cups shredded Cheddar Cheese
2 (3oz) bags of real bacon bits
2 packages Ranch mix
1 large bag frozen hashbrown potatoes (shredded kind)

Combine first 4 ingredients then mix in the hashbrowns.  Bake at 400 for 45-60 minutes (my oven took less time because it cooks a little hot).

I did read the reviews on the blog before trying the recipe and noticed that some people were complaining about them being too salty.  I also felt that they were a little too salty (but not so much that they weren't good), so next time i will probably just use half of the Ranch packet.


Original Pin:
http://pinterest.com/pin/6051780718963747/

Original Blog Post:
http://www.plainchicken.com/2011/01/crack-potatoes.html


???  Pinterest Win / Pinterest Fail  ???
I would say Win!

Merry Christmas Eve Eve!  :)

DAY # 11 Best Burger with Secret Sauce

My family is big on cooking out.  Growing up we ate more food that was cooked on the grill than was cooked on the stove.  Having said that, my dad is pretty hard to impress, especially when it comes to burgers.  They are "his thing."  So i was a little nervous about trying a new burger recipe but waited until a night they would be here so that i would have someone elses opinion to blog about.  Well let me tell you, they couldn't stop raving about just how good these burgers were!  We all ate until we were complaining about how full we were.  LOL

So here you go....

Here's my version of the recipe:

Burgers-
2 lbs ground beef 85/15
3/4 cup Baby Ray's BBQ Sauce
3/4 bag of shredded Monterrey Jack Cheese
2 tbs Worcestershire Sauce
2 diced fresh Jalapenos
1 tsp Season It All
1/2 tbs Garlic Powder
1/2 tbs Onion Powder
1/2 tbs Black Pepper
Sesame Seed Buns
Lettuce
Tomato
Guacamole
Onion
Bacon
Sliced Monterrey Jack Cheese
Special Sauce (recipe follows)

In a large bowl mix meat, jalapenos, sauces, cheese, and seasoning (original recipe called for seasoning to taste, but there was NO WAY i was gonna taste raw meat, so i just went with it.  If you feel my amounts are too much or not enough then go with what you feel is the right amount).  This made 6 patties for us.  I made them about as big around as the buns.  You can either grill them or cook them in a skillet (we did ours on the grill and cooked until well done).  Put the sliced cheese on in the last 5 minutes so that it melts to the patty.  We then loaded our buns with the special sauce, all the veggies, the guacamole, a few slices of bacon, and the patty.  YUMMY!

Special Sauce-
I ended up making 2 versions of this.  My mom LOVED the first one and Mark, Dad, and I liked the second one.  The sauce may sound weird but i promise, it makes the burger soooooo much better!

Version 1:
3/4 cup Mayo
1/4 cup Ketchup
1/4 cup relish
2 tbs worcestershire
dash of garlic powder
dash of season salt

Version 2:
1/2 cup Mayo
2 tbs Ketchup
1 tsp worcestershire
dash of garlic powder
dash of black pepper
dash of cayenne pepper

Don't be afraid to try it just because it sounds grose or looks grose  :)

Here is pin:
http://pinterest.com/pin/6051780718956601/

Here is the original blog post:
http://www.littlemissmomma.com/2011/10/best-burger-ever-recipe-with-secret-sauce.html



???  Pinterest Win / Pinterest Fail  ???
A DEFINATE WIN!
We'll be making these again!

DAY # 10 Easy Cheesy Hot Bean Dip

Ever get those cravings?  You know the ones!  You know you are wanting something warm and cheesy (but you don't really want to cook anything at 3 o'clock in the afternoon) and you try everything in the fridge before giving up and hunting down a recipe?  That was my afternoon!  LOL

I went hunting for an afternoon snack and couldn't find a single thing that sounded good.  I even bit into a chocolate bar and found that it didn't hit the spot.  So off I went to Pinterest to find something to satisfy my hunger.  I finally settled on Easy Cheesy Hot Bean Dip.  The problem was that i didn't have a can of refried beans or chili beans, all i had was a can of pinto beans.  So i drained them, dumped them on a plate, a mashed them with a fork.  Then i added some chili powder, garlic powder, cumin, black pepper, onion powder, and a little salt.  I mixed it with a block of cream cheese and a can of drained Rotel (I didn't have an extra jar of salsa either so i made do  LOL).  I sprinkled the top with Habanero Jack Cheese and slid it into the oven.  While i waited i popped in my favorite movie, The Family Stone.  If you haven't seen it, you should, it's great!  So about 20 minutes later i pulled the dip out of the oven. It looked delicious, all hot and bubbly.  And i have to confess that it tasted pretty stinkin good!  My four year old even chowed down  :)

And thus began my perfect afternoon...

The Original Pin:

http://pinterest.com/pin/6051780718811463/

The Original Blog Post:

http://www.mylifeasamrs.com/2011/08/easy-cheesy-hot-bean-dip.html

???  Pinterest Win / Pinterest Fail  ???

WIN!

DAY # 9 Italian Wedding Cookies

If asked, most people would say that their grandmother is the best baker.  This is absolutely true for me.  Both of my grandmothers are AMAZING bakers.  Growing up my Nanny Tucker would bake all sorts of goodies, but my absolute favorite were her wedding cookies.  It was pretty much a guarantee that every time she made them, i would eat the whole batch all by myself and if i didn't, i would take what was left home with me.

When i saw this pin today i got quite excited.  I could make my own wedding cookies and i had all of the ingredients on hand, YAY!  So i got out all of the ingredients, washed the boys hands, and we set to work.  The boys helped dump all of the ingredients into the mixer and we watched it go round and round.  Now it was time for the fun.  We all got our hands dirty rolling the dough into balls...

We then put them into the oven for 18 minutes and they came out lookin like this...

We dropped them down into a baggie with powdered sugar and gently shook them up...

Tada!  Wedding cookies!  Now the true test, what do they taste like?

Well, they weren't quite like Nanny's.  Hers were more crunchy and would sorta crumble in your mouth, where these probably could have cooked a little longer.  They also still had a distinct flour taste.  All in all, they were easy and i still ate some (not the whole plate  LOL).  My boys wouldn't eat any though because they wanted flat cookies not round ones  :)

Original Pin:
http://pinterest.com/pin/6051780718956686/

Original Blog Post:
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/italian-wedding-cookies-iii/detail.aspx


???  Pinterest Win / Pinterest Fail ???
I would say neither win nor fail.  It's all up to your taste buds!

DAY # 8 Chemical Free Clean Microwave

I'm sure that you've noticed that i'm posting day 8 on day number 9, but lets face it, this is gonna happen from time to time.  But rest assured, at the end of one year, there will be 365 posts  :)

I never understood why people who waited until the last minute to do their Christmas shopping were sooooo cranky about it.  Now, i understand.  Every year i'm pretty much finished with my shopping after Black Friday (which happens to be my favorite day of the year).  Not this year.  My husband is starting his own company, so when the job pays we get a check, thus the reason for our last minute shopping.  Instead of doing my blog yesterday, i spent the day fighting idiot drivers, tons of traffic, unimaginable crowds, and lines that were 10 people deep, all while fighting my two boys who insisted that they needed everything that they saw and found every reason to fight while in the basket.  Sounds like fun huh!

So here's my pinterest post....

A chemical free clean microwave.  Supposedly you take a bowl, place 2 cups of water and a tsp of vanilla in it and microwave it for 5 minutes.  There is another post out there that claims the same thing but with vinegar instead of vanilla.  I will try it next time.

So i placed the bowl in the microwave and hit the 5 minute button.  Note to self....don't try to do this, make grilled cheese sandwiches for the boys, and roll cookies in confectioners sugar, it's a little too much all at one time.  LOL  So after i flipped the sandwiches and powdered a few more cookies, the microwave beeped.  I washed my sticky hands and grabbed my scrubber, opened the microwave, and was suprised that there was no steam.  I tried to scub a little but not much came off, especially that weird greasy build up on the top.  I closed the microwave and set it for another 5 minutes while i finished the sandwiches and cookies.  After the time was up i tried to scrub it again and no luck.  The grime is still stuck on  :(

BEFORE

After 1st scrubbing

After 2nd Scrubbing (GROSE!)

Original Pin:
http://pinterest.com/pin/6051780718956772/

Original Blog Post:
http://ideas.thenest.com/decor-tricks/cleaning-organizing/slideshows/chemical-free-cleaners.aspx



???  Pinterest Win / Pinterest Fail  ???
FAIL  :(

DAY # 7 Ham and Cheese Crescent Roll

If you ask my little Pax what he want's for breakfast, he'll tell you a sandwich.  The kids LOVES them, and he doesn't care what time of day.  Ham, cheese, mustard and you've got one happy little boy.  So this post is inspired by him. 

While searching through Pinterest one day i came across a very easy recipe but was completely dumbfounded at the fact that i had never thought of the concept.  We make pigs in a blanket (lil' smokies and crescent rolls) all the time, but i never really considered stuffing crescent rolls with anything else.  So off i went to get the ingredients.  Within a few minutes my kids were chowing down and upset that i hadn't made more.  So tonight after spending a few hours doing photos for my friend i was trying to decide what i could whip up for dinner for the kiddos.  TADA!  So again i pulled out all of the ingredients and set to making the kids a quick, easy, yummy meal.

Here's what you need...

Spray a cookie sheet and set the oven to preheat at 375
Open up the cresent rolls and divide them (not into triangles but into squares, one tube makes 4 squares)
Now place 2 pieces of ham at one end of the crescent and then top with a slice of cheese like so...

Now starting with the end that has the cheese and ham, roll the crescent and then squeeze the ends shut...

Let them bake until they are golden brown on top. 

Let cool for a few minutes as you don't want the little ones burning their mouths with the hot cheese.  You may also consider dipping them in mustard, LOL, that's how Pax eats them  :)

You can find the original pin here:
http://pinterest.com/pin/6051780718804185/

You can find the original blog post here:
http://www.cooking4carnivores.com/2009/08/spiraling-out-of-control.html


???  Pinterest Win / Pinterest Fail  ???
A Definate WIN!

DAY # 6 DIY Microdermabrasion

After a busy weekend of celebrating our 5th wedding anniversary and getting all of our Christmas shopping done in one day, I'm exhaused!  LOL  So here I am sitting at my computer at 10:24 pm (when my bedtime is 9:30 at the latest) and trying to blog about the face scrub i did yesterday.  So instead of a long spill and a fun little story to go along with this, i'm going to cut right to the chase....

I found this pin and couldn't resist.  It claimed that i could mix 1 part Baking Soda to 3 parts water into a paste and make my own microdermabrasion.  So, here i am in my bathroom mixing away and thinking "i've done this wrong!"  because it's not making a paste!  It's VERY watery!  Now i'm wondering how in the world i'm going to even get it on my face.  Here is the picture....

Can you see my dilema? 

So I start using my hand like a scoop and trying to smear the stuff on my face.  For the most part it's working if i try to just scoop the stuff out that's settled on the bottom of the bowl.  So now that it's on my face i'm scrubbing in a circular motion.  Just a tiny note here, after a few minutes, this stuff started to really burn!  So i tried rinsing it off in the sink.  But much to my horror it was like trying to rinse sand off your feet at the beach with the ocean water.  LOL, it was pointless!  So into the shower i went.  10 minutes later i emerged to see what the result was.

My skin did look a little better.  But i'm not sure if it was just because it got some exfoliation or what.  I wasn't super impressed so i'm gonna keep looking for that "miracle"  :)

You can find the original pin here:

http://pinterest.com/pin/6051780718948676/

???  Pinterest Win / Pinterest Fail  ???

I can't really say  :(

DAY # 5 The Elf Chronicles (Elf On The Shelf ideas)

After spending my first weeks on Pinterest, it was hard not to notice the Elf on The Shelf pins.  At that point i had never heard of the elf idea and wasn't very interested in it.  However, i have an amazing little sister (who isn't so little, she's 26) who was sooooooooo excited about the concept.  She doesn't have any kids of her own and lives vicariously through my 3 so of course i obliged and started my research.  From what i could gather, Elf came to live with you until Christmas.  Every night he would fly to the North Pole and report about the kind of day your child had.  This was the part that i liked!  I was already thinking "Oh no, you've had a hard time listening to mommy today and Santa is gonna be so sad to hear about it!"  So off i went to Barnes and Nobles to buy our little guy. 

That afternoon while i was gone to get the kids from school, a Christmas package magically appeared on our front porch (Grammy helped me out).  The kids were so excited and ripped right into the paper.  My oldest, Preslie who is 8, read the note from Santa.  To sum it up, it stated that Santa was a little disappointed with their behavior and would be really sad if they ended up on the Naughty List, so he was sending his special elf friend to keep an eye on them.  That night we read the story that came along with our elf and i could see just how excited they were about the whole idea.  (We did this a few days before Thanksgiving as Preslie was going to be gone and i wanted to make sure she would be there to meet him).  After much deliberation, they decided on the name Tattle, as in Tattle Tale!

And so the Elf Chronicles was born.

If you'll excuse me for a minute, i feel the need for a "soapbox" moment.  I have read tons and tons of posts and comments about "Why in the world would the elf do "bad" things at night!  You are trying to teach your kids to be good and your elf, who reports back to Santa, is being bad!"  or "I don't understand the whole "mischief" idea.  He's an Elf on the Shelf for crying out loud!  He's supposed to stay on the shelf!" and  "You are ruining your kids by lying to them.  First you lie about Santa and then you take the lie one step further and lie about the elf.  Your kids will need therapy!"  So here's my take....Your kids are only little for so long.  They only believe in magic (Santa, Tooth Fairy, kisses make boo boos better, flying reindeer, and the list goes on) for so long.  My mom always told us that Santa would come see you as long as you still believed.  Well let me tell you, Santa STILL comes to see me and my sister because there is no way in the world we would ever say he didn't exist  LOL.  Elf isn't trashing the house, he's not smoking dope or drinking, he's not stealing the car, or sneaking out of the house!  He's just having a little fun at night while the kids are sleeping and he is bored.  Plus, there is nothing more awesome than watching your children race down the stairs every single morning to go see what elf did while they were asleep!  They love it!  We're making memories  :)

Off the soapbox now.  Here is what Tattle has been up to over the last couple of weeks...

1st Tattle ate all that was left of the Halloween candy
2nd Tattle had a Monster Truck Race
3rd Tattle drew silly faces on our family picture with Dry Erase Marker



4th (Thanksgiving night i forgot so had to come up with something quick) Tattle hid in the tree  :)
5th Tattle played teacher to the toys and read them a Christmas book
6th Tattle went fishing for Goldfish



7th Tattle made Reindeer donuts for the kids for breakfast.
8th The silly elf decorated the tree with new underwear for the kids
9th Elf snow angels in sugar



10th Tattle toilet papered the Christmas tree
11th A little note to remind the kids to be good
12th Elf started the countdown to Christmas



13th Tattle left a note about their bad behavior and doing better!
14th Army guys captured Tattle and are demanding an army jeep from Santa  LOL
15th Tattle stole Justin Bieber's getup and serenaded the barbies  :)



16th Cotton ball bubble bath time
17th Tattle got stuck while decorating the car for Christmas
18th Oops!  Forgot to flush!  Did you know elves pee green?



19th Super Tattle ready to fly (I had to post all 3 photos as they are funny to me  LOL)



20th Tattle left holiday Toaster Strudel and Green milk for breakfast. (2nd pic is of the note he left with it)
21st Tattle played Call of Duty on the Xbox



Meet Farkle and Muggins!  This was where i decided that we needed 3 elves, one for each of the kids when they are grown, plus 3 could have more fun  :)  So i went down to the antique mall and searched around and found these guys.  They needed some work, Farkle had green hair and no hat and his arms were one solid piece and Muggins legs were twice as long and his arms were also one piece.  So we did a little surgery on all 3 elves.  On top of fixing the previously stated issues, i went in and added wire to their arms and legs to make them more pliable.  You can learn how to do that HERE

22nd Tattle, Muggins, and Farkle decorate an elf tree and hang elf stockings  :)
23rd Three elves take on a T-Rex dinosaur puzzle!



So there you have it.  Our last 23 days with the crazy elves.  I wouldn't change a minute of it and no, it's not too much hassle.  It takes about 5 minutes before i go to bed  :)

For more elf ideas try these pins:
http://pinterest.com/pin/6051780718868057/  original blog post can be found HERE
http://pinterest.com/pin/6051780718851993/  original blog post can be found HERE


Hope you enjoyed our Elf Chronicles!  I will update the rest of the elf shenanigans on Christmas Eve!

???  Pinterest Win / Pinterest Fail ???
I would say WIN!