Photo Valentines with Roses and Pencils

We finally got the Valentines together! The hardest part--getting the boys to write ALL of the names themselves!

K-don't let your eyes fool you! These are photos of the boys holding out their fists. Then we developed the pictures and cut slits above and below their fists. We then slid pencils or rose pens through the slits.

The original idea was to use suckers in their hands. The slits can be smaller and the cards lie flatter with suckers, but I wanted to be a little more original {not to mention sugar-free}, so we used pencils. The holes had to be bigger, and they bend a bit, but overall I love them!

The teachers are special, so we attached a rose to a pen with floral tape and it looks like the boys are handing their teachers a rose. So much fun!!!

I LOVE my little Valentines

I found the funnest idea for Valentines on the web that required a photo shoot for the Valentine givers. I'll post pics of the Valentines once they are finished.

These two little buddies usually get along really well. They are great brothers and they have so much fun together (unlike today when I wanted to send them to the zoo!) My wish for them is to have this great relationship through out their entire lives!

In LOVE with Cherry Almond Bars

If you make this recipe for the ones you love this Valentine's Day, you will have a house full of happy loved ones :)

(I'm going to have to make some of these again and post pics)

Cheery Cherry Almond Bars


1 C butter,
4 eggs
1 teasp almond extract
1 can cherry pie filling
2 C sugar
3 C flour,
1 teasp. vanilla

Cream butter, sugar and eggs. Add almond and vanilla. Add flour. Spread 3/4 of the batter on an ungreased jelly roll pan. Drop pie filling in blobs all over the batter. Drop the rest of the batter in blobs all over the pie filling. Do not mix. Bake at 350 for 40-45 min. Cool completely. Drizzle with glaze.

Glaze:
1/2 tsp almond ex
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 C powd. sugar
2 Tablesp warm water

ENJOY <3

LOVE for Haiti and the World

Have you taken the time and effort yet to send Haiti some love? I promise it won't take much . . . time, effort, or money . . . but if we all get on board, we can make a difference.

I was reading through my google reader and found a post from Kelly of My happy little life. It's her 32nd birthday, and she wants to make a difference. Check out what she is giving the world for her birthday. Inspirational!!!

In deciding how to help, she considered Haiti, and this is what she had to say:

"The best way to help the Haitian effort is with money.

From an msnbc article: 'when people give $1, it translates into $7 in the field," he said. 'if they spend $5 for bottled water, that’s nice and it makes them feel good, but probably it costs us more than $5 to send it. if they give us $5, we can get $35 worth of water.'

So if you are inclined to give financially, rather than making/ shopping for something for the newborn kits, i would encourage you to donate the money toward the haitian efforts by texting "haiti" to 90999, which will charge $10 to your phone bill and be given to the relief funds, or online through the lds humanitarian emergency response fund here. you can see what they are using the donations for here. "

So, I took her advice and texted my $10 to Haiti, and now I feel a tiny part of the enormous relief effort. I am also sending her a baby blanket to help with her birthday service project.

Each of us can improve a tiny part of our world each day. Whether it's a $10 donation to help Haiti, or a smile for someone you pass by in the grocery store, we can make a difference. I am committed to helping someone in need every day! As a reminder, I am going to put this note in my sidebar Have I done any Good in the World Today? I encourage you to help make the world a better place by tiny daily efforts in your own neck of the woods ! :)

February in LOVE

I love February!!!! I am so happy to see cold, blue January go, and of course, it's one month closer to SPRING!!! Not to mention that it's full of everything pink and LOVE-RLY!

There are winter storm warnings all over the country, but not even that can deflate this tingle I feel inside. All is right with the world, and Love abounds!

Happy February! <3 <3 <3