Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes

I came across this delicious recipe on pinterest, looked it up to see just how hard they were to make, two ingredients was all. I though to myself pretty sure I could handles these, so I whipped them up quick. They remind me so much of fall and made my house smell delicious as well when I was cooking them. 

Ingredients: 

-cake mix of choice (I would use either a spice or chocolate)

-1 15 oz. can of pumpkin puree

Frosting:

-1 package of cream cheese, softened

-1/4 cup of butter, softened

-1 tsp. cinnamon, I added a little more

-1 tsp. vanilla

-3 cups of powdered sugar

 Mix the cake mix and pumpkin together and fill your muffin tin holders about 1/2 full. Bake them on 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Let cool completely, then frost away. This recipe for me made 2 dozen cupcakes so if you are making for a big crowd you will want to double or even triple the recipe to ensure everyone gets a chance to taste this delicious piece of fall. I refrigerated mine afterwards to let the frosting set up a bit and then will eat them later tonight after dinner. Enjoy! 

Adding A Pin It Button

I have been wanting to add a pin it button to my blog for awhile, hoping that maybe it will help me be more crafty and share things that others will enjoy and learn from as well as keeping a journal of my life. So I did as most do when they need to figure something out, I googled and pinterested (if that is a word) how to do it. I found quite a few tutorials it was amazing how many articles there were on this topic. The website I used that was the most helpful to me was here.. She explained it well enough that even I could figure it out. Kelly was awesome, she emailed me back and forth also with any other questions I had and helped me get the problems figured out. Hope this helps someone else out there that is trying to do the same thing. Enjoy!!

Friday Favorite: Recipe--Bay City Buns...better known as ham and cheese sliders

These sandwiches are amazing...I had never had them til I was married and my husbands family made them one night for dinner. They were made a little bit differently but these taste even better. They take some time for prepping but they are so worth it; if you have someone helping you it goes much quicker. 

Bay City Buns:

12 sandwich rolls or 24 dinner rolls

package of honey ham (then you can use as much ham as you'd like)

2 precut packages of swiss cheese (i rip mine in half so they aren't hanging off the roll) 

Spread for rolls:

1/2 cup mayonaise

1/2 cup miracle whip

Poppy seed sauce: (make this before you put the rolls together so it sets up a little bit and isn't so runny)

1 Tablespoon poppy seeds

1 1/2 Tablespoons yellow mustard (i add a little more)

1/2 cup melted butter

1 Tablespoon minced onion

1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce 

I also add 1 Tablespoon of mayonaise or miracle whip to add some thickness....your choice 

Directions:

In a small bowl mix together the miracle whip and mayonaise. Spread it onto both sides of the roll. Place a couple pieces of ham, depending on your liking, and a piece of swiss cheese inside of each roll. Close up the rolls and place them on a cookie sheet. 

In a small bowl mix together the poppy seed sauce. Poor evenly over all your sandwiches, make sure it is spread all over the top and if some runs down inbetween your sandwiches even better. Let the sandwiches sit a bit so the poppy seed sauce can set up some. Cover your rolls with tin foil and bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes. Uncover and bake an additional 2 minutes, or until the rolls are starting to brown and crisp. Serve them slightly warm, they are better this way. Enjoy this delicious dinner, prep time is totally worth it!! 

Monitoring Teens Social Media

If we are guilty you know that teens are guilty as well. How many times have you put something on facebook,instagram, or twitter that you would never say to a persons face. You have all the guts in the world to post it to social media and making a big deal instead you could have talked to them in person and it would have been handled a lot better.

We need to be monitoring teens social media as well as their text messaging. Be aware of those who they are hanging out with, things their friends and boyfriends are posting online as well as pictures. You can get a good idea of the type of person they are by what they are posting on social media sites. As a parent you have a better judgement of the people they are hanging out with, and it is our responsibility to keep them safe. You can keep them safe within your own home, but what about at school, dance, cheer, music, sports, social media sites...we need to be able to trust them that they are doing and saying the correct things which they should be when you are not there to look and watch over them. Especially online, they are out there on those social media sites all alone with no one to watch over them. We need to be aware the sites which they are involved in and checking and know of the things which are going on on these sites.

We as parents need to be able to develop a good judgement and help our child develop a good judgement of others who are on the site and what they may be posting. We need to ask our children as well as ourselves, if someone was to look at your twitter, facebook, instagram, etc. account and everything that was on there described you, what kind of person who you be perceived as?? We don't want to be known as someone that we only are on social media sites, we need to be perceived as who we really are. This is why kids need adult supervision and we as adults need to think twice before say and posting the things which we do. We need to be aware and we need to be monitoring. You never know when you will find or see something that will surprise you.

Do You Catch Yourself Doing This??

I know that we are all guilty of it, how many times a day do you get on the internet to check instagram, facebook, twitter, pinterest, blogs, and etc. Should we really be wasting that much time checking to see what is happening in others lives when we need to be more concentrated on our own. I know I am guilty of looking at other women and comparing myself to them asking myself, how come they can have a family, a clean house, a nice yard and car, be able to do playdates, make crafts, have a blog, have time to workout, and anything else they want and I can't even seem to make it through a day getting anything done. I always seem to compare myself to everyone and everything I see on the internet. I was watching Studio 5, they were talking about social media and they mentioned something I have heard before but needed to be reminded of, it was "we say things online that we would not say to a persons face." I know this is so true and not so much being mean, but we seem to only post perfect happy things on our social media sites. We don't post when our kids are being naughty, when they have spilled the bag of cereal all over the floor, threw their sippy cup in the car and milk goes all over, or when we have a back yard full of weeds. I need to not be so worried about what others are doing in life and how they are doing great things, I need to be happy with the life I am living and live it to the fullest. Like this quote says "there will always be someone prettier, someone will always be smarter, someone will always be younger, someone will always be richer, but they will never ever BE YOU!" I was on instagram and a girl posted this quote "no matter the happiness you find for yourself, somebody, somewhere will always be envious of your blessings instead of learning to count their own. I loved it, screenshoted (if that is a word) so I could always remember that. It doesn't matter what we seem to accomplish in our lives there is always some negative nancy that makes you come down from your high of happiness and gratitude. This goes along with comparing yourself to others as well, be happy for those who seem to have it all together, look to them as examples instead of being envious of the things they have. Try to be more like them, think of your Heavenly Father and pattern your life after his gospel and everything in life will turn out how it is supposed to. Lean towards your family and spend more time with your family and you will find yourself living a happier life.

Homemade Swiffer Sweepers

Following through on one of the many many pins I have pinned on pinterest. I was getting sick of having to buy swiffer sweeper cloths, so I found a pin and made my own. We have so many fleece blankets, I just picked one that was thinner that we didn't use too often. First off I laid the blanket out, got out a swiffer sweeper cloth, laid it on top of the blanket and cut it out. Ta Da super easy and saves so much money. I got a pretty good stack of them as you can see, and after I use one I throw it in the dirty clothes wash it. Then away ya go swiffing another floor with your new and improved, might I add a lot cheaper swiffer sweepers. Love IT!! 

Temple Attendance Printable

Back in June, yes I know I am way behind, my mom and I both were teaching lessons on temple attendance and making it a priority in your life. My aunt and uncle had a handout they received down in their ward, my mom and I wanted to recreate it to hand out to our girls and ladies. We thought it would be a good reminder to see it hanging on your fridge or your mirror that you needed to visit the temple. It allows you to mark when you have been and the goal is to go atleast once a month throughout the year. She sent  me a picture of it and away I went with creating it, didn't take too long and I thought it turned out pretty good. We printed them out just on normal printer paper, took a lots of ink but it worked, then we took it and got them laminated so you could use a dry erase marker. So here it is for you to print out for yourselves and make a difference in your life and the lives of others by attending the House of The Lord.