Cloud dough

Here's another project I found on Pintrest. I had to try this right away, especially since it was Christmas break and my kids were too sick to go out and play, but not sick enough to pass out on the couch quietly.

It's called Cloud Dough and it is from this blog here.

Supplies:
-8 cups of Flour
-1 cup of baby oil
 (I only used 6.5 oz, since that was the size of the bottle at the dollar store. I wasn't going to invest more than that.)

Directions:
Mix the flour and baby oil together with your hands in a large container until the
dough holds together when squeezed.  It could take 3-5 minutes of mixing.

I mixed it with a spoon until the oil was mostly incorporated and then the girls each took turns kneading the mixture.

They were all so intrigued by the stuff! They played with it for more than  2 hours.  I finally had to stop them because it was time for the baby to wake up & I didn't want to add her to the mess.

(They were also singing along to their playlist on playlist.com- mostly songs from Shrek 2 and reminiscing about driving to Nauvoo.)

Lydia's "hand slipper"

Jenna's plateau

Aubrey was trying to build a snowman- that last 1.5 ounces of oil might have helped.
You had to really smash it to  pack it like a snow ball.

This made more than enough for the girls to each have a large paper plate  full of dough. We put it in a  container with a lid and they are getting it out to play with again right now.

Fiesta Pasta Salad

Bad picture of a yummy salad

I got this recipe from my sister, Courtney. I have no idea where she got it. Heaven, I guess. I am not a big pasta salad lover {largely due to my food texture issues  preferences} but this is awesome. There is so much going on that I forget it is really a pasta salad at heart.

 

Without further ado:

1 pk. colored pasta, cooked

1 can Kidney Beans, drained

1 can corn, drained

1 can Garbanzo beans, drained

1 can olives, drained and chopped

cubed cheese--as much as you want

tomatoes, chopped and also as much as you want

Combined all together.

 

DRESSING

1 pk. Hidden Valley Fiesta Ranch Dip

2 cups buttermilk

2 cups mayo.

 

Mix well, pour over pasta and mix together well.

It makes a ton, so you might want to half the recipe or make sure you can give some as take-home prizes or something.

Enjoy!

Let's try cleaning the glass top range

I found a tutorial on pintrest about how to clean the nastiness that is a glass cooktop range. When we first moved here, I was cooking Thanksgiving dinner and two pots of potatoes boiled over at the same time. I have been scrubbing the mess ever since. I had high hopes for this tutorial!

You can't fully appreciate how bad it was, but here's a BEFORE picture.

I sprinkled poured a generous amount of baking soda over the whole thing.
I soaked my cloth in the warm, soapy water, then squeezed out about half of the water.

Lay the wet cloth over the whole thing for about 15 minutes.

Rub the baking soda around with the wet cloth, making kind of a paste.
Lots of elbow grease required for the really bad spots.

Here's the AFTER. I did two rounds of it and in a few spots, I did 3. (It has been cooking there for a month.)
I was very pleased with the results! I have tried all kinds of other cleaners with no where near this success!
I didn't shine it up with Windex yet, so it is a bit dull in the picture, but it looks great!

My New Pintrests...

I finally gave in an got on Pintrest. I love to find great ideas online and I usually posted some here or on facebook so I could find them again. I think Pintrest is brilliant! My only concern (not a scary concern) is that I'd spend so much time looking for ideas and never use them. I'm going to devote some blogging time to "reviews" of things I've pinned. Might not matter to anyone else, but at least I'll remember things that were helpful.

First up is a cleaning tip that I saw. Check back tonight (or tomorrow) to see.

Another thing I've discovered since I started "pinning" is that I have great ideas of my own. I found a blog that had a feature about "31 ways to organize your home for cheap." I already used nearly every single tip. I guess I need to look around and see what I'm already doing that is working and not worry so much about other peoples'   ideas. I'll try and share some of those things, too!

A few decorating ideas

As we get closer to our final house destination, I've been thinking about decorating the place. The current owners have it decorated so cute. I'm not a good decorator. I am making an honest effort to decorate our home a little more, specifically to make sure it feels warm and inviting and orderly. As much as I hated having the house spotless for possible showings before we moved, I loved the order!! My kids are getting older and our house doesn't need to feel like the inside of a toy box!

I went to Hobby Lobby to find a star for my Christmas tree (with no luck) and saw a few other things I want to remember next month. I'm putting them here, for lack of a better way to remember.

I want a message board like this in my kitchen.

I'd love this for Jenna's wall- and it was $14. I'm pretty sure I'm going back for that!

Two in one shot. I love the red tin tiles. The bottom piece was just a piece of gate on a piece of wood. I'm going to start looking for metal pieces when I go thrifting or yard saling. Come on Spring!!

They had lots of cool giant keys. This one was about 3 ft tall.

Our new house will have areas that we've never had before, so I'm having to rethink house I use/ where I put my stuff. I am excited for the challenge & to finally be settled for real!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from the Prestwich family!
I can't believe how much they have grown since last year!

Eliza says hello!

The stockings are hung by our chimney- Lydia looked for the Care all month, but couldn't quite find it.

Our beautiful, giant Christmas tree.  About 7 1/2 or 8 feet tall. We're going to need a bigger star.

                                     We hope you are having a wonderful Christmas day!

Wiiiiiiiii!

The kids were a tiny bit confused when they opened the wii controllers from grandma & grandpa, since we don't have a wii.

Then I opened another box.

Toward the end Eliza walks just off camera & screams at the box, just like her sisters. She couldn't figure out what the big deal was.

Lydia's view of the world

If you are my friend on facebook, you see daily the funny and clever things Lydia says and does. She has her very own, very unique sense of humor and way of looking at life.

Two nights ago, we had our friends, the Lynches. over for dinner. They were asking the girls about their new school and things we've done since we moved. Colleen was asking Lydia if she went to a new preschool.

"Yes." {giggle giggle}
"Is it close by?"
"Yes." {more giggles}
"Where is it?"
"Haaa- you're sitting at my art table!" She laughed at her own joke like it was the funniest thing ever.

She amazes me. So many kids would have told you that they don't go to preschool anymore. They just stay home with mom and do workbooks. I love the way she looks at life!

I'll have to copy some of my Lydia posts to my blog to preserve her wit for generations to come!

Flowers

We've been having so much fun making flowers to go with Christmas gifts this year! I've put the links to the ones that I used tutorials for on my craft board on Pintrest. Some were happy accidents, so there isn't a how-to. The girls have been making these themselves for cousins & friends & Lydia has been designing some to give, since I won't let her use the glue.

Here's a sampling of some of our handiwork-

Same flower on my giant purse

Making it {harder than it needs to be}

So, I thought we were done Christmas shopping. A thought I've had multiple times already. Then Jenna told me how excited she was to open the pjs we always give them on Christmas Eve. Ah man. They never crossed my mind. Since we are buying a new house next month, we're trying to to spend or accumulate much this month. I thought I'd see about making pajamas. My girls love long nightgowns, but it is nearly impossible to find cotton ones that work for our wide age range.

I found some women's sundresses on clearance at Walmart, bought a bag of boys undershirts and locked myself in my room all day Saturday. For $4 per kid, we've got some pjs. Eliza got stretch pants to match a t-shirt she already had. The pictures are a little odd, but I think they will be a hit. My kids are pretty easy to please and are especially sweet when it is something I made.

White elephant ideas

I filled a little treasure box with a bag of Hersey's miniatures mint candy bars & attached a rosette clip to dress it up a bit. Unfortunately, the person who opened it didn't like chocolate or milk, but the person who stole it did & her daughter wore the flower in her hair the next day.

His -n- hers 6 pack. What's not to love?

Who wants to win a prize? Me!

Enter to win a season pass to Thanksgiving Point here. It is such a fun place & we are looking forward to spending more time there now that we live closer! If you win, it's because my good luck rubbed off on you! ;)

Two things here...

We're getting more settled in our current place as we wait for our final destination to be ready for us. I'm not 100% sure it will actually happen- probably because we've been waiting so long, it just seems like fiction at this point. I digress...

The kids love the giant tub in the master bath!

This is the view from my front porch. The antelope live in the field across from the park!

Can you guess why they call this area Sunrise Meadows?

The girls love their new school, living across the street from the park, living next door to a trampoline & nice kids, walking home from school, and the lovely weather we've been enjoying. We've found quite a few 4 yr old girls around, most of whom were all born in March of 2007, one who was born on March 20 (same as Lyd) and her name is Claire! Too fun!

Somehow, I ended up as the Leadership Vice President in the PTA already and I'm helping with Jenna's class party on Friday. I suppose it was inevitable.

OK, I'm already beyond two things. What I was going to blog about was a few things about our new ward. We've had some cool experiences in the last few weeks. Our second week here there was a special stake conference where a new stake was created. We are in the new stake and our bishop was called as the new stake president. You don't usually get to meet the stake president your first week in a new neighborhood, but we got to. A wonderful man, that President Gibby!

Last Sunday, a camera man from France was at our ward to tape footage for use in a news story or documentary of some sort. He was there with a PR guy from Church HQ, as well as the mayor, who is also a member of our ward.

We also got to take part in a neighborhood tradition Monday night. Instead of exchanging neighbor gifts, they have a food drive. A family down the street hosts it. You bring whatever you'd like to donate & drop it off on her garage, then everyone enjoys some hot chocolate, cookies, and visiting together. It was so fun!

Other memorable events-
Our third week here we had the trauma of seeing a man Lifeflighted from the park in front of our house. He was riding a motorcycle that ran into the side of a car, which flipped a U-turn in front of him. Jenna had been outside playing & they heard the impact. I ran out with a quilt for the guy, since it was really chilly. Poor guy was in bad shape. I still wonder about him & how he's doing.

We also had a chance to host two of Tim's second cousins (I think). That deserves its own post to come. Very fun & such a blessing! While they were here, we hosted a few different groups for dinners. It was so great to have more space to have a party! The week after, we had my family here for Thanksgiving!

The awesome Turkey veggie plate my mom made!

The kids' table. There was some great art work on the table paper! We missed you, Arveseths!

We are really enjoying being somewhat settled and in a great neighborhood and ward. We feel so blessed to be here and are so thankful for the little miracles that happened along the way to bring us to this point. It was a long, brutal summer, but it was worth it!

We are looking forward to Christmas and we are pretty much ready for the festivities to begin. For the first time in our married life, we have a fireplace on which to hang our stocking! Lydia has been searching for the Care hanging there by the stockings. Tim assures here it's there- she just needs to keep looking.


We hope you are as happy as we are wherever you find yourself! Merry Christmas & happy holidays!

So long, farewell

I took the girls to have lunch with some of their friends who would be off track the week we moved. The girls had been on D track most of our time there, so these were the kids they knew best.

And of course, Lydia and her bf Tyler Gage. She always calls him both names!

The Crazy Corn Maze

Despite the weird looks on everyone's faces, we had a great time at the Crazy Corn Maze in West Jordan. We won tickets and made a family outing of it. Being cheap, I probably wouldn't have paid to go, but the kids loved it way more than I expected. It was just the right size for our family, too.

Eliza loved running around! It was such a beautiful day, too!

Each girl got to pick an extra activity. A & J picked the rock climbing wall. They had both attempted it at the school carnival & didn't get very far.

Imagine my surprise when they BOTH made it to the top. Jenna  twice, Aubrey on her second try! Awesome girls!

Eliza didn't love the horse.

Lydia did!

 Next, we headed over to the adjacent pumpkin patch to pick our gourds.

What a fun day together! This was a great place for young families! I highly recommend it! It is on 4000 West and about 8700 South in West Jordan- every year! We will go again!