New Tricks

I have recently been shown a few great tricks that I would like to share. The first one was shown on my cousins blog .It makes shredding chicken really easy, to use in chicken spread, enchiladas etc....
I like to slow cook my chicken for 5-6 hours at 265-275 degrees in the oven. Make sure that you add about a cup of water to the bottom of your roasting pan. You can also use a crock pot. This makes it really tender and easy to shred. You can also boil your chicken if you are in a hurry, but I don't find that the chicken is as tender.
After you are done cooking your chicken, drain any liquid that is left. Then to shred the chicken, use your beater. It works really good and takes half of the time it takes to shred the chicken with a fork.
The second great tip that I have tried recently is to keep a package of baby wipes in one of my kitchen cupboards.
It has been so great to have something wet to grab, to wipe off faces and hands and also to wipe up a sticky spill on the floor after I use a paper towel to soak up the liquid.
The third tip I just recently came upon in a gardening book I found was to use your grass clippings from your lawn to spread as mulch around your garden.This helps to keep the weeds down and is good for your garden when it decomposes and can be tilled into the dirt for next year. You can also use straw if you don't want to use grass. It will improve the drainage of your soil when it is tilled in.

I hope you try some of these tips, I know they have made my life a little easier- and for me the easier the better :)

Carbonite

Many of you probably already know what Carbonite is. For those of you who don't and have ever had the painful experience of having your computer crash and take all of your treasured pictures with it, you will appreciate the tip in this post. 
Carbonite is a website that backs up your entire computer.
It costs about $50.00 for the year, but in my opinion, it is worth it. It has been really nice to feel like those files are protected. It will continue to back up new files as you add them. Another nice thing is that it allows you to access any file on your computer from a different computer.( For example: If you are at your parents house and want to show them your newest pictures of your kids, you can log onto your carbonite account and all of your files are there. It is great!!!! Here is the link to their site if you are interested.
http://www.carbonite.com/                                                                                  

Be the Amazing Person You Are! (You have so much to offer)

The other day I was headed to do some shopping all by myself for once, and as I drove, I thought about my life and the things that I struggle with or that sometimes make me feel down and inadequate.
I thought about the areas I wish I could be a better mom, I thought about how I let the fear of what others think slow me down and discourage me from doing the things I could be really great at, I thought about all the opportunities I let pass me by for the fear of failing- and at that moment, I had my own personal epiphany:
*Life is too short to let others steer; I am going to dance when I want to dance, enjoy my children in the short time that I have them, make a difference (even if it is a small one) to better this world and make someones life more bearable, give 110% in everything I do, indulge in the things that make me happy, try new things I've never tried, and love deeper than I ever have.
I am going to lay it all out on the line- I know that deep inside myself, there is so much I can offer!
I am really tired of of letting other things in my life define me.
I am taking charge!!!!
I know that all of you mothers out there, probably feel the same way sometimes. You need to tell yourself and believe it! - how incredible you are, and really look deep inside yourself to discover what you have to offer that you keep to yourself.
My advice- Share it, Become it, and Live it!
I am sure that like me you don't want to get to the end of your life and look back to wish you had done more with your life.

Disneyland Vacation

We just got back from our Disneyland vacation. We had a great time and learned many tips that I would like to share to make your future vacations there more fun.
We went through Getaway Today Vacations. I did a lot of research and they beat everything I looked at for price and value. They booked our hotel and got us discounted tickets to Disneyland and the Sandiego Zoo/Safari Parks. They offer many other places to visit and transportation to get there.
We stayed at the Ayeres Inn, we were very happy with our accomodations. The rooms were clean and comfortable. They had a hot buffet breakfast every morning, which was very good, and best of all it was included in the price of our hotel. It was nice not to have to worry about a place to eat breakfast every morning. They had a free shuttle bus that took us to Disneyland and picked us up at night, I loved this because it took the headache/cost out of parking daily.
Once we got to Disneyland, I learned a lot of helpful tips
* Don't use their strollers. (Plan to bring your own umbrella stroller.) Strollers were $15.00 per day to rent.
* Pack your own lunches. This seems like it would be a lot to carry, but they do rent lockers for about $7.00
That might seem like a lot for a locker, but if you don't, you will be paying more for their food.
A hot dog was between $7-$10 each, a drink was $3.50 and for a sit down dinner, you are looking at $25-$50 per plate. I figured out how much I would have spent eating all our meals/snacks  in the park, and it was like $1500.00-$1800.00. Totally ridiculous.
*Make sure to utilize their Fast pass, Parents Pass, and their Single Rider Pass. It cuts down a lot on waiting in line.
Fast Pass- To get a fast pass, you take your tickets that you used to get into Disneyland to the ride you want to ride ( usually they are only on the rides that consistantly have long lines) They will have a machine that you put your tickets into and it reads the barcode on your ticket- then gives your ticket back. Then it prints out another ticket for you with a time to return back to that ride, for example it will say return between 5:05 and 6:05 pm . When you return between those two times, they have another line that allows you to go right to the front and get on the ride a lot faster.It is a great way to cut down on wait times.
Parents Pass-This pass is great for parents who are there with young children who can't ride every ride because of their height.
It makes it so a parent can take an older child on a ride while the other parent waits with the younger child who can't go. When they are done with the ride, the other parent can take the parent pass to the ride operator and go straight to the front of the line. It makes it so you don't have to wait in a long line twice.
They only have these passes however on rides that have a set height requirement.
Single Rider Pass-We found that there were some rides that our children could not ride due to their height, but my husband and I still wanted to ride. This is where the single rider pass helped out a lot. With this pass, you are able to go to the front of the line and they will put you where ever there is space.
I was able to get on the roller coaster in under 10 minutes.

*We went to character dining at Goofys Diner. It was a bit costly, but we thought since it was our only real meal in the park, it would be fun.( I believe it requires a reservation,we ordered ours through get away today you might be able to call. They also have character dining at Ariels Grotto in California Adventure)
One word of advice though. Goofys Diner is in the Disneyland hotel which is quite a long walk through downtown disney. ( If you rent a stroller, they will not let you take it into downtown disney and if you park it in between Disneyland and California Adventure, they will turn your stroller with your belongings in it- back into the stroller rental area.) so my advice is to park your stroller in Disneyland by the Nemo ride and then use the tram which boards right by the Nemo ride to get there. Our kids were tired of walking all day and then to walk what seemed like a mile was not fun.
Goofys Diner was fun though, when we first arrived, they had a professional photographer take our picture with Goofy. It was about $35 for two 8x10 and 2 smaller photos. They will also have the photographer take a picture with your own camera if you ask them to.  The buffet had  fun things for kids to eat and also great food for grownups.While you are eating the characters come around and visit your kids. We got a visit from Gooofy, Chip, Pluto, Minnie Mouse, Pocahontas & Snow White. They were playing with my kids while they ate- all of them loved it.
*One thing you should not miss is the World of Color at Paradise Pier it was fantastic!!!
You have to go as soon as the California Adventure Park opens to get a fast pass for the show. Otherwise you will definatly
We tried again on Wednesday knowing what happened on Monday. We got our fast passes and I waited to line up around 7:00pm. I was able to get in and get a front row spot by the railing where no one could get in front of us. One thing I did notice was that even at 7:30 there was an area anyone with a fast pass can go . It still had lot's of room along the railing.  They call this area the wet zone because you will get a little wet there, but if you are running late, it is better to get a little wet, than to have a seat where you can't see anything.
* The fireworks were the same kind of situation. If you want to see the entire show, a front row seat in front of the castle on the Disneyland side is where you will see the most. Make sure to stake out your spot early.
* One last tip is that when you visit with the characters, there is a professional photographer there taking pictures. You can ask for a photo pass- they will load your childrens pictures onto the card. you can keep the same card for all of the character pictures and then take it home and view/order these pictures from your home computer.
I think the most important tip though, is to remember to have a great time with your family, and to create lot's of  great memories!

Surviving Late Night Snack Cravings

It's the end of the night. Kids are in bed. You are ready to de-stress and relax (that is if you aren't cleaning up everything you didn't get to during the day.

Unfortunately, most stress cravings are not a salad with light dressing. It would be great if it were. And there is nothing wrong with having one cookie and calling it good. But sometimes the cravings are there and won't go away. So here are a few things to try out.

1) Drink water instead. I've heard that sometimes when you get cravings and want to eat, sometimes it's your body telling you that you need more water. You know what you've eaten (hopefully) and know whether you really do need food or if you just want to eat for eating sake. Drink some water to fill the void.

2) Brush your teeth. Don't wait until you are getting ready for bed to brush your teeth. Do it with the kids when they are brushing theirs. I tend to think a whole lot more about whether I want to eat something at night when my teeth are freshly cleaned.

3) Find a snack that will both fill your craving and be low in calories. If you really do enjoy salad, have one in the evening. Get a lighter calorie dressing and don't pack it with tons of calories. Or have a popsicle (homemade ones will have less sugar). If you really are craving something, enjoy a little something, not a lot of something.

4) Get busy. Do some cleaning, do a craft, read a book. Do something so you don't have time to snack.

Do you have any ideas for curbing those late night snack cravings?

Yummy easy pizza roll recipe:
Start off by thawing out 9 regular rise and serve Rhodes Rolls. (I thawed mine in the microwave-30 seconds on each side). Then I combined all of them together and rolled them out into a big rectangle. Once rolled, I made 1-2 inch small cuts down the side of the rectangle-make a slit directly across from the other slit on the other side. (So its like you are cutting them into strips but skipping the middle area). Then, take a pizza sauce-you can also use a BBQ sauce, spread it all over the middle section of the rectangle. If using a BBQ sauce-cook some chicken, cut into bit sized pieces then add them to the top of the BBQ sauce. If using regular pizza sauce, add what pizza flavorings you would like, olives, pepperoni, sausage, pineapple...Top with lots of cheese, cheddar and mozzarella. Then take a piece of the dough strip from each side of the rectangle (the one directly across from the other) and tie the pieces in a knot. Do that all the way down the rectangle until it all looks like one big loaf. Put on cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 17-20 minutes. Then take a pizza cutter and separate each strip. Yummy Yummy!
                                                                                                                     Ashley

Surviving General Conference With Young Children

Surviving eight hours of General Conference with young children can be quite the task. The trick I have found is to make it fun for your kids. 
For the past 3 years I have done Conference bingo. I have bingo cards with pictures of different church topics on them. I use M&M's, Pennies, Goldfish etc for the gameboard markers. When they get a bingo, they get to eat the treats for that bingo, or keep the pennies. My kids love this and look forward to this tradition every time that Conference comes around.
Tomorrow I am going to try another idea I found. I printed out conference packets for each of my kids- they have coloring pages, mazes, dot to dots, color by number, journaling etc....I thought I would do the bingo one session and the packet for the next session.
Check out these fun sites to print your conference activities for your kids:
http://2kidsandtiredconference.blogspot.com
http://jmsmusings.blogspot.com/2008/10/reminder.html
I just love great idea's that help our children learn and grow.
Hope you get the most out of conference.