New look for nativity puzzle

I've now been making my nativity puzzles for 5 years. So, in honor of my 5 year anniversary, I decided to make a special handcarved edition of the puzzle. This is somewhat inspired by the "willow tree" figurines, although they won't be as detailed. I'll still do the flat front painted edition because it's not as time consuming, but I'm really loving the carved look of these. We'll see how well they sell. I'm thinking of leaving it natural because I love to see the natural wood.

Don't look too closely. It's not completely sanded yet. :)

What do you think? Should I paint them or just leave them natural?

Wooden it be lovely

We've been having fun with wood lately. I made giant circle puzzle out of an old table top and let the kids paint it.

I've been wanting to make a rose puzzle and sand it to make it look 3D.

I've also always wanted to make a dinasaur puzzle. Alan designed the little dinasaur.

So, as you can see we've been having some fun.

First time Fondant

I've always wanted to try fondant on cakes. I finally made some marshmallow fondant yesterday. As far as recipes go, it's super easy to make.

I didn't bother to make it different colors because I just wanted to see how easy it was to work with. So I made a mini four tiered cake and tried different designs on the cake. It's pretty time consuming to decorate with, but looks neat. Tastes yummy too.

Marshmallow Fondant

INGREDIENTS
1/4 cup butter
1 (16 ounce) package miniature marshmallows
4 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 pounds confectioners' sugar, divided

DIRECTIONS
1.Place the butter in a shallow bowl, and set aside.
2.Place the marshmallows in a large microwave-safe bowl, and microwave on High for 30 seconds to 1 minute to start melting the marshmallows. Carefully stir the water and vanilla extract into the hot marshmallows, and stir until the mixture is smooth. Slowly beat in the confectioners' sugar, a cup at a time, until you have a sticky dough. Reserve 1 cup of powdered sugar for kneading. The dough will be very stiff.
3.Rub your hands thoroughly with butter, and begin kneading the sticky dough. As you knead, the dough will become workable and pliable. Turn the dough out onto a working surface dusted with confectioners' sugar and continue kneading until the fondant is smooth and no longer sticky to the touch, 5 to 10 minutes.
4.Form the fondant into a ball, wrap it tightly in plastic wrap, and refrigerate overnight. To use, allow the fondant to come to room temperature, and roll it out onto a flat surface dusted with confectioners' sugar.

Team Work for FHE

Alan really wanted to be in charge of Family Home Evening last night. He said he had a game he wanted us to play. I told him he could be in charge as long as there was a lesson attached to the game. He said there would be. He prepared for FHE by turning some of our PVC pipes and joints into hockey sticks, and rolling some old socks together to form a ball. Then he gathered us all together and had us all sing, "I am a child of God", and asked Kaitlyn to say the opening prayer. After the prayer, he divided us up into two teams. We moved the couches so that we would have room, and used blankets curved in a "C" as the goals. It was alot of fun!! At the end of the game he explained how we need to work together in our family to accomplish goals. We talked about what goals we might want to have as a family. It actually turned out really well. Tom and I were really suprised at how well he did. I guess he's growing up.

Food, Family, Fireworks and Fountains on the FOURTH

The morning started with getting the food prepared. This was a fruit salad I decided to make into a flag. I put it into a bread pan to get it the shape of the flag. I didn't want to make the traditional flag cake since I was already making apple pie and berry cobbler.
While I was making the goodies, the kids went outside to play with "pop-its". William didn't quite get the hang of throwing them, but he liked stepping on them.

When the evening came, we went to watch the fireworks. There was a water fountain near where we were sitting, so the kids played in it while we waited for it to get dark.

Tom's brother David came from Savannah for the day. He's getting ready to go to Iraq for a year. We all had lot's of fun with him and the kid's loved playing with him. Here's Kaitlyn snuggling up to him on the blanket as we wait for the fireworks to begin.

We were as close as you could get to watch the fireworks. The police barricades were right in front of us. We were so close that we had debris raining down on us during the display. The kids

were picking up peices of it to save as souvenirs. Sarah even found a peice of one of the fuses. It was so fun!!

Here's a little video of William trying pop-its for the first time.