I'm still here...

Hey all! I'm still here, but still without computer access. bummer, I know! For those that don't follow LITM on Facebook, my laptop died last week. Just stopped working. We've been having some issues with the battery and I stupidly put off getting a new battery. Hopefully getting a new battery will fix the problem, but I won't know that until the end of this week when the battery arrives. If not, we will be getting a new computer. If that happens though, i think I will cry. All of the designs and files I use for me Etsy shop are on the computer! Keep your fingers crossed that it will be a simple fix! Right now I'm using my phone to blog, but this is no way to blog, so you probably won't hear from me until I have a working computer again. In the meantime, I'm enjoying the break and getting ready for Christmas.

See you all soon!!

Shutterfly Winners

I know I'm totally late in the day to be posting this, but I've have barely been home at all today! So, here are our winners!

The winners of the 3 Shutterfly packages (which includes codes for a calendar, holiday cards, and free shipping & a $10 Plum District gift card) are...

Winner #1: Katie

Winner #2: Mrs. Hokulani

and Winner #3: Lytles

The 2 winners for the additional Plum District Gift cards are

Winner #4: Salena

and Winner #5: Steph

Congrats to our winners!! Remember that the Shutterfly codes expire on December 15th, so I need to hear back from the Shutterfly winners so I can email you your codes. The Plum District gift cards don't expire until the end of January, so there's no huge rush - though it might be nice to have them to do some Christmas shopping! So ladies, be sure to get in touch with me soon! If you don't get an email from me by the end of the night, then please email me at lifeinthemotherhood@gmail.com or go to the Contact tab and use the contact form.

Our Christmas Card

In years past, I've gone to the trouble of creating a scrapbooked Christmas card to send out during the holidays. It involved cutting out about 30 Christmas trees and stars, a bunch more cute little ornaments, and a stamp. Then I still had to glue everything together. And this was before I owned my Silhouette, so everything was done by hand! Granted, this was also before Andyroo was born, so I had the time and energy. Not so much now. And that's why I love the idea and simplicity of photo cards! It's so easy to upload the pictures to their site, pick a card (the hardest part), drag and drop the photos onto the card, and submit the order. No fuss and NO mess! Yay!

Remember the Shutterfly Party that I hosted? Well, one of the freebies that they gave away was free holiday cards. Here's the card I finally ended up choosing. 'Eh, one of them. I couldn't decide so I ordered a few of a few different kinds!

Stationery card

View the entire collection of cards.

I can't get over that cute little guy! When we took these pictures in September, he was being silly and in almost every picture we took, he had this kooky Chandler-like smile.

It's not too late to get your cards ordered and sent. I ordered these on November 27th and I received them in the mail today. Super fast! And to top it off, the quality is amazing. I'm totally in love with each of the 5 kinds of cards I ordered! If you're a procrastinator like me, they can always be a generic holiday card or even a New Year's card. Shutterfly is my favorite photo printing site, so if you're still in the market for cards, definitely give them a try. Also, for an additional fee (around $0.50/card), you can give them all the addresses you want to send cards to and they'll mail them out for you. How easy is that!?

Also, the Shutterfly Giveway was extended due to low entries. You now have through December 2nd (that's TOMORROW) to enter the giveaway for free Shutterfly and Plum District Goodies!!!

Go check them out!!

Baked Southwestern Egg Rolls

I love, love, LOVE the Southwestern Egg Rolls from Chili's. In fact, that's the main reason I go there - to get those egg rolls. I've tried making copycat Southwestern Egg Rolls before and they've never turned out just right. I didn't want to put a lot of money into getting all the weird ingredients that the recipes called for. But that all changed...because of Pinterest! :)

About a week before my Shutterfly party, I was looking through Pinterest for some party food ideas and came across these Baked Southwestern Egg Rolls from Annie's Eats. They're made with simple enough ingredients and looked fairly easy to make.

The verdict? SOOOOOOO good! Seriously, if these could be considered a Thanksgiving food, I would have made these for Thanksgiving. And I've considered making these for dinner almost every night since the party too. It's too bad that I don't keep egg roll wrappers on hand! :)

So, since these are so absolutely delish, I just had to share the recipe with you! Pretty much everyone at the party agreed with me. I think the few who didn't don't quite share my love and enthusiasm for the real things.

Here is Annie's recipe with my variations. Annie made her's vegetarian, but I added chicken to mine. I also put out sour cream and ranch instead of salsa.

Ingredients for the Mixture:2 cups corn, thawed I (I used 1 can of corn because I was out of the frozen kind)
1 (15 oz.) can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 (10 oz.) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry (I used about half of a 16oz package of frozen spinach. I was really tired of squeezing and chopping it, lol)
2 cups shredded Mexican cheese blend (I just used colby jack - it's what I had on hand)
1 (4 oz.) can diced green chiles, drained
4 green onions, chopped
1 tsp. ground cumin
½ tsp. chili powder
1 tsp. salt
½ tsp. pepper
¼ tsp. cayenne pepper
2 cups chicken (I used some pre-cooked on clearance chicken breasts from the store)
Also Need:
1 package egg roll wrappers
1 slightly beaten egg - used to seal the wrappers

Mix everything together and start rolling your egg rolls! If you've never used egg roll wrappers, you want to place them so one of the points is pointed at you (so you see a diamond rather than a square). This is where my 3 years of rolling tacos at Taco Time came in handy! Add a couple spoonfulls (I used about 1/4 cup of the mixture in each rolls) of the mixture to the middle of the wrapper. Take the corner closest to you and fold it over the misture then pull back slightly around the mixture. Fold the side corners over and then start rolling towards the top corner. After rolling almost completely, dip your fingers or a brush into the egg and rub onto the corner of the wrapper to seal it. Bake for about 10-15 minutes at 425 degrees.

You could potentially fry these, but I wasn't about to attempt that right before the party. I don't have a deep fryer and baking was much simpler. And much healthier! :)

I didn't want the rolls getting soggy or sticking together, so made the mixture the night before and let it sit in the fridge. Then about an hour before the party I rolled them all and put them in the oven about 10 minutes before the party started so that they would be nice and warm when the party started.
There were a few leftover after the party, so I put them in the fridge and then reheated them the next day by putting them in a 400 degree oven for about 10 minutes. Crispy and tasty just like the day before.

Share The Memories Freebie #2

I've got another fun digital scrapbooking freebie from My Memories! Remember that these freebies come with all of the elements, papers, etc that are used to create them. I just downloaded it myself and there were 22 pieces that came in this freebie. How awesome is that!

Also, remember that you don't need to have the My Memories software in order to use these freebies. The elements of the freebie pack come as .jpg and .png files so they're compatible with other scrapbooking and photo editing software.

However, if you're interested in using the My Memories software, you should know that they just released Version 3! I haven't had too much time to play around with it, but so far I'm loving it. If you want to give it a try, you can download a free trial of the software. As far as I know, you don't need to have a previous version in order to use this trial. If you want to go ahead and purchase the full version of the software, remember to use the code STMMMS51889 at checkout to receive $10 off the price of the software and $10 in free product from the MyMemories.com store.

Now, here's the freebie. Click the link to the left or the picture below to be taken to the download page.

This freebie will be available for 1 week - through December 4th. So don't wait to download it!

Also, if you have any questions about the software or freebies, don't hesitate to ask. I'm not a pro, but I can either get your question answered for you or point you in the direction of someone who can help you!

Christmas Galore Link Party

Thanksgiving is over and it's time to start pulling out the Christmas decor and getting serious about the upcoming holiday. I thought it would be fun to host a Christmas link party so that we could all share ideas about decor, holiday goodies, gifts, and everything else that comes with this wonderful holiday.

*Cue Holiday music*

There are 2 categories to add your links to: Christmas Gift Ideas (for gift ideas - handmade or otherwise) and Christmas Galore (for everything else - decor, yumminess, parties, etc). Please be sure to link up to the appropriate category.

Just a few suggestions before joining the party...

1. We'd love it if you would be a LITM follower. You can join us through GFC, Facebook, Feedburner, or Pinterest!
2. We'd also really appreciate it if you would link back to us so that others can join the fun too. If you really loved us, you'd grab one of the awesome buttons from the sidebar :)
3. Remember to link to your specific post and not just to your blog. And please, no etsy shops or giveaways. However, Pinterest boards are permitted :)

Now, it's party time. Go on and get down with your bad self. (Could I be any whiter??)


Christmas Gift Ideas

Christmas Galore

Happy Thanksgiving!

I just wanted to wish all of you out there a Happy Thanksgiving. No matter how you're celebrating or what you're eating, I hope you have a wonderful, blessed day! If you're hosting Thanksgiving, then I wish you all the patience and multitasking abilities in the world! We'll be enjoying some yummy food and fun family time at my Sister-in-Law's house.

Also, I just wanted to take the opportunity to express my gratitude for some things. I hope no one minds. If anyone else wants to join in, I'd love to read what you're grateful for also! So, in no particular order....

1. I'm grateful that my husband has a job. It may not pay so great, but it's a job and he works hard so that I can stay home with Andyroo.
2. I'm so very grateful for my sweet little boy. He brings so much fun and laughter into my life. He's so caring and loving - full of hugs and kisses. I can't even imagine my life without that little guy.
3. I'm also very grateful for my husband. He's always there to support me no matter what it is I want to do. He believes in me and loves me, even when I feel unlovable. I can't imagine my life without him either.
4. I'm grateful that my mom lives 5 blocks away. She really has become my best friend and I can't bear the thought of having to move away (which we will have to do eventually) and not seeing her every week for our Sunday dinners and grocery shopping trips. I'm not gonna lie. It's going to be tough.
5. I'm grateful for our little apartment. Yes, it's little. And it's cold. And there are spiders and other various bugs. And it's in the basement so we don't get lots of sunshine. But it is a wonderful place to live. We have wonderful friends and neighbors because of where we live. It may not be a house, but it's our home.
6. I am grate extremely grateful for all of our friends. We're not very social people (it's sad, really), but we love each and every one of our friends. We're grateful for the support and love that each of you give us.
7. I'm grateful for this blog. Writing is very therapeutic for me. It always has been. It's the only way I can truly express myself. I just end up stumbling all over myself and rambling on when I try and talk. I love the connection I have with other wonderful women in the world and the inspiration I receive each and every day from the awesomeness I see from each of you. Blogging provides not only an outlet for me, but it also pushes me to be better, to think bigger, and to create more!
8. I'm grateful for all of our extended family - our brothers and sisters, cousins, nieces and nephews, and all of the grandparents. We have such a strong family bond and they provide such a good network of support for us.
9. I'm grateful for Facebook. This might sound weird, but it's true. Through Facebook I was able to reconnect with my best friend (love you, Heather!) and I can now keep in touch with all of our friends and family spread across the world. I know it's not as personal as phone calls or letters, but for someone as socially awkward (yes, I'll admit it) as I am, it's a wonderful way to keep in touch!
10. I am grateful for all the modern conveniences that I have access to - the washer and dryer, running water, microwave, heating, plumbing, cell phones, etc. I would go crazy without them. There's no way I could have survived as a pioneer (or at any other time)!
11. I'm grateful for my membership and calling in the LDS Church. It provides so much for us that I can't even put into words. I'm so glad to know that there is a God, that he loves us, and that he wants us to be happy. I so grateful for prayer and for the ability to be in communication with God and to know that he has a plan for us.

There's so many more little things that I 'm grateful for, but that will do for now. I also wanted to leave you with a few Thanksgiving funnies :) Enjoy!

Also, we'll be starting our Christmas link up party on Saturday the 26th after all the Thanksgiving and shopping madness have died down. Be sure to check back so you can link up all your fun projects!