Here’s the recipe:

Hot German Potato Salad

6 red potatoes (sliced and boiled)
6 pieces of bacon (cooked)
3/4 Cup Onion (chopped and sauteed in bacon fat)
2 Tbs. flour
1 Tbs. sugar
1/2 tsp celery seed
1 1/2 tsp. Salt + a dash of pepper
3/4 Cup water
1/2 cup Vinegar

Boil the sliced potatoes. Cook the bacon. Drain off most all of the bacon fat. Saute the onions in the pan you cooked the bacon. Add the flour, sugar, celery seed, salt and pepper. Gradually stir in the water and vinegar. Cook it until it boils. Pour this over the potatoes. Add the bacon crumbles at the end. (Don’t overcook the potatoes.)

You can make this in the morning and heat it later before serving.

When it comes to potato salad, do you like your potato salad more “mayo-y” OR more “vinegar-y”?

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Smiles and tears. Thank goodness for sunglasses.

I was spoiled this year with beautiful flowers, the sweetest cards with pictures (my favorite) and a turquoise mixer that makes me happy whenever I see it. Avery wrote two cards to me this year, one from her and one from Afton (so sweet).

Saturday night, Cafe Rio helped make for a great weekend too. I’m addicted to the Steak Tostada lately, with a soft tortilla on the bottom, their tortillas are my favorite! I loved hearing what everyone loves when they eat at Cafe Rio via Facebook and Instagram. I have a few new things I’m excited to try now.

One of the first things I wanted to make with my mixer were meringue cookies (like on the cover of the current Martha mag). Meringue cookies are the one thing that you DON’T want to mix by hand. I ended up making 3 batches of them trying to get it right. I love how they look! So colorful! We wrapped some up to take to my sweet MIL.

I also made this french chocolate mousse which was SO rich! Kind of like chocolate butter. Seriously!

We had a nice night with Kyle’s side eating outside (the weather here has been so gorgeous!). Here’s Avery and her sweet Grandma Colleen.

I’m so thankful to be a mom. I count it as one of my biggest blessings. I’m so thankful for the wonderful mothers in our lives for their continuous love and service. So thankful for Aiden’s sweet birth-mother and her most selfless difficult decision and the positive encouragement from her sweet mom in her decision. Mother’s Day is such a bittersweet day, but I think the sweet will always outweigh the bitter.

These last few months, my mom has been such a support to me. In the few weeks after Afton had passed, I could always call her and know that she would cry with me. We laugh, because there was a night that I called her crying, and she was somewhere where she couldn’t cry with me, and I said “You HAVE to cry with me…you always cry with me!” Thank heaven for moms… all the moms in our lives.

ps. This sad story has been on my mind non-stop, if you can take a minute to read her story and help or share however you can, I know we will all be better for it.

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Anyway…in honor of washi tape, we designed these fun printable tags so that you could give the gift of washi tape. Washi tape would make a fun teacher appreciation gift, girl friend gift or even Mother’s Day gift. You just have to print these tags out (on good photo paper) and cut them out to make these fun gift tags.

Most washi tape designs are found online, but I was thrilled to find cute designs at Target in the office supply section. The rolls at Target have a lot of tape on them, perfect for sharing. My sister asked for a sample of some of my rolls, so I started to make her a little sample and I got thinking. How fun would it be to have a washi tape party?! Everyone bring their washi tape rolls to the party and everyone take home a sample of a bunch of new and different designs. ! Here is how you could do it:

With a bunch of popsicle sticks and a heavy duty hole punch (I used the Crop O Dile), you can punch holes in the popsicle sticks so they can slide on a simple snap ring. Then you can wrap the washi tapes that you choose around the popsicle sticks to make a sample of the designs you like.

One length of tape around the roll is about 6 inches, so I figure each sample could be about 2 feet (4 times around the roll).

Once you leave the “washi tape party” you can either keep it, or give it as a gift and add a “fancy” tag to it.

Or a “wonderful” tag to it.

You could give washi tape for a fun birthday gift (with a bunch of different colors to choose from).

Or we have a bunch of fun designs for any occasion.

Here is what the printable looks like when you print it out:

It would be fun for a little Mother’s Day gift too.

Click here to download the free Washi Tape tags.

*Please read the Conditions of Use before downloading files from NoBiggie.net. All free downloads are for NoBiggie RSS subscribers, email subscribers and NoBiggie Facebook fans as a way of saying thank you (Thank You for reading!).

If you would like to subscribe you can do so here or become a fan on Facebook here.

Now…who’s coming to my washi tape party?!

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Here’s a few things that were so helpful in teaching both of our kids how to ride a bike, in case this is something on your Summer To Do List for someone in your family.

5 Key Tips for Learning How To Ride A Bike

1. Start with a small bike. The smaller the better. Your child should be able to have both feet flat on the ground. You might want to get a bigger bike to save money because they can grow into it, but this will make it harder to learn.
2. Don’t waste your time with training wheels. They give a false sense of security and they slow down the process.
3. Take the actual pedals off. Let them learn how to balance first. This is the key (I believe) to actually learning to ride a bike. They do sell bikes without pedals, but save yourself the money and just take your pedals off. Once they learn how to balance, you can put the pedals back on.
4. Learn on a driveway or street with a slight decline. This helps to get the wheels rolling.
5. No pressure from parents. Once you take the pedals off, let them be on their own. Whether it be a trip down to the mailbox or to visit the neighbors, invite them to get the bike out. No pressure is key.

It’s so fun to see them so confident in their new skill.

Yes, an audience is always fun once you learn how.

Red, white and blue decor always helps too. Yes…this little bike is still decorated from the 4th of July neighborhood bike parade from 2009. yikes!

Have you tried the method of taking the pedals off to help teach how to ride a bike? Or do you have any other little tips that you think are key in learning how to ride a bike?

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This pic of the two of us looking down on our little Afton is one of my favorites during the week she was here. I love that it’s a bit blurry. I love that it’s the two of us together smiling down on our little angel. I love thinking of her now smiling down on us.

We had a Super Moon this last Saturday night to help us celebrate. (Did you see the giant full moon this weekend?!)

Happy 13 Mr. Biggie! I love you LONG TIME!

Here’s a peek back at anniversaries passed:

12 years
11 years
10 years
09 years

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I had a small frame that I had found while thrifting that fit it perfectly. I first sprayed the frame white and roughed it up a bit. Then I hung the little branch from tiny hooks that I screwed into the little frame. I added a little baker’s twine to hang the hearts to fit the frame.

I wasn’t sure what to put behind it because I didn’t want it to lose it’s 3D effect. These overlays from Hambly Screen Prints worked great. I’m using the rainclouds design. I love how you can see through it.

It now sits on our mantel right in the center. I love it. Thank you, April. All three of my little heart strings all hanging together (4 including this guy).

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Here’s what the printable PDF looks like when you print it out at home. Print it out on good sturdy paper. I used matte photo paper.

First up you’ll want to cut all the pieces apart using a paper trimmer or scissors (whatever you have).

Next you will want to accordion fold the two diagonal striped strips at every 1/2 inch. If you have a ruler or a scoring tool like this one, it can help make clean lines to fold on.

To make the paper medallion, a hot glue gun will come in handy. Put a big dab of hot glue in the center and hold until dry and set. I have a piece of chipboard hot glued underneath to make it sturdy.

Here’s what it looks like all assembled together. AND…because I love options, we have given you a “Best Hairday Ever” and a “Best Day Ever”, so you can use this download for other special occasions.

Now for the fun part! You can use this as a medallion by adding ribbon to the bottom or you could put this on a Mother’s Day Card, a Mother’s Day gift sack (as seen below), you can use it as a cake or cupcake topper.

OR even a magnet so she (YOU) can leave it up all year long!

We also created Mother’s Day stickers for those of you who don’t want to have to “assemble” anything. These would also work for the ideas listed above, or would be fun to hand out to all your friends.

So you better get to work, because Mother’s Day is coming up soon! May 13th to be exact.

Click here to download the free Mother’s Day Medallion.

Click here to download the free Mother’s Day stickers.

*Please read the Conditions of Use before downloading files from NoBiggie.net. All free downloads are for NoBiggie RSS subscribers, email subscribers and NoBiggie Facebook fans as a way of saying thank you (Thank You for reading!).

If you would like to subscribe you can do so here or become a fan on Facebook here.

Are you starting to think about Mother’s Day yet? Do you love it or hate it?

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Here’s the recipe:

Fried Ice Cream

- vanilla icecream (your favorite)
- cinnamon (could be a cinnamon sugar mix)
- cornflakes (a big box)
- coconut (optional)
- caramel syrup
- chocolate syrup
- whipped cream (in a can)

Also needed:
- plastic wrap
- clear plastic gloves (it gets messy!)
- a plastic bowl (to store the frozen balls of ice cream)

To make fried ice cream put your clear plastic gloves on, scoop out a big ball of vanilla ice cream roll it around in cinnamon then wrap it up in plastic wrap and store it in a big plastic bowl until you are ready to serve.

When ready to serve drizzle a little caramel syrup on the ice cream ball and then roll the ball in the cornflake/coconut/cinnamon mixture. Serve with more caramel syrup, chocolate syrup and whipped cream. Ooooh it’s so good!

*My first attempt at this didn’t go that great, and the problem was that I froze the ice cream balls with the cornflake mixture on it. The cornflakes can lose their crunchy texture in the freezer…And that’s the best part!

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Here’s some of the things that I loved seeing:

This framed peg board with the little arrow chalkboard. I will always love the look of a chalkboard, but something about all the neutrals in this pic with the pop of color of the flower is just fun.

Giant prints hung up by neon duck tape. I love the casual look of this with the duck tape and the pop of neon color. Plus I love the look of the torn edge of tape.

Tissue paper garland simply sewn up the middle. I love the look of all the layers of tissue paper sewn together. This is a simple decoration that adds color in a fun way.

This giant print on the wall in Nordstrom at City Creek. I love how the two frames continue the pattern together.

Hello Lover! Red hot Valentinos for the easy price of $900 (ouch!). How can you not be inspired by these shoes?! The color, the giant red bow, all of it! So fun!

Last but not least, we headed over to the Harmons grocery store near city creek and we saw the most beautiful little pastries. I love the little raspberry on top. It’s too cute!

Happy Weekend! Hopefully you can get out on a ‘hot date’ this weekend and be surrounded by inspiration.

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- my favorite quote from General Conference this year.

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My sweet little Afton,

We went up to your grave last night and it was as pretty as always. I could not have picked a more beautiful place to visit and remember you. When I’m up there it’s like an escape from life for me. A chance to slow down and think about everything…about life…about you.

It’s strange to think about the first time I was up there. It was just this last summer, I was pregnant with you and we were at your Grandma’s house, your sweet Grandma Colleen. The conversation was about the cemetery up the hill and the bunnies. They told us the story of the bunnies.

The story is about a little girl who had passed and her parents left bunnies at her grave because she loved bunnies so much. They left a male and female bunny. Then the bunnies did what bunnies do best …make more bunnies.

I still remember that hot summer night, I had to see the bunnies for myself. This story was too crazy to believe. So your Dad drove us up there, and sure enough we saw bunnies, about five bunnies. What I remember more about that night than the bunnies, was the beautiful view. How peaceful it was up there.

Looking back, that night was like a foreshadow of our future, and we didn’t know it. We didn’t know that we would be up there often. We didn’t know that this beautiful place would become such a part of our lives.

I love that there’s bunnies up there. I love that your brother and sister love to look for the bunnies.

I love you, Afton. We all love you and think about you so much.

love, mom

* During this year, I hope to write a letter after the 14th of each month (the day of my little Afton’s birth) as I do my best to heal.

*Before I start my recap, I have to give a HUGE shout out to my main man, the love of my life: Kyle. He was able to work from home this last week, staying home with the kids, allowing for me to basically be gone all week even though Thanksgiving Point is in my back yard. He is so supportive of everything I do with this blog, and I’m so thankful for him.

A post like this is so intimidating to write, because you are surrounded by…and you meet so many great bloggers at a conference like this, that I fear I might leave someone out in the recap. So instead, I thought I’d share a little *photo recap of my awesome experience at Snap 2012.

Just know that I LOVED dancing the night away with you, crying with you (you know who you are), laughing my head off with you, staying up most the night with you, crafting and *not crafting with you, eating with you, shopping with you, stuffing swag bags with you, decorating the big red barn with you, exchanging blog cards with you, Instagraming with you, tweeting with you, AND giving you the biggest hug to say THANK YOU for all the love and support I have felt from you over the last few months (probably the hardest months of my life).

Oh…and I loved your colored jeans!

My biggest take away from Snap which also seemed to be a recurring theme: Just Be You!
Be Yourself.
I love that image above shared by Ana White as a great reminder to all of us.

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On the BabyCenter blog this week, I’m sharing a list of all the little things that would be great to add to a little eye spy bottle.

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Here’s 20 Cinco de Mayo ideas on the BabyCenter Blog. So many fun ways to party it up, “OLE!”

For more Cinco de Mayo ideas, you can see the two fiestas we had in years past: 2009 – 2010

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We had leftover pork tenderloin from the night before and this recipe is my favorite way to use up pork in a fresh way.

Here is what you need:

- pork (cut into bite size pieces)
- a can of chopped green chiles
- 2 TBS. onion, chopped
- 2 TBS. tomato, chopped (fresh or from a can)
- cilantro, chopped
- 1 TBS. flour
- 1/4 tsp. cumin
- 1/4 tsp. oregano
- 1/4 tsp. garlic salt
- 1 cube chicken boullion
- 1/3 cup water

Here is a quick step by step:

Chile Verde:

1. Slice and chop the onions.
2. Saute the onions on medium heat with butter or margarine.
3. Brown the pork in a separate pan to help bring out the flavor of the pork and to give it those brown grill marks.
4. Once the onions are translucent, add in the green chiles.
5. Add in the flour and stir it in all around.
6. Add in the water, continue cooking and stirring.
7. Add in the pork.
8. Add in the tomatoes.
9. Add in the spices.
10. Add in the cilantro right at the end.

Serve it with fresh cilantro, grated cheese and wrap it up in a tortilla. YUM!

That’s it!

Next time you pick up a pork tenderloin for dinner, pick up these other ingredients too, so you can get two meals out of it!

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This is something I have wanted to do for some time now, so I was so excited when we finally did it. I love the look and feel of letterpress. I had Kyle help me design our custom plate as a PDF of a bunch of sentiments and little images that I could mix and match to use on the mini note cards. I think they will be great for quick cards and tags to add to gifts or little notes for friends and family. I love how they turned out! So simple and sweet.

Once our custom plate arrived, I cut out each sentiment and image. This way I can use them individually. I have a few “sayings” or sentiments to go along with each little image.

Here are a few of them on the letterpress paper before I got everything ready to start.

The first image I wanted to ink up and letterpress, was my blog card. The key to a good letterpress (in my opinion) is the inking. Less is more. My first attempt at Letterpress with Lifestyle Crafts at home letterpress system didn’t give the best results, because I was over inking the plates. You only need the tiniest dab of ink and then you roll it all out until it feels tacky. You can even leave it out over night and roll it out again and again.

Here are bunch of the cards that I made. I had three colors going on at once. It’s so fun to see how they all turned out. I’m loving the yellow!

To speed up the process, I had a few of them inking at one time. These little foam paper placement guides are really helpful.

I love that I will be able to get a bunch of use out of these simple images and sentiments.

If you have a big event coming up, like a wedding in your family, a custom letterpress plate would be so fun. All this month (the month of April), it’s letterpress month at Lifestyle crafts. They have a bunch of beautiful designs and inks available on their site along with the option to design your own.

While I had the letterpress stuff out, I made a few with the scholastic printing plate. This plate would be fun for simple monogrammed stationery.

Can you tell I’m loving the “Hey girl” lately?

It’s hard to see in this photo, but I did a dry emboss for this card for the numbers 1 2 3 4 and I only inked the number 5 for a #5 birthday card for a little girl.

Right now Lifestyle Crafts has a bunch of great sales going on.

*Don’t forget to use the promo code NOBIGGIE at checkout when purchasing all Lifestyle Crafts products to receive 20% off (including sale items).

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Included with Snap this weekend, there will also be a handmade market called The Queen Bee Market at Thanksgiving Point (in the big red barn). 40 handmade shops all in one place. A bunch of these vendors are also from out of town, so if you are a Utah local, you must come check it out! It’s open to the public (no door charge). Here is a list of all the vendors, if you’d like to get a heads up.

There are a bunch of great sponsors at Snap along with a bunch of fun giveaways that will happen during the conference and open to everyone on the Snap blog.

I’m excited to share a few of the highlights next week from the conference. Will you be going to Snap? If so it would be fun to meet in person!

Here’s my sweet kids yesterday on Easter Sunday. It’s our Spring Break here this week, so I won’t be around here much, but you can find me on Instagram daily!

Did you hear that Androids now have an app for Instagram? It’s probably my favorite way to share the everyday. Are you on Instagram? My username is @nobiggie if you’d like to keep up with our Spring Break “stay-cation”.

Have a great week!

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“The Atonement of the Only Begotten Son of God is the crucial foundation upon which all Christian doctrine rests and the greatest expression of divine love this world has ever been given.”

-Jeffrey R Holland
Quorum of the Twelve Apostles

“The Savior’s Resurrection assures all of us that someday we, too, will follow Him and experience our own resurrection. What peace, what comfort this great gift is which comes through the loving grace of Jesus Christ, the Savior and Redeemer of all mankind. Because of Him we know we can be with [our loved ones] again.”

-Elder M. Russell Ballard
Quorum of the Twelve Apostles

This Easter we’ll be doing things differently at our house, we’ll be celebrating with the Easter Eggs, the candy and the bunny on Saturday leaving Sunday to be all about the real meaning of Easter…and I’m looking forward to it.

I hope you all have a nice Easter weekend.
♥ Kami

Here’s a few fun links for the weekend:

- 10 adorable Carrot Crafts
- the #1 tip for all iPhone/iPad/iPod users.

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Scentsy has recently come out with a fun new line of fragrances called: Layers. They have taken all their great fragrance knowledge and applied it to personal fragrances. From the shower to the laundry, they are enhancing our everyday.

*Layers by Scentsy lets you build a new fragrance wardrobe, layer by layer, from your skin to your clothes. Transform your morning shower from a necessity to something great. Elevate the laundry from a chore to an experience. Let your personal fragrance leave a trace with every movement. Pick your favorite scents, mix and match products, and envelop your life in fragrance.

They sent over some of these new products for me to review and giveaway too!

In the new Layers line, I got to try out the body butter and shower cream in their new fragrance called Quiver. I loved the shower cream! I love how it goes on creamy and lathers up before you rinse it off, and the body butter kept my skin soft all day.

In the laundry room, I tried out the washer wiffs and dryer discs in coconut lemon grass. Ooooh I loved this fragrance! It definitely makes doing the laundry fun for while…I sure hope it lasts.

They have also added some new designs to their full size warmer collection called Silhouettes. I’m a fan of the simple shape of the warmer and how you can change out the silhouette design that goes over it. I love how they also double as a night light.

This is the Linden design of the Silhouettes line.

They have some fun new fragrances as well: Pixie, Pink Pepper and “R U N2 Me”.

Now it’s your turn to try them out! Here’s the giveaway. Scentsy is giving away 3 of their new Layers products to one lucky reader. The fun part is that you can choose which 3 products to try out and you can choose the fragrance of each.

If you would like to enter to win, simply leave a comment below telling me what one item you’d like to try out if you win. The winner of this giveaway will be chosen via Random.org and announced on this post.

Conrgrats Alisha! Lucky #1 (seriously…when does it ever land on #1?!)

Get Two Bonus Entries: {completely optional}

-Like Scentsy and NoBiggie on Facebook
-Share this giveaway on Facebook, making sure to tag the NoBiggie Facebook page (only valid if your post shows up on the NoBiggie Facebook page).

**Be sure to let me know what bonus entries you did in a separate comment for each one.

Giveaway ends this Tuesday, April 10th at 10 PM.

—Giveaway Now Closed—

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