Green Smoothie Challenge

I started the Green Smoothie Challenge on Saturday. You make these green smoothies and have them for every meal as much as you want them. It is a cleanse type diet that is so good for you. My sister in law did it for a week and she lost 7 pounds so I knew it was something I had to do. It is not just for losing weight it really does make you feel better. It helps with your hair, skin, black circles under eyes, bad breath and that icky bloated feeling. I only have a couple more pounds to lose to get to my goal weight so I thought this would be a good way. I started it Saturday and I decided that I would have the smoothies for breakfast and lunch and then eat a healthy dinner. The beginning of the day was fine the smoothies were good and I was doing fine but then about 3 o clock hit and I just wanted some sort of warm meal or something to chew on. I was even craving chocolate and pizza they were the only thing I could think of. I ate dinner that night and because I have no self control I ate a couple chocolate chips to feed my craving so I did not die. Then Sunday I had one smoothie that was nasty but I drank the whole thing and I was pretty full till dinner time which was a good thing. I then weighed myself at my mother in laws because I do not own a scale (I hate them) and to my surprise I had lost three pounds in a day. I could not believe it I was pretty excited so now I am way more motivated to complete this week with the smoothies. I only have one more pound to lose till I am at my goal weight and I really think that it will be possible after this week. I have found some foods that I can munch on like whole natural almonds, carrots, avocados, celery and cucumbers. I am starting to feel better also I did have a caffeine headache for the first two days but right now I am feeling good. I wanted to blog about this so I could hold myself accountable because now others know that I am doing this and even though it is kind of hard it has been well worth it.

Happy 2011 (Longest Post ever)

Happy New Year Everyone!!!

I love the new year it is like a chance to start fresh and I love it.

This last year was a good year for Jeff and I

• We moved into an apartment in West Jordan because we wanted to have a chance to live alone for once in our marriage and then a couple months after we moved in my aunt came back from New York due to a divorce and needed a place to live so she moved in with us. She lived here for about 5 months and now that she has moved out Jeff and I are going to be moving back to our newly remodeled basement apartment and we are pretty excited about it.



• We added a new addition to our family and we are in love with him. He is actually sitting right next to me right now. He loves to cuddle and he pretty much thinks he rules this place and I am OK with it. He has cured some of the baby hunger I have felt in the past year because he is like my baby. My family makes fun of Jeff and I because we treat him like our child but he is like a human to me and I don't care what anyone says (Kody). His name is Guido by the way and he is a cutie.

• Jeff finished up his second to last year of school and now he is starting his last year in 2011!!!!!! I am so excited for him to be done and have a life and a normal job because these night shifts are killing us both.


• He also started coaching at Murray High School. He is the head coach of the Sophomore basketball Team and he loves it. My nephew is on his team so every game is a family affair and it is so fun. I am in charge of recording the games so when Jeff shows the games to his team he has to put it on mute because my sister in law and I pretty much talk the whole time and some convos are not for their ears that is for sure.


• I started working at home every other day mainly because I did not want Guido to have to be home alone that often. The reason for this is because when we first had him he had minor panic attacks when we would leave him but it just turns out he does not like to be locked up in a room so now that we just let him free he is just fine.


• We also started the Dave Ramsey total money makeover this past year and we could not be any happier. We have completely implemented the envelope system and we are working on an emergency fund as of right now. We are so excited about it because we have already saved so much money. I have been couponing like crazy and last month we only spent $140 on groceries and we pretty much ate in every single night and a couple nights we had friends over so I was even feeding more then just Jeff and I. The main reason we started this was because of the blog Money Saving Mom she is on my blog list and I am obsessed with their life.

This year I have decided on some "New Habits" I would like to bring into my life but I also saw this great idea on the blog Money Saving Mom and she is doing the 12 DIY projects that she would like to attempt in 2011. I am not going to do every single one she is doing but I have made my list and maybe I will post it a little bit later.

This next year is going to be a good one for Jeff and I. I am pretty excited for this year and everything it has to offer us. I also just wanted to put a little side note in this long long post about Jeff and how much he means to me. I could not imagine life without him. He has done so much for us and our future family. He works so hard everyday going to school full time and working two jobs that are classified as part time jobs but they are really full time jobs in my eyes that take a lot of his time but he does it for us and I have never ever heard him complain. He is the best example I could ever have in my life because he gets along with everyone and I have really never heard him talk bad about anyone just to do it. He always tells me to just forget things and move on because they don't really matter. (still working on that) He is constantly trying to help me with things around the house even though he is tired and so busy. I never do dishes or laundry by myself because he is always right there ready to help me. I just love him and I know that he loves me because he makes it a point to tell me every single day. I am excited for this next year with him and for many many more. LOVE YOU!!!

Halloween

I know I know it is about time right?

I have been meaning to post this for a little while now but life happens.

So Jeff and I starting thinking about Halloween early this year because we wanted to be something different. We are not the most creative people but I think that our costumes turned out all right.

We went back and forth between many different options like:

• The pong game on Atari (My personal fave)
• Ketchup and Mustard with Guido as a hot dog.
• Pauly D and Snooki (Burgers for the boys!!)
• Taylor Swift and Kanya West (Jeff had to work Halloween night so we could not paint him black)

We tried to be creative Jeff even came home with a bunch of different ideas some were funny some were just not for me and some were Jeffs kind of funny :)

In the end we decided on a funny one that was really cheap to make just how we like it :)

We decided to be...

You guessed it we were the

Girls Gone Wild Camera Crew and one of the girls.

I don't think others thought it was as funny as we did but o well it was fun.

On Friday night we went to Bert and Ambers and had a lot of fun. We carved pumpkins, ate yummy food, talked a lot and had some costume contests.

Danes costume cracked me up he used nail polish for his teeth. (Weird) and then the most creative thing I have ever seen he used fake spiderwebs to make his dreads.

This is a pic of the whole group minus a couple peeps that left before this.

We then went to Britt and Matts house on Halloween to hang out. We had so much fun we played a murder mystery game and of course I was the murderer and I had to wink at people to kill them lets just say I did not do a good job. It was a fun game though. We also took a whole bunch of pics but I only put a couple on here because there were just too many.

Overall we had a ton of fun this Halloween and we were so glad we got to spend it with friends and family. I love Halloween because of the feeling you get when everyone is dressing up and getting excited for it and because when it is done you get to start prepping yourself for Thanksgiving and Christmas o yeah and don't forget Black Friday!!

I totally went to Paris

I went with these crazy people and it was so much fun!!! We left on a Wednesday and came back Tuesday. We fly stand by so on the way there everyone got business class but me and so I was stuck next to a Rastafarian man in dreads that was watching inappropriate things on his laptop during the 9 hour flight and he for sure made me feel uncomfortable. It was all worth it though because we had so much fun together. I went with my mother in law and three of my sister in laws. We stayed in a Villa by Disneyland and it was so nice. It was like a town home we had three bedrooms, three bathrooms, a dining room, kitchen, laundry room and a back yard. It really was so nice and even though I really have no desire to go back because the people there are just so put out by Americans being there I am still so happy that I was able to go. We tried to do the whole frowning picture but obviously I can not do it and Nikki could not stop laughing to do it.Melissa was so good and it and the lady next her is a perfect picture of how the people of Paris looked at us. They did not like us that is for sure because we were loud everywhere we went and we actually smiled which they don't like to do I guess.We rode the subway everywhere and it was such a party. It was always us goofing off and my mother in law trying to figure out where we were going.The trip home was a little more interesting. I was able to fly business from Paris to Cincinnati which was awesome because they feed you a five course meal and the seats go back all the way so you get to lay down. When we got to Cincinnati we were not able to get on a flight there so we flew to Los Angeles and could not make a flight there so then we flew to Las Vegas. We thought we were going home from there and we were so ready and excited because we had been traveling for like 36 hours at this point and then when we went to get on the plane they would not let us on so we had to stay at the hooters hotel that night. We got to bed at 10:00 p.m. and then woke up at 4:00 a.m. to catch a 6:30 a.m. flight which of course only Kari made it and by this time we were so done. There was crying involved this time because we were so tired and just exhausted so we just decided to buy tickets to get home and I am so grateful we did. When I got to the airport Jeff was waiting by the bags with Guido and I was so excited to see them and then we I got home my house was clean and I found this little note waiting for me. I will be posting more of my pics later.

Baby Shower

This cute couple is going to be having a baby in a little while and I was so excited when I got the chance to throw them a baby shower. I am a virgin to the baby shower throwing so I was a little nervous that no one would have fun or court would be totally disappointed because after all she has been working hard to make this baby so she deserves a good party. I wanted to do a Jeep themed party because Court loves Jeeps but that is hard to do because I could not find anything so I finally just decided to do the colors green and blue and then add a little touch of Jeep where ever I could. This is the diaper cake that I made. They are a little harder then they look but it was so fun finally being able to make one because I have always wanted to make one. On a side note I bought 3 packages of newborn diapers and if I would of bought them without coupons then they would of cost $13.00 a piece but I used coupons and I was able to get them for $4.00 a piece. That was a steal of a deal and I was so excited about it.I went to Orson Gygi to see if I could find a Jeep cookie cutter but they just don't exist so instead I bought a pack of 101 cookie cutters and I am glad that I did because I just decided to use all of the boyish cutters. There were trains, firetrucks, dinosaurs, ducks, sports things and animals. I bought these vases and jars from the D.I. for $0.50 - $1.00 a piece. I was excited that they had so many different ones there and for such a great price.This is the finished product minis the chicken salad sandwiches, mini cheesecakes and the yummy drink that I made. I made those tissue baby decorations and they are not my favorite thing but they turned out decent.I found the idea for these cups on a blog and I thought it was so cute so I had to do it. They looked better in person then in pictures.My husband and Bert pretending to be a baby and mommy nursing. They are so cool!!
I love this picture they were trying to look like a happy couple with their baby but I think it turned out cute. This is baby Hadley and she belongs to Jake and Danica. She is the cutest thing I have ever seen and even though I let Amber think she is Hadleys favorite, Hadley and I really know whats up and we are BFF!!
Allen and Britt they will be married in less then a month. So excited for them!!

Jake and Dani. She looks so good and she just had a baby hopefully I get that lucky when it is my turn.

The party was a lot of fun and I am so happy that I was able to do it and that everything worked out the way it was planned.

My second race

This post is so late but I have a lot of catching up to do. I ran another race back in like August. It was a lot of fun and a little more official this time because I actually registered and I was a part of it this time. It was along the Jordan River parkway more in like South Jordan area I think :) It was really pretty and it was nice to have a trail and not just run on the street like my last race. I did pretty much the same time as last time (29 min) but this time I only stopped once and it was for maybe 6 seconds because this guy ran up behind me and said "you are almost there you cant stop now" so I just took off and beat him in the race hee hee. Jeff came straight from work and I brought Guido with me so they could cheer me on. It was a lot of fun and I am excited to do more races and I even have a love for running now and I never ever thought that would happen.

New Week New Meals!

So last week went pretty well with the meals, we really liked pretty much every meal we had. The Hoedown BBQ Chuckroast was a hit. It was so good and we had it with grilled corn that we added Cayenne pepper to and yum!! Jeff ate so much of that which is always an ego booster for me. The slow Cooker pizza was alright I would rather just make home made pizza it is faster and easier but it was a fun and different way of having pizza.

This week on the menu we have

Monday: Chicken Pasta

Tuesday: THRIVE Vegetable Risotto

Wednesday: Tender Grilled Pork Chops

Thursday: Serve yourself day

Friday: Skillet Creamy Macaroni and Cheese

Saturday: Grilled Island Chicken

I got most of my recipes this week from http://www.melskitchencafe.com/

I still have so many more things to blog about so coming soon I have some pictures that Jeff and I took with Guido and some cute labels I made for my Sugar, Flour, etc.