Healthy New Year!

I never make New Year's Resolutions, but this year I'm going to do it! My resolution is to eat healthier this year and to make sure my family eats healthier too. I've never been worried about what I eat... after-all One of the main benefits of running is to eat whatever I want! The problem is that not everyone in my family runs...

Cheryl got me this GREAT cookbook Hungry Girl: Recipes and Survival Strategies for Guilt-Free Eating in the Real World by Lisa Lillien.I'm going to try and make at least one recipe a week from this book and share with you all here. I can't post the recipes, but I'll post the page number for those with the book who want to follow along.

The first recipe we tried is something familiar: Southwestern Suprise on page 65.

This is very similar to the tortilla soup that I posted HERE, but with only 168 calories per serving. There is even enough left over for Cheryl to have for lunch for most of the week!

Sadly the Hungery Girl cookbook is very lacking in photos, so here is a photo of what ours looks like. My family gives this recipe 4.5 STARS! We would definitely make this again!

On another subject here is my niece and Jena again. Jena LOVES cuddling with my niece. Aren't they cute together?

Happy New Year!!!

Happy New Year to all! We had a nice New Year celebration with family. Toasting the New Year with sparkling apple cider and sparkling grape juice.

We have an overnight guest! Here is Cheryl and her cousin checking out the Red Box. They rented a couple movies from the Red Box and are now on their third movie. It's looking like a movie marathon night...

... and a night of making new friends...

Ring in 2011!!!

I ran 11 miles this morning to celebrate 1-1-11...
What are you doing today to celebrate?

Happy New Year to ALL!!!

Christmas Craftiness

I neglected to share the card that I made for my nephew's birthday. I used some old paper that I had on hand, added a little stamping and lots of die cuts!

Next here is Jena's Christmas stocking. Yep, Jena has a Christmas stocking... She got presents from Santa too. I made the stocking completely out of scraps of felt, added some trim, AC Thickers, and woolies from Basic Grey "Max and Whiskers."

Next, here is the annual Christmas ornament. I make one of these every year with photos of the kids. This is a simple design... I cut six circles using my largest Spellbinder's circle; folded the edges of the circle up and glued them together. Then I cut some photos out using a Spellbinder's square die so it will just fit on each side. A Shrinky Dink star (with date) and a jingle bell top it all off:

My next share is a crochet hat. Yep, I decided to crochet a hat... RED and FESTIVE!

My last share today is Candy Cane Biscotti. I got the recipe from Mara's blog. They are just as yummy as she promised they'd be! Mine aren't are pretty as hers... I think I need more practice, hehehe.


This is more Christmas Craftiness than I've done in years!

Merry Christmas - the day after...

I hope you all had a great Christmas! We usually take our family photo when we are all dressed up just before leaving for my Aunt's and Uncle's house on Christmas Eve, but forgot all about it this year in the rush to leave. So here we are in all our glory (and PJs) on Christmas morning.

And Jena too... good morning Jena!

Time for presents!!!

Jena got a present from Grandma. She opened it all by herself!

Poor Jena... being terrorized by Cheryl's Zu-zu pet.

What did you get, Jim?

The FUN continues at Grandma and Papa's house. First here's Chris with a great BIG box! I had a photo of Cheryl too, but she made me promise not to post it on the blog, hehehe...

Hana and Papa waiting patiently.

Noah is digging right in!

Jacob getting distracted by one of his presents. Open now, Jacob and read later... Cathy is catching it all on film.

Leah LOVES her new shirt!

Merry Christmas to all, and God bless us every one!

Christmas Eve!!!

Look Santa left us a puppy!

Santa Pup!

Happy Birthday, Noah!

Saturday was Noah's 14th birthday! Where does the time go! He's already taller than I am, with a deep manly voice. I bet he shaves too.

Isn't the cake beautiful?... a spectacular creation of my mom and sister-in-law!




Here's the birthday boy... Make a wish, Noah!

And here's Cheryl with her new FABULOUS hair! She LOVEs it, and I think she looks GREAT! I asked her what everyone at Noah's party thought of her hair. She said, "They all said they liked it, but no one is going to say that it stinks!"

My baby has always had long hair... she doesn't look like my baby anymore. My baby is all GROWN UP!

Bunco Babes

Christmas Bunco! Our neighborhood Bunco group meets every month for a girls night out. December has always traditionally been Kate's month. She puts on a wonderful Christmas party and gift exchange in place of our monthly bunco.

I was assigned dessert. I made Oreo Truffles; the easiest dessert EVER! Go HERE to find the recipe. They don't look too different than the picture.

Since I made such an easy dessert, I decided to try something else a little more ambitious... Snowmen Cake Pops! If you go HERE, you can find the recipe, directions, and a picture of what they are supposed to look like.

I didn't use sticks.... As a result, the chocolate puddled around the bottom, and our snowmen look like they are melting. I couldn't find the matching cookies or the candy coated sunflower seeds for the noses, so we substituted moon and star sprinkles. The cookie hats were replaced with Butterfinger bells.

Here are my snowmen helpers hard at work! Chris was putting on the hats and the arms. Cheryl was putting on the nose and the buttons. AND this all needed to be done before the chocolate hardened. They were purposely getting in each others way. We laughed and laughed! Then we ran out of white chocolate and had to use milk chocolate, so we have racially diverse snowmen. Cheryl tried giving the milk chocolate snowmen dreadlocks! lol!

On to Bunco night where there was lots of food, fun, and laughter. Kate's tree (posted above) was beautiful, and her entire house was decked out for Christmas! Look at the great appetizers shared by Stephanie, Tina, and Anne.

Kathy, Julie, Connie, Anne and Kate are digging in for dinner! Dinner was pot luck and everything was WONDERFUL! I was so stuffed!

Here's our Bunco Babes. First there's our Bunco queens, Stacy and our hostess Kate!

Lorraine, Tammy and Kathy, all with beautiful smiles!

Anne and Iris, looking very festive!

Another picture of Stephanie and Tina... Looking gorgeous, ladies!

It's me getting into the picture with Nora.

Here's a few photos after the gift exchange... First of all, here's Kate getting FIT!

And Tina, looking FABULOUS in her new wrap!

And here are Julie, Connie and Lorraine admiring Tina in her new wrap... or is that smile on Julie's face from the chair?

I don't know what time I stumbled back home from next door, but Chris said it was at least 11:30pm. A wild late night for me, hahaha!

Merry Christmas, Bunco Babes!

Jena's new bed!

It's been over a week since I've shared any Jena pictures. I think it's time for an overload of Jena cute-ness!

Jena is such a cuddler... she LOVES to sit/sleep in our laps! I don't know how much longer that's going to last. She is getting to be a BIG DOG!



When we were at Costco, we found a dog bed with a fluffy fuzzy pillow. It is perfect for our cuttle-bug Jena. As you can see, she didn't have to wait until Christmas! She LOVES her new bed!