My Love Affiar with food pictures.....

So I actually made this tonight and its very yummy!! And no I am not trying to underline everything. not sure what is going on with that!! Here's the recipe link chicken taco chili yumm!

I love looking at recipes online, in cookbooks and espically in magazines!! course they never look the same but this winter I have actually starting to cook them and not just look at them. Weight Watchers has taught me soo much about myself and how to eat what I love and still be healthy!! I lost 25 pounds by myself but had 3 months of not budging on the scale at all so I had several friends that are on the program and love it! So I signed up before Christmas!! Why u ask?? Well  I didnt want to undo my progress so I thought I'd give it a shot!! I am soo glad I did!! I have lost 12 pds since then!! (in two months)  I have 35 more pds to go till I reach my personal goal and 25 till I reach Weight Watchers lifetime membership.  So if your counting that 37 pounds and counting!! woohoo!

Here's some more pics!!pumkin dip






one of my favorite things to order at restaurant, however the at home version is less fattening!
spinach dip

I really did try to make the underline go away!! ughh!!! So what are some of your fav food sites with pictures of course!!!

Weekend with Hopper

Ryan brought home Hopper from preschool. He was really EXCITED about this!!

We took pictures and told what they did so he could share with his class.

 More pics!

We took Hopper with us to Oklahoma. As u can tell we cleaned out our garage and were throwing stuff in the burn pile at the farm.

This farm was settled by Pete's great grandpa that came over from Denmark in the land run. It has been passed down through the family and now Pete farms the crops.

Riding on the tractor to help feed the cows! This was a really busy but fun day!! Needless to say Ryan fell asleep in the van on the way home at 6:30 that  night.

January

For some reason I have been thinking about my mom alot lately. Mayb its because I live only 30 min from where I spent my elementary years. My friends from that time period have a hard time believing that my mom is paraniod skitsafraniac.I lived with my grandparents in high school so my friends from then didnt know my mom very well or know that I have a younger sister. My college friends went on trips to see my mom so they have seen both.  I miss that loving, creative, strict woman.. However over the years I have come to accept that she is lost forever. Her shell is still there. Very rarely glimpses are seen but most of the time the person I am talking to is not my mother. Its her illness and that illness is not my mother. I know that when she is in Heaven she will be healed from it. My relationship with my saviour Jesus Christ has healed my wounds and I believe that my scars with honor the Lord and help others draw close to him. He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow and I can always count on that no matter what!

getting organized and lots more....

I was just reading a childhood friend's blog about her desire to get more organized. Brenda is an amazing writer and even had a worksheet attached to it so I could clearly figure out my frustrations and goals.. So here is my goals for 2011 and beyond.

2010 was a year was full of lots of changes. It ended a 6 mth period of me having the children Monday thru Friday while Pete worked in another state. He had been laid off from a company in April 2009 (lily was 2mths old). So exactly a year later we moved to Kansas. Everyone told me to give yourself time to get settled... HA-- I will totally listen next time... :)  We bought an older home that lots of room and also lots and lots WALLPAPER. I used to be totally OCD before kids were born. I now often cringe when opening my bathroom cabinets and my dresser drawers.. I kept last years goal of losing weight. I lost 30 pds! Now I am shooting for 40! I joined Weight Watchers a month ago and I am really learning how to eat and make better choices but also my favorites too. Pete's job has turned out to be very demanding and not what we expected so it has made Farming season very busy. But we are grateful he is employed! I am planning on tackling alot of things before June when farm work kicks into high gear.

• Take a shower at least every other day and style my hair plus makeup daily.
• .Read my bible daily
• Organize the upstairs bathrooms closets..
• .Organize my dresser.
•  Get the remaining 4 rooms with Wallpaper down.
•  Do laundry every other day.
• Take kids on walk everyday (weather permitting- if not structed indoor activity)
• Make cards or scrapbook once a month.
• Stay on top of finances,things to be mailed.
• Meal plan
• Go to sleep by 10, get up at 6:30.
• Intentional Excerise 3 times a week
• Read more books (book club ones, parenting,etc)
• Keep my nails clean and filed..
• Lose the 40 pounds by making good choices everyday.. (aka not stress eating)

Yep, I know some of them are odd but sometimes in times of big changes and stress, mommies forget to do little things for themselves.. I read Lisa Welchel's book Taking time for the Me in Mommy.. book info here
when I was pregnant with Lily but didnt have alot time to apply it and choas of life hit. However during that time I drew close to the Lord and I know that Life isnt easy and its not fair... He is my strength and guide during those times of turmoil and calm too!! I defianetly have lots of areas to improve on in my life.

We have all had the stomach flu so I plan to start one at a time start working on my goals, some with take time while others just need me to focus and not get distracted walking from room to another..

December..

Well December and well November have flown by.. We celebrated our first Christmas in Kansas.. All day in our pj's playing and eating!!

 

The day after Christmas we went to Pete's mom's for the day. His brother Chance and our sister-in law Lori have 3 kids and our kids love LOVE,LOVE playing with thier cousins!! There is never a dull moments with the kids. It really makes hoildays so fun. One day Lori and I will be able to finish converstations agian when they are older!!  We have been all boys but now have added 2 girls so its fun navigating thru Girl world togethor!!

This a quick shot of our new floors Pete is installing this week. The white thing is piece of plastic that didnt get pciked up. But this is the hall looking into the formal living area. The hall, laundry room,kitchen, family room and formal living area are all getting these floors. Yea,lots of projects for us!! I got a new laptop from Santa.. my other one went to laptop heaven!! much easier to post blogs from a computer that works!!

Happy New YEAR!!

November so far...

Kids on rainy day!!

Ryan and his trains, He loves them still and know all of thier names. Yea, Thomas and Friends took over the house and looks like they arent going anywhere anytime soon.

Well our remodeling was really kicked into gear, when we discovered water leak.. so bring on the painting..

My craft room  :( hopefully I will get to resume craft making soon. The house is quite chaotic at the moment. I hope to paint and then post pics of a great new rooms,LOL.lol!!

Friends...

The last three weekends I have gotten to spend time with my main friend base.. This has been so encouraging since I feel like Kansas is a friend desert. It takes time to build friendships and since we have been gone most weekends with farming (Agco has Pete working 60 to 70 hrs a week) this has left not much time for friendship building.. 

Tonya and her kids came to visit at the farm! She is an amazing spiritual leader and encourager and great mommy friend, also my go to on excerise and diet.. yea she has three kids but ya cant tell.. great decorator and organizer too..

Then last weekend I got to scrapbook with some of Stillwater friends!

This is Suzanne- my ex neighbor and closest friends. Our kids played togethor all the time, we have 6 years of awesome memories and have still managed to make more despite the distance now. One of our favorite things to do was go to the movies when its icey and nasty outside and escape the craziness of our couped up families! We also worked out togethor,shopped, went to church togethor and of course scrapbooked!

Here's the group!

Liz and I met at college- Noc days. My roommate at the time cousins were killed in a car accident right after her parents dropped her off and Liz was a peer counselor that was sent in to counsel my roommate.We have been friends for over 11 years!! We make it a point to get togethor several times a year.. She is the most organized person I know!!

  This my crazy silly friend Melissa. We were pregnant togethor with our daughters and our sons are a year apart. We have alot in common with our families too! We were garage selling buddies on Friday mornings, Panera Bread and of course lots of unnecessary shopping trips..shh!! most of the time its really to get our kids energy out and sneak out with Suzanne and Melinda to the movies whenever we could.

Yesterday, I got to see Mindy and Caitlin. Two of my "oldest" friends.. Caitlin is a high school buddy and college roommate. We NEVER remember to take a pic togethor. thats why there is no pic of her.. This is an old pic of Mindy holding Lily as a newborn. I met her the summer of 1999 when I worked at Falls Creek. We got to see Caitlin's new house and eat yummy mexican food.. one of our fav things to do!!

My friendship cup is boiling over at the moment!! Thank goodness!! It was a really a blessing to see familar faces and enjoy laughs, It was much needed!!