March

Back in January I started a program with one of my co-workers (and 43 other people) called Feel Great in Eight. The basis of the program is to create better habits in your life. You get points for eating fruits, veggies and other good items that were on the list. You received negative points for items that were on the bad list and for eating after 8 PM. You also received points for reading your scriptures, praying, exercising, and doing a daily calendar item. It was actually a fun program and I was feeling great by the end of it. At my last weigh in on March 12th I was down eight and a half pounds, which make a grand total of 20 since the end of September when we moved to South Salt Lake.

One of the calendar items we had to do is try a new "healthy" recipe. We tried the following recipe. They are REALLY yummy! I think we have made them three time already. I would definitely suggest trying them.

Banana Nut Muffin

Preheat oven to 350

Begin with:

5 smashed bananas (I sometimes add one extra. I use a mixer.)

1/4 cup canola oil

2/3 cup honey

1 tsp vanilla

Mix all together then add:

2  1/3 cups wheat flour

3/4 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp sea salt

3/4 tsp nutmeg

mix all together again 

Stir in 2/3 cups chopped walnuts. (We have been chopping extra nuts and put them on top)

Makes 12 big muffins.  Spray muffin pans and fill to the rim.  Bake for 20-25 minutes.

Ready for the oven

They look yummy!

March for us means Pi Day and this year we had a HUGE turn out. We had around 30 people show up, which was crazy, but it was a lot a lot of fun. Zoey wasn't sure what to do with all the people in our house, especially the kids. We have pizza and pie like we have had the last several years (well at least since we have been married) and then just sat around a talked. We have a bunch of ward members show up which was fun.

Pi Day also mean that Shaun and I have know each other another year! I am so glad that I went for left over pie that very first time! I love Shaun so much!

The spread (minus the pizza)

Lots of people!

More people!

I have so good news to share! I get to start school at the end of May!! I am so excited. I was able to arrange my schedule at my current job so that it will work for me to go to classes (no more 10L shifts!!). I am so excited to finally be able to start. It is amazing how everything has worked out so that is even possible for me to think about starting. I just need to continue to have faith that everything else will fall into place!

Well I think that guess us caught up! 

February

February was a fun month. I was able to go to a chocolate making demonstration with my friend Christie. It was fun, but it made me miss my Grandma! She has been gone 5 months now.. Crazy! I do need to pull out my Grandma's recipe sometime and make chocolate, especially the peanut butter ones!

On Valentines I had to work during the day and when I got home I can home to nice surprise. Shaun had got me beautiful roses and chocolate covered strawberries! It was such a nice surprise! The night we went out and had yummy sushi and some frozen custard! It was a fun evening out!

So pretty!

We were able to go on our first bike ride of the year! It was nice to get out.. It was windy though so the ride home wasn't very funny because of the strong head wind. Good work out though:

On the 18th, Shaun and I went and spent the evening with a bunch of Girl Scouts. One of our ward members is over Girls Scouts in our area and they were having a big get together and we were asked to help out with the live action Clue game they were playing. It was a lot of fun. I played the role of Miss Smooch and Shaun was Hermie "The Worm". It was fun being able to interact with the girls.

That same weekend Shaun and I got to babysit my parents dogs, Huge and Peanut. All the dogs did pretty well together. The boys normally sleep in my parents bed and so we decide to let Zoey sleep in our bed to so we wouldn't have any problems. Our bed definitely isn't big enough for 3 dogs... especially since they all cuddled up to me both nights. We also decided that Zoey sleeps much better in her crate. Peanut has become protective of Zoey. It is pretty cute.

On the 27th Shaun and I, along with our friends Christie and Matt, headed up to Hardware Ranch. We left later than we should have and by the time we got there we were like 6 minutes after the deadline to get tickets for the sleigh ride. It ended up being okay though, because it was REALLY cold up there! After we were done checking out the elk we headed into Logan and went to the Gossner Cheese Factory for some yummy cheese curds. Our next stop was the temple. We were there for all of like 5 minutes before we decided it was too cold to spend much time outside. When then headed to Maddox in Brigham City for a yummy dinner.

At Hardware Ranch

Christie and Matt

At the Logan Temple

January

The beginning of January nothing really big happened.. Until the 17th. That is when Zoey had her Puppy Class graduation. She did a good job for the most part during the class. She is really good at sitting and we are still working on everything else. I think Shaun and I were better trained than Zoey. Anyhow... There were 6 dogs in the class (Eva, Samison, Darwin, Lucy, Ray Ray and Zoey)  Zoey didn't like the big dogs. They scared her, until graduation. The night of graduation she became adventurous and decided to go check out the big dogs (there were 3; Lucy, Darwin and Ray Ray) and try to steal treats from the instructors treat bag. It was pretty funny. For graduation we played a game and the puppies all got to eat some puppy friendly ice cream. I am not sure what Zoey thought about it. I think it was a little too cold for her. It was fun watching her eat it though. It was a fun class and I am glad that we took it.

The Graduate!

Ice cream!

Rae Rae

Samson

Lucy and Darwin

Later in month Shaun and I rode the Fun Bus to Wendover with my parents. It was a fun evening. I would definitely take the fun bus out there again. On the way out we played bingo and Shaun actually won! He only got a dollar, but it was still fun. Once we got out there we eat dinner and just wondered around. It was fun being able to spend the night with my parents. Zoey even got to have a sleepover with the family we got her from. I think she had fun, but she was excited to see us when we went to pick her up.

Shaun and I in Wendover

The following day I had the opportunity to go to Color Me Mine and have a girls day out! It was TONS of
fun! I love that place and I honestly can't wait to go again. I love getting to be creative and just having fun. Plus getting to hang out with just us girls is fun too!

My Chip and Dip set

Dianna and Christie with their bowls

Lacy's water dispenser

Stephanie's cookie jar

My Mom's spoon rest

My Mom's finished product

My finished product

I think that is pretty much our January :)

December

Our December started out on a spiritual note. I was able to get tickets to the First Presidency's Christmas Devotional and so we spent the evening with my parents. This was definitely a great way to start the holiday season.
 

I thought it was pretty that night!

The following Saturday was our ward Christmas party. Much like our old ward this ward did a Breakfast with Santa. It was fun. They has yummy food and a lot fun activities planned... well at least they did for the kids :) It was, however, a lot of fun to visit with our new ward members and getting to know some of them.

We officially started holding cub scouts and having boys actually show up. We had several weeks where no one showed up, but after making some reminder calls, the boys started showing up. We have/had 5 boys (had because 2 of them recently moved away) that show up on a regular basis.

For our Relief Society we had a nice couples dinner and had a performance by Ryan Innes. He was pretty good. We bought an album from him and have enjoyed listening to it. It will be fun to see what future release he has.

Christmas Eve we went to the annual Christmas Eve party at my grandpa's house. Then on Christmas Day we spent the morning with Shaun's parents and then we went to our friends, Aaron and Betsy, house to visit for a little bit. In the afternoon we headed to my parents house and spent the rest of our day there. We celebrated Christmas with my mom's side of the family the Sunday after Christmas.

Zoey can fit in her stocking

My first pumpkin roll

Our "Christmas Tree"

Our cute little family Christmas Eve

Sporting our Christmas PJ's

In between Christmas and New Years Zoey got to go to the vet to get fixed and to get a microchip placed. She did really well with it. The only big problem we had was that her microchip fell out. Shaun went to pet her after we picked her up and ended up with a white pill looking thing in he had. So we called the vet and they were really surprised that it had come out. We just had to go back in to get it replaced.. Zoey wasn't very happy about it...

New Years Eve we had our annual Fondue Party! It was SO good! I think this is one of my favorite parties that we host. We had cheese, hot oil and chocolate and lots of different dippers. Shaun has issues getting the cheese to melt this year, but once he got it to work we had fun eating it, mostly because it was REALLY stringy :)  It was a fun evening filled with great friends and family!

The dippers

Making the good stuff

My Mom (my Dad was also there... I didn't seem to get a picture of him though...)

Brook, Matt and Christie

The first family picture of the New Year

All in all 2010 was a great year! I look forward to seeing what happens during 2011

November

I have been really bad about keeping the blog up-to-date, but I eventually get around to it :) I figure that the easiest way to update everyone is to do it by month, so here we go.

I already posted about the biggest thing that happened to us during that month of November and that is the addition to our family, Zoey! She is a lot of fun. We enjoy every minute with her.

Also during November I was able to go to Time Out for Women here in Salt Lake with my Mother in law. It was a really enjoyable weekend. The speakers were great and very motivating. I LOVE TOFW! I can't wait to go again.

We had two Thanksgiving this year. The Sunday before Thanksgiving we had dinner with my Mom's side of the family. It was fun being able to spend time with family we don't spend too much time with because everyone seems to stay so busy.  The food was delicious as always!

On Thanksgiving Day we went to Shaun's uncle Bruce's house (the same place we had our wedding reception). We were late because I had to work (the joys of working at a hospital) and by the time we got there everyone was pretty much done eating, but we still were able to eat some tasty food and spend time with Shaun's family. We took Zoey with us and it was fun watching her interact with the other dog that was there as well as the cat (way funny!) All in all our Thanksgiving week was fun.

Zoey and I on Thanksgiving

The last big thing we did was start puppy classes with Zoey... There will be more about that in a future post :)

Family Picture... Zoey is so small in this picture!

Zoey and Shaun.. They like each other :)