Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

so... I never got around to posting our family pictures and making the oh so cute Christmas card that I had all planned out! Life got a little crazy...
Here are some of the pictures that Kacey (Flint's assistant)took of us! She did a great job, I just wish that Cooper wasn't so naughty while we were doing them and that Arlee wasn't half asleep... another bad timing on my part...I should know better then to wake up a baby for pictures! DUH! And it completely slipped my mind that I wanted to lose about 20 more lbs before we took these! hahaha Oh well I think they turned out cute! Hope you all had a MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Jan, Arlee 11 mo's, Flint, and Cooper 5 1/2

I'm in LOVE!

I FINALLY got my wheat grinder! I LOVE it! I got it a few days ago and have been wanting to make bread since. I am so happy to be able to grind my OWN wheat. What good is a million pounds of wheat without an ELECTRIC grinder! (we have a hand one, but lets be real, it would take about a month to grind enough wheat for a batch of bread...not to mention the arm pain!) I am so excited. I love how it worked, so easy, and not a lot of parts like some that I have seen.

Cooper was so excited to help me. He even said "Mom, take a picture of me with our new wheat flour" He did decide that he did not like how the plain flour tasted!

Arlee was at my feet wanting to help also! (please excuse her hair...it was a Saturday morning for goodness sakes!)

It was Coopers job to pour in the wheat to be ground. He didn't like the sound that it made while it was grinding that is why he is making such a funny face!

AHHHHH the finished product!!!! YUMMY, and so good for you! I got this awesome recipe from a friend and tweaked it a little bit, so it is a little better for ya!!! It has wheat flour, flax seed, and oatmeal in it...with a little bit of wheat germ. ewwww! It doesn't sound very good, but it is so delicious! I will post the recipe if ya want!

Can you tell that Flint has worked all day today?

I have been so productive. It is busy wedding season, so I must entertain myself...so I made these!

The finished product!

And yes, I climbed up on a bar stool and put these blocks up there all by myself!!!

Had to try something NEW! I had this amazing salad at my nephews wedding luncheon and I LOVED it, so I begged for the recipe! I have been waiting for the perfect time to make it...

I had BUNKO at my house last week and tried it out on the "girls" Most really liked it, but some are picky butts and didn't even try it! Flint told me it is "a Relief Society salad if he has ever seen one!" I will definitely make this again. (sorry for no finished salad picture, I forgot!)

The BIG UGLY thing in the bottom left corner is JICAMA. I have NEVER had it before. It was crunchy and yummy!

Here is the recipe!

JICAMA SALAD

1 large jicama, pealed and diced

4 large diced Roma tomatoes

4 Avocados diced

1 bunch green onions diced

1 bunch cilantro chopped

4-5 fresh green chili diced (I used a can of diced green chili's)

4-5 chopped garlic buttons (used garlic in jar already diced)

Dressing

1/4 C rice vinegar

1/2 C Canola oil

1 tbs chicken bouillon

juice of 1 lime

salt and pepper

pour over veggies and give it a good stir. It was SUPER YUMMY after it had marinated about an hour! It is a good recipe for my weight watcher pals...it is basically CORE! gotta love that.

It is a strange recipe (at least to me it was) but give it a try and try something NEW!

Why my husband LOVES his job...

This is a video that Flint took at a wedding last weekend. I have watched it many times and still laugh every time...so watch and enjoy. Be sure to watch it ALL so you can see what she does to Flint when she realizes she is be photographed. BAHA!

Just when you think you have seen it all...

I can only hope that that my legs will be as sexy as hers at her age...and that I can move like her!!! I wonder if Flint blushed when she did that to him??? probably NOT!

October pictures...

Here are some pictures of us this past month!

This is Arlee reading "Mimi's Toes" while I was canning chicken!


I hate RAW chicken! I did about 20 lbs. It is sooo Yummy and so convenient!


Ahhh... the finished product!


Arlee in her high chair. I love the faces that she makes. She ALWAYS smiles when she sees the camera! How does she know to do that?


This is Madison and Arlee. They are 2nd cousins...I guess. She is my niece Marlees beautiful daughter. They came and hung out with us. We Love it when cousins come to see us!


PUMPKIN CARVIN!!! Flint had the patience to help Cooper carve a really cool spider on his pumpkin this year. Flint did an awesome carving this year on his pumpkin and I am such a loser that I didn't even take a picture of it!!! woops!


The scary spider!


All these years and I had NEVER made salsa...so I decided to try! Can you say yummy! I had no idea that it was SO EASY! I added mango for MANGO SALSA to about half of the batch. It was awesome!


This is Arlee eating the mango seed. She LOVED it! She also made a horrible mess with it.


Cooper the Pirate "bones" and Arlee the lady bug!
Thank you to the Children's Place--I did not have to make costumes this year!!!


My little bug crawling on the floor. (really sweeping the floor!) I could not believe it. She left her hood on her head at trunk or treat and Halloween night. She is such a sweetie!


Friday night was our ward "TRUNK or TREAT" wow! Coopers bucket was completely full in like 20 minutes! I talked Wendy into coming and bringing her football players since both our husbands were working. It was a lot of fun!


Dale and Amanda were here on Halloween night, so Cooper got to go trick or treating with some of his Rogers cousins. He was SO EXCITED. Eli was Tigger, Joy was a beautiful mermaid and Lucy was a cute little cheerleader! Great times! Flint had a wedding on Halloween (who gets married on Halloween anyway??) so he missed out on all the festivities this year. He was pretty bummed.


Funniest Story of the MONTH!
So Cooper wins this little pumpkin at his school Halloween party. He told me that he wanted to draw a face on it. So I assume that he is going to get some markers and make a face...this is what he did...

no big deal right??? I look at it closer and asked him "what are those lines above his eyes?" Cooper looks at me like DUH and says "those are the lines in dads forehead!" I laughed so hard that I cried! soooo here is Flint giving me a MY WIFE is ridiculous look, so I could show you the lines that Cooper was talking about! Who know Cooper was so observant?!? HAHAHAHAHA

Here is Arlee in the "KITCHEN SHOWER" She loves the bath, and sometimes she gets in in the kitchen sink!

The LOVES the water to spray on her!

Sugar Cookies with Aunt Sarah! They were not as good as the ones SHE makes!!!

NEW MOTTO!

"I want to have a nice body but not as much as I want dessert!"
Amen! Amen! Amen!
I love yummy treats....
So my niece (BRITTNEY) comes over and tells me has this yummy recipe that she is going to make for me...so her and her "friend" make us this oh so yummy Halloween treat! It was so yummy! Did I tell you that it was super YUMMY?? I could not stay out of it. I even took it off my counter and put it in the pantry...ya know outta sight outta mind...NOT! It was like a little person in the pantry was in there calling my name! So I would HAVE go in there and get a piece! I am ashamed to tell you this is all that is left and she just made it on Tuesday night! (In my defense, I did however share it with my YW on Wednesday night when they came over...)
SOOO..when I go to Weight Watchers in the morning I was thinking of taking the last three pieces to "Julie" our director and letting her have a taste and then she will understand why
I did not lose any weight this week! Sound like a good idea? Here is a picture that Kacey took of me and what we now call "the devils candy"

Since misery LOVE company here is Brittney's recipe...and no I didn't ask her if I could post it oops!
THE DEVILS CANDY
15 oreos crushed
1 1/2 cup pretzel sticks broken up
candy corn--a hand full (I don't even like candy corn and this stuff was YUMMY)
Toffee Bits (optional)
1 lb. vanilla almond bark
Halloween sprinkles
mix together oreos, pretzels, candy corn and toffee bits spread on baking sheet covered with wax paper
melt almond bark in microwave for 2 minutes, stir and microwave for 30 seconds...until melted
pour over mixture and give it a spread.
Top with a handful of candy corn and sprinkle with the Halloween sprinkles.
Refrigerate until firm...(or put in freezer like we did, because we just had no patience to wait any longer!!!)
break into pieces and ENJOY!!! (I suggest you share with a friend or it will call you name in the pantry!)
Thanks Brittney for this yummy recipe that you didn't even say I could have, but hey...you left your sticky note with the recipe on it sitting on my counter!

What's for dinner?

Some of my friends have asked me to post some of my Weight Watcher recipes, so here is what's for dinner tonight at our house! I am so happy it is finally soup weather! (it's really not, it is gonna be in the 80's today, but I am gonna pretend!)

This is a recipe I have had for a long time, I just lightened it up! Some of you have probably had this at my house, it is one of my "pantry stand bys"

Chicken Tortilla Soup

Taco seasoning packet (0r 2 TBS Costco Taco seasoning)
1 1/2 cups water
1 can tomato sauce
1 can 98% fat free Cream of Chicken Soup
1 cup fat free milk
2 large chicken breasts (boneless, skinless)
2 cans black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can corn, 1 can Rotel or (1 can diced green chili and 1 can diced tomatoes)

In crock pot, mix the taco seasoning with the water and the tomato sauce. Add cream of chicken soup and milk. Add in whole chicken breasts. On top of the breasts dump black beans, corn and Rotel. Don't stir!
Cook on high for 3-4 hours or low for 6-8 (check your chicken after a few hours...my crock pot cook HOT)
Shred chicken (you can pull it out, then dump back in, but I just do it in the crock pot).

Top with fat free sour cream, shredded cheese (if I use cheese I use 2%), diced avocado, a squeeze of lime over the top is also yummy!
Flint eats this with tortilla chips and if I want some I use baked Tostidos!
YUMMY! YUMMY!

If any of you have some yummy recipes that are WW friendly, I am ALWAYS looking for some new ones, please share! I believe that the way to stay eating healthy is to have some options!

UPDATE!!!!
I just shredded my chicken and made a few adjustments... I added another can of black beans (so a total of 2 cans and added 1 1/2 cups of wheat berry's ( if you want to know how to do wheat berry's I can tell you) I usually make a batch of the berry's in the crock pot so I have them ready to add to things! YUMMY!

Catching up...

I canned 40 lbs of pears a few weeks ago! I also froze and made freezer jam with 30 lbs of peaches! (oops no pictures of the peaches) YUMMY, YUMMY! I absolutely LOVE looking in my pantry and my freezer and seeing all the delicious food! Yes, as a matter of fact FOOD does make me happy!
Don't I look so happy pealing and pealing ALL of the pears?!?
The pears BEFORE


AFTER

This is sweet Arlee bug playing with her toys while I am pealing pears! She is such a GOOD baby!

FALL BREAK-
This week is "FALL BREAK" so Cooper was out of school, so we went camping. The weather was awesome and we had a great time!
This is us getting ready to leave!


Flint with his most BEAUTIFUL hair-do and Arlee. This is a cute little game that they play. Arlee takes Flint's hat and then he puts it on her and they both laugh so hard. It is so funny to watch. He is such a sucker for his daughter!

Me with the kids by the fire! It was cold when the sun went down! I was SO thankful for the heater in the camper!

Flint with the kids!

We are such goof-balls! We ACTUALLY road on the 4-wheeler like this! It was a little crazy!

We need a RHINO!

Flint and Arlee on the 4-wheeler. She wasn't a huge fan of it. She would always CRY/SCREAM when he would start it!

The cutest little bug ever! She loved camping.

LOOK I took a picture of leaves...I thought Flint would be so proud of me, and when I showed him, he looked at it and goes OH leaves. That was all he said!!!!

I LOVE FALL

This is Cooper on our hike to the falls. He was a SUPER hiker.

Arlee ALWAYS has to have her feet up on her stroller, table etc..geee I wonder where she gets that???

WIND CAVES--
We came home last night from camping and then got up and hiked to the WIND CAVES at USERY PASS this morning.

The weather is so beautiful right now, we just CAN'T stay INSIDE!!!

Arlee slept all the way back!