Halloween 2011

Taylor and I are pretty boring Halloween people, one day we will be invited to a couple party, one day! But we did do something pretty fun this year, we went to Elich Gardens (which is an old six flags). I loved it!! It was so fun to run around and ride on all the roller coasters. 

It was such a beautiful day just a little breeze but the sun was still shining.

And lets be honest, by the end of night we started to get a little bit crazy! Which is my favourite because we always have more fun together when things get a little bit crazy and we get a little weird!

Bronco's Game. Our first time to a proffesional football game. Taylor loved it... I learned to love it by the end, sort of! 

Stuck in Traffic

Go Bronco's Go!!

We had a very yummy birthday with my very sad icing job on the cake!

Twenty Five

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEETHEART!!

You're such a romantic stud, I'm lucky to have you :)

Holiday Cheer

A week ago I got an email from Shutterfly saying they would “love to partner with” my “influential blog.” Yup they are talking about my blog :) I was pretty happy with that so I am helping them present their new holiday line. There is something exciting about Christmas cards; I love collecting them on my fridge. I got Shutterfly Christmas cards last year and loved them. They had so many different styles to pick from I couldn’t even choose so instead I just picked three different styles. They all were such great quality, ink, paper and all they looked great.

Taylor also used Shutterfly to order a photo book to propose to me, what a sweet memory! They are also always doing discounts and specials for photo books. I gave photo books to my parents for Christmas, we also made a photo book for ourselves of our wedding. They make great personal and sentimental gifts. So what are you waiting for go check it out! I know I am really excited to get my cards and start sending them out!

Below are the four I like best but I can't quite decide yet...

Swan Lake

On my birthday Taylor got my tickets to Swan Lake and a couple weeks later we finally got to go!

And this how I felt at the ballet:

cheery, merry, joyful, jovial,jolly, jocular, gleeful, carefree,delighted, smiling, beaming, grinning, in good spirits, in a good mood, lighthearted, satisfied,gratified, buoyant, radiant, sunny, blithe,joyous, beatific; thrilled, elated,exhilarated, ecstatic, blissful, euphoric,overjoyed, exultant, rapturous, in seventh heaven, on cloud nine, walking on air,jumping for joy, jubilant.

Needless to say, the ballet was the Best Gift Taylor has ever gotten me. I loved it, it was such a beautiful

show and if I had all the money in the world I would buy season tickets and fancy dresses and go every time! 

Cake

I would like to make a homemade cake for my husbands birthday but the only cook books I have right now are health nut food. Does anyone have some amazing recipes they want to share? I also only have a silicone bunt cake pan - Half my kitchen is still in boxes back in Idaho.

I'd sure appreciate it :)

What I need: 

Really good birthday cake that can be cooked in a bunt cake pan, anyone?

Doc's Chili

One Word: Amazing

Two Words: Must Have

Two More Words: Its Healthy!

Chili is one of my favourite homemade meals, I hate store bought Chili because no one makes it right it my mind but someone did get it right when they made this healthy Chili and it is my new favourite. I had to stop myself from eating the pot! Put this on your Must Make List!! Weather your trying to lose weight or not this is a yummy healthy meal. 

You'll Need:

3 cups copped onion (I used onion powered as a substitute)

1 1/4 lbs extra lean ground turkey

3 Cups diced Tom or 1 (15oz) Can

1 (15oz) Can Pinto Beans

1 (15oz) Can Blakc beans

1 cup (fat free/low sodium) Chicken Broth

2 Tbs Garlic

2 Tbs Chili Powder

1 Teas Cumin

1 Teas Mustard Powder

Options: 1/2 Cup Black Olives 

1. Spray your pot with Olive Oil Spray and add onions and cook till tender.

2. Add Turkey and cook for 6 minutes breaking it up with a spoon

3. Add Everything else and bring to a boil then reduce heat to low and cook for 20 minutes

Now enjoy this easy healthy meal that will please the whole family!

The Prenatal Bucket List

As a wife I have had those, or the last whole month being baby hungry but thankfully I have come to my senses again and remembered I have so much more I want to do with my husband while we have more freedom! I found this Prenatal bucket lists on babble.com and thought it was really cut and a good idea. I modified it a bit for my lifestyle. A lot of these we have done but others I would like to do more of like vacation!

1. Take an adventure vacation - Going in December :)

2. Go to the theatre - Going this month!

3. Get Fit - Always a battle

4. Cancel Netflix and go out more - Did that yesterday (the instant anyway)

5. Volunteer Abroad - Ecuador

6. Utilize your extra bedroom - Wish we had one

7. Spend quality time with friends

8. Eat forbidden foods - Sushi, cookie dough

9. Buy a really nice camera
10. Graduate from University

So far off this list I need to graduate, go on vacation more, and spend quality time with friends and of course try to get skinny but lets be honest when is that ever "done"!

Breakfast Melt

I am a sucker for breakfast sandwiches, they are by far my favourite for breakfast. Here is a supper simple breakfast melt.

You will Need:

Low fat cheese

Low Sodium Ham

Whole Wheat English Muffin

an Egg ring (optional)

Egg whites (I find buying them in the containers of all egg white a lot less hassle!)

Olive Oil Spray

Coat your egg ring with Olive Oil Spray and then put it on your pan and pour in two egg whites. Once the egg is about cooked run a knife along the edge to loosen the egg from the ring and flip. Want you ham on the pan for a couple of minutes and toast your whole wheat english muffin. And out it all together! So Yummy and along around 230 Calories :)

Always a Challenge

Speaking of Dinner... I know I am not the only one that feels it is hard to make healthy lean meals and still pleasing your family or in my case husband. We have been doing a little biggest loser Challenge and I won this weeks way in which I will brag about until the next one because my husband was sure he had it in the bag! 

I am going to try and share all of my favourite healthy meals we cook along the way to help you at dinner time, or breakfast time or snack time! I know my blog always seams to change from crafty, to fashion, to food and then the cycle starts all over again but that how life is for me so join along for the healthy kick that is going on at our home. I have lost three pounds and I plan to lose five more before I honeymoon in December!

Giveaway

Don't forget to enter the giveaway ending on saturday!

No one has entered the second half of the giveaway for $30 so if you enter now you will probably have a 100% chance of winning!

Also the Snake Orb Necklace is 50% off and amazing! It is the Necklace I wear the most, and $39 for a 14K Gold Necklace that is oh so wearable! But only today so act quick!

Get at 50% off today only by entering GMA11 at checkout!

Happy Birthday

Some of you may have noticed I have a problem, I spoil my husband!! I should be ashamed of my spending habits but he just works so hard I can't help but treat him like my prince. Then my next shameful moment was when I couldn't help but give it to him a month early :)

And Mom thank you so much for going in on it with me, he loved it and he is so lucky he has such a great Mother-in-law like you

Cute, Cute Boy! So happy you finally have a computer with a working screen.

He was so happy he has wanted a new computer for the last year. I have officially turned my husband into a Mac Boy!

The Breath of Life

It is way past my bed time, I am usually in bed at 11:00 and fall asleep quickly but tonight my mind just kept racing so I finally had to get out of bed to poke around on the internet hoping this would remind me how tired I truly am.

I ended up on a family friends blog, her sister past away and left her baby behind over a year ago. I had only met her a couple of time buts she was a beautiful girl and had such taste for style and life from what I knew of her. But they welcomes this new addition into their family and you can see that she has brought such joy into their lives. Although I am not ready to have a child I will patiently wait until I am because I see how much of a blessing they are.

 It just got me thinking about how lately I haven't been taken advantage of these moments I have with my husband, tv shows, blogging and many other meaningless tasks consume our evenings and then the next thing we know its bed time and we repeat our days over again. 

All this thinking reminded me of this picture from our wedding. It hangs above our bed and it is my favourite, Taylor's expression just moves me in this picture. In all the hustle and bustle of getting married, it was hard to take moments for just us since everyone had just driven miles or days to see us. But here in this pictures he just looks like he is breathing in the moment. Closing his eyes and just absorbing his surrounding. I am going to try and do that exact thing more often.

Lets all make time to take a deep breath of those blissful moments in life, and if you can't find one you better go make one because life has been known to slip away.

Mushroom Caps

Stuffed Mushrooms Caps

Ingredients

• 1 pound large fresh mushrooms
• 4 tablespoons butter, divided
• 1/4 cup Kikkoman Panko Bread Crumbs
• 1/2 cup imitation crabmeat, flaked
• 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons Kikkoman Panko Bread Crumbs
• 1/8 teaspoon black pepper

Directions

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees F. Wipe mushrooms gently with a damp paper towel. Remove and finely chop stems. In a large skillet over medium heat, melt 3 tablespoons of the butter. Add mushroom stems and cook for 5 minutes or until tender. Remove from heat and stir in 1/4 cup of the panko, the shredded crab, onion powder, salt and pepper.
2. Stuff mushrooms caps with crab mixture and place them stuffing side up on an ungreased rimmed baking sheet. In a small bowl, combine remaining butter and panko. Sprinkle evenly over the tops of the mushrooms and bake for 15 minutes.

My Husband made these to go along with our meal the other night. Amazing!! Wow and they were so simple so he say's. If you want to treat yourself, or you want to impress some dinner guests or in-laws these are the side to make simple and wow - also if you don't like crab, or seafood neither do we you can't even tell :)