I knew my camera was at my parents house! We went there last night for my nieces b-day party and I found it! Here are a few Christmas Break pictures:

Project Feed Me + other donations for the family whose house burnt down

Dave's SUV was so full we had to load stuff onto the trailer!

I was overwhelmed by the donations from others given for this family.  We actually had to turn a few things away because we could not fit them in the SUV or trailer!  It was an hour and 1/2 trip to deliver the items, so we had to pack it all into one trip. There was also a lot of money donated in addition to all of these items!  We ended up having TONS of food thanks to my sisters and parents donation of their PFM stash. I also donated my PFM collection to this family, it was perfect!  It was very humbling to visit this family in their temporary residence and see how much the didn't have.  They seriously had nothing. I thought we might be overwhelming them with things they didn't need or things they already had, but I was so wrong. They had nothing.  They had a sofa, a tiny Christmas tree, and a few clothes. Every time we would bring in a new item they would get so excited and express how badly they needed that specific item.  With the help of others, we unloaded almost 4 times the amount of items they already had into their home that night.  The items filled their entire living room area. They were so thankful and grateful.  It was a wonderful night. This family was in need and they needed our help. I am so thankful for all of you who helped and made it possible. I really only asked for items, and delivered, all of your donations are what made this possible!! Thank you so much!

Making Spiced Pecans….yummy!
(he didn't want to be in the picture so he ducked his head…what a dork)

We burnt the first batch..but the second batch was perfect!

Christmas Day

is he not the cutest?

Our Christmas Lights

I FINALLY took down our Christmas Tree on Saturday.  The house looks empty without it. Turtle is trying to find a new home, since she had taken up residence under the tree for a few months. We still have our Christmas lights up, Dave thinks we should leave them up all year round. I think he just doesn't want to help take them down…

We had an awesome Christmas. Sick and all.  We didn't end up opening presents until 1:00pm.  We woke up late since we hardly slept much the night before.  We showered got ready, opened presents and then laid right back down afterwards.  We needed more rest.  Here are a few pics we took with Dave's Iphone. They aren't the best quality, but oh well.  We have some cute pics from my parents but I'll have to get them from my Dad's camera.

Dave told me he only got me one present, and then hid all the other ones in these decorative boxes.  He totally tricked me.

He really wanted this coat the other week but I talked him out of it so I could go back and buy it for him for Christmas.  He was super excited!

We have turty some cat nip for Christmas…she loved it.

Can't have too many lotions right?

The end for now.  We went to my parents last night and I forgot my camera…AGAIN! Dangit!

A few days late. I didn't feel like blogging the last few days. In fact, I haven't even opened my computer.
We had a wonderful Christmas and days surrounding! Dave and I laid low on Christmas eve at our house and watched some fun Christmas movies, drank sparkling cider, ate a yummy dinner and relaxed, just the two of us. It was really nice! Dave was pretty sick so that threw a wrench in a few of our plans, but it was still wonderful!  We opened presents Christmas around noon on Christmas (since we were both up all night sick) and spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing and trying to recover. I got the heart rate monitor that I wanted…yay! I also got some yummy lotions!! Oh and a brand new house of course!!  Christmas afternoon we went to my parents where we enjoyed a crab and lobster feast! It was wonderful!  We hung out, exchanged gifts, and watched a really nice movie about the birth of Christ..just lovely!  The rest of our weekend has been pretty relaxed since we are now both sick! Blah!  We did have a Christmas party at our house last night with my friends from high school and their husbands and that was really fun!  I'm not going back to work until next Monday and I couldn't be happier!  I'm not sure what I plan on doing this week, but I'm sure whatever I do i'll have fun jut not being at work!!  I may or may not blog. Kinda depends on how I feel I guess!  I think I left my camera at my parents so I'll have to post my pictures from Christmas when I get it back!  Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and have enjoyed a break from the norm!  I hope I feel better in the next few days, because I've been dying to get outside and do some running and use my new monitor!!  I'll let ya know how it goes! bye for now.

Ever seen what about bob?  Remember this clip? That is how I felt this weekend, only with baking. Dave was out working in the garage and I went out and said…honey, I'm a baker…I bake.  He looked at me kinda weird and said what he thought I wanted to hear….oh, good job honey! lol! We had a FUN FUN weekend!  Here are some ( a ton) of pictures! (Sorry for the horrible quality. We have still not found the charger for our good camera, so the only camera I have is an OLD crapy crapy one that I can barley get to focus)

I spent the morning on Friday printing out yummy recipes.

I three hole punched them so I could add them to my future recipe book.

I love Christmas time because when I get home there always seems to be something waiting for me at my front door!

After I opened up the packages, I turned on the fire place, got my lap top and turned on my favorite Christmas music. After Renee sent me an email about personalizing a cook book, I remembered that my mother in-law had done this same sort of thing for me a few Christmas's back. I just had to find it! Since I haven't ever loved cooking/baking and haven't had a kitchen to cook or bake in I haven't put it to use just yet.  It is perfect though! Just what I needed! Thanks Julie!

Tabs for all the different categories

She had set it up perfectly! I added my new Christmas cookie recipes to the book and got started!
Dang my stupid old camera. Blurry every time. It's not me I swear!

In junior high and high school, our cooks would make Molasses cookies that were to die for. They were my all time favorite cookie so I decided I would give making them a try.

I'm messy.

I had to try the dough. I look cross eyed in this pic! lol

Finished product. Oh, they are so cute huh? Or am I just proud I baked something that didn't come from a premade mix?

Yum! They were really good. A little strong in the molasses area, but very tasty.  Dave didn't like them  much. He is more of a chocolate chip kinda guy.

Later that day, I wrapped Dave's Christmas presents and put them under the tree.  His are the ones with actual wrapping paper. The other perfectly square red and green boxes are just decoration.

Later that night we went and saw Avatar. It was really good. I loved it. I didn't think I'd like it that much, but seriously I loved it. The graphics were amazing.  Ever since I've known Dave, I've had a new appreciation for computer graphics. Since I now kinda understand how it works, it AMAZES me when something is done so well. This show was amazing visually and had such a great story. I seem to think everyone will like it!

Saturday was spent laying around watching movies for most of the day. Have you seen "The Holiday"…what a cute movie. I really liked it. Later in the day Dave worked on his four wheeler and I did some more baking.  Ever had Magic Bars? I think they really are magic.

They consist of  a buttery gram cracker crust, sweet and condensed milk, butterscotch chips, chocolate chips and coconut.  OOOOHHHHHH MMMMYYYYYY GGGGGOOOOOOOOOOSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHH these things are the best dessert I have ever tasted!

Would you think we were crazy if I told you we ate 12 of the 15 bars in just 2 days? That's 3 bars a day each. I think it was more like 4 for Dave 2 for me.  They are so good. Oh my. It was impossible to not eat them. IMPOSSIBLE I tell you.

Later that night, we headed to the mall to get some presents to complete our Christmas shopping yippe!  Look what else we got…
I Love yummy smelling soaps! 3 for $10…awesome!

After shopping we went to Olive garden where we split a meal. My grandma gave us a gift card and since spilt a meal, we will be able to go to eat twice with just one card! It was perfect and even though we split the meal, we left completely full!!

Last but not least when we got hoome, we put up Christmas lights on our pillars!! You can't really see them too well cus of the stupid camera but you get the idea.

Although you can't tell, the lights look really cute. I was super happy we got them up…just in the nic of time.

One more thing….I know I said I was going to deliver my PFM food this weekend, but there has been a change in plans.

On Wednesday night I saw a story about a family on the news whose home had caught on fire. They had no insurance and had lost everything. To make matters even worse, this was not their first tragedy this year.  Two months ago they had a 9yr old daughter die from swine flu complications. My heart broke as I listened to this story. After we turned off the tv and went to bed, I laid there not being able to sleep feeling so upset and heart broken for this poor family.  I wished there was something I could do. Just as I soon as I realized there wasn't much I could do..I had an Idea and realized there WAS something I could do. 

I took some time Thursday and Friday calling family, friends and co-workers asking them if they had any items around the house that they would be willing to donate to the family. They have nothing and need everything.  I figured everyone has something lying around the house, extra towels, blankets, bowls, etc.!  Yesterday we had a family party and I was able to gather a TON of stuff. Today at work people have been bringing me tons of stuff too!  Dave and I plan on delivering the items this Wednesday to the family.  What does this have to do with PFM you ask? Well, I decided that instead of dropping my items off at the bank, I would give them to this family.  My sisters and parents are doing the same thing.  It worked out perfectly, almost like it was supposed to be this way.  Because of Project Feed Me, between me, my sisters and my parents, we will be able to give this family over 100 items of food.  Not to mention hundreds of house hold items that everyone has pitched in to donate. I know most of you don't live in Utah and aren't able to donate any items, but if you can and would like to help, you can make donations to a pay pal account set up in their name.  Here is the account name: shahlufu@gmail.com . Any amount, even a dollar will help!  Or if you know any family or friends in Utah that may want to help, please spread the word!

I'll make sure to take some pictures of all the items that are donated. It seriously blows me away how willing people are to help! YOU are one of them. Thank you all for your efforts with PFM and with this family.  It is so wonderful to see people pull together to help those in need!  Like I said, our weekend was awesome. It was filled with everything christmasy and joyful. 

I plan on making another batch of the oh so magical magic bars tonight to take to my grandmas Christmas party.  These suckers are too good not to share! (and too dangerous to leave hanging around the house).  I also hope to get a little run in before the party BUT we are closing on our house today so I don't know if there will be time.  Ya, I haven't mentioned it, but we haven't close on our house yet. Crazy right? We have been in it for 6 weeks rent free and are just now closing. It has been a NIGHTMARE trying to get everything worked out since it's a short sale, but in the same breath it has been in our favor because we got to live for free for 6 weeks and we got a super low interest rate!  

I hope you all have a MERRY MERRY Christmas week! HO HO HO!!

PS…. If you live in Utah and would like to donate any items to this family, it's not to late. Please call me. I am not delivering the items until Wednesday afternoon. If you can't make it to me, I'd be happy to pick up the items from you!

QA: Since I'm now a baker (ha ha), I'd like some great baking Ideas.  So,what is your favorite holiday treat??

This whole thing started last week when we got six inches of snow.  We started talking about getting a blower or a plow, but since we have been spending so much money on house stuff we decided we would wait it out until next year.  Shoveling is good exercise and we could handle it.  We only have one shovel right now so when we got home from work last Monday, Dave suited up and went out in the storm. He shoveled for an hour and half and finally came back in to get warm. We were both surprised how long it took, especially since our driveway isn't that big.  He didn't mind it though, it was good exercise.

Flash forward to Friday afternoon.  Dave came home from work and told me he had been thinking about buying a snow blower or plow. He thought about how much time it took him to shovel and how convenient a snow blower or plow would be.  He contemplated between the two all night long.  By Saturday morning he decided hands down he wanted a blower. Here were his reasons for not wanting to get the snow plow for his four wheeler:

- side walk plowing might be a problem
-Taking the plow on and off of the four wheeler would get old
-it would be less expensive to buy a snow blower

There you have it. He made up his mind.  We had lots to do on Saturday, so we got at it bright and early! We woke up, worked out and were on the road.  We drove 45 minutes to SLC to pick up a couch and chair for the front room (yay)!  We were rushing like crazy to get to my nieces birthday party on time so we completely skipped lunch.  We made it to the party late, but with plenty of time to have fun and enjoy.  Dave ate a piece of cake, but I held out for real food that I PLANNED on having once we got home.

When we got home we unloaded the couch and chair and began setting up the front room.  By the time we were done arranging and re-arranging, we needed to hit the road again to run more errands before it got to late and snowy. I grabbed a few almonds and we jumped in the car. I figured we'd stop and grab some food very, VERY soon.

Our FIRST stop was Lowe's.  Dave looked around for over an hour trying to figure out what snow blower was just right.  He looked at me reluctantly and pointed to the most expensive one.  REALLY??!! You really want that one?  He gave me his reasons and I shrugged my shoulders and told him to do what he thought was best.  LOL.  By this time I was more than hungry. All I had eaten the entire day was 1/4 cup yogurt and a protein bar with a few almonds….and it was nearly 6:00pm. Since he liked the most expensive one best, he decided we needed to drive 25 minutes to Sears to see if they had any better deals.  I agreed since my favorite restaurant was right around the corner from sears. We called and made reservations on the drive…finally there was an end in sight. I was a happy camper!

We made it to Sears and Dave did his thing. We looked around for 20 minutes and finally he made a decision.  He chose a less expensive one and we were ready to go…what could be better?? He found what he wanted for the price I wanted to pay…and most importantly I was going to get to eat very very soon! The salesman came over and almost killed me when he said…we don't have that model in stock.  Knowing Dave, I knew he did not want to wait until next week for delivery. I about fell over because I was 1. hungry as a hippo and 2. sick of snow blower shopping. eeeeeeeekkk!! It had now been 2 1/2 hours since we started and I was pretty much done.  Dave paced back and forth trying to decide what to do. He really wanted to get the snow blower RIGHT THEN since the weather man had called for a blizzard the next few days.  If sears didn't have it in stock…would Lowe's?  He called Lowe's and low and behold they did.  What did that mean? That meant we had to drive 25 minutes in the opposite direction back to the store we started with and pick it up there. After another 10-15 minutes of trying to figure out what to do…we decided to make the haul back. I was delusional and giggly by this time.  It felt like a nightmare where you just can't make what you want happen, happen.

We canceled our reservation at the restaurant and started the drive back to Lowe's.  We got to Lowe's about 8:30, bought the mother of all snow blowers (commercial grade you guys) and packed it up on the trailer.  At 9:20pm we walked into the restaurant.  When my food came out I ate it faster than you can imagine. I had to cover my mouth while eating the salad portion because I couldn't eat it fast enough and still be polite.  I scarffed my food and wished for more.

As soon as we got home, Dave turned on the blower and cleaned off the drive way.  He was having a riot. At one point I looked out the window and saw him snow blowing the street! Boys and their toys..I tell ya.

While Dave was blowing off the Drive way, I went to town setting up the new rug that we bought from my sister.  I can't get over how expensive rugs are and had pretty much boycotted buying one.  Luckily Erin told me about  a rug she had bought that she would be willing to sell to us.  It worked out perfect. It was the price I felt comfortable spending, and you would have thought it was made for our house. I love it!

Sunday morning we woke up to more snow, and the sound of  a four wheeler riding around. Dave ran to the window only to see someone on their four wheeler plowing the sidewalks and driveways.  He motioned me to the window and showed me what he was looking at.  "I guess they can plow sidewalks", he said.  He also mentioned how fun it looked to be out there riding in the snow.  Since we woke up late we were rushing to get to church so that was the end of that conversation…………….so I thought.

An hour or two later while in church, Dave tapped me on the shoulder and gave me a childish smirk.  I asked him what was so funny and he said…"do you think Lowe's will take back the snow blower if I've already used it?"….OMGOSH…are you serious?  He was people…serious as a heart attack.  He proceeded to tell me that he thinks he changed his mind and that a plow is really what he wants.  Since he bought the top notch blower, the plow would not cost any more and he would have so much fun with a plow. He now knew that the plow could fit down sidewalks.
He had made his mind up (again)…the blower was going back to Lowe's.

I called Lowe's Monday morning to make sure they'd take it back and they said yes…as long as there was not gasoline in the engine.  Dave had stopped by the gas station on the way home from buying the blower on Saturday so naturally it was full of gas.  He decided to run the gas down, he'd plow the drive way one last time.  After he spent over an hour blowing the drive way, the gas tank was still half full, so what did we do next?  Any guesses?  Yes friends…..we syphoned the gas out of the snow blower with a garden hose. I did not know this was actually possible. With my help and utter disbelief, I stuck one end of the garden hose filled with water in the snow blower gas tank. Dave stood at the other end of the driveway with the other end with the hose in his mouth, he began sucking on the hose trying to get the water flowing.  Once the water hit his lips and he spit it out and the hose started sucking the gas out just like a vacuum.  I busted up laughing.

(after we syphoned the gas)

A few minutes later I got a text from one of my neighbors saying "what in the world are you guys doing out there?" 
I can only imagine what she must have thought when she looked out her window!

So to make a long story short, the monstrous commercial strength snow blower is now back at Lowe's, and a wench and plow for a fourwheeler are on order.

Conclusion….Dave is happy

Which means I am happy. 

And hopefully after reading this story, you are happy too!

QA: Is your husband WAY into his "boy toys" too?

Yay, more PFM pics!  This first picture was sent to me by Krista from Krista's Kravings.  I love that she got her kids involved and excited about the whole thing! I remember my parents helping us kids participate in sub for Santa's or other service at Christmas time. It really helped teach us about the true meaning of Christmas!
Thanks so much for your support and excitement Krista! Love the picture!!

This next picture is from Tasha from The clean eating mama. She donated the first batch of food pictured at a local food Drive in November.  The second picture is of her sweet little boy and the rest of the food she had gathered!  I love this picture of her little boy….so adorable!  Tasha has been so supportive and excited about PFM and has helped many other people get involved! Thanks so much for all of your efforts!!

Thank you both for sending me your pictures! I love them!  I wanted to donate our PFM items on Saturday and  had them in the car ready to go, but after a CRAZY night (I'll post about it later) it just didn't happen. We set a date for this Saturday so for now, that is the plan!  

I am still short about 160 pictures from all of you, so if you haven't yet sent me your PFM picture…..I'm hoping you are all like me and just haven't had a chance to deliver your food quite yet, or you delivered it this weekend and are getting ready to send me your picture any minute!  I can't wait to see them!! Happy Monday!!

holy crap. It is 3:30pm and I am just now getting the time to write a post! WTFREAK. I was so busy the entire day. I didn't sit down to eat breakfast…until 11:00am!

I am so excited for the holidays!! I wanted to share a few of my all time favorite things to do!

-drinking hot chocolate cuddled up in a blanket
(I've been having a cup of hot chocolate with vanilla soy milk every night this week and last…oh my its so good. The vanilla in the soy milk makes it so creamy!! TRY IT!)

-cuddling up by the fire

-Shoveling the snow

-decorating for christmas

-taking walks in the quiet crisp air

-going to Temple Square to see the lights

- eating yummy treats

-spending time with family

(not mine obviously..just a funny pic I found)

-Shopping for christmas Presents

- Giving back

 -Listeing to Christmas Music

-Watching my favorite Christmas shows


(ps…do you watch "the community"? Chevy Chase is so freaking funny in that show. WATCH IT!)

-and MOST important of all…..I love celebrating the birth of Christ

QA: What are your favorite things to do this time of year?

I can't believe we have reached the final week of Project Feed Me! Time has flown by! Every week of this project has been a blast and I have LOVED, LOVED, LOVED being a part of it! Can you believe we are only 3 three away from Christmas? I don't know about you, but I am super excited!! For me Christmas is the most fun when we are doing and giving to others! 

The first Christmas Dave and I spent together is one I'll never forget. We wanted to do some sort of Christmas service project but didn't have too much money to spend.  We headed to all a dollar and bought a bunch of items to go in back packs to give to the homeless.  We bought underwear, socks, tooth brush and paste, deodorant, soap, and the made PB&J's to throw in as well.  Once we finished packaging them all up we got in our car and drove around the city. We name the packages "bum" packages and had a riot laughing about all night long! We stopped at freeway entrance and off ramps and passed out these packages to homeless people on the side of the road.  I can still remember the feeling I got when we gave these people the small bag of items.  It is something I will never forget, and a priceless experience that Dave and I shared together. It brought us closer together and helped us truly enjoy everything that Christmas is.

I can't tell you how excited I am to gather up all of my food and take it to the food bank this week!

Recommended food item #9: 2 boxes of rice

(Sorry for the generic picture, I still can't find my camera charger EEK!)

I choose Rice A Roni because I have so many these on hand and can definetely give a bunch away . My parnets stocked us up with a ton of food when we moved into our new home and I have plenty of these to spare!!

Since this is the last week of Project Feed Me, I thought I'd do a recap on all of the recommended food items from week 1-9, in case you may have missed anything along the way.

Week 1
2 cans of chili

Week 2
2 cans of tuna fish

Week 3
2 boxes jac mac and cheese

Week 4
2 boxed meals

Week 5
2 jars of peanut butter

Week 6
2 cans of beans

Week 7
2 cans of fruit

Week 8
2 cans of veggies

Week 9
 2 boxes of rice

Ta da! All nine weeks!  Wow! I had a blast looking through each weeks posts and reading all your comments! You guys are AWESOME!!  I want to personally thank each and every one of you for your participation and support!  I am so happy with all we were able to accomplish in just nine weeks. I hope throughout this process you have felt the spirit of service and have been filled with peace and joy because of it!

Project Feed Me has a total 168 members! Incredible!  At the end of this week when we all take our items to the food bank, we will have donated over 3024 cans of food!  AMAZING!!

Thank you so much for all of your efforts! Thank you for spreading the word, for caring enough to participate and for sacrificing your time and finances to serve others.  You deserve a big GIANT hug!  Consider THIS my GIANT hug to you! Thank you, Thank you, THANK YOU!

Project Feed Me Fun
This week's PFM fun is not really a suggestion…it is a MUST DO.  I am begging you to take a picture of you and your PFM stash before you take it to the food bank.  I would love to see and post all 168 pictures!   It would be so fun to see all the PFM participants with their goods getting ready to deliver them! 
So, my final request is this…gather your items, take a picture and then send it to me!!!

THANK YOU FOR YOUR PARTICIPATION!
I hope we can all continue to love, serve and give to those around us.
"In as much as you have done it unto the least of these my brethren, you have done it unto me."

Merry Christmas!! xoxo

QA:
What is your favorite Christmas giving/service experience??

Oh my. I have been SO BUSY at work. I got moved to a different location and an entire different group today, so it has been crazy. I have just now logged on to my email and blog and it is 1:00pm! Wo!  I have to make this quick because I have a ton of things to do today before I leave!  Here are a few fun pictures for our holiday weekend.  I'll share some Black Friday Fun tomorrow!!!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas….

My parents bought us this lovely tree for Christmas this year! I was so excited to put it up I could hardly wait. The tree came pre decorated.  This is my kinda tree. I fluffed the tree, added a new ornaments here and there, moved things around, and waaaallaaaa…it was perfect!  I LOVE IT! Thanks mom and dad!

After I got done putting up the tree, I went out to the garage to help dave with a few things.  Since I had been outside  and got really cold, I came in I bundled up to get warm.  I must have been tired because I fell fast asleep! 
(I hate when my nose gets cold!)

Gotta run! Bye bye!

Ps…yesterday we did a killer workout. I'm sore. My foot has FINALLY healed completely without any pain! I'm still trying to be careful just in case, but I am back in business!!  My abs, shoulders, chest, biceps and back are all killing me! LOVE IT!!

QA:
When do you start to decorate for Christmas?
What is your favorite Christmas decoration?

ahh..my work, cell and email are ringing off the hook..not time for fun.