Strawberry Orange Smoothie!

Hello everyone! Lately I have been making these smoothies pretty much every day, and they are delish! And super healthy might I add :) So I thought I would share! Normally, I am only making this for myself, so this recipe is for 1 very filling serving, or 2 smaller servings.

Ingredients:

13 ice cubes (yes, 13)

1/2 to 3/4 cup of water (to help the blending)

1/2 large organic(optional) orange

3 large organic(optional) strawberries

12-15 drops of Sweet Leaf Liquid Stevia Vanilla Creme

1. Place 13 ice cubes in your blender, and add water.

2. Add oranges and strawberries to the blender.

3. Start blending! First I pulse it a few times, and then put it on chop for a few minutes until everything is all smoothie-like.

4. Add 12-15 drops of the Vanilla Creme Liquid Stevia to taste. I personally like 14!

5. Put your blender on mix, then on blend until you get the texture you would like.

6. Pour it in a cup and enjoy the wholesome goodness!

This makes about 16-18 ounces. I went to CalorieKing.com and figured out the nutrional values for this! Of course they are kind of approximate.

Calories: 43

Fat: 0.2g

Carbs: 10.5g

Dietary Fiber: 2.3g

Sugars(only from the fruit!): 7.8g

Protein: 0.8g

Calcium: 32mg

Potassium: 173.7mg

Here's a little about the Liquid Stevia:

Used worldwide as an no-calorie herbal sweetener, Stevia is a South American herb that is 30 times sweeter than sugar. With hundreds of studies showing Stevia is a safe alternative, it’s the next big thing.

No wonder. It's all-natural, contains zero calories, and has a zero glycemic index. Finally, you can supplement your food and drinks without the chemicals of artificial sweeteners and calories of sugar! And it is safe for diabetics and hypoglycemics.

You can usually get it at any health food/organic market, but if all else fails, you can order it here!

P.S. This smoothie is HCG Phase 2 approved!

It's been a while!!

So.. It's been about 10 months since the last time I posted. WOW! Time seriously flies! We have been quite busy.. but probably not busy enough to put off blogging for this long! So much has happened since the last time I posted and I will try to fill you all in!

After spending summer 2009 in Bakersfield, we moved back to Utah and got jobs doing tech support.

We had our 1st anniversary in November! It's crazy to think that we have been married for pretty much a year and a half by now! It feels like we met just yesterday, but then it also feels like we've been married forever! Lol. We had anniversary pictures taken by my friend Jessica (Bella Rae Photography), and she did an amazing job! Here's a pic from the first time we hung out, the wedding, and an anniversary pic.

For our anniversary we went and got a couples massage in Salt Lake and then stayed the night at the Anniversary Inn! It was a lot of fun and we got to forget about everyone and everything else and spend some quality time together!

Jason played in the Utah Indoor Football League this winter! It was a lot of fun for me to watch him play, and it was even more fun for him to play!

We spent Christmas in Utah with my family, and then a few days after Christmas (when we could get work off), we flew to Arizona to have a second Christmas with Jason's family! It was so much fun to be there again and to see everyone! We don't get to see them as often as we'd like and it's always a good time!

In January, I decided to go to school to become a nail technician! It was a spur of the moment decision but I am LOVING it! I completely enjoy doing nails and in April I passed my practical and written state board tests and became a licensed nail tech! Yay!!

March 30-31 was the highlight of the year so far! :) Jason and I were sealed together for time and all eternity in the Salt Lake City Temple! We got our endowments on the 30th at the Mt. Timpanogos Temple! It was such an amazing experience and we are so grateful for all of our friends and family who have influenced our lives for the better and helped us to get to this stage in our lives. We were so happy that so many of you were able to be there with us on those special days and missed everyone who wasn't there! We are grateful for the gospel and all of the blessings it brings into our lives! I'm also very grateful to my 2 little missionaries who are out serving! Love you guys and thanks for the great example!

All winter long Jason was busy recruiting, training, and preparing for another summer with APX Alarm! This summer we are in the Baltimore, MD office. We have been here for a little over a month now and so far it has been going really well! Jason is SO busy I only see him for a couple of hours (max) a day! He is such a hard worker and I just love him! I have been doing installs occasionally, when there is an install that is too far away for the other techs to do. It has been fun!

When I'm not installing, I am doing nails/toes, watching Greys Anatomy or Toddlers & Tiaras, at the gym with Kayli or Chalese, riding my new bike, grocery shopping, shopping shopping, at the Dutch Country Farmers Market, at the Patapsco Flea Market, or reading (to name a few things). Throw in a little cleaning, cooking, and laundry and I'm staying busy! It has been so fun! We have lots of sights to see this summer! We have been to downtown Baltimore once and we spent a Sunday in DC! Here are some of my favorite pics from DC. There was SO much to see and everything is so cool there! I love the architecture and design of all of the buildings. I'll post more pics later as well as pics from our other outings!

So how was that for a blog post!? Talk about OVERLOAD! Sorry that was so long, and don't fret, there is more to come SOON! My new friend Kayli is encouraging me to pick blogging back up since she just started her very own blog! Check it out :) kayliandrickyshoff.blogspot.com

Love you all!

I'm selling hair bows and flowers!

Hey Everyone! I know its been quite a while since I have posted! I'm terrible. But I have been working on a project and just wanted to make a quick post about it! I am making and selling bows, flower clippies, and headbands for little girls...and big girls too I guess. Lol. I put together a blog, so you should all check it out! The site is...

http://www.preciouspetalsandmore.blogspot.com/

It's just a way to keep myself entertained and make a few bucks while I'm at it! It's really fun :) So if you or anyone you know are interested in some of the bows, or custom orders, just let me know! They are great for shower gifts, birthdays, holidays, everyday.. etc! Maybe sometime this week I will actually update our blog for real! :)

Keeping myself entertained! (Easy blanket how-to)

So, as I mentioned before, I am working from my apartment in Bakersfield, so I basically just chill at home by myself all day! It can be rather boring, but I have found a few ways to keep myself entertained. The first one of course is to watch HGTV for hours on end.. I LOVE IT! lol I would probably even go as far as saying I'm obsessed. I can't wait until Jason and I buy our own house and can mess around with paint colors and crown molding and chair rails and ALL of that good stuff!

As a second form of entertainment, I have read a couple Mary Higgins Clarks books while I've been out here, which are always great. She writes such intense books, its amazing! The only bad thing about this is that, again, I am at home... alone...all day... and all evening! I tend to spook myself out and I always begin to think that a murderer will be walking through my door at any moment. Not the best feeling!

And of course, recently (this past week) I decided to start sewing again! My best friend Kenzi will be leaving on her mission soon and I promised her that I would make a blanket for her! In Young Women's I made a tied quilt and when Kenzi and I lived together in St. George she stole it from me! Well, she loved it. And slept with it on her bed every night! And still does. The only problem is that it is too big! So I made her her very own blanket now.

I made this one a little differently than normal quilts are made. I actually got this idea from my Aunt Kristie.. well second cousin.. or something. Anywho, rather than actually quilting the top like a regular quilt, I just bought a twin sized flat sheet. That way, I don't have to worry about measurements and everything-it is already the right size! It is also cheaper & easier than buying tons fabric and piecing it all together and all of that. So for the bottom of the blanket I just bought 6 yards of quilting flannel and cut it into two 3-yard pieces. I put them next to each other long ways and sewed a side together. This made the flannel wide enough for the blanket. Then I put the good side of the flannel down, put down the batting, and then laid the flat sheet on top, good side out. I trimmed the flannel down so it was about 4 inches longer than the sheet on all 4 sides. I folded the edge of the flannel in 2 inches, and then over the sheet so this gave it kind of a border. I pinned it all up and then sewed the 3 pieces together. Then I laid the blanket on the ground(I wish I had a quilting frame!!), got a yard stick and an air soluable fabric marker, and marked out where I was going to tie it. I got some yarn and a darning needle (they had the biggest "eyes") and threaded the yarn in and out of the blanket where it was marked. I cut all of the yarn in between the markings and then tied the yarn in a double knot. Then I trimmed all of the ties so they weren't too long. All in all, it took me about 4 or 5 hours to do the whole thing, start to finish. And I think it turned out nicely! I think it does look a little too much like a little kid's blanket because of the pattern and the very BRIGHT colors, but I hope Kenzi likes it! Love ya darlin!! Oh.. the other fun thing, is that I actually got a sheet set, so she gets a matching fitted sheet and pillow case as well!! Here are some pics of the finished product... sorry, I didn't think to take pictures of each step!

The blue and white striped thing in the pics is actually a "Grip Bag" for my little sister Miranda. For those of you who don't know, Grips are the things gymnasts put on their hands when they are on the bars so they don't tear their hands apart! Anyways, I guess Miranda needed one, so I made this little drawstring bag with a little button pocket on the front! It was also really simple to make, it only took me like an hour to do! If anyone wants to know how to do it just let me know and I can post some instructions.

Well that is all... I will be posting again soon.. My next projects are fleece pajama pants for Jason and a skirt for Miranda made out of old jeans! Man.. I am on a roll! :)

Bakersfield, CA For the Summer...

We have been out in Bakersfield, CA for a few weeks now working for APX Alarm, so now that I am pretty settled and whatnot I figured I would post! We love it out here! It is nice and warm here, but sometimes unbearably hot!! Its perfect for cruising around on our motorcycles! (By motorcycles, I mean my scooter and Jason's bullet bike!!) We have had a lot of fun already even though we haven't been here very long. Of course, the majority of our time is spent working. And by majority, I mean 95%. Seriously! Its kind of hard, but worth it! Jason is the Operations Manager again this summer, aka Lead Tech. So he is VERY busy managing all of the technicians and the operations side of the office, as well as installing with the techs. I am the "Office Assistant" so I just sit at home all day pretty much!! Well, I schedule all of the installs, collect all of the paperwork and send it to corporate, and do other "office stuff". I also sit on the couch and watch tv alot :) It has been nice being home all day though, I have plenty of time to play with Susie, sew and scrapbook and such. And recently I have decided that I LOVE digital scrapbooking! Its so neat!! Anyways.. Other than working, we had a BBQ the first sunday we were here with a bunch of the people we work with. It was nice! Our apartment complex has a sweet clubhouse with a nice BBQ area and pool. By the way, the apartments are AMAZING. I wish I could live in them for free forever!! I'll have to put pics up later.

There is this fabulous restaurant called BJ's Restaurant and Brewery here. It is the best pizza in the entire world! They also have this thing called a "Pizookie" which is basically a giant cookie in a pizza pan topped with ice cream. It practically melts in your mouth. WOW, my mouth is watering just thinking about it! A whole group of us went one saturday and our table devoured TWO giant party platter pizookies. YIKES.

Jason's hair was getting pretty long, and for a week he always talked about going to get it cut, but he never went!! Finally, we decided that it would be much easier for me to just shave his head. So I did! Of course, along the way I decided to give him an awesome mohawk/mullet. It was sexy. So ya, I now have a practically bald husband! I personally think he looks a lot more hardcore with his hair cut like this! So HOT :)

This past Sunday, Jason, Jeremy, Justin, Chandler, and I decided that it would be really fun to go to Six Flags in Valencia. It is only about 45 minutes from Bakersfield so it wasn't a bad drive. On the way, we decided to stop in and say hello to some family friends, Brian & Natasha and their girls, Ally & Emily. They are so cute, I love them!! Emily was being funny and decided to wear a Dr Pepper box for shoes! What a cutie! Six Flags was a blast! The rides there are so intense and it was blistering hot! After a while, the combination of extreme heat and extreme rollercoasters made me a little sick, so I held off on going on the rides about halfway through the day. It was still super fun though! The sad thing though, is when I got there, I turned my camera on, and the batteries were dead! So I managed to get a couple of terrible pics with my phone..There was this one ride called X 2 that the guys went on at the very end of the day. I'm pretty sure it is the most intense roller coaster in the entire world! Seriously, I didn't go on it, but it made me sick just watching other people ride it! LOL The picture of Chandler and Jason on the rollercoaster is from X2, and that is the look of genuine terror on their faces!! Seriously, they weren't even trying to make faces for the picture, thats just how it turned out! Way funny.

Lastly, I am really really excited to be flying up to Utah this weekend. My little brother Jakey is going to be leaving for his mission this next Wednesday and his farewell is this Sunday! It's so crazy that he is leaving so soon. He will be serving in the Mexico City North Mission. I'm so excited for him! My best friend Kenzi's farewell is actually a week after his, and sadly I won't be making up for that one, but I do get to see her this weekend for the last time before she leaves for a year and a half! It's nuts!! She is leaving June 10th for Buenos Aires, Argentina. I LOVE them both and they are both going to make fantastic missionaries!

Anyways, that is definitely a lot for one post, so I will stop there. But I'm sure I will have more to post about later, especially after I get back from Utah! PEACE! :)

I chopped off my hair!!

This morning Jason and I decided that I should chop my hair off. It all started when I was blow drying my hair.. I had been working on it for like 15 minutes and it STILL WAS NOT DRY! I was going crazy... so, I decided I wanted it gone! (Jason's 2 stipulations to my cutting my hair short were that I: 1) Put some highlights in my hair, and 2) Let him grow his hair out!) We'll see how that goes! My best friend Kenzi was already planning on trimming my hair today after conference, so rather than having her trim it, I had her cut 10 inches off! She also colored it and highlighted it as well. She is amazing! It turned out so great, or at least I think so! What will I do without her after she leaves on her mission?? It was kind of a spur of the moment decision, but I'm glad I did it.. I have kind of been wanting to cut it for a while, it was just getting on my nerves.

Before we cut it all off, we decided that it could possibly be long enough to donate it to Locks of Love, here is a little bit about Locks of Love.

Locks of Love is a public non-profit organization that provides hairpieces to financially disadvantaged children in the United States and Canada under age 18 suffering from long-term medical hair loss from any diagnosis. We meet a unique need for children by using donated hair to create the highest quality hair prosthetics. Most of the children helped by Locks of Love have lost their hair due to a medical condition called alopecia areata, which has no known cause or cure. The prostheses we provide help to restore their self-esteem and their confidence, enabling them to face the world and their peers.

We checked the website, and the minimum length is 10 inches, so we measured it out, and it was barely enough. Needless to say, I will be donating my ponytails of hair to Locks of Love and hopefully somebody will enjoy and appreciate it more than I did! :)

Well here are some pics of my new do...

We'll be cruisin....

So, this summer, Jason and I are moving out to Bakersfield, CA to run an office there for APX Alarm. Jason is the Operations Manager of our office and I am the Office Assistant (He is my boss!) We are going out with a Sales Manager named Jesse Pilcher, it should be an awesome summer. I can't wait! We will finally be somewhere WARM! Speaking of warm...for the summer, Jason and I decided to get ourselves some toys to enjoy that great weather with! We decided that we didn't want to drive the car and the truck out to Cali, and since Jason will be running around in the car helping out on installs and possibly doing his own installs, I was in need a vehicle for my own transportation down there. We decided that the best thing to get would be a scooter! They are cheaper than cars AND they get like 70-90 miles to the gallon! What more could a person want. So, we bought a scooter! I LOVE my scooter. It is kind of an avocado green color with some silver and black and I got a matching silver helmet. It is so fun driving it all around (Which currently I can't do because at this very moment there is a freakin BLIZZARD outside!) I wish it would just get warm again :( Well here is a pic of my lovely scooter.....

And... in addition to the scooter, Jason decided to get a motorcycle again! He decided to go with a red and black '99 CBR 600 F4. Jason used to have a motorcycle just like his new one (except it was yellow & black). It was the same make, model, and year. He sold the yellow bike about a year ago and has been wanting to get another one ever since! Another factor that made J want a new bike even more is that one of the techs that is coming out to work for him this summer is bringing his bullet bike out to California so Jason would actually have somebody to ride with! So after long hours of checking out all of the bikes for sale and after many, many insurance quotes, Jason decided to get this bike!

While I'm on the topic of insurance.. I want everyone to know that I saved almost $1500 a year by switching our car insurance to Geico. I'm not even kidding!! I was paying $218.86 a month with Progressive and I am now paying around $83 a month with Geico, and I have more coverage now than I did before! Isn't that just great?? I LOVE it!

Anyways.. I took Susie to the groomers last week and this is how she looked when I picked her up! It was just too cute so I had to post it :) (don't mind the laundry in the background, haha!)

I also had the joy of doing my little sister Miranda's hair for her most recent gymnastics competition.. and this is how it turned out! It was really fun, we had a sleepover the night before and woke up butt early to get this done before I had to be at work at 6am! I wasn't able to actually go to the competition because of work, but from what I hear she did great! Good job Panda!!

Well, that is all for now. I hate that I always have a million things to post all at once, I really should try posting more regularly, and perhaps limit my posts to 2 subjects each? Might be a good idea.. oh well, I'll post again soon. TTYL!

The Past Few Months....

I'm sure a few of you have noticed that I am really bad at updating our blog! But... I decided that today is a good day to do some posting. Jason and I have now been married for more than 3 months! We are seriously loving married life! It has been so much fun and we think we are very lucky. Well, of course after the wedding we went on a honeymoon! We decided to do a 7 day cruise to the Eastern Caribbean. We left for the airport pretty much from the reception and hopped on a plane to Florida at midnight! The 3 ports we stopped at were Nassau Bahamas, St. Thomas USVI, and St. Maarten. They were SO BEAUTIFUL!! It was so much fun, we loved every minute of it. We hung out on the beach, rode some wave runners, did some shopping, and just hung out. Of course we had a lot of fun on the ship too! Between Bingo, all the food & desserts we could ever want, and all of the shows and shopping, we had a pretty good time. If any of you have not been on a cruise, we HIGHLY recommend you go on one soon! They are a great way to vacation, very stress free. Here are a few pictures from the honeymoon...

Since being back from the Honeymoon we've been pretty busy working and getting ready to move for the summer again! (We're still not sure where we are going yet) There was Thanksgiving, which we spent at my Grandma's house in Logan, Christmas which we spent at my parents house, New Years which we spent at our apartment together, The Superbowl Party at my parents house, and Valentines Day, which we spent at home (I made Jason Broiled Salmon with a Honey Soy Glaze, and Shrimp and Cheese bites) and then we went to the movies.

There have obviously been MANY holidays and events that have taken place since I have blogged! Sheesh! And I very well may have forgotten some things! Anyways, I have recently become a pretty big fan of cooking! Weird, but I like it. I have been messing around trying out different recipes as often as I can. Its really fun making something that is somewhat complicated that ACTUALLY comes out good! Some of our favorites have been Better than Sex Cake-picture below and here is a link for the recipe (http://www.cdkitchen.com/recipes/recs/163/21st-Century-Sex-In-A-Pan101352.shtml), Penne with Italian Sausage and Pesto Saucse, and Chicken tacos have always been one of our favorites. And of course I have started up scrapbooking again. I had been slacking off for quite some time now, and now I regret it because I have ALOT of catching up to do! I have also gotten into a little sewing if you notice the pic below (I made miranda a sleepover pillow case with a big pocket and some pj pants for her 13th bday) Jason has been really busy working and recruiting and training new technicians for the summer. We have both gotten into going to the gym more and being more active! It is working out quite nice :) In spite of being so busy we still find time to just hang out and relax with each other. So WOW that was long but that has been pretty much EVERYTHING we have been up to recently! I will try to keep this updated more regularly, but that is all for now! And now... here are some pics from these recent events!