Oh my goodness! It was definitely a fantastic workout. She said it would take 30 minutes, but it ended up taking me 50 minutes. Of course, I did have to rest in the middle. Especially since I had my heart rate monitor on and I saw my heart rate going really high.

One thing to note is that I didn’t actually use a jump rope. I just did the motion of jumping rope. There is a lot of this!

I ended up burning a good amount of calories:

This is definitely a workout I will do again. Especially since this can be done at home. In the winter, it’s harder for me to actually get to the gym so it’s nice to have some workouts in my pocket I can do at home. And I got to watch some E! while working out. Love this!

Ingredients:
3/4 pound carrots (about 4), cut into 1 in. lengths
2 stalks celery, thinly sliced
1 small onion, chopped
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs (I ended up using breasts)
1/2 teaspoon poultry seasoning
salt and black pepper
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup low-sodium chicken broth
6 store bought biscuits (or make your own!)
1 cup frozen peas
1/2 cup heavy cream

Directions:
1. In a 4- to 6-quart slow cooker, toss together the carrots, celery, onion, and flour. Place the chicken on top and season with the poultry seasoning, 1 teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper. Add the wine and broth.
2. Cover and cook until the chicken and vegetables are tender, on low for 5 to 6 hours or on high for 2 1⁄2 to 3 hours.
3. Thirty minutes before serving, prepare the biscuits.
4. Ten minutes before serving, add the peas, cream, and ½ teaspoon salt to the chicken and stir to combine. Cover and cook until heated through, 5 to 10 minutes more.
5. To serve, place the bottom halves of the biscuits in shallow bowls, then top with the chicken mixture and the remaining biscuit halves.

1. Starting our home group. Jonny and I felt the Lord calling us to be home group leaders and we kicked it off a year ago in January 2011. The Lord has done great things in it and I am blessed by each person in the group. So very thankful for them and God’s work in and through the group.

2. Jonny and I got to be apart of special moments in family and friend’s lives. So thankful for the people in our lives and love all of the exciting things going on! Here is us at Chopper and Mary’s rehearsal dinner and then at the wedding with Jonny’s mom. Jonny was the best man and I was a bridesmaid in their wedding.

Another special moment was when our friends Michael and Rachel got engaged! They are in our home group and we love them oh so much.

And, we found out Kim was pregnant. Then, Sadie was born!

3. We went on some awesome vacations!

Over spring break, we went on a snowboarding trip to Taos, NM with Matt and Holly (they had been in our home group for only a few weeks and we invited ourselves on their trip. Glad we are still friends. :)) We had so much fun with them, although I had a bit of a hard time snowboarding and skiing, but in the end I got it down enough to say that I would go back. Loved hanging out with hem on the trip.

In the summer, Jonny and I had our road trip to California! So many fun times on that trip!

Then, just this past week, we went snowboarding with Jason and Beth! I’ll post about this later, but we had a blast! And, I did much better this time skiing!

4. There are so many other things that happened this year that made it great. A challenging yet great start to my 3rd year of teaching, many dates and sweet moments with Jonny, fun times with family, and new friendships. Oh – and we got our dog, Abby! She is the perfect addition to our family and I love her so much.

Yeah, it was a good year. I’m sure there are some moments I am forgetting, but even with just these moments – what a great year! Praise be to God. Sure, there were some moments that weren’t so great, but in the end – although I fall and there are struggles, I am continuing to seek God and grow in Him. Ultimately, that’s all that really matters. Here goes 2012!

Anywho – We had a wonderful Christmas with family. We are so blessed with our family and I am thankful for all of the time we were able to share with them. We ended up having 5 Christmas events over the course of 4 days. It was busy but fun! Throughout it all, I made sure to really reflect on what Christmas is about. Jesus. I am so thankful for our Savior. So thankful that God sent His Son to earth and the miracle that was His birth.

Look at sweet Sadie! Oh my goodness, her little outfit. This was the first time Uncle Jonny got to hold her. Unfortunately, he had practically been sick all of December and finally was well enough to hold this sweet girl!

I am only going to mention this now since I will have another post full of stories and pictures later… but the day after Christmas, Jonny and I headed out with my bro and sis in law to Taos, New Mexico for some skiing/snowboarding/eating/relaxing. So much fun.

And then, last night was New Years Eve. We went over to Rachel and Jonathan’s house with the Tomlinson’s. We played games and hung out until the kiss at Midnight! Can’t wait to see what 2012 brings. I loved 2011. Since this post is getting a little wordy… I am going to bring it to a close and do a new one about my reflections of 2011 and resolutions for 2012. Happy New Year!

She is beautiful and tiny. I could hold her forever. We are so thankful that she was able to be delivered so much later than what we thought there for a little while. If you don’t know, Kim, my sister, had some complications in her pregnancy around Week 32 and we thought Sadie might have been born then. Praise the Lord that she was able to wait several more weeks until Week 38 to join this world!

Her big brother, Griffin, is doing amazing and loving having a little sister! Just look how proud he is!

Congratulations to Kim, Alec, and Griffin. Sadie is such a wonderful addition to the family. She better be ready to be spoiled! :)

Recipe adapted from Skinnytaste
Ingredients:
8 oz baby pasta shells (I like to use wheat pasta when possible)
1 bunch thin asparagus, tough ends removed
1 1/2 cups marinara sauce
1/4 cup grated Mozzarella
salt and fresh pepper to taste

Directions:
1. Boil about 4 inches of water in a large pot, when boiling add asparagus and cook about 2 to 3 minutes, or until tender crisp. Drain and chop into small bite sized pieces.
2. Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil (You can use the same pot from step 1). Cook pasta according to package directions for al dente.
3. While pasta is cooking, in a medium saucepan heat 1-1/2 cups marinara sauce. Drain pasta and reserve a cup of the pasta water.
4, Return pasta back to the pot and toss with marinara, asparagus, grated cheese, salt and pepper and a 1/4 cup of the pasta water or as needed to loosen the sauce.

This serves about 4 and is delicious served with grated cheese on top! Enjoy!

I love my family so much and anytime spent with them is always a good time. I threw the shower with my other sister Julie, my mom, and Kim’s friend, Stephanie. A few things on that table that I made were the pumpkin dip, the spinach artichoke dip, and seasoned pretzels. I am going to get Jonny to take photos of all 3 so that I can make blog posts sharing… because they were delicious. Especially the pumpkin dip. Yum!

Also, this weekend Jonny and I went to a launch party for RedRaspberry Cakes. The owners are friends of ours and Ally made both of our wedding cakes. It was such a fun party… they went all out with a Red Carpet and lots of awesome decorations, not to mention tons of delicious sweets to eat! You should definitely check them out if you are in the area!

I don’t have a picture of this last one yet because they are still on Jonny’s camera but I have to mention that the last party of the weekend was for two of our friends that got engaged! He proposed yesterday and then had a surprise party with all of her friends there to celebrate! I am so very thankful for the community God has surrounded us with.

The other day he took extra long on a trip to Walmart. Turns out he was buying me presents! He gave me one each day for several days. They included a bike shirt, a crayon halloween costume, a halloween witch hat, and a bike odometer. All of which were awesome.

The last day, though, was the best. I have been asking him to play tennis with me for… Well, 6 years, I believe. And he bought me a tennis racket!!!

Better than that, though, was actually going to play together. We rode our bikes up to the middle school and had a blast. Thank you, Jonny. I love you!

P.S. See the lack of food lately? Yeah, it’s been lacking in my house, too. Home cooked real meals need to get back in the picture pronto. Pinterest has been giving me some good recipe ideas lately, too!

We went to a party over the weekend as a cowboy and an indian. I have to say, my husband looks good as a cowboy! Don’t you think? :) It was technically a birthday party for our friend, Rachel. Happy Birthday Rachel!

Have a Happy Halloween!

I just did a google search for “pear bread” and this was the first link that came up. It just so happened to be published on one of my favorite blogs, Smitten Kitchen. I love that I am sourcing Smitten Kitchen, while she sourced Southern Cakes, who sourced Cornelia Walker. And you can source me and someone else can source you. It’s a little train. Love it.

Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
3/4 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs, lightly beaten
2 cups sugar
Pears (She says 2-4, it took me 7 but they were small. In the end, you need 2 cups of grated pears. But, don’t grate them until necessary, as they can brown while waiting to be used.)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions:
1. Heat your oven to 350°F and lightly grease and flour a 10-inch tube pan or two 9-by-5-inch loaf pans.
2. Combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon in a large mixing bowl, and stir with a fork to mix everything well.
3. Peel and core pears, then grate them.
4. In a medium bowl, combine the butter or oil, eggs, sugar, grated pear, and vanilla, and stir to mix everything well.
5. Scrape the pear mixture into the flour mixture and stir just until the flour disappears and the batter is evenly moistened.
6. Quickly scrape the batter into the prepared pans and bake for 60 to 70 minutes, or until the bread is browned and firm on top.
7. Cool the bread in the pan on a wire rack or folded kitchen towel for about 10 minutes. Then turn it out onto a plate or a wire rack to cool completely, top side up.

I’ve now eaten this bread as breakfast and dessert… and also as a midday snack. It’s homemade and I know all of the ingredients so that makes it okay to eat a lot of, right? Enjoy!