Pumpkin Rice Puff Treats

Yesterday, my 4 yr old son was wanting to do an activity.  He couldn't decided what to do, so I asked him if he wanted to make a snack for snacktime.  He started jumping up and down so I took that as a yes!  hahahaha

You start out with 2 tbsp of butter.  Put this in a large bowl and put in the microwave until melted (20 sec)

Add orange wilton icing coloring to the melted butter (1/4 tsp), then add a 250g bag of marshmallows to the butter.  Place in microwave for 4 minutes or until fluffed up.  Stir in 6 cups of Rice Puffs (rice krispies) until fully coated.  Now this is the tricky part..... you need to make sure that you have a lot of butter on your hands for this next step.  I gave the kids gloves and had them rub butter on the gloves "just like lotion"

I gave them each a handful of the mixture and they had to squeeze it into a ball and then place it onto the wax paper. Place your finger on top and push down slightly so that you have a place to put your stem (your mini rolo).  For a little added fun, we made some green icing and piped it all over the "pumpkins" so that it looked like vines.  The kids had the most fun with this, I think because they were going crazy with the icing.  Some of the "pumpkins" looked more green than orange.

It was a lot of fun and hopefully we can make this a tradition to do every Halloween.

                                     Happy Halloween!!

I'm 3/4 done my HCG diet!

Tomorrow is the 3/4 mark and so I thought I should write a little about what has been going on.

At half way, I was 167lbs and I was so happy and excited that I had lost so much weight!!

I stalled in my weight loss when I hit 163 lbs.  I was that weight for about a week, so I had to go down to just lettuce and apples for a day and then I started to lose again.  I am at 161 lbs right now and I have a week and a half left.  I really want to lose 10 more lbs.  Wish me luck and a strong will to stay away from all the Halloween candy!

Almost 20 lbs lost!!!  So close to my goal :)

Kallie

My progress :)

  I have been sticking to the 500 calories/day and surprisingly I don't feel hungry at all.  I did cheat last night, I had a bite of a cookie that I was giving to the baby.  The only thing about this diet that I am not very fond of is the "no sugars" rule.  I have been eating apples, oranges, and strawberries (the only fruit I can have) to try to get rid of my cravings for sugar.  Last night I just had a weak moment and hopefully I can stay away from sugar for the rest of this month. 

  So now for the reveal of this week's weight lose............  I am down from 180lbs (on tuesday) to 172.5 lbs today.  I am seeing results and loving that my pants are starting to need a belt to stay up. 

  I have really been having fun trying to come up with recipes that I can actually eat.  I cooked 100g of chicken in crushed tomatoes with a little garlic powder, and had cucumbers on the side for lunch yesterday and it was awesome!  Then for supper, I had a 100g steak (salt and pepper for taste) with a salad of romaine, iceberg, spinach, and cucumbers.  I do cheat a little with the salad because I hate salad!!  I dip my fork in fat free Italian dressing and then eat a forkful of salad.  It gives just enough flavor that I can gag the salad down.  LOL! 

  My husband LOVES to cook and bake, but I told him that I will look after myself until I am done this diet.  He looked heartbroken!  I think he likes to show his love for me by making me my favorite breakfasts, lunches, and suppers.  He even asked me if I could have egg whites, which I said yes to last night.  He let me sleep in this morning and made me scrambled egg whites and salsa on top.  I felt really bad, but I had to tell him that I could only have herbal tea in the mornings.  He is the best husband ever, so he just sat down and ate it himself. :) 

More pounds to lose!  Keep me going with your comments :)  Thanks   

My HCG diet Journal!!

   I thought that I would bring you all along for this "ride" in my life.  I decided to do the HCG diet because my mom did it two years ago, lost 25 lbs and has kept it off

This is her before and after!! 

So here is my story. 

   I have had 3 babies.  When I had my first baby, I went back to my pre-baby weight very quickly and I thought that I was just one of the lucky ones who bounces back very quickly.  Man, I couldn't have been more WRONG!!  After I had my third baby, I tried everything to get this extra 20+ lbs to disappear.  Weight watchers, Zumba, step class, spin class, and swimming.  Nothing was working!  I was getting so frustrated.  My last straw was when I saw myself in our new family picture and just about died!!!  I couldn't  believe how fat I looked!!



just before I got married



 me, last weekend! uggg!



    After seeing this picture, I decided that I couldn't look this way anymore!  I talked to my mom and she gave me this website,  www.dietprotocol.ca .  I got some of the drops and started them two days ago. I weighed myself, measured every part of me, and made a chart to track my progress and when I am supposed to take the drops.  I am a very visual person, so this works best to motivate me.

The first two days, you're supposed to eat very fatty foods, getting your fat stores to open so that the drops can do their work and start to break up those fat stores.  On the 3rd day, today, I am then down to a 500 calorie diet and taking the drops 6 times a day.  I will be doing this for 41 days. 

Wish me luck!! 

 Kallie-Jo

Halloween... what to make, what to make?

   So I have been starting to think about Halloween and what costumes my kids want to have this year.  I started looking back on the costumes that I have made in the past.  There is only one costume that I didn't make these past 5 years; the Owl costume was given to us by my mom.    

Halloween Party 2007
Shrek, Fiona, and Donkey

Trick or treating 2007
Little Owl

Halloween 2008
Ewok, and a Cowboy

Halloween 2009
Peter Pan

Halloween 2009
Peter Pan and an Owl

Halloween 2010
Vampire and Batman ( they both loved their capes)

Halloween 2011 Star Wars Theme
Darth Maul, an Ewok, and Yoda.

He loved that he looked so creepy!  He freaked his kindergarten teacher with this costume :)

Halloween 2011 Star Wars Theme
Darth Maul

 I guess some mom's would just go out and buy the costume so it is easier and looks professional.  I love making these costumes.  I show my love towards my kids by doing this.  I want them to remember that mom always made their costumes every year and that they ROCKED!!  Lol, ok, so maybe they won't think that, but hopefully they look back fondly at the costumes that they have had.  I know I will.

I haven't posted in a while.  We are all well and loving the warm weather up here.  It is way too humid for my taste, but as long as it isn't snowing I shouldn't complain.  I have been really enjoying the summer with my children and my little sister.  We have been scrapbooking every other night and having a lot of fun.  My husband gave me a night off from all the kids last week. I stayed home with the baby and we had ice cream. :)   He took them hiking and then camping out at some land that is owned by family.  They had soooo much fun but were extremely bug bitten when they returned home.  

 They were so tired after the hike but they still
helped Daddy with cutting the firewood, starting a fire, making supper, and setting up their beds

Kami helped to cook breakfast and she loved every minute of it.








pictures taken by Kami and Erik :)

Some of my Favorites :)

I went through the photos that I have taken in the last few years and picked a few of my favorites that I sent in to my course.  I though I would share them and see what people think of them.

Depth of field

                                                             

the difference between this and the one below is adding a subject
 to a landscape to give it a different feeling

Rule of Thirds and proper exposure

stopping the motion with the right shutter speed

both of these are
showing the motion with the right shutter speed, but also getting the right exposure

traditional landscape

framing the landscape

correct exposure in sunlight

framing my subject, using leading lines as well 

one that I feel should be used as an old lady puzzle! LOL

Just the flowers would have been an "ok" shot, but when I added
my family, it made it more interesting. 

The Best Easter Weekend Yet!

 I love telling a story through pictures, because if a picture is worth a thousand words than I am writing a very large novel series here. :)

      

  

We started out our day                                     decorating eggs at a friend's house.  The boys were having so much fun and the only reason that they were OK  with leaving is that they knew that we were going to be going swimming with their cousins, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and their friend that they invited.

 -a little peek at what the boys were making. 


My friend, Erin had found these little foam hands and feet at the dollar store and they were so easy to hot glue to the egg.  I think it gives them a little more character, don't you?

 This is Odin and Thorin's friend that they invited swimming.  He is a fish!!  He just loves to swim, which makes for some very cool photography opportunities. :)

 This is my little Linny. She was really enjoying herself in the pool.  We don't take her very often because of my husband's shift work.   That would just leave me to take them by myself and I might be a little crazy, but not that crazy!!!




The pictures to the right are 

 -my nieces and they are a barrel of laughs.  They are a couple of girls that were born to be in the water. 

 - this is my son being a total pill!!! He loves to dump water on grandma's head ..... anyone's head actually.  If you aren't watching out, he will get you!

This is my Odin.  He is not a water lover.  He  loves to just sit on his mat and watch everyone else have fun in the water.  I feel bad that he doesn't like the water more but he has always been afraid of the water.  Not sure why.......

Another photo opportunity made possible by my friend's son.  Thanks Wes! :) 
















  So I am taking pictures and minding my own business, and all the sudden I hear giggling behind me..... I turn around to see Thorin and Grandpa coming to get me with their bucket which they were trying to hide under the water.  Nice try, boys. :)  Don't you just love those mischievous faces that they have on? :)

So my sister-in-law, mom-in-law, and I were talking about if I had ever tried to dunk my baby under the water yet.  I had heard about the "blow in their face and dunk them" method but my sister-in-law had heard of another, and it works awesome!!!  


So here we are before I tried to take her under the water.

Here she is going head-first into the water (so the water won't go up her nose)










and here she is totally under the water and not caring at all!  In total, she was only under the water for a maximum of 4 seconds. 

 Here we are after being under the water "swimming".  She was not too sure about it at first.  She tends to have this look on her face every time you take her out of the water, but she doesn't complain about it, so she must not mind it :)






This is Linny with Grandma and her cousin Hazel.  They are hilarious together.  They tend to make faces at each other a lot. :)

 After swimming, we went back to Grandma and Grandpa's house, but on the way, the kids and Grandpa had to go on a treasure hunt for their Easter candy.  They had a map of where it was and everything :)


Then we all celebrated the four birthdays that were in April. These are 2 of the four.  Linny was down for her nap and the other boy lives too far away to join us all the time.





  Now this is where it get crazy!  After we all had a wonderful turkey dinner,  some of the family had to go home, but for the rest of us, we were just getting to the best part.  
The Catapult war!!!

FIRE!!!!!


-notice how the girl on the right looks slightly worried and grandma is using everyone else as a sheild.

FIRE!!!!!

 -Notice the girl hiding under the table and the look on grandpa's face.  He just got one in the chest.

Duck and Cover!!!!


Here comes one now! (the small white ball)








This is what is being flung around the house.  Rubber eyeballs!!!  Only at Grandpa's house.....

These are the catapults that a few families got one year for christmas and they were the best present. :)










                                This was one of the best Easter weekend that our family 
              has all been together and my husband had some of the day off, so it was even 
                        better.  Hopefully this becomes a tradition in the years to come. 
                                                (hint, hint, nudge, nudge.....) :)