BRYNNLY AND ALAN: January 2010

Slow Cooker Southwest Chicken Stacks

2 cups frozen corn
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
2 large frozen boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 1 pound)
1 1/2 cups salsa

Lightly grease the bottom and sides of the slow cooker. Pour frozen corn into the bottom of the slow cooker and place the frozen chicken breasts on top. Cover with beans and salsa. Cover slow cooker and cook on low for 6 hours. Remove chicken from slow cooker and shred with forks. Return to the slow cooker and stir until the chicken, corn, beans and salsa are combined.

Serve on a bed of tortilla chips and top with additional garnishes: lettuce, tomato, avocado, sour cream, cheese, etc.

Recipe Source: from www.mykitchencafe.blogspot.com/originally from Erin

***I've had some people ask me to post this recipe. I found it off a blog I love! It is one of the easiest recipes I've ever made and was a hit! My stepson ate 2 large servings! So it is kid approved. I added garlic salt and chopped up an onion in it. If you are watching what you eat, don't serve it with chips or serve it with a few organic chips (the ones that only have 2-3 ingredients in them.) And serve on lettuce with lots of veggies. Hope you love it as much as my family does.

Can I just say I love to blog because I am horrible at keeping a journal so this acts as a journal for me. Although uploading pictures on a blog is a pain, it is all worth it!

I apologize for the long post and many pictures in advance. We had a busy December therefore lots of updates.

This was the first year I put out a Christmas card. WOW! Took a ton of work but loved it. I heard on a TV show last month something funny: "Christmas is like having a baby. While you are going through it, you swear you won't do it again (Christmas cards/neighbor treats/etc..) but come the next year, you are so excited to do it all again! Every year as I'm cooking up a storm and getting all ready for Christmas I tell myself that next year will be different. The next year I won't do half of what I'm doing this year but come summer/fall, I am counting down the days to do it all again! Anyway, I had to scan my Christmas card so it's a bit blurry. Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and Happy New Year!!

Life has been busy for us but GOOD busy! Alan works A TON but we are grateful for that. He has been very successful in his businesses and we feel very blessed. '09 started out uneventful and slow for us and ended very busy and eventful. Life is good!

I am in the Young Women's presidency in our ward. Love it! Love our girls! Love the women I serve with! It's been an amazing calling. We had the Young Women over to my house for dinner and then took them to the Nutcracker. Turned out to be a lot of fun! Here are some of our Young Women.

Us leaders...

At the Nutcracker...

I threw a few Christmas parties this year. This one was with some of my girlfriends. Oh and Dayne there in the back round.

I love this picture of my brother! He's such a great kid!

This is my good friend Rodney.

We had Christmas Eve at my house this year with most my family. What a great time we had! I laughed so hard that I woke up Christmas morning and my stomach was sore. We had dinner and played games. Love love love hanging out with my family!

My amazing sister, Laralee. Who by the way has lost almost 50lbs! Isn't she so beautiful? She's one of the most amazing people in my life. I just adore her so much.

I asked my brother to take a picture of us. This is what I got. Dork!

All my brothers

We spent Christmas at my parent's house. As you can see, we had a fun day. My sister 'Elfed' herself and my nieces and nephews. Here she is showing them the final product. I can't stop laughing at this picture. So cute! At the end, Thomas (the youngest) kept saying, "gen, gen!" Meaning 'again, again.'

I know I've said this a million times but I love how my nieces and nephews love Alan. They are always climbing up on him and sitting with him. Christian sat on his lap most the time we opened presents. I love it!

Alan bought me this fantastic coat for Christmas. I've been wanting it and he bought it for me. If you don't know me well enough I should say I am being sarcastic in this picture. My brother was taking pictures and I was being silly. No, I am not being serious! Just thought I'd throw that out there.

Thomas loves his 'Uncle Bobo.'

I love the look on people's faces (especially kids) when I give them a gift they love. I bought my nieces some headbands that my friend makes. She does such an amazing job! Check out her blog www.navyperl.blogspot.com. I am obsessed with her headbands!

I can't really take credit for the gift I gave to Thomas. My sister actually bought Justin (my stepson) this Car's race track. Thomas loves to come to my house to play with this. He is obsessed with Cars. He runs straight to Justin's room and plays with it till they have to leave. So I decided since Justin never places with it, I gave it to Thomas for Christmas. He was so excited!

Christmas was one of the best this year. We had such a great time. After dinner (which by the way was so amazing, I WAY over ate. UGH!) we went to a movie as a family then came back to the house and played Phase 10 till almost 1 am. It was a great time.
I woke up the next day feeling a bit sad. I don't know about any of you, but I always get a bit down the day after Christmas. I love the holidays so much so it's hard when it comes to an end. I hate that part so much that I leave Christmas up in my house until middle of January. I know, I know! I'm crazy! I just have a hard time taking it all down.

New Year's Eve was a lot of fun. I can't believe how fast time flies! I was remembering that for New Year's 2000 my girlfriends and I went to Disneyland and how it felt as though it happened maybe 4yrs ago. Where does the time go?!
For this New Year's Eve, we went to dinner with some very good friends of ours and then went to their house and hung out till midnight. It was very chill but a lot of fun. My friend Angie (in the middle) just had a baby so my favorite part was holding her little one half the night. He is adorable and just snuggles up to you. I didn't even care that he threw up all over me. He's just too fun to hold. Anyway, we love hanging out with these friends so much that it is turning into a tradition to hang out with them every New Year's Eve. Last year we spent at their cabin and will probably do that again next year. Good times!