Yum-O

Look what I made tonight...

I know I have already confessed my non love of cooking homemade bread on this blog. But then my friend Kacee invited me over for a fabulous dinner of homemade pizza and cinnamon twists and convinced me that homemade breads were easy with this recipe. So...I'm hooked even though I think Kacee's (kudos again girl!) were prettier and tastier. I'm hoping this isn't a super secret recipe...but here goes. From mixer to oven in 1 hour, seriously! In Kitchen Aid or Bosch mixer (can double with Bosch):

5 1/4 cups bread flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tbs salt
1 1/2 tbs saf instant yeast
1 1/2 tbs lecithin (buy it at Kitchen Kneads in WJ or other specialty stores..squeeze quarter size for a tbs)
2 cups hot tap water.

Mix dry ingredients. Add lecithin and water. Mix one minute. Check consistency, adding water and flour as necessary. Mix 5 minutes. Do not add water or flour after mixing. Spray counter with Pam. Cut into two loaves. For bread shape loaves and cover with a dish towel. Let raise 25 minutes. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes. For bread sticks, roll and shape. Let rise 20 minutes. Bake 350 for 20 minutes. Pizza, don't raise. Cook at 400 for 25 minutes. Cinnamon Rolls, cut and let raise 20 minutes. Bake at 350 for 18-20 minutes.

Happy Baking. Hello 5 pounds.

Watch this if you want to laugh

For all those of you who took Spanish in high school or college this will take you back! Enjoy...

Baby Must Haves!

Just yesterday as Addy was drinking out of her sippy cup, our piano teacher (a grandma) told me how lucky I was to have a sippy cup. She told me how they best sippy in her day was a Tupperware cup with lid. We all know those do not work for babies! That got me thinking about all the great products available to us. Here are some of my "favorite baby things" this time around.


A bumbo seat! I loved this thing. I saw it on Heidi Swapp's blog when Karissa was two. I just thought to myself, too bad they didn't have those when I had babies. Then, surprise Addy! That was the first item on my list. I loved this thing, she looked so cute in it.


Adorable pacifiers. When I was pregnant I read a study that said babies who had a pacifier had a lower risk of SIDS. That hooked me right away. While my other children never took a pacifier, Addy did. They have SO many cute ones now. New designs and colors pop up every month. Now that Addy is one I have to tell myself no more! Lucky you if you still get to browse the pacifier isle at Target!


Flower clips and bows. So cute! I loved it when I could force Addy to wear them. The flowers are just adorable and I wish someone would have thought of this 9 years ago when I had my first girl. Too bad the bow/flower phase didn't last for long. Our little bald Addy will have nothing to do with anything being on her head.


Baby Cheetos...aka Gerber Crunchies. Addy loves these things and still does the happy dance when we pull them out. All the texture of Cheetos puffs and they say packed with vitamins (not totally sold on that). All the texture babies love without the orange mess and guilt!

Here are just a few of the things "new to me" this baby. Enjoying it all since she is my last baby. Hope some of you new Mom's and Mom's to be enjoy all the great stuff out there!

Dancing Queen

Do your kids do this?

I know I just need to chalk it up to creativity, but sometimes it creeps me out when I find pictures like this on my camera....


Upon further investigation, I realized it is just Super Why. =) For some reason Karissa can't get enough snapshots of TV shows. Please tell me your children are somewhat paparazzi-ish too.

Back to Blogging!!

I have missed you all! I took a little blogging break so I could enjoy the summer with the kids. And, every other extra spare second was filled with preschool! But, now that school has started I feel like I can breathe again and come back to blogging. Here is a little catch up on what we did over our blogging break.



1. Addy turned ONE! I can hardly believe it. She is such a sweet baby. Now that she is one and mobile...she is into everything! We love her so much and can't imagine life without her.



2. Camping. Truth be told, camping is not one of my favorite things, but it is much more fun when filled with great friends . We enjoyed our yearly camping trip with our high school friends and are so glad we are still so close. Love you guys! We also headed up to Payson Lakes with some of our friends from our Trowbridge Home. After all my camping complaining, the Stanworth's forced me to sleep in their trailer.=) Flushing toilets and soap and water put a smile on my face.


3. Park City with my family at a condo at the Lodge at the Mountain Village. A yearly highlight...even if we didn't have enough beds this year! We had a great time...and LOVED the Alpine Coaster.


4. School starting! The kids are growing up so fast, I can hardly believe it! Wow. The kids and Mom were way excited for school to start and they are loving it and doing great!


5. Finishing a room in our basement...so glad it is done! We hired almost everything out, but Richard and I did the painting ourselves. It was, quite the bonding experience. =) So thankful for a wonderful husband who supports me in all I do. Love ya.

So, I am back...and I can't wait to catch up on you too.

Channeling My Inner Domestic Diva

Richard has been hinting that he would love me to make homemade bread for him for the past 11 years. I have just pretended not to hear him, because to be totally honest, there are a lot more things I want to do with two hours of my life than make homemade bread! But, I finally gave in when my sister's neighbor gave me a sourdough starter. I felt so domestic. I was a little proud of my hard work when Kaela told me our house smelled like Great Harvest. Amanda's homemade raspberry jam made it taste even better (hugs Amanda!). It still was A LOT of work and not something I am planning on doing on a regular basis (I had to put that out there so Richard didn't get his hopes up). I think it will be a little sooner than another eleven years, every now and again for a treat. Here's to learning something new!