Carving our Pumpkin

We carved a pumpkin, this is what it looked like:

Lilly was more interested in coloring than carving.

 

Lilly was momentarily interested in the pumpkin.

I had Bart draw the face on with a Sharpie before he cut it.  He hates it when we do that because he says you can see the sharpie after it's carved.

He's right.

 

And she's back to coloring.

Voila, our pumpkin.

Our Family Circle

I've said it before, and I'll say it again...I SERIOUSLY love my kids!  Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of fights/whining/crying/annoying each other that happen in our house, but I swear, when things like this happen, it just makes me feel like I'm living in some sort of surreal world.

Today Bart and I thoroughly enjoyed some peace and quiet, as the girls played outside.  After a while they came in and announced that they had something to show us.  When we got out there, this is what greeted us:

It is a family circle.  Addison drew it with the help of the other three girls.  Around the outside it says, "Families can be together forever" and "I Love my Family."  Then, it's split into six pieces, one for each member of our family.  Each section is filled with a picture of the person, and things that person likes.

While we were out there, the girls remembered a few more things that dad and I like. 

Starting with the baby:

Lilly likes:
Sunshine, Flowers, Bananas, Shark-o (a stuffed animal), Butterflies, and Her Snowman.

 


Maya Likes:

Squid-O (her stuffed animal),  Perry the Platypus, Her Snowman, Ladybugs, Butterflies, and Sunshine.



Hannah Likes:

Rainbows, Sunshine, Flowers, Fishing, Bananas, and Her Blankie.



Addison Likes:

Rainbows,  Butterflies, Flowers, Art, Fruit, and Sunshine.

 

Mom Likes:

Taking Pictures, Flowers, Her Kids, The Beach, Sunshine, and Gardening.

 

Dad Likes:

Sunshine, Art, Reading, Playing Video Games, Playing Board Games, and Fishing.

 

Food Photography

When my dad was growing up on the farm, every year on your birthday you got to choose what was for dinner.  You could have anything you wanted.  Anything.  One year, when it was my dad's birthday, my aunt was really excited.  She knew they would have a good dinner that night.  (Birthday dinners were always good).  But when my grandmother asked my dad what he wanted for dinner, he responded, "Bread and milk."  Yep.  Bread and milk.  Of all of the foods in the world that he could have, he chose bread and milk.  My aunt still gets worked up whenever she talks about it.



As funny as having bread and milk for dinner may sound, I have to confess...it's one of my favorite meals too.  But only when it's homemade bread.

My mom has a bread recipe from her mom that my siblings and I absolutely LOVE.  In fact, my three siblings who are still in college each have a Bosch (purchased solely for the purpose of making this bread) and ALL semi-regularly make it!  Seriously, we love it that much.  :)  And since this month's blog circle theme is food photography, I thought I'd share not only some pictures of the bread, but the recipe as well.

Grandma Timms' Wheat Bread

1/2 c warm water
2 Tbsp yeast (sprinkle yeast on to water, set aside)

2 Tbsp salt
1/2 c oil
1/2 c honey
4 large eggs
1 can evaporated milk
2 c warm water
1/2 c apple sauce
8 c wheat flour
4 c white flour


Mix all ingredients except yeast mixture and flower in the bowl of a Bosch fitted with the dough hook.  To the mixture add 2 C of flour at a time, mixing well in between.  After you've added 1/3 of the flour, add the yeast mixture.  Continue adding the flour beating it well.  Add just enough flour to make the dough slightly come away from the bowl (too much flour makes the bread dry and coarse).  Knead 10 min in Bosch bowl or by hand.   Let the dough rise in bowl until it is 1 inch above the bowl, punch down.  Shape into 4 loaves and put into 4 bread pans that have been greased and floured.  Let rise slightly above pan.  Bake two loaves at a time at 375°f  for 25-30 minutes. 

Enjoy!

If you feel up to it, you can whip up some homemade jam to have with it too!  It's heavenly, and makes a great little gift to pass on to a neighbor or friend.



Now go check out Stacey's blog to see what she came up with this month. 

Weekend In Moab

Last year, we went to Moab for the Art's Festival and Memorial Day.  We decided to do a repeat this year, and I think next year we'll make it a full blown tradition.

We started off the trip with the Art's Festival.  It was a rather blustery day so our visit was cut a bit short.  Bart said he liked last year's better, he was still really impressed with the ceramic artists.

Not that he's biased or anything.

I was impressed with this little guy.

You would think Bart would be really excited about the Art's Festival because it's...well...an ART'S festival.  But from the moment we we decided to go, all he talked about was the "Carnie Food."  He was really excited.  And this year we discovered this little gem:



On it's Facebook Page, Quesadilla Mobilla says, it's mission is, "To create and serve the most unique and delicious quesadillas in the universe! But we'll just start with the planet earth for now."  Well Quesadilla Mobilla, mission accomplished! (At least here on earth).  Not certain it qualifies as "Carnie Food,"  But it was pretty freaking good.  Bart and I got the Southern Belle and the Enchanted Chicken.  Then for desert we had a little Cran-Apple Delite.  Absolutely the most delicious and unique Quesadillas I've ever tasted.  I hope to see them at the festival again next year.

The kiddos opted out of the Cran-Apple Delite (much to our delite, since we got one to share with everyone) and chose to have Ice Cream instead.  Hannah actually claimed her tummy was hurting, but the ice cream apparently fixed that.

I have to admit, we kept the twins in their stroller most of the time because the wind was so strong it was really kicking up a lot of dust, and the covers protected them a little. 

But I SWEAR, we usually take them out of the stroller when we're out and about....okay, most of the time...sometimes...alright alright alright every once in a while!  Don't judge!  You try and chase down two toddlers running in opposite directions and then come back and talk to me about how frequently you should let your kids out of their strollers.  Sometimes it's hard enough just keeping them in the stroller!

Moving on...

Sunday was Hannah's Birthday!  My little lady is now officially 3, although in my mind she's been three ever since she started talking in complex sentences.

While I was getting her breakfast ready, I had a feeling that I would forget to get a birthday picture of her if I didn't do it right then, so I asked her to give me her best Hannah birthday face.  This is what I got:

 

I'm going to have to agree, those are some of the best Hannah Birthday faces I've ever seen. ;) Love you little lady!

I was pretty much right.  The only other picture I got of her on her birthday was her blowing out the candles on her cake.

It took her a few tries, but when you're three you're allowed more than one, especially if it will help avoid getting spit on the cake...which it did.

And finally, the real reason we came down to Moab:  Memorial Day.



There's a reverent dignity to cemeteries on Memorial Day.  In all honesty, it's there every other day of the year, but it is very pronounced on Memorial Day.  You can just feel the respect and love the living have for these people who have passed on.  Especially for those who have served our country.  I absolutely love it.

When we got there, the girls realized they didn't have flowers, so Addison and Hannah decided they wanted to gather pine cones to place on Grandpa's grave.  When Maya and Lilly saw what they were doing, even they joined in.



Not sure why, but it was really a touching moment for me. These girls, only one of whom ever got to meet Grandpa, reverently gathering and arranging pine cones as their gift to him.







It really was a wonderful Memorial Day.  I can't wait to go again next year.

Yardwork

Since Bart finally finished his thesis...okay, so he still has his defense, but the hard part is done...he's been able to get some work done around the yard.

He knew that there is a broken pipe in our back yard sprinklers, but he wanted to test the sprinklers in the front yard to make sure they were still working properly

Seeing as this was the twins first experience with sprinklers, they were quite excited.  Water spraying from out of the ground?  Yes please!

Unfortunately there was some work to be done.

But I don't think the kids minded much.

There was also some work to be done in the back yard.

Confession: I love watching this guy work in our yard.

Dang! He is good looking.

"Babe, are you just going to take pictures, or are you actually going to help?"

What a silly question, of course I'm going to help...let me just go over here and...OH look at what our adorable kids are doing!

Just kidding.  I really did help...and in the spirit of full disclosure, that's not what he was thinking when I took that picture of him.  I asked him right after I took it and he said he didn't even realize he was making a face...that's what he told me at least... ;)

I got the kids to help too.

We train them young here.

Not gonna lie, it's good to have my husband back!