splashin' around

No yard yet? No matter...Daddy built us a great deck we can swim on! Thanks to the hot weather today we got out our splash pool and the kids had a blast (so did Mommy). The water was a little cold for Ammon so he wouldn't sit down...forced him to stand and walk which was good practice for him!

The girls were pampered with a little picnic oustide too...what a fun afternoon!

Great Outdoors

Saturday we enjoyed spending the afternoon at a Mother's Day Fair at the conservation garden park in West Jordan. They had some really neat gardening ideas, and a few fun things for the kids too. Can't go wrong with a sandbox:

Getting balloons was a big hit too:

Ammon cried and cried when we took him out of the sandbox :(

A fun rockwall:

Josh zipped to the top so quick without giving the height a second thought - he was a natural

Tonight for part of family night we shoveled loads and loads of gravel into our playground area. Ammon sat and played forever and was just loving it! I could barely get him to look at me for a picture! Josh was a good brother & playmate.

The playground is safe now with gravel beneath, so we are ready for visitors :)

Joshua's Baptism

Quick note: there are several new posts today so scroll down!

We are so proud of Josh...he was baptized on Saturday and it was such a great day! He was really excited, the whole experience was wonderful, and we are so grateful for all the friends and family who helped us recognize him. We had a really nice luncheon afterward (which I am sorry to say I have no pictures from...I've decided it's hard to play hostess and photographer at the same time). Thanks to all who helped. Congratulations Josh!

Disclaimer on this next photo: this is why you don't give your camera to someone who doesn't COUNT before they snap...hello! Nice hair flipper, I know. At least it's good for a chuckle. I'm really not that vain, I promise!

Playset Complete!

It's finished! We worked hard all last week and finished Friday night so it would be ready for Joshua's baptism luncheon Saturday. Good thing we worked so hard too because it POURED rain the next day. Ugh! Oh well it's nice to have a deadline to help get these things done. Here's a picture of me after I put on the first roof and some of the rails (yes, all by myself!) I got out Mark's power tools & tool belt and went to town! It actually was a lot of fun and I even got some sore muscles!

The kids playing pirates on the newly finished set Even Ammon joined in on the fun! He loves loves loves to swing!

Ella opted for Batgirl rather than a pirate

Finished Product...now all we need is fill to make it safer (not to mention prettier).

We have a walker!

Ammon finally decided he's ready to walk...I'm not sure whether to be excited or sad. He all of a sudden seems so grown up :( Maybe he heard us threatening that he had to learn to walk before we go to Disneyland. I love his waving hand while he walks...

I love this!

This is very touching:

All my Free Time...

Has gone here...this is what we are putting up in our backyard right now. Of course we don't have the nice green grass and trees yet, but we wanted the kids to have something fun to do while we work on the rest of the yard. Every time Ammon has a nap I sneak outside and work on this - it has been a fun project! If anyone has tips on where to get a good fill to go under the playset please send them my way!

Grateful for Inspiration

Last week I got all the kids in bed before I headed to dance class and knew Mark would be so happy to have an evening of free time while I was gone. When I got home I knew by Mark's face that things hadn't gone according to plan. Ammon had cried most of the time and just wouldn't settle down to sleep. A dozen reasons cycled through my mind, and I finally decided that he was sad he hadn't spent any time with his Daddy and wanted to stay up and play. So I fixed a bottle, handed Ammon to Mark, and thought a little one-on-one would do the trick. When the crying continued I knew it was more serious than that...I quickly realized that this was a cry of pain. Something was bothering Ammon. There aren't many things that evoke a more helpless feeling than when your child hurts and you don't know how to help. No sooner did I pray for help in my mind than I knew something was wrong with his foot. I started examining and found that his baby toe had some elastic from his jammies keeping it in a funny position...I'm sure after a few hours of that it was really painful. As soon as I fixed it, Ammon instantly settled down and gave a big sigh of relief. And I gave a big sigh of relief and gratitude for receiving an answer to prayer so quickly. This might not seem like a huge deal to some, but to a mother facing a potentially long night of watching a child suffer, it was a true "tender mercy" from heaven.

Power

This is the "power bread" I made...I cut the dough up into individual servings before baking...so they are more like power bars. Perfect for a snack or pre/post workout replenishment. And yes, they taste scrumptious! More props to Peter Reinhart! Now my challenge is to keep up with the gobblers in my family...at least there will never be such a thing as "day old bread" in our pantry!

And just for kicks here is a picture of the baguettes I just made. I will try not to turn this into a baking blog, I'm just really excited about this new technique & the great bread it delivers!

My latest obsession

I never thought I would dream (literally) about baking bread...until this week. I started making bread from this cookbook this week and it is seriously the best whole grain bread I have ever tasted!! The author/chef's goal was "to make world-class bread and, let us hope, to make whole grain bread that people will actually want to eat - not just because it is good for them but because it brings them, and us, joy with each bite." Let me tell you, the goal was accomplished! And I've turned into a baking fool!

His cookbook begins with about 80 pages of non-recipe text: Chapter 1, "Following the Flavor: A Bread Baker's Journey Back to whole Grains," Chapter 2, "From Wheat to Eat, a Tutorial," and Chapter 3, "The Theory and Process of Delayed Fermentation." It includes all kinds of helpful (and much of it quite scientific) information. I devoured it and learned a lot...and will continually refer to it.

I have been searching for years for the perfect whole wheat bread recipe. Most I have tried were decent, yummy, but had flaws. And most were not true whole-grain (they all required a bit of white flour). The recipes in this book are truly whole grain and truly flavorful, light, moist, with a great crust & crumb. This excites me even more because it means the wheat in my food storage can be used without supplementing with bread flour - wahoo! There are recipes that also incorporate other grains, such as flaxseed, quinoa, oat bran, amaranth, barley, buckwheat, cassava, corn, millet, rye, etc. I feel healthier already.

This is not a cookbook for someone who likes to whip out a batch of bread from start to finish in one hour. The recipes are not terribly time consuming or hard, but it is a two-day process as you have to let things sit overnight. It might be a little advanced for those who have never made bread before. His method is unconventional, but the results are fantastic. Well let me just say it with pictures:

The first loaves I made (whole wheat sandwich bread & oat bran broom bread baguettes) I didn't take pictures - they got eaten too fast. Here is my most recent loaf, Anadama Bread, made with 100% whole wheat & corn meal & flavored with a bit of molasses. Can't wait to dig in:

This is the wild yeast starter I'm working on...which he teaches you how to do. It uses no commercial yeast, but as you can see on day 4 mine is bubbling away nicely. Can't wait to use it:
Tonight I'm trying his whole wheat pizza crust, and tomorrow I'm making something called "Power Bread" which uses wheat, oat bran, a raisin puree, sunflower seed flour, flaxseeds, and sesame seeds. Sounds dense and heavy, right? Trust me, it won't be...this book is amazing.