Lost!

Look who lost her very first tooth!

She was so excited about it!

And she loved the money that the tooth fairy brought her.  And like the sweet little girl she is, she shared some of her precious riches with both her brothers.  And then they all had fun going to the Dollar tree to buy a treat!

The Science of Sound

Last week Dallin’s class was doing a science unit on sound, so each of the students were asked to create their own musical instrument.

We decided to make a tin can xylophone.  So Dallin set to work on decorating it.

I think it turned out pretty cute!

Then he jammed out on it!   And had a blast doing it!

I love it when learning is fun!

It’s open!

And it’s beautiful!

Taking the picture was a little scary.  Climbing up a ladder to do it was a little crazy, but luckily I had Nathan right there to make sure I didn’t fall :)

It was completely worth the effort because now we have a record of how awesome Dallin is at gardening!  It really is crazy how tall they are!

Dallin is so happy with them that he has decided that he wants to plant sunflowers EVERY year!

Work So Hard

One morning last week during our usual morning pile up in our bed, Dallin was complaining and didn’t want to go to school.  Mandy decided she needed to agree with her brother and so started complaining that she didn’t want to go to school either.  When ask why, she said, “Because we have to do so much work there and it is so hard.”

Yeah, that looks like really hard work to me.  Poor thing. 

About to bloom…

I am so excited!  It looks like our sunflower is about to bloom!

Just thinking…

about my dad.  I think about him everyday, but he’s been on my mind a lot this week.  This past Tuesday marks 1 year since he passed away.

I miss him, but I’m pretty sure he’s been watching over everything we do.  I’m pretty sure he has watched Mandy enjoy her first year of ballet, cheered Dallin as he made some awesome hits at baseball, kissed Layton’s boo-boos right along with us, and laughed at all of the crazy funny things they do.  I keep thinking how much I wish he could be here to watch Dallin get baptized next month and to stand in the circle to give Dallin the gift of the Holy Ghost. It just doesn’t quite seem fair that he won’t be.  I have a feeling though he wouldn’t miss it and that he’ll be there in spirit.

Sweet Wheat Yeast Rolls

I made these for a family gathering and have had several people ask for the recipe, so I thought I would just post it here.  I’m going to admit, homemade bread products and I have not always had a happy time together.  It has taken me quite a while and lots of trials to finally find a recipe that turns out good every time and is not too hard to make.  This recipe is actually a modified version of the bread base for Pioneer Woman’s famous cinnamon rolls.

Ingredients:
12 oz can Evaporated milk plus 1/2 cup water  OR  2 cups milk
1/2 cup sugar
2 pkg active dry yeast
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 heaping teaspoon baking powder
1/2 level teaspoon baking soda
1-1/2 teaspoon salt
2 to 2-1/2 cups wheat flour
2 to 2/12 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1/2 cup butter (please use real salted sweet cream butter, it just tastes better!)

Heat the evaporated milk plus water or the regular milk in the microwave until warm but not HOT.  I actually prefer using the evaporated milk because it seems to give the rolls a richer flavor, but regular milk tastes good too.  Pour the warm milk into the bowl of your counter top mixer.  Pour in sugar and yeast packets.  Give it a little stir and then let it sit for 10 minutes or so or until the yeast looks bubbly.  Pour in vegetable oil, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Then add 2 cups of the wheat flour and 2 cups of the unbleached flour.  You can also use regular all purpose flour, I just like the unbleached kind because they doesn’t use chemicals in the processing of the flour.  Put the bowl on your stand mixer and put on the dough attachment.  Let it mix for a minute or two and then take a look at the dough.  You want your dough to be sticky but not overly wet.  If it seems really wet, turn the mixer back on and add flour a little at a time until the dough gets to be a sticky consistency.  If you add too much flour and the dough doesn’t stick to your finger when you touch it, you can always add a little water or milk to get it back to the right consistency.  Let it knead for 3 to 4 minutes. 

Take the bowl off the stand and then cover it with a damp kitchen towel and put it in a warm place.  What I like to do is turn the oven on for about 1 minute so that it gets a little warm in there and then I place my bowl into the warm oven.  Let it rise for about an hour or so or until the dough has doubled in size.   Punch the dough down and then in a small bowl melt the butter in the microwave.  Make slightly larger than golf ball size pieces of the dough (be sure to try to smooth the top of the ball as much as possible) and dip them into the melt butter and place on a baking sheet about 2 inches apart.  Let rise (again I normally just stick the pan back in the oven) for about another hour or so or until the edges of the rolls are starting to touch and they are doubled in size.  If you let them rise in the oven, pull it out and preheat the oven to 350.  Bake for about 20 minutes or until the tops are browned.  If you really like butter, feel free to put a little more on the tops of the rolls right after you pull them out of the oven.

This recipe makes about 35 rolls.  I normally just use part of the dough and make one pan of rolls and then save the rest of the dough in the refrigerator and make something else the next day.  Either more rolls, cinnamon rolls, monkey bread, or sometimes I’ll use it as pizza dough!

End of Season Party

It was the end of baseball season (or so we thought – we ended up having three more games after our “end of season” party) and what better to do than to celebrate!

I actually didn’t get to go to the party because I was photographing a wedding, but Nathan was nice enough to take pictures for me.  While the River Dogs this year weren’t exactly a winning team, getting to know all of this teammates and coaches was definitely a winning experience for Dallin.

You’ll notice he is the only kid not in his jersey – he didn’t want to wear it and Nathan didn’t make him.  Oh well.  I guess that’s what happens when mom isn’t there :)  He loved getting his trophy!

Walking by and getting five from one of his favorite teammates – Hayden!

He is super proud of this trophy and it now holds a place of honor on our entertainment center.

For the fall, we gave Dallin a choice of playing soccer or playing baseball.  I was seriously hoping that he would choose soccer because the schedule is so much less demanding – but at the idea of fall baseball his little face just lit up.  There was no way that I could tell him no fall baseball with so much delight on his face.  So I guess we’ll be back at it in the fall and then probably again in the spring.  Wish us luck!

P.S. Has anyone else had some issues with blogger lately?  There were some comments on a couple of my post from last week that are no longer there.

Pure Popsicle Bliss

Now that’s summertime enjoyment at it’s finest!

Remember Who You Are

I loved this!  Enjoy and have a wonderful weekend!