Three months old

September 20th you turned three months old.

• Your favorite toy is this stuffed duck that Aunt Brenda and Uncle John gave you at your blessing.
  
• You are a fairly good sleeper. You will take long naps during the day so mommy can get things done :) In fact you spend most of your time sleeping. Sometimes I wonder if you are getting enough food.
• You have just moved on to your 3-6 month clothes. Some of those don't fit you so we had to put you in the 6-9 months clothes. You are growing so tall!
• Last week you weighed 12 lbs 10 oz. For starting off so big, you really haven't gained too much weight. As the nurse puts it, "All your growth is going into your link" (I guess she means length!)
• You have finally let up on the messy diapers. Mommy is soooo glad she doesn't have to change so many messy ones. Your poor bum was always raw from it!
• Your sister Lily loves you death. She is always wanting to play with you or dress you. She sure can't wait for you to be big enough to "really" play.
• You have the biggest smile I have ever seen! It truly melts my heart when I see it.
• You are very strong! If you don't want to be held in a certain why you will arch your back and almost throw yourself out of our arms.
  
• You have just started really talking in the past week. I think you squeal so much because you just want to hear your own voice!
• You can almost roll over. You get so close and I start to cheer for you. Instead of helping you it scares you and you roll back onto your back.
• You have been cutting teeth for almost a month and half now. Those pesky things will rise to the top almost break through, and then sink back down into your gums. You are a little trooper about it though. You just shove your fists in your mouth and plesantly chomp away!
• We love you very much and are very blessed to have you in our family!
  

Smiles all around!

I've mentioned many times on here that Allie has an awesome smile! There was something in her blessing mentioned about it as well. Well, I have tried and tried and tried to capture it in a picture, but have never been able too....until now! Wahoo! I am so proud of myself! The process only took three pictures! Enjoy the smile!

This is her smirk that I have captured a million times!

Not fast enough mom!

There it is in all of its toothless, drooly glory!

Walking Along

Russ has been a great hubby. He goes walking with me quite a few times a week. We also take the kids because Allie gets a new perspective of her world and according to our doctor Lily needs more exercise because she is overweight. I loved these pictures I took of our last walk, so I thought I would share them with all of you!

Don't you love how you can see Lily in the background?

Daddy's Pal

Stopping to talk to the Whipples

Walking in Daddy's footsteps.

Oops! I forgot something! (I got annoyed with Lily making me carry her "treasures" on the walk, so I gave her a bucket to carry it all in.)

Talking to the neighbors again.

Lily's "treasures". I make her dump it out on the back porch before going in. I don't want all that crap in my house!

Lily and her "treasures"

For the California Family Members

This post is for all our family that lives in California and don't get to really see all the leaves change colors. These pictures were taken about a block away from our house! Sorry you can't see them in one and the next one is fuzzy. Lily was having issues standing still. Oh well!

T.I.T

Oh do I have a recipe for you! We tried these ribs as a last grilling kick off. No more grilling for seven months :( These were so tasty! You should definitely try them! Check out Prudy's website as well, she has GREAT recipes. I also am adding in a recipe for really good baked potatoes! Just so you know how good these recipes are Russell said that the ribs were almost as good as Texas Roadhouse's and he requests that I only make bake potatoes this way!

Baby Back Ribs with Tangy Root Beer Barbecue Sauce
Prudence Pennywise

Ingredients:

• 4 cans root beer (I bought a two liter bottle and just measured out how much I needed! Much cheaper this way!)
• About 3/4 cup Dijon Mustard divided
• 1/2 cup purchased smoky barbecue sauce
• 3 lbs. baby back ribs
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 tablespoon pepper
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon paprika

Directions:

1. For the ribs, cut ribs into sections - about 3-4 bones per person. Rub generously with Dijon and sprinkle with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and paprika. Please don't measure -- just eyeball it. Let ribs sit for 15 minutes. (I forgot to do this and they still turned out okay!) Place in large zip top bag and pour 1 can root beer over the top. Zip top and refrigerate. Let marinate for 12-36 hours.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cookie sheet with foil. discard marinade. Wrap ribs tightly in foil and bake on cookie sheet for 60 minutes. At this point you can refrigerate ribs again, or head directly to the grill.
3. While ribs are baking make the following sauce. In a large saucepan over high heat bring 3 cans root beer to a boil. boil until reduced by half and is syrupy. This takes about 30 minutes. Cool to room temperature. (Oops! Didn't do that either!) In a small bowl, combine 1/2 cup each of Dijon, barbecue sauce, and root beer syrup. Whisk until smooth and set aside. Use left over root beer syrup to make root beer floats for desert!
4. Brush ribs generously with Root Beer sauce and place on preheated grill. Grill for 10-20 minutes, turning one, and basting with sauce often until ribs are nicely caramelized. They are already fully cooked, so you are just going for that great crispy sugar coating.

Baked Potatoes with Cheese Mix
The Essential Mormon Cookbook by Julie Badger Jensen

Ingredients:

• 2 large baking potatoes ( 3-4 regular potatoes)
  
• Olive oil or butter, softened
• 1/2 cup grated Cheddar cheese (I use what I have on hand, and I up the amount some)
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 2 tablespoons butter or margarine
• 1 tablespoon chopped green onion or chives

Directions:

1. Scrub and clean potatoes. Rub olive oil or softened butter onto the potato skins. Place on a baking sheet and bake at 350 F. for 1 1/2 hours or until done.
2. In a small bowl mix cheese, sour cream, butter, and onion. Refrigerate until ready to use. (I just prepare this 5 minutes before the potatoes are done.)
   
3. To serve, slit baked potatoes. Spoon in cheese mixture. Put on cookie sheet. Bake at 350 F. for 5 to 10 minutes or until mixture is warmed.

****If you have a tried and true recipe you'd be willing to share, leave a comment with the recipe title and post the recipe on your blog so we can all come and check it out. Thanks for playing; the more the merrier! ****

Break Dancing

This was soooooo funny to watch! Lily was watching the Doodlebops when one of them started break dancing. Lily decided to give it a try. Who knew my daughter could dance like that? I am not sure why this is on its side. I have tried everything to fix it...but it won't be fixed! :( Oh well! It is still funny!

All done....almost!

Phew! I finished making my own blog template and header for the month of October! I was soooooo proud of myself. Now I know that I can do it and it doesn't take as long as I thought it would. You are probably wondering why I put Curious George, The Man in the Yellow Hat, Strawberry Shortcake, and Blueberry Muffin on my header huh?! Well...I am not telling! You will just have to guess!

I have been revamping my blog and reorganizing things on it. I haven't got them all done, but I almost have! Stay tuned for some new things popping up on my sidebar! One fun thing I have already added is a "What for dinner tonight" section. I saw this on my friend Elena's blog and then again on Ashley's blog. I couldn't resist copying it. I hope you enjoy it! Oh and it starts on Friday because that is the day I go grocery shopping.

Under Construction!

I have decided to give designing my own blog template a whirl. The only problem is that I get five minutes here five minutes there on the computer because of my lovely girls. So pardon the blahness of my blog as it is under construction! Also if you notice that I have used scrapbooking paper it is because I have. I WILL post credits but please give me time to finish experimenting!

Finally!

After one year and ten months, Lily is what I will call officially potty trained. We haven't mastered nights yet...but she can go all day wearing regular underwear without having accidents. I don't know what about a trip to Utah did to her, but ever since then potty training has been a breeze! I hope it continues! Thanks to all who gave me advice and listened to my never ending whinning on this subject!

So cuddly!

Allie was fussing yesterday so I gave her her duck. Since my aunt gave it to her two weeks ago, she has totally fell in love with it. Anyway, duck didn't satisfy her. I popped in her pacifier, turned and looked at something else for like 10 seconds, turned around and saw this. She was out that fast! I love how she was cuddling with her duck! This truly melted my heart.

Budding Artist

Recently Lily has become VERY interested in art. She loves markers, crayons, color pencils, paint, glue, etc. She is getting better at making things. I wouldn't say that she is fabulous, but I do know she is ahead of where she should be. Just last month the doctor asked if she could draw a circle and a straight line. Ummm....she is drawing stick people! She isn't' supposed to be able to do this until she is almost four! I love watching her grow!

This is what her art used to look like. One big blob!
This supposed to be me, Lily, and Russell. We are standing on Papa Doug.
This supposed to be Allie. Notice that Lily has given her cheeks and a chin! No that isn't a goatee...it is a chin! LOL!
Lily has decided that using different colors in different places on the paper is better than making just one blob!

Conjunctivitis

Allie has conjunctivitis or more commonly known as Pink Eye! I have no idea how she got it. Lily had a cold, but not pink eye. Anyway, my poor little girl looks awful. I now have to give her eye drops twice a day. Have you ever tried to give a baby eye drops? It is d--n near impossible! Sorry for the bleep, but it has been a frustrating day or should I say week?! (See post below if you don't believe me!) I also have to wipe all that goop out of her eye, which makes her scream. I don't know if it is painful or just uncomfortable. The goop has gotten so bad that if I don't wipe it out her eye gets stuck closed. So friends don't come visit us for the next 24 hours. After that we won't be contagious! Anyway, this is what my poor baby looks like right now! Pathetic huh?! Of course it had to be in the eye that already looks like something is wrong with it!

You'ld think I would know better!

You would think that after 25 years of living on this earth I would be smarter than I am. Lily has gotten into sooooo much mischief the past few days. Here are just two examples.

A few days ago Lily ran into the potty to go bathroom. No problem, she can do that herself. I heard the toilet flush. I waited for her to come back out. I waited....and waited....and waited. Finally, my dear daughter appears and says to me, "Look mommy I pretty like you!" I look at her closely and realize she has drawn on her eyes with my eyeliner! Grrrr! At least she didn't get that much on her!
Mischief act number two wasn't really her fault. It was mine. While taking a bath I keep Lily in the bathroom with me so she can't get into mischief. Well, Lily managed to dunk her underwear in the tub and get them all wet. I told her to go and get a pair out of her drawer. This has never been a problem before, why would it be this time. After waiting for Lily to return, I heard a scream and HUGE crash. I ran to her bedroom and the dresser was tipped over on the floor. Poor Lily was hiding in the closet. We still aren't sure how it happened, but we decided that we should move Lily's clothes down to the bottom drawers. Lily wasn't hurt, but she was shook up. I lifted the dresser up to get a better look at what damaged had a occurred. Apparently all the drawers weren't on the ground as I thought because one fell out right onto my foot! It swelled up and hurts really bad. We think I bruised the bone since nothing else has shown up. The dresser didn't fair as well. One of the rollers on the drawer busted off. It tore a hole through the particle board. Another drawer had both of the rollers bent. I cleaned it up the best I could. When Russ got home he amazingly fixed. I am not really sure how, since I was in the other room, but he did! It is great having a handy man for a husband. Everything that was on top of the dresser did pretty well. Only one piggy-bank broke, and it didn't even break completely. Only the antennae on it did. So I have come to the realization that I really should know better than letting my daughter wander off for large amounts of time!
Broken Drawer

My clean-up

Oh! Poor little bug!The newly fixed dresser!

T.I.T

Okay as promised I have two recipes this week! The first is zucchini brownies, which actually resembles a cake more than brownies. But they are soooo delicious! Don't let the zucchini throw you off! The other recipe, Cheesesteak Sliders I tried out on Saturday. Mmmmm! You gotta try these!

Zucchini Brownies

Laurel Rail

Mix:

1 egg

1 1/4 cups sugar

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 tsp vanilla

Add:

2 cups flour

1 1/2 tsp soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup cocoa

Add:

2 cups grated zucchini

Pour into 11 X 13 cake pan which has been greased and floured. Bake 350 for 25 - 30 min. Frost with chocolate frosting when cool.

***If you don't know how to make homemade frosting either leave me a comment or buy some!***

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

***This made too many for my family. So I cut the recipe in half. Also, this called for beef tenderloin which costs $12.00 for 1 lb! I wasn't about to pay that so I found a tender meat and substituted it! Other adjustments I made are noted in black.***

Cheesesteak Sliders

Everyday with Rachael Ray June/July2008

Ingredients:

7 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 lb beef tenderloin, cut into thin strips (I used Beef Loin: Top Sirloin Steak Boneless)

Salt and pepper

2 large red bell peppers, cut into thin strips (I only used half of one!)

2 onions, halved and thinly sliced

16 dinner rolls, split

6 ounces provolone cheese, shredded (I used Monterrey jack slices because I already had it on hand. It turned out just fine!)

Directions:

1. 
   
   Preheat the oven to 375. In a large skillet, heat 3 tablespoons olive oil over medium-high heat until rippling. Season the beef with salt and pepper, increase the heat to high and cook in the skillet for 3 minutes; flip and cook for 2 minutes more. Transfer to a bowl. (Okay I HATE when I get popped by oil. So I started my meat off in the pan with the oil. It didn't soak up that much oil, and it browned nicely. You decide if you want popped or not!)
2. 
   
   In the same skillet, heat the remaining 1/4 cup olive oil over medium heat. Add the peppers and onions, season with salt and pepper and cook over medium-high heat, stirring, until softened, about 8 minutes. (Again no popping for me, so I put these in their own pan and cooked them. I think 1/4 cup olive oil was a bit much. I had to let the oil drip off them.)
3. 
   
   Place the roll bottoms on a large rimmed baking sheet and top each with the beef and vegetables; sprinkle with the cheese. Bake until the cheese is melted, about 6 minutes. Transfer to a platter and cover with the roll tops.
4. 
   
   This makes 16 sliders. Two filled up me and Russ. One was perfect for Lily.

****If you have a tried and true recipe you'd be willing to share, leave a comment with the recipe title and post the recipe on your blog so we can all come and check it out. Thanks for playing; the more the merrier! ****

Look what I made!

My mom has this BYU dorm reunion coming up sometime next month. One of the things they are doing for it is making a scrapbook. Everyone is supposed to send in a scrapbook page about what they have been doing since "the dorm days". My mom asked me if I would do hers for her if she bought all the supplies. Sure, I said. Not thinking about all the other things I had to get done before this. Well, the thing was due today. All week I have been pulling it together. Five minutes here, five minutes there. Basically whenever my girls were sleeping :) I am quite pleased with the way it turned out. Mom said she liked it. I hope everyone at her reunion does too!

I didn't think that you could read the recipe when it was that small...so I posted it. Also, since I did that portion digitally I wanted to give credits where it was due :)

Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe Card Credits
Stolen Moments
Sugar and Spice Kit
Light Stripes Paper
Pink Paper
Cane Sugar Paper
Amanda Geils Designs
NoSugar Addon Kit
Chips

What do I fear?

Awhile ago my friend Stevie posted that question on her blog, wanting everyone to answer. Well, I couldn't think of what I feared.....until last Sunday. Then I was reminded again today. I have had a dream where I know one of my children is danger and I am trying to run towards them, but I just can't get there fast enough. I am sure most moms have had that dream. This dream makes me fear that my child will be hurt and I won't be able to help them. On Sunday, that dream kinda came true. After church on Sunday, we went to my mom's house to have a luncheon. We all ate and then sat around talking. Lily was off playing with her cousins in my moms bushes. I then heard a shriek and crying. I whipped around to see a HUGE hairy sheepdog attacking a little kid. I watched as the little kid got knocked to the ground THREE times before Jake grabbed the dogs collar and Cori pulled the little kid out from under the dog. Only then did I realize that the little kid was Lily! She had wandered over to the adults while I hadn't been looking. Lily was scared to death! The dog had literally scared the poop out of her! The realization of how helpless I had been hit me after I checked her over. She was okay other than some scrapes, but I still felt so awful!

My other fear stems from a TV show I watch. I used to watch CSI on a regular basis. I don't anymore because we have awful reception. Anyway, I was watching it one time and the CSI team was investigating the murder of a newborn baby. In the end the discover that the 2 yer old brother of the newborn accidentally killed it by smothering it. The 2 year old had been playing peek-a-boo with the newborn and had pressed down too hard with the blanket. From the show I came to fear that my older children would unknowingly hurt/kill their younger siblings. Today that fear flashed before me. I had lain Allie down on her play mat in our front room. Lily was off reading books. I went into my bedroom when I Allie started to cry. No big deal. She probably wanted to be held. Then I heard Allie gagging. In my mind I thought oh great she is choking on her spit up. I walked out there to help her and froze in fear. Lily had a spoon stuck down Allie's throat and poor Allie was choking on it! I got it out of Allie' mouth and turned on Lily demanding to know what she was doing. She told me "Allie cry cause she hungry. I feed her with spoon!" Lily had just been trying to help me feed Allie and unknowingly was hurting her. I still have chills thinking "What if I had waited just a little longer before going and helping Allie?" These are my fears. What are yours? I would love to hear about them.

Allie Birth Announcement

I know I am really late on getting these done, but I have a good reason. I wanted to put Allie's professional picture in it. Considering I just got the pictures back last Wednesday, and I already have everything mailed, I think I am doing pretty good! I must say two things about these. The first one is that I am sorry to all my friends that I couldn't make one for you. But making more than I did would have been just plain insane! The second thing is that when I made these last week Allie was having a rough couple of days. I think she is getting separation anxiety already. She MUST have someone (usually me!) by her at all times or she is screaming her head off. She will go in the swing which is nice. Anyway, because of that I kinda lost my steam and resorted to really ugly lettering on the front. I just wanted them done! And I wasn't about to spend anymore time on them. Well, here they are!

Allie's Blessing

The whole reason for this post is to tell about Allie's blessing, but I want to add some other things in so I don't have a million posts to write!

Friday: Our trip started out this day. We packed all morning. It takes that long because I was keeping Allie happy or I was nursing her most the time. I tried to give Russ instructions on what to pack, but sometimes we misunderstood each other. Then you have the problem of Russ trying to keep the clothes folded as Lily jumped on the bed. It was a long morning! We left our house at 12:00. We ran some errands and got on the highway around 1:30. We made good time until Allie decided in Morgan that she MUST eat. Imagine loud screeches with sad, pathetic sobs in between. So we stopped at a church parking lot and nursed her while Russ and Lily played hide and seek. It was really funny to watch Lily count. She would put her head on the tree count to three then look up to finish counting to ten. She looked up so she would know where Russ was hiding. When it was her turn to hide, she would run and hide in the last place that Russ had hidden in. Hilarious! We made it to my home around 7:00. I helped clean my house a little while Russ watched after the kids. The best part about this day was that we put Lily in real panties for the whole day, and she didn't have a single accident! She even managed to go number 2 in the potty! Yeah! Progress! Some more good news is that we tried out a demo software to see if we could recover our Zion's pictures we lost. The program worked! But we couldn't save the pictures because we had to have bought the program! But at least we knew they were recoverable!

Saturday: We woke up early and got ready to go to Provo for our niece's baptism. I wanted to be early because I was leading the music for the program. I was so proud of us because we got out the door on time! About ten minutes into our drive my called and asked if we had our diaper bag. I asked Russ if he picked it up. He told me he thought I was getting it! We whipped around and went back and got. I was so upset because we pulled into the church lot 10 minutes late! However, the baptism was a stake baptism so they do an opening exercises before the baptism. I didn't miss conducting! The baptism was wonderful. Zion looked awesome in her white dress. She is the cutest thing ever! Afterwards we went to Cori's (my SIL) house and had a BBQ. The kids enjoyed playing together. While there Robert(BIL) told us that he had a recovery software program at his work and he would get our pictures off of our card for us! He is such an awesome guy! After going home from that, I helped my mom clean and set up for the luncheon on Sunday. Again this day Lily didn't have any accidents! Yeah!

Sunday: We got up early so that we would be on time to the church. We got there in time AND we remembered the diaper bag! Russell gave Allie the most beautiful blessing. Many people gave him compliments on it. He just smiles and nods because he said he doesn't remember anything from it! One part that I thought I would share is that he blessed her with a wonderful smile. The thing is, Allie does have a beautiful smile. Everyone who sees just laughs and smiles back at her. Another thing I wanted to mention was that Allie was soooooooo happy that day. She hardly cried at all. She was just all smiles. After church everyone went back to my mom's house for a luncheon. We had so much food! My mom always over prepares. Everyone had a good time talking to each other. The sad thing was that we had to go home that day. Because we helped clean up and had to pack our car we got a late start home. We didn't get home until 11:00. But it was well worth it! Here are some pictures of the day. I hope you enjoy them!

New Pictures

I finally got all our pictures taken. We always take a family picture in August. Allie needed her first professional picture taken. And I also always take a picture of Lily around her birthday. We got a wonderful rate of $8.00 at JCPenny. We got to choose one pose and get a fairly large package. I love good deals like that! The only problem is that when I went back to pick up the pictures they offered me more poses for a "reduced rate". I was naughty and bought some extras of Allie. I realize that you can't see the ones on the sidebar very well so I am going to post them here again so you can see them larger!

Man, it is so hard finding matching outfits for the family! I am wearing a maternity shirt and Allie is wearing a dress that is for a 9 month old! Thank goodness you can't see the pins I used to make it fit her! :)

Every time Lily sees her picture she shows me how she sat on the floor and put her hands on her knee. It cracks me up!

This picture of Allie is the one we chose for the package. We loved that she was sticking her tongue out. The reason the afghan is in all the pictures is because my mom made and we want to get all our kids pictures on it. It is so huge that we can't use it to hold the kids. We jokingly call it "the baby killer" HEHEHEHEHE! The pictures below are the ones I couldn't resist when they offered them to me!

T.I.T.

This week has been sooooo busy, and it is only Tuesday! I still haven't unpacked from going to Utah over the weekend. That is why I don't have a new recipe to talk about. However, I do have a tried and true recipe. I looked forward to fall every year because it is harvest time. Harvest time means I get to make three of my favorite things. All of which are made out of zucchini. I already gave you the recipe for fried zucchini. This week you get the always yummy zucchini bread! Next week I you get zucchini brownies. Oh they are to die for, but so are all my zucchini recipes! I got this recipe from my grandma. She has such great recipes! Without further ado.....the recipe!

Zucchini Bread

Ingredients

• 
  
  3 eggs well beaten
• 
  
  1 cup cooking oil
• 
  
  2 cups sugar
• 
  
  2 cups raw, grated, peeled zucchini
• 
  
  3 tsp vanilla
• 
  
  3 cups flour
• 
  
  1 tsp soda
• 
  
  1 tsp salt
• 
  
  3 tsp cinnamon
• 
  
  1/4 tsp baking powder

Directions

Combine Eggs, oil, sugar, zucchini and vanilla. Mix well. Sift flour, soda, salt, cinnamon, and baking powder together and add to zucchini mixture, blending well. Baking in 2 loaf pans. Bake 350 for 1 hour.

Proposition 8

This is from my sister-in-law's blog. She lives in California. I fully support "yes" on Proposition 8 because I know that is not California's issue--it really is everybody's issue in all states because it will come to all of us if Proposition 8 fails. I couldn't have expressed my feelings better than this:

California voters passed Proposition 22 in 2000 by more than 61%, saying that a marriage in California is between a man and a woman. Earlier this year, four activist judges based in San Francisco wrongly overturned the people's vote, legalizing same-sex marriage. In November we are facing Proposition 8, this will reinstate the definition of marriage as “only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.”

The Supreme Court’s decision to legalize same-sex marriage did not just overturn the will of California voters; it also redefined marriage for the rest of society, without ever asking the people themselves to accept this decision. This decision has far-reaching consequences. For example, because public schools are already required to teach the role of marriage in society as part of the curriculum, schools will now be required to teach students that gay marriage is the same as traditional marriage, starting with kindergartners. By saying that a marriage is between “any two persons” rather than between a man and a woman, the Court decision has opened the door to any kind of “marriage.” This undermines the value of marriage altogether at a time when we should be restoring marriage, not undermining it. (http://ProtectMarriage.com/)

We have been asked by the leaders at church to stand up and take a stand, this is a moral issue that we need to fight for. In order to support Proposition 8, we need to go and inform the voters what is it, what it means, and make sure they are aware of what is happening and how will effect them, and their children. Last Saturday Ryan and I went out and walked the Voter Precincts, we even took Megan. I was so out of my comfort zone! We got a lot of positive responses.

We have been asked to volunteer as much time, and money, as possible. It if frightening the way the world is turning out. I have been doing a little reading on Proposition 8 and the consequences that will come if it is not passes. What is this world coming to? I want my kids to be safe, and not be taught things in school that are against what we believe. I hope, and pray, that the voters will follow through and vote Yes on Proposition 8. I hope and pray that the Lord will soften many peoples' hearts when they go to vote. Ryan is out again today. (I stayed home because I didn't get a babysitter.) It is going to take a lot of time and effort on our part to help Proposition 8 pass. I guess if we want to live in a world that teaches good values, we have to get out of our comfort zone and take a stand.

Making Bread

I've decided to start making bread once a week, or every other week. It really depends on how fast we eat the bread. I wish I could say this was a way to save us money at the store, but it isn't. Neither Russell nor I like to use homemade bread for sandwich's. I am doing this so we have a yummy and healthy treat to eat. Yesterday was my first attempt at ever making bread! It turned out pretty well. Here are some pictures of the process!

Here is the bread rising!

Ready to go in the oven!

Fresh out of the oven!

Lily wanted a picture with the bread because she helped punch it down

I got the recipe for the bread from sister. Here it is! I hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

Soft and Delicious Whole Wheat Bread
5 cups warm water
2 Tablespoons yeast
1/3 cup honey
1/3 cup oil
1/3 cup potato flakes
2 eggs
6 cups whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon salt
4 to 5 cups unbleached flour

Dissolve yeast as per package instructions Make a sponge using all ingredients down to, and including salt. Use bread mixer or hand held electric beaters. Let rest about 10 minutes. Add remaining flour gradually as needed to make a soft dough. Knead on floured board; cover with plastic wrap and let rise until double. Punch down; shape into four loaves; place in greased bread pans. Cover and let rise again until double.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 30 to 40 minutes. Put hot bread on a towel to cool for a soft crust.