Carousel Ride

I originally tried to publish this post several days ago, but wouldn't you know it just when I had some time to get another post together blogger was down and not working for over 24 hours.  So I feel like I already posted about this days ago, but actually it's just finally getting shared with the world.

When we were down in Oregon, one of the things my parents enjoyed doing was taking the kids on a carousel ride.  The one we rode on is a gigantic old fashioned wooden carousel in the Jantzen Beach Mall in Portland.  Of course the kids had a fantastic time, but an added bonus for me was the chance to practice a photography skill: panning.  I took several...*uhem*hundred...shots and got a couple that I was pleased with.  I definitely realized panning is a lot harder than it looks, but like they say "practice makes perfect".
These first two shots, the one above and the one below are before the carousel started.  The next ones show the movement in the background.

If the photo above was a little more in focus on our little man's face it would easily be my favorite.  So instead it's the next one, the one below.  A goofy face in focus is a pretty good replacement.

They only had to ask with a polite "please" and the smiles on their faces for grandpa to gladly give them a second time around.  So here's the second ride photos.  (I changed my position and I liked the results a bit better.)

The little man wanted to have the exact same horse as his first ride.  I guess the two of them really bonded or something. :)

I like this one...focused on my sister and her hair is just slightly flying in the wind.

The two youngest cousins enjoyed watching the whirling fun.  Well, I guess this one enjoyed watching the back of her eyelids!

Soon enough they'll get to be riders too.

Easter 2011

My recent blogging hiatus had an extra reason that I didn't mention before.  Shortly after returning from our trip "down south" we got a new computer--well new to us.  Shawn got a bare bones computer at a state surplus auction and worked to get all the programs on it that we needed.  And I must say, it works great and I'm so thankful for his skills to do something like that.  That's not an area I feel confident in at all.

Anyhoo!  New computer means new photo gallery program, not to mention that our camera is pretty new to us as well.  So it took me a while to make time for it, but I finally just made myself sit down and download all 1200-some odd pictures from my memory card that I've taken over the past 6 or 7 weeks.  I'm still figuring out the "ins and outs" of this new program, but so far I like it and am glad I can navigate it so well already.  I mean hey, last night I was downloading and tonight I'm blogging.  Not too shabby.

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So 'tonight I'm blogging'....about Easter.  Last year, I went all out and made the little miss's dress and a coordinating neck tie for the little man. This year, I just knew I'd be pushing it to get that much done, so I compromised and just made matching ties for our boys.  I used a pattern from the Make It and Love It site.  I'm really pleased with how they turned out and hope to make more of them. 

Necktie = teether for the little babe.

Not making a dress this year for the little miss seemed logical enough since my mom recently passed down some dresses that she'd been saving.  My little girl now has a whole bunch of dresses her grandma made for me and my sister when we were that size.  So she picked out this one to wear for Easter.  That hat and gloves actually came from her kindergarten teacher.  When I picked up the little miss from school on the Friday before Easter I was a little surprised to see 12 girls walking around with pink Easter hats and white gloves.  Yep, she gave them to all the girls in her class.  Apparently the boys got two card games of some kind.  Let me just say that this teacher is officially my kind of lady.  I really like that she thinks hats and glove are a basic necessity of reasonable Easter celebration.  Not only does her act of kindness encourage her student's families to at least consider the connection between Easter and going to church, but it also gives these girls a special dress up feeling.  Just another reason to be thoroughly pleased with the little miss's teacher this year.

 Crocuses in our front flower bed.

As with many of the holidays we are in Alaska for, we did much of celebrating with our church family.  After a church potluck, we met at a member's home for an Easter egg hunt.  It just worked out that the little miss was the oldest hunter this year.  Wow!  You mean I had the oldest kid there?!  That doesn't seem right...but it is true.  Being the oldest kid has it's perks I guess since she did find the golden egg.  Folded up inside was a cold hard $5! 

And to end the afternoon...a group picture attempt.  Well, at least we tried. 

Hope you had a blessed Easter too.

Fresh Baked Bread

If you are like my grandma and check this blog daily hoping for the latest pictures of cute kids, stories of wild adventures, or new recipes I like to share, then I truly apologize for my recent hiatus.  (Sorry, Grandma.)  I'm not sure what to tell you all except that I guess life just happened.  For one thing we were gone for a few weeks visiting family.  And for another, we've all had colds recently with our boys having two different viruses basically back to back.  So throw all that into the usual organized chaos of this stay at home, cloth diapering, poultry "farming", bible class teaching, kindergarten shuttling, momma and you're sure to have something fall by the wayside.  Hopefully my unplanned blogging absence hasn't resulted in the loss of all my once usual readers.  And if you've had crazy events in your life recently and haven't checked this blog in a while, good news!  You haven't missed anything!  I do hope you'll read along enjoy my posts as I'm blessed with time to write them.

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So on with today's topic...fresh baked bread....mmmmm 

In the early years of our marriage (can't believe I can say that phrase already, "the early years of our marriage", we celebrate 10 years very soon) for several reasons I did a fair amount of bread making.  One reason was because of our fabulous neighbor, Nicole.  We both regularly baked bread on the weekends and enjoyed walking over to the other's apartment to smell the goodness baking in our tiny little ovens.

Well, recently I've started doing a lot of bread making again.  One reason is because I really like to bake and make food for my family in general.  But another is that I like knowing that the food my family is eating is  healthy and as unprocesssed as possible.  

The bread in the photo above is some delicious Italian Bread that I made a few months ago.  The recipe made three medium sized loaves.  We enjoyed two with friends over dinner, and the third I froze for us to enjoy later.  It was wonderful and I'm sure I'll make it again.

Lately, for our general everyday/sandwich bread I've been making a whole wheat recipe from the King Arthur Flour Company.  Another recipe I'd recommend, but it only makes one loaf.  Some may prefer to get two loaves out of their baking time, but I find that we use about 1 loaf a week and I don't mind the weekly task of  making bread especially since it yields a fresh loaf.     

Another recent adventure has been making hamburger buns.  However, I've only made these once and I don't feel like the recipe I used was exactly what I was looking for.  So my search for a good hamburger bun recipe continues.  (I don't mind those kinds of searches.)
And look tough boys help their mommas bake bread too!

Baking hambuger buns with my little man reminded me of seeing a picture of myself helping my mom make hamburger buns when I was close to his age.  So I had her dig through her "archives" for the photograph.  And aren't we all glad she found it?!

Not even two years old yet (if the date on the photo is correct), and I was already "helping" my mom make bread.  Maybe I've always enjoyed baking bread.
And yes, I do realize how much I look like my mother.  If I didn't realize it before seeing this picture I definitely do now!  And the good news is that my mother doesn't have that floral wallpaper in her kitchen anymore, although she does have the red bowl still! :)
And Mom, if you still have this hamburger bun recipe, I may need it.  I'm currently in search mode.

Another funny bit about bread, recently Shawn said something to the kids and referred to himself as the bread (money) maker in our family.  I corrected him.  Although he's the main "bread winner" in our family (which we're all thankful for), in the minds of our children I'm the bread MAKER/BAKER in our family.  A title I'm happy to hold.

Kindergarten Lessons

Do you remember learning to tie a shoe in kindergarten?  My husband does.  He says in his class they used to pass around a giant shoe that was attached to a board and they would all take turns practicing their shoe tying skills.
I distinctly remember the moment I first tied my own tennis shoes.  It was the summer after kindergarten and we were getting things packed up to go to the beach for the weekend.  I wanted to bring my tennis shoes along as an extra pair and and of course, I wanted to be like the cool big kids.  At that time in fashion history, that meant I needed to tie the laces together so I could sling them over my shoulder.  Even though I had never done this all by myself, I was determined to do so and I sat myself down to work at the top of the stairs.  (I don't know why it had to be that spot, but that's what my deeply ingrained memory tells me.)  And wouldn't you know it but...whoosh, whoosh...I had them tied.  I knew at that moment that I had just tied them for the first time, so I proudly ran off to show my parents.

Recently our little miss has been practicing this skill with her daddy.  She's done it a couple of times now and just needs to acquire a pair of her own lace up shoes to continue practicing on.  I'm curious if the memory of her first shoe tying success will be as deeply ingrained in her mind as mine was.  Only time will tell.  But if it is, I think it'll be a great memory--one she made with her daddy.

Today

Today on my to do list was "wash our sheets" and in my mental to do was "take pictures and practice before my last photography class this week".  So while the sheets were being laundered, the crisp white background of the mattress pad enticed me to lay the baby on it and grab the camera.  So I snapped and practiced different things and enjoyed my model.  He's so adorably willing.

Time to change it up...

And there's the teeth that poked through over the weekend.

Later, it was time for playing outside for the little man and inside for the little babe, so since the camera was still handy, I snapped more.  Don't worry the little man is just fine, just not in the mood to pose onto of the snow pile for me.

Mr. Content

Happy to be where he is.

Hope you enjoyed your views today too.

The Best Homemade Brownies I've Ever Made

Now that's sayin' something, huh?  The BEST homemade brownies I've ever made.  That's what Shawn told me these were.  You see lately I've been on a quest to find a really good homemade brownie.  Actually I've been on several cooking related quests lately, but for now, just the brownie quest.  This quest really hinges on what kind of a brownie person you are.  You have to decide between: chewy or cake-like, nuts or no nuts, frosting or no frosting.  For me, I'm definitely in the chewy, no nuts camp, and I favor the no frosting versions.  So over the past few months I've been experimenting with different brownie recipes in search of one that meets all these standards and tastes fantastic.  I suppose my quest could be over now that I've made these and received such a positive response from my family.  But come on people, we're taking brownies here.  What could continuing the quest hurt?  After all, who knows if I might find another really good brownie recipe.  And one can never have too many good brownie recipes.

Here is the recipe:
The Best Homemade Brownies I've Ever Made
aka: Double Chocolate Brownie Bars

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips, divided
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

1. Heat oven to 350*F. Grease a 9x13x2 inch baking pan.
2.  Place butter and 1 cup chocolate chips in a medium or large saucepan.  Melt over medium heat stirring occasionally until melted and smooth.  Remove from heat and add sugar, flour, eggs, vanilla, baking powder, and salt.  Stir with spoon until smooth.  Stir in remaining 1 cup chocolate chips.  Spread batter into prepared pan.
3.  Bake 30 minutes or until center is set.  Cool completely in pan on wire rack.  Cut into bars.  Store tightly covered.

Adapted from: Hershey's Classic Recipes cookbook

If you make these sometime, I hope you enjoy them as much as we did and will again! :)