Whole Wheat Bread

For everyone who was interested in my homeade bread recipe, here it is!

-4 tbsp yeast
-1 cup very warm water
-1 cup brown sugar or honey ( I use honey)
-2 tbsp's salt
-1/2 cup of oil
-4 1/2 cups warm water
-12-14 cups whole wheat flour*

Dissolve yeast in 1 cup of very warm water. (I scoop out my honey then put the spoon I used in the yeast and water to activate it).  Mix together honey, salt, oil, 4 1/2 cups of water and 7 cups of flour.  Beat until smooth.  Mix dissolved yeast in then begin adding flour, enough to make dough easy to handle.  (Use dough hooks if using a bosch).

Divide into 4 pieces and form loaves.  (I grease my pans with crisco and use a lot on my hands because I leave my dough a little sticky.  It's much easier to handle with a good amount!)  Put in greased pans and raise about one hour.  Bake at 350 for about 40 minutes, covering with foil for the last 20 minutes to keep crust from getting too dark.  Take immediately out of pans and cool on rack (or they will get soggy!)  Paint tops with crisco, butter or oil if desired.

*I just found organic whole wheat flour in a 25 lb bag at costco for $13.99.  Does anyone else know of a better deal, and where do you get yours?  Or is that a pretty good deal?

Let me know how your bread turns out if you make it!  I'm happy to answer any questions too, it takes practice to get it just right!  As you can tell, I'm still practicing, mine are all different sizes!  Good luck :)

Camryn's 3rd Pink Pirate Birthday Bash!

Camryn turned 3 on the 11th! My little girl is growing up so fast, and is starting preschool in 2 weeks! We celebrated with a big "Pink Pirate" bash, that she picked out all by herself :) It was such a fun party, thank you to all of our family and friends who came over to celebrate her special day! We started with some fun pirate music and dancing, then had a game of "Pin the Patch on the Pirate"! (Artistic work courtesy of Matt:)) Everyone got to put on pirate patch's and necklaces, but I forgot to get the tattoos out :(

She started the "Happy Birthday song herself :)

The dessert table

Camryn and Carson

Opening one of WAY too many presents!

Instead of "walk the plank" we had a "slide the plank" since it's so dang hot outside right now! All the kids had a blast on the slip n slide (yes they still make those, but they're tiny now!)

Small pool for the little ones!

My sweet 3 year old!

Camryn and her daddy!

Callie slip n slidin!

Cooper

We had a treasure chest piñata with lots of goodies inside!,,,,

My bestie Brigitte! Thank you so much for taking all the pics!

Our little pirate! Aaarrrggghhhh! Happy Birthday Captain Camryn! We love you so much!

Thoughts on Motherhood...

As Mother's Day approaches I've been doing some reflecting on mother's...my mother, my mother in law, being a mother and what that means to me, and lots of other mother's around me who are inspiring in so many different ways!

My mother is such a strong, independent woman. She always makes the best of any situation and is just a happy, positive person no matter what happens in her life. The more I get into raising my 2 kids, I keep wondering more and more how she did this!?! She had all 5 of us by the time she was my age...actually a year younger than I am now! WOW! She was always doing great mommy things like baking homemade bread and cookies, canning peaches or making fresh raspberry jam. She also managed to hold down some type of job all throughout raising kids to contribute to the family. She has taught me so many wonderful lessons and most importantly, raised me in the gospel and showed me how to find true happiness and joy. I love my mother so much and am so grateful that she gets to come play with me and my kids often now that she works for the airlines! I love that mothers get to become friends with their daughters after they grow up because my mother truly is one of my best friends. Rarely does a day go by that we don't talk on the phone or see each other and when it does, it feels like something is missing from my day! I love you mom!

My mother in law is also such a strong and inspiring woman! She also had 5 young kids by her late 20's and even though I didn't know her then, I know she was an incredible mother because she somehow put up with her cute son that she raised into such a great man so I could marry him :) She has been through SO much in this life and has come out so much stronger and with such great faith in our Heavenly Father. She has welcomed me into her family and has always made me feel so loved and supported. She is a wonderful example to me and is such a fun grandma to my kids! I love you Pat!

I feel so blessed to be a mother. To be entrusted with these two sweet little souls. I love them each so much, more than I ever knew was possible to love another person!

I remember being pregnant with Levi and wondering how I was going to be able to love him as much as I loved Camryn because she was my baby girl. She was my first and I thought I would be biased because of that :) Little did I know our capacity to love is just increased and our hearts grow to love more.

There is something so special to me about being awake with my sweet boy in the early morning hours (as much as I'd LOVE to be sleeping!) to nurse him. The house is peaceful and quiet and it's just us for a few minutes. As much as I do look forward to sleeping all night long, I know I'll miss that time we get together, so I'm trying to just enjoy it while it lasts!

Being a mother to a toddler is SO fun and SO hard!!! I've never had my patience tested so many times in one day every single day of every week.....

This sweet girl of mine keeps me on my toes! I feel like it's a totally different experience than being a mother to a newborn baby who just completely relies on you for everything. She can go from perfectly happy to bawling her eyes out in 3 seconds, and does so multiple times a day. Everything is a battle (getting dressed, brushing teeth, doing hair, what to eat, getting in the carseat, getting out of the carseat, walking across the street holding hands, the little grocery carts, etc.) and it's exhausting! But on the flip side, she can smile and give me a big hug and just melt my heart, making all those tantrums and crazy emotions totally worth it. She is so much fun to be around and makes all of us laugh so much! She is learning so much so fast, I just hope I can soak it all up and enjoy every day because every day is such an adventure!

I pray every single day that I'll have the patience I need to be a good mother to her and not lose it! But how could I not just love this cute girl no matter what she does?!

I know being a mother at this stage in my life is exactly what I'm supposed to be doing, and I'm grateful that I'm able to full time. I know there will be seasons in my life for other things, but right now I'm grateful I get to put all of my focus and energy into my kids/husband and being the mother/wife that they need and deserve. Some days it's hard and I just want a day off, but I know it's good for us to do hard things and really push ourselves to our limits. That's when we grow and become more Christlike so I'm grateful for those opportunities....usually a few days later :)

I hope this Mother's Day we all remember how special our mother's are, and how special we are as mothers! Motherhood is a divine calling of God, and I know he's counting on us and has confidence in us to raise and nurture these special souls. I love being a mother and I love my kids with all my heart!

6 months already?

How do they go from this.....

....to this so quickly?!

I cannot believe my little Levi is already 6 months old! It's so true that it goes even faster second time around! This baby is my little angel...I am so in love with him! He has such a happy laid back personality and just goes with the flow. He giggles so easily and gives everyone that he sees the biggest cutest grin! (See above)

He tried rice cereal for the first time a few days ago and didn't super love it, but I think he'll get used to it and love it soon. Levi is rolling both ways now and really gets around pretty good. He absolutely loves his little jumper and likes to spend time in there bouncing away and laughing! He loves Camryn, she can get him to smile and laugh so good! He discovered his feet this month so he's always grabbing them when he's on his back...but can't quite get his feet in his mouth because of his CHUBBY legs! He is still such a chunkster weighing in at 17.75 lbs, which is surprisingly only the 55th %! He's 27 inches which puts him around 75th for height. He's already in 9 month clothes and size 3 diapers (and has been for quite some time!)

He was a pretty good sleeper up until about a month ago. He was going from around 9 to 4 or 5, then eating and going back to sleep for a few hours, but lately he's waking up at 2 and 6...ugh! I thought we were past that! I don't know if he's hungrier or got out of the habit when we were out of town, but I need to get him back on a good schedule so if you have any good baby sleep tips or books, please let me know!

We love this boy so much! He has brought so much happiness into our little family, and we're so grateful he's a part of it.

Unbroken

My cute husband got me a book for Christmas that my mom already had, so I decided to take it back and browse Barnes and Noble for a good book for my trip to St. George. I saw this book and remembered that my brother in law Jed recommended it...and he only recommends GOOD books :) So I got it, read it, and LOVED it!!! If you're in need of a good book to read, go get this one! It's a true story about a WWII veteran who was an olympic runner before he was drafted. It truly is a story of survival, resilience, and redemption. AWESOME.

Thanks to Santa and Dora....

Camryn's finally potty trained!!! I've been bribing her with going to school because she really wanted to go to school after seeing her cousins in Washington go. But that wasn't quite enough motivation...at least not only that! I finally got one of these Dora potty chairs and Santa sent Camryn this cute video for Christmas (saying she was supposed to try really hard to get to the toilet this year!), and she's been dry, nights now too, pretty much since New Years! Whenever she didn't want to go potty I would say "Oh, Dora's going to be so sad if you don't go visit her on

the toilet!" and she would go right in and go! Luckily, she hates to make people (or things or her food) sad. This was a long process because she was mostly trained before Levi came, but the day he was born, she stopped going in the toilet. It's been a battle ever since! Now that she's trained she's asking to go to school again, so I guess I better get her signed up. Luckily Challenger will take them at 2 years 9 months, which is only a couple months away :)

4 months old!

Levi is 4 months old today! This little guy is such a good baby! He's almost always happy and smiley and is just so much fun to be around. He has the biggest grin that he gives anyone and everyone, especially those who change his diaper :) He rolled over for the first time 6 days ago, and is starting to do that a little more now. He's sleeping through most nights, but has had a little cold the last couple weeks that has been waking him up more often than he usually does. Levi is a sensitive little guy...if he gets scared or hears someone yell he just cries and cries and is hard to calm him down. His appointment isn't until the 19th, but I think he weighs around 16 lbs. He's very chubby and is just a fat happy little guy. We love him so so much and feel so blessed to have such a sweet boy in our family!