Sunday, May 3, 2015

January

We had a few non freezing days when the sun came out so I packed up the kiddos and we headed to the zoo!


Naomi's first ride where she was actually hanging on herself.  You can't really tell but she was so excited to ride like her brothers!

Here are the boys "racing" their animals...




Oh the joy of riding in a circle to music and lights!

Naomi is now the favorite of the cats I think mainly because they realize that other than getting a poke in the eye every once in a while, she is pretty harmless, and slow!

And she just loves her tiger!
We decided to start having the boys do chores, and with that a way to chart and a reward system.  We wanted them to learn to always pay tithing first and to also always put some money away to saving before spending it so I found this great idea on pintrest and thanks to my uncle stan, have a fun 3 jar system that sits in a box.  To help them with taking ownership, I let them paint them!

 Now I just need to get some handles and label them!

A fun picture of the kiddos watching a show, Naomi of course has to be right in the middle of everything right now.




february fun

We went to visit my parents the last weekend in January to pick up our cow!  My dad raises cows as a little hobby and we buy a half of one from him every year!  Thank goodness for a cold day to transport it all home! The kiddos had fun exploring all of grandma's toys.  An intense game of Go Fish going on...

 And much to daddy's dismay they even got a manicure from their auntie Leslie!  While we were there we went to watch her cheer at a basketball game and Peter caught one of the shirts thrown at halftime!


Here are some February fun pics to brighten up a cold and dreary month!  
Naomi wearing Isaac's Ninja Turtle mask and sporting the pigtails!
She has been teething like crazy so her poor little fingers are raw!
Doing some sensory activities together!  I am always amazed at the difference in doing activities like these from the boys and Naomi, she will sit quietly working on these activities for half an hour, I would be lucky to get the boys to sit for 5 minutes!  Of course Peter had to help and make sure she was doing it right!
I can't remember what this was, but one of Peter's creations from the recycling box!
One of my new recipes, Hungarian bread.  It tasted as good as it looked!  Can't wait to have an excuse to make it again!
We signed the boys up for a clinic called Bitty Basketball this month.  They didn't play games, just learned basic skills.  The boys had a ton of fun, and Alan and I sure did enjoy watching all these little kiddos learning skills.





I also finally got their room painted blue, they were so excited to not have purple walls anymore! We still need to paint the trim and get some art and shelves up!


Sunday, March 29, 2015

Issac turns 4


How is is possible that this little guy now looks

like this??


Since it is an even birthday he got to have a friends party.  I personally love planning for these little parties and get so excited to find out what their interests are and making their imagination come to life.  So when I asked Isaac what he wanted, he said he wanted a red cake.  That's it, red?  further probing brought about that it also needed to be big and round.  Oh, and taste like strawberry.  I tried for awhile to suggest other ideas, or ask what he wanted to see if he would change his mind.  But he didn't.  So I decided to go with his "vision" of red and keep it simple!  I know, silly me.

So here is his RED party. 




He wanted pizza so we let the kids top their own and lucky for me there are lots of red fruits and veggies out there!  Throw in some strawberry soda and he was in heaven!

I didn't get a picture of it but he wanted a pinata so after cake we headed outside to smash the giant red parrot we found.    Isaac was one happy boy and it was fun to have his little friends over to celebrate with him!  Happy birthday my sweet boy!

He loved helping me so much during Christmas while baking in the kitchen I decided to get him his own apron and knives.  He was thrilled!



Here is Issac laughing at daddy rein-acting the drive to the hospital the night he was born!

 Reading his books from grandma

Friday, February 13, 2015

Panettone

So every year for Christmas since we have been married we have had Panettone for Christmas following the Italian tradition.  When Panera stopped making it I decided to try my hand at it.  I have been making it for 4 years now and I think I finally have something I would call passable! You use a sourdough starter which is the whole reason I have one in the first place!  A whole year of feeding it for this one glorious day!

 It takes about two weeks and when you start it looks like this...pretty unassuming I know!


 two days before baking it looks something like this...
Day of baking, look at that great gluten development!  
It rises for about half a day and then into the oven it goes Christmas Eve!


Don't they look great!!!


 Our Christmas morning treat!!

If you want to learn how I use this great blog, she is super detailed and has great visuals.
http://www.wildyeastblog.com/panettone-recipe/