Simone IS Big Now

We had Simone's birthday party yesterday. She was SO excited. She went to her first birthday parties for her friends a few months ago. One of them was a "Pinkalicious" party. She came home and was so excited to tell me how everything was pink: cupcakes (with a cherry), Pink Lemonade, and Pink Tutus. She loved it.

Even though I thought about waiting until she was five to do a birthday party, I decided then that we'd do a 4th birthday. Simone wanted a "Strawberry Shortcake" birthday. So we made strawberry necklaces from shrinky dinks, beads, and ribbon. Decorated Cupcakes with cherries and frosting, painted nails, applied makeup, dressed up, and went to a fancy tea party. Simone was so happy to celebrate her special day with all of her friends!

She is so much fun. She loves animals. She and Miles play "Littlest Pet Shops" and the "real animals" (those are the Schleich ones that look real) nearly every day. Today she asked me if the real animals got shrunk. Apparently she thought they were really real.

She likes girly things and having her long hair. She likes wearing dresses and going to church. But when I asked her to be a flower girl for Aunt Rachel's Wedding, she said no. She didn't want to wear a flower costume in front of everyone. So we showed her a picture of Elise in her flower girl dress and she changed her mind and agreed to do it. Phew!
Things are quite literal still at her age.

She loves her friends and gets so excited when it is a Preschool day. She hears Miles sounding out words and tries to sound out things as well. So the other day she was saying, "Tr Tr Treeeee!" "A A Apple" Then she burst out "I I Ipod Touch." We all got a good laugh out of that.

Simone is kinda stubborn about cleaning. But lately we've been telling her what an amazing cleaner she is. And she is starting to enjoy making her bed and putting away her toys. She hates getting her hair done, but likes it if she can sit at Elise's vanity and look in the mirror the whole time. Lol.

Picture Catch Up

A sampling of our most amusing Fall/Winter pictures.
This is the kids after having virtually "second Christmas" from Aunt Marge. Marge, these kids LOVED all the fun stuff you brought them. As we were getting everything out, Simone said "I love Marge." And I got to tell them about all my Christmas's helping Marge wrap presents, etc.

Dad With the Kids at Grandparents Day

My Dough Boy

So Jared finally acheived his dream of owning a Bosch way back in June. I told him long ago that he would be the baker because I had better things to do with my time. He had his sister Kelli give him bread baking lessons while I was at Wasatch Back. I thought that was pretty cute that they did that.

Surprisingly, once I tried it a couple times, I found I really enjoyed making bread. It only takes about an hour to make 5-6 loaves--much less time than I'd previously thought, and since I've been doing a weekly Great Harvest run for years, it doesn't take up that much more time to just make it myself.(And it is a lot cheaper!)

Breadmaking day is fun for everyone.


We have experimented with some different recipes, and decided to cut out some of the ingredients (Lecithin, dough enhancers, gluten, etc) to keep it simple, kinda like the Great Harvest bread we've been eating for years. So it is basically just freshly ground hard white wheat, SAF yeast, real salt, olive oil, honey and water. I actually like it better than Great Harvest because of the hard white wheat. Hard white wheat has a milder taste than the red wheat. You can get Hard White Wheat at Costco from Lehi Mills (locally anyway).



Honey Whole Wheat Bread

This recipe makes 5-6 loaves depending on the size of bread pan you are using. It is preferable to have a Bosch Mixer to do this much.

6 Cups Warm Water
2 T Real Salt
½ C Olive Oil
2/3 C honey
Flour Start with 8 ½ cups (total 12-15 C)
Saf Instant Yeast 2 ½ T

1. Combine 8-9 cups fresh wheat flour (preferably hard white wheat) and 6 C warm water in the Bosch using dough hook to paste consistency.
2. Mix in 2 ½ T yeast, then add salt, oil & honey. Turn machine to speed 1 and as the motor bears down increase to speed
3. Add additional flour until dough pulls away from sides of bowl and you can see the bottom of the bowl.
4. Let knead 7 minutes.
5. Put coconut oil on your hands and on dough. Lay out dough on countertop or cutting board in long rectangle. Cut into 5 loaves of about equal size.
6. Fill non-stick pans ½ to ¾ full and let rise until double (about 30 minutes)
7. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes