Memorial Day Weekend

We spent Memorial Day Weekend in Idaho with my family. We had a lot of fun spending time with my grandparents, parents, and sisters. We were even able to attend the monthly Family Home Evening with my grandparents, aunts, and uncles.

Adysen took this picture of Anessa. I think she is going to be quite the photographer!

Hummingbirds

We went with Mom and Grandpa and Grandma Leyshon to see the hummingbirds at a ranch near American Falls. The hummingbirds stop at this ranch every year as they are migrating. There are hundreds of hummingbirds. They tag the little hummingbirds on Memorial Day weekend. It was neat to watch them carefully catch and tag them. They even calmed the hummingbirds down and let us hold them. The one I held stayed in my hand for a few seconds...long enough to get a couple of pictures. It was neat to feel it's tiny heart beating.

Holding the hummingbird. That's my grandma standing next to me. :)

Family Picture

It's been a while since we have taken a picture of the three of us....so here is a little picture. This was a couple of weeks ago and I was about 31 weeks pregnant.

Diapers

One day Adysen decided that her baby needed a diaper.

We are going to have a great little helper when baby sister is born.

Our Business is branching out to Social Networking.

We have decided that it is about time for our business to join the social networking frenzy. We tried this a little last fall, but I quickly got discouraged when I realized we didn't have many followers. However, I now have a new burst of enthusiasm and I'm excited to try it again. I have to admit that I'm still learning about all of these social networking sites, but it'll be a fun little adventure.

Feel free to check it out and even pass on the word (no pressure though). :)

Blog: http://wirehomedecor.blogspot.com/

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Wire-Card-Holders/121399271210130

Twitter: https://twitter.com/wirecardholders

Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wirecardholders/

If You're Happy and You Know It

Adysen loves the song "If You're Happy and You Know It." She gets excited to clap her hands and tap her toes. But our favorite is when she blinks her eyes. We love this huge smile she gives us when she tries to blink...SO CUTE!

(It's a challenge to keep those ponytails in all day)

Landscaping

A couple of weeks ago weeks ago we started landscaping our yard. We appreciated having Alton's parents and Ben here to help us. Here are some before and after shots. Tell us what you think.

Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day

I love having homemade bread! However, I am a busy, pregnant mom. I have enough cleaning to do when I don't spend all day in the kitchen. So, making traditional bread just doesn't seem very practical right now.

A few months ago, one of my friends introduced me to Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day and I absolutely love it! I'll give you a quick overview to show you how you can have fresh bread every day with your meal...or at least every other day. The basic recipe makes four 1 lb loaves.

You start with these ingredients. The basic recipe doesn't call for wheat flour or vital wheat gluten, but I decided to try to make healthier bread this week:

Then you mix it all together. They say you can mix it with a spoon in your storage container, but I prefer using my mixer...much faster and easier. Just mix it up until all the flour is mixed in...no kneading!!

Here comes my favorite part...you put it in a storage container. I have just been using an ice cream bucket because that is what I have. You let it rise for a couple of hours.

Then you can either use the dough immediately, or put it in the fridge to use over the next 14 days! (Be sure you don't seal the lid completely)

When you are ready to bake it, you cut off a chunk. Let it rest on your counter for a while. Preheat your oven and baking stone. And bake the bread. Be sure to let the bread cool before cutting or eating -- the texture is much better that way.

TaDa! You have fresh homemade bread! And the best part...It took me 15 minutes from the time I started getting out the ingredients to the time my KitchenAid was clean and put away! When you bake the bread you can get it out and preheat the oven while you are starting the rest of your meal. Super easy!!

You can find the basic recipe here. However, I highly recommend reading the book. They have lots of great tips and recipe variations.

We Love our Kitchen

One of my favorite rooms in our new house is the kitchen! I love having some counter space to prepare food (one thing that my apartment was definitely lacking). I think my favorite part is the openness. I love being able to watch Adysen play while I am cooking dinner. However, she generally likes to be right next to me cooking. As you can see the bottom pictures she is pretending to mix something in a cup for her baby. She then started spoon feeding her doll--what a cutie!

Where are the Chocolate Chips?

I love making cookies...and eating them (so I try not to do it very often). However, I really struggle making chocolate chip cookies. They should be easy, but for some reason mine never turn out. Other cookies work great...but chocolate chip...I just don't get it.

Last week I was looking at cooking blogs, and I found a post where Joy the Baker talked about using a wooden spoon to mix her chocolate chip cookies because it is easy to over mix them with the mixer. "Ah Ha" I thought---maybe that is my problem.

Then I pulled up the chocolate chip cookie recipe I have been wanting to make from Deals to Meals. According to the site it is a "fabulous, no fail, chocolate chip recipe." I decided that is the one I was going to try.

So, I pulled out my mixing bowl and wooden spoon. I also got out another bowl and spoon for Adysen so she could help me cook (since she showed me that she can make enchiladas on Sunday...see my earlier post). And we mixed up some cookies.

I gave Adysen one chocolate chip to try. She must have liked it because while I was trying to take a picture...this is what I found (notice the cookie in the corner):




The cookies turned out pretty good. I think the spoon definitely helped...but maybe next time I will use my Kitchen Aid and just not mix them for very long. :)