Still Waiting

Yes I know I have fallen off the face of the blogging world. Maybe I will come back soon. Life has been busy with Alex in school and homework everyday, Zachary is in preschool and Natalie is Natalie and 2 years old (Anyone with a 2 year-old knows that trying to do anything with them takes twice as long a normal because they have to do it themselves.) And I am still pregnant and impatiently awaiting the day when this baby girl will be born. All my other kids came at 37 weeks and I am already at 39 with this one. So with any luck she will come some time this decade. I feel like pregnancy is a way of life and not a temporary condition. Anyway I am sure I will try to post pictures when she gets here (assuming she decides to come--can you tell I am so done with this pregnancy?!!)

Astronomy Day

Yes, I haven't been on here for quite a while. We've had things going on here. Here is what we did one Saturday. At the local college, they put on Astronomy Day for the kids so we went.
The boys got to build bottle rockets. This Alex launching his. Both of the boy's rockets went really high.

Here's Zac working on his rocket. Sean helped with his and I helped Alex. Sean was hoping that Zac's would go higher. They both did about the same though. Ha, mom can help build things too.

Alex with a green face.

There were lots of activities the kids could do: coloring, making planet models, seeing the museum exhibits and seeing the big telescope. We all had a fun time. It's not a great picture of me but I cut my hair all off (this is not the cutest picture of it, I didn't style it or anything). I really like it short.

Wheat Bread Recipe

I use the Bosch recipe and have loved it. Because the Kitchen Aid is a little smaller the proportions have been adjusted in the lower recipe.

Wheat Bread, Carmen Harrison
Bosch—6 loaves
6 c. warmer water – (not burning hot but warmer that luke warm)
2/3 c. oil
2/3c. honey (or brown sugar)
6 c. whole wheat flour
¼ c. gluten
3 Tbsp. dough enhancer
3 Tbsp. instant yeast
Mix together and then stop (should be still be liquid) cover with the lid. Allow to rest/sponge (activates the yeast) till it doubles in size (about comes to the top of the lid).
Mix down and add:
1 ½ Tbsp. Salt (1 Tbsp and 1 ½ tsp.)
6 c flour, I scrape the sides after 6 cups and then continue to add flour till dough pulls away from the side. I don’t measure how much extra I put in, but it’s better to be a little sticky than too dry. Do not over knead. I have found that it pumps air into the bread and it tends to dry out more.
Pull out arm and cover with a dry towel and let it raise till it to spills over the side. Tip it out onto an oiled surface and form loaves. Allow the loaves to rise to desired loaf height. Then bake at 350 for 25 minutes. I set my timer for 20 minutes and check. Should be golden brown on top. Ovens may vary.
Tip out and butter the top. To freeze: Allow to cool for 10 minutes then put WARM bread in plastic gallon bag and put in the freezer. The heat from the bread crystallizes to ice within the loaf and when you go to defrost, makes the bread more moist and less dry.

To exchange dough enhancer for white bean flour:
Delete dough enhancer add: ½ cup WHITE bean flour and increase gluten to ½ cup.









Wheat Bread, Carmen Harrison
Kitchen Aid—4 loaves
4 c. warmer water – (not burning hot but warmer that luke warm)
1/3 c. oil
1/3 c. honey (or brown sugar)
4 c. whole wheat flour
2 Tbsp. gluten
2 Tbsp. dough enhancer
2 Tbsp. instant yeast
Mix together and then stop (should be still be liquid). Allow mixture to rest/sponge (activates the yeast) till it doubles in size; about comes to the top of the bowl.
Mix down and add:
1 Tbsp. Salt
4 c flour, I scrape the sides after 4 cups and then continue to add flour till dough pulls away from the side. I don’t measure how much extra I put in, but it’s better to be a little sticky than too dry. Do not over knead. I have found that it pumps air into the bread and it tends to dry out more.
Pull out arm/beeters and cover with a dry towel and let it raise till it to spills over the side. Tip it out onto an oiled surface and form loaves. Allow the loaves to raise to desired loaf height. Then bake at 350 for 25 minutes. I set my timer for 20 minutes and check. Should be golden brown on top. Ovens may vary.
Tip out and butter the top. To freeze: Allow to cool for 10 minutes then put WARM bread in plastic gallon bag and put in the freezer. The heat from the bread crystallizes to ice within the loaf and when you go to defrost, makes the bread more moist and less dry.

To exchange dough enhancer for white bean flour:
Delete dough enhancer add: 1/3 cup WHITE bean flour and increase gluten to 1/3 cup.

Love Jenny!

On our way back up to our house we stopped by to see my good friend Jenny who I knew in Rexburg. She moved to SLC. We miss you!

Alex got to see one of his very best friends, Devin. He got to talk Pokemon for an hour and a half!

Road Trip!

Natalie and Zachary hanging out in the backseat. We made the long trek down to St. George, Utah. We had a lot of fun and good memeries. My brother Dave and his wife Mindy finalized the adoption of their cute little girl, Miley and we were headed down for the sealing and blessing.

While we were in St. George we climbed and explored on the red rocks. My brother Tom's kid, Christian and Karlee thought they could climb just about anything. We watched them from down below.

My Mom and Dad, brother, Tom and his wife Cindi and all of our children loved exploring everywhere. Natalie thought she could climb anywhere and I was just trying to keep up with her.

Cool Cave.

The reason we came. The St. George temple was beautiful and I thought Miley did great through the sealing. This is all the family that came.

Dave, Mindy and Miley in front of the temple. There was such a special feeling there and I am so glad we could be there to share the day with them.

My cousin, Anne, is the best. She played hostess to all of us Smith's and our kids. She made the best food and was so sweet about everything. She took us to a really cool park that even big kids could play on. I classify myself as a big kid in this instance.

Here is Alex and Anne's daughter, Marissa climbing the rope wall. That was another plus. The kids played together so well, we hardly saw them. Awesome! I hope Anne's house survived. Thanks Anne!!

I was trying to twirl myself around, cool stuff.

One of our stops on our way down south was to visit the Draper Temple open house. Zachary was excited that he got to ride a bus to get there

Here we are on a snowy day at the Draper Temple. It was great to go and see.

We also stopped at Cabellas in Lehi, Ut. It is a outdoor sporting goods store, but for our purposes it was a museum. They have a walk through fish aquarium and stuffed animals everywhere. It is really cool. Worth the visit.

Alex checking out the fish. We had such a wonderful time and got to see lots of friends and family. It reminded me of how blessed I am to know such wonderful people.

The Biggest Bonk in the World

Okay, I feel bad for the kid, but can you say "Klingon" from Star Trek?
Alex and Zachary had a huge crash. It has been 2 weeks and there are still black-eye marks. Not pretty.

Slices Nicely, Nicely Thank You

This is my second really good batch of bread. Yeah!! I was thinking that I always post about my kids and I thought, what do I do all day? Take care of kids. But I do have other interests, I just never write or post about them. Thus the picture of bread. Sean totally surprised me (which is hard to do) with a Bosch mixer and a wheat grinder for Christmas. I couldn't believe he spent so much on ME! I had been bugging him a couple years ago that if we have all this wheat, we should have wheat grinder (makes sense). I was into making bread at the time. Then I had some disasterous loafs and I couldn't bring myself to make it again. So when Sean got the mixer for me I figured I better use it. We have enjoyed homemade whole wheat bread the last couple weeks. Thanks to my cousin's wife, Carmen, who gave me a fool-proof recipe for wheat bread, my bread has come out nicely. It is not crumbley or heavy (problems I have had in the past) and it makes great sandwiches. I have been thrilled and it is not even that hard. So there it is, I am trying to be domestic. See Mom, even if I can't sew, I can make bread.

Cutie Pie

There are lots of pictures of Natalie. What can I say she is the only girl. She is starting to say cheese for the camera.

Thanks to Anne and Aunt Sharon (who is an avid shopper), Natalie can look so cute. What can I say it is so fun to dress up a little girl!! Sorry boys, it's just not as fun to put pants and a shirt on you.

Surprisingly, she kept her hat on at church. She refuses to leave any ponytails or anything in her hair longer than 5 minutes so the hat has been great.

Mommy, Mommy, Mommy

Ah, yes...my almost forgotton blog...it has been ages since I actually posted anything. It seems like it has almost been impossible to get a moment alone and the computer free to do anything. If Natalie is awake it seems she demands my attention. She is very into reading books and constantly brings them to me even though we have read them over, and over, AND OVER! I am happy that she likes to read books. At 12 months it seemed like she was busy exploring her world and that kept her busy. She is done exploring and wants to move onto new frontiers. Like, ring around the rosies with Mommy, reading with mommy, playing peek-a-boo with Mommy. Pretty much anything WITH MOMMY. So thus, I am excited to move onto whatever her next stage might be, like maybe, pretend play by herself or something that does not include me in all the waking hours. Alright, I have whined enough. Life has been pretty much the same. I am ready for spring so we can spend some time outside. I need to get involved in some things around here so I don't go crazy. I have a few acquaintances here but no real friends as of yet since moving to Twin Falls. I am grateful to all my friends and family who I can call and talk to, and for facebook messages or your blog updates that help me feel connected to dear friends and family. I loved getting Christmas letter updates from friends. I am so grateful for the special friendships I have made over the years. With your true friends, it doesn't matter how much time has passed or the distances you have lived, I feel like we can just pick up where we left off. I have been so blessed with friendships that I am sure started before I came to earth and will continue after this life. Thank you so much! Okay I am crying now, so time to move on.

Odds and Ends

This is my Asian baby. What's up with that scarey face, Natalie?

My Mom and Dad finished their mission at the Employment Center after a year and a half. Even though they live here, Sean thought it would be fun to make them a "Welcome Home from your mission sign.

Alex is reading to Natalie, I love it! Anyone who knows me, knows I love to read. I love that my kids enjoy it too!

Sledding Time

We went sledding at a park in town, not a big one, but big enough for our kids (and me, I think I am getting more chicken or like my mother as the years go by, yikes!) Here's Natalie, she hates that coat, she will push it away every time I try to put it on her.

Here is Alex with the saucer. You can see me carrying up Natalie and the SOFT tube. My bottom is not up for the hard saucer.

Zachary, Alex and me making our way up. Zachary is going to get run over one of these times. He walks up where people slide down even after I tell him to move to the side.

Alex's Christmas Program

Alex's kindergarten class did "How the Penguins saved Christmas" for their program.

It was really cute. Alex was a reindeer. He wanted to be a penguin so he could have an orange nose, not a black one.

Christmas House

We went to a person's house about 20 minutes from our house. They have Christmas decorations that are over the top! It takes a while just to walk through it all. The kids loved it, and I admit, I did too!

They even had a camel that we could feed carrots to. That was a favorite with the kids.

I heard from someone that they start months in advance decorating. Maybe they should just leave it up year round.

Here's the fam, dressed up for the cold. Grandma and Grandpa Smith came with us to. After, we went to their house for cocoa. Fun Christmas memories.