A Day in the Life...

We celebrated Easter and my mom's birthday this past Sunday.  Copper made bunny cupcakes and I tried out a swiss roll and a cheesecake.  Other people brought ham, potatoes, veggies, turkey, and rolls.  Our parties seem to center on food and just being together, and that's probably okay. Taryn hates her picture taken no matter what but especially when Tim holds her down... The kids ready to go out for the egg hunt.  Photobomber Amber... We were supposed to fill twelve eggs for each kid to find.  Amber brought 111 extra eggs because she's fun like that... the kids loved it! Amber even filled one egg with $5, which blew my 3-quarter filled eggs out of the water.  It was finally found under the hose by Madisyn. Some eggs were full of notes... they were hilarious and not really a hit with the kids... Good times!

Things we learned when we went to the zoo last Saturday: 1.  Taryn is happy and cheerful until she's in a picture 2.  The animals love cool weather and show off their tricks a lot more without the burning sun 3.  Micah only comes for the snacks and food 4.  Copper loves learning and has a good memory 5.  Dakota loves, loves, loves seals and sea lions 6.  Good friends make fun times even better (thanks for coming Ashley!)

I drug the girls on a walk I took the other night; it was going to be short but it was about two and a half miles.  A bit into the walk we ran into a field of horses and stopped to take a cute picture of them. This past Sunday, Copper asked to give our family a lesson on being children of God. She found a lesson online and had everything ready, including visual aids (pictures of all of us and Taryn) and an activity.  She's a rockstar. Micah likes Hulk still, but she doesn't love him.  So at night sometimes I pretend she's still obsessed.

One Friday night we made doughnut dough and on Saturday morning Kota and I got up at six to roll them out and get them ready.  I loved the time just she and I had!  Tim's been working LONG Saturday hours lately.  Last weekend when it was really nice weather we mega cleaned the house, garage, and yard.  To reward ourselves, the girls and I made a fire and roasted hot dogs and played games. Out to dinner as a family! This is Micah's box.  She loves it.  She sits it in to read, play, and watch TV.  She has brought it to the dinner table to eat with us.  She took it on her cousin sleepover.  She's named it too.  "Boxie."  Copper participated in her school's Battle of the Books.  She and her team read 20 of the 20 books and competed against other teams on knowledge of the books and authors.  Her team whizzed through the first round, winning, but was eliminated the second round.  She deservingly got...

We had a bake-off at my house today with Copper and my friend Ashley from work.  We chose Chocolate Cinnamon Knots and we took it very seriously.  The recipe says "1.5 hours on hand work" but really it was like 3 hours on hand work plus a few hours for rising and baking.  We messed up here and there but overall it was awesome!  Copper made her own dough and did everything on her own, except we helped her roll out her dough ropes.  But she braided them and filled them with chocolate and cinnamon sugar, then rolled them up all by herself.  She did so great!  Compared to the ones from the British Baking Show, we did all right!  We're thinking one bake-off a month.  Fun times! Mine are on the left, the show's on the right.  Pretty close!  I gave one away to my dad, Tim ate one (I'm pretty sure a whole one), and between the rest of us and another friend that came over, they were gone.  Copper is saving her's ...

 How to freeze your face (by Taryn Beck): + Step 1:  Step into snow (barefoot) Step 2: Take one giant step forward and fall face first Step 3: Dig yourself out and laugh Step 4:  Realize your face is frozen and you can't feel it This is my grandma.  She's been sick so we took her bread and visited a bit.  She loves the girls and they think it's cool.  Micah was content off to the side and opted out of a picture, but these two were okay with it!  Great-Grandma told them stories of being a twin and throwing a bed-pan full of crap into the pig's food bin on accident.  The girls thought it was pretty funny. These are notes I've gotten from the girls.  So fun and cute! Micah's: "Dear Mom and Dad, I love you so much.  Because you hug me and you let me sleep in your bed and you let me hug you and me and dad.  Can we go and make a craft when you get home and color and can I make a card to you.  Love Mic...

This is a dumb thing to be excited about but oh well!  My aunt Penny gave my mom a Bosch mixer two or three years ago, which my mom promptly put on a shelf until she found out I really wanted it.  It looks old (it IS old) and it looks junky but it makes fantastic bread dough.  I hauled my other mixer in the basement to quickly collect dust and I took pictures (nerd alert) of this beauty.  I love it.   Yesterday I made dough for English muffins; that one is mixed by hand and then it's loved for about 20 hours before it's grilled. Take away note: just buy English muffins.  They were absolutely delicious but really it's only feasible on days I don't have to leave the house.  Bread making has become my therapy for life, which sounds silly except we all have something I bet.  This weekend I made the muffins, two baguettes, and two loaves of whole wheat sandwich bread.  Most of it is going away to others, while we get the yummy, lingering sc...