Favorite Friend

Warner has a favorite friend. His name is Johnny. Johnny Jumpup to be exact. I waltzed upon this find at the Salvation Army while I was waiting for a floral arrangement to receive its finishing touches. It has become gold at our house and has bounced its $3.50 worth all ready. Ready, Set, Jump!

check out that bald spot. i was always thrilled that my tummy sleeping baby never had the bald spot. . . but this tummy sleeper does. hmmm.

Biggest Loser

Eric & I have spear headed the Alpenglow's Biggest Loser. It has been so much fun. Here are some pictures from Saturdays weigh in and 1st challenge.


A Can Relay Race of sorts. If you had 2 towers built in front of your team's rug you were out. Last one still in the race won!

We have 23 couples, 44 people participating!!!!

1st weeks winners.

A Few of ABL faces.

Pinewood Derby Spectators

Pinewood Derby

I was SOOO impressed with the Pinewood Derby this year. With four wards combined, I was blown away by their organization. WOW!!! They did 60 heats on 2 different tracks simultaneously. The boys raced SEVERAL times and hooped and hollered with every win. (i have to confess that the making of the derby cars was easier than i anticipated. . . the boys wanted to do them all by themselves. . . but that in and of itself was the hard part . . . i wanted the racing stripes to be straight, the colors to coordinate, everything to line up. . . but do little boys ever care about that kind of stuff? i doubt it.)


Tanner

Christian

Christian & Tanner

Another Freak'in Genius

Another Freak'in Genuis in the family. Last week Sam received an award at the Elementary's Recognition Assembly. He's the second one from the right (horrible picture, i know).

Hard White Wheat

My mom left a great comment on the Wheat Bread Recipe. . . Using Hard White Wheat makes a HUMONGOUS different.

Whole Wheat Bread (100%)

Whole Wheat Bread/mom’s k-tec recipe

5 cups hot water
3 T. lemon juice
2/3 c. sugar
4 t. salt
5 cups whole wheat flour
2 ½ T. yeast
½ c. vital wheat gluten
6 cups whole wheat flour


Combine water, lemon juice, sugar, and salt in mixer (like a bosch or k-tec). Mix. Add 5 cups whole wheat flour, yeast, and vital wheat gluten. Mix until yeast is moistened. Scrape the sides of the bowl. Add more flour until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl. Put on lid and mix for 10 minutes. Take out and shape into bread pans, let rise 20-30 minutes. Bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes. Makes five loaves.

(this is a super easy bread recipe that only has to rise once!! wahoo. wahoo. a perk to this recipe is that it doesn't call for any oil. add flour (you don't even need to measure) until the dough leaves the side of the mixing bowl clean while mixing. the best way to preserve is to put loaves in freezer. loaves do well for about 2 days on the counter. . . otherwise keep frozen. if in a rush i'll throw a frozen loaf in the microwave for 2 minutes.)

Tanner's Message

I came home from playgroup this morning and this message was waiting for me. Aside from the quiver in his voice. . . I thought the whole thing to be hilarious.

(to my credit i did tell him to go and get dressed this morning. . . which he obviously forgot to do before putting on his snow clothing)

if you can't understand the message this is what it says: "um mom, i accidentally forgot my um pants, so can you um mean i accidentally left my pjs on, so can you come and bring me some pants so i can wear them at school. bye this is tanner. bye."

No Gluten vs. Gluten

Many of you have asked why I put gluten in my bread. . .

I unintentionally did a batch of bread without vital wheat gluten on Monday. I remembered to throw it in during the second batch. I was amazed at the difference it made in the two batches. Here are the pictures. With the exception of the gluten, I made the bread the exact same way, cooked it for the same time, etc.

No Gluten


Gluten


The bread with gluten baked up so much prettier. . . less cracking, a more even golden coloring.

May the Luck 'O The Irish Be With Ya

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Merry Go Round. . . Ice Version

Slide Video Clip

BYOEC

Can you tell what this is?


I believe the UAF is a BYOEC (Bring Your Own Extension Chord) campus.
Here in the good state of Alaska they encourage you to plug in your car at 20 degrees (or lower) so the parking lots in Fairbanks are filled with these great little boxes.

Hyrum

Look what I found? I did have pictures of Hyrum on the sled after all.
(note to self: always take an uncharged camera to Fairbanks. I did just that and our friend Todd took all of the pictures of our trip for us. He graduated in photography. Nothing like having your own personal photographer!!! I did manage to take a few. . . like five before my battery completely died).

More than Capable. . .

. . . but overwhelmingly stubborn.
Hyrum has about 35 days until he is THREE! I know what my birthday wish is for him!

Sam I Am

My name is Sam.
Sam I am.

I do not like green eggs and spam.
I do not like them Sam I am.

I could not eat them wearing a Mask (uh?)
I'll never eat them while in Alaska.

Enough poetry for one day.

Dr. Suess makes me crazy. Every time I see his books I am filled with dread. I think it somehow stemmed from reading it every day and every night to Christian and Tanner for over a year. Ugh. Green eggs and ham? Yuck. 'Ole fuzzy guy should have stuck to his guns. . . he is the worlds worst pushover and his kids will never believe him when he says no. Cat in the Hat? Not welcome here. He can save his rainy day antics for a more interested audience.. . but I would give my left arm for one of those machines that puts everything away.

Here Sam is celebrating Dr. Suess' birthday. That kid has the best time in Kindergarten. He comes home almost everyday with some amazing project to show me.

Spring Break 2008

On Saturday I was so excited I could hardly wait. . . We were going to Fairbanks for Spring Break! Wahoo! There is nothing in the world like a great vacation. Eric and I packed the car up Saturday morning because we knew that Sunday would be a whirlwind with church and then the mad dash home to change and load little bodies into the car.

Fairbanks is 6 hours North of us and we were fortunate, with the great weather, to have blue skies and clear roads. The scenery is simply breathtaking.

We were lucky enough to stay with the Richardson family and they were wonderful tour guides and entertainers. As a family of quiet, well-behaved, mild GIRLS, they must of thought we were straight out of the the book Where The Wild Things Are. But they were kind and put up with the extra noise and wrestling.

Here we are on Monday out Snow Machining (it is NOT snow mobiling in the Last Frontier) with our friends. We went out for a couple of hours and drove through the woods, on frozen rivers, on the pipeline. It was so warm that we all unzipped our jackets and took off our goggles.