Zoe's teacher sent home a link to this blog and it is awesome. I really enjoy reading it and it has some really great ideas for crafts, activities, learning plans and all sorts of good stuff to do with your kiddos. For those of you who have little ones you should totally check it out! It's called A Mom With A Lesson Plan

Portuguese Sweet Bread

This is my absolute favorite basic white bread recipe for my bread machine. it is a bit sweet, light and fluffy and absolutely to die for! I have never had "real" Portuguese Sweet Bread, so I can't compare the two honestly,   but if you are looking for a delicious recipe for your bread machine, look no further my friends!!


Ingredients:
1 cup milk
1 egg
2 tbsps. butter
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
3 cups flour
1 pkg dry yeast- or 2 1/2 tsps. if you buy it by the jar


Directions-
Add to bread maker, as directed by the manufacturer. I add mine in the order listed above and it always turns out fabulous. I also sometimes add this stuff called dough enhancer, my MIL Beverly gave it to me. I had never heard of it before she told me about it- you add 1-2 tbsps. and it makes the loaf super light and fluffy. You can typically buy it at most grocery stores,

The best bad dog

I love this mutt. She is such a goof ball. I have never had a dog that is as smart as she is, but she really does do some stupid things, but they make us laugh. She does these flips like somersaults when she is excited, she does "prancens" in which she shoves her herself between your legs and wants you to scratch her little back where her tail is and then she literally does this little prance dance with her feet-she looks like she is in river dance..I love it!

never mind I look horrible in all these photos, it was seriously like midnight and I was exhausted.

I'm not trying o hide my face...Im rubbing my poor tired little eyes

she's such a bad bad girl!! :)

no, Louis isn't naked...but it would be juuuust fine if he was!! haha

she's s so vicious

moms baby

nanananana Bat Dog

It's that time of year again

This is my absolute favorite time of the year. I love it when the weather starts to cool down, the sweaters come out, the leaves start to change, and best of all- the baking begins. I don't know about you guys, but here in Idaho it gets HOT in the summer, temperatures hovering around the high 90 low 100's every single day and not a drop of rain in sight, and that does anything but make me want to pump my oven up and sit in a hot kitchen all day. So, of course, on the first autumn rainy days there is nothing better to me than doing just that- and that is EXACTLY what I am doing right now. I have a batch of fresh bread in the bread machine, potato soup on the stove and two of my favorite goodies just finishing up and cooling off- what are those you ask...Pumpkin Bars and Pumpkin Bread. Close to each other, but different in so many ways! My pumpkin bars are light and fluffy, cake like with a nice cream cheese frosting and my pumpkin bread is spicy and dense, delicious warm from the oven with a slab of butter melting onto it..mmmm, between the aromas coming from the kitchen and me thinking about stuffing my face, I'm drooling all over the keyboard!! Here are my two favorite recipes for these tasty treats!

For these pumpkin bars I like to use this recipe adapted from Taste of Home

Ingredients for bars:
4 eggs
1 2/3 cup sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 15 oz can pumpkin
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Ingredients for frosting:
6 oz cream cheese, softened
2 cups powdered sugar
1/4 butter softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-2 tablespoons milk

Directions:

In a bowl, beat the eggs, sugar, oil and pumpkin until well blended. Combine the flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda and salt; gradually add to pumpkin mixture and mix well. Pour into an ungreased 15-in. x 10-in. x 1-in. baking pan. Bake at 350° for 25-30 minutes or until set. Cool completely.

For icing, beat the cream cheese, confectioners' sugar, butter and vanilla in a small bowl. Add enough milk to achieve spreading consistency. Spread over bars. Store in the refrigerator. Yield: 2 dozen.

Pumpkin Bread

I use this recipe, once again, adpted to my families taste

Ingredients:
1 15oz can of pumpkin
4 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
2/3 cup water
3 cups sugar
3 1/2 cup flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1/4 teaspoon ginger

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour three 7x3 inch loaf pans.
2. In a large bowl, mix together pumpkin puree, eggs, oil, water and sugar until well blended. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger. Stir the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture until just blended. Pour into the prepared pans.
3. Bake for about 50 minutes in the preheated oven. Loaves are done when toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Decisions

Louis and I have decided it is time to plan a little romantic get away for ourselves. Except for our small yearly trips to Las Vegas, we don't really get away by ourselves. It's hard to make the decision to go away on a trip when you only get your children about 70% of the time. You don't really want to leave them when you do have them. We have opted out of taking them with us on really any big excursions for at least another year or so. I want Zo to be old enough to remember it and also to keep up with us and the older girls. I like to optimize my time when we take vacations and to have to constantly stop and rest or not be able to ride rides because she is too small is not really that awesome. It would hurt hr feelings with everyone else getting to do it, or be unfair to hold the older two back because she couldn't do it. Maybe in the next year or so we will head for Disneyland to test it out and then go from there. Anyways, Louis and I are ready to get away for a bit. We have been throwing a few locations around but haven't come to any conclusions yet. We're thinking of going in April,and some of our possible locations we have been tossing around are Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama, Mexico and Hawaii. Hawaii is honestly not really high on my list, for some reason I have never really had any huge desire to go to Hawaii. Louis has already been, so not too high on his list either. He lived down in Mexico City for a while so Mexico is on my list, but we have to chose our locale carefully because I want it be somewhere he hasn't really experienced, so maybe a very far away place from Mexico City. I'm leaning towards Punta Cana and he doesn't have any objections, but plans may change. Once we get the trip booked and things solidified then I will update with the final decision!!

Rachels party @ Grinkers

Rachel had her birthday party at Grinkers on Saturday. It is an 80's type arcade in Eagle.
It was fun but the only complaint I have is the food they serve. They don't let you bring in any outside food except for a cake, but the only thing they serve is sandwiches, and when you're 8 or 9, sandwiches are generally the food you're requesting at your birthday party. It turned out alright, but I think they need to change that up.



Rachels Birthday-extra photos

These are pictures from Louis' phone from Rachel's birthday party at nana and papa's house.