One More Food Post

We ordered a 21 pound box of pineapple from Bountiful Baskets (for only $14!) a little over a week ago. That equals about 10 pineapples. We gave 2 to Kristen/Manase, ate 2, then cut up and canned the last 6 pineapples. We still ended up with 11 pints of canned pineapple!!! It's like eating candy! We used an extra-light syrup, but the fruit is still so sweet that it's an amazing treat.

New Bread Recipe

I just made some seriously tasty bread. I'm going to call it "Oregon Bread," because it has hazelnuts, flax seeds, sesame seeds, quinoa, millet and whole wheat (hazelnuts scream "Oregon", to me). And I got the recipe from Alan Muench, who lives in McMinnville, Oregon. It was either going to be called Oregon Bread or Colon Blow Bread, because of the digestive benefits. Here was the process, in case you're interested:

First, 4 cups of whole wheat bread flour, 1 cup of gluten flour, water, milk, butter, yeast, salt and brown sugar (I let it "sponge" for about 10 minutes to really activate that yeast):

Then all the nuts and grains, with 2 more cups of whole wheat bread flour:

Then almost 8 cups of white flour, and about 10 minutes of kneading:Then I let it rise for 90 minutes while I took Emma to school, took a shower, etc.:This is what it looked like after 90 minutes (I LOVE that huge silver bowl. Works great for this huge recipe):I shaped 6 large loaves of bread and let them rise for about 45 minutes:This is what they looked like when I put them in the oven. At this point I realized I had one runt; I guess I didn't divide them exactly evenly, but that's OK (bottom left corner). They all just barely fit in the oven on the top rack.This is what they looked like when they were done cooking, after 45 minutes. I experimented with rubbing butter over 3 loaves to see which crust I like better (with or without butter):It turned out delicious! The texture is light and soft, not heavy like most whole wheat breads. I think it was the gluten flour and the amount of white flour I added. I calculated the recipe online to see what the nutritional value is and this bread is very high in protein, for a bread. Maybe we've found our Farmer's Market idea!!

Oliviana Singing In The Car

This video is Oliviana singing in the car on the way to meet her mom in Tremonton. The first song is "Just The Way You Are" by Bruno Mars and the second is "California Gurls" by Katy Perry, featuring Snoop Dogg. It's just over 5 minutes, so prepare yourself. I think it's really funny. Enjoy...

Another Day With Oliviana!

I'll let the pictures do the talking because I'm incredibly exhausted from having so much fun this week! Before:During:After (fingernails were painted pink, along with the pretty hair):

A visit to Landon's classroom for Taco Bell lunch with Lauren and Landon:Recess with Lauren and the big kids:Watching community basketball games for a charity event that Emma danced at half-time for:Getting REALLY silly, turning into a kissing monster on Lauren: Emma was there too:The girls having a "late night" in Oliviana's bed watching princess stories together, with their matching pillow pets:

More Oliviana Stuff

*I'm updating my blog everyday for Kristen and Manase's benefit (and ours)! If you're not interested in Oliviana, you might be getting bored with these posts! She goes home tomorrow, so hang in there!

Oliviana gets sad when the girls go to school because apparently I'm not very much fun (true), so yesterday we went to Jenny's house so I could watch Top Chef and Oliviana could play with Lorelai. At first Oliviana was not interested and kept asking if we could go home (kind of embarrassing), but as soon as Top Chef was over and I was ready to go, she was having a blast. They played house and she had Lorelai be the baby. Oliviana carried her all over the room. I thought it was really funny.

This is a picture of the girls stringing candy beads to make necklaces (thanks to an abundance of candy necklace kits from Aunt Lorina!).We showed up at the Bates' house at lunch time, so I brought some snacks to go with lunch, but Oliviana actually just wanted to eat the snacks, not the pizza Jenny had bought for us. So she had a lunch of ginger snaps, chips, and a chocolate-covered granola bar. Good thing she's going home tomorrow so her mom can get her back on a normal meal schedule. I'm not fighting too hard for her to eat healthy since she's not my long-term responsibility!Oliviana has been getting a lot of play time with Lauren's birthday balloon. She loves that thing! She loves to smack it into us and laugh really hard. Emma got tough and got in her face and told her to stop hitting her with the balloon, but she's not easily intimidated.

Yesterday when Emma was walking home from the bus stop, I opened the door to see if she was getting close. Oliviana ran out to greet her and hugged her really hard and screamed, "Emma!!! We're having STEAK for dinner!!!" We were, but I didn't know she was SO excited about it.

So last night I asked Oliviana what she likes to eat for breakfast. She said she likes bacon and muffins, so that's what I made this morning, along with some eggs and orange juice. Oliviana actually helped me stir the muffins and line the pan with muffin papers. Then she only ate bacon and orange juice for breakfast. She told me that my muffins weren't the kind of muffins she likes. She likes muffins with crumbs on the top. I'm guessing Kristen doesn't make a lot of homemade muffins, and she's talking about those yummy bakery muffins? Anyway, everyone else seemed happy for a cooked breakfast on a school day.

Yesterday Oliviana told me to "come here." She showed me this picture from 2005 when we went to Yellowstone. She said, "hey! Where did the girls get those suckers? Can I have one?" So we went to the gas station and bought some tootsie pops and shared with Lorelai and Jenny. Funny!The good thing about the girls going to school in the morning is that because Oliviana is so obsessed with Lauren, she follows her around and gets dressed, does her teeth and hair, and everything Lauren does. I don't have to worry about getting her ready for the day, because she's ready to leave the house when Lauren leaves at 7:30 with Landon!

I think I'm going to take Oliviana to Evan's today for fingernail painting and maybe a cute braided hairstyle to go home in tomorrow. I think she'll enjoy the pampering.

Day 3 with Oliviana

Yesterday Oliviana was sad when everyone left for school, so we decided to go out and about to kill some time until her cousins came home. We visited my friend, Heidi and her son Jens. Then we went to Paradise Donuts! I was planning to get both of us a donut, but Oliviana really insisted on getting everyone else a donut, so before I knew it we walked out with a dozen. This is just before bedtime, with some donuts. (Teeth were brushed!!) Oliviana is so tired! I think she was trying to smile!
Then we went to Walmart, where Oliviana really wanted to get Lauren a toy. She's kind of obsessed with Lauren right now, since Lauren is so good about playing with her.

I had to drive Emma's ballroom carpool, so I dropped Oliviana off at the school with Landon and Lauren, then met them at the Craze to play at the playland and arcade area. Lauren and Oliviana managed to play without any help from us, so Landon and I had a chance to sit down! I had to force her to look at me and try to smile! She was very busy playing with trains. Later, we came home, ate dinner, played Little People and went to bed. Oliviana was asleep in under 3 minutes, as was Lauren.

I forgot about this picture on the last post. This was Oliviana very intently watching Emma practice her bass! It was cute.

Playing at Landon's School

Tuesday Oliviana and I went to Landon's school to watch him in a school assembly. The teachers and PTO members put on a skit/reader's theater for the kids. Landon played the part of "Star-slinging Sam" the grinning, happy cowboy who shoots stars at bad guys and makes them happy and helpful. It was really cute and fun for Oliviana to be with all the kids and cheer or boo for the good guys and bad guys. She sat with Lauren and Lauren's class.

This is "Star-slinging Sam," with his class. (Just FYI...he's got an Ammon and a Moroni in his class this year. He calls them "the prophets," but not to their faces because he thinks he might get in trouble.)

Before the assembly, we ate lunch with Landon and Lauren, in his classroom. Landon and I had Jimmy John's but the girls had the school lunch. Then Lauren took Oliviana out to recess to play. Shelby is Lauren's friend who was excited to play with Oliviana, too!

The snow is as depressing as it looks!

Visit From Oliviana!

We're so excited to have Oliviana here with us this week! In case you didn't hear...Manase broke his leg in 4 places, had surgery (today) and Kristen seemed to need a little help. I offered to drive down to American Fork to pick up my cute little niece to spend a couple days with us. I had Lauren drive with me on Monday (yesterday) to pick her up, then drive all the way back home. It was a lot of driving, but worth it. Oliviana has been so much fun to have with us! We all are so impressed with her ability to sing every song she hears on the radio, word for word and with a lot of expression.

This picture makes me look really greasy and tired, which I was by then. Jane looks good. I emailed Jane to meet us at Carl's Jr. in American Fork, where we picked up Oliviana. She brought Ashley for Lauren to spend time with while we ate lunch and visited. Lauren and Ashley had so much fun! Ashley was sweet and brought Lauren a new Diary of a Wimpy Kid book, which she LOVES.

Kristen has lost so much weight! She looked skinnier than I've ever seen her and that includes the day she was born. It was great to see her after almost a year! I can't believe how long it's been. Oliviana was so happy to go with us and made the trip home a lot more fun for Lauren. They sat in the back seat and chatted and colored the whole 4 hours. So cute! We stopped in Pocatello for some quick Taco Bell before we hit the road again.

The Day After Lauren's Birthday

The day after Lauren's birthday was "dress up as a book character" day at school. Lauren dressed up as Junie B. Jones and Landon was Mr. Sir from Holes. (Finally an excuse to wear a bolo tie!)That evening Lauren had her good friend, Caroline, come over for a sleepover as a way to celebrate her birthday with a friend, but not have a party. We went bowling, had pizza, and the girls played arcade games, won tickets and bought junk with the proceeds. We came home and they watched movies and went to bed around midnight or so. It was really easy, in my opinion! Caroline is such a sweet, polite, well-behaved friend, that we'd have her over every weekend if we could!

Lauren's Birthday!

So much has happened since Lauren's birthday that I keep getting distracted from updating my blog! But I better get this done before I forget everything that happened...

Lauren turned 10 last Thursday and had a fantastic birthday. She asked us to hide all her presents so she could wake up and look for them in the morning. She also requested a Mylar balloon with candy tied to the end of it waiting for her in the living room that morning.

She wanted a crimper, some boots and some clothes for her birthday this year, so that's what she got! She also got a beautiful ring and some cash from her generous aunts in Las Vegas, cards and cash from both grandmas, and cards and cash from Shannon and Kristen. She is SET in the cash department!!

She got a stuffed letter L from Grammy (to put on her bed or use as a neck pillow, as Lauren figured out right away...)

I made her "egg in the hole" for breakfast, then brought Taco Time for lunch to eat together in Landon's classroom. (This is Landon and Lauren messing around after lunch.)

A very sweet Hispanic boy named George (or maybe Jorge), who hangs around Landon's classroom, gave Lauren some stuffed animals he won in a vending machine. Lauren was so touched and grateful that she gave him a hug. She's a sweet girl.

For dinner she wanted to go to New Fong's, which is one of her best friend's family's restaurant. Her friend gave her a little bag with fortune cookies and a wash rag folded into the shape of a bunny, and her mom gave us a free appetizer of crab puffs. We came home and played Ticket To Ride and ate ice cream "Drumsticks" for dessert! She had such a great day! (I did lay down the law to the girls for next year though...only ONE special meal, not all three! It's exhausting!)