French Baguettes with Laura

I have never posted a recipe before but this one has been really fun :)

French Baguettes
(Two baguettes)
1 c. water
2 ¾ c. flour
1 Tbs sugar
1 tsp salt
1 ½ teaspoon yeast

(For later) 1 egg yolk, 1 Tbs water

Add all ingredients except egg yolk and one teaspoon water to your bread machine. Use the dough setting. You will know when your dough is ready because when you press it with your finger and the indentation remains in the dough. Pull out the dough and put on lightly floured surface. Roll out dough to approximately 16x12 inch rectangle. Cut in half to get two 8x12 inch rectangles. Roll up tightly. Pinch together the sides and edges (I always roll under the ends too). Grease a cookie sheet, and place on sheet at least 3 inches apart. Make cute cuts in the bread . Cover, and let rise 40 minutes or until double.

Mix egg yolk and water and brush over the entire loaf. Cook for 20-25 minutes at 375 degrees or until golden brown. Serve warm, ,or cool on a wire rack.

Baby Steps

Sorry this is a sideways video but my baby has been walking just over a week now. I am so proud of Kaitlyn and her many accomplishments in her first year of life. Way to go! She still crawls quite a bit, but she is getting more grown up every day.

Shayne's 33rd

In my family, we call April and May "Birthday Season." I even have the bow on the wreath on the door for it just as I would with any other season. We start with Danelle on April 29, just over a week later May 7th with Kaitlyn, then just over a week later the 17th with Shayne. We also have my Grandma Tubbs, Monyka, and my Mom all within those months as well, and once you factor in Easter and Mothers Day - we are talking about a lot of parties.

Shayne has been a good sport about his birthday for years. His birthday is usually low key (like him) and often times overshadowed by the birthdays that surround him. Mainly the kids birthdays. Last year it was the birth of our new baby Kaitlyn. Also in years past, he has shared his birthday with Danelle to save me some extra work of throwing another party. THIS YEAR I vowed would be different. I wanted him to have an extra special birthday on the same plane with the girls very exciting birthdays. I think we did just that.

A few days before his birthday party, I did some thinking about what he would want for his birthday present. I have known for years he has wanted a proper barbecue grill but they have always been out of our price range for such a frivolous random thing to buy. I have given him cheap-o charcoal grills a couple of times, but he never lost sight of the ultimate goal of having a nice grill. Shayne is not the type to ask for much and certainly not the type to complain so he has made due for a very long time. I wanted him to have something nice. He deserves it so with that in mind I contacted our family members to see if anyone would pitch in for this terrific grill. They did ; everyone that I asked pitched in something. Shayne got the grill that he wanted for his birthday this year. He looked so surprised when he saw Evan and Jason (Sarah's boyfriend)carrying it in. It made me so happy, and as silly as it sounds I wanted to cry.

The whole party was a success though. Shayne has told me a time or two how much he loves my chicken enchilada's so I thought it would be the perfect birthday meal for him and our party guests. We also had chips and salsa, rice, and re-fried beans. The kids ate gluten free tacos. Shayne was excited how well the girls cakes turned out and wanted one of his own so Danelle and I surprised him with a red velvet Goofy cake made by Amber Beautiful Creations. It was perfect!

Thank you to everyone that was a part of making this party special and memorable for us. Thank you to the family for pitching in on this fantastic grill that I promise we will have family bbq's on in the future. Happy Birthday to my sweetheart, husband, best friend, and most wonderful father to his kids. We love you.

Kaitlyn turns ONE!

Looking back at the past year - it's AMAZING to me that it was ONLY a year. Kaitlyn has changed so much since her birth on May 7, 2010. The first six months FLEW by... months seven to eleven went painfully slow (because of being tired from being tired haha). All the while though, Kaitlyn has been a joy and it's been so wonderful to see how much she has grown. Here is a run down of her first year in estimates:

First INTENTIONAL smile: 2 Months
First slept through the night: 6 weeks she was asleep all night waking to feed but returning to bed.
First time sleeping through the night no feedings:11 months :-p
First real bath: 2 weeks
First laugh: 4 Months, on my birthday!!!
First rolling over: 3 1/2 Months
Sat up alone: 7 Months - for long periods of time however - 8 Months.
Crawled: 8 1/2 Months
First tooth: 9 Months - two bottom teeth.
First Solids: 4 Months with rice (Doctor recommended to gain weight, I wanted to wait longer)
First tasty solids: 6 Months
First word: 6 1/2 Months - MA MA
First time pulling to stand: 9 Months
First Step: One year birthday almost exactly - not quite walking yet but getting really close!

Kaitlyn loves to play with her sister, take warm baths with lots of bath toys and preferably bubbles, swing, being tickled, figure out cell phones, and dump over Daisy's water dish. Her favorite foods are strawberry yogurt, macaroni and cheese, goldfish crackers, and sweet potatoes. Kaitlyn is pretty content in nature; she likes to watch everyone around her but also likes to get a laugh from time to time and will repeat things for this effect (like blowing raspberries). Her many talents include: coloring on the magna-doodle, reaching up to play the piano, clapping, making funny sounds with her lips and tongue,and being extremely photogenic. Kaitlyn DOES NOT like head bonkies, squash, green vegetables, apple sauce, and things that make LOUD NOISES.

We just love her! Kaitlyn is such a joy and a blessing and I love being her Mom and a part of her life. I hate to have her grow up but I look forward to the journey. XOXO Kaitlyn. Happy Birthday!

MOVING TIME!!!

With Shayne's new job in Draper, we knew that a move was in our future. We planned to move up North to save Shayne in fuel but when we found the perfect place in Spanish Fork - - - we couldn't say no! That's right, we are moving to Spanish Fork shortly. We are very excited. We are moving to the adorable Somerset Village. We have looked at these home to possibly buy for many years now; we love the open spaces, the quality of the homes (which we know because they are the same builders of my parents home near the SF golf course), the floor plans, and the potential of them. They are also very affordable.

The home that we have chosen to rent is a three bedroom town home style end unit. IT has a open ground floor where there is a kitchen and big space for a table and couches. It also has a bathroom, laundry room, pantry (I HAVE MISSED ONE SO MUCH), and garage. There is a full unfinished basement, great for storage. Upstairs there are two full bathrooms (one in the master bedroom and one for the girls) and three large bedrooms. The girls will each have their own room until we feel Kaitlyn is ready to sleep with Danelle again. (Kaitlyn still has SOME rough nights in this area and Danelle keeps her awake as well.) The best part is our room! I LOVE our room! It's nice and wide, has a bathroom with a jetted tub, and a closet that could double a nursery because it is SO BIG! My closet has a window in it - it's THAT BIG. Needless to say, this house will be much less cramped.

I love the new neighborhood as well. Behind our house is a large grassy area that the girls can go out and play. There are many young families just like us with young children of their own for the girls to play with. There is a park in the community less than a minute walk from the house. Even though the gates are never closed, I like the idea of being in a gated community as well. We know we will be very happy there.

Of course moving makes me sad in some ways too. You don't just live somewhere just shy of three years and not grow attached to a place. We have many memories in this home. Danelle has spent half of her life here. Three of each holiday, all of Danelle's preschool years and first year of Kindergarten, and the entire pregnancy and first year of Kaitlyn being born. Of course there were moments I will not care to remember (my favorite still being the "hate" mail we were getting) but it never stopped us from being happy in Provo.

I cannot fail to mention that I will miss many people in this neighborhood as well... There are a few of you (you know who you are) that were here for us during the entire three years we were here. I will never forget you! Lucky for me, Facebook will hopefully keep us in touch and we are not moving to Mars, just a couple cities South. I have really enjoyed being a neighborhood with children that share our same standard and didn't need to worry about Danelle's friends. She loves so many of your children - she will miss Eastgate so much.

We move June 4th. Contracts are signed and we are busy packing and planning away. On a side note; if you are available to help us with the move June 3rd or/and 4th that would be AWESOME. There is a lot of stuff (who knew a little two bedroom could hold so much?) and we are closing our storage unit as well so there will be tons to do. We love you all! Thanks for being so supportive of our move and our family! More updates to come!

Danelle is SIX!

I really have to pinch myself whenever it hits me that Danelle is six years old and going into first grade this year. Her birthday week started off early when she was VIP in her class. All weekend Danelle and I prepared a poster all about her; things she liked to eat, what animal she liked, what things she likes to do, pictures of her, and just about anything else we could think of. Monday the 25th I was a special guest in her class to tell everyone all about Danelle and our poster. It warmed my heart to tell the class more about her and watch and hear them sing the VIP song to her. She was so happy. On Friday the 29th for her birthday, we brought homemade cupcakes (Danelle helped me make decorate) to her class.

Danelle was very specific about what she hoped her birthday would be like as well. She wanted a unicorns and rainbows theme. She actually asked for this same theme for her fourth birthday so I felt the extra push to make her dream of this party happen. Finding unicorn things was not easy, but getting the unicorn cake was a cinch. My visiting teachee and Wilton Cake Instructor neighbor, Amber Lowell made a beautiful light purple rainbow and unicorn cake for the party. It was even rainbow colored inside. Danelle was very pleased. With our upcoming move (details to come) I wanted to have one big friend party with her loved neighbor friends that she will miss so dearly. She invited Carly, Matthew, Isabella, Alice, a friend from school named Kenzie, and her two cousins Kaede and Arisa. It was a lot of fun to have such a big group show up and celebrate with her. Her grandparents, and the local Aunts and Uncles came as well. Later that week we had a mini birthday party for her with Nana, Papa, and Grandpa Underwood.

Danelle got a lot of presents this year, but she was most happy to have her special sixth birthday shared by so many loved ones. On behalf of Danelle and our family, thank you to everyone who made this day special; the cards, calls, coming to the party, and everything in between made it a perfect birthday for her. Thank you!

Kaitlyn's First Easter!

Despite downpours in rain, we had a great time this Easter celebrating with Evan, Monyka, Mom, and Dad this year. We all met at Evan and Monyka's apartment that Saturday for some tasty "Evan's" BBQ, egg coloring, and egg hunt. Danelle was the expert this year at egg coloring and egg hunting. With a little help from Uncle Evan, Danelle found the golden egg filled with money and I loved watching her say, "LOOK MOM! WE'RE RICH!" It turned out to be about $8 in change. The Easter Bunny brought by the girls Easter baskets at their house too! Kaitlyn was especially fun to watch her opening her first basket and plastic eggs filled with binki's and hair bows. Easter Sunday the girls wore their pretty new Easter dresses to church and later that night enjoyed a festive dinner at Mom's house. We hope you had a "HOPPY EASTER" too!