sprite bread

Here you go Megan :) This is the best and easiest bread ever.
Soda Bread

3c self-rising flour ( use 3c all purpose flour, 3t baking powder and 1 1/2t salt)
2T sugar
1 can soda (i have used sprite, pink lemonade, ginger ale)

mix, put in a sprayed pan, and throw into the over at 350 for 1hr. So easy!! The boy's favorite.

Bread

CHECK OUT THIS BREAD. I am so proud of this thing. I have been trying to make whole wheat bread for some time. It has always come out flat and hard as a rock. I wasn't ever sure if it was because I was grinding my own wheat. Well we have food storage specialists at church and this sister is unbelievable. Anyway she shared her bread recipe and I am so hooked. Every time I make it I can not get over how soft and good it is.

If you are interested here is the recipe:

Now if you have a Bosch you can double it and get 4 loafs. This is for my Kitchen Aid

In a quart jar or large measuring cup, place:

1/2 c warm water

1T Dry yeast (Red Star Active Dry Yeast)

1/2 T Honey (flavored honey works great, too)

Set aside so yeast can start growing.

Place 3 1/2 C of whole wheat flour in mixing bowl

Add 2 1/2 C of the hottest tap water you can get

Mix on low speed until flour is all mixed in.

Add yeast mixture and mix--will be very wet.

Add:

1T salt

1/4 c canola oil

1/4 c honey

Add:

1/2 c vital wheat gluten

Another 1/2 c of whole wheat flour

Options (but I always add)

4T ground flax seed

6 T Potato Flour

2 Vitamin C Tablets (crushed)

Mix well

Then add four (about 1/2 c at a time) until dough starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl. Add until the dough starts pulling away from the side of the bowl and leaving bowl nearly clean.

Once the dough is pulling away and still slightly sticky knead for 10min (this makes a big difference) on low speed (or follow directions on your mixer)

After kneading is complete, if dough still feels too sticky to shape into loaves, set dough in large, oiled bowl, cover and let rise until double. This first rise will allow some of the moisture to be absorbed by the flour (this is a step I do each time) (This takes about 45 min to an hour, depending on how warm it is. I place mine in front of my gas fireplace).

After dough has risen and is doubled, punch down and let rest for 10min. Then shape dough into loaves using oiled hands.

Place in 2 loaf pans sprayed with Spray

Cover and let rise until loaves are above the edge of the pan.

Heat over to 350. Place loaves in hot over and bake for 30-35min.

Immediately remove bread from pan, cover with towel for 10 min on cooling rack. After 10 min take towel off and let cool completely.

Sounds like a lot of steps but I have found that it is worth it. I hope you enjoy :)

The boys have been crazy about legos lately. I should have taken a picture of their lego area. They made under Jeffrey's bed legos only. It is covered in lego pieces and directions. Jason and the boys made lego boats and actually floated them. I didn't get a picture of that, or of dad's boat sinking, since I was not home but here are a few that I did get a picture of.

Jonah is doing really good at following lego directions. This is one that he did on his own. I love when the mind works. Here is one of the boats in the water.

Here is a car that Jeffrey made, (isn't my wall a great color)

His pyramid

Museum of Flight

So we actually got to take a field trip with dad. He had the day off of work and we took advantage of it. We finally got to go to the Museum of Flight in Seattle. Boy was it amazing. I had no idea there were so many different planes out there. I am so glad that we went with Jason because he was able to give the boys so much more information than I was.


Here are the boys standing in front of one of the airplanes that grandpa (Jason's dad) worked on while he was in the Marines. It was really neat being able to go on this plane. This was one of the old President planes. Not sure which one it was. There were 3 planes, I think, and before you went on it showed which Presidents had which plane. Talk about history.

These pictures are of Jason favorite plane.

This is Jeffrey's plane. He thinks it looks really cool and it is the fastest ever. He informed me that there have been only 3 shot down.

Could he be a future pilot?

Jonah

Hello there. Boy has it been a while and boy have there been much changes. We moved into our, hopefully, home that we will be in for the next 20yrs. Having 5 addresses in the last 3yrs is to much. We are hopeing to lay down some roots. We figured we probably should make some roots since Jason retires from the Navy next year. YES I SAID NEXT YEAR and I am doing a very happy dance :) We are all doing good. Jason is doing very well. Getting things in line for the coming year. Hopefully it will be a smooth transition. He is working with the young men at church and for the most part enjoying playing. He is in the Venturing part of scouts which mean playing, hiking and all that stuff that he loves. I am getting ready to start another college class and am the Den leader in cubs. I think one of the funnest callinga I have had. Still homeschooling my 2 roudy boys. We just started another new curriculum. We decided to do what is called WAVA. So far so good but then again we haven't done a full week yet. I think it will prove to be good for us. Jeffrey is busy in scouts and school and piano as well as Jonah. They both have such creative minds. I am looking foward to seeing where it takes them.

Here is my little cubscouter. He is doing really good in scouts. He already has his Bobcat, Wolf, tuns of belt loops, and 2 arrow points. Doesn't hurt that his mom is his den leader.
Here is Jeffrey at his desk doing schoolwork. Doesn't he look like he is having so much fun. He must love his teacher.

Here is Jonah sporting all his stickers he earned for good work in school.

2 of my boys. Don't they look sweet.

Jonah making one of his many faces. :)

Little Critter

So here we have some little critters who have decided they want to know what it is living in this house. Here is a squirrels that sat right at our sliding glass door and just watched us. I guess we weren't exciting enough because he hit the window with his little paw, not sure if he expected us to do some trick or what.

Here is a raccoon that is on our back porch, he came a couple of nights. We must be weird looking creatures because like the squirrels he sat there and looked at us for a while.

Christmas 2009

So here is is about 3weeks after Christmas and I am just getting around to getting pictures. I am looking back at these pictures and am sad at how much I didn't take. It was a good Christmas though. Many things to be thankful for. Here is a picture of one of the boys's presents. They opened all their gifts from under the tree. They got mostly all stuff for a Wii but no Wii. They couldn't figure it out. Jason and I were asking them if we were suppose to take the Wii stuff to some one's house that had one. Then they noticed that the piano bench, the one we placed cookies on for Santa, was in front of the TV. There sat a controller and the Wii Game. The little santa figures were also turned around looking at the TV. We decided Santa must have took a little break and played the Wii while eating his cookies. Multi Talented that Santa is.

Jason with his RV offroading movie.

The boys opening Wii stuff.

The ginger bread house we built during Family Home Evening. It was hard keeping everyone from eating all the candy.

My crazy Jeffrey. He is the Christmas tree skirt.

art

Here are some art projects the boys have done recently. This first one is a picture Jeffrey did wen he was doodling. I really like this one.
This is a sculpture of a stingray done by Jonah.

Here is Jeffrey's stingray.

Here is a sculpture of a beaver's home and a person floating on a raft done by Jonah.

This is Jeffrey's beaver sculpture. He has a person on a raft looking at the beaver home threw binoculars and then there is a fish in the water. He has the fish's tail and head sticking out of the water :)

Fort Worden in Port Townsend

The family took a much needed day of play and went to Port Townsend (my favorite town here in Washington). There is a old military base that is now a public spot. There is camping, boating, old officer homes to rent and much other fun things. This is were some of the movie 'Officer and a Gentleman' took place. There are even old bunkers to play around.
This is the beach that the men in the bunkers were looking out to.

Here is my Jason. Isn't he cute. (that is a statement not a question (something Jeffrey is working on in LA :)

Dad showing the boys how to jump off the bunkers

The 'boys' coming up from inside the bunker.

Jeffrey inside the bunker. This is kind of spooky because it is pitch black. It is awesome to think of the many different people that stood in here many many years ago and what it is they were doing.