Yummy Whole Wheat Bread

Some friends were asking me about my wheat bread recipe.  I made it today so I thought I would share it here.

Yummy Whole Wheat Bread

1 1/2 T. yeast

3/8 c. warm water

1 1/2 T. sugar

Combine the above and set aside.

2 c. warm water

1 T. powder milk

3/8 c. sugar or honey

3/8 c. oil

1 T. salt

6-7 c. freshly ground whole wheat flour

1/3 c. wheat gluten

Combine the above including yeast mixture.  Knead for 10 minutes.

Place dough in greased bowl. Cover and let rise for 1 1/2 hours.  Divide into two greased bread pans.  Let rise for 15 more minutes.  Bake at 375 degrees for 28 minutes.  Enjoy!

Girls Weekend in Monterey, California

I spent a long weekend in California with six of my closest girlfriends from my days at BYU.  It was a fabulous reunion and tons of fun.  It was so nice to reminisce and enjoy some quality girl time.  

At Pebble Beach

Checking out all the cute little shops on Cannery Row

All dressed up and nowhere to go.....

Valentine's Day Cookie Craziness

We had some of Ellie's friends over the day before Valentine's day to make our annual heart shaped cookies.  WOW... it was so crazy but SO fun.  The kids loved helping cut out the cookies and decorating with sprinkles. We all enjoyed the end product!  YUMMY!

Special Delivery....

Ellie and her friends Kaya and Gage handed out Valentine's Day cards at a local Assisted Living Center.  As soon as the trio walked through the door all of the faces in the room just lit up!  It was precious to watch.  They loved passing out the Valentines... although Ellie had a little difficulty giving away all the chocolate bars without sampling a few along the way as you can see below. 

She's a BIG girl now!

Ellie is officially potty-trained!  It has been a LONG couple of weeks.  Thankfully, we both survived!  YEAH! No more diapers!

A New Excuse

So all children come up with excuses as to why they shouldn't have to go to bed.  Tonight I heard a new one from Ellie.... "But Mommy, I have to clean my room first."  

I just hope this excuse will come up in her later years in life when her room is truly messy.  

I'm a Nookachamp!

I ran the Nookachamp 1/2 Marathon this weekend . The race was located in Mount Vernon, WA. It rained before the race and the entire afternoon after... but we got lucky and stayed dry during the race! Brandon and Ellie were there cheering me on. I couldn't have had a better cheering squad! Thanks for supporting me! Post race picture with my friend Angela.

The Adventures

While in Costa Rica we went on a number of adventures.  Here are a few:

The Jungle Boat Ride:  We saw at least 10 crocodiles, a pink flamingo, tons of monkeys (a few of us even fed bananas to the monkeys), lots of colorful iguanas and birds.

The first crocodile sighting

Ellie checking out the crocodiles.

It took her a while to see them at first but when she did see them she would get So excited and would start saying "chomp chomp chomp" and doing the crocodile arm motions.

Surfing

A few of us took our first surfing lessons.  It was so much fun!  

The Surfing Crew

The Jungle Zip Line:

Doing the Superman through the jungle

We really were in the middle of the jungle

Crazy Brandon

Christmas in Costa Rica

We spent the holiday in Paradise surrounded by family..... I'm not sure it gets much better than that! We enjoyed a week long vacation with the Clarke side of the family... and loved every minute of it! I don't think I have seen Ellie so incredibly excited for each and every moment of the day for the week that she was surrounded by cousins AND a pool! 

After much anticipation she is on her way.....Our first full day in Costa Rica was a Sunday so we headed to the local branch. Ellie loved going to primary with the other kids and even joined in (including a HUGE smile) when they sang I am a Child of God in Spanish.... which her dad has taught her to sing!Her first dip in the kiddie pool. I LOVED that the kiddie pool was covered by a hut.... even though she only spent the first day in the kiddie pool.. I thought it was a great idea to prevent the otherwise inevitable sunburn!Brandon and Ellie playing in the waves at sunset!Her favorite place... and where she spent ALL of her time!

It was fun to see how much Ellie changed in just a weeks time.  The first day in the water she wouldn't let us let go of her...but by just the second day she was swimming with her floaties in the deep end and would have nothing to do with us!
Christmas dinner! The balancing act
Uncle Nate playing with the monkeys... literally. These little guys were vicious... they would pit pocket you if you didn't empty out your pockets before heading in the cage.... unfortunatly one of our fellow travelers wasn't fowarned and the monkey stole their keys and headed to the top of the tree! They also stole a ladies sunglasses off her face through the fence!
Our favorite time of day was from 4-5 pm when the sun was setting and it was high tide. We would all head out to the ocean to ride the waves.... too much fun!
Cousins!
Christmas Eve sing-a-long at the resort
Christmas morning!

The Gingerbread House

The Kit

The Candy

Licking her lips!

The final product!

A Night in Bethlehem

Last night our church had a night in Bethlehem.  It was a great experience for all of us.  Ellie loved visiting all the shops.  She was able to make perfume, tie some rope, grind some wheat, knead some dough, make a mosaic and get her dinner from the farmers market.  

Family Photo

Ellie taking a ride on the horse!  

Notice the vial of perfume she is wearing around her neck that she made.

Grinding some wheat

Meeting baby Jesus. 

 This was the highlight of the evening for Ellie. At the end of the nativity program Ellie went running up to meet baby Jesus.

There was this one guy dressed up in navy biblical attire but he had a white beard as part of his costume.  Whenever Ellie saw him she kept on calling him Santa. I think she was a little confused about the fact that there wasn't a Santa at the Christmas party...  but by the end of the night she was satisfied by seeing baby Jesus.

Christmas Eve dinner.... a little early

We are going to be away for Christmas so we decided to have the Rowley's up a week early to celebrate.  A couple of hours before the big celebration we received a call and great-grandpa Rowley has mrsa (a highly contagious disease and can be fatal for little ones) so we had to cancel our celebration.  We had prepared a feast so we decided to have some friends over to celebrate with us instead.

Ellie and Hazel enjoying their dinner

Ellie giving Hazel a little too much love for Hazel's taste I think....

We all had a great time and enjoyed lots of yummy food.  We celebrated Christmas morning this morning... but only took video footage (oops).

The Terrible Twos? I don't think so.

We are loving this phase of Ellie's childhood. I love the fascination and excitement that she has with each day of life.  I love that she is growing and learning so much each day.  Below are some of my recent favorites.

1.  When I yell "Ouch", as in I just stubbed my toe, Ellie comes running to whichever room I am in while yelling in return... "You ok Mommy?"

2.  She is fascinated with the lights of the season and gets so much excitement and joy as we drive around at night and she sees the Christmas lights on.  She helps to remind me to enjoy the festivities of the season.

3.  The other day I was running on the treadmill in one room and Ellie was off playing in another.. when I finished I went to see where she was and what she was up to.  She was up on a chair at the kitchen sink with a towel getting it wet.. then ran to her little table and started scrubbing vigorously.  As I went to see what had happened... she was scrubbing the ink she had gotten on the table while drawing...  I was pretty impressed that she was cleaning up without being asked!

4.  She LOVES to help me cook. Anytime she hears me working away in the kitchen... she comes a running, drags the chair over from the kitchen table, and starts asking questions as to what we are making (and of course asking to have a taste).  It is so much fun to have a little helper in the kitchen.

5.  When Ellie hears a boom, as in something has just fallen, she comes running.. "I help you Mommy."

6.  The other day I was off cleaning up one of the bedrooms and I heard water from the kitchen sink.. I came to see what was going on... Ellie had the dish scrubber in her hand was scrubbing the dirty dishes in the sink.

7.  Ellie's friend just recently was potted trained and upon learning that her friend was a "big girl" and went on the potty Ellie has been fascinated with the concept.  BUT when she attempts to go on the potty and the attempt fails....she says, "Not working Mommy, it's not working"... which I think is just too cute!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.....

Ellie and her animals

Ellie has this thing for her little animals that my mom got for her when we visited her last year in Guatemala. These little animals are by far her favorite little toys. I had to ask my mom to bring back a couple more packs when she came home in July because these little animals are easily lost and they were getting low in numbers. I will frequently walk in the room Ellie is playing in and all of her animals are all lined up in a row or all laying flat with a blanket ontop of them as she says they are "sleeping" and she requests that I use a quiet voice as not to wake them. This week she lined them in in rows of two. I love the way she paired them... either by size or by type of animal. All she needed at the end of these two rows is a boat and she would have been ready for Noah's Ark!