visit to fredericksburg

We visited my family in Fredericksburg this past weekend.

jaden and opa feeding the huskies

playing phase ten, one of our favorite past times

auntie theresa!

oma and opa and scooter-bug

seesters!

walking in the neighborhood

we walked to the neighbor's farm.  mr. truman, the neighbor's donkey

the neighbor's two horses

kiddie convos

Jaden and Carson (and Carson's sister Cammie) are great friends.  We've had some great hang out times already this summer.  We were driving to a park and heard this:

Jaden to starla: I'm gonna get a little sister!
Starla: Oh really?  From where?
Jaden: From God.
Starla: Oh.  Ok.
Jaden: My mommy says I have to pway and ask God to give them a baby!
Carson (interjecting): I have a little sister for you!

=) 

french breakfast muffins

I love weekend mornings.  I love being able to walk and buy a newspaper, sip on a cup of coffee and put my feet up.  I also love that I have more time to bake breakfast stuff!
This morning I tried out a new recipe.  They're called french breakfast muffins.  They are super yummy!  They're fluffy and light, and the topping is fun to do.

i love batter-this muffin batter tastes delicious

these smelled ah-mazing!  and they taste great too!

Here is the website I found this recipe on:
http://velvetlava.blogspot.com/2009/02/i-am-now-in-muffin-loop.html

A few things I would do differently, next time:
*I would add some cinnamon and maybe a teaspoon or two of vanilla (or maybe almond) extract to give it some more flavor
*I rolled just the tops of the muffins, but I think it'd be fun to roll the whole muffin
*I didn't wait until the muffins were completely cooled to the dip them, and it sort of melted the sugar, so I think it'd be better to wait until the muffins were almost cooled

Happy baking!

some motivation...

i need this reminder when my alarm goes off in the am ....

a little perspective is always a good thing =)

the newest salvat

Our very good friends had a baby today!  Victoria did great during labor.  Let me tell ya, she's a trooper.  Her labor went well-she labored most of the day.  At 515, baby was born! 

pre-labor shots-always happy and smiley

trying to rest between contractions

enter active labor: not so smiley anymore

end of active/beginnings of transition

transition....almost there!

baby!

the newest baby salvat

fresh bread

Every once in a while, I get a hankering for some home-made bread.  Not the bread machine bread, but hands on home made bread.  The more I thought about it, the more appealing the idea became.
So......today I made some!

melting milk, sugar, salt and butter...

mixing it into flour and yeast

i love my new counters!  i have room to flour them and roll out dough!

getting the dough ready to rise

because it's hot outside, I put the bowl on the porch and it didn't take long.....

getting ready for the oven.......

smells SOOO good......

tastes DELICIOUS! =)

sleepy time

i love nap time pictures....i guess he was playing on the floor and fell asleep

these days, quiet time consists of playing with cars-one of the many, many designs =)

love this one! 

wintergreen adventure challenge

I ran this obstacle course race this past Sunday.  It was Wintergreen's spin off of Tough Mudder.  It was 7 miles of hills and trails, with 20 or so obstacles sprinkled along the way.
A friend from church asked me to run it, so I agreed.  I thought, really, how hard could this be?
Well.
It was hard.  Steep uphills and REALLY steep downhills make for unhappy legs.  Some of the obstacles were fun (my favorite was the water slide) and some were lame (they had us blow up a balloon and pop it).  Overall, it was a good experience and another race I can add to my list.
I'm happy to report I finished!  I will also say I will never do that again.