Cute girls

Latest Hobby

I have mentioned a few times that I have a new love for baking... Baking TREATS that is ;) I have come so far in my quest to make yummy delicious baked goods. Lets just say just a few years ago I couldn't even bake a chocolate chip cookie that tasted good. I also failed at many other treats. They were usually okay, but not great. I wanted to make cakes and cookies and treats that were REALLY good. I think I am really getting there. I have read lots and lots of cook books and detailed ways of how you should bake, what type of ingredients to use, and so on. It has been so fun. My sister in law Britta has real talent for baking and she has taught me a lot too. Today at the library I found a new cookbook that I think is a gem. It is: The sweeter side of Amy's Bread. I love it! I have yet to try a recipe, but I have looked at them, and they look like good recipes. That is yet another talent I am being blessed with. With all the recipes and knowledge I have now, I can generally look at a recipe and know if it is a good one. I am not a professional of any sort, but I really am developing a talent for this baking stuff! Another favorite book I got at the library was Juniors Cheesecakes. I tried to make a cheese cake before this book, and it was nasty. Now the few cheesecakes I have made are REALLY good. I don't meant to brag... it's the book that taught me the tricks. So, if you are ever interested in making a cheesecake and don't know how, just check out that book. It is great.

I have had another quest of making great home made bread. Not nasty stuff that is heavy and dense. No, I want to make really good bread. The kind you pay lots of money for at a bakery. The kind you can't buy in the store, only really good bakery shops. I want to make good french breads with crusty tops and baguettes that are to die for. I have tried a little, but I have not succeeded in this pursuit yet. I think I need to invest in the right tools first. I don't have a Kithenaid or bosch, and it would be fabulous to have the kind of oven that is good for making bread. Yeah, maybe when we are rich... ;) Although I have read a lot of books about it and scoured the internet, it still intimidates me. I know I will get there some day, it's just a little more intimidating then the pasty/treat making. Don't get me wrong, I can make yeast breads and bread sticks and what not, I just want to make it better. I don't want to eat the average home cooked stuff, I have a quest for the best!
Oh, and Ma, since you are always asking for gift ideas,and I never have an answer for you, I would love to own those books some day... hint hint!

How I make my pictures larger

I have been asked now by a few fellow blog readers how I get my pictures bigger. I have never spent the time to explain it though, so I thought I would do a quick blog about it. I do not know if my techniques are wise, so do it at your own risk. For all I know I'm changing code that shouldn't be messed with...

Step 1: After you have uploaded your pictures to blogger, look at the 2 tabs on the upper right hand part of your screen (this is all when you are making a blog) there is a tab named "Edit Html" and a tab named "compose". Click on "Edit Html"

Step 2:

a onblur= "try {parent deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} cat ch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkBkOeMSTJspfHo468N1Q9fia5wQHpLmmjGRK_GMTNnUHBXR_nBgpc79TvLGXS-8ieaq3wn-ScERWT7IkokSLPZPdy1KIKCnBtXvIWBqGect7NL6EeigepBHVi45EEwg7-shCa2Q/s1600/claire+tree. jpg">width: 267px; height: 400px;" src="http://2.bp.blog spot.com/-3gRIdEf6 W8w/TfPVI7ihwOI/AAAAAAAADBA/uSGxiO5gjVY/s400/claire%2Btree.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5617067509659320546" border="0" />

This is what you will see for each photo uploaded to blogger- a bunch of code. For each photo you need to find the 2 parts I highlighted in red. The first part "width and height" of the photo, I highlight it and delete all of it. The second part where it says "s400" I change the 4 to an 8. So, it reads "/s800/"

Step 3:
Go back to composing your blog. Your picture should be 2 times bigger. I don't know why or how, but that it how I do it!

Curls

A commonly asked question we get is: "Are those curls natural?" Our answer is, yes, yes, they are indeed natural. I hardly ever curl Olivias hair. If you ever see curls it is almost always natural. I took this picture of her hair the other day- it is at its most "natural" state... no product, no combing or styling, just the way it dries out of the tub if I don't touch it. We could probably make it curlier with the right products and scrunching, and we can easily make it straight with a little combing or blow drying. If you ask me, that is PERFECT hair! I just hope the curls can hold up when it gets longer. It seems when its longer the natural weight of her hair pulls the curls out. I think with the right hair cut we can keep the hair light enough to still curl though ;)
On a side note Liv is so funny. She loves to make us laugh. She now regularly calls me "mommasita". She thinks its hilarious.

Weekend Road Trip

Brett had Memorial day off work, so we thought we would take a quick trip to St.George for the weekend! It ended up being rather memorable and expensive... We stopped off at Zions to do a hike. It was a beautiful day. We forgot to bring Claire a hat and the sun was out, so with such little amounts of hair we thought we had to buy her a hat. It was $25 at the gift shop! Oh boy... but we would rather that then a really burnt head. Turns out the hike we went on was all in shade... brother! If she didn't get the hat so filthy maybe we would have returned it ;)
Turns out this trip was accident prone. It started with Claire getting hit by a tree branch while riding on Bretts shoulders. Her eye was swollen by the evening ;( Poor girl!
Incident #2 happened to me. We were hiking and all of a sudden a huge gust of wind came up. A big piece of bark (about the size of my hand) ripped off a tree and smacked me on the side of my head barely missing my eye! It was so random. I started crying mostly from being a hormonal pregnant lady. I didn't want to cry. I was so embarrassed! Now I have a bruise on the side of my head.. at least I'm not blind ;)
Incident #3 happened later that night... We dropped our stuff off at the hotel and were getting ready to go get dinner. Liv opened the door in her flip flops and ended up cutting the top of her toe open. The door had the whole door jam metal stuff on it, so it sliced right through her big toe. It went straight through the toe nail and was bleeding like crazy. Brett ran off to ask where the ER was and we were off to get her sewed up. About 2 hours later (and still no dinner(it was about (9:30pm) Olivia was all bandaged up. She didn't need stitches after all. Phew! She has half her toe nail gone now and a huge chunk of skin missing, but I think it will heal up fine in a few weeks time.
On Sunday the weather turned cold. We were limited on our activities as it was Sunday and it was chilly outside. We stopped by the temple, played games in our hotel room and tried to play at a park (the cold wind cut it short though). We also went to a random sacrament meeting.


Monday we went to see Kung Fu Panda 2. Claire is still apparently too wild to take to the movies. She could hardly sit for 5 minutes. We also stopped by the outlet stores. Then we headed home. All in all it was a fun get away and we were happy to be with Brett so much. Maybe our next family trip will be better ;)
On a side note I am 27 weeks along in the pictures.