Vance's 10th Birthday Sleepover

Pizza dinner....

Nerf war at the park....

Chocolate Fountain......

Hunter enjoying the chocolate.....

Yum-O....

Fun, fun, fun....

Vance and Cooper!

Star Wars legos from Matthew!

Biggest Twinkie Box EVER and some gift cards from the Tubbs boys!

Travis gave him a Hex Bug and Mighty Beanz!

Two more Hex Bugs from Daniel!

Gift card from Josh!

Summer was wiped out from all the fun!

The boys all settling in for a movie and popcorn!!!

The next morning, they woke up early (a little TOO early), and enjoyed cinnamon rolls and fruit for breakfast, followed by some outdoor playtime in the backyard. Foursquare, basketball, stick ball, and Nerf wars! So thankful for my boys friends, and the wonderful families they come from!

Double Digits

My youngest just turned 10. There was a flood in my house last October. That's just too many monumental events for me, I tell ya. For some reason, this birthday for Vance makes me feel old! I really can't fathom that it has been a decade since my 3rd son made his entrance into this world. It has just flown by in the blink of an eye. I am learning to value and appreciate every moment having these sweet boys in our home, because I know it will be gone in a New York minute. Sniff, sniff.

I love my sweet little Fuzzy. His gregarious and entertaining nature makes me laugh every day. He is such a ham, and says the funniest things all the time. I won't embarass him too much at this point if I told you he is a big snuggler. He loves to cozy up to me on the couch with his giant fluffy pillow and blanket. He's my cute, curly topped boy. Yet he's also very rugged and all boy....loves all his Nerf guns (he owns an arsenal), and now he has a new airsoft gun too. In fact, he went out for his first battle today with his Daddy and brothers, and LOVED it. He loves God's little creatures, loves reading about them, and catching them (sometimes to my dismay), and can amaze you with random facts he has learned about them. He is also known for "naming" his belongings. It usually involves just adding a "Y" to the end of it. For instance, his pillow is "Pilly."

Anyways, I just adore this boy, my youngest, my baby. On his birthday, he wanted orange rolls for breakfast, so that's what we had.

He wanted sandwiches for lunch, so that's what we had (sorry, no pic, sandwiches are boring).

He wanted salmon (his favorite food on the planet), twice baked potatoes, and lettuce wedge salad, so guess what? That's what we had!

Finished that off with a SpongeBob cake for dessert.

He will be having a birthday sleepover to celebrate next weekend....I will be sure to post some pics of that. It should be fantastic. Boy parties are so easy....just throw some pizza at them and they are happy. So thankful to have his sweet friends over for a day of fun. In the meantime I leave you with this.

I've gone from Fisher Price to Full Metal AK in 10 years flat! Enjoy!

Orange Rolls

My nephew Brady used to love orange rolls. My sister gave me this recipe years ago, and it has been a favorite in my house ever since. You may be asking, "What is an orange roll?" It is likened to a cinnamon roll, except the filling and frosting are a buttercream-type frosting made from butter, powdered sugar, orange juice, and some orange rind. Yum. Did I say "yum?"

So, in Pioneer Woman fashion (but not nearly as good), I will walk you through the process. You don't need any fancy equipment, although a stand mixer is helpful. So is a treadmill if you are going to eat these. But that's another story.

The dough ingredients are as follows. Go ahead and just throw them all together in your stand mixer.

2 1/4 tsp yeast

3 1/2 -4 cups flour

1/3 cup sugar

1/3 cup butter, soft

1 tsp salt

1 egg

1/2 cup each lukewarm milk and water

Mix well until if forms a soft dough. Take the dough out and knead by hand a bit, just until the dough is soft and pliable. Place in a bowl, cover with a towel, and let rise for about an hour.

Meanwhile mix the frosting and filling:

3 cups powdered sugar

6 tbsp butter, soft

2 tbsp grated orange peel

4 tbsp orange juice

When the dough is ready, place it on a floured board, and cut it into two equal portions.

Roll each portion out into a 7 X 12 rectangle. Spread each rectangle with 1/4 of the filling, reserving the other half of the filling for the frosting (after baked).

Roll up the dough from the long side.

Cut into 1 inch pieces, and place into two round greased cake pans. Cover the pans and let rise for about 1 hour.

At this point, if you are planning on baking them the next day, you can cover the pans with foil and place them in the refrigerator. If not, just place on your counter at room temp until ready to bake. Just make sure you give your rolls at least an hour to rise. Longer is fine.

When ready to bake, place them in a preheated 375 over for about 20-25 minutes or until lightly browned.

Frost the hot rolls using the remaining frosting.

Serve.

Luke turns 12!

I really can't believe it's been 12 years since the Lord gave us our 2nd son, a chubby little adorable baby we named Luke. It has been so fun to watch him grow over the years. Lord willing, we will see some big changes in the coming year as he transitions into Junior High later this year. Luke has become such a delightful boy. So "boy" but yet has a sensitive side that is so sweet. He loves to skateboard, ride his bike, ride his dirt bike, and now his newest passion-airsofting. He got a new airsoft gun for his birthday, an M4, and has been enjoying playing airsoft "ops" with Dave and several other guys that go almost every weekend. We spent his birthday doing the things he wanted to do. Dave couldn't wait and gave him his airsoft gun last week, but he had a few small gifts to open. It was, of course, airsoft stuff. And a GIANT snuggle pillow. He LOVES it....small price to pay to keep a kid happy. Luke invited his best buddy Hunter over, and we started the day off with doughnuts from our local favorite donut spot, Spudnuts. They make the best doughnuts, period. Notice how I used both spelling variations of the word. What is the right way to spell it, anyways???? Donut??? Doughnut??? After breakfast, we headed down to the Simi discount theaters (I like $3 movie tickets) to see Tron Legacy....we were the ONLY people in the theater, and it was so fun because the kids were able to shout out and goof off and clap whenever they wanted. And change seats. Because you need to be able to watch it from all different angles, you know. Lunch was at Luke's favorite spot, Panda Express. It was "interesting" trying to order for 4 boys, but we managed to get it done.

After a little shopping at the local airsoft store, of course, we headed home for Luke's favorite meal. Steak, mashed potatoes and gravy, lettuce wedge blue cheese salad, and homemade biscuits. Not great for your arteries, but good for a young boy's heart! I love that he would rather have his mama's cooking than go out. Makes me so happy! Here's Luke with Hunter right before we indulged.

Luke wanted brownies and ice cream for dessert, so that's what we had. The boys played video games and we relaxed the rest of the evening. Such a fun day with all my boys (plus one more)!

Artisan Bread

I am so thankful to be back to my old homemaker-y self. I tell ya, hotel life is just not for me. Well, maybe for a couple days. Dave and I always joke now about going to hotels. I'm sure I'll get over it someday!

Anyways, I take such joy in caring for my family in tangible ways, such as giving them hot, delicious, fresh-out-of-the-oven bread with lots of butter. My dear friend Diane told me about a book she has, called Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, and explained how it was so easy to make beautiful artisan bread like the kind you would find at Panera Bread or a fancy bakery, but with very little effort and a cost of just a mere 50 cents a loaf. As she explained the process I said to myself, "Self, uh-huh, sure. It won't be anything too special for that amount of effort." But my friend assured me that it was amazing. So I just had to try this recipe.

I have made lots of homemade bread in the past. I really enjoy breadmaking. I don't use a breadmaker anymore, first of all because mine almost set fire, but secondly, I just don't like the lack of crust a bread machine loaf produces.

For me it is all about the crust. So I use my KitchenAid to mix dough, and form and rise my loafs by hand. It's not rocket science, but it is very time consuming. Rise. Knead. Rise. Form loaf. Rise. Bake. Takes all day!!! Totally worth it if it's your laundry day and you are planning on being home all day. But what about real life. You know, the days where one child has a class at 1:00, another has one at 2:30, you won't be home until 4:30, and dinner has to be on the table by 5:00 so you can get the kids to youth group in the evening. Well, this is for you.

I honestly do NOT understand the science behind this recipe. It simply should not produce the beautiful artisan loaf that is makes, with this amazing crust and chewy and tender inside. It just shouldn't. It's wrong! For this amount of effort, it should just plain stink. But I really don't care about the science behind it. It doesn't matter...all that confusion washes away with the first bite. So let me give you the recipe and directions first, and we'll go from there.

Makes 4 1-lb loaves

3 cups lukewarm water (slightly warmer than your wrist)

1 1/2 tbsp salt

1 1/2 tbsp yeast

1 cup whole wheat flour

5 1/2 cups all-purpose or bread flour

Mix all the ingredients together in a large plastic bucket or bowl with a NON airtight lid. Do not knead, just mix ingredients until incorporated together. The dough will be wet, and that is the idea. Cover loosely and set on the counter for at least two hours and up to five hours. Then place in the refrigerator. It is best if you wait to make your first loaf until the next day, because the dough gets better with time in the refrigerator. Ok, that's it for the dough. It can stay in the refrigerator for up to 14 days, so you will always have dough on hand when you want to make a fresh loaf of bread. When you have used up all your dough, you simply make another batch without washing the bucket or bowl, because you want the remaining pieces of dough to mix in with your new ingredients. It sort of works like a sourdough starter.

When it's time to bake a loaf:

Pull off 1 lb of dough (about the size of a large grapefruit), and with floured hands, stretch the surface of the dough around the bottom on all four sides, rotating the ball a quarter turn as you go, until the bottom is a collection of four bunched ends. Place on a floured piece of parchment paper. Let it rest for about 40 minutes.

About 20 minutes before baking, preheat your oven to 450. Place a pizza stone in the oven to preheat. Also place an empty broiler pan on the shelf below.

When the oven is hot, sprinkle a liberal amount of flour onto your loaf. Score the dough three times with a sharp knife, about a quarter inch deep. Leave the flour on top of the loaf.

Heat up 1 cup of water (you will be pouring it into the broiler pan to create steam).

Quickly slide the parchment onto the hot baking stone, and then quickly pour the hot water into the broiler pan. Shut the oven immediately.

Bake for 35 minutes (the crust will be a dark golden brown). Because of the wet dough, there is really no fear of overcooking the inside, even though the outside looks dark.

Cool on wire rack.

Yep, that's it. I have not experimented with larger loaves, with incorporating spices, different shapes, etc. The loaf is rather small, so I would like to make a larger loaf and experiment with baking times. I recommend reading the book. I have just ordered it from the library myself, because it is loaded with recipes for other types of bread, sweet dough, etc. I am so ready to start experimenting. But now I have a bucket in my fridge at all times, and have been keeping a batch going so I can always have bread at my fingertips! I hope you enjoy this as much as I do. It really has changed my life!

The "Afters"!!!!

My sweet friend told me the other day that she kept checking my blog, hoping the pics our newly improved home were there. So I decided to finally take the time to put these up! I must say first of all, what a joy it is to be back in our home, where I belong. Most of the difficulty I had with being away was the fact that I felt like I was out of my domain. My home is my place of work, my place of service, my place of refuge, and the place where my role as a wife and mom is fulfilled. So naturally, I really missed it! And wow, coming home to this truly was so exciting. We are just thrilled with all the work Roy Chacon and his crew did on our home, along with several other craftsman who are excellent at their trades. If you need any recommendations, let us know!

Let's start in the kitchen and I'll walk you through some of the rooms.
Dave put a beautiful new sill and mouldings around my kitchen window...before was ugly flat board.

Double shelf storage in my corner cabinet...makes a lovely appliance garage and place for all my commonly used small appliances and such. So much more space than before.

We kept our beautiful butcher block counters....because I love them so much. We chose a white subway tile backsplash with antique white grout. I really miss the blue windmill tiles that were scattered in my old backsplash. NOT!!!!!! I got to personally smash those into pieces when we demolished the old kitchen. Boy was it fun.

This pic isn't so great, but it shows this portion of my kitchen. Our cabinet maker designed our upper cabinets to be a foot taller, and he also added crown moulding. Love.

One of the special features of the redesign was to have deep drawers for my pots and pans, and also for my baking dishes. I also have what I call the "angry wife" drawer closures. They can be slammed as hard as you can humanly slam them, yet they shut about 90% of the way, and then slowly glide closed the rest of the way. Nice. Especially when you have kids. Oh wait, my kids don't know how to close drawers, only open them.

These are pull out drawers to organize my canned goods and dry goods. Before I just had one shelf in here, so I had a lot of wasted space. I also had to physically crawl inside the cabinet to get to the back. Ha! Now I just slide them open, and I have easy access to all my foods! Our cabinet guy designed the top shelf just for cans, and they fit in there perfectly!

Another shot of this side of the kitchen.

He built out the cabinet above my fridge, and now it is an extremely useful storage area! He also built a "box" around the fridge, to make it look quite custom! And now, I can actually open my fridge door all the way.

We eliminated the upper glass cabinets, with the exception of one cabinet above the microwave for display items. It is so nice to not have to worry about everything being "display-able" anymore!

It's hard to see the colors, but we chose a sage green for the cabinets. Since I am unable to create what I want in my head, I go to catalogs and pictures for advice. I opened a cabinet catalog, saw this door style and color, and said, "This is what I want!" We also chose tile for the floor in the kitchen, entry, and dining rooms this time around. Hardwood in the kitchen- not so smart. I was a TOTAL slave to that floor, as it showed every smear, every drop of water, every "everything." Tile floor-that's what I am talking about! Shows NOTHING! I took great joy in washing my hands and dripping water all the way over to the stove where I grabbed my towel to dry them. Oh yes.

The tile in very neutral and variegated in color. Love the rich tones. We had Roy's tile guy lay the tiles in a "running bond" pattern, as opposed to the traditional layout. I love it.

Sorry, but some of these pics are bad...they were taken with my phone, so bear with me. We stopped the tile along the wall that separates the kitchen with the living room. Here now begins the hickory handscraped/distressed hardwood. My sweet husband installed this beautiful floor for me, after he insisted he would never again install hardwood flooring. But it saved us so much money for him to do it himself! And it was much easier to work with. Mostly all one color, wider planks, and only working in the living room and hall made this project go much more smooth than the last time around.

I love the natural knots and pocs in the wood. So if my kiddos dent the floor, you won't know which ones they caused and which ones were there to begin with!

Bad pic. Very bad pic.

Another bad living room shot, but you get it.

A little better!

Diving line between the entryway and hall.

Looking down the hall into the living room.

New tile floor in the guest/hall/boys bathroom.

New vanity and granite top.

Newly remodeled master bath. We totally changed the whole configuration. Our contractor pretty much gutted the whole thing, dug up the concrete, and dug down into the dirt underneath to reroute the drain pipes, since we moved the toilet to a new location, and added a tub. It was so fun to see them completely destroy my old yucky stall shower. Buh-bye! Hello tub and shower! As you will see, we went with an old-school retro black and white theme. Dave and I have always loved that look, and so we went for it. In the shower we used classic (and cheap, by the way) white subway tile, with a light gray grout.

We added a black pencil tile about two-thirds up the wall. We also had the tile guy mount some ceramic shelves. Love them.

The floor is classic hexagon with dot, also with gray grout to make the pattern "POP"! We also added black subways around the whole perimeter of the bathroom.

We now have a place for our old 40's style dresser in the bathroom too. It looks so perfect in there! We got a curved hotel style shower rod, and a hotel style monogramed shower curtain with a classic look. We also threw out our old brass framed mirrored closet doors and replaced them with frameless.

New black vanity with carrera marble counters in white and gray. We kept our old medicine cabinet, as it seems to match fairly well! The toilet is enjoying it's new location.

Tiffany blue walls in the bathroom and bedroom complete the look! So thrilled with the bathroom. I can't even believe it is my bathroom!!!!

Well, thanks for going on the tour with me! It was fun! We are so thankful beyond words, and are really enjoying HOME!!!! Beautiful HOME SWEET HOME! Thanks be to God!