Pioneer bread, my Subaru and winter

Darren has been doing some morning skiing.  Friday he was up at 5:00.  Out the door by 5:30 and hiking by 6:00... hike up the mnt... ski down... and get to work by 9:00 am.  Thanks to Ang and Dan for going with him.  Just incase there was an avalanche I depend on them to find his beeping beacon and unbury him before he dies!  Ok- I shouldn't worry, he is safe and doesn't go to dangerous places.  but still... 

Here are a few cute girls.  Ella, Tessa, Beth and Ruth.  Missing Grace and Sophie.  It sure is fun to have these cousins run around together. 

Yesterday we had a fun play date.  Tyler, Cousin Michael and Jordan, and friend Connar played outside for almost 3 hours.  Building a great tunnel in the front yard.  The sun was out. Coats were off... and they dug and played OUTSIDE!  4 boys inside or 4 boys outside!  outside!  They can climb all the way through the tunnel.  Great project. 

My Subaru sold this morning.  I am more emotional OBVIOUSLY since I am pregnant and felt just fine shedding a few tears last night while sitting in my car.  I have driven that car for 10 years.  Time to move on and grow but it happened so fast, they called, they came by, they paid cash... and drove away.  Hardly time to think about it.  

I made this bread this week.  It seemed like so much work so I have put it off for months.  WOW!  talk about amazing.  I was in love.  It was so easy and putting it in the dutch oven made it amazing.  crisp on the outside, and soft inside.  I doubled the recipe.  

3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
¼ teaspoon instant yeast
1¼ teaspoons salt

1. In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.

2. Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.

3. Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.

4. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (dutch oven cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.

Yield: One 1½-pound loaf.

let cool to room temp... you will kill the best part of the flavor if you cut into it too soon. 

you can leave these out of the bag for a couple of days as long as you leave the bread cut side down on the cutting board.

Snow fort

We had a great day for building snow forts in February.  Darren and the kids assembled this cool fort pretty quick.  They thought about sleeping out in in but since there was no roof, opted not too. 

A nice slow January

We haven't done much, And I am loving it. 

My energy comes and goes. And the belly grows!

We went to Ogden the other day and saw an old college friend, Rachael Kent Willis.  

Great times.  My kids really enjoyed the treehouse museum. 

Tyler loved the astronaut dress up and Ella wanted to look tuff!

Tyler is quite musical.  He is playing the piano so well.  He enjoys it most days, and on the occasional day he doesn't really want to sit and do it, he still does and then drives himself to practice and do it perfectly.  He really enjoyed the musical drums at the Museum. 

Ella has been learning to read. But her attention and desire wained on some days so I told her if she read 20 books we would go iceskating.  I sat on the side lines and read my hypnobirthing book.  (Only 5 weeks to go so I better read up) Tyler started off skating nice and slow but told me not to worry, by the end of the skating session he would be going fast, and he was.  He knows practice helps you get better.  Ella held on to her Daddy most of the time, but by the end was amazing.  She is really a natural athlete.  Competitive and never wants to stop.  

Ella is my little helper at home.  I am treasuring these last few days we have alone.  She helps me cook, clean, and do jobs. But also enjoys her time to create art work, play pretend dolls, or this masterpiece.  She opened the oven and made a fort for her dolls.  

Saturdays have been rather slow here.  I am still surprised when we dont have somewhere to run every weekend.  Darren went hiking/touring the other day with our friend Angela Isaacs.  They hiked up the mnt and skied down.  They said it was warm, sunny and peaceful.  In the valley we were cold, covered in smog and no sun.  

My sister Rachel also gave us some great family time Christmas gifts.  One was a making a volcano.  We made it out of plaster, painted it, and finally let it explode.  It was quite entertaining for the night.  

On January 24th, we had an freezing rain.  Maybe called an ice storm.  Every where you walked was a solid sheet of ice.  I, unfortunately, slipped with my big pregnant belly on that sheet of ice.  I felt like I was ok, but needed peace of mind and the assurance that the placenta hadn't detached from  me.  My mom took me to Labor and Delivery and kept my mind off the scary situation.  They released me after two hours and I got to go home.  Grateful to sleep that night feel calm.  I did wake up this morning with a sore back and an aching shoulder, just where I had landed.  But I will take that soreness any day.  I am grateful our little girl is safe.  I plan to see her in 5 weeks, not now!

Slowing down in January

I feel like we are enjoying life a bit more lately.  I don't want or need to do a million things.  

I have found that I don't have to multi task at everything I do.  

I can stop and spend quality time doing one thing.

One example is my kids. 

I use to feel like I needed to be cutting veggies, or making dinner etc... when it was homework time. They sit at the counter, I do my cutting, they do their homework. 

But I am more tired lately, and have realized how much better this time is when I just sit down by them and help them.  I don't have to do multi -task. 

This picture was in Ella's preschool pages. She had to read the sentence then draw a picture.  

We took a picture of Ella's drawing and set it to our favorite person... our daddy. 

The text that I typed with this picture said...

"I told Ella this book has it wrong.  Dad's mop. Not moms.  She said she saw me mop once:) 

I love you Darren Balls"

My sweet husband who knows I don't mop, (that's his special job every week) wrote back and said...

"I dont know if she was alive when it happened. Maybe she saw it from heaven..."

Its true- I did mop once.  It was a great experience.  And sometimes you only get to have those great experiences once!

 

Tyler still enjoys his Saturday breakfasts.  I wish this was a better picture, because he EXHALED this breakfast.  His lips are covered in chocolate.  Waffles+Strawberries+chocolate= love for him

We did have a fun day the other day with cousins, 

Grace, Isaac, Ella, Beth and Miles (Ruth and Aubrey were sleeping, Tyler was at school)

Jenny, Eric, Renee and Ben went skiing. I watched the kids. 

It was a great day because I did it.  Things went well.  

7 kids and it was ok. I didn't get much done, but we had a great day!

Finishing off 2012

We finished off 2012 with family time and relaxing.  Christmas Eve we spent with my family.  We had a "talent show".  Ella and Grandpa played Jingle Bells on the guitar.  Tyler practiced and practiced Joy to the World and played it wonderfully on the piano.  

 We had a fun nativity scene.  Ella and Tessa were our angels.

Tyler, Michael and Jordan were fantastic wiseman. 

Darren and I were the cow and donkey... I was the cow... Darren the donkey. 

My sister had us do a nativity book about the animals and people at the manger.  

 See Darren with the Donkey.  Reading his part.... It was a bit of a joke- oh boy!

 I dont know what my parents will do as this family grows more.  There just isn't much more room for more stockings.  But each stocking has our names sticked on it.  We are a growing family.

 I found this on Ellas bed a few days after Christmas.  I was glad to see her playing Barbies with all her old friends too...

 New Years Eve we spent with friends.  We celebrated at 11:00 because we were all tired.  Streamers are about to explode.  We are excited for 2013.  I will have a son get baptized (holy cow!!!) and a daughter start kindergarten (oh my!) and have a new baby join our family.  It will be an exciting year!

Balls family Christmas

We got to have our Aunt Nellie hang out with us for Christmas this year.  Ella was so excited to have Nellie do her hair for church.  It was cute and curly.  Then Nellie pulled out necklaces and earrings for herself so Ella ran to grab her own jewelry.  

After church Nolan and Corie came to down.  Nellie gave all the cousins a lovely noisy making instrument.  They loved it.  

Corie is only 2 and a half weeks behind me.  Pretty exciting!

She is having a boy and I am having a girl.  They will be great friends I am sure!

We headed up to Logan late on Christmas day.  Corie and Nolan had our family this year, so you will see why this gift made me smile.  Baby Marshall is the baby in Corie's tummy.  And he is so sweet, he picked out some cute little mittens for our baby... that is still in need of a name. 

 It snowed all day in Logan, so we didn't get out much but we sure enjoyed fun time together.  Ella and Nellie colored this Barbie purse, painted each others nails and combed Barbie dolls hair.

 There was some fun pile on Dad time.

 (on a side note, prior to all this christmas fun Darren fixed up our downstairs bathroom.  I was very proud of his plumbing abilities.)

Cyclocross season at its end

 Darrens weekly Cyclocross season has ended.  It was so exciting at the end.  Kyle, Bob Dan and Dalls all racing against each other.  It made the race so much more fun when it was a battle between friend and friend.  I thought Darren was unbeatable but ... when you sleep in and don't exercise all the time, he can be beat!  The LaRiviere kids and my kids had fun at races.

Dalls in front, with Kyle close on his wheel. Dan was in the lead! And off course Bob always won. 

Tyler and Ella loved their races.  The kids race the same course as the adults.  The length can range from 1-2 miles.  Pretty good for kids.  Tyler came in 1st and 2nd on several races.  He is competitive and needs some more kids to challenge him. 

Ella wouldn't smile in this picture because she had just rammed her tummy into her handlebars.  I was glad she wasn't crying at this point.  She is tough but getting your breath knocked out and a gash on your tummy doesn't help!

Now that races are done, I hope to enjoy some weekends skiing with the kids and Darren. 

Tyler is learning Spanish still.  He loves it. 

Ella hangs out with me- this is her temple with angel Moroni on top. 

We went to an amazing nativity in Sugarhouse.  Really neat, with live actors and animals. 

Ella wanted to climb in the dryer the other day.  I laughed as I took a picture and remembered three years ago when she did the same thing.

November 2009

I got to celebrate my 33 birthday.  I ran in the morning, too a nap at 8:30 am. ate good food, worked on some fun projects and ate chinese for dinner.  then, hit the sack early because I was exhausted.  

it was a great birthday. 

Ella finished her preschool for the year 2012.  She had a fun program.  

She cant wait for it to start again in January.  

Tyler on the other hand... he's pretty excited to not have school for two weeks!

A few fun pictures

The other night Darren had to go to a campout so Tyler, Ella and I went to my neighbors house to babysit her triplets so she could go on a date.  T and E loved it.  They argued about whose turn it was to hold the bottle and who got read the baby books.  This picture makes me smile.  They both read him a book while he drank.

Saturday mornings are a hot breakfast mornings.  Waffles, eggs, pancakes, french toast... yum!  

Tyler loves to help cook them. But Darren always seem to poison them with adding some chocolate chips in.  The kids love it! I think they love it that I DON'T love it!

And Ella has started to read.  She is excited. And loves to show off to everyone. But has a hard time sitting down and reading the whole book.  No problem... we just read half at a time.  I give most of the credit to that great computer program she does- Waterford Rusty and Rosy.  Best preschool program ever. 

We hope to head off skiing tomorrow.  It is always fun the first day because they kids legs have to remember how to do it and they are TIRED!