random funny photo

here's Lauren watching our fishy

(who has since taken a ride down the dark black hole)

remember this little santa baby!?!

This is "snow" fun!!! (can be taken one of two ways :)

I'm not sure this photo actually captures the thrill
of seeing the 1st snow through the eyes of two little
ones but it's probably pretty close! (please note
that this sweet moment was followed by many more
moments of continuous begging to go outside and play...
that meant that mom "got" to go outside too!)

Davey was eager to pull out that new shovel and get to work!

Happily posing with our faceless snowman...

(before he was knocked over by a certain 3 year old)

Lauren loved the snow!!!

Not faceless for long (but nonexistant shortly after this photo was snapped!)


A lesson learned down on the farm...

or just as easily in your kitchen!

How to make butter :101

1st you carefully pour the cream into a clean jar

(or all over the counter...depending on whose turn it is and their interpretation of the word "carefully")

Then you shake, shake, shake!!!

...and shake, shake, shake some more!

if your arms are getting tired you can roll it back and forth

(but do avoid playing soccer or getting out the hockey sticks in an effort to

make butter faster)

If you have a hard time waiting, you can always get out
the handy mixer or a blender!

Start whipping the cream on high. (We stopped for a minute at this point

to take out some whipped cream for our pumpkin pie baking in oven. Yummy!)


Keep whipping...keep fingers away...keep foreign objects out of bowl...

Keep your hands out of your nose...need I go on?

Soon it will separate and you will have what looks like

curdled milk and buttermilk, that's when you know it's done!

Pour out the buttermilk and do your best to squeeze out as

much liquid as you can. You can save the buttermilk for baking

if you'd like.

If you are hoping to keep the butter in the fridge longer than

a few days you need to wash the butter with ice cold water.

You can do this by putting the strained butter back into the

mixer/blender and adding cold water. Give it a whirl (slowly) then

strain the water off. You can add salt to your butter if you'd like.

We started with a pint of cream...lost several tablespoons from the carton

into the jar and used a bit for whipped cream. We ended up with

about 1 cup of butter. I've read that it takes about 2 quarts of

cream to get a pound of butter.

This was a really fun project for the kids they loved it...

it was quick and easy...

I think you "butter" try it too!

(sorry, HAD to get that in there somewhere!)

the many adventures of Davey and Lauren

From this tiny little pink bundle...

One year ago...

...To this tiny little lady!

We celebrated Lauren's 2nd birthday last week and she loved it.

a pink basketball/hoop from Uncle Scotty

an adorable cradle from Bama, PaPa, Scotty and Kat...

(now she come downstairs to tell me "shhh, baby sleepin")

Pumpkin cupcakes!

(I realize these are likely the ugliest cupcakes I've ever

concocted...but in my defense, I used all natural food coloring

and nature's definition of Orange is different than mine)

Birthday morning balloon!

Lauren loves to take care of her baby.


AND NOW...

the reason for my lack of blogging this past month...

We moved!!!

We owe a world of thanks to all our family and friends who have helped in countless ways to get our new house ready for us to move into. From ripping out carpet, painting, painting, painting, laying floors, cleaning, vacuuming, scraping, sanding, you name it, someone did it!

And to all our wonderful grandma's who graciously took care of our kids so we could work.

How can we thank you? Please know how thankful I am!

fun weekend!

A fun new surprise for Davey and Lauren
at Grammy and Boppy's house !

Last weekend we went "hiking" at Taylor's Falls

on the St. Croix River. It was a beautiful sunny
cool day! Perfect fall weather :)

this was the best "christmas photo" attempt

out of about 600 takes! Looks like we'll be

doing a reshoot :)

Davey LOVED climbing on all the rocks,

throwing stones in the river and giving
us near heart attacks with his quick moves!

Davey built this big choo choo track!


one scary sister!

GOLIATH!!!

Davey's 1st Twins Game with Daddy, Bops and Uncle Joey!

He Loved it!

one last beach day and davey's present for Mom

Lauren had fun playing with "Bama" at the beach.

Davey was kind enough to race up the stairs,

and smash through the front door to bring

me this "present"! (yes, it's dead and Daddy

seemed to think it was pretty funny!)

Fun at the fair

Davey was kind enough to share "HIS" corn on the cob
with his constantly starving sister!


Davey and Uncle Scotty on the slide

Here comes Lauren- she loved it!

Davey always looks forward to riding the tractors at the fair!

Recently, Davey has been very interested in

(obsessed!!!) the story of David and Goliath.

Mostly his obsession has to do with the

sling shot used to slay the giant :) Anyways,

he likes to dress up like David and uses

whatever he can find ( in this photo its a

wash cloth) to whip around as

his sling shot.

Below is a picture of the ferocious face

David used to scare Goliath!!!