Three Things from this Week

Chocolate Grahams with my nephew

 A Wagon ride

 And swimming in the sun

lots more pictures to come . . .

July's Ten Things

July is always a busy month, and this year was no different.  So much happened and so much fun!  It's easy to think about Ten Things to Smile About in July! 

1.  Celebrating the 4th with family and a fun baseball game.

 2.  Picking peas from the garden and eating them by the hand fulls with my kids.

 3.  My birthday - and seeing my family that day - and eating lemon blueberry cake

 4.  Spending an incredibly fun week with my brother and sister and their families!!!

 5.  Having an Iron Chef Competition.

6.  Baby nephews!

 7.  Eating strawberries and blueberries . . . every. single. day.

8.  Summer fun, like sprinklers!

9.  Using my Bosch to make white bread, wheat bread, rolls, cookies, and brioche! 

10.  Having new neighbors move in NEXT DOOR with a little boy Ethan's age and a little girl Madeline's age. 

More smiling this month than I can almost take in!

Bosch Obsession

I might just be a wee bit obsessed with my Bosch these days.  Since Sunday, the first day I used it, I've made eight loaves of bread, a batch of rolls, and a batch of cookies in my Bosch.  Two of the loaves were white, one gone and one in the freezer, and six loaves of wheat.  One wheat is almost gone, one in the freezer, and four as gifts.  The rolls were gone in a flash and the cookies soon will be.  Sigh . . . I might need to go out and buy more wheat!  And more butter.  I think this next week will be experiments with Brioche and Challah.

More Pictures from the Fun

Our super fast homemade water slide:

 and running through the sprinkler!

 Dimple Dale for a nature walk and lots of donuts (joined by my cousin's children)

 Lucas and Ethan, the two oldest grandsons

 At the top of the world!  At the top of Snowbird

 All Seven cousins at BYU

 All Seven cousins in their matchy shirts for camping with Mimi

Love you guys!!

Our Iron Chef Competition

Today I posted all about my family's Iron Chef Competition on my food blog.  You should really go and check it out here!  But maybe grab a snack first, as it might make you hungry. 

 This was truly one of the high-lights for me.  A totally fun and exciting food competition between couples followed by eating A LOT of food.

More from my Garden

I have so many pictures to edit and go through after last week, but today I decided to put them aside and go out to my garden.  It was much neglected last week with all the fun I had.  And I'm so glad I went out there.  I am surprising myself each time I go out how much I love to be there.  I've never been all that interested in weeding flower gardens, but I love taking care of my veggies.  And look what I found out there:

These are some pretty big potatoes!  There's a lot still out there too.  And don't even get me started on my zucchini plants!  There are still ten growing out there right now and we ate two last night for dinner.  It's simply wonderful too, because my kids LOVE zucchini.  They rave about them the entire time they are eating them.  And ask for seconds.  They like store bought ones too, but fresh garden ones!!!  No comparison.  They smell real.  They taste so good.  Those potatoes tasted so good too.  Oh man.  Dinner was heaven tonight.  Fresh potatoes, fresh zucchini, and homemade rolls with homemade jam.  Have I ever mentioned my love for food?  ;)

My kids and I also lost track around 50, counting the tomatoes growing out there too . . . garden happiness. 

Baby Nephews

I just couldn't get enough of these two! 

 Quinn turned one last October

Ryder turned one in May

and I was happy playing peek-a-boo with them, all day!

A Bit From my Birthday

Last Sunday was my birthday!  And after this past week of so much family, it feels like it was a month ago.  But it was a wonderful day, and I felt grateful that I could see so many people I love on the 9th and 10th.

I made my own birthday cake this year, because I really just wanted to.  It was Triple-Layer Lemon Blueberry Cake with a Lemon Curd filling.  It was sooooo yummy!  I love homemade cake, and homemade frosting even more!  And I LOVE LOVE LOVE lemon and blueberries. 

 I also made the kiddos some "normal" cupcakes just in case the lemon curd was too bright for them.

 We had such fun together and LOOK at my little nephew.  Oh oh!  I'm so in love with you!  (even if "Aunt Emmy" is easier to say than "Aunt Rachel"!)

 And look what I got for my birthday!!!!!

 I have SO been wanting one of these for a LONG time!  I was so thrilled!!  I tried to love my kitchen aid, but when it died for the second time, I wasn't all that sad to see it go.

Because of the crazy week, I didn't get to try out my Bosch until today, but let me just say . . .

it works very well!

I really am alive . . .

Today was the final day of a very fun and crazy week.  My sister and brother and their families have been in town and we have played hard.  Here's just a few things that have been going on:

My birthday!

Triple Layer Lemon Blueberry Cake

A Family Iron Chef Competition

A trip to the temple

Lots of photo shoots, including a group shot in a professional studio (15 people, 7 kids: 6 and under! and it went great!)

Cupcakes

Cafe Rio, The Pie, Menchies, Red Iguana

A hike with donuts

A trip to BYU

Swimming

Sprinklers

Games

Staying up until past the middle of the night

Getting a facial with my mom and sisters (WOW! loved it!)

Matching shirts for the little ones

Camping in a tent

. . .

71 things in my google reader

19 new unread emails

and a LOT of dirty laundry

. . .

Tired and happy.

Madeline's Baseball Twirls

My sister-in-law, Emily, commented in the last post that it looked like Madeline had a good swing!  So, I thought it might be fun to show you just how good she is.  She totally takes after her mom on this one (though I actually can hit the big plastic balls)!

Baseball on the 4th

Well, maybe I should call it plasticball, but either way, it was fun!

Red, White, and Blue

Happy Independence Day!

A little red, white, and blue for you:

Garden Peas

I have always loved green peas.  And so, this morning was a happy one for me as I got to take my kids outside with me and pick the ones that have been growing in our garden!  This is the first year we have had a garden, and I've loved every minute of it.  My kids loved picking the peas and loved eating them as much as I do.  In the picture, you can see the amount of peas my kids ate in the first five minutes after coming inside from picking them!

Now we'll have days and days of peas for snacks!  Can't wait for the other garden produce!