I Heart Faces • Play

I love this photo of Paisley playing tea party! She has the glasses and heals and is ready to be a mama! She loves to get out her tea set from Mema and play.  We do this almost daily and the stuff she will say is so cute.  She loves to act real grown up and loves to dream  I love this about her and we have some good tea visits.  Balto is even invited every once in a while. Be sure to check out the other photos at http://iheartfaces.blogspot.com

Have a wonderful day and may God bless you abundantly!  Love Paisley and April

Birch Creek and our Maiden voyage in our new tent trailer!

This is our new used pop up trailer. A Coleman toas. We told a friend we were interested in getting one and a few months later she phoned and said she found one.  It is perfect, 8 feet long to tow and really spacious. We set up the shower and changing room outside and the table can be in or out.  It was super fast to set up. We went Birch creek, about 1 hour and 15 minutes from our house.  The kids loved the short trip and we loved trying out the trailer. Jeff bought a generator so when we are at a site where there are no hookups, we still have power.  It was so great to have heat and lights.  We had a family movie each night and kept warm as the temps dropped in the evenings.  This is a picture of our first supper. We had watermelon, cauliflower and broccoli, penne noodles with wine marinara sauce and dinner sausage.  The stove can be used in our out, so we cooked outside and sat under the awning.  It is a moment I will always remember.

Boy with autism races in swim competition | KIDK CBS 3 - News, Weather and Sports - Idaho Falls - Pocatello - Blackfoot, ID - Idaho Falls, Pocatello, Blackfoot - Idaho | Local & Regional

Boy with autism races in swim competition | KIDK CBS 3 - News, Weather and Sports - Idaho Falls - Pocatello - Blackfoot, ID - Idaho Falls, Pocatello, Blackfoot - Idaho | Local & Regional

Homemade Yogurt

I love this recipe. I have had a lot of requests for it.  If you are a yoplait fan you can save $600.00 a year making your own and adding your own sweetener. The kids love honey and fruit on it.  It is not tart but has a distinct flavor. The texture is smooth and very creamy.  I love the idea there is no added sugar.  I like to use Reed's whole milk. Their cows are hormone free.

So here is the recipe, enjoy!

Ingredients
1 gallon of milk. I use Reed's whole.
1 cup yogurt starter(you can use a small cup of plain mountain high or nancy's yogurt, or you can use a cup from your previous batch.)


1. Place four quart glass canning jars, four lids, and four screw-tops in a large pot. Fill with an inch of water; cover with lid and heat to boiling. Boil for ten minutes. Leave the lid on the pot and move it off the heat until you are ready to use the jars.
2. Pour one gallon of milk into a large, heavy bottomed stockpot or Dutch oven. Heat the milk to 185-195 degrees Farenheit(90-90 Celcius). I like to add two vanilla beans at this point.
3. Place the pot in a sink filled with cold water and let the milk cool to 120-130 degrees farenheit(50-55 degrees celcius)
4. Stir one cup of yogurt starter into the cooled milk, using a whisk. Stir well to ensure that the starter is thoroughly incorporated into the milk. Take out the vanilla beans.
5. Pour the milk into jars, and put the lids and bands on. Place them into a cooler.
6. Heat one gallon of water to 120-130 degrees F(50-55 degrees C) and pour into cooler.
7. Shut cooler lid and leave in a warm place for three hours. When the three hours are up, place the yogurt in the refrigerator.
To make a delicious vanilla version of this yogurt, add 1/2 to 1 cup of sugar to the four quarts of milk when it’s cooling in the sink. Then stir in 1-2 tablespoons of vanilla, depending on your preference, and proceed as usual with the recipe.  I have also used stevia, vanilla cream is my favorite. 15-20 drops is good for us for 4 quarts.

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Have a great day!
Love April

Sand, Sun and FUN

Sunday is beautiful, the day was perfect! Nicholas loves the sand and the neighbors enjoyed playing with both kids.  They buried them and loved it. I took some pictures to capture the day and he will remember the fun for days.  Paisley even wanted to try out being buried. Nicholas loved playing with all the kids and sand is such a sensory calming thing. I am so thankful to have a sand box right out the kitchen window! 

Angie loves to play in the sand with Nicholas and  they had a blast today.  They had a tang break over in her yard and decided to get out the sand toys. Jeff worked in the garage and yard with his dad all day.  Spring is here and the first few batches of daffodils are opening,

White Chicken Chili

This recipe is great, it is a must make and keep! Enjoy, I was given the recipe by a dear neighbor friend and we serve it alot to company and guests.

To  make it GF just use rice flour in place of regular flour.

I Heart Faces Photo contest

I Heart Desserts!

This week's challenge at I Heart Faces is "Desserts"! And I absolutely LOVE desserts!  This cake was made by my mom for my daughters 4th birthday. She loves pirates and we tried to make it as girly as possible.  I have another post of her party if you want to check out the ship my son and husband made for her! The cake was wonderful and everyone loved it!

Palm Springs Day 2

Swimming, Food, Airplanes, Grapefruits, and Cheesecake = a really fun day and tired kids.

  We loved the pool and tried a Gluten Free popcorn microwave that we all loved.  We will be going back to get more to bring home.  After lunch and a shower we all headed to the Palm Springs Airport to view the museum and honor the anniversary of flight. 

Planes always make me think of Grandpa Wayne.  Nicholas loves flight and the planes.  The noise of some of the ones taking off today got to him, he just covered his ears.  He sat in several and Paisley liked them too.  There were numerous planes and very interesting retired military men to visit with.  Nicholas was able to paint on a plane and he thought that was really cool.

we got to see this plane take off!

On the way home we stopped to get dessert at the Cheescake Factory.  Oh boy, Nicholas got to try the new gluten free key lime and Jeff got the gluten free Godiva Chocolate.  Paisley picked the brownie cheesecake and it had 1258 calories, she took two bites and it is in the fridge.  I picked a vanilla bean, looks wonderful, I will try it after I am done blogging. 

now that is a grapefruit, Nicholas hand for size comparrison

Cheese!

While I was cooking shrimp stir fry for dinner, Jeff took the kids on a walk and they came home with a bag of grapefruits and a lime.  They are beautiful and a very sweet.  They are white grapefruit and Nicholas loved juicing a few.  We watched Life on tv as a family and Paisley fell asleep, real asleep.  We are  off the Sea World tomorrow and I am so excited and blessed to be able to go as a family on such a special trip!

Spring Break 2010

This is sunrise in the desert, after trying to sleep for a few hours in the Denali

We are on a vacation to southern California, Palm Dessert. We have a nice time share with three pools and great area, very quiet.  We checked in this AM after driving 12 hours.  We had lots of snow and scary roads in Utah last night.  We took turns driving and pulled off to sleep for 2 hours early this AM.  The kids could not stand another minute in the car seats.  They were both crying and miserable.  We thought it would be better to drive at night but after experiencing it, maybe day would have been easier on Nicholas.  It is always so hard to know.  Today we checked in and went to the pool.
We put on sunscreen and spent the afternoon playing and relaxing.  The kids loved the pool and showing daddy all their new swim moves!  

We had a great time and I even got a nap.   The weather is beautiful and warm! We took the kids to Trader Joes to shop Gluten free and then took the car to a wash.  It was a mess.... We had a great pasta dinner and Nicholas set the table and even put a centerpiece...a beautiful pineapple! I could not find the camera, it was so sweet.  He did really well and fell asleep before we were done with books.  He has still not moved and neither has Rich, he has been pretty attached to him this trip.  We are loving seeing Paisley swim and her growing vocabulary. 

This is a grapefruit tree right off our deck.  They are large and we wish we could reach them!
Jeff and I are watching the Gonzaga girls play in the sweet sixteen.  They are doing well and vacation is such a wonderful thing, The wine is good too and just having time together is special. The flowers are beautiful and the palms are so awesome.  The kids are loving the change of scenery and activity. It was time for spring vacation!

Nicholas has been doing really well with eye contact lately.  The pictures are proof.  He loves vacation and I love to see him free and enjoying the day. He has been confused on the time of day but he will get settled in and then it will be time to head home and the moon will be full!

St Patricks Day 2010

Happy St Patrick's day!

We had a great day all green.  The kids loved the simple things i did and they had fun at their schools too. I took GF sugar cookies to Nicholas and he loved them.  We delivered some to our two neighbors who are GF too. The pics say alot.
Green yogurt, green applesauce, and apple juice and green milk!

The Eggplant was from our new bountiful basket we get each week and the recipe I found was great. I called them Pizzas and the kids gobbled them up. Here is the recipe. Enjoy!

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/2 cup egg white with 1 tbsp Italian dressing
• 1 cup glutino dry bread crumbs salted and peppered and 1 tsp basil
• 1 eggplant, sliced into 1/2 inch rounds 8-10 slices
• salt to taste
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2 tomatoes, sliced or 1 pt stewed tomatoes
• 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese or Asia-go
• 1 cup crumbled feta cheese or goat cheese
• 1 cup of Gruyere grated

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Spray a 9x13 inch baking dish with cooking spray.
2. Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat. Place eggs and bread crumbs in 2 separate bowls. Dip eggplant slices in eggs, then in bread crumbs to coat. Fry coated eggplant slices in the skillet until golden brown. Season with salt, and drain on paper towels.
3. In same pan put onion and tomato with juices and cook down till no juice, similar to pizza sauce.
4. In the prepared baking dish, layer eggplant, onion, tomatoes, Parmesan cheese, feta or goat cheese. Top with Gruyere.
5. Bake 20-30 minutes in the preheated oven, until cheese is melted and bubbly.

Nutritional Information

Amount Per Serving  Calories: 307 | Total Fat: 18.5g | Cholesterol: 106mg

Dutch Sugar cookie recipe

The sugar cookie made me giddy, it rolls out beautifully and tastes great, you can cut it good with cookie cutters and the joy it brings to my boys faces when they can have a treat like the rest of us.

SERVES 36 -40 , 36 -40 cookies (change servings and units)

Ingredients

• 1 cup rice flour
• 1/2 cup tapioca flour
• 1 cup cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 1/2 teaspoons xanthan gum
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup Butter Flavor Crisco I used plain and it was fine too
• 1 large egg or 1/4 cup liquid egg substitute
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1/4 cup potato starch, for kneading

Directions

1. 
   

   Preheat oven to 350 degrees.Have on hand 2 ungreased cookie sheets.

2. 
   

   In a small bowl, whish together the flour mix, baking powder, xanthan gum, and salt. Set aside.

3. 
   

   In the bowl of your mixer, cream sugar and crisco. Beat in the egg and vanilla. Add the dry ingredients, mixing enough to combine. The dough will be a soft ball. With your hands, knead in enough of the potato starch to make the dough easy to handle and roll out.

4. 
   

   Using about half at a time, place a piece of plastic wrap over the ball and roll out to about 1/8 inch thickness. This is so easy I didn't even use the plastic wrap.

5. 
   

   Cut into desired shapes and place on pan.

6. 
   

   Decorate with coloured sugars before baking or use frosting to decorate after baking.

7. 
   

   (With this dough, you can use all the scraps.) Just scrape them together and roll out again. They will not get tough.

8. 
   

   Bake for about 10-13 minutes. Cool very slightly before removing from the pan.

i heart faces

This week’s photo challenge theme is: “Bundled Up”

Paisley was so cozy warm while we were out doing a frosty morning photo shoot with Grandma.  This is one of our favorites! Go to the http://iheartfaces.blogspot.com to check out the other great and fun photos!