September 30, 2014

"Praying for Boys" ~ End of the Month Wrap-Up


"I was blessed to be surrounded by 
good men
as a young girl.

Men who loved their families hard,
served others faithfully,
and stood for something greater than themselves.

Men who sacrificed so their families
could have the best,
and taught their children to work hard
and protect what they believed in.

I want to continue the tradition of raising good men.

But I also know that
good
isn't enough.

I want to raise wise, good men.

Men who seek the Lord
and put Him first in their lives.

Men who aren't afraid to stand up for what's right,
no matter the cost."

-Brooke McGlothlin-


"The Wisdom from above 
is first pure,
then peaceable, 
gentle, 
open to reason,
full of mercy and good fruits,
impartial
and sincere."

James 3:17

September 27, 2014

September Picture Update

I do believe we have a climber!
He makes it up (and down) this wall in our backyard in a flash.
Here he's probably thinking... where can I find a higher wall, this is getting too easy...


"MOM, NO PICTURES!"
"Come on Mom, seriously? I said No Pictures."
"Squirrel!"
"OK fine but this is the closest to a smile i'm gonna give you."





Riding with Uncle Carl on his cool new mountain bike!




When he came back from a trip to Jackson Hole... 
he was sporting a MULLET.
Kinda funny, haha, ok but I was not a fan! LOL!!!
He asked me to cut it.
I gladly agreed ;)
I did warn him though, 
I only know how to do one hair-cut, 
and that's Erik's hair cut!  
So I told him he will probably wind up looking like a pilot. 
He said that's ok.
Yep, we have an Erik-Mini-Me in the house now!
Even the boys were confused, they actually started crying the first time they saw him with this new hair cut!!!!  I think they were so confused about if it was their Daddy they were looking at, or their Uncle!
Too funny :)


A gorgeous fall day for a walk to the park and Friday Farmer's Market.
Sawyer the Destroyer! 19 Months Old now!!!


Bennett throws his Dinosaur down the slide...
"Hi Dino! Told you i'd meet you at the bottom!"



Sawyer throws himself down the slide...
quite literally, it's hilarious!






Neither of them are ever satisfied on the swings 
unless we are pushing them higher than we should be! LOL




And one food shot, of course :)
I had to take a picture of the final product from 
this BOMB of a DELICIOUS recipe... by Marta Dalke, 
my very beautiful and very talented sister-in-law!
Ingredients:
Delicata Squash
Maple Breakfast Sausage
Kale, Peppers, Onions
Maple Syrup
Angel Hair Pasta

I'm positive Buddy the Elf would approve :)

Let me know if you want the full recipe, i'll share it with you!

I'm making it AGAIN tonight because we ate it too fast and 
it is tooooooooooooooooo good!

September 20, 2014

Pumpkin Roll

Fall food, is there anything better?
Not much!

One of my friends/co-workers, Barbara, made a pumpkin roll a few weeks ago 
and it brought back to my mind a recipe I had seen before and wanted to try.

I remembered where I saw the recipe,
(linked HERE),
from my beautiful friend Tara over at Saucy Mouth!

Here is my version of her gorgeous looking Pumpkin Roll.

I bought a fresh butternut squash down at the local Farmer's Market,
Shout Out to my friends at the Front Porch Farm for their fabulous produce!!!
Here's another plug... :) 
I love my Norwex Fruit and Veggie Scrubber,
If you want to buy any awesome products from Norwex,
 click HERE to buy from my favorite consultant, my friend Andrea!


Ok back to the recipe.
Preheat your oven to 350 Degrees.
Cut the squash in half lengthwise.
Scrape out the seeds and fibrous strings.
Place the squash cut-side down in a pan. 
Pour water into the pan to come 1/4 inch up the sides of the squash.

Roast until tender when pierced with a fork,
45 minutes to 1 hour, depending on the size of the squash.

While the squash is baking, you can start mixing up the ingredients for the roll.

1 Cup Flour
1 Cup Sugar
1 teaspoon Baking Soda

1 1/2 Teaspoons Pumpkin Pie Spice
And, whisk!
Set aside.


When the squash is done baking, take it out of the water and let it cool.
Once cool, scoop out the flesh and puree in a food processor until smooth.
Measure out 1 cup for the pumpkin roll recipe, and save the rest for other yummy things.
(Homemade Butternut Squash Ravioli?!  Laurel, I need you to come over!)
You can freeze the squash puree in ice cube trays too, for later use.
I'm an old pureeing-baby-food pro ;)


Ok obviously I used a "generous" 1 cup of squash puree :) :) :)

Turn your oven back on, this time to 375 degrees.


Blend the dry ingredients with the squash and three eggs until smooth.
One last shout out!
The best eggs come from my friends, the Thompson Family, 
over at the Burnt Valley Farm!
Good good people :)

Line a baking tray with parchment paper and pour out the mixture evenly on the tray.
Bake for 10-15 Minutes.
Let cool completely.

You know it smells good when all the animals in the house 
start getting lined up for a taste!


Once it's cool, spread the yummy cream cheese filling evenly over the roll.
(See Saucy Mouth's blog for the cream cheese filling recipe)
I didn't add the pecans, for no real reason.  
I like pecans but wanted to try this without them I guess!
I used vanilla extract and not almond extract,
because i'm obsessed with our homemade vanilla extract.
I also made a double batch of the filling because I have two little boys who I knew would be begging for spoonfuls of it!


Then roll it on up... Magnifico!!!
Saucy Mouth added the final touch of the confectioner's sugar dusted on the top,
which is what real chefs do I've learned, from watching Master Chef! LOL
It's all about PRESENTATION!
Well, taste too of course, but also, presentation :)


I ate more than my share's worth last night when it was fresh,
and another share's worth for breakfast this morning :)
And it does taste as good as it looks.

You can wrap in in saran wrap and freeze so it keeps it's shape better,
I was too lazy last night at 10 p.m. to do that, so mine fell flat in the fridge overnight.

Oh well it still tastes the same!

I would wrap it and freeze it if I was going to be serving it to someone.

Thank you Tara for sharing your recipe, 
wish we could enjoy some of your delicious creations together sometime!


September 18, 2014

Sullivan Lake Camping Trip

This was our last camping hurrah of the year before winter arrives!

We got all packed up after I got home from work on Monday, 
and picked up Uncle Carl on our way to Sullivan Lake.  

Sullivan Lake is about a two hour drive to the northeast from our home in Chewelah.

We didn't get to the campsite until 8 p.m. so it was already dark, but Carl and Erik did a great job setting up the tents using flashlights and headlamps!

Sawyer got me up early on Tuesday morning so we went exploring while the other boys slept in.
Our first view of the lake... simply gorgeous.
The water was waaaaaaay down because (we learned later) they plugged up the dam at the beginning of September for a construction project.

Sawyer and I had a very nice and relaxing morning together down at the lake, 
me drinking coffee and him getting acquainted with the lake.
There was not a single other person around....
...so peaceful.

When we got back to camp Erik and Bennett were awake too, 
and Bennett was having a great camping breakfast appetizer of Pringles :)
After we all had a more normal breakfast together, we headed down to the lake again.
We went on a walk on a trail near the beach.
We found the giant pipe that they are going to use to suck cold water out of the deep part of the lake and put somewhere else for the brook trout... to keep the water colder for them... or something like that, it was all very confusing to me and the pipe was so long and massively HUGE, I cannot even imagine how they are going to drag that thing out into the lake!!!
They had fun yelling into the pipe and hearing their voices echoing.

After we got back to the campsite from our walk we were all pretty tired and it was getting hot, so we laid down in the tent together and took a fabulous group nap :)

When we woke up we ate some food, got our swimming gear on,
 and headed down to the beach again!
The water was c,c,cold!!! 
(*AKA I did not get in! LOL!)


Some of our friends set up camp next to us that afternoon!
 From Left to Right:
Sawyer almost 19 Months, Bennett a little over 3 years, 
Victoria almost 4 years, and Olivia 15 months.
They all had so much fun playing together.

Sawyer and Olivia really hit it off :) :) :)


Auntie LoLo came to visit us for a few hours too!
She worked the night before and had to work again that same night she was visiting, so she slept for a while that morning, drove up to see us in the late afternoon, and then drove back that evening to go to work.  It was so nice of her to visit, she is quite a trooper.

Stunning scenery all around us...






Our little Bennett...
 
What a sweetie sweet sweet!



OK Uncle Carl... PLEASE take us fishing now!!!!
We have been well aware all summer long that Bennett loves fishing, but Sawyer showed quite a peaked interest in fishing on this trip as well!  I'm sure they would both love to be in Canada right now fishing with Grandpa Dean, or in Alaska catching delicious salmon with Auntie Marta and Uncle Travis!  A love of fishing definitely runs deep in the blood of these two little Springer/Knutson hybrids! 


And as for me... 
well, many a fish have I caught in my life, 
and I am thankful for that.
But at this point I just like to lay there and relax 
and take pictures and enjoy the peace and beauty of the lake
while the boys are all distracted by the fishing.
It's like hitting a reset button on a busy life... 
we can all benefit from that sometimes!


Yesterday morning we woke up to another gorgeous day.
It got pretty darn cold during both the nights we camped, 
but we were well prepared. 
The only cold parts on our bodies were our noses!!!
Morning campfires are the greatest!


Camping breakfast at it's finest... donuts :)
 Mmm mmm mmm!!!


They did not want to say good bye!
What a fun trip!

Next adventure on our calender is a trip back to 
Wisconsin for Emily and Brad's wedding!!!  
Only 4 weeks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!