Princess Bride

Thought you might like perusing some fun facts from this article. I thought it was cute!:

http://www.tor.com/blogs/2013/11/little-known-facts-about-the-princess-bride

22 Days to Halloween

This is my dream Halloween party spread!

Happy Halloween Month!

I should put all these pictures on my blog (one day), but Keala and I enjoyed an afternoon walking around Gardner Village soaking up some perfect Fall sunshine a couple weeks ago.

We made a game of counting how many witches they have decorated around the facilities... we counted over 30, and I kinda of lost count when I got around 40. There could be more. One day I'll put up all the pictures on my blog. One day...

What you've all been waiting for....

I have to find a new way to get my videos to upload. They changed the format, so you can tell by my blog page that I am not getting sound. This is the best I can do. But it takes time uploading them one at a time... bear with me!

I think this is one of the first of Adams BIG SHOW! These are good!

This video doesn't capture a good view, I apologize, but I like the sound effects.

One of the good ones... except the sound got lost, sorry!

Finally, ... the 'Finale'!

Gilroy Family Reunion

Latest Updates by Bre:

Sunday
Lynne and Don have dinner with Lauren's family and Adam

Monday
12:30am - Lindon pool (the soonest it opens is 12:30)
(afterward, Lynne and Don return their car and check into their hotel)
Monday evening: Dad and Kathy have dinner with Lauren's family and Adam at Lauren's house?

Tuesday
11:00am Dad/Kathy/Lynne/Don to Jacque's to visit with Jacque and Breanne's families.
5:00pm Family games and potluck at Lauren's house

Wednesday
11:00am - Dad and Kathy visit Erika and Nikki's families at Erika's house?  Lynne and Don have personal time.
7:30pm - Adult siblings and spouses eat take-out at Lynne and Don's loft, maybe walk through SLC for dessert

Thursday
Morning: Lynne and Don check out of their hotel, Erika picks them up and drops bags off at her house.
2:00pm - Lynne and Don get to Nikki's early to spend time with them.
4:00pm - Family 4th of July celebration starts at Nikki's house.  Fireworks at 8:30?
(afterward, Lynne and Don spend the night at Erika's)

Friday
Erika takes Lynne and Don to airport (time?)
10:00am - Kids activity at Thanksgiving Point Petting Zoo.  Lunch after at Thanksgiving point?

Please put updates in Comments...

Ready, Set, Go...

Our new table (from mom) is ready and waiting for visitors next week! We are excited to see everyone for the Family Reunion! My kids are pumped (and my house is getting cleaned) and we are looking forward to the party bash! Can I get a 'woot woot'! Is everyone excited! Well... get your party hats on, cuz 2013 is the year to remember! Go Gilroy Family Reunion!

 

 

 

p.s. Don't forget to check out my blog, I just added 8 new posts. (I still have more to update!)

Happy Birthday, Dad!

Hope it's a good one!

To all you awesome dads out there. 

Thanks for everything you do for your families. 

You rock!

Happy Birthday Lauren! Woohoo!!!!

New Year's Resolution...

It dawned on me  yesterday that I haven't been keeping a journal and suddenly fear struck me that I had nothing to show for my life! Then an even greater fear hit me: I had no life! ...Wait a second, I HAVE  a life, I just have nothing to show for it! How could that be possible I thought? I am so busy every day... (except for those 4 hours a day I spend watching tv) ...ok, just kidding! All of a sudden I realized, that was why we blog! Duh! So, I'm back in the saddle. I know its not customary to start a New Year's Resolution smack dab in the middle of the year. But here's to good intentions! I am going to try to get out the old dusty blog, and get it up and running again. And this time I will be updating everything we've done for the past year (and that's ALOT!) So hang onto your hats ladies and gentlemen... cuz here we go!

Happy Birthday Adam!

Hope you have a great day!

I want to feel cool, too

I don't have any cool bread to show off, but while you guys were making those loaves, I was making these:

TA DAA!

I followed the instructions and made fermented raisin/grape water....

Then I made the flour yeast (and fed it for 3 days)...

Then I mixed it in my Bosch (and had to knead it on my counter)...

(2 hours of mixing since I tackled 3 batches at once!...Stupid!)

I let it raise for 12 hours and then put it in bread pans....

(3 batches... I will never do that again!)

And Viola! Beautiful bread!

 (Except I cut into one of these an hour too early and it sunk, deflated, and got all gooey on me... lesson learned!) I have to admit, I learned a lot of lessons this past week. My first yeast was from a starter I bought a year ago and after it turned the water black (Lauren and I figured that it had mold) I threw it out and started with the raisin water. It was exciting to do each of these steps. I am still learning alot, and have a lot more to keep learning. But I am thrilled about all this and can tell its not hurting my body like our normal bread. Since I made 3 batches (and 9 loaves of bread) I have shared it with 5 other families in my ward, 3 of which who are celiacs, and still have a list of other people I would love to share it with.

Exciting times!

Properly Prepared Grains

I was going to cut and paste this article that I read a year ago, but just decided to add the link instead. I started making leavened bread for my family last spring but still had the idea stuck into my head that it wasn't good for me to eat. Ironically this very article that I copied for my family shares study results that celiacs actually CAN eat leavened bread. (Unfortunately the blog owner came under heavy scrutiny by certain celiacs after making these claims.) However I think this could be true for most celiacs, if not all. Its a quick read and very informative. Here's the link:

http://originalfastfoods.com/page/properly-prepared-grains-1


P.S. I will post photos of my leavened bread on Saturday. I started it with the raisin water... so exciting!

More of What I Made

It tastes as good as it looks!

This is a cinnamon pull apart bread we made for Conference Weekend. Oh my goodness it was yummy! Cinnamon goo with chopped pecans and raisins inside. And I still got a loaf of bread out of the dough, too! 

Look What I Made!

I went to Lauren's on Friday morning and got some sourdough starter from her.

I experimented with a mix of half hard red wheat and half kamut, which I hope will be even easier to digest for us to start off with. It smells like whole wheat bread! I used my Blendtec to grind my wheat and didn't run it too long, so they will be kind of a cracked wheat bread. Unfortunately, it also ended up sandblasting the sides of my blender, so maybe I'll have to invest in a wheat grinder after all. But doesn't it look gorgeous?! 

I had to sit in front of my oven for about 10 minutes to watch it cook. It's so cool!

A Real-Live-New-Post from Nikki!

These are just previews of more photos I ACTUALLY put on my blog of our Israel trip.  This is our tour guide, or Director, Wayne Brickey who is one of my biggest fans who authored a favorite book of mine, "Making Sense of Suffering". The book helped me through many difficult days as a single mom. I was totally 'star struck' on this trip.  Such a great experience listening to and learning from Brother Brickey!

I don't go into much details of the trip on my blog post because it was 7 days of 5 or 6 stops a day and hours and hours of lectures and historical and biblical information. If you have any questions, you'll have to call me... go figure! We had a blast!

Family Reunion 2013

I think we finally have most of our kids stuff figured out for this summer (Girls Camp, Scout Camp, Youth Conference, etc) so I have an idea of what weeks are left for our family reunion. Here are the weeks that our whole family will be free:

May 26th
June 2nd
June 30 (this is the 4th of July week)
August 11 (although I would rather not have anything this week if its possible)

Maybe we can start a discussion as to what weeks work best for everyone?