Evan and his daddy made this cool shark for his valentine's box for school last week. They had so much fun making it together. The shark's body is made from an empty oatmeal container wrapped in duct tape. They made the fins out of cardboard and glued them on. Evan was so excited to bring it to school and show all his little friends.
I love making homemade brownies, but most recipes call for baking chocolate and i don't always have that on hand. So i have been searching and searching for a good brownie recipe with cocoa. After much research and experimenting, i came up with my own recipe. These brownies have a thin crispy top and fudgy middle and are much more economical than the recipes with baking chocolate.
1 stick (1/2 cup) salted butter
1/2 cup good quality cocoa powder
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup flour
1/2 cup chocolate chips
Melt butter; stir in cocoa powder. In separate bowl beat eggs and sugar for 2-4 minutes. (the longer you beat, the crisper the top.) Beat in vanilla. Stir melted butter mixture into egg mixture. stir in flour and chocolate chips. Pour into 8x8 pan lined with parchment paper. Bake at 335 for 28-33 minutes. Do not over bake! I usually take mine out a little earlier.
This book is about 9 young men who came together to win the 1936 Olympic gold medal in Nazi Germany. But this book is not just about rowing. The author includes interesting stories about Germany and Hitler's rise to power, the Dust Bowl, the Great Depression and the life of one particular rower, Joe Rantz. I will say that I ended up skimming over the detailed parts about rowing, because I have absolutely no interest in that. But overall, this was a very fascinating read and very well written.
I've read many books on the holocaust and this is definitely one of my favorites. It is the true story of Corrie Ten Boom and her family who helped hide Jews from the Nazis during the German occupation of Holland. This is an amazing, inspiring book! Truly a must read.
This sweet girl loves to play dress up. She especially loves her princess dresses! Her latest obsession is her Elsa dress she got from Christmas. Almost every morning she comes downstairs wearing this dress...
love my little Lorelei
at the beginning of december i took a few family photos for my cousin Kristyn and her family. her little guy is so cute and smiley!
the day after thanksgiving we took a fun little trip to the "alligator park" with my sister's family. it was a gorgeous day! We hiked around the large lake and saw quite a few alligators, turtles, and birds.
it's always fun to take photos by the alligator signs
this big guy was right by the trail!
Dan's grandfather (vovo) passed away at the beginning of the month. He was almost 97 years old. (Click here for his obituary.) Dan and I had the opportunity to fly out to utah for his funeral and brought baby brother along with us.
We enjoyed seeing all of Dan's family, even if it was only for two short days! We don't get to see them very often. We even got to see my two brothers and meet our nephew Emmett who is very close in age to Benjamin. Here's a few photos...
niece Amelia and nephew Calvin
Dan and two of his younger brothers
Dan's mom and all six of her children
my brother and his sweet family
emmett is such a cutie! wish we lived closer so we could play more often!
this photo below is one of the more recent photos that i took of Dan's grandparents at his brother's wedding. love these two! they were the sweetest people and always so kind and generous. it is wonderful to know that they are reunited with each other and their only child, dan's father, and we will see them again someday.
Just a few photos of the kids in their halloween costumes...
Baby brother was a pumpkin. All of my babies have worn this costume when they were around this age.
Lorelei was a bumble bee. this was actually the costume she was supposed to wear last year but wanted to be a princess instead at the last minute. Luckily this costume still fit her (just barely)!
Evan was batman!
Avery was the queen of hearts. She was Alice a few years ago and wanted to be the Queen this year :)
Kyla was a pirate.
Elayna was a tattooed biker chick. those are tattoo sleeves she is wearing :)
