Bath Time

I took these pictures the other night of the boys right after their baths. I always bath new babies in the morning but once they turn one, I like nighttime baths. Bath time is by far one of my favorite times of the day. The boys love it and then they are all clean for bed in their PJ's. They each have their own hooded towel that they love.

Gouverneur's is a cute baby one that my friend Ashlee sent to him.

Dellin's is a brown bear. Sorry for the fuzziness. I snapped these with my phone. 

And Sterling Henry's is a grey shark. It has a fin on the back.

They love their towels. I need to make a new one for Gouverneur and keep that cute snuggly one for the new baby.  Who will be here in just over a month. Can't wait to meet that little guy!

Smores

We had a family BBQ over the weekend and followed it up with smores. Not sure why it took us all summer to do smores in the backyard, but we might be doing it every weekend from now on. The boys loved it and it was a lot of fun.

Little Man and dad roasting the mellows.

Dellin was our official mellow man. He consumed most of the bag, but who could say no to that face. 

We strapped Gouverneur in the highchair since he has not learned fire safety yet. He was happy as long as we kept the graham crackers coming. 

The big boys with dad. Sterling Henry's face is so darling in this picture. 

Time to chow.

 Leaning over their plates so they could contain the mess.

Dellin was real serious about the whole thing.

Case in point. This picture made the whole night worth it. Darling boys. 

We invited Ellie and Kendall over from next door. They are our darling neighbor girls. They could fit into our family nicely. We love these girls.

Smores were a hit. The boys had a blast. Mom and Dad are still fun. It was a great time for everyone. 

Bread Making

I grew up in a house with amazing parents. My  mom made basically everything from scratch for most of my life. She is the bread making queen. I felt so spoiled growing up eating yummy bread and wanted to give my boys the same memories. 

I've been making our bread on and off now for about 4 years but never managed to make enough to not have to supplement with store bought. We got a darling red Kitchen Aid when we first got married that I love. My mom always had a Bosch and I knew someday I would want one, but the Kitchen Aid was a good choice at first.

The problem for me with my Kitchen Aid was that I could only make two loaves of bread at a time. My family would eat through that in 3 days and then we'd not have bread for a while. I'd keep a backup in the freezer that worked most of the time. 

It really became evident that I needed two things if I was going to get serious about making all our bread. I would need a wheat grinder and a Bosch. My fabulous husband has spoiled me rotten this last month and got me both. They were both pretty pricey but with the amount of bread my boys consume, it just made sense. Plus he really loves me. :)

Here is my wheat grinder. I went with the Kitchen Mill by Blendtec. Having fresh ground wheat really makes the bread taste amazing. Plus, the nutritional value skyrockets when you use fresh flour.

I am currently using Hard White Wheat from the church warehouse. There isn't a lot of options out here. We did just however find a fabulous Mennonite store that carries wheat, gluten, and lecithin. All fresh and great prices.

Here is my Bosch. I used it for the first time yesterday and it did NOT disappoint. It was so easy and fast.  Plus, I made enough dough for four loaves with plenty of room to spare. My mom has had her Bosch for 35 years and it's still going strong. I look forward to having a long relationship with mine.

Here is my bread rising. I set out one amount to make cinnamon rolls for the boys. I use these Lodge cast iron bread pans. Sterling got these for me and I love them. They make fabulous crust.

 Here is everything all ready to bake. It made a small batch of cinnamon rolls, which is really all we need around here.

The finished product. It takes a little less than 2 hours from start to finish. I'm really getting a hand of the routine and my boys are loving the results. We usually consume 3/4 a loaf on the first day. 

And that is my bread making story.

Father and Sons Campout

The boys went on the annual Father and Sons campout. Last year was a bit of a bust. When they arrived, the camp was already full, so they came home early. This year was a great year all around. The boys had been looking forward to going and had a great time. Sterling is such a cute dad. He always remembers to document everything for me.  

They stay in cabins which is a bit wimpy, but the boys love it anyway. Here they are in the morning. As you can see, they love being with their dad. 

I must admit that I looked forward to spending a nice quiet evening with this cutie.

We went to Joanns, got my favorite salad takeout from California Pizza Kitchen, put Gouverneur to bed, and spent the evening sewing and watching girly movies.  

I finished the boys capes for their Halloween costumes. They turned out pretty cute if I do say so myself. They are double sided so each side is something different. I doubled up on Batman and Superman. 

The boys ditched the camp breakfast and headed to Cracker Barrel in the morning. That has become a tradition for them.

I was quite antsy to see my boys again in the morning. Gouverneur was completely bored of me by the time they got back. He really loves his older brothers and like having them around.  It was a fun weekend all around.

And so it all begins.

Sterling Henry started preschool today and I have mixed emotions about the whole thing. I sort of feel like today was the beginning of the end. Every year from here on out out we will have a child going back to school in the fall. Yes it is exciting in a way but mostly sad to me. Little Man couldn't wait of course. He has been counting down the days for way too long.

Here we are just minutes before leaving the house. They don't need backpacks but they are supposed to bring a snack each day.

The boys are posing with big brother. It is going to be a fun change up in a way to have Dellin get to be the big brother two days a week.
In the car all ready to go. "Look Dad, I found the perfect place to put my lunchbox."

We made him wait outside a bit longer so we could get some pictures. I love this one of me and my boys.
I also had dad come to be part of the big day. It made the whole experience really fun. Plus, it helped me keep my emotions in check. Look at those darling boys.

We opened the door and off they went. Dellin was just as excited as Sterling Henry. I think this picture captures the excitement.
And here is the fabulous Mrs. Lynn. She is a perfect fit for Sterling Henry. They are going to have a lot of fun together this year. I had to pull Little Man away from playing to get a picture with Mrs. Lynn. All in all it was a good day. He will be going two days a week for three hours. I will say that it was pretty nice to only take two kids to Walmart. But we were all more than ready to go pick him up when it was time.
He loved it and can't wait to go back. Mrs. Lynn did pay him a high compliment for the first day. She said he was a great listener. Looks like we're off to a good start!

The Great Walnut Harvest.

We have a fairly big walnut tree in the backyard. The boys have been collecting walnuts this year. They run out every morning and pick up all the walnuts they can. There were still a lot of walnuts up in the tree so Sterling made a walnut picker and the boys cleaned the tree out.

Here they are picking the walnuts with dad. This baby is tree pieces of bamboo tied together with a small rake on top.

The next step was getting them out of their husks so that they can dry out. Sterling told that this would be a dirty process. And it was. The boys were completely entertained for a good 45 minutes and they shelled all the walnuts.

Dad wore gloves.

I didn't insist putting gloves on the boys because I really had no idea how dirty their little hands would be. Here they are after 3 days of washing non-stopped.

They obviously didn't mind one bit.

It's a good thing these boys have such a fun dad who constantely is thinking of fun things to do with his boys. They love spending time doing man-tivities with dad. I love watching them.

Pool Time

It has been a very long, hot summer to say the least. We have spent most of out time indoors. We bought a baby pool at the beginning of summer and spent 1-2 afternoons cooling off in the back yard.
Arlington has tons of fabulous pools. I was sort of nervous to take the boys to any of them alone this summer. But after spending a week straight in the pool in McCall, I decided that we were all ready to try a big pool.
We have been swimming three time in the last 2 weeks. I finally got some cute pictures of the boys yesterday, which happened to be the craziest day of the year.
Here we are at Upton Hills. They have this huge fenced off baby area that is only one foot deep at the deepest. Plus it has killer fountains that the boys love. See below.

Pure joy.

Here's a good picture of the whole baby pool. We ventured over to the big pool once, it was a bit stressful so we spent our time here. The boys loved it!
I feel super brave. I wish summer wasn't ending now that we've found a great afternoon option to cool us off. All the pools close this weekend so it looks like our pool time is over. Now I need to find a good indoor option for the winter with good swimming lessons so we'll be ready to go next year!