Little Monkey

I just turned around from cleaning the sink and saw Bethany WALKING on our table and looking at me as if to say, "Yeah Mom, I do this all the time and when you turn around I'm going to do it again!" I can't take my eyes off of her for ONE minute!! She climbs on beds, chairs, climbs in the tub by herself, and now TABLES! AAAAAAAAKKKKKKKK!

Homemade Hamburger Buns

Today I made my first ever homemade hamburger buns. They turned out pretty well! Although they were very yummy, next time I think I'll half the flour and use 3 cups of white and 3 cups of wheat flour. Maybe then it will be a little healthier! I thought I'd share this recipe with you all:



2 c. milk
1/4 c. butter, melted
1/4 c. warm water
1/4 c. white sugar
2 (.25 oz.) pkgs. instant yeast
2 tsp. salt
6 c. flour
1. In a large bowl, stir together the milk, butter, warm water, sugar and yeast. Let stand for about 5 minutes.
2. Mix in the salt, and gradually stir in the flour until you have a soft dough. Divide into 25 pieces. (I came out with 9!) Form into balls. Place on baking sheets so they are 2 to 3 inches apart. Let rise for 20 minutes.
3. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Bake the rolls for 15 minutes. Cool slightly. Split in half horizontally to fill with your favorite burgers.

Just doing a smidge of bragging!

Shelby came home with her very first school progress report yesterday! I'm very pleased to say that she did wonderfully! Really...did I have any doubts?! She was proficient in every catagory which included: literacy awareness, writing, math, number sense, listens attentively w/out interrupting, completes work, responds promptly to requests, follows school rules, art, music and PE. Her teacher commented that she was doing great, but we needed to keep a look out for her writing a few numbers and letters backwards. When she first started learning to write her name about a year ago, she would write the whole thing in mirror reverse...how did she do that? Now, she just gets a few letters backward every now and then.

What does a kitty cat say?

Bethany was playing in her carseat in the kitchen today and was in a talkative mood. Hear what she has to say...

Bethany's "Night-Night" (Blankie)

I'm afraid Bethany has become attached to her soft, pink strawberry blanket lovingly referred to as her "night-night." Bethany drags it around everywhere! If she doesn't remember to grab it before I pick her up out of her crib, she frantically grabs for it right as I'm picking her up! Adam was playing a game with her earlier today. He grabbed her blanket and said, "MY night-night!" Bethany's response was, "MINE!" Oh dear. I can see it now...in a few years that blanket will be tattered, torn, dingy and just plain unrecognizable! Shelby had her pacie for the first year and Beth has her night-night. We forgot her blankie at MiMi and PaPa's house a couple of weeks ago when we were visiting and PaPa had to ship it back to our house. Boy was she glad to see it! She carried it around all day long!

On a side note, whenever Bethany sees shoes or socks lying around the house she emphatically repeats, "Shoooo-weeee!" Too cute!

Answered Prayer for a Happy Girl

Today something really neat happened, something that will show a little five year old girl that God listens and answers our prayers. Every night for quite some time now, Shelby has prayed for a trampoline. She's had her heart set on one. Adam and I kept telling her to just keep praying and God will either say yes, no or wait. We had planned on trying to get her a trampoline for her birthday which is in November. We did not know how we were going to do it, but we were going to try our hardest to make it happen. Today, our next door neighbor explained that she doesn't have a weed eater and asked Adam if he would weed eat around her house when he does his. In return, she offered to watch the girls every so often so we could have an evening to ourselves. Adam spotted the trampoline in her backyard. Our neighbor is a young, single girl with no children so he asked her if we could trade for the trampoline. She said she didn't know because she has little nieces and nephews that come over and would want to use it. After a while we saw our neighbor again and she said we could have it! Shelby was ecstatic! We explained to Shelby that because she kept praying and had faith that God would answer her prayers, this wonderful thing happened. We hope that these prayers for this unimportant and earthly trampoline will deepen her understanding of how great God is and what He can do if we keep trusting and praying to Him.