LOL

Sierra has a pretty hilarious laugh when something really strikes her. Mike cracks up at the range of high pitches she can get. I got a little example on our road trip this weekend. Wish I could have caught a couple in a row...and a shot of Mike laughing in the driver seat! But it's kind of a spontaneous thing - hard to capture on video :)

Wait for it...

An Update

So the great house hunt is still underway! We took a little trip house hunting in another part of Washington this weekend, but still haven't found anything to fit the bill for our family. ...We seriously racked our creative brains trying to figure a way to make one of them work, but found them to be just too far from what we need. We are admittedly pretty discouraged. It is difficult to discover that even though you can live anywhere - you can't live anywhere! Our house budget is pretty low as they go because we are still in start up mode for Mike's business and don't want to get in over our heads. But it's still a lot of money and it's not terribly exciting what you can get for it! ...Houses are just extremely overpriced pretty much everywhere. Take your pick of major fixer, too tiny, bad school district, ghetto neighborhood, middle of nowhere, or you find out it's cash only, auction, an open bid situation, or a long drawn out short sale. Pretty discouraging for a little family trying to get a leg up in this world.

But on the positive side we have some amazing little kids who did pretty great at road tripping with us this weekend, and were enthusiastic and happy despite the less than ideal houses we were touring, (and despite having too tired of parents to take them to the hotel pool at 9:00 at night like the lucky kids from the room next door - Lily got all excited about the pull out couch bed she discovered instead). Olympia was beautiful!!! We loved all the lush forests and vegetation. And we are definitely glad to be back to sleeping in our own beds tonight. A squirmy toddler does not a good bedfellow make!

Where in America will we end up? Chasing the dream :)

 Excited to be heading out on the road!

 ...or zoned out on the mini DVD player 

(Thank heaven for modern technology! I can't imagine how much whining we'd have had to endure and how many more times we'd have heard: "Are we there yet?")

 such a cutie :)

 Lily braving the brightness to model this huge dandelion she picked for me!

Sierra discovering the pull out sofa bed Lily found after coming out of the shower. 

It's the little things!

I didn't take very many pictures because we were pretty busy and I didn't think my little camera could do justice to the beauty all around us (I kinda hoped we might be back soon with a lot more time for that), but here's a shot from the car as we were leaving. We were literally up in the clouds! :)

Cinderella

 

We loved the new Cinderella movie - I did especially.  I've long been into fairy tales. I think you can tell I was excited since we dressed up to go! I couldn't believe Lily actually agreed to go - she had a few conditions (which she listed off to me as such)... the Icee pictured included. I was willing to humor that. She wouldn't take a picture in front of the stand up Cinderella before the movie, but she did after. Good sign that she liked it pretty well! 

I loved the message: "Have courage and be kind." Definitely keen on not letting fear rule my life, and never suppressing a kind thought. I think with those two things ruling your choices you will do pretty well in life. Well done, Disney. The only criticism I really had was the Lizard footman. Kinda creepy. Would have been much better if it were a friendly dog Cinderella had a relationship with like the mice. (Would have been fun to see the mice singing & helping a bit more with the sewing too!) 

Anyway, it was fun to go to a non-cartoon movie with the girls for a change!

starting out shy...

The real Sierra - rockin' her silly style!

This is Lily's idea of dressing up - she wanted to blend in with the dark theater.

I had as much fun watching them as I did watching the movie.

We can be friends :)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

So I tend to blog more around holidays. Holidays do make ordinary life a bit more interesting. I think St. Patrick's Day is becoming one of my favorites. I've always loved green - and it sure is nice to have a low key holiday - minimal preparations necessary. Just wear something green, & maybe make something fun to eat! Good people + good food --That's all you need!

Lily came home from school on Friday talking about a leprechaun making mischief in her classroom. Peeing green in the toilet, making steps out of the teacher's drawers & leaving green sparkles and gold coins lying around. She said they could make a leprechaun trap if they wanted to, but she didn't want to trap it. I was getting some things together to mail and she dug around in my little craft box and made this note on her own:

" Dear Mr. Leprechaun

I like what you are

doing, but my class is

makeing traps you

might want to

watch out!

Your friend, 

Lily "

I thought it was pretty creative how she used the brads to make them look like gold coins in a pot.

On Monday I was making a gingerbread house for Mike to take a photo of so Lily made the Leprechaun a irresistible little house. Not to trap him, mind you! For him to live in. Complete with a picnic table, rooftop seating, and a rainbow pathway to a pot of gold. Alas, he did not appear, but she and her classmates dug into it directly after school. :)

I put Sierra's hair into a ponytail to match her sisters'. Here she is checking out her do in the bathroom mirror.

And I got a little camera happy with my cute girls. I haven't really been taking enough photos of them these days!

I love you Lily & Sierra!

Best Cinnamon Roll Recipe

At least the best I've found! Very much like Cinnabon, and surprisingly quick and easy. They are a blessing from heaven.

We may or may not have made them twice this week... Well, we ended up with too much frosting the first time! (You don't need to double the batch) We had to do something to use up all that extra frosting! (It's a vicious delicious cycle!)

Anyway - here's the goods:

QUICK RISE Cinnamon ROLLS

INGREDIENTS:

DOUGH:

1 cup milk

1/4 cup butter

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, divided

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

1 envelope instant or ‘rapid rise’ yeast (~ 2 1/4 tsp)

1 egg

CINNAMON-SUGAR FILLING:

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

2.5 Tbsp. ground cinnamon

4 Tbsp. melted butter

1 Tbsp additional melted butter or coconut oil

CREAM CHEESE ICING:

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/4 cup cream cheese, softened

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

1-2 Tbsp. milk (if needed)

Mix with an electric mixer.

DIRECTIONS:

Combine milk and butter in a pan and heat until butter is melted and milk is warm. Let it sit until mixture is warm, but not hot.

Pour into tub of bread machine or bread mixer. Add mixed egg. Then add sugar, salt, and flour in that order. Scoop out a little indention in the middle and pour in yeast. Start dough kneading process. When it has formed a soft ball let it rise for just 10 minutes and then get ready to form the rolls.

While it rises use a fork to mix together the cinnamon, sugars, and 4 Tbsp melted butter to make your filling.

When the dough is ready, turn it out onto a floured work surface. Use a floured rolling pin to roll the dough out into a large rectangle, about 14 x 9 inches. Brush on 1 Tbsp melted butter or coconut oil onto all but 1/4 in of far long edge. Sprinkle evenly with your cinnamon sugar filling.

Beginning at the close long edge, tightly roll up the dough. Dab water along the far edge and then give the final seam a little pinch so that it seals. Cut the rolled dough into 12 equal pieces. Place into a greased 9 x 13-inch baking dish. Spray lightly with canola oil. and cover with a towel. Let rise in a warm place for 25 minutes.

Preheat your oven for 350 degrees F and make your icing. Once the rolls have risen, bake uncovered for 350◦ for 15-20 minutes, or until the rolls are slightly golden and cooked through. Remove and let cool for at least 5 minutes. Drizzle with icing and enjoy!

A few fun pictures

Just wanted to share something quick. A few recent pictures of my girls that I thought were fun.

Lily's class could dress up like what they imagined themselves like at 100 years old as part of their 100th day of school celebration. Lily really wanted to spray paint her hair gray - so we did (though it didn't show as well as we'd hoped - Oh well, we tried!) She actually let me take some pictures and hammed it up pretty cute. As I was looking through these I couldn't help but wonder if Lamby and Little Lamby would make it to when Lily is (close to) 100 years old...

100th Day of School

 (Proof we did paint it gray!)

 A spry little 100 year old!

 Reminding me of her Uncle Andrew and his toothless old person impression.

 In case you didn't know - Lily's taken to carrying, not 1, 

but 2 Lambies around the house with her much of the time!

 Love this little character!

 Lily with one of her best friend's - Chloe, and then with another little old lady at school.

Such a fun idea!

Not to leave out my adorable little sidekick, Sierra! Here's some photos of:

The best place to be on a winter day.

(from January - No snow on the ground right now - we're getting an early Spring!)

Peeked over and saw this cutie over here one snowy morning while Mike and I were fixing breakfast. Brought back memories of eating my cereal over the heat vent under our kitchen counter when I was in elementary school. And she looked so cute all smiles with her hair blowing - I had to grab my camera! :)

 I love this one!

 Ha ha! Love my baby girl!

We do do more than just hang around heater vents, promise! ;)