First day of summer

What a wonderful Sunday it was! I was able to get a lot done outside, we had my dad and brother Joel over for dinner, we ate toasted marshmallows by the fire afterwards, they left, then this!

Underneath the hail was a small pond

The aftermath

My mother in law observing the destruction of her little pretty flowers

This was the beginning of it

Annabelle and "Grampa Kenny"

I saw this picture on Judy's blog, and it was SOOOO adorable I just had to steal it and put it on our blog! Sorry Judy. Do I have to buy the legal rights to take it? :)

Grandpa Kenny and Annabelle at Uncle Joel's baseball game today.

Fathers Day

We had a wonderful Fathers Day this year. Here are some of the pictures we took. Seth and Annabelle weren't feeling that great, but grandma and grandpa said they didn't mind if they caught whatever the kids had, so we continued with our plans. We went to Ken and Judy's for lunch and fun in the sun, and mud. You'll see.

Thank you Ken and Judy for raising such a wonderful man to be the dad of my 3 ( soon to be 4 ) precious children.

                  

                                                                 

                                             Jason holding Annie.

                                          

                                     The kids snacking on cheerios.

             The highlight of Jason's day. He took the quad through

             the huge mud puddles at the back of the property...

                               and got Joel soaked!

                       ( watch the clip at the bottom of the post)

                                         

                         Then he came in and tried to kiss me!

                                    Seth enjoying some ice cream.

                      Poor little Annie. She slept most of the time.

                                              

                                               

Comforting Big Brother?

The other day Isaac was sent to the corner, and Annabelle was playing in the kitchen and happened to notice him standing there. I don't know if she wanted to do it too because it looked fun, or if she realized he was sad and needed some moral support. Something I'm told I would do when I was little and my sisters were sent to the corner.
Either way, it was just so adorable I had to share it with you.

Lemon Heaven

One of my favorite things about the onset of summer is the lemon. As soon as the warm weather hits, I try to keep lemons around for different recipes. I must admit I've been going a little crazy with the lemons lately. There is something about the fresh tartness, and the sunny, bright, yellow color that makes them perfect for zesting up any recipe. I've been making lemon herb rice, lemon chicken, homemade lemon bars, lemon jello cake, lemon-berry muffins, freshly squeezed lemonade,( good thing my family likes lemon also) but yesterday morning I came up with something that I'm going to name, Lemon Heaven. Seriously. When you take the first bite, you will think you died and went to heaven. And when you take the last bite you will wish you had more room in your stomach.

I took a regular crepe recipe and tweeked it a little, then I came up with a filling, and a glaze. I didn't really measure anything as I was making the filling or glaze, so I put down the measurements as well as I could remember them. If they don't come out perfect, I'm sorry. Maybe you can just come over for breakfast sometime and I will make them for you.

Crepes

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 Tbs. sugar
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2 cups milk
2 Tbs. butter melted
1 tsp. lemon extract
2 large eggs
zest from 1 lemon

-Mix flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in medium bowl.
Stir in remaining ingredients. Beat with hand beater until smooth.
-Lightly butter 8 to 12 inch skillet. Heat over medium heat until bubbly.
-For each crepe, pour scant 1/2 cup batter into skillet. Immediately rotate skillet until thin film covers bottom. Cook until light brown. Run wide spatula around edge to loosen; turn and cook other side until light brown.
-Stack crepes, placing placing waxed paper between each one, and keep covered.

Filling

1 1/2 pkg. cream cheese
1 tsp. real vanilla extract
1/2 cup powdered sugar

Mix in bowl until smooth. Spread thinly over each crepe. Roll crepes thin.


Glaze

juice from 2 lemons, strained
zest from 1 lemon
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup cold water
2 Tbs. cornstarch
1 or 2 drops yellow food coloring ( optional )

Combine first 3 ingredients in a small saucepan. Begin heating over
medium high heat. Whisk water with the cornstarch and add to
lemon mixture whisking lightly to mix. When mixture begins to thicken,
remove from heat and cool for a few minutes. Add food coloring (if desired) and stir. 

Drizzle over filled crepes.

Enjoy!

Annabelles first steps

Yepp, it finally happened. After 14 long months, those legs are stretched out enough to actually do some work!