A Glimpse into my Life.

No matter what Rynie does, Dutch likes to be involved. Here they are painting a craft. Note the similar state of dress.


Meals must be taken sitting next to Big Brother. And he must feed himself.



An Army campaign always need a 2nd in command.


They love to wrestle and roll around in a puppy pile!





I think they're lots of fun!

I miss the days of easy baking. Grab a bit of this, a bit of that, throw it together and more often than not, you have something good. I love to tinker with cookie recipes, fiddle with cakes, play with bread dough. Now, it's a lot harder and suddenly I have to motivate myself to cook ANYTHING, let alone any sort of breads. I have to think about things differently. Thank goodness for friends and the internet to find new ways to go about baking. These biscuits are from Pamela's Products, and it is made with her Baking Mix. I hate having to rely on a mix, since we normally make most our stuff from scratch, but since I feel like I am about 8 years old and learning the finer points of baking again, it helps. The goal is to eventually get back to cooking from scratch, but in the mean time, I can use the Baking Mix and get something that looks mostly like it should and frees up time with learning to cook gluten free.



It's been a huge adjustment to think that my doughs should be batter consistency, my cakes will not rise any higher once I pour them into the pan, and the only way to make something fluffy is to beat it longer to whip air into it.



Having said that, these biscuits were a huge hit. They are fluffy, almost too fluffy. They break apart easier than I think biscuits should, and they definitely have a whole grain type taste to them. But, the kids love them, they are easy to make, and it satisfies the request to have bread/rolls/something with meals.



Until I get things under control in the cooking department, they are a great standby. The mix smells heavenly when you open the bag, I've used it for chocolate chip cookies and pancakes in addition to the biscuits and so far things are looking up!

We went up to Salt Lake City to visit Temple Square over the Holidays. It's the first time we've taken the children up to see the lights and I think they enjoyed it.

City Creek Plaza right across the street. I really liked the lights and how they reflected on the water. It was a nice way to start out the evening.

It never ceases to inspire and amaze me every time we go to Temple Square. I always intend to go back more often and usually end up not being able to as often as I'd like. The peaceful Spirit is always calming and wonderful.

This is the best shot I could get of our family. We're all mostly looking the same direction, our eyes are open, and no one is making too awful of a face. Not sure about how my coat is making my skirt look like goofy pants though. Huh.

I love visiting the Temple, even if it's just to walk the grounds with my children.

We'd purchased a box of tangerines for everyone to munch on, they were definitely a hit! Baby B kept getting into the box, and I'd find tangerines with bite marks in the skins. We'd peel those ones first. One morning when I was making breakfast, I turned around and saw this:

I found a draft post in here and couldn't believe how much Rynie and Little Miss have grown! I honestly hadn't realized how much they've both changed. Yes, I know in my mind they have, but in some ways, seeing the day to day makes it not as noticeable as when you see the pictures from a few years ago.


I love that they still play together. These two are quite the adventurous buddies. When one does something, the other usually follows suit pretty quickly.


This is a pretty typical scene at our house still. Although, now they both try to feed Dutch whether he wants them to or not.


She still makes messes, although now they usually involve spilled cups and bowls.


He still thinks he's part mountain goat. In fact, I've had to replace two curtain rods and he's now learned that curtains are not to be climbed.

So, we tried making oatmeal cookies the other day because Little Miss was dying for a treat we had no suitable treats for her and Dutch's new diet. It was interesting to say the least. From the reading I've done, some say you can substitute straight across if you do it by weight not the volume, some say it'll never be the same, some say you have to really tinker with the recipe. Since the answers were so mixed, I decided to take my recipe, weigh out the amount of regular flour, and substitute it with gluten free flour.

The mixing it up part looked the same.



They started to look a wee bit different as they baked up. If I took them right off the baking sheet, they 'melted' through the cooling rack and fell apart into a lacey, holly mess. Yes, I know you see a stack of cookie mess, but that was after we realized there was no hope for them to hold their shape and I needed somewhere to put the hot mess.



If I left them on the baking sheet for 2 minutes, they glued themselves to the pan.



In the end, they made a fabulous granola, and I'll have to get back to the drawing board. The kids enjoyed eating the granola, even if it wasn't what we were expecting.




Looking at the granola, maybe we'll have to make it again for a snack with some fruit!

Since I know I won't be on here much in the next few days, I am taking the early opportunity to say Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! We are going to be having a bit of an adventure this Thanksgiving, in at we are doing a mostly Gluten Free Dinner. On that note, a few things I am thankful for this year: