I got a new "toy"!! My new Bosch Kitchen Center

Well as many may know I'm determined to stop buying store bought bread and start making my own at home. My kitchenaid just wasn't up to the task so I used the Christmas money my inlaws gave me to buy myself a new kitchen center. It arrived yesterday and I had my first 2 attempts at making bread today.

Here I am shaping the loaves before putting them in the pan

The first attempt went well, the mixer did just as promised. It mixed and kneaded enough dough for 4 loaves of bread (I didn't think we needed to make the 6 2lb loaves the machine is capable of) without much effort at all. I got it all shaped and put in the pans it was rising like nobody's buisness when I realized I forgot to add the salt. Well because of that it turned into godzilla bread, with no taste. Here's the pictures of the godzilla bread

That's the new Bosch Kitchen ceter behind the loaves. We tried the blender attachment last night and made the smoothest, creamiest milkshakes ever!

The loaves just wouldn't stop growing!

So when that was not edible we tried again and this was the final result and slightly sweet (we used honey instead of sugar) wonderfully light bread.

Cookies for Santa

Hi all,

I know it's been a while since I updated things. We've been busy enjoying school and the unusually warm weather here in Chesapeake. I thought I'd share some pictures

Here's the kids enjoying some time outside in the warm weather. Anna was busy on the swing and I couldn't get a clear picture of her.

Later on we enjoyed some Watermelon and Strawberry Kabobs

One night our crazy pug Festis decided to find a new place to call his own.

Here's the latest "craft" we've been up to. We've been off of school for a while for the holidays and took the opportunity to make some cookies for santa.
Here's a few pictures of the kids decorating them.

We are settled in our new home

Hi all,

We are finally settled in our new home. Things are going great. Mamo (kel's mom) has been here the last week and helped us to put the finishing touches on the house. We had Thanksgiving early so we could celebrate it with her and we also celebrated Annika's birthday. She was very excited to receive a gold Tinkerbell necklace from her Papa as well as her American Girl doll and accessories.

We also found a friend in our attic. The people we rent from say they didn't have a problem with them but if we find anymore they'll have someone come out and check things out. The visitor was a very small snake. He was the thickness of a pencil and about 1.5 feet long when fully stretched out. Matt found him on the pull down stairs while going up to put some boxes away. He thought it was one of the kids rubber toys until it flicked it's tongue at him. He carefully put him in a clear plastic tub until we could safely release him out in the yard.

Here's a pic of the visitor.

We'll be back at school again next week and I'll get some pictures of our new school room up soon.

Kel