PURE JOY IS IN MY HEART!

I am so blessed to call this precious little girl mine! I am so thankful the God gave her to US to raise, love, protect and share a life with. We are having a lot of fun being parents:)

Matt's "senior" photos:) Glad he's 28 though!

Our family! I still can't believe it sometimes. I am loving motherhood. I could go on and on about all the things I love about it. I know there'll be days and there have already been tough moments. As they get bigger/older I hear the troubles get bigger as well. But, we're going to deal w/ one day at a time. I do sometimes still miss being pregnant. I'm glad she's here w/ me and I know who was bouncing around in there but I also loved being pregnant w/ this little girl. I am overwhelmed by my very blessed life!

We had a big day on May 17th, 2011!

We became a FAMILY OF THREE!

And it was the happiest day of our lives:)

Mylah Jane Nelson

8lbs 8oz 21in long

amazing sugar cookie recipe!

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (10 ounces), preferably Pillsbury or Gold Medal
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon table salt
16 tablespoons unsalted butter (2 sticks), softened but still firm (60 to 65 degrees)
1 cup granulated sugar (7 ounces)
1/2 cup granulated sugar (3 1/2 ounces), for rolling dough
1 tablespoon light brown sugar
1 large egg
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1. Adjust oven racks to upper- and lower-middle positions; heat oven to 375 degrees. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper. Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt in medium bowl; set aside.

2. In standing mixer fitted with paddle attachment or with hand mixer, beat butter, 1 cup granulated sugar, and brown sugar at medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes, scraping down sides of bowl with rubber spatula as needed. Add egg and vanilla; beat at medium speed until combined, about 30 seconds. Add dry ingredients and beat at low speed until just combined, about 30 seconds, scraping down bowl as needed.

3. Place sugar for rolling in shallow bowl. Fill medium bowl halfway with cold tap water. Dip hands in water and shake off excess (this will prevent dough from sticking to your hands and ensure that sugar sticks to dough). Roll heaping tablespoon dough into 1 1/2-inch ball between moistened palms; roll ball in sugar, then place on prepared baking sheet. Repeat with remaining dough, moistening hands after forming each ball and spacing balls about 2 inches apart on baking sheet (you should be able to fit 12 cookies on each sheet). Using butter wrapper, butter bottom of drinking glass; dip bottom of glass in remaining sugar and flatten dough balls with bottom of glass until dough is about 3/4 inch thick.

4. Bake until cookies are golden brown around edges and just set and very lightly colored in center, 15 to 18 minutes, reversing position of cookie sheets from front to back and top to bottom halfway through baking time. Cool cookies on baking sheet about 3 minutes; using wide metal spatula, transfer cookies to wire rack and cool to room temperature.

Matt and Tyler were getting some stuff sorted out at Grandma's the other night and they found her wedding rings!

When Matt told me where they found them it all came back to me....

When I was getting my grandma packed up to go to an assisted living place for about two weeks I had asked her where her wedding rings were. She said, very dismissively actually, they they were in the tv room in the smallest basket of a set of three. I went and looked at them and then gave her a hard time because of where she kept them.

She just kind of waved me off and smirked. She was a woman that never really thought much of "things" and "stuff" even if it was something important. That's just how she was. She knew she wasn't taking them with her when she left this earth, so it didn't really matter. That's something to remember. Thats the attitude to have!

Also, she was a little, petite lady... they don't got past my knuckle - I am not so petite!

I really want to try and make this yogurt w/ milk from the farm! Let me know if you've ever make homemade yogurt and if so what was the recipe and how did it go??

news

We are VERY excited to be going into this new pase of our lives together!

What's rollin' around in YOUR dryer?

This is what's in mine...

I found this big box or wool yarn outside on my door step one day when I got home from work. I was thrilled. Rae was so sweet and sent it to me to make dryer balls. My friend, Raychel, was starting cloth diapers and wanted some dryer balls to cut down on the time it took to dry all her newly acquired laundry. You need wool so that they felt well and don't fall apart when in use.

Here's how I did it...

Start by making small balls of yarn. The ones on the far left are done.

Done and ready to be felted. the first layer anyway.

Now, you get an old nylon sock and put one of the balls all the way at the end, tie a knot and do it all over again..

Like this... and then you'll have a string of yarn balls in nylon like sausage:)

all done and ready for a very hot wash cycle and then the dryer. This might need to be done a few times in a row.

They are now felted and ready for the second layer.

This is the second layer. I'm using this yarn on the top because it looked like it would felt really well, and it did!

The brown ones are ready to go into a nylon again and the little ones are still needing a second layer.

I took a picture of the finished project with my phone so it's not a great picture, but you get the idea:) They really felted well! And, I'm happy to report that they cut way down on the drying time of the cloth diapers! She had to dry them one and a half cycles and now they're dry after just one! So, it was worth it. Now, I'm making myself some. This yarn has gone a long ways, so I'm excited I get some too:)

Thank you, Rae! It was awesome to get to make a bunch of these and not have to buy yarn. You made our day! We are so excited. You might know you've grown up and are boring when you get excited about wool dryer balls that speed up drying and in turn lower electric bills:)