Just an update

An update about our little family. We are all healthy and happy. The girls recently suffered from a few days of fevers. It must have been some little bug. They just ran a fever for a few days and then all was well. Ashley was called as activities committee chairman. I meant chairperson: Ashley just informed me that she is not a man. I therefore would credit the next activity to Ashley's doing but I know that the ice-cream social was planned before she became activity committee chairlady. Lisi is finally starting to say "da" or "dada". We just can not get her to talk. She understands a lot of what we say but she still prefers to point and say "uhhh" rather than try to speak. The girls loved the fireworks on the 4th of July. We met up with David and Gloria Ash at Bridge Street to watch the fireworks on the 4th of July. We made a quick stop at the Chocolate Crocodile to pick up some chocolate covered marshmallows for the girls and a butter-scotch haystack for us then parked out on the lawn. Lisi's marshmallow was not eaten but disintegrated in her hand over the next 2 hours. Evie absolutely loved the fireworks. She had the biggest smile and some times she got so excited that she would uncontrollably begin clapping. It was a lot of fun. I only have 2.5 weeks of school remaining this summer. Actually I only have 2.5 week of school remaining in my Electrical Engineering undergraduate programme. As of August 1st, I should have my degree in hand. I have been working as a summer intern with a local company Dynetics and have accepted the offer of full-time employment beginning August 11th. It appears we will be around Huntsville a while longer. We are ready to get out of our apartment and into a house. It will probably be at least another 7 months as we are about to sign another lease renewal.
It is just an exciting time of life. We have a lot of decisions to make and we are trying to seek the Lord's guidance. The following photos highlight some of the good times.

Home-Made Bread

My mom came over a few Mondays ago to have family home evening with us while Robb was out of town. She brought her wheat grinder and we busted out the 50lb wheat barrels. We were wanting to make bread with our wheat, just to know that if it came down to it we would know exactly what to do. We let the girls dump the wheat in the grinder and they dropped wheat everywhere but had a lot of fun doing it. We chose a very simple recipe for whole wheat bread that came with Ashley's kitchen aid blender. The bread was plain but I thought it tasted just as good as any other whole wheat bread that you can buy at the store. It stayed together well enough to cut it into slices which was also a plus.

Recipe:
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon brown sugar
2 cups warm water
2 packages active dry yeast
5-6 cups whole wheat flour
3/4 cup powdered milk
2 teaspoons salt
1/3 cup oil
Directions:

Dissolve tablespoon of brown sugar in warm water, add yeast and let stand.
Mix the ingredients, slowly adding in the flour.
Knead the dough for a few minutes then let it rise in a warm place until double in size (~1 hour).
Punch the dough, divide in half, place in bread pans and let it rise again.
Bake at 400F for 15 minutes then reduce heat to 350F and bake another 30 minutes.
Remove from pans immediately and cool on wire racks.

The Results:

25th Birthday

Here are some pictures from my 25th Birthday.
Ashley made me a home-made cookie cake with a recipe she found online and it was amazing.
Her decorating was awesome also.

Fun With The Vacuum Cleaner