Happy Birthday Landon

Happy Birthday to Landon

We have had quite an exciting weekend. We started celebrating the birth of Landon on Thursday by going on a 2 night camping trip at Huguenot Beach. It rained on an off during the campout, but the weather kept it cool and provided us "pale skins" some MUCH needed relief from the heat. (I'm not going to lie, I thought it was going to be awful to camp on the beach because of the heat) Landon loved playing outside all day - bike rides, swimming, shell collecting, roasting marshmallows, and playing at the park. We were so blessed to have our family there with us.

We returned from our camping trip on Saturday morning. We cleaned, washed clothes, and took a very LONG nap. After our nap, we took Landon to the mall for a special surprise...A TRAIN RIDE!! He absolutely loved it. It was the first time that Landon had ever been on the mall train. He stared out the window the whole time. Though it wasn't Kaison's birthday, he got to come along for the ride. He was thrilled. It was a fun surprise for our special boy!

And now it is June 10th. 3 years ago, our lives changed forever. We were blessed with a child handpicked by our Heavenly Father. He has brought so much fun, joy, and adventures to our life. Landon is an intelligent, social child who is compassionate to others. He doesn't like touching odd creatures - crabs, snails, bugs, etc. He LOVES to sing and dance. He does not like to get dirty. He loves his family. He loves nursery. His favorite shows are Chuggington and Mickey Mouse. He loves to pray and will fight you to be the one to pray. He loves to ask "Will you sleep with me?" in the sweetest voice EVER, in hopes of Mommy and Daddy laying down to snuggle. He loves puzzles and reading. Learning time is one of his favorite times of the day. He has memorized SEVERAL books. He loves to snuggle. Some mornings when Steven goes to work, Landon will come in the bed with me and snuggle. He wrap his arms around me and tell me that he loves me. What more could a mom want?? What a great kid. I could go on and on forever about him. So, without further ado.. Happy Birthday Landon!!!!!

FHE Pretzels and Prayer

Family Home Evening Pretzels and Prayer

Each Wednesday, we try our hardest to have Family Home Evening with the boys. We decided to curb one of our cravings - eating Auntie Annie's pretzels - by making pretzels from scratch. Mmmm Mmmm, they were so delicious.

• 3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons table salt
• Kosher Salt for Topping
• 1 teaspoons vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon butter (melted)
• 3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoons powdered sugar
• 1 tablespoon plus 1/2 teaspoon active dry yeast
• 1 1/4 cups + 2 tablespoons warm water

What To Do

Professional Pretzel Shaper!

Prepare yeast as instructed on the packet. Add oil to the yeast and stir. In a separate bowl mix place powdered sugar, butter, flour and salt. Mix. Place yeast mixture into the dry ingredient bowl.  Flour a surface and knead the dough for about 10 minutes. Place dough in a covered bowl ( I use plastic wrap) and let it rest for about an hour at 80 degrees. Dough should double in size. Preheat oven at 425. Take dough and cut into 8 sections. And roll into a long rope. Prepare a baking soda water bath with 2 cups warm water and 2 tbsp baking soda. ( It will give the pretzel that wonderful brown color). Dip each pretzel into the bath. Place pretzel on to parchment paper on top of a baking sheet. Bake for about 10 minutes or until pretzel is brown. Blush melted butter (optional ) onto each and sprinkle salt on top.

Kai was digging in!

They really were fantastic. All the pretzels were DEVOURED. After dinner, we had a lesson prayer. Aunt Ri and Jess stayed for the lesson that Steven prepared. We played a game with the Primary Song "Family Prayer". We acted out the words to the song by marching in a circle and then kneeling in family prayer. We closed our eyes, folded our arms, and bowed our heads. The boys were amused by the song and the game, we practiced several time kneeling in a circle together as a family. I love the time that we spend together as a family, especially as I see my little angels grow in the gospel. Their personalities are really shining through and its difficult to not be proud of who they are. Landon is kind and caring. Kai is joyful and ALWAYS smiling. We love them very much and are so blessed to have them in our lives.

 

"This is a pretzel Mommy!"