Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Relay For Life

We went to my hometown for a weekend and were able to attend the Relay For Life to support my Grandma Blom!  It was her first year to walk in the Survivor Lap.  She is a breast cancer survivor!  

All the survivors!

Letting cancer go!

We love you so much Grandma - you are so awesome!



Sunday, June 15, 2014

Happy Father's Day!

To the Best Daddy Ever!
We love you!
I mean seriously, that is one good looking Daddy right there!

Happy Father's Day to our Dad's, Dave and Randy - you are the most wonderful Grandpa's for our kids!  You are both always ready to go on adventures with the kids and you have no idea how much we love that!


My favorite picture of my Dad and Rylan's hands.  Rylan was only 2 years old!




Happy Father's Day to our Grandpa's - Russ and Alvin - we all love you so much!


Happy Father's Day to our Grandpa's in heaven, George and Melvin  - we have only good memories of you and think of you often! Our lives are so blessed because of your legacy!

Wednesday, June 11, 2014

A Zoo Visit

The kids and I went to a local zoo a couple weeks ago and had a great time on a beautiful day.  Of course the first thing they wanted to do was play on the playground there.  

Another monkey at the zoo!

And next was the carousel.


I love ducks and geese, they are so pretty!



And even though goats have creepy eyes, they are just funny - so social.




And this rabbit was pretty big, but couldn't get a good picture of him.  I'm thinking a it'd be fun to have a rabbit like this.  ;)

I think this poor llama wished her winter coat could just fall off all at once.  It was a hot day!

Our favorite exhibit was the river otters, new in the past year.  We spent 45 minutes - an hour just watching the otters.  Watching them swim never got boring.  We went back and forth from the water view to the top view many times and I think the kids would have stayed longer, but we needed to get home!




The pictures turned out so great and I couldn't narrow down any more, so if you don't like otter pictures, too bad!








Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Favorite Way to Eat Carrots!

CARROT CAKE!
What else?
This is another great recipe from The Pioneer Woman - Ree Drummond.  It's from her Holiday Cookbook, which I LOVE!  On Ree's blog post about this cake, she talks about Sigrid herself, so check this out too.  Also, her blog recipe puts the cake in a sheet pan, but it's so much yummier in a Bundt pan, so please do it that way!  Plus, then you can serve it on a super cute cake stand!  Naturally, I don't have any pictures because we ate it too fast. And lately, I think of things to blog about after they've actually happened.  But trust me, it's SO good.  I think the best carrot cake I've ever had!

Sigrid's Carrot Cake

Cake:
2 cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
4 large eggs
4-6 large carrots, washed and peeled

Frosting:
½ cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1 (8-oz) package cream cheese, softened
1 pound (3 ¾ cups) powdered sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup pecans, chopped fine (optional)

11. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
22. Into a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and cinnamon.  Set aside.
33. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine sugar and oil.
44. Then crack in the eggs and mix until well combined.
55. Add the dry ingredients to this bowl and mix until smooth.
66. Grate the carrots (you should have about 2 cups)
77. Add the carrots to the mixing bowl and mix until they’re completely incorporated into the batter.
88. Pour the batter into a well-greased Bundt pan.
99. Smooth out the surface of the batter with a spatula, then bake for 40-45 minutes, until the cake is set.
110. Turn the cake out of the pan and allow it to cool completely before icing.

To make the icing:
1  Add butter, cream cheese, powdered sugar and vanilla to the bowl of an  electric mixer and mix until the icing is light and fluffy and smooth.
2  (Optional: add the chopped pecans to the icing.)
3  When the cake is fully cooled, spread the icing evenly over the cake and serve!

(store leftover cake in the refrigerator)

My tips:
-My cake took about 50-52 minutes to bake.  Check every 2 minutes at the end because a little moist is always better than a dry cake.  
-You could totally eat this without icing, it's that good, but the icing is also outrageously good!
-Store it in the fridge, but take it out with plenty of time to serve at room temp.  Cold cream cheese frosting isn't nearly as tasty. 
-The icing recipe makes a lot!  I frosted 2 cakes with one batch and every piece was still perfectly covered. 
-A slice of cake and coffee totally counts as breakfast! (and lunch and dinner) :)