Love, Love

I decided this year that Valentine's Day was going to be about making a fun tradition and spending the night at home together! I've never been one for spending insane amounts of money to show someone how much you love them on one day. So naturally I decided to head to Pinterest (I have no original ideas). I came across this on Pinterest and printed it out. We headed to the Dollar Store to let Mailey pick out the decorations and things for our table.

We let Mailey pick what would be on the menu (Heart shaped pizza, salad, mandarin oranges, sparkling cider and a heart shaped cake) I also thought it would be fun to play some Valentine's Games after dinner to make it a fun night. I couldn't find very many easy games that Mailey could play so I decided to make my own. I found this printable for a fun memory game. I printed this memory game out also. See... no original ideas all stolen from other crafty moms! ;) 

Checking out her loot

 Oh how I love my girl!

 Decorating her pizza's

Daniel and my dad just love pictures.. 

 Playing Valentines Memory! She is really into the Memory game lately.

 Fast asleep on her pillowcase Geeg made (yes, she has the same pj shirt on as when she woke up... She insisted on wearing it again. Pick your battles right?!) 

A real derby girl!

Daniel signed Mailey up for a derby car race last week. At first Mailey was NOT excited.. she didn't want to race a block of wood! :) once Daniel explained that he would help her carve it into a car she was all game!
She told him she needed a convertible because her two ducks wanted to ride. So they carved it all up at geegs house, she painted three layers of pink and purple, they screwed on the ducks and she was ready.

Once the night finally arrived Mailey was so excited.. she and Payton jumped around and cheered for all the cars. Each car raced 4 times. Mailey got a 1st, 4th, 3rd and 2nd. She won 3rd place for speed! She was beyond excited and kept saying "I'm a real derby girl now!" Payton held the car and Mailey held her little trophy all night.

Daniel is already scheming a car up for next year.

Easy No Knead Bread

I found this recipe on Pinterest which took me to the blog “Simply So Good” This bread is highly forgiving! If I can manage to pull it off you can too! It calls for an enamel covered cast iron pot, which I didn't have and the bread turned out just fine. You can use anything with a lid that can take heat (I used a roasting pan). I just bought (thanks to Amazon) a small dutch oven that I can't wait to try out!

Instructions:

In a large mixing bowl add 3 cups of white unbleached flour, 1 3/4 teaspoon salt (recommend kosher) and 1/2 teaspoon yeast.

Whisk the flour, salt and yeast together.

 Add 1 1/2 cups water. 

 Mix in the water.

The dough will look messy and be very sticky.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it set for 12 - 18 hours on the counter top.  DO NOT REFRIGERATE. It takes this much time to let the dough rise. You need a large bowl because the dough will rise and get bigger. (I had to transfer my dough into a metal pan... my plastic wrap wouldn't stick to the plastic bowl).

After 12-18 hours your dough will look like this. It will be very sticky. (I added garlic and cheese to my dough. It is very fun to add different things to your bread. Try it!) 

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees. When your oven is preheated to 450 degrees place your pot with the lid in the oven and pre-heat the pot for 30 minutes.

Right after you put the pan in the oven to preheat, dump the dough out onto a heavily floured surface, shape it into a round ball tucking the edges towards the bottom. This will rest while the pan is heating in the oven. Put the plastic wrap back on the dough after you have shaped it into a ball.

Remove the pot from the oven and carefully pick up the ball of dough and drop it into the pot.  Either put flower on your hands or leave the plastic wrap on and quickly take it off before it melts to your pan. (keep in mind your pan is extremely hot, or you will have burned fingers like me) 

 Put the lid on your pan and put it back in the over for 30 minutes. 

 Don't mind my messy oven.. When there is about 15 minutes left take off your lid to brown the top of your bread. 

You will be amazed once you pull your bread out of the oven! It's full proof! Make sure to let it completely cool before cutting into it.

Lets try this again...

I'm going to try and keep up on this blog this year. We really aren't that interesting, but here goes it!
Here are some pictures of Daniel, Mailey, Aunt Sheri, Ivy and Tanner playing in the snow this past week.