No clue where she got this, but tonight, Maggie Anne has taken to kissing my wedding ring. She did it before supper saying that some people like to have their rings kissed. I told her that was like the Pope and royalty sometimes. I thought it was passed, but after my good night kiss, she had to kiss my ring again.

New Dresses

Pam made some lovely new matching dresses for the girls. Here's the first pair. Jessie wouldn't sit on the bench, but we worked it out.

Bread

So, I've taken to baking bread lately. Boyd had brought home a couple of wheat bread mixes that turned out really good (especially toasted with avocado spread which had a bit of garlic, sour cream & lemon in it). We went through those two loaves and it inspired me to pull out a recipe that I had from growing up. It is now in "My" cookbook, but it references that it is from the Zondervan Family Cookbook originally.

90-Minute No-Knead Bread

1 cup warm water
1 package yeast
1 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. sugar
1 Tbsp. oil
About 2 1/2 cups flour

Dissolve yeast in warm water. Add salt, sugar, oil and about half the flour. Stir vigorously for 1 minute. Stir in the rest of the flour, adding enough to make a soft dough. Let stand for 15 minutes.

Turn out on a floured surface (wax paper fits nicely in one of my cookie sheets and somewhat contains the flour cloud) and beat with a wooden spoon or rolling pin for one minute, folding dough over when it becomes flattened (I enjoyed just using my hands to smack it - good stress relief whatever you use).

Form into a loaf and place in a greased 9x5" loaf pan. Cover and let rise in a warm place for about 30 minutes, until doubled. Bake at 400 degrees for 18 minutes.

The picture above is from this afternoon when I decided to switch things up. I added 1 cup white flour, 1 cup wheat flour and 1/2 cup flaxseed meal. Just used white flour to dust for the smashing part. This loaf is phenomenal! It did not rise as much and is more dense, but the flavor is great. Dalton really liked it too, which says a lot for something that is slightly better for him than white bread. Hope you enjoy!

So Maggie Anne (who I remind you is 4) just told her 2-year-old sister Jessie, "It's not cool to touch your lady business."

I have never been more thankful that I was standing in the doorway and could hide my face because I was dying!

Kids wanted to pick some flowers this weekend. I was not prepared for them to pick every single flower from the yard, but they are beautiful!

Made some good chicken tonight that I originally saw on a Hellmann's Mayonnaise commercial and tracked it down on their website. Give it a try. Only a couple of changes I had to make. I had to cook mine a little longer because they were slightly thicker chicken breasts. I also put a drizzle of olive oil in the bottom of my glass baking dish to keep it from sticking. Plus I followed their smart tip at the bottom of the recipe because I had some of their olive oil mayo.

Received rave reviews from all except Dalton and he could scrape off the topping.

Parmesan-Crusted Chicken

INGREDIENTS

• 1/2 cup Hellmann's® or Best Foods® Real Mayonnaise
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (about 1-1/4 lbs.)
• 4 tsp. Italian seasoned dry bread crumbs

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 425°.
2. Combine Hellmann's® or Best Foods® Real Mayonnaise with cheese in medium bowl. Arrange chicken on baking sheet. Evenly top with Mayonnaise mixture, then sprinkle with bread crumbs.
3. Bake until chicken is thoroughly cooked, about 20 minutes.

SMART TIP: For the Hellmann’s® taste you love with the goodness of olive oil, substitute Hellmann's®or Best Foods® Mayonnaise Dressing with Olive Oil. 

http://www.hellmanns.com/recipes/detail/32658/1/parmesan-crusted-chicken#.Uxnm_dW-gCk.email

Dalton likes to draw these "maps" as he called them (there's always some pattern to unlock it somehow). What I like is that he inevitably tells me that I've got it upside down.

So Boyd had committed to playing with Maggie and her choice was to make him play Barbies. He did so like a pro, but went to tease Maggie and sat her Cinderella Barbie on the potty of her dream house and blew a raspberry.

Maggie Anne threw her hands on her hips and indignantly said, "Cinderella does NOT poop like that! Her poop goes 'bloop, bloop, bloop!'"

Don't know if Maggie will ever get her Daddy to play Barbies with her again.

Shortly after this, she was telling Boyd the names of all the dolls. She pulled out one that looks like Hannah Montana and said that her name was Rasta Girl. We figure if any of them were named that, this doll was the most appropriate.

Our first adventure with getting hurt at school. Knocked out one baby tooth, broke one in half and the other front tooth was pretty badly cracked.  We had just been to a new dentist that week, which was a lucky break and saved us a trip to the emergency room.

Dentist filled it in nicely and told me that he can get a crown when his teeth mature. Said he really doesn't need to bite into anything until then. I was confirming the extent of this biting regulation and asked if he meant just things like apples. He said, no, we should really try to keep him from biting into anything, even pizza. 

I then had to ask when he would get that permanent crown - when he's 16 . . . I've told Boyd that we just need to expect to be getting this fixed often over the next 8 years. 

Happy Mardi Gras

We've been really busy and I am behind, but here are some of the fun pictures that we took while visiting my brother and his wife Allison in Shreveport for their Mardi Gras parade. They had a totally rockin' party!

Jessie took a break from all the excitement.

She caught on really quickly about putting those hands up!

Her Grandaddy caught her a Moon Pie! That a good catch!

Kids came away with good many beads. Maggie was quite pleased with herself for getting a couple of stuffed animals.

We didn't make it out of the neighborhood before the kids were sleeping.