a trip to...coyote hills

the day was lovely, and quite windy,






and full of smiles...

birthday paintings for heidi!!

what do you think?

just a few more plants...

we decided to plant just a few more... peppers, and basil (more basil than peppers, you go through it much faster)
basil can be grown indoors, in planters outside, or just straight in the ground, and it's so amazing in almost all foods, why would you not
still planting in containers, just to let a few more weeks of possibly bad weather go by before putting our babies out in the real world
I love my sister jennifer. she helps with most of my projects, and she makes me smile.

the garden...

This is our garden away from home. We usually have a small garden at my parents house, but mostly flowers and the usual yard plants; Martin and I started a vegetable garden at his house; but this is THE garden. This garden is where our chickens roam, our bees used to reside, and where the majority of our yard work is done. Grandpa Beck was a friend of the owner of the land and has had berries and grapes here since I can remember. It has only been in recent years that we have actually gardened here. The vegetables are in the works. We love it. This is my dad's pride and joy.



The berries will come on in late summer (boysenberry pie is so delicious, you have no idea). The grapes are usually in their prime late summer early fall (we make jars and jars of grape juice, delicious, and so good for you).

we have chickens...

these are our chickens.
we give them love, they give us eggs
and we live happily ever after



For those in our ward or nearby, if you and your kiddies would like to hang out with the chickens for a little bit, gather some eggs and what not, talk to my dad or myself! My dad loves showing off his little friends to people :)

They live at the garden across from the church, just in case you were interested (I think it's illegal to have them at your house)

and the winner is.....

drum roll if you please........

My Mom :)

(it was a random draw I swear and the odds that it would be a family member were quite high considering they were 90% of the comments left). But...Karla, I saved a piece for you at the house, come to the show tomorrow! Cindy, I'll bring you a piece tomorrow. Mom and ryan, you'll get to enjoy the cake after our sunday dinner. Jana, come home please, we miss you. Sorry for anyone that's to far for a cake :) maybe you can attempt at a giveaway in the future where the gift can be mailed!!!

LEAVE A COMMENT, WIN A CARROT CAKE!!!

Happy birthday to my friend Laura!!
This carrot cake was made by request, and I couldn't have been happier to do it! I had not made a carrot cake in a long time, and I don't think I've ever bothered to decorate one, so it was fun!



I couldn't decide how big I wanted to make the cake, so I ended up with extra, enough to make a mini!!
And I had a great idea; if you would like this amazing carrot cake to be yours, leave me a comment on this blog today (saturday), and obviously if you're in the area surrounding fremont. At the end of the day I'll pick a winner!!!
LEAVE A COMMENT, WIN A CARROT CAKE!!!



I'll attempt to give you a recipe for this cake..

For the cake..
I used a box mix of carrot cake, follow the recipe, then add 1/2 cup chopped nuts (pecans or walnuts), 2 carrots finely shredded, and if you would like, some fresh ginger zest.
This recipe is a cheat recipe, but it's so amazing.

For the cream cheese frosting:
2 packages cream cheese
1 T. vanilla
6 T. melted butter
2 c. powdered sugar

Mix the cream cheese, vanilla, and butter thoroughly. Add the powdered sugar 1/2 c. at a time until fully incorporated. Refrigerate for an hour or so before you frost the cake.

I usually use 2 cake round pans; then when frosting, both cakes are cut in half. This allows for 3 layers of filling or frosting. The first layer (bottom) I use cream cheese, next layer (middle) I used apricot jam, the last layer, cream cheese frosting.