Slow down, baby!

I knew babies grew fast, but I never realized how fast until I had one of my own. These little stinkers grow right before your very eyes!

And if you need proof, check out these pictures of Emily, taken each month from 0-12 months.

Ahhh, savor the moments...they go too fast. Anyone else feel like singing "Sunrise, Sunset" with me?

Homemade bread secrets from Grammy

These are my Christensen Grandparents... both amazing people I could brag about all day. Recently my Grammy shared an awesome bread baking tip with me (on facebook) that I want to pass on to all my bread-baking-buddies out there. Here it is, in her own words:

"Let me give you another hint on bread making that I have learned (and they said you couldn't teach old dogs new tricks). Now days when my bread has raised the required times and is ready to be put into the pans, I warm my oven to 179-200 degrees and when I get the loaves into the baking pans, I then put the pans into the warm oven. I then watch it closely until the bread is about 1/2 inch above the pans and then I just leave them in the oven and turn the oven up to 375 degrees and set the timer to 35-38 minutes and that's it until the timer goes off. I get a much more even grain to the bread....no bubbles under the crust, no big pores. It works great for me."

I tried her tip today when I made bread and it worked great- I'm going to do this from now on. By the way, here's my bread:
But check out Grammy's homemade bread. PERFECT!
Next I'm going to see if she knows why my bread came out cracked near the rim/top. I'll keep you posted....