Brothers + Golden Hour

Now that spring is here, it seems like the light is so much prettier in the evenings, nice and golden.  I've been so ready to see these skies again!  Yesterday, I had an impromptu photoshoot with the cutest models ever.  I am amazed everyday that I get to call this man and these crazy boys mine.  They make my heart SO happy.  :)

Lemon Scones

It's almost Easter and I have the perfect recipe for you!  These lemon scones are so tasty they won't last long!  Back in my accounting days it was always a goooood day when Barb would bring in her lemon scones for a special treat.  My pregnant self always indulged in too many, but how could I resist!  Here is the recipe:

Scone:

2 1/4 cup flour

1/3 cup sugar

1 TBSP baking powder

11 TBSP  cold unsalted butter

1 cup heavy cream

Glaze:

1 cup confectioners sugar

1/4 tsp vanilla (would be good with almond too!)

zest of 1 lemon (would be good with lime or orange too!)

1 1/2 TBSP water

• Preheat oven to 375
• Add all dry ingredients into a bowl or your electric mixer (I used my mixer this time and I felt it worked just as well as mixing it by hand with a pastry blender)
• Add cold butter (cut up into small cubes)
• Add heavy cream
• Mix until it all sticks together, don't over mix.  Your butter should be about the size of peas
• Roll out your dough either on a floured surface or on parchment paper (I used parchment paper so that I could put the dough in the fridge if it started getting soft and sticky.)
• Cut dough into scone shapes, the easiest way to explain that would be make a square and then put cut and 'x' through it, giving you 4 triangles.  Mine never come out perfect, they all taste the same.  :)  
• Put on a cookie sheet (I sprayed mine lightly but not sure if that is necessary) and bake for 15-20 min.  It took mine 15.  
• Let cool completely before you add the glaze.  The glaze is super easy, just mix the ingredients together and either dunk into the glaze or drizzle the scone with the glaze.  I prefer to spoon some glaze on each scone and smear it around, if you dunk, it uses up your mixture really fast and you might run out before you're done.  

When I made these yesterday, I doubled the batch and it made 72 scones of varying shape and size.  

I hope you enjoy these as much as my family does!!  Happy Easter.  XO

Eat Dessert First!

Life is uncertain.  Eat dessert first.  -Ernestine Ulmer

We ate dessert before lunch today.  :)

Colter's 1st Ski Lesson

Colter took his first ski lesson yesterday, up on Red Lodge Mountain.  I am so proud of how brave he was trying something new and kind of scary...he is my child after all.  He made it down two bunny hill runs, and did quite well actually!  He just couldn't get himself to do any more and his instructor was slightly worn out from all the pep talks I think, so we called it a day.  I asked him if he wants to go again sometime and he said "maybe when he's 6."  It went so much better than swimming lessons, we'll call it a win!  :)

Thanks to the lady that offered to take a picture of all of us together, so nice!

He may have been paying too much attention to his mommy cheering him on...and not looking at where he was going. Oops!

I couldn't resist this classic :)

Our New Little Buddy, Sawyer

We welcomed Sawyer, a mini golden doodle to our family on February 1st.  We love him so much!  What a sweet little pup.  He is so calm for a puppy.  He lets the boys love on him.  Winston and Tiki even tolerate him!!  All 13 fluffy pounds of him.  He follows me around where ever I go.  If I'm cooking, he's laying on the rug at my feet, if I walk to the table to give the boys their food, he follows me....back and forth.  

It's kind of a funny story.  I've always said I wanted my next pup to be a golden doodle and we had been talking about it for someday in the future.  Colter got it in his head and wouldn't let it go...I told him we needed to save our money (for a golden-poodle as Colter says it).  So Joey told me the week before we got him that he had to go out of town for work, something he actually does have to do fairly often, I thought nothing of it because to reach the biggest crowd, he has to do certain meetings on weekends or evenings...so when he got home that night and I welcomed a puppy sitting at the door instead of my husband, I almost fainted...no really!  Turns out, Joey picked his mom up on the way and drove to a different state to pick our little fella up!

Colter named him Sawyer after the boy on Dolphin Tale, a movie he really loves.  I thought that was special and a cute name so Sawyer stuck.  Here are a few pics of our new pup.