Here is Amelia and her snowman that daddy helped her make. What an amazing guy. Amelia chose the smile. During construction Daddy was putting the head on top and it suddenly slipped and fell onto Amelia's head and then cracked in two. Amelia said, "That really hurt", but had no tears. What a trooper.

Elves!

These great elves are for hire. They do an excellant job wrapping, cutting, taping and a special technique called wrinkle chic that would be used on all your presents. Their cost is 4 cookies per hour each. The large one takes hers with no chocolate chips. The little one needs frequent potty breaks.

Not responsible for bowel movement related accidents and tantrums.

Here's some more pics of Edie as she gets better at smiling. Also the pic of Amelia is yesterday when she said she wanted to go to school like that. What a fashion diva.

This is an addendum to the earlier bread post. To continue to show how the bread will look as it is rolled up and the height you want it to raise to. Be careful as you roll the dough up not to curl your fingers into the dough. Just roll it with the flat of your hand or with fingers straight. I've found that when you curl your fingers you inadvertently create air holes by creating indents in the dough.

We took another tour of Hammonds candy's when my parents and grandparents were here. The first time we went here it was with Jim and Julie. Great candy, but after seeing all of it I can whole heartedly say I want none of it. It is a bit much. They make really excellant caramels as well, but they were out the second time we went. The guide said that they make the candy canes for Tiffany's, Martha Stewart and Macy's among other special orders. Those three of course were the biggest names. Our friend Riley came with us on this day as well since they didn't have school.

These are our amazing costumed children. Amelia made a very 'scary' witch. (When I called her cute she was upset because she wanted to be scary). Lauren was a Ladybug and has talked about it for quite sometime still. They both had a great time. Trick or treating at the church was funny because we don't have very many kids so they went around about 5 or 6 times until all the candy was given out. Unfortunately the picture of them trick or treating was rather poor. Oh well. Hey and how about the fact that I'm just now posting these pics...a little pathetic.

The makings of a smile on the top one. I love this cute dress that she has on in the bottom one. Too bad you can't see anything but the top of it.

The girls really enjoyed having their Grandparents here for the blessing. Especially when Grandpa let them throw leaves on him.

November 9th, her bessing day. What an awsome dad!

Okay after a long and arduous list of events (both positive and negative) we now have access to post pictures to our blog. I wasn't purposely avoiding posting pictures of Edie, however it is with much regret that have lost all of the beautiful pictures just after she was born except for one.

The Birth

Edith Jane Willford 7lbs 11oz , 19 1/4 inches long (shorter than her sisters were) 14inch head (tiny bit smaller than her sisters---good girl) born at 11:37a.m. on Saturday morning. In between conference talks :) Which, by the way, we were really surprised, but the hospital had KBYU so we were actually watching it before things got exciting.

We call her Edie.

Bread

So, many of you know that I like making bread. I take great joy actually in making a nice loaf. I also feel quite confident that it is some of the best tasting bread out there and I decided that I would post my mother's and my recipe since we came up with it together. Please note that I have updated the books that I have recently read and have put on there "On Food and Cooking...". Really if you want to read one of the best books ever and really understand why things are working or not working for you on everything you try to make it is in that book. That book is amazing. I particularly love the part about bread.

So if you were ever wondering about 100% whole wheat bread at all here is my passion and my spiel on just about everything:
The equipment:
http://kodiakhealth.com is the name of the website that is for a business in Pocatello, Idaho that has been selling Bosch and the Wonder Mill for years and does FREE SHIPPING. The Wonder Mill is really the premium choice for grain mills since it is much quieter than the cheaper one sold at the cannery.

The one the LDS cannery promotes is $170...and actually I think it ends up being closer to $150 (but you have to pay shipping) because when you call the cannery they give you the company's name to go through and they give a discount to people referred to them by the cannery. Their mill is every bit as effective and efficient, however the wondermill is much easier to clean and it is quieter like I said.

For the Mixer: the reason why I recommend that you go through this gentleman's business is because I know him and I know that he sells them at a very competitive price. I think you would have a hard time finding it cheaper unless you had a family member who sold bosch.
The mixer's have gone up in price since I received mine because they have built a newer model, but it now comes with the blender and so you don't have to buy that extra so really it is about the same price as before if you counted in the blender.
The Bosch Universal Mixer is $379
http://kodiakhealth.com/catalog/product_info.php/products_id/3939
The WonderMill is $239
http://kodiakhealth.com/catalog/product_info.php/products_id/3537
Bottom line is if it isn't your money and you are deciding about which mill I would choose the wondermill. If it is you money and you don't care about the noise and you just buy a cheap small paint brush to dust off the cheaper mixer to clean it then that is the way to go.
Cost Analysis
Here is the cost versus savings if you need to convince anyone to spend the money: It costs just barely under $1 a loaf to make right now with wheat prices at the cannery and honey and oil that has all gone up slightly over the last couple years. If you eat through 5 loaves a week, which we almost do (more like every 10 days) then you are spending about $180-260 a year on your own bread and about 540-780 on $3/loaf bread bought from the store. So depending on how much you eat you'll save somewhere between 360 and 540 a year by making your own. So you can see that you will, either shortly before a year is up, our shortly after, break even with your expenses with the mixer and mill. And your taste buds, body, and family will thank you for making the switch.

The RECIPE
I weigh things for accuracy (and yes I do think it is worth it because I am a nerd) and will post the weight of the flour as I think it is important, however keep in mind it is a range so depending on the moisture in the air that day...

For 5 loaves in 8x4x41/2 pans (pan size is critical in this) Uncooked weighs 1 lb. 9 1/2 oz. I also do a 5 oz. little loaf in one of our mini pans for the kids to have fun with.
8oz. Honey
2 T. yeast
1 T. salt
4 1/2 oz. Oil
3 1/2 oz. wheat gluten
3 lb. 4 1/2 oz. warm water

4lbs whole wheat (approximately and about 12-13 c.)

Flax Seed I also add about 1/3-1/2 c. ground flax see to my 5 loaves. I grind the flax seed in a coffee grinder since flax seed is high in oil and is absolutely against the wheat mill manual and will gum up the mill.

knead for 8 min. on high speed. Of course with the KitchenAid you're going to have to just really monitor the amount that the gluten has developed in your bread so that you know when the kneading is done. Keep in mind as well that since the KitchenAid mixing bowl does not have a cover that some of the moisture does evaporate and so you may want to add just a tad bit more water. Gluten is well formed when your dough is stretchy and you can make it stretch about 4 inches. Of course as you know the whole wheat dough is more sticky than a white dough and so don't add more flour beyond 13 cups. When you roll it out use only oil and if you want to even avoid that...you can roll it out on a silpat (my mother's idea) and then roll it up into a loaf and place in your greased pan. I roll my dough out lengthwise and then fold it into thirds then rotate it and then roll out again, fold into thirds then roll out again and then roll up into a loaf. I do this to get rid of all possible air bubbles and it tightens up the loaf without having to add flour. Let rise until the crest of dough is 1 inch above sides of pan. For this recipe if you let it rise anymore you'll find too many air holes and the bread won't be able to support itself for sandwiches very well.
Then here is the really amazing part that we took from a KitchenAid book and it works like I thought nothing else would to ensure nice crusts: Cook at 400 degrees for 13-15 min. (depending on your stove) then 13-15 min at 350. Turn out of pans immediately afterward. Gas ovens like mine get a little inaccurate for temp and so you end up cooking a little closer to the 13 min. side because of its blasts of heat to maintain temp. Electric stoves you'll confidently cook at specific times each time after you try it a few times to see what is right for you. Durn those gas ovens :)

For KitchenAids--turning out 2 loaves only
So to cut the recipe down you're going to want to cut it a little more than half because it will be too much dough for two loaves. Really try not to use 9x5 loaf pans because they make too large of a slice for most everything...toaster...sandwiches. Just a pain.

I think the rough estimates for cutting it down for two loaves are as follows:

1 T. yeast
4 c. warm water
3/4 c. oil
3/4 c. honey
5-6 c. whole wheat flour
1/3 c. wheat gluten
3/4 T. yeast

The ingredients...a tutorial on prices

A word about Wheat Gluten
Wheat gluten can be purchased at any store in the baking section by "Bob's Red Mill" ($5/lb) however it is cheapest at Vitamin Cottage at $1.97/lb. You can get it at Whole Foods for 2.6 ish /lb in their bulk section according to a friend of mine. You can replace Wheat Gluten with Asorbic Acid, however I haven't tried it to see about the amounts. Asorbic Acid is Vitamen C....I'll do some looking to see where you can buy this and in what form. Wheat Gluten is worth it. If you don't believe me then try it. It makes the loaf softer and increases you protein content. The unfortunate thing about Whole Wheat is that it has a high gluten content, but it is mostly in the bran and can't translate to developed gluten in your bread to make it hold together. Which is why adding gluten is wonderful because it makes for a stronger slice and a better sandwich etc.
It isn't that expensive just do it...everyone will thank you.
The rest
Honey, yeast and oil are cheapest at Costco, however the LDS Cannery sells their honey for the same price. It is good when you can get it less than $1.70/lb for honey and oil for under $10/5qts.
Wheat is cheapest at the cannery by a considerable margin being of recent date about $6.75/25lbs for the HARD RED WHEAT. Hard White Wheat is a little more expensive and has a softer flour outcome. Really I've cooked with Hard White for a while and it was great, but I wanted to switch to the red because of the price jump last year. I haven't regretted the switch and the kids still eat it, but it is a little brannier and rougher. I also had to decrease one of my cooking times by a min. Interesting? I thought so.
With all prices of products taken into account and with my estimate of gas and electricity for your appliances you spend just under $1/loaf.

Above is quite obviously Amelia after the log ride and then Chris tells me that Amelia wanted to try on these funny hats as well. The last pic is of Amelia all tuckered out on the light rail ride home.

Elitch Gardens on Labor Day.

Amelia made an amazing recovery from the previous problem only to lose her very first tooth. She was consoled by 50 cents from the tooth fairy, which she knows is pretend because she asks too many questions and I can't tell a bold-faced lie about it.

The top is my birthday cake that Chris made all by himself (he's very proud). It is called "Almost better than sex" cake, however I think there are several with that name. This one was a german chocolate cake base with a caramel sauce and then whip cream and then heath bar crumbles on top. It tasted very good and I am not a fan of cake, but I liked this one.

The next pic is Lauren's rite of passage self application of lipstick. The last is Amelia's sudden teeth problem. Thankfully we were able to get it fixed :)

The top pic is Chris' sister Katie with Amelia's cousins Tristin, and Timmy. The middle one is Amy and Amelia.

That same night Grandpa did a bonfire. Or rather maybe Uncle Tommy did a fair share of the stoking so it was quite a flame. The middle picture is Chris' sister Amy and her husband Nick and Amelia's cousin Ethan.

Lauren loved Grandma Willford's wooden city that she painted. She would push the cars around for quite some time. The last two pictures are of all their Willford cousins on the back fence of the Willford Plantation.

Grandpa Willford flood irrigates and the girls and their cousins, Ethan and Isaac couldn't resist the amazing fun in the huge puddle in the front yard. I was hoping it didn't hurt the lawn too much, but after the water soaked in the grass looked completely fine. I have tons more pictures of this fun, so Jenny I think I'll be sending you some.

Picnic at the park near Holt Arena. One of the few pictures where I'm in it so I thought I'd post it as evidence that I am pregnant. Below Lauren was really enjoying Grandma and Grandpa Archibald's piano.

Amelia hugging cousin Natalie and then chasing Wesley. They both had such a great time with cousins and were devastated to have to leave. And by devastated I mean DRAMA.

Above with Aunt Katie and below with Grandpa. Our girls are suckers for guitars. Sadly the studio I called to find out about lessons for Amelia said that they don't begin lessons for kids until they are 7. She took the news well. In the meantime I think we'll focus on music theory....if she has any patience.