Blackberry Pie

Ok, so I'm officially obsessed with berry picking and I had to take Grandma Kathy to the Berry Barn for some berry picking fun with the kids. We brought home our stash of blackberries and made a scrum-diddily-umptious pie. Nothing better than three generations baking together. Is it weird that I love my mom's old sifter? It just says home and warmth and special times baking together. Left over berries ready to go to the neighbors (or to the fridge) Before After - Yum! This recipe is pretty similar to the one from my mom's cookbook. We substituted blackberries for blueberries of course. This is from the Betty Crocker website. Pastry
2	cups Gold Medal® all-purpose flour
1	teaspoon salt
2/3	cup plus 2 tablespoons shortening
4	to 6 tablespoons cold water
Filling
3/4	cup sugar
1/2	cup Gold Medal® all-purpose flour
1/2	teaspoon ground cinnamon, if desired
6	cups blueberries
1	tablespoon lemon juice
1	tablespoon butter or margarine, if desired

1.	In medium bowl, mix 2 cups flour and the salt. Cut in shortening, using pastry blender (or pulling 2 table knives through ingredients in opposite directions), until particles are size of small peas. Sprinkle with cold water, 1 tablespoon at a time, tossing with fork until all flour is moistened and pastry almost cleans side of bowl (1 to 2 teaspoons more water can be added if necessary).
2.	Gather pastry into a ball. Divide in half; shape into 2 flattened rounds on lightly floured surface. Wrap in plastic wrap; refrigerate about 45 minutes or until dough is firm and cold, yet pliable. This allows the shortening to become slightly firm, which helps make the baked pastry more flaky. If refrigerated longer, let pastry soften slightly before rolling.
3.	Heat oven to 425°F. With floured rolling pin, roll one round into round 2 inches larger than upside-down 9-inch glass pie plate. Fold pastry into fourths; place in pie plate. Unfold and ease into plate, pressing firmly against bottom and side.
4.	In large bowl, mix sugar, 1/2 cup flour and the cinnamon. Stir in blueberries. Spoon into pastry-lined pie plate. Sprinkle any remaining sugar mixture over blueberry mixture. Sprinkle with lemon juice. Cut butter into small pieces; sprinkle over blueberries. Cover with top pastry that has slits cut in it; seal and flute. Cover edge with 2- to 3-inch strip of foil to prevent excessive browning.
5.	Bake 35 to 45 minutes or until crust is golden brown and juice begins to bubble through slits in crust, removing foil for last 15 minutes of baking. Cool on cooling rack at least 2 hours.

Lucy has chompers!

So long gummy smile. Lucy finally has some teeth! Maryn only had 4 teeth at a year old, but Lucy wins the toothless smile award with no teeth until two weeks after her first birthday. You can see her little chompers poking through the gums. No dentures for her (at least for a while!)

Gangsta'

This picture is from a few weeks ago during movie night (we rented Cars...and then watched it 10 times in the 7 days we had it before we had to give it back to blockbuster). Maryn found this hat and wore it during the whole movie. I thought she looked like a hip-hop dancer in her sweats and the hat and showed her some of my So You Think You Can Dance moves to emulate. Too bad you can't hear the "huh" sound she made as she struck this pose. She's hard core.

The Goose turns ONE!!

Lucy's big day was so full of fun and excitement that I am only finding time to blog about it now, one day after the fact. So here's my belated birthday shout-out to our sweet Lucy-goose who has brought immeasurable joy and laughter (and the occasional tear) to our family and who has made us all better people in the 366 days since she graced us with her presence.
She has emerged from adversity to become a sweet, joyful, impishly-grinning, twinkly-eyed girl who enjoys climbing on furniture and adoringly chases her sister.

Lucy, we love you so very much and are grateful to God for bringing you (and us!) through this first year of your life. We can't wait to see the things He has in store for you!

hi and bye

We apologize for being bad bloggers this past week and we're going to play hooky a little bit longer so this is just to tide you over until we can catch up next week.

Things around here have been (and will continue to be) busy:
-We went to the zoo with the G family - what a beautiful and perfect day

Little man C and Maryn playing in the dirt at the zoo

-My parents moved into their new house last Friday - woohoo!
-My good friends Steph and Erin visited from California - I can't put into words how much I've missed them and how wonderful our time together was.

Steph, me and Erin. We set up a tri-pod to take some pictures of all of us - we've come a long way from junior high!

-Our church had their Power Lab-themed vacation Bible school - so much fun!

Little miss C (little man C's sister) and Lucy at Power Lab. They're going to be best friends, I just know it!

-We're going camping this weekend with our dear friends the K family (our first camping trip since we've been married and had kids!)
-Lucy turns ONE on Monday!!!
-Grandma Carol, Grandpa DB and Auntie Laurel are all coming next week to celebrate with us!!

Whew! I'm tired just thinking about it all, but wouldn't have it any other way. "See" you all next week :)