Abby's Great Brain Project

Abby worked hard on a project for school called "The Great Brain." She chose to learn more about baking. With the help of her mentor (aka: Mom) we read up on the different kinds of leaveners used in breads, baked many things using those leaveners, toured BYU bakery, and at the end Abby shared her knowledge in a presentation she gave to her 2nd grade class. Together Abby and I baked chocolate chip cookies, snowball cookies (twice), white bread, and banana bread. At the class presentation she showed them many of the different tools used in baking, demonstrated how to proof yeast, and gave the kids a taste test of foods made with each kind of leavener. She gave samples of chocolate chip cookies, sourdough bread, cinnamon raisin bread, pound cake, banana bread, and pita bread. Here is the paper she wrote for her project.

Abby's Great Brain Project: BAKING

The reasons I picked baking are that I want to be a good baker and I think it is fun to bake. There are many things to know about baking. I will share with you some of the things I have learned while I studied this subject.

There are many tools used in baking. Some of them are: measuring cups and spoons, pans, mixing bowls, spatulas, cooling racks, and an oven. Measuring cups and spoons help you to measure your ingredients correctly. The oven can be put on different temperatures. That is important because you need the right temperature for different foods.

I went to the BYU bakery. My uncle works there. He was able to show me the big oven. The oven has six shelves. The shelves rotate around and around like a ferris wheel when you press a lever. The oven can bake ninety-six loaves of bread at a time. There is a mixer that I saw there. It was huge! It can hold 130 pounds of dough. That makes 86 loaves of bread! There was a machine that had a conveyor belt that had rollers on it that flattened dough. Then there was another machine that cut the dough into dough shapes when you move the lever back and forth. My mom and I got to taste green, mint frosting out of an enormous bowl. There was also a machine that filled cream puffs with custard. I got one to taste but I dropped it on the floor on accident.

Different ingredients are used in making different baked goods. Some ingredients used are: flour, salt, sugar, eggs, oil, butter, vanilla, baking soda, baking powder, yeast and sponge. Not the kind of sponge that you clean your counter with. This kind of sponge is yeast that you grow yourself. You can make all kinds of things from these ingredients like cookies, cakes, batter breads, and yeast breads. The last four ingredients that I named are called leaveners. Leaveners make bubbles in bread, cookies, and cake. The bubbles make them rise.

Baking soda is a chemical compound. Baking powder is baking soda mixed with cream of tartar and cornstarch. Yeast is a plant that is not green. To make it rise it needs to be fed sugar. Sponge is a mixture of ingredients that you leave out on your counter so that the yeast spores in the air can come and grow there.

3500 years ago in Egypt they made bread with yeast. Before the Egyptians discovered baking with yeast, all bread was flat and hard as a rock. On the walls of pyramids there were drawings and messages that showed the people making bread. In the tombs of the pharaohs they would put things for the afterlife that they would need. One of those things was bread shaped like a servant because they thought he would need servants in the afterlife too. They had forty kinds of bread. They recently found a bowl with bread in it that was 3500 years old that looked a lot like it did right after it was made. I am thankful for the Egyptians discovery of baking with yeast.

I had a lot of fun baking and learning about baking. I hope you will too.

Abby's School Poem

Abby recited a poem in front of her 2nd grad class entitled "I Have a Baby-sitter Here With Me. This poem can be sung to the song "I Have a Little Baby Bumblebee," but she didn't sing it.

I Have a Baby-sitter Here With Me

I have a baby-sitter here with me

She's on the phone while she's watching TV

I thought she was supposed to play with me

Now.....she's hungry!

My baby-sitter's gonna raid the snacks

Cookies, candy, a box of Cracker Jack

She chomped so fast that right before my eyes

She....ate the prize!

Wait till my parents come home, what a fit

Bet they'll never ask her back to sit

Oh no, what am I saying? I'd miss her

She's.....my sister!

Abby wore her pajamas and brought a pizza box and some papers wadded up like garbage. Mrs. Paice, her 2nd grade teacher, is putting the microphone around her neck so the class can hear her. She spoke plainly and confidently and was hardly even nervous!

Abby's Baptism

Abby's baptism was a wonderful and important day. She was baptized today, May 2, 2009. I am so happy she has made the decision to enter the kingdom of God on the earth. I now have two children who have made sacred covenants with Heavenly Father to take upon themselves the name of Jesus Christ. Baptism is just the beginning. It is the first saving ordinance of the gospel and is necessary in receiving eternal salvation through obedience. All who desire eternal life must be baptized, like the Savior was, by one who possesses authority from God. Abby was baptized by her father, my sweet husband, Rob. She received the gift of the Holy Ghost to be with her always. Baptism doesn't take very long as far as time is concerned but its effects reach through eternity. Abby is a sweet and loving girl. I love her so much. We have a lot of fun together laughing and talking about anything and everything. I am so glad Heavenly Father sent her to me. Abby was baptized on the same day as some of the other children in our ward. The other children were: Alex Huhtala, Isabel and Annika Wood (twins) and Tyra Grant. All the children who were baptized, plus the children who have already been baptized in each of the families
(Hayden LeBaron, Hannah and Hailey Huhtala, Jaren and Hannah Wood, and Dalton Grant) stood on the stand and sang the song "When I am Baptized." I led them and Kathryn LeBaron played the piano.

Amy Huhtala gave the talk on baptism. She mentioned the rain we were receiving today was a perfect object lesson for cleaning the earth and a reminder of baptism. My mom, Pauline Bastian, gave a talk on the Holy Ghost. She talked about what we must do to always have Him with us and shared a couple of her experiences.

When Abby received the Holy Ghost, Rob, Bill Routt, Matt LeBaron, Kim LeBaron, and Brother Martin were in the circle. She looked beautiful all dressed in white. Jessica made her a special necklace for the occasion.

I wrote down the words that Rob said in her confirmation the best I could. These are the things he said after giving her the gift of the Holy Ghost:

"Abby, we love you. Your Heavenly Father loves you. He is happy with the decision you have made to be baptized a member of the Church. Make those decisions in your life that are pleasing to Heavenly Father. I bless you that through prayer, scripture study, and church attendance you will become familiar with the Spirit. Live your life to have Him with you. Look to those around you for guidance, especially your mother. Conduct your life in obedience to righteousness. You are an example to your brothers and your friends. Pray often. Think and ponder the things that you learn. I bless you to have patience to feel the Spirit and understand the importance of repentance in this earthly life. Be the kind of person to live worthy of the blessings of the temple. We love you. We are thankful for you in our family. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen."

As you can see, the blessing was beautiful and so is she!

After the baptism we gathered at our house for lunch. We ate sandwiches made with rolls, meat and cheese prepared by BYU catering, thanks to Keith's wonderful discount. (Keith works for BYU bakery). I assigned everyone toppings for sandwiches like lettuce, and tomato. Others brought chips, and fruit. I make two Texas sheet cakes and Mike and Debbie provided loads of cookies brought by Kim and Lynne. Mike and Debbie and family were unable to attend due to two of their kids being sick.

Loved ones in attendance were: Pauline Bastian, Allison, Bill, Amanda, Rachel, and Sarah Routt, Cherisse and Annalee Jaeger, Ashlee, Ben and Gavin Mullins, Cherisse Glaus (Cherisse Glaus was there for lunch but forgot about the baptism, oops!) Kim and Lynne LeBaron, Jessica, Annebel, and Shelby Mathews, Matt, Tiffany, Libbie, Kezzie, and Tessa LeBaron, and of course Rob, Hayden, Bastian, Abby, Weston, and me.

Tour of the BYU Bakery

For Abby's Great Brain Project at school she decided to learn about baking because she can't wait to bake things all by herself. She aspires to be a baker one day. Abby's Uncle Keith is a baker at BYU so he pulled some strings at work and we got to go tour the bakery. This is an enormous oven with six rotating shelves. They rotate just like a ferris wheel when you press on a lever so you can fill the shelves with baking pans. The oven can bake 96 loaves of bread all at once!

This is a machine that rolls dough out flat in seconds.

This is an ENORMOUS mixer that can hold 130 pounds of dough!

This machine takes a round, flat piece of dough and cuts them into rolls in seconds.

This is a mixing bowl that mixed mint frosting in it just minutes earlier. This mint frosting is layered on the delicious BYU mint brownines. Abby's tastebuds liked it!

Here's Abby on the outside of the building after our tour. We had a great time touring the BYU baking facility. Uncle Keith was so nice to show us how to use the tools of his trade. They are building a newer facility that should be done in a few months. We hope to tour that one too!

Abby's Birthday

Abby loves baking so much she requested that we have a baking party. We made banana bread that we baked in mini banana loaf tins--one for each party guest. It took longer than I had planned to make the bread, so they weren't quite done when the party ended. After they cooled we delivered them to the girls' houses. It was a great party! I decorated her cake with Abby's favorite littlest pets that I sanitized in the dishwasher. I was happy to know that the paint on their faces wasn't ruined by the dishwasher. That could've been disastrous!

Friends in attendance were Emma Young, Weston LeBaron, Isabel Wood, Kaitlin McEwen, Macailey Smith, Kaitlyn Brooks, Lucy Bradshaw, and Annika Wood.

We all took turns adding ingredients to the Bosch. The girls were so good and couldn't wait to taste thier very own loaf.

Abby Gets Her Ears Pierced

On April 27, 2009, Abby's 8th birthday, we went to Claire's at the University Mall to get Abby's ears pierced. She talked about what earrings she would pick and how excited she was all the way to the mall. She got up in the chair, picked out her earrings and said, "I don't think I want to get my ears pierced. I'm too scared." It had never occurred to me that she would feel such a thing. All I had seen for the past 2 years was a girl who couldn't wait to turn 8 so she could get baptized and get her ears pierced! I called my sister Allison on my cell phone and she suggested Abby talk to Sarah. Sarah had got her ears pierced just a few weeks previous. Sarah gave Abby her sound advice about how it doesn't hurt that bad and how glad she was that she went through with getting her ears pierced.

It took a little coaxing and just as Abby was about to say, "Let's wait till I'm older," one ear was already pierced. No turning back now.

She was very pleased with the result and is now ready to ease anyone's fears about getting their ears pierced.

In carpool, Abby's friend Lucy was excited to hear how it went. Lucy got her ears pierced when she was a baby and doesn't remember anything about it. Her first question when Abby got into the car was, "Abby, what did it feel like?"

Scold the Cold

It was Scold the Cold day at school and only one of my three school-aged children wanted to dress up for the occasion. Even though it was still cold and a bit snowy outside the kids were encouraged to dress in Hawaiian type clothing. Here is my one participating child. Isn't she a doll? She is wearing a dress that my mother made me when I was 3 or 4 years old. She wore it as a shirt and she looks smashing in it.

Exhasted from her dramatic photo shoot, she rests on the hardwood floor.

More Snow

Utah received MUCH snow this year. Weston is sitting on top of a snow fort the kids made. It was pretty cool. Rob piled the snow up with the four-wheeler plow and the kids dug a big hole in it. It took them hours to dig the hole. They used various objects including a garden spade, plastic serving spoons, butter knives, and teaspoons! From right to left is Lucy Bradshaw, Weston, Abby, and Bastian.

Abby's snow pants, or snow capris as I like to call them, are screaming "growth spurt" in this picture. She is getting so tall...almost as tall as Hayden who is 3 years her senior. When I went out to get her new snow pants, all the snow pants had been found by other mothers with children her size. She was such a good sport and didn't mind wearing the ones she has outgrown. I'll be quick on the draw next year. Abby will not be wearing snow shorts when winter rolls around.

Lucy Bradshaw is one of Abby's close friends. She and Abby love to play together often.

Invention Convention

For 2nd grade invention convention Abby made a hover craft. She started with a sketch of the model and we went from there. It turned out pretty great. It came with a cup and plate holder and a wireless steering wheel.

Those gold shiny pieces on the floor are the gas and brake pedals.

Abby let Hayden add some finishing touches on the steering wheel. He included the gas gauge, speedometer and hyper speed button.