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Cinnamon Rolls

Everyone has been asking for my recipe... Here it is!

This is a combination of three different recipes.

Enjoy!

Liz's Favorite Cinnamon Rolls

Dough

2 (.25 ounce) packages active dry yeast
1/3 cup white sugar
2 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
1 teaspoon salt
6 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, divided
2 eggs
1/3 cup vegetable oil

Filling

1 cup packed brown sugar
2 1/2 tablespoons cinnamon
1/3 cup margarine, softened

Frosting

8 tablespoons margarine
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup cream cheese
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/8 teaspoon salt

In a large mixing bowl, dissolve yeast and 1/3 cup sugar in warm water. Stir in salt and 2 cups flour. Beat mixture for 2 minutes. Beat in eggs and oil. Stir in the remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, beating well after each addition.
When the dough has pulled together, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes. Lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl and turn to coat with oil. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, about 40 minutes.

Make filling and set aside.
Divide the dough into twelve equal pieces. Take each piece of dough, roll into a log and roll in cinnamon sugar mixture. Place the knots in a lightly greased 9x13 inch baking pan. Cover the rolls with a damp cloth and let rise until doubled in volume, about 40 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes, until golden.

If you have any questions, let me know. Let me know what you think.

I have great kids!

I am learning that it is the little things that my kids do everyday that show me I have great kids.

Thursday Little Man says before leaving for school, Mom you should see your room. I said I will in a little bit. (I was taking care of my best friends baby that day, so I felt I was busy) Later that morning after Little Man had left for school, I had forgot he had wanted me to see my room. I finally had got the baby (still thinking of a nickname) down for her morning nap, I was off for a much desired shower. As I walked into my room, I see that my bed had been made for me and there was a note. My Little Man had made my bed for me. It was so sweet. On the note he had placed 3 stacks of Pokemon cards. They are his most prized possession. There was on stack for each Alan and I and one for us to share. At the bottom of the not it says we can keep them for 2 weeks. It was so cute, and for a 7 year old I thought so giving. I love my Little Man so much. He is such a sweet and caring little boy. I am so proud of him.

Sunshine has been VERY independent lately. It has been getting her into a bit of hot water. When she is asked to do something she just looks at you and kind of smiles with a look of WHATEVER! She has been a hand full. At her age I guess I can expect nothing more. We just keep putting her in time out and telling her we love her. I think though that our bottom stair is going to have a imprint of her little behind soon. She seems to be there a whole lot. We think she is also growing, because we have had to start giving her naps again, otherwise she is such a bear around four in the afternoon. Oh the joy of a three almost four year old. She has also been talking about her birthday party for months. She invites anyone and everyone that she meets to her party. The funny thing is that her birthday is not until the end of March. Every week she changes the theme of the party and who she wants to come. It really makes us laugh. Until a few weeks ago we could not convince her that she was going to be four. If you asked her how old she was going to be she would say, uuummmm, 21! It was so funny. Sometimes she would say 26 or 16, but she really liked 21. We think that was the magic number because she asked Alan one day how old she had to be to wear make up and he said 21. She's no dummy that is for sure.

Then of course there is Princess. She has been doing so well. She has been healthy. Alan and I are so excited to see her healthy for so long. We know that our decision to keep her out of school, and keep her home from church is a good decision. Last night though we heard her start to cough. My first thought was here we go again. Every year for the past few years she has been sick over Martin Luther King Jr. weekend. She was even so sick a couple of years ago to have to be put in the hospital over this very weekend. And last year she needed to be hospitalized, but due to concern of her getting something worse from the hospital, they brought the hospital to us. So I was really just wanting this weekend to be over and keep her happy and healthy. Well no such luck. As soon as we heard her starting to cough was rush to her room. She was in full blown distress. I start telling Alan everything I needed for her, it was something like this. I need her nebulizer, albuturol, I weed a finger probe for the pulse ox machine, I need her peek flow meter, I need her box of meds, and I need my stethoscope. I in the end ran down stairs with him so we could find everything we needed quickly. We hooked her up to the pulse ox and saw that she was not doing well. Her number kept dipping into the 80's. (88 or below is grounds to be admitted to the hospital) We gave her a neb treatment and kept watch. Her numbers sat at about 92 to 93. Not great but not bad. We set an alarm to check her in 20 minutes. We kept her on the Pulse ox and returned to our room. (it was about 11:30 when this started.) Less then 20 minutes later we her the pulse ox telling us something is wrong. I literally plow over Alan to get out of bed, and run to her room. She was at 85 and holding. I am so scared at this point. She was fine that morning when she woke up. She gets sick fast, but even this was too fast for her. I am thinking do I call an ambulance, do I wait? Alan suggests to give her another neb treatment. I agree. During the treatment she continues to hold in the 80's. I am feeling like there is no way we are staying at this point. After the treatment I ask Alan to give her a blessing. We decided watching to monitor is not going to do either of us any good, and there is an alarm on it, so we go back to our room. We set another alarm for 20 minutes and we wait. By the time the 20 minutes was up we had not heard anything. I go back to check on her and her numbers were sitting about 93, again not great but not bad. I go to bed with her still on the monitor, knowing it would wake me if she needed me. At this point it is 1 am and we are exhausted. Thankfully i did sleep. I woke up at 6 am to go and check on Princess and her numbers were 97. Whew! She is going to be ok, no need to go to the Doctor today. I turned off the monitor and was able to sleep until 8:30, thanks to Alan. I know that the blessing Alan gave really helped her. I am so very grateful that Alan able to give blessings to my children when they are sick. I am very blessed. We know there could be a few more nights of ups and downs, but for this morning she sounds and looks good. What amazes me the most about Princess is that she no long complains about taking her Medications, she takes 4 meds 2 times everyday. If she gets sick we add 2 to 3 more medications. She knows how to take her meds and she knows why she needs to take them. She never complains about not going any where, and is very happy little girl. I am so proud of her. I remember way back when I found out I was pregnant with her I was not too excited. I had a 7 month old and then found out she was on her way. I felt so overwhelmed. I didn't think I could handle two kids in 15 months. Well now I know they needed to be close, If Princess didn't have her brother only 15 months older then her she would have no one to keep her company. Yeah we would still had other kids, but Little Man and Princess are so much like twins. They need each other for everything. They are on the same level, and I feel this is why she is able to handle being kept away from everything. He is her link to the outside world. And for her that is enough. We may not always know why things happen, but I know that Heavenly Father knows what we need and why. For that I am so grateful. Here's hoping tonight is a better night :)

New Blog...

I have decided to start a new blog, because I used our last name in the old blog address and we don't want that much info out there. I know our name will be linked to the new blog, but that will be through our friends. I just don't like that anyone could get to it with our last name on it. We had hits coming from places I don't know anyone. This is why we have not blogged in 4ever! Sorry for the change. If you are reading this then at least you found us, yay!!! Welcome back to our wild and crazy lives.
Now to recap our lives for the past month or so.
In early December we went to Durango, Co. What a blast we had. We went so we could take the kids to ride the Polar Express. We had a great time. It was so fun to see the kids faces light up when they first saw the train. The were so good on the train, Sunshine just sat for the whole 50 minute ride. I thought she was sick, because she did not talk, or sing, or really even move that much until about the last 5 minutes of the ride. It turns out she was on over load trying to take it sall in. It was so Sweet. I loved just watching the kids. They enjoyed drinking hot cocoa and singing Christmas carols. It was a wonderful family activity. We are so glad we decided to take the time for the trip. We stayed one night in Durango, and the next day made the 1 hour trip to Silverton, CO. What a beautiful town. The houses are mostly the Victorian style homes and are so cute. We had found this great little ski resort there that rented sleds and took the kids sledding. We were hoping that after paying for the sleds that the kids would sled for at least an hour. Well turns out they loved it and after three hours we had to pull them away kicking and screaming. What a wonderful weekend! We want to make this an annual trip for our family.
After returning home we were full of Christmas cheer and ready for Christmas. Everyday the kids asked if it was time to open presents yet. We decided that this year we did not want to travel anywhere for the holidays. Our kids are getting older and we wanted to celebrate Christmas in our own house. We decided to ask my Mom and Grandma if they would like to come see us this year. At first it did not look as if it was going to happen, but surprise for us they came. As an added bonus my big brother came too. It was the most wonderful Christmas. Everyone had a great time. In fact we had so much fun that my family stayed an extra day. I don't know about anyone else but for me the food is a huge part of a perfect holiday. I have to share our Christmas menu because it was so good. On Christmas eve I made Potato Sour Cream soup served in Bread bowls, Christmas morning was homemade cinnamon rolls, and for Christmas dinner we had Ham, mashed potatoes, gravy, sweet potatoes, green beans, homemade rolls, broccoli cheese and rice casserole. It was so good. In my mind it was very close to perfect. Family, food, and fun. What more do you need for a wonderful holiday! The kids really enjoyed their gifts, and the kids actually slept until 6:45am.
New Years was very relaxed. We rang in 2009 with some friends playing games. It was low key and so much fun. Little Man and Princess made it to midnight. They thought that was cool to be able to stay up all night.
Now the tree is down, and life is getting back to normal. I am grateful for the wonderful memories, but I am also very glad I have almost a year before we do it all over again. I am looking forward to an AMAZING 2009!

My Very Cool Grandma!