Bath time, Before & After, and our Holiday weekend....

The holiday weekend has been SO nice! I had (most) Saturay off, Sunday and today! Its been so nice being home with JJ and feeling like being just a mom and nothing else has been awesome! We started off the weekend with some UFC fight night at our house with friends. It wasn't that great because Rich Franklin lost and that didn't make me happy, he got totally jipped.. But that's a story for another day! Moving on to Sunday, I must admit, I REALLY was not in the mood for church. You know when you have those days when your so uncomfortable in your dress and your hot and just hate sitting there! If it wasnt for having the lesson in Nursery, I woulda ditched! We had some friends invite us to the park and a BBQ, which made it even that much harder to go.. But in the end, I was glad I did, it was a nice meeting. After church, my niece Kolbey invited us to be with her when she reciever her Patriarcle blessing. It was a sweet blessing and such a spiritual experience to be there. Thanks Kolbs for including us in your VERY special day! The rest of Sunday kind of flew by since we have the crappy time (1-4)!

Today, I had the bug to redecorate a place in my home I have been itching to do... Pictures will follow! My sister and brother in law and kids also came up today and visited. We had a yummy lunch prepared by mom, of course :), and just kind of hung out. It was nice to catch up and visit. JJ loved Jax the dog! Aunt Leslie let him hold the leash and take him for a walk, he was in doggy heaven! I hope everyone had a GREAT 3 day weekend :) Happy blogging....


I just thought this was a cute pic to share! JJ is LOVIN him some bubbles lately!



So. here follows my weekend project. I decided that I was so done with the orange on one of my main walls.. Don't let the pic fool you, I DID NOT have neon orange on my walls! It was more of a deep rustic, but I was tired of not using my awsome armoire for something more.. beautiful. Not just movies and books.... So.. I went to the local thrift stores and DI.....

BEFORE


And.. AFTER!



I found all this white china at DI and LOVED the idea of displaying it! I also give credit to a blog I follow religiously "JOYS OF HOME". You can see the link on my page. She has pretty much decorated her whole home with thrifty buys, and I love her creativity. I have to admit, I stole the empty picture frame idea from her. I love it so much, I am really starting to like the ecclectic and more odd sense of style, like thrift store mis matched furniture for my home, which means I have some MAJOR redecorating to do :) My taste has changed and I am on the journey to change it.. I also changed up the wall color to a muted oatmeal. I did this little change for... sit down.... $16.00!!!!! I am going to try and find some tall white vases to put on the little tables on the side and stick some black rustic stick in... SOOO.. waddaya think?!?!

My recipe for 'crack'

Accalaids to Shawna, who has officially named my blog! I have been asked by many to post the recipe for these babies.. It has been very flattering having everyone telling me how yummy these cinnamon rolls are.. I took a basic recipe and a very confusing and involoved recipe and married them together to create these bad boys.. Once you make them, you will never go back. They will be requested at every party, dinner, sunday night treat, and pretty much any other time there is a reason to eat your weight in sugar. Enjoy

Maple Cinnamon Rolls

Ingredients (dough):
1 quart Whole milk
1 cup Vegetable oil
1 cup Sugar
2 pkgs. Active dry yeast
9 cups All purpose flour
1 heaping tsp. Baking powder
1 scant (just less than full) tsp. baking soda
1 heaping Tbs. Salt

Ingredients (filling)
1 1/2 - 2 cups Melted butter
1 cup Sugar
Cinammon

Ingredients (Icing)
1 bag Powdered sugar (2 Lb. bag)
2 tsp Maple flavoring
1/2 cup Whole milk
1/4 cup Melted butter
1/4 cup brewed coffee**
** I use 2 oz of Stirling's brand flavor syrup. You can find it in specialty stores. If you don't have access to the syrup, you can always visit your local coffee shop and ask if you can purchase 2 oz. of "coffee royal" flavoring. All the flavor, none of the coffee!
1/8 tsp salt


Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a large stew pot, combine 1 qt. milk, 1 cup vegetable oil and 1 cup sugar. Sclad the mixture, heating just before boiling point. Revmove from heat and let sit 45 min - 1 hr. When the mixture is luke warm, NOT HOT, sprinkle 2 pkgs (2 Tbls.) Active dry yeast. Let the yeast sit for a minute and get moist. Then add 8 cups of the flour. Stir mixture together and let sit for atleast 1 hour.
Aftter 1 hour, the dough will have raised. Now add 1 more cup of flour, 1 heaping tsp. baking powder and 1 'scant' tsp. baking soda and 1 heapinf Tbl. salt.
Stir the mixture together. At this point you can either make the cinnamon rolls or put the dough in the fridge for up to two days.

When you are ready to make the rolls:

Sprinkle surface of counter with flour. Take HALF of the dough and roll into a rectangle shape. Drizzle 1 1/2 - 2 cups of melted butter, then 1 cup of sugar. Followed by a generous amount of cinnamon.. Pile it on baby!
Starting at the opposite end, roll the dough tightly towards you. Some of the mixture will probably seep out, but its ok. Pinch the seam of the roll to seal it.
Spray pans with non stick cooking spray. (Half of my dough takes up about 3- 9x13 pans). Cut the roll into 3/4 - 1 inch thick rolls and place in pan. Repeat the process with the other half of the dough.
Let the rolls sit 20-30 mintues to rise, and then bake at 400 degrees for 15-17 mintues.

While the rolls are baking, make the icing:
In a mixing bowl, add your powdered sugar. To this add 2 tsp. maple flavoring, 1/2 cup Milk, 1/4 cup melted butter, 1/4 cup brewed coffe (Or coffee flavored syrup) and 1/8 tsp salt. Wisk together for a thick creamy YUMMY icing!

When the rolls are LIGHT golden brown, take them out of the oven. As soon as you take them out, drizzle your maple icing over the cinammon rolls and enjoy! I perfer just a drizzle of the icing, too much is overpowering. Its totally up to you and your own individual taste :)

I hope someone makes these so you can give me some feedback on how they turned out!

New Years Eve 2008

So this year was pretty low key for us, we decided to stay home with the kids and have movie night! Of course, we had to start our festivities off the night before with a little of this...

And of course, New Years Eve cannot exist without soma this....

And who can watch a movie without this yummy stuff... mmmmm
Then, we popped in a little of this guy....

And, of course, what kid can watch a movie without this purty???

A tent is not a true tent without 25 pillows and 25 blankets... and popcorn!!!
While the kids were enjoying their viewing pleasure.. Mom cracked the whip on these darlings..

I just had to give you a shot of this.. Is it hormones, or does everyone else eat Oreo Cakesters while they are baking homemade cinnamon rolls????

The kiddos enjoying some tent time.. Man I make one helluva' tent, if I do say so myself!

As the ball dropped.. Dad had already dropped! I guess we wore him out! Doesn't he look cute with gingerbread men wrapped around his neck keeping him all cozy and warm?

At this point, these cinamon rolls were becoming a bit time consuming.......


But in the end.... nothing made New Years Eve Day better than these homemade maple icing babies waiting for me in the mornin'!


They were enjoyed by all.... I was warned to never bring them to my friends house again... she said they were kinda like crack.. just calling her name from the kitchen counter.. That's the best compliment I ever got on my cookin!


I hope everyone had a safe and happy new year! I hope that this year brings nothing but happiness and blessings to you all!! I wish for you, my family and dear friends, prosperity, joy, wealth beyond measure ( and I don't mean the bling bling kind), pure happiness and peace. I know we all have our rough days, and living in this economic time can be challenging, and at times, feel impossible. But I have a true testimony that we will all make it through this. I am a firm believer that that which does not kill you, only makes you stronger! For some, it is harder than for others, but I believe we all feel the trying times on our own levels. Let this year be the best.. and for hell's sake, can someone actually keep their new years resolution to "LOSE WEIGHT" so I dont' have to!?!!?
There are so many things I want to accomplish this year, some more personal than others, and I will spare you the details! My number one resoultion that I really hope to keep is to keep in touch better with all my family and friends, make my relationships closer, and surround myself with people that bring the best in me out...
Happy New Year to all... and to all a GOOD NIGHT!