World's Fastest Homemade Cinnamon Rolls

Growing up we were like all kids and LOVED cinnamon rolls. My brothers especially asked for them ALL the time... so my mom got creative and shortened the LONG cinnamon roll process by making the dough with Bisquick! They are so yummy and quick... Here's what I do:

• Make Bisquick dough (or the following biscuit recipe which my sister Becky gave me- it's a great one and I love making it a little healthier by adding wheat flour)
• Roll dough out as thin as you can
• Spread tub butter over dough
• Sprinkle dough with white sugar
• Layer a nice layer of brown sugar ;-)
• Sprinkle cinnamon
• Add nuts if you want
• Roll up dough
• Slice into rolls with floss (I like keeping them about an inch thick... not too fat!)
• Stick on greased cookie sheet
• Bake according to Bisquick box OR biscuit recipe you are using.
• Make whatever frosting you like for top, cream cheese or a thin drizzle and serve! YUM!

Baking Powder Biscuits

Better Homes and Gardens

3 c flour (I did half wheat, half white)

4 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

3/4 tsp Cream of Tarter

3/4 cup butter

1 1/4 c buttermilk or 1 c milk

Mix dry ingredients together. Put butter in and mix with fingers, fork, or pastry blender until evenly distributed (should resemble coarse crumbs). Add milk all at once and stir until liquid is absorbed. Turn out onto floured surface adn knead lightly 3-4 times, just until dough comes together and is somewhat cohesive. Pat or roll out to about 1/2 inch thickness. Cut out with biscuit cutter or round cookie cutter. Place on ungreased cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes or until just barely browning on top (should be golden on bottoms of biscuits). Can be halved, or leftover biscuits are great split and toasted in the toaster.

Basic Frosting:

Combine powdered sugar, butter, and a little vanilla and milk to desired consistency. I added cinnamon to the frosting in the picture and it was extra yummy!

Phew... Past this point...

This is a pic of Mia when she was just a day old. She was born at 31 weeks and was just over 4 pounds. She had apnea (would forget to breath), was too weak to suck so was fed through a feeding tube, had severe jaundice, had an IV for fluids/blood draws, but was able to breath well on her own after the first day. She lost almost a full pound before she started gaining weight and was in the NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) for 3 weeks. Mia was a fighter from day one and surprised all the Dr's and Nurses who told us our stay in the hospital could be as long as 2 months. If you know Mia now, she still is a little feisty fighter but completely healthy with no effects at all from her early birth.

I am 32 weeks along now. The baby is measuring at over 4 pounds and her lungs are now advanced to a 33 week baby due to the steroid shots they gave me. I am doing great and things seem stable for now so I don't think I will be having little Allie anytime soon. Just relieved to be past the time when Mia was born!

We are SOOO grateful to all of you and think we really do have the best friends ever. This week out of nowhere, a bunch of friends showed up with arms loaded with freezer meals and frozen cookie dough! I was overwhelmed at their thoughtfulness and teared up several times that night as I thought of the sacrifices they made of time, cost, and effort. 8-10 of them made about 10 freezer meals that look amazingly yummy- from BBQ ribs to Enchiladas to Chicken Divan. Wow. We are so independent and hate to ask for help of any kind so of course haven't. I was humbled and even a little embarrassed at their kindness... BUT... it will be a HUGE help to have those dinners. Then we have been brought super yummy dinners a few times still this week... fresh bread from our favorite bread store... cookies and goodies... packages from family... and lots of emails and calls from all of you! I really do have the kind of friends that I want to be just like- amazing examples of charity, love, and service. In fact Ashlee even brought over frozen yogurt with my favorite toppings last night since I was home alone and couldn't go to the PHX Sun's game with Ger and the kids. Talk about thoughtful! THANK YOU THANK YOU TO ALL OF YOU!

So anyways, there is the update for now! Here's to another week!

Shout out to Auna & Ron!

A few weekends ago Auna and Ron were in town. They both go to BYU- Auna is Gerron's niece- and they are engaged! Wahoo! They are the cutest couple ever and Sydney, Mia and Colby just LOVE them.

They have so much energy and love for the kiddos and always up for playing with them... They loved playing "Don't Get Off the Tramp" but it was pretty tricky since Auna and Ron are both so fast!

Auna is on BYU's soccer team and did some drills with Mia. Mia now says she wants to play soccer for BYU when she gets big, just like Auna.

Colby thinks Ron is the coolest- they wrestled and chased and played. Hopefully Ron wasn't too sick of him. ;-) He geniunley is the nicest guy... luckily he has younger siblings so I think we didn't wear him out too badly!

Thanks for the fun time Auna and Ron! Our kiddos are your biggest fan club!

Oranges & Grapefruits & Lemons- oh my!

The joys of living in AZ at this time of year... sunny beautiful perfect temperature days and LOTS of citrus! I swear all the Vitamin C has kept us healthy and we have loved eating the grapefruits and oranges... and having fresh lemonade, OJ, and grapefruit juice. Just last night we made 2 extra large pitchers of OJ, 1 pitcher of grapefruit juice, and 4 tupperwares of lemon juice. The kids have been guzzling juice by the cupful... YUM!

We've made lots of fruit smoothies too- peeling oranges and grapefruits and even lemons and throwing them in the vita-mix whole with some yogurt, berries, ice, and a little honey. Such a treat.

And we've still had a few extra after that... So the kiddos have LOVED playing a game they came up with at their "UT Grandma's house" only with apples. Ger says some funny poem he made up with everyone holding their grapefruit in the air...

Then they throw them in the middle...

And jump like mad to avoid touching a grapefruit!!

Whew! They all got some big air! Once a grapefruit touches you, you are out and have to get off the tramp.

And they do this over and over! We are definitely enjoying all the citrus!

What's in Your Kids Lunch!?!

I love eating lunch with the kiddos at school. One day when I was there I sat by Mia's little friend Cason and he had a fun little post-it note from his Mom in his lunch. I said, "Wow! That is so fun that your mom would write you a note. Does she do that very often?" And he said, "Yup, every day!" And knowing his mom Ashlee I believe it! Sadly enough this is something I just don't do enough... once a week is about how often I do it so I am trying to improve.

I came across these printable notes for kiddos lunch and thought it was a great concept! Anything to make their lunch more exciting and let them know that I love them and am thinking of them...

http://www.alphamom.com/holiday/2009/08/free_printable_lunchbox_notes.php

These circle printouts can be punched out with a giant circle punch and then if you have a Xyron they make AWESOME stickers by putting any paper shapes through it. I LOVE the idea of attaching them with a rubber band- they will stay put!

These simple notes below are from http://www.twigandthistle.com/blog/2009/09/diy-freebie-lunch-notes/

http://freshpickedwhimsy.typepad.com/fresh_picked_whimsy/2009/02/love-notes.html

To make it fun you can add knock knock or regular jokes... What kid doesn't love a good laugh to share with her friends at lunch?!? Here are a few for starters...

• Why was the car embarassed?.....It had gas!
• What city do sharks come from?....Shark-ago!
• What do good students eat their burgers on?....Honor rolls!
• How can you keep cool at the ballpark?....Sit by a fan!
• Why did the shark spit the clown out?...He tasted funny!

Here are a few good websites for kids jokes... Syd and Mia LOVE emailing jokes to their cousins, aunts, and uncles!

http://kids.yahoo.com/jokes

http://www.justriddlesandmore.com/kidsriddles.html

http://kidjokes.informationresourcenetwork.com/index.php

A few more ideas for lunchbox notes:

• write a silly little poem like: Roses are red, violets are blue, when you come home, i'll have a special snack for you!
• surprise your kid by having Dad, sibling, or grandparent write the message every once in a while
• tuck a few m&m's or skittles inside a folded note
• Let them know how many days are left until...their birthday, Christmas, summer break, etc...
• fold the note like you did in jr. high or high school...don't remember how?...ask a teenager!
• write in code...(ok, this one may take a little more prep time, but work it out and supply the code with the message)

So my new goal- a note at least 3 times a week! I will work my way up to every day. ;-)

Next subject: what do you do to spice up your kiddos lunch!?! I take them to the store and let them pick new things for their lunches which they love... and they love "homemade" lunchables with crackers, cheese squares, and pepperoni... but I am getting bored of making the same old and would love some fresh new ideas!

Colby... and Chocolate Chip Banana Bread!

Today at lunch Colby rested his chin in his hands with a grin and said, "Mom, why do you not want me to grow up!?!" Priceless! I have really only said to him a few times that I want him to stay just like this forever... and he had thought about it I guess and really wanted to know why! I told him because he was so fun to wrestle and snuggle and hug and play with and I just didn't want him to get any bigger... because then he would be too grown up to play with me. He said, "Well ok Mom but I just am going to get as big as Dover and that's all ok!" Dover is his 16 year old cousin. So finally I agreed after a little more discussion... and we even shook on it. ;-)

He is such a happy and fun kid- he never wants to do anything wrong or dissapoint Ger or I... and loves keeping his room clean! But he is always teasing us and making us laugh- I am so glad that he has one more year of preschool since we have so much fun hanging out together! This morning I think we played Zingo seriously 20 times... he kept putting the pieces in upside down to trick me and was rolling with laughter. So funny. Then we bowled a few times with his set from Pottery Barn Kids. It's kind of nice being so restricted because I get lots of time to just play games with Colby instead of running around doing errands or cleaning or the "me" things. (These pics were taken after church a few Sunday's ago. He stripped down to his undies and lay on his bed with his arms behind his head telling me all about what he learned! I had to take a pic.)

One of Colby's favorite things is my Banana Bread Muffins... with lots of Chocolate Chips. I posted this recipe a while back, but here it is again for those who missed it. Super moist and delicious. Yummy for breakfast, an after school snack... or even dessert. ;-)

CHOCOLATE CHIP BANANA BREAD
1 c mashed bananas
1 c sour cream
1/4 c margarine
1 1/3 c white sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 c all-purpose flour (I do 1 c wheat & 1 c white)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 c nuts
1-2 c chocolate chips (I always add a full bag! Can also be made without chocolate chips)

Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour 4 mini loaf pans or 2 regular loaf pans. Combine banana and sour cream, set aside. In large bowl, cream together the margarine and sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time then stir in the vanilla and banana mixture. Combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt; stir into the banana mixture. Spread the batter evenly into the prepared pans.
Bake in preheated oven for:

20-25 minutes for muffins

35-40 minutes for mini loaf pans

45-50 minutes for 2 regular loaf pans.

WELCOME HOME ZACH!!!!

My brother Zach returned home from his mission in Birmingham England yesterday afternoon! YAY! It was sooo good to see pics and video of him (thanks so much Lissy!) and we had a blast talking with him through Skype Video Conferencing on our computer. The kiddos were in heaven chatting with him and can't wait to see him... in person! Ger and I had tickets to go up this weekend and are so sad that with my pre-term labor I am unable to travel. BAH!

But as you can see from his shoes, he was a faithful missionary! The hole is completely worn through. We are going to miss his weekly emails- they were full of testimony and so inspiring... he is such an example to all of us of hard work and dedication... He had complete love for the work and for our Savior and the people over there and we learned so much from him and his experiences. WELCOME HOME ZACH!

Thank heavens for...

an amazing hubby... amazing and happy kids that get along so well... great friends that would do anything for anyone... family who is always there for us... and online shopping!

This last week has been a little crazy for us. My fFN test came back positive (google it for info!) so I went through a round of steroid shots to develop the babies lungs just in case she does decide to come any day. My cervix is totally shortened- should be 3-5 cm and is .8- and effacing and who knows what I am even dialated to. They don't even want to check in case they stir things up. But we still feel totally at peace and are praying our guts out that Allie sticks around where she is! Today she weighed in at 3 pounds 14 ounces and a week and 2 days ahead of schedule. HURRAY! So I am supposed to stay down as much as possible... I'm just doing my best and we are taking it one day at a time.

Ger has completely taken over dishes, cleaning, laundry, etc and has been amazing. Never complains... but is a good listener to all my complaining! The kiddos are gems. Seriously they play so well together and are so great to each other (95% of the time) so that is a HUGE blessing in our life right now. Friends and family have been equally concerned and done so much. THANK YOU THANK YOU! And I seriously had no socks, onsies, diapers, baby basics... just a few sleepers etc. So I LOVE THE INTERNET! ha. So I am feeling more ready with shipments of the necesities on the way.

So there's the update for now... thanks for all your prayers and concern!

Cinnamon Crumb Cake

My kiddos new favorite breakfast is Coffee cake. Colby even begged for it for lunch a few weeks ago and I gave in... and the girlies were thrilled to eat it as their after school snack! We ran out of Bisquick and I was excited to find this recipe in Good Housekeeping... it even has a much better name than "Coffee Cake"... but really similiar. It is just a little sweeter- and you can add nuts to the crumb crust or not which is a great addition. I did half with nuts and half without nuts and it turned out perfect... And I doubled the crumb topping... that's the best part!

Crumb Topping

• 1/2 cup(s) pecans, toasted and chopped
• 1/3 cup(s) packed dark brown sugar
• 1/4 cup(s) all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon(s) ground cinnamon
• 2 tablespoon(s) butter or margarine softened
• Cake

• 1 1/2 cup(s) all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon(s) baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon(s) baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup(s) granulated sugar
• 4 tablespoon(s) butter or margarine
• 1 teaspoon(s) vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 2/3 cup(s) sour cream

---

Directions

1. Prepare Crumb Topping: In small bowl, mix pecans, brown sugar, flour, and cinnamon until well blended. With fingertips, work in butter until mixture resembles marbles.
2. Prepare Cake: Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease 9-inch springform pan; dust with flour. On sheet of waxed paper, mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt until combined.
3. In large bowl, with mixer on medium speed, beat granulated sugar, butter, and vanilla 5 to 6 minutes or until mixture is fluffy, occasionally scraping bowl with rubber spatula. Reduce speed to low; add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition.
4. With mixer on low speed, add flour mixture alternately with sour cream, beginning and ending with flour mixture, scraping bowl occasionally, until batter is smooth.
5. Pour batter into prepared pan. Sprinkle with crumb topping and gently press into batter. Bake 40 to 45 minutes, until toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean. To serve warm: Cool cake in pan on wire rack 15 minutes. With small metal spatula, loosen cake from side of pan and remove, then cool an additional 30 minutes. To serve later: Cool cake completely in pan.

Valentines FHE

Growing up one of our favorite Family Home Evenings was the one where my mom got us all nerf guns and we got to have a big nerf fight throughout the house. Running around, picking teams, making quick forts, hiding behind couches... it was ALWAYS lots of fun. And while the nerf gun war was pretty exciting, the lesson just as memorable... so it was so fun to do it this week as our FHE ! And it actually has to do with Valentines Day so stick with me. ;-)

So Monday we had our nerf disc war (this guns are AWESOME and rapid fire- the kiddos had a blast!) and told the kiddos to try and hit each other as many times as they could and count how many times they hit someone. After 5-10 minutes of scrambling, hiding, running, re-loading we chatted about it... I asked, "How did it feel when you guys hit someone?" To my great surprise they ALL said, "Sad." I said "How did you feel when YOU were hit?" Same answer. They all said, "Sad." Then talked about when we go out in the world, there are many "fiery darts" of the adversary. They attack each of us and come in many ways, shapes, and forms. For each disc I held up the kids talked about some of these fiery darts- friends being mean, being called names, being made fun of, lying or being told lies, cheating, friends hitting or kicking us (Colby of course mentioned this one), being tempted to make a wrong choice, people not respecting us, etc etc. We talked about how we should never fire these fiery darts at our friends and briefly talked about being peacemakers and how to deal with those darts, but then talked about how AT HOME THERE SHOULD BE NO FIERY DARTS! Our home is a safe haven- where we are protected from the fiery darts and should be a place where we build and strengthen ourselves and one another against the world. The home is where we should feel total peace and nothing but love and safety.

Sydney then took over FHE and talked about LOVE with pictures and scriptures. Ways that we can show more love and respect for one another, how Jesus set the ultimate example for us with his love and kindness to everyone, and how it is a commandment to love one another. We talked about how the most important people in this whole life is our family. That good friends are very important but that our family is ETERNAL- we will live with each other forever so these relationships are so important!

We talked about it being Valentines Day and to show each other how much we loved each other, we were going to make mailboxes and fill them with Valentines from each other throughout the week. I LOVED these, but obviously didn't have time or means to make them. ;-) Here is another one...

So cute! Hopefully next year!

Ours were still cute and the kids loved making them... we cut two identical hearts out of cardstock, punched holes in the outside, and strung yarn through the outside. Then we decorated them and added our names... and hung them on our doors. I printed up a bunch of blank Valentines- find a list of cute ones here...http://thelongthread.com/?s=valentine&submit.x=0&submit.y=0&submit=Search

The kids have loved being secretive and surprising us and each other with notes! They have drawn pictures and listed so many great reasons they love each other.

So I think it was a very memorable lesson for the kids! We really feel blessed to have such good kids who are overall very sweet and loving and kind to one another. They all play together so well and time outs around here are rare. Hallelujah! But especially with the thought of bringing another little one in to our family, Ger and I feel blessed that our baby will get so much attention and love from her siblings. She will be a spoiled little girl I think!

But this FHE and Valentine Mailboxes will be a fun tradition we will now look forward to every year! What are your Valentine's Traditions?!?

Thank Heavens for Good Friends...

...and chocolate! ;-) After a crazy week last week, this absolutely made Ger and I's night on Monday. My good friend Debbie dropped by some of her amazing Chocolate Bundt Cakes and they are definitely one of our favorite desserts- so divine! They were fresh and warm with that ooey gooey frosting that I could eat just by itself by the spoonful. Wow. Inside are soft and delectable chocolate chips. Yes, I love chocolate- ha! Want the recipe??? I think I have shared it before. It would make a great Valentine's Day Treat- make in a heart shape pan or sprinkle with colorful valentines sprinkles... or drizzle with red or pink frosting!

Debbie's Bundt Cake

1 chocolate cake mix

3/4 cup water

1 small package instant chocolate pudding

3/4 cup oil

4 eggs

1 cup sour cream

1 cup chocolate chips

Mix everything well except for the chocolate chips. Stir them in at the end. Bake at 350. 50 minutes for large bundt cake and 20 minutes for mini bundt cakes.

FROSTING

1 cup sugar

5 TBS butter

1/3 cup milk

6 oz. chocolate chips

Mix all except chocolate chips together in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, cook 1 min. Remove from heat, add chocolate chips. Pour over bundt cake(s). Enjoy!

New Running Shoes! But some bumps in the road...

I was so excited- still running and working out at 28 weeks! YAY! And then my body did what it has done with my other three pregnancies... 6-7 contractions an hour for a few hours sent me to the hospital in the wee morning hours one day last week. (dejavu to Mia's birth at 31 weeks!) Luckily I hadn't progressed too far and with a few shots of Terbutaline the contractions were slowed. The FFN came back negative and I am only dialated to a one so we are very opptimistic still at this point. (with Colby I was dialated at a 3 and all FFN's were positive from 24 weeks on!) I am on Terbutaline around the clock and still have lots of contractions but the Dr. said that unless I am having more than 4 an hour I shouldn't be dialating or progressing. Boy I hope he is right!

Many of you have asked and shown so much concern... and we appreciate you all! Since lots of asked for the details, here's the scoop. I will go in for weekly appointments, have lots of ultrasounds, and more FFN's... I am still having a nurse come every week with my progesterone shot which I honestly believe is helping at this point... and she comes for 6 more weeks. And the Dr wants me to start home monitoring asap. Bah. No fun. Better safe than sorry though. Twice a day for an hour each session- then I send in the data. The Dr. wants to avoid putting me on bedrest so just says that I need to spend more time down than up on my feet, not lift anything heavy, drink lots and lots of water, rest when I have more than 3-4 contractions an hour, etc. May not sound too hard to some of you, but being a mom I am on my feet 24-7 and LOVING exercise it is definitely difficult to not even take a morning walk.

So my running shoes will just have to stay new for a few more months. But I am feeling much better so far this week... almost 30 weeks... so here's to hoping for a full term pregnancy! *Much to my dismay here is a pic of me today- 7 months prego- ha! EVERYONE has asked to see... since my fam is all out of state pretty much... For those who are prego, my jeans are Citizens maternity jeans which I LOVE- got them 66% off at Nordstroms.com- and the shirt is from H&M- love that store! Who needs to buy maternity tops when there are so many great styles that work at the regular stores!?!

Valentines Made? Check!

This weekend the kids were thrilled to do their valentines for their classes! I found these cute online ones that I thought I would share. Find the links to print them at http://thelongthread.com/?p=2373

I thought the bird one would be great for preschoolers who need the lines to write in their names...

Go to http://www.regiscorp.com/coolcuts4kids/bee-valentine.pdf for some adorable bee valentines. Sydney chose to do the Bee one at the bottom of the page that is blue with fun whimsical flowers! Just copy and paste into word, crop image for what ones you want to use, then resize...

These adorable sucker vday cards can be found at http://bunnycakes.typepad.com/bunny_cakes/valentines_day/

Happy Creating!

ThE GiRLy'S BEaCH ThEMe RoOM!

Ta-da! Here are the rest of the pics of the girlies new beach -theme room. It's a work in progress with a few more things to add here and there and some more pics to hang (we just were worn out and had enough so saved some for another day!)... They love their own "private" entrance complete with a bamboo tree. It's in a bucket from Hobby Lobby but maybe it needs a bigger bucket? The rug was only $4.99 at Ross!

I couldn't find a beach sign anywhere that were the colors I was looking for- so I found this brown metal sign at Ross for $4.99, painted it white, and my super nice friend Mary cut out BEACH -> with her Cricut.

Pottery Barn Teen Curtains... Vinyl Palm Tree from Etsy... Metal flowers from Hobby Lobby... Roxy bedding from Roxy.com... Super soft fleece blankets from Target...

I loved making the canvas pics- just used photo safe spray adhesive and then sanded the edges once dry.

The canvas pics were easy to do- just printed pics off the internet, cut them out, adhered them to the canvas with a glue stick, painted roughly over the canvas and cut out shape, then peeled off the shape.

Everything in the room was on sale or bought with a coupon... or bought from Ross or a discount store. We had the shelves from the Pottery Barn Outlet already so that was nice. Sea shells were all 70% off at Pier One Imports!

My friend Monica decorated her daughters room with a fun bright beach theme so I stole the idea of the stacked crates from her.

Just bought plain wood ones from Hobby Lobby and painted them "beach style" which was super fast and hot glued on the star fish.

Can you guess who's bed is who's?!? Sydney LOVES green... Mia loves pink!

A few more details! I loved finding pics from the beach/water- our family has made so many great memories that way so it was fun to remind them of all the fun times our fam has had on the lake and at the ocean with these fun pics. Then the colorful bins are in the closet... and the black and white photo collage is actually a giant 3' x 4' magnet board! We still need to make cute magnets for it. And what beach theme room would be complete without a message in a bottle?!?

On to the bathroom! A beautiful dark lime green! Towels/rug/soap container from the Roxy line at Bed Bath and Beyond... Pink towels from Ross.

The blue fish on the mirror were actually supposed to go on the bottom of the shower to make it anti-slip but since it already was anti-slip (how was I supposed to know?!?) Ger put them on the mirror and I thought they were so cute there!

More pics in the bathroom too...

Well anyways! They LOVE it and have done great so far at keeping it clean- ha! I've had fun being a little domestic with making a lot of the things that went into it and Ger was amazingly patient to help hang and decide where to hang everything. Whew. Lots of work! Pics of Colby's room coming up next!