When She Smiles

Hola, Chickas! What's up in your world??? We had a pretty good Sunday here! We got up at 7:30am, and started getting ready for church. And getting 10 people ready for church is no small thing. hehe. But we were done and out the door by 8:40am, so it was all good!

We got to church in time to get our up front row, and took 3. Instead of 2. Cause we don't fit in 2. Ha! And the kids all did pretty good during Sacrament. No major issues, so it was a successful time. hehe. We had a new family speak, and they seemed like good people. They're "kid plan" was about 3 years behind us. They have 5, and the youngest is 2. That was me 3 years ago. hehe. I'll have to go and introduce myself to her one of these days.

I got the kids off to Primary classes after Sacrament meeting, and chatted with my friend Lesa in the hall for a bit. She just got back from Vacation, and is SO much fun :) Then I went and joined Aunt Sue and Maddie in Sunday School. And I'd like to say that I was a captivating lesson. But I ended up just reading the chapters that it covered, then googling the country that Captain America's in and reading up on the country... hehe.

We went to Relief Society after Sunday School, and had a very nice lesson about developing our talents. And someone brought up the fact that because of Relief Society sisters, that they now knew how to make cinnamon rolls. And then I had cinnamon rolls on the brain. And I just KNEW that I needed to "develop" that talent today. hehe.

We gathered up all the kids, and loaded up in the truck, and headed home after church. I did talk with the seminary teacher briefly. Jake is supposed to start when school starts. Seminary starts at 5:50am at the church. Yeah, I have to drag his butt to church on Sunday mornings, so I don't know how I'm possibly gonna get him to go to seminary..... He's already told me that he flat out refuses to go.

Anyway, headed home, and had left overs and such for lunch. Hot dogs or cereal or chocolate chip pancakes. Some meals are like that. hehe.

And we turned on a movie, and I sent the little boys to their room to clean. And I watched about 20 minutes, and fell asleep. And woke up when it was done, and moved to my bedroom, and slept for a bit longer. Oh yeah, Sunday afternoon naps are DA BOMB! hehe.

When I got up, I started on my cinnamon roll plans. But the kitchen needed some work first. I had Eme put the dishes away, and I helped Tom do the dishes. And cleared off the counters, then it was on to Cinnamon Rolls. I decided that I wanted to double the recipe, because 1 1/2 dozen wasn't gonna be enough for this large group. 3 dozen sounded better! hehe.

Here's the recipe:

2 tbsp yeast
2 tbsp sugar
1/2 cup warm water

Dissolve the ingredients together in a large bowl (I used 2 big bowls for 2 batches)
In a separate large mixing bowl, mix:

2 cups scalded milk
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp salt
1/2 cup shortening

Once the mixture has cooled a little, mix it with the yeast mixture and:

4 cups flour
2 eggs

Dough will be extremely soft. Continue to mix, adding 1 more cup of flour. Once you add the 2nd cup of flour, you should be able to use your hands to mix it. Add a tad bit more flour, and knead until elastic and smooth.

Grease a bowl, and turn the dough over until it's coated. Cover the bowl, and let rise somewhere warm. I put it in my garage. VERY warm there! So I ended up with 2 big balls of dough rising in the garage.

While the dough raised, I had time to help the kids with chores. And go and help Jim and Joe with their room. I set the alarm for 15 minutes, and if there was no improvement on their room, they'd get a spank. They did good most of the time, but did get a few spanks. ha! Mean mom. But the room DID get cleaned. Spotless, in fact.

We had some more left overs for dinner, cereal mostly, and watched some more TV. It was that kind of day. I punched down the dough, and let it rise again. And then it was ready.

I looked closer at the recipe, and you only use 1/2 the dough! So instead of doubling the recipe, I quadrupled it! Crap! That's 6 dozen cinnamon rolls. hehe. Tasty mistake, though :)

I split the first ball of dough in half, and rolled it out so it was a long rectangle. I spread 3 tbsp of real butter evenly on it, and then sprinkled 1/2 cup sugar, 2 tbsp cinnamon, dash of nutmeg, dash of cloves (mixed together) over the dough. I rolled it, and cut it in half, then thirds, then thirds. So I ended up with 18 cinnamon rolls. And put all of that in a deep cookie sheet. And covered, and let it raise in the garage. And I did it 3 more times for the rest of the dough. So I ended up with 72 cinnamon rolls! hehe :)

Just before bed, the cinnamon rolls went inside the oven. The recipe said to bake for 25 minutes, but they were done after about 15 minutes. So if you use this recipe WATCH it very closely. Burnt cinnamon rolls SUCK. hehe. Especially because it takes SO long to get them made :)

I made a cream cheese frosting for them, and it was SO good. I could have just ate the frosting. hehe.

2 packages of cream cheese (8 oz each)
1/2 cup butter (I used margarine because I'd used all the butter on the cinnamon rolls)
2 cups of powdered sugar
some vanilla (I didn't measure)
I did add a bit of milk to make it softer.

Check out the finished product! Do you like???



The kids each could earn one once their chores were done, but Joe and Jim didn't get their chores done soon enough (20 minutes was PLENTY of time to get them done, but they just played) so they just had to go to bed.

The big kids and Maddie and Aunt Sue and I were gonna watch an episode of Psych, but Netflix was having SUCH A hard time loading that we sent the big kids to bed and watched a movie on the EHD and computer on the big screen. It was almost 9pm anyway :)

It's now 9:48pm. The movie is about 1/2 way over, and I'm not hearing the kids from their rooms anymore. So I'm thinking that they're asleep.

Tomorrow, Jake was supposed to have BMX camp, but he made arrangements to give the slot to Tom. I need to have him to the Youth Center by 8am. And Jake has a therapy appointment at 11am. And I'm gonna try and catch up with Captain America on Skype at 9am. I wonder what other adventures will present themselves tomorrow ?? :)

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What a PRECIOUS little smiling face!!! Thanks, Sharon! I love it :)