General Conference Treat

So typically for general conference I make cinnamon rolls, but this year I decided to make something a little easier. I found a recipe for cinnamon pull apart bread on pinterest (the recipe is actually from foodsnots.com) and decided that it would be a good replacement for this year. It was really easy to make and super delicious.

Cinnamon and Sugar Pull-Apart Bread

Dough

     2 3/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour

     1/4 cup sugar

     2 1/4 tsp. active dry yeast (1 packet)

     1/2 tsp. salt

     4 Tbsp. butter

     1/3 cup whole milk

     1/4 cup water

     2 eggs (at room temperature)

     1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

Filling

     1 cup sugar

     2 tsp. cinnamon

     1/4 tsp. nutmeg

     4 Tbsp. butter, melted

In a large mixing bowl, mix 2 cups of flour, sugar, yeast and salt. Set aside.

In a small sauce pan, melt the butter and milk. Once the butter is completely melted take off the burner and add the water and vanilla. Let the mixture cool for 5 minutes.

Pour the milk mixture into the large bowl with the dry ingredients and mix well. Whisk together the eggs and add to the batter. Keep mixing. Add 3/4 cup of flour and mix well. The mixture will be very sticky which means it's perfect. Place the dough in a medium greased bowl. Cover with wrap and let it sit in a warm place to rise for about 30-45 minutes. Once the dough has doubled its size, knead in 2 tablespoons of flour. Cover the dough again for 5-10 minutes.

Meanwhile, start on the filling. In a medium bowl, mix together the sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg in a small bowl. Set aside.

Once the dough is ready, roll it out on a floured surface. Brush the melted butter on the dough and add the sugar mixture. Make sure everything is covered. Using a shape knife or pizza cutter, cut the dough into equal sized strips (about 2 to 2 1/2 inches wide). Then cut the strips into equal sized squares. Stack the squares on top of each other and place them in a bread pan. Cover the dough for another 10-15 minutes to rise.

While dough is rising, preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Place a cookie sheet under bread pan and bake for 30-35 minutes until outside of bread is golden brown.

1 month old

Obviously this post is a little late, but I still wanted to get this information down.

It's amazing how fast time goes, it's also amazing how much our little girl is changing these days. We absolutely love her. We had a doctors appointment last week and here are her stats:

• Weight: 9 lbs 6 oz (80%)
• Height: 22 1/4 inch (95%)

So as far as I'm concerned our little girl is an absolute angel.

• She absolutely loves to take a bath.
• She has been sleeping probably 5 to 6 hours straight at night. That also means that I'm sleeping 5 to 6 hours straight at night.
• She is an excellent little eater.

Like I said we absolutely love her, because she acts like a little angel, but she is also so cute!

 

Baby Room

So we were so lucky to have one of Hailey's aunts stay with us for a few days after her baby blessing. While she was here we were able to finish up the last project for Hailey's room. Grandma had finished the chair the week earlier, so I just finished the things that I was going to put on her wall. This was actually an idea that I saw on pinterest and I'm happy with how it turned out. I used a few different sizes of embroidery loops and painted them white. Than I used the same fabric that I used for her baby quilt to fill them. I round wooden letters for her name (yes I'm a sucker for words on the walls of my house just ask my sister). We painted them to match her room. Hailey even took a nap while we were hanging it all on the wall. I think it looks great.

 

We are in trouble

All I know is that it's going to be hard to say "no" to this cute little face.

Hailey's Baby Blessing

One of the wonderful blessings of being a member of the church is the opportunity to give our sweet little girl a name and a blessing. For Hailey this happened when she was just two weeks old. She is given a blessing by those holding the Melchizedek Priesthood. In this blessing her name is stated and than she receives a blessing from her Heavenly Father. It was a wonderful blessing that Dan was able to pronounce upon her. I'm so grateful for a husband who is worthy and willing to hold the Priesthood in our family. Since the act of naming a giving a blessing is considered an ordinance in the church Hailey wore white. Actually she wore the same dress that me and my sisters received our blessings in. I thought that was really cool. Some of my family was actually able to come out for the weekend. (We missed those who couldn't make it).    

Hailey in the same blessing dress I wore

 Our cute little family

 The proud grandparents

Three generations

While I update my blog...

...this is what Hailey does. Love her so much!

Hailey looks like...

So the question that ALWAYS come up after you have a child is "Who does she look like?" I will work on getting a baby picture of Dan and I so that you can decide for yourself, but until than I'll tell you what we've decided. One thing is for sure Hailey DEFINITELY has Dan's feet.

They look exactly like his only much smaller and a little more feminine. It's amazing though how much they look like his.

She even has the amazing ability to spread her toes out super far, which is one of the things she loves to do. I'm sure that will some in handy to pick things up later in her life.

She also has her dad's flexable ears. This means that she can fold them forward. Mine don't fold at all, so that's how we know they are her dad's.

To be honest I'm not sure where her hair color comes from. Dan and I were both towheads when we were little and both have brown hair now. She has brown hair, but it almost has a red tint to it. Most likely it will go blond, but we will see. She has beautiful blue eyes, which comes from both Dan and I. She definitely has my eyes, nose, mouth and chin.

It's kind of crazy to see a little mini me. Actually, I would say it's crazy to see how much she looks like both of us. I'll work on getting those baby pictures for that you can decide for yourself.

The first week

So looking back at these pictures makes me realize how much my little girl has grown in the last few weeks. It's crazy to think she was any smaller, because she still just feels so small to me. So when we came home from the hospital Hailey was just so cozy in her car seat. She actually fell asleep before we made it out of the hospital.

The first week we didn't do much of anything. She was a little jaundice when we left the hospital so the doctor proscribed a little sun bathing each day. Well her in Arizona that's one thing we definitely have plenty of. So each morning she would spend a little time sitting in her snuggle bunny chair soaking up the rays.

When she wasn't soaking up the rays from the sun she was doing one of three things... sleeping, eating or pooping. Or just being so darn cute.   

 

 

It says HUG ME and believe me that's all I wanted to do

Grandma is Amazing!

So first let me just say that I am so grateful for my mother. She was able to come out and stay with us for the first week I was home. It was so wonderful to have someone around to help out. She helped cook and clean up, I was able to get a couple naps in while she would watch Hailey and in general it was just nice to have someone here who has been through it all before.

She is definitely a proud grandma. I think during the last couple weeks of my pregnancy every time I would call my mom she would ask if our little girl had come yet. Hailey is her first grand baby, so understandably she is very excited. I think the first thing she did when she got out here to Phoenix was hold Hailey. So proud.

Now if having grandma here wasn't enough, I learned that my mother is a VERY talented seamstress. I've experienced her talent in the past when she has made dresses for me, but this is super impressive. Some of you might remember when we got this chair with our crib.

The frame was in wonderful condition, but the cushions had definitely seen their fair share of use. I even mentioned that I might try my hand at reupholstering the chair. Since I was so busy with everything before the baby came I never really got around to doing that (which to be honest is probably a good thing, since it would have been a very difficult project). So in an attempt to clean up the cushions we tried to run them through the wash. Now you will note that I say TRY, because they weren't really cushions when they came out of the wash and the wash didn't really do much to help them out. So while my mom was in town she did an amazing thing... she took the chair above (which actually looked worse after the washing machine) and turned it into a BEAUTIFUL chair.

Like I mentioned before I knew my mom was talented, but maybe being a grandma makes her AMAZING! Thanks again for such a wonderful chair mom. It's made those night feedings so much more comfortable.