Cinnamon Rolls

Oh, my. These cinnamon rolls by the Pioneer Woman are to die for. I almost wept over the pan when they came out of the oven. And then I tasted them. They are like maple bars with a cinnamon-y kick. And the recipe makes like 50 of them.
This is how mine turned out: I could lick the screen.

Consistency.

What a whirlwind the last day has been! At about 8:20 last night while I was sneaking up to put on my pj's, I paused in the hallway and heard Juliet struggling to breathe in her bed. Think: asthma-like breathing where sucking in air sounds very difficult. Paired with a very hoarse cough/voice, I was freaked out. It came on suddenly and she was acting lethargic. Now, don't get me wrong - I am not a freak-out mom. Especially by my third baby, I usually take everything in stride. Breathing difficulty and Juliet, however, I don't mess around with. As I was holding what felt like my lifeless baby trying to gasp for breaths, I instinctively dialed 911 (that's a first for me). I calmly answered all the operator's questions, got off the phone, called Colin to come home immediately from work and began pacing around outside begging under my breath for the rescue crew to show up quickly. Minutes later, I heard the siren and met them halfway up my long driveway so they could help my sweet baby. As it turns out, she had croup and I declined the ambulance ride to the hospital, but did take the fireman's advice to go to the ER to get a breathing treatment. It took 2 1/2 hours to be seen (don't even get me started with how much I don't like Kaiser) and they advised me to elevate Juliet's bed and give her a cool mist humidifier in her room. At that point it's past midnight and after getting Juliet nursed, in bed and the humidifier going, it was closer to 1. I heard crying and barking coughs from her room all night, so I am running on fumes today. The good news is, unlike the other breathing issues Juliet has had in 2009, this one didn't end in a hospitalization and is not serious.

We are still in the trenches of the terrible two's with Jude and I am praying that will let up soon because I am feeling like I'm being given more than I can bear at times.

Here are some recent pics of the kids.
Samuel helping me make Barefoot Contessa's "Sunday Oatmeal" very early one morning: Juliet is standing for a few seconds on her own now. She also loves doing these cute little headstands:

Colin's mom had her dogs over her for a bit and Juliet was very interested in them:

The kids and I made Valentine's cookies and passed them out to some neighbors. Have I mentioned how much my kids love decorating cookies?!

Cute.

Samuel decorating his cookie Army green.

Jude having fun.

Carrot Cake

Yesterday I baked the carrot cake from the Mother's Bistro cookbook. Personally, I would not have included so much pineapple (it called for an entire 20 ounce can, drained) and Colin suggested I add raisins next time, but other than that, it was really good. Of course I took pictures. Samuel and Jude dipped their carrots in the cream cheese frosting remnants: Colin insisted on cutting into the cake and trying a piece even before our company arrived for dinner.

And here is how the inside turned out. Pretty good consistency which I can attribute to steaming and pureeing the carrots as part of the batter. Very moist.

Yes, that is a dinosaur plate. It's all that was clean.