Best rolls ever!!

Knot Rolls

1-1/2 T yeast or 1 T saf-instant yeast
3 cups milk
1 cube butter and 1/4 cup shortening ( you may use any combination of butter/shortening, etc) I use what they recommend.
1 cup instant potato flakes
3/4 cup sugar
1 T salt
4 eggs
approx. 7 to 8 cups flour, half all purpose and half bread flour

step 1: Heat milk and add the butter and shortening . Add the potato flakes, sugar and salt and let sit.

Step 2: Beat eggs and add the above milk mixture. Make sure the milk is not too hot. You may add 2 C of the flour and mix to cool it down. Add the yeast. If you use saf –instant yeast just put it in, otherwise, you will need to prepare the yeast ahead of time as you normally would with any bread recipe by adding 1/4 C warm water and 1/2 tsp. Sugar to the yeast in a separate bowl. Mix the eggs and milk on low speed and slowly add the flour. (Suggestion: keep one cup out and let the mixer run for about 5-8 min. and then add the last cup very slowly until the sides of the mixer are clean. Sometimes it takes all eight cups, sometimes less.)

Step 3: Let rise for 1 hour. Divide dough in half and roll into a large circle. Take soft butter sp[read all over the circle. Take the top of the circle and fold to the middle, then take the bottom of the circle and fold on top so that you have a long rectangle. Cut the dough into 1 inch strips and tie in a knot. Place on greased pan or line with parchment paper. They make beautiful rolls. This recipe is very easy. Let the rolls rise for 2 to 3 hours. Depending on the temp of the house and bake at 375 for about 11 to 12 min.

Honey butter: equal parts butter, honey, and powdered sugar.

Lani's Skinned Knee

Poor Lani skinned her knee. And at the time she did, she was too happy to notice!

-Lauren

Shameless Plug!

I would like to take a moment to shamelessly plug our latest venture. I am genuinely excited about the fact that we are finally opening the highly anticipated (especially by me) spa. I toured around one of the locations the other day and it is so huge and so impressive I can hardly believe we are associated with it:) The best part is, is if you sign up 4 friends you get a free membership! I know, Christopher has only been to a spa once in his life. He is all too aware of his weaknesses and has hired some very capable experts to actually carry his idea out!
We are trying to get the word out so anyone that wants to throw a "Spa party" (a great way to get your free membership) would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks for all your support over the years patiently waiting for this to actually happen. No pressure, we can live on our food storage for a couple more weeks!

Frespa Link: http://www.freespa.net/

Sweet Mercy!

I have officially survived my 38th summer in Arizona. It is finally only in the 90's for a high now and I couldn't be more grateful! I had become so acustomed to not being able to let the kids go outside, confined only to the four walls of our home, that I almost forgot summer was over. You should have seen the look on little Lani's face when I opened the door and let her walk outside for the first time. She wasn't even sure what to do with herself....so of course she took off running (just in case I changed my mind.) Anyone with a toddler knows what happend next...her first skinned knees, but atleast she had her freedom. Thank goodness for the ever so slight changes in weather we enjoy here in the desert. If I could afford the gas to fill a moving truck to Utah, this may have been my last summer here, but alas! Hopefully those of us having had to endure a lifetime of Arizona summers will be spared from the depths of hell, purely out of mercy!

Lani's Busy Day

Lani vs. Mom

Cheryl's To Do List For Wed. Aug. 27th:

-Wake up
-Get the kids up
-Make breakfast
-Clean up breakfast
-Shower
-Get dressed
-Pack lunches
-Remind kids how to get ready for school
-Put in a load of wash (so I can be caught up..ha ha)
-Wash all sheets
-Make sure house is ready to be shown to perspective buyers at a moment's notice
-Take middle kids to school
-Run Lauren to the bus
-Pack up Lani for the day
-Go with Christopher to sign papers for a deal that's closing
-Meet Kristen to watch her kids while she goes to the doctor
-Rush back and meet Christy to watch her kids while she goes to the doctor
-Pick up middle kids at the bus stop
-Beg them to please do their homework
-Take all the 8 and 9 year old boy scouts on a field trip to Ace Hardware
-Make dinner
-Clean up dinner
-Take Lauren to Young Womens
-Pick Lauren up from Young Womens
-Bathe all kids
-Collapse on my bed and watch reality shows with Christopher and watch him do skits about them.
-Try to get to bed before 11:00 so I can wake up at 4:30 the next day to run with my superhuman friend Angela!

Little did I know that Lani had her own agenda!

Lani's To do list for Wed. Aug. 27th:

-Take off diaper in the middle of the night and pee through 5 blankets
-Make Mom bathe me BEFORE I even eat breakfast
-Don't tell Mom I don't feel good and eat a big breakfast
-Puke in the car on the way to Mom and Dad's meeting
-While Mom is outside trying to clean my huge breakfast out of every nook and cranny of my carseat and car, take off my poopy diaper and paint my body with it!
-Take my second bath before 11:00.
-While Mom is cleaning up my poop, pull everything out of the kitchen cabinet and eat her hidden chocolate stash, foil and all (I wonder why my stomach hurts.)

Remember...life is what happens when you are making other plans! I'm sure I'll get a good laugh about this someday as soon as I finish crying :)

An Explaination

Hi there,

In case you are wondering why my hair is BLACK...I have the blog entry:

http://theworldisawesome.blogspot.com/2008/08/breaking-dawn-party-and-black-hair-dye.html

-Lauren

Banners

Hi Everyone,

I made some banners with current pictures of all us Haws kids, if you want to see. Go to the bottom of the page, under the playlist.

Xoxo,
Lauren

And then there was one....

I can't lie and tell you summer flew by this year. With no money and a short vacation, it crawled along a bit! I kissed the crew good-bye, ran home and plopped the remaining kiddo in front of Elmo (bless you Elmo!) I cleaned this nearly condemed house like this was my last day on earth and everyone in Relief Society was going to see it. I had dinner sitting on the table by 5 and finished every bit of wash in the house. It was as if I had been locked up in jail all summer. I didn't do it alone though. I must take a moment to thank Energy Vitamin water. When the "high" finally wore off, I felt like I had been hit by a train. Christopher just couldn't figure out what was wrong with me when I didn't want to watch the Olympics (on the highest volume,) until midnight.
I took a chill pill this morning, finally convincing myself that there are plenty more school days ahead. Lani and I hit the running store and I rewarded myself with a long overdue pair of shoes. I earned these shoes by sitting through 2 hours of traffic court for Christopher instead of "just paying it!" He thinks I'm a saint and I have the shoes I want! We both win!
Here's to those brave souls that teach our kids every day!

Girls Camp and Swimming

(I get back from girl's camp...here I am in front of the buses)

(Great Grandma goes swimming)