Overnight Cinnamon Rolls with Cream Cheese Frosting

Cole's Last Day Being 3!!

Cole woke up this morning very excited that he was one day closer to his big day!  In my attempt to try to wrap some presents, I encouraged the boys to take a nap early this afternoon ... Braydon sleeps so much better and longer if he has someone to cuddle with, so I let the boys nap together.  It was a short lived nap, but it was something!

When Cole woke he asked if we could make a huge banner for his birthday- we had the butcher paper, so why not?!

He wanted the faces of everyone he would see tomorrow on his banner and then he colored it ... it was very colorful full of smiling faces, a plane, candles, balloons, and birthday monsters ... don't ask because I don't fully understand :)

When we go to Grammie and Papa's house tomorrow evening to celebrate we will bring his birthday banner and hang it with pride!

Cole requested cinnamon rolls for his birthday breakfast, so we got started on them later this afternoon so they would be ready in the morning.  We made our dough first.

We combined 3/8 c milk, 3/8 c water, 1 egg, 3 c flour, 1 tsp salt, 4 tbsp butter, 1/3 c sugar and 1 1/2 tsp yeast.  I used my bread maker to do the work.  We were so close to a perfect rise until I found Braydon on the counter with my spatula stabbing the rising dough ... I let it sit for another 30 minutes to try and bring it back to life ... it seemed to work, but I can only imagine how much fluffier the dough would have been had it not been attacked!!

I rolled the dough out ...

and then made my filling -

In a bowl I combined 1 1/3 c brown sugar, 2 1/2 tbsp cinnamon, 3 tbsp flour and 7 tbsp butter.  I used my pastry blender to cut the ingredients into each other.

I then melted a couple more tbsp butter to coat our dough with and 

then we coated the dough with the filling, rolled the dough up and sliced it into even pieces.

I oiled a baking pan, placed the cut cinnamon rolls in the pan and baked them for 20 minutes at 375 degrees.

While the cinnamon rolls baked, we headed to the boy's playroom to do our traditional birthday measurement.  We have this growth ruler that on their half birthday and birthday we measure them to see how they have grown!

My cute boy getting measured

Cole had major growth spurts from 2-3 years and then from 3-4 years ... these last 6 months he has slowed down a bit!  Thank goodness for that though ... our 4 year old wears a size 12 shoe and boys XS ... no more toddler sizing for this big boy!

After our measuring, our cinnamon rolls were ready for us to take out of the oven.

Now onto making our cream cheese frosting to top our rolls with!  

While the cinnamon rolls were cooling for a few moments, I gathered a few more of our traditional birthday items.  This book is one ...

Every birthday is featured inside where we document the details of their day.

Inside we keep all the boy's birthday cards and party invites, with a picture of them on their birthday.  It is such a neat and concise way to remember each birthday and the highlights of the day.

This box is the second thing I do for the boys every year- and it is by far the more emotional of the two.  Each year I write a letter to the boys on their birthday.  I recap our year together, milestones they had, special moments shared ... it becomes my love letter to them.  I seal it and store it in this box, marking the age they turned on the envelope.  On their 18th birthday they will have this box as a gift to them.  18 days before their 18th birthday they will get the letter written on their 1st birthday, 17 days before their 18th birthday they will get the letter from their 2nd birthday ... so on until their 18th birthday.  My mom has also partaken in this tradition with me.  It is such a great remembrance of our times as Mommy and Grammie with the boys- Jeremy has done a few here and there too which makes this so much more amazing.  

Tomorrow I will take some time to remember my last year with Cole.  I started today, but began to cry ... so tomorrow I will give it another try.  

On a less emotional note, after collecting the birthday memories for tomorrow, our cinnamon rolls were cool enough to top with our cream cheese frosting!

What kind of Mommy would I be if I didn't let them try them out tonight??

The rest await us for the morning when we celebrate the birth of our first born Cole ... what an amazing blessing from God he has been to Jeremy and myself!