Strawberry Swirl Rolls and the BEST baby surprise ever!

For those of you who have followed my blog for awhile you have heard me mention all of our 'crazy' boys in our family. You see, I grew up with three sisters and NO brothers.  We were a home filled with make up, dresses, boy talk, and everything pink. It wasn't until my second child was born that our family had the first boy join our clan.  He was born ALL boy and has wanted nothing to do with anything pink & frilly ever since.  At first (and even still) I wonder what to do with boys.  Not having a brother I have to constantly ask my husband, "Did you do that when you were his age??"  We are finally getting the hang of the 'boy' thing after having had 11 of 16 of  the last children born to our family be boys.

We have all accepted the fact that after ten boys in a row we were destined to never have another baby girl in our family.  The other part of this story is that my Mom makes it a well known fact that girls are her favorite.  We laugh that she doesn't even try to hide it.  We keep telling her until she learns to love the craziness of boys, heaven will keep sending them.

 (Our crazy cousin clan with 11 boys & now 5 girls (12 yrs. & under)--

we are a noisy bunch to say the least!)

Well, this is where the story gets really fun.  My oldest sister & her husband decided to play the BIGGEST prank on our family. She had three boys four years and under and we thought for sure another boy would be born. Well...they found out at 16 weeks they were having a GIRL and played a joke on us for the rest of her pregnancy, telling us she was having a boy.  In our family we have to have a party for everything! When someone is expecting we always have a 'finding out' party to  find out the gender of our next babies.  We have the doctor write the gender of the baby in an envelope & open it together so we can all scream and ooh-ah as we find out who the next addition will be to our family. My sister threw this traditional 'finding out' party and even made a blue cake to help convince us that she was having a boy.  We all were convinced!

So.. for six months we talked about her next little boy, thought about boy names, planned everything around them having a fourth boy.  It wasn't until the delivery of the baby that we all got the surprise of our LIFE!!  Watch this hilarious video as we all come into the hospital room thinking Angela had a baby boy and come to find out had a precious, beautiful baby GIRL--super funny!

BEST BABY SURPRISE EVER!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2UXzW7GAv8 

(*Please ignore my tired, over worked, hair-undone self.  After a long day of running around crazy like Moms always do, my husband and I ran to the hospital at 10:30 pm to see the new bundle. I look haggard and scary, but the reactions are still worth sharing...no make up and all.  Oh, and my brother in laws reaction is so funny because he has guessed now 16 of 16 births/genders right.  He has awesome baby-vibes ;)

Welcome baby Oakley...we love you!!!! It's so good to see a pink bow again ;)

Okay, now for a delicious PINK recipe in honor of this cute baby girl in our family.  My sister hates cinnamon rolls, so I decided to do a girly version with strawberries.  These strawberry rolls were totally amazing and the perfect way to celebrate baby Oakley coming home ;)

Strawberry Swirl Rolls
Cinnamon Roll Dough Recipe
Strawberry Butter (you will have extra butter that you won't need for these rolls--the butter freezes great if you don't have any other plans for it...like eating it by the spoonful :)
2 sticks butter, softened
1/2 c. strawberry jam
3-4 fresh strawberries, crushed
1/2-whole can sweetened condensed milk
1 t. vanilla
With a hand mixer, blend together the butter and other ingredients until smooth. Add enough condensed milk to make the butter to your desired sweetness.

Strawberry Frosting:
1 stick butter, softened
2 lbs. powdered sugar (I used about 1/2 c.-3/4 c. less of a 2 lb. bag of sugar--only add as much as you need to make a creamy frosting)
1 t. lemon juice
Dash salt
2-3 T. strawberry jam (I like freezer jam, it has a more fresh taste)
1 t. vanilla
4-5 T. milk
Make the roll dough as the recipe explains, roll out and then top the dough with about 1-1 1/2 c. of our strawberry butter.  Roll the rolls up like a cinnamon roll and place on a greased cookie sheet (16 per sheet).  Let them rise until doubled and then bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes, or until lightly golden brown on top and no longer doughy.  Once they are out of the oven, make the strawberry frosting and spread all over the rolls.  Serve warm or cold, they are delicious!!