Bear Feet

So the other day (on one of our not so nice wet days) Zoe headed out the front door. I was glad she went out on her own and I didn't want to disturb what she was going to do so I didn't get up to check to be sure she was dress appropriately. When she came back in a few minutes later I noticed she had no shoes or socks on. I asked, "Did you go out in your bare feet?" Her immediate reply was, "No, I left my bear inside. I just went out in my feet."

Wine bottling time!!

Well after we found about the baby. You maybe wondering how did we celebrate. Well you guessed it we bottle some wine. Well Merriann can't drink it what else would you do with it. It will be ready to drink after the baby is born so it's OK! Well the type of wine we are bottling is an Apple wine. It was going to be a Apple cider but we missed the cider bottling window back in October, and the only thing different between an apple wine and an apple cider is that the Apple wine is formented longer and because of this longer fermentation it is not a sweet as a cider.

Here are some pictures of Merriann and Zoe helping in the bottling of the wine. And I know what some of you are thinking ....If her husband really loved her he wouldn't ask his pregnant wife to bottle wine she can't even drink yet!! Well, I only ask if she wanted to!!! :-) And she said "Yes Dear" so to me that means that she really wanted to do it and that was good enough for me.

Oh this is a video of my wonderful wife and daughter using the corker they got for me earlier last summer at a yard sale.

~Greg T

Nice to See Ya, Long Time No Post!!

Hello all,

I just want to say sorry for not posting for a while it's been kind of busy around here.

But .... We have some Great News (Drum Roll Please!):

Merriann and I are having a baby.. We found out yesterday that Merriann is about 9 weeks pregnant. We are so excited!!! As some of you know that we have been trying to adopt a child for a little while now and this great news don't really change anything on that front. But it does push back the date a little bit. I just wanted to point out that it is amazing the way that God works in our life. To think just a few weeks ago we where really sad that the adoption through Antioch was not working out. And we didn't understand why this was happening. But little did we know God had other plans for us. Isn't he great?

Well, here is a picture of the ultrasound. It is not the greatest but you get the idea!!



Oh it does change the marathon running for Merriann and quite possiblity me too!! Oh well! :-)

~Greg T

Clone of a Cinnabon

Yesterday I had to make a dish to take to MOPS in the morning. I found a recipe on allrecipes.com called Clone of a Cinnabon and had to try it. It was amazing. Now, I haven't had a Cinnabon in a long time so I don't know if it tastes exactly like it or not but let me tell you...it was awesome. I forgot to take a picture of it so this is the picture off the website. I didn't have bread machine yeast so I just used regular yeast and I didn't have bread flour and used all-purpose instead and they still turned out perfect. I made double the frosting.

INGREDIENTS
1 cup warm milk (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
2 eggs, room temperature
1/3 cup margarine, melted
4 1/2 cups bread flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup white sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons bread machine yeast

1 cup brown sugar, packed
2 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
1/3 cup butter, softened

1 (3 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt

DIRECTIONS
Place ingredients in the pan of the bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Select dough cycle; press Start.
After the dough has doubled in size turn it out onto a lightly floured surface, cover and let rest for 10 minutes. In a small bowl, combine brown sugar and cinnamon.
Roll dough into a 16x21 inch rectangle. Spread dough with 1/3 cup butter and sprinkle evenly with sugar/cinnamon mixture. Roll up dough and cut into 12 rolls. Place rolls in a lightly greased 9x13 inch baking pan. Cover and let rise until nearly doubled, about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
Bake rolls in preheated oven until golden brown, about 15 minutes. While rolls are baking, beat together cream cheese, 1/4 cup butter, confectioners' sugar, vanilla extract and salt. Spread frosting on warm rolls before serving.

Enjoy!

~Merriann