PLAYDOUGH, OCTOBER 30, 2007

Today Stefanie discovered the wonders of playdough. Hours and hours and years of fun! We took a few photos with my new camera.

GINGERBREAD FESTIVAL, NOVEMBER 8, 2007

CHILDREN'S DISCOVERY CENTER, NOVEMBER 3, 2007

THE ONLY WAY TO FLY, NOVEMBER 2, 2007

Jon likes to fly Stefanie around the house with or without her airplane, and she absolutely loves every minute. Unfortunately, I did not have a chance to take photos of Stefie in flight.

THE CHEESECAKE FACTORY, NOVEMBER 1, 2007

This evening we went to the grand opening of the Cheesecake Factory. This has been 6 plus years in the waiting. I know this sounds crazy, but Jon and I love the food at the restaurant. Jon and I have been to many Cheesecake Factory locations in many different states, and most recently on our trips to Las Vegas. Occasionally I would wish we had a Cheesecake Factory in Utah and I think it was something about not having a restaurant in the state, either way we are happy to have a restaurant.

I happened to be at the mall two days before the opening and I saw a very small sign about the grand opening. Thinking there would probably not be a lot of people attending we made plans to go for dinner. When we arrived we saw a line waiting to enter the restaurant and Theresa and I thought the restaurant had not opened yet. We were wrong, it took us 15 minutes to go around the corner and another 15 minutes to get inside and put our names on the list. We took our beeper and went into the mall to waste time when we thought we had an hour wait. We ended up waiting 2 hours by the time we sat down to have dinner. Jon and I have never waited more than 20 minutes at any restaurant, but we waited. Stefanie was given bread and bananas to snack on while we waited. Unfortunately, by the time we were seated at the table Stefanie was alseep.

The food portions were much larger than normal and we all had plenty of left overs. The food was excellent!! We all had a great dinner and Theresa loved the banana cheesecake. Anyone who has not had a chance to go to the restaurant I highly recommend it, and definitely expect to wait at least one hour.

Waiting in line outside.






Too exhausted from the wait.

STEFIE THE CAT, OCTOBER 31, 2007

Here is our little kitty.

FARNSWORTH FARMS CIDER MILL

Today we joined our Mom's Club on a field trip to the Farnsworth Farms Cider Mill. We really enjoyed our tour.




"Look what I found Mom?"
Before starting our tour.


Hayride




Questions & Answers










Pressed apples without the juice.


One of Stefie's apples.


Yeah!


Jon and Stefie love red apples.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Stefanie seems to share my love for pumpkins, so I thought we would share a pumpkin pancake recipe. Stefie seems to refuse to wear her Lady costume as she gets too hot, so yesterday I ran out and picked up a new costume. Stefie will be a cat!

Pumpkin Patch Pancakes

Ingredients:

• 1 meal size serving of your favorite pancake batter
• 1 ½ cup canned pumpkin
• 1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice*
• Ingredient amounts will vary with amount of pancake batter

Method:

Stir all ingredients until thoroughly mixed. Cook on griddle according to pancake instructions. Top with Apple Cider Syrup, Chunky Apple Sauce and Whipped Cream.

Apple Cider Syrup

Ingredients:

• 1 cup sugar
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice*
• 4 cups apple juice or apple cider

Method:

In a sauce pan mix together, sugar, cornstarch, and pumpkin spice*. Stir in apple juice or apple cider. Bring to a boil, remembering to stir occasionally. Remove from heat and serve over Pumpkin Patch Pancakes.

Chunky Apple Sauce

Ingredients:

• 1 jar or can apple sauce
• 1 can Apple Pie Filling
• 1 can of Fried Apples (found next to apple sauce)
• If using your own apples peel and sauté until tender

Method:

Mix the apple sauce with the chunky apples from the cans. It will make a great chunky apple sauce that is perfect to top the pancakes or other desserts.

Whipped Cream

Ingredients:

Method:

There are several options with whipped cream. Make your own sweetened whipped cream. Buy a carton of "Cool Whip", or use a can of "Reddi Wip". Choose your favorite to top off a fabulous breakfast. *If you don't have pumpkin pie spice you can make your own. It is a mixture of ground cinnamon with a touch of ground ginger, cloves and nutmeg. Measure to taste.

THE COUNT DOWN TO BABY KAILEY BEGINS!

Last night I came home to find a letter from our adoption agency with our log in date. Our dossier was logged in on October 8, 2007. It seems even though the wait times have slowed down in China, the log in dates are being processed more quickly. Currently we hope to see referral photos and medical history on baby Kailey in about 22 - 24 months from our log in date.

I will post an update once the China Center of Adoption affairs has processed our dossier. Our family is thrilled to have a log in date so quickly!

HALLOWEEN PREVIEW, October 23, 2007

Jon took these photos of our little "Lady" right before we went to the Mom's Club Halloween Party. It’s Lady without the Tramp.

CORNBELLY'S, OCTOBER 19, 2007

STEFIE'S IN THE KITCHEN!

Stefie loves it when we cook together and she gets so excited running around the house saying, "we’re cooking, we’re cooking", it’s too cute! This evening we were making garlic mashed potatoes as one of our side dishes for dinner. I think her beautiful smile shows how much she enjoyed her potatoes.

Just one cheesy grin.


More pepper please.


I like this..


So gentle.


At last!


Perfection!!