My Fave Summer Essential - Ice Cream!

The other week, we talked about one of the summer essentials -Watermelon. Now we are talking about another one - Ice Cream!





A few weeks ago, Mike ordered me an electric ice cream maker. It's a Whynter model that has a compressor in it. You don't have to freeze the bowl and it does not require ice or rock salt or anything.




You just pick your recipe, mix them up, and pour them into the mixing bowl. Then just set the timer and the waiting begins.

For most recipes, it takes about an hour to freeze. And a batch makes about 1.7 liters of ice cream. I'll do the conversion for you ... That's about a half gallon.

This ice cream machine makes a very rich and creamy ice cream. It almost does not have the consistency of the traditional homemade ice cream. It's much smoother and creamier.

I will post some of the recipes we have tried so far. Tonight, we made Coke Float Ice Cream. But ours was Pepsi Float Ice Cream. It turned out really good.

When the time ran out after 60 minutes, we each had a small bowl of ice cream even though it was not completely frozen. It was good, but it was not as creamy as some of the other recipes.

Since the batch was not completely frozen, we turned it on and let it run some more. After about 20 more minutes, it was so smooth and creamy. It was sooooo good!

Okay, okay here is the recipe:





2 cups sweetened condensed milk

2 large cans evaporated milk

1 pint milk (that's 2 cups)

Soda to fill the rest of the container

I halved this recipe so that it would fit in my ice cream freezer. I think I would have liked a little more Pepsi in it, but no more would fit. Maybe next time I will leave out some of the milk and add more Pepsi.

This is a very simple recipe, but it is very good.

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Happy 1st Birthday, Noah!

Yesterday was Noah's first birthday. We had his birthday party over at Nanny and Poppa's house on Saturday afternoon. A lot of our friends and family joined us to celebrate our little man.

We had a pizza party and lots of fresh fruits and veggies too. Then we had cake and ice cream and sugar cookies.

The cake was a marble cake made by our favorite local bakery. A few weeks ago, we took them one of the paper plates in the cowboy party theme and asked them to design a cake around it. On Saturday morning, Mike went to pick up the cake. While he was gone, I got a text from him that said "Cake looks awesome." And when he finally got home with it, he was so right. The cake was awesome!!!!!!!! I think the bakery did a phenomenal job on Noah's cake.

Here's a picture. Don't you think so???





So besides doing a good job on how the cake looks, they also did a great job on how the cake tastes. Noah had his own small cake that he got to dig into. And he really enjoyed that.

He got that cake in front of him and he pretty much knew exactly what to do. He just dug in with his hands and he ended up eating a lot more than anyone expected.






He was so sleepy by the time he started eating his cake, but he still did a good job. He was still sweet even when he was sleepy.






He also had lots and lots of presents to open. He got many new toys and some cute new clothes too. We have already played with all of his new toys.

I think one of his favorite toys is a little kid-powered ride-on car. It's perfectly sized for him. So far, he has only figured out how to make it go backwards though. This evening, I was pushing him across the living room and then he would scoooooot back to me for another ride.

Here's a little video clip.

I want to thank everyone who came to Noah's birthday party, especially the out of town guests who traveled to be with us. We had such a good time and enjoyed seeing all of you.

I'll try to get Noah's 12-month post up sometime later this week.

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One of the Summer Essentials

Watermelon!!!!!




Noah eats most everything but he certainly loves his watermelon. I don't blame him. It's some good stuff!


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Wordless Wednesday -Rider

"Motor Mouth"




"Checking the Engine"








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Friday Night Treat

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Words With Friends

Have you ever played Words With Friends on your phone?

It's a game similar to Scrabble that you can play against people you know - or people you don't know.

I usually don't do very well qt this game but tonight I made a word worth 102 points. Pretty sure that's the highest scoring word I have ever made.




Want to play? My username is Jsmith3100. I'd love to play a game or two with you.

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Oreooo

Oh, somebody's Daddy gave him an Oreo cookie tonight after supper.




Poor little guy was not feeling good, but he did enjoy his cookie.





Noah has had a fever most of the day today. We have been giving him baby Tylenol but we are going to gave to start alternating Tylenol and Motrin to keep his fever down better.

Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day.


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Our Sign

I think we have a vandal around here. Well vandal is really not the right word. Maybe it's more like a thief. But thief is really not right either. I guess it's more like a troublemaker.






We have a stone address sign at the end of our driveway. I took a picture of the back of it since it has our address on it. I bought this for Christmas and put it out by the driveway this past spring.

Well this evening when we got home, our sign had been pulled up and moved down by the mailboxes by the road. It was just resting against one of the other mailboxes down there.

This is actually the second time our address sign has been moved. It was also moved a couple weeks ago while we were at work. It was left in the same spot both times.

We don't know who is moving our sign or why. Mike thinks someone is messing with us for some unknown reason. We leave everyone out here alone so I don't know why they would do that.

If they are trying to give us hints about something, we're not getting it.



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Catching Up

The Smith family has been having a busy summer.  It seems like the weeks and weekends are going by really quickly.  First we had our trip to San Antonio.  Then we had Emily's 6th birthday party.  Then we had Father's Day weekend.  This week Noah has Vacation Bible School.  And next week Emily has Cousin's Week.

Father's Day

We had a good weekend last weekend as we celebrated Father's Day.  We decided to give Mike his Father's Day present on Friday night so that we could enjoy it during the weekend.  We got him an electric meat smoker.  Mike did a lot of research online on how to smoke meat and some good recipes for marinades and rubs and things.

We got some chicken breasts, some pork chops, and some hamburger meat for our first smoking challenge. It was actually not too bad.  It just took longer than we expected because I read in the instructions that we had to season the smoker by running it for like 3 hours before we started cooking anything.   

We liked everything that we cooked, but we decided that maybe the meat was over spiced.  Maybe next time we'll try it with a little less spice.  We have been eating smoked meat all week for supper.  Yum!

Vacation Bible School

This week, Noah is going Vacation Bible School for the first time.  He's going with Nanny and Poppa.  Nanny is working in the baby room with him along with Aunt Pat and Aunt Charlene.  They have 10 babies so they have their hands full!  Emily is not going to VBS this year since she's going to Summer Camp at a local church this summer.  

Crawling Before You Can Walk

Noah recently started crawling.  He just took off and now he goes everywhere.  We put the Pack 'n Play up in the living room as a playpen the other week and Noah loves to sit in there and play with his toys.  He can pull up on the side and look around.  Pretty soon he'll be walking.  He'll be walking!  Oh my!

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Catch Up - Vaca Stop at the Childrens Museum

On the way to San Antonio, we stopped by a childrens museum to play and check things out. Here are some pictures from our day.




































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Happy Birthday, Emily!

Happy Birthday to my sweet Emily!






Emily turned six years old yesterday. She had a fun birthday party at Hideaway Pizza. That was her choice. We offered a lot of other party options, but she really just wanted some pizza and family.

I think we had about 20 people at her party. Grandmother and Aunt Heather and Uncle Stephen came from out of town to be with us on Emily's special day.  We ate pizza then had some cake and then opened presents. Emily got a lot of really nice things. She has been playing with all her new toys since we got home from the party yesterday.

All About Emily

Emily just finished kindergarten and will be starting first grade in the fall. She already knows how to read and she loves books! She got several books for her birthday and she has already been busy reading them.

Emily is so sweet. She loves her family so much, including the grandparents, cousins, and extended family. She is willing to help with whatever is needed.

Emily loves her little brother. And he loves her too. Noah is always watching her to see what she is doing. And she is very patient with him. He might pull her hair or try to take her toys. But she doesn't mind. They are going to be good friends I know.

Emily is so funny. Sometimes she gets on s silly kick and you never know what she will say. She can make Noah laugh like no other. They will often both get to laughing in the backseat of the car. They are fun to watch together.

Happy Birthday, Emily. You changed our lives forever when you were born six years ago. You are such a sweet, smart, beautiful, special little girl. We love you with all our hearts!!!!!!!


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San Antonio - Part II

Another exciting part of our San Antonio trip was visiting The Alamo. We had been building up to this at home. Mike and Emily had been reading books and watching movies about the heroes of The Alamo like Davy Crockett.





Noah was fighting naptime most of this visit so I didn't get many pictures of The Alamo. There were a lot of places where they did not allow photos to be taken too.







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Vacation San Antonio

Sorry about the blog silence. We were out of town on vacation and I am not comfortable telling the Internet that we were not going to be home.

So we just got back from our family vacation to San Antonio. We went with Mike's family. One day we went to Sea World. Another day, we visited The Alamo. We were going to go check out the Riverwalk but it was sooooooo hot!

I managed to get a few pictures with my phone. I didn't even take my other camera. I knew it would be nearly impossible to take pictures while tending the kids.

Here are some of our picture from Sea World.

Azul dolphin show. They has acrobats, high divers in beautiful costumes, tropical birds, and several dolphins. The trainers and acrobats got into the water with the animals during this show.




We sat in the splash zone, but we never got splashed. I was actually looking forward to getting splashed because it was sooooo hot. Probably best that it didn't happen though since Noah was asleep in my lap.

Later, we went to the Shamu show. It was late in the day so we say up at the top of the stadium, far away from the splash zone. More on this in a minute.

In this show, the trainers did not get into the water with the animals. They stood on small decks to interact with the animals.





Emily liked it when Shamu slid up onto the deck.



For parts of the show, there was a baby swimming beside the mom. Big baby. Really big baby.

This pic is not very good, but see that tail fin sticking up in the middle of the pic? That's actually a bad sign.




Because this is what happens next in the splash zone.





And then. Then. THEN! They lowered a big ball on a string over the pool. And this giant orca whale jumped completely out of the water to touch it!!! Seriously!





And in case you're wondering what happens next, all the water splashes out of the tank. Not really. But close.




Besides watching a couple shows, we also rode some rides.














And we even saw some Sesame Street characters live and in person. Awww!





We were so hot and tired by the time we left, but everybody had a good time at Sea World San Antonio.


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These Pics Are Classics

Tonight was Noah's first time to try mom's spaghetti.


I started out giving him little bits on a spoon but it didn't end that way.




His sweet little hands were making us laugh so hard.




He was just shoveling that food into his mouth with two hands.




And he was making the cutest mmmmmm mmmmmm mmmmmmmmm sounds with every bite.




Noah says mom makes the best spaghetti around.

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Happy Mother's Day 2011

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there. A special shout-out to my wonderful mother and mother-in-law. I admire both of you very much and am blessed to have you in my life. I love you!!!!!

I had a wonderful day with my beautiful two children. It was not at all lost on me that this was my first Mother's Day as a mother of two. I am very blessed!





After church this morning, we went to lunch at the Cheesecake Factory with Nanny, Poppa, Aunt Cherry, Uncle Gary, Madison and Mason (and the rest of Oklahoma City). After the meal, Mike and I shared a piece of dulce du leche (caramel) cheesecake. It was sooooo good.




When we got home from lunch, I wanted to try to get a couple mothers day pics. You can see how that went. Oh well. We were together and that's what counts.

For Mother's Day, I wanted a new windchime. We went to a couple stores last night and finally found this blue bird. So cute. It's perfect.




I also got this cute little whirligig. Emily and I found a place for it beside the flower bed last night.




I'm so thankful for my two kids!!!!!!

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Noah - By The Numbers

9 - Months old, today.

20 - Pounds, plus

12 - Ounces.

40th - Percentile in weight.

27 - Inches long, plus a half inch.

50th - Percentile in height. That's a huge increase from his 6 month appointment. The Dr thinks the last one was a misread.

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12 - Month clothes size.

3 - Size diapers.

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6 - Teeth!

4 - Teeth on top.

2 - Teeth on bottom.

1 - Drooly baby boy.

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4 - Bottles a day now.

4 - Ounces each.

16 - Ounces of formula a day.

16 - Ounces a day is okay.

20 - Ounces is preferred by the pediatrician.

3 - Meals a day. Right on track. Make it healthy!

0 - Cows milk, until age 1. Milk products like cheese and yogurt are okay.

0 - Eggs and peanut butter at this age, too. Allergy risk. Zero honey as well.

3 - Fave Foods: Applesauce, Sweet Potatoes, Vanilla Wafers! He likes many other foods too.

2 - New foods tried today: rice and refried beans. He's a fan!





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10 Special Things about Noah

1: Happy boy.

2: Laughs SO hard at his sister!

3: Sleeping better now, both at naptime and at bedtime.

4: Likes to dance to George Strait, especially the song "The Fireman"!

5: Cruises all around the kitchen in his walker. He is getting a lot better at controlling his direction of travel.

6: Sits well without support. Likes to roll to get to whatever it is he wants.

7: Loves the pacifier now. I think we have seven pacis now so there is always one handy.

8: Still likes a blanket when he goes to sleep. Rolls all over the bed at night!

9: Handsome just like his daddy.

10: Very much loved by his family!!!

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PVC's

Premature Ventricular Contractions.

PVC's are basically early "premature" heartbeats that originate in the lower chamber "ventricle" of the heart. The heart squeezes "contracts" before it is full of blood so less blood is pushed out to the rest of the body. (This is why my blood pressure registered low on my BP cuff when I was having the irregular heartbeats.)

PVC's are common and not usually cause for concern. They could be caused by stress or an overload of caffeine or other stimulants.

Even the number of episodes of PVC's that I have was not cause for concern. But it's the strings of 2-5 irregular heartbeats in a row that is causing the doctor to investigate further. (And even then he did not seem concerned and said these things were "very rarely" serious.)

So next week I will go back to the Heart Hospital for a Heart Echo. That's an ultrasound of the heart. Out of an abundance of caution, he wants to check to make sure there are not any abnormalities in my heart muscle or valves etc. "But it's probably fine since this arrhythmia just started."

He also gave me a prescription for a very low dose of beta blockers that I can take to see if it helps reduce the number of episodes of PVC's that I have.

The nurse and I really bonded over talk of IUD drama and how long it's going to take to see the electrophysiologist. She started to say that they only read the results of the Heart Echos a couple times a week, but she said she would make herself a note and call me as soon as she got the results.

So that's the update from the cardiologist. It's way more than I intended to type out with one finger on my iPhone, that is okay.

Two more things:

A) The nurse did an EKG on me and I asked her if it registered a skipped heartbeat. Yep!

B) The doctor listened to my heart with his stethoscope and I had a PVC while he was listening too.

C) Just for fun, here is a pic of me at the Heart Hospital this morning. Ha ha!







Thanks for all the prayers!!!

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It's Not All in My Head

I knew it was not all in my head. I could feel it happening. I know you didn't think it was all in my head either.

The cardiologist's office called this afternoon to let me know that the doctor reviewed my Holter monitor results and would like to refer me to an electrophysiologist in the same office.

The nurse said the monitor did show that I was having some early heartbeats. Early beats are common, but I had some episodes where several beats in a row would be early/irregular. In some cases, I had up to five beats in a row that were off.

So I will still go see the cardiologist in the morning so that he can give me the detailed results of my test. And I will go see the electrophysiologist in mid-June.

All the wait-and-see gets really old. But what can you do? The doctors are just too busy! The nurse said "if it makes you feel any better, the other electrophysiologist in our office is booked until July!"

A) No, it does not make me feel better.

B) Do I really want to see the electrophysiologist who is only booked up to June if the other one is booked up till July? Is the other one better? Hmmm?


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Late Update

Mike commented tonight that I didn't update by blog today so I thought I better put up a quick update for you. And him.

I'm still having the skipped heartbeats today. It seems like they get more frequent as I get toward the end of the week. Sometimes it takes a few seconds longer than normal to get back into the regular rhythm. I try not to worry too much about it, but it is definitely a strange feeling.

More Fun

Emily had a reading assessment test this week at school. I'm anxious to see how well she did. I think she is doing a fantastic job of reading, especially considering her age. That girl loves to read!

I think Noah heard through the grapevine that I was complaining about his nighttime habits on my blog. I say that because he went to sleep a lot easier tonight. He didn't do all that fussing like he did the other nights this week. I'll take an easy night where I can get it these days.


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Holter Done

Sorry about the late update. I've been relaxing in my bath for a while. When I had the Holter monitor on, I was not allowed to bathe or shower. So tonight was my first bath or shower since Monday morning.

I was able to take the Holter monitor off myself this morning. The electrodes just unsnap from the sticky pads. And the sticky pads just pull right off. Ouch!

I will return the monitor to the heart hospital in the morning. We were busy tonight and I did not get a chance to go up there before the office closed.

Baby Sleep

Noah has started fighting bedtime this week. He is clearly sleepy, but when we put him in his bed he cries. I guess I had taken for granted how easy he has always been to put to bed. This new thing is hard! I want my "old normal" back. I was spoiled!

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