Grace Like Rain

Emily Says

2011-09-08T19:31:00.001-05:00

"I can't believe my brother can walk!!"

Noah took a few steps tonight. He walked from me to Emily.

We couldn't get a good picture or video of the big event. Maybe we will get it on video soon so that you all can see.

Yipee! We have a walker!

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Happy Labor Day

2011-09-05T15:05:00.001-05:00

Happy Labor Day everyone!

I hope you all are having a great holiday weekend.

I feel like I have a lot of things to talk so I'm going to break them down into smaller bites.

Friday Night Lights

On Friday night after work, Mike and I went out to dinner with some of his friends from work. One of his co-workers recently completed her cancer treatments and we wanted to help her celebrate!

We went to Cheesecake Factory. We had lots of good food and lots of good conversation. We hardly ever get a night away like this so it was a nice change for us.

Mike's mom and dad watched the kids. I texted them several times during dinner because Noah was not really feeling well. I think it is just from teething or maybe from the shots last week but his tummy has not been feeling very good this weekend.

Sooner Saturday

On Saturday, we got up and went to pick up the kids. Then we ran our errands. We went to Sam's and got a brisket and some chicken breasts to smoke this weekend.

Then soon enough it was time to watch the Sooners play on TV. The kids were headed to bed pretty soon after the game started. And I had to log in to work for a bit. So Mike had to watch the game alone.

Winds of Change

When we woke up on Sunday morning, the weather was a lot different than it had been the last several months. Gone were the hot days of summer. In their place was the cool breezy days of Fall.

We only had one little girl in our Sunday School class. We invited all the baby dolls to story time so that we would have some company.

After church, we went to Cheddars for lunch. With the weather changing, it seemed to be the perfect day to go get a chicken pot pie. So yum. Emily always shares the chicken pot pie with me. Noah had some chicken pot pie and a lot of French Fries with ketchup. He likes anything with ketchup.

After lunch, we all went home for nap time. Noah napped pretty much all afternoon. Mike spent the afternoon prepping his brisket. When Noah woke up, it was time to go over to Aunt Charlene's for a cookout.

We had a good time hanging out and visiting with everyone who was there. The kids ran around and played in the yard most of the time.

We had a lot of good food - hamburgers and hotdogs, baked beans, pasta salad, lots of yummy desserts. Mike had a brownie fudge sundae. I had some four layer delight.

Noah did some swinging out in the yard. He seemed to really enjoy seining high!

Aunt Pat invited Emily to spend the night so she went home with Aunt Pat and Mason. Mike went and picked her up this morning and she had a good time.

Celebrate

Neither Mike nor I had to work ob Labor Day Monday. Emily was over at Aunt Pat's and Noah slept late.

When he finally woke up, I thought he looked so cute. I had put him to bed wearing some long pajamas with feet. He just looked adorable wearing them. I am not sure if he knew what to think about having long sleeves on his arms. When I first put them on, he kept pulling at them.

It is hard to get good pictures of Noah these days. He is always so busy that the pictures turn out blurry.

Today, we have just been catching up around the house. We got the brisket out of the smoker this morning and then smoked the chicken breasts. We made some homemade ice cream too.

It's been a busy weekend, but it has been a good one. I'm so thankful for the cooler weather. And for my family.

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Little Train Engineer

2011-08-19T21:46:00.000-05:00

Noah is becoming a very fun little train engineer. The Thomas the Train toy is one of his favorites. Check out this video and see how he pushes those buttons. He's so cute.

This is another little video clip of Noah doing a little train engineer dancing.

And what about this one? Every little engineer has to work on their engine every once in a while.

Play Ball

2011-08-18T21:11:00.001-05:00

Noah and I played catch tonight.

(Ignore my voice. I can hardly believe I sound like that.)

First Grade

2011-08-18T20:09:00.001-05:00

I had the privilege of taking Emily to her first day of First Grade this morning.

She wanted to wear her San Antonio T-Shirt this morning. And she wanted her hair in pigtails with her bow just a certain way.

When we got to school, her teacher and class had already gone down to the gym for the morning assembly.

So we walked down there to join her class. On the way, we saw Mason in his classroom.

And we stopped to snap a quick pic.

When we got to the gym, we saw Madison. She wanted to hold Noah for a minute. Noah was very interested in checking out all the kids.

Emily went to sit with her class. That's her friend Jaydon on her right. She was not unhappy to be there. She was just tired of getting her picture taken.

When I picked her up from school, she said her day was "great" and that she wanted to go back to school tomorrow.

She said that her class sat in a circle and passed a ball around and whoever has the ball has to say their name. Then they went around and said their last name. Then they went around and said their favorite color. She said her favorite color was purple.

It sounds like we are off to an excellent start to first grade.

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Spaghetti Rascal

2011-08-17T19:18:00.001-05:00

Noah loves Mom's spaghetti.

He likes to make a huge mess of it.

But when he's done, he's done.

And he throws the rest on the floor.

Spaghetti Rascal!

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Meet The Teacher 2011

2011-08-16T21:40:00.001-05:00

Tonight we headed over to the school to meet Emily's first grade teacher.

Emily had a teacher in mind that she wanted. We had been talking to her about how we don't get to pick our teachers and how God knows which teacher is best for Emily this year.

Well, Emily did not get the teacher she wanted. But she found out that a few of her friends were going to be in the same class she is in. So she was pretty excited.

Her teacher's name is Mrs. Weaver. She only has about 15 kids in her class this year. They also got a new smart board for their classroom this year. That's going to be very cool.

School Supplies

When my sister was here visiting the other week, she gave me a hard time because I ordered Emily's school supplies through the PTA. They sell a pack of everything on the school supply list for a set price. Heather said it takes the fun out of going back to school because you don't get to pick out all your fun supplies.

The school supply packs were supposed to be in the classroom tonight, but Emily's was not there. I asked the teacher and she said I would need to check with the PTA. The PTA said they did receive some extra packs that did not have names on them so they would need to sort it all out. They are supposed to call and let me know if they found Emily's supplies. If not, I guess we will be going shopping tomorrow night!!

I think next year we will be going shopping for supplies on our own.

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The Best Meal I Ever Ate - Part 2

2011-08-16T21:10:00.000-05:00

On Sunday, I made the best Ice Cream I ever ate. It was Coconut Cream Ice Cream.

Ingredients:

2 large eggs

3/4 cup sugar

2 cups heavy or whipping cream

1 cup milk

1 can (15 oz) coconut cream, such as Coco Lopez

Whip the eggs until light and fluffy. Add in the sugar a little at a time and continue whipping until completely combined. Pour in the cream and the milk and the coconut cream and blend well.

I froze this in two batches. The ice cream freezer suggests that you only fill the container about 60% full. I did that with this recipe and it still made a full container of ice cream.

This recipe makes a very smooth and creamy ice cream. It froze very well and was just like eating premium ice cream, only better. The Coco Lopez has tiny bits of coconut in it. It's not like coconut flakes. Much smaller. So delicious.

I thought this recipe was not as sweet as some of the other recipes we have used and I liked that better. You can use this same base recipe without the coconut cream. I think next time I will make vanilla ice cream using this base recipe. Or maybe chocolate? The possibilities with this base are endless.

Everyone in my house agrees - this is the best ice cream we have ever eaten.

What is coconut cream? Where do you find it in the grocery store?

It's in the mixed drinks section. It is often used in pina coladas.

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The Best Meal I Ever Ate - Part 1

2011-08-15T21:17:00.001-05:00

Yesterday afternoon, Mike made the best babyback ribs I ever ate.

He used the 2-2-1 Method.

First, he rubbed plain yellow mustard on the ribs and then sprinkled them with Head Country rub.

Then he put them in the smoker with some good old hickory wood at 225 degrees for two hours.

Next, he pulled the ribs out and wrapped them in foil and put them back into the smoker for another two hours.

After the two hours were up, he took them out and unwrapped them. And put them back in the smoker to firm up and get some of that good bark on it.

At the thirty minute mark, he basted the ribs with some Head Country BBQ sauce. Then we just had to wait for the ribs to be done.

And then they were done. And they were so good. They were just fall-off-the-bone tender and so tasty with the Head Country seasonings.

We inadvertently ate about a half rack that night. Then we shared another half rack tonight for supper.

Do you want to come over for some ribs? You're invited. (But call first! Haha.)

But just wait ... You haven't even heard what we had for Part 2. Mmmmmmm!

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Party Party

2011-08-14T21:05:00.001-05:00

Yesterday, we went to Aunt Pat's birthday. We all met at a local Italian restaurant for lunch.

It took quite a long time to get our food, but we had a good time visiting. And the food was really good when it finally came.

I didn't get any pictures of the birthday girl. She was sitting way down at the other end of the table from where we were.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AUNT PAT!!!!

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My Fave Summer Essential - Ice Cream!

2011-08-09T20:07:00.001-05:00

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!

2011-08-07T20:38:00.000-05:00

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.

One of the Summer Essentials

2011-08-01T11:36:00.001-05:00

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

2011-07-27T19:25:00.001-05:00

"Motor Mouth"

"Checking the Engine"

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Friday Night Treat

2011-07-08T19:02:00.001-05:00

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Words With Friends

2011-06-29T19:49:00.001-05:00

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

2011-06-27T20:34:00.001-05:00

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

2011-06-25T19:20:00.002-05:00

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

2011-06-23T20:53:00.000-05:00

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!

Catch Up - Vaca Stop at the Childrens Museum

2011-06-11T09:38:00.001-05:00

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!

2011-06-05T20:24:00.002-05:00

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

2011-06-02T20:30:00.001-05:00

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

2011-05-31T21:43:00.001-05:00

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

2011-05-09T20:36:00.001-05:00

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

2011-05-08T18:20:00.001-05:00

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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