The Florida Belts
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- Logan – 1st Year
- Logan – Nursery
- Logan – Birth
- Logan – 2 weeks old
- Logan – 3 weeks old
- Logan – First Bath
- Logan – 4 weeks old
- Logan – 1 month old
- Logan – Due Date
- Mother’s Day Weekend
- MN Grandparents Visit
- Logan – 11 weeks old
- Father's Day Weekend
- Logan – 4 months old
- Logan – Jacksonville Trip
- Logan – 5 months old
- Logan – 6 months old
- Logan – 7 months old
- Logan – 8 months old
- Logan – 10 months old
- Logan – 11 months old
- Logan – 12 months old
- Logan’s 1st Birthday!
- Weekend Getaway
- Logan – 2nd Year
- Logan – 1st Year
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Archive for May, 2009
Logan – New Pictures!
Improved: Pool Overflow System
Laying Drain Tile
While my mom and dad were visiting we had a ton of rain. So much, in fact, that our pool began taking on extra water because of all the grass that had overgrown the pool overflow. My mom is quite the outdoors woman and loves to get her hands dirty, so in the morning we noticed the backup, she marched outside and began digging a little mote for all the water to pool in. This was the beginning of the development of what is now known as the Belt Pool Overflow System.
Hose Comparison
The original design was a mote dug out to the left of the drain with a 1.5 inch pool vacuum hose laying in the mote to help distribute the excess water. This gradually evolved into using a 10 ft section of drain tile with a mote dug out to the left and right of the drain, all buried under ground.
Amish Friendship Bread: Varieties!
Apple Cinnamon Bread
Banana Nut Bread
Lemon Poppy Seed Bread
Chocolate Bread
First thing is first, I found a recipe for the Starter Kit! The day 10 instructions for this recipe are quite a bit different then the instructions I linked in the original story. What I found out is that this starter kit is the starter for multiple varieties of Amish Friendship Bread! The original recipe I posted is for the Cinnamon Bread. See the list below for some of the other kinds I found:
I’m very excited to try some of the other flavors! My original plan was to make one these recipes and then to write a post about it, but I’m so excited about the different options I couldn’t wait that long! May 26th is my next cooking day (you can only make the bread every 10 days), I’m not sure which bread I will make, but I’m excited to try something new.
Home on the range
Ryan and Dad getting setup
Ryan and his best friend Steve supplied all the weapons and know how. We started off shooting Ryan’s SKS rifle. There must have been something wrong with Ryan’s gun because all of my shots (which were dead center at 50 yards) kept showing up to either the left or high on the target. The SKS was pretty cool because it had a 20 round clip so you could just keep firing one after another.
Steve's AK-47 modeled by Wes
The last rifle we fired was the sniper rifle M91/30 Mosin-Nagant. This is the same weapon that is featured in the movie Enemy at the Gates (great flick!). Ryan has a scope on it which is cool because it was the first time I have ever fired a gun with a scope. This one definitely fired the most true of the bunch, but boy did it have some boom power. After firing each round I would have to move the rifle back a few inches to the left.
We finished up firing Ryan’s S&W M&P 40 compact handgun. This one felt like a little too much for me to handle. Being the first handgun I have ever fired it just felt like it was going to fly out of my hand after each shot. I guess practice makes perfect, because Ryan, Steve, and Dad were able to fire it like a pro.
I have included some cell phone videos we took below. The quality is not that great and you cant really see anything down range, but its still worth a look.
Amish Friendship Bread: The gift that keeps on giving…
Amish Friendship Bread
…and giving, and giving, and giving! Over mother’s day weekend, my mother-in-law came to visit and with her she brought a loaf of Amish Friendship Bread and a starter kit. The bread is delicious. It’s a sweet, dessert-like bread that’s great with coffee or just as a snack. The starter kit is just a 1 gallon zip lock bag labeled with a date and the words “Day 1″. The instructions for the bread seem simple enough, it’s just a set of directions broken out over 10 days. Eight of the ten days, the instructions simply read “Mush”. With such an easy “recipe” to follow, I figured I’d make the bread…after all, it is VERY yummy.
Today is day 10 for me. So I got to complete the starter, and put my two loaves of bread in the oven (Yippee!). However, after you put the loaves in the oven, you will find yourself with 4 new starters! The idea is to give 3 of your starters away (to make friends), and keep one starter for yourself. Since the starter is a secret Amish recipe, once you lose your starter, you lose the bread. 
I find this whole thing very interesting. I’ve never found a “chain” food before!
Daily Instructions for Amish Friendship Bread
Grandma & Grandpa Visit!
Grandma and Grandpa from MN just arrived for their first visit with Logan this week! They have been such a tremendous help so far. The last two nights Logan slept from about 11pm to 3am, and grandma has been taking over the morning shift from 3am on. I haven’t gotten that much sleep in a single night for over 2 months! It’s wonderful to have the extra help and wonderful to be sharing this time with my parents.
Logan – 2 months!
| LOGAN STATS: |
| Height: 22.25 inches |
| Weight: 9lbs 14.08oz |
| Head Circumference: 14 inches |
Logan growth chart
Our Family
- He can pick up his head and turn it from side to side while on his stomach.
- He is starting to recognize voices and will look in their direction.
- He is able to follow objects with his eyes.
- He is grabbing on to things with his hands more regularly.
- When he is spoken to he gazes at you intently.
He still is not sleeping through the night, and seems to be going through a growth spurt because he is waking up about every 2 hours around the clock to eat.
To see where Logan is on the MedCalc Interactive Growth Chart adjusted for pre-term babies, click on the image provided to the right.
My First Mother’s Day!
Sunday (May 10th, 2009) was officially my first mother’s day! We celebrated the weekend with a visit from Wes’s mom, dad, and grandmother. They arrived late on Friday night and stayed through until Sunday. We enjoyed the famous Chicago style stuffed pizza from Giordano’s on Saturday night and mom’s homemade breakfast casserole recipe on Mother’s day morning. This was the first visit for dad and grandma since Logan came home from the NICU. Logan looked drastically different for mom since her visit in March, having over doubled his birth weight!
We made sure to get in a photo shoot with Logan while they were here. He was a good sport about all the flashes, until the very end when he made it clear he had enough. Check out the gallery!
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