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This past Friday, September 3, Melody gave birth to our second child, Emily Morgan Bell at 3:26pm. She weighed 3 lbs 11 oz and was 17 inches long. At seven weeks preterm she is doing great and will be staying at the NICU in Denver for a few weeks.
In mid May we visited the Denver Aquarium. This was David’s second trip there. His first was back around his first birthday. This time the highlights of the trip came from watching him race around the first tanks there saying “FISH!!”, seeing him chase a tiger back and forth, and playing in bubbles.
Below are a few videos.
Flash Video: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download Flash Video: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download Flash Video: Play Now | Play in Popup | DownloadI’ve uploaded some pictures of our trip to San Francisco last week. Enjoy them.
Here’s the link: http://picasaweb.google.com/larryboy307/Sanfran09#
This past Sunday and Monday was spent traveling around the local woods with Melody’s extended family. Sunday was a trip to Rocky Mountain National Park and Monday was spend in the Snowy Range and Saratoga.
Sunday we drove the Summit at RMNP, also known as Alpine Ridge. There is a short hike to the top. David made the majority of the climb up himself. He only needed help when the wind picked up and he could not stand. After lunch, we started to drive back and saw a bear and several Elk. Pictures of the day are here. Also you can see the hike up the to summit here.
Monday, we drove west through the Snowy Range Mountains. Our goal was to spend time in the hot springs at Saratoga. On the drive over we stopped to view the scenary sevearl times. David once again walked around contanstly. (Both days he didn’t take a nap until we started home.) At the springs we all had fun playing in the water. On the way back we stopped for a picnic supper and saw a moose along side the road. Melody saw it and we drove back to see it. It was a very large moose for the area. Pictues of this day are here.
Both days were fun and we are looking foward to heading back soon.
Yesterday, David joined us at the table and ate some chicken in his new chair. The pictures are of him enjoying some whipped cream.
More pictures are here along with a short video clip.
Life has continued to move forward. David is now thirteen months old and working on several new teeth and trying to figure out how to walk. Melody has recovered from her total hip replacement surgery from November. This coming Wednesday, she will an operation on her right hip.
This surgery is less invasive. They will do a femoral head decompression with BMA grafting. Basically they will remove the dead parts of her hip and fill the hole with her own stem cells. Then the stem cells will grow into hip cells and she’ll be able to keep her hip. YEAH!!
Please pray that the procedure will go smoothly and that her body will quickly heal it’s self.
For me I keep busy subbing, playing with David, and helping out around the house.
That’s about it until after the surgery.
I’ve just uploaded some pictures of David from this past month. They are at our Picasa page. Here is the link.
This year I followed Alton Brown’s recipe for Green Bean Casserole.
As always, I fry leeks instead of using onions.
Here is the modified recipe.
- 12oz fresh mushrooms, but into 1/2inch pieces (they will cook down)
- 2 Tablespoons butter
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
- 2 Tablespoons White Rice Flour
- 1 Cup Chicken Broth
- 1 Cup Half and Half
- 3 fried leeks
Melt the butter in an oven/stove top safe vessel.
Add mushrooms, salt and pepper for 4-5 minutes, until give up liquid.
Add nutmeg. Cook for another minute.
Sprinkle flour over mushrooms.
When mixture looks dry add broth and allow to simmer for a minute.
Reduce heat to medium low. Add half and half, cook until it thickens.
Remove from heat.
Add green beans and 1/4 of onions/leeks.
Mix well.
Bake in 475 degree oven for 15 minutes.
Casserole should be nice and bubbly.
Orginally from foodnetwork.com
Enjoy it at Christmas.