all about buff

where did that come from?

2010-08-25T05:03:00.001-07:00

peyton has being saying such random things lately but one we all keep repeating.

i have to preface this with letting you know that "fighting" is wrestling at the smith house and we do a lot of it.

peyte had a little face diamond jewel thing in her hand that she kept calling "magic".

"mom fight dad. he will die. i have magic"

riley told asked her baby sitter the other day "mallory what if i have a baby and it comes out a horse?"

i looked across the kitchen table last night and peyton was sitting there waiting for riley to be done with dinner playing with a "lamb" i heard her say with palm out and arm bent at a 90 degree angle "come here little lamb" then her had moved up and down slightly as if the lamb landed on her hand. she talked to it for a minute and then her hand bounced again when the "lamb" jumped off.

the other day i asked peyton why she sleeps with her whole face under her sheets and quilt, she told me it was so she could suck her thumb without us knowing. BUSTED!

riley came home from church sunday and said, "mom all of the big kids start school tomorrow. why can't i start" i explained that this will be her last year to ever miss the first day of school and that it is because of her birthday but assured her she would be in preschool. the next morning she walked down the stairs and over to ian and said "well dad i have another year before i start school" poor girl.

one of riley's favorite things to do right now is watch how to videos on you tube for applying your makeup to look like a princess. you think she would be a natural now for how many times she watches the same videos over and over again but for some reason every time she puts on her own makeup the brown eye shadow end up smeared down her cheeks and her eyes look like someone hit her. why?

try this....

2010-08-01T15:13:00.000-07:00

i went to a party a couple weeks ago; after devouring an entire bowl of this bean stuff i called my friend for the recipe. trust me you want it.

try it this week, you won't be disappointed! the recipe makes up a lot so you may want to half it although it does keep for a few days.

the sauce:
1/3 C lime juice
1/2 C olive oil (i use a little less)
1 clove minced garlic
1 tsp. salt
1/8 cyan pepper

*mix and set aside

the goods:
2 avocados diced (i do 3 because i love them)
2 cans black beans (drain and rinse)
1 1/2- 2 C frozen corn (i just rinse mine off and let it thaw for a couple of minutes)
1/2 red pepper diced
2 tomatoes diced
6 green onions sliced
1/2 C cilantro (a little more or a little less depending on how much you like it)

*mix it all together and serve.

the first time i ate it we had it with tortilla chips, i've seen it put on top of hamburgers.

and ian and i marinated some shrimp se in baja chipotle sauce and then warmed it up on the stove and put this stuff on top for shrimp tacos.

tell me what you think.

relief

2010-06-16T19:54:00.000-07:00

i feel 100% better tonight.

i have one less thing on my mind thanks to my boy.

i lost my wedding ring almost 4 weeks ago. i've said prayers, i've reassured people that ian really didn't take it this time like he did before to get a custom band made. i found lost it while i was not feeling well and had a long day. i apparently fell asleep on the couch and took it off while i was sleeping.

i've looked and looked and looked and stopped looking and then started again

ian found it after we pulled out the couch.

what relief!

all my time...

2010-06-14T20:07:00.000-07:00

2 little mammas has been my life lately. getting ready for this....

we were apart of a baby expo in Atlanta; we had such amazing feedback and success! To celebrate we thought we would share the love. Order now through Friday June 18th and get 1/2 off of our online prices. Email us through our website with what you want and we will send you a pay pal bill with only $3.00 shipping!

www.2littlemammas.com

threads

2010-06-08T19:08:00.000-07:00

my friend keri commented on my last post and asked if i made ri's dress she was wearing. and while i didn't (it's just an old navy dress) i saw this loved it and made this.

my new obsession. no pattern. not hard. need to fix the bottom layer. still not a seamstress. more to come.

chipetes style..

2010-06-06T06:51:00.001-07:00

ok there is a lot to catch up on but first thing first.

right now, well for the past little bit riley and peyton have been completely obsessed with the girl chiphmunks called the chipetes. first we checked out a movie from the library where the girls raced the boys around the world which came complete with a c.d. which they loved. then our friends let us barrow the squeakquel movie that has the boy and girl chipmunks in it together as well. also every time they can they steal my phone from me and look up chipetes songs and movie clips on you tube on my phone.

The girls have been practicing singing like them, they want their hair done like them, and most importantly trying to get those dance moves down why they want to look like chipmunks is beyond me. also how do you do hair like a chipmunk? their hair is shaped like a mow hawk.

i think we are moving on to the movie and book jumunji so i thought i would post these pictures before the ship has completely sailed. ri asked me to take pictures of her practicing her moves. it's so funny and makes me nervous all at once.

WE ARE SO MORMON!

2010-03-09T06:30:00.000-08:00

yep that's what i said to ian saturday afternoon. let me back up for a minute and give you a little background info.

We signed riley up for her first soccer season this year, we are so excited! she's so excited, we've been practicing with her in the yard because all of her practices have been canceled due to the weather etc.. we all had so much fun picking out the pink cleats, new shorts to practice in, new socks and the new water bottle. we tried on the uniform the day she got it and she wouldn't take it off until it was bed time and dirty.

after all that prep the pink panthers lost their first game about 10 to 1. i am happy to report that riley did assist in the teams 1 goal! we definitely have to work on riley not doing everything so literally the coach tells her. if she was told to not move while the ball was being kicked or thrown in she would still stand in the same place and not move while everyone started to play again until she was instructed to run. to cute.

so back to my title, at the end of her game they get all of the parents to come and line up on their side of the field facing the other parent and put their hands together (kind of like you were playing london bridges) to make a tunnel for the kids to run through. this was very new to all of us. ian and i had no idea what was going on and it was obvious our riley had never participated in this either. first the opposing team runs through your tunnel and you tell them all "good game" then your own kids team runs through your tunnel and you give them hi 5's and tell them the same. as ian and i are catching on to this new ritual we will be participating in riley is taking a little longer to understand the concept. she passed us right by but to every other parent (at least the 12 from our team) when she saw their hand held out to give her a hi 5 she instead extended her hand and gave them all a firm handshake and said, "thank you". everyone noticed and shook her hand back with a little giggle. ian and i couldn't help but laugh, i looked over at him and said, " we are so mormon right now" he agreed.

46 hours

2010-02-22T07:18:00.000-08:00

for 46 hours on v-day weekend ian and i ate in peace. for 46 hours we talked uninterrupted. for 46 hours there were no toys left out to stub our toes on. for 46 hours we could sleep in or take a nap for al long as we wanted. for 46 hours i had 2 less head of hair to brush and fix and 2 less sets of teeth to brush. for 46 hours i don't think i went upstairs. for 46 hours i got to eat my ENTIRE plate of food i fixed for myself!

in 46 hours we talked, laughed, reminisced, went to the movies twice, went out to eat dinner way to late, did things around the house, went to church kidless, and had a valentines alone for the first time in 4 years.

as much as we enjoyed each other we were so ready after 46 short hours to have our 2 little girls back and hear about all of their adventures wtih grandma and grandpa, we were excited to hear their little screams as they ran around together. we were excited to warm up 4 little feet when they were cold, and bathe 2 extra kids.

after 4 hours of having our beautiful little girls back with us we were tired and ready for another 46 hour weekend alone! so the question is when can they go to your house again mom and dad?

a perfect little heart...

2010-02-10T17:49:00.000-08:00

peyte had an unfortunate fall the other week. the first time we've had a fall or anything other then being cut open on purpose for surgery that required a band aid. pretty impressive huh? especially with how adventurous peyton is.

like i said, a sad fall but one festive scab if i've ever seen one! sorry if it makes you queasy but i had to share, i've never seen anything like it. she now has a cute little red spot on her knee in that same perfect little heart shape.

happy v-day!

perfection

2010-02-05T16:51:00.000-08:00

if every night ended like this it would be perfection. it makes both of them so happy, and never gets old to watch.

george?

2010-01-25T14:37:00.000-08:00

the other day i got out of the shower and went out to inspect the girls to see what kind of trouble they found. like i always do. much to my surprise they were quietly sitting on the couch watching p.b.s. together. later i turned on the camera and found these.

well i know i didn't take them!

the bug

2010-01-16T16:22:00.000-08:00

last time ian had a holiday off everyone was recovering from the stomach flu. well everyone but me i had the honor of bleaching, bathing, wiping, snuggling watching princess movie after princess movie. this is what my room looked like for 2 days.

eventually the girls got better and i was relieved i didn't catch it.

2 sleeping girls in our bed. complete with water cup and puke bowl.

then ian started to feel bad. here we go again except this time it was getting water, staying out of our bed, distracting the girls, preparing soup, buying saltine crackers and sprite.

then ian got better after a couple of days. and again i was grateful i didn't get the bug.

then riley got sick again. i was back to snuggling, bleaching, watching princess movies, missing church, serving sprite and saltines, explaining as best i can why you can't eat and drink right after throwing up.

then 2 days riley got better and again i expressed my gratitude for not getting this plague that had hit our house.

well that was about 2 weeks ago.

last night after having to leave a temple session early because i couldn't make it. i showed 6 of our friends all of my best puking skills on the car ride home nope didn't make it out of the car but did grace ian's temple bad with my presence. yep still 3 exits away from home. i proceeded to show ian my skills all through the night. i feel gross. i am tired of being in bed. i'm sorry ian is spending his holiday weekend bringing me water, sprite, saltine crackers and drawing baths for me so i can warm up washing his bag and belongings, my clothes and cleaning out my car. i'm almost positive it's not the, "bug" it's just plain old food poisoning from chick-fil-a. but did i mention my friend who helped me in the car is now home in the same boat.

do you think i may have 5 less friends?

one of my new years resolutions is to lose 6lbs. DONE.

yesterday

2010-01-13T20:15:00.000-08:00

it was a good day yesterday. it started at 7:30 when we (the girls and i. of course ian was already at work) woke up and started the day reading books in bed together. for breakfast we had mickey mouse pancakes. the girls watched t.v. while i got showered and ready then we all went up stairs to get the girls ready. we all watched their new princess sing a long d.v.d. they got from grandma for christmas and sang our hearts out to every princess song you can think of. next the girls went to my amazing friends house for a little while while i ran an errand, when i got back we hung out for a while before coming home for naps. after the girls woke up we made fruit smoothies to celebrate the warm weather we had then went outside to ride bikes. when the sun started to go down we came in bathed the girls and had dinner with the sister missionaries, finished their visit with a spiritual thought then all sat down as a family and watched american idol. the girls loved the show and even shared their musical "talents" with us. after the girls were down ian and i duked it out with some tennis, bowling and finished with me knocking him out boxing on the wii.

i need more of these days.

a new low

2010-01-06T07:15:00.000-08:00

last night ian and i got the girls to bed last night and got ready for our usual snuggle up in the couch with a treat ritual. i chose a traditional dessert of powdered doughnuts and chocolate milk. as i sat there stuffing my face with these delectable delights i realized that i was starting to not feel so well. why would this be happening to me? was i getting sick? was 7:45 the new to late to eat a treat? then it hit me.

how could i be eating this while watching the biggest loser? i decided then and there and i needed to put down the doughnuts and put on the running shoes. well maybe at least just put on the running shoes.

holidays

2009-12-30T21:03:00.001-08:00

a happy belated holidays from us! i would have never guessed that we would be this busy while our kids are still so young. the holidays were crazy but i loved every minute of it! we even got snow on christmas eve!

guess what else happened around christmas. 6 days before christmas i got the best present ever, it's called a bachelors degree! i am officially done. in some ways i felt like i was done 3 1/2 years ago but at the same time i felt like i was never really going to complete my degreee. i'm so glad to have it over and done with i know people who are usually in school for 10 years are called dr.s but i say better late then never right?

we were able to sneak out one drizzly afternoon and get some family pictures taken for cards this year. can i just say that i have a VERY talented and very fast photographer friend katherine. when ever we hang out it seems like she'll sneak a shot in of my girls for me and i love it! she captures peyton the way that ian and i see her, i melt everytime i open a pciture of peyton that katherine took. check out her blog jelly-pop.blogspot.com. she's also took all of the 2 little mamma slide show pictures for our site, so lucky to have her huh?

thank you...

2009-10-28T18:46:00.000-07:00

thank you to the person i parked by at wal mart. thank you for being so enthusiastic about the upcoming halloween holiday. thank you for giving me something new to talk to my girls about. i always love the opportunity to teach them something new. i have to admit though that my favorite subject is not how bloody body limbs can be hanging out of a tail gate of an s.u.v.

lots of questions and a lot of looks later after we got to walk by twice, we were able drive away with just a little more information stored away in those tiny little memories. mixed in with snuggling, laughing, reading and puzzles is now a memory of a bloody arm hanging from a car to celebrate this upcoming halloween.

lovely

fall

2009-10-01T20:41:00.001-07:00

the pumpkins are out at the arboretum which is about the only sign that we have that fall has arrived. we've gone twice in the past week. i love it there. the girls love it there.

the first time we saw our lady, Laura Bush. yes the real Laura Bush. she was riding in a golf cart right next to us. i think she heard us talking about her (how could she not she was well within hearing distance). katherine and i got a big smile and wave. so cool! if i would have brought my camera i would have snapped a photo. crazy to think they live so close by.

11:58

2009-09-27T20:01:00.000-07:00

that's what time she was born today 4 years ago. so glad she's mine. wouldn't change a thing about her. i can't believe it's already been 4 years today!

b.f.f.

2009-09-13T14:30:00.001-07:00

becoming a mother of 2 was no easy task. i couldn't get out of the house on time; i thought i would never get another full nights sleep when peyton was still waking up during the night at 9 months old. never mind about a peaceful shower without one of them trying to open they door and jump in with me; there was to much crying, to many buckles to do up, and frankly 3 heads of hair to keep up with was more then i had the patience for! and where was i supposed to put the food i needed to buy to feed us all with 2 little ones in the cart when ian wasn't around with an extra pair of hands?

as i speak (type) i have two little girls playing a computer game together. it's really nice.

the adjustment may have been difficult for me but it wasn't for them. the best thing about having my second little girl was that they both instantly feel in love with each other.

i would have guessed that they would have gotten sick of each other by now, or that one of them would have decided that the other really wasn't all that cool, but no. the first thing they want in the morning is each other, the last thing they need before a nap or bed is a kiss and and an, "i love you" before they get tucked in. sure they have their moments but it only lasts a second before it's off to another hug, kiss and "i'm sorry, i love you" and then off to play again.

the other day they went to the backyard to pick some, "spinach" afterwards they hung out on the swing and admired their findings. so typical.

moving on

2009-09-10T19:38:00.000-07:00

i guess we're moving on. we officially have no babies left in our house, only toddlers.

we have no crib up.

we no longer purchase diapers or have any, "back up" diapers in our house, not even for the night.

we no longer use sippy cups.

we don't need the burp cloths in the hall closet.

the crib bumper and crib skirt are in the attic.

i've been slowly going weeding out the baby toys to put away.

we are not washing either of our girls with baby soap or baby shampoo.

i don't have to put my kids in their car seats anymore, all i have to do is open the door for peyton.

i really like these changes!

peyton turned 2 just over a month ago and it feels like she hasn't only made so many changes so fast but that she also looks so much older.

she and i made a quick trip to utah for a few days to see some friends before we to start buying her airline tickets. i knew before i got there that we needed to do something with her mullet. i was pretty nervous she would just end up looking like a boy but it turned out the exact opposite. I LOVE IT! so does she, no more pig tails every day.

we also knew the time was coming to pierce her ears; she had been asking for about 6 months. on her birthday we took her to get earrings, and she shows them to every adult that comes over to our house.

this is what else she's into right now.
*having her toes and nails painted.
*she refuses to wear anything but dresses.
*all colors are called pink.
*one of her favorite things to do is draw with chalk, either on her chalk board or on the sidewalk.
*she is always singing.
*if we are at the store, in our house, or in the car she wants to dance, preferably with riley.
*if she could suck her thumb and pinch my elbow all day she would.
*she takes 3 hour naps.
*every time ian walks through the door she runs straight to him for a big hug.
*if riley is gone she walks around and repeats "where's riley at?"
*her least favorite thing to eat is chicken.
*she loves to, "call" any and all grandparents on the phone.

with all of the progress she is making no matter what i do i can't seem to get this permanent crusty look off of her face. i wonder where she got it from.

always thinking

2009-08-25T05:39:00.000-07:00

riley decided a while ago that she is going to marry her friend jack jack when she grows up. all bedtime stories must end what a couple getting married in the temple and having kids, "just like me and jack jack mom".

riley and i quietly sat by each other while she was eating crackers and out of the blue she said...... "mom when i'm a grown up you and dad will sleep in your bed, peyton will sleep in her bed, but where will jack jack and i sleep? oh i know mom jack jack and i will sleep right next to you guys in your bed."

"so are you going to have your bed right next to ours ri?"

"no mom we can't because my bed doesn't have 2 big pillows like your bed, it only has one, so my kid will sleep in my bed and jack jack and i will just sleep right by you guys"

that's one crowded master bedroom isn't it? why doesn't she want to take the guest room?

she wants to be called sarah but her name is peyton

2009-07-07T20:00:00.000-07:00

i'm head over heals for this little girl! so snuggly, always telling us she loves us, always ready to give a kiss to anyone who's around, so quick to say sorry when she knows she's done something wrong.

as much as she is sweet she has the, "spunky" personality to match it!

one thing peyton does 100% of the time is keep me on my toes and completely worn out by the time she goes down for the night.

i wouldn't change a thing about her!

for rachel

2009-06-29T14:12:00.000-07:00

rachel (smith, but not smith for much longer) emailed me today and told me to update my blog with some pic's of the girls. sometimes i feel like that's all i talk about but i'll gladly take this opportunity to do it again.

the other day ian was at church (as usual) and i was getting peyton's lotion on and dressed after the bath while riley was dressing herself. i had my back to her and i heard in an annoyed tone, "mom i look like a freak". as i turned around i said "what?" and then i saw her, and she kinda did! i made her stay that way until i got the picture. we giggled about it for a while then of course the girls wanted to take pictures so we did. (i guess i still need to work on getting the shirt over the head with her).

*by the way i don't know who taught her the phrase, "i look like a freak" oops!*

my little rock stars

2009-06-22T13:51:00.000-07:00

my girls love to sing and dance. yes my girls also love Pink right now. i may even sing a long and dance with them time to time. what can i say it's catchy!

i just happened to have my camera in my purse while they were doing their routine the other day. nothing like a family trip to wal-mart to get you in the mood to rock out right?

oh yeah baby!

2009-06-11T21:09:00.000-07:00

and we're off! after months of talking, working, thinking, wondering, stressing, and spending the money to make it happen http://www.2littlemammas.com/ is up! we didn't realize it was actually working until yesterday. we still have some adjustments to make like showing a few more buttons for products we haven't gotten the pictures captured for yet (tu tu's, birthday sash, and caRe seat), but we're rolling with it anyway. why you may wonder do you need to have your site up. i'll tell you. 2 little mammas was picked to be featured in the july issue of, "Pregnancy and Newborn" magazine! both the baby bundle and let's do lunch bag, on 2 different pages! so we needed to have a site to put in the issue of where our products could be purchased.

so excited for the opportunities we've been given, so far!

i have also been asked to post pictures of riley's bed that i did last week. remember when i said that i really wanted a headboard for her bed? well i got a whole bed not just the headboard, i was wanting one with 4 small posts but wasn't having any luck. the day after blogging about it i found it, and it was exactly what i was looking for. you know the absolute best part? it was free off of craigslist! can you believe it? all i had to pay for was the gas to get there and a new roller for the paint brush. we had some left over paints in the garage i was able to mix myself for the perfect color and ta da! i love it, and so does she!

2009-06-03T06:57:00.000-07:00

lame, that's what my blog has been. done, with my last math class and second spanish class. busy that's what i was until a couple of weeks ago. one, it's how many semesters i have left to be completely done with school. tan, that's what i wish i was! committed, that's what i will be to my blog. froogle, it's a fun game for me. creative, it's what i've tried to be lately. in shape, another something i've tried to work on. patient, something i need to start being. tired, it's how i feel. rich, something i don't aspire to be. far, it's how i feel when i think of keri and sarah and shannyn. grateful, for two beautiful girls and one amazing husband. laugh, something i've been cravting, you know one of those stomach ache, tired cheeks, watery eyes ones! headboard, something i'm dying to find for riley's room. excited, it's what i am bout 2littlemammas. me in a nutshell as of late.

now that we're all caught up, we had some plain ikea chairs upstairs next to our purple couch that we wanted to tie together. this is what i came up with. super fun and cost about 50 cents for each chair. riley has one too the exact same but her name is in orange up top.

and all that wisdom

2009-03-24T19:34:00.000-07:00

last time we were at the park by our house ri met a little boy named jaden. we went back tonight and he was out playing again. ri recognized him and ran over to talk. every time he passed by on his little bike ri asked where he was going. his older brother (maybe 7 years old) passed by with him once.

ri- hey jaden where are you going?
jaden's brother- jaden i think that little girl has a crush on you.

jaden didn't answer and kept riding so riley came back.

me-riley what did jaden's brother say?
ri-nothing.
me-ri he said that you like jaden, that you think he's cute.
ri-mom he doesn't know anything about girls.

just like her dad

2009-03-23T11:04:00.000-07:00

riley defiantly gets her honesty from her father. last week she was in the bathroom watching me get ready for the day like she does everyday. the radio was one and it had a commercial saying that an infertility dr. would be at a hospital in dallas doing a free seminar.

riley: mom they said baby mom! mom did you hear that they said baby! mom your stomach in HUGE and ROUND are you going to have a baby?

(let me just say that she has been telling us lately that we need to have 13 kids in our family and that she doesn't mind sharing or helping take care of them all. i say yeah right i'm sure she really wouldn't mind sharing or helping but 13 come on! 2 is more then enough for this family right now.)

me: ri really mommy has a HUGE ROUND tummy? doesn't it look just like yours and peytons?

riley: no mom i said its really BIG and ROUND, do you have a baby in there?

and on go the running shoes.

all i really want...

2009-03-16T12:14:00.001-07:00

to do is make sit down and make clips and headbands forever. i just can't get enough of them latley and i really feel like they have imporved over time, i know that may sound lame, but it's still so new and fun for me to create something of my own! what i've been doing most recently.

have i mentioned

2009-03-03T19:21:00.000-08:00

that i'm head over heals in love with this man? i'm still amazed at how fast i fell for him. is he perfect? no, but he continues to amaze me.

i love him because the girls can't get enough of him. i love him because yesterday when i didn't feel well and we were supposed to be working on a house project together he told me to go inside and rest. i love him because he woke up with a sick child last night so i could sleep. i love him because he asked if i wanted him to take time off of work to be at the girls dental check ups next week. i love him because he tells me he loves me more then once every day. i love that when i make up silly rules like we have to tell eachother why we love eachother every night before bed he actually does it, what a man.

i was so scared when i realized how i felt for him. it was worth the risk.

oh and can i mention his good looks?

since when?

2009-02-17T19:15:00.000-08:00

since when does my little toddler not look much like a toddler anymore? since when does riley know all about white meat and women's under garments? it's all happening so fast!

last week while i was getting dressed. riley walked right up to me and inspected the bra i was putting on.

ri: mom i like the dots on your overalls, they're so cute.

i just want to make it clear that it wasn't overalls she was talking about. i don't wear overalls.

HILARIOUS!!!!

on v-day when i was gone ALL day ian took the girls out from some fine dinning at wendy's.

ian: riley what do you want to eat?
ri: um i want chicken mcnuggets with all white meat.

sometimes...

2009-02-06T20:37:00.000-08:00

i wonder sometimes if i really am going to miss cleaning off this little face every time i turn around, especially when my hands are cracked and bleeding from washing so many little fingers and cheeks all day every day.

even if i'm not loving all of the messy body parts i am completely head over heals in love with her brown eyes, the perfect shape, the perfect shade, with so much expression, i'm constantly sucked into staring at them.

it's been 18 months but i still can't believe my boy and i ended up with a small, blond haired, brown eyed baby, not so baby anymore.

rudolph?

2009-01-24T18:13:00.000-08:00

a typical lunch with my 3 year old

i've been wondering lately if there is going to be riley's and peyton's around every corner when ours starts school. so i thought about trying on their middle names for size see what ri would say.

ME: riley do you want us to call you riley or jade?

RI: like jaden my friend? is jaden a boys or a girls name?

ME: jaden is a boys name but jade is a girls name, so what one do you like?

RI: so jade is a girls name?

ME: yes listen jaden has an n at the end but jade does not. so do you like riley or jade? what one do you want us to call you?

RI: jade.

ME: you like jade better, you want us to call you jade from now on?

RI: yep.

ME: okay well what about peyte should we call her peyton or sarah?

RI: (without even taking a breath) sarah.

ME: so you want us to call you jade and you think we should call peyton sarah?

Ri: uh hu and you know what mom? i think we should call you rudolph the red nosed reindeer.

what?

one happy little 3 year old

2009-01-21T12:37:00.001-08:00

it's a daily struggle to get riley out of her p.j.'s. i'm not kidding.

me-"ri time to get dressed, let's go upstairs."
ri-"no mom i don't want. to can't i just stay in my pajamas all day?"
"no"
"why not mom?"
"you're not sick and people don't do that"
"but i do, i want to. let's watch movies and stay in our pajamas all day."

she's just like her dad.

this has been going on for months now. everyday for months. last week both girls ended up the beginnings of a cold. i let them lie around in their pajamas and watch a movie then changed them to get out for a while.

while we were out things weren't as fun as we had hoped for so we went home. when ri refused to take a nap so i gave in. yes i gave in.

i pulled her out of bed at 3:00 p.m. turned the bath on and put her in. i did the same with peyton when she woke up. i am happy to report at 5:00 when my husband pulled up to the house all 3 of us were in our pajamas with dinner on the table. ian was pleased as punch and immediately joined us in his p.j.s for dinner.

after dinner we relaxed as a family playing duck duck goose, reading, and playing a board game.

i'll have to admit that even though i had to change peyton's pajamas after dinner i was way more patient and less rushed at 3 and 4 in the afternoon then i am at 7. i think i'll do it again sometime.

in memory of our evening together here is riley modeling her favorite toy and cute little dog p.j.'s. nothing and i mean nothing was taking that smile off of her face.

christmas texas style

2009-01-09T09:53:00.000-08:00

i know this is really really late but i couldn't not post about Christmas. very hectic and filled with excitement? of course! why so exciting you wonder? because we live in texas and things are done a little different. how are they done different? Christmas parades that start off at 30 degrees and end up at 70. short sleeved shirts on Christmas day, and last but not least the coolest Christmas lights i've ever seen on a house. well at least the most extravagant, just wait you'll see.

back to the Christmas parade, well our town has one. the forney home town Christmas started off with the parade then had a pie eating contest where they gave away a huge plasma t.v.. it also included free face painting, jump houses, a, "train" ride, petting zoo, pony rides, pictures with santa, bounce houses and did i mention all free! i couldn't believe it! with all of this free and exciting things you must be dying to know what mine and ian's favorite part was, well hold on because it's good. it was the parade! why the parade you ask? what does every small town parade have? CANDY and how likes candy? WE DO! and what kind of candy is our favorite? the kind that is thrown to you from (and i'm not kidding) the round up cowboy church. yep there is such a thing and do you know how they give out their candy? oh i'll tell you first they start collecting old toilet paper rolls in july i'm guessing. next they go out and purchase rolls and rolls of wrapping paper and string. probably some time around Christmas they go buy the candy to pass out for the parade. to put it all to the best use they put the candy in the old toilet paper rolls and wrap it with holiday paper tie it with string attaching their card to it of course then through it out. AMAZING! first ian and i thought it might be a bible rolled up in there but boy were we wrong actual candy. we had to take a picture for proof.

TA DA!

the other cool thing was when i was out doing visits with relief society we saw this house that was very well lit up. i took my family back on Christmas eve and then found out what the house was really capable of. i just have to mention before you see the video that there were signs in the yard warning against high voltage. so here's how it worked. you stay in your car and watch the santa that is some how projected into the front window who's walking around looking at everyone until the fun begins. every have of an hour you tune your radio in your car to a certain station and this is what happens the house lights up to the music. also free i should add.

and let the count down to the next holiday season begin!

remember

2008-12-12T15:17:00.000-08:00

do you remember when one of your favorite things to do was play with your shadow? i do. we went out to get pictures of a new tutu i made but instead she just wanted to dance with her shadow. i couldn't help but smile with her, she laughing the whole time.

sometimes i wish i could stop time, have her snuggle me forever, kiss me forever. sometimes i wish that she will always want me to sing her songs, tuck her in at night and always be by her side. i wish she could have danced forever today.

oops!

2008-12-07T18:20:00.000-08:00

i've been such a slacker with blogging and have not left those of you who may still look at my not frequently updated blog, with only little time. here is my news, we are having a 2littlemammas give away! i've been working on some holiday clips/headbands and wanted to share! all you have to do is click on the 2littlemammas blog site on the side bar and leave a comment telling us your favorite christmas decoration to put up. easy huh? we will draw from the names on thrus. dec. 11th. so tell your friends, family, neighbors whomever might be interested in receiving and then possibly even giving their gift to a cute little one for the holidays. GOOD LUCK!!

my first thought

2008-11-22T10:40:00.000-08:00

my first thought was to be mad, i mean i was put out but then i saw her face. peyton covered in my brand new tube of mascara, wearing it proud. she had thought she had done such a good job, you can tell by the, "i'm a big girl, and did this all by my self" smile that covered her face. i couldn't help but laugh. that little face even looks smaller covered in black eye make up, and those little white crooked teeth almost look as white as ross's on friends when he whitened them to much and they glowed. i had to take a picture!

(i feel the need to explain that i was upstairs working on clips thinking ian was watching the girls but peyte well she disappeared, into our bathroom i guess.)

not once but twice...

2008-11-12T07:45:00.000-08:00

the abney's have been out to visit us since we've been here. not twice in the past 12 months, not twice in the past six months, twice in 3 months! can you believe it? we couldn't! we loved having them both times. they are so fun to have and we miss them so much; we were thrilled when we got the news they were coming for a second time!

we love these guys. it's so nice to have a couple that we both get along with so well. now that they have Blake it's so nice that the kids all play together so well.

it's funny to think now that we were such good friends with keri before we got married and then we moved and didn't meet spencer until we came back from texas and were married, so it had been more than 3 years hearing about this guy but not ever meeting him. ian and i were nervous the first time we went to hang out with keri and spencer wondering if we would like him or if it would be weird because we had a kid. as soon as we meet him and saw keri again it's like we didn't skip a beat. spencer was just like us. we've been laughing, laughing, and laughing some more together and then letting the boys talk sports while keri and i sneak off to do girl things (pedi's, shopping, gabbing) ever since.

to sum up the abney's first trip i will say that we: laughed, toured the BIG D,laughed, shopped, laughed, watched the olympic trials, laughed, and ate way to much.

found this boy LOVING the water fountains when we went to the harbor, nice.

our dirty rotten kids after a FULL day of shopping. i'm talking 8 hours.

enjoying food.

spencer was so hungry at the arboretum he opted to share ri's fruit snacks.

the abney's had never had a kolache before. they say their pigs in a blanket but they're so not. it's cheese filled sausage wrapped in dough that is served for breakfast. yummy!

yeah that's right we got matching shirts!
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visit #2 went like this. eating, laughing, sports, eating, walking. why all of the walking? why the state fair of course!

not that we don't love our kids but... so nice to go out without them. the sad b.y.u.game

at the fair we first started at the AMAZING petting zoo! there were giraffes, baby kangaroos, goats with 4 horns, zebras. if it was cool it was there!

yum, yum! nothing like a 1200 lbs. pig to get you going on your eating adventure for the day! i thought its ear was a growth at first, oops!

our first eating stop was the chicken fried bacon. yup this is what it looks like, there is bacon under there. it was gross even when dipped in ranch or honey mustard sauce.

next on the list for all you cowboy fans... why meetting the cheerleaders of course! i think they know some really good surgeons.

riley's favorite part!

ian and spencer's favorite part, the fried goodness. this was the fried snickers. they also ate corn dogs, red beans and rice, ice cream, fried smores, soda, hot dogs, aligator kabob things, cotton candy...

the smith's took a break from all of the fried tasties for an apple, the abney's enjoyed some healthy corn.

next there were dog shows, pig races, a night light parade, laser show and then last but not LEAST we stayed all day to see....

i know you can't see and we only stayed for about 5 seconds but what would a texas state fair be without first seeing tony romo followed by his girl jessica simpson...so all i could get were the people in front but i'm telling you she was there. and she didn't sound good.

to make the trip complete we went to on of our favorite dining places, texas road house. we miss going every other weekend with these guys. not only did we like it but peyteon and blake entertained everyone around us, fun for all!

happy belated halloween

2008-11-01T20:32:00.001-07:00

to any one who may still look at my lame blog. i saw the 2 cutest ballerina's and had to sneak in a picture, or two.

i don't meant to brag about it being warm outside on halloween night i'm talking 75 degrees warm. the joy's of texas!

it made us think about our last halloween. it was cold, it was fun and it was our last night in our condo. we pulled out of utah a year ago today. wow 1 year, i don't know where the time has gone but at the same time it seems like forever ago we where there.

thinking and missing all of our pals we left, we miss you!

just a few

2008-10-02T05:52:00.001-07:00

here are a few things i've been working on for 2littlemammas lately.... i'm really into the wool felt hair accessories, i love them on the girls and sometimes can't resist wearing them myself. and guess what? we are in a boutique in the dallas area, our first one! so excited for the growth and hoping for more.

okay so i know that the button headband is a really bad picture but i sent the button band off to atlanta to be with another little mamma. i loved it so much though i couldn't help but post it.

you know you live in texas when...

2008-09-29T05:37:00.001-07:00

you go to sonic for family night to indulge yourselves in the 99 cent shakes and you come home with these....

a million ant bites all over ri's feet. she's hasn't looked at the sonic the same since.

the other woman

2008-09-22T22:33:00.000-07:00

so i stood there puzzled, frazzled not comprehending what was going on. i saw her face it was familiar but not registering in my mind who it belonged to, she was blond, cute, fabulous hair, and so familiar then it hit me. i was staring at my friend sarah, my friend sarah from utah. my friend sarah from utah who i was just thinking about, who i was just a couple days before getting sad about. i hadn't talked to her in a while and it seemed as though she was becoming more and more busy, i had just thought about how it was sad for me to possibly be loosing this friendship. then she was here in texas, sarah who did i mention doesn't travel, and certainly doesn't travel without her husband as far as i knew, sarah one of my sarah's was actually in my drive way in my car with my husband!

ian, what an amazing husband i have. so many times misunderstood. my ian who would do anything for me. my ian who's always trying to make me happy. my ian who believed me when i said that i needed a friend, that i missed the friends i had left behind, my ian who listens. my ian, my sneaky ian! ian had gotten in touch with sarah and was first thinking that he would fly her out to be a support to me in march for peyton's surgery ended up flying her out for my birthday. best birthday present ever by the way is to have a friend you honestly don't know when/if you'll ever see again show up at your door. have i ever mentioned that i love my main man? if not i love love love my little ian!

the next few days of summer were not our typical routine and i loved it! the next few days were spent driving around the city, getting caught in a tornado while trying to get gas,eating as much blue bell ice cream as possible, making gourmet pizza at home, getting our toes done, looking at blogs, felting, laughing, and talking talking talking. it was like we hadn't been apart for a day. i love those friendships.

the worst thing about sarah coming was having her leave. isn't that always how it happens? what a cool friend i have to take a few days out of her busy life and spend time away from her boys to come and spend time with me and my family,i couldn't dream up a better friend, thank you sarah!

here are some of our highlights, sarah surprise me anytime.

i know i know

2008-09-21T12:57:00.000-07:00

it's way past time for another blog. i don't know what's happened but i've let my life get out of control busy this summer and am trying to get back in my routine and let you guys know that i really am safe and still breathing. i am going to try to redeem myself starting today fallowed by tomorrow before some of us in the fam head out for a quick minute. so the next few blogs will be my the highlights of my summer, i know it's almost cold outside for some of you but school didn't start that long ago for us and it's still hot enough to be summer so i'm a little behind.

so my summer days were going along like this. wake up eat, take the girls running, time for petyon's first nap. after peyton woke up it would be a quick bite to eat at straight to the pool, pool time, lunch time, nap time for the girls. i'm telling i'm telling all of you that i showered 5 times a week at about 2:00 in the afternoon, gross but worth it. so by the time i got ready for the day and the house picked up and my make up on the girls would wake up and it would be time just enough time to start dinner before ian walked in the door.

this was some of our pool time with friends. sorry if you didn't want your picture posted but i'm doing it anyway.

<

everything was going along just like this until one day Ian and i were emailing back and forth while he was at work and then all of a sudden he stopped responding...i didn't think about it to much until i was taking out the trash and saw him pull up into the drive way with another women in the car, i couldn't believe that my husband had another women with him, WHAT WAS HE DOING? WHAT WAS GOING ON?

to be continued.

a special day

2008-08-07T11:57:00.000-07:00

happy birthday peyton! i can not believe how much has changed in only 1 year. i can not believe that my baby is 1! i remember everything that happened in my life 1 year ago today. the drive to the hospital. the anticipation of the huge change coming in a couple of hours. the hamburgers in the delivery room for lunch. the conversations taking up the time until we had news. the family that was there to support us on our special day. how the contractions felt. the many epidurals that just didn't work. the very scared resident who tried to convince she was 100% confident in delivering the baby without the dr. the anxiety of not being able to hold my new little one. the relief we felt when we were told that she looked and sounded completely healthy. the first time i got to lay eyes on our miracle baby. the amazing support system and many phone calls we received that day. the phone call from ian telling me that he had just got hit and totaled the car and had to be driven back by a police officer to the hospital (classy i know, my babies daddy getting out of the back of the cop car with car seat in hand to pick up his babies mamma). and of course the fear that my stomach would never go back to it's normal shape.

we have learned so much about ourselves and our families strength from this little girl. we have been blessed with so many laughs from our peyton. we are constantly on our toes and constantly in amazement of her size and strength.

it has been so incredible to watch our little girls snuggle, giggle, laugh, play and completely be glad to be with each other. every morning they are still most excited to see each other, to give each other kisses hugs and company.

happy birthday my not so little but still very small baby! i'm sad i'm going to start counting your age in years now but look forward to the many more amazing blessings you will bring to our family and my life. (you can stay a mamma's girl as long as you want) i love you!!!

peytons secret

2008-07-09T05:18:00.000-07:00

ian has been thinking that i'm lying to him lately. okay maybe he doesn't think i'm totally lying, just exaggerating the truth to him. i think everyone else thinks the same too. we have had a few house guests lately (which i promise i'll blog about very soon) and while they're here the conversation comes up that peyton is walking now. we all know what happens when you mention to someone that your child is walking, we all know what the response will be, "oh how exciting i want to see it". i've gotten the same response from ian, and the girls from the ward too. so what's the problem?

peyton won't walk in front of other adults! stage fright i guess. i put her down and all she does is stand there. she could have just been walking fine 2 minutes earlier but all of the sudden "forgets" how to do it when people are watching. so what do i look like, a liar! i usually sit there begging her to walk after i've talked her up and what does she do? she just stands there with a smile on her face as if to say she's not going to play my game.

so this is me proving that i have been telling the truth all along, not even exaggerating the truth... PEYTON CAN WALK AND I'LL PROVE IT!!

*editors note, we did not have 4 more kids! i was just watching a few extra.

do you see what i see?

2008-06-27T10:42:00.000-07:00

can you believe it? i made a tutu! i really did it. is it the prettiest tutu you've ever seen? no but it's for my little dancer, special from her mom. now all i need is a leotard to connect it to and then TA DA another decoration for her ballet room! i know, who would have thought six months ago that i could actually sew something. sometimes i even surprise myself.

what i learned @ 26

2008-06-25T11:11:00.000-07:00

i feel like i've learned a lot of valuable lessons in the past year. it always seems that when i turn another year older i tend to look back and see what the past year was like, what i learned and who i became because of it so here is my list.

1.i am so much better @ being pregnant then having a baby and no sleep with another child begging for my attention.

2.no matter what i do, no matter how much i work my butt off i can not work my butt off. why does it seem that no matter my body screams, "i need a makeover!" beginning at the top of my legs and ending at the top of my hips where the love handles stop.

3.i listen to old boring music. lately i find myself not changing all of ian's easy listening music when it comes on the ipod and i'm in the car without him. i don't like the songs but i listen anyway (& the worst is when i catch myself singing along, it creeps me out). i have been trying to notice and change the music now that i realized i don't.

4.i really don't think that forney is as small of a town as i did when we first arrived. this is either really scary or i was really bratty before. you be the judge.

5.i really don't need/like drama. i really like my quite very routine very mundane lifestyle.

6.sometimes i drive myself crazy with not having a perfectly clean house 24/7. i know that there is stuff that needs to be done and i'm in a constant battle with myself trying to decide rather i should just take a second to relax or get up and make it right. i'm totally one of those mom's who will let her kid watch 10 hours of t.v. if it means i can have the house the way i want it. i just end up going to bed feeling guilty because i have a clean house but that i'm not a mom who can just let it go and play play play. (except the day that sarah m. shows up at my door with absolutely no warning from my main man, then of course it's a disaster then!)

7.i really don't like mean people they get under my skin. some of you may be wondering why then i married who i married; it's because i think this. ian's not mean i he's just very honest which is a good thing, it just may come out in a not so nice way. i hate when i see people be mean i hate when i'm accidentally mean i just hate it! i hate when others feel bad because i have and sometimes do feel bad and it STINKS!

8.maybe i'm crafty after all. yeah crafty but not always feeling very creative though so i'll keep working on it.

9.i have amazing friends, i love love love my friends talk about a lucky girl!

10.i love love love my family. it's been YEARS since we've been together as a complete family brothers, sisters, in laws and kids. i though have had the chance to see everyone in the not to recent past and i think they're all so fun to have around.

11.i have a lot to learn about the gospel and i feel tired just thinking about it.

12.i never want to move again. i hate packing and even more then that i hate closing on property. moving is long and expensive and overwhelming; to much for a little girl like me.

13.no matter how rough my day has been with my girls all i have to do is glimpse at them at night while they're asleep and it's all worth it.

14.ian and i can produce a small child. a small blond child, THAT IS JUST CRAZY!

15.i'm strong and with emotional and spiritually challenging situations (peyton) with the a little prayer i can feel just fine.

16.i can feel contractions all through labor and survive!

17.i really don't like running. can you believe it? it's true but for some reason i'm obsessed with a morning run and can't give it up.

18.i think that peanut butter blizzards make the world go 'round! i think they're my favorite treat.

18.i don't want to do last year all over again, so goodbye 26 and hello 27!

who would've thunk?

2008-06-14T18:43:00.000-07:00

(keri and spencer this post is for you!)
so i finally talked riley into letting me curl her hair. she has been so hesitant but once she saw the final product she was amazed! she kept going back into the bathroom every 2 minutes to look at herself in the mirror she had a huge smile on her face ALL DAY!!!

i had a big smile on my face all day too but for a different reason. why you ask not because she was obsessed with looking in the mirror, not because she couldn't wipe that smile off of her face but because she looks just like Pam from the office with her hair curled. don't you think?

ian's day off

2008-06-03T18:02:00.000-07:00

one reason i love ian's new job is because he actually gets to take time off. i love days off. i love that ian has all of the holidays off too! i mean ALL of them, like one a month. every holiday or sick day that ian has had have all been the same. wake up with the girls throw them into bed with us and turn on,"dismee" for them to watch while they're watching we scoot as close to the edge of the bed as we can without falling off. at about 7:45 riley complains that she's hungry and has to go to the bathroom, and peyton has been very close to falling off the bed at least 8 times.

it is at this point that normally ian gets out of bed with the girls gets breakfast and puts them back in front of the t.v. so he can try to sleep on the couch a little longer. at about 8:20 i get out of bed and come out to join the family. i usually feel so refreshed from being able to sleep in so long! (by the way i really don't remember when 8:20 became sleeping in but somewhere along the line it did and it kind of creeps me out.) we all bum around in our p.j.'s until peyton goes down for her first nap at 9:30 and then ian gets riley dressed while i get ready then he has his turn.

after peyton wakes up at 11:30 we still sit around eat lunch put riley down for her nap by 12:30 and then play with pate. at 2:00 peyton is ready to go down for a nap and at 2:45 ri wakes up. so by 3:30 we are ready to go, go where? um i don't know maybe to the next small town over. maybe to wal-mart, or if it's a really special day all the way to target! (that is a 15 minute drive you know). while we are out we eat a crappy burger for dinner and get the girls into bed late.

at the end of the day when we come back down the stairs from putting the girls down i think,'that was really dumb. why did we waste a whole day doing what i do everyday? why didn't i at least do something by myself? i should have gotten a pedicure, we should of gone for a walk, we should have planned something fun. oh well where's the ice cream?'

so after like 10 of those days so far this year we said enough is enough! we are doing something fun dang it! we are getting up and we are making some memories, so we did. we had so much fun, and at the end of the day i didn't even need ice cream! well i didn't need it like i said but i still ate it anyway.

so what did you do you want to know, we went to the dallas arboretum! it's way better then tanksgiving point. it's a huge garden area with cafes along the way. there are fountains, even one for kids to play in, and most importantly lots and lots of shade. i had been telling ian for a while that i wanted to go and he really didn't seem very interested. once we got to the arboretum he had the camera going full force and even talked about how nice and peaceful it was. we got there and had a picnic to start and then did our little tour. there were bushes that looked like horses, butterflies, and even carriages! we ran out of time to see everything but we were sure to end with riley and peyton playing in the water. we were pooped by the end but it was worth it! i think we may have even started a new tradition of taking advantage of days off from now on. here are some of the things we saw that day.

snippits?

2008-05-18T16:38:00.000-07:00

that's what i thought as i walked out of the salon (if you could call it that) with the worst hair cut EVER! wait i've actually had a lot of bad ones.

one time in high school i went and asked for, "a few whispy bangs" (trust me it was cool then) and ended up with literally a few bangs that were so short they stuck straight up! i had to sit in my desk with my hand covering my forehead to hold them down.

one time in atlanta i knew a girl with a cute cut so i went to her girl. my hair was so short when i left that when i went to work dressed in a skirt and boots at the outback, one of the customers approached the manager and told him that a man had just walked into the girls bathroom. (it was me checking to see if it was clean).

how about the time i needed my hair dyed back to it's natrual color in huntsville and i sat in the chair forever and at the end when the lady was drying my hair she confessed what she had done. she said,"i went ahead and made your hair lighter then your natural color, your natural color just really washes you out." UGHHHHHHH!

then right before i had riley i went in to get my hair cut. i asked for a fun cut that was shorter then what i had, easy enough i thought. after the cut the girl,who i knew and trusted turned me around and said, "i gave you a mom hair cut this time, you can come back for something fun when after you've had her and she's not so much work."

i've stopped using my words when i go somewhere for the first time, stopped using their imagination and started sticking with the pictures that i find to tell exactly what i want. you know how you have those hot days? those days where you feel hot, like look good hot, yeah well it had been about a year since the last, "hot day" and peyton was pulling on my hair all the time and it was falling out everywhere. i couldn't take it anymore so i decided that with a new cut i would feel a thousand times better. i took in my picture told the owner of snippits that i wanted this hair cut and a little trim on my very long bangs because i wanted to grow them out but had been trimming them myself. i heard, "see you have a really big forehead so you need bangs to shorten it up" thanks, but a trim should be fine.( there went my hot day already if the hair cut turned out the way i wanted).

me in the pre-cut with the girls on easter.

when she was done the lady told me, "hmm, this is a very modern hair cut". i hate it, it's not a line it's not even and my bangs have been clipped back the best i can for the past 2 months and still aren't long enough to wear down. trust me it's bad.

so i ask does anyone know a good place to get a cut in dallas?

back by popular demand...

2008-05-05T15:22:00.000-07:00

i know that rileys, " I Am A Child Of God" post was loved by many. Riley loves all of the primary songs and gets upset when we don't listen to,"her" c.d. in the car. I may sound evil but sometimes i need a break. a few months ago ian taught her the,"Families Can Be Together Forever" song and she has been belting it ever since. bless her heart for trying she knows the words but i think she may be tone deaf.

our little ri loves singing so much that on Easter Sunday she went up to the front of the chapel with the primary kids to sing their song (was she old enough to go up? no. did she know the song? yes. did she think she was a part of a choir concert up there with full belting facial expressions? yes. was she at all distracted by her dad sitting behind her on the stand? no. she went to the front of the crowd did her thing and then waved to ian on her back down to where i was sitting with peyton.) so....I guess this is how she hears the "family scripture song" (that's what she calls it) in her head. this is one of her favorites so enjoy.

M.I.A.

2008-04-30T10:12:00.001-07:00

the title basically sums up the smiths the past 5 weeks and 2 days. let me explain and update. 5 weeks and 2 days ago our baby finally had her surgery on her lung. everything went better then expected! we were so excited and felt so blessed. the dr. got in and saw that the mass was on the outside of her lung and therefore didn't have to remove any lung tissue. we were informed at her check up that the mass was already slightly infected so she was on her way to pneumonia, we are so glad that it was removed when it was. i learned that she is such a strong girl, she was in the i.c.u. for less then 24 hours and we were released from the hospital less then 72hours after the surgery had taken place, we were told that we would be in for 5 days. she did so good, yes the morphine helped and it was really difficult for us to not pick her up (we were told that it would be very painful for her with her chest tube in so we held her as little as possible). she would wake up and moan and then go back to sleep. the dr. did have to cut her open because she started to bleed during the procedure which we were hoping wouldn't have to happen.

we did have to take her in to the dr. the day after coming home because her chest tube site was leaking and her dressing was coming off. we got help quick and knew what to do if it happened again. like i said we are so happy with the results.

she was uncomfortable and wanted to be in my arms and if she wasn't she was mess! riley also wanted mom because the amount of attention she was getting dramatically decreased during recovery time. i told ian that the week after coming home was by far the most challenging week of motherhood for me thus far. during that week our ward was so generous to us, we had meals brought the whole time which helped tremendously so thank you to them.

the next week i got to play, "catch up" you know clean the house, play with ri, do laundry, try to sleep etc.. the 3rd week the last of peytons bandages came off and so it was rough again and she had to adjust to clothing touching the site etc. but handled it pretty well. the 3rd week she was so happy to get back in the bath so it made the struggle all worth it. the 4th week was a catch up from the 3rd and last week 1/2 us got sick and now are on the mend with the medicine prescribed to us.

needless to say i feel like sanity has been just out of reach. ian has been so helpful and yet so busy himself (he was called as the 1st counselor in the bishopric just before peytons surgery). i love that ian is able to serve. at the same time i am left feeling overwhelmed a lot because i don't have him at home with me as much as i am used to. i do feel like our little family has been incredibly blessed by his service to the lord.
here are some pictures of our little fighter in the hospital doing her thing. she is swollen but still has that same cute face. i am happy to report that she seems to be completely back to normal. she's trying to stand on her own, climbing on all the furniture, into EVERYTHING, and loves loves loves eating baby food! now if we could only get her to gain some weight and get out of those 3-6 months clothes.

happy birthday grandma

2008-04-21T16:35:00.000-07:00

we have been blessed, some of us longer than others, with an amazing women named ann. some don't love, or even really like their mother in-laws, but i love love love mine! thank you ann for raising such a perfect boy, you have influenced him so much and because of this i have benefited. i love you because we can just sit and talk and talk and talk. i love you because we can laugh and cry all in the same conversation. i love you because i know you love our kids, and you really know how to make them feel special. so on this day, your special day, i hope that you know how wonderful you are and how much we love you. so here goes ri letting you know that she's thinking about you! HAPPY 30th ANN!

going once going twice

2008-03-25T09:39:00.000-07:00

kisses, squeezes, tickles and all rough housing with peyton sold to her mom. i think i've fallen in love all over again with my beautiful baby. for the past week or so i've tried to get as many of the little things in as i could before i could no longer. i'm going to miss them that's for sure!

i feel so blessed to have my ian, a strong priesthood holder in my home to lead and help direct our little family during this time. i am so glad that we have leaders that have taught and aided my family in the gospel in the teachings and blessings that i have received and continue to receive from my heavenly father daily. i am so grateful for the savior and his atoning sacrifice and the comfort and peace that i have knowing that life is eternal, my family is eternal and that there is a plan for you, me and even my little peyton. am i scared, yes i already said so, am i confident? absolutely, why? because of my savior, i know that he lives.

free shirts!

2008-03-20T06:50:00.000-07:00

as you all know i had a drawing a while ago for a free felted shirt. with all of 6 comments i had riley pick a name out of a hat and she picked sarah. after finding the type of top that was just right, going through a couple of rounds of sicknesses in our family, and a few visitors and one wedding i finally did it. i sent off the finished products! i wanted to share how they turned out.

i played around and did 2 new renditions of some patterns i already loved. i hand stitched McKays name on the back of the shirt, just in case you can't tell who he is from behind.( kidding!) i know none of us call him Mack but sarah and brian do do so i thought it appropriate. the bottom of the bird onesie says, "chirp chirp" it was also hand stitched.

enjoy sarah....

i think i'll be doing this every few months so keep checking back! if you can't wait be sure to check out our etsy shop, just click on the orange box on the links side and it will take you directly to our site.

and she's off!

2008-02-28T19:22:00.000-08:00

okay i admit i've sat down about 3 times to start this blog and keep getting pulled away from the computer. it's mom's time now! so..... i just wanted to talk about my peyton, yep she's crawling! i love it! it's not the most graceful crawl you've ever seen but she is for sure getting around with it which is all that i need.

this may sound really sappy but i feel so blessed that she started to crawl before her surgery. she's been getting around now for a few weeks but like i said i have had a hard time sitting down as of late. my point i was going to make was that i know that it's kind of early, she wasn't quite 6 months when she started, but i just worried a little bit that having her chest cut open might set her back from crawling if she didn't start before because of it being uncomfortable for her. i am just so happy that we passed this mile stone before so i'm celebrating with this post and picture. go peyton!

speaking of peyton i think it's time that i be honest. that is what blogs are for anyway right? it's not like i have tons of people looking at it anyway so i'm going to just share what i've been coming to grips with lately. i'll just say it I'M SCARED! i'm scared for peyton's surgery!

we have been waiting for something like 48 weeks now for this to happen; i have never claimed to be a patient person! the whole time i have some how felt like i'm supposed to be strong, and feel very guilty for even making a big deal out of it or talking about it because i feel like it's so minor compared to other things that other people go through. i feel like everyone has their sob stories and this is just ours, you know what i mean?

anyway i'm so glad that we have family for support here in dallas, but there is something to be said about a good ole' fashion friend. i'm scared that i won't have a friend to call and say," i need a brake from my house, i'll be to your house in...." i'm scared that i'll really need a good laugh when ian's not around with no friend to give it to me. i'm scared i'm going to be to wrapped up in things to get to the phone to call a friend. i'm scared because ian and i won't have another couple friend to go on a double date with. one of those dates where ian talks to spencer about basketball and keri and i talk about the hills or something really important like that. i'm scared riley will go crazy in our house while peyton's healing and i won't have shannyn or sarah to call and ask if riley can come play. i'm scared i won't have a friend to meet up with a run for after ian comes home and i need some buff time. i'm scared if i run out of food i won't be able to walk down stairs to my, "other kitchen" and sarah and brian's house. i'm scared that i won't have a becky to plan something fun to do, to get our minds off of things.

i'm not saying i need anyone to come rescue me and that my situation is so hard. the recovery period will just be different that what i first imagined while we were living in utah. it just makes me kind of sad.

and then i think i'm just being dramatic.

what a man...

2008-02-14T12:24:00.001-08:00

what a man, what a mighty good man, what i mighty mighty good man. come on sing it with me now, salt n peppa baby!

what a good man i have! on this very happy very uneventful valentines day i would like to just take a moment and talk about my boy my, "little ian". i am such a lucky, and blessed girl to have this man as my wonderful husband, why? because my husband does something wonderful for me 365 days out of the year, going on almost 7 years now! i was thinking in bed the other night about what a good boy i have and how much i love him. as i laid there thinking about ian i thought that i should really write it down, i should share how greatful i am. here is why i am so happy:

i love ian because he loves me! ian from day 1 has not been shy about the way he has felt. i have loved that he has always been so honest with how he feels, about our relationship. i have always appreciated this, there was no beating around the bush.

i love ian because when we first started dating he was working with a quadriplegic bernie. seeing ian work with him made me fall so fast for him. i know that it was his job, but i know he also loved it. he fed bernie, did his hair etc.. i loved when they came in to the pizza factory and i could watch when he didn't know i was watching, he loved bernie and thought of him as a good friend and i loved him for it.

i love ian because he's a hard worker i loved when we first met he had not one but 2 jobs!

i love ian because he did not want, or expect me to stop persuing my education to put him through school. i loved that i was able to finish school (i know i still have those spainish classes but still) i love that he worked hard and sacrificed his studying time in grad school to work so that i could take classes too. i love that he thinks i'm smart, because sometimes i wonder!

i love ian because he is a snuggler!

i love ian because he's so good, such a good example, so knowledgeable about the gospel. i love that he likes to do what's right.

i love ian because he always knows where he's going when we're driving. it's helpful when we are in a big city or a new place.

i love ian because he's so madly in love with our kids and says that he doesn't even care that we don't have any boys.

i love ian because if he walks in the door and i have my running clothes on and am ready to walk out he never complians, and will even make dinner while i'm gone.

i love ian because he dishes me up ice cream every night after we put the girls down for bed.

i love ian because he likes to shop! i love it, some of our favorite past times is shopping. i also like that i have never have to worry about what he's going to look like when we leave the house. i love that he sometimes suprises me with new clothes too! i always love what he picks out.

i love ian becuase he never minds serving me, and when he tells me he doesn't mind i believe it.

i love ian because he does a good job at letting me beat him at games so i can win things like back rubs.

i love that ian has woken up with our girls every night that they have woken up in the middle of the night. he is still doing this with peyton, she cries he gets out of bed and goes up stairs and gives her to me to feed.

i love that ian always comes to the girls dr.'s appointments and mine too . whether it's while i'm pregnant, or the girls are getting shots, he'll even take work off. i don't even have to ask he just comes!

i love ian because he sings with riley when he puts her down for bed. he just taught her, "families can be together forever."

i love ian because he is so stinkin hot! i remember our first date i couldn't get over the fact that he really asked me out, he was way out of my league! i couldn't stop starring! i love his dark complection.

i love ian because he chose me and it has made all the difference.

2littlemammas

2008-02-13T19:54:00.000-08:00

so i can't get enough of making shirts and onesies latley. i love felting and now embroidering. what can i say, i'm crafty! who would of thunk it? so i blogged earlier about my felting and now i've also discovered this embroidery stuff, i bet i'm not even spelling it right but it's still fun.

like i said before my sister sarah and i have set up a little etsy shop, which has totally increased my computer skills i will have to admit, and it has been so much fun. sarah is selling her oh-so- cute and incredibly useful diaper and wipes covers and i'm adding my little odds and ends. i put a little side bar on the side of my blog that links to our shop so check it out if you would like. all you have to do to get to our little store is click on the orange box.

so i thought that i would show everyone, all 6 of you who look at my blog, my newest craft. what do you think? i put the onesie on peyton even though it's way too big on her, so sorry for all of the wrinkles. i try to make the writing look like a child wrote it.

2008-02-12T18:32:00.000-08:00

Tag! shannyn florez tagged me and now I’m it!
A. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning
B. Each player answers the questions about themselves
C. At the end of the post, the player tags people and posts their names, then goes to their blog and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they are tagged.

10 years ago I was: a junior and just broke up with my first boyfriend, i thought the world was over.

5 things on my 'to do' list today:
1. wash all the sheets
2. make dinner
3. find a second hand store for felting materials
4. read to riley and peyton
5. work out (as if it's really going to happen)

Things I would do if I became a billionaire:
1. pay our schooling off
2. go on an awesome trip
3. college funds for the kids
4. buy some furniture for our house.

3 of my bad habits:
1. i talk too much,i always say something stupid.
2. i worry
3. i complain about how i look.

5 places I've lived:
1. modesto, ca
2. provo, ut
3. ruston, la
4. nampa, id
5. huntsville, tx

5 jobs I've had
1. telemarketer
2. waitress
3. orthodontist assistant
4. housekeeper at days inn
5. cafeteria worker at the m.t.c.

Something most people don't know about me:
when i was little i used to check my parents underwear drawer to see if they packed their belongings to never come back. my brothers and sisters would tell me that my parents were running away everytime they left. i figured if they were really running away they would need a fresh pair of undies.
OKay...now-who's it?
You've been tagged:
1. sarah o.
2. paige
3. keri
4. mari
5. angel
6. haley
7. cass

snuggle time

2008-02-07T09:57:00.001-08:00

our morning routine goes like this; riley comes down stairs and snuggles me in bed and watches, "dismey" (the disney channel) and i sleep until peyton wakes up. once we hear her talking i go get peyton from her crib and bring her down to my rrom, the girls get so excited to see eachother every morning. they both look at eachother as so say, "i missed you! where have you been? i can't wait to spend today with you, i love you." and then they snuggle, hold hands, laugh and, "talk".

i hope they never change, i hope they are always friends, and when there not i hope i always remember how they are now, inseparable.

riley in a nut shell

2008-02-06T10:08:00.001-08:00

no matter how many times i ask during the day every time i turn around this is what i see. i know you've all seen it too if you've hung out with us a couple of times. the problem is that riley is so tall that we have to buy larger sizes for her, eventhough i tighten up her adjustable waist it still doesn't work! i don't know what to do. i've tried belts, longer shirts etc....... but everytime i turn around i have to ask her to pull up her pants.

riley has been really into cinderella latley and asking to watch the movie A LOT. the other day on our way out riley casually asked ian and i if McKay, sarah and brians little boy, is her prince just like cinderella has her prince. the fact of the matter is first things first no prince wants a girl who's always showing her crack, it's just not very becoming!

without the crack it just wouldn't be my little girl so...... i'll take it.

I KNEW IT

2008-02-06T10:06:00.001-08:00

I knew as soon as Riley pulled out the piece of paper and it said Sarah I would get accused of rigging it! of corse it was fair, i'm an honest person right? if i do another drawing will i get more then 5 eligable feedbacks? pickings are slim with only 5 names!

and the winner is......

2008-02-05T06:49:00.001-08:00

Riley drew yesterday and she picked Sarah Matthews! So all i need to know from you know Sarah is what size you want and what design you want on your shirt, or you can also get a blanket if you would rather have that! So i'll be calling you shortly because 1)it's my turn and 2)to get the details. CONGRATS

with love from riley

2008-01-28T12:55:00.000-08:00

riley has been begging me to do this all day. i told her that we could make a video to say hi to her friends after her nap. she agreed and then woke up 1 hour early and the first thing she asked was if it was time. she really misses her friends; so do i!
so to you, our friends mckay and jack, we wish we were with you... enjoy your movie, from us to you.
with love,
the smiths

a few quick things

2008-01-28T06:53:00.000-08:00

1) i am such a happy mom this morning! peyton who wakes up religiously at 5:00 am slept until 6:30, now this may still sound early, but i'll take it! maybe this means that either this will be her new norm, OR maybe she's on her way to not waking up. i just really hope it wasn't a fluke.

2) we've been trying to teach ri some church things like i have mentioned before i.e. Jesus moms' name is...."married" , the prophets name is "present hinckley". at breakfast this morning i was trying to tell riley that the prophet passed away last night and he was with heavenly father now, president hinckley. she put her bottom lip out and hung her head, it hit me. oh my goodness riley knows about passing away that it means death and she knows to be sad, oh my she's a genius!
"mommy i'm sad"
i'm thinking uh oh what did i do to my 2 year old, but instead i say,"riley why are you sad babe?"
riley looks up and says, "i'm upset"
"okay why are you upset?"
"mommy i still want santa to bring me presents."
"huh?"
"mommy i'm sad, i still want my presents"
"oh santa is still alive, you'll still get presents"
a look of relief, "oh! and peyton too right?"
"yep and peyton too. riley i said presiDent not present, not santa, the prophet" oh never mind.

so still smart but didn't catch on like i thought. prophets will come and live full lives and preach the words of God, then they will return and live with heavenly father, but santa he just keeps going and going and going.

3) i'm going to have riley draw for a shirt or onesie to mail to a feedbacker next monday; so tell your firends, neighbors, family, that they too are more then welcome to leave feedback to be entered in the drawing. boy do i make it sound all offical and exciting. oh also our esty shop is set up with a few things, sarah's amazing diaper wipe covers and some shirts the shop is 2littlemammas.etsy.com so check it out.

felting slide show

2008-01-22T13:22:00.000-08:00

she's crafty and she's just my type

2008-01-21T19:48:00.000-08:00

yep i'm talking about sarah my sister in atlanta. she is just my type, so i surprised her and showed up at her house last week, for the week. it was so much fun to be with her and her family, sure do love them! before i went out sarah had been telling me about this craft she had seen and she mentioned that she thought i might like it. boy did sarah hit the nail on the head, i went i learned i fell in love. it was just my sort of project, i'm so excited about it now.

blake, keri and spencer's baby was kind of how the whole thing started. i wanted to send them something personal and different, what do you get for the boy who has it all you know? so i decided to try a couple of onsies and a blanket, sorry for showing everyone keri, including you, before it actually arrives but i couldn't wait to show what sarah showed me.

i could be getting a little crazy about it but i just love the finished product and it's something that i, who wasn't crafty until 5 days ago, now just want to craft it up. uh oh......

so i want to share a few things that we did together and see what everyone thinks, so please tell me some feedback if you don't blog email me, maybe whoever leaves a feedback or email will be entered into a hat and who ever riley draws i'll send a shirt to you and if your feedback says you don't like it i'll send something else. yeah that sounds good. okay so we mainly did onesies but i'm going to do it on toddler size shirts too, aprons, we also did a blanket and even made a poncho. i think i might even try to make a little business out of it if enough people are interested in them, so they're all original and not cut and dry so i could do different things, they could be really cool unique gifts too, anyway so tell me what you think.

new years eve smith style!

2008-01-11T12:01:00.000-08:00

yeah happy freaking new year, that's what i thought as i crawled into bed at 11:40 after falling asleep on the couch on new years eve. why was my night so good you ask? well here is the story... monday day was going really well,everything was going as planned-- laundry, naps, grocery and then over to the larsen's for a fun night. i called my mom on the way home from the store and was really into our conversation, i got out of the car and came around the other side to let riley out. some how i closed the door. i turned to walk away but couldn't go anywhere; i looked back and saw that my thumb was still in the door, i mean in the door! i hung up on my mom and pulled the handle of the door to pop it open. OH MY GOODNESS!!!!

as a side note i don't know how many of you have stopped and looked at honda pilots lately but those doors are heavy, really heavy, i actually didn't realize until my finger was in there but trust me they are not messing around. immediately i grabbed my thumb and started running in circles in the front yard, (all of our neighbors just happened to be outside) ian stood there watching me. i ran over to ian and showed him my bloody thumb and ran inside (the whole time i was running riley thought i was playing around so she was following me screaming, when i headed inside ian explained that if she came inside to give me some space because mommy was hurt).

i went in and ran straight for the kitchen sink, the cold water felt like i was scratching the open wound and it felt like my thumb was tripling in size. all i could do was jump up and down and say "OH MY, OH MY, OH MY, OH MY OH MY". ian sat riley on the counter next to me she looked up and said, "mommy are you hurt, it's okay mommy don't cry". immediately the tears started to flow, i laid my head in her lap as she stroked my hair.

ian made the cake to take to our friends house, i was too busy worrying about myself, apologizing to ian because i felt like i was being so dramatic over the situation. i normally would have fed peyton myself but all i could do was cry. i made her a bottle, she never gets bottles.

so peyton's bottle......all we had was soy formula so it's what she got and she seemed to be fine. we made it to the larsen's and began eating our dinner, which was excellent by the way, and then peyton started to "spit up" and it kept coming and coming, then she started throwing up, like very 2 min. i would be in the kitchen one minute then back in the bathroom the next with a gagging baby. peyton threw up all over her clothes, her back up clothes, her bib, her burp cloth, my shirt, ian's sweater, her blanket, every where.

when the throwing up didn't seem like it was ever going to stop we decided that we better eat our cake and get home. we all sat down , the smiths drenched in puke, and ate our double fudge chocolate cake. during dessert riley of course made a huge mess all over herself and her chair, to finish off the last clean smith. after the cake was gone i went and cleaned riley off, when i came back to the table i was informed that i had something all over my white sweater that wasn't throw up. i looked down at myself to find that the whole front of my torso was covered in chocolate cake. riley! yup riley had cake all over her little bottom; how riley got cake on her butt was, and still is a mystery to me. all that was left to do was take riley's pants off before she could destroy anything else.

we apologized for our manner-less visit, grabbed our puke and chocolate clothes and left with: one borrowed blanket, one 5 month old drenched in puke from the soy her mom gave her; one 2 year old dressed in a long sleeved shirt, a pea coat, elmo underwear and flats; one frazzled mom with one less sweater, a newly bandaged thumb thanks to a trained marine; and one husband fully dressed in everything he came in with a lot of added throw up on his shoulder for a nice accent to his outfit.

do you think we'll be invited back?

the nail. the worst thing is, well besides having it stepped on and grabbed several times,

is the fact that i'm to scared to clip or file it in fear that it may come off. oh i guess another bad part is when i'm checking out at a store and the clerk gets all grossed out like it's contagious or something.

"i am a child of god"

2007-12-31T08:53:00.000-08:00

riley is a child of god and she knows it, well at least we are trying to teach this to her anyway. we are getting to the really fun stages now, although i've felt like that for the past year it always seems to be getting more fun with her. we sing to riley every night before bed & for a while now she's been singing with us & i love it; one of her favorite songs is "i am a child of god" but of course she won't sing when other people are around so i had to record it for people to see.

another thing riley has been doing lately is saying prayers she starts with, "dear heavenly father and thank you dat, and thank you dat, and please dat, and um please dat......" i'm not leaving anything out from her prayers she doesn't usually actually ask for anything or actually thank for anything but i will list some of the things that she actually has prayed for, i must note that she doesn't ask heavenly father for what she wants just once it's typically at least 5-6 times in a row, over and over and over and over.... ian and i typically look up at each other and the first time kind of giggle, the second time we roll our eyes and shrug our shoulders because we don't know when she'll stop. typically the third time that ian and i look up at each other one of us will offer assistance and to this riley says, "i'm tryin my hardest okay!" and will continue to plead for her request. the list is as follows with no spelling errors it is what she really says:

1)and please dat bum (ben sarah's husband)

2)and thank you dat baby blake (keri & spencer's baby)

3)and please dat keri and spencers

4)and please dat duba (little einsteins) and strawberry shortcake and yo gabba gabba and doodlebops.

5)and please dat santa bring me a baby.

6)and please dat one horse open slay (yep jingle bells)

and last but defiantly not least!

7)please dat present hinckley,

(when i tried to explain that the prophets name in president hinckley she got upset and said, 'no santa wants to bring me a present not hinckley!' i'm glad she still prays for him even though she was a little threatened by the thought of having him take away some of her glad tidings on christmas morning.)

my smith girls

2007-12-18T13:15:00.000-08:00

so you want to see the girls, here they are.

one of my favorite stages to take pictures of our girls is when the like being on their tummy and hang out on their elbows, so easy to capture them i think. that's our peyton, she had to go into the dr. last week because she was wheezing, a bad sign especially for her, and we found out she has r.s.v. she's amazing she has still been so happy and smiling through the whole thing!

okay so it's not the best picture with santa but at least we documented the occasion, i guess ward santa's aren't used to posing themselves and the baby for the camera. i think he was having to much fun talking to her instead.

yeah, remember how peyton looked fine being with santa especially just being able to hold on to his facial hair, well this is rileys attempt and telling santa what she wanted for christmas. ian and i knew for sure this wouldn't work at the mall so we thought the ward christmas party, you know a little more quiet, intimate.... well that didn't work either. if it's a male and not her daddy she is not having it!

it was emily's 23rd b-day on sunday and riley was dying to take a picture with her aunt, i really think she just wanted an excuse to get some snuggles from the birthday girl.

(p.s. that nasty mess rileys is holding on to is strawberry shortcake, who would have guessed?)

so there are our girls, they are keeping me busy and challenging me often, and for that i am grateful.

TA DA!!!

2007-12-14T15:27:00.000-08:00

i know some of you are probably wondering what happened to the smith's, well i'm happy to announce that we're alive. what have we been up to you ask...... well we've been painting, we've all been sick once, well we're all sick right now and this is riley's second go round with it. we have been trying to navigate our way through dallas, trying to map out the closest target, old navy mall etc. you know all of the important things. so why have i not blogged in forever? well you try to find descent Internet and phone service in Forney i kept trying to explain it to my beloved sister sarah and she, who lives in atlanta, couldn't understand how we could possibly have no options for providers out here, finally we decided on the one that has slower service in but only a 135.00 hook up fee instead of the 300.00 hook up fee that we would have to sign a 3 year contract for, we really do live in a VERY small town.

here are some pictures of what we've done so far in our house, it's been fun and very overwhelming with two children, now i feel like i have gained more of an appreciation for keri and spencer for flipping homes, wow what work and we aren't even close to being done!

the girls bathroom before

after, i tried to get the color in there as best i could, well it's pink. i don't know if i love it so we'll wait for awhile and see.

the living room before, plain white like the rest of the house.

after, we painted the whole living area down stairs this color minus the t.v. room. merry chirstmas.

the 1/2 bath down stairs. ian said he wanted to pick everything out for this one because i called the master bath as mine.

okay so i did pick that the black and white photos he wanted in there to be flowers, but other then that it was all him, i'll have to admit i was very impressed, good job to my boy!

the kitchen. not riley

after, i love how it turned out, all we really have left is the microwave, i really like it. have i ever mentioned how much i appreciate my bum, ian? he was so patient and hardworking redoing the cabinets and putting the hardware on etc. this was basically what took our whole first week before he started work and he did it all for me. in our condo i always told ian that i wanted to redo the cabinets and light fixtures in the kitchen but we never did, in this house he did everything i wanted and he made it a priority even though it was no easy task, just one of the many reasons for me to love him.

i'll be sure to keep the photos coming if you guys are interested in what we do to our house as we do it, just let me know. let me know what you think so far. not that it really matters but feedback is always nice.

hope everyone is doing well and forgive the lack of blogging. happy holidays, we are finally off to buy our christmas tree today!

what a week!

2007-10-21T20:43:00.000-07:00

so in the past week a lot has happened with our little family. first on the list was that peyton laughed for the fist time on tuesday so that would be oct. 16th, i was so excited, it was so cute. the next 3 days i tried everything possible to make peyton laugh so ian could hear and finally on thursday it worked!!(proud mom moment!)

the second thing that happened on the list was that while dinner was cooking all four of us where in the living room and next thing i knew i was the only one awake.... i couldn't believe it; it has been a very long time sense riley has fallen asleep on my lap. after discovering i was the only one awake i smiled a big smile finished dinner and took some pictures and woke ian up so that we could have an almost date, we ate dinner alone, just the two of us in our house and it was really nice!after mine and ian's little dinner date we woke the girls up and headed out to the, "scarecrow festival" for family night. one thing i will really miss about utah is all of the family things that go on, there is always something to do as a family. the scarecrow festival was something at thanksgiving point where kids could ride pony's, go on a "train"ride, there was a haunted house etc... it was cold but really good for us to relax and do something fun together.

the fourth thing that we did was..... because the condo had been on the market i always had to make sure it was perfectly clean which meant i needed to keep riley occupied in the house without making mess after mess sense i didn't always have a lot of time to prepare after getting a call that some one wanted to come and look. one afternoon this past week i thought it would be a good idea for riley and i to get some use out of the apron grandma gave her, what better way then to make cookies together, that way i could entertain her without a huge mess. riley is a good little helper!

#5 so we did it, after 2 weeks and 1 day we accepted an offer on our condo, the stress of showing is gone and the stress of packing and being ready to move in less then 2 weeks is here. i have really enjoyed living here... here like in utah and here like in our condo, it was small but it was ours and we had so much fun doing things to it to make it feel like our own........i will be sad to say goodbye to such a great year.#6 that basically brings us to today, well besides our friend sarah having her beautiful baby on thursday but i don't have any pictures. # 6 is that we woke up to snow this morning snow and it's not even halloween yet! wow we had to get the girls out there because we aren't quite sure when they'll see it again.

i know this is the never ending blog but that was our week in a nut shell. i'm tired and need some rest now before i start packing tomorrow. the last couple of pictures are a couple for the grandmas i've been meaning to post of the girls.

nursery

2007-10-14T17:04:00.000-07:00

me:"riley what did have to eat in nursery today?"

Riley:"um...sex"

me:"what!"

ian:"what kind of nursery are you going to?"

me:"riley what did you have to eat in nursery today? what did you say?"

Riley:"um...a snack."

Peyton Sarah

2007-10-13T16:36:00.000-07:00

i love my little baby girl! she is so different then riley it is fun to see, don't get me wrong not that i don't love and adore riley but you know it's nice that everyone has their own personality and that maybe, just maybe we will have a buffy looking child in this smith family, poor girl!

So how is Peyton different then riley you ask? she just hangs out a lot, she'll just look around and be happy, she smiles A LOT and talks a lot already, we rarely see a scowl on her face like riley permanently had & last but not least she cries a lot less! that makes for 2 very happy parents. as far as looks go, she's a quarter of Riley's' size and has a thin face.

This a picture of Peyton's' perspective, when she looks down. what a view!

i don't think we have any pictures of riley smiling as a baby, i love this one! this is what she typically looks like to me.

they're alike in these ways, she's a furry baby like riley, she right has a dimple in her chin, it's just bigger then riley's. she has her dad's toes like riley and she has no sign of having hair before her first birthday.

I always say the more furry the shoulder and back the better don't you?

I love these toes, they curl so perfectly.

olivers come to town

2007-10-06T21:12:00.000-07:00

my sister sarah came with her baby addison and played with our family this past week. it was so fun to have the babies together, they are both so beautiful! thank you to the rest of the olivers who didn't come for sharing. we spent our time doing what we do best... talking, sleeping, feeding, and last but not least shopping. sarah was so nice to take care of both of the girls while they were crying and ian and i were trying to install a new light fixture, what a good mom.
peyton asleep in my lap, i didn't even realize she was out until it was pointed out, to cute to not take a picture of.when riley woke up from her nap one afternoon she asked if she could snuggle the girls, what adorable faces!doesn't it look like riley is in bed with a couple of baby dolls?

2007-09-29T08:30:00.000-07:00

our house is a very very very fine house..... well it will be ours soon enough. we are excited to make it our own, do the things we want to do to it. there will be room for all so hopefully we will have some visitors come our way sometime. Yes this is the car we had to drive, i think the lady at the counter thought she was doing us a favor by giving us this color. needless to say we felt a little out of place and flashy to have such a cool color! now that is real class.this is what you see when you walk through the front door of the house.i didn't realize how blurry this picture was but you get the idea anyway, so this is down stairs looking from the fire place.

riley's special day

2007-09-29T08:08:00.000-07:00

so we made it, riley is officially 2! we were so excited for her birthday because all of her friends have already had theirs and she got it and wanted her own special day. it arrived! i wish that i wasn't sick for the day and could have had more energy to play with her on my own before ian got home but i just didn't.

riley has been asking for earrings for a couple of months now and so we decided it was time, and the perfect gift for her this year the story goes like this....

after she was offered the sucker everything was fine. by the time we made it to chucky cheese's she was completely happy again, after all she asked for them.
grandma always knows the perfect gifts for riley! my question is how she does it, we never event think of these things let alone know where to find gifts like a strawberry shortcake costume. can you tell what one is riley? yeah her smile isn't as natural as the real strawberry shortcake.. we're still working on it. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY SWEET GIRL, WE LOVE YOU!

adrienne+clint=true love

2007-09-20T13:38:00.000-07:00

okay, so we had the opportunity to go to adrienne and clint's wedding, how cute are they? very! it's so amazing, exciting, romantic, fun etc... to see two people so in love who do things the right way! way to go! ian and i had smiles all day, he was so proud of adrienne he said he didn't even know how to express it. i'm so glad that people still do what they know is right even in the midst of so many influences pulling people in different directions; i believe that the decision they made to get married in the temple will make things in their marriage so much easier, i feel like it has truly helped ian and i to be the most happy we could be.
the cake that they had at the reception was one of my favorite wedding cakes i've seen, it tasted good too!

i remember my picture taken on my wedding day with the nieces and nephews, it looked about the same; not everyone can have a smile, what would be the fun in that? adrienne kept her cool pretty well i thought.

fun was had by all! riley kept talking about princess adrienne all day, and she has continued since we've been back. she was so excited to get her picture taken she put on her best, "cheese" face she has! although she didn't have the courage to talk to, "princess adrienne" she has knows her name and points out the engagment picture on our fridge and reminds me that the picture is of, "princess adrienne and clint"

it's rare that we get pictures of our whole family anymore so we have to take them every opportunity we get. what a cute family!

we had a lot of fun seeing everyone. the weekend started with the wedding and ended with the blessing of peyton on sunday before everyone headed back home. good times.

all of us that were at the blessing came back for a little breakfast and pictures after, thanks everyone for sticking around.

ian loves his little girl, in case you couldn't tell.

a fresh start

2007-09-19T20:52:00.000-07:00

Although I signed up for my account over a year ago I've been nervous to actually sit down and blog, it seems overwhelming to me. This is my fresh start, I am constantly looking at others blogs to see pictures etc.. I think this will be easy to keep up to date with everyone else and share the smith stories, day to day happenings etc... I'm hoping to use this as kind of an journal of some sort as my life as a Smith Mom of 2 beautiful girls and the wife of one very HANDSOME man! Here goes nothing!

6 short weeks ago we welcomed Peyton Sarah into our little family, she has been more healthy then we could have imagined so far, and we have loved every minute of having her with us. Riley has adjusted really well, and has been very good to/with her and excellent big sister! When we got to the hospital to deliver I realized that we didn't take one last picture of my belly in regular clothes so we hurry and did it there before I had to stay in bed. Better late then never.

One last picture of the Smith's as 3 Riley was overwhelmed and confused I think about what was going on that day.

Ian loves to snuggle his girls, I think this is by far his favorite way to sleep, he knows their safe.
Riley even cried when she cried, she wanted to be right next to her and make sure she was comfortable and safe.Grandma completly shared our joy in being able to have our little girl with us in our room instead of the NICU, it was an amazing day for all of us, the long wait was over and we were just enjoying our first moments with her.It was no nice to have Janna share our experience with us, what a good Aunt, it's nice to have others who love your kids too! I don't really know how to work the pictures yet but everyone was anxious to welcome Peyton into the family. We know that we were very blessed to have our little girl and have everything go so right with her in the hospital, what a beautiful miracle!

I DID IT PAIGE!

2006-08-01T21:11:00.000-07:00

okay paige i started my blog. now that i have taken forever to start this i will actually post something later. i loved the picture of william asleep. JUST AS I REMEMBER!