snippits?

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...

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.

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

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

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!

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!

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.