::joy::

it is so much fun to see the joys of the season through the eyes of a child... 

 

although we desperately missed our family this thanksgiving, we did savor every minute of the holiday weekend together.

when we were preparing to eat our feast, ryan and i were telling lily and finn things we were thankful for.  we asked lily what she was thankful for and she said, "God and sparkles."

oh how i love the mind of a 3 year old girl!

and ryan's mom very generously sent lily and finn some christmas pajamas to get ready for the season.  lily's came with a matching tutu (lucky girl!) and she has not taken it off since she received it.

she (and subsequently finn) were doing their "ballet action" for us and ryan and i had to be careful not to interrupt their stage.

enjoy...



we hope the start of your christmas season is off to a festive start!

this year we are so thankful for...

the promise of new life.  

and the two beautiful lives God has given us to cherish.

baby smith #3.  expected to arrive very early june 2011!

we wish you all a very lovely thanksgiving!

and to our families, we miss you dearly and are celebrating with you in heart!

happy thanksgiving!

::royalty::

lily has gotten really excited about dressing up recently and loves using all sorts of things around the house to do so.

i found a great online tutorial for making crowns, and i thought my kids might enjoy them in their stockings this christmas. 

i tweaked the tutorial quite a bit to make it my own, but it was simple and easy and i made both in half a naptime (it seems anymore that is my gauge of how hard something is!) 

if you have someone in mind who likes to dream of being royalty, this might be a great project!

::pondering::

so, our oven caught on fire the other week.

nothing major.  i had fire extinguisher in hand and it was never employed.

but, it did make it clear that our oven needed to be repaired or replaced.

seeing how we think our oven was made in the early 1980's, and it could heat our kitchen about 15 degrees when in use AND you could boil a pot of water on the back burner just by turning the OVEN on, we thought maybe it wasn't worth putting our money into it.

so, we spent part of yesterday checking out the deals and searching for a new oven.

we were looking at a particular oven and lily noticed one next to it that was very nice ($2000 nicer) and she said, "i want this one!"

and i said, "that is a really nice oven lily, but it is not in our budget."

and she said, "maybe if you go back to work we could buy it."

yup.  maybe.  i got told.

how perceptive these kids of ours are!
she did agree later that it was much nicer for me to be at home with them than working.  phew! :)

::camp::

we have been wanting to go camping all fall, but somehow the weekends have slipped away from us.  ryan's schedule has been busy or we've had plans of some sort.  and here we've found ourselves in november not having camped.

we decided we would go for it this weekend and have our inaugural family camping trip as a family of four.

it has been gorgeous here recently.  and although it was a lovely and warm day today, it was supposed to be in the 30's tonight.  and as much fun as camping has sounded, we decided that waking up at 2 am with two freezing babes sounded less than appealing.  so, our camping plans were abridged and we decided to go out in the woods and have a campfire and enjoy dinner and s'mores with friends over the fire.  it was not quite what we had initially envisioned, but it was so well worth it.  lily ADORED every minute of it and cannot wait to do it again.

yearning...

lily told me this afternoon that she is ready for summer.  

oh birdie, it might be a long winter...

what are the odds?

tonight, finn was a little on the cranky side and lily and i were buying time until he would be tucked in.

we were all three happily (for the time being) reading books in his room when he slid his hand down his book and let out a wail.

i told lily i thought he had a papercut and then saw quite a bit of blood coming from his finger.

being the caring big sister that she is, she was worried about him and wanted to have a good look at his finger.

after the excitement died down, she went back to enjoying her books.

moments later, lily yelled out, "i have a paker-nut!  i have a paker-nut!"

i hardly batted an eye and said "it's going to be ok, lily." (i mean seriously, i wasn't born yesterday.  i'm not falling for that one.)

she looked at me as if she couldn't believe the attention that finn had gotten in comparison but went on with her reading.

well, after we got finn settled in bed, lily and i were snuggling for a moment when she looked at me and said, "when will my paker-nut be better?"  it was then that i thought maybe i ought to check out her finger.

are you kidding me?  the girl had a huge papercut!  how is that even possible?  two papercuts within about 30 seconds of one another.

oops.  sorry lily.  you better believe that finger got some serious love from me once i realized my error! :)

(and i'm sure whit was thankful that she got to experience the whole drama live via the phone!)

::home sweet home::

i have been working on a project for several weeks now for my kids for christmas.

as with many of my projects, it didn't turn out quite as beautifully as i had envisioned, but luckily, lily and finn aren't too picky!

my sweet ones are happiest when playing in a fort of any kind...under the table, under cushions, under a tree...just that feeling of a shared secret and safety.

however, many of their forts are quite elaborate and often destroyed within minutes by the chief. 

enter, the table tent...

i made a little house that can be quickly thrown over our kitchen table to provide a sweet hideaway for lily and finn.  many parts come off and can be interchanged.  and i am hoping to add more as the time goes on (if they enjoy it!) 

i am very excited to give this to them for christmas!  (maybe i ought to iron it first?)

 the garden

mule!

happy 21st birthday, sammy!!

we so wish we could have celebrated with you, but we are so thankful we had a few days with you right before your birthday!!

i can hardly believe all 5 of us are technically "adults" now.  it feels like only yesterday that i was putting barrettes in sam and duke's hair and we were putting on plays for our parents.

it is such a blessing to be the oldest sister to four amazing siblings and every day i am overwhelmed by the love we all share.  i only hope that lily feels the same way as she gets older.

happy birthday, samuel.  we love you so very much!

::our little garden fairy and gnome::

our kids thoroughly enjoyed halloween this year...and finn was delighted by his first piece of chocolate (note evidence on his beard!)

                                                           

lily and finn were able to trick or treat with ainsley and david and they loved every minute of it!

we waited until the last minute to buy pumpkins and were only able to find these little tiny ones (lame!) but luckily our kids didn't seem to mind one bit!

we hope you had a very happy halloween!

griffin.

 ryan had a conference in denver last week.

and i had the privilege of joining him. 

and that meant lots of time to soak up the cuteness of griff.  (and of course ash and jose!)

 thanks so much for having us, guzmans!!

 and a HUGE thank you to kathy who stayed with our kids and allowed us to have such special time together!  THANK YOU!!

and the weekend was capped off with an awesome visit from sam.  we were so glad you were here, sammy!!