::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! :)