Easter 2012

Easter was all about TRADITION this year! I'm talkin' tradition from back when me and my sisters were little ones.

Since we are still up in Hillsboro we came down for a busy weekend filled with fun! We colored eggs Saturday night at Ginny and Poppy's house and the munchkins thought it was pretty cool. They may not have been the most beautiful eggs but I thought they were great! It was the first year they actually sat at the table together and finished them. And aside from a few broken eggs (on Emma's part) everything went perfect! I love that they are getting to an age where they can participate in fun little activities and enjoy it. Oh, and we can't forget... they left our carrots for the Easter bunny :)

Sunday was such a perfect day, sunny and warm. The kids spent the morning playing and tromping around the yard while Chris and Poppy did yard work and 4 wheeler rides and my mom and I cooked, cooked and cooked! After nap time Emma couldn't stand the thought of wearing her cute little dress (she liked her dirty sweatpants better and who could blame her?) so we compromised... she wore the dress if she could wear her muddy old rain boots. Once the clan arrived we had a giant Easter egg hunt and stuffed ourselves with every one's yummy food! Then my dad and Chris set up the pinata... it was so cool because I remember my Grandpa Roy setting up a pinata every Easter and it was always so fun to bust that thing open with all my cousins :) This year we started the tradition with our kids and their cousins! It was AWESOME! We ended our fun day by playing the Wii and watched the kids cruise around on the Gator.

Happy Easter! He Lives <3

We Miss....

The other day while stuck in lovely Portland traffic... Owen says to me in a quite voice, "Mommy...I really miss the cow store" (aka: Dairy Mart) I felt sorry for the little baby. Every few days when he would do something good or help out Mommy and Daddy with a chore his favorite reward was to always go down to the cow store to pick out his favorite treat for him and his baby sis. He loves that place :) It lead us all to start talking about what we all really miss about home that we can't wait to get back to. Here are just a few things that Owen and Emma can't wait to do/see when we get back home...

The Cow Store :)
Our backyard sandbox
Our neighborhood turkeys
The Jerry's hot dog stand
Play days with Cars and Buggy
Tuesday Pizza play dates with Auntie Kassie and Buggy
Meeting Poppy at the park for lunch
Evening visits up and Ginny and Poppy's house
Playing at Landy's house
Ginny's trampoline
Dottie
Weekly trips to Herricks to pet the animals and pick out fruit and veggies
The fish hatchery
Survivor Night (Aka: Vivor Night)
Cousin sleep-overs at Ginny and Poppy's
Caillou

When I asked them what Daddy might miss about Home they said...
Playing with Poppy and going fishing LOL. They are so observant :) After our we wrapped up our little chat about all of the exciting things we have to look forward to Owen reminded me that Hunter is going to be very happy to go home too :) That makes all of us.

I TWO!

January 22, 2010 our little family of 3 grew into our family of 4. I will never forget when they laid my beautiful baby girl onto my chest and we stared into each others eyes. At that moment our family felt so complete. I can hardly believe it's been 2 years since that day. She is growing up so fast and I am so grateful that I have got to spend every day with her to witness her every milestone. She is full of so much energy and life and I love watching her yearn to learn new things daily! So beautiful and so smart... We are so lucky :)

At the age of 2 she has MANY nicknames "Goobie", "Grace", "Emma Lou" "Lou Lou" "Sissy" and"Goo" She responds to them all. When asked how old she is she says "I TWOOOO". Her favorite things are "B" (her tattered blanket), Ba-Ba's (her bottle), Kitty cats, story time, playing in their sandbox, shopping trips with Mommy and greeting Daddy at the door with hugs and kisses right when he gets home from work.

Sissy girl spent her Second birthday by waking up at her favorite place... Ginny and Poppy's house! She loves her morning snuggles with her Ginny. When asked what she wanted for her big birthday breakfast she replied with "CHARMS!" (Lucky Charms). So we all sat down and feasted on Lucky Charms and Doughnuts. Later that day we met family and her friends at Splash Wave Pool for presents and cupcakes and SWIMMING. She spent most of the time splashing and jumping (among other things lol) in the baby pool :) It was a fun day that we wont ever forget. Happy Birthday Missy!

I'm FREE!!

Our lives changed forever at 10:03 AM on July 3, 2008. Owen Christopher Smith gave us quite the surprise arriving almost 6 weeks early! 3 years later he is still keeping us on our toes :) On his birthday morning he woke up bright and early, jumping on our bed yelling "I'm free now! I'm free now!"

I remember laying in the hospital bed 3 years ago... terrified, with Chris on one side and my Mama on the other. We had no idea what to expect! Flash forward three years and here I am standing in the kitchen helping him decide what he wants for his birthday breakfast. I love this moment! I love this time with him. For some reason when he shouts out a random "I LOVE YOU MOMMY!" or when he turns into the "kissing monster" time truly does stand still. It makes all of the day to day stresses disappear in an instant.

We celebrated his big day with a party at Ginny and Poppy's house. He chose a turtle theme and was so excited to help decorate. Most all of our friends and family were able to join us in BBQing, opening presents, and having cake! His favorite gifts by far were his bubble machine and guitar. And of course his shotgun! Uncle Brett and Keke topped off his day by taking him on an evening boat ride and fishing trip and then back to Ginny and Poppy's for the kiddos traditional Birthday sleepover.

Owen is so kind hearted, intelligent, determined and a good big brother to his "Goobie". He keeps us honest and accountable, encouraging us to learn new things with him. He shows me every day how much fun mother hood can be. All this from a 3 year old!

Happy Campers!

Who would have thought that my high maintenance little kiddos LOVE to camp?! I have to admit, I was stressed at just the thought of this big adventure. Our babies don't sleep anywhere other than our house and my Mom's, so anywhere else is hopeless trying to put them to bed... throw camping in the mix of this and... I wanted to put all the camping gear back up on the shelf :) But our little munchkins threw us for a loop and we all had the best time. Owen's favorite things about camping were fishing, swimming and roasting hotdogs. Emma's highlights were swimming, eating marshmellows and getting DIRTY! We can't wait to do more camping together as a family. It was so relaxing and nice to get out of town...and the best part was, the babies were so pooped, they slept aallll night :)

KeKe & Emma

Poppy and Owen on the "4 Later"

Ginny dancing!

Crescent Lake 7/11

Catching Up!

I can't believe it has been 8 months since I have blogged last. So much has been going on within the last year I don't even know where to start! We have experienced so many firsts within our family this year, it's been great. All the way from our first camping trip together to our new favorite... movie nights in Ginny & Poppy's backyard! I have had so many family members encouraging me to continue "our little blog" so that everyone can stay up to date on what's going on in our world. So over the next few days I will play catch up on blogging about how our Summer has started out so far!

Oh Christmas Tree

While the babies are napping soundly, I thought I would write about our fun Christmas tree adventure that we had on Saturday.

Chris woke up at 6am to make his famous omlets (and watch College Game Day). They are seriously the most amazing omlets in the world! Emma even loves them too but Owen would rather have Lucky Charms any day of the week :) So after gorging ourselves on our yummy breakfast, we all bundled up and headed to Northern Lights Christmas Tree Farm. It it our favorite place to go because they have the best atmosphere! Tons of Christmas lights, hay rides, hot cocoa, bon fire, wreath making and a petting zoo for the kiddos. We decided this year we wanted a noble (again). So we all loaded up onto the trailer and headed out to the noble patch. After about 20 minutes of tromping around in the mud we found it! The perfect tree. At about 8ft tall it is definitely the biggest tree we have ever had, but at 34 degrees outside, we were not about to be the least bit picky :) Owen had a fun time cutting the tree down with Daddy. On the way home he was filled with questions about our tree. It's so cute how his mind is constantly working.

After we got home, we all warmed up to some home made hot cocoa and enjoyed the amazing smell of our beautiful tree. When the babies woke up from their naps, we all had fun decorating the tree and placing the presents underneath. We look forward to having a simple stress free Christmas this year!

This weeks adventure... Christmas candy/cookies!

SNOW!

A few days ago, we spent days and days staring out the window waiting for the snow that was in the forecast. Chris and I were so excited to see the babies reactions to this unusual November treat! Finally on Tuesday night, it came!! Even though it was only a light dusting, it was enough to close the town and get us all in the Christmas spirit :) Poor Emma had a terrible cough, so she didn't get to go outside but Owen and Daddy had a great time for her! They spent forever outside using Owen's little sled, building a snowman and even had a snowball fight. Afterwards they came inside and had some yummy hot cocoa (Owen's new favorite treat) and we all took a nice nap. We hope there is more snow to come this year!

They kept peeking out the windows...waiting and waiting!

Owen's new sled... he loved it!



Sissy, trying it out too.



Making snow balls.

Such a big boy.

Carving Pumpkins

Creating traditions has been one of the most fun things to do as a Momma! So I couldn't wait for us all to gather around the table and sip some sparkling cider and carve our pumpkins. We didn't use any of those fancy carving kits... just our imaginations and a couple steak knifes :) Owen and Chris knew right away that they wanted SCARY pumpkins and Em and I wanted CUTE ones. Owen was thrilled that each person in the family had their very own punk to call their own. They both had such a great time giggling, chomping on candy and playing in the "guts". It's so exciting to think that next year they will be even more enthusiastic. It's days like these being a parent is soo rewarding. We couldn't love them more!

Emmy enjoying her first lollipop.

"Eeeww"

I think Chris had more fun than the babies :)

Taa Daa! Our finished projects.

Pumpkin Patch

This year we had so much fun at the "Punk Patch" as Owen likes to call it. We knew it would be a little harder this year with 2 babies instead of one.  However we were determined to make a good experience, no matter what! So we left the house right after naps and with an unlimited supply of apple juice and graham crackers on hand. Owen loved the long hayride out to the "punks" and Emma seemed to like it as well. We poked around the patch for about 20 minutes and had fun looking at all the different shapes and colors of pumpkins. Poor Owen felt the need to mourn every smashed pumpkin along the way... he would point and say "Punk is broken... how sad" And stick out his pouty lip. After we all picked out our perfect finds, we rode back to the farm and had fun petting and feeding all the cute farm animals. Then we headed inside for Chris and I's favorite part of the trip... the apple cider! It's sooo yummy. And it better be, for almost $9 a gallon! I am always begging him to save some for the rest of the family :) He is beyond addicted. We had a great time and we can't wait until next year when Em can run around the patch too!

PS- I promise it wont be 2 months until my next post... Our camera died and we are currently shopping for a new one! Check back next week for our carving adventure :)

An Afternoon At The Park

So yesterday we had Chris all to ourselves, it was so nice having him around our house! I always joke with him that I am a single mommy when hunting season comes around, so it was great to have my wonderful husband spend a day with us. After the babies woke up from their 3 hour long nap (loved it!) We decided to take O to the park, or what he calls "The Swings". But first my amazing and thoughtful husband knew that Starbucks started selling my ultimate favorite drink of the year (Pumpkin Spice Latte) so he made a coffee run for me so I could watch the kiddos play and sip my favorite coffee. Love him!!

As usual, the babies had a great time playing at the park. Owen's new favorite attraction is the slide! We probably watched him go up and down that thing like 50 times! And if you have ever been to the Splash Park you will know how big and scary that slide is... so I am very proud of our little boy! Em hung out watching her big brother and played on the swings for a bit. Our babies are getting so big and every day is a new adventure with them. We are so blessed to have such an amazing little family!