Bed Time!

One of my favorite things lately is our bedtime routine. My kids just make me laugh!

First, it starts out with Dallas. He drops down to his belly and army crawls backwards to the stairs. The funniest part is that he drops down about 4 feet away from the stairs and it takes him so long to find them with his feet! By the time he manages to get to the bottom the older two kids are running around starting the 20 questions. "Mom, where is my soft blanket?", "Dad can we watch Golden Compass tomorrow?", "Oh I forgot a drink!" and so on... :-)

Dallas LOVES his blanket and lately he has been cuddling with it as it COVERS his face so he runs into walls and things! Ha ha! Pretty soon its prayer time and they are tucked into bed with millions of blankets done just the right way, the door is cracked just the right amount of inches and we sneak upstairs. Of course no night would be complete without the last minute "MOM!" over and over again until I want to pull my hair out. Why do they always wait until I hit that top step to ask me one last thing? Oh but I love those little crazies and I wouldn't have bed time any other way.

He finally learned to go down the stairs!

Yep! He can't see a thing!

This is my little Dal. He loves to hold his blanket up to his ear while sucking on the end. Silly I know!

Brooklyn is my little stinker. There are never any just smile normal pictures with her! HAM!!

Sweet little Mason bug. The first to crawl into bed and the first to go to sleep without coaxing.

Night night Griz!



Sick baby

We've all been sick in our house lately. Jer sounds the worse but he went to the Dr. on Monday. I took Dallas to the Doc yesterday and she said he may have RSV. She wanted to see how he did with a nebulizer at home first. So far I love how well it works! Best of all, we weren't immediately giving Antibiotics and sent home. This way we get a chance to see if it is just a virus and maybe get better. I just am not a big fan of Antibiotics for little kids. He absolutely hated the mask but he was just too cute when he tried to lick it.



Primary Talk

This Sunday Brooklyn had a talk about Heavenly Father speaks to us through the Prophet.

We prepared early this time and Brooklyn was able to practice reading her talk every night to us.

This Morning came and I didn't even have to stand up there with her. Mason was a big helper and held up the picture of the Prophet for her and I was able to sit back and listen to her. She did such a good job!

It makes me so proud to see her grow! Pretty soon I will blink and she will be a teenager.

Great Job my little Brooklyn! You are such a ray of sunshine in our lives. We are so lucky to have your sweet spirit in our family! I hope you keep up the good work! I look forward to watching your testimony grow!!!

1st black eye...

Today our land lord's realtor came to take pictures of the house so he can put them up on his website. I was going a little nuts making sure things were straight and put together. (We did JUST move in) Things were bound to be a little scattered. We explained to him how nice it was to have the basement as a play room. I was kinda priding myself on how great it is to let the kids run around downstairs in the basement. They could basically roll around as much as they want.

Well, I was proven wrong tonight. Mason was trying to tag Brook while she was running and I guess she didn't see the bottom steps. She face planted and got her very first black eye. I don't know if any other mom's feel this way but I get conflicted when my kids get hurt like this. 1st I wonder why they don't listen to me when I ask them to STOP running and 2nd I feel terrible when they are hurting. I tend to start out stern and then I always melt and it drives Jer nuts I think. Ha ha.

Poor Brook was SO upset. I think she was mostly afraid that she looked bad. She looked in the mirror then came out and said, mom its purple! I told her yes and it just needs to go away with time and that she needed to keep the ice on it, it would help with the swelling. Then she said, but I don't want to look bad!

Poor little girl. I hope she'll learn to not run around when we tell her to.... Probably not, but I can hope.

Little family get together

Jer's sister Courtney was on spring break this past weekend, so she and Preston drove up for a visit.

It was Preston's Birthday so we had a little party for him at our house. The kids were super excited to do something for Preston for his Birthday. They had an idea to make him cards. I was pretty impressed that they did so well. We had cake, presents and some yummy dinner. After that, the boys went and put in a water heater with Jer for our land lord and us girls stayed to visit and play. Courtney, Brook and I danced with a game on wii called just dance. It was lots of fun. I'm so glad we actually have room now to entertain. It was a short visit but it was so nice! Thanks guys for coming up!

Courtney was giving Pres a hard time about being 31. I didn't have a 3 candle so she just put the 65 cause you know... he is SO old! Kidding!!!

Preston reading our funny card we gave him.

Opening presents

Courtney sneaking a pic with Brook and Mase.



Happy St. Patty's Day!

 Guess there wont be any pinching in this family today! :-)

Happy Saint Patrick's Day Everyone!

Cabin Fever!

Yesterday we felt cabin fever like crazy so I took the kiddos outside to ride bikes and play. They were doing so well! Brook finally wasn't afraid to ride in a circle on her two wheels. Mason was riding faster without stopping and Dallas got on his trike for the first time and was pushing it with his feet. The next thing I know four little kids come running over asking if they can play with us for a little while. I said sure you can! Then I noticed their mom got in her car and she drove away! I asked the older girl where her mom was going and she told me to go lock up the school cause she is the janitor. Now, I don't mind playmates over at all but I DO mind it if I wasn't even asked to babysit or if I've never even met the mother! Who leaves their children at a complete stranger's house. I haven't even met our neighbors yet since we've moved in here. I know its a small town but come on people! She eventually came back but she went straight into her mother's house and never even talked to me. I mean come on!? At least meet the person you leave your children with! I eventually just sent them home because we were done riding bikes and they were not following my rules on how we treat our toys. For example, we try not to ride in the street (obviously) or the field because it has a ton of these really hard spikey weeds that have popped our bike tires before. I asked them to stay on the sidewalk please and they just didn't listen or didn't care.

Okay, sorry, I had to vent. I'm done now.

Welcome to our new place!

The front porch.

Stairs going down to the basement.

Jer watching tv in our living room

The kids eating in the dining room.

Mason bug eating and here is the kitchen. sorry for the mess. We are still unpacking.

The office

The school room/extra bedroom.

Brooklyn's room

the basement/playroom

Mason and Dallas's room

The mud room off of the garage

The master bedroom and below are the closets!

Welcome to our new rental home! I sure hope you enjoyed the tour!!!

If I could buy this house today I totally would! I love everything about it. Especially the windows with the blinds inside them. I told Jeremiah that I am taking a ton of pictures of this home because if it is the nicest home we ever get to live in, I want to remember it! 

House Hunting, Not So Fun!

These past couple of weeks have been so stressful for me! Our land lords have decided to sell our rental home. They are being really nice about giving us time to find another place, the only problem is there is NOTHING for rent in our small town. We have even broadened our options by looking into possibly buying but even with that everything seems to be too small, too expensive or too far away!

I know there is something I need to learn from this. Maybe I need to have more faith and just trust that it'll all work out.

I guess it always seems like we were always searching for something. First it was for the right job, now that Jer is in love with his job, we are having a hard time finding a home! I just pray that something works out soon and we can get on with our lives!!!

Daddy's office and Dr...

Dal has been pretty sick since we got back from Jer's Grandma's funeral. He has had such a horrible bottom rash and upset stomach that I just don't know what else to do! We attempted Thursday night to drive up to Sterling for our bi-weekly grocery shopping but on the way there, Dallas had the worst diaper blow out and he threw up so we turned right back around. Friday morning I made a Doctor appointment for him and I dropped the older kids off at dad's office while I took a rare alone trip to the Dr. with Dal.

Thankfully Dr. Fillian was there from Sterling! He is so great! He speaks too softly but he is such a good guy.

Dr. Fillian thinks that Dallas's problems may all be food allergy based so I am keeping a food diary of what he eats and when he messes himself and he is on an all liquid diet for a couple days. So far so good! It kills me to hear my baby cry because he wants what we eat too but at least his bottom is looking a little better.

Luckiest Person Alive!

While Jer and I aren't always the most romantic couple, Jer still seems to surprise me at times. Yesterday evening the doorbell rang. I was expecting to find the Walgreen's delivery guy. Instead, I found these beautiful daisies!

Jer noticed how stressed out I feel about having to move and how hard it is to find a rental here.

I just feel so lucky to have such a thoughtful husband in my life!

The miracle pill...

Growing up, I heard many a story how cayenne pepper is such a good thing! This past trip to Idaho, we stopped by my Grandma Bailey's house and she gave me some cayenne pepper for me to fill capsules with. Today, while I was filling capsule after capsule I couldn't help think back to sitting in the kitchen with my mom while she would fill these same pills. One time she accidentally rubbed her eyes and that didn't feel so good. :

I really do believe they helped her. I never once remember mom getting a cold or sick besides the times she'd go into the hospital for her usual diabetes.

Grandma says that they clean out the blood. I can see that. So as an experiment, I am trying cayenne pepper pills twice a day just like mom used to. Maybe I'll lose weight faster and it'll clean out my blood, perhaps get me off my blood pressure meds. Can't hurt, I guess.

1st hair cut!

Dallas had his 1st hair cut on Friday the 25th! I finally broke down. I was tired of him looking like such a girl when his little tail would curl up. Now he looks so different to me. He's no longer my baby and he is an all out toddler. Oh my!

While in Manassa we...

After the funeral, we visited at Aunt Debbie's for a while. The kids had a big time dressing up and playing.

Here, Shayla is proving that blonds really do have more fun!! Ha ha!



 Jer looks like a Samoan! He he!

 Dallas was not happy to be dressed like a girl.

 Brook was my incredibly tight spider suit girl!

 We visited with Grandma and Grandpa Snuffy at their house too. The kids liked to play in their back yard. It was hard to see Grandma Snuffy not feeling well. I'm so happy the last day she looked so much better!

    Jillian gave Dallas a mohawk since his hair is really growing long! I thought he looked like a girl. ahh!

The girls are such good friends as well as cousins. Here they are posing! I have no idea what my child is doing! 

                                                     Here is Grandma Snuffy holding Dallas.

Grandma and Grandpa Snuffy with the Smith grandkids.

We went out to eat and Dallas was a little ham! It was the best Mexican food I've eaten since Mexico!!

After we ate lunch we all went to play a game of bowling. Can we say mass chaos! but fun.



Jer after a strike!



This is how mason fell asleep on the drive home. So funny!

It was so good to see family and visit and play together.