The Smith Family

Jenna's 4th birthday

2012-01-26T14:10:00.000-08:00

In December, my sweet girl turned FOUR. When did this happen?!! I can believe that Jenna is four, but I find it much harder to believe that I am the mother of that four year old. We had a family party to attend that evening, so we celebrated her birthday in the morning. I spent the previous evening doing this...

...hanging balloons on her door. We weren't going to be having a big birthday party or anything, so we really wanted to make sure she felt special that day with a few things.

Her special present this year was a bike. She has a little one, but outgrew it so quickly, we knew it was time for a new one.

What a big girl!

At her request, we had waffles for breakfast, which she got to eat off of the special birthday plate.

And of course, we let her play with the balloons. She promplty wrapped them all over her bike for decoration.

I also asked Jenna a few questions about herself that I hope to ask her every year to see how her answers change. Here they are:

What is your favorite color? Pink
What is your favorite toy? My doggie
What is your favorite fruit? Brocolli (fruit, eh?)
What is your favorite TV show? Dora the Explorer
What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? Soup (really? not pb&j?)
What is your favorite outfit? A dress- my yellow "Belle" one
What is your favorite game? The Joy School game ( she had just played a game at Joy School- it involved marshmallows, of course making it her favorite)
What is your favorite snack? Fruit Snacks
What is your favorite animal? A bear
What is your favorite song? I Am A Child of God
What is your favorite book? I love lots of books, you know
Who is your best friend? Jersey (little girl that lives two doors down)
What is your favorite cereal? Frosted Flakes (umm, I've never given her frosted flakes)
What is your favorite thing to do outside? Play baseball
What is your favorite drink? Milk
What is your favorite holiday? My birthday
What do you take to bed with you at night? My doggie and my bee
What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? Waffles
What do you want for dinner on your birthday? I don't know
What do you want to be when you grow up? A princess!

I love all her different answers, some are completely her, others... well it must have just been the first thing that came to her head. I mean, really soup? I know this kid loves her pb&j's. I can't wait to see how her answers differ next year.

Happy birthday dear Jenna. You are my first baby, and now my first 4 year old. I love you so much!

Disney on Ice and a 10k

2012-01-21T13:15:00.000-08:00

In November, we took the kids and Cousin Emma to see Disney on Ice. So much fun! We had front row seats so the girls had a great view and they LOVED it. Here are some pics of their cute little excited faces.

So excited to go- I made little crowns for the girls and they were a hit!

Entranced...

Say cheese!

At the beginning of the show they had everyone get up and dance and clap their hands- so cute! Jenna and Emma were totally into it- Lu is having malfunctions with her crown. :)

It wasso hard to get them to smile during the show, they were just blank faced, totally transfixed by the Disney magic!

Me and the boy (note that he is also mesmerized)

During intermission- strike a pose Miss Emma!

The whole gang.

There were some really great things for the show... you'll have to go for yourself to see it, I think it is one of those things that are a special part of childhood magic. My one sneak peak? The guy playing Aladdin totally looked like Apollo Anton Ohno. Maybe what he does on the off season? Ha!

On Thanksgiving Day, I geared up for my first official 10k race in Bountiful. What a great time! I'm slow and steady, 10-11 minute miles for me. But hey, I did it! It was a fun challenge.

Lucy and Jason waiting for me by the finish.

Jenna ran out to give me a high five just before I finished!

I did it! Hooray!

On a side note, I actually ran my first half marathon on New Year's Eve at the Olympic Oval on their indoor track. We forgot to take any pictures, which is probably a good thing, I was ready to drop! I did not train like I should have for it, I kind of did it on a whim. Doing a half marathon when the furthest you've ever run is just over 6 miles... not really a good idea. My next run is the Salt Lake City Half Marathon in April. I will be training hard for that one and I'll take lots of pictures. It is so nice to set a goal and achieve it!

Totally unrelated, here is a cute video of Lu. She makes my heart happy!

And thus, the update continues...

The Reno Trip... in October/November

2012-01-19T08:49:00.000-08:00

Gah! I am a failure with this catch up. This is my final attempt... If I do not get caught up in a week's time, I'm just going to start with Christmas. I really do wish I were a little better, especially since we live so far from family now!

So here we go again...

We visited Reno at the very end of October. We even got to go trick-or-treating with my mom!

Trick or treat!

Dan's dad on Halloween

Even all that sugar couldn't keep Lucy awake!

Whenever we're in Reno, we make sure to visit Aislee and Pete...okay, and their parents. The kids always have a great time playing with each other. Here's 4 of them singing/yelling "I Am A Child of God". Niccole and I will be organizing them into a choir soon. :)

Just hanging out at Grandma's

Jason hanging out with cousin Henry. They are 2 months apart. Even though Brian and Anna's kids are blond with blue eyes and Dan's and mine are,well, not, I'm always amazed at how much our kids seem to resemble each other. Those Smith genes must run strong! Such cute little friends!

The reason we went to Reno was to see our oldest niece, Mikayla be baptized. That's why she is wearing a beautiful white dress below. We are so proud of her and her decision to be baptized. She is one smart girl and we are so lucky she is our niece!

It's always fun to go to Reno and to be with family, but I know that I can make just about anywhere home as long as these cute faces are with me! So blessed to have them, along with so many other blessings!

More to come, I promise!!!

Happy Halloween... and the haircutting fiasco...

2011-12-21T15:36:00.000-08:00

Okay, there may be the slight possibility that I am a little bit behind on this blog... or a large possibility... okay, okay, I'm playing catch up AGAIN. If you're lucky, I might make it to putting Christmas on here by March!

Well, we've had a great last couple of months. So let's start at Halloween, shall we?

We went to a local corn maze for one of our family nights in October. Check out the purple sky!

I have taken note, The Wizard of Oz is a popular theme for Halloween. We joined in the fun on that one- truthfully, I found Jenna's Dorothy costume at the DI for $2 and we already had the lion costume, so we went with it.

Our cowardly lion

Little tin man

Dorothy lovin' on the tin man.

Our whole crew at the ward party!

Other exciting events in October- haircuts. From our 4 year old neighbor. Yep, you read right.

Four. year. old.

My friend volunteered to watch the girls while I went and had lunch with Dan. As we were wrapping up, she called and said, "You are going to KILL me." All sorts of things rushed through my head- who's bleeding, who's hurt? And she said, "Jersey just cut their hair." She then told me how she had been listening to them playing in her daughter's room and she could hear them saying things like, "I like your hair... your hair is brown, my hair is blonde." Then she heard Jenna say, "No Jersey, don't!" She went over and there is Jersey holding scissors and Jenna has some really short bangs going on. Then she looks at Lucy. Oh, Lucy. Apparently she had no qualms about having her hair cut, because she let Jersey go out it without so much as a peep. That's right, Lucy's first hair cut was performed by a 4 year old. Needless to say, I was a little worried on the drive home. I called my hair stylist and she said, "Bring them over. Now." When I got home, my poor friend was so upset. This was probably good for me, because then I needed to help calm her down, which calmed me down. I just kept telling her, "It's okay, hair grows back. It could have just as easily been my kids cutting your kids hair." ( I will add that Jersey did cut her brother's hair too during this.) Anyways, I'm glad that it happened this way, I think I was much less upset than had Jenna done it... Here are some pictures...

What I saw when I got home...

Don't remember how long Lu's hair was? Here's one taken the weekend before.

At the salon...

She was such a good girl for her cut...

Her cute "rock and roll" bangs

Poor Lu's hair was totally hacked.

But a cute little bob was the result. I think it suits her!

Next up, our trip to Reno! Stay tuned!

For the first time...

2011-10-01T21:20:00.000-07:00

I hope some of you awesome folks now have that song from "A Goofy Movie" stuck in your head!

Well, these past couple months were full of firsts for us, so there are a lot of pictures on this post. So make yourselves comfortable and grab some ice cream, popcorn or other snack of your choice, and prepare to see some way cute little people!

In August, we went to Las Vegas to see a whole bunch of my relatives that were visiting from Hawaii, along with my parents and my brother Herb. This was all of the kids' first time to Vegas, and Lucy and Jason's first time meeting their Great Grandma Lau (my mom's mom)

Unfortunately, I didn't snap any pictures of them together. FAIL! But here are a couple of cute ones while we were there.

My Uncle Brian and my mom with the girls (mine, and one random one we don't know).

We also went on our first ward campout at the end of August. It was Lucy and Jason's first time camping too! Dan slept in a tent with the girls, while Jason and I "roughed" it in the back of the Blazer. :)

This lady cooked us one AMAZING breakfast. Pretty much better than I eat at home... the fire behind her? She has teenage sons. Enough said.

Payson Lake. Pretty, huh?

Okay, technically this isn't Dan's first time grilling, but it is our first time owning our very own grill! Dan helped some people move and they gave him their grill- who says service doesn't pay?!!

He was very excited and we have been making good use of it!

Jenna also had her first day of school! We participate in a pre-school program called Joy School. It is a co-op of moms that take turns teaching the group of children different values. Jenna loves it and loves getting to go to school! I can't believe she's growing up so fast!

While this wasn't the girls' first birthday party, it was their first time hitting a pinata! It was a cute pirate themed birthday party for one of our little friends from church.

Jason also had his first time eating food this month. Although it may not look it here, he is a BIG fan.

Here, this will show you how much he likes food. Ignore the pink bib, we do have two girls, ya know.

We also went on our first family hike, where Jenna walked the whole way. We took a little 1.5-2 mile hike up to a place called Donut Falls. It was the perfect length for a young family.

Jason was nice and cozy in his little cocoon in Dan's fleece jacket. :)

First time seeing a crazy caterpillar like this. It was pretty big too- at least an inch long!

Family pic up at the falls. The pictures REALLY don't do it justice.

I did it!

Okay this really isn't a first of anything, but he's so darn cute here that I just had to add it. Jason has however, started sitting up on his own this last week. I'll have to post some pictures when I download them off the camera... which you can see may be in a month.

We hope that life is treating everybody as well as it has been treating us. I feel like this month has been a huge one of growth for us and recognizing how fully the Lord is in control and how His hand is present in all things in our lives. We are so blessed and could not ask for more. (Okay, if the grandparents would all move to Salt Lake, that would be excellent) Really though, I feel as though our little family is learning so much out here on our own. Love you all and hope you are well!

Love my girls!

2011-08-30T20:03:00.000-07:00

Okay, so maybe it's been a little while since I've picked up my "fancy" camera. It's about time. Today, we girls had our own little photo shoot in the backyard. Jason was invited, but he decided a nap was more appealing. So I let my girls soak up some sun and run around in the backyard and they let me snap a few photos in return.

I love these girls and their spunkiness. They are a lot like their mom, and that isn't always a good thing- I'm pretty stubborn and so are they. But they say and do the best things. Lucy calls olives finger puppets, because she is always putting them on her fingers. Jenna brought me pretend soup from her play kitchen because I wasn't feeling well. They are so sweet and if I may add, pretty cute too!

4 Months

2011-08-30T19:21:00.000-07:00

Hi, I'm Jason.

I am 4 months old and I am amazing!

I am 12.5 lbs. I can already turn from my tummy to my back, and hold my head straight up with my arms fully extended. I'm on my way to learning how to crawl- I can get on my knees and push my body forward, but haven't quite figured out how to hold my head up at the same time.

I LOVE to be held and like to make people smile. My eyes are huge and it is rare that my parents can get a picture of me that isn't "bug-eyed" because I like to open them so wide for pictures!

Yeah, we sure do love this little guy! He is our little cuddlebug, and we are so happy to have him as a part of our family.

She likes to move it, move it

2011-08-18T11:59:00.000-07:00

The neighbors across the street were blasting Michael Jackson's "Billy Jean". We didn't mind so much because it's an awesome song. Lucy? Well, she was rocking out...

Lucy's 2nd Birthday

2011-07-26T22:29:00.000-07:00

We did lots of celebrating for Lucy's birthday this year. Normally, we like to keep most birthdays low-key and throw a big party every few years. We had just moved right before Lucy's 1st birthday and didn't know anyone to throw a big 1st birthday, so we decided to make a big deal out of her 2nd. Boy, did we....

First, we celebrated that Sunday, July 3rd, with my parents. We really just had some ice cream to celebrate, but Lucy was still excited, in case you can't tell from the picture below!

We sang her happy birthday...

On Tuesday, July 5th, Lucy recieved some balloons and a sweet bear from G-ma and G-pa Smith. I don't know what it is about balloons, but kids sure love them!

On Lucy's real birthday, July 6th, my mom made her a yummy chocolate cake.

She really enjoyed it...

...both the girls did!

Lu also opened some presents. This one was a cool beach ball that you hook up to a sprinkler and it sprays out of different places on the ball.

We also got her this way cool "sand boat". Obviously, no sand yet.

Then that following Saturday, we had a friend party with some friends from church and some great neighbors and some awesome relatives.

Here is the beach ball sprinkler in action.

This picnic table has been one of our best finds at the DI. It is super sturdy and as you can see, holds a ton of kids!

This is Lucy and her cousin (if you want to get technical, her 1st cousin, once removed...aka, he's actually Dan's cousin) Asa. He's 10 months here... he and Lu are the same size. Awesome. She really is pretty darn petite!

All the kids enjoyed the sandboat. with sand, of course.

Cute girl!

Our delicious looking cupcake display.

If you were to ask Lu if she enjoyed her birthday...

...you bet she'd say yes!

Happy birthday my little Lu! I hope you enjoyed all your birthday celebrating. You are such a sweet little girl and I love watching you grow and be so creative and caring. I ~~can't~~ can wait to see you grow up into a beautiful young woman! Don't grow up to fast my love. I am enjoying every moment of you. I hope I'm making the cut as your mom! Love you lots!

And just because... check out this chubby bundle of cuteness!

Brian & Heidi's Wedding

2011-07-19T16:09:00.000-07:00

My brother Brian got married on May 28th in the Sacramento Temple to his sweetheart, Heidi. We are so happy to have her as a part of our crazy family. It was a great day and it's a good thing they got married in Sacramento, because it was raining and SNOWING in Reno- yeah, almost June and snowing people. Gross. Anyways, I've posted these on Facebook, but since some of my family is not on facebook, they requested that I post some here too. It's mostly just a lot of pictures, not much commentary. So here you go, some happy moments of Brian and Heidi's special day...

Herb and his future companion...

This is Heidi's niece, Savannah. She's a little bit excited to see Heidi, I think!

4th of July Weekend

2011-07-13T18:22:00.000-07:00

We had a great 4th of July weekend. We went up to Logan on Friday night to see Dan's family, and as luck would have it, the city's fireworks were that night! We were excited, since we hadn't planned to see any.

Getting ready to go to Logan and looking cute!

Waiting for the fireworks to start.

We went right across the street from Dan's grandma's house. It was pretty far away, but just fine for the little girls. You can see in this video how far away we were. However, it is WAY cute to hear Lucy say fireworks...

We went up for Dan's other grandma's birthday celebration, but unfortunately, I forgot to take out my camera then!

On the actual 4th, we went down to Provo to watch their huge parade with some of my dad's family. The girls had a great time, even though it was super hot.

Dan and Lu

Jenna rockin' my sunglasses.

Me and the top of Jason's head...

This was the face Jenna would make every time a float went by with "princesses" (aka girls in pretty dresses)

She was ex.ci.ted.

We then headed over to my aunt's house for a little bbq. These were relatives that I hadn't seen for about 12 years! Yeah, things have changed... a little... I'm so glad we went, it was so wonderful to see them!

My dad and some of his siblings and their spouses

What an awesome weekend, filled with family and fun! I love this time when we can reflect on this country and those who have fought so hard for our rights. I am so grateful to be an American and enjoy the freedoms we do. Happy Independence Day!

Our Happy 4th of July family picture

The Cousins Come

2011-07-12T22:17:00.000-07:00

Before I start in on our time with my sister's kids, I had to post this cutie picture of Jason. This was the day he had his first smile- June 8th. This was one of the first- I love his big ole' eyes!

My sister and brother-in-law went on a cruise in June, so my parents packed up all four of their children and took a road trip out to Utah. We had lots of fun!

We spent lots of time playing in our backyard and newly acquired swingset (from one of our neighbors).

We also went to a place called Wheeler Farm, a still functioning farm where you can visit and see the animals for free!

Audrey, Tyler, and Mikayla in a little playhouse that had been converted from a chicken coop. Don't worry, it's clean inside!

Cute little Lucy!

All the kids (except Jason!)

Playing on a tractor

Jenna came up with this all on her own- she's pretending to be a duck!

Group picture after FHE

We had cookies for our Family Night treat.

Then my parents loaded up all the kids, including my two girls and headed up to Layton for some fun at some relatives' house. I have no pictures of that of course! They left Dan and I to enjoy this little guy:

He's darn cute, I know!

They all came back alive, I don't know how my parents survived it! We had some fun in the sprinklers in out backyard when they got back though.

Soaking wet

We love getting to see family and wish they were closer. Jenna and Lucy (and probably Jason too) love their cousins! It was so nice to have you guys visit, we miss you all!

Jason's Blessing and some pictures for Dan

2011-06-05T19:58:00.000-07:00

We sent Dan back to Salt Lake on Tuesday while I stay here in Reno for 3 more weeks. I miss him so much already! So over the next couple weeks, I'm going to try to update for Dan, so that he can see our growing children, especially Jason, since 3 weeks will be a third of his life!!

Anyways, it was great to come out and be with family. We chose to bless Jason at Daniel's parent's house with most of our immediate family there- Aunica the exception on Dan's side, and the newlyweds, Brian and Heidi on my side. Dan's mom saved his blessing outfit, and we were lucky enough to use it for Jason- how special! I have more pictures on another camera, but I'll have to access those at another time. It was a great day and I feel so lucky to have this little spirit in our lives.

Think we look tired? On top of having a newborn, it was a very busy weekend! My brother Brian FINALLY got married to his sweetheart, Heidi. They were married in the Sacramento Temple for time and all eternity. Congratulations you two! On the way back, the girls fell asleep.

First I looked back to see them with their heads tilted just the same-

I then looked back not 30 seconds later, and they had both switched directions! Funny little girls.

What did it look like at the top of the pass? That's snow you see, not rain... happy almost June, right?!!

I have more pictures on the other camera of the happy day, but again, for another post, I suppose.

These next few are for Dan in particular, just the everyday things...

Lucy literally fell asleep sitting up one day. She was all propped up in a corner, her head resting on her lambie. By the time I got the camera, she had started to fall over, and this is what she looked like. Sleep comes when it does, I guess. :)

Using the wall for a pillow

Here's a few of Jason one day. I put him in overalls and he just looked so big and grown up!

Lastly, the girls had waffles the first day grandpa came into town. We also made princess crowns that day, so it was a little Princess breakfast party!

More pictures to come soon!

Our Sweet Boy

2011-05-22T19:09:00.000-07:00

He's here, he's here! Okay, actually he's been here for a month. Our sweet baby boy was born April 22, 2011 at 10:00 a.m. His name is Jason Daniel Smith and he was 6 lbs 15 oz, our smallest baby so far ( I don't mind, I like small, healthy babies). It was a nice normal labor and delivery, nothing too exciting. We are so happy to have this sweet spirit in our lives and home. Here are some pictures from his first couple days of life...

Anxiously awaiting baby Jason's arrival...

There he is!

His lungs- yeah, they work pretty darn well!

Getting his hair washed- this is always my favorite part of getting my hair done at the salon, Jason seems to enjoy it too!

Just hanging out after his bath...

Baby burrito!

Love our boy! I don't know if you can tell, but his forehead was all bruised because the doctor was trying to turn him to face-down. Poor guy!

Mommy and baby. Dan seriously took this picture at least 5 times. He kept saying, "Your eyes look funny in the pictures. Like you're stoned or something." Okay... how about up all night in labor and then pushing out a baby?!! We finally got one that looked decent... :)

A good friend of ours took the girls for the day, and she brought them by later. Jenna thought the window was awesome, and Lucy... well, she slept the entire time they were there!

Our first family picture as a family of FIVE!! As you can see, Lucy is sleeping away.

Lucy met Jason the next day when they came to take us home.

Daddy loves his boy!

Leaving the hospital

Holy cow, we have a full backseat!

Relaxing on the couch

Jenna and Lucy LOVE Jason so much. Sometimes a little too much even! But here is a sweet moment of Lu and Jason- she loves to hold him and give him hugs and kisses.

Although Jason was cleared at the hospital, at his 2 day check up he had a little bit of jaundice. He had to spend about 4 days on lights at home. It wasn't fun, because we couldn't really hold him, which is all you want to do when you bring home your new baby!

Grandma and Grandpa Orrell were able to come out and help that first week. We are sooo grateful for their help with baby Jason and the girls!

We love Jason so much. I feel like this time around I have really learned to cherish this time of sleepless nights. It is for such a short time and I realized that we don't really know how many more times we'll be going through that stage. I love to cuddle Jason in the middle of the night as he eats. It may not be wonderful to get up at 3 in the morning, but I love the time just me and him! It's these times that we must remember and drink in as they happen. Sleeping through the night will come soon enough, and before we know it, he'll be a toddler, running around. For now, I just want to enjoy this wonderful time with our sweet tiny baby boy!

3 and a half weeks left

2011-04-04T20:23:00.000-07:00

In half a week I will be considered full term. Thus will commence Project Evict Baby. Don't worry, I won't be doing anything too drastic, but let's just say that I will be "testing" many methods people say work to induce labor. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy being pregnant and I feel extremely blessed that I am able to not only have children, but that my pregnancies are healthy and happy. HOWEVER, I am ready to have that sweet little baby boy in my arms and out of my belly and ribs (I'll tell you what, kid CAN KICK...ouch). Dan and the girls are psyched to have baby boy come too. Jenna keeps telling me that soon we'll have two babies- Lucy and her baby brother. Well Jenna, I'm starting to realize, and you will too, Lu is no longer a baby. :( She's growing up, just like you! I feel so blessed to have these sweet spirits entrusted to my care, and I hope that I can be a great mother to them.

sigh

2011-03-30T19:47:00.000-07:00

Dan and the girls during the reading part of our bedtime routine. They LOVE this book (thanks Auntie Debbie and Uncle Brian!).

It is moments like this that just make me so grateful to be a mother. I can't believe that we will soon be a family of FIVE and that both of my girls will be big sisters. Lucy is just so petite still and barely breaks 20 lbs! 4 more weeks (at most) and we'll be welcoming sweet baby boy Smith home. Wish us luck!

Christmas joy in March

2011-03-11T13:23:00.000-08:00

Well, I've got to start somewhere, right?! This was our second Christmas out here in Utah. It's been fun to create some of our own traditions as we are away from our families and become our own special little family, unique in so many ways. We were so lucky to have our friend Erin with us for the holidays. She is a fabulous spirit and made our holiday that much brighter.

Dan and I have decided that we would like to base most of our Christmas gifts to the girls around one "theme" or "idea" each year, so that their gifts kind of go together. It's frustrating (to us adults) to get kids a bunch of toys and then they all sit there while they have fun with that dinky thing from the dollar store... So this year, our "theme" was a kitchen. We found this at DI for $8:

And Dan turned it into this cute little thing:

Most of the other gifts were based around that. I made the girls fun little aprons:

Grandma and Grandpa Smith got them some dishes, we supplied some pots, pans and food, and voila! They could play with a good amount of their Christmas goodies all at once!

They really did love it:

Lu is still growing into it... :)

They also loved their morning breakfast of cinnamon rolls. (No, they weren't homemade, but next year they will be!) I think we'll be making that a Christmas tradition!

We forgot to take a family picture on Christmas morning. :( But we did visit Temple Square on Christmas Eve to see all the lights, and we took a family picture in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building.

A late Merry Christmas to you all!

Holy cow! A new post!

2011-02-28T10:47:00.000-08:00

Yes, I know, I'm SUPER lame with my blogging. You'd think I'd be better at it, since all of our family lives far away now. I'll see what I can do. I'm going to blame it on the fact that our regular computer broke and we have been using this SLOW as molasess computer that takes FOREVER to download pictures and grows slower everytime you do. Hence, the last photos I have downloaded... are kind of from November. But hey, it's a start. If you're lucky I may even try to catch up-ish.

These are from a trip up to Logan.

Jenna playing in the leaves with sweet cousin Emma. They love each other!

Lucy and Daddy swinging!

...and in case you haven't heard the news, we're expecting another little peanut- a boy! He'll be here in about 9 weeks, and we are so excited!

I'll download more photos and videos to share soon, I promise!

Say a little prayer

2010-10-13T10:53:00.000-07:00

photo courtesy of Reuters on Yahoo!News

photo courtesy of Associated Press on Yahoo!News

Our computer is broken and as a result I have been using our INSANELY slow and old laptop. But I felt like I should post about this. Most of you have seen the crazy amounts of news coverage about the rescue of the trapped miners in Chile. Makes you smile, doesn't it? This story really got me thinking- When was the last time I saw something happy and uplifting in the news that had this much coverage? Ummm... pretty much never. I sat last night and watched different news stations cover this miraculous rescue. I keep thinking about it today. In a world where there is so much tragedy and misfortune, there is so much good to be seen that isn't. But these miners have made me double take and look at the world that I live in and all that I have to be grateful for. How many wonderful things happen to me daily.

The earth is filled with sorrow and turmoil, and many people feel lost and alone, physically and spiritually. Yet, here is proof that God lives and still assists in miracles today. An Associated Press news article said this-

'They emerged looking healthier than many had expected and even clean-shaven, and at least one,

Mario Sepulveda, the second to taste freedom, bounded out and thrust a fist upward like a prizefighter.

"I think I had extraordinary luck. I was with God and with the devil. And I reached out for God," he said...'

I just keep thinking about the role that our Heavenly Father must have played in these men's lives to sustain their hope and well being, and about the role he plays in my life.

As you see all the coverage of the miners in Chile, take a moment to say a little prayer to thank Heavenly Father for the miracle of these men's lives and to thank Him for all the blessings and miracles that are present in your own life!

An attempt...

2010-09-07T16:38:00.000-07:00

... to update my poor, neglected photo blog...

http://karlasmithphotography.blogspot.com/

August in Review

2010-09-04T18:59:00.000-07:00

August was a busy month, full of fun and friends. Life could not be better right now, we are just loving our two girls and we feel so blessed to have them. Jenna has been potty training for the last three days and she is doing sooo good! The first day was rough, but today she has only had one accident! I think she's catching on quickly and I'm so excited. Only one in diapers? Yes, please! Lucy is our little darling. She is 13 months and loves to stand up by herself, but refuses to walk. She'll come around, we're just letting her go at her own pace and trying to not force her. Anyways, here's a taste of our August for you...

During bathtime I like to play with the girls' hair. This time was particularly funny, because Jenna looked at Lucy and said, "She's a sun!"

So we made Jenna a unicorn... or something...

Our friends, the Hutsells, also had a baby a little while ago, so I thought I'd give Julie a little mommy/daughter bonding with her new baby. I took her sweet girl, Kairi, to the Discovery Kid's Museum with us. Jenna and Kairi had so much fun together. They're great little buddies!

They sat here in front of Brookstone and wouldn't get up until I took their picture- so funny!

Playing in the museum...

There are so many great things to do in Utah. There is this place called Thanksgiving Point in Lehi, where there are a lot of different things to do. During August they have $2 Tuesdays, where you can get into any of the attractions for just $2 a person. We chose to go to their farm and dinosaur museum. We went with some of our friends from our ward, and had so much fun!

Jenna and her friend Olivia on a cow bench

Lucy looking cute and Jenna riding a pretend tractor on the farm

Tractor ride

Eating ice cream

At the dinosaur museum, being eaten by a shark, aaahhhh!

As if that isn't enough fun things, we had a gift card to the Hogle Zoo, so we went last Saturday and the weather was perfect!

Riding the zoo train

We waved to the elephants...

...and laughed at giraffes too.

At the very end of the month, we had an amazing thunder/hailstorm. It actually woke me up. Our battery was dead when the storm started, so I rushed to charge it. This picture was actually later in the storm. The storm was literally right on top of us. The lightning was so close, it was blinding. I've never seen/ heard anything like it.

And the hail. Oh, the hail. It seriously came in a sheet. You could hear it coming- it was kind of scary. All of the hail came in less than 5 minutes, but it covered the ground.

At the very end of the month, I noticed how big and cute my girls are. How can they be getting so old?!! I still feel like Dan and I just got married. They are just so wonderful. I had to snap some pictures of them just to remember them at this stage.

We had a great family night where we made carmel popcorn. Here are some cute videos of the girls.

"It" happens...

2010-08-27T18:47:00.000-07:00

My friend Jamie just wrote this adorable post about her girls and when "it" happens, it made me cry and I have to follow suit so that I can remember what I remember now. So "it" is what happens to your sweet little baby. You know, when they are in their "teen" months and you look at them and see a toddler in the place of your once was baby. I can't believe how reading my friend's post made this memory jump back to the front of my mind.

Jenna was about 15 months or so. She'd fallen asleep early so I decided I'd just sneak into her room before I went to bed and give her some milk so that she wouldn't wake up early, starving. I crept in as quietly as I could and picked her up from her crib. She stirred, and I woke her just enough so that she would actually drink her milk from her sippy. Jenna sipped with her eyes closed and I just held her, rocking her gently. I felt tears come to my eyes as I looked at my baby, my firstborn. What a big girl she was! How did this happen?! How had my baby become this little girl who loves to run around and get into mischief? I was about 5 months pregnant with Lucy when this happened. I cried as I realized that this little girl would be the big sister to all of my children even though she was my baby.

Jamie wrote something that I think just sums it up perfectly:

"I cried little tears and hugged her close to my body, memorizing her smell, her little face, and how her toddler body fit so perfectly in my lap, with her head laying on my chest, cradled in my arms. I remembered holding her so, rocking her to sleep just a year ago. She fit perfectly in my lap, with her head on my chest, cradled in my arms. It was then that the lump in my throat went away and the tears stopped, a calm warmth filled my soul and I felt a peaceful feeling, a small whispering that reminded me: she is mine forever. The power of the temple made that possible. I knew right then and will never forget, that each of my babies, no matter how big they are or how much they grow up, will always fit perfectly in my lap, with their head on my chest, cradled in my arms.

Its what being a mother means. And it never changes."

As I look at Jenna, all I can think is how right Jamie is.

The only redone/complete spaces in our house...

2010-08-26T15:45:00.000-07:00

You know how when you move into a new place you just want to make it your own? Yeah, I had those ambitions. But it takes soo much work! And ya know what? I would be willing to do the work even. The true problem? It also costs lots of money. If I had lots of money, this stuff would be a breeze. But I don't. So one room at a time, slowly but surely, we are making this house our own. I started with the downstairs bathroom. It's kind of a weird room, since it is also the laundry room. The toilet sits in it's own funny little nook...

...and the sink is kinda close to the shower...

... and when they painted the bathroom beige, they decided to not do behind the washer and dryer. BUT, our washer and dryer show part of that!

This is what it looks like from the doorway. It's not a true before, because as you can see, I already had painted the back wall by the sink. But check out that funkiness above the dryer. Weird, eh? It was the primary reason I wanted to paint.

So, how did I decide on blue? Easy, we already had it. Yes, we lugged it all the way from Nevada. I had better stinkin' use it already... Anyways, I added some much needed touches and... voila! Our now decent looking downstairs bathroom. Sorry for the picture, all the mirrors bounce the light like crazy!

The weird window ledge stops me from putting up a normal mirror in front of the sink, but hello, who doesn't have a mirror in front of their sink?!! There are mirrored doors opposite the washer and dryer, but what if we have a guest over and he's shaving? They won't want to have to keep going back and forth to rinse their razor and then go back over to the mirror! Yes, a mirror above the sink is a necessity. As is something to dry your hands on, so a towel ring went in as well.

I used curtains we already had (they're from Wal-Mart) but they were way to big, so I cut and sewed them to the right size. I wanted something cute to hold them in place. I'm cheap and I had twine. I think it's kinda cute, don't you? Oh yeah, and it's actually hung on a shower curtain rod. I picked up a couple of Target shelves for the wall behind the toilet, found a way cute vase for .50 at DI, insert fake flowers and I really like it. The picture frame was black, but I spray painted it white (it looks right) and the picture is actually from an old Hawaii calendar. The shelves are actually set closer to one wall than the other, to help balance that the toilet isn't centered in it's nook. Why isn't it? I have no idea... I'll have you know, that I only spent $43.50 in this room. $30 of it was that mirror that is a NECESSITY. But overall, I think it looks much better.

My other space isn't a room at all. No, it's my beloved craft closet. Dan gets the garage, so I can at least have a closet, right? I worked hard to organize this space. Dan let me buy a microwave cart for $20 from the classifieds on ksl.com (kind of like craigslist) and it holds my sewing machine and surger perfectly. When I need to get behind it, it rolls out easily. Yay for organization!

It's nice to look at things you accomplish. Too bad I turn around to look at the rest of the house and can only sigh... One room at a time. Next up, the office nook!

Some Fun (and not so fun) things this last month

2010-08-24T15:25:00.000-07:00

So much has gone on this July! This has been our first summer away from our families, but I think we have really grown closer as we have had to think up fun things to do with the girls. This post is pretty much to catch me up to current, since I feel like I have been behind for FOREVER and slowly posting is just keeping me the same distance behind.

This July we've had fun....

...playing at the pool...

...eating- a lot...

...playing in the backyard...

...going to Farmer's Market (yes, you see right. This guy brings his piano by BIKE to play at the market. awesome. Sheer awesomeness.)...

...LOTS of going to the Children's Discovery Museum...

...playing in the fountains at the Gateway Mall...

...riding our bikes...

...and sharing lollipops...

...going to Temple Square...

...visiting with Uncle Herbie and riding the escalators...

...and visiting with Grandma Smith and Auntie Abbie

...and just plain looking good.

The not so fun? Just one really. Jenna found the diaper rash cream during her naptime. Kinda cute and yeah, kinda funny, but sooo not fun. Taking a picture actually helped me keep my cool.

forgotten camera part 3- Lucy's birthday and 4th of July

2010-08-17T17:27:00.000-07:00

Happy birthday Lucy! Lucy's first birthday was July 6th. We were lucky enough to have lots of family in town the weekend before her birthday. Lucy is such a great little girl, and we love her so much! No walking yet, but boy, that girl can crawl! I'll have to post a video of how quick this little one is. Anyways, she enjoyed a spaghetti dinner that she fed to herself...

That's her plate, but isn't it cute? She was a little piggy that night.

She ended the night with cake. Lucy didn't enjoy the cake and ice cream nearly as much as Jenna did on her first birthday. Lu actually hated the cold ice cream and we took her to the bathtub crying and screaming. :( If you want to see us singing happy birthday and Lu eating her cake, it's at the bottom of this post.

We also got to enjoy fireworks for Lucy's birthday party, because we had it the day before the 4th. Here are some pictures of all her cousins that got to come celebrate with her. Sorry some of them are blurry!

forgotten camera- part 2- family reunion

2010-08-10T14:39:00.000-07:00

We had a great family reunion with Dan's Smith relatives. We went up to beautiful Bear Lake.

We had fun playing in the sand at the beach. Lucy had a little too much fun I think. She ate tons of sand!

And we had a fun time with cousins at the Paris Ice Caves. Jenna and Ellie sure do love each other... or Ellie really likes to put Jenna in headlocks, I'm not quite sure yet... :)

This is cute little Brooklyn, Dan's cousin's son. He is so funny. He asked what our baby's name was and when I told him Lucy, he perked up and goes, "Lucy?!! I love... that name!" I thought he was going to say I love Lucy, but it's not often that you get a 3 year old telling you he approves of your name choice.

This is how we cound Jenna one morning, with her head under the bed. Maybe she fell asleep while looking for monsters.

This last one has nothing to do with the reunion, Jenna and Lucy just really like riding in the carts at Lowe's (of course, we've become frequent shoppers there since we bought a house!)

Back to the reunion, we had a great time with everyone, we even met some new family. I feel like every time I go to a family event with Dan, I meet someone new that I'm related to. We really loved the family time and hope we can do it again soon!

my way cute sis-in-law

2010-08-10T14:23:00.000-07:00

I'm kinda behind on all of this, but I took pictures of my GORGEOUS sister-in-law back in June before she turned 16! Check them out! http://karlasmithphotography.blogspot.com/

Tales from a forgotten camera- part 1- Reno

2010-08-01T10:50:00.000-07:00

I know, I know. I am way behind on the updating of this blog, which kind of seems to be how things go these days. Go figure- I stop updating this blog regularly once I move away from family (you know, when they would actually want to see pictures). Anyways, here are some of our pictures from our trip to Reno in June- yes, I know it's already August.

We went swimming with some of the cousins.

My cute girls.

Jenna and Audrey are such cute little friends. I loved this funny little series of pictures that resulted from trying to get them to smile.

Uncle Herb with the girls in the pool.

Cute Mikayla. She is the oldest of the grandkids.

We of course went to Tahoe while we were there. I love that place. There is just no lake that can compare to the beauty of that lake. It is AMAZING.

Lucy and Kaitlyn. Sweet babies!

My first baby.

Kaitlyn. She is so mellow. Kaitlyn was pretty much born with more hair than Lucy has now. Sooo cute!

Audrey and Tyler.

Working toghether.

Ahhh, so relaxing.

I took pictures of my sis-in-law, Abbie at UNR. Jenna thought she'd sneak off and pose in front of the pond for her own pictures. Really, she was totally posing.

Stay tuned for more, I will be updating regularly and posting pictures of our new place soon!

A home of our own

2010-06-25T10:21:00.000-07:00

Yup, that's right folks. Dan and I closed on our very first home yesterday! It's the perfect size for our little family. And it has a HUGE garage (& woodshop, as Dan would say). We move tomorrow. And what am I doing instead of packing? Blogging. I loathe packing. And since I just did it 6 months ago, I am seriously lacking some motivation. I'll post pictures soon of the inside- it has ugly, dirty carpet right now that will be gone tomorrow!

Kjars.

2010-06-24T10:27:00.000-07:00

You know the routine. Go here.

Preston

2010-06-22T10:02:00.000-07:00

I know, I'm posting pictures of everyone else and their kids. Literally. But at least they're cute! This is my friend Kristen's son, Preston. He just turned one! If you want to see more of him, go here.

But here's a sweet picture of Jenna that I took during a shoot with my sis-in-law.

2010-06-21T14:40:00.001-07:00

Wanna see a cute pregnant lady? Go here.

That was fast!

2010-05-28T11:06:00.000-07:00

Our friend Dave commented this about Lucy-

'I love Lucy's crawl/drag! Just wait, in a year she's going to have the buffest baby arms the world has ever seen!'

Dave, it happened so much faster than we would have ever realized...

Bees Game and Crawling (sort of)

2010-05-23T11:53:00.000-07:00

Last Monday night we went to a Bee's baseball game for family night.

A fun time was had by all...

I got to ride the train with Jenna. It's little and you just make a short little trip outside the back of the outfield, but Jenna loved waving at all the people on the grass. Best of all, it was free!

We also got to take a picture with the mascot. I know she doesn't look it, but Jenna was excited!

I gave Jenna a little treat one day- I melted a few chocolate chips in a bowl and gave her some marshmallows to put on a fork and dip in the chocolate. She thought it was great, but doesn't it look like she's growing a goatee?

Lucy has also been practicing her crawling. Until now, she's really preferred rolling to get where she wants to go. However, Lucy still has not discovered the power of her legs, which results in a hilarious looking crawl...

I have also been brushing up on my camera skills on the girls. I posted some pictures of them on my other blog. Check it out- http://karlasmithphotography.blogspot.com I'm pretty rusty, so please let me know what you think so I can improve!

Makes me want one

2010-05-21T13:40:00.000-07:00

My sister-in-law posted this on her blog. It's for the Toyota Sienna. I don't even like minivans, but this was so hilarious, it kinda made me want one...

Mini- Vacay

2010-05-20T06:52:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, we took a mini-vacation up to Logan. It was nice to get away. We stayed with Dan's Grandma Smith and we're so glad we got to spend some time just visiting and talking with her, even though we got there kind of late. Saturday morning we visited some more and then popped over to Dan's other grandparent's (the Hatches) to say hello.

We went up to Richmond for something called Black and White Days. (It's all about cows, don't ask me...) There were some fun little things, and Jenna got to eat cotton candy, lucky girl!

Lucy got some cotton candy too. Yeah, she loved it.

There were a lot of horses there. Check out the difference between the horses on the left and right!

Jenna loved all of the really BIG horses. She said she wanted to ride them.

Fun to visit, but we are so not country folk. I wonder why...

She loved this balloon.

We also got to visit Dan's aunt & uncle. Really though, they seem too young to be called that. They're really just some of our dearest friends. We love you Casey and Katie! They also have a daughter Jenna's age, Emma, and they are such good little friends. They get along like you wouldn't believe.

Holding hands walking to the Smithfield Implement (never been there? You should go. seriously).

They are just so cute together!

Emma is so good at sharing...

Jenna made a friend in the yard.

This was such a cute video of Emma trying to help Jenna. They actually did this for a couple of minutes. Excuse the shaking, Dan had to zoom way in on this, and combine that with uncontrollable laughter- you get the idea.

We also had dinner and enjoyed some sweet Aggie ice cream with our friends, the Pounds before we took off for home. Unfortunately, we forgot to take pictures with them and their two cutie boys. All in all, a great weekend. I think we'll do it again sometime!

First Ponytail

2010-05-19T12:14:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, we gave Lucy her first little ponytail, right on top of her head. I thought it was pretty cute!

Of course Jenna had to get in on the action too!

I promise this was a hug. Or maybe we're training our girls to be pro wrestlers...

Help me!

Just cute

2010-05-16T14:48:00.000-07:00

I got me some cute babies. I don't need to tell anyone that looks at this blog that. I know you come for the cute pictures and not my witty intelligence, because that is probably a little more, ya know, lacking. I pretty much digressed before I even started this post...

So, I get bored here in Utah, probably because I don't know lots of people, hence don't have loads of friends. Good thing Jenna tells me every day that we are best buddies. She's awesome. Anyways, the cold winter and lots of time has resulted in lots of passes to places to play. One of which is the Discovery Museum at the Gateway Mall. It pretty much rocks and Jenna loves it. Here are some pictures from one of our many excursions there.

They have cars you can drive...

And you can play with their water toys...

...or try to get your arm stuck in them.

You can go shopping at the grocery store...

...drive the groceries home...

...and put them in the fridge (or all over the floor)!

Jenna also likes to go to the "farm" and be a cow!

It really is a cool place and well worth getting a pass for!

This picture is just in here because Lucy is darn cute!

On Mother's Day, we went to Temple Square. Jenna is quite the little missionary. After talking to the sister missionaries in one of the visitor's centers, she went up to a person by herself, showed them a picture of Jesus, and sang "I am A Child of God" to them. Go Jenna!

We took some great pictures outside...

What a ham! Dan says I make this face a lot.

On Friday, we went to dinner with one of our good friends from Reno, Jonny. Jenna LOVES him. When I got her up from her nap and told her we were going to see Jonny, she sang about going to see him the whole way there in the car. She says they're best buddies too.

My New Life

2010-05-12T14:08:00.000-07:00

Friends have had this on their blog and I thought I should share it. If you have never seen this, you should. What a huge reminder for me to remember how precious life is. This mother has such a good perspective, it truly made me grateful for my family and the church. We should all be so lucky to see life the way she does.

Easter, belated

2010-05-11T11:06:00.000-07:00

We had a great Easter, and we are now going to finally put up some pictures and videos from it. Easter fell on the same week as General Conference this year. I felt like it was an extra special treat to be able to celebrate our risen Savior by listening to the words of the prophet. Dan's brother, Brad came up for conference, so we were able to enjoy his company as well. The girls loved Easter, of course.

Here is a glimpse of them that morning.

Naturally, Lucy's favorite part was the fake grass!

We had the egg hunt inside, because it had been so cold during the week. Only afterwards did we go outside and realize it was a beautiful day!

Pictures of the girls in their cute matching dresses.

It was seriously gorgeous. This is what the tree looked like in our backyard. All of the little buds were blooming. If that doesn't say 'Spring', I don't know what does!

Family Fun

2010-04-27T10:18:00.000-07:00

Let's face it- Dan and I totally miss having tons of family nearby. However, I think it has really helped us grow as our own little family. It allows us to spend more time together and makes us challenge ourselves creatively as we try to find different activities to do with the girls. Here are a few miscellaneous activities-

One family night, Dan decided we chould make a bird feeder. Jenna thought it was great, and so did the birds!

Jenna hard at work spreading peanut butter

Tying the pinecones on the hanger

Jenna was so proud of the finished product

We also went to Wheeler Farm. It's free to walk the grounds and see all the animals, which is AWESOME. I love free things. We did however give in and pay so Jenna could ride the pony. How could we not?! She loved it.

The girls also loved the tractors you could play on

There were tons of animals to see

I'm just throwing these in here because they're cute. We love our backyard! It has great grass and the girls just love hanging out back there on a nice sunny day!

We also found our tiny little barbecue, so we decided to have a little "camp out" barbecue in our backyard.

Eating hot dogs

What's a campout without marshmallows?

Daddy even let Lucy in on the gooey goodness

Busy, busy, busy!

2010-04-25T15:41:00.001-07:00

Aaaahhhh!! I am trying, I promise! We are just busy living life. Busy going under contract with 3 different houses and busy having to withdraw 3 different times (which includes being busy losing lots of money...) We are also very busy exploring all the things that Salt Lake has to offer. There are so many things to do and so much fun to be had! So here we go again, let me try to catch up!

First off, I have been trying to edit some pictures I took of my sweet niece Kaitlyn for FOREVER. Sorry Rebecca, I will finish them. But still, I just thought I'd post a couple so you could see some of this beautiful baby! Newborns are such a treasure. You can tell that they really did just come from our loving Heavely Father.

Secondly, there are a lot of great things to do here. We bought a year membership to the aquarium here, which is pretty fabulous. Jenna loves all the things you can see-

Yup, they even have stingrays that you can pet.

We've been doing a ton of fun things, and we're taking a little break from house hunting, so I'll be sure to post some more of all of our fun happenings!

Visit to Albuquerque

2010-04-10T14:46:00.001-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, Lucy, Jenna and I got to go see my sister's family in Albuquereque, and meet our newest cousin/niece, Kaitlyn. It was so much fun and the girls were great travelers. We wish we could live closer to all of our family, but it makes the visits that much sweeter and more precious when we go. Here are just some of our many fun moments in New Mexico.

Jenna got her own seat on the airplane (a first) and she made sure that her bear got to look out the window.

Jenna loves her cousins backyard. It has a great swingset and so many fun things to play with, not to mention fun people to play with too!
Jenna isn't quite ready to fly like Mikayla in the background.

We also took the train to Santa Fe. Here is everyone waiting for the train to come.

Riding the train

Me and Lucy

This is little baby Kaitlyn. She already has more hair than Lucy. I took more pictures of her, but I'll post those separately.

Lucy took cue from Kaitlyn and decided that the train was a great place to sleep.

The train

Mikayla and Tyler running down the tracks- good thing this was the end of the track!

Ready to explore Santa Fe.

I love the adobe buildings here. You can really see that Mexican influence everywhere you look in Santa Fe.

One day I did Audrey's hair like Jenna's. They both wore striped shirts and were little twins.

And of course when Mikayla came home, she wanted in on the action. She told Jeremy that doing hair like this was one of my best talents.

I also got to spend a lot of quality time with my sister. She is such an amazing person and the best sister. I always look forward to the time I can spend with her and learn from her great example. I love you Rebecca! She also took me to this excellent restaraunt, the Flying Star, which totally earned her five more gold stars in my book. Good food + good company= good time!

I also taught the kids a new song while I was there - Aroostashaw (I have no idea how it's spelled- c'mon it was a girl's camp song!) They looooved it. So did Jeremy, but he tried to not let me catch him on camera. Here's the end of this silly song...

Gonda family, we had so much fun seeing you guys. We love you and can't wait to see you guys again soon!

A Five Minute Concert

2010-04-01T17:49:00.001-07:00

Jenna loves to sing. LOVES. She's getting pretty good- for a two year old at least. She definitely has the attention span of a two year old. I think it is so cute and hilarious, I had to share. There are six (very short) videos. The repertoire-

1.I Am A Child of God

2.I Love to See The Temple (although she doesn't seem to sure of that when she starts)

3. I Am a Child of God- it's on here twice b/c I thought it was amazing how she could break her concentration to tell Lucy to drink her bottle and pick up right where she left off on this take.

4.Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

5. I've Been Working On the Railroad (hil.ar.i.ous.)

6. I Love Lucy

I can't lie- I think she's even better in person. My sister was saying the other day that Jenna's middle name suits her- it's Melelani, which means "song of heaven" or "heavenly song". What do you think?

Desperate Attempt...

2010-03-30T11:32:00.001-07:00

...to catch up! I am going to do my best to bring this blog to current in the next few days, so be looking for a lot of new posts. Here is a whirlwind of just some of the things that have been happening lately!

One Sunday evening we went to the visitor's center on Temple Square. Jenna kept pointing at all the pictures saying, "Jesus loves them!" Notice how she's crouching at the end of the video and then yells, "Jesus!" She just spotted the Christus statue. She. was. excited.

Last month my brother also came to visit for a week. We got to do lots of fun things, including go to the aquarium. Thanks for visiting, Uncle Brian! We love you!

The same week my brother visited, Dan's cousin came home from her mission. Her name is also Jenna. Everytime our Jenna looks at this picture, she'll point to herself and Dan's cousin and say, "Two Jennas!"

There is also a park that pretty much backs our house that we go to frequently. Last month Lucy experienced her first ride in one of the swings.

We've had some really great days here that are nice and warm. I take advantage of the fantastic back yard and lay out a blanket for us to get some fresh air and some sun!

Jenna has this fantastic song that she will sing about anything. It pretty much says,
"I love (insert thing), yes I do" over and over. On our first venture into our backyard, she sang it to our trees. It took a little prompting for her to do it again in front of the camera, but it was so cute!

That's it for now, but be prepared for many more to come!

We are raising a Democrat...

2010-03-02T13:47:00.000-08:00

See how she supports Obama in the State of the Union Address? Jenna actually stood and clapped several times... uh-oh. We better avoid politics at family dinners.

Lucy

2010-03-02T13:32:00.000-08:00

I am desperately trying to play catch up! These are from January of Lucy sitting up. She's not very good at it, but what a valiant effort! We love our little Lucy!
More to come...

Baby bright eyes!

I can do it!

That's right. She spit up and immediately face planted in it. Yum.

The boppy helps her sit.

Our spit up queen greets you by burping and launching some. Don't you love how when she sits up on her arms, she looks like one of those "big-head, little body" things?

A Bargain Worth Blogging About

2010-02-22T07:08:00.000-08:00

You don't have to read this if you don't want to hear me brag- because that is what I'm totally doing. Those of you who know me well know that I enjoy shopping. Dan is kind enough to put up with me going every once in a while, probably because I am also INCREDIBLY cheap. I'm one of those girls that likes to brag about how inexpensive something was, as opposed to how much something cost. Hence this post.

Now, I love Ross Dress for Less, because you can always get a great deal. This was probably one of the best I've ever come across.

First up, is this cute little pairing for a 9 month old (aka, Lucy soon)

Had I bought it at Carters for full price...

I got it for...

Boo ya! Fity cent.

Next, I found this sweet little party dress for a 3 year old (aka Jenna, not super soon, but soon enough)

Had I bought it at Macy's for full price...
I got it for...

Bam! Buck fity.

That's like a savings of like 97.something percent! Can you imagine ever walking into Macy's or Carter's and seeing a sign that says 97% off? Oh Ross, how I love thee.

Jenna's Photography

2010-02-22T07:00:00.000-08:00

Jenna loves to play with our camera. Okay, okay, we're usually kind of scared that she'll break it, but it is so darn cute when she holds it up and says, "Cheese... click... good one." These pictures were taken completely by Jenna with no ones help- some of them are pretty good!

Are you ready for your close up, Uncle Brian?

I'm not sleeping, really. Although it does look like Dan has enough energy for the both of us!

Not quite centered... and yes, I'm in my pajamas and it's probably noon.

Feet!

Jenna's point of view

Dan's Job

2010-01-30T13:19:00.000-08:00

So, this is Dan posting here...I know it's Karla's blog, but people keep asking us how my new job is going out here in Salt Lake so I figured I've give an update. I am working as the Marketing Manager for MainStreet Tax & Accounting Services. We have 4 locations, all in Utah. The company is celebrating its 50th Anniversary this year since its start in Vernal in 1960. My biggest task since starting in November was to really brand the company and create an effective website. We launched our new website the first week of January and I continually add to it. Check it out at http://www.msftaxes.com/ and give me some feedback. I've also created a facebook page for the company. Since November I have had 5-6 press releases published in major newspapers, magazines and on TV, that's pretty exciting for me. I'm having a lot of fun and feel like I am a good fit with the rest of the company. Now, we just need to draw in as many clients for tax returns as we can. Heck, if any of you need your taxes done, give us a call. We actually charge less than HR Block for basic tax preparation...and get larger returns than you can get alone on Turbo Tax...oops, the marketer in me is running loose. Just let me know what you think of the website. Thanks!

A couple of things...

2010-01-20T19:48:00.001-08:00

Jenna says some really funny things. These are just a couple that I want to share and not forget...

Jenna's new chorus to "I Am A Child of God"
'Lead me, guide me, walk beside me

Help me find the way.

Teach me all that I must do,

To listen to Mama and Dada.'

And let's not forget the classic moment in the car yesterday-

Jenna was picking her nose (I try to discourage it, but what can you do?) in her carseat as we were driving and she said to me "I need a tissue! I need a tissue!" I told her I didn't have a tissue. Jenna thoughtfully pondered this and then said, "I need a little piece of paper!" Yup, my resourceful little daughter decided the next best thing to a kleenex would be a piece of paper to wipe her booger on.

Since I've posted so much on Jenna, I feel I should update on Lucy too. She is definitely going to suffer from second child syndrome, I need to make sure I keep lots of updates on her! She can now roll over from her tummy to her back! Lucy is so sweet and we just love her. She loves to play with her feet and drool and spit up on EVERYTHING. Lucy also loves baby food. At least getting it all over. We can't wait until she can sit up her own- she's pretty stable but not quite there yet. Soon. We love those little girls!

Here are some pictures and videos for your viewing pleasure...

Jenna was an angel at the Hatch Family Christmas party

Daddy and Jenna playing in the snow in the back yard

On one of our Saturday morning trips to Einstein Bagels around the corner

Jenna is really obsessed with pockets lately and loves to have her hands in them

Lucy's first taste of baby food

Hokey Pokey

Life's Best Moments

2010-01-18T18:23:00.000-08:00

I think that as parents, we spend a lot of time wondering if we're raising our kids to be good, kind and generous people. As the mother of a 2-year-old and 6-month-old, I feel like I spend a lot of time wondering what kind of people my girls will be. Tonight gave me hopefully a little glimpse. We will be moving soon (more on that another time) and we just sold our dining room table. Dinner left us with no options but to pull up a teeny tiny end table and sit on some boxes. Jenna was sitting on one side of it as we pulled up her high chair. She said she didn't want to sit in her high chair, so I asked her, "If you sit there (on the box), where will Mommy sit?" and gave her a sad face. Jenna looked at me and jumped up and said, "Sit here!" It was so sweet and innocent the way she offered her chair up for me. I hope that she carries that giving nature throughout her life and continues being that sweet girl she is now.

Jenna's Birthday

2010-01-12T14:52:00.001-08:00

I'm still working on getting back up to date. Jenna celebrated her 2nd birthday on December 17th. Taking cue from my sister's good example with her kids, we made it a day to thank Heavenly Father for another wonderful year of life. We do that by doing something to serve others. This year, Jenna helped me make pumpkin chocolate chip muffins for our neighbors. She colored wonderful cards that said "I'm glad you're my neighbor! Love, Jenna"

Here we are making the batter

Later that night, we took her to this thing at the zoo, called Zoo Lights. They put up tons of lights, in all sorts of shapes and sizes, animals, etc. It was really cool... and really COLD! We were freezing, but Jenna had a great time anyways!

Santa and his reindeer

We kept Lucy nice and warm as a little burrito!

This was a really cute display where the animals hand off the star to put it on the tree

Daddy and Jenna having fun on the carousel

What a wonderful birthday for our sweet 2-year-old! Jenna is such a blessing in our lives. She really is so wonderful and we love hearing her sing and learn things each day. Jenna is so smart and never ceases to amaze us. Here's to another wonderful year!

Bad Blogger...

2009-12-28T17:50:00.000-08:00

Or just a busy one! We've moved to Utah one month ago and it has been crazy! This is a picture of the cute little house in an area called Sugarhouse that we are temporarily staying in until we can find one to buy...

A lot has happened since we've moved too! We moved into our place on a Tuesday- November 24. My 24th birthday was the next day. Just a small celebration, afterall, we didn't have any friends yet to invite over anyways. I actually forgot it was my birthday until people called to wish me a happy one. Dan took me out for Mexican and got me a cheesecake- he knows how to keep me happy.

Right after Thanksgiving, my sister's family and my parents came for a quick visit- yup, we'd been living in our place for less than a week, but somehow we managed to kind of organize things enough for guests. Jenna and Lucy loved getting to see their cousins Mikayla, Tyler and Audrey. They stayed in our playroom, which has a slide. They. were. excited.

And of course, you can't see Grandma and Grandpa without going to Wendy's for some chicken nuggets and a frosty.

We also went to Temple Square with my parents to see the lights. It is really an amazing sight. If you've never gone- GO.

All this time, Lucy is just getting cuter and cuter. She loves people and loves to smile and laugh, just like this...

And Jenna keeps learning more and more! I am always so amazed at what she says or does. Jenna loves to sing and dance and is really great at it.

Here she is dancing to "Popcorn Popping"

One of her favorite songs is "I see the Moon." She's kind of singing it here, but believe me, she can do it even better than this-

If you don't know the words-

I see the moon, the moon sees me, down through the leaves of the old oak tree. Please let the moon that shines on me, shine on the ones I love. Over the mountains over the sea, that's where my true love's waiting for me. Please let the moon that shines on me, shine on the ones I love.

There is so much more to share, so keep looking for more posts. They're coming, I promise!

Vote for Jenna

2009-12-11T07:48:00.000-08:00

Okay, okay, I know that I totally owe a big, fat, huge post with tons of pictures and videos of my darling children. I will once I get back home to all my pictures, I promise. But right now I am asking for your help. Dan entered us in a contest to win a season pass to Hogle Zoo- which we now only live a couple of miles away from. We really want to win and there are a couple other pictures with lots of votes, so click on the link to the left and go register and vote for Jenna! You can vote once every day. Do it! PLEASE!

So....

2009-11-08T07:49:00.000-08:00

We're moving to Utah- like ASAP. Dan got a job and starts the 16th of this month. More details to come. We are really excited though! It is kind of bittersweet too. We love Reno!

Halloween and Haircuts

2009-11-05T08:47:00.000-08:00

I hope everyone had a happy Halloween! This year, Jenna was three different things- an elephant for the ward trunk-or-treat, a lion the day before Halloween, and she got both costumes dirty so she ended up going trick or treating as a ballerina. Oh well. At least we only spent $5 on all the costumes combined... The last post has a picture of Jenna as the elephant, here are the other two-

I don't know why she likes to have the bucket on her head so much.

Our little lion.

Pretty ballerina!

Grandpa Orrell and Jenna

This is of Jenna trick-or-treating. It's hard to hear her say "Trick or treat", but she was so cute!

Uncle Brian, Jenna and Heidi

Lastly, I gave Jenna a haircut on Sunday. It was really scraggly in the back. Here are a couple of her feeding her baby and showing off her new haircut.

And I just needed to put a picture of cute little Lucy in this post!

Something that Jenna really likes to do is sing and lead music. It is hilarious!

Yes, she's wearing my sweater in this one.

And apparently, this is how she practices in the morning...

Chili Cook-off and Crazy Kids

2009-10-27T19:26:00.000-07:00

Hello! It's been a little while, so we thought we would update the world to what's new... not too much. I suppose that's why we haven't put anything up here for a while. It's a good thing we have such cute girls, or we would never post anything on here!

So, we both have rewards programs on our credit cards. To make it worthwhile, we use our credit cards a lot and pay it off every week (otherwise, it isn't worthwhile at all, because you accumulate debt!). So our points have just been adding up, and Dan finally used his for something... a bike trailer. I told him he could use it while the weather was still good, but come Christmas, it's going under the tree with a bow on it. That's how we're getting Christmas presents this year, while money is tight. Anyways, Jenna loves the trailer- she calls it her "bike-car".

Jenna trying out her new "bike car"

Jenna really loves her animals. She talks to them all the time. In fact she even thinks they get her up in the morning...

And Jenna's latest trick.

We had our ward Chili Cook-off/Trunk-or-Treat last weekend. Jenna was an elephant and Lucy was a giraffe. I just love my little animals!

Our ward activities director had made a really cool golden "bowl of chili" for the first place chili winner. She asked Dan to make a little base for it, so that it looked like a real trophy. It was so cool! You know you wish you had it displayed in your house...

What is this picture of random stuff? Well let me tell you... Jenna sleeps in her big girl bed all the time now. This means she has full access to her room. The other day before she went down for her nap (yes, she was still in her p.j.s), I was sitting in the office with her and she tried to put a pencil down the top of her footie pajamas and said "pocket". So I fished the pencil out. Well Dan put her down for her nap. After her nap, I went to get her because she was crying and she normally doesn't cry when she wakes up- she just plays. Well, I came in and asked her what was wrong and she said "owies" and touched her leg. All of this is what I found inside her pajamas. This also means that she fell asleep with at least all those pens and crayons in there, because she had to get them from the office since there aren't any in her room. Is my daughter going to be a kleptomaniac, putting things in her "pocket"?

Jenna and cousin Ellie playing at Grandma's house. They are so cute!

baby.abram.

2009-10-25T19:19:00.000-07:00

So, I took some pictures of a super cute baby and forgot to post it over here. But go see his picture. CUTE!

http://karlasmithphotography.blogspot.com/

the campbells.

2009-10-21T10:34:00.001-07:00

Go see this cute family...

http://karlasmithphotography.blogspot.com/

The sweetest girls

2009-10-13T14:00:00.000-07:00

We love our girls! It is so fun to see how they are beginning to interact with each other. Lucy just loves Jenna. She always has a big smile on her face when Jenna talks to her. Here are some new pictures of our fantastic kids...

One morning when Dan went to get Jenna, she had all of her animal/toys feet sticking out of the crib. When Dan opened the door, she hurried to put hers out too!

Jenna also loves to jump on her bed. It's pretty intense!

Monkey see, monkey do... Jenna feeds her bear, just like we feed Lucy!

Jenna decided it would be fun to give Lucy a ride in her bouncer...

Jenna was trying to get Lucy to say "whee!" She doesn't quite grasp the fact that Lucy doesn't talk yet! In the clip, Jenna calls her Luc("loose"), because that's what we call her a lot of the time. It's amazing how much kids pick up from what you do.

A little bear!

Jenna tripped on a piece of carpet in our garage that's used to wipe your feet when you come in. She hit her chin right on the concrete step. Ouch! She was a trooper though, and pointed to it every morning, "Owies!"

Jenna and Grandpa Orrell are pals. Here they are watching a movie together. I love how she puts her arm around him!

Lucy is getting so good at smiling and cooing at us. It's great getting to see her personality develop. She is 3 months old, as of the 6th of October.

Bucket head. This is Jenna's Trick-or-treat bucket, but she likes to eat popcorn out of it (that's what is on the couch next to her).

Jenna has started taking her naps in her big girl bed. She does a great job. Today she didn't even get out of it when I put her in, or wake up when I snuck in to take this picture!

Last week I took a little "photo shoot" of Lucy while she was sleeping. I posted it on my photo blog- http://karlasmithphotography.blogspot.com

Today's adventure...

2009-10-08T16:40:00.001-07:00

So... we just moved the twin bed into Jenna's room this morning. She was totally excited. We played hard at the park and Jenna was pretty tired. We decided to give her big kid bed a go for naptime. Dan put her down in her bed, said "night night" and closed the door. 20 minutes later, Dan went to go check on her. Coming up the stairs, it sounded like she was asleep. Oh good. One small problem. We forgot about the locks on our doors (they were installed when I was a teenager for privacy)... Jenna locked herself in!! Dan came downstairs very calmly and said "Don't freak out, but Jenna locked the door to her room." After trying all the random keys in our house, we had to call a locksmith to come open the door for us. Thankfully, she was asleep and only woke up to the sound of the locksmith unlocking her door, so she wasn't scared at all. We are now going to Home Depot to buy regular no-lock doorknobs for all the doors with locks on them that need real keys (instead of the kind you just stick a little pin in). And that was our adventure for today. Something for all of you with toddlers to think about. It'll save you $50 in the end.

There's a lot...

2009-09-29T09:29:00.000-07:00

We just love having fun with our girls! They are growing so fast, and it seems like they will be gone before we know it. I even teared up singing to Jenna last night, because I realized that my baby is a big sister! Soon school will come and I won't even know what to do with myself. My babies won't be babies! For now, I'll just enjoy them for this short time that I get to teach them and grow with them!

This blanket was made for Lucy, but Jenna just loves it. She was getting tired and wrapped herself in it...

...and the next moment, she was out like a light!

Dan and Jenna went and watched the Blue Angels during the Reno Air Races.

Jenna loved the planes as they flew right over their heads!

She even had her own binoculars!

Lucy is getting so big! She will be 3 months next week. It is all going by so fast. Lucy loves to spit up (A LOT) and is getting so good at smiling at everyone. Right now her eyes are blue and we love them. We'll see if they stay that color- Jenna's were blue for the first year, and then changed to a really cool blue, green, brown color.

SMILE!

We got this swing for free on Craigslist. Jenna was never much for a swing, but Lucy loves it.

Jenna is getting so big and smart. We love hearing her imitate us... in fact, right now she is giving me pretzels and saying "Here you go, honey."

Do as I'm Doing

Jenna can also count to ten (which she then thinks is immediately followed by clapping, since we always clap for her).

We had a little photo shoot in the driveway.

The Smith Family

Jenna's 4th birthday

Disney on Ice and a 10k

The Reno Trip... in October/November

Happy Halloween... and the haircutting fiasco...

For the first time...

Love my girls!

4 Months

She likes to move it, move it

Lucy's 2nd Birthday

Brian & Heidi's Wedding

4th of July Weekend

The Cousins Come

Jason's Blessing and some pictures for Dan

Our Sweet Boy

3 and a half weeks left

*sigh*

Christmas joy in March

Holy cow! A new post!

Say a little prayer

An attempt...

August in Review

"It" happens...

The only redone/complete spaces in our house...

Some Fun (and not so fun) things this last month

forgotten camera part 3- Lucy's birthday and 4th of July

forgotten camera- part 2- family reunion

my way cute sis-in-law

Tales from a forgotten camera- part 1- Reno

A home of our own

Kjars.

Preston

That was fast!

Bees Game and Crawling (sort of)

Makes me want one

Mini- Vacay

First Ponytail

Just cute

My New Life

Easter, belated

Family Fun

Busy, busy, busy!

Visit to Albuquerque

A Five Minute Concert

Desperate Attempt...

We are raising a Democrat...

Lucy

A Bargain Worth Blogging About

Jenna's Photography

Dan's Job

A couple of things...

Life's Best Moments

Jenna's Birthday

Bad Blogger...

Vote for Jenna

So....

Halloween and Haircuts

Chili Cook-off and Crazy Kids

baby.abram.

the campbells.

The sweetest girls

Today's adventure...

There's a lot...

sigh