The Reno Trip... in October/November

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...

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...

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!

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

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

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...