Halloween Preview

I'm too tired to do a Halloween post tonight but here is a picture I found of Ellie as I was looking through the pics....

Oh how I wish I had those beautiful full lips and flawless skin. You'd almost think she meant to model pose it like this but no, I think she was looking at a bird on our wall :) 

Halloween pics to come!

The Most Exciting News EVER!!!

Ok, as promised here's my post announcing some of the most excited news I've ever heard. And no, I'm not pregnant. :)

Just to give you guys a backstory,  we received a card in the mail from my mom after being out of town for a few days camping. Justin went out to check the mail, saw the letter and didn't think much about it since my mom always sends us cute cards. On the way inside, he opened it, read it, I'm sure he cried, regained some of his composure, and came into the house where I was making a shopping list. 

He said, "What could be the most exciting news that you can think of?" He had just gotten back from buying a TV so I said, "You got the TV for free." 

Justin: "I wish. Nope"

Me: "BYU won the football game"

Justin: "Actually yes, but that's not it"

Me: " Your upcoming work trip got cancelled"

Justin: "Unfortunately not"

Me: " I give up"

He then just simply hands me this card. It speaks for itself... 

I just about fell over. 

I immediately started crying and saying "What? What? I don't understand. Is this for real?" We are both crying and hugging each other at this point but so confused at the same time. 

We then called my mom and she confirmed that she is in fact going to get baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in November!! 

We had no idea that she was taking the discussions and that she had been going to the church for the past 2 months or anything. She kinda wanted to do it completely on her own, which I totally understand, it just threw us for a loop! We asked her how all this happened and she gave us the story and just said how happy she is. She has found happiness. 

So going back a few months, up in Minnesota  (in July), mom went to church with us, and the missionaries got a hold of her and came over while we were there and gave her the first discussion. It went well (but the previous discussions she's had years ago went well too). They left, we left, and we never heard anything more about future discussions. After we got back from MN, Justin felt like he needed to send my mom some church videos (we're talking like over $200 worth of every church movie imaginable). So he did. He blew up her mailbox with church produced movies. Luckily, there's not much to do up there at night time so my mom had lots of time to watch every single one of them. And she did. I mean have you seen the movies about the Savior's life that the LDS church has made? They are incredible and it's hard to not feel the influence of the Spirit while watching them. They just give you warm feelings all over!

So anyways, that coupled with other experience has brought my mom to the decision to be baptized. She is so excited and we are all beyond thrilled and excited for her!

This December will mark 10 years since I was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Those 10 years have been nothing short than amazing and I just feel so blessed that it has been a relatively short amount of time that I have been praying for someone to accept the gospel in my family. I feel so, so blessed. I know that my prayers have been answered. 

I'm so excited to have her be a part of something that is so precious to me. I'm excited to do family history, to attend the temple together someday, and to help each other to grow and learn in the church.

Can you tell I'm excited?!

I'm sure she is so embarrassed right now reading all this about her, she's not one to like attention, but this is definitely something that has to go down in our family journal :)

So in November, we will be driving across Texas for this special occasion. Justin's parents will be there, the missionary who originally taught me my first discussion and his family, and lots of other friends and family from the good city of Vidor, TX will be there as well. 

We can't wait and are literally counting down the days. 

Life Via My Phone

This is a photo dump of all the pictures on my phone from the last 2 months. 

One night, around 11:30pm, I went to check on the kids and I found Ellie sleeping on the bathroom floor with her underwear clenched in her hands. I guess she fell asleep trying to put them back on!

We went out to eat for the first time EVER as a family with no other excuse than to just go out to eat. Weird, I know but we couldn't think of another time where we didn't have a family function, out of town, etc. that we just went out to eat just because! We eat a lot at home I suppose.

This cutie is into everything! I found him this time wet up to his elbows with toilet water!

I try to go eat lunch with Ethan at his school once a week or so. It's always fun to see so many of my kids from primary (children from our church) there!

Ellie loves to help me do household chores. Here we are cleaning away at the bathroom together!

 While Ethan is at Let's Play Music, we sometimes play at the park.

Don't you just love it when your kids do the bear crawl because they don't like the feel of the sand?

 Some ladies in our area started a neighborhood soccer league. $15 for the season and practices at the park right next to my house?? Yes, please!

Here's Ethan's team!

 Does anyone else just love Costco? I love that they supply my kids with snacks while I shop. Easiest shopping trip ever, as long as you don't go on a Saturday when it is INSANELY busy. Thank you snowbirds. 

Remember me saying that Mason is obsessed with flags?? Here are some picture to prove it!

he has it with him when he eats, 

sleeps, and in the car. 

He can also spot them half a block away and is one determined little boy to walk all that way so he can ooooh and ahhh over it. This is a neighbor who lives about 4 or 5 houses down from the park.

Park trips now consist of me chasing Mason down the street and bringing him back to the park about 5 or 6 times. He seriously is determined!

Mason loved his first sucker! You can see the stickiness on his hand!

Ethan was the Start Student at school this week. He was so excited to make his very own All About Me poster. He did everything himself, even down to the cool vine border. I must admit it's kind of nice when they can do their own posters. They are more proud of it too.

I finally saved up enough of my gym teaching money to buy this baby for myself! No, I don't want to be a photographer, I just want really cute pictures of my kiddos doing their everyday things. 

Please excuse my no make up, trashy Saturday, outside working attire :)

I love my good friend and neighbor Alyson, and I was so excited to go eat with her on her birthday! She's the best.

I couldn't help myself and bought Ellie this Ariel doll. It's not the most attractive princess doll I've ever seen but it's washable and she LOVES it. Win win. 

These two are still pretty much inseparable and play together just about everyday. We love having Tripp over!

It's always fun when daddy is in town and can come join us at Ethan's school on his lunch break.

I love snapping pictures of Mason sleeping. I think he just looks so angelic. 

He is actually a terrible car seat sleeper. He just can't get comfortable and will only sleep for 20 minutes or so and then screams and thrashes around trying to lay down. Road trips are loooong. I don't know where he gets it from because both Justin and I can sleep just about anywhere. 

 Ellie loves to play dress up and loves making her hair curly. She always says, "Mom! My hair is curly like you!"

One night we went bowling for our FHE (Family Home Evening) activity

Hey look! I made it into a picture!

 This next picture just proves that my husband has way too much fun at "work." Helicopter riding in Equador. Not bad right? 

I'm just kidding. He actually does work. Like a lot. I'm so grateful that he is such a hard worker for our family, and I am also SO grateful that he loves his job. I think that is super important. 

Stay tuned for some of the most exciting news EVER!!! Got your attention? Hope so. It's a good one!!

First day of School!

I can't believe I have a first grader. Am I really old enough to have one that age? I swear I'm still 20. 

Ethan started first grade at the beginning of August! He LOVES school. His teacher is Mrs. Webster and she seems like she will be a great teacher for him. The first thing she said to me at parent teacher conferences was, "Oh I just love Ethan. He has ENDLESS  energy!" Yep. That's my Ethan! He says that his favorite subject is science but he feels that his best subject is math. You get that from your dad buddy! He is way above and beyond his grade level for reading. He is just one of those self motivated kids that catches on SO fast to things. He gets that from his dad too :)

I'm too cheap to buy the school pictures so I took the kids out back for a little photo- op. Ethan was SO thrilled. Can't you tell?

After about 20 pictures, I finally got the one and only good picture of him!

See how his shirt is cut at the bottom? He came home from school that day with a huge missing chunk of his bangs, you can see it on the right side of the hairline,  and a cut in his shirt. He has no idea how that happened and never remembered using scissors to do either of those things.. Hmmm..

Ellie on the other hand was more than willing to take pictures that day! Woo hoo!

This little lady started a co-op preschool in September and I got to be her teacher for the first five weeks! We have 6 kids in the group and the moms trade off every 5 weeks teaching all the kids, just 2 days a week for 2 hours a day. It was a blast to be back in to the "classroom" so to speak. I loved every minute of it and am actually sad that my time is over. It was fun to see Ellie in a classroom setting. She is such a smart girl. She loves to draw, color, write her letters and numbers, and loves any and all crafts.

She gets so excited to get her backpack on and go to school. She is always beaming from ear to ear when she walks into the room. She turns around and sweetly smiles, waves and says "Bye Mom!" I just love this girl. 

Can they just stay little for forever? Please?

Mason

Our littlest Smith is one fun kiddo. We just love and adore him and he is a good sport to put up with being the third child.

He finally started walking around the 20th of September, only at the ripe old age of 16 months! He took his sweet time but once he started, it was a piece of cake for him. A few weeks later, and he is now running all over the place! This video was taken on the day he decided he was ready to walk.

He is a naturally happy and good baby. He is easy going and has been from day 1. He has however developed his own opinions and he makes these very well known by screaming a most ear piercing scream. I'm not kidding, this scream will make your ears ring. And while his speaking skills aren't quite where other kids his age are (remember we are still trying to play catch up from his first 8 months of life?) he knows the word "NO!" and screams it when he is mad, or if he just doesn't like you. In fact, just today we went to go eat lunch with Ethan and the ladies at the front desk were ooing and ahhing over Mason and said, "Hi little buddy, you sure are a handsome little guy!" Mason screamed, "NO!" (dragged on for about 10 seconds) and then gave them the stare down. I'm not sure what his problem is but if you know how to convince a 17 month old to not scream like that, please let me know :) Other than that, this kid is a dream.

Mason has 2 obsessions, flags and bananas. 

 He somehow managed to get this banana off of the pantry shelf and I walked in the room and found him very carefully peeling his own banana like a big boy.

Then he shoved basically the whole thing into his mouth and spent the next 20 minutes somehow swallowing it. It made me dry heave watching him do it. I have it on video but it makes me sick to my stomach to watch it. 

And yes, that's Ellie with a knife. At least it's a butter knife. 

 He has more hair than any of my other kids did at his age! I've already had to give him 2 haircuts! That's saying a LOT for our kids. 

After dinner until bedtime is probably my most favorite time with Mason. Don't get me wrong, I love all my time with him but he gets super silly and laughs and laughs while he gets chased around, thrown up in the air, etc. He loves to be chased and squeals with delight when you do.

He loves to read books and says "Boo Boo" when he brings one to you to read. 

The only words he says so far are: book, water (wa-wa), NO!, Bye! 

He "talks" all the time though and seriously has the sweetest little voice. He talks with inflections and it's so soft and sweet. That's why it's always surprising to hear that terrible scream coming out of him!

If I need to get something done, he is so good to play and find something to entertain himself with. 

He still uses his binky when he sleeps and naps. I got rid of the binky when Ethan and Ellie were both 14 months old (mostly because I was pregnant again) but for some reason I'm in no hurry with Mason. 

He is growing up too fast and is loved and adored by everyone in our family.

Rain, Rain, Please Don't Go Away

 Growing up in SE TX, I hated the rain. It rained all the time and always ruined fun outdoor events. Not only that but rain = mosquitos and down there, we would get swarms of them that would eat you alive. However, living in UT and AZ for the last 9 years has definitely changed my feelings on the rain. Now, I love it. We never get it so when we do, it's such a nice change. I know, how could you ever get tired of beautiful, sunny weather right?!

When monsoon season hits here in July-early September, it is more than welcomed! We love the moisture which brings semi-cooler temperatures and let's be honest, it brings a whole lot of fun for our kids to run around and enjoy just being kids!

 Because the ground here is like rock, the water has no where to go so it runs off into water retention basins. The water was moving fast down the street and the kids had fun watching their flip flops flow down stream and would run to go catch them. 

Just incase you are new/forgot, this is our neighbor Tripp. He and Ellie are best buds and he basically lives over here during the day so we claim him as half ours :) Have I mentioned how much we love having neighbor kids? Love it. 

Ward Campout

Our ward had a campout this last weekend up in the beautiful city of Heber. The were a lot of families there and TONS of kids running around. Our kids were filthy, gross, exhausted, and running high on smore sugar but they sure had a lot of fun!

Camping is a LOT of work for the parents and honestly, I'm not much of a camper, but I realized that I am even more of a grumpy camper when bringing babies a long. We will never, never do that again. Mason slept terrible, ended up sleeping in my tiny sleeping bag with me, whenever he was sleeping he was hitting me in the face or head butting me as he was making himself comfy. I pretty much didn't sleep. Anyways, it was worth it for our kids experience, but babies won't be coming along next time :)

Have I mentioned before that we have a billion kids in our ward? Maybe just a few times right? I guess I'm just always amazed at how many kiddos we have running around within a 5 street radius. So our kids were running wild along with everyone elses' kids and it was so great to just let them!

I stole a picture of these little cuties who were picking flowers and braiding each others hair...

Meanwhile... the boys were having the time of their lives running through this muddy water, finding snakes, twirling them around their heads, stuffing the snakes down each others shirts, killing tadpoles and heaven knows what else. 

Ethan is sitting down in the orange shirt. All those boys were soaked!

There is a drastic difference between boys and girls.

 It was fun staying up way too late talking to the adults and getting to know other members of our ward better. We are so blessed to be surrounded by such amazing people!

Everyone took off just before noon... There was a BYU football game to hurry home to watch :)