The Leader

Noah has taken on the role of the leader around here. He *tries* to tell Leah what to do, and sometimes she flows with it, and sometimes not so much. Well, this week she has been his little follower and has been doing pretty much whatever he wants...I don't think that it will last long, but we'll see :).

This past week he told Leah that she was the princess and that she needed to be pulled around in the wagon. She was willing to play along and enjoyed being pulled around in the wagon for a bit...it was cute to watch Noah actually treat her like a princess by asking her if she needed anything, etc...
She was a little confused by it all, but she still went along with it.
The other night Noah helped Leah brush her teeth...going through each step with her. She just stood there and listened to everything that he had to say, then she did her own thing just to throw him a curve ball. I can't help but giggle just a little ;).

Beautiful Mountains

I may complain about the snow and winter in general, but one thing that I do adore about this weather is how it makes the mountains look. The pretty white sheet that covers them in the winter is beyond beautiful. I can't imagine living anywhere else...to come outside and have these mountains surround you is truly a wonderful sight! I so wish that I could go up to the ski resorts this season and ski, but that's off my list this year due to the little baby. At least I am able to take in the beauty of them from my home each and every day.

Knitting

I have wanted to learn to knit for some time, so once I saw this class, by Kelly McCaleb, I immediately signed up. I love to sew, but sometimes a get a little bored of it, so it is nice to learn something new to keep me busy in my *spare* time {like I have a lot of it! Ha!}. I really enjoyed the class and now I have a new hobby! I'm hoping that I can get good enough to make some cute beanies for the kids and booties for this little one on the way. I guess I just need to keep practicing :).

**FYI ~ For those who would want to learn how to knit, I would totally taking this class from Kelly when she offers it again! She was so incredibly helpful and it was amazing how fast everyone caught on. PLUS, it was so much fun!

Someone had a birthday...

...last week! We celebrated Doug's big day this past Friday. He had to work {booo!}, but we had a fun evening together as a family. We went to dinner with the children, my mom, Doug's mom, and Alli and her family. We pretty much celebrated all weekend, because that's what Noah wanted to do! This little guy LOVES birthdays...it's cute :).

Doug ~ We love you more then you will ever know! You work so hard for our family and we are grateful each and every day for all that you do for us! Noah is constantly wanting you home to play, and Leah, well, you know the look on her face when you walk in the door...they adore you more then you will ever know! I love you SO much and I hope that you had a wonderful Birthday Weekend! xoxoxo

Dinner at Doug's favorite restaurant, Texas Roadhouse!
Doug didn't want a cake this year, so we got some dang good ice cream instead. Noah was all over singing to daddy and he even insisted that he have one candle to blow out :).

Jump Around

We went to Kanagroo Zoo yesterday...it was Leah's first time. Noah was so excited the moment we walked in the door, although he wouldn't go off and play until I was with him. He definitely likes to keep me close when we are in crowded places. Thank goodness my mom came to spend the day so that she could stay with Leah. I love taking them to places like this, but it's so hard to stay with both of them when they both want to be in different places. Noah had so much fun running around and he went non-stop until we left. Noah even took Leah on a few little slides, but he also insisted that I come along too. This picture is of me taking Leah down her first slide...she obviously enjoyed it :).

An Outdoor Adventure...

So, we woke up today to clear blue skies and nice weather. Yes, it was still cold, but it was managable. I told Noah that we should go to the park, and he grinning from ear to ear as soon as the worrd "park" came out of my mouth. We got ready, went to our first park and it was covered in snow and water...not a pretty sight at all. So, we went to another...same thing. We ended up going to 4 parks before we found one that was half way decent to play on...meaning that it wasn't too muddy or wet. I brought a towel with me, so we just wiped off the slide and swings so that we could enjoy them :). After playing for only 15 minutes, the clouds came out and it got very cold, very fast. At least we were able to do something fun outside today, and Noah is practically begging to go again tomorrow. I guess the cold doesn't bother him much when his attention is pulled in another direction :). Leah, on the other hand, is so girly and she was more focused on keeping herself clean than playing with Noah. She does not like being messy one bit, so this little outdoor adventure was not really for her today...but she was a trooper and hung in there until we were done, thank goodness :).

Of course Noah isn't looking at the camera in this picture...he had way more important things to do than look at me and smile!

Family Fun Weekend

We had a such a fun filled weekend this past weekend. My cute little nephew turned 3 on Saturday, and to celebrate the entire family went bowling. Oh boy...we had so much fun! Doug and I took turns walking Leah around the bowling alley because there was no way that she was going to sit still and watch, and I don't really blame her for not wanting to do so. Noah had a great time when it was his turn to bowl and he would always let us know when his name popped up on the scoreboard. He is actually a VERY good bowler and even did better then me, which isn't very hard to do! He bowled a 135! Not bad for a 3 year old! Doug won everyone by bowling a 201! The boy knows how to bowl, that's for sure! Although he was a little put out for not beating his record, whatever that is :).

After we went bowling, we went up to the birthday boy's house for food, presents, and cupcakes. Now, these cupcakes were SO yummy...chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting and chocolate on top...OH MY! The were delicious! We just loving getting together and celebrating these little ones getting older :).

We got together again on Sunday with Doug's family to celebrate all of the January birthdays...Doug's sister had a birthday this past week, and Doug will be celebrating his BIG day this Friday! We had a Mexican feast and once again enjoyed chasing the kids around and just had a great time together. Man, I love getting together with the family, and to be able to do it twice in two days...what more could I ask for??!?! Good times!

iPod

Leah always has to has some sort of accessory to take around with her every minute of every day. Today, she chose my iPod as her little accessory. She always insists on wearing pants or a jacket with pockets so that she can stash her goodies for easy access. She loves to look through the screens and will occasionally listen to the music. She just has to have something to take along with her wherever she goes.

A Flying Train

Noah has quite the little imagination. We are always playing pretend around here and I love to see what he is going to come up with next. He loves it when I make him forts so that he can use it as his firestation, or house, or treehouse, etc... He also loves to come up with new ways to play with his toys, which is always very fascinating to watch. He got this toy from his Grandparents for Christmas and he just can't get enough of it. All of the pieces connect together to make either a race car, a plane, a helicopter, or a train. It is so cute to watch him pull the instructions out and put each piece together in the correct spot for whatever he wants to built...I'm amazed that he can do it all on his own! Well, today he decided to make a train AND a plane together and he had such a great time flying his little train everywhere. He also has quite the sense of humor and just thought that his little creation was hilarious, as he very well knows that trains don't fly. I told him that they do today, and he said, "Yes, Mom, but I'm just being silly!". I wonder what he will come up with tomorrow :).

Kisses

This little girl is irresistible! She showers us with hugs and kisses constantly and we all love it more than anything. Everytime I walk into a room where Leah is, she will run at me full speed and give me the biggest hug...it's amazing to me the love that she has for us at such a young age. I hope that she knows that we love her just as much {and maybe just a little more :)}. Now, Noah and Leah love to chase each other around the house, and when Noah catches up to her, he gives her a big kiss right on the head. Leah just laughs and laughs...it really is a sight to see. I mean, look at that smile on her face...pure happiness. Man, I love these two so much!

Cookies

On Saturday, Noah pulled out a bag of cookie mix that we got for Christmas and was begging that we make them. We had nothing else to do, so why not? Noah was so great to help me mix all of the ingredients, roll out the dough, and cut out the cookies. He LOVES to help me in the kitchen and this was the perfect thing to make because he could help from start to finish. He usually gets a little sad when I have to put something on the stove and he can't help. While the cookies were baking, we made frosting, and I went way overboard by making three different flavors, but Noah insisted that we have red, green, and yellow...so I couldn't resist. Noah had a blast frosting the cookies and he was so good to make sure that each and every cookie got a ton of frosting. Oh, and Leah was beyond happy when Noah gave her a cookie to eat...and of course she just licked all of the frosting right off of it instead of actually eat the cookie. It was pretty funny to watch, especially when she started to sneak cookies from the tray just so that she could lick the frosting. Too funny. Needless to say, we had a great time putting the children to bed that night due to their sugar rush. But it was all worth it! Really, it was :).

Reading Together

Noah is growing up so fast...it feels like yesterday he was just a little baby in my arms, completely dependent on me for everything. Now he is 3 1/2 and he loves to take the roll of teaching Leah new things, and I'll admit that it is sometimes hard to stand back and let him do his thing. We read books like crazy around here and Noah was beyond thrilled when Leah picked out a book and took it to him {and not me} to read it to her. His face lite up and he quickly went to the big chair, helped Leah up, and started to read to her. It was beyond precious...really it was! Leah just sat there with her head on his shoulder and listened intently as he read the story to her. I'm so thankful for the big brother that he is to Leah, and I know that she is too!

Today was a not so good day for me. I felt under the weather from morning until night...it's hard. The children didn't want to go to bed tonight, which surprised me because they didn't sleep well this afternoon. I was sure that they would want to get some rest after a long day of playing together. They must have had too much fun to want to put it to rest...oh the joys of being a kid. AND all that energy that they have...boy oh boy, I wish that they would pass some of it along to me. I'm hoping that tomorrow will be better. I go to the doctor tomorrow for the baby...I don't like going to the doctor. Any doctor. At least this appointment is for the precious little on inside me and I do look forward to hearing it's little heart beat...it amazes me every time I hear that sound. Here's to another day!

Toddler Gym with Leah

I signed Leah up for Toddler Gym and today was our first day. She is 21 months old and she was by far the youngest girl there, but she did SO incredibly good and had so much fun the entire time. I was expecting her to want to just run around the entire gym and not want to focus at all on what she should be doing, but I was completely wrong. Proof, once again, that I should not make judgements until I have seen something with my own eyes! The theme today was sports, which was right up her alley, being that Noah loves to play sports with Doug and she has pretty much grown up playing with balls and shooting hoops! She was actually one of the only kids that really enjoyed playing basketball...it would have made Doug happy to see her today! She was definitely worn out after an hour of running around and playing that she fell right asleep on the ride home. I look forward to seeing how she does next week...

My Little Builder

My Noah loves to build things...loves it! We spend a good amount of time every moring playing with his many blocks and build some sort of tunnel, bridge, building, etc... He's been rather creative lately and I am amazed at some of his creations. He also is so incredibly focused when he is creating his masterpiece and I just love watching him and can't help but wonder what is going on in that little head of his! He is also very protective of the things that he builds and will have a meltdown if Leah destroys what he has created...and trust me, it is not easy to stop that girl when she has a goal of destroying something. Oh boy...she is gradually learning the importance of not touching what Noah has put together and she is starting to steer clear of Noah when he is in his mode of building. Although, just today they were playing together with the building that Noah created for his firetruck and she didn't knock it over once...it was a wonderful sight for sure!

Breakfast

My girl is not a big eater...at all! I don't make a big fuss about the fact that she rarely eats...I'm constantly giving her new things to try and sometimes she'll try it, and sometimes she won't. She's a small little girl, but she not so little that it would worry me. The one thing that she absolutely loves is breakfast...so much so that I make oatmeal or some other breakfast food, for her often so that she will eat :). Leah also likes to take her breakfast to the back window to eat and enjoy the scenery while she devours her oatmeal. I'm thankful that I don't have to worry about her being unhappy in the mornings because she is one happy girl once she gets some good breakfast in her...thank goodness :).

#3

Doug and I are expecting baby #3, due June 24, 2010. We are beyond thrilled. Life is good.

First picture of Baby Smith...

6 Years

Doug and I celebrated our six year anniversary this past Saturday...6 YEARS! I think back on all that has happened in our lives and I am amazed at how much we have accomplished together. I've said it before, and I'll say it again...I married my perfect match. Doug brings out the best in me and I am thankful that he is mine each and every day! I love you babe!