Thursday, October 28, 2010

Great Grandma GG

I think this is the last picture that I have of great Grandma GG....Here she is with Lily. This was taken June 2010. GG will be missed.
It's been a busy week...here's a picture from the parade at the Yamboree...Lily waving her flag.

The week has been busy and now the weekend is going to be busier. We are heading out for a funeral. Grandma GG passed away on Tuesday evening. It makes my heart sad, but she is in a better place. I hope I explained it well enough to Dakota....He knows we are going to visit Grandpa Frank..and that now GG is in Heaven with Grandad. I can only imagine the sweet reunion Mother and son are having right now.

Monday, October 25, 2010

Yamboree Sneak Peek


I have some really fabulous Fall photos from this weekend...It was Yamboree this weekend!! We all had a blast. I love the Yamboree because family comes into town for this festival....the Festival of Yams. Yes! the yam has it's own festival...and for that, I am thankful. ♥

I would love to stay and tell you all about our weekend...we made lots of memories. But the piles of laundry are about to consume us....it's clean laundry, but I MUST fold and put it away today!!

Friday, October 22, 2010

Train up a child...

We have been doing some training here at the Smith house....

Just teaching some basic survival skills and ways to help out around the house...and the family.

Dakota...bringing in the trash can from the road

Dakota asked to help vacuum out the van for me...and he did a good job


Lily helping me make macaroni 'n cheese...with the way Lily eats, she needs to learn to cook very soon :)

And this one is kinda blurry...but after making cookies this week, I taught Lily how to dunk her cookies in her cup of milk...she LOVED it! A girl after her daddy's heart! ♥

as the verse states....
Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.
~Proverbs 22:6~

And that is just what we did this past week

Monday, October 18, 2010

Autumn


Autumn, the year's last, loveliest smile.
- William Cullen Bryant

Makes My Monday: "all by myself


It's actually beginning to look like Fall around here. The leaves are changing...which makes walks with the kids that much more exciting. We can look for all different colors. And while going on our walk this last time, we were able to learn that tree starts with "T" (the letter Dakota was learning in school this last week)

I am thoroughly pleased at how fast Dakota is catching on with his letters and numbers. Dakota can now count to 29...and he can is pointing out more letters and saying their sounds, too. My sister, a Pre-K teacher in Florida, gave me some of the older curriculum books which Dakota LOVES doing the work pages. I actually teared out a few to let him work on in church. They keep him still and occupied while he listens. You would be surprised at how little ones can multi task and still pick up on what the pastor is saying.

Here is Dakota...he was climbing on the rails of the bridge during our walk on Friday...Perfect walking companions mixed with beautiful weather= fabulous fall photos.

Lilyann....she loves to do things "all by myself". That is her favorite quote these days...but she IS doing alot of things all by herself. She is doing better with potty training...still not pull up free, but I can see it in the near, near future. And whenever she does do something by herself, she runs to you for a "high five" afterwards.

~playing along with Cheryl from Twinfatuation for Makes My Monday~

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Way Back When-esday: Peach Fuzz

One of my favorite pictures from way back when....Here is Lilyann about 5 1/2 months old. This was post open heart surgery. It was just about a month after coming home...we were outside and I laid Lily among the lilies (before bloom) and snapped her picture. ~May 2008
She was my little fuzzy headed baby for so long...and look at her now!

Lilyann getting her first professional haircut. It was just a trim to get the scraggly ends off...and she sat there like a big girl. No crying, no whimpering even. My Lilyann ....a month and a half shy of turning 3 yrs old. Where did the time go? ~October 2010

*Playing along with Cheryl from Twinfatuation for Way Back When-esday*

Monday, October 11, 2010

Makes My Monday : Rain




It's raining...yes, glorious rain (we have been under a burn ban for about a week if not longer) and I don't want to fold laundry...so I thought, Let's update the blog!! and for that, I know you all are Thankful!

I am multi tasking...updating the blog, and updating Lily's My Pal Violet by Leapfrog. And the Leapfrog Connect site has me side tracked...go figure!

okay, now I am back...I started this post over 30 minutes ago.

This is what we did this weekend...we visited the Pumpkin Patch. There were pumpkins (of course), a hayride, a hay mountain to climb on, a hay bale maze (very fun!), and just plain old fun!!

Jed and I even climbed the hay mountain. Lily was kind of anxious about being up on the hay bales, but as long as Daddy or Mommy was close, she was okay. Kota and his cousin, Lexi, were all over the mountain. They climbed up and slid down...then ran through the tunnel in the center of the mountain...Lots of fun.

Going through the hay bale Maze
Jed, Lily, and Myself on the hay mountain

Chilling in the tunnel

Kota with his cousin, Lexi....Little Farmers


*playing along with Cheryl from Twinfatuation for Makes My Monday*

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Way Back When-esday: Minivans

Remember this post? about how we bought our 1st minivan?
Well, this van is no longer...we traded it in for a Nissan Quest.

The Dodge stayed parked more than it ran this last month...It has needed work since we bought it February 2009. But we didn't pay much for it...so we couldn't gripe too much about it.
Finally, Last Friday, we got it running enough to take it to the dealership and trade it in. I had my eye on a Buick Terraza. It was what they call "loaded"...it had leather seats, a rear DVD player...all the buttons on the steering wheel..It was super duper nice...and very low mileage. But when we went to the dealership, it was no longer there. A sister dealership had bought it...so it was still available, just 5 hours away available. Our good friend, Joe, was able to work the payments for our budget, so we signed the paperwork with promises of picking up our van the next day. The next day, we called and Joe informs us that the sister dealership sold it off the lot not even an hour after we signed the papers. I was frustrated...but you know, maybe it wasn't something that we should have had anyway.
So, we head on over to the dealership because Joe says that he wants us to check out this Nissan Quest he has on the lot. This van is cheaper which will make the monthly payment cheaper which in turn makes Jed smile more! And Joe offers to give us leather seats or a DVD player for our troubles. Since we have kids, I chose the DVD player.

I love the new van...the kids do, too. And the DVD player was installed today. I can't wait for our 1st roadtrip!


Our new Nissan Quest ....October 2010

~playing along with Cheryl from Twinfatution for Way Back When-esday~

Sunday, October 3, 2010

New owners


Dakota and Brooke relaxing in the hammock



It has been busy around here...Kota in school, even with it just being half day. Lily potty training and taking antibiotics for UTIs (she had 2 UTIs in 1 month's time...hopefully, we are done with them for a while)...and Lily is almost there...she is still having accidents but they aren't as often. Our van is no longer...we got it running enough to trade it in...and that is what we did. The next day (after a little fiasco at the dealership), we picked up our new van and found out from a friend that our old van won't even start now. So, we DEFINITELY traded in at the right time.
We are now proud owners (well, payment makers...this is our 1st time to make a car payment in 4 years) of/on a Nissan Quest. It's super nice. The kids love it. And due to the fiasco (long story short...the van we wanted was at another dealership, we signed the papers on it....and an hour later this dealership sold it right off the lot to someone else...infuriating, YES! but I think we came out better in the long run), the salesman is installing a DVD player in our Nissan. Which is incredibly awesome.

Thanks to all the family and friends who let us use their vehicles for the last month. I think I drove a total of 4 different vehicles this last month. Mainly trucks, so I was kinda getting used to driving a truck and now we are back to a van.
The pictures below are from our fun at Jed's Aunt's house. We were celebrating Jerilyn's birthday...and when we all get together...Laughing happens and lots of eating yummy food!!

Lily playing with Toby...She seemed to always have a hold of his tail. When the kids finally went in to watch cartoons, Toby was fast asleep on the doormat. The kids wore him out!!

Lu Bell inside watching cartoons...Kota is in the background with Brooke

Pictures to come of our new VAN!!!