Happy 1st Birthday Monkey!

i can't believe a whole year has gone by. it seems like yesterday that i heard your first cry. you have brought so much joy and love to your daddy and i. when you were born i had an image in my mind that you would be a carbon copy of your brother. you could not have been more different from the second you came out. everyday you prove to be your own person and ironically the exact opposite of your brother. you are constantly smiling and if you aren't then i know something is definitely wrong. you love to cuddle when you are tired but when it is tome to go you want nothing to do with hanging out in my arms. you definitely know what you want and get extremely frustrated when you lack the coordination to accomplish it. don't worry little man that will come with time. you have a total of six teeth on your first birthday, you can walk really well with assistance and can take six to seven steps on your own. you are so proud of yourself when you do. you want to do everything your brother is doing and refuse to play with your toys all you want are cars, trains and anything that is in brady's hand. you get into everything and i mean everything that you are not supposed to. you know how to say harley, dada, momma, this, and you can bark like a dog. you love opening and closing doors and have become a stair master. you can push almost anything including our dining room chairs and you are able to mount your brothers bike by yourself and sit on it like you know just what you are doing. you have started to have a little separation anxiety from your mommy but i will cherish these moments for in a few months you will care less if i am in the room or not. you are quite a little eater as your picture shows. you love anything that is a carbohydrate and we are working on a lot of other things but a few of your favorites are sweet potatoes, yogurt, yogurt melts and graham crackers. i am so excited to see all that you will accomplish this next year. you are such a sweet little boy and i love you so very much.

white christmas mid-west style

i love a white christmas. the flakes yesterday were some of the biggest i may have ever seen in my life. to my dismay as the night progressed the snow turned to rain and now today there are many puddles and lots of soggy and iced over snow. not the fluffy white stuff i am used to, but beggars can't be choosers right? this is one of the many views out of grandma and grandpa's windows. it reminds me of a scene out of a movie. the frosted trees and a beautiful country looking house adorned with christmas wreathes awaiting santa's arrival. the boys have been patiently waiting tonight for santa and looking out the window's to see if they can spy his sleigh and reindeer approaching from the near by woods. can't wait to see the looks on their faces tomorrow. merry christmas to all and to all a good night.

over the hills and through the woods.....

to grandma and grandpa's house we go......

yes you guessed it we are where the snow and cold are abundant. the food is always good. there is a lot of love and happiness and a lot of spoiling for the boys and us! daddy and brady did a little sledding yesterday. brady wanted to spend his time shoveling instead of sledding but we got him to go down a couple of times. good thing it wasn't anymore than that, it looks like daddy is a little tired after carrying the sled and the brady back up that big hill.

logan's walking!

i left to run a few errands tonight and this is what i came home to. daddy finally got to have the pleasure of seeing a first before mommy. i couldn't be happier for him even though i am a little sad. i just knew you would be walking before your first birthday!

our little version of in the night kitchen

and the bakers they mix it, stir it, make it, bake it........

i love how books come to life. here is to your cut out cookies gee gee. your tradition lives on.

Merry Christmas - Courtesy of Taylor and Brady Smith

i just love this, need i say more. thanks auntie for the taylor chirstmas album, we listen to it all of the time.

the most comfortable sleeping position

i must say how adorable this is and that it is how i find Brady sleeping half of the time. i love this little position. i am not sure it would be comfortable for me, but he sure seems to like it. i know, risky taking a picture during sleeping with my kids, i am surprised the little beep of the camera didn't wake him up.

baby jesus

you all know my obsession with little people. we have been doing our advent calendar every day after nap, followed by the baby jesus story from our Egermeier's Bible Story Book. brady has really begun to catch on to the whole meaning of christmas. i thought that the nativity set would be the perfect way for him to put all of the pieces together. it even plays away in the manger. we heard that quite a few times tonight. i love the way he says baby jesus, it is absolutely adorable. i am so glad that he is learning that christmas is so much more than just presents.

i get into everything stage

well, well. here we are again. logan gets into everything. i forgot what it was like with brady but it is starting to come back to me. thank god for baby gates, but they don't block everything. i spend a lot of my day saying uh oh. logan can now repeat that. sad but i think that might be his first word and if memory serves me right it might have been one of brady's first five as well. what can i say. the trace adkins song comes to mind when i get frustrated, "your gonna miss this." and you know what it probably is true.

a new tradition begins

grandma and grandpa smith sent us a little pre-christmas present. the elf on the shelf. so a new tradition begins in our house and so far so good. we named our little elf kerby. he moves everyday to an undisclosed location. you see, he reports back to santa every night the boys behavior. every morning we wake to do a new scavenger hunt for the little elf for he does not like to return to the same spot from where he left. brady is very aware of kerby's watchful eye. what a great tradition for years to come. we will love having kerby return to our house every season from the north pole to help santa know whether to bring the boys what is on their wish list or if they deserve a stocking of coal.

thankful

(photo courtesy of surya cox)

this time of year reminds us to take a look at all the blessings in our lives. i have so many blessings such as a wonderful family, and great friends. i am living the life i always dreamed of as a kid. mostly tonight i am thankful for all the men in my immediate life. how truly blessed i am to have them grace me with their love every day.

farewell little martian

his miles many, his scratches and scrapes show his favoritism over many toys, his lights no longer burn even with a fresh set of batteries and his songs are burned into our mind. he was brought to daddy today asking to be fixed. not quite sure what happened here. daddy can fix almost anything but this i fear. rest in peace our martian friend. we miss you already.

wow! big equipment outside our window

whoa - yes today we saw a jack hammer, a (small version of a road cutter.) and some more mud jacking on our block. i fear our house is next. the houses on both sides of us have needed some form of mud jacking. i was surprised to find out how relatively in-expensive it is for all it accomplishes. this morning we heard the dat dat dat dat of the jack hammer and then spent the next 45 minutes staring out our dining room window at the workers in our neighbors yard. they waved a few times at us. i am sure we were giving them quite the complex. i explained mud jacking to brady and how it raised the concrete up, up, up. he then repeated my sentence saying, "mommy they raise the concrete up up up to the milky way!." some of you may not understand that and others of you will. it is from one of our favorite books In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak. Anyway we had a lovely day at home. mommy catching up on all that was not being done at our house and there was a lot apparently. brian got up at 1 am to put socks and underwear in the washer for work the next day. so we did laundry, played and walked the dog. i still did a little real estate work too. i feel much better going to bed tonight knowing all have clean clothes to wear tomorrow. they may have to come downstairs to get them off of my folding table (the formal dining room table), but they are clean.

working mama

i have been working a lot lately, hence the lack in blog posts and recent pictures of my kids. not complaining by any means, just thankful to have the business that so many other Realtors would love. you know i have been working a lot lately because brady says everyday, "mommy you take shower and go to work." sad that my kid thinks that is the only time i clean up. maybe a little true. why shower everyday when all you are going to see is your two boys and maybe a few moms at the park? anyway i promise to write more soon and bear with me people. i am trying hard to balance it all, but something has to give right now and my little blog, i fear it is you.

safe play

i finally found a way the boys can play together without someone getting hurt. (that someone being logey roo.) brady is not able to push him to the ground through the screen. there was a lot of laughing today and a whole lot less crying through the back door screen at the smith house. music to a mama's ears.

a little snow makin' at the smith house

so this weekend i journeyed off to my first holiday craft show of the season. i came across some unique stuff that i thought the boys would absolutely love. it is man made snow! non-toxic! i have never been so relaxed running my hands through this stuff. it feels cold all the time because it is constantly in a state of evaporation. we put a little on a cookie sheet and had a lot of fun driving our snow plows, tractors and police cars through it. hours of enjoyment. brady has asked to play with the snow three times now...... it has been a wonderful product to expose brady to different textures and feelings. the best thing about this stuff is you can let it dry up and re use it over and over again.

negotiations of a 2 year old

so here is where things that we do start to back fire on us, or make us laugh....

the face of this little angel says the darndest things sometimes.

here is our conversation today while playing outside.

brady: mommy weed whacker is broken.

mommy: brady it just needs water bring it here and i will fix it for you.

brady: here's the deal mommy you put water in weed whacker and i will give you a candy corn. okay?

mommy had no more to say but laugh hysterically. i gladly filled the weed whacker and then awaited my prize. a yummy candy corn.

what you get when you have boys

we went to the library today to get new books of course. as we were waiting to check out, i could not help but watch the family in front of me. you see, that mom had two little gorgeous girls with brown curls on top of their heads like i have never seen. they were checking out books about princesses and flowers and fairy tales. i looked in my basket it was full of books about front end loaders, trucks, trains, more books about trucks and trains. i have learned a lot about a world that i probably wouldn't have embarked on had i not had any boys. i still would like to read about princesses who sleep on peas and sleeping beauties in towers.... don't get me wrong though. i would not trade my two handsome monkeys for anything in the entire world.

happy halloween!

we had a great halloween this year. we pumpkin carved with auntie, the master carver. we had lots of friends over for a halloween party at our house. how could i forget the trick or treating? brady did such a good job going to all the doors and saying "trick or treat!" here is to lots of cavities with all of the loot we collected and have left over! oh yeah i taught brady the trick or treat smell my feet song. he did a great job at singing it all day.

if i would have known

a year ago today was the last time i would see my grandma coherent without tubes and wires coming out of every part of her body. i did not know it at the time. we went to meet her at her dialysis appointment so she could see her precious brady in his halloween costume. the following thursday she would cancel us coming over for our visit because she wasn't feeling good. that night she went to the hospital and never came home. this year has gone by so fast for me. oblivious to my grief most of the time, for lack of having any time to feel much with two kids under the age of two. probably better that way, lord knows i don't like to wallow in grief. i have been thinking of her a lot this week as we are coming up on the year anniversary of her death. i miss her terribly. i find myself always wishing she could have seen my boys grow up more than she did. i wish she was here to share with me in my journey of motherhood, her advice and experience. Gee Gee, we will come to bring you flowers on November 10th... we think of you often and miss you always. just so you know every time i say your name brady always follows up with "take Gee Gee flowers?" love you.

more and more snow

well we had another day of snow. i did get out this afternoon and took the boys to trick or treat at the city of lakewood with auntie. i am not sure why all the schools have been closed. the roads were fine.... anyway, here is a shot of our back yard today (fun to compare to yesterdays shots) and some great pics of playing in the snow. everyone had fun except for daddy. he was working hard sweating clearing our walks and driveway as well as my listings driveway and walks next door. double duty for mr. smith. (he did have a great little assistant though.) way to go brady you did a great job helping daddy.

p.s. harley had a great time today in the snow. i have never seen a dog dive in and out of the snow like it was waves in the ocean. fun to watch, but he sure did make a mess when he came inside dripping wet. :)

let it snow, let it snow, let it snow......

brrrrrr! brady picked a good day to be sick, his school was closed anyway! we are hunkered down looking at all the "sprinkles" on the trees and still in our pj's.

the doctor is in

recently brady has been telling everyone he wants to be a doctor. normally i would go out and buy him a doctor bag right away, but i have made a promise to myself. no new toys till christmas. so we used a little imagination. i know this is a tool bag, but it doubles as a wonderful doctor bag. our stethoscope is a string with a block tied on. (it really does work!) our ear and eye examiner is a yellow ring (we found bugs in daddy's ear last night.) you cant forget getting your shots, so we use an old medicine dropper. a little imagination has equaled hours of fun!

conversations over lunch

yesterday we went to a new restaurant by us called Freddy's. It was absolutely awesome. Brian said it is really close to Steak and Shake in Nebraska. All the way down to the shoe string fries. We are finally getting some new restaurants around here! Anyway while we were sitting at our table a couple of really cute high school girls walked in. Brady saw them, stared for a second and then pointed at them and said "i want those." i could not stop laughing. a sign of times to come.

so fortunate

today we took our little logey into children's hospital for a cat scan of his brain. apparently his head is big, but we did not know that going into today. as we sat in the waiting area for his pager to go off to head in for the procedure, i was struck by a young boy in a wheel chair. he was a little smaller than brady. he could actually wheel his wheel chair around very well. what is truly amazing for one family is just the norm for another. it struck me today how truly blessed i am to have healthy children. i cannot imagine what some families have to go through on a daily basis. some parents were walking around with permanent badges around their neck, they visit there so often. god please help these families on their journeys. thank you so much for blessing me and my children. today i feel so fortunate and like a huge weight has been lifted off my heart.

after dark with the smiths

wanna know what goes on at our house after dark? here is a little glimpse!

and yes logan just walked for the first time tonight behind his pooh bus! he is growing up too fast i tell ya! sniff sniff! not sure what is going on with the angry walk........ he sure is vocal!

apparently his teacher rings a bell at school to get the kids attention.

ring ring

brady: 123 (pause) look at me (pause) okay lets go outside.

mommy: who rings the bell and says this brady

brady: miss yavonne (ya bonne in brady language) mommy.

too cute. i should start using a bell. do you think it would work this well for me?

the spirit of halloween - part 2

our haunted house..........

floating witch hats hang from our porch. black bats lurk in our front windows. pumpkin lanterns light the way on the railing and little ghostesus (ghosts in brady language) watch over our front yard.

boo! aren't they cute. brady gives them kisses and hugs everyday. i am not kidding people!

the spirit of halloween - part 1

a little Halloween cheer was brought to our door by the friendly man in the brown truck. grandma and grandpa smith sent us the Little People Halloween play town. i must say to cute (for those of you who know about my obsession with Little People) you know i can never have enough! oh yeah... its not for me.... anyway thanks grandma and grandpa we are learning how to trick or treat and say thank you afterwards. we also love the punkins, bats and ghostesus (ghosts in brady language). that haunt the little happy town. Halloween should be so much fun this year!

health insurance - what a joke. need i say more

so i am on my soap box for the day..... health insurance is a joke. i can only hope that the current obama administration can do something to change it. do you know we pay over $1000 a month to insure our family? i found out today that we have a $6000 deductible. needless to say our little man has to have a ct scan on his head and brian visited the emergency room recently..... long story short we have to pay 100% of the cost of those until we meet our $6000 deductible. i am not writing this for sympathy. i am writing out of frustration. what does rocky mountain health plans do with that money every month? my guess they pay some nice executive salaries, have a really nice christmas party and who knows what else. i thought we had insurance to help protect us if something happens and even more to help us maintain good health. do you know it took rocky mountain health plans 11 days to make a decision on whether they were going to cover logan's ct scan? i am not sure why they were dragging their feet when we are footing 100% of the bill anyway.... what a joke! my other soap box issue today... pedestrian cross walks.... i go for a walk everyday with the dog and kiddos. do you know everyday someone does not stop at the cross walk..... cmon people i have precious cargo in my little red stroller. what is wrong with you? it is only a minute of your day for pete's sake to stop.... deep breath.... i know there are many more important things to worry about in this world.... thank you little blog i feel much better now. off to play with my two little angels before i cook dinner. that is all for now.

looking for a laugh

I recently started following a new blog Inside My Head. today there was a quite amusing post titled Best Singles Ad. If you are looking for a laugh this will give you one.

a little fun before bath

the boys are really starting to interact well together. it is so fun to watch. even though everyone is sick in the house. we can still have fun!

a taste of the new season

what do you do when you cannot go outside?

you make lots of little things with pink and white play doh

you eat lots and lots of snacks

you build little people towns

you fill every little people car and tractor you own with gas

Logan and the Shrinking Monkey - 8 months to 9 months and some days

oh little man. how far you have come in the last two months. i am so sorry we missed your eight month picture. we will chalk it up to technical difficulties. you have begun furniture walking, crawling and so much more. you spout little chatters of ma ma, da da, mummmmmm, dat, ayaaaaah and a lot of grunts when you want something. you love yogurt, graham crackers, cheerios and that is about it. we are really struggling with the eating of solids. you and your brother are just going to be picky eaters. you don't care to much for your baby toys. You just want to dig in and play trains and cars with your big bro. i can't blame you, he is one cool dude. your big noggin often gets in the way of things that you are doing but don't worry you will be able to control it better someday. i promise. frustration hits you when you can't get up fast enough or when your brother takes off to another room and you realize that you can't keep up. this will come with time to. i promise you someday you will be able to keep up with him. we have a theory that you will be a pitcher someday. You are constantly throwing balls or your plastic blocks. you love to snuggle and give hugs and prefer to be held most of the day. yes i love you too, my back however is not sure if it can keep up with this current trend. you cut your two bottom front teeth but so far nothing else. i sure hope some more come in soon. we love you so much monkey roo. take everything in stride. you will do things in your own time and that is what makes you who you are and so darn special to me, daddy and brother. go logey roo!

a budding companionship

these two are becoming quite the little buddies. brady often puts a ball in his mouth and runs around the house playing fetch with harley. all the way down to me throwing the ball for both of them. they both retrieve and bring back to me. i am so glad we got harley. he and brady make the perfect pair. neither one of them ever want to sit down.