my famous friend

(picture courtesy of sweet pea and beans)

my friend meghan has been such a wonderful influence on me. she teaches me to open my mind and try new things with my children. she has given me a link to a world of old books some that i have never heard of let alone though of reading to my children...... needless to say thank you meghan for inspiring me to think outside of the box and to let my children's imaginations run wild!

today she wrote a guest blog post on a blog that i watch often to learn of old (but new to me) fabulous books to read to my children. well done meg. i can't wait to read this book.

she is also an amazing friend for watching my boys one night so i could work. crazy for saying yes. my kids had a great time by the way and slept like gems. love you.

meet the newest member of the Smith family!

we were lucky enough to be considered to adopt this adorable sheltie harley. he was given to us by brian's boss. thank you al for thinking enough of us to let us have this handsome gentle creature. i know he will love and watch over our boys as well as have fun playing with them for many years to come. we welcome harley with open arms to our house (everyone but the cats seem to be happy about his arrival.)

i guess we will be driving to illinois for christmas.......... no airplane rides for us too many bags and animals to check. :)

what were you people reading to your kids in the 60's and 70's??

brady has a new favorite book. he picked out a couple of weeks ago and we read it a few times a week. it was given to us in a box of books that belonged to brian when he was little. today we were driving to a parade and brady was in the back seat of the car talking about bunnies and grass. it is amazing what children absorb because when i was reading this tonight there is a page dedicated to the painting of bunnies in the grass. as i was reading tonight my mind began to wander as i was reading about the mushrooms in the forest of all different colors, pink, orange and blue and painting pink elephants winking at you. no doubt this book was written in the 60's. i can't believe they let this get published! none the less i was on amazon looking for a picture of this book to post on the blog and you won't believe this it is worth $39 or more..... craziness......

things you cannot do when you are an adult

i cannot post a picture because...... well it would be inappropriate......
there is nothing cuter than watching your little man run through your back yard buck naked.... swimming in the pool..... i know i said it is something you cannot do when you are an adult and i am sure some of you would tell me you have done it.... another story i am sure i do not need to hear. good times, good laughs and good memories nothing like little white cheeks running away from you laughing loudly through the green grass. love you buddy you are one cute kid!

a few quick updates

thanks to aunt mo's help i finally got the letters done for both boys rooms. they turned out really cool. You just glue paper on to letters, cut off around letter with knife and then sand down the edges with sand paper! easy and cheap way to decorate a little one's room!

last of all but truly funny.... brady learned how to put his shoes on all by himself but he always puts them on this way...... he knows it is wrong because as soon as he is done he comes to me and says "wrong foot.... fix wrong foot......."

i love motherhood i am either laughing or crying.......

holy weather!

swimming anyone? we got hit by a huge storm tonight. at 10:15 ish we heard on the news we had a tornado warning so we woke both boys up and took them downstairs to the basement. the hail was hitting our house so hard i thought our windows were going to blow in. it passed after about 20 minutes and these pictures reveal what is left of our tomato and tomatillo plants. the hail was stacked so high on our front steps that there were no front steps. yuck, the clean up tomorrow is going to suck!

okay people.........

i put a lot of heart and sole into this blog here..... i know a lot of you come here to read it.... for pete sake start leaving some comments on my posts! i like to read what people are thinking.... i plan on getting all this printed out someday and it would be cool to have everyones comments below. if you don't know how to comment email me or call me and i will walk you through it. you start by clicking comment at the bottom of each post. if you don't have a google id and decide to comment anonymously that is okay just make sure you type your name at the end of what you wrote so i know who wrote it :) love you all!

i am not sure what to make of this.......

not quite sure what brady is doing. he has been obsessed with napkins lately and and wiping everything down. so here he is spitting on the floor and then wiping it up with his napkin. not sure where he learned this from or what he thinks he is doing but i was laughing so hard i was crying.



daddy just kept saying brady....... come on dude........... he does not appreciate the little cleaner as much as i do :)

go camping, go RV clark?????

here we are in front of our new camper!

yes brady is trying to be like hopper and came up with a full mouth of dirt!

brady is parking his camper and truck just like daddy

brady's first Smore. Yum!

talking to grandma and grandpa on the phone the next morning. note the dirt all over the boy from head to toe. is brady under there somewhere?

goodbye boating hello camping. it is the dawn of a new era for the smith family. we had a great time on our first trip. we saw squirrels, alvin the chipmunk, humming birds and a giant black crowe. brady played in the dirt for hours. we made smores around our little propane fire (couldn't have the real thing where we stayed.) hopper got to go and i am pretty sure it was the highlight of her whole year. we all slept pretty good in the camper and had not run ins with larger wildlife which i would call a huge success. can't wait till we do it again later this month!

logan and the shrinking monkey -6 months

our little monkey is getting so big soooooo fast. you have the most amazing personality. you can light up any room you are in. when i first pick you up in the morning out of bed you do a little kick and a little scream. you are so excited to get your day started. you didn't cry at all when you got your shots at you 6 month appointment. we took you to grandma and grandpas house in illinois this month. you are not a big fan of being in a car for 16 plus hours but we made it. you sure did love their pool. you are definitely a water baby. you still are not sleeping well through the night but i know that eventually you will once you start taking to solids more, which by the way you are not liking so much this month. if you could survive off of breast milk for the rest of your life i think you would like that. you are so excited when your brother is around. i can tell you just want to get up and go just like him. don't worry little man that will come with time. you change so much every day we can't wait to see what you will do next month. love you logey roo!

funding higher education in the future

so you all know i am not into the baby modeling thing, but who could pass up this opportunity to win money to put in the boys savings accounts to pay for maybe and hour of a class, (by the time they get to college that is probably how much it will cost for one hour.) Anyway if you have a chance click it and vote and return to click it and vote as much as possible because Brady and Logan would love your support!

To vote for Brady click here

and don't forget Logan you can vote for him by clicking here!

there was a coyote......who swallowed a flea

Our new favorite book. Our new favorite words.... coyote (of course) and Yipeeeokiyee!

Thanks Grandma Smith for this great book. We read it at least two times a day and sometimes as many as ten!

We recommend this book for any bookshelf in any house :) It is good for tickles, laughs and of course a lot of yipeeeokiyee's!

Happy 4th of July!!!!

This morning we did the annual 4th of july bike parade in grant ranch. we had a great time! brady and little dobs rode together in little dobs wagon. Carter and Will and Cole rode their bikes and lylah and ryan got strolled around and logan well he was in the baby bjorn of course! Happy 4th of July to everyone we hope you have a fun and safe holiday. It is off to little dobs house tonight for a party and some fireworks viewing. what fun!