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.

little blue eyes

little may not be the correct word. i melt every time i look into these most amazing blue eyes. love you logey roo!

napping in the car today

That's right people. My camera is finally ready, can hardly stand it. On the way out the door right now.......

Stay tuned for some cute pics of the boys......

update on the smith homefront

AAAAAGGGGGHHHHH! No news on my camera. I am beginning to wonder if it even still exists? Logan will be ten months by the time I get it and I will have no pics. Frustrating! Anyway, the Smith house officially has a member who caught a little of that piggy virus going around. He will be okay, just needs time to recover. Poor B. Smith. A little bit of advice to all of you out there courtesy of the staff at Swedish. Use lots of hand sanitizer and Lysol. I sprayed our whole house down last night and bought sanitizer for every floor of our home. B. Smith is quarantined in the basement. So far the boys and I are escaping that crazy little bug..... Hopefully this will continue.

We are trying to enjoy the last little bit of decent weather this season. Brady is out mowing and weed whacking without daddy. If his mower only worked we might have a completely mowed back yard. Logan is enjoying his last month in the exersaucer and a couple big bumps on his noggin from falling. He is furniture walking and thinks he is as good as Brady. He turns and tries to grab on to stuff, well that is just not there. Soon little man you too will be up and running like your bro. Yesterday he crawled for the first time on his hands and knees. Yes he has been pulling himself around on his belly, but this was an honest to goodness hands and knees forward motion. His little top toothers, well they are trying like the dickens to poke through. Wish they would soon so we all could get a little more rest..... oh yes, rest , what is that?

Brady's new favorite book selection is Corduroy. I am so happy it is one of my favorite child hood books.