Anniversary, Baby!

You know you're a stinkin' old, married, MOTHER when you're counting down the days to drop off your kids at the in-laws for your 1-night anniversary getaway so you can SLEEP IN and get a CONTINUOUS 8, 10, maybe even 12 hours of sleep! I can't wait! This is going to be the best anniversary ever! Right, Love?

Ugh.

TV is such a waste of time. Any good book ideas?

Important Things

When I was in 5th grade, my teacher started talking about fires and exit strategies and meeting places for our families. I decided I needed to take this seriously. So I got an old shoebox and filled it with important things that I could quickly grab in the event of a fire. I found this box recently.

It was filled with notes and old valentines from friends.

Halloween

Halloween was not taken as seriously as it should have been at our house this year. Ella went as Chicken Little, a leftover costume from Alex's first year (though a cute one, I must say.) Alex went as a doctor, one of the only costumes left at Target on Friday afternoon. And Tanner and I decided to dress up minutes before the trunk-or-treat. I went as a BA Auto mechanic and Tanner went as a white D-Will. It was a pretty fun night, though. I have to admit, I'm a fan of trunk-or-treat for 2-year-olds. I love eating candy for meals!

Alex's BIG 2!

Alex had quite a birthday party! Nana and Papa Allen, Grandma Renee, and Shaun, Kym, and Riley came to celebrate. He got way more toys than any child needs. His favorite is his vacuum from Shaun, Kym, and Riley, for sure. He pushes it all over the house and says "night night vacuum" when he goes to bed. Such a mama's boy!

He was pretty stinkin' confused when we all started singing "Happy Birthday".
His new best friend is his cousin, Riley. They had a blast together!
(I know, we have a problem.)

Roly Poly

We call Ella "roly poly" for several reasons now. One being that she's started rolling, and the other because it describes her perfectly--"ROLL"y. I can't get enough of her cute little rolls! We went to the doctor a couple weeks ago. She's now 4 months old and is 100% for length, 99% for weight, and 98% for head circumference. Tanner says he can't wait until she plays in the NFL. She's the sweetest thing ever!

Go Aggies!

We may not live there, and they may not win, but we're still fans!

Ella's Blessing

We went to Logan and blessed Ella in Tanner's parents' ward over Labor Day weekend. Let's just say that ride created a whole new list of questions! We had such a good time seeing our families and having this special day with Ella. Tanner did such a good job with the blessing. One of the counselors in the bishopric told him it was the best blessing he's ever heard. I agree! It was lots of fun and we were lucky to have so many people there to support us and help out with everything. Ella, you are so beautiful! And Alex looked pretty cute too!

Dear Mothers of Multiples,

I'm still learning, but I just have a few questions.....

*When do you shower? And what do you do with your kids?
*If you're home alone and there's a fire or a robber and you can only take one, which do you take?
*What do you do when he's sick and crying all night? How do you keep her asleep?
*What if you're nursing her and he wakes up from a nap? Do you leave him crying or stop her lunch and make her cry?
*What if it's time for both of them to eat? Who do you feed first?
*What if they both want to be held but they won't let you sit? (and they're both fairly heavy)
*How do you make him still feel involved and loved when you tell him he can't smash her when he's trying to love her?
*When do you clean your house?
*How do you stop him from wearing her bracelets and clothes so he doesn't turn into one of those people on Montel?
*Can you give him time-out for "loving" her too much?
*Is there a secret place that gives out free diapers?
*How in the world do you go shopping...or anywhere?
*How can you have so much love for such little people?
*When's ME time?

BUT I LOVE 'EM!

Also, how do you get your toddler to stop saying the "F" word repeatedly when he doesn't know what he's saying?

No, he didn't learn it from us and he's most likely never heard it before. He just likes to make words up.

More Pictures

We'll be out of town when Ella turns one month, so here are a few updated pics. The only real problem we've had with Alex since she was born is displayed in the last picture--he's turned into a cross-dresser.

She's Here!

Ella Renee Smith
July 6, 2009
7 lb. 13 oz.
21-3/4 inches
Red or Brown hair--it changes

The boys admiring their little girl!

Do they really grow this fast in 1.75 years??

All is well with mom and baby. Thanks to everyone who have been so helpful and supportive--especially moms and dads and TJ and Court.
WE LOVE HER GUTS ALREADY!!!

Probably the Last Update For Awhile

I realized its been awhile since I last posted, and it'll probably be awhile before I post again, so here's an update on what the Smith's have been up to:

Tanner is TOP OF THE CLASS in his summer classes! Ok...for sure he's top of the class in 1 class cause they've only taken 1 test and he's the only one that got 100%, and he's probably pretty close in his other 2 classes, scoring high-90s on all of his tests. He really likes to be called "Top of the Class" in a really cool voice, and he really likes being recognized so feel free leave your praising comments.

My new nickname is Baby Beluga. I'm full-term and white and HUGE! Three more weeks...or so!

Alex loving Sand Hallow.

More swimming....
This is for sure the greatest 20 bucks we've ever spent! I sincerely believe everyone should have some sort of pool of their own--even if it's one like this. I'm pretty sure I like it better than Alex though. This was obviously an unexpected swim.

And this is the last time we cut Alex's hair. I'm becoming a pro! (Don't look too close.) Alex gains 4 pounds and some hairy chocolate poop every time we do this.

That's the end of our heavenly summer lives.
Unless I'm really ambitious, check back in a few weeks hopefully for some new baby pics!

Surprise, Surprise.....TWINS!

Well, last night we became the proud parents of twins! What a shocker! We are SOOOOO excited! Here's a picture of the little guys...although you can't really see them.


On Saturday we bought a female fish for our tank. When I spotted her, I knew she had to come into our family. After all, she was fatter than me, so I would lose my spot as largest person in the family. This morning we woke up to twins in our tank, and now she's skinny as a rail. Dang it.

I don't know why you thought twins were so hard, Mom. They're a breeze!

Smith Talk

Do you ever find yourself saying the same things all the time? I get stuck in these ruts (mostly due to laziness) where I don't ever come up with anything clever to say. It's just so hard to know what to say when somebody asks if you want milk or something like that. I have a few "regulars" packed away, and you can count on me pulling one out pretty much anytime you say anything to me, whether it makes sense or not. Well, this is how the conversation has been around our house for the past 4 or 5 months...literally. I don't think Tanner and I talk to each other for longer than 3 minutes before one of these classic lines come out. Here are just a few of our favs:

(All said in a southern accent)

"I love ya more than my luggage."
"What is this in my Frigidaire?"
"I'd rather eat dirt!"
"Don't talk about me like I'm not here!"
"Have your roots done."
"If it had hair it'd be a St. Bernard."
"He wants you to open...open your eyes."
"I know now that I was suffering from premenstrual syndrome."

If you're a cool person at all, you'll recognize these as lines from the one and only classic "Steel Magnolias." And if you think I'm the one that usually spouts these out, you're wrong! Most of them come from the mouth of the #1 "Steel Magnolias" fan, my husband. So really, if you find yourself running out of absolutely hilarious things to say, just use a line from Steel Magnolias and you're sure to be declared a good conversationalist...like us. It's the way lazy people live.

A TRIBUTE TO THE GREATEST
Sir Robert Harling
(writer of Steel Magnolias)

Visitors Welcome!

TJ (Tanner's bro), Courtney, Lainey, and bun-in-the-oven came down to St. George a couple weeks ago to play. It was SO fun! I almost forgot what it's like to have friends since I don't know anyone down here. I must say I felt a little lonely after they left. The weather was nice for the most part, so we took them around to a few of our favorite places here (at least the ones that are enjoyable with kids). Here are some pics from the weekend:

Tanner, Alex, TJ, and Lainey eating massive suckers and drinking ice-cold bottled Coke from Thomas Judd's Country Store. Maybe our favorite place!

Alex soaking himself at the local watering hole.

The fam on Dixie Rock. This maybe wasn't so enjoyable with kids. Cliffs are dangerous!

And this would definitely have to be my greatest accomplishment for the weekend...or my entire life! I have honestly never touched a sewing machine or sewed anything by myself in my whole life. No, I didn't sew in home ec.--I took shop. But Courtney was determined to make "hooter hiders" for nursing. So we went to work and it was....crazy, but a success! It was so fun to learn to sew, and maybe someday I'll even own my own sewing machine and start a sewing business!

New Tricks

This is the best part of our day! Alex loves doing yoga with his mom. Check out that up-dog form. I'm jealous. He's such a mama's boy!

Ok...he's a daddy's boy, too!

And I really just had to post another belly shot after Katrina posted hers. I'm such a loaf!

So What Else Is New With Us?

So I think I gained a little weight since you saw me at Christmas...

Oh wait, it's just a baby! Phew!

Alex's baby sister. Due June 29.

Eat, Sleep, Play Ball!

Ever since Alex was born my dad (the BA) has been waiting for him to get older.
Day 1: Why doesn't he ever open his eyes? He's always sleeping.
Month 2: Can I buy him a Power Wheels Corvette for Christmas?
Month 4: Why isn't he crawling yet?
Month 6: When is that boy going to start walking?

Mostly it's because he thinks it's really fun to buy him all the electronic big kid toys that he couldn't buy us because they weren't invented yet. So this year for Christmas he got him a basketball hoop. The minimum age was 1-1/2 years, but he's close enough, right?

We thought it would sit upstairs until he was about 4, but it turns out Alex LOVES it! Every time he sees his dad he goes to get his ball and raises his arms so he can be lifted up for a shot (yeah, he's still got about a foot to go before he's tall enough on his own.) It's really quite cute, though it can be quite annoying too. That's all he ever wants to do! Good thing Papa BA is coming down next month for a good long weekend of B-ball! Anyway, here's a video for the BA. It might only be interesting to grandparents, and maybe Jeff, Shaun, and Kym, but we think it's pretty cute how excited he gets.



(Dedicated to the BA)

I should get paid more for this

Tanner left about an hour ago to go home teaching. Pretty much the entire hour before that and another hour this morning I spent trying to get Alex to eat something...anything! Alex used to be a great eater (clearly). He would eat anything and everything. Since our journey home for Christmas, he's been liking food a whole lot less. There are certain things he still eats, fruits mostly, but I'm running out of options, and as I continue feeding him the same things over and over, he in turn gets sick of those, thus shortening my lists of potential options. (Any pointers on this would be most helpful, by the way.)

But on to the point of this post. Present setting: Tanner left about an hour and two minutes ago. Since then, I've been been cleaning up a poopy poopy mess. Despite Alex not eating much lately, he is sure taking LOTS of ENORMOUS poops. This one occurred in his highchair while he was eating, but it wasn't made aware to me how bad it was until several minutes later when I went to get him out. Since then we've had a bath, changed his clothes, treated a horrible diaper rash, done a load of laundry, cleaned the bathroom, taken out the garbage, and still managed to clean up the messy highchair and surrounding area--all before Dad gets home.

At times--actually, most of the time, I feel quite guilty that I get to stay home and watch my little peach grow up as Tanner goes off to full-time work, full-time school, clinicals, church meetings, and whatever else he does. Although it probably helps my guilt that I'm self-employed from home, the measly couple hours a day doing that doesn't seem to compare. He'll usually come home and say something like, "So, what did you do today?" I think back. It's blank. What did I do today?

Well, I'll tell you what I do. I do things like try to get my child to eat for hours at a time and clean up poopy poopy messes! Things look the same around here when he gets home as they did when he left. I have nothing to show for what I've done. It'll probably be a similar story when he gets home today. The house is still a mess. There'll just be one more long post on the blog, so he'll of course think I've been sitting here blogging all day, but really, moms should get paid a whole lot more for what they do! I wonder what two will be like.

Wouldn't change it for anything though!

Christmas Cheer

So we had a great time in Logan with our family this Christmas. It's amazing how long 9 days really is to be away from home though, especially when people have to go back to work and we're just sitting around doing nothing. Although we're glad to be back, we had lots of fun with family and friends. I know this is quite boring, but I feel the need to put something on here since I've been away for so long, so here are some pictures from Christmas.

This is Alex in his Christmas Eve hat. He hated it, but we all loved it.

This is Alex and Riley with Papa. Alex could so eat Riley.
Alex with his plethora of presents. Santa sure did find him, even though he could've cared less.
Opening one of his newest favorite toys.
Pumpin' iron. He carries this 20-pound dumbbell around like it's string cheese.

And to start the New Year off right, Tanner and I layed around all weekend eating, eating, and eating. Aside from meals, we ate the candy from our stockings, we ate a 4-quart crock pot full of spicy bean dip, and we ate a whole pan of brownies. We went to bed sick every night, but it was well worth it. I love New Year's resolutions!