Daddy's Girl

Hello Everybody!

Hi guys sorry it has been so long since I last blogged. I'm surprised I have not been contacted by NARR. Well, a lot has happened. My Grandpa was hospitalized again. He contracted staff pneumonia, which is the worst kind you can get, along with influenza in his lungs. I believe he is still alive because of the many people praying for him. Most of my family got together in Colorado Springs a couple weeks ago to visit him. Since that time he has improved dramatically. He is out of the hospital and back in a nursing home.

Sam and Anna have been busy. Sam is doing more all the time. His latest feats include going potty on his little potty occasionally and writing on the wall and his sister with a black magic marker. Just incase this ever happens to anyone else, rubbing alcohol for the walls and hairspray for skin works wonders. I am so glad I have the internet. Apparently Sam is in good company. I found a lot of good sources for magic marker removal. Sam has also learned how to unlock the front door deadbolt included. He can also open the front gate. Life as we knew it is over. Anyone out there who has a baby who can't walk, run or reach doorknobs...enjoy it while you can!!!

Anna is amazing. Last week I put her on her stomach and checked my e-mail. When I turned back around a couple minutes later Anna was sitting up. I thought I might be going crazy and just thought I had laid her on her stomach but she did it again the next morning. She is also eating French fries and crawling very slowly. She is getting big fast.

I have my car back!!!! After two and a half months of being stuck at home I finally have my car back. I am so glad! I was going a bit stir crazy. I'm making up for lost time; I have already gone to visit Emilee twice since I got it back. The pictures are from our visit yesterday. It was great. I played basketball with the boys (which is not easy in a skirt), we all went on a walk, the Em and I had cooking lessons, and tried to knit. We are not so good at the knitting thing but the biscuits and gravy turned out great!So there is the latest, sorry I kept you all in suspense for so long.
I think Sammy likes Abbie.

Aren't they so cute?
The boys tipped over the dog house and were rolling around.

A Baby Shower and a Baby

I have four cousins. Everybody except me had been slacking in the kid department. Ryan and his wife have been married almost six years and Lander and his wife have been married for almost four.Yet I with my measly almost three years have the children. Not just one but two. But, all of the sudden Ryan and Lander both hopped aboard the Great Grandchild wagon and had babies coming in March. Wendy, Ryan's wife had her baby shower earlier this month. It was very nice. As you can see from the pictures below she has lots of clothes for baby Ava. Resha, Lander's wife just had baby Ethan on last Wednesday the 21st. Isn't he cute? I can't wait to meet him.










Aunt Jan, Cousin Wendy (and baby Ava), Cousin Laura, Grandma, Aunt Linda, Anna, Me










Lots of stuff!

Ethan

Sam's 2nd Birthday

Sam had his party on Saturday the 3rd, a couple days before the real thing. He loved it. All of the Smith kids were here and his very good buddy Uncle Adam. Sam was a very happy camper! He really liked the cake and ice cream too. The only thing he didn't seem to like was the singing. When we all sang Happy Birthday to him he seemed a little unsure about it all. He just looked at us all like we were crazy. He got a lot of toys and a super cute outfit and some much needed sippy cups. It was a lot of fun.

For Tammi

Girl party

Well the girl party was great! We hardly slept. We ate and drank lots of sugar. We played games. We had so much fun! We didn’t watch any girl movies and we didn’t ride in the convertible because my Mom didn’t want me to put the top down in winter. I found out it is tempting to be disobedient even when you are an adult. But, I was good. Laura came over Saturday and that was a lot of fun. She brought over her scrapbook and got some help from the master (Emilee). The kids did really well. There were no serious injuries and they mostly kept to themselves in the basement. It went so smooth. I couldn’t believe we had eight kids and two babies. Sam had a blast. He didn’t nap all weekend. But he slept for almost sixteen hours on Sunday night.

Can't resist

Everyone else has posted about the grand Girl Party this weekend and I just had to too. I am so excited. For those of you who don't know. Emilee, Becki and myself and our ten kids will all be at Emilee's this weekend while the men are away at retreat. We have great plans that include but are not limited to scrap booking, making a pumpkin roll, black cherry vanilla coke, old photo albums and my cousin Laura coming over on Saturday to scrapbook with us. I am so happy. Even if I don't sleep from Friday till Sunday night I will still be so happy. Besides with all the sugar bound to be at Emilee's this weekend I don't think finding extra energy will be a problem.

Samuel's book

Sam's birthday is just a few weeks away. He will be two. It's funny how they change so much in looks the first year and then the second year they just get taller but look the same. So here is Sam his first year. I can't believe how big he is. In case anyone is wondering Emilee made the great book that these pictures are showcased in. =)

February-March

April-July

August-November

December-February

My First Real Book of a Post

I had planned this last Saturday to go to Salida which is a three hour drive into the mountains for my cousin’s wife’s baby shower. Friday it snowed and so I thought I wasn’t going to be able to go but Saturday my Aunt called and said that the roads were better. So off we (me Sam and Anna) went to Salida. The trip down there took about an extra 20 minutes or so because of snow blowing across the road and patches of snow pack and ice but overall it was a really smooth trip. I planned on staying for the shower, spending some time with my family and then heading home. However about half way there I called my Dad who reminded me that everything would be turning into ice after dark. So at that point I was pretty sure I needed to stay the night. I did and it was really nice. After the shower we went and visited with some friends for awhile and then we went to my Aunt’s house. We had fun. The guys were working on cars in the garage so Sam did his very best to get in there with them every chance he could. Us girls sat in the living room and talked about baby stuff. Then Grandma called and I packed up the kids so we could go visit her for awhile. It was so nice. We looked at old pictures and she played with the babies. It was getting late by then so we headed back to my Aunt’s. The guys were still working on the car so we hung out some more until they finished. Then we followed my cousin Laura and her husband Adam over to the cabins. That’s right the cabins. My Aunt works for a place that rents out cabins with hot springs. When people cancel like they happened to that weekend she or family can stay for free. So we did and it was great. Each cabin has its own little hot spring. I didn’t go in but it looked very nice. The shower in the cabin also pipes in the hot spring’s water so I did take a very hot shower once the kids were asleep. It was terrific. The cabin had a wood heat stove and a fireplace. It was so cool. We drank hot chocolate in front of the fireplace. So my plan was to head out the next morning at seven to make it back for bible study but after driving over to the cabins with things frozen over I re-thought that decision. It was like an ice skating rink out there. So I ended up leaving the next morning after some of the snow and ice had melted. Now I logically concluded that since my trip the day before had been pretty nice and it hadn’t snowed again the trip back should be just as nice or nicer. I was wrong. What I did not count on were massive winds that would cause a ground blizzard. So there I was me and the babies the middle of the ground blizzard. It was so scary. Things would be okay for awhile and then a huge gust of wind would hit carrying enough snow with it to completely white out everything in front of me for two to three seconds. Now I don’t know if anyone reading this has ever driven with there eyes closed but that was about what it felt like when the ground blizzard hit. I was going pretty slowly because even when there wasn’t a whiteout visibility was still very low. I could only see about forty to fifty feet in front of the car. However there were people still going fifty five or faster so I was concerned that someone might be coming up behind me and not see me and cream me. I was also worried about someone coming into my lane and not knowing until the very last split second. I was worried about going off the road because there was snow on either side and I didn’t want to get stuck in that kind of weather. I called Chris and asked quickly asked him to pray. A few minutes after I called Chris another ground blizzard hit. When it cleared there was a small bridge about ten feet in front of me. Normally these bridges are no big deal but because of the wind blowing the snow there was about two feet of snow on the right side of my lane piled against the guardrail and then out into the middle of my lane. With no time to react and go around I hit the snow with my right two tires and snow pack and ice with my left two tires which caused the car to go right toward guardrail. When this happened it caused the other front tire to dig into the snow which swung both back tires onto the icy snow pack. This made the car to go sideways into the other lane of traffic. Suddenly I hit the guardrail with the back corner bumper of the driver’s side which knocked me back into the road and I was able to get back to my side. Praise God!!! I immediately started praising God and thanking Him because I know it was His hand on the car that saved me and my babies. So many things could have gone horribly wrong but they didn’t because God was right there. About ten minutes later I got to the next town and called Chris. He had the same reaction I did and just started thanking and praising the Lord. The rest of the trip was long because of the detour. The road I was on was closed the rest of the way to Denver. I had to go over a scary mountain pass around corners in first and second gear. Then when I finally made it to a major Highway it was super backed up. It took us about seven hours to get home. But praise the Lord we got home and are doing great. So there is our latest adventure.

The Incredible Anna

She is sitting up

And Rolling

And Playing