Kade's Birthday

I have been meaning to post about Kade's birthday party (on the 19th of July)...but time has gotten away from me.

It turned out so nice! We had a bbq out at my parent's house and invited some friends with kids around the same ages as ours and all my family that is close by. Pretty much everyone we invited showed up, so we had a pretty good crowd! The kids had a blast with the party hat pinata, as well as the two blow up pools that we set up. I made Cookie Monster and Elmo cupcakes and we grilled hamburgers and hot dogs. Kade loves all his presents, they keep him occupied for hours! It was so hot, but we are happy to finally have a birthday that is not in the winter so we can celebrate outside. We don't do big celebrations for our kids every year, but sometimes it is nice to use them as an excuse to party! I owe a big thank you to my parents for letting us trash their yard and helped set up and take down, my sister Jennifer who helped decorate the cupcakes and helped set up and take down, and everyone who came and helped us celebrate!

Tiny Miracles

A year ago I wasn't sure this day would come. I am giddy to announce that it has! Campbell Abram Smith, son of my sister Karen and bro in law Adam arrived as scheduled this morning at 8:11 am. He was 6 lbs, 7 oz and 19 inches long. He has TONS of bright red hair (did we expect any less?!) and is just perfect! We are all so happy for them! Congratulations Karen and Adam!

What a Weekend!

I am exhausted! I need a weekend to recover from my weekend! My dad said it perfectly when he said he is happy he has to work tomorrow because he needs a break. But then you probably don't know why we're so tired. Well, we have been helping my sister (Jennifer) move this weekend...and for some reason, nobody in our church out here in the land of TN volunteers to help people move...except for our husbands, who were both there! It is hard enough to move all your junk from one place to the other, but when you have a million kids running back and forth it is sooooo much harder. It is a dang good thing that we have so many family members around, cause I don't know how we would have done it, and we're still not done! The really big stuff will hopefully get moved tomorrow, today (I know, I know, it's Sunday) we were able to get all the beds and closets moved over, so they are sleeping there tonight. I think the reason that it is so much more than a regular move (aside from the lack of Ward support) is the fact that the house they are moving to has been vacant for a year and needed a major cleaning, which we started Friday and carried over into Saturday. All in all, I still want our house to sell very soon, but at the same time I am so tired from moving my sister I am tempted to just take our stuff out to the field behind our house and burn it so I don't have to move it! Hope your weekend was more relaxing than mine!

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Blake

My baby is growing up. (Not Kade, I already had a touch of nostalgia for him and he has his own little blog further down the page.) Blake has been amazing me lately with all his new "grown up" interests. Last week he asked me if snakes have a heart. I told him I thought they probably did since just about every living thing needs a heart to pump oxygen via their blood through their body. Apparently that wasn't a good enough answer so I told him I would take him to the library to get a book about snakes. Even though the thought of having a book about them, with possible pictures of them in my house where I might accidentally pick it up and peruse it scares the cripes out of me!



So, Tuesday he had an appointment with an allergy Dr. to see if he is actually allergic to anything that would cause his chronic sinus and ear infections. He isn't allergic to anything but they did a breathing test on him and they said that he is only breathing at %65 capacity. So after freaking out in my head a bit the Dr. came back in (the nurse did the test) and said that he kind of expected that since Blake has something called Pectis blah blah blah, which basically means that his chest has a large indentation in it. He has had it since birth, and Chad also has it, and every other Dr. the kid has had has always said it was no big deal...we always joke with him about it and call it his divet. Anyway, the Dr. said the breathing thing isn't really a big deal, but when he gets an upper respiratory infection to be extra careful.



But I digress. After the Dr. we went to the library and spent a joyful half hour searching for books about reptiles and a few goodies for me. Later on in the day I told Blake to read one of his reptile books and report back to me what he learned. A little while later he regaled me about how snakes only have one lung, and humans have two, and on and on. I am so proud of the little thinking man his is becoming!



The other day I was doing the dishes and he came up with a cup wanting some juice and looked at me and said "Mom, I can see you are busy, so I will wait for you to get me juice"...we have been having talks about how I can't always drop everything to wait on him and his brothers. What an "aha" moment! I don't know, I guess I don't pause enough to think about how special he is and how lucky I am to be his mother. Most of the time he is so active and crazy and wanting to do his own thing he just frustrates me. I am grateful that he is getting into a stage that I can relate to and really bond with him, even if that stage is showing interest in snakes, as long as he doesn't want one for a pet. He is also really into sharks, and I definitely draw the line about owning one of those! Here's to Blake...thanks for being my son, now get out there and keep making me proud Buddy!

Engagements

Yes, I have finally done it. I found a way to combine two of my favorite things, cupcakes and diamonds. When my little bro David came to me and told me that he was getting engaged I pondered possible proposal scenarios. Why? You ask. Well, proposals are near and dear to my heart mostly because I feel like I was jilted out of one. While I love my husband more than I could say, and that love has definitely grown over the eight+ years we have been together, one thing that has exasperated me at times is that he doesn't really like to go out of his way to draw attention to himself. I think that he never "really" proposed because he didn't want to risk looking silly, so over the years I have teased him about this, when deep down I guess it still kind of bothers me that he didn't bother coming up with anything other than, "I think we should get married, but I don't know if you're ready yet." Not exactly "While You Were Sleeping" material. In the long run, I know it doesn't matter, especially when you look at some couples that I know who have that great proposal story and are no longer together...but at the time it was important to me.

Anyway, when David said that he thought he might just throw the ring at Amanda's forehead and say "You win"...I was not going to have any of that. I hatched a plot involving cupcakes, the ring, the Fourth of July, and of course David and Amanda. If anyone asks you, it was all his idea...but you all know the truth!

Little Man

Kade will be one next week. He started really walking last week and it is so cute to watch him amble around the house like a little old man! He throws his belly out for balance (which is kind of reminiscent if me pregnant with him) and puts his arms up with his fists clenched. He is pretty proud of himself as he goes around looking for Blake yelling "Ake...Ake"! It is so funny watching him try to get in on the action of whatever Blake and Trevor are playing, he is such an adventurous little guy! What amazes me is that twelve short months ago we had no idea how we were going to handle adding another spirit to our family, and now our family wouldn't be the same without him. What a blessing little accidents can be!