smith is 1

this was so much fun for me to plan!  i have been thinking about a theme and design for a long time for my baby boy's birthday.  my first inspiration came from an elephant cake i saw in a 'kid's birthday' cookbook.  and from that, came an idea for an indian elephant themed birthday.  it worked out perfect b/c charlie and i love india and have had a chance to travel there...so it just felt right.  we had a small, but perfect gathering of our family, my parents, shad's family, and the o'steen/st.aubyn family.  i still felt like doing it up in a big way even though we are transient here in b-town because smith deserves it!  here are a lot of pictures.  and here is the link to where i got some added inspiration once the theme was decided: prudent baby: indian elephant party

we all wore our indian garb...sorry for my slouch..makes the preggo belly look much bigger than it is!

the cake that i made...it was hard...but a really fun, good learning experience!

pictures of the table/room for party...i made the hanging flowers (from tissue paper) and elephant garland (from fabric)

charlie made all the indian food...with exception of naan..we got that from an indian restaurant in a-town

 mom ordered some special m&m's personalized for smith :)

i had a craft station for kids to make elephants...this is the one grace made for smith...such a sweet girl!

during 'happy birthday' and before the dig in by smith

we love you smith and have been so blessed to have you here with us this past year.  you become more adorable every day and we love to watch you learn and grow with your God given thirst for life.  i love the kisses i steal from you as much as the ones you give away.  we cannot wait for many more birthdays!

my walking boy

little smith man started walking...really well...before his first birthday.  basically, charlie got home to start his month off and he pretty much got that boy moving!!  he is a big daddy's boy and will do anything to make charlie happy!

shelby and bo visit

aunt shelby and uncle bo came to borger the weekend before thanksgiving for a short visit.  smithy had fun staring at both of them....he loves new faces.  we think smith looks a lot like shelby did when she was a baby, so maybe he will be lucky enough to resemble her in adulthood...of course in a manly, handsome way :)

visit to houston

i am very behind.  i will try to be better.  i am pregnant again...:)...and very lazy!  smith and i met charlie in austin when he was rotating there at the children's hospital and we went to houston from there to see his family.  smith has a new pony, brianna, at his papa's house.  he was a big fan and seemed very natural with it.  so, so cute.  

he also was able to meet his sweet new cousin, Tatum and hang out with his Mema while showing his walking skills.

we had a great time and are looking forward at being back in houston over Christmas.

saturday cookout and bathing the dogs

charlie has been home this week due to him pushing all of his ER shifts together in VA and taking his test early so that he could spend a week with the fam.  it has been super fun!  this past weekend, we had friends over for a saturday cookout.  i made cut out sugar cookies (pumpkin and butterflies) earlier in the day and the older kids iced them with colored icing i mixed together.  it was a success! the kiddos loved it AND they tasted yummy.  sorry for the blurry pictures, charlie just informed me i have been using our camera wrong the entire time we've had it (which has been like 2 years).  supposedly, i need to press the button half way down...wait for it to focus..and then take the picture.  i will be better next time and try not to post anymore blurry ones.

sunday afternoon, we decided the stinky dogs need a bath.  smith was super interested in what was going on.  originally we put him down to crawl around in his clothes...and then seized the opportunity to let him be a little more 'free'.  he had a blast..i'm pretty sure he would go most places naked, if we let him.

we are leaving this precious boy tomorrow to fly out to DC for a wedding of one of our best friends from baylor.  we know smith is in good hands with his sitti and doc, but we will miss kissing this face and cannot wait to get back and see him sunday!

dancing king

today was a day off and smith and i had a good day....hanging out at the house with sitti.  i made baby food (my usual wednesday homework) with quite a few new additions for smith including blueberries, cherries, butternut squash, and corn.  we'll introduce all of those little by little in the next couple of weeks.  i got a great video of smith dancing to the music of one of his toys.  from what i here, charlie did the same thing when he was little and we all know what kind of dancer he turned into.  go smith, go!

on another note....charlie is coming home on friday after 3 long weeks in VA!!!  i CANNOT wait, and i think smith will be so excited too.  

  

homecoming weekend and visit from gigi and papa

we had a fun weekend with a visit from smith's gigi and papa.  they drove in from houston to big b-town and happened to be here for our homecoming.  on thursday night we went to the parade which had all the important things for a small town parade: fire trucks, high school band, cheerleaders, football team, the mini football teams, homecoming princesses/queen, and most importantly all the toddlers in tiaras :)

smith enjoyed the parade, but her REALLY enjoyed the homecoming game on friday night!  his papa had him clapping and cheering through the entire first half!  i see many more football games in our future in b-town.  however, i do not see it in our more distant future...as...smith will NOT play the sport (i hope).  

charlie had to have some game food, big surprise :)

and smith could not move fast enough to get away from the bulldog mascot...not a big fan, too scary and big!

it was a great weekend and we loved our visit from grandparents!

no love for the momma

the following video has happened 2-3 times in the past couple of weeks.  i'm not sure how i feel about it, although, i'm pretty sure charlie feels pretty good about it :)  little smith man, love your momma....please 

i may survive as long as this is just a rare occurrence!  

new friends

my mom had a super yummy dinner party tonight, AND she kept smith today.  (labor day means closed day care, but healthcare workers always work :))she made pulled pork sandwiches with a delicious mustard/vinegar base sauce and french fries.  we ate VERY well!  so, smith had lots of new friends to play with....

you know grace and george...as they have been on the blog often, but the other adorable ones are children of one of my friends from childhood.  she is living in b-town, much like i am, while her hubby is serving in the air force in korea.


we hope to see lots more of this group together...good for me and good for smith (he crashed tonight...lots of excitement)!

Nuevo Mejico!

We took off on Friday evening when I got off work to head up to the mountains for a quick get-away.  We were in need of some fresh mountain air, so the Goldston cabin was the perfect remedy!  We had a great time, as usual, besides Shae and Smith both being sick.  Smith was just a little less happy than his norm and had a consistent stream of snot flowing over his upper lip, but Shae was battling a fever off and on and feeling pretty lousy.  We made the most of it though, with a short hike on Saturday and lots of time lounging around the cabin.  Smith is crawling like crazy!  He is now typically happier to be left on the floor where he can explore around on his own than he is having us carry him around.  He is gonna be trouble when he gets steady on his feet and starts running full blast around the house.

It was so great having a bunch of time with Smith this weekend.  I think he really loves his daddy....he's not old enough to know that I'm a dork, so he thinks everything I do is funny.

Here are some pictures from the weekend!

getting ready to hike

on the trail

the dogs' favorite part of the hike

rest-stop (smith is huge...and daddy is out of shape!)

cabin chillin

we love the Goldston cabin!

What a great weekend!  If it only could have been a bit longer.  Shae and I both have to go back to work tomorrow (people still get sick and old people still need rehab even on holidays).  

--charlie

catch up

i took off work most of last week and we headed to temple for charlie's last week of his rotation there.  the trip was super busy....with something to get accomplished every day!  we spent the weekdays in temple, with trips back and forth to college station.  luna visited the vet school (clinic) down there as we are trying to find out the reason behind her chronic vomiting (yuck).  she has been doing this for a very long time and it has become worth the effort to try and find out what is going on.  the doctors there were wonderful, but after lots and lots of test, we still have no answer.  we may be taking her back down there in a couple of months if the medicine they gave us does not work.  charlie's mom (mema to smith) met us in temple and took good care of all of us!  she motivated smith enough to crawl for the first time.  we are glad we are FINALLY crawling...he was so ready...no more frustration when put in the floor :)

we went to waco one night while staying in temple to do some baylor reminiscing.  this also happens when not in the vicinity of baylor, by the way.  anyhow, it was the first night of welcome week and there were 'kids everywhere.  it looked so fun, and we decided we would like to go back, but with smith in tow.  i assume it would be a whole new ball game that way!  

after the end of charlie's rotation, which he got rave reviews for, we headed to dallas to see lots of new babies and old friends :)  we stayed with tara and isaac, who were amazing hosts!  smith was able to meet his new girlfriend, ellery, who he adores already.  she was such a good baby at only 8 weeks old AND sleeping through the night (i was envious to hear this)!

tara and isaac had a pool and this is what smith and charlie were up to:

while i was up to this:

meeting my roomie from college's sweet, sweet baby boy, aaron!

i also got to spend some quality time with another roomie from college, and her precious girl, caroline...who seems so grown up now and i love her to pieces...

my weekend was only made sweeter by the fun i had handing out some of my handmade goodies/gifts to their new owners.  there is nothing, nothing more exciting to gift than something you made especially for someone.  it was super rewarding for my new addictive sewing behavior :)

we had such a great mini vacation!!  smith and i are super happy to be back with charlie for 2 FULL MONTHS!!!  it seems too good to be true!

weekend in review

so, the weekend was fun!  we had a busy time with both 'nice' aunt shae and 'strict' aunt shae :)  they were great and loved on smith a ton.  i decided to review the weekend in pics instead of writing a lot about it.  

here are some pics from the park....day one 

we played in the backyard a lot....in the a.m. and p.m only so we didn't melt in the heat

day two we went to the splash pad...where grace and george went crazy and smith just watched.  it won't be long before he joins in the fun...for sure by next summer!

luckily, for me, there was also some down time after trying my best to wear everyone out!

i loved my weekend.  it made me know life with 3 kids is totally do-able....crazy or not.