Christmas and the Hustle and Bustle

Here's just a little Holiday reminder...more of a note to myself...that christmas is in 2 days. As you can see the past couple of months have been jam packed with way to much work and busyness for me to keep up. I am amazed that my tree didnt end up like this one. or maybe it is and I am still spinning on my head. LOL! Merry Christmas to all of our loved ones; Family and Friends. May you all have a very Merry Christmas.

Things that make you go HMMM?

Well from everything that has gone on this year I just keep wanting to get back to basics, to remember when life wasn't so complicated. I go back to my funny high school years when life was trivial and enjoy the sweet memories of my first years with Stewart. All of the learning and growing that we made a part of our everyday routine. Stew and I were laughing at those days and we always go back to the funny songs that some how connect us even though we didnt experience them together. It is always a new chapter that we open up everytime we hear one of our "oldies". Its the way we relive and show each other our past and learn about what made us, us! I am so thankful for my mishap dancing partner with two left feet and his facial expressions as he watches me get down with the get down all by myself! Love ya babe here's to sweatin' to the oldies!

WE ARE STILL ALIVE!

Ok I have been really awful at updating my blog, this shouldnt be a surprise as I have never been good at keeping a journal. Anyhow, I just wanted everyone to know we are still alive and kicking. We celebrated Christian's First Birthday and Stewy's 31st Birthday. I will post pictures soon. Life has just been crazzzzyyy! Stewart is loving his job at the PT Clinic and is super busy with his last and final class for his exercise and wellness degree at ASU. I have started my card business thank you to the miracle of friends (shanon & summer I love you both). I also just started working with Glitz Design a new scrapbook company that is based out of good ole' AZ. I was hired as their Sales Exec and Graphic Designer! Yay! But all of that on top of three kids, one in kindergarten, one in preschool, one now walking. WE have no time to breath! Whew. Just an update for ya! We hope you are all well and have a very happy halloween. Ps just a little card plug. www.tracismithdesignstudioblog.blogspot.com ok I know its long just click on the link;) and send people my way! I'll will have a website soon!

I Love My Children!

***Disclaimer*** we do not watch this show, but we stopped on it because this was so hilarious. I just feel like this is a typical day and today is no exception! Here's to all my mommy friends!

9 Years & Counting

Today marks the 9th year Stewy & I have been married. I am so grateful for how clear my memory is of the day we met and what a blur the weeks leading up to our marriage were. Here we are today laughing at those memories and laughing at the horror our parents were probably in when we married only 10 weeks after meeting. I am still so in love with you Stewart and I am more thankful and humble today for you being in my life. We have had more than our fair share of roller coasters and I look forward to many more. Thank you for our moldy ceilings, green refrigerators, soapy stir fry, "N" Movie Night, blue spandex, flag football mom moments, inside out socks, hot huts, yellow bathtubs, wet pajamas & blowing fans, BYU football games, pinewood derbys, first houses, freedom from loud neighbors, halloweens, schmoozing parties, Saturday lunch dates, burning forests, blizzards, hikes, warm bubble baths & lime popsicles, first kisses, patience, understanding, laughter, tears, our children, noni, sisso wisso, tiny tiny, christian boy, your strength when I had none, your belief in me, teaching me, guiding me, letting me know what it means to be loved, mistakes, & successes. Thank you for giving me all of you! Happy Anniversary Babe, I love you!

WARNING: POST UPDATE PHENOMENON

Well it was a very busy month of July and it seemed to never slow down long enough to catch up and write on our blog. So, I hope you all enjoy the posts that we just added and hope you all had a great month!

Ashlyn's First Day of School

Its that time already. Time for me to cry that is, for sadness of my firstborn leaving and going off to school and to cry for joy for the peace and quiet that has adorned our house. Haha Who Knew! She is doing so well at school and of course as we all know the little social butterfly that she is, is doing fine at making new friends. We are so excited for her to experience school and cant wait to hear about all the crazy stuff that goes on this year!

We went to Willcox, AZ to pick peaches will Felisa & Mike's family. Grandma & Grandpa came along too and we had a great time. It was a lot of fun and we enjoyed all the festivities. Our kids love to play with their kids and they all get along so well with each other. Even through all the chaos like the millions of flies (see slide show), the rat that somehow found its way into the house while we were canning, (see slide show), early morning grumpy ryleigh (see slide show), the canning fun (see slide show). LOL! We had a blast and cant wait to do it again next year!

Ashlyn turned 5 on the 21st of July. Wow how the years have flown. It just seems so crazy to think that we have had her longer than we waited for her to be a part of our family. She is such a smart, happy, beautiful girl and we are so proud of how she has grown and what a wonderful spirit she brings to our family. We love you Ashy girl!

Ashlyn's Birthday

The Succession of Bubbles

Christian loves the bath and loves to investigate the bubbles in the bath. I just think his faces are too cute not to post, so here he is with his bubble beards!

July 24th Celebration

We had a great little mini-vacation to...you guessed it Snowflake. Haha! As always the Pioneer Day celebration was fun & Relaxing. We had a great time with our family and the girls had a blast with all of their cousins. Pictures below;)!

Snowflake Pioneer Days

Firsts!

Christian Boy has been having lots of firsts lately! We went over to the fantastic Power Ranch pool with Jenny, Hailey and Paxton this week so the kids could cool off and enjoy a little swim time and of course I was able to have some much needed Sun and good conversation! This was Christian's first time in a pool and it was so much fun to see him splash around. We all had a great time. Another First! Christian's first hair cut. I have been trying to find my way around the inevitable and not cut my "baby's" hair. I finally gave in and took the scissors to his head. Who knew he was a blond? here are the before and after!

before

after

Fathers Day

This year for fathers day was so much fun, we went to a friends house and made tie cookies for our daddy's the girls had so much fun making and eating the cookies. We are still working on the humongous cookies, not that the girls mind! Happy belated Fathers Day to the best Daddy 3 kids could have!

Swimming Lessons 2008

This is the time of year the girls love, even though it is hot outside they always know they will be getting to go swimming everyday! They love Swimming lesson and love the teacher. Shannon is awesome and is so good for my girls! Whenever they get frightened even a bit she reassures them and somehow manages to get them to do whatever it was she wanted to teach them. of course by the end they are both like fish. Ashlyn is now able to swim front and back and float and as for miss Ryleigh she floats and does whatever trick she thinks is cool at the time! Love these girls and I am so happy they were able to finish their swimming lessons with flying colors!

If you are wondering what I did with Christian while the girls were swimming, well he was their too of course, so good rocking himself in his car seat! I love his little built in baby sitter! (video will follow soon!)

Last Day of Swim Lessons

This little video is of the girls going down the fun slide at "Aunt Shannon's" house. Shannon their swimming teacher has a great pool and Grotto and every thursday they got to slide down, by the end Ashlyn was able to swim all the way across the deep end by herself!

Bath Time Funnies

Here is yet again another bath time funny that our girls pull. They are such a crack up in the bath, they love bubbles and pretending they are anything from Mermaids to Santa. What will they come up with next,only next year will tell!

06/11/08 pulling himself up

This 1st year of Christian's life is going so much quicker than I would like he has already done so many things faster than his sisters...unfortunately. I still feel like he is a little guy and don't want him to be walking yet, his plans are different! He has pulled himself up now and who knows when the walking will come in. We'll keep you posted!

Playing Catch-Up!

Ok so I have slowly been putting my blogging further and further behind. Hopefully I will be able to pick it back up again. So here is just synopsis of what has been going on.

Ashlyn Graduated from her last year in preschool and is now preparing for...you guessed it Kindergarten. We are just waiting to find out what school she will be in and down here, it is year round all day Kindergarten, so this mama is so scared. Its my first and I am very nervous to be letting her go especially for such a long time period....whew...deep breaths.

Ryleigh is well, Ryleigh she is also excited to be starting her first year of Preschool and I am really looking forward to the teacher she will have. I think she will be a great impact on little miss independent and I know Ryleigh already loves her.

Christian is moving faster than I could imagine. He speed crawls like a little bulldog all over the house and has now figured out how to open up and get into everything. Yay Me!

Stewart finished spring semester and soon will be submerged into summer semester and he is looking very forward to December when he will be able to graduate. He has learned so much this past year and has been a tremendous help to me and our family over the past months because of the things he has learned in his classes.

I am just keeping track of kids and swimming lessons and upcoming events that have our family constantly busy. But, for the first time in our marriage I decided to have some time to myself to sit down and read. I know you are all probably shocked out of your mind, but I have a girlfriend who told me about these books and I LOVE them! I really didn't want to start reading them, but I'm glad I did. I'm hooked! Thanks alot Shanon. Poor Stewart!

That's whats been going on as of lately...stay tuned for more!

A letter to my Children

This is one of the posts I knew I would write and I knew would be hard to begin, but throughout the month of May my mind always turns to my childhood, my teenage years, my early married life and I often think about the pivotal moments that have molded me to where I am today. I have always wanted to write a letter to my children about the importance of making the most out of each day, something that even still I struggle with, knowing that every moment we choose to pass the day without being grateful for the little things that we will have wasted a precious moment that we can never regain. In saying all of that I need to write today about the day I realized this truth.
To My Sweet Children,
I woke up May 20, 2002 feeling full of happiness feeling like I could conquer the trials I felt I had and ready to face a new day with what seemed to be more energy and vigor. My heart was full for a good portion of the morning and I found myself excited to meet and help the new people in my ever changing client base at the job I was working. Then as intensely as my exciting strength came on a cold anxious feeling came over me. Something did not feel right. I was nervous, my mind was racing and it would not stop to ponder the reason for the feelings I was getting. I felt I needed to call my family. I called the house and an unfamiliar voice answered, strangely I hung up. But again, I felt I needed to call. The same voice answered this time and I realized it was a cousin. Asking why she was there she calmly told me that a terrible accident had occurred and that my Dad was hurt badly. At first I thought he will be ok he will pull through and again the spirit told me what I was to do. As soon as I was off the phone I made immediate arrangements to fly home to Arizona. As we arrived in Phoenix a wonderful family member picked us up and rushed us to the hospital, just in time to sit down with the doctor to learn that my dad would not make it. As he was saying this I was feeling that rush of memories that you always hear about and wonder if you will ever experience. I did not have any children at the time and I asked in prayer how my children would ever know a man I admired and hoped I would be like some day. Again the knowledge came to me, to teach through stories of him, be an example of his love. At that moment I recognized the Savior's love for me. How he suffered for me so that I could be strong in a time like this. I miss my father still and still weep to think that he can not share all the sweet moments our family will have here in this life. I feel his presence in our home and in our lives. I know he loves us and I know he watches over you. He was a kind and gentle man. He was simple and was thankful for everything in his life. He loved everyone and willingly gave service to those around him. He never spoke badly of anyone even those who had wronged him in the past. He was loved by a community of people and his legacy still thrives there as one of honor and commitment to life. He talked often of his love for you even though he had not met you yet. He loved Me and he loved your Dad. He was a good father and took the time to talk with me about my dreams and my goals. He treated me as an equal and raised me with love and respect for anyone I met. Most important he knew his Savior, he followed his example and he was committed to that knowledge. Happy Heaven Day sweet babies. May you look forward to the day you meet your grandpa face to face. I pray you enjoy each day and that you may be able to look back on the memories of your life as if they were yesterday and know with a surety that you did all you could do through out your life.

Mother's Day

I know Mother's Day is over, but I wanted all the women in my life to know I thought about them and am grateful for their examples. I had this great idea yesterday to take around poppy seed muffins to all the ladies that I love here in my area and well out of the whole batch I had a few mini muffins turn out. I was busy working on these cute origami boxes and spaced the muffins I had put in the oven. Leave it to me to put tons of time into the details and forget about the most important part...the MUFFIN! Well, by the time I was able to get around to everyone, of course they were all with their mothers or doing something as a family, so here is a digital muffin for all of you whom I didn't get to see! Thank you again and ladies...here's to another great year!
Cheers!

Bachelor #1 Come on Down

When Grandma & Grandpa came home we took pictures of everyone and I was just taking random photos, well when i saw this one, I had to laugh. Doesn't this look like some cheesy online dating service type photo. So I thought, Hey! why dont I post it on my blog and see if we can get this guy a wife! For those of you who dont know who this stud muffin is, its my brother Tommy. He just came home from his mission in December and is single and available. Haha, sorry I just had to do it Tom.

Great Grandma Sue & Great Grandpa Dale

Grandma Sue & Grandpa Dale finally made it home after their second mission serving in Nauvoo. I am so glad they made it home safe. It was a short mission but we all missed them. They were able to come visit all of us here in the valley so we had a little pizza get together so they could see the new babies. Of course we had to take pictures to commemorate the event. If you know our family it was very hard to get a serious picture so these are the best of the bunch...and a few ridiculous ones too! We love you and are so happy to have you home.

DEVASTATION!

That's it! My boy is officially getting too big. I am in complete denial that he is growing everyday. To top my misery off, he has broken through his first tooth. How is this possible? He has been the first to crawl, first to sit, first to...everything and he is adding this to the list. DEVASTATION. How do you get over the harsh reality of growth. I am just about ready to make my millions in developing the stop time potion! I will let you all know when I have it up on the market. Stay little baby boy! (pictures to follow...when you can see it in his smile)

Sweet Treat

Ryleigh has been learning new tricks everyday, partly because big sister has mastered them and is introducing them to her little sister. I had to however, get the next stunt in some pictures. It was just too "sweet" to miss.