Emily's 1st Tumbling Meet!

Emily had her 1st tumbling meet today, Nov. 7, 2009, in Idalou. We had to be there at 8:45am, which is very early for Emily! She did an awesome job on her 2 passes. She had to do 4 cartwheels and she did them all! She was the youngest tumbler there so with all things considered coming in 2nd place was a great accomplisment!

Emily waiting for her turn, a little sleepy eyed still.

The spider walk!

After recieving her 2 place medal!

She was so proud of the medal. She ran up into the stands to show her Daddy and Kaitlynn!!!

Look what they gave me for doing such a great job!!!

On the winners stand :)

At 11:00pm asleep in her P.J.'s or Baya's as Emily calls them.

She wore her medal ALL day long and even fell asleep with it on. She is so proud of it!!!!! And we are so proud of her!!!!!!!!!!




As we were waiting to see what place she recieved Emily wanted to watch herself do her pass on the video camera. She watched it over and over again, along with Kaitlynn. What a great day!!!

Emily's 3rd Birthday!

WOW! I cannot believe our baby girl Emily is already 3! It has been the best 3 years of my life. She is a joy to be with all the time. And her little sayings, for example when she says excuse me it comes out "Hootius". Now you can catch all of us saying hootius for excuse me :) She is into so many things these days! She started Tumbling lessons the first of September and is really loving it. She has a meet tomorrow, her first one, and hopefully she will do great. The only thing I worry about is that it starts at 9am and Emily has never been a morning person :o Also this fall she started Violin lessons, as I am sure you guessed by the pictures of her holding her new little violin. She likes violin lessons too, however they are much more difficult than her tumbling lessons. She is coming along though. She knows all the parts to the violin, resting and playing position and has just learned the names of the 4 strings (Gabby the G string, Dori the D string, Anna the A string and Emily the E string), can you guess which one is her favorite? She learned Dori and Anna first and when I was working with her during the week I asked her to show me Dori and she did and then I asked her what the other strings name were and she said Nemo (I just thought this was too funny, she actually remember that on Finding Nemo the blue fish trying to help find Nemo's name was Dori) Too bad the musical alphabet does not go up to N only to G. One of the sweetest thing Emily does is holding Kaitlynn's hand. She will hold Kaitlynn's hand when we are riding in the car. She will hold it while we are walking and best of all she always wants to hold Kaitlynn's hand when she goes to sleep. The girls are sleeping together in the toddler bed in their room now. Kaitlynn always falls asleep before Emily does and so when Emily crawls into bed with her she promtly finds Kaitlynn's hand and then tells us good night :)

Emily recieved many presents for her birthday, one of which was a fish tank. She absolutly loves it. We have 11 big fish and 2 or 3 baby fish (depends on the day you look, they keep hiding from us). We were told the fish would probably have babies, however I thought we would have them more than 3 days before they had them. The girls both love watching the fish and of course feeding the fish. She also recieve a new bicycle which she calls her "NEW BIKE" all the time. Her bike riding skills have improved so well since she recieved her new bike (Thanks Mommie!). She even rode all the way to "Mommie's" (my mother) house and back to our house tonight.

We went to have her 3 year check up this past Monday (Nov. 2, same days as we took these pictures). Emily was almost 37 inches tall and weighed 33 pounds. The doctor was happy with how much she had grown.

Oh, the biggest news with Emily right now is that she is finally potty trained. As Shelby says, it is like it happened over night (well that is because he is not with her all the time like I am). It did seems like once she figured out what all was going on she got it. I don't even have to ask her if she needs to go, she just goes into the bathroom when she needs to go and after she comes out she tells me "Mama, I Hee,Heed in the potty". Last week as we were going from Lubbock to Church on Wednesday night, Emily said "Mama, I have to go Hee, Hee", I asked her if she could wait until we got to church (5 minutes away) or if I needed to pull over so she could Tee, Tee on the side of the road. She said "Pull over, I have to go Hee, Hee". So I did. This was a first for us, to Tee, Tee on the side of the road, but much better than a wet carseat!!!!!

What a joy the last 3 years have been, watching Emily grow up. She told me the other day that her "Baya, Haya (baby Kaitlynn for those of you who do not speak Emily's language) is big like ME!" Well, Kaitlynn is not quite that big yet, but they sure do have fun playing with each other, just like 2 little puppies playing with one another :)

The many faces Emily makes!

Busy, Busy, Busy

Well we have been busy, busy, busy the past couple of months. With Kaitlynn's Birthday in September and Emily's in October I figured I needed to post on those two happenings. I will post these seperately and hopefully with many pictures!!!!

Update Time!

Well, I have been meaning to update everyone on the happenings in the Smith household but just haven't found the time. So as I tell everyone "I do my best work at midnight" and it is now 12:07am! The kids are fed, bathed and have been in bed for about 2 hours. The house needs cleaning, but that can wait until tomorrow!! I wish I could post some pictures right now, but I need the cord that goes from my camera to the computer, so I will try to post pictures very soon.

*First let me tell you about our precious Kaitlynn. She is 11 1/2 months old right now. I cannot believe in just a few short days she will already be a whole year old! Time flies by so fast!!!!! She has 7 teeth right now and I think she is working on number 8. She is walking everywhere and no longer crawls at all! She can even go from the kitchen, through the living room and into the bathroom!!!! Today she walked all the way down the long hall at our new church building, and let me tell you I think that is the longest hallway I know of. She is walking great in shoes also. She is climbling on EVERYTHING. Just yesterday we were outside at the fort and sandbox and I turned around for just a minute and when I looked back Kaitlynn was on the next to top step of the 6 foot high fort! I ran over there and helped her up the rest of the way (as if she need my help to climb up the last two steps). I really have to keep my eye on her now! She can give you 5 when you ask her too, she can give you kisses when you ask her too (as many times as you want her too!!), she can blow on her food if it is too hot and the other day we practiced blowing out a candle and she did it (great, that means she will be able to blow out her candle on her birthday cake!!!!!!), and just today I asked her to wave "Bye, Bye" and she did it (and better yet I caught it on my video camera!!!). She is such a sweet baby girl with such a cute personality!! She loves playing with toys and her big sister Emily. Her favorite thing to do is put objects into things, like balls into a box, coins into her piggy bank, etc. Oh, I almost forgot to mention how much she loves to sing!!! Every Sunday at church while we are singing if you listen closely you can hear Kaitlynn singing!!! It is so sweet! And she already knows the motions to her first bible school song "There is a flag that's flown in the castle of my heart" (she "Sings" and waves her arms in the air), it is so cute (I also caught this on my camera!). I will update you more on Kaitlynn when I post pictures.

*Now for our sweet Emily!!!! She is doing and saying some of the cutest things right now! For example just this evening as we were leaving the new church building (we are in the process of remolding it and were working on it ALL day today) we were driving down Division street in Slaton and passed by Saint Joseph's Catholic Church and I made the comment about them having church tonight, Emily promptly said "No WE go to church in the morning" over and over again. It amazes me that she knews that we go to church in the morning and not at night. She loves going to church and singing all the little songs they sing in class. Her favorites are "I'm all wrapped up, I'm all tied up, I'm all tangled up in Jesus", "There is a flag that's flown in the castle of my heart", "There once was a little boy David", "Roll the gospel chariot", "I may never march", and on and on the list goes. She also likes to sings these songs at home all the time! She is very proud that she can now tell you how old she is and show you on her fingers (Thanks Mommie for helping her learn this!) She can already show you three too (so we are good for over a year now!). She can tell you when her birthday is and she also tells people that Kaitlynn is 1 now (well it is really close!). Oh, the cutest thing happened tonight, after we got home from working at the church all day (and yes Emily helped paint, well she painted her hands, feet and legs and a little bit on the wall too!), we came home and were doing a few chores (Emily's chore is to feed the dogs, which she loves). Shelby decided he need to work on his newest invention which is a stand for his welder to make it portable. Anyway, Emily thought she needed to help, so her Daddy gave her some plyers and a wrench and she went to work on the welder stand! Of course I made sure she was wearing saftey goggles (along with her Daddy). She can be such a prissy little girl one momment and then a tomboy the next. Also the other day Shelby took the girls out to the farm and before Emily would get in the truck she had to go get her tool box so she could work on things at the farm along with her Daddy. Her favorite sayings right now are "What dthat?" and after you tell what it is she says "What dthat do?" She is so inquistive right now and wants to know how everything works. The other day she wanted me to get her a drink of juice. I was very busy with Kaitlynn and I did not promptly get her the juice. The next thing I knew she was handing me the can of apple juice and saying "Ma, I want juice". I just leaned down and told her how smart she was and of course I poured her a cup of juice! She amazes me everyday.

Well, I think that pretty well catches me up for the last month and a half. I am going to try to be better about posting more often. We will see how that all goes. Be looking for pictures from our vacation (that we took in July) to Lake Irwin! We had such a wonderful time! I would like to live up there all summer long (We did get to spend 3 weeks up there this year, I think I will push for 4 next year). The weather is just so wonderful and landscape is so beautiful. And it is nice to get away for being so busy all the time. There is no cell phone service and no TV or internet. Just wonderfully peaceful! Good night all!!

Emily's Shadow!

I must let you know Emily's newest thing, her shadow! She found it one sunny day outside of the eye doctor's office. Her uncle Jay Mac pointed it out to her. She was quite interested in it. But the best story happen the other night. We were walking from our house to "Mommie's" house (my mother's) and it was about 9:45pm, very dark. Emily insisted on pushing her two baby dolls in her double stroller over to Mommie's so we walked on the road instead of cutting across our neighbor's yard. Anyway when we reached the corner Emily noticed her shadow and pointed it out to me. I acknowledged it and showed her mine. Then we kept walking. After about another block she said "Ma, where did my shadow go?" I told her it was behind her now. She said "Oh!" Then she turned around and said "Come on shadow!" as if it were a real person. The next night when she saw her shadow she said "Let's go shadow!". She has found a friend in her shadow. Just thought I would share those cute stories of my 2 1/2 year old.

First Step!!

Kaitlynn took her first step on Sunday, June 14th!!! She has taken a few more steps since then and will be running after Emily before we know it! She is now 9 months old and getting so big. She is up to 19lbs 8oz . She is so interested in everything and how it works, always investigating. I wonder what she thinks sometimes seeing and experiencing things for the first time ever in her little life! She has 5 teeth now and really likes to bite anything she can get to her mouth, including her mother! She bit Emily the other day, and boy was that a shocking experience for Emily! Kaitlynn also absolutely loves food! (Of course I did not have to say that after I told everyone how much she weighs, but oh well) Her favorite food right now is blueberries. She will pick out all of the blueberries on her tray at breakfast and not eat any of the other fruits I put on the tray until ALL of the blueberries are gone! She has also started singing, well baby singing, at church when everyone else is singing. It is so cute. I am amazed at everything she is doing and wish she would just stay my baby forever, oh but how fun it is to watch her learn and grow!

What has been going on in May!

Well, we have been very busy this May and I have not had much time to put anything on my blog. I thought I would just share a few things the girls have been doing.
Emily is talking up a storm and has now started singing little songs such as "Little Bird". Her favorite book is "Nest is Best" and she wants me or Mama to read it to her at least once a day. When we get to the part in the book where Mr. Bird sings "I love my house, I love my nest, In all the world, MY NEST IS BEST". Emily always wants to sing the part by herself "MY NEST IS BEST". It is so cute!!
We also have 5 new Golden Retriever puppies at our house and Emily is loving them!! I will try to post the pictures of the girls with the puppies soon.
Kaitlynn is growing a changing so much. She is now up to 18lbs 4oz (WOW!). She is very, very mobile. When she wants to share a toy with you she will crawl over to you and give it to you. It is so cute. She is also pulling up on everything and sometimes letting go and standing by herself a little. The other day in the sand box she stood up all by herself for a little while and then fell down on her bottom. She is also "talking" a lot! She makes really neat little sounds trying to express herself!

8 Months Old!

Wow, I can hardly believe my baby Kaitlynn is now 8 months old. She is such a joy in our lives and I could not imagine life without her. She is growing a changing so much and so fast!! She is now crawling very well. The other day I sat her down in front of her toys in the living room and went to the bathroom to brush my teeth. Before long I hear her grunting and then look down to see her sweet little smile in the doorway of the bathroom. She had crawled from near the kitchen to the bathroom, amazing. She is also pulling up on everything. Emily, Kaitlynn and I were sitting in the living room playing with toys one day this past week. As Emily and I were playing the fish game I looked at Kaitlynn, she was playing with her little people, then I glanced at her again and she was standing up holding onto our gold chair!! She really likes to stand there only holding on with one hand. She also likes to walk around holding onto things. I know before long she will be walking! She is growing up way too fast!!!

She has been trying to get two new teeth in for about 3 weeks now. Those teeth are just being stuborn. You can see the white part of the top left tooth, but it just will not break through. I am for sure she will have it by 9 months, but we will see. These pictures are from her 8 month photo shoot. I absolutely loved them (and these are just 5 of the 38 poses they took!) The first one is actually the last picture they took. She was getting fussy, so I decided to feed her and well she fell asleep. I had been wanting to get a picture of her asleep and finally got it!!! YEAH! Isn't she a sleeping beauty! The pictures of her in the little yellow sun dress and bonnet are very precious to me. This was my little dress when I was 7 months old (only 30 years ago!). I had Emily's picture made in it when she was 11 months old, but decided to have Kaitlynn's picture made in it this month because she is a little bit bigger than Emily was at this age. The little bonnet makes to whole outfit, I think!

Kaitlynn has so many cute expressions! I love her little smile with her two little teeth showing. But I also like her long staring look. That is one thing she gets from her Daddy. Her eyes and smile she gets from me.

Kaitlynn is also eating so many different foods. Today she had bananas, kiwi and grapes for breakfast, and then cheeseburger casserole for supper (which included carrots, green peas and beans and of course cheese!!).

I love each new day with Kaitlynn, beacause everything she does she is doing it for the first time and it is so new and exciting for her. Oh to see the world through the eyes of a child!!!

Sandbox Fun!

We bought the girls this sandbox on Tuesday after Emily and her cousin Kevin played in his sandbox for about 4 hours on Monday! I realized that it was time for us to have one at our house, and boy do the girls love it!!! They have spent many hours in it building castles and knocking them down!! I also picked up a toy that you put the sand in the top and then it spins little wheels as the sand goes through it, great fun! Kaitlynn really enjoys the sandbox too! At first when I sat her in it she proceeded to put handful after handful of sand into her mouth. Now she just picks the sand up and drops it, skipping her mouth!!

The sandbox also has a picnic table and bench on one side of it. This was an added bonus and has already been used as a play station! We put it underneath the girls "Giant Fort" as Emily calls it, so that it would always be in the shade. We look forward to many days of great summer fun playing on the fort and in the sandbox!

Reaster Reggs, Reaster Reggs, & more Reaster Reggs!

I titled this entry "Reaster Reggs" because that is what Emily called Easter Eggs this year. It sounds so cute in person!

Emily was so much fun this Easter!!! She really got into all the egg hunting, egg filling and egg decorating! And really got into the Easter Bunny! She had 5 Easter egg hunts this year, but the weather was so bad that only one of those hunts was outside! She started hunting at Mommie's house the Sunday before Easter. Jay Mac, David, and Renee' were able to come out this Sunday for an early Easter gathering (they all had to work on Easter). When Emily would find an egg she would shake it, if it sounded like something was in there she would put it into her basket, if it did not sound like there was anything in there she would

throw it over her shoulder. We also had an Easter egg hunt at church and Emily and I filled 250 plastic eggs with chocolate candy! She would place one piece of chocolate into each half of the egg and then try to shut it. Sometimes I would have to help her shut the egg.

The hunt at the church was moved to inside the church building because of the cold and windy weather. All the kids hunted in the auditorium which was fun. I even notice that one egg was baptized during the hunt! (ha, ha) Kaitlynn enjoyed this hunt as well. I sat her down by a group of eggs under one pew. She managed to get an egg open and find the chocolate candy inside of it and bite through the foil wrapper with her two little teeth and get some chocolate in her mouth! She also loved pulling the grass out of the easter baskets.

Emily absolutely loved coloring the boiled Easter eggs. It was so much fun to watch her as she dropped a color tablet into each of the six cups of water! She would name each color as it began to fill the water. Then she would plop an egg into each cup, breaking a few of the eggs. Mommie got her this neat spinning egg coloring kit. Emily really loved that too. All in all she colored 3 dozen eggs. Guess what we will be eating the next 2 weeks!

Sunday morning when Emily woke up the Easter Bunny had come to our house. Emily was so excited! The Easter Bunny brought her a set of golf clubs, lip gloss, pez dispensor, a stuffed bunny, and lots and lots of candy! She did not want to go to church that morning, because she was having so much fun playing with her new stuff!! Kaitlynn also


enjoyed what the Easter Bunny brought her. She love digging through her basket looking at all the different sizes of eggs. The Easter Bunny also hid small eggs all over our living room with money in them. Emily loved collecting all of those.

We did manage to get to see the Easter Bunny last Friday. Of course Emily called him the Reaster Bunny. Later that evening she said the Reaster Bunny Hold Me, He BIG. She is used to all the little cotton tails that run around our house and farm, she did not know that bunnies could get that big!


Our final hunt was in Levelland at my cousin Angela's house. This was the only hunt that we were able to do outside and we had to wait for it to stop raining to do it. It was great though. Kyle, Elizabeth, Kevin and Emily all loved the hunt and each found a great number of eggs.






All in all Easter was a great success. Now I just have to start rationing out the candy. Holiday's are so much fun with little kids around for everyone to watch!

Filling Easter Eggs for the church Hunt!

The Reaster Bunny!!!

Oh, I think you missed some Emily!

Kaitlynn found a couple of chocolate filled eggs!

"What did you get in your basket Emily?"

Both girls checking out each others baskets

Look how many I found!

Coloring Eggs the new way!

Maybe my elbow will work better to make the egg spin!

Emily was so pround of this purple egg!

Look at what the Easter Bunny brought the girls!

Is there any candy in this one?

Hunting on the go, Emily did not even have to look to see where to put the egg she picked up. Her eyes were on the next find!

Wow, look at that big egg on that tree!

Emily and Kevin at the end of the hunt! Kevin was so nice to Emily and would pick up the eggs for her and put them in her basket! Well, except for this pink (his favorite color!) egg.




What great fun was had by hunting Reaster Reggs !