Daniel's Big Day

It all started Wednesday night. I began having contractions at midnight and couldn’t get any sleep but they 10 minutes apart from each other so I couldn’t really go to the hospital yet. The next day I felt so horrible I decided to go to the mall and walk for a couple of hours.

Nothing happened until 10 at night when my water decided to break. The kids had been on bed for 2 hours by then and we had to wake them up to take them to grandma’s house.

We got to the hospital by midnight and got ready to have the baby, except the baby decided to go to sleep after I got my epidural so it was until 4:40 am that he made his appearance to this world.

I was so tired by then, I went 36 hours without any sleep but it was all worth it.

Daniel was 36 weeks when he was born but he weighed 7.7 lbs. making him our biggest boy.

 

Getting his first bath

He loves to suck on his thumb

The next day Daniel and I had some very anxious visitors

The kids proudly displaying their big brother and sister bracelets

Me and Daniel enjoying our time in the hospital. I think if the beds were not so uncomfortable I could have stayed there longer

Andrew and Josh taking a good look at their baby brother. Andrew had to make sure he counted all important parts like his ears, mouth and nose

The view of the fountain from my room. Spencer took the kids for a walk around it and I could see them all from my window

The most important people in my life

Our last day at the hospital was so sad. This was the last time I got to be there and bring a baby home with me. Here is Danny on his first car seat ride

July Recap

July 4th
We started the month with a b-b-q at Grandma Smith’s house. Since I was very much pregnant this year we didn’t even mention the carnival to the kids. We just stayed at grandma’s house the entire day.

Spencer went golfing with his dad and brothers, the kids cool down on the slip and slide on grandma’s backyard and I took a 3 hour nap.
We finished the day with great food and surrounded by good company.

I am afraid this is the only documented fun thing we did this month because a week after it I was put on bed rest due to complications in my pregnancy.

I had to stay home pretty much all day for an entire month. this made the days go by so slow. Thank goodness for the great women in my church who volunteer to take my kids while I was down. They definately had a great time going to friend's houses to play for hours.

A random picture:
Andrew doesn’t usually take a nap but when he gets tired he falls down no matter where he is.



July 26th

Here it is one last picture of me pregnant. I had Spencer take this picture right before heading over to the hospital to have Daniel 

Andrew at 2

It's been 2 years since my little monkey was born, It still feels like it was yesterday that we were holding him right out of the operating room.
Andrew you have grown in so many different ways but in others you are still my little baby.

You are a very sweet baby; you love to be snuggled and give hugs and kisses, especially to mommy and daddy.
You are very fond of reading. You have great memory too you can remember a story fairly easy. You have a couple of favorite books that we read each night: Bulldozer, Fire Engine and an animal book.
Ever since you watch the letter factory you can make the sound of the letter A and you have decided to call the animal book your A-A-Animal book. You know every picture in it, every page, you know when those warms are supposed to appear and you refuse to touch the page where they are.

You still love to play with trains, especially the ones that Josh is playing with, so you both end up in fights a lot. Even so, I know you love your brother. I have seen you try to imitate everything he does. You also love to wrestle with him and unfortunately for him you can pin him down already.
You love Julia as well. You care for her and watch over her and make sure you are there when she is sad. I have seen you run to her and give her hugs whenever she has gotten hurt.

You can jump in the tramp and do summersaults like Julia; you can also climb anything you want (you got very strong arms). You can  kick the ball, play catch with daddy and throw a basketball. You get really excited whenever you make a basket.

You been sleeping in a big boy’s bed for a couple of months now and you seem to like it. You love your routine which is reading a book and singing 3 songs with mommy. You always choose the same 3 songs: chu-chu the big train, twinkle, twinkle little star and 2 little ducks.
It’s funny, but on nights that daddy has tried to put you on bed you just keep crying and you can’t sleep until mommy comes and says good night to you. I am glad that you need me that much because it truly makes me feel special.
You wake up early by yourself every day and then you knock on your door so that we can let you out (you’ve almost figure it out how to open doors though). The first thing you say to us is: “eat, eat” and you walk straight to your high chair to get ready for breakfast. You are a very picky eater. Most mornings all you want to eat is a piece of toast like daddy with some peanut butter on it.
You can’t talk in sentences yet but I don’t think it is because you can’t. I believe you get too excited about things and how to describe them that you forget your words.

You can count to five. I have to thank Julia and Josh for that. I find myself counting to five all the time before I put those two in time out that you have picked it up.
You can almost get dress by yourself but you can certainly put your shoes on all by yourself.
Whenever we need to go out all we need to tell you is let’s go and you run to your room get your shoes on and say “me car, go” and if by any chance we are not ready to go by the time you are, you grab our hand and say “come on, come on” to hurry us up.

You are a character Andrew, with that short speech of yours you make yourself understood. I love to be so in sync with you that I can tell what you need all the time.
Stats:

Height: 34.5 inches

Weight: 30 pounds

Shoe size: 6 ½

Cloths size: 24 months-2T

Favorite color: Blue (everything is blue)

Favorite thing to do: Play with trains, play outside with sand, ride your scooter.

Favorite animal: dog and our cat Dasher

Favorite time of the day: play time

Favorite treat: candy or you call it “nandy”

It’s been a great year, you have grown so much yet you are still that cuddly baby you’ve always being. We love you AD but slow down a little bit, you are growing too fast my little monkey.

June Recap

Another lost tooth

06/02

We yet another visit from the tooth fairy in august. Julia has lost a total of 4 teeth now.

Swimming Lessons

06/07

It was that time of the year again. I figured better do swimming lessons while I was still able to drive and move, before the belly got too big.
Julia started her level 3 swimming. Just like every year she seems to forget how much she really loves the water and what a good job she can actually do. By the end of her class she was able to do elementary back stroke, back float, and tread water for 30 seconds. We were so proud of her.

I signed up Andrew for a mommy and me class. I figure it would be a great way to spend some alone time with each other before the baby came.

1 hour after Julia’s lesson finished Andrew lesson’s was starting. Thank goodness there was a playground at Surf &Swim that kept the kids entertain while we waited. We had mini picnics every day until it was time for Andrew and I to go in the pool.
Julia and Josh were so great at cheering their little brother from the sidelines and behaving good while I was I was in the water with Andrew.

It turns out Andrew and I had a blast. He went under the water, blew bubbles, did back float on his own! and even loved jumping from one side of the pool into the water.

When it was time to jump into the water the teacher was warning the parents not to make them do it more than 3 times or they could get scare. My boy didn’t want to stop. I believe he jumped about 20 times into the water not even into my arms.
I really enjoyed watching him be fearless and have fun in the water.




Father's Day
06/17

The kids and I tried to surprise Spencer with a special breakfast casserole that morning but we run out of time and it didn’t turn out as good as I was hoping.

The kids and I went shopping for Spencer that day before and couldn’t think of anything else to give him but his favorite treats. We built a basket with skittles, root beer, juicy fruit and oreos. I know it wasn’t much but the kids had a blast figuring out what to get their daddy and I amazed on how well they know his taste.
After church we headed over Spencer parent’s house. It was a lovely evening spent with great food and great company.
I didn’t take many pictures, sometimes you just have to enjoy the moments and that is pretty much what I did. I have one of those moments when I realized how lucky I was to have found such a great daddy for my kids. I couldn’t have asked Heavenly father for a greater blessing than Spencer.

Happy Father’s Day

Andrew turns 2

I can’t believe it’s been two years already but I guess time flies when you are having fun.  We woke up early that day because we had a full schedule ahead of us.  Daddy made Andrew’s favorite breakfast Mickey Mouse pancakes and syrup, after that was straight to our living room to open presents. 

Andrew knew exactly what was going on because Julia and Josh had him rehearsing his birthday for a week. He was so excited to see so many boxes. His favorite though was his very own Dinosaur train  and Big Chuck truck which he keeps in his room.

After presents it was time to have some fun. Since Andrew can’t pick what he wants to do for his birthday we decided it was only fair to pick for him. We went to Chucky Cheeses’. We played and had some yummy Pizza.  Andrew’s favorite game of the day was shooting hoops, he was pretty good too. 

Syracuse Heritage Days Parade

06/30

After a long night getting ready for A.D’s party we woke up early to head for the annual Syracuse parade. It is a fun tradition of ours and the kids love filling up buckets with candy. It was so hot this year, by 10 am that the parade started it felt like it was 100 degrees already.

Josh and Andrew had a great time collecting candy but Julia got worn out by the heat fast, nonetheless they each catch about a lb of candy including Andrew who was really good at it.

It was fun to watch his eyes light up every time someone threw candy towards him, he yelled “nandy”, make a dive for them and then turned around with the biggest smile and look at me as he showed me the catch and put it inside his bucket.

  Andrew's Party
Andrew is really into cars and trucks and trains so I thought it would be the perfect time to have a CARS party. I am glad that I had made the invites months ago because I was feeling very pregnant by this time. So here is my invitation:

Andrew woke up that morning to a house looking like this:

After our fun morning and a nice nap in between it was time for our party. I had the kids play a couple of games.

We played a version of musical chairs, except it was played with a red balloon that had a stop sign on it. The kids had a blast passing the balloon as fast as they could between each other.

We also played where is Lightning? We had 3 cones and lightning McQueen was hiding under one, if they guess it they could get a special ticket to ride on the big car.
The kids went all outside and rode our  Power Wheels truck around the tramp. It was fun until the car’s battery run out.

    

After the games we opened up presents and we blew up the candles. As you can see in the pictures I don’t think Andrew liked the candles very much, he didn’t freak out or anything but he was definitely not going near them.  I was really happy that he liked his cake though, he kept saying cars and pointing at it.

We were pretty much worn out by the end of the day, but there was one more thing that we had to do. We went to bed after a firework show which conveniently enough could be seen from our front yard. As 10 o’clock rolled around we were nice and snuggle on our pj’s waiting for the show to start.

After 45 minutes and a spectacular finale we headed to bed except we discovered that Andrew had fallen asleep half way through the show.

and that was our June, hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to post about July

Introducing....

Daniel Steven Smith

7/27/2012

7 lbs 7 oz

20" long

4:40 a.m.

May recap

I never imagine that the month of May could be this busy. I had appointments, rehearsals, last days of activities, last field trips of the year, volunteering, it just never ended.

Field trip to J&J Garden

May 10th

The kids love going into the J7J nursery see and smell all the plants that they had in there. I managed to take a couple of pictures before my camera died on me. Like always Julia and Andrew came along. This was Julia’s 3rd visit to the nursery and I am sure it won’t be the last one.

The kid’s favorite thing to do was to look at the fish they have in pools and get their little plant which they get to bring home.

Mother’s Day
May 13th

This is my favorite day of the year. This year I got really spoiled, I received some beautiful artwork and flowers from the kids and I got to pick two extra presents. The first one was a light-weighted wheel barrel I know what you are thinking Boring! But for me this was perfect I been wanting one for the longest time to help me with the yard work. I also got a gift card to Rod Works which is a store that sells decorating items. I knew exactly what I was spending my money on: picture frames. I currently have three picture frames hanging, each with a picture of the kids but since we are expecting Danny we needed to add one more.


Joshua’s little card was titled the many hats of mom and it had different questions and his answers. Some of his answers were too cute.

My mom is a cook. I love it when she makes: Mac N’ Cheese
My mom is a magician. She can always find lost things. Once she found: my goggles
My mom is a chauffeur. She drives me to: the ice cream store
My mom is a teacher. She taught me: how to make my bed
My mom is a nurse. She always makes me feel better when she: puts water on my ouchies
My mom is a sanitation worker. When she sees my room she says: Clean up your Room!

I have to admit it wasn’t much fun to wake up and get ready for church by 9 am, we didn’t have much time for breakfast but the rest of the day went very smooth. We spent the day with Spencer’s parents. His mom had dinner ready and everyone had a lovely time playing. What a relaxing and peaceful day that was. Thanks to my kids and my hubby for making me feel so special that day. Words cannot express how grateful I am to my Heavenly Father for being allowed to be the mother of my three wonderful children. I have learned and grown so much in the past six years and it is all because of them and their unconditional love.

Julia’s last soccer game

May 19th

It finally rolled along, the last game of the season for the Tinkerbells. Julia couldn’t have wished to finish the season with a better game than the one she had that day. She ended up scoring 3 goals and one of them was pretty cool. She kicked the ball into the net while the ball was suspended in the air. I don’t think even she could believe it. After the game they had a little awards ceremony where they got a medal.

Josh’s last day of swimming lessons

May 21st

Joshua was very excited for his last day of swimming lessons, mainly because they get to play on the toys for the last 10 minutes of the class at the Clearfield aquatic center.

By the end of his lessons he could go underwater for 4 seconds (we counted). He could float and do front crawl and back crawl. He was a little bit skeptical about jumping in the water but at the end he could do it all by himself.

Julia’s Field day

Julia was supposed to have a field day the Friday before but due to some heavy rain the school decided to have it on Monday instead. It was a perfect warm May morning. I think Julia woke up at 5:45 because so excited and could sleep any more.
She left at 11:00 and I went to pick her up at 3:00. They had water activities planned for the day so she got to wear her swimming suit. She got to bring lunch from home so she really enjoyed taking her lunch box to school. 
                            
cat nap
May 22nd

This is a random picture. It was Spencer’s day off and the boys had just finished cleaning and vacuuming the house for me, well after all that hard work a little break was truly needed.

Josh’s Joy school graduation.
May 24th

If you have your kids on a pay preschool all you have to do is sit and enjoy the show, but since I am doing Joy school for him it means that all the moms who participate get to put a program together and plan the whole event. I was in charge of reading the three little pigs’ poem. I had to dress up three tents and make them look like the pigs houses. Of course I procrastinated on getting the houses done so I overdid it. By the time we had the first practice with the kiddos I was in so much pain I thought Daniel was coming not to mention that we were all sick with a nasty cold.

The day finally came and we held the graduation at 6 pm. This was bad for poor Josh who had the worst of his cold that day. He was basically done for by the time we headed over to the community center.

That pledge of allegiance that he so dearly loves to recite never made it out of his mouth. He was such a trooper though, by the second song he had woken up enough to sing and do all the hand actions. I was so extremely proud of him to be singing and participating even though he was feeling so miserable.

The 8 kids on his class all sang cute songs that they learned throughout the year and some nursery rhymes along with the three little pigs story which turned out pretty cute.

The kids got a diploma and a bag of goodies at the end and for the grand finally they sang a song about what they wanted to be when they grow up. Josh’s part was he was going to be the President of the United States of America. He was thrilled about wearing his little suit for it.

It was a cute night and we spent it with cute friends. Thanks to grandma and grandpa for coming too.


Last day of Kindergarten for Julia

May 25th

It was so sad to realize that an entire year had gone by already, that my little girls is all done with kindergarten and is now moving on to first grade.
They had a lovely time. No graduation or program but they had a day filled with games and activities. She was so excited when I went to pick her up to tell me everything that they had done that day.
First thing she showed me was her report card which had 98% of satisfactory on English, reading, math and Spanish. Next, was her yearbook which had 4 pictures of her in it. A couple during field trips and 2 more with her choir.
Then she proceeded to show me her file folder with a details progress of her writing throughout the year. That night for bed time we read all of the stories she had written.
                                                                      

Finally she pulled out a piled of paper with names from her best friends along with a couple of noted from her teachers wishing her a happy summer. She was on cloud 9.

Funny thing one of the girls in my car pool who is in Julia’s class was saying what a sad day it was and Julia turned around and told her: “what!, we are first graders now”.

Memorial Day

May 28th

We are lucky enough that every Memorial Day Spencer’s parents invite us out for breakfast. This year we went to the Cracker Barrel. We were joined by Matt’s family.

                                          

                                              

                                              

After a yummy breakfast we had all planned to drive 90 minutes away to Heber City to see Thomas the tank Engine. The kids had been behaving extra good to go see Thomas. It was a much anticipated day!

Once we got there the kids were all in heaven. The event was really organized. They had activity centers for all the kids to do like a tattoo station a balloon station, golfing a hay maze and activity center and also a live band and magic show. The kids were so entertain the entire time. They even had a place to meet up with Sir Topenhat. Andrew, who is a big fan of Thomas, wanted nothing to do with him. He hid behind Julia’s legs during the picture

 

The best part of the day was waiting to get a ride on Thomas. The kids loved the 20 minute ride and it provided us with a nice and relaxing break.

               

                              
                       

We finished our memorial day by having a BBQ at Spencer’s parents.  The kids had a blast playing with each other and watching the dads and grandpa play a friendly game of horse.

Mud Bath

May 29th

I sent the kids to the backyard to play. The day before it had rain and our sand table was filled with water. After 20 minutes Julia comes in and tells me that I’d better take a look at Andrew because he is not listening to her. So I went outside and this is what I found. The kid had given himself a mud bath from head to toe.

That was our May crazy busy but fun and full of milestones.