in loving memory

"Ami". gone too soon, but always in our hearts.

sunday in "O" town

Sunday, early morning we headed down to orlando *aka* "o-town, to help celebrate baby william's 1st birthday. he is our dear friend maren and shawn's son and our other "child" to us! we thought it would be an easy day trip..have some fun, cake and laughs. about 10 minutes into the ride down, i thought i wanted to jump out of my car and do a flying leap into the st. johns river!!! my kids were crazy. never before have they been so bad. olivia was screaming and continued to most of the way down, refusing to nap in any way. jackson was not "bad" unless u consider mexican mouth torture bad....i mean, seriously, he did not stop chatting the ENTIRE way. does not sound bad? try this...jackson, "hey Mommy?" me "yes jackson" j-"are we there yet? how long does it take? will the car get us all the way there? will there be trees on the road? how does the road get there? how many cars are with us? do we know them? why do we not know the other people on the road? are we there yet? there is a bird .....where is the bird going? e i e i ei ohhhhhhhh"" and so many more. mind numbing. i think i will send him to work with the CIA/FBI on interrogations or international torture techniques!!! on a positive note, once we pulled into maren's driveway, my blood pressure was restored to normal and all was good. the party was perfectly wonderful and the time together was great, although all too short. as always, we see each other for such brief moments, but they are great. Happy birthday mr.william!! may u have many more and may we get to see them all! xoxo

ps...the kids finally passed out for the trip back to jax (praise the lord)

mr.william

they sweet muchacho family

marinara (maren) ...miss o and nathan

two the future mr and mrs muchacho, hehehe

Lots of Ladylove

it was that time of year again...the March of Dimes, March for Babies 2010. This is our second time walking on a Family Team and so much has changed. We grew in so many ways...both in size of the team, closeness to friends and in our ability to make a difference. last year we were "love for Olivia" team and only had 4 walkers, raised a little over $700 but was thrilled to share in the day. This year, we gave ourselves a new name, Team Ladylove to encompass all our wonderful babies, had 20 adults and 9 children on the team, raised $2960, $40 shy of DOUBLING our goal of $1500!!! it was truly amazing to see us all come together...new friends, old friends and lots of family! a true miracle. our hope is to continue this tradition for as long as we all want to! thank you to all of our friends, family and walkers...for making Team LadyLove such a huge success and for all the friendship grown in the midst of it all.

almost everyone walking on our team....go team green

miss tiff, me and miss o

walking the walk( i can almost here our theme song as we walked....ha ha ha ha, stayin alive). next year, we need a boom box!!

miss O so proud!

halle claire peterson looking quite beautiful

emry cooling off with her yummy ice pop

jackson and olivia tuckered out from the walk and cooling down with sugar

the peterson-couey family

nathan, jackson, steven and miss claire

the reason we all walked

bootie-licious

smith family 2010

proof positive & pizzza

we geared up for the March for Babies walk this year with a pre-party the night before....just a little fun with all the walkers, sharing pizza and laughs, and celebrating all that we have to be grateful for from the MOD....our babies!!! we all had a story to share, a blessing to be thankful for, and miracles walking amongst us. we are all proof positive that the march of dimes makes miracles happen...and that every penny we collected will go to make other little lives better too.

ava, jackson, emry, audrey and halle claire enjoying some of the great dessert miss tiff made

miss O trying to get her bounce on (once a preemie...now super strong)

"vroom vroom, outta" my way says kerrigan ( also, a tiny fighter coming out a little early)

bouncing good times

addison showing off her need for speed ( proving that what u are given to start with sometimes makes you even stronger)

a tender moment

the other day i thought, "wow, its a little too quiet...what are the kids into now?" that oh-no fear set in.....you know, i think sometimes we, as moms, fear the worst and then god whispers, "have faith in them" to remind us that its not always a bad outcome. so in the midst of that "quiet" moment, i found this...{see pic}

jackson and miss o were just sitting, sharing a tender moment together. actually, jackson had pulled some books and was having a reading time with sister. God is good.....and so are my kids!! so my new motto is "have faith".

wassup....

this pic says it all....kickin' it, baby. oh miss o, you are a mess

monday, no funday

this picture pretty much sums up how the day has gone.....it has definitely been a double passy kind of day. miss o has just been off, totally not herself...fussy and nothing makes it better. that is until she put two passys together ( we have been making her leave them in her crib lately to help wean her). maybe its the four teeth she is cutting or we perhaps are on the cusp of getting ill (please, god, no!!) either way, if this is what helps sooth her, by all means...suck the double mute button woman!!

a beachy keen day

today, miss tiffany invited us to join them at her family beach condo.....at first i thought my kiddos would not make the treck in the car (about 45 min) b/c it was one of those mornings, but then i thought, what the what...why not, fussy at home or fussy in the car. maybe a day at the beach/pool would change the mood. well, it worked!! the kids had a blast, both at the pool and at the beach. i wish that i had taken my camera on the beach, but i did not have enough hands to ensure its safety and the kiddos come first. memories for the mind, right! nearly five hours of fun in sun, no fights and all fun...pure bliss. thanks tif (and many thanks to kayla for diving into cold pool water), for opening up your condo to us. we enjoyed it more than words!!! xo

miss o checking out what emry was playing

cute stuff

happy kiddos all around

jackson and elli "swimming" in the big pool, jman was so proud

two happy smith kids

this is what happens when: two kids + 5 hours in the sun= totally whipped

a blessed day

easter morning started off wonderfully...the kids slept longer and when they woke up, the easter bunny had arrived. in fact, he left a bunny kissed trail from jackson and olivia's rooms to where he "hid" their easter baskets!! very cool i must say (wink) hershey kisses down the hall and into the corner of the dining room. jackson was in awe and so cute to follow it. miss o missed out on round one of following it, but jackson was sure happy to show her again. after some early morning chocolate highs, we hit church. the kids were so good. jackson decided right before he made it to the children's blessing that he wanted to go to Ms.Jenns room, so miss.o was alone to sit through the kids prayer....and so proud to do it i might add. everyone in the church got a big chuckle at her "entertainment" . We filled the remainder of the day with a bit of rest, a quick kite flying experience (the bunny brought jman a kite, but there was no wind in sight) and then dinner at kiki's house for food and the final egg hunt of the year!! it was a wonderful family day.....a very blessed day indeed

kiss trail

the gold at the end of the sugar path

a quick snap shot before we headed to church

my oh my, how big you get miss olivia

my sweeties

little mama with mama

her one and only egg she picked

i love u daddy

stewart and jackson catching lots of fish

a lily of a day!

whew......i am just now trying to get caught up from the craze we had last week. every day was filled with celebrations and play. i would not change it though because amongst the craze are wonderful memories!!! so in saying that, saturday we went straight from timuquana cc to the Jones' girls birthday party at yacht club. It was too cute. a very girlie good time. the theme was lilly pulitzer and it was to die for perfect. everything from the guest attire, fruity drinks, table linens, cake and goodie bags were kissed with the pretty lilly designs. Jackson had a wonderful time and the weather could not have been better. thank you to the jones family for including us in the festivities! happy birthday caitlyn, claire and caroline.

as many of the children that we could get to sit at one time

jackson, miss.o, grace and blair massey

daddy's girl