bums and battlewounds

we had a pretty rough weekend....between hospital stays and stomach bugs, the smith family was TKO-d. slowly but surely we are on the mend. i tell ya though, i hope we don't have another one of those weeks in....well, forever!

just some of the battle wounds i received from multiple iv sticks....bad nurse!

on a lighter note...through her sickies, olivia did manage to give us a chuckle with dress up time. once again, she concocted quite an outfit. lazy day dress paired with jackon's undies that were then layered with daddy's underwear (no fear, they were clean!)...add a touch of bling and you've got westside's finest. hehehehe

cutie twosome

second day of school..my cuties

School Days 2010

well...its here. the first day of school 2010. i thought i would be able to make it without tears, but that was a no go! i actually got more choked up about jman then for olivia. Miss.O is a rockstar and i know she would love school.....especially since one of my very dear friends is her teacher this year! ms.julie rocks, hehe. This morning i realized that it was jackson's LAST first day at Ortega Playschool!!!!! (holding back the tears to write this). I cannot believe 4 years have passed that quickly. he is my baby, my love and i don't want to let go of this moment! well, enough mush...it was a great day for all. both kids made it to school with smiles on and both ran into class and did not look back. I, on the other hand....left drop-off and headed straight to boo-hoo breakfast with the ladies. we all commiserated over yummies at the fox and bid our munchkins prayers for a wonderful first day!!!

jackson-4yrs

first day photo at home....good luck loves

olivia-19mos

my handsome littleman...his LAST first day at OPS :-(

miss Olivia- first day in the toddler class. too cute

walking into school...thank the lord we quickly found friends to help with Mommy's' jitters.

our little ones waiting for school to start...the peterson girls, the hobgoods, the massey girls, the diggs family, the hogans, the summerfords and us...the crazy smiths

jackson and oficer massey...his favorite guy!!! made jackson's day to walk in with harry

meet and greet at OPS

its that time of year again...school is about to start! i cannot believe the summer is coming to a close and i cannot believe my two babies will be in school, TOGETHER!! this will be miss.o's first year and jackson's last year at OPS! olivia is the same age jackson was when he started....my, how time flies. i want so badly to stop time and freeze them at this age. they are both so cute. so this monday is meet your teacher day at school. jman was thrilled to go and olivia was just in a funk, totally not in the mood to get out of the house. all in all the school time was fun...chaotic, but exciting at the same time. we followed up the meet and greet with a back to school bash at the massey's house. just some fun with all our fav playschool families. the kids and mom's had a great time. Back to school.....here we come!

jackson- 4yrs 4months

miss.olivia-19 months

jackson playing at OPS Meet and Greet, now onto fun at the Massey house

a bouncing good time

yes that is jackson, and yes, he is in a snow white dress! oh well...he had fun and let me just say....i am in no way worried; he is ALL boy and he had fun in the girl stuff for the moment! haha nathan

family finale

so...as you have read and seen, we have had quite the family visits lately! we have loved them all and they surely made the summer time all that much better.....can i say, it flew by. our last visit was from my dad and bonnie. they rented a wonderful condo in summerhouse, st.augustine beach. it was large enough for us all to stay at. I have to say it was nice to just pack up and be in one place...and it allowed us more time together by skipping out the daily commute. we just all relaxed and enjoyed lots of fun in the sun.....by now, jackson has become a fish in the water and can swim like a pro. it is so cute to watch! Thank you papa and mia for a wonderful visit and for some spectacular dinners. hope to see you all very soon! xo

olivia amazed by the large turtle...he had a home right outside by the patio

my favorite men

the view from the condo

pool fun with papa

kissy fish

dinner at the Conch House

this pic makes me smile dad!

lovie

slacker

Ok...so i have to admit...i have totally slacked and let my blog posting get away from me! sorry readers...i did not mean to let u down, but it has just been a VERY busy last half of summer! we have had all of my family in town; all at different times, which made the actual visits more personal, but man did the time fly and i let so much pile up. So school is starting and i am slowly getting into my "routine" which makes me (and the rest of my fam) so much happier. routine=sanity!!!! for sure. I promise to keep the posts more frequent and equally as funny as ever. love to you all

bubble tub fun

miss.o finally got some alone tub time. we usually bathe the kiddos together, but we realized that they need some one on one time every once in a while....so this night, both kids got seperate bubble baths and boy oh boy did olivia have a ball. she was moving around so fast, this was the only shot that looked soo cute! i must say, olivia makes the bubbles look very adorable, nice choice for accessories, ha!

olivia-19months

all clean from the bubble bath tubby and enjoying some daddy time as well.

O'Briens...round 2

so with a weeks rest in between, my uncle joey and family made their way south to also share their summer vacay in jacksonville beach with us. they drove the long drive and had 10 fun days here with us wild Smith's. My aunt kathy and cousins had never been to Fl(at least not J-ville) and we were so excited to show them all over. they arrived late, but I had pizza and margharita's in hand for their arrival!!! have to show them the southern hospitality, right? I am trying to get them to move here ya know! They headed out to the beach where nathan's family were gracious enough open up for them! thank you kitty and wayne. we spent the week mostly out there with them at the condo...swimming, playing on the beach and eating out. we did hit st.augustine one day and toured the old fort and walked st.george street with a yummy lunch in between. I was also able to celebrate aunt kathy's birthday with her since they were actually here on the day!! i don't think i have done that with her since i was maybe 14 (erin's age, wow!!) we had a family dinner the night before at our house finished with of course, ice cream cake....an o'brien birthday must have! We did this because on her actual bday, the men...nathan, uncle joey, patrick, wayne and a friend of Nathan's took them off shore fishing while the girls got a day of shopping, spa treatments, VERY yummy lunch at Bahama Breeze, followed by more shopping, clothing change and dinner at Bonefish Grill!! the best day ever! i don't know how i will ever enjoy a pedi without them (guess u have to move here, wink). they did head further south in the middle of the week to see disney world and visit my aunt's family. We finished the visit with another day in the sun and a fabulous dinner at Joe's Crabshack. Thanks for letting us sleepover with u all, jackson still talks about that night.

jackson, un.j, patrick, aunt kathy, erin, me and miss.o

swimming fun

cousins

buddies

boys and girls in jail at the fort

lady love!

my buddy

older cousins

girls rule! aunt kathy, me , olivia and erin

the o'briens

boys and toys

family birthday dinner

miss.o and aunt "kassie" -that is how olivia says kathy

last family dinner-joe's crabshack

need i say more about these boys?

the piece 'de resist-ance....aunt kathy doing the birthday chicken dance in front of the entire restaurant