"T" is for....

"T" is for ties and tutu's.......i am sure you can guess what jackson is learning at school!! on this day the theme was to be as manly or girlie as u can; all the boys wore ties like dads and the girls wore tutu's like ballerinas. it was so adorable to see them all together in the class. they had so much fun! look at my littleman...i captured these two shots right before heading off to school. jackson is not so into pictures these days, but he did manage to allow a couple!

jackson "posing" like a jcrew model

jackson telling me" no more pics please mom"

catch up

so, i have taken a little break lately from posting, mostly because there just isn't enough time in the day. all is good in the smith household. we actually have had lots of fun lately. we celebrated valentines, and this year, we did a sitter swap with good friends, which allowed all to have a really good time away carefree!!! Thanks "T". the weekdays seem to be flying by, but in a fun way with friends. it is so surreal to see jackson growing and changing into a littleman in front of me. miss "o" too. she has had big changes too....she is almost running around, getting girlier by the day with jewels and purses and mostly her "baby dolls". she is talking up a storm, mostly some funny jiberish, but also with a few "real" words mixed in like... baa-by (baby), bubba (jackson), neow for meow, ra ra- for woofing like a dog and as always mama and dada. sometimes she even sounds like she is trying to ask "what dat, what dis" as she points at things. amazing to see her little brain absorbing things like a big sponge. four more teeth too. stop growing miss O, your killing me! where is my baby going??? she ad her 12m well check at the dr the other day and got flying colors! right on track for growth in weight and height...strong and steady as the dr put it and above average on verbal skills and dexterity!!! you go girl....

on an adult note, last weekend nathan let me head out for the entire day with the ladies!! so lucky and SO very overdue. we of course went shopping and had a wonderful time. we did it all...the outlets and the towncenter and a great lunch in between. don't get us wrong, we did plan ahead a bit...scheduling a shared daddy-daycare at the smith house with all the men and kids so that the daddies had each other for support and the kids had play time fun. The ladies got to leave at 9 am and we did not return until after 5pm!!!! a full day of fun, laughs and relaxation. the best recharge i have gotten since miss o was born....thanks dads and ladies for a wonderful time...til next time.

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"R" is for....

"R" is for rollerskate!! every week jackson learns a different letter of the alphabet and this week was "R". and with that learning comes show and tell on thursdays that coordinates to the letter, so this week jackson chose his rollerskates.....but he did not want to bring them, he wanted to WEAR them to school. this got interesting because until now, he has not worn them for more than 5min and on carpet for that matter. i did not have the heart to say no, so what did i do??

I carried him to the car, out of the car and into school. lets just say, my back hurt a bit..not used to carrying a nearly 4 yr old on the hip. it was worth it though just to see the look on his face telling me how much fun he had showing them at school....he felt like a super cool man.

oh how big he is getting, and fast the time has gone!

ohhh...poor chloe

poor chloe..shes had it rough with jackson chasing her, but now she gets tag-teamed by both kiddos. fortunately, they are good to her most of the time and just want to smother her with hugs....there is, however, the occational clump of hair pulled out by miss o, but chloe takes it like a champ.....just grins and bears it!! she is such a sweet dog.

double the love

a handful of hair about to be out

i want to hug her...no me, no me!!

puppy love

a year of wonder

one year ago today was one of the happiest days for our family....we were able to bring miss olivia home from the nicu after 19 long days struggling to gain strength and eat. funny how much has changed in one year. this time last year, nathan and i were begging miss O to eat 19cc's of food and now we fight her to stop eating everything in sight! she has proved to be an amazing eater and boy has she grown fast!! in looking back at our journey, it makes me sad, happy, full of tears and amazement. we were filled with such fear; fear of the unknown, fear of the pain she was going through, and fear of how it would all turn out. thanks to the nurses, doctors and advancements in the medical field, we have our little miracle with us today.

miss olivia a few days after her birth

the day we got to steal her from the hospital staff....her revised birth date, January 26th, 2009

look at her today...a girl and her bling. our little walking miracle. january 25th 2010

Please help others like me who had to endure the challenges of being born too early, a nicu and the march of dimes!! without the help of MOD, we would not have come so far so fast in medicine to allow babies like me to survive. The March of Dimes makes miracles happen....please donate today and allow a baby the best fighting chance they can have!! just follow the link on my page.....every penny counts.

Thanks and much love

Miss Olivia

circus fun

ringling bros circus landed in jacksonville this year and we were lucky enough to take jackson again. last year, nathan surprised jman and i with tickets to the show as a mommy and me date.....see, when the circus was last in town, miss O was just born and still in the hospital. jackson had been a trooper putting up with being shuffled from sitter to sitter and i had just a "teeny weeny" bit of mom guilt because of it. it was the best day for both of us in so long and i very much enjoyed the one on one time with my little guy. this year, we decided that daddy should be included, but sissy would still stay home with kiki. Littleman still has to share us so much of the time with littlemama, we thought he deserved a date with just mommy and daddy (and a few friends). all in all, it was so much fun. jackson enjoyed the show even more this year and danced his fannie off the whole time (video of this to come soon).

jackson aka ringmaster

jackson suckering daddy this year into a "not" so cheap spinner

my little love

mama on the move

little mama is walking like crazy and getting into things jackson never thought to do....most other babies have done it, but it is new to me. baby-proofing has gone to a whole new level in our house. funny thing though, with as much as olivia is walking...the pics below catch her on all four. when she wants to get somewhere faster, she still crawls. oh my, what do i have in store to come?

toilet paper tag...she was squealing in delight during this pic

olivia trying to catch me as i chased her around the house

Happy Birthday

Happy birthday Daddy-O aka Nathan. We hope you have as wonderful a day today as you provide for us to have every other!! thank you for sharing your life with us!!!! xoxoxox

Nicole, Jackson and Olivia

silly moments

after many busy days last week , we have taken this one much slower. enjoying time with littleman and miss.o. family time and some fun playdates too. the weather slowly got warmer and today finally hit some "florida style" winter digits, yay! here are some quick pics of our funny outtakes

spaghetti dinner....who wore it better, the bib or miss. olivia's face, hahaha?!?!

playing with the remaining balloons from the party...man, they were worth the $$. still going strong almost a week later

if i had known that balloons would make littlemama so very happy, i would have not stressed about getting her a real"gift".

playdate with friends...music madness

finley cate showing miss.o the ropes of playing