fab four

Happy 4th birthday miss Wesley!! wishing you a wonderful day full of fun, laughter, and sweet treats....seems like yesterday we were visiting you at the hospital for your birth-day. xoxo

wes as a princess...time flies

a new year to ring in

we celebrated the end of 2009 out to dinner with a wonderful group of friends at a great new restaurant.....the evening was filled with good times, lots of laughs and hopes for a better year to come. Thank you to the McAtees's, Vogt's, Hunt's and Hughes families for a great ending to the old and fresh start to 2010!!!

The Smith's in 2009

The whole Smith family in 2010....Happy New Year to all, may this one be better than ever!

christmas at kiki's

after wrapping up the morning at our house...we headed over to kiki and wayne-daddy's house for the annual breakfast in jammies and round two with gifts....the kids were in over-drive, but found much happiness in all that santa and everyone had for them there! we tried to get a pic of all the kids together, but at one minute or the next, someone was melting down for not wanting to sit for it....guess the best pic ended up showing jackson in full mood swing, haha!

christmas 2009-wesley(almost 4), olivia(11mos), alyce (2) and jackson(3 1/2)

attack of the tree, by miss.o

ear to ear grin on littleman...with new scooter

more wrapping paper flying!!

wesley and jackson playing with the new b-ball hoops

Christmas Cheer

getting ready for christmas this year has been a whirlwind to say the least...but the moment christmas morning rolled around, it made the craziness ALL worth it!! this was olivia's very first xmas and this year jackson really got the big picture. it was an amazing morning to share with our small, sweet family. Just watching both of them...the excitement, the newness, the light in both of them was the best blessing and gift nathan and i needed. we hope all of you enjoyed your day as much as we did. may we all have as many blessings and twice as much fun and laughter in the coming year.

olivia and her very first toy stroller-aka, walker!! she was in love with it

wrapping paper flying

olivia unwrapping her gifts

the only pic i could get of both together xmas morning...both too excited about all the toys to sit still

merry christmas sissy-love...she slept in later than brother

jackson and his favorite toy of the moment...transportation transformer

jackson checking to see if santa in fact ate the cookies he left and reading the thank you letter santa wrote

oh look.....see what santa left?!?!

one side of tree with gifts

twas the night before christmas.....

and all through the house, jackson had meltdowns and refused to go down!! the stockings were hung by the chimney with care, in hopes that st. nick will soon be here (maybe with coal for jman)......may jackson and olivia get snug in their beds so the visions of sugar plums will dance in their heads!!! (and mommy, daddy and Santa can get busy setting up).....merry christmas to all, and to all a good night!

our little sugar plum on the eve before her first christmas...jackson already crashed before i could get hi min the pic

Bah Humbug

this expression on Miss.O pretty much sums up how i have felt about the holidays this year....came on way too fast and not enough time to get caught up!!!

sneak peak

ok... thought i would give you an update from the work done over the weekend. plumbing and backsplash!! full size pics for the grand finale. thanks josh and tiff for all of you hard work and time given to our reno!

a work in progress

we have been in the process of renovations, probably since the day we bought the house, but our newest endeavor is our kitchen....this "original" masterpiece was quite the sight when we first moved in....two layers of wall paper, no lighting except for the interesting pizza hut style soffet lights, rippled stained nailed down in sections linoleum flooring, push button cooktops with one working burner,fruit themed non-working chandelier hanging from an interesting ceiling....and that is just the beginning. i could go on and on with descriptions. ok, so we have conquered this room in baby steps....first taking wall paper down, adding ceiling lighting in the beginning and then last year we did a little more...repairing the walls, painting and replacing the floors. most everything we have done with our own blood (hurt body parts), sweat(depending on the season and task) and tears (lots and lots of these, mostly from me!!) the final phase is in full swing as i am writing this entry. i am sitting amongst drywall dust, walls with holes and lots of dirt, but also around, new appliances and best of all New GRANITE countertops!! yay....the best christmas present ever. below are a few pics of the transformation. oh and the best part...this is being done the week before christmas. why do you say? because we are CRAZY, hence our blog name.

the kitchen with the original floors, wallpaper and older appliances, shortly after move-in

the new kitchen island and stools from Ikea (see the newer flooring and some new appliances)

remaining old cooktop and wall-oven being removed

the lovely non-functioning push button cooktop hood circa 1960 in the fabulous cocoa de mauve color

bye bye bubbling pinkish countertops and backsplash!

oh no...that cabinet was only held up by the backsplash. not one nail in it!!

piece de' resistance....the new counters and appliances (can you hear the angels singing AHHH)

live nativity

last night was the annual live nativity at Ortega Methodist. we love this time of year and for the past three, have made this a tradition with jackson. so sweet. this one, we met up with some friends beforehand at Che'Chikfila for dinner and play, then headed over to the church. it is really a great time...festive music, holiday games and activities, a manger petting zoo and the live story of the birth of jesus. I think this was the best year so far and it was a great time with family and friends...the cooler weather helped to set the scene too!

the story of jesus being told

jackson and halle claire listening very intently

miss olivia and her friend kerrigan all bundled snug as bugs

the kiddos enjoying some time with sheep, goats named billy, bunnies and the token chickens

oh christmas tree, oh christmas tree.....

with the holidays creeping up SO fast this year and with trying to get ready for miss O's big birthday, i felt a bit overwhelmed....so i opted out of my normal tree routine and took a new twist on tree decor. hence, my Santa tree. see below. with this idea (thanks lori) i was able to trim the tree in a much more easy way and if i feel like it, i can bag the whole thing and not worry about wrapping up and packing the million of other ornaments this year. at first i was a bit bummed about not getting to see all of my pretties that i have collected over the years, but once the santa-baby tree was complete...i thought it was so worth it; less-effort. what do u think?

my flash would not turn off, so u cannot see all of the pretty white lights on it...its not as bare as it looks in this shot