Smith Family

All Caught UP Finally....

2009-12-05T18:39:00.000-08:00

We Won

Most SPIRITED - "Buddy the Elf" Award

Paul was super psyched because we got to take home the Karate Kids Movie from the White Elephant Exchange!!!

LET IT SNOW - Dec 4th

This is the boys Christmas gift! They got it a little early!

BOWLING - Dec 3rd

Eric was so cute and did such a good job for his 1st time.

I didn't have to help him at all, he was a pro!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY

Happy Thanksgiving

2009-11-26T18:28:00.000-08:00

35 degrees and Eric decided to pull his pants down around his ankles and refused to pull them back up.

Getting Old...

2009-11-22T18:22:00.000-08:00

Happy Halloween

2009-10-31T14:52:00.000-07:00

Eric was super proud of his Halloween Castle!
Paul made his costume this year - he was Sid from Toy Story.
He made his shirt and even made braces to wear!

WARD TRUNK OR TREAT

You can't see it really well, but we had lights all over, a ghost that went back and forth, smoke, and tonz of candy!!!

Paul took home the Prize for Best Decorated Car!!!

HALLOWEEN IN HEMPSTEAD

"You've never experienced Halloween until you have scared

_ _______ ________."

- Brian Black

I haven't done a Halloween in Hempstead since we got married, so it was fun going back and doing Halloween how it's supposed to be done!

We have a long spooky driveway, where people are jumping out of bushes with chainsaws, skeletons are falling from trees, spooky music playing, and best of all... tonz of screaming people!

Happy Birthday Brent - 18

2009-10-20T14:33:00.000-07:00

We had a surprise party for my bro. Brent at

Texas Roadhouse!

All the Friends and Fam that came...

Brandon - Linsay - Brittani

also had a Birthday in October!

Happy Birthday!!!

DH 5 Year Reunion

2009-10-10T14:09:00.000-07:00

Kristi and I decided to have a get together to catch up with all of our classmates. I can't believe it's already been 5 years since graduating! Yippee!

I put my brother in charge of being the photographer.

As you can see he did a great job :)

Paul and I (this is about 2 weeks after the accident)

Brenda - Kristi - Heather

Jimmy - Laura - Pam

Sandra's Daughter - Sandra - Sandra's Sancho ;)

Eric Starts School

2009-10-05T13:27:00.000-07:00

1st School Picture

His favorite part is riding the Bus to and from school!

All tuckered out after a long day ;)

Cozumel

2009-09-28T12:58:00.000-07:00

Scuba Diving -

We got certified 2 years ago and were so excited to finally go!

Here's a picture I took with my underwater camera.

Here is the group we went with:

Paul had mask squeeze that broke every blood vessel in his eye and ended up turning them black, blue & red!

For the rest of the trip he wore snazzy glasses so he wouldn't scare everyone.

These pictures don't do it justice, his eyes were pretty scary.

I wasn't sure if they would ever heal, but they finally did 4 weeks later.

The boys were excited to see their Daddy again, I don't think they even noticed his eyes.

They just love their Daddy :)

Eric is 3

2009-09-27T12:43:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Eric!!!

We love You!

Brittani & Adam Keller

2009-09-19T05:34:00.000-07:00

The BLACK Family

The SMITH Family

The Musical KELLER Family

The BLACK Siblings

The BLACK Beauties

The ENTIRE BLACK Clan

The ENTIRE KELLER Clan

Going to the Temple

2009-09-12T05:25:00.000-07:00

Congrats Brittani!

Our designated Bag holder!

The Black Girls

YW Get Married

2009-09-09T04:55:00.000-07:00

I work with the Young Women in our ward so we did a night were we talked about about getting married and Choosing the Right Man!!!

It was a lot of fun and hopefully the girls got something out of it!

Thanks to everyone that helped out and let us borrow decorations and trusted us with your wedding dresses!!!

Emily

Maddy

Victoria

Becky

Hannah

Matty

Dez

Deven

Canton

2009-09-05T04:44:00.000-07:00

We decided last minute to take a trip to Canton (a huge decorating place for people that want cute houses) and this was by far my favorite find...

I think we ate more then doing anything else! We made sure to have appetizer, main course, and dessert at each meal! This is what I picture it will be like in Heaven ;)

Owen's First Year!

2009-08-20T04:10:00.000-07:00

Before I had kids and was the perfect parent, I told myself I would never do certain things. Well, I've realized why people let their kids do those certain things (like eat suckers while getting their picture taken) because if you don't they turn into this....

OWEN'S FIRST YEAR

Newborn

1 Month

2 Months

3 Months

4 Months

5 Months

6 Months

7 Months

8 Months

9 Months

10 Months

11 Months

1 YEAR

Wet and Wild Party

2009-08-19T03:42:00.000-07:00

We came up with a crazy idea to put a bunch of kiddie pools in the back yard and have a big party! It was a little hot, but lots of fun!

August

2009-08-15T22:53:00.000-07:00

OWEN SURVIVED

Eric loves playing in the car and has figured out how to lock it, but not open it! Anyways, he locked Owen and himself in the car during the hottest part of the day - don't ask me how. Luckily I was able to call a locksmith and he came immediately and saved my babies. Poor Owen though was as bright as a cherry by the time he got out. He drank 2 full sippy cups of water, before crashing in bed!

CAKE PARTY

Linsay and Jenny are awesome, they came and taught all my YW how to decorate cakes! They all went home with beautiful cakes and had a lot of fun!

1st TIME

This is the 1st time Eric has ever randomly fallen asleep while not in his bed or car seat. I guess nursery really wore him out! It's so cute, because if you look close enough you can see mini nilla wafers still in his hand that he just didn't have enough energy to eat.

WYATT'S BABY BLESSING

Poor kitties! Eric was in Heaven, cats, ice cream, and cousins! What else could a boy want?

HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY OWEN!!!

I decided to make fish cupcakes again! BIG MISTAKE! It's totally worth the $50 just to have someone else make something cute, unless you are doing something really simple. Don't attempt these unless you know what you are doing and have an extra 12 hours to spare!

We had a pool party and here are the boys chillin at the pool. Paul decided to lay out until he looked more like Brent :)

Owen was getting cranky until we put that cupcake in his mouth! He couldn't stop chowin it down even to breath!

Opening presents! He got some cool gifts! A catepillar from Grandma and a Mr. Potato head from Aunt Jessica!

He was tuckered out and crashed immediately when he got into the car! It's so fun having him face forward now! That was his favorite gift was moving into his big boy car seat!

BRITTANI IS A NURSE!!!

We are so excited for Brittani who just finished nursing school. I did another marathon drive to San Antonio and back, but I wouldn't miss this for the world. All the nurse graduates did their final walk in RED shoes! Too cute!

We are so proud of Brittani who received the MOST AMAZING NURSE award and will have her name engraved on a plaqe that will hang in the school Forever! Congrats again!!!

We decided to all pose for the picture!

WARD YOUTH CONFERENCE

PRICE BABY BLESSING

It's so fun having so much family in Texas! My parent's where the pioneers that moved to Texas for school and now we have over 40 relatives that have joined us!!! Texas is the best! Hurry, move on down!!!

The Complaining can now STOP....

2009-07-22T22:12:00.000-07:00

I have been complaining for years about our wedding pictures and Paul was sick and tired of hearing about it, so 6 years and 2 kids later we set out to get married again. I rented a tux, bought some flowers, used our fabulous photographer, and we did it all over! Paul never realized he would have to marry the same girl twice! Anyways, I'm so excited to print some pictures off. There were so many good ones, but here are some of my very favorite....

June

2009-06-28T21:43:00.000-07:00

Good-Bye Party for Brindlee :(

Grandparent Time!!!

We had a June full of grandparents! Every house we went to we had more Grandparents, but I don't think you can ever have enough!!!

Our first stop was Grandma/pa Smith! They had fun with craft time!

We even made a trip to Idaho and were spoiled rotten by Grandparent's Lee! Eric's new word is fire truck so they took us by the fire house and we got a full tour!

And of course we stopped by Grandparent's Black to say Hi! We always love our visits!

While we where in Idaho we were able to see our good friends Jaime and Craig! We sure do miss you guys! Thanks for letting us stop by and say Hi!

When we got back it was cousin Heaven!!! We had 5 little boys and Eric just loved it! He especially loved his Aunt Heather who did everything for him!

Happy Father's Day!!!
What Great Dad's! They even made the dinner!
Owen's First Haircut!

May Update

2009-06-07T03:46:00.000-07:00

SCHOOL IS OUT :(

Eric had MDO every Wednesday morning and loved it! He really misses his friends and especially his Great Teachers!!!

Only 83 more days.... but who is counting?

Why I Only Blog every Few Months......I can't find my desk!

This is so embarrasing, I have a million projects and I need to figure out I can't do them anymore with 2 kids!

CANNING

I was so proud of myself that I finally learned how to can Jam!

Every year Paul hints to me that his mom and sisters are making jam and it would really be nice if I did too.

So Happy Father's Day Paul, here is your stinkin Jam!

It really is good though!!!
TDA - SAN ANTONIO

My mom is the best!!! She watched the kids while Paul and I went to TDA for the weekend! It was so fun and I think the first weekend we've had together without ANY kids!!!

BRITTANI IS ENGAGED!!!

I'm so excited, my little sister is getting MARRIED!!!

Congrats again!!!

I got married again too, but I'll post those pictures next month ;)

TEMPLE TRIP

Here's our awesome YW!

I love how the guys always try to jump in our pictures!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Happy Birthday Rachel!

OWEN IS 9 MONTHS!!!

I can't believe he is already 9 months!

He's crawling...eating real food...
goes up the entire flight of stairs without falling...

and can pull himself up, especially to watch veggie tales!!!

April Update

2009-06-07T03:22:00.001-07:00

Happy Easter!!!

MATAGORDA

This is why you don't take kids out to eat. We turn around and next thing we know both kids are playing in the water and we have to fish them out!!!

HANDPRINTSI think this is so cool. One of my YW has her entire bathroom covered in handprints and names, so of course we all had to leave our mark while we where over there!

WHAT - It's ALREADY April? - March Update

2009-04-05T00:28:00.000-07:00

This is what happens when I leave the boys alone for less then 30 seconds. Eric was eating yogurt at the table and must have thought Owen was hungry so he loaded up his spoon and headed over to Owen. Anyways, this is how I found him!

I went ahead and put Owen at the table so Eric could feed him better.

It's always a treat to have Mom, Dad & Brent come visit!!!

Rockets Game

It's weird saying Rockets instead of Spurs! I'm still a huge Spurs Fan! Go Tony Parker GO!!!

Eric has just found that he can ride UNDER the Cart! This is now how he prefers to travel when we go grocery shopping.

YW is SWEET!!!

We did New Beginnings and the theme was YW is sweet. So we made sure to have TONZ of candy. I was in charge of the new YW gifts and so I did little candy buckets with their names on them. I thought they turned out pretty cute. I'm NOT crafty at all, so anything that is somewhat presentable I am VERY HAPPY!!!

Paul is a SURVIVOR-

He is now known as Scar Face and is not let out of the house without TONZ of sunblock, because this beautiful Face-Lift cost us over 3 Grand!

YW BOARD

I had to post some pictures of the YW board that we did, because I thought this turned out soo cute! The girls did such a great job, and people can't help but to stop and look at it! It's now the new hang out place, and the boys now try to jump into any of the pictures I take so they can make it onto the YW Board!

SPRING BREAK

I am excited that Spring Break was ONLY a week! Everyday our neighbors house was either beaned, TP'd, or egged. Our other neighbor had the front of his glass door broken and there were just WAY too many kids out! I'm getting TOO OLD to put up with their nonsense!

TIME OUT FOR WOMEN

We missed Heather for this Time Out, but we are excited because we are going to California for the next one to be with her! We had a great time hanging out, and survived the Gi-NORMIC ANTS that were in our hotel room. In the two days we stayed at the hotel we stayed on all 3 floors, and mom ended up getting the place for free!

It's nice getting spiritually uplifted and getting some time to reflect without crying kids! Thanks Mom for always giving us these times together!

CRYSTAL'S BIRTHDAY DINNER

Friends are so great! Thanks for inviting me to come hang out with you guys and Happy Birthday Crystal!!!

VICTORIA'S BIRTHDAY!!!

We are so excited to have a New Young Woman!

We all got together and went to Chili's to celebrate! We even got some cool hats!!!

DAVE RAMSEY

This was EXCELLENT!!! Anyone that wants to know how to better manage their money in these crazy economic times, or just have more control, this is a MUST! He is really FUNNY and is a MUST see if he is in a town near you! You can also listen to his radio show or watch him on FOX Business.

MARCH MADNESS

We are having a little March Madness tournament at our office! I just thought this trophy was too cool! Anyways, to see who wins visit our BLOG.

TWO BOYS IN A TUB!!!
Sorry everyone, I got the CUTEST BOYS EVER!!!
I love Eric's pose in this! Who does he think he is!
We are working on Eric talking and I think in this video he says his first word without being prompted! He is always cracking us up!

Happy Valentine's Day!

2009-04-04T23:06:00.001-07:00

With only 24 hours notice and a VERY AMAZING HUSBAND,

for Valentine's I ditched the boys and went on a cruise!!!

SO FUN! This was my first time, so for those of you that haven't experienced cruise life, let me just show you a few of the highlights!

Isn't this amazing! They made this special for Valentines!

We went out of Galveston, and even though it has been picked up a lot, you can still see a lot of damage and garbage left over from Hurricane Ike.

Here is our ship!

It was definitely ECSTASY!

Here was our table we ate at every night and some of the food!!!

FOOD

Usual Meal: 2 appetizers, main course, dessert, hot chocolate + anything else you wanted!!! We ate like that at least 3 times a day with free snacks/pizza in between meals!!!

CARD GAMES & SHOWS

After meals we headed to the theater to get our seats and play some cards.

Each night they had some type of performance to watch which usually consisted of half-dressed girls, comedians & a professional juggler!

SPIN CLASS

I was a little too ambitious one day and decided since I actually packed work-out clothes I should actually use them. Mom & I signed up for a spin class which cost us $10 each and what I think was a total WASTE!!! There is no point in working out on a cruise so DON'T DO IT!

DENTAL SEMINAR

We even got 6 hours of CE while on the cruise! How cool is that.

In the picture is the guy that put on the seminar!

PUTT-PUTT GOLF!

It was a little windy, but we had to try it out!

We got one hole in before it poured down rain on us!

TATOOS

I had to do something crazy while I was gone, so I got a tattoo!

CHOCOLATE FOUNTAIN &

ICE SCULPTURES

TOWEL ANIMALS

Every day they would make our beds and then leave a cute animal on it to greet us when we got back. Mom actually went to a class and learned how to fold these!

COZUMEL - ATV RIDES

To make our Cozumel trip memorable we all got one heck of a Mexican Massage!

I had to get this picture because YES we were the LAST ONES ON THE BOAT!!! And when I mean last, we weren't close to being last, WE WERE LAST!!! We were AMAZING SHOPPERS!

DANCING

HOTT TUBS

The biggest downfall about being pregnant is no Hott Tubb, so I took full advantage of my Hott Tubb time!!!

ELVIS!!!

Elvis even came and did a performance!

Here's the group of us! Thanks Mom and Dad for letting me jump in on the FUN!!! It was AMAZING, and a great get-a-away for me!!!

February Update

2009-04-04T21:35:00.000-07:00

Alycia's Baptism

Alycia turned 8 so of course we had to get together and CELEBRATE! We are so proud of her making the choice to get baptised. I would have gotten some pictures of her at the baptism, but my camera died before then. We did get to go to the Medieval Times which was a LOT of fun!!!

Brent's Basketball Game!

Can you find Brent in the huddle? Hint: He is the only White boy!

You don't get the true feel of where I grew up unless you go to a basketball game and someone gets kicked out! Gotta luv it!

Everytime we tried taking a picture we somehow adopted a new kid!

Anyways, I guess you could just pretend Paul was Black ;)

Mom's Birthday!!!

Happy Birthday Mom!

Yes, I made the cake and No it wasn't any good.

It looked good but I think I used the wrong chocolate.

To celebrate Mom we all went and had pedicures...

Went out to eat at her favorite... Red Lobster...

Then came back for Cake and Games!!!

Madison and Eric get VERY EXCITED to see each other! This is Eric giving Madision the ride of her life!

Baby Fight! Watch out!

YW Sleepover

Paul was out of town for another dental course so some of the YW came over and we partied like it was 1999 or more like it was 2009! Anyways, so much fun! Next time we are getting a disco ball and maybe we will visit a few more people ;)

Children's Dental Health Month

Remember to Brush your kids Teeth and get their check-ups!
I got to go into Eric's school and talk to the kids about going to the dentist and taking care of their teeth! It was a lot of fun and they were so cute!

January Update

2009-01-31T06:28:00.000-08:00

I just love the Young Women in our Ward and so does Owen. We had a meeting last Sunday and he didn't stop flirting with them entire time.

For our activity we Modge Podged letters. I think they turned out so cute and the girls loved them! Thanks Lyssa for helping me out!

HAPPY 6 MONTHS

We are official! For our 6 month anniversary we finally got our sign up and my favorite cousin Shad, I mean Clark, put up our vinyl. He is really good and does anything you need done. You can check out their site at: http://www.stickyourthoughts.com/store/index.php

I can't believe Owen is already 5 months! He is just our Growen Owen!!!

The girls at work bought Paul a Hammock for Christmas and it's become an immediate favorite whenever kids come over!

I think this is so cute! Eric has recently learned how to turn on/off my camera and so if I'm not careful where I leave my camera sometimes I find random photos. These are some I found on my camera recently....

He's becoming quite a professional photographer!

I Love Brittani!!!

2009-01-20T13:15:00.000-08:00

I just love Brittani, she is my number 1 FAN!
I have been a huge slacker when it comes to blogging, and pretty much everything lately, and she has reminded me a few times now I need to UPDATE my blog! So here are a few of the Christmas pictures that never got posted!

Here's some more of Owen! If your wondering if he wore anything else for the month of December the answer is NO. I needed to make sure I got my money's worth out of this santa suit!!!

Owen even surprised Dad's office when he showed up to give them their X-mas bonus! He takes his JOB as Santa VERY Seriously!

FAMILY NATIVITY

Brittani directed our family nativity this year and did an AMAZING job! She even made all of our costumes and made a program for all of our fans that night!

Brian and Jami paid off Brittani and so they got the lead role as Mary and Joseph and Jackson starred as Baby Jesus.

Brittani got promoted this year to a shepherd instead of a donkey! We hope she can advance to the Mary role soon. Brent also was a stud of a shepherd too!

Madison was a little angel! She had a hard time picking what costume she wanted to wear so she tried wearing all of them.

Paul and Owen were the WISEMEN!!! I absolutely LOVED their costumes! Eric was a Wismen too, but he was grumpy and so he got fired and sent to bed early.

Christmas Morning! My mom sure knows how to spoil us!

Santa got me a fire pit this year and a bag of coal! I must have been REALLY good ;)

Despite the rumors, I LOVED my fire pit! Paul's parents even got to come down and enjoy it with us! Hopefully, next time though, Paul won't share his other presents with us too ;)

Merry Christmas!!!

2008-12-22T07:21:00.000-08:00

We are so blessed to have such great friends and family. Thank you for all of your love and support, we hope you know how much we appreciate you.

I hope we can all take time to remember Christ and have a

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!

Happy Thanksgiving

A Little late, but better then never.

Paul went to the ranch and Brittani and I hung out and raked pine needles!!! I'm starting to not like all those trees.

I love bumbos, Owen just loves his.

We went to the park and Eric went down this slide at least 50 times! It really is FUN!!! I love his monkey hanging pose!

Brent showed up all the guys with his HUGE buck! Next year Paul wants to go to Kansas so he can get his!

Grandpa and Eric hanging out! So cute!

Trey was trying to imitate Owen's big cheeks here, Owen still has him beat though!

Madison was so cute pushing Owen in her stroller!

Great-Grandma/pa came and hung out with us a few days after Thanksgiving!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAUL

COMMUNITY TRAIN RIDE

IT SNOWS IN TEXAS

CREEKWOOD PARTY

We have such a great team that does so much for the office. We wanted to do something fun and wish we could do more. We went out to eat and then gave them a bag of gold coins to spend on themselves.

VISITING TEACHING BRUNCH

VICTOR - RN

Victor's officially a Registered Nurse! We are so excited for him. It was so fun to be there and we were so proud of him when he received the Excellence in Nursing Award. He got a nice check, but most of all he gets his name on a plaque at the school.

LAZER TAG

You would think growing up in a hunting family I would be kind of good at lazer tag, but no. I was just a good target for everyone.

Twilight

2008-11-23T12:30:00.000-08:00

Getting Ready for the Movie!!!

1 - Round up some Edward Obsessed Fans!!!

2- Eat Tonz of Junk Food

3- Play Dumb games around the fire and see who the most obssessed fan is!!!4- Drive to the Theater

5- Send the Hott Blonde Moms to talk to the manager so we could get the best seats in the Theater!!!

6- Complain the whole way home about how ugly Edward was!

Anyways, we had a fun time. It was fun getting out with the girls and staying up till 1:30am. We can still hang with the teenagers! We may have all been zombie mommies in the morning, but oh well, I usually am.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!!
Thanks to everyone that made this such a special day! I am so blessed to have such wonderful friends and family.

I decided to just have a day to do what I wanted, and so that is exactly what I did. I rarely have a b-day that isn't during the Thanksgiving holidays, so I got very excited I didn't have to share it with the turkey! So for my b-day I did the twilight party with all the girls, got a facial, did my hair, went to the mall, and then Paul took me on a date to an AMAZING restaurant - AMERICAS in the Woodlands! They had YUMMY food and Awesome service. I have never been to a restaurant with that type of service before in my LIfe. After dinner we ended with a movie - Eagle Eye - a MUST see!!! I have decided though, that next year I am checking into a hotel with a hott tubb and a good book!!! There is no such thing as having a relaxing weekend when you have children and a hubby at home!

Eric has recently learned how to take pictures with my camera and I think it is so cute. I had to post a couple of the first pictures he has ever taken.

I get accused sometimes of being the one to have all the fun, but Paul definitely has his share of weekends of no responsibility, he just never takes any pictures of them. He did finally get some pictures at the ranch he went to with some of the boys from the ward. They had a lot of fun and Wyatt even got a deer. I wish the videos would have worked, it's hilarious to see what boys consider fun!

Halloween Part II

2008-11-04T14:05:00.000-08:00

I don't know which is scarier, Halloween or the

Election today!!!

I decided to vote for Real CHANGE so I voted for the 2 most

unqualified people running-

Obama & Palin

I'm a little behind, but here are some pictures from Halloween.

Jen and Kelsey threw a super spooky Halloween party which was a lot of fun! They had a jumping house for the kids, scary decorations and tonz of yummy food.

Eric looks like he just saw a ghost!

Owen really got into Halloween too and could even hold his own candy bucket.

I love My little skeletons!!!

Eric even got to ride on Rob's 4-wheeler. That was his favorite part of the night I think!

ROCKETS BASKETBALL GAMEPaul got 2nd row seats to the basketball game that he just couldn't pass up! So my brother Brent and him went and had a ton of fun! Next time though, Paul needs to finish his Homework first. He was up all night getting stuff done, and wondering why I wouldn't help him at midnight. Do men ever grow up??? And they wonder why their wives turn into bossy old witches.

Don't worry, Paul never reads what I write.

He is SOOOOOO TALL!!!

Brittani's HOTTIE!!! Oh yeah, and Time Out For Women!

2008-10-29T12:57:00.000-07:00

TIME OUT FOR WOMEN

My Mom is Awesome! She organized and planned a great weekend for all the girls! We all came back more spiritualized, better wives and moms (but who wouldn't after 2 ENTIRE days off with NO KIDS!!!) We cried, had lots of laughs, and had so much fun being with each other! Thanks for making it possible Mom!!!

SURPRISE BIRTHDAY

For BRITTANI & Her HOTTIE

My sister Heather couldn't go back to Utah until we met Brittani's GORGEOUS MAN!!! We know nothing else about him except HE IS HOTT!!! So my mom planned a surprise b-day for Brittani and invited the HOTTIE to come!!!

I have never felt so loved, I guess after 2 days of not seeing mom and only having Dad, they were really excited to see ME!

DRUM ROLL PLEASE......
HERE IS MATT THE HOTTIE!!!

Brittani was way surprised, especially when she saw Matt there too!!! I don't know how she even remembers her name around him! Anyways, after dinner they walked to her car and got "LOST", but she finally made it to our hotel to hang out with all the girls!

Everyone thought he looked like my cousin Brandon and so I had to get a picture of the twins. Sorry Brandon, I think you may have gotten beat a little bit on the Hottness Factor!!! Even the guys who came to the party admitted that he was HOTT!!!

But this is What a PERFECT 10 looks like...

I know everyone wants my Man, but Sorry, he is taken! I especially love when he wears his headgear and dentures, now that is a turn on :)

I love you Babe!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRENT

We all got together on Sunday to celebrate my younger brother Brent and say good-bye! So sad! Before we all left though, I realized all my brothers and sisters were here so we took some pictures!!!

I don't know who took this picture, but it just makes me laugh!!! I Look so STUPID, but it's the typical candid family photo. Me being bossy, Brent and Brian egging me on, Brittani trying to be the peacemaker, and Heather just shaking her head wondering why she was the only one that turned out right! I love it!

Here's the entire Black Fam from oldest to youngest and of course our amazing parents! I think they did a pretty good job!!!

BACK TO REALITY

It was sad to go back home and realize I had to unpack, do laundry, pay bills, clean, cook and all the other fun things that go along with motherhood, especially when we are ALL SICK, except for Paul. It all makes it worth it though, when you turn around and see all the cute things your kids are doing. Apparently, Eric has seen me giving Owen medicine and thought he would help out too. So whenever Owen cries, Eric runs over and gives him his medicine.

My 10 Month Vacation is OVER

2008-10-22T22:46:00.000-07:00

I haven't had a calling at church in over 10 months, and last Sunday Paul got fired from Cub Scouts so I could be in Young Women's, I couldn't have been more excited. Now he can stay home with two crazy boys, while I have a night out with the funnest girls ever!!!

Eric was so excited to have Daddy home and I think Paul enjoys it too. They have what they call Movie Wednesday and they get to pop popcorn and watch whatever movie Eric wants too!!!

The thing about young women's is they put you to work right away. I was in charge of making the invitations for YWIE and already did my first activity last night!!! Of course I wanted them to like me so I decided a Willie Wonka Night was a must!!! They needed to get their taste buds ready for Halloween and a few cavities never hurt anyone!

Some of the activities included:

Mike Teevee's Cowboy Rope

Fizzy Lifting Drink

Working for Veruca Salt

Taste Test

Chubby Augustus

Violet's Bubble

The Golden Ticket

Well, the activity was a success and I have Hillery to thank for the awesome activity! I'm really excited about being in young women's again. I get to work with the Beehives too! The only thing that is really different is we combine mutual activities with 3 wards.

Heber Davis Family Reunion

2008-10-19T23:39:00.000-07:00

This is what happens when I let Paul take over and take the 2 month pictures...

The Pilot was nice enough to let Eric fly the plane!

Paul and Eric with Grandpa and Coleen Smith

Reunion Time!!!

Here's the Entire BLACK clan!!!

Here's the JOHN DAVIS family!

Whenever Eric was thirsty we would just lay down and lick the water off of the cement! GROSS!!! I'm surprised he didn't get sick! It's not like he only did this once, everytime I turned around he was on the floor drinking water off the ground.

My Dad is amazing he drove 29 hours by himself to Mesquite to bring stuff we would need for the reunion, then before it was even over he packed it all up and drove the straight 29 hours back, but with Brent's help this time.

He designed our Family Reunion shirts too and they turned out really good! They were the best Fam shirts anyone had ever seen!

Here's the Birthday Boy!

Doesn't he look great? We love you Grandpa!!!

My Mom put on this whole reunion pretty much all by herself! Over 150 people came and she had fun things planned for everyone. She had golf, games, temple trips, and food prepared for everyday. I don't think anyone could ever fill her shoes! Everything turned out perfect! I just hope she can go and relax a little. At least until our crazy girls weekend coming up!

Owen didn't cry the entire flight home, which was over 5 hours including our layover in Austin! He is a little sleeper too! He is already sleeping 9-11 hours a night! He still has some relux and fussiness every now and then, but he is doing tonz better! We just love out little men!

Fun Family Times

2008-10-14T14:30:00.000-07:00

Grandma and Grandpa Smith came to town so we thought it would be fun to take them to the best place in Texas!!!

BLUEBELL ICE CREAM FACTORY

On the tour I learned the 5 top selling ice cream... can you guess what they are?

5. The Great Divide

4. Buttercream?

3. Dutch Chocolate

2. Cookies N Cream

1. Homemade Vanilla

Also, does anyone know why some ice creams have brown lids and some have gold? Ok, I'll stop with my trivia, but it was very interesting and of course a super yummy tour!

For some reason I've become an ice cream fanatic lately and so I made sure to have my top 2 favorites to eat at home - CANDY JAR & STRAWBERRIES with HOMEMADE VANILLA

With the Ice Cream we played one of my favorite games...

APPLES to APPLES

And the Winner Was....

HOT & JUICY... yet NEGLECTED

I guess you have to play the game to understand!

SUPER SATURDAY

Somehow Owen jumped in the car too and tagged along.

My Mom put on the Super Saturday in her ward and had 33 projects and 5 demonstatrions. It was amazing and hard to choose what projects I could do without breaking my budget!

My amazing Dad helped out a lot too!!! Let's just say these pumpkins wouldn't look like this without Dad's help!Here's Dad holding my Little Monster!

Luckily, my mother-n-law and sister-n-law came or I wouldn't have gotten anything done! They watched Owen, did my projects, helped clean up and I still didn't get the one project done that I started working on.

Anyways, here are the projects I did!

OWEN'S BLESSING

Here's the crew that came! It turned out to be a really nice day!Here's Owen in his Joseph Smith outfit!

Here's Madison ready for bed... too cute!!!
Here are most of the dentist in the family. (Eric is a future dentist)

Anyways, hopefully all of these will be in the Houston area soon!

Cake time! I wish I could take credit for the cake, but after Eric's b-day cake I decided I should probably not embarass my family and have something that looked decent. So I asked my wonderful neighbor Ruth Palmer to make one and this is the Super Yummy masterpiece she brought over! It was Excellent! I need to hurry up and finish this post so I can go eat some more!!!
Jessica, Cory & Lincoln even came all the way from Alabama for the blessing!!! We felt so special!
Julianne and her family stopped by too!

It was so great seeing everyone and we hope you stop by again!

The Difference Between BOYS & GIRLS

2008-10-13T12:05:00.000-07:00

Eric with a Baby

Madison with a baby.

Let the Holiday's Begin!!!

2008-10-11T23:01:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it's already that time a year again. For the next 3 months we have something planned almost every weekend. I love all the Holiday's, but it's definitely Very Busy!!!

ERIC'S B-DAY

We went to ChuckECheeses and he had tonz of fun throwing balls.

Here is his awesome cake I spent all day making! Paul said it looked like a bike ramp. It may have looked like Hurrican Ike hit this too, but it was sure good and we ate it all!!!

Here are all of his fun Presents!

We have finally realized we can read to him as long as it's about TRUCKS!!!

He also got a year supply of clothes! I went to a baby re-sale day at the church and bought Eric clothes for an entire year for only $80.

PIE PARTY

The Konkle's were holding there annual pie party, so I drove all the way to San Antonio and got a babysitter so I wouldn't miss it! It was a lot of fun hanging out and seeing everyone again and especially stuffing myself with pie!Here's are wonderful Hostess's - Mason & Jenni

OWEN'S MANY FACES

MAD

CONTENT
(Brian even spiked Owen's hair for this picture)

TIRED

CRAZY EYES

TIME WITH THE BLACK'SBrian and Madison got to finally meet Owen!
Madison sure missed Eric. He missed her a lot too and they just had fun playing the entire weekend!

Here is Owen and Brian doing what they do best!!!

GIRL'S GET TOGETHER
Jami was so sweet and organized a little girl's get together for me while the boys went to the Priesthood session. It was fun getting to hang out with some of the SA girls again and talk about all our crazy times together.

Even Sadie came to hang out and was the life of the party! She is so adorable!

GENERAL CONFERENCE
I just thought this picture was cute! While we watched our never ending movie, the kids watched there's. I absolutely loved all the talks though, and can't wait till the Ensign comes out to be able to read through some of them again.
Father-Son Time!

Aunt Brittani came to visit Owen too! She didn't spend too much time with us though, because now she has a HOTT boyfriend!!!
Only a month left! We can't wait to meet Jackson!

Birthday Boy!!!

2008-09-27T04:26:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Eric!!! We love you!

All of our AMAZING pictures were done by Kelsey Call, who did a Great job really capturing Eric's personality! You can check her out at: http://www.kelseycallphotography.com/

Icky Ike

2008-09-23T13:45:00.000-07:00

We survived! Thanks to those who called, e-mailed, commented, prayed for us, etc. We were very touched by everyone's concern.

So for those who were wondering we ended up going 87 hours without electricity! The street next to us got power up right away, but the neighborhood next to us still dosn't have power, so we count ourselves very lucky. I've never been so greatful in my life for power, gas and milk. It's really scary when all of a sudden you go to the store and there is NO produce and milk and then to get gas you have to wait in a 2 hour line. I felt like we were pretty well prepared, but there are definitly some things I would do different for next time, like stock a freezer of meat and learn to cook more meals on the stove instead of depending on a microwave and oven that I couldn't use without power.

Well, here are some Before/After pictures of the destruction -

No one wants a hurricane, but it's so nice to see everyone lend a willing hand and a community come together and help one another in their time of need.I couldn't help but notice all the trees seemed to fall on all the Obama fans.

Eric even helped move some branches and help clean up.

They evacuated all the missionaries and we got 2 of the best ones - Elder McCalister and Elder Corbridge. They were such a big help to not only us, but everyone else around. We later got two extra missionaries, because the family they were staying with took off - Elder Garcia and Elder Price. It was so much fun having them, and of course I made them stay up way too late playing all my games that I haven't played in Forever!!!

We had our own fiddler on the roof! Elder Price could play amazing and gave everyone in the neighborhood a free show!
You would think with 6 adults that one of us would have our eye on Eric, but I realized that everyone was inside and Eric was nowhere to be found. So I came outside frantic, hoping nothing bad had happened to him and this is where I found him! What a STUD!

Good-bye missionaries! It was so sad to see them go,

they did all the dishes for me everynight and any other projects I gave them. I have to say I have NEVER had anyone stay at my house before that cleaned up as well as they did. Their bathroom was spotless when they left, the bed was perfectly made, the floor vacuumed and they even left a thank you note. I need to call their mommas for tips, because they apparently taught them VERY welL!!! Well, with a whole week before Paul went to work, we tried to stay busy so we wouldn't get to stir crazy. Eric was so bored he kept trying to get in the swing with Owen, and NO the swing does not work the same anymore.
We went to the Zoo!

And we went to a little carnival for a 6 year old boy in our ward who was diagnosed with a tumor and was only given 6 months to live. I hope they were able to raise some money to help with costs, it's so sad to see anyone suffer, but especially children. To learn more about him you can see the website they set up and even leave a comment or donate to help them out - http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/ourpeyton

I'm also very excited about our garage. This is what Paul worked on with his week off from work. He organized everything, he set up the shelf reliance, installed the light, built a workbench, made his board to hang everything and even made one for my brooms.

Owen is One Month!!!

2008-09-22T21:08:00.000-07:00

I can't believe he is already over a month. Time sure flies. We love having him apart of the family!!!

Preparation Ike

2008-09-12T11:47:00.000-07:00

This is our first real Hurricane and we realized yesterday when everyone was boarding up their houses, that we should probably take it a little more serious.

So we packed the Pantry!!! That was number one on my list! I have to have good food - so I bought lots of cereal.

We bought a generator!!! And got some gas to keep it going. There were two lines at Lowe's - one for generators and one for wood. I told Paul to stand in the generator line, because I would rather have food then windows.

Today Paul was able to round up some wood so we did go ahead and board up. The missionaries evacuated and so I quickly volunteered our home. I love the missionaries, because I can make them cereal to eat and they would tell me what an amazing cook I am! They also helped us out a lot and didn't complain about us starving them all day and working them like slaves!

Eric wanted to help Owen be prepared for the storm so he gave him a hat to wear.

We gave the boys one more bath and then filled all the bathtubs with water!!! Don't you love his tan line!

And lastly, I made some cookies! We have to have something sweet and yummy to eat for when the power goes out!

So goodbye for now, I'm sure the power will be out sooN!!! It goes out in this neighborhood if you just pass gas, so I guarantee it will be out for at least a few hours, if not a few days. We were all taking bets yesterday on how long it would be out for. What's your guess?

Big Brother Eric

2008-09-08T17:02:00.000-07:00

Eric has realized that Owen isn't so bad as long as he will wrestle with him...

...And let him play with his toys!!!

My brother is worried Eric has Diabetes or something, because of his love for drinking water. Eric can probably out drink any kid around, and his diapers can prove it! He soaks his clothes almost every night. Eric just realized that he can drink water while we change his diaper.

I just love this little guy!

Back to Reality :(

2008-09-03T20:52:00.000-07:00

Today was a sad day! All my wonderful help & yummy meals ended and so that means tomarrow I have to stop being a lazy bum and figure out how to be a Mom of two.

Eric didn't handle being a big brother too well, but he seems to be doing better and now he only gets upset every now and then. Thanks for everyone's great advice!

This was my water they gave me at the hospital, but Eric quickly took it over and carries it all over till it's gone. I don't think I will ever have to worry about him being dehydrated.
Uncle Brent and Grandpa Black were Owen's first visitors!!!

My Mom knows how to spoil. She cooked every meal, took care of Eric, kept the house spotless, did all the laundry, bought fun surprises for all of us and so much more while I took naps all day or ate heaping bowls of ice cream on the couch. We went through 2 half gallons of Blue Bell - Candy Jar - Ice Cream, it was so good! You are missing out if you haven't tried it!

Here's Owen's 1 week picture! So who do you think he looks like? By the way, we are blessing him OCTOBER 12th, so if anyone is around, feel free to come! Your welcome for lunch afterwards too!

Eric found a new use for my foot rest.

Grandma Smith came to visit for a week and really helped a ton too. She even got Eric to actually enjoy reading! She bought some CARS books and for the first time in history Eric is bringing books for us to read (about cars and trucks of course)!!!

Paul's Mom is super talented. She finished Owen's quilt and it turned out so cute! Now can you see why Owen's room is painted the way it is? I love the colors and fabric she picked out and now I can't wait to see what the bumpers will look like!

She was even brave enough to babysit so Paul and I could go to the temple and have a night out! It's really nice to be able to be close to a temple again!

Happy Labor Day!!!

Eric has turned into a little fish! He can swim all by himself with floaties and he even went down the big water slide!!!

During my weeks of laziness, my Mom surprised me with this book and so while I sat on the couch eating bowls of ice cream I finished the entire book! I'm sad it's over, but I really need to get a life and start losing all this ice cream weight.

Eric's First Day of School (Mother's Day Out).
This picture is so sad, but cute. He goes for 5 hours, once a week, which is nice because it gives me a chance to actually run a few errands.

***Like Father Like Son***
Paul is always putting his pillow on top of his had to sleep and lately I've noticed Eric putting the pillow on top of him to sleep. Today though, I tried to move the pillow and realized he was actually INSIDE the pillow case. I thought that was too funny! I don't know how he was able to wiggle himself inside of it, but he did!!!

Here's a few of Eric's Favorite Games he loves to play!!!

I couldn't figure out why all the pieces to the ball were always in the trash... now I know. We had another great video, but I couldn't get it to work.

Owen James Smith-- Aug 15, 2008

2008-08-17T13:19:00.000-07:00

WARNING: This Post is being done by an amuture and will probably not meet up to some of your expectations.

After a long day Owen James was born at 5:24 pm on August 15, 2008. He put up a little bit of a fight but finally he came.

Owen weighed in at 7lbs 7 oz. , 19 3/4 inches long

Mom and Owen are both looking good. Can you believe Jamie looks like that right after giving birth? She's beautiful!

The Hospital brought us two cakes to celebrate. They were so so good.

After trying to sleep on the ridiculous chair for 5 minutes, I quit and went to Walmart to buy an air mattress. That was possibly the best investment I've ever made!

Grandma Jo and Eric came to visit us at the hospital and meet his new brother. I think they will have a lot of fun together.

Time to go home! Yippee!

We got home Sunday afternoon. It is great to be back home.

No Baby YET

2008-08-14T20:34:00.000-07:00

Amazingly, I finished everything on my list, except have the Baby.

This morning we got up and left for the hospital just to find out they didn't have room, so tomorrow we will try again. Anyways, here is a little bit of what we have been up to this past week.

MATERNITY PICTURES

These pictures were taken by Kara Powell photography who did an awesome job!!!

24 FITNESS

Eric and I tried out our 5th gym since being here! This one was ok, but they don't start seeing kids till at least 6 months and they didn't offer a lot of classes. I decided to stick with YMCA and then when the Life Time Gym is done maybe switch. Has anyone been to a Life Time? Is it as cool as it looks?

FAMILY TIME

It was so fun having the entire family here, the only one we were missing was Heather, you need to move to Texas!!! Even Aunt Terry came which was a lot of fun!

Brent impressed all of the life guards with his Hott Bod! Some of the kids were drowning because they couldn't stop checking him out.
Here's the Group of Us!!!

Eric is definitly ready for a brother! I'm a little scared now to bring the baby home, because I got a glimpse of what Eric might do.

PAINT OWEN'S ROOM

Here are the before and after pictures! I still have to get curtains and art up! I threatened Paul the curtains have to be up before I get back from the hospital.

I found these cute animal stickers at target and stuck some in the squares! Hopefully, Owen will like them.

MORE FAMILY TIME

I was so excited Brittani and Brent came back to visit I even made them breakfast!!! They had fun watching Olympics, swimming and getting beat at Bohnanza!!!

ASTROS GAME

Paul won some great seats to the game so of course we had to go, we even scheduled our baby around this game! Anyways, we had a lot of fun and Paul almost even got hit by one of the foul balls.

I told Paul to take a picture of my big belly and this is what he took. Maternity pictures are NOT his specialty!!! He was very proud of it though and made me post it.

OFFICE REMODELING

We still have a few more things to do at the office with getting art/decorations and touch up stuff, but we did get some furniture moved in this week and here are a couple before/after pictures of the office.

I'm not complaining at all I didn't have the baby today. In fact it was really nice getting to take a much needed nap, going to the pool one more time with Eric, and bossing Paul around!

Well, I need to go to bed! Tomorrow I think I will be having the baby for real.

1

2008-08-13T08:32:00.001-07:00

2

2008-08-12T12:52:00.001-07:00

3

2008-08-11T06:32:00.001-07:00

4

2008-08-10T11:50:00.001-07:00

5

2008-08-09T11:50:00.000-07:00

The COUNTDOWN Has Begun!!!

2008-08-08T11:50:00.000-07:00

Only 6 more days till little Owen is Here!!!

It's panic time now! I don't really think about having a baby and a lot of times I forget I'm even pregnant until the doctor finally sets a date and I realize there is no turning back! My life is over and I will be a walking zombie for the next few months. I'm just not ready to be super sore, bleed forever, have a baby attached to me for a year, and a whole list of other things that aren't blog appropriate. I have no idea how people have babies when they already have kids, but I'm soon going to find out!

For some reason, I always think my life is over and start packing way too many things into the last few days then I should. For the next few days of life I've scheduled a hair appt., have the entire family coming in for a couple of days, enrolling Eric into pre-school, getting my teeth cleaned, painting the babies room, going swimming everyday with Eric, going to the Astros game, getting maternity pictures taken, and trying out one more gym. I guess we will see what all I get done.

Saved By The Baby!!!

2008-08-03T21:22:00.000-07:00

Today at church I was asked to speak in two weeks - the only problem is that's when the baby's due! Hallejuah!!! But I told them Paul wouldn't mind talking!!!

Anyways, I just made Paul take one last picture of my pregnant belly. I didn't take pictures each month like I did last time, because Paul HATES taking pictures for me. I'm very picky and not very nice when my pictures aren't taken right. Pregnancy ones are the hardest, because if you take it at the wrong angle I look like I have a double chin, or I look too fat, or my hair isn't right, etc.

I HAVE ANKLES!!!

I didn't know this was possible! Last time I was pregnant with Eric I was so jealous of any pregnant person that could wear clothes that showed their ankles off. Mine were HUGE!!! Amazingly this pregnancy I haven't swollen up to be a huge marshmellow, even though I've still gained 35+ lbs like last time. I have been eating way too many snacks lately!

It's amazing how each pregnancy is so different. This time I won't need antibiotics when I go into labor and I have had very minimal heartburn if any. If the myth is true then that means this baby is going to look just like his daddy - BALD!!!

I'm officially a MOM! I now know what HEB Buddy Bucks are first hand! Melissa Seager wrote the most hilarious story about buddy bucks a few years back when I was clueless and now I couldn't agree more. Anyways, I wish I still had her story to post, but here you can see Eric throwing his little balls he got from the crane as far as he can in the parking lot for me to go get. He is starting to throw really far!

Part of our night time routine is running around playing chase with Eric. He has gotten really creative and sometimes he is really hard to find.

The cousins came to visit and so we went to the pool were they all showed everyone up on the high dive!!! They weren't scared at all!!!

Alycia made this fort for everyone to sleep in and she did such a good job!!!

It was so much having visitors finally. We went to On the Border to Eat and then played glow-in-the-dark miniature golf!

We had to stop by the car show going on next door and look at the cool batmobile!

Here's Eric glowing in the dark! He would not get off this car and so I finally went and got quarters to put in it so it would go and as soon as I did he cried to get off and never touched the car again! That works everytime!

Kids are so creative! I love seeing the games they come up with. Before they left they had sleeping bag races down the stairs! They were fast! I think I may try their game if the baby dosn't come, because that will definitly put me into labor!

Happy 5 Years!!!

2008-07-28T14:59:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it's been 5 years! That seems so old, but as Paul informed me the other day I am looking older, I guess I'm not the teenager anymore that he married!

Anyways, we had a nice night out on the town. We ate at a really great restaurant - Ruggles Grill - and then went and saw the movie Hancock with Will Smith. It was nice, but next year we definitly need to get away!!!

Anyways, if we can make it through this year of moving twice, starting a business and having a baby, then I think we are set for life!

The Desserts were awesome! I just had to get a picture of the dessert tray!

YUMMY!!!

We are Official!!!

We can't believe it! After 2 years of HARD work (don't think for a minute this was easy), we finally own our very own office. We just got our business cards in from Tyson Steele and they did an awesome job! They were great to work with, I highly recommend them to anyone wanting a great dental marketing team. We also have a website I haven't looked at yet - http://www.creekwoodsmiles.com/

The last big project - COMPLETE!!!

After all the remodeling the last thing was to install all new cabinets (DON'T let your children be left handed-it's very expensive). My Dad came down and we abused him for 2 whole days, he is the hardest worker I have ever seen. If you think you are a hard worker try spending a few days with my dad and then we shall see.

Here are all the old cabinets Paul hauled to the landfill. I told him to take a picture, but nope, didn't happen. He at least took the camera and told us how cool it was to go to the landfill.

With all these projects going on I decided to take on my very own and paint baby Owen's crib black!!!

BEFORE

AFTER

Anyways, I'm trying to come up with ideas to paint the room and can't figure out what to do. As you can see I'm going bright, but should I do squares, stripes, or what??? All you crafty people need to help. I don't have much longer.

My Mother-in-law is doing the bedding and so far it is sooo cute! I can't wait to see what she comes up with for the bumper and quilt!

Here is my little sweety pie, if he just knew his life was about to change!

I had to get a happy picture of him at the store, because I have never had a trip to the store go so well. He just sat on a box of cereal and we ate fruit loops the entire way around Wal-Mart.

Eric has just recently started loving this game. They must do it in nursery a lot, because he always wants us to play with him!

"You Need to Blog" - Paul Smith

2008-07-14T09:27:00.000-07:00

Quote of the Year - "You Need to Blog" - Paul Smith

Those words have never come out of Paul's mouth. If anything, he discourages me as much as possible from being on the computer. I guess since it's been over a month now since I posted, his true feelings he's been hiding are coming out. We finally got internet hooked up, it took FOREVER to get anyone out here, so here are all the wonderful things we have been up to! This has definitely been 4 weeks I NEVER want to repeat again. Don't worry, I've edited it, because some things are better left unsaid!

Eric will no longer sit in his high chair unless he sits sideways. He will complain until I let him squish his body and sit like this.

This is Eric's new thing he loves to do! Whenever he is ready for bed he lets us know by turning off the lights.

Carrie had a really nice baby shower before I left and I was so glad I was able to make it. I'm going to miss my prego buddies! Y'all haven't had your babies yet have you? We are all due around the same time.

Here is my handsome man on his last day of church here in Palestine! By the way, if anyone can find his missing tie, I would appreciate it!

Tuesday's and Friday's were Eric's favorite days because that is when we got to enjoy the dump truck show! We watched it at least 50 times and still aren't tired of it. I had to record it before we left, so we can still watch all the excitement!

This is the last picture we took before we closed the door and said good-bye!

This is why you HIRE Professional Movers!

Now is when the fun begins! The past 3 weeks have been full of 16 hour work days (yes, even prego me), filled with everything from painting, picking up furniture/art, redoing countertops, outlets, bathrooms, and MUCH more! I just pray this baby comes out ok.

We spent FOREVER on these doors. We painted all of them white and then I was the lucky one that peeled off all the extra paint with this tiny razor blade.
Brent is the hardest working 16 year old ever!!! He stayed with us for the 2 weeks of torture and didn't complain once (except that I didn't feed him well).

We could have never got everything done without him!!!

With this room everything was green, including the ceiling. Poor Paul had to look straight up trying to paint the ceiling tiles for over 6 hours!

My Mom watched Eric these 2 weeks so we could get everything done and the only time I saw him he was fast asleep. I really missed him, but I sure do appreciate all my Mom did. There is no way we could have done everything with Eric running around.
My Mom definitely knows how to spoil her grandbabies. She had a carnival land set up in the breezeway with every toy imaginable and even more inside the house.

And if your wondering - NO he didn't want to come home and when he did it took awhile for him to remember who we were.

Back to Painting...
and more painting (somehow I managed to even paint my bum)...
did I mention we painted?
Here's Dad and Brent remodeling the bathroom. We installed a new sink, toilet and fixtures! Dad was so busy working the entire time he came, I couldn't get him to smile for a picture.

Thanks Dad for all your help! We really couldn't have done everything without you too!!!

Eric got there in just enough time to celebrate the 4th of July and help Dad change out the outlets. We changed all the yellow outlets/light covers to white.

Eric was fascinated and a big help. I don't know how we are supposed to teach him to not play with outlets now.

We even redid the countertops! Watch out Andy, I think I have now earned the Mrs. Home Depot title (Also Sherwin Williams, Lowe's, & Wilsonart)! I know how to get around these stores, get paint, buy countertops, get molding, buy all the little things for the office, and a bunch of other information I will probably never use again!
It was fun hanging out with the guys and getting to learn all the home improvement stuff, but I really missed being a Mom and realized that is my Favorite job!

I even let Eric ride in the most annoying cart at HEB. I felt like I was pushing a bus around, but it sure made him happy!

PIONEER DAY!!!

Since all the progress at the office has come to a hault, we decided to go to the pioneer day at my parent's ward. They go all out, with breakfast, pony rides, canoeing, fishing, horseshoes, dancing, cake walks, music, flag tributes, etc. It's probably the most amazing Pioneer Day ever! Anyways, it was a lot of fun and nice to finally take a break from all the stress.

Lastly, we made some cookies, watched a movie and went to BED!!!

Only One Week Left

2008-06-12T15:09:00.000-07:00

Only one week left until our big move.

I'm excited, but also sad to leave some of the fun things and great people I've met behind. Here's a few things we have been up to these past couple weeks and why it's going to be sad to leave.

Brent came to visit, so I finally got to give someone a grand tour of Palestine. We went to the animal farm, swimming, the famous bakery and of course I dragged him to the gym with me everyday and he even did a BodyPump class with me were he was the ONLY guy!!!

In our building we have 4 boys ages 5-6 that always come over to see if Eric can play. He absolutely loves playing with them and finally got to ride in the Cadillac Escalade that belongs to one of the boys.

GIRLS WEEKEND!!!

It was fun hanging out with all the girls and NO kiddos! Of course we had tonz of fun, got great sun burns, made cool styrofoam crafts, listened to awesome devotionals and gained at least 5 lbs each (or maybe that was just me).

Eric found a new place he likes to hang out! He cleared the entire shelf by himself and hangs out there when no one is paying attention to him.

I am really going to miss these girls! They are my 2 prego buddies and we are all due within a week of each other. We hang out at the gym together, hence the beautiful work-out attire and no make-up look, and make everyone wish they could be us (or NOT!)

We also go to lunch every Wednesday and make sure are babies are getting plenty of FOOD! We are all addicted to the tomato basil soup at a cute little Bed & Breakfast place here and so we go there all the time. Yummy!

VISITING THE COUSINS!!!

You may think I have all the fun, but Paul was gone the entire weekend playing 3 rounds of golf in Utah with the boys, so Eric and I hung out with the cousins.

Eric absolutely loves Alycia. I went into check on them and this is how Eric layed on Alycia's lap while watching cartoons. I have never seen him so still, she needs to teach me her tricks.

Eric loves their dog too! Oh wait, it's actually Carter in the kennel.

It's so fun to see video and pictures through kids eyes. Here's a video Carter took and he did a really good job!!!

SWIM LESSONS!!!
We enrolled Eric into swim lessons and he has had a lot of fun. He loves talking over the teacher and swimming with his car.

Afterwards we eat ice cream sandwhiches on the porch, and of course share with all the neighbor boys hanging around.

PINWHEEL COOKIES!!!

I'm so proud of myself for actually attempting something cute and it turning out. I found this idea on Krista Adams blog and of course had to try it. You can find the recipe at: http://friendswithrecipes.blogspot.com/

DEAL OR NO DEAL!!! - Featuring Adam Hansen

We have been looking forward to this episode of Deal or No Deal for about a month! Since we don't have TV we asked our neighbor if we could crash at her place and watch hers. She was so cute, when we arrived she had all this yummy food out and the table decorated really cute! It was so much fun and we are super excited that Adam walked away with $263,000!!! He is now our richest friend! We love you Spanky!

Ok, that's it for now. Here is Eric's look when he is trying to say I don't want to go to Wal-Mart ONE more time! For some reason, lately he loves sticking his arm through the hole. It looks so uncomfortable and I'm surprised he can even do it.

Happy Memorial Day!!!

2008-05-28T12:20:00.000-07:00

I hope everyone had a great Memorial Weekend!

Recently, I've had to strap Eric down again while changing his diaper because he is such a wiggle worm, but that no longer stops him.

Since we had a long weekend we decided to start painting the house and so the color choosing began! If we didn't pay attention, this is where we would always find Eric!

We worked an entire day picking colors, buying paint, eating hot dogs (which I never got one), and painting the kitchen and laundry room. Paul worked till 1 in the morning and when I woke up and saw the color decided I didn't like it! I guess that's why you don't pick colors when your pregnant!

We decided we needed a break and so we got our pool passes and went swimming! I love Eric's picture on his pool pass, he LOVEs suckers!!!

I finally decided on another color and put the boys back to work! No fun for You! If it was up to me they wouldn't have had any free time!

Eric loves sticking things in his mouth and running around!

I finally decided to stop being a slave driver and let the boys rest!

Go SPURS Go!!!

2008-05-19T23:13:00.001-07:00

Since we don't have cable, that means we don't get the Spurs Games, so Paul had us all dress up in our Spurs gear and head to the only Sports Bar type place in Palestine.... Applebees!!!

Apparently, we were the only ones that cared about the game, because we had to get them to change the channel from baseball to the SPURS and then turn the TV towards us!!!

We are so excited about their victory and know it was all because of our support!!!

Go SPURS Go!!!

A Week with Brent!!!

2008-05-19T21:22:00.000-07:00

My parents left town for a week so Eric and I gladly went and "babysat" Brent!!! In reality it was more like we just played a lot, except we did get some yard work done at the houses.

Can you find Brent?

He was inducted into Beta, a smart society, so I was very proud of him!!!

Here's some of our fun Adventures!!! We went miniature golfing were we both got a hole in one and ended up tying at the end! It was a lot of fun! Eric even had fun with the arcade games.

It's so hard to capture a cheesy smile, but I finally got part of one!

Eric's favorite part was when Brent would come back from school each day and give him 4-wheeler rides! He absolutely loved it! By the end of the week Eric could get on the 4-wheeler all by himself!

I was really impressed with the track Brent made behind the house and especially the JUMP!!! I took some videos of the profressional stunt jumpers that dared to go off of it!!!

BEGINNER JUMPER (me)

INTERMEDIATE JUMPER (Paul)

ADVANCED JUMPER (Brent)-

Brent had a lot of better jumps, this one just scared me a little.

Around the pond Eric and I found all sorts of animals. Some of them included big Bull Frogs, turtles, snakes, birds, and fish! I just think it's crazy we used to swim in this pond with all these things in it. You couldn't pay me to step foot in it now! I think I'm afraid I've turned somewhat into a city girl.

Here is my prego 6 month belly! It's definitly growing a LOT!!! I compared my pictures from my 1st pregnancy and I am definitely Bigger! I'm so excited I have 3 long HOT months ahead of me!!!

Oh, we are attending a Wheat class on how to prepare and make stuff with Wheat and Brittani and I eagerly agreed to help with the cinnamon rolls! Yumm!!!

When we got back this is where we found the boys! They were all huddled around a boiling pot of deer heads like it was Christmas Day or something. I don't know if I will ever understand boys!!! And they say girls are hard to understand!

I like my Dad's description, he said it looks like a bunch of deer in the Sauna.

Madison came down on the weekend and Eric was so excited! They had so much fun running around the house getting into everything.

Eric loved getting some Grandpa time in too! I can never get Eric to sit on my lap, but for Grandpa Eric will do anything.

Ok, I'm tired! Good Night! I just had to get a post up, because Paul said my other one was way to long, and he was sick of looking at it!