Halloween 2011

Every year we wait till the very last minute to buy costumes and every year I say next year we will buy them early so we can choose from the good ones!  But this year was not special, it did not hold up to the expectaion that I set for it last year and again it was days from halloween and the boys and I had no costumes and not a clue what they were going to dress up as.  After looking and looking we reluctantly gave up!  I don't think the boys are that into dressing up anymore anyway.  But little Makayla did dress up and can you guess what she was?  Minnie Mouse!  Makayla loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and was so excited when I brought her home a Minnie Mouse costume from Target. 

We decided to go to our church Bridgeway for their harvest party this year.  They had pony rides, petting zoo, games, candy, candy and more candy.  The kids loved it!  The boys even got to go and get candy wearing NO costume!  I think they even got more candy than they would have trick or treating!

I think this is the only picture I have from that night taken on Dave's phone.  Makayla getting a ride on a pony!!  What a cute Minnie Mouse you are Makayla Grace!!

Makayla turns 2...and I can't believe she is all mine!

If she wasn't here with me every day...I don't think I would believe she was mine.  I still look at her in complete awe, thanking God for an answered prayer!  I find myself thinking that exact thought very often.  How blessed I am to be the mom of the three most incredibly amazing kids!

Today my little girl turned 2!  I know it sounds so cliche, but where oh where has the time gone?  Two sounds so big and it still feels as though I just brought her home from the hospital.  I don't know what year 2 of a little girl will look like or sound like.  I have two boys and I have learned so very quick that little boys and little girls are so very different!  I remember when I was a little girl and how I loved my Mom so much and how she was my whole world and everything in it.  I hope that I can be everything that you need me to be at 2.  I promise to do my very best. 

Your hair is getting so long, you are able to communicate so well now using big words (for a 2 year old) and using them correctly!  I really want to remember the small things about you today, the things that make you you.  Makayla you love to watch Dora the Explorer and Go, Diego Go!  They are your favorite TV shows!  You will walk around and say "Swiper, no swiping...Oh, man!"  A very famous line from Dora!  You can sing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and the Itsy Bitsy Spider.  You know all your colors and can count to 10.  Every time I put a dress on you, you spin around in a circle and say "I am a princess!"  You have many friends that you play with at the park, and you miss them something fierce when they aren't there.  Even at 2 you need your friends, and make it known by singing made up songs that sound something like "I LUV my friends, I LUV my friends!"  If we go to the park and Lauren, Sierra, Kate, Chris, Sam, Carmen, Brenley, Brenna, Kiera, Taylor, baby Harper, Brooklyn, Avila or Alannah aren't there, you hang your head and pout and walk around miserable until one of them shows up!  You love pink, and you love nail polish, you want to get your ears pierced so you can wear ear rings, you love babies (the dolls and the real ones alike) and you mother them so perfectly!  You are easy going and are easily talked into most things (not all things, but most).  You LOVE chocolate and ice cream!  You love to tell me "Mommy, be happy" & "You are the BEST mom in the whole wide world".  You love to snuggle and you love Mickey and Minnie Mouse just about as much as I do!  You learned to ride a bike at 2 1/2 and by 25 months you were using the potty!  When we finally made it to your 2 year Dr. appointment when you were 2 1/2 you weighed 30 lbs. and were a very tall 36 1/4 inches.  While I am noticing a some dark strands of hair mixed in with your creamy white-blond locks you remain my little toe head! 

I am loving you at 2, you are growing into such a well rounded little girl.  I am anxious about what the years will hold and excited about the journey that awaits us.  You are perfect in every way, a blessing that arrived after years of hoping and an endless supply of love, laughter, joy and pride! 

Here you are at 2...    

Matthew turns 11!

Matthew, for your birthday this year we took you and a few of your friends to Sky Zone, where trampolines are your playground.  You and Mason love it!  I don't know what happened but I only have about 5 pictures from that day.  I'm so sorry...I am a horrible mother!  So instead of posting a bunch of pictures from that day I am going to post 1 and then I am going to post a bunch of other pictures that I just recently took of you!  I had to pay you $10.00 to let me take your picture...but I gladly pay it so that I get to have amazing memories of you!

I thought this would be fun to do...I asked you some questions, here were your answers!!

1. Who is your best friend?  Casey Fetter
2. What is your favorite thing to eat/drink?  Hot Cheetos & Dr. Pepper
3. What do you like most about the 6th grade?  Lunch
4. What do you like least about the 6th grade?  Everything
5. Favorite book so far?  Inheritence
6. Shoe size is? 7
7. What do you want to be when you grow up?  Pilot
8. You are on the computer a lot, what is it that you like to do the most on the computer?  Play 1st person shooters
9. In one sentence what do you want everyone to know about your Dad?  He is awesome!
10. In one sentence what do you want everyone to know about your Mom?  If she wasn't here we would all be starving or dead!    

So here you are at Sky Zone looking all crazy!  I snapped this picture while you were in mid air!

And here you are 3 months later...

Updated February 2012, 7 months later....

Matthew you are now half way through the 6th grade, I am so proud of you!  You started the 6th grade in the GATE program (Gifted and Talented Education).  I didn't know how you would do because while you are a very bright and gifted child you are also know to be lazy, especially at things that you don't want to do and school would definitely fall into that category.  But you have really challenged yourself and given school great effort.  You still hate school most of the time but you are not letting that get in the way of bringing home the A's and B's!!  In December you got braces...it was rough the first couple of days, they hurt bad.  I felt so bad for you, they really tore up your gums and made you a miserable mess for a good three days.  But you got use to them and you are doing so much better.  They still give you fits when they change the wire every couple months but you are such a trooper.

Matthew you were voted FUNNIEST KID IN THE 6TH GRADE!

I think you are the funniest but how cool that your classmates do too!  I love that you can make me laugh, thank you for finding the humor in life, you are the sunshine on my cloudy days!! 

Mason turns 7...

July 12th 2004 is the day that God gave our family Mason Brady Smith!  We always tease Mason that he looked kind-of like an alien when he was born (he was born a couple days early, I don't think he was cooked all the way).  But I think he is the cutest little boy now!  He has hair to die for and a smile that pulls you in, and when he does that "ahhh shucks" thing he does I could just eat him all up!! 
You see Mason is my Middle child, my snuggler, my sensitive one, my boy who loves nature and loves to be outside, he never met a bug or living creature he didn't want to keep and he is on a mission to convince me that he loves me more, haha!  Mason spends a lot of time by himself observing from a distance, he is a one friend type of kid, meaning that he is all about quality not quantity (his best friend is Griffin), he has one really good friend and that is all that is required.  Mason is NOT a dare devil, he takes his time getting use to the temperature instead of jumping right in, he is a builder and inventor, he is constantly creating things and coming up with new ideas.  Mason loves gadgets just like his Dad!  Mason looks up to his big brother and genuinely loves and and enjoys his baby sister.

This year for Mason's birthday we went to Bounce U...a big warehouse full of inflatable bounce houses and slides. We invited many friends, had cake and soda and celebrated Mason turning 7! Mason had only one item on his Birthday wish list, a new gear bike! We waited till the very end of his party, just when he thought everything was over, then we pulled out his green, brand new gear bike!  He was so excited, it was the only thing he really wanted!

Happy 7th Birthday my big boy.  We love you and are so proud of the boy you are growing up to be!

~mom

As parents we hope and pray for the VERY best!

There is nothing in this world that I want more than to see my kids succeed in this world.  I pray for them daily and the sad part about the whole thing, is that all you can do is guide them, pray for them and then sit back and watch as they make decisions and choose a path in this life.  I know in my heart that our children ultimately are not ours but God's, and we have been entrusted with them to raise them and teach them and direct them down a path that will ultimately lead them to happiness and success.

I am so pleased to be able to write this post about Matthew and all his successes this year.  He has worked so hard and done so well in school and baseball that my heart is giggling!  Matthew has become quite the avid reader.  He has read too many book to count and LOVES it!  That in and of its self makes me smile, as I was never a big reader and to this day it is not fun for me.  He ended Baseball season with the Best Base Runner Award and the Most Improved Award, and completed the 5th grade with Academic Honors and an Excellence in Reading Award!  To say that Dave and I are proud of him would be an understatement.

Matthew thank you for always striving to be the very best  you can be, for not giving up when it feels way too hard and for allowing Dad and I to help guide you in your journey through this life.  We are so very proud of all that you accomplished this year and pray that next year is even better!  May God continue to pour out his blessings on your life and may you grow closer to Him each and every day. 

All my love, ~mom

Almost a year ago....

I took the kids to Old Sacramento to have lunch, walk along the river and enjoy the trains at the Railroad museum.  We came across a store called TrailMix.Net, it was so cute.  It was full of outdoor stuff for kids.  They had hands on projects the kids could do and lots of science filled activies to buy.  Well, Mason found a tadpole habitat and just had to have it.  I thought it would be cute to get a couple tadpoles and watch as they mophed into frogs!  The boys would love it.  Little did I know that the tadpoles would take almost a year to arrive.  We baught the tadpoles in June of 2010 and just now after many months of endless emails and phone calls recieved two of the cutest tadpoles ever.  The story on why they took so long to arrive is a whole other story that I won't bore you with, lets just say we are so thrilled to have them and can't wait to watch as they grow legs and eventually loose thier tails.  I took some pictures of their arrivial here they are...

Edited on June 30th to say...

It is with great sadness that I write to report that both of our cute little tadpoles did not live long enough to experience life on this earth as a frog :(  We were so sad to watch as our tadpoles were just not strong enough to live.  I am sure that we will embark on some new adventure soon...I will keep you all posted!

THE PERFECT LITTLE BLANKET

"Necessity is the mother of invention", how many times have you heard that saying?  Well we proved it true the day that Makayla lost her one and only blanket.  Now, let me just preface this story with a little history of this particular blanket...

When I found out that I was pregnant with Matthew I was so excited, I purchased way too many blankets, read way too many books, and filled my head with way too many preconceived ideas... opinion, persuasion, sentiment, thought, view, an opinion formed beforehand without adequate evidence.  I just thought that since I was a child who loved her blanket my children would be born loving their very own blanket, something that would comfort them, something that would always be there to dry their tears and listen when they had something they needed to say but no one in the world would listen. 

Matthew was born and I offered him the sweetest little blanket in the whole world to act as his security blanket.  It wasn't just any blanket it was the perfect size, the perfect color (cream), and made of just the right fabric...silky satin on one side and super soft and cuddly on the other.  The border was made of the satin backing and it had a little piece of ribbon fastened to the center.  Needless to say he wanted nothing to do with that perfect little blanket, he was born a child who didn't need one.  He was perfectly content with his binky and flickies (he would flick your finger nails, I know weird).  He was different than me, he was his own little person and I imagined him for nine months being someone he wasn't.  I kept that little blanket in his crib for the longest time with the hope that one day he would pick it up and find comfort in it, but that day never came.

I never gave up on that little blanket, I tucked it away and saved it for the day that another child came to our family, I would then try again in the hopes that this perfect little blanket would someday be loved and needed.

Four years later Mason was born and I dug out the little blanket but it was the same story all over again.  Mason didn't need a blanket either.  I again left the perfect little blanket in his crib for a long time hoping that a day would come that he would find security in it and it would become all his own.  Nope, didn't happen, so again I tucked it away and saved it yet again.  I still had not lost hope in this perfect little blanket. 

It wasn't until Makayla was born that this little blanket found someone to love it and cuddle it and hold it tight.  Makayla fell in love with this little blanket.  She would sleep with it and rub it's soft silky back and border.  I was so excited, that blanket wasn't meant for Matthew or Mason it was meant for Makayla all along.  It wasn't long before that incident happened that I feared most of all, we lost the little blanket.  How in the world would Makayla fall asleep at night without it, and how would I replace it?  I had already been on the hunt for another one and couldn't find one the same anywhere.  Remember, this blanket was now 10 years old.  That brings us to our little saying "necessity is the mother of invention", if I couldn't buy her another blanket I would have to make her one.  And that is exactly what I did.  I took a deep breath and I did it!

These pictures are not of the original hand made perfect little blanket that I made for Makayla, but this is the latest one...I think I have made 7.  All the ones previous to this were an exact copy of the one she lost (that we eventually found).  This is the fist pink one and she just loves it.

Here is what I started with...

And here it is, all done with Makayla holding it!  Did I mention she LOVES it!!

 

 

I am now selling these PERFECT LITTLE BLANKETS on Etsy!  Here is a link...

Christmas 2010

Christmas this year was great.  We stayed home and had a quiet Christmas just the 5 of us.  We went to the Christmas Eve service at church and woke up way to early the next morning to open presents.  As with every year the kids made out with a ton of loot!  Everything from money to video games, to air soft guns!

Every year we let the kids open up one gift on Christmas Eve.  I think I was the one who started that whole thing.  I can remeber when I was little my sister and I would beg and beg to open one gift the night before Christmas, it was so much fun and made the wait for Christmas morning that my faster.  So here are the three of them opening one gift on Christmas Eve.  Matthew got his Xbox, Mason a DSi and Makayla got a fairy Princess wand that played music and spoke to her!

Christmas morning...O'dark thiry!

Thanksgiving 2010

Growing up we would spend every Thanksgiving with my Dad and his side of the family...Uncle Gary (my Dad's brother), Aunt Jane and my cousins Amy, Adam and Audrey.  That was just what we did.  It was nice to have a tradition, something to look forward to every year, it was the same but different and it was nice to not have to plan what to do or where to go or who is going to cook the bird.  Well now that I am an adult with my own family Thanksgiving has been quite different.  I miss the sameness (is that a word) of Thanksgiving, the part about Thanksgiving that you could count on.  Call me crazy but I miss the days when the tradition was set and we knew what we were doing and were we were going and who was going to be there.  Add getting married and kids to the mix, with two sides of family or three if there is a divorce and you got yourself a different Thanksgiving.  Not bad, but not the same either.  I have to admit I love being the one sitting on the couch playing the family games while someone else is in the kitchen doing all the hard work.  I LOVE enjoying the yumminess of someone else's labor.  Is that bad?  Or is it me just not wanting to grow up and take on the role of Mom.  It just seems like for the amount of time, preparation and effort a Thanksgiving meal takes it sure is over rather fast.  But this year like last year I did take on the role and I cooked a yummy Thanksgiving meal for my family and my Dad.  Even though it was only the five of us, it was cozy and quiet and the turkey was delicious.  I don't think I will ever get use to the idea of taking on the role of Mom and all that that in tales.  But I am learning.

I promised myself to get some pictures from that day...but that I failed at.  I didn't get a ONE!  But I will next year...you can count on it!

~fara 

Halloween 2010

I don't know why but I don't like Halloween.  I like fairytales and happy endings.  Halloween is just way too dark and spooky for me, but every year I try really hard to at least put up with it for the kids.  This year, not unlike most every other year we waited way to long to get costumes.  When we finally went looking everything was pretty much picked through.  After several stops and a melting down 1 year old we finally found the boys costumes at Target.  Mason found a Vampire costume that he liked and Matthew found this really cool Cowboy costume.  They were cute...if you like Halloween.  No, they were cute.  Makayla got to wear Kallie's costume from last year...a monkey!  It was super cute with a big bow on it's ear.  I am so thankful for any hand-me down I can get my hands on.  I had big plans to get some really awesome pictures of the kids all dressed up...that didn't happen.  I managed to get one!  I guess one is better than none!  So here they are, all dressed up...

Oh Blog, please forgive my absence!

It is now January 2011 and the last post I made was of Makayla's Birthday in October...we have had Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years since then.  ***sigh***

So today starts my "catching up"!  I will start with Halloween and work my way to present.  But please blog be a little gracious and patient with me.  While I would love to give you all my attention I have a little something on the side I am also working on.  Well, maybe not so little.  You see, I have decided to dive into Fara Smith Photography full time.  I have finally accepted that you can't fail at something if you don't first try to succeed.  So as of 2011 I am giving up Notary (which by the way has been really good to us, allowing me to stay home with my children while bringing in a little extra money) and putting all my energy and efforts into making Fara Smith Photography a HUGE SUCCESS!  It is at times a scary reality, knowing that this is sink or swim, do or die, make it or break it, you know all those sayings.  But deep down inside I am convinced that anything I set my mind to I can do!  Besides what is the worst thing that could happen?  I could fail, but isn't not trying at all failing too?  So here we go, I can't wait for the ride!  I am hangin' on tight! I just know that God has big plans for me and my family!

So, I promise to be back to do some catching up but remember, if it is getting late and there is no sign of me, know that I am not goofy off, I am on a journey to SUCCEED!

~fara