Smith Family Christmas Card 2010

The first official Smith Family Christmas Card!

(hopefully I can be disciplined enough to send them out every year!)

Christmas Baking Extravaganza

Today my friend Annie and I got domestic

We figured since it was the first Christmas as a mom for both of us then we should do some Christmas baking. We spent almost 5 hours making all sorts of delicious Christmas goodies to share with our friends and neighbors!

We made:

Chocolate covered pretzels (my holiday favorite)

Oreo cookie balls

and Christmas sugar cookies

(please don't judge the frosting decorations...we had two babies to take care of during all of this and just wanted to get done :)!

The boys did great...for the most part!

Trey relaxed and watched us bake

Landon crawled around and got into trouble

Overall the day was a success but we were all pooped by the time we were done!

7 Years Together

This past Monday Jared and I celebrated 7 years of marriage! It was one of the first anniversaries where we both thought..."that sounds like a long time"!

We have had quite the adventure over these past 7 years.

This year was that much sweeter since we became a family of 3 instead of 2.

Although it was a work night, we did live it up...a little!

We had calamari for an appetizer...yum!

A little margarita...yum!

Some fish tacos for me...yum!

And some steak medallions for Jared...yum!

All of the food was really yummy and it was fun to get away just the two of us for a little while. I feel so thankful to have Jared as my partner through life and father to Landon. The Lord blessed me abundantly when he chose him as my mate!

9 Months

This post is coming a couple days late, but little Landon is already 9 months old! Time has truly been on warp speed. It is so crazy to look back at the months and see how much he has changed, developed and grown! We are excited for his first Christmas...we will be in Oregon with my side of the family!

* We finally have figured out the sleeping situation and you are consistently sleeping about 11 hours a night...yay! It took a couple nights of tough love, but we made it and all feel better because of it.

* Naps continue to go good and still vary in length, but you get 2 in a day.

* For some reason you have decided to like your pacifier. You don't suck on it all the time, but like it most if you are tired or fussy. Not sure what I think about it but it sure comforts you!

* You are a fabulous eater. You pretty much try anything now and don't like what you try. It is fun now to give you some of our food as you have the chewing and swallowing thing down.

* You like drinking water out of a cup...you seem to think you are pretty hot stuff when you do this!

* You now have 5 or 6 teeth...can't quite tell. You look sooo cute with all these chompers!

* You have begun to give kisses (which is more like sucking on our cheeks)! I still LOVE it though despite the massive amounts of slobber!

* You are officially crawling (happened right after Thanksgiving). Now that you are crawling you feel the need to pull yourself up on EVERYTHING. This is only a problem because you are a little unsteady still on your feet and you get bumps and tears daily :(

* You can independently pull yourself up and have started to figure out how to sit back down (which usually just consists of falling)!

* Being mobile has opened up a whole new world of exploring, you love wires, technology, remote controls and anything else that looks like you probably can't play with it (you found Addie's water bowl the other day and had a great time splashing)!

* You are eating 3 solid meals a day...but still love your milk!

* You are now clapping, which has resulted in also slapping us in the face (trying to put a stop to that one!)

* You continue to still be a happy baby with a great sense of humor (you seem to try to make us laugh and in the mean time really crack yourself up)

* You are more deliberate in all of your acts and will reach for us to be picked up (which really melts my heart)

* You are "talking" a lot more with all sorts of different vowels and consonants. You can even say "mama" and "dada"...if only it were deliberate with meaning! You also like to click your tongue making all sorts of sounds.

* You are in 9 month clothing and size 3 diapers

* You weigh just over 20 lbs

What a delight and blessing you are!

Bronco Love

Sadly it is almost time to say farewell to college football until next Fall. We had quite the season this year cheering on our Boise State Broncos! It was not the ending we had hoped for after a DEVASTATING loss to Nevada on Black Friday...but we still showed up yesterday to root on our team for their last home game of the season! They will still play in a bowl game this season but not a BCS bowl game and not the Rose Bowl as Bronco Nation had hoped for :(

It was really fun to have season tickets again. It gave Jared and I something to do together and it was fun to be in a section with so many of our friends!

College Game Day even came to BSU this year for the first time ever!

Landon and I stayed home and snoozed, while Jared got up at 4 am to head down to the show with his friends!

Over 13,000 people showed up to show their support...Jared said it was pretty incredible and a really fun experience!

Although Landon didn't get to go to the games he still showed his Boise State pride

And sported his Boise State gear on game days!

The first game of the season was SOOO hot!

We were in the sun almost the entire game and were sweating the whole time!

The last game of the season was SOOO cold!

We were bundled up in our ski gear with hand and foot warmers dreaming about the first game of the season when the sun was beating down on us!

We are definitely a BSU family and can't wait for Landon to get old enough to go to games!

We hope this is something we can do together every year

(I think it is so cute to see families cheering together at the games)!

We are putting forth our best efforts to start him off right!

We have big dreams for our Broncos next year...

FREE Shutterfly Holiday Cards

I recently found out about a promotion that Shutterfly is doing...all you have to do is blog about Shutterfly and you get 50 FREE holiday cards! Jared and I have been trying to decide whether or not we want to send out Christmas cards this year. I figured since we now have Landon, maybe we should start that holiday tradition. I love getting other people's Christmas cards in the mail. Shutterfly is the company that we used for Landon's announcements and I thought they turned out great.

Shutterfly seems to have some great options for Christmas cards this year...from single photos to photo collages:

http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-photo-cards

You can also do calendars:

http://www.shutterfly.com/calendars

or Christmas mugs:

http://www.shutterfly.com/photo-gifts/photo-mugs

I have been trying to think of creative gifts this year...so these might be some great options!

This is way too good of a deal to pass up since Christmas is right around the corner.

For all you blogger friends out there just go to this website and sign up...then write your own blog about Shutterfly and get your 50 FREE holiday cards!

http://blog.shutterfly.com/5358/holiday2010-blog-submission-form/

We are hoping to take some cute holiday pictures with Landon soon...we just got a ton of snow yesterday, so I think now might be a good time to get some cute shots. We are also going to a Christmas party that my work puts on for all of our patients tonight. Santa will be there so we will see if Landon cooperates for a cute photo! Hopefully pics to come soon of some holiday fun!

Happy Blogging and Happy Holidays!

On the Go

Landon is becoming more and more mobile. He has been able to kind of roll and scoot around the house but the other night was some of his best scoot/crawls. This was definitely the longest distance that he has covered without going to his belly or sitting back up. I think I am still in denial that he will be full fledged crawling soon because I seem to be very unmotivated to "baby proof" my house!

Thanksgiving!!!

Landon seemed to enjoy his first Thanksgiving

He even got a special Thanksgiving sweater for the occasion!

He thought the mashed potatoes and gravy, turkey, pumpkin pie and whip cream were all YUMMY!

My parents got to come out again this year and we had a great time with them

We went up to Jared's parents' house for a low key Thanksgiving celebration

Jared's grandpa was there and it is always fun for him to get to hold Landon

We feel extremely blessed and have much to be thankful for!

"Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever." Psalm 107:1

8 Months Old

I need to stop saying how I can't believe Landon is as old as he is...but I can't help myself! I can't believe he is already 8 months old!!!

* I should probably stop posting on your sleep habits because they are ever changing depending on the night, your growth spurts, your teething spurts, etc. At this point all I know is that you will sleep 11-12 hours every night. How many times you wake up is entirely up to you (somewhere between 1-3 times). There are times now thought that I can get you back to sleep with your pacifier instead of feeding you.

* Naps are still more consistent...one in the morning and one in the afternoon

* You have tried a variety of solids (cereals, carrots, sweet potatoes, green beans, squash, peas, applesauce, bananas, peaches, pears, corn and puff cereals)

* You love sweet potatoes, corn, carrots, squash and puff cereal

* You HATE peas and don't much care for the other solids although will tolerate them from time to time (I really wish you liked fruit more!)

* You are sooooo close to crawling, you get on all fours and attempt to go forward but just can't quite figure out how

* Although you aren't crawling you are mobile and can somehow get from place to place very well by flipping, rolling, etc.

* You can get from your back all the way to a sitting position

* You can roll from your back to belly, belly to back, go from sitting to lying down and vice versa...basically you are able to get to all different positions now on your own

* You are trying to pull yourself up on furniture but aren't quite strong enough yet

* You are babbling many more sounds...I have heard /m, n, h, y, d, g/ and an occasional /b/ (that makes this mommy speech therapist very excited!). You actually said your first /d/ sound 5 days ago.

* You like to play with your tongue and move it all around in your mouth or stick it in and out like a lizard

* You STILL like to scream in anger or delight

* You love to smile, laugh and make other people smile and laugh with you

* Your top right tooth just poked through your gums today

* Your fine motor skills are developing more and more as you can pick up smaller things and switch things back and forth between your hands

* You try to feed yourself the puff cereals and occasionally have success

* You love listening to your daddy play his guitar...it mesmerizes you

(maybe this means you will be musical)

* You are wearing size 6-9 month clothing. You are so tall that you have to wear 9 month pants but 6 month shirts still fit you

* You are wearing size 3 diapers

* You weigh 20 lbs

It is so fun to watch you grow and develop, learn new things and become more and more of your own person with your own unique personality.

Splish Splash

Landon loves his bath and his new favorite thing to do is SPLASH!!!

I feel like he gets a bit obsessive in his splashing and just can't seem to stop!

A rare moment when we could get his attention!

All nice and clean

7 Months Old

7 months old! How is it possible?! You have grown so much this last month. You are bigger, stronger, and developing new skills every day. You also have such a happy, sweet personality. You smile at everyone and just light up the room with your bright eyes and happy grin. I feel like you have overflowing joy in your heart that you just want to share with others! I pray that this joy and attitude continues with you as you grow.

* Night sleep has gotten better. You will go to bed between 8:30 and 9:00 and usually sleep until 5 or 6 am, then go back to sleep until 8:00 or so

(we still have some nights where you wake up around 2 or 3 am)

* You are napping really well during the day (as long as we are home). One good nap in the morning and one good nap in the afternoon.

* You eat at least one solid meal a day. You have tried carrots, sweet potatoes, squash, cereals, bananas, peaches and apple sauce. As of now you prefer veggies over fruit (I think the fruit is a bit tart).

* You easily sit up unattended and can reach out a grab things from a sitting position

* You are beginning to balance on all fours (I'm still hoping crawling is a ways away...I'm not ready for you to be mobile!)

* You still don't roll over much from your back to your belly, but can get to your belly from a sitting position

* You are so curious and LOVE new things (people, places, toys, etc.)

* You now sit in a high chair when we go to restaurants and flash your grin at everyone we see (you tipped over your first water glass the other day...all over my lap!)

* You still like to scream, both in delight and when you are pissed

* I have heard a couple consonants (mostly m's and g's)

* Everything goes in your mouth and your grasp is getting really strong

* You are wearing size 3 diapers and 6-9 month clothing

* I don't know how much you weigh...our scale is broken (but I'm guessing around 18 pounds, you have the rolls to prove it!)

As I said before "joyful" is the word I would use to describe you right now. You just bring so much joy to me and Jared and our household. We are blessed to have you as our son!!