Christmas in Oregon/Year End Wrap-Up

We got to spend a week in Oregon for Christmas this year with my side of the family. My brother and sister-in-law were there the entire week also. It was so much fun to have a break from normal life and get to spend such great time with my family! Unfortunately Landon caught a little bug on the plane ride over, so nights were not so fun, but Grandpa and Nana were prepared to take him at 6:45 in the morning, so mom and dad could get a couple more hours of sleep! The other truly special part was that all of my grandparents were at my parents house for Christmas this year! It was really nice to get to spend some quality time with them and for them to get to spend so much time around Landon.

Landon definitely didn't grasp the concept of Christmas, gifts and opening presents. Somehow that didn't stop him from getting completely spoiled!

Checking out the stocking goodies

Opening up presents with a little help

This one definitely passed the test as it made it to the mouth!

We actually had to borrow a suitcase from my parents to get all of our goodies back to Idaho

My sis-in-law is pregnant and expecting our niece or nephew in June!!!

We can't wait until next Christmas when there will be another baby around!

Great Grandpa and Grandma Lamson

Great Grandpa Davies

Great Grandpa and Grandma Shaffer

The best part of Christmas this year was that we all decided to start a new family tradition and wear matching Christmas pajamas on Christmas morning!

We went with the plaid theme this year!

Grandpa and Nana

We always have a great time in Oregon and feel lucky that we have gotten to go back 3 times since Landon was born. Hopefully he will grow up feeling like he knows all the family there, even if he isn't around them all the time (thank goodness for Skype!)

On our trip back we had quite the exciting time at the airport (a very small airport), where Landon's milk was checked along with Landon's hands and Jared's hands. Landon's hands set off a security risk so they had to pat down Jared. Some of Jared's clothes set off a security risk so they had to pat down Jared in a back room behind closed doors and have me hold Landon in a standing position (arms and legs spread) so they could pat down him! It was comical to me that they were patting down a 9 month old...but all in the name of safety!

When we got back to Idaho we celebrated Christmas with Jared's side of the family. Once again, Landon got completely spoiled! Apparently we weren't in a picture taking mood that day because we don't have any pictures :(

We still had a great time with round 2 of Christmas!

May as well wrap up our year by blogging about our New Year's Eve. We were in in bed asleep by 11:00! Party pooper's for sure, but Landon couldn't be convinced to sleep in later the next day and we weren't in the mood to be tired all day!

What an eventful, life changing year it has been for us!

We feel so blessed by all the Lord has done in our lives and look forward to 2011!

10 Months Old

I have come to realize that it is extremely difficult to get anything done with a 10 month old! Landon is soooo mobile now that to even sit down to check my email seems to be slightly impossible. When he is napping I have to take advantage and get things done around the house. All this to say that I have been majorly slacking in the blog department! I have been meaning to put up pictures about Christmas...but that will have to come another day! These pictures are actually closer to 9 months old, but I hadn't had a chance to post them yet.

* You are still sleeping well at night. Over Christmas you got a cold and ear infection so that set us back a little, but for the last week you have been sleeping about 11 hours a night.

* Your nap schedule has been great, usually up about 3-4 hours in between naps

* You still love eating but have gotten a bit particular with what you want and don't want. You will battle us if we try to feed you something you aren't in the mood for.

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

* You are so busy, it is hard to keep up with you. You can really move quickly and keep us on our toes. You love to explore and are constantly finding new things to get into (drawers, closets, cupboards). Our house seems to get more and more barren as we move things away from you.

* You are getting stronger and stronger. You can easily pull yourself to a standing position and are beginning to squat back down instead of just falling. If we help you balance you can stand on your own for a couple of seconds.

* This week you have begun to try a sort of bear crawl, which makes you look like quite funny

* You respond to your name and are beginning to understand some other words (especially if we change our tone of voice).

* You are still babbling all the time and play around with different sound combinations. We still pretend that when you say "mama" and "dada" you are actually talking about us!

* You are beginning to play simple games with us like hide and seek...you will come crawling after us when we leave the room and then crawl away from us when you find us and we chase you. You also love to join in and play patty-cake.

* We are trying to teach you to wave hi and bye as well as be more consistent with high fives

* You have the cutest laugh and will sometimes crack yourself up even if no one else is around!

* You have learned how to throw a tantrum and are quite good at throwing your body back, screaming and swatting at us if you are mad or if we take something away from you that you wanted.

* You still love to rough house and your new favorite trick is when we flip you around

* You are in size 9 month clothes (beginning to wear some 12 month) and size 3 diapers

* You still have 6 teeth (4 upper and 2 bottom) although number 7 and 8 might be making their appearance soon

* You weigh 19 lbs 14 1/2 oz (25th-50th percentile)

* You are 30 1/4 inches tall (97th percentile)

* Head circumference is 18 1/2 inches (90th percentile)

It seems like you are changing and learning new things all the time...it is hard to believe that in just 2 months we will have a 1 year old!

We love you Landon James!

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...