Like mother like son!!

I don't know if many of you know, but mashed potatoes just happen to be one of my favorite foods of all time, so it only seems natural that I would want to give them to my kids when they come of age! Well, the coming of age has happened for Payton, and we gave him his first taste of this blessed food just the other night! Here is the outcome!

The finished product!!! He LOVES those potatoes!

Payton is SUCH a ham! He LOVES the camera, and as soon as I pick it up to take pictures of him, he assumes the position, and we get a stellar shot! He LOVES his excersaucer so we snapped a few shots of him doin what he does best...charming everyone! He also knows that he is relatively safe from his brother while in there so he has a great time!

Sneaky big brother!!!

I know that it was just a few days ago that I posted, but we have had some pretty funny things happen around here! We have been pretty sick, Lincoln and I, so we all have been staying pretty close to home, so one night, we were playing outside in the backyard and Payton was being SO sweet, so we started to film him...then a sneaky little STINKER snuck up behind him and SABOTAGED him! You will have to watch to get the full gist of it...I CAN'T believe we got it on camera! So enjoy! (I couldn't stop laughing, and we were trying to discipline Lincoln a little bit, so the movie is kind of long...you can stop it after just a few seconds if you want to! Plus, both Cole and I are feeling REALLY bad that we put Lincoln into timeout at the end, so just disregard that! We really are good parents most of the time:) )

The reason that we were outside is because we were taking pictures of the bench that Cole's Grandpa Meyer made for him! Grandpa Meyer is amazing at wood working, and has made all of Cole's brothers and sisters these cute little benches and he made all the pieces for Cole for Christmas, but we couldn't get the bench home assembled, so Cole has put it all together and stained it and it is SO awesome! It is such a fun thing to have to remember Grandpa by, and we will cherish it forever! So here are some pictures of at least Payton on the bench! Lincoln wouldn't really cooperate, so there are just some silly ones of him!

Lincoln looks HUGE here! I can't believe how BIG he is getting!

There and Back Again...

A Smith's tale...by Mindy Baggins (er...Smith!) (this is a LONG one...happy reading!)

So, we have been to Utah and back again! It is always SO much fun to go home! We had a great time! I am sure you are wondering about the Lord of the Rings reference...well, that is what we listened to via audio cd on the way there, and on the way back! There was NO way we were going to finish the whole thing because it was 16 CD's long! WOAH! But we sure gave it a go!

Anyways...we had a GREAT time in Utah! We had a fun time on the car rides too! On the way out, we decided to take a little bit more time so we stopped and visited a few places! In Steamboat Springs, it was the opening day for the tram so we were able to ride it for pretty cheap, and the boys thought that was AWESOME!!! We had such a fun time!

SO that broke the trip up first, then a couple of hours later, we were able to stop in good old Vernal Utah and visit some friends that just moved there from here! The wonderful Labrums met us at the Dinosaur Museum there in town and we perused the dinosaurs for a couple of hours! Lincoln thought that was the BOMB! Payton was just glad to get out of the car for a couple of hours! All in all, they did a GREAT job in the car on the way home! It was quite a pleasant experience!
In the tram looking down onto Steamboat Springs...the boys really loved this!

Could he BE any cuter! What a ham!
With the T-Rex. His favorite part about this was that it was OUTSIDE! Cool!

We had fun while we were in Utah too! We stayed at my parents house for the first couple of days. We had a great time just hanging out, and helping them get ready for their big trip! We even got to go to the Treehouse Museum up in Ogden-which was WAY cool!
A BIT tired at the treehouse museum. Thank heavens for the Bjorn!
He played on this stuffed horse the majority of the time!

Then I sent them all off to Europe (lucky ducks) with a singing tour for my mom and her choir, and it was off to Richmond for the rest of the trip! We had so much fun playing on the farm, and Lincoln had another dream weekend with all the farm equipment and such! He went on tractor rides, four wheeler rides, and even a HORSE RIDE! That's right...he got on a horse and took that baby for a ride with his daddy! IT is so funny, because Cole's parents have a little stuffed ride on horse in their basement, and Lincoln has been TERRIFIED of it ever since they got it! He still won't even touch anything but the tail on the cute little thing! But he sure took a ride on a real horse! Explain THAT to me! Cleve and Maxine also have a new little puppy named Jax, and MAN are him and Lincoln two peas in a pod! They just followed each other around the whole week! It was so cute. So we had a great time in both places.
Cleve and Maxines backyard! Wouldn't THAT be nice!
I LOVE this picture of the boys and their "Grandpa Smiff" Thanks Cleve and Maxine for letting us stay!
This is the CUTEST picture of Lincoln with Cole on the horse! Lincoln was in HEAVEN and just wanted to keep on riding!

The ride home was less than pleasant, as they always are. Lincoln had him a sippy of Grape Juice when we were in the car right when we left, and started complaining about having a stummyache (cute...that is how he says it!) for a while, and then he started to cough a little bit, and I knew we were in trouble! So I stuck my hands back there in a little cup, and told Cole to pull over as fast as he could! Well, we were too late! PURPLE PUKE EVERYWHERE! Oh man, I haven't seen him projectile throw up that much in a LONG time! So about 45 minutes into our 9 hour drive, we pulled over for about a half an hour and cleaned up puke! Pretty undesireable. But Lincoln felt much better after that, so the ride went smoothly for a while! So then the kids were getting pretty restless and crying and screaming and stuff, so we stopped for lunch/dinner and I went to get Payton out of his carseat, and he was pretty much COVERED in poo! He is the blowout KING lately! What can you do! So we cleaned him up, then headed for home! But by then Payton had HAD it! So he cried for about the last 2 hours of the drive, but then we FINALLY pulled into the mile high city, and were glad to be home! It was a rough drive home, but we are SO glad that we went! We had a GREAT time with both of our families, and wouldn't trade them for anything!

Ruby Dantzel

Here is an update of the little squirt! She is SO cute!Is that not the cutest face or WHAT!!!
Mylie Jane is SO excited to have her baby sister here!
Drew is a little aprehensive about the whole thing, so he usually keeps his distance. What a stud!
Can you believe how BIG my sisters little family is! They are SO cute, and Court looks like a SUPERMODEL! Wootie-woo!