Cole and Mindy Smith

May 6, 2013

Morgan's THREE!

My baby girl finally did it- she turned THREE!~ We love this spunky little peanut so much! Since she is three now, she really gives us a run for our money! I feel like three is the age where they kind of start to get really hard- and Morgan is no exception! Not hard- just more challenging! But we sure love this tiny lady! And tiny she most certainly is! She's only got Stockton (2 years younger!) by about 4 or 5 pounds! She's full of fire though- this one! Probably her most favorite things to do are hang out with her awesome Mama, and bother her three brothers. What more is there really?! Oh, and she LOVES to be with her daddy! She's quite the daddy's girl these days. She doesn't take a nap hardley at all anymore (this has been a few months in the making, I guess!) because she would MUCH rather play with Payton when he comes home from school! I guess I don't blame her. Payton is pretty cool! She LOVES to read books- much like all of the other children, and her favorite song to sing at the moment is I am a Child of God. When it is time for bed, if we do not sing this song FIRST, then it all breaks loose, and she won't go to sleep! Silly lady. She also loves to be anywhere that I am. She is my little buddy, and shadow! I love having a shadow ALL THE TIME! ;) No, but she really is the sweetest thing ever. She doesn't have quite as much energy as her brothers, and that is nice to give me a break every now and then! If I can't find her, I know exactly where to look- and that is back by the snack cabinet! She LOVES to snack (like her daddy!) and could eat about 100 (bites) of granola bars each day! So we're trying to get her to put on a few pounds!
For her birthday this year, she decided that she wanted a rainbow party, and she wanted to go bowling! What three year old wants to go bowling! But we had the funnest time EVER! We invited a few families that have children that are Morgies friends, and we had a BLAST! I made a rainbow skittles cake that Morgs thought was the COOLEST!!!! We had the funnest time! We are SOOO glad that Morgan is a part of our family! She really makes us so happy, and is such a sweetheart. We love you Morgs, and can't believe that you are THREE!!!! STOP GROWING!

Waking up for some PRESENT TIME!

She got her a new BIKE! It's still too big for her- this is 4 months later. Doh!

Cheese! She luffs bowling!

Gettin ready to hurl it down!

The Cronins came- also the Wesslers and the Gordons! Thanks guys! We had a BLAST!

Morgan felt pretty special having all of the attention on her! What a babe!

Blowing out her THREE candles! What the devil?!

Hmmm...best family shot we got. Sad.

Everyone was pretty excited to give Morgs her presents! She made off with quite the haul!

Happy Blue Eyed baby BOy!

After everyone left, we gave her the family presents. She felt pretty special.

Sibling Love!

Earlier in the day we went to the grocery store and I let them have some DONUTS! She was in HEAVEN!

Happy Birthday Morgie! We love you to pieces!

March 26, 2013

January Goodness

Whew! Now that we have Christmas/New Years over, we can finally start to get updated on the rest of the year right?! I get my blog printed into a book each year at Easter, and seeing as how Easter is in 3 days, I had better get caught up eh?! Not a moment too soon!
    January was filled with some good times! Our little Morgan turned THREE!!!!! What?! So wonderful- that little peanut. But that will be it's own post, so be on the lookout! We had lots of fun times! Maybe one of the biggest accomplishments that we had was that we started Morgan on potty training! It did NOT go so well for the first little while! I was about to throw in the towel! I guess it doesn't take too much to make me want to throw the towel in on potty training, does it?! Not the funnest thing in the land. She did NOT do very well for the first 2 weeks, but then one day, she decided that she would do it, and we don't have that many accidents anymore! She even sleeps through the night (as of March) with no accidents either! She has graduated to NO PULLUPS at night! YAHOOO! We are thrilled (well, I am!) I guess it really was a big month for the little sister, because she also went in to the hospital to have a sleep study done to see what we could do about her sleeping! She doesnt' sleep very well at night- waking up about 1/2 dozen times crying and we can't figure out why. Plus, she snores REALLY bad- like the instant that she falls asleep!- and then wakes herself up alot! So we have been a little bit concerned with her, and so I took her into the doctor a while ago, and they suggested a sleep study- which I did NOT want to do!- but we decided to do it anyways because they said they wouldnt' go any farther without it! So I took her in to the hospital, and it was SOOO awful! The poor little dear didn't know what was going on! You will see with the pictures that she was pretty happy at first, but as soon as that nose cannula went into her nose, she FREAKED out! Yikes! It was such a bummer. But she did well, and the results came back, and she does in fact need to get her tonsils out. Hmm...I coulda told the doctor that! In fact, I DID tell the doctor that! But that is a whole other story altogether. We won't get all worked up about that just yet eh?!
    We took a few fun trips to the museum, parks, and everything else that we could do! The weather was really great in January! We didn't have much snow at all! Denver is so weird that way. But that is why I love it! It can snow on Monday, but then by Friday we are back at the park playing in the sunshine!
   For Christmas we gave Cole's parents a trip out here to Denver to the Stock Show! It was SOOOOO much fun! We have been trying to get them to come out here for SO long (as long as we have lived here- 5 years now!) but it has never worked out. But now that Cleve is retired, we decided that this was the year! So they flew out (a big deal!) and we had SUCH a fun time with them. Cole is the property manager for one of the main buildings for the Stock Show, so they were able to get the royal treatment while they were here! We got fantastic seats to the rodeo, tours of the buildings, and all sorts of other fun stuff. We are SO glad that they took the time to come out and be with us for a few days! It is so nice to have them here with us.
    As a special treat for me, I was able to go out and visit new baby Sydney Maye Miles! Ty and Mal had their new baby girl on the 11th of January, and I was able to score some really cheap tickets on Southwest, and the babester and I headed out to be with Syd! Oh man- is she one cute little peanut! It was so fun to be there with Ty and Mal, and to smell that new baby smell! I love that cutie!
    So yeah, we had a pretty busy month I guess! It was so much fun though. Here are the pictures to prove it! Hooray!

Check out that happiest face ever!

All she wanted was fruit snacks to potty train her! Dont'mind if I do!

Waiting to go to the sleep study!

Right before getting all of the probes put onto her.

Hmmmm......

Now that is some SERIOUS trepidation! haha!

We put a show on, and that helped her to not be so upset.

But then, the put in the nose thingy! I couldn't get a picture of her when she was awake, because she was FLIPPING out, and I had to restrain her from pulling everything off! Poor little teeny girl.

LOVE us some museum!

My little astronauts!

We tried pull ups for a little while because I was sick of cleaning up pee! Oh man!

At least I could always look at this face! Oh this face!!!

We LOVE it when Grandma comes! Morgan really has a special spot in her heart for all of her Grandparents- especially her Grandpas!

Just a nice January day at the park! Notice the no shoes? Yeah- weird!

Arent we attractive?! This is at the stock show- self portraits are the BEST!

We brought the kids up to the Dog show, and it was SOO much fun! We had some Fair Food before, and the kids loved it! I especially love the dude with the skullet eyeing the Corn Dogs- Get your own man! It was only $9!!!!! :)

RODEO!

DOG SHOW!

Lincoln thought his HUGE piece of pizza was pretty awesome.

Cutest face!

Oh yes, and this one too! ALWAYS with the tongue out!

Again with the Tongue!

I case you were wondering- she is IRONMAN!

We busted out the bike trailer to get Lincoln from school one day, and this little buddy had the BEST time! He loved it!

These two are best buddies! I have a REALLY hard time trying to keep Payton from mauling Stockton! But he sure does love him!

The new daddy! Doesn't even look tired!

I got to hang with these carazy Derrick kids! It was so fun!

This is Lincoln's New Years Resolutions he did in school..."In 2013, I resolve to remember to wash first in the shower, be a beter drawer, being beter at my timed tests, and be a beter skiier." Cutest ever!!!

HAPPY JANUARY!!!

March 12, 2013

A Utah Christmas...

So as I said before, we decided it was in our best interest to stay in Denver at home for all of Christmas day, and then the day after, we would drive to Utah! So that is what we did! We packed up mostly the night before so that we could get going pretty early in the morning. The drive was uneventful as always. Our kids are SO awesome at driving! They are very well traveled, and do wonderfully in the car- especially when we have some DVD players to keep them company! haha! We went right to Bountiful so that we could have our gift exchange with my family on the 26th and it was so much fun! It was great to have everyone together, and the kids love to be together with their cousins! They also love to be with their aunts and uncles. They can't ever get enough of each other- that is for sure! Our gift exchange was awesome and we came away with some great stuff- but mostly had the funnest time GIVING presents to each other! I love it! We weren't able to stay for long in Bountiful because we had another gift exchange (the Smith family one!) in Richmond the next day- so we packed up that next morning and headed up to the Smith clan! I tell you what- there is NO where that is more fun to be in the winter time! We went sledding, played in the snow, played with cousins, went sledding, ate LOTS of great food, had a really fun gift exchange, go to go skiing one day! and went sledding! Did I mention we went sledding!? I love sledding in Richmond. It is the funnest ever! Ha!

Before the start of the big ski day at the Beav!

Morgan, Stockton and I went up to give them some moral support! We didn't want to stay the whole day, but we were able to bring them up some lunch and meet with them to eat for a bit- then they went back to the grindstone!

Lincoln is getting to be quite good at skiing! He pretty much does things on his own now!

Paytons still trying to get the hang of things. :)

Morgs had fun playing in the snow and watching her brothers for a minute!

Oh yeah- and we were there too! :)

Riding up the Magic Carpet!

After we'd watched for long enough, we went into the lodge and hung out for a few hours while the boys finished skiing! Morgan picked out a HUGE brownie and some chocolate milk- which she was super excited to share with her brothers when they finished skiing! Such a nice baby girl.

Oakley and Morgan playing with Grandpa. They are so funny!

I seriously LOVE this house! It is so beautiful, and it is in the most gorgeous setting EVER! I can't get enough! Plus- bonus- they are out of the gross smog that you can see down in the distance in the valley! TOTAL bonus!

Here's Cole pulling the kids around in the big black sled- MAN do they have a great time!

See!!!!

How many kids can we pack into the black tub? There were even a few more in there but hopped out and didn't want to take part in the picture.

This kid- Lincoln- would be out in the sled ALL DAY if we'd let him! He LOVES it!

Link lost his other tooth while we were there! Again- didn't care much about the tooth fairy. He never even put his tooth under his pillow!

Cole and I got matching hoodies from Erica and Tara! Man- they got their money's worth out of those! We've been wearing them NON-STOP since we got them! Thanks guys!

We came back down to Bountiful in time for some New Years Eve skiing (for me!) It has been a LONG time since I went skiing, and Cole was SO kind and let me go with Court on New Years Eve while he held down the fort at home! It was SOOOOO much fun! We went to Alta and had the best time ever! It was seriously so much fun. I love my sister. Now all we need is Rachie and it would be a BLAST! Add Mom and Mal and Meg and it would be the party of the century!!! Soon...soon. We came back from skiing and met everyone (both Mini and Midgie Miles included) at Astro Burger in bountiful and had a bounteous feast! The men had taken the kids to Kangaroo Zoo earlier in the day and Mylie Jane took a really hard fall and wasn't feeling very well, but the other kids had a blast! So, we ate dinner and then headed back up to the Derricks for some New Years Festivities! We are seriously such partiers. At 9:00, we rang in the NEw Year with the kids- in the LAUNDRY ROOM! STockton was asleep on one side of the house, and Libby was asleep on the other side, and we didn't want to wake them up, so we partied in the laundry room! The kids screamed as loud as they could for like a minute, and then they went to bed! Ha! Best New Years ever! We had some bubbly and sent them to bed! IT was great. Then the rest of us big guys really partied it up! We aren't much fun when it comes to New Years. We never have been! We did play Mad Gab for a little while, but the rest of the time was spent watching some T.V., and we all went to bed at like 12:03! Party poopers! But it is just fun to be all together hanging out and enjoying each other's company. :) That's what it's all about right?!
So, we needed to get back to Denver so that Cole could get back to the grindstone both with work and church, so we packed up and drove back on the 1st! We had a great trip! We never tire of seeing our wonderful families, and are so glad that we are part of such a wonderful legacy of people!

Oh yeah! I forgot that before we headed to the Derricks, we were able to get together with the Schmidts (Michelle and Jon and their kids) and the Burts (Steve and Jenn-Y and their kids) for some pizza and partying! It was SO wonderful to see everyone. I miss these girls SO bad, and it was so fun to get together even just for a little bit. We sure have had some good times together! I wish we lived closer to each other to hang out more- but someday...someday. Here's Link, Spencer (Michelle's), Payton and Mitchell (Jenn-Y's) eating some lovely pizza and huhemmm....vegetables...NOT!

The girlie table- and Jack as he was running away! Morgan, Abby and Anna (Michelle's) and Jack- (Jenn-y's)

The Men-folk minus Jon

The best shot we got of all the kids! They are so funny. This was a hard one to capture- I tell you what!

Here's the three amigas! I look REALLY funny in this picture- and couldn't figure out why. Then I realized that I TOTALLY forgot to put on my makeup! Whoops! What can ya do eh?! But Michelle and Jenn-Y look really pretty!

We also had the wonderful pleasure of Visiting Grandma and Grandpa Miles! It is always so wonderful to see them. I love them SOOOO much, and am SO blessed to be related to them!