A little update

Well it's been almost a month since my last post so despite the fact that I'm in desperate need of a nap I'm going to take a few moments to put a few updated pictures. Lydia is growing up so fast and has already lost that newborn look which I'm sad about:( However, she is pretty darn cute if I do say so myself!

All the girls in their Christmas dresses. I'm proud to say that I actually made some pieces and parts of these dresses, however the real credit goes to my talented mother in law for the real work!

And I thought I'd throw this in as a representation of what seems to be going on more often than not these days...lots of mischief! If you are ever wondering what happens when you leave a 2 and 3 year old alone to "watch a movie" and forget to block off access to the food storage and more specifically to about 20 packets of Hot Chocolate mix...this is it! Our basement had a nice dusting of Hot Cocoa all over it and still smells like chocolate several days later! And don't worry my girls don't mess with the cheap walmart brand they went for the nice expensive gourmet Hot Cocoa that was intended as Christmas gifts!

Merry Christmas!

Our New Addition!

Lydia Belle Smith
7 lbs 10 oz 18 1/2 in
Born at 9:59am on November 23

We are so excited to show everyone our little Lydi Belle. Everything went very well and Fast! I was in Labor for just over an hour before our little Lydia came into this world screamin! She and I are both doing great and Gracie and Brynlee are loving their new little sister. Today I walked into our room to find Gracie and Brynlee looking down at their little sister gently rocking the cradle and sing Families are Forever...seriously it was so precious!:) (Don't worry we've also had a "don't lay on top of the baby" talk too!) I'll have to get some more pictures up of Lydia now that she is home...so stay tuned!

Halloween, Halloween, Halloween

First of all has anyone else had "posting" problems? It's taken me 2 days to get my pictures to post and for some reason I can never type anything above first picture...anyways on to our Halloween Festivities! Of course it wouldn't be halloween without a package from Grandma Bennion! The girls LOVED their Halloween movie and "neckaces"...Thanks Grandma
We also hosted a preschool party that was a lot of fun. The kids had a lunch of mummy hot dogs, chocolate covered ghost strawberries, spider crackers and bug juice...YUM!

The girls are VERY in to Horses at the moment so we thought if fitting that they be cowgirls for Halloween...I think they look pretty darn cute if I do say so myself! My favorite part of their costume was their boots...$3 and $5 on ebay!!


Then of course in true Jake fashion he carved this Awesome pumpkin of me and the girls! Seriously there is no competing with him so if you'll notice in some of the above pictures mine is the "S" pumpkin! I was just sad that it's a pumpkin that is going to rot and have to be thrown away...I'll have to convince him to do something with a little more staying power:)

Fall Photo Shoot

Daddy's girls
(don't you love how Gracie looks like she is determined to take him down!)

I love watching on the leaves change when fall comes around. I've really enjoyed fall here in Utah because there is actually a fall! In Montana it seems like it goes straight from summer into winter without much transition but here we've been enjoying the 70 degree weather, beautiful colors and most importantly No Snow! We decided it would be fun to get some pictures of the girls with "fall" in the background. Unfortunately, because it is fall it gets darker much earlier so we didn't get as many good shots as we would have liked before it got to dark and cold. Here is what we got...

This one is in our backyard...notice the grass in the background...finally Yeah!

I'm not sure what Brynlee was reacting to, but it made for a good picture!

Weekend Getaway

The view from the deck off our room. It would have been really cool except for the construction EVERYWHERE and the fact that we shared the deck with the room next door!

Some of you might remember that back in March Jake won the "March Madness Pool" at work and we decided we would use the winnings for a weekend getaway with just the two of us. Well now that it is October we finally were able to go! Jake's parents were so very kind to drive all the way down from Wyoming to watch our kids and Friday night we took off to Park City. Friday we spent most of our time listening to a lady trying to convince us buy into a timeshare (yes we are that cheap that we went to listen to the 90 presentation...but we got the hotel room for $25 a night, you can't beat that in Park City!) Anyways, after saying No to the lady about 50 times we were finally able to get on our way. By the time we got into our room it was pretty late and we hadn't had anything to eat so at about 11pm we decided to go find some food! We were both beat but decided to go just because we could, it felt like we were dating being able to just get up and go no matter what time it was and not have to worry about the kids! Saturday we spent the day shopping at the outlet mall (Awesome!) visiting Olympic Park (see picture below) going out to eat and even seeing a movie! By the end of the day we could not believe everything that we were able do...it's amazing how much you can get done when you don't have the kiddios around!

We had a fabulous time spending some one on one time with each other but by Sunday we were really missing the girls. It was great to get away but it's always great to come home too! Thanks again to Grandma and Grandpa Smith for watching the girls...they had a blast and I'm pretty sure they didn't even notice we were gone:) And Thank you Jake for a wonderful weekend, I love you forever!:)

Happy Birthday Tanner and Jenny!

We are so glad we were able to have Tanner and Jenny over for a little bit to celebrate their Birthdays with a little B-day cake.:) Their birthdays are only a few day apart so I'm sure they'll be having a combined birthday from here on out (sorry guys!) Happy Birthday!

Gracie blew out most of the candles before they had a chance to blow out any, but they were good sports blew out the last few that were left. Please ignore Gracie's "been to church, had a nap, been rollin around in the couch pillows" hair do that she's sportin'!

First Day of School...kind of

Some ladies in the neighborhood and I decided to do a little Joy School/preschool this year with our 3 and 4 year old kids. Today was the first day but it was more of an opportunity for us Moms to get together and decide what and how we wanted to do this. I wasn't sure if Gracie even knew what "school" was but when I told her about it she was super excited. She was most excited however to wear her "packpack" of course. So we went to our friends house to have "school" which was really just a play time for the kids while the Mom's planned everything out and the entire time Gracie refused to take off her "packpack" and kept coming and telling me she wanted to go to school. Then when we left and she realized we were heading home she started throwing a huge fit about how she wanted to go to school! I realized then that the only time we ever talk about going to school is when we are refering to the park at the school at the end of our street which we frequent often. So needless to say I hope Gracie isn't disappointed that school is where you go to learn and not slide down slides! I guess we'll have to wait and see!:)



Brynlee got to come too since it was just a planning day so of course she had to bring her "packpack" too! It will be interesting to see how they do without eachother...it's really the first thing that Gracie is doing that Brynlee isn't.
I had to get a shot of the back packs to show how huge they are, they are as big as them! If I'd know we would be using them for preschool I would have gotten something different but I must confess that I got them last year on clearence thinking I'd use them as 72 hour kits...well that was as far as I got with that so I figured we might as well get some use out of them!

A few random tid bits

Well I suppose it's time for a new post since I haven't posted anything for over a month now, so here a few Random things we've been up to! I guess it's been so long that I've forgotten how to post things because for some reason I cannot get the above picture to go where I want it...so I guess I'll start there! I thought some of the the RC 305 roomies might like to see some pictures from Katie's reception(sorry none of them turned out well but at least you get the idea!). Katie is one of 5 girls that made the best roommates ever! I was so glad that I was able to go her reception. She looked Fabulous, and we had a lot of fun! However, I have to say being 7 months pregnant and standing next to TINY (seriously she really is!) Katie doesn't do much for the self esteem! Oh well:)

Here is Katie dancing with her new hubby Scott, they were so cute together:)

And here she is line dancing and showing off here white cowboy boots!:)

The above picture is a little treat I did for our neighborhood block party that Jake and I were put in charge of. Yes, I said "put in charge of". See here in Utah you get assigned by the bishop to do things like throw a block party...isn't Utah great! Anyways, I thought the chocolate carmel chex party mix in paper cones turned out cute and they were a big hit at the party.

And last but not least here is a picture of the girls last Sunday when we were miraculously ready early enough to take a picture before church! It seems like we are scrambling most Sunday's especially since I was put into the primary presidency and now have to be there by 8:30 to set up chairs...so it really was a miracle that we were ready early and had to document it!

So there is a little update on what we've been up to however random it may be!

Brynlee is 2!

Our little Brynlee Mae turned 2 years old on the 10th of August. She is such a sweet little girl and we are so glad she is part of our family. We love you Brynlee!

Brynlee's latest obsession is horses so we made a "horsie" cake for her. Jake did some great "rope" work with the licorice! I wish I would have gotten a picture of him carefully cutting each piece just right, making tassels and everything!:) Of course Brynlee Loved it!Grandma Bennion sent this adorable tu tu and head band. Brynlee put in on and immediately started shakin her tushy:) It was great, thanks Grandma!

Jake's Grandma Crawford gave us this little doll crib a little while ago. It was a crib that Jake's Mom used to play with as a kid. I wish I had a before picture of it but Jake fixed it up, painted it and I made some bedding for it and it turned out really cute! I think it's so neat to be able to pass things done from on generation to the next.

Smith cousin's! It's so fun being close to family...thanks everyone for coming and for all the great gifts, we love you all!

Blowing out the Candle!

Reunions, Reunions, Reunions

I've heard people talked about how they hate going to family reunions, I on the other hand Live for them! I love being able to see all of my family members that I haven't seen in a long time and reminisce about old memories and make new memories as well. After each reunion I am even more grateful that families are forever! This summer we had 3 different family reunions all within about a month. It was a lot of traveling but so worth it!
The first reunion we attended was the Murdock reunion. We all got together to celebrate my mom's parents 65th wedding anniversary and my Grandpa Murdock's 90th birthday! This is them cutting their cake, aren't they cute!:) These two are some of the most special people in my life. They are such great examples and wonderful people, I'm so lucky to have them and Grandparents.Grandma and Grandpa with the Grandchildren and Great Grandchildren that were able to be there that night. (Hard to believe this hardly makes a dent in all of my grandparents posterity!)

Brynlee enjoying some form of ice cream on a stick!

The Circle Game!
Only a true Murdock can appreciate the circle game!:)

The Talent Show
Gracie, Halle and Claire entertained everyone with a little "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" with a little help from their mom's me, my sister Krista and cousin Cindy

After the Murdock reunion we said goodbye to Jake for a week and hopped in the car with my parents and spent some time up in Billings. It was so much fun since Krista and her family were there and even better when Kara decided on a whim to fly up with 2 of her little ones and join the fun. We had a great time swimming, going to the zoo, shopping and doing a lot of chit chat! I didn't get many pictures on the trip but here are a few at the Montana Zoo.

There is a peacock that just roams free around the zoo, Gracie was pretty curious and got pretty close.

After our trip to Billings we headed to the Smith Family reunion in Lander Wyoming. We took one day and went to Martin's cove. The kids were even able to ride in a handcart and pull one too (at least long enough to take a picture!). It was a really neat experience to walk the trails the pioneers walked and to feel the spirit there.

Jake's dad Paul is in a little reinactment of the war before the firework show over the 4th of July each year. It's fun to see him all dressed up and ready for battle!

Gracie and her cousin Marin waiting to the fireworks to begin. Lander puts on the Best firework show I've ever seen or heard of, it's so fun to go a watch!

The Smith Cousins and Jake watching the 4th of July Parade! We all have to laugh because each year there is a float that hands out free beer to the crowd. Tons of people flock to that float and follow it down the road to get their share...only in Wyoming!

After the Smith Reunion we went to the Bennion Reunion. It was also a lot of fun. We spent some time on temple square, swam at the pool, went to Lagoon and had our annual Bennion Tennis Classic. Unfortunately, despite our efforts Krista and Chase took the trophy for the 2nd year in a row and Jake and I had to settle for 2nd:( We'll be ready next year!

The Bennion cousins on temple square (minus Kara's youngest Savannah who was sleeping)

All of us!

Just the Smith's

It was great to be able to spend some time with Jenny, Tanner's fiance. She is so great and we are so excited to have her in our family!

Gracie and Brynlee loved going on all the rides at Lagoon

Well it seems like the summer is just flying by and it was sad to say goodbye to all of our families but we are so grateful for the time we were able to spend with all of them and hope to seem them all again soon!