No pictures, just words

Ok, so this is a random blog entry, but no one around here knows Travis well enough yet to appreciate what a goof he is, so I had to share with those of you who do. Not sure if he will love it that I share his deep, dark secrets...

So, I am out working on the computer late the other night when I hear laughing in the next room (not a giggle or chuckle...full out laughter). So, I walk in there knowing that Travis has been asleep for about about an hour and a half. I walk in to see him with the biggest smile on his face that I have ever seen.
Me: Travis, what in the heck is so funny?
Travis: (opens eyes and still grinning)
Me: Why are you laughing?
Travis: (still smiling) Because your reward is a corndog (little giggle)
Me: "Huh?"
Travis: Yes, you deserve a corndog...but only if you jump over the pants (still smiling, he rolls over and goes to sleep).

It was one of those moments that I just laughed so hard and wish I had someone else there to make fun of him with me. Of course, he remembers nothing of the incident.

I just thought those of you who were in Europe or China with him and were subjected to his nighttime laughing, weeping, and proclamations of squishing grapes in his toes would like this.

Aaaahhh...so much fun to be married to him. Truly...never a dull moment!!!

Read more...

Heaven

Monday morning.
We are driving to school and it is a bit foggy that morning. We are driving up the street and come upon this sight. Kaleb practically jumps out of seat.
Kaleb: LOOK! It's beatiful...it's heaven! Mom, take a picture of heaven!
Me thinking: Ohhh, he's so precious...and lucky that I DO happen to have my camera here.
Kaleb: I want to be sucked up to heaven through that heaven portal!
Precious moment ruined. Oh well, there's heaven from a little boy's point of view.

Read more...

Back to School

Bitter sweet. That's what the first day of school is to me. A part of me wants to leap for joy, and another is sad my little buddies are headed off to the real world (without me there to protect them). I had a sad mommy moment when I thought Barrett would be terrified to go to kindergarten and cling to me for dear life. On the contrary, he didn't even want to hold my hand as he was cruising down the hall to put his backpack in his "cool new locker." Well, I guess we can chalk it off as a successful first day of school.

As I looked at these pictures on the computer, I seriously had to look twice...those aren't my little boys, those are grown up little men! What happened to my itty bitties?

I had to take a picture of Barrett's shoes. Travis has slowly been infiltrating our family with converse shoes...

Read more...

Henry Ford Museum

Fun times. We love our life. Whether we are just hanging out at home or out on a weekend adventure, we always have fun. Boys are crazy, loud, sometimes obnoxious, and hilarious. And, as you all know, I am completely surrounded by boys. The only thing that would make it better is if we were surrounded by family and friends. So, could you all hurry up and start migrating to Michigan?

We had fun last weekend with James and Jen Peterson (James and Trav work together). We went to the Henry Ford Museum which was so much fun! I had heard a lot about it but didn't know what to expect...I was totally surprised! It was huge and full of cool things (cars were only part of it). They had an old, battered jeep of a father and son from South America who wanted to get to the Henry Ford museum so bad that they left with nothing but their jeep towards the U.S. Two years later, they finally made it there. Well, it only took us 30 minutes for us to get there, but was well worth the trip. We didn't have time to go to Greenfield Village (which is a dated village with old streets and buildings, women in their big dresses and parasols, old model T's driving around, etc.)...but we'll make it back soon...

Those fuzzy blobs are not angels, but rather us. I asked a sweet little Chinese man to take our picture...

In my son's defense, he is NOT picking, he is SCRATCHING...

I thought this was cool, this was Madonna's limo she went to awards shows in...seriously...too much money floating around...

Just wanted to post a picture of my new car...or rather John Lennon's car. But, I love it and want one!

Read more...

The Mullet is Back

The Mullet look is back...ok, it was never IN. Isaac had acquired the-bald-spot-on-the-back-of-the-head-from-the-hair-being -rubbed-off look and had a sweet mullet growing in back. As a first time parent of a baby born with lots of hair, I wanted to keep all of his luscious blond locks. But, unfortunately, I just couldn't stand to see my baby with a bald spot and mullet and he received his first haircut at almost four months old. Isn't my tiny too young to be getting a haircut? Well, here are some before and afters of his first haircut...



Hmmm, I need to get more pictures of Kaleb and Barrett on here. They just seem to run the other direction when I get my camera out. Here come the bribes...

Read more...

Friends and Fotography

There's been so much fun the past two weeks, I don't know where to start! It's been a Thunderbird reunion around here! Our friends from Arizona, the Duffy's, took a road trip from Wisconsin (Ken is doing an internship there) to our house last weekend. Their time here was short, but we had so much fun! It was a weekend full of movies, swimming, picnics, gaming, and of course, hot dogs...oh, I mean, polish dogs...apparently, there is a huge difference according to Travis and Ken. Here is a pic of them that I'm sure they will be pleased to see that I posted...

Next on the list of fun was our road trip to Greensboro, North Carolina this last weekend. Our friends, the Heids (also from Thunderbird), live in North Carolina as well...how convenient is that? Danny, Andrea, and Connor were the ones at Isaac's baby blessing for all of you folks in Utah who were there. I'm not sure Travis would have conceded to drag the whole family down there if we didn't have the Heid's to hang out with too! Here is a sweet self timer off the back of Danny's car...thank goodness he had his camera...


And here is a pic of the photography workshop I attended. It was BEYOND amazing...don't even get me started...look at that studio...ahhhh....

Oh! By the way...Happy Anniversary to me and Trav (last Sunday)! NINE YEARS!!! Since we were in N.C. on our anniversary, we are going to celebrate it this weekend. While we there, not only did Travis watch the boys the whole time I was having fun at the workshop, he decorated our hotel room and had roses and chocolates on the bed for me when I got back Saturday night! Seriously, I could get really mushy here, but I will save you all and just say I have the best husband EVER!

Read more...

Not much to say...

No big news around our house...so I'll just post a picture of my teeny tiny.


BUT...I did want to say CONGRATS to Trav's sister Mikki, and her hubby Kevin, on their new baby, Emery! Yay!!!! We are so sorry we can't be there to see her...we expect lots of pictures...

Read more...

Summer in Michigan

Michigan is beautiful in the summertime! I'm sure I'll be singing a different tune come winter, but we love all of the lakes and the lush, greenness of it all and are having a great time! Sometimes I feel like we are still on vacation and will be coming home soon. I just don't think we feel truly settled yet. Speaking of that, our house is still on track to be done mid to late August...we'll see how that goes. Maybe then, the fact that we are now permanently relocated might sink in a bit.

These pictures are at a cottage on a lake, owned by some people from church, the Jensens. They, and others from church, have been SOOO wonderful to us! We have been to the lake a few times with them and the boys absolutely LOVE it!

Read more...

Sherwoods

Our hearts are broken for Josh and Amanda Sherwood, our friends from Arizona, whose sweet baby Andrew passed away on July 13, 2007. Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers at this time. We love you Sherwoods!

Read more...

4th of July

Hi! Everyone has a busy 4th of July and pictures to go along with it. So, I thought I would add mine to the mess! Here is our 4th of July story in pictures...it was so much fun!

Nothing like a patriotic run bright and early on the 4th! Travis ran the 5K and Kaleb and Barrett ran their very first race! They loved it! We signed up for another one later this month. Oh, Trav is the dude in the red if you can't tell because his contorted face.

Barrett thinks he's Dash (Incredibles)

This sooooo brings back great memories! The boys perched on the side of the road, eating ice cream, watching the parade, and of course, waiting for CANDY!

This was Isaac pretty much the whole day...

We went to see fireworks on Kensington Lake. Wow, it was a whole new fireworks experience!

Barrett and Kaleb doing sparklers...they love these pictures because they think they look like ghosts...silly boys!

Read more...

Our (Very) Humble Abode

Hello! Just a little post with a few pics...
I took some pictures of our current living conditions because I think it is actually quite funny! Although the condo we are staying in is beautiful, we have nothing to fill it! No one complains about sleeping on the floor, and to tell you the truth, there is a whole heck of lot less cleaning here! Maybe when all of our storage comes in August, I'll be wishing for these simpler times...hee hee! Anyway, without further adieu, I present....the Smith Home (temporarily)!

Trav and Jean's Room...hey, it's not bad...we have a sweet pad to sleep on!

Family Room, movie viewing area, and furniture...hee hee!

Aaaah, our one piece of real furniture...we bought it at a yard sale!

Kaleb and Barrett's Room

This card table USED to be our dining table until we found one at a yard sale...Kaleb and Barrett have since turned it into their craft table!

So, there ya go. I can't imagine we'll have too many visitors while we live here! I can see it now..."Welcome to our home! Come have a seat on...um...the floor."

Anyway, here are a few more pics of Isaac from last week to finish off my post! Laters!

Read more...

The Last Two Months...

Hello from Michigan! We are finally here and trying to get used to our new life as Midwesterners! I feel like we haven't been able to keep in the best of contact with everyone over the last two months, so I will back up a bit and update you on everything.

Of course you all know we welcomed Isaac to the world two months ago and then Travis graduated from Thunderbird two weeks later. This is where I pick up the story. We packed up our apartment and made the trek up to Utah where we would stay for a month. Good bye Arizona and all of our friends...it was hard to say goodbye!

While we were in Utah, we were busy, busy, busy! Unfortunately, remodeling our condo to sell it took up a lot of our spare time. Note to self: Never start a remodeling project to be done in a short amount of time if you just want to relax and enjoy family and friends. Seriously, thanks to our wonderful mothers who helped us out SOOO much while we were there! Here are some pics of some of things we did...

Trav and some of our friends ran the Ogden Marathon as a relay team (supergirl Holly in the middle ran it on her own and qualified for the Boston Marathon...yay!). Do not question the sanity of the fella in the middle with the tight tank top, hot pink shorts, and mile high spiked hair. That there is our friend, Jason, who is always making us laugh with his crazy ideas. Yep, he got quite a few second looks that day!

We went on a camping/rock climbing trip in May to City of Rocks, Idaho with our friends. It was Isaac's first official trip. We had a lot of fun and the boys attempted their first ever climbs!

At the beginning of June, my family and I went to San Antonio, Texas to see my little brother, Steve, graduate from Air Force Basic Training. It was a really cool experience...Go Steve!

Sweet little Isaac hanging out with Grandma Liz in Texas.

Ok, so now we're to the present. We moved to Michigan about a week and a half ago. It all went pretty smooth. I'm sure we were a sight to see in the airport juggling our three children, ten pieces of luggage, and several carry on bags! We had to bring the max amount of luggage we could because we will just be living out of that for a couple of months until our house is done being built and the rest of our stuff is moved here from Utah.

Our builder has been great to work with and offered to let us live in one of his brand new condos rent-free until our home is done. So, this is where we are at right now...

Here is Kaleb and the baby...the boys are still loving Isaac so much and always want to hold and love him (sometimes a little too much)!

Our boys have easily adjusted to their new life here. Kaleb and Barrett are such good, little boys and find fun anywhere they go. I'm just so grateful they have each other. As far as Isaac goes, I'm just not sure what we did to deserve such a good baby. His mission right now is to eat, sleep, and entertain. That kid smiles more than any baby I've ever seen! He is so much fun! Here are just some random pictures of the boys having fun in the sprinklers at our house.
Last but not least, here is Travis and the boys on Father's Day. I look at this picture and seriously can't believe I am completely surrounded by boys!!! Oh well, life is great...

Ok, everyone, please keep in touch! We need it more than ever now! Even though China was so far away, we knew it was temporary. But, our move is for real this time and not so temporary! Hugs and kisses!!!

Read more...

A Quick Post...

Whew! It's already been seven weeks since our baby was born! In these short two months, our family will have experienced some major life changes...a new baby, a new job, a new car, a new house, and a big move!

First of all, I have to say...CONGRATS TO TRAV ON HIS GRADUATION FROM THUNDERBIRD! It has been an amazing experience here at Thunderbird for our whole family and we will miss our friends so much, but we are also excited to start a new job and a new life in Michigan. He will blush (does Travis blush???) and shrug it off, but I am seriously so proud of him! Our wonderful families came down for his graduation and to help us pack up to move.

We have been in Utah for about a month. We have been able to spend a lot of time with friends and family...we love and will miss you all!!! We have also been super busy completely gutting and remodeling our condo here to sell. What a project! Hopefully it will sell sooner than later...

Anyway, we are actually leaving for Michigan in two days, so I will post as soon as we get settled a bit.

Here are some pics of Trav's graduation...

Read more...