Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Hudson's Birth Story

Hudson Eli Smith was born on Monday, March 9th at 1:09pm via C section at Texas Children's Hospital in Houston.  He weighed 5 pounds 11 ounces, measured 18 inches long and had a full head of reddish/blonde hair!  We are thrilled to welcome him into our lives and to complete our little family.

 
 
 He was taken directly from the OR to the level 4 NICU in the west tower.  Jarrod was able to go along to get him settled.
 
 
Happy Birthday sweet boy!  :)

 
For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. 
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made,
your works are wonderful; I know that full well.  -Psalm 139:13&14


Sunday, March 1, 2015

Hudson's baby shower

In anticipation of Hudson's grand arrival the women's ministry team at our church hosted a lovely baby shower for us.  Everything was precious  - down to every last detail! 
 
 
 The décor simply brought tears to my eyes when I arrived.  The refreshments, games  and company were all so perfect and memorable! 
 


The table centerpieces were small nursery books with matching stuffed animals.  They sent me home with all of it!  We were also so grateful to receive tons of diapers, wipes, teeny tiny clothes and much needed baby gear.
 


I loved these sweet personalized cookies made by my friend Shoa at Red Barn Bakery!  They were almost too beautiful to eat {but were, of course, delicious}!!


 Our church family is a huge blessing to us and Baby Hudson is already loved by so many!  Thank you to everyone who had a part in making this a special day XOXO
 
 

Monday, February 9, 2015

Owen funnies

Owen is such a hilarious little dude.  He enjoys making others laugh and is definitely following in his daddy's witty footsteps.  His vocabulary and pronunciation is improving so much but there are still some particular words he adds his own personalization to and that I never want to forget:
 
fefore - before
 fefessional - professional
mowing - morning
 instruction - concession {stand}
meowk - milk
papas an - parmesan {cheese}
 tooey - twenty {20}
 except - until or unless {"I'm not going except Emma goes!"}
 
Owen often seems extra talkative and inquisitive during our commute on school days.  Here are some comical things he comes up with.  I must admit that he is pretty darn cute and creative!
 
One of his frequent breakfast foods of choice is a brown sugar cinnamon pop tart.  Each serving comes in a pack of two.  Every single time he has one he gets down to one small square piece of the second tart, hands it to me, smiles real big and declares that he is going to take a pop tart break.  He never ends up finishing that tiny piece.
 
One morning Lucy had voluntarily gotten into her kennel with the door standing open.  Owen asked me why she had done that.  I told him to ask her.  With a straight face and without skipping a beat he replied "I don't speak dog!"
 
One afternoon upon picking him up from school I offered a mozzarella stick to Owen {he usually loves them}.  He declined and announced that his taste buds had changed while at school.
 
One morning before school I instructed Owen to brush his teeth.  He spent a few minutes whining on the in disapproval.  He finally admitted that he only knows how to bush one tooth.
 
Emma has learned this little jingle at school and Owen has followed suit: 
"Such and such sitting in a tree, k-s-i-i-n-g-g...!" 
Clearly we are still working on spelling :)

Recently Owen asked "How does Jesus get into your heart?"  I did my best to explain things in his terms.  He replied with "Yeah I know all of that but how does he really fit in there?"



Tuesday, December 23, 2014

A Pre K Christmas week

Owen had a busy and fun filled week before Christmas.  He has such a great group of Pre K friends who invited us to participate in an array of holiday activities!  On Wednesday we decorated gingerbread houses at Hartley's house.  Her sweet mama April did was such a creative hostess!  I'm pretty sure Owen enjoyed eating frosting out of the tub more than decorating!



On Thursday evening JK's family organized a Christmas caroling hayride.  We visited a Huntsville nursing facility and enjoyed bring some cheer to those residents.


On Friday their class performed in the annual Discovery Days Christmas pageant.  Owen was so excited and counted down the weeks until the big day.  They sang "Away in a Manger" and "We Wish You a Merry Christmas".  Owen was the cutest shepherd ever and the Pre K kids did such a wonderful job!  I forgot to bring Kleenex along but did a good job of holding in the mama tears.  I'm already getting sad that his Pre K year is half way done and next year this sweet group of kids will have to part ways for Kindergarten....



Angel Sarah with shepherd buddies Owen and JK :)


We were so thankful that Lita made the quick trip to watch the program and to be at the kids' class parties.  Owen specifically asked her to come and to "dress nice"!


Our family of four after the pageant

Saturday, December 20, 2014

Bumpdate - 28 weeks


How Far Along?  28 weeks {officially in the third trimester!  Yay!}

Baby size?  About the size of an eggplant - Dr D mentioned that Hudson is now close to 2 lbs!?

Maternity Clothes?   Absolutely!

Weight Gain?  #

Stretch Marks?  None  

Gender?  Oh BOY!  

Sleep?  Other than more frequent restroom trips it is great!

Food cravings?  None whatsoever!  So strange!

What I Miss?  abs

What I am loving?  finally feeling him move more

Symptoms?  Feeling really great right now but I'm occasionally bothered by my sciatic nerve and ligament pains {usually late in the day}

Best moment of the week? ultrasound

**************************************************************************

The photos below are at approximately 8, 20 and 25 weeks along :)

Saturday, December 13, 2014

Santa's Wonderland 2014

We welcomed the holiday season with a trip to Santa's Wonderland.  It has become quite a Smith tradition and we look forward to it every year!


The newest addition to the park are these giant nutcrackers!  


We beat the crowd and parked almost an hour before it opened.  Upon entrance we went straight to the hayride and it was fabulous to skip the long line!  The light displays are always top notch and are super impressive!


The kids just had to get a photo by this large snow globe.  Owen wished we could have gone inside :)


Marshall Frostbite is always entertaining and the kids enjoyed saying hello!


Our annual family photo on the stage!


Pony rides



Petting zoo



The kids enjoyed listening to the live music.  Owen even asked the guest musician if he could play White Stripes ;)


Highlight of our visit included dutch oven peach cobbler, the pretend "snow" and a visit with Santa himself!

EIGHT is GREAT!

Emma thinks it's GREAT to be EIGHT!!  It's so hard to believe that she is half way to the legal driving age {and, as Big Daddy pointed out, only a short decade away from heading to college}!  How can that be?!  She is attentive, creative, beautiful, athletic, mature, less gullible by the day, playful, always  busy, rather stubborn and particular and has a heart of gold.  She has lost four teeth to date and has two loose ones!


She weighs 74 pounds {95th percentile} and stands 4' 3" tall {75th perc}.  She is quickly outgrowing size 8/10 clothes and has women's size 3 foot.  It won't be long before we can share a shoe collection :)  We no longer see eye to eye on her wardrobe.  She rebels against 'cute' outfits and hair bows.  We do compromise with headbands!  I gave her this shirt with an '8' on it on the morning of her birthday and she said "I can't believe you actually picked out something I like".  {Seriously?!}


Recently a sweet classmate approached me and said that Emma is a "great friend to have".  Mrs Reddick commented that she wishes she had eighteen Emmas in class.  Those are definitely some of the best compliments a mama can receive!!  She rarely ever has to be disciplined or told to correct her behavior.  She definitely makes this parenting gig easy!


Our girl is downright terrified of shots, bugs and sleeping in the dark.  She has incredible physical strength for her age.  She is still a great eater but has become a bit more choosy over the past year.  She enjoys playing Barbies, American Girl dolls, riding her bike, writing, drawing and reading.


School is going well for her.  She is quite the book worm and currently leads the second grade with reading counts points.  Junie B Jones books are among her favorites!  She often worries about math tests and then makes 100s on them.  She rarely has to study much for weekly spelling and vocabulary tests and math also comes relatively easy for her.  She is becoming the type of student I never was!  She has developed some mild anxiety about her routine.  She takes things very seriously and prefers for things to come easy to her.  She was one of three students selected for the UIL creative writing team and placed sixth in district competition earlier this month.  She occasionally returns home from school disappointed that her fellow classmates repetitively use 'bad' words: stupid, dumb, dang and the phrase 'oh my gosh'.  Little does she know it will only get worse, but for now I'm okay with her naivety.  


Favorites (her responses in orange!)

Color: aqua
Best friend: Rebecca, Alexis, Ashanti, Katelynn and Marisol
TV show: Jesse
Day of the week: Wednesday {because it's hump day!}
Month:  December 
Holiday:  Christmas
Outfit:  'Believe in your selfie' shirt with matching jacket and black tights/boots
Restaurant: Sonic
Food: pineapples
Drink: Dr Pepper
Store: Target
Thing about school: reading
What are you good at?: writing 
Where do you want to attend college?: A&M and Baylor (smart girl!)
What do you want to be when you grow up?: teacher