I'm back...

She is one crazy cat!!!

Daddy Daughter Candyland Ball.......

Jed and Uncle Derrick took Maddie and Olivia to the ball on Friday night! They had a great time!

Helping daddy with Loctite samples! The girls love to help daddy with his work projects! Todays samples needed a UV light! Just another day in the life of the Smiths!

kids say the darndest things...

I remember it well. It was years and years ago (humor me here, I am getting old!). Do you remeber it..... Bill Cosby and that great show, KIDS SAY THE DARNDEST THINGS. As a twelve year old I would watch the show and laugh my head off...however, I truly believed that the kids were bribed in some way to say the things they said. Well..... that was before I had kids of my own. I now believe, no - I know, that there was no bribing, those things simply just flow off of the tongues of small precious creatures! You know what I am talking about. The times that you laugh your self silly and the times that you want to crawl into a hole. I need to to better at writing them all down. Olivia seems to be flowing with them lately...

picture this...

I am snuggled on the couch with Olivia reading a backpack full of books. We are laughing, having fun and just loving this time together. We start reading a book about a kid that is, lets just say...fat! I love this book... it was talking about how people make fun of him and how sad he gets that he is the "big guy" and how much he hates it when his Aunt grabs his cheeks while asking.."how's my chunky guy?". I think to myself, "self... this is a perfect opportunity to teach a real lesson". So being all deep and serious I put the book down and say to Olivia, "sweetie God doesn't care about what we look like on the outside, he cares about what our what looks like?" I was pointing to her heart when I asked the question...hoping that she would understand the clue and be prompted to answer with the right answer so that I could smile and pat myself on the back for......training a child in the way he should go!!!

I was surprised when she looked at me so clueless, seeming confused and responded..."mommy, I didn't know God cares about what my boobies look like"......

So no patting myself on the back. Just a heartfelt high five to Bill Cosby and some explaining about what God really cares about!

props to the sistas.....

thanks to my sisters...

Heidi- for the awesome instruction on how to create new blog headers. I may become addicted!
Kori- for taking the cute pictures of the girls...and our legs!

love it....

guilty as charged.....

I know. Leave me alone already! I am a slacking blogger. I really do have allot to update you all on but its late.

In a nutshell.

I am Thankful....

gosh I love my kids....

Snow, snow DO NOT go away... we LOVE snow days. Jed is gone for a few days on business so I was thrilled when the school cancellations flashed across the screen this morning. No scraping my car, no shoveling...just pjs and fun today!

I was on the couch drinking coffee and working (does facebook and ebay count as working?), ok really I was browsing! The girls were playing so nicely together. I was hearing more giggles then cries...life was good. two little girls came bouncing up to me and handed me a nickel... "mom smell this" Madison says. I put it to my nose.. "smells good" i respond. giggles, giggles and then belly laughs erupt. "Mom, I farted on it" Madison blurts. I about died.... I called Jed and he thought it was great... I think he was proud to be totally honest!

A few hours later I was getting all of my scrapbook stuff ready as I am going to take full advantage of this day in the house! The girls were watching the movie Barnyard. Madison comes in the kitchen and asks me .."when is coyote season?". I told her i did not know and that she would have to ask Jed.... A few minutes later Olivia come in... "I never want to live on a farm". "Why", I ask... "because that's where the coyotes eat the peoples" she informs me. I asked why in the world she thought that ... "because if they eat the cows like on the movie they will eat the people too". I told her I agreed with the part about not living on the farm, but not because the coyotes will eat you!!

Man I love these crazy girls...even when they fart on things and make me smell l them...

my new do.....

so I have been feeling like I am in the middle of a mid-life crisis.... not really a crisis just a slump! You know the feeling...old, dated, overweight, tired looking...the whole "don't want to look in the mirror feeling"! So I decided to go for it...cut off the long locks, do some waxing, wear all black....

Here are the results of a few hours and allot of professional help! I really do like it. It so strange as never in my life have I had short hair!

my sweet angel....

Sweet Maddie Grace.... Thank you all so much for your prayers and concern for our precious girl these last few weeks. She is doing well. I am really trying to be positive and remember just how far she has come. I was looking back in the older post from the blog and was so emotional as I look at just what this girl has been through. We are still moving forward day by day. Trying to adjust meds to get where we need to be. We had an xray today and everything looked good... probably means that we can hold at the dosages we are at and then recheck in a week.

Some days are better then others. Madison is back in pull ups as we are just not having much success with no accidents. She is trying .... I can tell that she is frustrated. Hopefully with the adjustments that we will be making in adding pectin back in tomorrow she will have better control and feeling.

When we went to get xrays today the technician asked why we were there... when I responded "she had a colon resection in July" he looked surprised ....the severity of what she has been through really hit me for the first time... My sweet girl has been through more then I could have ever imagined. So really in the grand skeem of things a little medicine, and occasional enema and some cute pull-ups are really not all that bad. We have come a LONG way in the last 6 months. I believe with all of my heart that we will get the "home run" yet.

Thanks for praying. This little girl is going to do great things in her life... I wonder what the Lord is preparing her for? Whatever it is, it is going to be amazing.