Madisons 7th Birthday!

We had a great day at Madison's Bday party! All of our family was here... lots of good play on the new playset with all of the cousins! We tackled tie-dying as the craft project and it turned out great! The kids had a blast and they looked so cool!

Thanks to Tiggi for her awesome Fondant skills & the help with the cake! It urned out so cute!

The Playset!

I have been promising that I would get pictures up of the playset that Jed built for the girls.... here they are! The process was impressive! It is so awesome having a handy husband!

Olivias first day of school!

so this is a few days late... I figured I better get it up here to keep things fair as the girls look at the blog all the time!

Olivia is LOVING school! She is often disappointed when on Tues and Thurs she has to come home with me after dropping Madison off at school. We had her orientation on a Thursday night. Jed and I went with her and helped her unpack her supplies ect. Later that night I told someone that she had her first day of school and she replied..."it is not school until I go alone"! She bounded out of the car the next morning ready to tackle the world! She is my little miss independent!!!! So glad that she is having such a great experience!

Holy Ty!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Could these pictures be any cuter??? I will have to blog all of the pictures soon. Extreme Home Makeover is in to town to do a house a few miles out of Freeport. It has been so fun. I was able to get to know a few people who are on the production team and have got a few sweet hook-ups. Today Jed and I were involved in a lot of the filming for the show and will hopefully be seen on the show as we are in the mass of people coming to demo the house and then the interview when Ty talks with the builder about the family in front of the house. It has been an amazing sight. When Jed and I got there this morning at 4 a.m. to work the foundation had just been finished. By the time we left at 4 p.m. the ENTIRE house was framed and the roof was almost completely boarded?? The old house was demoed and removed within about 3 hours.

It has been so fun to see how it all comes together and how it is not at all the way you think it would be! Likethe fact that they demoed the house AFTER the new house was totally up on a different piece of the property!

We have lots of great photos of the other designers, the house progress and the surrounding area that if full of production trailers, food tents - ect!

Had to at least get these up!

I have been held captive since June 15th...really!

"So where the heck have you been.... " that seems to be the question of the summer. I have started receiving death threats, hate mail and other mean, mean thing from faithful blog followers that are not happy with my updating skills.

So what could possibly happen to a family in a few short week...ok months!

Lets see....

June was pretty much spent in the bathroom... Jed was busy finishing the remodel and I was busy hunched over the beautiful new Kohler toilet. Morning sickness had definitely set in. Yes, for those of you really out of the loop...we are preggo!! Smith number 3 will be joining us in January. I am just about 20 weeks pregnant and we are sooooo excited about the new little bundle that will be joining us. The bathroom as far as Jeds responsiblities go is done. My list however is not... The shower curtain, empty frames and less then appealing heap of towel on the floor due to my lack of ability to make a decision due to "placenta brain" are holding us back. I will give you real photos of the bathroom in thenear future when my desire to spend time in the bathroom returns. Right now t has to many bad memories...give me a month or so of non-puking and I should be ok to continue.

We have spent much time away from home this summer....much of which I did not document because I was to sick to think about packing my kids in the car let alone the camera. In July we were in Minnesota in the middle of the Arctic freeze. I think the high the whole time we were there was 75. uugghh. Really messes up my tan thing... but it was fun and relaxing. We got Madison a wetsuit and she was a great sport in the freezing water!










In July I also spent 2 weeks with the girls in Ohio at Ted and Danielle's house taking care of my sweet niece Teagan. Danielle had a major surgery and me, mom and the girls headed to their place to help out. It was awful to see Danielle so miserable but so fun to have Miss Teag! What a doll.

seriously...could I bottle her up???

Late July my pregnant sniffer kicked into high gear and I decided our house stinks and is making me sick. I have spent weeks cleaning, re-cleaning, having carpets shampooed, dogs shampooed and kids shampooed. I have washed every piece of upholstery, scrubbed every surface and am still nauseated at the smell of our home. I tried the FreshWave and it seemed to work for a day or so but the nastiness has returned. I just got a wiff a few minutes ago as I was typing and wiped my nose across every last square inch of the table sure it must be close by and CAN NOT find the offender. I am at a loss. I think I will next paint the entire first floor and have the vents cleaned. Really, Jed is ready to kill me. It is starting to get expensive! What could it be. It is a very distinct odor. One that I can not describe or explain. I need another pregnant woman to come and help me figure it out. I am ready to move to the playhouse in the back yard which leads to the next paragraph.

smelling every last inch of my house.....

In August we decided the kids needed a play set so we found one that we loved, bought it and got trapped right in the middle of a fraud. That is a whole different entry but here is the synopsis.


Bought playset online, paid for playset, waited for the semi to pull up on Aug 10th, semi never showed, called and found out that the site had been stolen and our money was in Beijing and my playset was non existent. Tears, sobs, yelling, throwing(remember I am pregnant and emotional) and several calls to visa laterand there is hope that the money will be returned. However, in the mean time we had to go to plan B to get the poor, sad, heartbroken kids a new set. So we bought a used set that needed a lot of TLC. It is coming along nicely. Power washing and staining have become a daily activity and Jed is in true engineering style remaking this massive playhouse that will be far better then the original figment of our imagination , nonexistent Beijing play set!

Before

During...

Much thanks to bridget and Claire who came and stayed at our house in the midst of the drama and helped a ton!!

And then there is first days of school, church and home commitments and my overwhelming need for sleep and clean air that keep me busy all day every day!

So we are back. I promise this time. I will never leave you waiting in suspense this long again. It was wrong of me...please forgive me!