Kitchen Facials

Every once in a while, I'll give myself a good old kitchen facial.  A nice steam, scrub and mask.  Derek decided to join me this time

Doesn't my man look good in pink?

Getting his dad's dimple, I love it!

Regardless of where he starts in the crib, whenever I come back to check on him, his head, is always touching the bumper pad.  Still such a great sleeper though.

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O Christmas Tree

We got our Christmas tree up this last week, and my house smells GOOD!  Smith only notices there's a big tree in the room when I turn the lights on.  We tried to get some Christmas card-worthy pictures last night, and this is what we came away with.

And the rest of these are just for fun.

He's just learned to sit up on his own this week, and it's great!  He's looking so grown-up!

Our friends are letting us use their circle-of-fun baby toy and Smith loves it!  He loves to be standing up.

Blue eyes.

Peas are his favorite, can you tell?

A Costume-less Halloween

 As many of you may know, Halloween is NOT my holiday.  I'd much rather skip ahead and put my focus on more savory things, like Thanksgiving.  But, costume or not, we did take a couple of pictures before our Halloween-eve outings.

I also thought I'd just throw in some recent pictures of the star of our family.  Smith is doing really well these days.  He is getting so playful, which is a blast.  And he just talks, talks, talks, and I LOVE it!  Winter is well on it's way now though, so I'm trying to collect ideas of what to do with him this winter, so throw over ideas all you mothers who are reading this!

Notice his nice, healthy, pudge of a belly.

Whenver he gets really excited or happy, like this in this picture, his hand automatically flys straight to his mouth, without fail. 

Baby face is morphing into a little boy face!

Another view, as requested by Mykal and Judd!

Zombie Half Marathon

Last weekend, Derek ran a half-marathon.  A couple days beforehand, he decided he wanted to take Smith on his first race.  So we got him a warm outfit, and they were ready to go!  It was soooooo chilly.  I kept thinking Smith would get cold, but Derek said he was perfect the entire race.  And when I met them at the finish line, they only cold one was me.  Derek did really well (and he didn't even train!).  Mostly, he just liked being in a race again, he misses all his marathons. 

Pre-race shot.

Getting seriously bundled up.

Last 20 yards. 

I hope he can do some more next summer. Derek said he got lots of comments about getting passed by a stroller!

Chop Chop

Well, I've been debating chopping off all my hair since I was pregnant.  But everyone told me that pregnant ladies shouldn't make rash decisions about their appearances.  But, baby's here and now my hair is not!  I chopped it all off yesterday and so far I'm loving it. 

Utah Trip and More

I know it's been a while, but I have a some what decent excuse...both of our cameras are broken.  I'm dying, I haven't been able to get as many pictures as I'd like.  We still have our camcorder, which is awesome, but I like having stills too. 

But, regardless of my camera not working, lots has happened in the last month. (I just have no proof) In September we went to Utah.  It was a MUCH needed and wanted trip, and way past due!  Smith and I flew down for a week, and then Derek joined us for the second week.  When I only get to go home once a year, one week just won't cut it!  Smith was the PERFECT baby on the flight down.  First, we had a 7 hour flight to Dallas, and we sat by a bunch of grandparents coming home from an Alaskan cruise, and they were all sooooo nice to me.  I never had to worry about lifting any of my bags, or reaching for things out of my diaper bag in the middle of the flight.  Grandparents are officially the best seat neighbors on a plane.  And on top of that, Smith slept the ENTIRE flight.  My only complaint was that my arm got tired!  He was amazing.  We then had a 5 hour layover in Texas, and this was the middle of the night now, but since Smith had slept so well, we just walked around with the stroller, ate, and walked some more.  Again, perfect.  Then we had a 3 hour flight up to Salt Lake and, wait for it....he slept the ENTIRE thing again!  I was so worried about flying down without Derek, but I had worried for nothing.  Note to flying mothers, fly at night!!!  It's hard to stay awake for mom, but soooo worth it to have a sleeping baby!

Our Utah trip was so awesome.  I was so excited for everyone to finally meet Smith!  Oh, and a little side note to all the other older siblings out there: when I think about going home, I still imagine it will lots of people, all my bros and sisters there.  It was SO STRANGE to go home and have only Mykal and Judd there.  Setting the table for 5 instead of 8 felt so funny! I guess younger siblings have to grow up too.  Awesome trip.  Got to hit my crafty max for the year with mom, speedmitten with Mykal and Judd, Cafe Rio trips, shopping with the kids and lots and lots of just watching Smith in the family room.

The best was the weekend when Maddi and Draker came home, so everyone was home, except Clark (missionaries don't get weekend getaways I guess!). We had such a great time. Someone asked us is we had any fun plans for the weekend, and Mom and I thought about it, and we really didn't! The fun was all in just having everyone home! Here are some of our pictures from that weekend.

(All the glasses in my family make it awful hard to get a good picture!)

The other awesome part of our trip was going to REXBURG!!! I know there are the many Rexburg haters of the world who vow to never return once they "finally" get out.....but I am not one of them. I love Rexburg and I adored my time there and I hope to end up in a small town similar to it whenever my little family gets the chance to settle down. We got to go see our baby Jo's site.

My little sister had gone and cleaned her stone off so it was all nice, clean and shiny when Derek, Smith and I went to visit.  We took some little pumpkins out for a taste of the season. 

And we got to visit some of our FAVORITE people in the world!

Katie (and John and Madysen).  It was so fun to see Katie and to FINALLY get to meet her

not-so-baby-anymore baby.  Mady was sooo cute and we had such a good time staying with them.  Too short of a visit.

And Kellie!!  As always, it's lovely to see Kellie.  I have a feeling she won't be happy about this picture choice....sorry friend!  I'm so grateful my friends made the efforts to make time to see me while I was there.  I have GREAT friends.

All in all, it was a wonderful trip.  The flight home went beautifully, both our flights had gobs of empty seats, so we had tons of room and were given tons of snacks!

Other news, it's COLD here in anchorage.  A freezing 26 degrees this morning.  But is has been pretty lately.  And I'll take the snow-less cold for a month or so.  The weather is just making me crave all the warm carb-infused treats that scream Autumn to me.

Smith is doing so well.  It took a while to get him back on track after our trip.  But we are back to 2-3 naps a day and 8-11 hours at night.  I know, I'm spoiled.  He can roll over now, but not on purpose. And he's a laughing machine!!!

New Toys

So, you know how Chariots are hundreds of dollars......but SOOOOO cool?  Well, they are.  They can be a jogger, a bike trailer and a cross-country skier.  And we wanted one BADLY!  But we just couldn't justify spending that much money on something we didn't technically need, sense I already had a regular stroller.  Then.....some of Derek's friends from work had a second child, so they got a double chariot and GAVE us theirs.  GAVE!!  As in for FREE!  How rad is that?  We have had so much fun with it.  It is so much easier for me to run with Smith in the Chariot, and we love hooking it up to our bikes and hitting the coastal trail.  It's been such a fun blessing this month, and we are excited to pull Smith behind us while we X-Country ski this winter!

See, he loves it!  He actually loves just being outside.  It was really hot this day, so on the way home, we lifted up the plastic cover, and only left the screen down. I never looked back to check on him, because he was so quiet and being good.  When we got home, he was COVERED in dirt that sprayed him through the screen!  It looked like had had eaten a dozen oreos, and had all sorts of black eye boogies.  But, he was happy so mom was happy!

We've been using a Bumbo more and more.  Smith is to the point where he likes to be UP!  He'll lay on his back for a little while, but he'd much rather be sitting up in the Bumbo or propped in the corner of the couch.  Even the carseat is too flat, we'll look back at him and he'll be doing crunch after crunch trying to sit up higher.

Contrary to this particular picture, he can hold his head up.  All though his favorite thing to do is dip his head down and suck on the part that separates his legs.

And lastly, just my current favorite picture and desktop background!

Camping

Last weekend we went camping with our friends, the Petersens, and we had SUCH a BLAST!  We like camping, but camping in Alaska is different.  There are bears.  EVERYWHERE.  And I'm not cool with sleeping in a micro-thin tent and calling that shelter with bears as my neighbors.  But the Petersens have a small RV that we slept in.  It was the best of both world- campfires, s'mores, hiking and hotdogs, and a mattress at night.  We had a great time.  And Smith did awesome.

Smith and I waiting while Dad packs.

Pretty sure the reason he liked camping was because it meant that with Mom and Shasta both there, he never got put down!

Too happy to go to sleep....

Finally ready for a late bedtime.

The family at Eklutna lake.

Derek kayaking.

For about 20 minutes, because Joshua fell into this freezing glacier fed lake!!  So cold.

Smiles!

Smith is smiling and 'talking' now, and almost laughing.  He smiles more predictably now, and not just at me.  His talking is just so fun too.  He's just getting more social which is so great.  We had his 2 month appointment the other day, and he's about 45th percentiles for everything.  So nice averaged sized kid.  Now on to the pics!

Some Daddy time.

Picture of his blessing outfit.

His cute cap fits now!  Finally, a cute accessory for a boy!

One second he can be this....

...but it always turns back to this!

Lists and Pictures

Things I've Learned/Noticed Since Smith

1. I will never have enough burp rags (and as a result.....)
2. It is impossible to get 100% caught up on laundry.
3. Smith has most definitely learned to fake cry.
4. Having a baby has inspired what I like to call "bathroom humor" with Derek.
5. Exercising has become a chore, not an activity .
6. I love Baby Wise.
7. Changing into a clean outfit invokes a new mess....vicious cycle.
8. I had some set strong ideals on parenting---easier said then done.
9. I'm willing to do just about anything to get Smith to smile.
10. Being a mom is downright fun.
11. I live in Alaska-so I deserve (ok maybe just want) one of these.

and
12. Everyone wants to see the baby, not you!!  So here you go!

Mmmm, I just LOVE his eyes.  Love em.

We just couldn't get a picture yesterday without him yawning or closing his eyes.  But we still wanted to show his cute outfit.  Polo onsies are my current favorite. 

So sweet. 

We were trying to get the stereotypical sleeping baby shot (I'm not creative, ok), but he suprised us all and stayed awake until I put his clothes back on.