The Sky Is Falling!

Every time I turn on the radio and the TV I feel a little like a character in Chicken Little. But is the Sky really falling in our less chickeny version of the story? With the financial mess, the natural disasters, the on going wars, and the looming elections upon us it feels like America, and most of the world as well, is at a major cross roads. I keep thinking how grateful I am that Conference is just around the corner. I am searching for some perspective. I am only 23. I have not been concerned with the grown up world for very long so its hard to know if this really is a big deal in the long term or not. I called my mom to ask if this really was as bad as the media says it is, she dose have almost 45 years on me. I was hoping she'd say something like, "don't worry. This is just like back in blank when blank happened and it will be washed over in a year or two". But she basically told me it was bad and this was all worth being really concerned about. We both agreed that the unthinkable may certainly happen, America may fail us. We could be headed for America's "great and mighty" fall, but most importantly the Gospel of Jesus Christ never will fail. There is no place for fear. I am ever hopeful that this will somehow be one of our finest hours and not our most bleak.

My mother and I were then joking about it being the last days and I expressed that I didn't really want it to be THE END. Honestly, what use is a doctor during the Millennium? :) As long as school loans are forgiven I guess it'd be OK, but how annoying would it be to finally get through med school and then Stewart never get to actually be a doctor! :) I just wish I could read a history book twenty years from now and see where this is all headed. Time will tell.

In the mean time I am excited for conference, Stew and my birthdays, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and having our next baby. Life is good even if I have to sweep chunks of the sky off of our driveway now and then. :)

SnApShOt Of mY LiFe

Its been awhile since I was tagged but I was yesterday. This one is all about seeing what people's lives are like in a snapshot of real life. Your tagged and then you have to take pictures of the following things as they are right then and post it. Here is a snapshot of my life. Its not very exciting, sorry! I wish I had something more interesting to show you, like maybe a magenta self-cleaning toilet or something.

1.) sElF PoRtrAIt: Aren't I a pregnant beauty?!?! :)

2.) HuBbY: He's at school studying his little - I mean huge - brain out! Way to go Honey Love. :)

3.) FaVoRiTe sHOeS: My sexy high heels (only ones I own. I bought them my sophomore year of high school - yeah, that's sad.), my sandals, and my slippers. All modeled by the Bridge Man himself.

4. ) fAvOrItE rOoM: My bedroom (I am glad I made the bed this morning). It sure isn't that pretty but it is always light and airy in there, its my sanctuary.... and my son's bed jumping arena.

5.) TOiLeT: Here is the master bedroom toilet. Is that not the most beautiful toilet you have ever seen!?!?!

6.) KItChEn SInK: There she be. There are some dishes in there but you cant see them. Ha Ha!

7.) lAUnDry RoOM: There it is. Surely this is the most glamorous beautiful space in my house! Interesting side note, our microwave is in our laundry room. I refuse to give up my precious little counter space in the kitchen.

8.) fRIdGe: This really is a gross space. The kids get in there and try to get their own food. Therefore there are all sorts of spilled crusties. Yum!

9.) KIdDos: They are playing on the slide. I really do dress my kids everyday. But it seems they'd rather be naked because I think 1/3 of their pictures they are at least half naked!

10.) DrEaM VaCAtiON: I don't just have vague dreams...I am a major planner and thus I have thoroughly planned out my dream vacations which I am turning into one vacation for this post's requirements and decided I can do that because HECK, it's my blog and my freaking dream! :)

My dream vacations involve FAMILY. It has to do with my dreaming about who I would love to enjoy my dream places with. For my In-laws side of my huge huge family we would go to a private island paradise. We'd have boats and everything at our disposal. Each little nuclear family would have their own little house so comfy and stress free don't you think!?!? Look at the picture. We'd have a fabulous time boating, snorkeling, swimming, BBQing, hiking, taking a million pictures, and letting our kids run wild and carefree on their own little island. Total water and sun fun! Fabulous!

Then for my Smith family we'd all head to Europe!!! We'd rent a gigantic villa that would some how fit us all comfortably. It'd have a center courtyard with a pool so the kids could run around and swim and have cousin fun all day long. It'd be wonderful! My mother would love the antique stores and gardens. My father, Bob, and I (plus probably everyone else too) would love the history. Shayla would go crazy for the fashion...oh, it'd be great fun. We'd all eat fresh fine food and feel sophisticated and elegant while we devoured it.
Oh, how wonderful would all of that be! If I was a billionaire I would do it all in a heart beat! So lovely! You can all pray I suddenly become a billionaire for that very reason. :)

My Cutest Things Ever

How group shots go these days. :)

Aren't they so cute?!?! I was trying to make a cute new picture collage for the top of my blog since the current picture is anything but current, but alas, I lost the will to do so after a few minutes of trying. But, I still wanted to share the cuteness that is my family. These are very real pictures... Sometimes I think the real to life ones are the very best ones. :) These pics capture the daily routine of welcoming dad home from school followed by everyone loafing around in the kitchen waiting for me to make food appear before them. Oh, my life its pretty good with these three! ;)

Nesting

I have officially diagnosed myself as being in the nesting phase. Isn't it a bit early? I am only six months along. Well, early or not it has arrived. I keep trying to plan out my days and get the most important urgent things on the top of my to-do list but I don't want anything to do with them. I just want to get ready for the baby. Forget Super Saturday preparation for this weekend and glazing my stupid ceramics, no, I want to buy a dresser so I can dig out all our old baby clothes. I want to wash them and fold them perfectly and place them in their designated drawer so they are all ready for him. I want to establish his little corner in our house. I want to organize my closets. I want to set up his crib. I want to be let lose to nest until my heart's content. But alas, it is rather soon and with our budgeting I need to spread things out so its a little each month which is no fun at all!!! :(

So I am left trying to talk myself out of most it.... it would all be undone if I did do it now anyways. Bridger and Angeli would need to investigate the new dresser and pull out all the clothes and get them all gross, Angeli would think the tiny diapers and diaper cream were her greatest new toy, and I would end up cramming stuff in the closet all out of order so that I'd just have to redo it all over again. I miss how it was with Bridger. I could nest for the last three months and obsess like I wanted to. I will just have to be patient. Oh, I am so not good at that! :O)

My dream nursery:


I know this isn't the most exciting set but it's weird how my tastes have changed. I just want a slightly masculine, soft, cozy room with billowy curtains, a fluffy carpet, a soft pillowed rocking chair, and warm lighting so my baby can be a cuddly little baby in a very new baby space. Oh, to dream is torture! He'll be in our room for months in a pack'n play...no such space in store of us. :O)

BOYS

I love boys and I really liked what this article had to say about them. Some study hit the media today saying that 1 in 5 boys in America have some level of behavioral problems. I know what it is like to wonder what on earth is wrong with my littlest man :) but I really had to agree with what this News Week article had to say about it. We should be careful to let our little guys be just that - active, hyper, rambunctious, playful, testosterone fueled, creative, sweet, and wonderful little boys! I would absolutely hate living in a world without them! :O)

Imposter Coco Puff

My kids like coco puffs. They like them better as a snack then as a breakfast with milk and the whole bit. So lately they have been snacking on them as they cruise all over the house and thus dropping them all over the house too.

A day ago Bridger would not go down for his nap. He has been doing that most every day lately. So sad! When I went into his room for the millionth time to see what his deal was he was standing there naked pointing to his poop on the floor saying how yucky it was. I cleaned it up and it was gross. It was rabbit-ish poop, ummm.... think coco puffs. I thought I got it all.

So this morning I got out of the shower and heard Bridger screaming "Yucky! Yucky! Mommy!" I hurried to his room and there he was with brown stuff all over his mouth and cheeks. It only took one breath to realize he had accidentally eaten some poop. He was spiting and screaming "yucky" over and over again....he was totally traumatized. I think he must have thought it was a coco puff because he never puts non-food items in his mouth on purpose. I quickly took him to the bathroom to wash out his mouth and wash off his face and hands but I could not take the smell. I kept on gagging. I called for Stew and informed him what happened and that he had to take over or I was going to lose it. It was traumatizing for all of us. :) I have been sick to my stomach all day long because of it. Bridger has been pointing to every brown thing that happens to be on the floor and informs me that it is very "yucky" and promptly brings me toilet paper to pick it up with.

My poor guy. He thought he was going to get a coco puff....but he didn't.

Reno's Great Balloon Races

Today we went to Reno's Great balloon race. We got the kids up super early and headed down town to watch the balloons take off on their rather slow paced race. We met up with some friends from our ward and had a great time eating, watching balloons and hanging out amongst the 100's of other people there. Angeli was more into her balloon she got to hold then any of the hot air balloons. Bridger got to touch a balloon getting blown up right next to us and watched in amazement as they blew it up with hot air. The Kid's favorite was the Nemo balloon blown up at the very last. They love "Nemo Fishy!". Here are some pics we took.

Oh, as a side note never park on Virginia just south of McCarran. We saw two cars totally plow into the parked cars there and then take off. I guess because there is a bar right there? But honestly who is drunk before 9 in the morning!?!? Crazy people!

Bridger is Growing Up!

Today was the kick off for Bridger's preschool. Angeli comes too, but she sort of just wonders around and does her own thing so it is mainly a Bridger and his buddies school. It went really well. It was so cute to watch him and his two little friends review the rules. Bring a smile - all the little boys smile, listen to teacher - all of them point to their ears....it was cute. I am excited for them all. By the end of class (in which I hardly did anything even) I was certain that doing this school is going to make my pregnancy go pretty fast and probably send me into labor early. :) It's a busy two hours!!! We are going to have some activity almost everyday of the week between play group, speech therapy groups, preschool, and so on. I am so grateful my friends were willing to do this little preschool too. It is no small commitment to prepare lesson to teach these little guys. I hope they learn and become even better buddies with all their exploring together.

This past week Bridger has really been growing up. He has started to talk in complete sentences! Such wonderful progress! He has started to color in coloring books.... he actually tries to colors certain objects - usually their faces, eyes are his favorite. He also tries to color certain things on his own and he even tries to write his name. His imitation of writing is really cute. And though he has always, and will probably always, prefer gross motor play he has started to really love imagination play. We have been having dinosaur battles every day this week. He loves when the jumping dinosaur gets his toes. I decided that each dinosaur has it's own fighting style. :) I will hear him in his room talking to his little toys imagining all sorts of exciting things. It usually is something like this, "bomb, bomb, jump, ahhhhh. oowwie. jump. jump. zooooom." I think they are some sort of action sequences. Such a boy!

I think he is starting to understand that mommy is going to have another baby now that my tummy is getting very big. He'll point to my tummy and tell me exactly what is going to happen with very animated motions, "get bigger, bigger, bigger, boom! Baby all out." Then he pretends he is rocking a baby in his arms and says, "mmmmm, baby." When I first started to try and tell him I was having a baby he was really worried mommy was going to get hurt when the baby had to come out. But with lots of reassurance he has decided that the "boom" part, as he calls it, wont hurt mommy. We'll, let him think that. :)

So, yay for my Bridger and all his exciting achievements and his new little preschool. The next two weeks I will teach them all about bugs. So great! :) They'll get to dig through slim to find bugs, build a little bug habitat and find a buggie to put in it, build their own spider webs and catch flies with them, finger paint bugs, make Bee puppets, make worms out of old socks, and have a sponge bug water fight. So much fun!!!

Bridger's First Non-Surgery Surgery

I am sorry I have been writing so much and have had no pictures to cutiefy things up lately. I totally forgot my camera this morning and I am so sad I did because Bridger in his little surgical gown was one of the cutest things I have ever seen!

My BaBa, as we affectionately call him, had two little cavities due to a babyhood of never having his teeth brushed regularly (I totally take responsibility for that). When it comes to 2 year olds the only way to get cavities taken care of is under general anesthesia. So this morning at 5:30 am Bridger and I drove down to the surgical center and he had his first, and hopefully last, non-surgery surgery. He was super sweet about the whole thing. When the nurse took him from me and he started to cry his groggy cry (they gave him some sedatives before they took him from me) I almost cried too. Then I almost threw up... what happens when you get a pregnant women up too early in the morning and don't feed her enough. :) He did great and when I was able to come get him he was so very sweet in an overly medicated toddler sort of way.

It was nice in some ways to be reminded how much I truly adore, love, care, and worry for my little guy. He was so helpless and needing so much reassurance. I realized that no matter what he will always be my baby. I will always want to be able to hold him and make his oweeies all better. As I prayed for him during his surgery I felt the Spirit so strongly. It was as if it whispered to my heart that what I felt was like the love our Savior and Heavenly Father have for us. It was a really tender moment for me. I am so grateful for my babies and their health. Nothing brings me greater joy then all my family and knowing that someday we will be together with our Heavenly Parents again. There's no sweeter joy.