The Blue Ribbon...

Early this morning I was awakened by a screaming 3 year old. Screaming is no understatement...he was wailing. Naturally Max had slept well and was still sleeping which means I should have still be sleeping, but alas...

I drag myself out of my nice warm bed, eyes half open (not because I was tired....just too lazy to put on my glasses and I have conviced myself I can see better if I squint) and make my way towards the ever increasing screeches that had now moved into the front room.


Trying desperatly to calm Gavin down I held him and asked him what was wrong. He started blubbering something about needing his blue ribbon. HUH? Where did that come from? The only thing I could I come up with was that we wrapped a present the ther day and used some blue curling ribbon. I took him back to his bed and went to cut off a piece of the blue ribbon to give him. (Keep in mind I don't typically give him everything he wants, but that early in the morning I was going for what works...) I bring the piece of ribbon to his room and hand it to him. He looks at it, says "Thanks, mom," then throws it on the floor and says, "I really don't need this." Are you kidding me?!?!


Next thing I know...Max is squawking from all of the loud crying....or maybe he wanted a red ribbon. I couldn't quite tell.

Happy Anniversary

7 years ago today Keith and I were married! Sometimes it feels like it was so long ago, and other times it feels like it just zipped by. I can't believe how far we've come and how wonderful our little family is. I'm so thankful to Keith for all that he does for me and all that he has given me....especially my sweet little boys!

A couple of things I remember about the big day...

I was late to the temple. Not my fault...we're blaming my parents on that one. At the time I had a baby sister (holy cow I can't believe how much she has grown since then!) and she had spilled her bottle all over and had to be changed. Hmm...maybe we should blame you Logan!

It was freezing. The whole week had been wonderful and then that day it was so incredibly windy and cold. Maybe we should have waited 7 years because today is beautiful! Everytime I go to a wedding and the weather is bad I always feel so bad because I remember what that's like! Could have been worse and been a day like last week!

The eggs at our wedding breakfast were so good. We had a breakfast since our ceremony was at 8:20 in the morning! (We were the 9th of 52 weddings that day!) Our breakfast was at the Inn on Temple Square which isn't even there anymore.

Keith's mom wrote a poem when all of her kids got married that talked about the couple. I knew she did this and couldn't wait to hear ours! It was great...I'll have to find it and type it up on here sometime.

At the breakfast everyone was supposed to stand up and introduce themselves and how they knew the bride and groom. My brother Colton stood up and said, 'My name is Colton and I'm Janelle's sister." He was so embarassed he hid under the table. I am just waiting for the day he gets married. "Hi, I'm Janelle and I'm Colton's brother..."

Unfortunately Keith has to work all day today and won't be home until 9. I spent the day watching our wedding video with Gavin. I'm so glad I have that. It's so fun to watch and Gavin thought it was pretty silly to see us on TV.

Looking forward to many, many more years....you know, just like eternity or something :) Love you, babe!

Baby Food

I started Max on rice cereal a couple of weeks ago and have been meaning to take some pictures of him eating. He LOVES the stuff and gobbles it down really well. The only problem is I can't talk to him at all or he smiles mid bite and spits it out. He is so happy and smiley!!!

I figured that since he's been eating that for awhile and does fine with it we'd give something else a try. I hurried and pureed some green beans and he opened his mouth for a big bite...unfortunately they seem to be not so much of a treat! His face was HILARIOUS! I kept trying to take a picture of it after I would feed him a bite, but I never quite captured it. We'll have to keep trying them until he decides he likes the taste! He sure is cute...even with a messy face!

What Talent!

My BPF (Best Pal Forever...) Nancy made this INCREDIBLE card for Gavin for his birthday. She of course had to stick with the birthday theme. Every card this woman has ever made is so fantastic, but I just can't get over this one. I don't even want to think about all the time this must have taken her. And I can't believe she spent all this time for my son. What a friend! If you look closely you'll notice Kevin peeking out of the window :)

Paisley's blessing pictures

Isn't she so sweet?!? I'm really into the retro look...what do you think? I think she just looks like a little porcelain doll with the retro look on these. Click here to see more!

Celebrity sighting...well sorta!

I had the neatest experience today...at none other than Wal-Mart. I'm destined to have every special experience there as much as we frequent it.

I had taken the boys for their check-ups and figured we might as well hit the store while we were already out. Let's face it, going out more than once in a day doesn't exactely happen easily for us!

I hadn't been there more than 3 minutes and I spotted someone that looked just a little more familiar than the usual people in the produce section. After a few seconds I realized that I have been following her blog for the past year and a half or so.

I think I acted just how I would have were it some big movie star. I was so ridiculously excited to meet this woman and I have to admit the entire time we were talking I was so starstruck I kept thinking, "What the heck is her name???" Lame, huh? She probably thought I was a blubbering idiot the entire time, but at least I was able to tell her what her family has meant to me. And...she hugged me. It seemed totally normal too. You know how we women are :)

I did however remember her darling son's name who is the reason I have been following her blog. Megan (yes, while finish my shopping her name finally came to me!) was a digital scrapper who had a blog I liked for templates. She was pregnant with twins and then unexpectedly had to have an emergency c-section at 28 weeks. One of her little ones passed away that day while the other one continued his journey here on earth. I so vividly remember reading her post the day she said she would no longer be doing templates and why. Though I didn't know her personally I felt for her. I felt so much anguish for her as a mother. What really kept me reading was her testimony and how she just radiated her love of motherhood. I can't imagine having the strength that she has. I was so inspired by her story and by her cute little one. I love checking in to see how he is doing and progressing. I know...I have a bad problem with blurking, but I felt like I knew them. In fact, her little boys name is Crew and some of you may remember that Max was almost named Crew. (I still may end up with a Crew if my feeling that I will have all boys is true :))

Shortly after I had Max it was Crew and his brother Dex's birthday. I remember reading her post about that day and just weeping. Weeping with sadness for their loss and happiness for Crew's progress. Megan always says everything so perfectly. She's so real. She inspires me to be a better mother.

If you're interested in reading any of her story you can visit the blog here. Just be careful visiting Wal-Mart or you might become the blubbering idiot...

Gavin's growing 'UP'

Wahoo! The party is over! I have been stressing about it for the last month only for it to be over in 1 and half hours. Gavin had a great time and it made me so happy to see him so excited and having so much fun.

I think the hardest part of the party was that there were a few too many kids and too broad a range of ages. I have a hard time not wanting people to feel left out, but I think when you do something like this you're just going to have to not worry about that. The games sorta flopped because of this, but what do you do?

I really enjoyed thinking up things to go with the 'UP' theme. I made everyone their own Ellie badge, and a snipe chocolate bar. We played balloon related games and the gift bags were balloon themed with a balloon tied to them. I made everyone a wilderness explorer sash and they earned badges for completing activites. I had great intentions and high hopes for the cake, but I am not very patient and it was taking a long time!!!

I learned that 100 balloons when placed on top of your house look like NOTHING! That Carl Fredrickson is full of it...:)


I think it was the perfect theme for Gavin. My neighbor had asked him what he wanted her to get him for his birthday and he said he wanted a pink balloon. I don't think he can ever get enough balloons! I'm so proud of him and so amazed at how grown up he is. I think he is amazing and I can't believe I've had him here with me for 3 years.

Have your cake and eat it too...

With my YW activity this week I've had that wedding cake sitting out and Gavin was very good about staying away from it. He just wanted to talk about it a lot. I was in the kitchen and I hear him say, "Yum! This is good wedding cake!" I panicked for a second thinking he'd gotten into it, and then realized I was in the kitchen and it was safe and sound. I go look and this is what I see...

What an imagination! Apparently Max is just 'delicious'!

Disclaimer: No babies were harmed to produce this cuteness....

Just like mama....

Anyone who knows me knows how much I LOATHE, HATE, DESPISE Birds. I'm creeped out just thinking about them. We had yet ANOTHER Easter egg hunt this past weekend (the last few Smith activities seem to be after the fact....it's probably just hard rounding the herd up...) and this is Gavin trying to get an egg...

Not too sure about this

Um....they are coming over here....
He finally sucked it up after some encouragement from dad....

Enough Said...

Apparently someone wants a little extra attention....

YW Activity

Last night was the first combined YW activity my advisor and I had to plan. Well, alright, it's really the first activity we have had to plan so far. I was pretty nervous about it to say the least. I don't know why I stress over things so much. I seriously wish someone would make one of those "chill pills" they are always saying to take...

We had the leaders drive and each car had a coin. The directions were to flip the coin at every stop sign or stop light and if it landed on heads you would turn right, tails turn left. The goal was to make it to the Jordan River Temple and they had 30 min. If they didn't make it there by then they were to stop flipping the coin and drive straight there. Our car made it out of Riverton to the S. Jordan Wal-Mart Parking lot, up to Sandy and then we ended up on the freeway. We had to bend the rules a bit seeing as how there wouldn't be a stop sign or stop light in our near future on I-15 (!) and just got off at the next exit. Eventually we just had to stop and drive to the temple where we met up with everyone else. No one had made it there by flipping the coin. (Although one group actually did make it to the Oquirrh Mtn. Temple!)

Once at the temple we talked about how we need to have a plan and follow a map to get to the temple. We can't just 'flip a coin' for all the decisions in our life. In order to prepare for a temple marriage we need to follow the 'road signs' that Heavenly Father has given us. I had a bunch of road signs printed and had a couple of the girls holding them up. They each took turns reading what was on the back (a Do Not Enter sign: Do not enter into temptation. Under construction: Your Future is under construction. It also said more than just what the sign was.) I shared my testimony of temple marriage and the plan was to have each girl write a letter to herself while she was at the temple to save until she was married but it was FREEZING so we went back to my house to do it. Before we left I told them all that we had followed the road signs and made it to the temple where we were married and now we were going to go back to my house for the 'reception'. Back at my house we had wedding cake and punch as our refreshments. I gave them each a picture of the temple with this poem printed on it and a penny glued to it:

So many paths, so many doors,
And choices all around.
Eternity, the perfect goal,
Is earned and not just found.
Call "Heads or Tails" while in the air,
The coin toss helps you choose.
Yet if you make your choice like this,
You'll be the one to lose.
Just stay along the narrow road,
And keep your choices straight.
When planning for eternity!
Don't leave it up to fate!

By Vicki B. Wright.

Not going to lie...I thought it was fun. I sure hope the girls did too!

My awesome advisor couldn't be there but she did a FABULOUS job making our wedding cake for us! I couldn't have done this activity without her and everyone oooooed and ahhhhhed over her cake. I hope she knows she was missed!

Getting ready...

Mom requested I blog so this is what's on my mind at the moment. I'm getting so excited for Gavin's birthday this weekend! We're having an UP birthday party since Gavin LOVES (quite possibly an understatment..) the movie. He is always talking about Mr. Fredricks (I'm no sure if 3 syllable words are hard when you're 2 because he has a hard time saying Frederickson) and his house flying.

I don't want to give away all of the details until I have pictures, but let's just say the day will include A LOT of balloons! Here is a picture of the invitation. It obviously has our address, but since my blog isn't private...I'm keeping that a secret :) There will be 16 little ones if everyone comes. Not sure if that will be fun or crazy! At least the weather looks like it will cooperate. Now if we could just not get so much wind around here!

I can hardly believe that my first baby is turning 3! I don't know where the last 3 years of my life went...it feels like it has just flown by. He is so amazing and he seems so grown up and smart to me. I know I am bias as his mother, but I think he is amazing. His speech is fabulous, although I was telling my mother in law tonight that I sometimes wish he would just stop talking for a minute! He amazes me with his imagination. He is so creative and always playing pretend. It's fun to be able to play with him at this stage in life and see all of the things he comes up with. I love the funny things he says and how when you're totally not expecting it, he can be so incredibly sweet. I don't want to miss a second of this.

Check back soon for the big party update!

Hunting...Eggs!

Today was so much fun. It could have been really lame and boring since Keith was working, but we were able to enjoy the day with a lot of friends and family!

First we had a fun little egg hunt put on by 2 cute girls (upcoming Beehives!!!!) in our ward. They invited a few kids in the neighborhood. Gavin loved it! I kept telling him we were going to go find some eggs, but he didn't really get it until we were there. He was so cute running around picking up eggs. Thank you Jaussi family!

Then we had another hunt at my grandma and grandpa's. They did the cutest thing this year and put these papers in some of the eggs. They all had something you had to do or tell Grandpa in order to earn a dollar. I got a video of Gavin doing one of his tasks, but it's kind of hard to hear. Instead (if you are so inclined) you can watch him hunt for some eggs.


We had a weinie roast after with yummy salads and then played egg toss. Egg toss is one of my favorite traditions that we play every Easter at Grandma's. I remember being a kid and playing and I always have a blast. It was fun to watch Gavin throw some eggs around, even if he just like taking the eggs and throwing them at a tree. Maybe he'll figure the game out next year! I usually don't end up with egg on me, but I got it pretty bad this year. It was a blast. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for all you do!

Easter Cookies

My goal lately is to be a more fun mom. Let's face it....I'm really not a very fun person, I'm sorta lazy. So in a desperate attempt I faced making my most hated cookie ever...The Sugar Cookie. I knew Gavin would have fun with the cookie cutters so I just went for it despite all the nagging voices in my head reminding me how much I loathe making the dough, rolling it out, cutting it, baking them, waiting for them to cool, making the frosting, frosting them...do you see my point here? I think what saved me is that awhile ago I scored some free boxes of cookie mix. I picked out the sugar cookie kind figuring that would make the process a little better. It really did! I think I will admit that I may have even had some FUN. Gavin sure enjoyed it and that made it all worth it! The original plan was to make all of these cute little egg cookies with the baby chick popping out...I got as far as 4 and then got too impatient. And they never look like they do in the pictures. Maybe I should start photoshopping my frosting smooth? We should have made more of those bunnies...I only cut one out thinking they would be a pain, but he turned out so cute! Fun Mom Attempt #1: Successful!