Developmental Growth Spurts

Megan has become a pro at moving around and mastering new things every day. I forgot how quickly they pick up new things when they hit a development growth spurt. Out of nowhere, Megan is crawling, pulling herself to standing, she's started cruising along the furniture, and I caught her not holding onto something while standing for about a second. Like her sister, she's too busy trying to move to bother with the whole standing still mess. Which of course, means she's into EVERYTHING.

Cadence is hitting a verbal explosion. She repeats everything we say and has a word for water, milk AND juice and is beginning to ask for specific things. James taught her "cookie" which resulted in a meltdown when there were no more cookies available. I've given up keeping track of everything she knows now. The list is basically never ending, because every time I think it's done I think of a dozen new things to add to it (since most of her words have a dozen others that go with it). She now knows the names of both cats, though she calls Hanna "Hi-na-na". She's also been super helpful. Every time we go shopping, if she's in the back of the cart she insists on helping us unload the cart. She takes things to the trash. She tries to help with the dishwasher. We're working on cleaning her room, but she's got picking up her bath toys and pulling the plug down pat.

Anyway, this week has gone smoothly. With Megan's top two teeth finally through and both the girls sleeping better at night, I've been able to do more than comfort fussy kids nonstop. I actually get short breaks between fussing when the two of them play together in their bedroom (which is too cute. As much as I'd love to be in there with them, my presence distracts them from each other, so I just peek in the door often). Anyway, with our family picture finally updated, I put up our family pictures. I actually love the picture arrangement, so I took a picture, not that it's anything super special. LoL. I also made carrot cake from scratch and some fresh bread today. After diving into the one loaf I made, I made another loaf for tomorrow. Yummy. Maybe I'll be able to bake some more sometime soon now that the girls are playing more independently again? Or dive into some sewing projects...

Amen!

I very nearly busted up laughing in the middle of the Sacrament closing prayer. After a little coaxing, Cadence obediently folded her arms and bowed her head (but kept looking at me from the corner of her eye). The prayer must've gone on too long for her taste, because she said "Amen" out of nowhere and immediately went back to her coloring books.

I had to put a hand over my mouth to keep from giggling in the middle of the prayer.

Then tonight, as we did our bedtime prayers, she pulled the same stunt. I was halfway through our usual prayer (yeah, I say the same quick prayer each night... at least for now) she pronounced "Amen!" and scrambled into bed. Again, all I could do was try not to laugh and shake my head.

Crawling

So, I had to re-design because my old design was about to be taken down from the host and I didn't have the time to sit down and figure out the html codes with the new blogger template. Lame. Took me a little longer to get the header made, but the stick figures (which I stole, of course) are super cute, yeah?

Anyway, yesterday morning, the girls and I went to Centennial Park for a playdate with someone from online. Megan and I spread a blanket of the foamy asphalt stuff while Cadence went nuts on the playground. A family with four kids showed up and instantly adopted Cadence as their little sister and led her around the playground, so I was able to sit back and just keep an eye on her rather than having to hover around the equipment to coach her through each area.

The woman I met brought her 13 month old and we basically sat in the shade and chatted (because everyone knows playdates are more for the moms then the kids!). In the midst of her telling me about her emergency cesarean at 28 weeks due to eclampsia (not even pre-eclampsia), I glanced at Megan and was stunned to see her actually crawling. She's been rocking on her hands and knees, threatening to do more than her army crawl for awhile, but never carried through with that threat. After contemplating it for awhile, she'd just flop to her belly and s coot instead.

But yesterday, seemingly out of nowhere, she was crawling across the playground. I guess the rough texture of the foamy asphalt was enough motivation, lol.

And today, she's been crawling off and on. She's already faster with crawling than she is with scooting, so she'll probably switch to crawling sooner than Cadence did (Cady's crawling was slower than her scooting for awhile).

Poor Megan also has four teeth trying to cut through right now. So she's been chomping on things a lot recently. She's also suffering from this head cold that refuses to go away. Her cough is more phelgmy and her nose is stuffier than ever. I took Cadence in to the doctor for the same worsening symptoms last week (after 10 days of the cold), but was told it's just a virus and to wait it out. Sure enough, other than an occasional cough, she's over it. Hopefully Megan'll be better by Sunday. It's been a month since we got to go to our ward and I'm eager to go.

Swimming and Starting 'em Young

One of the perks to visiting Nana is the pool that's in her backyard. It's perfect for those hot days we've been having recently. And, of course, my two little girls are just too cute in their bathing suits. Cadence was loving it. Kicking like crazy and splashing. Megan was more intrigued by the side of the pool and trying to use it to pull herself up, except it kept collapsing under her. Stubborn little girl spent awhile trying to make it work the way she thought it should before she gave up and cried to be taken out.



And, to prove what a good mommy I am. I'm raising Cadence to have a firm grasp on how to do all the important skills that will take her far in life. She's learning to sing the ABC's, she counts to five, and she knows how to move a character around on World of Warcraft. She will go far:

Growing Up

For the past month or so, Megan's been toying with the idea of pulling herself to a standing position and actually crawling (instead of the scooting she currently does).

But, that's all it was... thinking about it.

Then out of nowhere, suddenly she's pulling herself up on furniture, climbing over items in her way, digging in boxes. And she's discovered it's a lot less work to crawl a few steps if she's already on her hands and knees and just barely too far to reach whatever hand hold she's reaching for. The majority of her moving is still scooting, but she's got the idea of actually crawling down now...

I think if I blink again, I'll find my baby cruising along the furniture and standing on her own, and if I blink twice, she'll be walking. Eeks!

Mmm, Cheerios

So, all I did was leave the girls alone for a minutes so I could use the bathroom. In that time, Cadence climbed into the chair, got the box of cereal from the table, opened it and dumped half of it across my living room floor. I was gone for maybe thirty seconds, I swear. I got most of it picked up and put into a sandwich bag for future snacks, but the rest...

At least, Megan was happy. :-)

Family Photos

We attempted family pictures as JCPenney today since that's where I get free sittings (well, not free, I bought a 2 year membership a year ago). Either way, I was not entirely thrilled with the results. She only took 10 photos, and the flash was off and made my freshly washed and styled hair appear unwashed and overly greasy.

Cadence was too busy running in circles to sit still long enough for a decent pose. James and I were trying to herd her, but instead of being at the ready with the camera, the photographer would set the camera down and wait. So she missed multiple opportunities and we ended up with only four options for family pictures. And in two of them, Cadence was not smiling. We then tried girls-only pictures, but Cadence wouldn't cooperate, so we got a few of me and the girls (only two turned out) and a few of myself and James (with lame poses that I hated) and Cadence refused to smile while Daddy was holding her, so no pictures of James and the girls at all.

Anyway, they weren't terrible results, but in the end I only bought a cheap package of one of the family pictures (the second one here), since I want a new one for my wall and know it'll take another miracle to get James to agree to pose for another photo session. It took a little of batting my eyelashes and sweet smiles to get him to put up with our wedding pictures as long as he did, lol. I am thinking, I'm going to have to hand a camera to a sibling and go to the park and fill the rest of our wall with a bunch of candid photos to make up for the lame family picture.

This is what I get to do all day

I may not get to do all the artsy crafts on my to-do list, or cook/bake all these amazing things on my to-try list, or even sit down and spend a decent amount of time on my unfinished novel. Instead, I'm lucky enough to sit around all day and just enjoy moments like this:

A brag about our #1 man

We'll knock the monster Utah trip post off of it's top spot after only a day, but I did want to sit down and brag about James real fast.
We Smith ladies are sure lucky to have someone like him to provide for us! He works long hours, but the only thing he complains about is not getting to spend as much time with his family as he'd like. However, this hard-working gent has received a lot of respect from the people he works for. At work he's known as the one they can rely on. If a part needs to get out, they'll put it on his work list, instead of someone else's. Even if he's sick, he'll come in if the work needs to be done and they know it. He's the one people go to when they need programming help or even machine operating help. He's unofficially the one in charge on the night shift. When we began looking into a job change for him, his bosses were not happy. When those plans fell through, his bosses were thrilled (though they voiced sympathy).
Just last week we learned that James's boss was to nominate only two people on the entire shop floor for raises, and James was one of them. We're unsure of the exact amount yet, but it should at least 10% if not as much as 20%.
And, to add to his hard-working status: We had been looking into a job option that could've provided a lot of stability to our family. After the fiasco that was his job during 2009, we both began discussing what our options were when we were barely making ends meet. We had two plans, a Plan A and a Plan B. Plan B was a lot more work, so we pursued Plan A for the past 9 1/2 months. Unfortunately, those plans fell through at pretty much the last minute, which was devastating. However, as we always do, within hours of the bad news, we were picking ourselves up, brushing the dust off, and pushing forward with Plan B (well, I went and wallowed on the floor a few more times, but I did look over our plans while I was down there!).

James is currently enrolled in half-time at Bakersfield College for this upcoming semester. He will continued to do half-time on top of working 50-60 hours a week for the next year and a half to two years. It's unsure what the next step is, but for sure, James will be pursuing a college degree. It sometimes feels like we did things backwards kids and then college, but we've prayed and counseled with Heavenly Father on every step since before we even got married and feel that he has approved (and even beat us over the head to change our minds in some cases) every decision we have made, so we're relying on faith a lot to get us through these next few year.

But, I'm also putting a few bets on James's stubborn determination and all the hardwork he already puts into everything he does. Like I said, we are some lucky, lucky ladies. :-)

The weekend in photos

Warning, photo overload! I managed to take so many pictures, I think we'll just let them tell the story (with some narration, since I like to talk so much and can't give it up entirely). We had the joyous experience of travelling up to Salt Lake City for my nephew's baby blessing.

Friday was spent mostly driving. We got to stop in Orem to visit a favorite missionary companion of James's (pretty much the only one he kept in touch with). We ate at a delicious Brazilian grill place, where you served yourself the salads, soups, etc, and they walked around with the various grilled meats to put on your plate, all you can eat. We also learned Brian and his wife are expecting in February, so James and I may be making another trip up to Utah next spring (We're also planning a trip to Vegas on October for James's brother's wedding).

Just outside of Orem, we crashed the Cabella's Superstore. It was pretty sweet, with two stories, an aquarium, and large displays of stuffed animals (and shotguns and rifles where you could handle them without waiting on a store attendant):

We got to Erin's house in time for dinner, lots of socializing, and a much needed bedtime (nobody slept well in the car). Thought it wasn't their beds, both Cadence and Megan were happy to not have to sleep in the car seat any more, so they slept well. Which was good, because Saturday morning, we had a trip to Temple Square planned. We got to visit the new Conference Center, including the garden on the roof, walk around the temple grounds, visit both the North and South visitor's center and stop by the Joseph Smith Memorial building. We had hoped to make it to the Church History museum, but the girls were getting fussy, so we headed home and got lunch (the Book of Mormon is in Tagalog, the language my brother's serving his mission using in the Philippines):
Saturday night we had a big family barbecue. Chicken, hotdogs, macaroni salad, potato salad, and a visit from one of the craziest uncles ever:
Sunday was the baby blessing. No pictures of that, unfortunately, but Lucas looked precious in the blessing outfit his mom made for him! I'm sure she'll post pictures eventually, but you've gotta be friends with her on Facebook to see them, probably. ;-) After Sacrament, we all crowded back in Erin and Jeff's home for a tasty brunch (breakfast at lunch time, rather). Erin made some delicious casseroles and muffins and a fruit salad to feed the crowd. No pictures of that, either, but we did get some pictures of the fireworks celebration that night! Cadence and Lynne loved the sparklers. So did Brin (Daddy's dog). Brin fought so hard to try to eat all the exploding fireworks and such that she had sore hips the next day. Both Megan and Cadence fell asleep before the fireworks were over, but Lynne made it to the end!:
Monday, we visited the natural history museum at the University of Utah. Cadence got to dig for some "fossils" and play on a recreation of a dinosaur bone. Then she admired stuffed turkeys, bug displays, lava rocks, and more dinosaur bones:
Tuesday, we took the girls to a spray park and playground while the boys slept in. We packed up the car and had an early start home. We had fun, but we were glad to be home: