Happy Birthday to me!

Growing up, birthdays were always a big deal in our house.  We started celebrating a week before and didn’t stop until the sun set on our birthday.  My parents were really good about making us feel special and important.  

 

I have carried this love of celebrating my birthday throughout my adulthood.  Tim knows, once my birthday week is here, it’s on!  

 

Friday night, two of my best friends and their husbands went out to dinner for me.  I love these women so much.  They inspire me every day.  I love doing life with them and love that our kids will grow up together.  

 

Saturday night, I went to dinner with our family.  We had such a great time sitting outside in a cabana and eating yummy Mexican food.  

 

My parents are the best parents a girl could ask for.  They always go out of their way to make sure we have the best birthday dinner.

 

My in laws and sister in law and my friend Amy came too!

 

My baby sister and her hubby joined in too.  

 

My sweet Grammy and Granddaddy came as well.  

 

It was such a fun night!

 

Sunday was my actual birthday and Tim did not disappoint!  We went to church, and then he and the kids took me to lunch.

 

Then, Tim took me just him and me to a yummy dinner!

 

I had such a great day.  33 is looking good so far!

Reflecting on 32

Sunday I will turn 33.  For some reason, I’m so excited about this age!  But, before I turn 33, I want to reflect a bit on my 32ndyear.  Here are some highlights from this past year for me:

 

I had three showers thrown for me.  

 

Landry stared Pre-k and finished Pre-k.  She grew up so much in these 9 months.  She went from being my only child at 4 and a half to being 5 and a big sister!  I love this girl more and more each day.  

 

My belly continued to grow

 

And grow

 

And grow!

 

I was never this big with Landry and people started to wonder how much bigger my belly could get with just one baby in there!  

 

By far, the biggest thing to happen to me and our family this year was the addition of our little man, Hayden Timothy.  Tim and I always said we only wanted two children, so I knew Hayden was completing our family.  I could not have asked for a better completion.  From the time I was in labor to now, I have referred to him as our cherry on top of our family.    

 

I watched my only child become the BEST big sister!

 

We celebrated our first Christmas as a family of four.

 

I watched my girl turn 5 years old!

 

I celebrated 8 years of marriage with my main squeeze!

 

Like I said, this year has been so good for me.  I’ve had lots of ups and downs.  Lots of changes have happened this year.  I cannot wait to see what year 33 brings me!

Hayden is 9 months old!

Hayden is 9 months old today!  So, he’s been out in our lives as long as he was in my belly.  I’m not sure which one went by faster.  I couldn’t love this boy more if I tried!  He is the sweetest, happiest baby.

 

Eating: He is still eating four bottles a day.  The first three are 8 oz. bottles, and his last one is usually 4 oz.  He is also eating cereal three times a day.  He loves his cereal!  We are also trying to give him a few things from our plates just to see what he likes and doesn’t like.  We tried Mexican rice and beans the other day, he loves pancakes and waffles and French fries are a favorite as well.

 

Playing: He loves to sit on the floor and have toys around him and play with each and every one.  Most of the toys end up in his mouth because we also have a top tooth coming through!

 

Sleeping: He is still sleeping about 12 hours a night and taking two naps a day.  Each nap can last anywhere from one hour to three hours!  He slept so well on our vacation!  He was in his pack and play in mine and Tim’s room, and I put him in there about an hour before we went to bed each night, and he never made a peep.  I love that he is such a good sleeper.  Makes my life so much easier!

 

Biggest Milestone this Month: This month we are officially saying “dada” and pretty sure “mama” also.  

 

Here are some things we did this month with our boy:

 

We made a Target run, and Hayden can finally sit up well enough to sit with Landry in the double cart!  

 

He loved watching big sister do her swim lessons!

 

Going to the grocery store is not easy with these two, but it makes it easier now that he can sit in the car buggy with her.

 

This boy always has a smile on his face…

 

…unless big sister wants to hold him and he is not in the mood!

 

He went on a road trip this month to Galveston and put his toes in the sand for the first time.  Like I said, he wasn’t too crazy about it, but he did love sitting under the umbrella and playing with the beach toys.  

 

He loved watching the fireworks with mama, that is until he fell asleep!

 

As I was looking in the mirror with my boy, I remembered taking an almost identical picture last year.  Here is July 4th 2013 and 2014!  What a difference a year makes, huh?

I can’t say it enough how in love with this boy we all are!  He lights up our little world.  Love, love, love the time we spend together.

Smith summer of fun week 2!

This summer is flying by!  We are having so much fun getting our summer bucket list complete.  In the last week we have completed the following:

 

We went to the Library.  

 

Landry loves going to the library, so this was an easy one.  We got some fun books and movies for the car ride down to Galveston.  

 

We saw fireworks.  

 

While we were in Galveston, they have an annual fireworks show on the water, and we walked down and sat on a big bench and watched the show.  

 

We rode a roller coaster!

 

This one was a fun one!  At first, when I added this to the list I assumed we would be going to Six Flags sometime this summer, but then when we got to the pier and I saw that roller coaster, I knew it was the perfect one for our list!  At first, Landry was gung ho about it, but then when we got up there and sat in the ride, she started to get a little scared.  Unfortunately, there was no time to be scared because once they strapped you in, we were off!  Luckily, two little girls sat next to Landry and told her that it was fun, and that made it a little better for her.  She ended up loving it!  She talked about it for the rest of the day!

 

We baked homemade cookies!

 

Lately, we’ve been making homemade brownies to send with daddy to work for the guys that work for him.  But this week we decided to check another item off the bucket list and made him homemade funfetti cookies.  They were a hit!  

 

So far, we are having such a good time checking these items off our list.  I love spending time with them and seeing what all there is new for us to explore and do!

4th of July in Galveston

This past weekend, Tim parents, my parents and us loaded up and headed to Galveston for our annual July 4th trip.  We love going to Galveston for a long weekend.  It’s the perfect area to go to for just a few days.  And this year, we ventured out and tried something new!

 

Here we are, ready to load up and head out!

 

We took two cars. My parents, Landry and Debbie in one car, and Tim, Mike, myself and Hayden in the other car.  I got to see this sweet face the whole way there!

 

Friday was beach day, and Hayden’s first time to get in the ocean!

 

He wasn’t crazy about the waves, but he loved just sitting in my lap in the water.

 

That night on the 4th, we did our annual crab boil and then walked to the water to watch the fireworks they have there.  

 

Hayden could have cared less about the fireworks, and fell asleep just before they started!

 

Saturday, we decided to go to the Pleasure Pier for the first time.  They built it a few years ago, and we always say we want to go, but never have.  I’m glad we chose this year.  Landry was the right height to do all the rides!  I’m a roller coaster junkie, and no one in my family will ever ride them with me, but Landry loves them and now I have my riding partner!

 

Saturday evening, we went to a nice dinner at Landry’s restaurant.  Our Landry got such a kick out of a restaurant with her name on it.  

 

After dinner, we went and changed and went back to the pier to ride a few rides.  Landry got to choose 5 rides and her last one was this kiddie ride!  She had ridden some of the biggest rides there, but the one she really wanted to ride was this one!

 

Sunday morning, we loaded up and headed back home.  Again, I got to sit in the back with this smiley boy!

 

I had such a great time on this trip.  My family is so important to me, and I love the fact that Tim’s parents join us and love going too!  But, the best thing to me was getting 4 uninterrupted days with my people.  I love these kiddos so much!

 

And spending time with my hubby and kids is not a bad way to spend my vacation!