Christmas Greetings from Florida!

We've been loving this past week spending time with family in Florida.  Continuing the Smith tradition, we built a little Santa snowman on Christmas Eve.  Tanner even joined us from his mission in Ecuador!

And here's  a little self-timer family photo taken before we left.  Merry Christmas!

Creations!

Santa's workshop is in full swing over here.  We've got half-made Christmas presents everywhere!  We got off to a late start, so it's been a little overwhelming, but we love it.

This is actually a doll I gave to a friend for her baby shower.  Sorry, no sneak previews of anyones presents!  But Paisley will be getting a dolly as well. 

When my mama was in town we made this shower curtain.  I love how it turned out.  We bought white linen and made a stamp out of craft foam.  Thanks for your help Mommy!

And our favorite creation . . .

I'm due in May! Hooray! 

a homemade tree

We decided to continue our little tradition of making our own Christmas tree.  This year we made it all out of pine cones. 

The best part was definitely going up to Mt. Charleston to search for the prettiest pine cones.

Here's our little helper.  Check out her little red hands--it was sooo cold!

Brandon didn't understand why I wanted to sort them all out by size and color, but he let me do it anyway.  It kind of reminds me of spreading out our candy after trick-or-treating.  It's just exciting to see what you got. 

Figuring out how to build the tree was the biggest challenge.  We thought about gluing, stacking, threading . . . and ended up building a wire frame out of our tomato trellis.  I love Brandon's look of concentration here.  I bet that's how he used to look when he played football.  Am I right, Mama Smith?

We strung all of the pine cones on some yarn and wrapped the garland around the frame. 

Some of the pine cones were super sappy.  We had to use nail polish remover to get it off.

Paisley admiring the tree the next morning

When we strung up the Christmas lights it covered too much of the tree, so we ended up building a smaller a frame to wrap the lights around and tuck inside.

 

Voila!

a love note from Paisley

  

Happy Thanksgiving!

Love, the Smiths

happy merry

Hooray for technology! We moved to a new apartment half a block away and after unpacking we found that everything electronic that we owned had broken.  Funny how we didn't have a computer or a tv when we first got married, and now we feel like we can't function without the internet.

Halloween seems so long ago since we've already busted out the Christmas music and are thoroughly enjoying our evenings making homemade gifts, but it's never too late to share, right? Here's our little owl . . .

 

The Hundred Acre Wood, The Wise Owl, Christopher Robin with Winnie the Pooh

The Wise Owl at home in the Hundred Acre Wood

 I made Paisley's costume a couple weeks before Halloween because I knew we'd be busy with the move.  Brandon asked me almost every night what we were going to be.  I usually changed the subject and hoped he'd forget about it.  But after a long day of moving boxes and making our old apartment cleaner than it'd ever been when we lived in it, Brandon informed me that he wouldn't go to our church Halloween party without a costume.  So Mama Smith (who was so nice to come out from Florida and help that weekend) and I headed over to our new place to dig through boxes and come up with something while Brandon finished cleaning the carpet in our old apartment.  I thought the idea to be trees was a pretty good one, considering the circumstances.  Brandon wasn't impressed.  But of course he was able to come up with an amazingly creative idea.  Mom and I would be the Hundred Acre Wood, Paisley would be the Wise Owl and he would be Christopher Robin.  We pulled it off pretty well, huh?  Too bad you can't see Brandon's little shorts and tall socks.  It really made the whole ensemble.  

just add water

Isn't everything more beautiful when it rains? Paisley was going to have her first walk in the rain yesterday, but by the time we got bundled up it had stopped.  We still got to do a little exploring and I tried to introduce

Paisley to p...(this is an unfinished blog post Rachel was working on that I am going to finish for her) I think she was going to say 'puddle hopping,' but I think Paisley is too conscientious about her shoes to feel comfortable getting them wet...

Because I have had such little involvement in our blog, I want to take this opportunity to express my gratitude for the effort Rachel has invested in it and to pay tribute to all the moms do likewise, sharing their love and enthusiasm for motherhood. I don't think enough can be said about the  joy that parenting brings to our lives, and it is neat to share that which matter most.

shoe love

  

Somehow girls just instinctively know to love shoes.  I used to feel like all I did all day was put Paisley's shoes on, take them off, put some new ones on, exchange them for another pair . . .  It was a small price to pay for a happy toddler.  She needs less help these days.  In fact, she might be growing up a little too quickly.  I think she can walk in these heels better than I can. 

Dancing with MacDonald

Do people still win money for funny home videos?

paint the town

I found an amazing book: Unplugged Play: No Batteries. No Plugs. Pure Fun. by Bobbi Connor.  Most books with games for kids seem to have all the same ideas, but this one has a huge section with activities for toddlers ages 1-2.  It has really motivated me to do more activities, just for Paisley.  The first idea we tried was to "paint" the sidewalk with water.  And just to make sure we'd have to play in the bathtub afterwards, we played with chalk first.   

happy things

1. Labor day weekend campout

2. Staying up until midnight to can tomatoes with a sweet old lady from church

3. A visit from Nana and Aunt Mikan!

4. A new darning foot for the sewing machine! I'm so excited to try some more doodling with thread.

5. Free upholstery fabric. Yay! What should I make with it?

6. My first homemade chicken noodle soup for curing the sickies

7. Thrift store finds- favorite childhood books

book hunt

Lately I've been pining after vintage children's book illustrations.  Brandon was so sweet to spend a day with me in and out of used book shops, moving sales, yard sales, and antique shops.  This is my favorite image that we found.  Precious, huh? 

hasta luego

Little kitty found a new home.  I couldn't be more thrilled to not be sharing our tiny bathroom with a litter box--and to not be pulling cat food out of Paisley's mouth or the cat out of Paisley's breakfast bowl.  The real deciding factor, though, was that we thought Paisley might be allergic to cat dander.  Maybe she was just sick, but we were secretly relieved.  Maybe one day we'll be ready for a pet . . .

pet advice please

Five little neighbor kids knocked on our door last night to see if we wanted a cat.  I began the conversation with an adamant "no" and ended up with kitty poo poo all over our carpet the next morning.  We agreed on a one day trial period, so I've got to decide by tonight if we want to keep her or not.  I don't really like cats.  But what I didn't share in our last post was that after thinking about getting a dog for 10 minutes, we spent a whole evening musing about a cat.  They're cleaner and easier to take care of.  And Paisley likes them a lot . . .when they don't run away. And this little kitty happens to be pretty friendly and cuddly.  She even seems to like Paisley's attention (except when picked up by the tail).  Will the novelty wear off in a few days or is this a good investment for Paisley's happiness?  Any advice from seasoned pet owners?