vienna girl

i know i do lots of posts about her. but i can't help myself. as i have been busily working on backposting, i came across a bunch of home videos. and realized how much my little girl is growing up. i miss the little v you see in this video!! i guess zion will be there soon enough though. and it is fun to have v the age she is...still a free, wild spirit. but i do miss her short hair.

so this was the day before her 3rd bday. alma made it for her. enjoy:

um, hello...

so i kissed blogging goodbye about a year and a half ago. crazy, because it was something i really liked doing...and that took up a lot of my time. since then, we've had A LOT happen, as it usually does. and i went to get on our 'new and improved' site only to find like 3,000 spam comments on the handful of posts i actually did on there. and if i'm being honest, one of the reasons i was so slow to blog was because it was something new. and not what i was used to. so i told myself i would learn all the ins and outs and love the new site. but i never did. and i didn't want to go back. but...now i'm back. blogger may not be as cool or offer me as much customizability...but i didn't know how to use that anyway. so i'm here and i'm hoping to play some major catch up. not really caring if anyone wants to read, but more so for me. i am always on my soap box about using your pictures and not letting them just sit on your computer...and blogging was the main thing that got me taking and editing our own pictures and putting them 'out there', at least if only virtually. but then i had a nice archive of perfected pics that i could print from, etc. but now i have years (years!) to catch up on. and am feeling a bit overwhelmed. but i also am feeling motivated. so here's to the big task at hand!!! and welcome back to anyone who has decided to follow us again :)

here we are. the smiths. family of 6. just moved to arizona.

a recent-ish photo of the kiddies. on mother's day :)

v's first pedal bike

found this sweet pink bike for practically nothing...

elf yourself

these things are always so silly...but i never really do them. but the dancing in this one was too good to pass up :)

family photos

here's some of the extras/outtakes...along with the actual picture we used for our Christmas card this year (the first one). we did the Christmas Card Challenge again this year! kristen texted me about this crazy awesome deal from cardstore.com on 12/12/12. it was like 29 cents per card, and this included them mailing it for you!!! stamps are nearly double that. crazy. so alma got home from work, i had everyone all ready to go and off we ran to go take some pictures. then we got it all together, ordered, and sent in one day. whew. you know, one of these days i'm not going to be pregnant, or have just had a baby..and won't look so tubby. but unlike most lame girls, i don't care about sending out a card with some extra lbs on me. i am who i am. so love me :)

 

my little loves

fall photoshoot

we finally got out to do jagger's 'school pictures' today. but of course i couldn't leave out the other two. they are so fun. especially now that beans is a bit older and can start to play with them. i love love love all the beautiful leaves around here. fall time is my favorite. so are these kids. i put way more pictures of these rascals on the website, click here to check it out!

bike rides

here's the kids riding their bikes. the skuut bike is genius! they can ride and balance so well and then it is the fastest and easiest transition to a real bike!! seriously, it took jagger like 2 or 3 tries to figure it out. and v is just awesome. she looks like a gazelle when she rides...so smooth and graceful. i just need to convince her not to ride in a dress/skirt b/c the back of it drags on the tire :)

v all wet

our crazy, beautiful girl...

first day of school!

jagger is a kindergartner! finally. he loves learning and the idea of going to school, so he was super excited. i am excited for him to go and have some time with the 2 kids...for a while. that's right, i am pregnant!!! and so so soooooo excited. really hoping to get my other girl, but am going to be happy no matter what...of course :) starting to feel a bit sick, but nothing too bad. i have it relatively good compared to a lot of people. anyways, let's get back to this big boy:

he's going to kinnaman elementary school and in mrs. renaud's class. i was hoping to change him to the elem. school that's closer to us, but found out they have huge class sizes, so i guess we'll stick with this school. even though i would much rather have him in pm kindergarten. its like a rush out the door, finally get home and ready, then he's home before lunch. not super impressed, but we'll see. it is just kindergarten. and he's probably going to know everything they teach him anyway :) there's just a lot of mexicans. and where i am not racist AT ALL, i don't want the fact that some of these kids may not even know english, to get in the way of jagger's learning. the 'no child left behind' policy may be a bad one for this smarty pants. but again, we'll see. he has a friend from church in his class, porter, so he's pretty excited about that. ella is in the class next door, so hopefully they will still see each other. i have a strict no bus riding policy, but decided i am ok with him riding the bus home, since it is only kinders coming home at noon. but i will drive him to school since it is all the kids that ride in the morning. i rode the bus and i remember the terrible things that went on...and that was a long time ago. i can't even imagine what it's like now. i know i can't shield him from everything, but i can take this factor out :) anyways, here's to a great year of school jag-man!!! we love you.

twin lakes 2012

so twin lakes this year was fun, as usual, and it was really nice bc we got to take lici's car! but when we got there, we didn't have our 'regular' spot. apparently someone else had booked it and we got the boot. so instead, we got to stay among the yuck. really, it was nasty. feathers, cotton, leaves, etc. were all over. and i think all the gross stuff from the water came to settle in the shallows right by where we were. so here i was, very excited to let civil do his thing and play in the sand all day, but instead i was worried and watching him like a hawk making sure he didn't get cut on anything, eat any of it, or go near the water. not so much fun. and this is a 16 hr trip we make for 3 days. so it was quite the disappointment. but having said all that, it was so fun to see all the family that came. m&d smith, denise & brad, deb & tom surprised us and showed up, and aaron & carri's fam came this year! and to make things even better, we got to caravan back to oregon with aaron & carri and have them come stay for a week(ish). i didn't take any pictures, but stole these from denise :)

civil is walking!

what a little crazy. love our civil beans :)

winter hat

me

okay, so i feel super weird making a post about myself and putting these pictures out there for all to see. but that's just it...that's why we take pictures. and my kids and maybe my kids kids kids would like to see some pictures of me at this stage in my life someday.  i am 29. i have long hair...and of course had a really bad hair day today. i usually wear glasses, but decided to put in contacts today. i have 3 kids. i live in beaverton, oregon. i just got called to be the RS secretary. i teach piano, sing in the portland ensign choir as a 1st soprano, and am doing a completely FREE year of photography. alma calls me pinky.

 

 

porch swing

this was just after church. everyone was looking so nice, we had to take a couple pictures. alma's mom made vienna's dress...she just looks like a little angel in it. and alma made our porch swing. he's so awesome. he made it to fit exactly in between our front post & the house (not a very large space). so it's a lot smaller than the 'average' swing, but just right for alma and i to sit on, nice and close :)