Merry Christmas!

A few quick pictures of our holiday celebration:

Our family last night in our new PJ's.

Time for bed! Santa's coming!

Avery- not quite sure how she feels about her awesome new hat!

Camryn definitely wins the prize this year for most photogenic. Here she is sneaking the paper off a Symphony bar.

Another funny Avery face - this is the doll Santa brought her.

Camy with her Santa present - a walker/car.

We hope you guys had a great day too! Merry Christmas!

Let it Snow?

A few facts about our current weather conditions for your enjoyment:

Current temp: -3 degrees (that's negative)
Feels like: -21 degrees
Inches of snow on the ground: 12+
Times I left the house yesterday: 0 - Church was cancelled due to -35 degree wind chills!!

Merrick did the patio shoveling on Friday after we got 12 inches of snow in like 8 hours.

Hoping you are all a little warmer and less snowy. Remind me again why we're living in Wisconsin?

White Christmas

This is how I feel about snow and sub-zero weather:

Except for on Christmas Day, of course. There can be snow that day.

Oh and by the way, my last post about going private was deleted because I'm not ready to do that yet. I'll revisit that topic sometime early next year. Thanks!

All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth

Camryn is turning 9 months this week! She has two bottom teeth but those top ones have yet to make an appearance! She had her doctor's appointment early because of the holidays. She was 19 lb and 28 inches tall. Getting close to growing out of her infant seat! She's cruising and crawling and clapping her hands. It's really a fun time to be around her because she's so happy and trying all new kinds of foods and really getting around. She also thinks it's funny when I tell her No. Oh we found out that she has a wart on her thumb so the doctor tried freezing it.

Yesterday at church I picked up Avery from nursery and went and got her coat on. Then Merrick showed up and was going to take her out to the car when he said, "Are those her shoes?" I look down and she's wearing the same style shoes as she came with but they were navy blue instead of black! So we went back into nursery and found her shoes on the counter. Good thing we didn't take off with someone else's shoes!

Then we go outside and Avery doesn't want to get in the car so she runs away from me, straight for a patch of thick ice and slips all the way into the air and lands on her back. Ouch! She was fine after a minute, but we definitely need to work on that!

One more story: I was wrapping presents for extended family last week and Avery was helping me and putting them under the tree when I finished. After a little while she was like, "Umm... Mama, how about one for Avery?" I told her I couldn't wrap in front of her because they had to be a surprise but then later I snuck down and put a present in a box and wrapped it for her. She was carrying it around all day enjoying her present. Did she unwrap it? No, but guess who did? ...Yep! Little messmaker #2- Camy! She's managed to unwrap TWO presents so far. I guess she won't be needing any help on Christmas morning.

What Child Is This?

My very own little "Pippi Longstocking" (Avery's first braids ever).

It's Beginning to Look at Lot Like Christmas

... when you even get a Christmas card from your Garbage Men ("G-Men"), dirty fingerprints and all! Check out what I found on top of my garbage can after it was emptied this morning:

Pretty awesome, I think.

O Christmas Tree

Last night we put our our very first Christmas tree. (We actually borrowed a little 3 foot tree from Merrick's mom last year but this one is much more authentic - although it is artificial.) I was worried we would have to go out and buy a bunch of things to put on it but we actually had a lot more ornaments than I remembered. When I was around 10 or 12 years old my family started a tradition of getting an ornament on Christmas Eve night (in addition to our PJ's). Sometimes they applied to us personally like I have a "I Graduated in 2001" ornament for that year and an elephant ornament when I had an elephant collection. Sometimes they were just pretty or fun ones. So when we went on our own, we had a little collection of ornaments started for our trees. Since we've been married, we've continued this tradition and we get each other ornaments every year for Christmas Eve too. Merrick decided that his twist on it is that he's going to get me a round ball ornament every year. So it was fun to open all the ornaments last night and think of all the memories they bring. I was pleasantly surprised to find that we were able to fill up our little 7 foot tree quite nicely with my collection. Thanks Mom and Dad for this tradition- it's one we intend to continue!

What are your special Christmas Eve traditions?

Crazy Arms

A few days ago we discovered that Camryn would mimic us if we waved our arms. We called it "crazy arms" but it's really just Camy learning how to wave. Here's a little clip:

Can you see her two cute little bottom teeth in there? :)

If You Won't Eat It, I Will!

I have a hard time getting Avery to eat very much because she's so distracted by toys, art projects, and TV shows. As a result, there's half eaten food all over the house. And who eats most of it? Not Avery, but Camryn! Yesterday I caught her sneaking Avery's bagel and cream cheese! (Are 8 month olds supposed to eat cream cheese anyways? I think it's ok.)

And why not wash that bagel down with a swig of water from Mom's glass? Another one of Camryn's favorites.

Elder Wirthlin

2 December 2008 -- Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin, the oldest living apostle of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, died last night, age 91. Elder Wirthlin had gone to bed at his Salt Lake City home, and died peacefully at about 11:30 pm of causes incident to age. His oldest daughter, Jane Wirthlin Parker, was present. A member of the family had been staying and caring for Elder Wirthlin, whose wife, Elisa Young Rogers Wirthlin, died in 2006. He had continued to work at his office right up until the Thanksgiving holiday.
Funeral arrangements will be announced.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving from the Smith Family! I hope your day is great!

Pink Marshmallow

Doesn't Camy look like a little pink marshmallow here? Well she turned 8 months this week! 2/3 of a year! Ah! I'm starting to realize that she's going to be walking before I know it! She learned how to pull herself up to standing this week. Just all by herself crawled over to our table toy, stood up, and started playing with it. I heard the toy going and was like, "Oh! I guess you did it!" She also learned how to crawl up the first step of the stairs onto the landing. Ah! Trouble's a-brewing!

A few other things:
- She still only has the one bottom tooth she got 5 weeks ago. It looks so funny!
- She learned how to say dadada. Not on cue or anything- just whenever she feels like it.
- She does raspberries ALL THE TIME! Especially when she's got a mouthful of baby food. Messy and rather annoying. But who can resist these beautiful eyes?

Baseball Party

Avery and I decided awhile ago that Merrick wasn't too old to have a themed birthday party and so we decided he would have a "Baseball party" - since he watched a lot of the Milwaukee Brewers games plus the fact that he was on a softball team this summer. Ever since this decision was made Avery has been rattling off the list of components of his party - "baseball cake, baseball crown, baseball presents, baseball balloons..." She was very enthusiastic so we complied. Thus:

I made a triple decker carrot cake from scratch with a really yummy cream cheese frosting that was full of walnuts and coconut! It was goooood.

And the whole "baseball crown" idea originated from several cartoons depicting birthday parties with crowns. Avery helped me decorate a crown for Merrick to wear while he opened his presents. I think it will make a fun tradition.

Seasons May Change

Well this fall has been a beautiful one in Wisconsin. We've enjoyed the changing of the colors on the leaves and, of course, are bracing ourselves for another bad winter. Last year was like the worst one in 150 years and this year is supposed to be worse? And I thought we had the worst one out of the way first. Oh well. Despite the impending doom, we took some fun pictures outside while it was still nice weather last week.

We actually haven't had any snow to play in yet but we know that there will be plenty to spread around very soon!

Happy Birthday Merrick!

Five things I love about Merrick:

1. He's easily embarrassed. In fact, he'll even change the channel on the TV if the characters get in uncomfortable situations. That's why I chose this picture of him eating - he'll try to get me to change it. :)

2. He's almost always reading a fantasy novel. Right now he has six thick hardcover books checked out from the library. And he told me to remind him to go pick up another one that's on hold for him!

3. He's very into shoes right now, primarily because he's surrounded by shoes all day working in the Mens Athletic Shoes buying office at Kohl's.

4. He's the 11-yr old scout leader and even asked to keep his calling when we moved to another ward, since they combine for scouts. He does a good job inspiring the boys to participate in the scouting program (and he's an Eagle Scout himself!).

5. He's a great dad and a great husband. He loves making the girls laugh and always gives them lots of attention when he gets home from work. He also puts Avery to bed every night!

Our Little Lamb

So we thought it was kind of fitting today that the first word of our little "Cam-Lamb" was baa baa baa. :)

She also got to the sitting position from her tummy for the first time all by herself today!

Updated: I finally got a little video clip of her saying it for me. :)

Halloween isn't over in Sussex

Ever heard of trick-or-treating on Saturday, November 1st? That's the day the Village of Sussex is celebrating Halloween this year. Don't ask me why. We're not the only ones either. Some cities in Wisconsin had theirs last Sunday, October 26 from 1-3pm. That's even crazier. And some did it last weekend. Anyways, we'll just be passing out candy tonight because we cheated and went trick-or-treating last night in Menomonee Falls- a neighboring town.
We met up with our friends the Anthony's and Avery and Lizzie got quite a haul of candy. Thankfully it was the warmest day today that it's been in weeks so the kids didn't have to wear winter coats over their costumes. We had a fun little time and our little pumpkin Camryn was a great little trooper too.

Happy Halloween!

1 Day Til Halloween

We went to our Ward Halloween Party last Friday night and the kids dressed up:



Avery is a royal princess and Camryn is a Cam-Lamb. Camy's going to be a little round pumpkin tomorrow night, though, because I actually returned the lamb costume after the party. Her cheeks were just too chubby to button the headpiece on! :) I can't get Avery out of her princess costume if I let her try it on. She's loving it. We're going trick-or-treating tomorrow with her best friend Lizzie.

2 Days Til Halloween

Did you carve your pumpkin yet? Here's mine!

3 Days Til Halloween

I taught Avery a Halloween song that I learned as a kid in Joyschool. Here's her rendition:

FYI - Here are the words:

I'm a mean, old witch with my hat

And I ride on my broom with my cat.

And my nose is pointy and my chin is too.

And you'd better watch out!

Or I might scare you.

I'm a mean, old witch with my hat.

The Blind [Feeding] The Blind

Ahh... the joys of having two kids:


Now we can just sit back, relax, and watch them raise each other! This parenting thing is a piece of cake!

Next objective: Teach Avery how to change Camy's diaper. Just kidding. I promise.

Cousin Company

My sister Britney drove up from Des Moines, IA with her two kids last week and stayed with us for three days. Avery and Camryn had a great time with their cousins Stephen (4) and Emily (20 months). Our two main outings were to a local park and to a pumpkin patch. Here are some photos of their fun together.

Yesterday Avery said to me, "I'm sad..." so I asked her why and she said, "I miss my Stephen and Emiy."

Milestone

I failed to mention last week that Camryn reached a milestone on Thursday - she got her first tooth!

She's done really well. Not drooling a ton, actually. She got her tooth a few days before she turned 7 months, about 3 weeks prior to when Avery did.

Attempt at a Photo Shoot

So I've been meaning to take Avery and Camryn to get their pictures taken professionally, but I still haven't. Not even once since Camy was born! Plus they have these super cute matching outfits my mom got them and I thought they'd work great for pictures. Anyways I thought I'd do a test run in the outfits out in the backyard. I didn't get my "let's print and frame it" shot, but I think my kids are so cute that a lot of them are pretty precious moments.

Life After Binky

Yes, there is life after binkies! Avery said goodbye to her binkies on Saturday night, after over 27 months. We had prepped her all week that the "Binky Fairy" was coming to take her binkies away (thanks to the suggestion of a book by Mark Brenner). We decorated a box for them and put it on the doorstep and then a few minutes later we opened the door and they were gone, replaced by a new Dora movie! Here's the progress she's made so far:
1st night - She had a little harder time than usual to fall asleep (1/2 an hour of us singing songs and telling her stories, then 1/2 an hour of crying). BUT she didn't wake up at all asking for it, which was very unexpected.
2nd night - She whined a little more than normal but not too bad. And once she was asleep she was fine.
3rd night - She hardly whined at all.
Tonight - Piece of cake.

And the amazing thing is she hasn't even asked for one. A couple of times she's mentioned the fact that the binky fairy came, but she's really done well! Great!

Oh... one minor problem though - she hasn't taken a nap since Friday!!!! Ah!

Camryn or... Kimryn?

Many family members have suggested that Camy looks like my dad, Kim. What do you think? Here are pictures of them both at 3-4 months:

I think it's a pretty good comparison. Plus they both have hazel eyes and dark hair. (By the way, I never would've thought I'd have a baby with hazel eyes.)