Sweet Little Boys

I suspect there is a certain person who has been blog stalking me. Like checking from NY blog stocking.... ;) So, here you go.

The boys.


Does this crack you up, too?
Now, who's the "Don?" Rob has a follower.



Sweet little boys, with or without the candy. ;)

Life Friends, Friends for Life

We started a small group from our church a few years ago, maybe four years? At the time, we all had girls born within about three months of each other. Adeline (left) and Brynna (with 5) are only a day apart. Then, we all had second children, three boys and one girl, withing a few months of each other. We try and meet as often as we can with a goal of weekly. We are currently on hiatus since Brynna's mommy just had sweet Piper and Christmas and such make things crazy for everyone. When we do meet, we all gather at Casa Smith since our children don't sleep elsewhere and I am a garage sale crazy woman with beds enough for everyone.

I love having friends who are going through the exact same life stages we are. I love that my sweet Suzy has such wonderful families to share friendships with. We love each other, pray for each other, and support one another in a way I can't even put into words.

I've tried taking photos of the girls each Christmas. Some of my favorite, crazy group shots. This year, I bought green and red lollipops in hopes of getting another group shot. With Piper being born so close to Christmas, it just didn't happen. Then, Diana bought me a cool back drop as a thank you for taking Piper's photos and I found some fun ahem, "Valentine's" lollipops for 25 cents at Wal-Mart the day after Christmas. Gwyneth found some fun pink shirts at Target. Plans were made. What was I thinking? Everyone arrived within an hour of my monthly gift of a professional house cleaning. Within minutes, I began to realize I would be spending my evening vacumming and wiping off sticky sugar. ;) Ha! Still, I do love these shots. And more importantly, I love these families. Suzy prays for these friends every night. When you ask her "Who loves you?" She will list our family, God, and these sweet friends before anyone else.

I can't believe our babies will be going to Kinder next year.... I love the feet here.

Katie absolutely cracked me up.


An attempt to get a photo of all the girls. I like this one. Piper, you have lots of big girls looking out for you!
I like this photo. Even if little brother is in it. I think that makes me like it even more.
I like how Brynna is looking at her baby sister. I also like how Suzy is looking on. Suzy adores Piper.
It really is even sweeter with this crop, sans Suzy. But, I'm in charge, so I can have it both ways.
An attempt at a sibling session. Fail!
Ten children five years old and under. Wow.... we have grown up a lot!
Small group, I love you to the moon! I thank God for your friendships and involvement in our lives. I'll try and post some of the boys and their toss back little lollipops soon. :)

What can I say?

This is the year I get my photos organized. I'm scanning all of my "stuff" that I want to keep and putting into book form where I will actually look at it. Clutter... beware! A few years ago, my mom sent me all of my keepsakes from my childhood. She was moving into a smaller home and downsizing just about everything. At first, I was a little sad that she didn't want my little treasures anymore. Now that I'm going through them carefully, I can kind of see why. ;)

"Most of the time"???? Seriously? I was such a little ......
"by the All Great Martha Black" Ohhh... my.... For having self esteem issues in middle school, I must have just been making up for grade school. Ha!

Now, back to the "current" year..... We had some sweet friends over for a play date and the kids enjoyed playing with all the New Years decorations.
My children are very into parades right now and marching around my downstairs. I'm so grateful for the layout of my house. It's perfect for parades.
What is this, you ask? Why... it's the moon... of course! We went to get the mail last week while it was dark and it was a big adventure since we used our flashlights. It was also cloudy and Suzy kept trying to find the moon. Until Andy showed her where it really was. His "love you to the moon and back" apparently isn't as impressive.
My boys watching ball. I love how when Andy wants our attention, he grabs our chins. So cute. And this is "puppy". My Dad and Lyn sent it to him for Christmas and it's beginning to have "blank" (favorite blankets) status.
Rob pushed me off the LA (Legos Anonymous) wagon last week. He took us all to the store. FUN! I am realizing yet another way we are very different. Can you guess who built which houses?
I like to toss all the Legos together in a big pile and just see what I can create. Patterns? Why... no thank you!
Rob likes to follow the patterns in detail and then keep the kits separate. Oy, vey. That is such a challenge with a two year old. Especially a two year old who is CRAZY about his new fire station and two fire trucks.
Lastly, I just finished up my 2010 photo book. I only have a handful of photos where Rob is looking at the camera. Hmmmmm.... I no longer wonder why..... I hope you have a fantastic week! Lots of "doing" going on at the Smith house these days!

What month is it?

January in Austin is so different than Indiana. ;)



I love that she is holding her breath. And wearing her church sandals.


Happy New Year! I realize that my tiara says, "2010." However, I only paid $.25 for it and, technically, since we celebrated on the 30th, I was still within the calendar boundaries. ;)

Happy 1/1/11

It's no secret, I'm terrible with dates. I'm even worse with birthdays. So, for the Black side of my family, I spent part of today making these little 8x10 photo calendar reminders. I'm not a fan of wall calendars and with the splits in my family, I thought it would be weird to have a full big photo of someone not related directly to a person.... Complicated. If I made them specific to the actual tree and not the gazillion branches, I would be working on this forever. But, little tiny thumbnails, all my family members can deal with that. And I wrote it out a little bigger on the bottom so they can see who the photo is actually supposed to be. I'm very pleased with these. I'll send these out to my 9 brothers and sisters and then add Rob's side of the family for my own fridge.

This is simply my Dad, Lyn, Grandma Carolyn, and my nine siblings plus their children. When I add the Smith side, it will only be six more people. Ha! We joke that he has a family tree. I have a family bush. No lie. When we first met on eHarmony, I sent him an org chart. Seeing this all spread out, I have zero guilt for not remembering birthdays well. ;) Aunt Barb, I have no idea how you do this!

Happy New Year! I hope you had a great 1/1/11!