My Little Helper...

This kid thinks he's a pro at everything lately. He wants to help whenever I do anything... loading the dishes, folding laundry, washing the car, fixing random things, etc. I love it. We put together a little trike for him about a month ago, and since we got Jake's tool set out to do that, the tools haven't been put away. He wants them out! He plays with those tools more then any toy lately. Shoves screwdrivers into any crack he can find, hammers on his toys, you get the idea. Of course, most of the time he only thinks he is helping... but occasionally he actually does. He does a great job at squirting the car for me when I wash it, picking up toys, and setting up the DVD player. It's great. He dosen't have to come to me anymore when he wants to watch Shrek... the boy can put it on himself! Woo hoo! He even hooks up the DVD player when it isn't already set up. What a kid. Some pictures of the helper at work...
Well, this one is just a pic I thought was cute...

My car washer...
He loves these...

Hopefully he won't be taking the doors off their hinges too soon...

Watching his movie after setting up the DVD player....

A liTtLe AboUt My vAlenTinE...

My sis-in-law did a post a while ago about she and her husband. It was fun to read, and I've been wanting to do one but haven't. Seems like a good time to do it now with Valentines Day around the corner! Here's some info about my hubbie... and us! Here we go: What's his name? Jake... Jacob Thomas
How long did you date? One year. Well, kind of. We met at Christmas time of 2003... first date was in January 2004... and we were married Dec. 18, 2004.
How old is he? 27... 4 years older then me.
Who eats more? He does - for sure. HUGE portion sizes. Really, you should see them ;) He actually eats less now then he used to. I eat more junk food though.
Who said "I love you" first? He did. I was kind of a brat... didn't say it back till like a week later (even though I loved him). Guess I was playing hard to get ;)
Who is taller? Jake. He's 6'1 and I'm 5'7.
Who sings better? Jake has a pretty great country voice! I'm not a singer :)
Who is smarter? I consider us both smart in totally different ways. I'm keeping this answer Jenni! Jake is very book smart... great with trivia... and remembers everything (dates, names, places, etc.). He's good at everything school-wise, really. Great writer, historian, math guy, scientist. He's the better student, and he'll be a great dentist. I think I've got more common sense smarts. Put us both on Survivor, and I think I'd win :) I can keep up with him in english and some science though. He will definitely be the one our kids go to for help with math and history.
Who does the laundry? Me. Every once in a while he will help me put things away though.
Who does the dishes? Me. I don't think he's touched dishes since Luke and I were out of town last summer :)
Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? We switch it up all the time, but lately it's been Jake.
Who pays the bills? Me. I send in the bills. We both watch what is happening in bank accouts though.
Who mows the lawn? Jake does. Lucky for him he hasn't had to do it in a long time! I can't wait until spring comes and our yard gets back to normal!
Who fixes broken things? I guess it depends on what it is. Luke jammed a couple of DVDS into the DVD player the other night... Jake fixed that. When Jake is at school I usually fix stuff though. Luckily we havent had to fix much yet!
Who cooks dinner? Usually I do. Jake is a great chef when he wants to cook though! He's starting to be quite the pro at the grill, too. This pic is from a couple years ago... he not only made us a crawfish dinner... he caught the whole bucket of them that he cooked!
Who drives when you are together? Jake. On long trips we both take turns, but around town, he does. He's still a gentleman too... still opens my door when I'm not putting Luke in his carseat! :)
Who is more stubborn? I guess I'd say me. I'm sure we both have our moments, but I'm probably more stubborn.
Who kissed who first? Jake kissed me - after our third date. He says he thought I was surprised by it, and he wondered if he had made the move too soon. haha. I don't think I was surprised...
Who asked who out first? Jake asked me out first over the phone. I wasn't sure which Smith brother he was at the time though! Didn't even know how he got my number since I never gave it to him. I guess I figured he had gotten it from his sister (who had been my Young Womens leader at church through high school)... Mel claims she never played match maker though. :) Jake looked me up on BYU stalker directory. ha. I met Jake and his two younger brothers a couple weeks earlier and didn't remember which one was Jake. I was happy it was him. Anyway, it was a fun first date. We went to Comedy Sports where I watched my future uber talented sis-in-law perform, and then to the Pizza Factory for dinner. Mmmm. I miss that place!
Who proposed? I'm 100% sure I would NEVER propose! haha. Of course Jake did. He sent me roses in the morning and then took me to Lagoon for the day (I loved Lagoon as a kid and always wanted to go with Jake... he thought it was a lame place so he never wanted to... I thought it was cute that he finally took me!) after Lagoon we ate at the Pizza Factory and then went up to the Y. We had hiked up to the Y a few times before and had lots of fun, so it was a great spot. We talked for a while and then he got down on his knee and proposed there. Cute guy!Here's a pic we took on one of our "Y" hikes...

Who is more sensitive? Definitely me. He loves to joke around. Sometimes I take it seriously and get all huffy. haha. "Give me a break-I'm a girl! This question isn't fair". Well said, Jenni.
Who has more friends? Well, I probably have more close friends, but maybe Jake knows more people. I'm definitely better at keeping in touch with my friends, but I think most girls are!

Who has more siblings? Jake. He has 5 brothers and 1 sister. Ya, wow. He is the 4th oldest... just barely older then this twin, #5. I'm the oldest in my fam and have 2 brothers and 1 sister. Here's Jake with his twin brother Aaron... Jake is in the blue...

Who wears the pants in the family? I think we try to share the pants. haha.
Glad you did this Jenni... All of you who haven't done this yet... you should! I want to read them! :)

You know you're a Texan when...

...you walk around looking at stock show animals on a Saturday night! We had a fun time this past weekend walking around the rodeo grounds with friends and family. It was fun to get out without our little guy in tow. Thanks to Matt and Mandee for watching Luke! (Luke wanted to stay at their house... didn't even care that we came back to get him. Nice work guys!) Here are some pics...

Posing with a big sleepy Brahma...

The crew!... Christi, I swiped this picture from your blog since we didn't get one with our camera! :) All of us ate way too much junk food, and I tried a fried candybar for the first time. ...YUM!!
My favorite animal there... who knew cows could be cute!? Doesn't he look like a big puppy!!? I thought so.

Good times!

Luke's New Zipper...

Last night was spent at the E.R. so Luke's forehead could be stitched up. Sad! He was playing on the porch with his walker and forgot there was a step down to the sidewalk. Anyway, he fell and hit his head on a rock. Head wounds are so disturbing!! They bleed way too much! He was freaking out, I was trying not to freak out... pretty traumatic. Anyhow, once at the hospital we were pretty much the only ones in Methodist Childrens ER... score! In and out in an hour. They wrapped him up in a sheet so he couldn't move and the nurse held his head while the doc stitched him up. Jake was trying to calm him down while he was going through all this by asking if he wanted ice cream afterward; Inbetween all the screaming and crying he would shout, "I do!! I do!!" haha. Cutie. I have always liked watching stuff like this and blood usually never bothers me, but last night it did. The doctor hit a little vessel in Luke's head and anytime Luke would scream blood would squirt out. Sick!! I started getting dizzy and really hot... ugh. The nurse knew I was going to pass out so they made me drink a bunch of juice and lay down on a stretcher until my color came back. After Luke was finished, he and Jake had to wait for me to return to normal. The nurse even made me go by wheelchair to the car. Nice. I guess going to the ER on occasion is part of having a little boy though. Check out his sutures...

Fellow Golds Goers...

I'm going to make a few requests, and will try to do so nicely.

1. Please please PLEASE wear a good deoderant when attending the gym. I guess that goes along with practicing good hygeine. No one is too macho or too fresh out of bed in the morning not to. Stranger B.O makes me nautious when I'm working out.

2. When there is a row of empty treadmills or ellyptical machines available, please don't take the one right next to me. Yes, I'm most likely in front of the TV with the best channel on, but there are others...

3. If you sweat all over the equipment, it is your job to clean it off. (This one is actually posted at the gym.)

Thanks.

Our New Toy...

ClearPlay DVD player! Probably one of the best things we've purchased in a while! It is so nice watching movies without profanity, violence and sex in them. Basically it can make about any DVD a G or PG film (As long as the movie is on the filter list). Nice, huh? So far, almost all DVDs we've rented have worked with the filters. Jake was a little disappointed that a couple he rented did not work... for some reason the red box DVDs aren't compatible with this thing. Weird. Anyway, I've been able to watch some movies I had been wanting to see... Wedding Crashers, Crash, Borat, and Little Miss Sunshine are a few. Jake has watched like ten times more movies on this thing then me while I work on school, so it gives him something to do besides read about Spurs and politics! Working in the clinic this year at school, he doesn't really have to study at home anymore. I was sort-of skeptical about ClearPlay and thought that watching movies on it would be choppy and weird, but it actually works well. Go get one! ..Or come to our house and we'll watch one! There's a whole world full of DVDS that once the raunchy stuff is taken out, are pretty good! Makes me wonder why movie makers put so much junk in films in the first place...
http://www.clearplay.com/ check it out.

President Hinckley, we're going to miss you!

President Hinckley has been the Prophet since I was 11, and I can't believe he actually passed away. He has been such a wonderful example to follow! His cheerful countenance and optimistic attitude, the way he showed such respect and love to Marjorie, and of course his counsel and many talks (especially the B's) have made a huge impact on my life. I'm going to miss him!

3 favorite things at 19 months...

Luke is 19 mo. old tomorrow! This is what he is into now...

1. Parks! He can't get enough of them and is becoming quite the little climber... Every morning he asks if we are going to "go pak??" ... can't say r's yet ;)

2. Little cuties! ... (Little clementines sold at Costco.) He even peels them himself. What a pro. If you let him he will eat like 5 at a time... not kidding.

3. Being crazy in the buff. Loves to jump on the bed and run around naked whenever possible... if he can escape when it's time to change a diaper or before/after tub time, etc he loves it. Lately, he's even been proud of going "pee pee" on the carpet a couple of times. He is so excited to show us what he has done on the carpet that we almost want to be Happy for him. haha. We do discipline him though... ;) Also... he hates getting dressed. It's pretty much a wrestling match every morning... mom wins most of the time :)

Fun kid! We love this stage he's in!

DeCembEr iN a NuTshElL...

Wow. December was crazy busy and I did not post at all! The month really went by sooo fast! We just had a couple of short weeks here before we took off to AZ for Christmas. Luke has LOVED all the neighboorhood lights here in TX and we have taken tons of drives to look at them all... I think this house has been my favorite.

I guess just because it depicts my all-time favorite Christmas movie. I don't know who lives there, but we drive by all the time. Nice job people! We put up most of our Christmas decor after Thanksgiving this year. Luke has been preoccupied with watching his fingers glow when he grabs the tree lights. Too funny.

Our AZ trip was crazy and fun! We spent time with both sides of the fam although this was the Smith side year for Christmas. For Christmas we were in Scottsdale at the Villa Mirage. Great place to be with 27 people running around! Lots of room for everyone and fun facilities. It was entertaining seeing all of the little cousins interact with each other! Jake and I got in a few dates while we were there and an over-nighter at the Phoenician for our anniversary. Woo woo! I can't believe we've been married 3 years already! Thanks a bunch to family for watching Luke for us! Babysitters that Luke cooperates for in TX are hard to come by... Here are some pics from December!

Christmas family pic... thanks to Kristen who took it for us this year...

luke's favorite chair at my parents house...

My awesome bro in law, Joe, and his singing group MC6... we got to see them perform. Nice job guys!

One of my best friends sent this cute dog to Luke for Christmas and it's his favorite... when I put it away he's always asking "a did da dog go?"

We got in lots of Guitar Hero and Wii sports... even the babies joined in on the fun :)

grandpa and luke playing outside... he got in lots of time with the grandparents this trip!

Christmas Eve...

Smith kiddos born in 2006... First picture of them all together! Luke, Austin, Lucy, Laney, Logan, Seth, and Gunnar

the new and improved Victorias Secret models...

...the guys....

All the grandkids... kids were having a rough day! haha

Buddies...

Caden and Luke loving grandpa's cookies!

A bird got into the condo! Poor thing eventually ran into a sliding glass door though and we found him on the floor like this. I will have to upload the video sometime! It was quite entertaining watching Davey, Jake, and Ben trying to get it to fly outside...

Me and my sis!

and... Dinner with the Gift fam at Pizzaria Bianco... YUM!! I had been wanting to try their pizza ever since Oprah and Gayle King talked about what a good restraunt it is. Tasty!

Luke had fun picking oranges from my parent's tree. He refused to give these two to me and fell asleep holding them. haha.

We had a girls day out... just the Smith ladies. This was a long awaited event and we had fun! The guys watched the kids for the WHOLE day. We got massages, nails done, some shopping, and of course Cheesecake Factory.... mmmm. Heavenly.


On to other things... Our anniversary at the Phoenician!


It was the first time we have been away from Luke overnight. So great! Arizona winters are the best. Where else can you swim and have such sunny days in December?? Happy Anniversary to us! The hotel was sooo gorgeous and there is so much to do there. This place really has it all. Our room, the grounds (9 pools!!), and everything was so nice.
We ordered room service and could not decide what dessert we wanted... so we tried 3. All were very pretty to look at but the brownies were sick. Ice cream and cheesecake were so good!!!
Aaahhh... the pools.
Then here are our brownies. They look so appetizing right?... Hard to believe they taste gross. Really gross.









The view from our room. Big thanks to Matt for helping Jake with our Phoenician arrangements! We had a great time! I highly recommend this place!


Such a fun trip to AZ other then the days we were sick (almost everyone was sick at least one day!)... I guess that's what happens when you get so many people together from different places though! ugh. There were some funky viruses going around the fam! Anyhow, we had a good month! This is probably my longest post ever and I'm tired of writing. See ya later :)