Christmas extravaganza!

Christmas was a success at the Smith's. We spent Christmas eve with my family and Christmas day with Jason's family. Brinley thoroughly enjoyed opening presents (sometimes not even her own). I am still exhausted from all the festivities, so I am just going to post some pictures!

Looking through the presents at Mamaw's house

Riding her powerwheel from Mamaw and Pops

Christmas morning

She loves the car Santa brought her!

Sitting at her table and chairs from grandma and grandpa

All those toys, she plays in the container!

A girl and her dog!

I was cooking dinner when I realized Brinley hadn't come to visit me in the kitchen for about 10 minutes. As I searched the house, this is what I found......

Rylee's kennel has been put away since I started staying at home and we only took it out because I was hosting a play date at my house and it was raining. So this was Brinley's first time to see this kennel. I don't know how she got the dog to get in there with her and managed to close the door, but they stayed like this for at least 20 minutes!

What are you two doing???

She loves her doggy!

Our little soccer player

Since Brinley could grasp objects, her daddy has had a soccer ball in her hands. He is determined to raise an all star soccer player who will have better scholarship opportunities that he had (apparently there are more soccer scholarships for girls since universities will have a girl team over a boy team). I think I have talked him out of enrolling her into a 18 month old soccer team, although it would be hilarious.....

She has become very skilled in running and kicking the ball. She can do it very well with just about any sized ball, including a tennis ball! She is even starting to dribble it in between her feet a little because she sees her daddy do it so much!

Tis the season

Besides the obvious fear of Santa (we tried a second time at our church's Santa breakfast....it didn't happen), Brinley is really loving the Christmas season. When we drive around at night she points to all the lights on the houses and says "ook" (aka- look). She also LOVES Christmas music. Anytime we are in a store and there is Christmas music on, she starts dancing. I have to keep my car radio on 99.1 (they play nothing but Christmas music from thanksgiving to new years) and her feet are just kicking away in her car seat! Brinley also showed us she likes presents by trying to open up presents at her mamaw's house last weekend! I have to keep her away from the presents under our tree constantly! Maybe next year she will realize that Santa brings those presents and will sit on his lap!

Christmas has always been my favorite time of year, but now that I can see it through Brinley's eyes, I love it even more!

Santa, we have a problem!

I had a feeling when Brinley started screaming and running away from her Daddy at Halloween in his gorilla costume, that Santa would be the same way. In order to prepare her we went a watched him for 10 minutes last week...yes our Santa arrived November 10! She had no problem watching him and waving to him as the other children sat on his lap. Maybe it won't be so bad, I thought. We went today with Reese to have our pictures taken with him. She watched Reese sit on his lap and tell him what she wanted just fine. She even sat on his lap while he showed her a book. The second I walked away so they could take the picture, she started screaming and reaching for me. After several attempts to calm her without any success (and I refused to be in the picture with her), I told the lady to take it.

This picture was too darn cute to pass up!

Doesn't every child have to have a crying santa photo? My mom didn't have a good picture of me with Santa till I was 5! Oh well, there is always next year......

Sick, Sicker, Sickest!

Not much has been going on with the Smith household the past 3 weeks other than being sick! Brinley has had a cough and runny nose for the past month. I think it may be allergies because everytime she is outside for a long period of time, it gets worse.

Jason came home 3 weeks ago sick as a dog and was down pretty much the entire week. I woke up on Halloween with pink eye, dizziness, congestion and a fever. I went to the dr after a week (I was hoping it would run its course) and found out I had a major sinus infection. I was given a shot, antibiotics, and clarinex to clear everything up. I am slowly but surely getting back to 100%.

Well, two days ago Brinley woke up running a fever. After I give her motrin she is still running a low grade fever but she is up and running like her normal self. This morning she woke up still with a fever, wouldn't eat and just wants to sleep.......so off to the dr we go this afternoon.

The doctors are making a lot of money off us this month!

Costume contest and pumpkin carving

We went to our old church, St. Joesph's, last night for their Halloween carnival. Brinley won first place in the costume contest for the 1-2 year old division! It was so hot in the gym that we had to take her costume off right after she got off stage and let her run around in a diaper just to cool off! Brinley was also very scared of her daddy's costume (a gorilla) and wouldn't go near him the entire night...even when he had his mask off! When he came near her she would scream and run in the other direction.

Brinley standing on stage for the costume contest


1st place (my first trophy!!!)

Cooling off after the costume contest

Brinley and her daddy had so much fun today carving the pumpkin that she picked out at the pumpkin patch. She really liked playing with the seeds and walked around picking up all the ones that feel on the floor and put them in the trash. She loves to clean things up, which is a good thing for me!

Brinley picking out the "brains" of the pumpkin



Ewww! Get these seeds off!


Playing with my pumpkin

Good ole fashion fall fun

Brinley, Robin, Reese, me and my mom went to The Oil Ranch yesterday. It is a farm located about an hour outside of Houston. It was all decorated for Halloween, including a pumpkin patch. We were ready to enjoy some fall activities.....of course it was 92 degrees outside and I came home sunburned (I told you the fall weather was tricking us!)

Even with the summer temperatures, we had a great day. The girls were able to milk a cow, ride horses, see farm animals, feed the animals, and pick their very own pumpkin to take home. We spent the whole day there and afterwards, we were exhausted!

Below are some pictures from our fun filled day!

Church Bazaar

We went to our church bazaar today. The weather was gorgeous and the food was great! Something about homemade fried chicken and lemonade just makes you feel good. Brinley had fun riding the train, eating ice cream, and running all over the place. She wasn't too sure about the moonwalks and only got close enough so she could watch the other kids! Brinley is in the picture with her Aunt Marian and cousin (of some nature) Hannah!

Finally.....a glimpse of fall!

We have finally seen a glimpse of fall these past few days. By fall, I mean the temperatures have been in the low 80's with lows in the 60's. For Houston that is about as fall as we will get, and we will take it because we aren't walking outside and sweating to death! The pleasant weather change has tricked our huge tree in the front yard to start shedding. Jason spent the day raking the leaves (which starts today and lasts until January!!!) Brinley thoroughly enjoyed helping daddy rake and crunching the leaves with her hands and feet.


Although I miss the gorgeous fall of Northwest Arkansas (...tear....), I am so glad to feel the tiny fraction of a fall we get here!




FLASHBACK! This was Brinley last October in our leaves from the front yard! I can't believe how far she has come in just one year!!!

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Kemah Boardwalk

Jason, Brinley, Melody and myself decided to go to the Kemah Boardwalk for lunch this afternoon (we were actually scouting out a place to have our 10 year high school reunion). Although we only live 10 minutes away from Kemah, it is a place we hardly take advantage of, mostly because of the crowds. Today ended up being perfect because it rained all morning and stopped right as we finished eating. Therefore, we were able to walk around without it being too busy. Brinley loved walking by the water. She laughed at the ducks and catfish as Daddy fed them ($1.00 for 5 pellets of food!!!!)

Overall, it was a pleasant surprise to spend our Saturday afternoon!

Macaroni and cheese face!

I loved my macaroni!

Watching the ducks

Daddy and Brinley with Mr. Shark

Sleeping interrupted...

For the past two nights, Brinley has woken up shortly after we put her to bed screaming bloody murder. I run in there to see what is wrong and there is her leg stuck in between the rails of her crib all the way up to her thigh!! How she does this, I have no clue! The only reason she can get her leg through the crib is I had to remove the bumpers because she was using them as a step to get out of her crib. Any suggestions what to use to cover the gaps in the railings that she won't use as a step???

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream!

What is it about ice cream that children automatically love? We went to El Toro's with Mamaw and Pops this weekend and being spoiling grandparents, they got Brinley her own ice cream cone from the self serve machine. Needless to say, she scarfed down the ice cream and cone in a matter of 10 minutes!! It just amazes me that a child who has never had it before could love it so much. It could be in her genes. Jason still reminisces about his bowl of bluebell he had every night as a child. We still don't have a gathering at his family's house without 2 or 3 flavors of bluebell in the freezer! While, I do like ice cream and will eat it when I get the chance, I have never had the need to have it in my freezer. But I guess if Brinley is going to love it like her Daddy, I will have to keep it in stock!

I want to go back to paradise!

It has been almost 3 weeks since Jason and I have returned from our glorious and relaxing vacation to Mexico. We decided to reward ourselves for surviving the first year of parenthood and also celebrate our upcoming 4th wedding anniversary.

When I say that we did absolutely nothing on our vacation, I am not exaggerating! Here is a little example of how we spent our 6 days...wake up, eat breakfast, lay on the beach (reading,sleeping,or sitting in the water), eat lunch, lay by the pool drinking (mojitos are now my favorite drink!), eat dinner, and go to bed. The activity director stopped coming by us to ask if we wanted to do anything like jet ski, para sailing or snorkeling because he knew what the answer would be! Since our daily lives consist of always being on the go, it was absolutely wonderful to do nothing.

The adults only resort we stayed at was gorgeous and I must admit it took 3 days for me to start getting homesick and wanting to see Brinley! But hey, there were no kids around to remind me, so it was hard to remember I was a parent with the sand, beach, sun and of course alcohol! Plus, it was great to spend time with Jason. We have such little time to spend together that doesn't involve Brinley, I forgot what it was like!

All in all, it was a fabulous time and left Jason and myself refreshed and ready to get back to our hectic lives! We will just have to have one of these "no responsibility" vacations every year!

Sliding Professional

Well today my daughter has discovered that she loves to slide! We have had a tykes play set in our backyard since before she was born (a hand me down from my niece!) She has never shown much interest in it until today. I put her on top, she walked over to the slide, sat down and slid....all by herself. She even knew to stop herself with her feet at the bottom so she wouldn't fall on the ground! Of course, I did what any mother would do, I enthusiastically cheered and clapped for her wonderful accomplishment.

When daddy came home, we had to show him her great achievement. So again, she slid down without any help. Only this time when she was finished, she started clapping for herself. She slid outside for about 15 minutes straight, clapping every time!

What can I say, my daughter is a master slider.....and she is very proud of herself!!

Here we are!!!

After seeing many of my friends successfully do this blogging thing, I have decided to give it a whirl! I will use this page to share all the fantastic, funny and sometimes not so great events that goes on in our lives. Here are some of the highlights to bring you up to date......
Our wedding day! (December 2003)

Our crazy pets, Rylee and Miko

Introducing Brinley! (July 19, 2006)

First "real" smile....awwww it was at me!!!! (August 2006)

Sitting up all by herself (January 2007)

First Birthday! (July 2007)

That about sums up our life. It is all about Brinley now....poor Rylee and Miko hate it!!