Easter Sunday

We celebrated Easter in our neighborhood on Saturday so that everyone could spend time with family and do the church thing on Sunday. What a BLAST! There was TONS for them to do:

It started out with an Easter Egg Hunt--everyone got tons of eggs with candy and even dollar bills inside!


A visit with the Easter Bunny!



New Puppies say Spring, don't they?

Carson and Andrew play kiddie-sized pool in front of our house.

Just one of the food tables--burgers and dogs and snacks galore!

A huge inflatable water slide at another house!

He seriously loved it.

Plus we played football, rode bikes, threw water balloons and ate until we were stuffed. I don't think we came inside until well after dark, and it started at 11 AM! LOVE this neighborhood...LOVE it.

Sunday morning we awoke to freshly cut grass--our own! Neighbors knew our mower is in the shop so they cut it for us! And helped clean the yard of palm tree leaves that Reed cleaned out. Then we hung out in the circle some while the kids played, and ordered pizza as a group for dinner. It really doesn't get any easier to hang out with people!

A Study of Trevor

Chillin' Trevor

Here's my Heart, Mommy

Sleepy Trevor

Serious Trevor

Thinkin' (Finkin') Trevor

Cutie-Pie Trevor

Whirlpool

New tub, and Trevor had to try out the jets! I think he liked it! :) It was one of my "must haves" in a house, I know, I'm spoiled. But luckily we found a great one with a great tub!

Big Boy!

Look what our big boy can do! Since we're in a cul de sac, all the kids play outside almost every day. Of course, there is plenty of bike riding. He probably could have lost the training wheels alot sooner, but he was nervous. Seeing Big Boys riding without them gave him that extra motivation, and as soon as we took them off, so did he! Like a pro! And all of the neighbors outside (about 12?) began clapping and cheering as he took off. I thought his face would split from that huge smile. And it was all he talked about for days, how everyone was proud of him and cheered him on. And for that, I will ALWAYS love my neighbors.

First Trips to the beach

We've actually been a few times now, which is why their bathing suits are different. We're within walking distance of the beach, but we drove a bit to Saint Andrews State Park for a change of scenery one of these days. It's amazing how much the beach changes in just a few miles. St. Andrews was much more "Myrtle Beach"-ish than Destin ever is--wilder waves and wind and not quite as picturesque. The water is usually much more clear and aqua colored, but we went the day after some thunderstorms had kicked things around. The boys, of course, didn't mind a bit. One of our sweet new neighbors saw us packing our trunk with a picnic for the beach and brought over some new beach toys to give to the boys. They're both ecstatic to be able to go play at the beach on weekends, and it's fun and relaxing just watching them have a blast!

Crouching Trevor, Hidden Fury

The first part of our moving trip was spent at Grandpa and Jaime's in Charlotte. Carson was ill during this, even had to go to the ER for breathing issues, but Trevor thoroughly enjoyed practising his "Karate" (you have to say kare-a-tay a la Spongebob like he does) on his Grandpa.

it starts with a pose...

then you get on your "mean face"

then you try to land some kicks!

then your opponent is floored (from laughing)

Mimi's

Part of our moving journey included a stay at Mimi and Poppi's house in Asheville. We played with our cousins, Ella and Logan and had a blast.

Cutie Pie Logan...big sis wasn't in the picture-taking mood.

For Dad

Boy, is this belated. Poor Reed had his 32 birthday right smack in the middle of our move, so no big fuss was made. But the kids made him a huge banner that we hung in the kitchen, we cooked out and had all his favorite foods, and apple pie and ice cream for dessert. Yum!
Happy Belated Birthday, Honey!

Saying Goodbye

It's been awhile since I've been able to upload photos to the ol' blog, but we're all set up now and ready to go. This was taken before our flight to our NEW HOME. Which we love, by the way. We're really HOME.

What's going on with you?

I've been so busy getting my family moved, getting everyone over illnesses and ER visits and packing and then UNpacking, I am completely out of the loop with everyone. I'd love to hear from you, what you're doing! Leave me a blog comment or drop me an email to smithstation@knology.net and tell me what's up.
Also, while our children are a never ending source of entertainment for Reed and I, we realise this isn't always the case for others. I'm still going to be adding pictures as often as possible, because this blog is serving as a digital scrapbook of sorts since I haven't the time or the inclination right now to continue with the paper version, but I'd like to start talking about something else as well.
I might as well start right now and talk about American Idol. It's one of the few shows we missed not seeing while we were moving and without cable, it's just so entertaining. Reed and I always try to critique the singers ourselves and see how close we are, and it's amazing how much we think like Simon. He even uses the same words we do sometimes. Which may explain alot about us, but we won't belabor that point, right?
We have some favorite this season--
Jason Castro--he's just so quirky and HAPPY and talented to boot
Michael Johns--mature and just plain GOOD. we think he'll go far even if he doesn't win
Brooke White--reminds us of Alicia Keyes, sorta, but prettier
Carly Smithson--not sure if we like her just cause we LIKE her, but we rooted for her the first time she tried out (she had to drop because of a green card issue)
David Archuleta--even though he completely goofed the other night forgetting the words, it's obvious he's a prodigy and will one day be amazing

The rest....ehhh....
what do you think?

All Settled in...

We are finally all settled in and loving things. Our new house is wonderful, and very spacious. We got rid of quite a bit of old things before moving, and now we have lots of new space that is just begging for a trip to Pier 1. We'll wait though, and figure out what we really want first...although the waiting is killing me.
Our neighborhood is lovely, and the neighbors have been great in welcoming us. We've spent a few nights already out in the cul de sac, talking by the fire that they make in a portable fire pit and it's really very nice. The boys have some friends to play with as well, and they love that.
The weather was great the first few days we were here, but then turned chilly, so we've only gotten in 2 trips to the beach so far. But the weather is turning gorgeous again, so we're excited to go more often. It's within walking distance although we haven't walked it yet.
I'll have some pictures to load, but a few people have been after me to give an update so I thought I'd do a quick one.
It's almost St. Patricks Day! Get out your green!