Together Forever

We have finally set the date! On June 3rd we will become an eternal family in the San Diego Temple! We are to arrive at 11:00 and the sealing will commence at 12:00pm. There will be a luncheon after at the Southern California Beach Club. I cannot wait to see my sweet husband and children dressed in white and have them sealed to me for time and eternity. Since I was thirteen we would pass the Temple on our way to the beach.  I knew some day I would go there and feel like a princess because it looked like a heavenly castle.  Now my dreams are coming true!  I can feel how much our life has changed since we decided to put Christ first in our lives.  Blessing have been pouring into our home and I couldn't be more grateful.  I love the peace and contentment I feel on a daily basis and couldn't imagine my life without in now.

I have been thinking about Shane more than usual as we plan our temple date.  He was so excited for us to go.  During his mission he would often remind me about the temple and what blessings come from going there.  He told me he had a mental picture of us all in white and couldn't wait to be there for our special day.  I know our whole family will be thinking of him that day and I hope he will be there with us.  If anything he will surely be in our hearts.

Talking Back

Nolan has had his fair share of talking back but today he said something that was pretty funny.   I had sent him to his time out bench and he kept trying to talk to me. This does happen from time to time and I try my best to ignore him but today my patience was not as charged up as usuall. He had peaked my annoyance so finally I turned to him and shushed him. Well, that didn't go over too well.  He said very angrily "you don't shush me!!!!" (he really hates being shushed!) So I said back "yes I do because I'm the mommy!" his reply was .... "Well I'm the Nolan and I shush you!"  Needless to say, he was given an extra minute on the time out bench

Big Brothers

I love that Nolan is past the age of jealousy.  The age difference (almost four years) has worked out perfectly for me.  I really didn't know what to expect when Baby Bean arrived but He reacted so well to the coming of a new sibling.  He loved holding her for short periods of time. He would insist on laying with her in bed while she slept.  He was always petting her silky thick hair. He just completely adored her. The very first time she giggled at him he was so delighted.  He had just walked up and smiled at her and she grinned hugely and giggled. She loved him instantly and he could see that.   So when the smiles no longer came so easily he resorted to craziness which is what you see above.   Then there is the issue of sharing.  There has been a time or two when she has gotten a hold of one of his precious toys and it immediately gets ripped out of her hands so our new rule is he must trade her a different toy before he takes that one from her.  For the most part he really is a great big brother.  Just sometimes I think he gets bored and there she is... an easy target ;)  I just pray they get along better than me and my siblings did!

Pin Cushion

My friend posted a blog tutorial on how to make a pincushion using a mason jar.  I thought it looked simple and cute, plus my existing pincushion was an old thanksgiving decoration and definitely needed to be replaced. 

It was super easy and turned out just adorable.  I have safety pins in the jar but you could put lots of things in there like buttons or empty bobbin cases.  I think I may make these for gifts next Christmas and fill them with Hershey kisses :)

Nicknames

Joes brother Brent and his wife Bekah have the funnest nick names for thier kids... Bug, lil N, Squeekers, The Pea, Blurbles,  just super fun nicknames.  We had a nickname for Nolan but people thought it was so weird that I stopped using it as much.  Mr. B.  When Nolan was a baby we would call him Banoyin (try pronouncing that) Ba-no-yin.  So after time that sort of morphed into Mr. B.  I usually would only call him this in private but when it would slip out poeple (usually younger siblings) would say "why do you call him Mr. B if his name starts with an N.  So then I would just sound silly explaining Banoyin and I would retort, "because I like it" with my tongue pointing to the questioner :-p (childish i know)  I still like Mr. B so I think I'll pick it up again :)

Shyloh has been called many names thus far..... Sweet bean (my fave) beany bear, Shyloh bean, and one that I often say is Bubba Geel.  My cute little niece Kayala says geel instead of girl so that's where that came from.  We'll see what she ends up being called in the long run :)  So no more being ashamed of my fun nicknames to me its a sign of endearment.

Carrots

I gave Miss Shyloh Bean this carrot the other day so she could have something to chew on.  Her little toofie is coming in nicely and its super sharp.   She was just so cute sitting there in her high chair chewing on her carrot.  The lighting near that window was perfect too. 

It was funny at first when her carrot rolled away but......

 not so much after a minute.. I just love that frustrated face of hers

Abacado plant

 As a fun little spring project I decided to plant an avocado seed with Nolan.  We found an empty yogurt container and put some nice moist soil in it.  We also found a few earth worms to help aerate the soil.  Nolan had fun and enjoys misting it every day.  In the past I have planted these seeds and one eventually grew into sort of a plant.  It was a straight stalk with three big leaves on the top,  But unfortunately it was just too hot in AZ and it died.  So I'm excited to see how this one turns out and its so cute that Nolan is so proud of it and calles it his aBacado plant :) Updates to come

The last snow

I realized that this could possibly be the last snow as spring is approaching so Nolan and I went out to have some fun! I took some cute pics of Nolan and we made foot prints and hand prints in the snow.  Nolan loved stomping on our hand prints more than he liked making them.  This winter wasn't too bad although I rarely had to venture out in the sloshy white stuff :) The snow covered mountains are really beautiful.

Toofie girl!!!

Shyloh finally has her first little toofie poking through her gums. She's almost nine months now! What a big girl!!!  She hasn't shown any of the classic signs of teething.  No drooling no fussiness, She's just a happy smiley little toofie girl.

A few days ago I found her chewing on something so I went to investigate and she had found a shriveled old carrot I had dropped on the floor the day before.  She was gnawing on that thing like crazy so I took it.  It was brown and nasty, I had to.  She was not happy with me at all! She began crying frantically and looking around like I had taken her dinner away so I rushed into the kitchen and mushed her up some bananas.  We hadn't tried any solids so I thought because of the carrot incident maybe she was ready. We got out the camera to document her first meal and I excitedly slipped a bit of banana into her mouth.  She acted like I was feeding her dog poop and immediately shoved it out with her tongue.  She made this disgusted face than began gagging on it.  I tried a few more times but still the same reaction so I put the bananas away for a later date.  Maybe we'll try again in a month or two but if she is content than so am I.   I make all of her food from scratch and its a ton of work so if she isn't interested than I'm not pushing it :)

Standing

She's standing already!!!  Our little baby bean is now 9 months old and fearless! She went right from crawling to getting up on her knees then within a week she was pulling herself up and standing on her feet.  She is a very good baby, always smiling and playing.  She now sleeps through the night usually 11 or 12 hours.  Now that I'm getting a full nights sleet I don't feel like a zombie anymore! I have started exercising and shedding that last bit of baby weight! wahoo! and just in time for the beach! 

Tucson visit

 Here are some fun photos we captured while we were in Tucson for Shane's funeral.  It was so wonderful to get to see all the family.  Some cousins and Aunts and Uncles I haven't seen in forever were there but the only photos I got were of the Smith women....

Ear-egg

Nolan developed a bit of an earache last night so today we went for a walk and I told him to put his hood up or his ear would get an ache again.   His reply to that was... "Mommy, I ate too much eggies and now I have egg in my ear".   He though I was saying ear"egg" rather and earache haha

I also never blogged about the words he would say wrong so here they are...

Beetle= noodle
Guitar= chichark
Granola= gralala
Umbrella= umbralella
Grandma= Grandpa (all grandma's were grandpa for a while:)
Lightening Mcqueen= Liequeen
Burn= burm
Cut=cuk

I'm sure there are more so I'll add them as they come to me ;)