The Vintage Clothespin

One of my best friends, Sarah, has a best friend also who is married to this totally awesome, totally gifted gal who started "The Vintage Clothespin." She does some amazing things and she is having a giveaway! If I win (and I so hope I do!), then I am going to have the hardest time picking! I want the two pairs of booties, because I LOVE booties, but I also am obsessed with wallets! However, I think the booties will win! Just head on over there and see how adorable this stuff is!
Thanks Kristy! Hope we get to meet someday!

How Does 25 Cents Become $17.25?

When you buy a gift card tin at the DI and find gift cards inside that still have a balance! $15 to Target and $2.25 to the movies! Hot Diggity!

Smith Family Reunion 2009 - Wolf Creek, UT

This past weekend was my family reunion- immediate family only- which is getting to be rather large! 24 of us stayed in two condos in Wolf Creek, UT. We had so much fun swimming, playing games, and hanging out! It was just a short weekend, but a much needed vacation and so fun to have EVERYONE together for awhile! These are SOME of my favorite pictures from the trip- there were too many to post all the good ones!

John & Stacy sunbathing

Becky, Jen, & Rach chillin by the lake, or in it I should say!
Berkli & Cami making "pies"- I chose not to sample

Grammy & Brook lounging in the sand

The three in-lawed boys after a long swim!

All the girls except the three babies & Grammy dove in together!

Playing cards with the fam- Whit won this round of Uno if you can't tell

A friendly RELAXED game of raquetball

Nice posture Becky!

After getting hit on the head, I found myself in a precarious position- so did Stacy!

The grandkids opted for Badminton

Brook

The reunion "sickies" - Heather is expecting her first in April and Papa was stung by a bee! His hand swelled up until it looked like a blown up latex glove! Poor Papa!

Eating dinner together is so much fun!

All the grandkids in the matching reunion shirts designed by Stan & John and screen printed by Papa, John, Rach, & Dena! (okay so I only helped a little!)

The Smith Women- a good lookin' bunch if ever I saw it!
Awww, Stan & Whit- how cute! (this is the only pic I got of you Stan... what's up with that?!)

Look at our four little monkeys! They're getting so big!

All the kids wanted in on this action!

Brook & Paul "racing"... she makes you crouch down like that and as soon as your hands touch the pavement, she's off like a shot running for her life! Dirty little cheater!

So glad you could all be there family! We love you! A special thanks to Papa & Grammy for making it happen, as always! You two are the best! Thank you!!!!

2

So not my favorite number. I say that as I'm sitting here listening to my almost 2 year old screaming her head off because she doesn't want to take a nap, but she can't keep calm for more than 1 minute, so I know it's naptime!

Anyway, I'm pretty sure that pregnancy should be 20 weeks long, not 40. Then I would have been done 7 weeks ago! Oh, the bliss. I don't sleep right now anyway, might as well have an adorable baby to play with, right?!?!

Speaking of two though, I decided I wanted to make her a tutu for her birthday. So I got started and then got carried away, making anything and everything I thought of that a fairy princess should have. I'm so excited to give them to her!

(wand bag, fairy slippers, 2 magic star wands, a flowy crown, and the tutu!)

Oh, It Gets Better

Apparently this is the only outlet I feel I can use to express how UPSET I am about our stupid neighbors. So get this- Ben works at Papa John's... someone called there this morning after seeing his truck in our driveway and complained to them about us setting off fireworks in the middle of the night.... THEN we get a note from another neighbor on our car saying the following:

"Dear Stupid Neighbors,
Fireworks will NOT be tolerated, especially at 2am! Next time it happens, we're calling the cops! GROW UP!"

YEAH DUH!!! WE DID CALL THE COPS! We're the ones who got it to STOP not the ones who did it!!! Of course I'm not mad at the people who wrote the letter- just 100% hacked off that we're the ones getting all the crap for it just like I thought we would and we're just as much a victim as everyone else. I wish people like our neighbors would cease to exist.

So I did make Ben take the note over to the real stupid neighbors with a side comment that next time they want to break the law and act like jerks to do it on their own street so we don't get the blame for it.

Curse, yet Bless the Stupidity of Others

So... I had the worst experience of my life last night. Well okay, not the worst, but probably the most completely annoying without any reason for it! Our stupid neighbors decided it would be the funnest thing ever to set off illegal fireworks at 2am for an hour. Or really, they probably would have kept going if we hadn't called the cops on them. I'm not kidding, I'm lying in bed, totally passed out, which is a miracle for a pregnant woman, as many of you know, and then BoOM, it sounds like someone has just shot the neighbor three times. Ben and I bolt awake and start investigating. Well, Ben went outside to find the problem. All he could see was a bunch of smoke, but not a person in sight. So he came back in and then 5 minutes later, the real party starts- I'm not kidding, a good 2 minutes solid of setting off fireworks: firecrackers, whistling petes and bottle rockets- the BIG kind. While this is going off, Ben's on the phone with the police. So we decide to wait in the living room for the cops since Ben was going to have to sign a citation. So we're in the living room and we start noticing that there is a person outside by our car. Well, we watch him, he messes around for a second, walks off, and then a huge firework goes off, right by our car. I am so upset at this point that I just about went out there in my robe and chewed the whole drunk lot of stupid young adults out! But I decide it's better to wait for the cops. So it took them about an hour to get here, and these idiots are setting off fireworks the entire time, right on the street in front of our house. Well, finally, we see a cop car pull up and we're kind of worried, because the dispatcher told us that the cop won't disturb the neighbors unless he sees them setting off the fireworks. Well, we're like, who's dumb enough to do that! So we were figuring, he'd just drive around for a few minutes, and then leave. Well, bless the stupidity of others! He pulls up and not 30 seconds later, the group sets off a huge blast of fireworks...... ah, sweet victory. After that, the explosions ceased and we waited for a half hour for the cop to come get Ben's signature, but he never came, so we went to bed. And now I wish I was dead because my head is killing me and I can't take drugs!!!!

Oh, and the other great part of the story: since these toolsheds decided to set the fireworks off in the street right in front of our house, I keep getting weird looks from all the people walking/biking by because I'm sure they are our surrounding neighbors and now they think that we did it! Isn't it GREAT!?!?! I think I'll gather up all the remains and dump them on the neighbors lawn.

The one miracle remains that our precious Brook still managed to sleep through all of it. Lucky for the neighbors.

She's so creative...

Check out what one of my all-time favorite best friends is doing.....

Hi Ho Buck, Away!

Brook got a horse from Grandma and Grandpa Douglass for Christmas. She really hasn't been able (willing) to appreciate it until the last couple of weeks. She finally named him Buck and I think she's got it down pretty good now:

Quiet Books

So my friend from college, the fabulous Jolene, came to visit me for a couple weeks with her son Kai. We had a WONDERFUL time hanging out and visiting, crafting, redecorating, and whatever else we could motivate ourselves to do! We redid my bedroom (after pics to come, of course I totally forgot to take before pics, which is really quite sad because it was a LARGE transformation!) and made quiet books for our kids for sacrament meeting! They turned out SO SO SO cute, but it was kind of horrible because we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into! The entire project ended up taking almost the entire time she was here! I thought a one-two day project tops. NOT EVEN CLOSE! Anyways, here's a few pics of the cute little things (and some of our kids too :) they're pretty cute as well):

A purse for Brook, of COURSE. I'm not sure what's going on with her eyes in this pic....

And a backpack for Kai!

I'm so glad you came Jo! Love and miss you two!!!