Happy Birthday Daddy!!

Today is my incredible Fathers birthday! I'm not sure he'll even see this, unless I tell my Mom to drag him to the computer, but I just have to tell the world what an amazing Father I have!

A few little things that make me love my Dad:

1. He fathered 13 Children!!! Need I say more??

2. He NEVER yelled at us, but was always patient and firm.

3. I've never seen my dad "dressed down" He always has his hair done and his shirt ironed and tucked in.

4. He knows more about trees, flowers, birds, astronomy and history more than anyone I know.

5. I've only heard the man swear once in my whole life (no joke) when I was about 7 and my sister fell out of a tree and landed on her face almost knocking out her permanent teeth.

6. He loves Disney movies and still begs my sisters and I to sing "A whole new World to him" ; )

7. He washes his car almost daily! Aside from my Grandpa, my Dad is the most orderly, and neat Man I know.

8. He knows and loves the scriptures like no other and can quote them forward and back.

9. He is very generous with his affection, especially to his daughters and my mother, always holding, hugging and smelling the tops of our heads : )

10. He works hard and NEVER complains.

Gee Dad, writing this all down makes me realize how little of your traits were passed on to me ;)

I love you Dad and hope your day was everything you deserved (you should have at least received 13 phone calls)!

love always your

Goldie

Happy Fall Y'all!

I hosted book club this month. We read The Alchemist, such a thought provoking short and easy read, loved it! We have the best group of girls in book club, I'm so sad I didn't get a shot of all of my beautiful ladies eating dinner in a pumpkin!

The kids threw a killer Halloween party. We danced in the dark with glow sticks, played games, watched a movie and ate yummy, spooky treats!

" Squaw get em firewood!"

The boys


The little girly's

Forgot to get a picture of Zz's bat pumpkin

Grant and his Cheese Grater, that's right, a Cheese Grater!

Eliza and her Kitty (she drew it, momma carved it)

Trunk or Treating with Commander Cody, Lightning McQueen, Dorothy, and Glynda the Good Witch.

3 of my Fav's!

So I'm not the best blogger in the world, big deal. I don't like feeling the pressure of "one more thing to keep up with". I have enough more important things to keep me busy already. So instead of stressing about how I need to catch everybody up on the last 5 months (which would probably take too many hours of my time) I'm just going to write about whatever I want whenever I want . Weather it be once a week or once a year, it doesn't really matter. Point is, I want blogging to be fun, and not just one more thing to put on the to do list, I already put myself through that stress with scrapbooking, I'm not doing it again. Does any one else feel this way? Or am I the only one?

So here are some things that put a smile on my face everyday....

The Swiffer Vac deserves a serious shout out!! My life is so much easier each day because of this little baby. It picks up all the dirt, hair and dust that a broom just flings around. It takes me about 2 minutes or less to clean my entire kitchen, dining room and entry way...also perfect for bathrooms. Cleaning the floor has become my most favorite chore of the day. The reason I am posting this is to let all you Mom's in on this cleaning wonder. If you don't own one, BUY ONE, you will thank me!!!

The phrase, " I love chocolate" is an understatement when it comes to my feeling towards chocolate. Riesens are one of my all time favorites. Yummmy!!

My IPHONE!!! O.k, so I've never been one to be into any kind of electronics. When the big iphone craze was going on I never thought once about ever owning one. I figured it would probably be too difficult to figure out and I'm not one who thinks it's cool to have all sorts of apps on my phone. I just want my phone to work! Boy was I wrong. The iphone is SOOO user friendly, so handy, convenient...I could go on and on. I've had it for only a week and don't know how ever got along without it. I LOVE IT!!

Glory!

Glory (glōr 'ē, glôr 'ē)

n. Resplendent beauty, brilliance, or magnificence; A state of splendor or great happiness

My beautiful and sweet Glory, your parents couldn't have picked a more fitting name for you. I’ve wanted to write something about you on our blog for some time now but as you know life has been hectic over the past few months and it’s been hard to find the time to do it. Plus, it’s very difficult to blog when someone (me) takes forever to get the Internet set up at our new home.

Can you believe we’ve been married for almost 11 years? It’s crazy how quick the time goes by. Glory, I love being married to you and cherish everything we’ve been through and accomplished together over the years. I think you’ll agree that it hasn’t always been easy, but its definitely been worth it! You already know I think you're amazing, so I figure this blog is my opportunity to brag to the world about how wonderful you are! Below are just a few of my favorite things about you.

First, you’re such an amazing and selfless mother who always puts your children first! Your ability to encourage, teach and motivate them amazes me. When all I want to do is punish our kids for misbehaving, you’re patient with them and find creative and fun ways to encourage the right decisions. Who would have thought that giving out stars and having a “goodie box” could be so effective in getting our kids to do the right things? You have sacrificed so much for our family and I hope one day our children realize what a blessing it was to have a you home and always there for them.

Second, you don’t sweat the small stuff and appreciate the little things in life. I love the fact that you don’t spend much time worrying about small, trivial things in life and are able to focus on the big picture. You have a real gift for resolving what is important and what is not. On the other hand it’s so much fun to see you get excited about the little niceties in life. I swear you’re just as excited when I bring you home a box of Junior Mints from the grocery store as you are when I buy you something more expensive.

Third, you’re absolutely beautiful and I find myself falling more in love with you every day! It’s crazy because you still look like you could be a freshman in college but your walking around with 4 kids! I’ll bet people who see us at the store find it very inappropriate when they see me kissing someone who looks too young to be my wife!

Fourth, you’re so adventurous and fun to hang out with! From going bungee jumping in the rain, to going running together, to trips to the gulf, to tubing down a freezing cold canal, to taking 24 hour + road trips, to camping, to taking romantic get-aways, to visiting cool sites all around Ft. Worth, to watching movies together late at night... I can’t think of another person I’d rather spend my time with then you!

Finally, you always make sure we have a sweet spirit in our home and that our family stays focused on the most important thing which is the gospel of Christ. You’re always so good at making sure we have family home evening every Monday, that we read scriptures and pray every night, and that we get up early on Sunday to get to church on time…at least most of the time. ; ) You have always been such a good example to me as well as others of how we should live our lives.

Glory, even after 11 years I find new things that amaze me about you almost every day. You truly are an amazing wife and I love you more and more each day! I love being your companion and I can’t wait for all the fun adventures that await us!

Happy belated Easter!

Ruby in White

Ruby doing her little grump face. Unfortunately I didn't get a better picture of her than this. I think I'll have to stick the dress back on her and take some more.

Ruby was blessed in my baby blessing dress. I love that I wore it, all my sisters wore it, and Eliza wore it. Paul gave her a beautiful blessing and she slept right through it plus the entire three hours of church.


Papa came a couple days before the blessing and helped Paul do all sorts of handy work around the house. Lisa, Ken and their kids came for the weekend too.

Mimi came and stayed with me for 10 days. I'm lucky because unlike a lot of people out there, I love my Mother-in-law. She was a little busy bee the whole time she was here. She made cinnamon rolls, home made bread, tons of dinners and made enough to freeze a bunch of meals, did dishes and laundry around the clock, she weeded the whole front and back of the house and had time to whip me up some curtains for my living room, all while helping watch the kids. There really isn't another person like her. Thank you Lorie, you are the best!!! Can you come back next month? ; )

This is what happens when you leave three 2 year olds alone. We were all down stairs eating and talking when someone asked where the twins and zz were. Upstairs in the tub with all their clothes on of course! They actually did this one more time before the cousins went home.

Mimi and Papa with my orphan looking children. The kids had been swimming in the back, we actually put ZZ's underwear back on to take the picture. It's great having a fenced in back yard.

We took Mimi and Papa to Cabella's. It has a huge fish tank and a lot of other cool things to look at (if you like looking at a lot of stuffed animals, kinda sad, especially the stuffed chipmunks) There is also a shooting range, no worries, the guns are fake. It was a lot of fun and pretty much free.

Some random photos below:

This child is obsessed with washing his bike, definitely has the Smith car washing gene.

"Lady Bug Girl" wanted me to take a picture of her in this awesome get-up.

Ruby had her two month check up and weighs 12 lbs now. No wonder I can't make enough milk for this little chub.

Ruby, sporting an adorable headband made by Aunt Carrie.

5 weeks old!

this is for you Amy

My Ruby has got to be one of the easiest babies on the planet. She already sleeps through the night! Unfortunately she had a fever of 102 degrees a few days ago and I had to take her to the E.R. It was a bit of a nightmare. They did everything from x-rays, I.V's to a spinal tap!! Scary! My poor little baby was poked and prodded for about 4 hours before they finally got the results that she just had the flu and that we could go home. When I finally left the hospital I remember thinking, "Man that was such a waist! All they did was torture my sweet sick baby!" Immediately following that thought I had a change of heart and felt extremely grateful that nothing was seriously wrong with her, and that I could take her home. What a blessing it is that she is healthy and not still in the hospital with some deathly infection.

Our friends Rochelle and Greg definitely deserve a shout out for watching my kids for hours on end and then putting them to bed for us. Greg also gave Ruby a beautiful blessing before we left for the hospital. Thanks a ton you Guys! We owe you one!

At Home with our Ruby

My four Babies!

Our little Doll!

Helping with the Laundry. She's such a good helper.

She finds her thumb every now and then, it's the cutest thing.

Grandma Claudia came to stay for 10 days, she was a HUGE help. We had a blast with her and we are so sad to have her go home. I wish she'd move in.

My mom says this picture looks just like me as a baby. I must have been pretty cute...what happened ; )

The labor and Delivery story (in case you were wondering)

O.k., so early in the morning on the 14th I felt my first contractions, I didn't think much of it but they were a little painful. I told Paul about it and he said he thought I'd have the baby within 24 hours. I had never gone into labor on my own before so I had no idea what to expect. I thought for sure though that I wouldn't have the baby for another few days. I went about the day as usual, you know, did the normal stuff. Went to the dentist, the post office, took kids to school, vacuumed stairs and even cleaned a bathroom and all the while I was having these contractions. They weren't very regular so I assumed it was probably false labor, but, they were hurting pretty good. By 5pm they were starting to get closer together, but still not close enough that I thought I was in labor, but whenever I would have a contraction, I would have to breath through it so I knew something was going on. I decided to call my good friend who is a labor and delivery nurse in California to see if I should go to the hospital or not. My biggest worry was that I would get to the hospital, I would be dilated to a one or two and they would send me home with some pain medicine thinking what a big wimp I was being. Well, my friend told me that sometimes false labor is brought on by dehydration. Oh my goodness I thought to myself, I've had hardly anything to drink today, that's probably it. Then she told me that the contractions could possibly go away if I layed down and rested for a little bit. Huh, I hadn't tried that either. After getting off the phone with her I was convinced I was in false labor and that I just needed to lay down with a big glass of water. Paul had come home from work by this time and asked how close my contraction were. Every 5-45 minutes I told him, still they were totally sporadic. We sat down to watch a movie together to see if the contractions would go away and I had like 3 contractions in 15 minutes. Paul watched me breath through them and immediately ordered the kids to get into the car because he was taking me to the hospital. I kept telling him that they would probably send me home, but he insisted that we go. We dropped the kids off at a friends house and we left for the hospital. We arrived at the hospital around 7pm...long story short, our Ruby was born less than an hour and a half later! And guess what? There was no time for drugs!!! It's a good thing Paul told me to get in the car when he did, or we could have had this baby in the car! I did it totally natural, not by choice of course, but looking back on it I'm glad I got to experience it (no really, I'm not kidding) Paul was the best labor coach ever! Surprisingly he was the only one who didn't annoy me during the delivery. Honestly, I felt like everything was pretty bearable up until transition...holy cow, that was a beast! Luckily it didn't last long. I kept asking for an epidural and the nurses kept telling me it was coming. I found out only after the birth that they were lying to me and that the anesthesiologist on call was out to dinner and there was no way he was going to get there on time. Truth is, I'm glad they lied to me. I think holding onto the hope that drugs were coming was the only thing keeping me under control. It wasn't until the Dr. (not mine of course, there was no way he was going to make it on time either) came in and checked me and told me I was a 9 1/2 that I realized I was doing this without drugs. I said to him, "what about the epidural?" He laughed out loud at me and said, "Ha! You can't get drugs, it's too late for that!" I think I wanted to kick him at that point! I started pushing soon after that. Pushing was a beast too! I broke tons of capillaries in my face and shoulders and chest. I must have totally looked like one of those women on TLC, sweat dripping down my face and mopping my brow with a cold wash cloth, I'm sure I was quite a sight to see. I have to say I disagree with anyone who says pushing without an epidural is easier, yeah right! She was the hardest one out of all my kids to push out and she was by far my smallest baby. I have to say though, as soon as she was out and the doctor plopped her on top of me, all the hard painful labor was completely over, just like that. I was so happy and totally in heaven as soon as our little Ruby was born. My recovery was super fast and Ruby has been an angel baby since. There you have it. I'm impressed if any of you really read this whole thing, good for you.

All my kids adore Ruby, they fight over who gets to hold her on a regular basis,( it's getting really old). I can't believe she is already over two weeks old. We feel so happy and blessed to have such a sweet piece of heaven in our home.