Chronicles of Daily living :)

Jacob's three front teeth are finally loose!  Bye-Bye porcelain veneers and cavity baby tooth!  He is loving his ability to read.  Mommy loves it too.  I have him read stories to the girls as part of his school and I am able to get a little cleaning done, which my house needs desperately.

With our business growing, we have many orders to fill.  I was teasing Jared that we are a house of orders, but definitely not a house of order, we will just have to keep trying. 

Miriam has also unlocked the mystery of reading.  She surprised me one day, I thought I would give her a very easy book to read and see if she could read some of the simple words.  She read the whole thing and asked for another.  She went through all my beginning readers in a week, and she is ready for more.

Hazel keeps us all laughing.  Her cute personality, albeit defiant at times, is sweet.  The other night I was sitting by her as she fell asleep and she told me, I will never ever leave you Mommy.  I will snuggle your arm forever!

Eliza is growing so fast.  She has unlocked the realm of speaking.  She can't quit get it into a sentence, but she can get her point across.  You  might hear her say, "Mommy stand up, kitchen, num, num, NOW!!"

Kathleen is very over worked and deserves a vacation, hint hint, Jared:)  J/K  I love being mommy and I finally am starting to believe the people who have been telling me for years now, how fast they grow up.  So I am trying to love them while I have them.

Jared is also very overworked, and we will get him a vacation soon.  He always finds time to tell the most amazing stories ever.  Last night it was all about "sqwankle pankles"  which are pancakes which have been sat on by a duck.  We have "sqwankle pankles" at our house for breakfast now.

We are very blessed and are enjoying seeing the Lord's blessings in our lives, even though Eliza has a cavity in her front tooth, just like all the rest :(

Short is definately sweet

After battling the beautiful long hair syndrome Sunday morning for too many years now, we have created Princess No Knots!  In a fit of frustration I asked  Hazel "Don't you want to keep your beautiful long hair?  We have to comb it or cut it!."  She looked defiantly at me and said, "CUT IT!"  So I did.  It is a little choppy, but WE LOVE IT!

No screaming, no crying, no yanking at knots, no trying to put her hair back when she screams how much she wants to wear it down, and no being embarrassed to go out in public with messy hair.

Miriam will soon follow, but her hair is so thick I was nervous to do it myself...

Short is sweet for both of us, and Miriam has declared it is "beautiful and so silky!"
So bobs are in for these smith girls, who knows maybe even mommy!

My nose taught me something I never knew

So it has been one week and counting today that because of a nasty head cold, I lost my sense of smell and taste. It was amazing to me how this affected my life.

For starters I couldn't smell stinky diapers, Eliza now has a terrible rash because I didn't change her in time, I burnt the muffins because I couldn't smell them, and didn't know that our garbage was stinking up our entire house:) until Jared pointed it out. I didn't even know when I had terrible morning breath.

Loosing my sense of taste proved to be just as much of a hindrance. I could not properly salt, and flavor food because I could taste it. I over salted the eggs, and undersalted the rice, the list could go on. Not to mention I completely lost my desire to eat, the joy of eating was gone :( Jared even offered me Cafe Rio on valentine's day and I opted for a rain check because without the flavor it just wasn't that exciting.

What I have learned:

Our senses are there to help us and bring us JOY!

If we let our spiritual senses get dull, we may look normal, even sort of feel normal, but we will miss out on important things that can most readily be discerned by our sense of spirituality. We will miss the joy this sense brings if it is not functioning properly.

Today my senses of taste and smell are almost up to par, and I had a roll and didn't want anything on it because it tasted SO yummy just the way it was. I can't believe how excited I am to be able to smell stinky diapers, cook food properly, and just enjoy the smell of my lotion :)

18 Months

Here they all are at 18 months. Time sure flies, it seem like yesterday when they were all this age.

A trip to the doctors, for small children and me...

Yesterday I braved the doctor all by myself, with of course the 4 kiddos.  It began well enough, peaceful car-ride, but degenerated into a very difficult situation. 

Eliza has been sick and fevering for 6 days now, and coughing like none other.  Hazel has been going for about 4 days, and Miriam about 2, Jacob just has a sniffley nose for now, but only time will tell :)

Hazel told me on the way to the doctor she was happy to go with me, but she WAS NOT going to sit on the counter for the doctor.  I distracted her with the fishes in the waiting room.

The first thing they wanted Hazel to do was stand on the scale, she became hysterical and began screaming, "IT'S JUST TOO HARD..."

I had to set Eliza down and gently force Hazel to get on the scale, That got Eliza screaming.  Jacob and Miriam remained under control.

We were corralled in to the small check up room, full of what Miriam decided were scary pictures painted of the bad guys in Harry Potter, and she wanted to hold onto my leg.  So 2 screaming kids, and 1 tugging on my pant leg. 

After having to take the blood pressure 3 or 4 times because there was too much screaming, we finally got a reading on Hazel.  The doctor said it was high (I think because she was hysterical), so we had to let the pressure cuff give her arm another "fun hug"

More screaming for both girls, my face was getting really red...

The doctor looked at both girls and stuck the popscicle stick down their throats, pinned them screaming to the table and looked in their ears.

Finally I let Hazel put her boots back on, which quieted her because she knew we were done.  We left the office with one prescription, and council to come back for Hazel if it persists for a few more days.

On the way out they got to choose a sticker and to my utter amazement Jacob began crying because he couldn't see a sticker he liked, they were all girly...

We got in the car and Hazel emphatically said, "That doctor, who stuck a Popsicle stick in my throat, is NOT MY FRIEND!!!!"

So now we have one round of antibiotics and are hopeful we do not have to go back for more, but if we do, I might schedule my appointment so my dear hubby can go with me. 

Here's to healthier summer days!!!