Ryleigh's Third Birthday

I can't believe she's already three! Ryleigh talked about a "kitty" party for months so that's exactly what she had. Hello Kitty everywhere! We even took her to Build a Bear for her birthday to build her own new kitty, and for her party, she wore her "kitty bling-bling" shirt complete with sequins and all.

At two . . .

and now three!!!

She is definitely a daddy's girl,

but she'll hang with mommy once and a while too!

Rockies Game for Mother's Day

We painfully watched the Rockies lose another, but it was still fun! Noah and Jakie got on the big jumbo tron--the guy focused right in on them for several seconds. Noah was counting his money for the cotton candy guy, and I think he felt sorry for Noah when he didn't have enough, because the guy ended up giving him a free backet of the stuff. I am sure we will attend many more this summer--it's a relatively cheap time and the kids love it, even Jakie.

Pictures of the Kids

Noah finished 4-year old preschool last week, and Ryleigh turned three! I'll talk more about her birthday in another post, but they are both glad that it is summer. Noah can't wait to have his dad off work too. I think the summer will bring lots of pool time-----I can't keep them from turing the hose on out back every few minutes and the wet laundry is piling up faster than I can do it!! And who knows, our house is for sale, so maybe a move to another home. This one is getting a bit tight with all of the kids. Here are some recent pictures of the kids . . .

Ryleigh learned how to ride the trike this past month.

Ryleigh's first real shiner . . .and boy, was she proud of it!

The best of buddies. . . most of the time!

Gods' greatest blessings . . . .

Noah was a ant for "bug day" at school--nothing a sewing machine, some brown felt, and a silly mom couldn't do!

Jakie, like his big brother is a man of the "binky." And what a cuddler!

Jakie's Surgery

Before surgery . . .

Right after surgery in the recovery room . . .

Thirty minutes later in the recovery room . . . look at that grin!

That same night . . . . !!!!

We weren't very good about telling everyone that Jakie had surgery in March, but most of you probably heard it from somewhere. His urinary tract opening was shaped wrong and located a bit out of place, so they did a "streamlined" procedure so that "he could write his name in the snow someday" (the words of the pediatric urologist--what a sense of humor!). What a miracle that day was! He was happy going in and came out just as happy!! You can see in the pictures that he doesn't even look like a kid that just went under the knife. When Jakie went back into surgery, the surgeon gave us a postoperative care sheet to read that talked about the bruising and pain that he would go through and the detailed care that we would have to provide for two or more weeks. When the surgeon came to talk to us about the surgery, he handed me a tube of neosporin and said to just squirt some on with each diaper change. Jakie required the very minimal repair, and the bruising was only slight and gone in three days! He was moving around on all fours and bobbing up and down whie sitting that same night so obviously he wasn't in any pain! What a blessing!

Recap of the Winter Months!!

Well, I thought I could go back to work full-time this spring semester without a hitch, but things got way more busy than I would have liked. Between our increased activity at church, my special projects authoring for a publisher, and three small kids, I once again fell behind in my blogging (and everything else!). But summer has arrived once more and I have time to get back to the really important things! Anyway, I am going to post some big moments in our lives over the past four months since the last post. Hope you all enjoy the update! I will start with some winter pics of Jakie as he has been growing up so fast. . . . .

Playing cowboy--Noah had cowboy chapel at school and thought it was fun to put his hat on Jakie.

Always, always happy!

Or sleeping . . . it was time to put the old swing away (too big!!!).

And still always happy . . .

Scrip Program for Noah/Ryleigh's School

Noah and Ryleigh will both be attending a Christian preschool and then on to a Christian elementary school in the coming years. The Resurrection Christian School is a part of our church and is one of the best private schools in the area. We feel so blessed to have an awesome place for our kids to attend school, not only for the spiritual aspect, but also because of its excellent reputation for the academics (something important to two educators!!!). Anyway, this is by no means a solicitation for your dollars in helping with tuition, but the school does offer a way for family and friends to buy gift cards for tons of places they would normally shop anyway (groceries, gas, clothing, food, etc) and a percentage goes directly into a specific student's account. For example, I can buy grocery gift cards for money I will spend anyway and up to 8% goes into our family's tuition account. If anyone is interested and it is worth your hassle, I have put the link to the online gift card store below. You can just order the cards online with free shipping to your home and put Noah and Ryleigh Smith (preschool) in the special instruction box on the checkout page for them to get credit.

http://www.servenation.com/cards.php?storeID=4299

Jakie's Almost Five Months!

Have you ever seen a rounder face????

I can't believe how time flies, but Jakie will be five months old on Monday! He's getting so personable with his coos and babbles, and what a smiley guy!