The Smith Family Chronicles

But I’ll try…
Here are a bunch of random pictures of Lydia from the last several weeks.

Zeke can’t stand it when Lydia’s crying so he decided that he would pick her up to try to make her happy. Didn’t work, but it made for a great picture.

This is my favorite dress right now.

She looks really big when Zeke is holding her.

Guess Zeke likes to hold Lydia the most.

Oh wait…here’s one of Nathan. He grabs her up a lot recently.

I’ve been in a baking mood for the last several weeks. A couple weeks ago Zeke and Abbie helped with some sugar cookies. It was fun using the bright colors and Zeke picked out all kinds of different shapes.

One night Abbie and Zeke both wanted to play a game with their Dad, but didn’t pick the same game so he played each of them at the same time. And he beat them both.

Over the weekend, Abbie, Zeke, Lydia and I made a trip to Bass Pro Shops. They enjoyed test driving some ATVs.

Just before co-op let out for the year (a couple weeks ago) the Science classes were given caterpillars to try to turn into butterflies. Abbie and I both had our doubts, but this morning she was excited to report that her butterflies had hatched.

We built a pavilion for them last week.

I was attempting to take a picture of the chrysalis, not even thinking about the fact that I’d be in the shot. HA!

And here are her Painted Lady Butterflies. She is completely enthralled with them. We even had to make a special trip to the grocery store this morning to get them flowers and fruit.

Our weather has turned HOT. And our air conditioner has a hard time keeping up with it so last night Abbie, Zeke, Lydia and I went for a walk. It was Lydia’s first time in the actual stroller. She liked it a lot better than riding backward in the car seat.

And that’s all…Lydia just woke up and is begging to get out of the crib.

Yes, there are still other children in the house and I’ve got some great pictures of them to share this time.

These go all the way back to March.

On St. Patrick’s Day when we got home from church Luke came out of his room looking like this. He stuffed his shirt with socks and undershirts I think, to look like muscles. He totally cracks us up!

One morning Zeke was in my room while I was doing something with Lydia and he grabbed my phone. These are the results. No, we don’t normally let them do whatever they want with our phones, but sometimes the results are really great.

There was a great video too, but I can’t find it now. Hopefully it’s still on my phone.

These are pretty self-explanatory.

And we’ll finish up March with pictures from Jon’s birthday. I didn’t make the traditional “pizza” but I did manage to make him an apple pie. Unfortunately he didn’t get to eat it until the next day (he had to work on funeral arrangements the night of his birthday, as soon as dinner was over), but the kids had big plans for his pie.

He didn’t get the raging inferno that I did. And I didn’t make a spare pie so we had to do the candles as quickly as possible to try to avoid wax in the pie.

Zeke is forever roughing Grover up. It’s amazing Zeke hasn’t been more seriously injured. Guess Grover looked like a good pillow this time. They were so cute I had to take their picture.

Last week I was looking around the internet trying to find Abbie some long denim play skirts, but was unsuccessful. I’d already checked several thrift stores also to no avail. So I started looking around the internet for directions to make my own from jeans. Then Abbie and I headed out to find her some pants. We found three pairs that she liked and then headed to Hobby Lobby to find some coordinating fabrics. Here are the results…three skirts in two days.

#1…this one was kind of the practice skirt. I had to go back the next day and do some repair work.

#2…this one is our favorite!

#3…this one was the most work because we wanted to save the cute details at the bottom of the pant legs so I had to do a bunch of cutting and piecing. But it turned out pretty great, I think.

As much as I dislike sewing, it was really nice to have a project to focus on and wasn’t as frustrating as sewing usually is for me. It seems like I’ve spent all my time focusing on Lydia since she got here. This was a nice break and has helped me to get over holding her all the time.

Looks like that’s the end of the fun pictures of the other children in our house.
Until next time…

So I thought it was time to update again.
We weighed Lydia this afternoon and were shocked to find that she is 14.5 pounds. GASP!
Two weeks ago she was 11.5 pounds…guess she’s getting enough to eat.

Now for some pictures.

Janis made this blanket for Lydia. I’ve been trying to get a good picture of her on it, but this is the best I’ve got. She can almost hold her head up when she’s on her tummy.

This one’s a little better, but her outfit doesn’t match as well.

A couple Saturdays ago the weather was really nice and we were expecting another snow storm, the next day, so I packed Lydia up in the stroller and the kids and I took a walk. I was a little too ambitious and took the long route, but it was great to be outside walking again. Abbie and I love this sweatshirt and have been waiting for a chance to put it on her.

That’s almost a smile…and she looks so cute in the red striped shirt and denim skirt. Her tights were red with white snowflakes. Too cute! Oh wait…you can kind of see her tights.

Becky Garcia gave this ensemble to Lydia and I’ve been telling her for weeks that Lydia was going to wear it to church, but then we missed two weeks in a row. The week Lydia finally got to wear it and go to church Becky wasn’t there. Naturally Haley had to get some pictures so she texted one to Becky.

She’s less than thrilled with the whole experience.

This week she wore this dress that Haley loaned her. My Mom made it for Anna from the fabric Haley’s bridesmaid’s dresses were made of. Again Haley took a bunch of pictures. Unfortunately I could not get a picture that actually does this dress justice. It is the prettiest shade of dark purple, but all the shots we took make it look really blue. Wow, wait…it looks a lot more purple on the computer than it did on my phone. Yay!!!

Kristin surprised us and showed up for the weekend. I missed her at VLBs on Friday night, but was so glad she showed up for church Sunday morning. She finally got to meet Lydia.

Sister Julie wanted her picture with Lydia in her purple dress so I gladly obliged.

And I was hoping that if I put Lydia’s purple dress against Abigail’s dark blue dress it would actually look purple.

And finally…my girls.

Aren’t they great in their pink?!

I’ve got more to blog about, but my computer time is up. Hopefully I can get to it tomorrow.
‘Night!

There were no inflatables. No pink flamingos in my yard. But there was a flaming donut. Did you know that 35 candles jammed into a raspberry filled donut can create an inferno?

There was a lot of yelling and laughing while the candles were being lit. Once Haley finally got them all lit the kids yelled, “Quick! Blow them out!!!!!!” Nathan was just sure that we were going to catch the donut box and the present, and possibly the whole table, on fire with that inferno. It took me two tries to blow it out. The first time I was surprised by how hot it was when I leaned down. By the time I took my second breath, there were children coming to help. They were pretty nervous.

Poor donut.

As I was starting to open the present Haley told me, “This is for when we’re old.” Ok, now I’m a little nervous. It was a suitcase with wheels. We won’t have to wait for our luggage to grow wheels one day when we’re traveling.

Inside the suitcase were four individually wrapped presents. This set-up is looking very similar to what I did for Haley’s birthday last year.

I suddenly realized that pictures were being taken and I had a burp blanket over my shoulder. As I pulled it off Caleb walked behind me and I smacked him in the face. And somehow Nathan caught it on the camera…at least the before and after.

The first gift was a scarf for my head. Haley said she’s seen a lot of older women wearing them. It’ll be especially important if we’re going to drive a convertible. But I had to put it on just so.

The second gift made noise like a VHS cassette.

Sure enough, it was a video to teach me how to french braid. Unfortunately we don’t have a VHS player. Abbie was pretty bummed out about that. She’d love for me to learn how to braid her hair.

The third package instantly made me suspicious. It was like a soft, squishy log.

She re-gifted the jumper I gave her for her birthday. What is that all about?!!

The fourth package was, well…wonderful!

Somehow Nathan didn’t manage to get a picture of my shoes that wasn’t blurry…this is the best one. I’d mentioned to Haley several months ago, while we were shopping, that I’d like to have a pair of pink tennis shoes like this. Wow! She’s great!!

I also opened my gift from Mom Smith.

We were all surprised that it was an xBox 360. And she left the price tag on.

Inside was more pink. My very own tool kit. Abbie tried to put dibs on the level. She thought it was great! I told her to forget it…what if I need to level something?!

Jon brought home dinner, for me and him, from our favorite burger joint, Fat Burger. It was soooo good!
After dinner he went out to the garage and came in with this.

After some discussion he told us it was a bungee chair. When I first sat in it I thought it was going to sling me back out. It’s very springy.

He went out again and came in with a black metal Eiffel Tower clock. We used the new tool kit (Nathan actually used my pink hammer) to hang the clock on the wall.

I LOVE it!

All in all, it was a very good birthday!

Hmmm…we missed Lydia’s one month birthday. But we’re back now with a bunch of new pictures.

Haley took this at church a couple weeks ago. We laughed about what a chub Lydia is.

I love shopping for Lydia…and this outfit is definitely a new favorite.

This is another new outfit (it has blue and white striped pants…adorable!), but that wasn’t why I took this picture. I love the positions she sleeps in sometimes. It was as if she was trying to cover her ears. The kids must have been too loud for her.

Here’s another great sleeping pose.

Sister Mary bought her this outfit. The pants have velvety shoes built into them. Too cute!

On Friday last week, Abbie, Zeke, Lydia and I met Jamey and the kids in Castle Rock. Jamey hadn’t met Lydia yet and she had a bunch of clothes for her. We spent a couple hours at McDonald’s talking and eating ice cream. The girls were excited to meet Lydia “in person” finally. Lillie could not keep her hands off Lydia. It was really cute!

Aleah wasn’t as anxious to hold Lydia, but we finally talked her into it.

We made a trip to the library yesterday afternoon. Lydia slept through it and when we got home she crashed on my bed. She just looked so peaceful I had to take her picture.

Gram sent this sleeper. It’s so different from most baby stuff…I just love it!

She makes such great faces! And she’s starting to try to interact with us…she coos and occasionally smiles at people other than me. That makes them very excited!

And we’ll finish this post with pictures of Lydia’s very first denim skirt.

She’s beckoning to be fed.
Later!

Boy! I’m not doing very good on creative titles.

Here we are in our matching nightgowns. She’s either fascinated with the lights or slumped over…sigh. Oh well, you get the idea.

Haley finally convinced Sister Mary to hold Lydia on Wednesday night. Sister Mary is always afraid she’s going to break the babies, but she always does a fine job and really lights up when she holds them.

Lydia cracked me up the other day when she was all sprawled out in the cradle…leg over the wedge and all.

Oh, and don’t you love her mint-chocolate chip ice cream outfit?! Aunt Carol sent this for her and when Abbie first saw it that’s what she dubbed it.

And finally…here are my girls. Can you tell who is who?

The first one is Abbie.
It totally blows my mind how much the two of them look alike. None of the boys looked as much alike as the girls do. We could always see similarities, but not like this. It’s pretty cool!

Gotta share one more thing…yesterday was a “red letter day” for us…I took all the kids to the library (and Target) for the first time since Lydia was born. Our stroller is fantastic!!! It makes it so easy to haul Lydia around, as long as I can keep from running into things. HA!

All right…that’s all my news for tonight. Have a great Sunday!

Yesterday was a most difficult day. If Lydia was awake she seemed to cry a lot. And all her cries sound the same so I don’t know if she needs a diaper change or if she’s actually hungry or if she’s just exercising. She was awake and hollering while the kids were doing school in the morning and it was driving them nuts. Then she cried and nursed almost constantly from 9 to 11 last night while I did my own share of crying. But when she finally did go to sleep around midnight, she didn’t get up again until 7 this morning. I heard her grunting around at 3:30, but she never fully woke up. That means we got nearly 7 hours of sleep last night. Wahoo! She got up this morning and nursed very shortly and went back to bed. Guess she really wore herself out last night.

I’m sure you guys don’t want to know about all the woes of having a new baby though. You’re here to see pictures, right? Well, here you go…

Grandma Vicki made matching nightgowns for Lydia and Mommy.

Doesn’t she look like a little china doll? I love that nightgown on her!

We got a box from Grandma and Grandpa Brock last week. Besides some adorable outfits for Lydia Grandma included my Dad’s sweater and booties when he was a little guy. Grandma asked me to at least take a picture of Lydia in the sweater.

Poor girl…she inherited her mother’s eyebrows!

This is the outfit that Aunt Becki sent.
I can’t believe she can wear it already…it looked so big a couple weeks ago.

I finally found a sweater so that Lydia could wear this adorable dress that Haley gave her. The dress is sleeveless, but this little sweater works great with it! I could not get her to not make a nasty face during this picture session. HA!

And finally these were taken yesterday. I saw this “little sister” sleeper at Target a couple weeks ago and couldn’t help myself. It fits pretty good too…she’s moving into the 3 month clothes already.

Love these pictures of her! Guess she didn’t cry all day.
And I guess that’s all for today.

Last Wednesday we finally got to go to church. (The two previous services had been cancelled due to snow.) Naturally we had to get Lydia dressed up for church.

Each time one of the boys walked by the room after she was dressed they all had the same reaction…”Ah, Lydia!”

She was a hit at church too.

Now for some random cuteness.
Zeke and Abbie are always asking if they can hold Lydia.

Sweet, sleeping baby.

And finally a headband with a bow! Thank you Tammy for the box of stuff for Lydia.

Friday morning after Grandma Vicki headed for the airport my house underwent a rather messy transformation. The boys decided they were going to get the bedroom swap done ASAP.

We decided that the best way to arrange the rooming is to put Caleb and Luke in the front bedroom, move the girls to the back bedroom and move Zeke to the basement with Nathan. So far it seems to be working pretty well except that Lydia isn’t actually sleeping in the girls’ room yet.

Now all we lack is paint. The girls’ room is currently army green and the front bedroom is yellow. Our first goal is to get the girls’ room painted. Hopefully Jon and Nathan can get busy on that soon.

Guess that’s all for now.

It’s incredible how time flies.

We’re doing really good. I’ve been amazed at how well I’ve handled having a new baby. I’ve only had a couple meltdowns. Last night was by far the roughest night we’ve had so far. Lydia slept most of the day then decided she was going to be awake from 8:30 to 1:00. Yikes!

The good news is that she has gotten herself into a routine of 3 to 4 hours between feedings day and night. It’s been terrific! By all definitions she is a “good baby”. She generally only cries when she needs a new diaper or when she’s hungry.

Anyway…here are a few new pictures of Miss Lydia.

Lydia in the Bible was a seller of purple. Our Lydia is a wearer of purple…this shade seems to be the best on her.

Haley never got any pictures of me and Lydia the day she was born so we did this the other night when Haley came over to visit.

And of course, we had to have a picture of the three of us.

Yesterday was her first outing. Jon took Lydia and me to Target to get a few things for her.

After our long night we crashed in the bed until 9:30…well, that’s when I got up anyway. She looked pretty content in the big bed.

And that will have to be all for today…Lydia just woke up.

I thought you might and I have no lack of pictures.

Trying to get the last bit of vernix out of her hair we discovered that she has a little bit of curl when her hair is wet.

While I took a bath Abbie and Jon sat with Lydia. Abbie almost fell asleep herself.

Next morning Caleb came in and scooped her up.

We all get pretty excited when she opens her eyes.

Last night the crowd pulled out Ticket to Ride before bed. Luke gets kind of worked up while playing this game.

Aaaawwwww!!!

Since Nathan wasn’t here when Lydia was born I told him I had to take his picture with her this morning.

And I finally put her in the cradle for her naps today. Love the way she cocks her head back while she’s sleeping.

That’s all for now.