Our New House!!!

Scared you didn't I? Really we aren't planning on leaving our current house anytime soon, you will see some updates as we are in the process of changing a few things but love our house and plan on being here for a while. {Plans for the finishing part of the basement are in the works, and I couldn't be more excited!! To have an actual play room would be amazing and I dream about it!}

For Christmas my sister, Bonnie, gave our kids this cardboard house. It looks like a great time in a box, and we are all about forts at our house. Many times blankets are used more for roofs than for warmth. So when Staci and the kids pulled this out the other day I knew we were  in for a treat. 

The kids wasted no time when coloring this house, and Saige told Staci that she was planning on finishing this in one day.

To say that this thing is big is an understatement. It barely fits in Saige's room and takes over the living room. 

Saige and Milo have spent several nights together in this house, even one night on the hardwood floors. Good thing they are 4 and 5. 

Saige chose one side and Milo chose the other. She colored all of her side with crayon and did everything by herself. She is so particular with details and really enjoys coloring. She honestly would have done this all day long and been the happiest girl!

I am so proud of her skills and her persistence, I helped Milo with his and couldn't last as long as her! 

Milo and I colored his together, he is all about coloring where he shouldn't and we did not want to have the traditional house! Multi-colored picket fence anyone? I would do it in a heartbeat! Although Saige would constantly tell me that it doesn't look like a real house! 

With a little graffiti to add our finishing touch, Milo was finished up! 

We still have lots of empty spaces, and I am excited to finish it all up! We have plans for the inside, maybe some hanging elements and some picture and frames inside! 

Come on over, there is plenty of room inside! The more the merrier! And we could use some extra hands for the coloring! 

Thank you so much Bonnie! We love love love it! 

Cousin Time

Nana and Gramps invited all the girl cousins to come over for a sleep over. Saige was more than excited to go spend the night, and to play with Abby and Macy. We went to drop her off and Josh and Jenni were still there.We chatted for a while and Josh and Jen said they were headed to Morelia's and Matt was craving steak. So we decided that we should go out together. But we couldn't leave with out Nana and Gramps, so we decided to throw all the kids in the cars and take our party of 11 to dinner on a Friday night! Both our first choices were way too long of a wait so we went to the kid's pick-- CHILI'S!!

We got right in, with just a little wait- enough time to get a nose pick and a picture with the cutest girls on their "sleepover night".

Our table was is in a dark corner, so no photos there. I had to run over to Zurchers and took Saige and Abby with me. Man I should have taken pictures of them in there. They were in heaven, with all the bins of candy and 10 cent toys! They would have stayed in there for days. Thank heavens the Justin Beiber cardboard cut out at the front of the store directed them towards the front of the store.

Milo and Parks were feeling a little left out, so Parks came and spent the night with us. The threw on their matching black night shirts and laid down together in Milo's bed. A little while later we heard some voices, so I wandered in to find EVERY SINGLE ONE OF MILO'S TOYS IN HIS BED!!! Honestly I don't know how they had room to lay down. They had a wonderful time, stayed up way too late (sorry Jen, I hope Parks wasnt too ornery the next day!), and spent some great cousin time together. 

Next time when it's the boys turn to sleep at Nana and Gramp's house, we will have Coasten there and maybe spend the evening out with them! We missed you guys on this impromptu night out! 

Thanks Nana and Gramps for having our girly over for a night. You are brave to attempt this, and knowing Saige's history (which was proven that it would happen again!) she is a terrible bed partner and I hope that you both got at least a couple hours of sleep! 

February. Photos.

February can be a hard month. The weather usually is a mess, although this year there were more sunny days than usual, it seems as if the year's shortest month lasts the longest.





But thanks to this month's photo challenge I kept myself busy and had a great time!!

There were some challenging ones this time around- strangers (on the 4th) i was chicken.




There were some great photo options at Gygi's but chickened out and opted for the mom's at Saige's dance class The phone (on the 15th), my phone is my camera!! So we went with a plug in phone that looks like a lot of fun for the iPhone.




But some of my favorites were-




#1 my view. This was the start of my doughnut tour. I'm on a mission to find the best doughnuts in Utah and have a serious mission planned. Just wait for this one, my Mom has been doing research, enlisted a crew, and we will report back with you. This was a good start. Bacon doughnuts must I say more?




#2- my favorite words hanging on my living room wall. These words get me through the harder days.




#12- inside my closet, you will notice lots of color and lots of empty hangers. Must be laundry time.





#16-Something new. New sunnies from Target. Connie, my sis, has the same ones!! We love target!!




Here is a recap off my monthly calendar app. Love this thing, it keeps them all together. And it's great to look back on them.





Thank heavens for a short month. This one was a little harder for me to keep up on, being sick in the middle of the month I slacked a little but caught back up.





Here is march's line-up. I'm already excited and looking forward to #11, #13, #20, and #31.
Hope you at least try it this month, let me know if you do, and if you want a day by day line-up follow me on Instagrams (heathersmithy is my name) and I would love to holler back!!

Enjoy your March!!

Swap

This year, I must have had a lapse of judgement and thought that I would join a "handmade Valentine swap". It sounds wonderful right? You swap valentines with 4 other people and its fun to make them and see what comes back in return. We even signed up to do overseas, and was thrilled to find we would be swapping with someone in England. I did the swap hoping my kids would get excited, but I think I was more excited then them. As the days were getting closer (I had to have them out before the 7th!),  I was realizing I am not that creative when it comes to paper. I can create things in the kitchen with no thought at all, but to make something out out paper might be a little bit harder for me! So I decided to incorporate the two.

I made some homemade lip suckers, I hope they made it in one piece- my trust in the postal service has dropped over the past little while, and I have had a few lost packages and was even asked to pay $1.50 for a envelope that my cute sister Connie had sent to my kids with a valentine inside and a chicklet piece of gum. Really post office? Really? 

For the actually card, I luckily had some retro scrapbook paper that had some of the cutest black and multi colored hearts. Perfect for what we needed. I made a cute flower by crunching up different cupcake liners and glued them together. I then sewed them to the card with a button in the center. I was quite surprised on the final product, especially for someone who is not paper crafty like me! Cait at Gygi's designed these cute tags, and I knew they would be the perfect addition.




















On the back side we wrote them a cute note, sent with it a sucker mold, flavor some sticks (actually they were paper straws but they work great as a stick), and some direction as what to do. I hope they got to each person before V-day so that they were able to make some cute suckers for the day. 

To be completely honest, I know they aren't much but I was pleased with how they turned out! I had to send the one to England with out as many supplies and earlier than the other three, they wouldn't let me send the flavorings since they were in a glass bottle. I hope that everyone got their cards and enjoyed it! 

As the cards for us came in, I was like a kid at Christmas. The one from England excited me the most, ROYAL MAIL!!





















Her card was darling, and had some yummy heart treats. I must be honest I did not share. I ate them all myself.




Another came right on Valentine's Day and had a darling handmade friendship bracelet with this cute vintage card taped to the envelope. Thanks so much Sharla, Saige stole the bracelet quickly and could not have been more excited.




The very first card we got was this cute hearts on a string. She did a darling job and I hope my skills didn't disappoint. And she had the most darling handwriting, thin perfectly written letters and numbers. One day I might perfect my penmanship, it horrid and I really must get better.



The fourth card never came, I just hope they received ours. Making homemade suckers is honestly one of my favorite things to do. Especially around V-Day. So I hope that they can add our favorite tradition to their lives!

Thanks Lindsay for putting this on! I enjoyed participating and hope that you do it again next year! You are brave to organize this, and applaud what you have done! Check out her site, she is wonderful.

Next year, make sure to sign up. We can make our v-day cards together, and maybe I can be inspired to be more "paper crafty!"

Mazel Tov

Memories of Valentine's Day seem to be one of my fondest memories from my childhood. Not sure why some of these smaller Holiday's come to mind when thinking about growing up but I can say with confidence that my Mom really did go all out, and I thank her for her creativity and her desire to make things so much fun for us girls. Having 6 girls I am sure there were days that you wanted to send us all away, but you made sure to help us celebrate those little moments. And I really try to do the same with our kids. 

This Valentine's Day was on a day I had to work, so I was a little worried about making sure that I was home in time to celebrate. Also wanted to make sure that I could show Matt how much I love and appreciate him, without being too cheesy-sometimes I have to be careful as to not go over board for him. 

I tried to think of something I would like, and thought one of my most favorite things is a heartfelt note. As I started thinking of all the things I love about Matt it was becoming a rather large letter. So I tossed that in the garbage and started over. This time I decided to write on 12 different notes and give them to him throughout the day. As I got to work, I decided to have 12 different people randomly go up to Matt and hand them my notes. Some people were more than willing, and some of the single girls that work at Gygi's were a little hesitant but ended up handing him all the notes. It got to be pretty humorous and I would have loved to see what really was said. Matt had fun with it, and I figured it was a fun way to tell him how much I love and appreciate him. 

I raced home from work, hoping to beat Matt home from school so we could make a secret restaurant, but he beat me home. I was pleasantly surprised to see that Staci, Saige, Milo and Bull were dressed for a fancy night out. Bull even had his tie on. 

Cute Staci had them all ready for a fun lovin night. Glad to have her a part of our lives. She is heaven sent for our family, and appreciate every second she spends with us. So for her to spend her Valentine's Day with us, we were so excited to have her with us. 

With our hand written menus we were ready for a Valentine's day meal. 

{It says:

 Menu

Pan grilled Steak

Oven Roasted Potatoes

Brussel Sprouts

Sparkling Pear Juice}

Matt's steak even started out as a heart shape, serious didn't even cut it that way. Perfect for Matt.

Saige set our table while Milo and I were cooking up dinner. I think she did a great job, she requested candles, and Staci's flowers were a perfect table centerpiece. 

Apparently we don't drink from stemmed cups very often, Saige was more concerned about how to drink from her "fancy" cup than to eat her dinner. 

Staci, Milo and Saige kept trying to cheer and saying "Mazel tov"! The kids didn't even know what they were saying but they were having fun and Staci and I were almost crying we were laughing so hard. 

For Milo to be wearing a "button shirt" is a big deal. He is really dressed up for the occasion. Staci does have a way to get him to do pretty much anything. 

Isnt Staci cute? She really could wear anything and be stunning, even when wearing Milo's hat and bow

tie. 

But to get her best shot, you must shoot through the classy touch of baby's breath and roses, as she is pondering off into the sunset. Not everyone has this opportunity to see her in her true element, so you can all thank me later. (hehe, Staci don't hate me for posting this!)

As we were finishing up dinner, the kids heard a mysterious knock on the door-

as they opened it they found their secret valentines! 

Saige found my secret hiding spot, and saw part of what we had gotten for her, but she did do a very good job at pretending to be surprised and was still very excited. 

When we were younger, my Mom and Dad would buy gifts for each of us. When we were least expecting it we would hear a knock at the door, as we would rush over to open the door, we would hear another knock at the back door. Each of us would continue to race back and forth, sometimes Dad would trick us and do the same door twice in a row, but we would all be so excited to see what our "valentine" brought us. I loved the excitement and the fun things that our parents would do for us. I don't remember them ever not doing this, even after we had grown and this year was no different. 

After we had cleaned up and were just chatting, and the kids were playing with their new toys they got, we heard a really really loud knock at the door. Saige and Milo were a little scared, and Matt who was asleep on the couch was even more afraid. As we opened the door to find a present for Staci! Soon after there was a knock at the garage door, I soon had all those fun memories of when we raced back and forth as kids. We went back and forth till all of us had our presents. This kids had no idea who had come, but Bull was a little worried as he could sense someone out in the trees. He was growling at the tree and all of a sudden my Dad jumped out from behind and scared Bull. He jumped up about a food in the air and tried running back to the house. So much for the guard dog! 

We headed over to the Thanksgiving Point ice cream shoppe, and enjoyed some of the biggest brownie sundaes we have ever had. Next time I think 3 or 4 of us will just share one! Those things are huge!

I think it is safe to say that the kids had a great time, and we celebrated yet again another wonderful Valentine's Day. 

Thank you Matt for the gorgeous flowers you sent me, I appreciate everything you are to me, and for the love you have always shown. This is a fun day to celebrate just a little bit of love, but I am grateful for all the things you do for me all the time! You mean the world to me! 

Love You.