BURNT KNEES?!?

Seriously, who sunburns their knees? Okay, I do. What a dope.

I ALSO have weird finger marks of a sunburn all over my shoulders where I DIDN'T rub the sunscreen in (hence, I turn the family picture above to black and white and not keep it in color.......look closely you can see my killer marks on my shoulders)

I MEANT to put this picture at the bottom, but here are the boys watching cartoons after our first day at the beach. Emerson is OUT, and Camden is in a daze. We REALLY wore them out every day we were at the beach at Hilton Head, SC.The Smith boys.....3 generations. I just can't figure out WHERE my boys get the whole flexing their muscle thing for every picture.....

Wait...........what the? Here's Bronson and RA in the ocean. Here is the place they found all the sand dollars and moving things. They had competitions to see who could throw them them farthest. Not sure who won....I tried to stay away from that area of the water.

A sand dollar Emerson caught. (one of MANY)

2 starfish they caught. (They also caught some snails in those cool shells, 2 fish, and did I mention A TON of sand dollars?) Don't worry, I made them put them back in the ocean.

Probably the BEST family vacation ever. We had a blast!

POOL TIME

THIS is what happens when Daddy dresses Aleeya!Right after Brooks brought RA into the pool with him. Anyone who knows RA should pretty much know that he's pulling some cheap shots trying to get Brooks to put him down.
The pool seriously was the best! One morning we spent 5 hours there until I MADE the kids come in to get out of the sun and eat a little. Then of course, we went right back out.

Call me Crazy........

Can you believe it was MY idea to go to the Crazy Crab to eat?!?!

Here is Bronson chowing down on them. He ate a ton.Camden and Brooks with his big pot of lobster and crab.

And..............Aleeya. My sentiments EXACTLY.
In my defense, I DID try crab and it still makes me shutter uncontrollably.
But hey, my salad and baked potato were REALLY good.

Last night at the beach

Aleeya has become QUITE the Grandma's girl and wouldn't leave her alone!
Grandma snuggling Iris..........Grandma couldn't have been more helpful!

Leaving soooo clean from the beach.

My alert little Iris.

Hottie Brooks and Emerson

I LOVE this shot because Emerson kept getting pounded by the waves and I had him sit down on the beach to take a picture. It just so happened that a wave came and knocked him down just as I was taking the picture!

WHERE DID SHE COME FROM?!?!?

(First of all, please notice the AWESOME skirt my sis-in-law, Mindi made for Aleeya)
Seriously, this girl of mine is another breed. She's crazy, and I CAN'T for the life of me figure out where she gets it from. :) Proof:
-she walks around with goggles on.
-she keeps dead animals (notice dead frog)
- could care less how dirty she is
-looks CRAZY cute on Sundays
-randomly picks people looking at her to point and say "no" to
-and walks like she owns the place, no matter WHERE we are.....you know the walk that only a cute 1 year old with love handles and big thighs (and could care less) could pull off?
Only thing is, I love her like mad!





AND HOW CUTE IS MY LITTLE IRIS FOR CHURCH YESTERDAY?!?!?!

Speaking of catching on..........

My kids have invented a new game, that I just KNOW would be a hit in households all across the nation! or at least you'd THINK it would by the way they were giggling and having too much fun.
I was on the phone last night while the boys were in the bath. I heard a TON of giggling, but no splashing (so I let them continue.....in all my tiredness). After I got off the phone I went in and they showed me how to play the game.
The game is called, Pour-freezing-cold-water-down-your-brother's-crack game. It turned out to be a real winner. This is how you play:

-one brother bends down with butt up in the air (usually the sucker brother......aka- Emerson)

-then the side kick brother (aka Camden) / assistant gently opened the butt cheeks and reassures Mom that it doesn't hurt Emerson.

-Note: sucker brother has smile on his face the whole time.

-Then the boss (Bronson) gets cold water from the faucet and pours it down Emerson's exposed butt crack.

-Inevitably Emerson giggles and puts his hiney back in the water fast.

See? I mean, who WOULDN'T want to play that game?!?!? I'm thinking I need to copyright this as soon as I can and if ANY of you take the idea to an attorney before I do........well, we'll be super mad and make YOU play the game with boys!

The New Style

I call it the"Poop Belt". I really think it'll catch on............

Girlies!!!!!

Seriously, how could I refuse posting pictures of my girls on their first Sunday? And how cheezy am I that I have them both wearing purple!!!! (at least I'm not)
Here's Aleeya going in for the kisser.

Here's Iris with her what-it-appears-to-be brunette Mommy! :)
I can't get enough of this little thing. I hate it that she's almost 2 weeks and growing too fast.

The girls (I actually cropped out Sally, the dog, then we would've had them all in the picture) on our first Sunday. YAY, that I got all 5 dressed and to 9:00 church on time. Brooks was there saving us a seat from his meetings before church. That's not to say all the kids had socks on under their Sunday shoes, but we DID make it.

Iris Update

Creative title name, I know.

Here's my new princess Iris at a week and a half old.She started off being a night owl little stink.

It's not like this idea of babies wanting to be awake at night was new or anything for me, but she was different. She wanted YOU up with her, and she wanted to tell you about it ALL.

I've FINALLY trained it out of her (much at my sanity's expense) and for 3 nights in a row I've got a girl that will sleep 6 hours, then get up, feed, and after maybe 10 minutes, go back to sleep. Baby steps, right?

She's super happy during the day and I just LOVE it when she's awake.

Her favorite place to nap during the day is Daddy's pillow. (below)

And yes, that is Sally resting her head on Iris. Sally is soooooo protective of her.

I love it though, because Sally licks Iris' feet while I'm feeding her and it helps Iris stay awake. I had a friend come by last night and Sally was RIGHT by Iris and making sure my friend was okay to be holding her. So funny.

Okay, the picture isn't messed up.....my daughter has a purple mouth. If you've EVER lived by me with any of my other kids, you know it's just standard. My babies get thrush. Period.
Every doctor swears that the nystatin crap will work, and it never does. Finally, I just went straight to the purple mouth (Gentian Violet) to get rid of it and I think I caught it early.

I asked my doctor is there's ANYTHING I could do to prevent it (this is while I was in the hospital) and they gave me the usual answer of
"Some people are just more YEASTY then others"
I mean is that even a word?!?! YEASTY?!?! So apparently, I'm yeasty. Well, I've got a few good words for them, but I shall refrain.
Anyway, I stopped caking her mouth with the purple dye, so hopefully I got all the yeast with it. Poor thing. But I HAVE always liked purple Irises.............

"Yo soy un Jaguar!"

Bronson's kindergarten graduation song, "Yo soy un Jaguar" (I am a jaguar) is STUCK in my head....AND the jaguar sounds the kids made. Awesome......yet somewhat annoying.

Brooks' mom, Camden, Iris and I went to see his kindergarten play & award's ceremony on Tuesday. It was super fun to watch and super hot! After we went to his classroom for the awards and Camden just disappeared into the reading corner (picture top right). He is so funny. There's some random pics of Bronson and his close buddies as well. I LOVE the award Bronson got from his cute teacher (from Colombia). He got an award for being "integro", or "honest". That's the BEST award he could've been given in my eyes and I was a PROUD Momma.