We are Texans again!!!

After my last post about October, so much has happened that I've spent too much time living our life to blog about it!  Things have slowed down a bit in the Smith household, so here I am ready to tell our story again!

Here's what we've been up to:
We came to Texas the last week of November and first week of December to visit family and look at houses.  Here's where God and social media really came through for us.  A friend from our Jackson Meadows neighborhood (the neighborhood we lived in before AZ) posted on Facebook that they were thinking about listing their house and asked if anyone might be interested in buying it.  We really were!  We asked for pictures of the house and it appeared to be a PERFECT fit for us !! 

When we came in town, we decided to look at the house and it was as perfect for our family as the pictures we saw!!! Thanks God and Facebook! We put an offer on the house, negotiated a bit and voila we are homeowners for the second time in our lives!! 

After this, things really got busy for us.  We went back to Arizona on December 9 after 21 hours of driving.  By the time I had caught up with laundry and cleaning, not to mention all the Christmas shopping and mailing of our gifts, it was time to pack for our family trip to Colorado. 

We left for Colorado Decemer 26 and I experienced my first super intense mountain snow driving.  I drove for 7 hours in the mountains, got caught in a snow storm and eventually made it to our destination... Crested Butte.  I drove the twins in the Traverse and Marc and Shiloh rode in the Corolla! Thanks to Frank, Zach and Sam- they drove our Corolla back to Texas so that when we moved we wouldn't have to put it on a trailer.

We spent an amazing 7 days in Colorado!!  Shiloh skiied for the first time and the twins played in the snow for the first time.  A super fun trip of firsts for our family!  (pictures to follow)

After Colorado, we hit the ground running.  We got back on January 2 and had until the 16 to pack our entire house, clean it and move to TX!!  With three kids, that was quite a challenge, but we did it!

We moved and are FINALLY settled into our new house... just a few houses down from the first house we bought in 2009!  We still have some painting and decorating to do, but have ZERO boxes left to unpack!

I have to add that I am beyond HAPPY to be back in Texas!! I am HOME, I am HOME, I AM HOME!!! Thank you Lord!!!!

Here's my photo journal of November 2012-March 2013:

All three girls reading

 

We got family pictures and here are the wonderful pics:

 McKenzie

 McKinley

 Zee, Shiloh & Lee

 Me and my love

Our Colorado Trip:

Here's Shiloh modeling her cute winter ensemble

 The oldest and youngest cousin

 COUSINS!!!! (and Uncle Mike)

Shiloh Skiing!!!

 I was really nervous to let go of Shiloh... but she did a great job!!

 Daddy and Shiloh

 Shiloh skiing!!

 McKenzie

 McKinley

 The girls running in the snow (and Daddy)

 Snow Angels

Marc Showing Off

 Marc being goofy

Me Skiing

 Being a Sweetheart!

 Sledding!!

 

Group Shot!

 Zee

 Lee

 

More pics to come...

 

 

 

 

 

 

October 2012

We had many exciting things happen this October!  Shiloh turned 3!!!!! Marc did quite a bit of traveling, one of my best friends from Baylor (Katie) came to visit and my mom came to stay with me and the girls for a week!! October just FLEW by!!

I really cannot thank Katie enough for visiting! Her visit filled my heart so much and gave me the quality girl time that I was so desperately wanting and needing!  We had great conversations and I felt like she got to see me be a mom, which was extra special to me because we met and became friends in a very different season of life for both of us.  I feel so blessed that we keep in touch and can continue a great friendship beyond college... Kate, it is a privilege to have you as a friend!  You were my Maid of Honor in my wedding and will always be special to me!!  Her visit was a WONDERFUL time had by all!! 

Right after Katie's visit, Shiloh turned 3!!  It made me very excited that Shiloh's birthday was special! We did not have a party for her and I was afraid that it wouldn't be as exciting of a day because we weren't celebratin it with a party, but it was wonderful!  I stayed up until 2am the night before decorating the house and preparing her a special breakfast for when she woke up.  I packed the diaper bag and got everything ready for the day so that I could give her extra special attention on her day! 

She slept in, which NEVER happens.  Marc really wanted to see her when she came downstairs with all of the decorations, so he woke her up and brought her down.  She ran through streamers and we cheered for her.  I then told her, "Shiloh, you went to bed a 2 year old and woke up a THREE year old... BIG GIRL" and we cheered and celebrated!  She had special pancakes with sprinkles and icing and we continued to celebrate all day.  We went to the park for a few hours, had an extra special lunch, had a Skype party with Pops, Oma, Uncle Mike and Panda,  and then went for a long family walk!  The next morning we facetimed Uncle CJ an Aunt Stephanie.  After that Marc took her to build a bear and they built Ruff, her new doggie!!  When they came home from build a bear, NINO was here!  We celebrated her even more with Nino's visit (my mom)!

Nino's trip was a BLAST!!  We shopped, went to the Grand Canyon, Sedona and Flagstaff!  We had a great adventure!  Mom, I can't thank you enough for the wonderful conversations, for all of your help with the girls and for an overall amazing time! Pictures below! Thank you for jumping into my crazy life and seeing how hectic and fun every day is!

Here it is November and we are working on saying things that we are thankful for everyday to prepare our hearts for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I'm only 8 days into writing down at least one thing I am thankful for, and I have to say that it has been an amazingly encouraging activity! This may need to be a new habit for me... stop and think about something to be grateful for everyday. There is so much that I often forget to say Thank You for!

Pics from October:

My Best Friend Katie!!!  Drawing for a fun photo op

Shiloh and Kate!  

 

 Kate and I at a Wine Tasting

Kate is a Children's Book Writer and Illustrator.  Here is her Halloween book on the shelf at Barnes and Nobles!!

M&M in the cute chairs my mom gave them for their B-Day

In a bounce house at a Pumpkin Patch- McKinley

McKenzie and Shiloh

 

Decorations For Shiloh's Birthday!!!

 Shiloh on her Special Day

 At Build a Bear

 

At the Grand Canyon with Nino!!!

 

 In Sedona

 

Shopping with Nino (Shiloh opened an umbrella and used it the entire time)

Trying to Get a picture of Nino and the girls playing

My Girls made the October Issue of the Baylor Magazine!!!

Shiloh all dressed up for a mommy Shiloh date to Starbucks!

 

I can't forget to mention that Shiloh was STUNG by a scorpion.  We are pretty sure that she instigated the sting by poking the creepy thing, but it stung her never-the-less. We had to take her to the hospital (doctors orders), but praise the Lord the sting was a dry sting, or a non-venemous sting, so she didn't need the anti-venom.  Here's our brave girl at the hospital.

 

Halloween!! Shiloh LOVED it!!  I thought it was adorable how she did not understand any of the creepy or scary things.  We went to several houses that had a mini haunted house you had to walk through for the candy and she did it completely oblivious to the fact that she was supposed to be scared.  Thankfully no one jumped out to scare her, but even the actors laughed that she smiled at them and excitedly said "Hi!" as though they weren't scary at all.