Hi everyone! Wow, it's been awhile since our last update. Let's start off with the big news (for those of you who may not know yet)...we are expecting another baby! Yes, another Smedley will be gracing the planet around August. Jake and Ben are excited. At first, Jake adamantly told us he didn't want a sister, however he now says he wouldn't mind one. Ben at times thinks he has a baby in his belly or he'll point to mommy's and say "baby belly." Yesterday we all went to mommy's check up (courtesy of a snow day from school) and the boys got to hear their new sibling's heartbeat!
As for the rest of January...Jimmy has begun the huge project of completely gutting and remodeling our master bathroom. We have picked out a new vanity and think we have narrowed down the tile we want for the floor and the shower. Our goal is to have it done before baby gets here!
Kelly flew to Delaware a few weeks ago for Jimmy's sister Rachel's baby shower (her baby boy is due April 1st). It was very nice to have a weekend away without the kids and to be able to fly to Delaware as opposed to the long drive. Rachel's shower was a success and her baby is on his way to being a prince! :)
In other news, we got about 5 inches of snow here 4 days ago. It snowed Friday night into Saturday. As this post is being written, it is Tuesday and schools have been closed for the second day in a row (for a snowfall that occurred on Friday night!). We are baffled by how the road crews have managed the roads this time. The main roads are pretty good but the side streets are a mess. We had a little sleet which we knew was going to happen yet they neglected to put salt down so it has become an icy mess. The kids have done every indoor activity imaginable (baked cookies, play-doh, painting, coloring, playing with all of their toys, as well as watching entirely too much tv and movies). We are hoping tomorrow will be a return to normalcy but who knows!
Pics are posted from Rachel's shower as well as from playing in the snow. Enjoy!
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Christmas 2009
We had a wonderful Christmas this year and hope our family and friends did as well. Since Jake is in new school this year, he has 2 weeks off for Christmas break (great for him but also forces his parents to use up precious vacation time). Anyway, Jake and I did some last minute preparations and errands before Christmas Eve. Our church had a 3:30 mass this year which was awesome...allowed us time to get home and have dinner at a decent hour. Jimmy again made our "Dinner of the Year"...prime rib and yorkshire pudding and it was delicious as usual. Jake had a little bit of trouble settling down to sleep on Christmas Eve but eventually drifted off around 10:00.
On Christmas morning he was up at 6:30 and so thrilled that there were gifts under the tree and that Santa actually came! This truly was the best year so far for him to really have fun with Santa and the whole gifts, stockings, and leaving cookies thing. Ben even said "Santa Cauz" when he saw the gifts, although he was more interested in the candy in his stocking than the gifts themselves. Christmas day we spent time lounging around, watching A Christmas Story and National Lampoon's Christmas vacation as well as playing Jimmy's new Wii. None of us got out of our pajamas all day...sheer bliss!
Grandma and Grandpa arrived the day after Christmas and we opened gifts with them that night. Jake and Ben were totally spoiled by everyone this year and we are trying to figure out our toy storage options! They enjoyed spending time with Grandma and Grandpa (who left this morning). The rest of this week Jake will spend some time at home and Ben will go to school for a couple days to keep him in some sort of a routine. We are looking forward to a relaxing New Year's weekend.
Pictures and video posted in our web album.
On Christmas morning he was up at 6:30 and so thrilled that there were gifts under the tree and that Santa actually came! This truly was the best year so far for him to really have fun with Santa and the whole gifts, stockings, and leaving cookies thing. Ben even said "Santa Cauz" when he saw the gifts, although he was more interested in the candy in his stocking than the gifts themselves. Christmas day we spent time lounging around, watching A Christmas Story and National Lampoon's Christmas vacation as well as playing Jimmy's new Wii. None of us got out of our pajamas all day...sheer bliss!
Grandma and Grandpa arrived the day after Christmas and we opened gifts with them that night. Jake and Ben were totally spoiled by everyone this year and we are trying to figure out our toy storage options! They enjoyed spending time with Grandma and Grandpa (who left this morning). The rest of this week Jake will spend some time at home and Ben will go to school for a couple days to keep him in some sort of a routine. We are looking forward to a relaxing New Year's weekend.
Pictures and video posted in our web album.
Friday, December 18, 2009
Pre-Christmas and Ben's Birthday
December sure has been a hectic month! Today the boys got out of school early due to snow. Snow is a huge deal here in NC....it is quite comical sometimes all the hype and mild panic that ensues. But, at the moment we are home relaxing and starting our Christmas vacation a few hours earlier than expected.
Anyway, last weekend we had our "pre-Christmas" with Grammy and Pop. The boys were thrilled to open some gifts early and to have new toys to play with. It was a nice, low key weekend just hanging out and enjoying the Christmas spirit. Jimmy made a meatloaf including some deer meat from a deer his dad had hunted and it was great!
Our baby boy celebrated his second birthday on the 16th. It is so hard to believe he is already two! We kept it low key and just had some cake at home and opened his gifts. We gave him a new art easel but silly mommy didn't get the supplies needed to go with it (markers, chalk, etc). One would think that if it's on the picture on the box it's included but obviously that's not always the case!
Now we are just in the final countdown to Christmas. Jake is off school for the next two weeks which means some time off for Mommy too. We plan to get some things done around the house and maybe do a few fun things too with Ben.
Pics from Grammy and Pop's visit as well as Ben's birthday posted in the December web album. Have a good weekend everyone!
-Kelly
Anyway, last weekend we had our "pre-Christmas" with Grammy and Pop. The boys were thrilled to open some gifts early and to have new toys to play with. It was a nice, low key weekend just hanging out and enjoying the Christmas spirit. Jimmy made a meatloaf including some deer meat from a deer his dad had hunted and it was great!
Our baby boy celebrated his second birthday on the 16th. It is so hard to believe he is already two! We kept it low key and just had some cake at home and opened his gifts. We gave him a new art easel but silly mommy didn't get the supplies needed to go with it (markers, chalk, etc). One would think that if it's on the picture on the box it's included but obviously that's not always the case!
Now we are just in the final countdown to Christmas. Jake is off school for the next two weeks which means some time off for Mommy too. We plan to get some things done around the house and maybe do a few fun things too with Ben.
Pics from Grammy and Pop's visit as well as Ben's birthday posted in the December web album. Have a good weekend everyone!
-Kelly
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Thanksgiving and more
Well the holiday season is certainly upon us as life has kicked it up a notch and the days are getting busier and busier (hence the lack of a blog post lately). To back up, I'll tell you about Thanksgiving. Unfortunately we weren't able to get any pictures because our batteries died and since our battery charger is on the fritz it was a lost cause. Perhaps we can post some from family members at some point.
Our Thanksgiving trip to Delaware was a lot of fun and busy as usual. We hit the road at 5:30 am the day before Thanksgiving and spent time that day with Grandma and Grandpa and then Grammy and Pop. Turkey day was whirlwind with bouncing between houses and eating way too much food. We had dinner at Jimmy's grandmother's house (Grandmom Foose) with some of his aunts and uncle as well as cousin. It was a delicious meal...at the end of which when Aunt Barb asked everyone if we wanted to eat pie right away or wait a bit for our stomachs to digest, Ben chimed in and shouted, "PIE!". So that settled that!
We then scooted over to Kelly's Uncle Chris's house for dessert. Again, a plethera of aunts, uncles, and cousins were there and Jake and Ben enjoyed the attention (and also admiring Connor and Owen's guinea pigs).
Friday was spent relaxing and then we went to our friends Rick and Natalia's house for awhile. We met up with some college friends while there and met our friend EV and Melissa's baby Jared for the first time. We had a wonderful time just catching up with everyone and Jake and Ben had fun exploring (and making a mess of) all of Ryan's toys.
Saturday morning we hit the road and were back in NC by mid-afternoon. It was a great holiday!
Now...fast forward to this weekend. Yesterday we went and got our Christmas tree. Christmas tree day is always an adventure in our house. We typically "discuss" what type of tree we want and sometimes it may take awhile to agree on it. Then, once we are home, we usually have some sort of fiasco. One year we couldn't get the tree in the door (in Pittsburgh) and when we finally did we had a huge mess of needles everywhere. Another year, we had difficulty getting the tree level in the stand, so I had to hold the darn thing for over 2 hours while Jimmy fixed it. A few years prior we had a tree fall down, fully decorated. And when Jake was 7 months old, (although this was when we took down the tree), he came down with croup and had to go to the ER that evening.
Anyway, this year went fairly smoothly. We braved the rain yesterday and went to a place where you can cut your own tree. Maybe the weather had something to do with it, but we were able to decide on a tree without too much disagreement. Once we got it home and up we were faced with this year's challenge. Our lights were not working correctly. Half of an entire string would be out, some would go on for awhile, then go off, some just wouldn't work at all. This was particularly frustrating because the lights are only a few years old, and one strand was brand new! After some problem solving Jimmy managed to get some working and so far, they are still on. Let's hope they work at least til Christmas! But, regardless of the headaches, the boys had fun running through the mud finding a tree and Jake had fun decorating. Mommy had to rearrange the ornaments he hung as he hung about 20 of them all in one same area of the tree. :)
A few pictures are posted on our web album of our Christmas tree day. Have a great week everyone!
Our Thanksgiving trip to Delaware was a lot of fun and busy as usual. We hit the road at 5:30 am the day before Thanksgiving and spent time that day with Grandma and Grandpa and then Grammy and Pop. Turkey day was whirlwind with bouncing between houses and eating way too much food. We had dinner at Jimmy's grandmother's house (Grandmom Foose) with some of his aunts and uncle as well as cousin. It was a delicious meal...at the end of which when Aunt Barb asked everyone if we wanted to eat pie right away or wait a bit for our stomachs to digest, Ben chimed in and shouted, "PIE!". So that settled that!
We then scooted over to Kelly's Uncle Chris's house for dessert. Again, a plethera of aunts, uncles, and cousins were there and Jake and Ben enjoyed the attention (and also admiring Connor and Owen's guinea pigs).
Friday was spent relaxing and then we went to our friends Rick and Natalia's house for awhile. We met up with some college friends while there and met our friend EV and Melissa's baby Jared for the first time. We had a wonderful time just catching up with everyone and Jake and Ben had fun exploring (and making a mess of) all of Ryan's toys.
Saturday morning we hit the road and were back in NC by mid-afternoon. It was a great holiday!
Now...fast forward to this weekend. Yesterday we went and got our Christmas tree. Christmas tree day is always an adventure in our house. We typically "discuss" what type of tree we want and sometimes it may take awhile to agree on it. Then, once we are home, we usually have some sort of fiasco. One year we couldn't get the tree in the door (in Pittsburgh) and when we finally did we had a huge mess of needles everywhere. Another year, we had difficulty getting the tree level in the stand, so I had to hold the darn thing for over 2 hours while Jimmy fixed it. A few years prior we had a tree fall down, fully decorated. And when Jake was 7 months old, (although this was when we took down the tree), he came down with croup and had to go to the ER that evening.
Anyway, this year went fairly smoothly. We braved the rain yesterday and went to a place where you can cut your own tree. Maybe the weather had something to do with it, but we were able to decide on a tree without too much disagreement. Once we got it home and up we were faced with this year's challenge. Our lights were not working correctly. Half of an entire string would be out, some would go on for awhile, then go off, some just wouldn't work at all. This was particularly frustrating because the lights are only a few years old, and one strand was brand new! After some problem solving Jimmy managed to get some working and so far, they are still on. Let's hope they work at least til Christmas! But, regardless of the headaches, the boys had fun running through the mud finding a tree and Jake had fun decorating. Mommy had to rearrange the ornaments he hung as he hung about 20 of them all in one same area of the tree. :)
A few pictures are posted on our web album of our Christmas tree day. Have a great week everyone!
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Busy few weeks!
Hi all! We've been pretty busy here lately. We took the boys to the NC State Fair a few weekends ago. It had been two years since we'd been there (Ben wasn't even born yet) and although it was chilly and damp the day we went, we still had a lot of fun. Jake enjoyed riding some rides (Ben rode a few too) and we did some games this year too. Daddy beat out a bunch of kids in one of those water gun target games and won Jake a big stuffed dinosaur. The boys loved seeing the big tractors and trucks as well as all the farm animals too.
The following weekend we went to Delaware for a quick visit to celebrate Jimmy's grandfather's 80th birthday. Family from across the U.S. came in for the special day and we had a great luncheon celebrating Pop Pop.
The past two days were full of Halloween festivities. First was a party with Ben's class. Unfortunately, Mommy didn't plan ahead accordingly and didn't try on his costume until Friday morning. Come to find out that it was a tad tight. So, to make it easier he just wore a fireman costume the teachers had on hand that day. After Ben's party we headed to the Halloween carnival at Jake's school. It was pure chaotic fun as kids of all ages ran throughout the school playing games and getting hyped up on sugar. It was a really nice event though and a great fundraiser for the school.
Today, Mommy took the boys to a Trunk or Treat at a local church as well as going door to door for trick or treating. We ventured into another neighborhood because our neighborhood is quite dark and almost no houses hand out candy. So we went to a more family friendly neighborhood and the boys scored plenty of candy to last til next Halloween!
Although October was a lot of fun, it was very hectic so we are hoping November is a tad calmer for us.
Pics posted in our web album!
The following weekend we went to Delaware for a quick visit to celebrate Jimmy's grandfather's 80th birthday. Family from across the U.S. came in for the special day and we had a great luncheon celebrating Pop Pop.
The past two days were full of Halloween festivities. First was a party with Ben's class. Unfortunately, Mommy didn't plan ahead accordingly and didn't try on his costume until Friday morning. Come to find out that it was a tad tight. So, to make it easier he just wore a fireman costume the teachers had on hand that day. After Ben's party we headed to the Halloween carnival at Jake's school. It was pure chaotic fun as kids of all ages ran throughout the school playing games and getting hyped up on sugar. It was a really nice event though and a great fundraiser for the school.
Today, Mommy took the boys to a Trunk or Treat at a local church as well as going door to door for trick or treating. We ventured into another neighborhood because our neighborhood is quite dark and almost no houses hand out candy. So we went to a more family friendly neighborhood and the boys scored plenty of candy to last til next Halloween!
Although October was a lot of fun, it was very hectic so we are hoping November is a tad calmer for us.
Pics posted in our web album!
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