Happy Fall Y'all!

Goodness, I have to learn to be better at these updates! According to my last update, we had just said goodbye to my husband as he left for Afghanistan for a 9 month deployment. Our daughter, Autumn was just over 3 years old and our son, Cole had turned 1, two weeks prior to my husband leaving.

My husband is now home and has been for almost 8 months. Autumn is 4.5 years old and Cole is 2.5 years old. Things are finally back in a normal routine around here. School has started and fall finally seems to be making its appearance in good ole Kansas.

Im slowly going to get back to this to update family and friends on the kids, our family and other random things so bare with me as I get this off the ground, again!

Im back, again!

WOW! So it really has been a long time since ive posted anything. A lot has changed since my last post. We welcomed our baby boy into the world in April 2011, in October 2011 we left Ft. Sill, OK and moved to Ft. Riley, KS and just a few days ago we said goodbye to Daddy as he went on a 9 month vacation to 'The Sandbox'. I decided to start writing again as a way to keep Charles updated on things going on as well as family updated while he is away. We have a very busy and fun summer planned to help the days pass by quickly so there should be many fun posts to come! :)

22 Months!

Autumn, you are 22 months old today!

You are talking up a storm these days and putting words and short sentences together. 'I hurt', 'It fell', and 'Wuv you too' are just a few of your favorite sayings these days. You are always asking to help me and daddy around the house. Helping vacuum and making dinner are your favorites.

You absolutely love your 'nana' and cheerios for breakfast and have recently discovered pop tarts. I made the mistake of getting you chocolate milk one day at Chik-fil-a and you now constantly ask for 'chocolate chocolate'. You love your chicken and fries and pizza. Cheese sticks are still a must have in the house and a new favorite is 'sauce' (applesauce) and 'yogut' (yogurt).

You are wearing size 5 diapers and are in 24m/2T clothes. You wear size 6 shoes and think the velcro on them is so much fun to play with. We cannot make it to our final destination without your shoes coming off at least once.

You HATE being strapped into a high chair or the grocery cart but sometimes you just have to deal with it so mommy can get her shopping done. Speaking of shopping, I cant seem to go into any store without somehow walking out with an item I didnt plan on buying. You either decided to bite it, suck on it, try to eat it or break it so I have to buy it.

You are still quite the little social butterfly. You say 'hi' and 'bye' to every person you see. You smile and wave at the guards at the gate everytime we come on post. You say bye to every cashier when we leave a store and just love blowing kisses to random people.

You are quite stubborn and do not like being told no. You throw yourself on the floor, cry, whine and do everything you can to get what you want. 9 times out of 10, you dont get it but when you do get it, you get it from Daddy. You are such a daddy's girl and squeal when you hear him come in the door every evening.

You are such a joy to have around, always making us smile and laugh. We cant imagine life without you baby girl. Happy 22 months! We love you!

Long time...

It has been about 3 months since I last posted...im slacking!

Last time I posted it was 110* outside and Autumn was 18 months old. We've celebrated Labor Day, Halloween, Veterans Day and Thanksgiving is just around the corner.

It is not 70ish* outside, the leaves are chaning and falling off the trees and Autumn is 21 (almost 22) months old. We also recently (as in back in August) found out that another Baby Smith will be arriving sometime in late April/early May 2011. We are super excited to be expanding our family and for Autumn to be a big sister. Even though she really has no idea how her life is going to change, I know she'll do great and love her new brother/sister.

This pregnancy has been very different for me. With Autumn, I never had nausea, never had any problems, everything went to smooth and great. With this one, I had morning sickness starting at 6 weeks and lasting until 14 weeks. The Dr. prescribed me zofran and it worked wonders! I have horrible sinus headaches (but that comes with living in Oklahoma...), ive had the stomach bug TWICE in the first trimester. We dont know what we're having yet but we ARE finding out this time. Hopefully we can find out sometime in the next 3 weeks or so. I am now 17 weeks and am feeling so much better. I have so much more energy, no nausea and feel like I can keep up with life now!

Other than that, nothing new has happend to us. We are gearing up for the Holidays, traveling, celebrating my sisters college graduation and eating LOTS of good food :)

Ill update pictures over the next few days!

Family Field Day

Charles spent the last 2 weeks in the field for an FTX (field training exercise). While he was out there, the battalion invited the families of the soldiers out to the field to see what they do on a daily basis. I was actually really excited about this. Charles explains what his job is all the time but it never really makes sense. With the family field day, I was able to physically see what he was talking about which made me more interesting.

We made it out to the field about 9:30 on a Tuesday morning. It was already 100 degrees outside. They had bleachers and a tent set up to help shield us from the sun. While we waited for the 'boom booms', as Autumn calls them, we listened to the LTC explain what was going on and a few other things. After Alpha battery shot the Paladins, we were able to walk around the explore all the different military vehicles they had out there. Autumn loved this part of the day. She even cried when I told her it was time to move on to the next vehicle. If I put her down to walk, she would just run back to the next vehicle.

Autumn also loved watching/listening to the 'boom booms'. She was constantly pointing out into the field/mountain and yelling 'boom boom'. She clapped just about everytime she heard it. I did have a hard time keeping her ear protection on but I know she had to have been misserable since it was so hot out there.

We left around noon and headed to work/school and stayed in the AC for the rest of the day! I think that this experience was awesome and im thankful that the battalion was able to offer it to us.

The three of us

Paladins

Waiting for the 'boom boom'

18 Months*

Autumn Grace, you are 18 months old today! You are such a handful these days, but mommy and daddy are loving every minute of it.

You are wearing 18-24 month clothes with a few 12 month clothes that still fit. You are in size 4 diapers.

You sleep from about 8:30pm-7:30am with one nap from about 11:30/noon-2:30/3pm.

You are eating just about anything that we give you. You love your bananas aka 'nana' for breakfast and always ask for 'cookies'. You love your juice and milk and chug chocolate milk. We gave you a fresh plum the other day and you loved every bit of it. Your not a huge fan of the fresh peaches though.

You run to your room when we ask you if your tired and want to go 'night night'. You run to your high chair and yell 'nummy' when we ask you if your hungry, and you run to the bathroom when we ask you if you want to take a bath.

You have recently started coming to me while holding your diaper and saying 'poo poo'. Your not always 'poo poo' but you are always at least wet. I bought you a 'potty' the other day so you can get used to having it around but it'll be a while before your actually using it.

The most recent words you are saying are 'poon' (spoon), water, walk, hand, eye, ear, all done, bye bye puppies, thank you mommy/daddy, bow, big girl, nice, opeas (open please), mine, Major, ewwww, and even a few of your friends names from school, Wyatt, Matt, Sean and Caedi. You know what a puppy, cat and monkey say too.

Autumn, mommy and daddy love you very much and are so blessed to have you in our lives :)

Oh Monday...Oh heat...

Its Monday. Ive never been a fan of Mondays. It seems as though just about everything that needs to get done for the week, needs to be done on Monday. And on this Monday, I had to do it all in 105* heat.

Now, for those of you who know me well, know that I HATE being cold and am very often cold. I think 80* outside is perfect. I can handle 90* but when it is over 100*, I think its just to hot to function. It takes a 15 minute car ride for the AC in the car to completely cool down the car. Just walking from the car into a building makes you sweat. The pool is even too hot for days like today. The AC in the house has been running non-stop since last night (thank goodness for military housing and not having to pay electric bills). Unfortunately the heat is supposed to stick around for another week or so. And of course, since we live in lovely Oklahoma, we dont even have a beach less than 15 hours away that we could visit.

Since it is Monday and Autumn and I didnt have much time to do the things we love to cool down, I thought id share them with you via pictures :)

So what are you favorite ways to cool off during the summer heat??

Vacation!!

Who doesnt love a vacation?!?

We flew down to FL to visit my Uncle about 2 weeks ago. My grandparents were able to make it down and so were my parents, including my dad who had knee surgery just 3 days prior! This is the first time everyone has been together since Charles and I got married 2.5 years ago. And needless to say, it was a great time!

We spent time on the beach, in the pool, went to the zoo, my sister and I went parasailing, went shopping, and drove to Alabama all within the 10 days that we were gone. There was tons of sun, food and family!

Of course, as always, all good things must come to an end. We are now back home and back to the grind. We cant wait to be back on the east coast and with family again!

Here are a few pictures to wrap up our time together :)

On the beach

Michelle and I before we went parasailing

Autumn with her Great-Grandmama and Great-Grandaddy

The family

My sister and I

Growing up...

Autumn is growing up SO much faster than I want her to. Ive known this since the day we brought her home from the hospital, but today, it hit me.

A friend of mine is pregnant with her second baby, a girl. This is her first girl. I told her she was more than welcome to come and go through all the clothes that I have and she could take what she wanted/needed. I had 4 bins full. She walked out of here with a garbage bag full! Im glad. Autumn's not wearing them anymore, I kept the outfits that really meant something to me and I just couldnt part with and I have plenty more that she didnt take!

But, as she was looking through all those clothes all I could think of was the memories I have of Autumn in each of those outfits. Even if she wore it once, I remember. Some of the outfits she had, I hated. She maybe wore it once, around the house and that was it, but some of those outfits I absolutely loved. I probably have pictures of her in just about all of them. But watching Carrie walk out with all of that stuff made me realize just how big Autumn is getting and how much I really miss the 'baby stage'.

To be honest, I cried when I watched it all leave the house. Dont get me wrong, like I said, im glad someone is getting use out of it all instead of it all just sitting up in the attic but there's that slight thought of 'what if our next is a girl as well?' Then I remember how much shopping I did for Autumn at that age and remember theres no need to worry, even if we do have another girl, she'll still have PLENTY of clothes!

Each day Autumn is learning or saying something new and im always telling her to SLOW DOWN and like every child and teenager, she doesnt listen. I just wish that she would nuzzle up to my chest and fall asleep while we watched TV together like she did 9 months ago. I wish she wasnt capable of telling me 'no' all the time. I love that she can communicate more but that means ill never hear that 'baby babble' from her again. I thought I was capturing all the cute baby moments well, but looking back, I feel like I missed a lot. I want my little bean back!

I know there are many women out there who hated when their kids were infants. They are so glad the baby stage is over, but I actually really enjoyed it. Of course the little sleep was no fun, but I would do it again in a heartbeat just to have her be a baby again....

So...here's to hoping that our next baby (whenever that may be) will be a boy and ill walk out of Carrie's house with a garbage bag full of baby boy clothes :)

Family Pictures

Thanks to a WONDERFUL, dear friend of ours who is building up her photography portfolio, we had family pictures done a week or so ago. They turned out beautiful! Here are just some of our favorites...

School...

So, Autumn has been going to 'school' (aka Parents Day Out) for about 4 months now. Its only 2 days a week for 6 hours a day. She did great to begin with aside from not sleeping. But now, separation anxiety has set in BAD and she has huge break downs sometimes as soon as we walk into her classroom. I know she's at the age where this issue shows its ugly face, but im over it! I cant stand to hear her cry out for me when im two doors down. It just breaks my heart. I try my hardest to sneak out while she's not looking and from time to time I can get out of there without any tears from her, but its rare. After 15 minutes or so, she's fine. I always swore I wouldnt be one of those mothers who constantly worried about her child while in the care of someone else you trust, but I cant help it. I find myself checking in her classroom 5 or so times a day (while trying to hide at the same time).

Just to let you know, I DO NOT show up to her 'school' to check on her :) I just so happen to work there :) Its been great. Im in the same building as Autumn, I know the ladies who care for her everyday and im just 2 doors down if sometimes happens to her. Its a blessing and somewhat of a curse all at the same time. It'll be interesting to see her in my class if we stay in OK long enough!

When I first started out at this job, I was just a substitute and I just so happened to be in her class for about 3 weeks. I learned how everything works, I know what she's doing at what time and I learned the 'tricks' for her in that environment. Things like, having to hide her behind a partition just so she'll take a nap. Even if it is only 30 minutes!

All in all, I think this is a great experience for both of us. She's meeting new friends, learning how to be away from me and im learning to be away from her and getting some adult interaction. Its also just enough work that im not worn out at the end of the week and hate my job. I love my class and actually look forward to going back the next day :)

TEETH!

Autumn has never been one to be fussy while teething. I NEVER know when she has another tooth coming in unless I see it or she actually lets me get my finger in there and feel around.

So needless to say, I though she only had 7 teeth. 4 on the bottom and 3 on top. Well, I was wrong. Its seems as though she has about 9 teeth and has 2 molars coming in! Seriously? I feel like a bad mom for not even noticing. But I will admit, the fact that it doesn't even phase her is pretty nice :) I noticed these new teeth while brushing them last night, which is one of Autumn's favorite things to do. As soon as she sees the tooth brush she opens her mouth up wide and giggles the whole time. Hopefully it'll be that easy in her rebellious years!!

Wordless Wednesday

New words and Major!

So, like I said before, Autumn is learning new words everyday! This morning she brought me a banana and very enthusiastically said 'nana. nummy!'. She clearly wanted that banana, and she got it :) She also pointed right at Majors tennis ball and said 'ball' then proceeded to pick it up and throw it right at Majors face. Thank goodness her big brother is used to getting hit in the head seeing as he is horrible at catching!

Speaking of Major, he celebrated his 4th birthday last month. Well, we actually have no idea when his birthday is. Charles and I adopted Major from the Pitt County Humane Society on August 12, 2006. We were told he was 3 months old. So we decided to celebrate his birthday on May 12, which was 3 months before we adopted him. We normally take him to get a hotdog from Sonic but never were able to do it this year. Maybe that'll be whats for dinner tomorrow!?!?!!

Major a few days after we adopted him!

April 2010

Congratulations Charles!

A HUGE congratulations to my wonderful husband, Charles on his promotion last Tuesday! He is no longer a LT. Autumn and I are so proud of him!!!

During a ceremony at Charles' battalion, Charles removed his LT rank and put on a Capt. rank. I put his Capt rank on his beret and tried my best to put it on his head, which was somewhat difficult since im a whole foot shorter than him. Following the ceremony I fed about 30 soldiers brisket and smoked sausage. The day went off without a hitch and now we dont have to worry about another ceremony for at least 5 years!