My Wrangler Man

What is it about a man (even a little one!) in a great pair of jeans? Cause he just about melts my heart when he parades around the house looking like this. My handsome Hudson strikes again, says the ridiculously proud mama with a heart full of love. Corny, but true. What can I say?

Fall Leaves

This weekend, we celebrated the fall birthdays of three relatives with a joint birthday party filled with food, family, and fun (my favorites!). For some reason, I forgot to bring my camera along, but luckily Aunt Jenny came to the rescue and shared these photos on Facebook. (Thanks for that, Jenny!). As you can see, the giant pile of leaves was the hit of the party! Hudson, being the only boy there, was clearly in his element. This boy loves leaves!

Ava tried to pose with her brother, but he was having none of it and simply wanted to be a boy.

I would love to know what he was thinking for this shot, but it looks like he ran most of the girls off and finally had the pile all to himself!

Of course, Ava didn't want her father to feel left out of the leaf fun, so she simply had to help him get involved, too!

Sometimes it's the simple pleasures in life that bring the most joy. :) At least I think so. And spending time outdoors in the fall with family is one of them. Happy birthday to Tim, Jill, and Kiera!

Trails and Toes

A typical evening with the Smiths? An after-dinner jaunt at the new walking trail in Huntingburg, followed by bath time and then snuggle time in our jammies. We have to enjoy bare toe time too, before temperatures drop and we unpack our socks. Adorable, right?!?

S is for Sweethearts

At preschool, Ava has not only been reviewing her letters but also learning how to put them together to form words. A common activity is for her and her classmates to find words that begin with certain letters. Each week, her class focuses on a specific letter, and I try to incorporate activities at home that correspond to each week's letter. Last week was the letter S, one of her favorites, and so tonight we ended our S activities by finding items around the house that begin with S. (Ok, so I stole this idea from an episode of Little Bill on Nickelodeon, but it was such a great idea!). Anyway, Ava loved this activity and had already gathered quite a pile of S items (above) when suddenly Hudson interrupted our game by running into the playroom with a tiara in hand.

What ensued next was hilarious!

He streaked over to Ava, giggling in his adorable little boy voice, and shouted "Sissy! Sissy! Sissy!" (Yet another S word; go Hudson!) He then proceeded to crown his princess sister. Usually I miss a chance to capture such moments with my camera, but since I already had it out for our S items, I was able to catch this adorable moment. Observe:

We were all laughing hysterically by this point, so that ended our S game. While the kiddos continued to be silly in the playroom, I left to put my camera away. Until I heard more laughter and returned to find my son apparently attempting to mount this toy stallion! Where does he get these ideas?!? Thus, I managed one last hilarious shot before we were off to bathtime.

In the spirit of S words, I just have to say that I am so thankful for my silly, special, snuggly, sugary sweethearts!

Herbstfest 2010

Another Huntingburg Herbstfest come and gone, and for the Smith family, another successful festival experience! Thankfully, the weather cooperated and gave us two beautiful days to enjoy. And even though it ended up raining for the parade on Sunday, it felt more like fall and only really sprinkled. So that worked out too! We even got to visit with a group of our friends and their children on Saturday night, which was so fun! Busy weekend, but well worth it.
Rather than verbally elaborate on all our fun times, here are some photo collages of the kiddos to enjoy instead:

Bonus shot of Hudson & Papaw just cause I love the "fest feel" of it!

Great White Way

Meet Trailblazer

Tonight, since we had to return the free rental vehicle to Enterprise that we'd been using since our Jimmy was hit, we hauled the entire family off to the Jasper car lots to look at replacement vehicles for the Jimmy. To look, mind you. An hour later we left those very lots as new car owners (well, not brand new, but new to us anyway). Hey, when you need a vehicle, you need a vehicle! Needless to say, our insurance (not that of THE LOSER, I might add, who ultimately had none) finally came through and sent us a check.

Did you notice the color? Yup. White.

We never plan to buy white vehicles, but somehow it always ends up that way. Why is white always the best deal? White Jimmy, white mini-van, now white Trailblazer. Even our house is white!

Oh, well, it feels good to put this entire fiasco behind us and move forward. Erik is happy with his new vehicle, and I'm simply glad he took care of business so quickly AND that I was able to entertain the kiddos while he did so. (Even though Hudson did poop while inside the dealership!). In all, it was a productive evening capped off with a celebratory visit to McDonald's.

We will miss you, Jimmy!

Disclaimer: The Chevy Trailblazer pictured above isn't actually our vehicle; we won't take possession of it until Friday, so I just grabbed this one off Google images. ;)

Homebodies

Every once in awhile, amidst the hustle and bustle of life, one begins to crave the simple pleasures of home. And that is exactly where we in the Smith family have found ourselves lately. For me, staying home has helped ease the transition back to school, which means less time spent with my sweet little ones. For Erik, being at home may have something to do with watching certain sporting events without outside interruption (you'll notice Hudson did wear his jersey in support, although it obviously didn't help and he obviously preferred alternate viewing selections). For whatever reason, we've simply been enjoying our own company and sticking close to home.

Between Barbies, books, and art projects, Ava has kept her mind active. Our playroom can certainly attest to that! As for Hudson, he is still exploring the house and finding new things everyday to play. He still loves reading books, dancing to music, and saying new words nearly daily. I've been cooking more and have (almost!) banned eating out. I thought about quitting Cokes as well, but I'm not sure if I'm quite ready for that. And Erik (although he still constantly runs out for a quick fast food hit) has started taking long walks with me and the kids, so that's a plus!

Next weekend is the Huntingburg Herbstfest, so I know we'll be busy for that, but at the moment I'm enjoying precious time with the ones I love most.