recently enjoyed things

April is a busy month here. I'm using that as an excuse for why I inadvertently missed one of the children for 14/52 and will be completely skipping that week. Oops! Instead, I'll post some photos from our Sunday celebration of a few birthdays. I'm also behind on posting Will's first birthday. I'm in denial ;)

 the birthday boys. Jax 5 on the 7th. Nash 6 on the 10th. and Peyton 15 on the 12th!

Casey + Theo

first warm day of the spring means water balloons!

and baseball

tops optional ;)

the beginning of the water balloon fight :)

why not burn a couch. not strange at all.

yes, he's sitting on it while it burns...all hillbilly ;)

been awhile since we've gotten a sister pic :)

#sistersistersistersister

creepy oldest children

the boy who started it all :)

snow swapped for dirty faces. I'll take it!

and last but not least, the belly made an appearance!

Dave's cousins wife is expecting their first, and we're *beyond* excited!

thankful holiday weekend

There's just something about long weekends with lots of family time and warm weather and good food and time on the beach that makes me never want to come back to reality. Our 4th of July weekend was just plain a good ole time. I'm sure I'm just choosing to remember all the good, but then again, that's really all I want to remember any way... the good.

the youngest cousin, Johnathan, schnoozin

I should never walk by a $1 bubble wand without picking up 10 of them. The kids love them, play reasonably well for a reasonable amount of time... best $10 you'll ever spend :)

and then I made them pretend to like each other for a photo... which turned out awesome!

and then I told them they could make silly faces... Homer was looking for inspiration :)

We are *in love* with Rowdy's new teef. A month or so ago she had some (more than a couple... she's taking after her mother) cavities that needed to be filled which required sedation sssooo she came out of 'surgery' with these brand spankin new capped front teef that we've been calling hippo teeth... chiclets...beaver teeth... but she's SO darn cute (messy face and all!) :)

These ladies are pretty much the best. A weekend together wouldn't be complete without a sister photo :)

cousins

One of the many things I love about our family is that we spend a lot of time together. And by "a lot" I mean, severely ridiculous amounts of time together. I'm quite convinced it's not normal. In fact, I'd be willing to bet it's very abnormal.outside the box."crazy." Nevertheless, I love it. Us four sisters are very close and now our children are all growing up together very close. Mallory repeatedly says her oldest son, Luke, still thinks to this day he is a fifth child.

There may be more fighting and bickering and physical abuse between all the cousins than actually playing, but hey...we'll take it! And then once in awhile I'll catch a photo like this one below to prove to everyone that they may, in fact, get along for more than a minute at a time :)

note: Jax's bare bootay

Meg is nearly Homer's weight.

F for fail

Excuses, excuses, excuses. I could have a million excuses for why I have failed at blogging lately. I won't even start because I'll just depress myself with things I could be doing... and am not. Ugh. Regardless... I have been rocking at some things. Very few. But rocking them. Hard. BUT I won't start on that list either because I don't want to gloat ;) so I'll just play a little catch up and move on.

Where to start... a lot has happened in the last few weeks. None detrimental to keeping up with the Smith's. Nothing life changing. Nothing 'important' really. Just life. I'll do what I do best, and explain in photos... so here goes...

oh boy... Halloween was the last I posted anything of significance... could be a long post    :|  hang in there faithful readers... we have missed an entire month.

Rowdy and Jax just chillin

fat face Meg

Homer's killer eyes... I can't stop!

my whole world

table sleeping/perfect light

and then there was Thanksgiving! Another wonderful meal provided by my aunt. Seriously. I want more now! This year was absolutely amazing weather so the kids took advantage and got rides from Uncle Swade and loved it!

Lia, Drew, and Swade

Drew

Luke...unhappy about the photo. Nothing else going on here. Just pissed.

sisters

Lia and Homer

before they let me in on our sisters photo. Drew liked holding the wine :)

Jake picking up Peyton for hunting... in style...

I have a hard time NOT taking photos of this little lady. She's just too darn cute! More December updates to come. I promise. Okay... let's be honest... I'll tryyyyy ;)