Merry Christmas!!

We hung out at home this Christmas since we are waiting on baby brother to arrive. We had a pretty low key Christmas. Mayson was on steroids and breathing treatments for a chest cold.

Below is a picture of sweet Mayson...I don't have any pictures of the roid raging Mayson...you wouldn't want to see that, it's not pretty. We call them the evil drugs.

Posing by the tree

Mayson decided to decorate our craft table with stickers. It was fun getting them all off.

Christmas morning

Mayson had to check everything out from the stairs before coming down. I think because we were all sitting there taking pictures and videoing, she wasn't sure what was going to happen.

Testing out her new big wheel

Opening presents

Meeting Elmo

Daddy showing her how to pedal

Playhouse Disney Live

One of Mayson's favorite things in the world is Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. So when we heard that Playhouse Disney Live was coming to Atlanta we had to go. She was completely mesmerized, she did dance a little but for the most part had a look of awe on her face...as you can see below. I guess she was speechless...which doesn't happen much. It was dark so I didn't get a lot of pictures.

Pointing out everyone on her shirt

She almost looks sad but believe me she's not. Once it ended she said "again" like she does with Tivo thinking we could play it again.

Jolly Old St. Nick

We went to the mall yesterday to visit Santa Claus. Mayson was so exicted to see him. She didn't want to wait in line she kept trying to dart up under the ropes.

Making room for baby

We've been spending a lot of time lately trying to make room for the baby. Our spare bedroom is now the Trey's room. It's been tough deciding what to put in storage. As difficult as it is we admit we may have made a few mistakes.

********No Maysons were harmed during the taking of this photograph*********

T minus 4 weeks

I was 36 weeks pregnant this past Saturday. It's hard to believe that we are less than a month away from having Trey. That's what we've decided to call him. His name will be Samuel Joseph Smith III but we decided to use the nickname Trey for the 3rd. Also close friends and family called (and some still call) me Tray so it's kinda like both Sam and my names.
I'm a little freaked out that I only have a little over 3 weeks left. Of course we can't wait for the baby to get here but I feel there is so much more to do!!!!

Smith Family Visit

Here are some pictures from the Smith family visit at Thanksgiving. We celebrated Christmas as well. Sam's best friend from the Army, Rob spend the holiday with us too.

"I two"

Mayson turned 2 the Saturday before Thanksgiving. LaLa was over that day and we had a birthday cake and opened some presents. Mayson loved blowing out her "#2" candle. She had her birthday shirt on and everything....obviously I'm telling you all this because the pictures were deleted off the camera. I'm really bummed b/c there were some really cute ones. Better than the ones below. Sam's family came into town for Thanksgiving so we had round two of Mayson's birthday, it was fun too. We took Mayson and her cousin Nathaniel to Monkey Joe's. She is working really hard to hold up two fingers and say "I'm two"

Camo and overalls

We spent most of the weekend working in our guest/storage room which is going to be the baby's room. Mayson insisted on trying on "baby broder's" (as she calls him) clothes and some of Daddy's military stuff as well.

Thank a Vet

This is a small Thanks to all the military people in my life both currently and former military. A simple "Thanks" is not enough I know but I am truly grateful for all you do and the sarifices you make, sometimes the ultimate sacrifice. The collage below is just a few of our friends and family I had pictures of. Eric Caban (bottom left) was an Army buddy of Sam's that was killed in Afghanistan.

Top l-r: Sam & Aaron, Sam and family, 165 Air Wing (Sam's current unit); Sam and Jon,
Bottom l-r: Sam & Eric, Rob and Sam, Todd & me(realized need a current pic of my bro!), Sam and Mayson....Also not pictured My Dad and my grandfathers and both grandmothers, Sam's grandfathers and many other friends and family.

Happy Girl

This was Sunday after church. I was trying to get her to stand up b/c her dress was cute, but this is the best I got.

Trick or Treat

We had a great Halloween...other than Sam having to be out of town. Mayson was Mickey Mouse...why Mickey instead of Minnie? This girl is obessed w/ Mickey Mouse. We try to limit her tv but if she could, she would watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse all day. She isn't really old enough to understand Halloween but when she saw the costume in the Disney store, we knew we had to get it. She was so exicted to put it on Halloween night.

Mayson and I went over to Tuscaloosa to stay w/ LaLa since Sam was gone. Granddad came over and went trick or treating with us. Mayson wasn't sure what to do at first but figured it out after one house. Because she is allergic to peanuts, and almost every candy is processed in a plant that uses peanuts, we had to have a plan. It's not that easy taking candy from an almost 2 year old--if she decides she wants it. Since LaLa is such a great Grandmother she got all this safe candy and made little bags. She ran up to each door ahead of Mayson and told the person that Mayson had food allergies and asked if they would give her the bag instead of their candy. It worked out really well. Maybe next year Mayson will be old enough to reason with about what candy to eat or not but this year she wasn't. She really enjoyed opening all the bags too.

Mickey Mouse...her ears were a little floppy

She got the hang of what to do pretty quick

Eagerly heading to next house

Talking to LaLa about her goodies

Mommy and Mickey Mouse

Granddad carried Mayson from house to house

Last stop LaLa's

Checking out all of her loot...I should have gotten video of the sugar high that took place later.

Being Mayson

This is Mayson being her silly self tonight. First she put on a too small cat costume, and then she found a floaty swim suit thing in the closet that she put on as well. She thought she was so funny...which we had to agree with. :)

My sweet (and hidden talented) husband

My birthday was Tuesday and Sam got me these beautiful flowers. He actually arranged them himself!! He's never been one to just buy a dozen roses. He always wants something unique. Well this time he bought the flowers separately and put them together himself. I thought he did a great job and had to brag on him. I really didn't expect anything since we just went on wonderful trip to Europe, so these were a nice surprise. Below are the before and after pictures.

Air Show

We went to the Air Show at the Air Force base in Marietta. Mayson liked seeing the planes. However the F-15, F-18 and F-22s were really loud and she wasn't too found of that. The first one that flew by was a F-18 that broke the sound barrier. She learned very quickly to cover her ears. It was really cute, she would see a plane and cover her ears right away, even if it wasn't loud.

Pumpkin Patch

This weekend we went to the pumpkin patch to pick out our pumpkin. Well actually here they gather all the pumpkins and bring them in from the field so it's technically not a pumpkin patch but it's still fun. There's a hay ride, playground, some animals and a small pumpkin/gord patch.

Daddy's Home!!

Sam got home from Germany Sunday night. We were so excited to see him. Mayson hadn't seen him in 44 days. I can't imagine how hard that was for him. The 12 days I was away from her while I was in Europe was tough for me. She was asleep when he got home but when she saw him Monday morning she was so happy. She ran up and gave him a big hug then was running around and jumping up and down. Below is some of the Daddy/Mayson bonding.

Top left is Sam putting together the tricycle we got w/ our points from Pampers. We were going to wait until her birthday to give it to her but decided to go ahead since it was still nice outside.

Bottom left is Mayson's first ride. Middle is playing at th playground. Top and bottom right is storytime at the library.

Silly Girl

Both these pictures made me laugh, we were on our back patio using sidewalk chalk. Mayson was just being her silly self

Gymnastics

Mayson started a gymnastics class on Wednesday. Right now she is the only one in the class. They also have a Friday afternoon class at 4pm that has a couple kids in it, but I wasn't too keen on that time, so for right now she has private lessons. She had a blast and didn't want to go home. She didn't understand why we had to leave. I attached a couple videos, I will try and get better ones next week.

Hanging w/ the Fam

We went to Tuscaloosa this weekend to get Rex since LaLa kept him while we were gone. Lisa and the kids came too, Todd had a last minute business trip so couldn't make it.

This is something Granddad does with the kids and they love it. "Tick tock, tick tock, Mayson is a granddaughter clock." Lael and Caeden still like to do it. I think Chace has outgrown it :) maybe because he is almost as big as Granddad!

More in Michigan

A few more pictures of Mayson in Michigan after I got back from Europe

We went to the county fair, Mayson, Nana and Poppie actually went twice. Mayson enjoyed seeing and listening to all the animals, she like to mimic them. The baby lamb below was only a day old.

Germany

My trip ended in Germany. We spent 2 nights in Munich and one in Frankfurt (where the airport was) Munich is where Oktoberfest is. We were 5 days early so we didn't get to experience it. Well Sam is still there so I'm sure if he can he will go back. We did go to where it is and saw all the beer halls and where they were setting everything up. In downtown Munich there is a huge beer hall called Hofbrauhaus, it dates back to the 1500's it was the first place to brew beer in Germany. It holds about 1500-2000 people. Sam's drinking a beer from there below and I'm drinking a sprite, I was the only one I saw out of the hundreds of people their not drinking beer....actually there was one lady drinking wine, I was shocked they even served wine!

Switzerland

We spent a couple days in Luzern, Switzerland. It's a town in Switzerland that my mom's grandfather grew up in before he came to the US. We were expecting a small town but it was actually a nice size city, but also had mountains and a huge lake. It was beautiful, but very expensive. $25 hamburgers, $3-6 bottles of water!! Sometimes my water would be more than Sam's beer or wine.

More to come...

I will have more pictures of our trip later. I head back to Michigan tomorrow, I'm not able to upload pictures there so I won't be able to blog until I get home.

Venice

I absolutely loved Venice, it was everything I had thought Italy would look like. We just enjoyed walking or riding the water taxis around to take in the scenery.

Venice is just as beautiful at night. It's hard to capture the beauty with a picture but we tried. Sam was able to get most of the good night pictures.