Meeting Santa

A couple weeks ago (I'm slow) I took Zach to Cal's work (the hospital) to meet Santa for the first time. There was a dance recital going on right next to Santa, so I'm pretty sure that Zach didn't ever realize what was going on. Since most pictures of kids this age with Santa involve crying, maybe that's a good thing!

I really gotta take this call

Where ya at?

Zach has been obsessed with the phone for some time now. OBSESSED. (thus one of his favorite words being "ha-woh", and now "hi"). I finally found my old cell phone and let him have it. I swear he can talk forever on it sometimes. You'd think he was a teenage girl. Then again, his daddy has been known to do his share of yapping (as he calls it). I love watching Zach have his own little conversations. What on earth is he saying?

You got to go outside?? My mom says it's too cold and snowy to go play.

Yeah, I can't wait for Hawaii!

Seriously, mom, a little privacy??Did you see the game last night? It was awesome. Go Nuggets!
Gotta run. Lunch time. Feeding frenzy.

FINITO!

I've mentioned before that I'm a "project person". Lately I've been a little obsessed with a couple of tedious, time consuming projects.

About a week ago I finished this one: a Christmas advent calendar. It really was a lot of fun.... besides my sewing machine eating it. Seriously! Finally at the very end I borrowed my mom's machine when mine wasn't sewing more than an inch or two at a time without MAJOR problems. I should've done that sooner! Anyway, it's not perfect by any means (so don't look too closely!), but I was pretty happy with how it turned out.

Tim-ber!!!

This last weekend we went Christmas tree "chopping"/hunting with the Emily's parents. "Chopping" because we didn't actually chop the tree down much to my dislike. I even inherited an axe from Emily's Grandpa Roper (at my request) just for this sort of occascion. Anyway I did get to use my brand new bow saw I got from the Ropers for my birthday so I guess it wasn't all bad that we sawed the tree down. Although it just doesn't have the same impact as actually chopping down the tree and cleaning up the cut with the bow saw.

This was also Zach's first Christmas tree chopping excursion. Last year he was just to little to be out in that much snow, plus we are pretty sure no one would have survived the car ride. As you can see this year Zach was prepared for the snow in some new winter clothes. He hitched a ride with Em while we were hunting for a tree. The Ropers have been known to wander for hours looking for the perfect tree but in the last year or so I've been planting little bits of Smith practicality, like let's hike uphill so we can drag the tree downhill! Of course this year we ended up dragging the tree uphill to the car.

Zach was a little timid at first. But he got the idea after Ray did a few snow angles. He didn't mind being in the backpack while we tromped through the deep snow. Em, Barb and I all had snow shoes on, they weren't essential but if you've got 'em you might as well use them!

After we had bagged our tree we let Zach play in the snow on the road where walking is a bit easier. He loves to wander off on his own and explore new things.

Zach just being cute and Em always has the camera at the ready.

No trip is complete with out Zach up on my shoulders, at least until he gets a bit bigger.

Em had to carry Zach, not because I'm soft and out of shape but because I had to drag the tree out. Luckly trees in Colorado are tall and skinny and pentiful, so the forest service doesn't get too mad if you top the tree so long as you scatter the rest of the tree. Barb end up carring our tree out so I could help Ray drag out the Ropers' 18 footer! We carried more than we needed because we left the tape measurer back at the car. (rookie mistake)

Zach loved sliding down the snow burm on the side of the road. We will have to take him out sledding soon. (we also forgot the sled, another rookie mistake)

He still had fun until he didn't want to wear his mittens anymore.

We ended the day with a little High Five practice for a job well done.

Clean Boy

It's about time we updated, don't you think??

Touch Down Video

I've been slow to upload videos because I haven't wanted to take the time to convert them into small enough files to work on the blog. That said here is one of Zach cheering for a touch down. I don't teach Zach as many things as Emily, but I do think it is my job to coach him in some of the manly skills he must learn.

He's so peaceful when he's sleeping

There's something about a sleeping child that is just so sweet. And it is especially sweet when it's your own child. And even sweeter when sleep is so hard to come by (as in our house).

Doesn't he look like such a little boy? Where'd my baby go??

He is a bundle of energy and has been growing like a weed. He cracks us up and is learning so much every day. He seems to be saying a lot these days. Some of his favorite words right now are: hot, Hannah (my parent's cat), cheese, Cheerios, daddy, shoes, and hello ("ha-woh").

The "dominant Smith gene" (as Cal calls it) is coming out in his obsession with climbing onto everything. And sometimes jumping off. You can see he's standing on a chair...
I'm not sure what he was doing, but thought this was pretty funny:

"Touchdown!!" ("ta-dow!")

Apparently he found an old package of wipes. He was having way too much fun to stop him.

Where did these adorable rosy cheeks come from? Must be those Smith genes again.

Privacy Please

Well, we've decided that our family blog is going private.

It is something that I have contemplated off and on for awhile now and I'm finally going to do it. Part of the motivation is that there are quite a few people looking at my photography blog (I can see lots of visits, but very few comments, so I don't know who is looking!), and you can link to this blog from my profile. And since this blog is much more personal (like 10 billion pictures of Zach), we thought we'd limit it to our family and friends. Just to make sure there are no creeps, you know? And we want to protect our friends whose links we have on here, too. I will still probably have some pictures of Zach on the other blog, but in a different context...

Anyways, going private just means you have to sign in to see this. (sorry for the slight inconvenience, but I figure if it's too much trouble to sign in, then you don't really want to see it anyways, right?)

SO, if you want to keep looking, just leave a comment with your email address, or email it to me and I'll add you to the list. (I think I have to send you an email to "invite" you to see it.) We love to share with you- it's not like the blog is for us.

And it can't hurt, right?

Motherhood changes you

If you told me a year ago that I could laugh as I let my son smear avocado all over himself, I would have thought you were crazy. Apparently I've mellowed out a lot. Besides, how can you stop him from being this cute?

I had my camera on the table next to me and just couldn't get over his eyes in these!

"Garbage!"

"What did I do?"

(I really wish you could see this one full sized- his eyes are super sparkly!)

"Yeah, I know I'm pretty funny."

Am I a lucky girl or what???

Have I mentioned that I recently got a new camera????? It is really AMAZING! I have yet to figure out all the bells and whistles, but it is a HUGE step up from what I had. I am LOVING it!! It seems that lately it is never far from me. (sorry, if you already think I post too many pictures, I really will try to control myself!)

On that note, I have started a photo blog.

It is mainly a place for me to track my progress and to learn, but I thought I would share it with all of you too! I have always loved to photograph nature, but am finding myself more interested in portraits (babies, kids, couples, families). So if anyone wants to be a guinea pig and let me practice on them, please let me know!! I don't know much about photographing people, but I will do my best and you can keep any pictures I take... Practice, practice. And of course your feedback is so important to help me learn so please tell me what you like and don't like. It is still a little under construction, but check it out!

http://ersphotos.blogspot.com/

Enjoy!

Happy Halloween!

Pumpkin carving was a little different this year with the boys, but they did a great job.

This year for Halloween Zach was a dragon (thanks Amy & Brett for letting us borrow Owen's old costume!). It was a touch small, but super cute! His little tail waggled as he walked.

(not great pictures- we just snapped some in the church parking lot before the ward party...)

As you can tell, Cal and I are really into Halloween and went all out. ha ha. Hey, at least we dressed up!

Grandma puts the boy to work

Why is it just so fun to play in the leaves? This boy can't get enough of outside.