Finished Product

The "Cagon"

Here are a couple of before and after pictures of our dragon. John was able to finish up the details Saturday night and Sunday morning. I have to say, that I'm pretty impressed with how it turned out.

The Biggest Snowman I've Ever Built!

Ok, so not really a snowman, but still in all my years of building forts in the snow, nothing came close to building this dragon. My work sponsors a racecar driver and he decided he wanted to enter the snow sculpture contest in McCall. The sculpture would promote a quit smoking message and promote ProjectFilter.org (my program). The theme for this years contest was fantasy land. So we decided to have a dragon holding a sign that said "my last puff" and have our website on it. So me, John (driver), and 4 of my co-workers headed to McCall on Friday morning to start building this dragon. Oh, I should probably mention that non of us had EVER done anything like this before! We didn't have a clue where to start or how we would possibly pull this off. Luckily for us, Josh has carved an ice sculpture before in Alaska and actually won 3rd place. So he met us in McCall Friday night to help us with the carving on Saturday. But our job was to put a shape to the dragon so that he could start carving details.

I really should have taken a picture of what the "dragon" looked like at the end of the first day. We had people laughing at us as they drove by because I'm sure they couldn't figure out why we were making a sculpture of a cat/dog with stubby legs and a huge tail! I'm not kidding, this thing looked like a mix between a cat and a Boston terrier with the body of a lizard. All Josh could say that night was, we have some work to do tomorrow!

So Josh and I spent some time looking at dragons online (because we forgot our picture at the office). By morning we knew what we needed to do to make the "Cagon" look like a dragon. So we all started carving away. This was the result by 2:00 Saturday afternoon. It still needs some fine tuning, but it was getting too warm to continue to work on it. So John was going to go back in the evening and do some more. He and a couple of c0-workers will be in McCall next weekend before the judging to make sure it still looks like a dragon. I just hope that it doesn't snow a lot or get to warm before they judge. I would hate all the hard work to be for nothing. All in all, it was fun and we learn a lot about what we should do and shouldn't do for next year. Plus we got a lot of tips from the local people. By Saturday afternoon we were getting "thumbs up" from passers-by.

A New Year

While 2008 was a good year for us, I'm glad to be moving on to a new year. A whole new set of positives, negatives and everything in between. I'm ready for new challenges. Hopefully we can get through a whole year without having to change daycares! That would be a major accomplishment!

Baylee had grown up so much. I can't believe she is 5 and will be starting Kindergarten next fall. She is loving her new school (daycare) and is thriving! She is a little social butterfly. She has more friends that I can count and keep up with. She is telling me of somebody new almost everyday. She has been so helpful lately. The other day she was in her room for quite a long time. She came down and told me she needed help with something in her room. When I got up there her room was spotless! She had cleaned it without even being asked. And let me tell you, it was a disaster earlier that day! She had even made the bed and arranged all the books in her bookcase. She is quite the girl and she never ceases to amaze me. My little supermodel!

Tenlee is two. And with that came the "terrible two's". Baylee never really went through this stage so it's been new to Josh and I, but we'll get through it. She is one of the funniest little girls I have ever known. She is so hot and cold with her attitude, temper, etc. You never know what you are going to get with her. But she definitely keeps us laughing. She is quite the little singer and dancer. She loves school and nursery. She is so different from Baylee, but just as cute and fun. I wouldn't trade her for anything in the world! Tenlee had her tear duct surgery the end of December. It went perfectly and we no longer have to clean up her eye every morning. And better yet, I don't get calls from the daycare once per week saying she has pink eye! (even though I had told everybody there several times that wasn't the problem.)

Josh continues to love his job with Northwest Data Technology. I'm still trying to get used to the travel involved, but it's been ok. Now that Sierra lives in the Seattle area, he doesn't mind going up there for work as much. And now we have more reason to go with him.

I'm still working for the Tobacco Prevention program. I love it, but am hoping that one day I will be able to just work part time. Hopefully they will allow me to do that sometime in the near future. We've had a busy year with a lot of exciting projects. I love the people I work with. They are more than co-workers, they are friends.

Now that the holidays are over, I'm ready for the new year. I'm excited to watch the girls grow and learn. I'm looking forward to holding a new little (great) niece or nephew this summer. I'm hopeful that my family will be whole again. I'm ready for the good and the bad.

Where did the year go?

Here are just a few pictures that my friend Erika did for us. Tenlee and Baylee didn't cooperate very well so most of the pictures one or both are either not looking at the camera, making a face at the camera, crying, fighting, pushing...the list goes one. But we did get a few good ones. Thanks Erika!

We also took family pictures with Josh's whole family over Thanksgiving weekend, but they are on my other computer, so I will post those later.

Life has been crazy at the Smart house. I've spent the last few weeks writing a HUGE grant for work. But it's done and has been approved by everybody and their dog before we send it off to CDC. I'm so glad that is done! Tenlee and I have both been sick. Josh was gone for a week in Seattle for work, but I was able to join him for one night to go to his work Christmas party. It was great to finally meet the people Josh works with. I wish I could have stayed a little longer in Seattle, but unfortunately I had to get back to work to write that stupid grant! Oh well, maybe next year. Thanks Sierra and Dave for letting us crash at your house! And for leave a car for me at the airport! Love you guys!

One other bit of news that I received is that Tenlee will have to have a minor surgery at the end of the month. Most of you know that she has a clogged tear duct that has caused some problems since birth. 5% of kids are born with this. 90% of the time the tear duct will open on its own before the baby turns 1. Tenlee is part of the lucky 10% that will have to have surgery to open it. The procedure itself will only take minutes, but they have to put her under general anesthesia with terrifies me! They will insert a plastic stint in the tear duct to open it. It will have to stay in her eye for 3 months! In the end, I just hope it works and we won't have to deal with goopy eyes anymore.

We are almost ready for Christmas and can't wait to see all of our family and friends. And I'm really looking forward to a little snow around here that has been promised this weekend, but I have yet to see it.

Thankful on Thanksgiving

Wow, what a week! This has been such a rough and stressful week, but I have to say that it was so worth it! Every single member of my family was together for Thanksgiving at my house this year. And can't even begin to tell you how grateful I am for that. How grateful I am to Josh for making it happen. I am married to the most wonderful and thoughtful man. I'm so thankful to have him in my life.

We really did have a good day. I think that everybody had a good day. It was like it was years ago when we all had fun and laughed. I hope this is just the beginning of more good memories. I love my family (and Josh's family) so much and I'm grateful for each and every one of them.

I hope this is just the beginning of a wonderful holiday season!

6 Quirks About Me

Lindsey tagged me to reveal 6 quirks about me. Actually I could have probably copied and pasted what Lindsey put as her quirks! Scary how much alike we are!

1. I eat the chocolate off the outside of Kit Kats and Peanut Butter Cups and then eat the rest.

2. I HATE raspberries and anything raspberry flavored! Except for the Hostess powdered raspberry donuts. (I'm pretty sure Lindsey is with me on this one!)

3. When eating M&M's or Skittles I dump out the whole bag and then separate by color. Pretty normal right? Wait, that's just the beginning! All color groups must have the same number of candies so if they don't I take out how ever many I need to to make each group the same. I eat the leftover candies first. Then I take one from each color group and eat those. I do this until they are gone.

4. Belly buttons disgust me! Don't talk about them, don't touch them in front of me. When Tenlee's belly button didn't heal right, they had to use silver nitrate to seal it up. It literally made me sick to my stomach to watch. The Dr. told me not to worry because it wasn't hurting the baby. I had to explain to him that it had nothing to do with Tenlee!

5. Food on my plate can't touch (except for meat, potatoes and gravy). It looks like I'm eating a ton of food at Thanksgiving every year because I have to do so many separate trips so my salads don't touch anything else! Oh, and I eat all of one thing before I move onto another item.

6. All dirty dishes have to be put in the left side of the sink. It drives me nuts when they are in the right side. And I'm the only person allowed to put dishes in my dishwasher. Nobody else does it right.

I tag Erika, Missy, Sierra and Teresa.

Baylee's Party in Neverland

For Baylee's 5th birthday we decided it was time to let her have a party with all her little friends. Well most of you know that Baylee is a social butterfly so the list of party guests kept getting longer and longer. She's 5, how many really good friends could this girl have right? Way more than you think! The list ended up with 14 of her really good friends. Wow! What's it going to be like when she is in school? Originally I was going to have the party at Pump It Up so that I didn't have to do it at my house, but for some reason the Boise location is "not operational at this time". WHAT?!? Baylee has been talking about having a "bouncy party" for almost a year and now it's not open! I tried to come up with other places, but nothing was working out. So I had to give in and do it at the house.

Since there were just as many boys as girls invited to this party we needed to do something other than a princess theme. So we chose Neverland and had the kids dress up as their favorite character from Peter Pan (or any other character they wanted). The kids played games, decorated treasure chests and just had a great time. It really turned out great and Baylee told me later that she just loved her party. Whew, she is happy! Yea me! I have to thank my wonderful niece Lindsey for helping me out! Thank you, thank you, thank you! It was chaotic, but worth it to see Baylee and all the kids have such a great time.

Happy Birthday Baylee! We love you!

Halloween

I know this is a bit late, but here are a few pictures of the girls in the halloween costumes. Baylee was the Little Mermaid and Tenlee was 50's Barbie. As always they ended up with way too much candy that Josh and I end up eating most of. Ugh, I'm so tired of candy!

What a day!

I seriously had one of those days that I just couldn't wait for it to come to an end. I'm exhausted! It started with Tenlee not feeling very well so she woke up at 4:00am. I got her back to sleep, but she woke up again at 5:30. Josh's turn. Well Baylee decided to get up too. So we turned on cartoons for them and went back to bed for awhile. But it didn't last long as today was Baylee's birthday party. Her first real party with all her friends. Just trying to find a time and place to have the party was exhausting but that's another story all together! So I started getting everything ready for the party at 10:30. Since I was having a hard time finding a place to have the party I decided to suck it up and do it at my house! 10 kids ranging from 2 years to 7 years old! What was I thinking!?! There is a reason that I only have 2 kids and never wanted to teach school and I was reminded of that today! No, it really wasn't that bad. The kids had a great time and I (and my house) did survive. I'll post pictures tomorrow. So after the party we had another party (kind of). We had a few family members over for pizza and to watch the BSU game. Game ends, time to take Baylee to Primary Program practice. Then off to the craft fair with Crystal for a few minutes (really wasn't worth going to). Back to the church to pick up Baylee. Come home and started to clean up after 2 parties, but then decided to go to dinner with Ryan's family and Lindsey's family. Spent an hour in Cabela's with 5 tired kids. Home by 8:00. Kids in bed by 8:30. Whew, I'm tired all over again just writing it all out! Oh did I mention that I'm sick? Yeah, I feel like somebody is stepping on my chest and making sure I don't get any air in my lungs at all! So you would think I would just go to bed after all this right? No here I sit reliving it by writing this blog as I watch Josh sleeping peacefully on the couch. Must have been a rough day for him, poor guy!

It's the Great Pumpkin!

Ok, so they aren't so Great, but the girls liked them and they were pretty much the best we could find! We went to Linder Farms Pumpkin Patch tonight and it was pretty picked over. Not much left. But it was still fun for the girls. Tenlee didn't want to let anybody else carry her pumpkin. We met Crystal, David and the girls and Grammy there so it was a good time. A little chilly, but not terrible. But by the end of the night I was ready to come home to a blanket!