Well, the time has come! Our little baby girl is going to be gone alllllll day now! She will officially be with her friends and teacher more than with us! YIKES!! But, if this smile is any indication, I think she's ready!
For those of you that have been around the blog for a while, will notice Oliver's marked improvement in his smiling skills! Thank goodness!
The other thing the Smith fam has been spending time doing, is re-doing the backyard. Unfortunately, we are terrible at taking before and after pictures. So here's the best that I've got.
See, we have this rock all the way around our backyard. I guess its good so that you don't have to weed-eat right up against the fence or something... but we're not fans of all of this rock. It makes our already tiny backyard have even less useable space. And, the neverending battle of trying to keep grass and weeds out of the rock... argh! So, we decided to move it all. All of the parts that do have rock, were running low on rock. The plan is to move all of the rock from around the backyard to the side of the house- then grow grass where the rock used to be. We'll see. Here is all of the ugly rock and grass in the rocks.
Here is our first new addition! This corner is right outside the kitchen sink window and was all jacked up from the roots of the trees from the house behind us. So we decided to just go with what was already happening, and turn it into a cute little flower bed. The dirt part on the right is totally done and ready for grass! The left, not so much.
This is where we are putting all of the rock. This area was sooooo overgrown with weeds, grass, and weird plants. We wanted to simplify this area and make it almost completely no maintenence. We took out all of the plants- moved some of them and just got rid of some of them. Took out planters, re-weed barriered it, and have been putting all of the rock there. Ahhh, much better. There may be a skinny little shed over here at some point- which would make winter garage parking soooo much easier! Only one more strip to go!!
And here's a video of Oliver... just because. He's got such a good giggle! Avery's at gymnastics camp this week- just for fun and to get her ready for all day school! Camp goes from 9-5! She's never done anything that long before! Wonder how grumpy she'll be tonight??!!
"HA, HA!!!" funny boy.
Oh Oliver. The other day I told Jeff that if we could just make a tv channel of Oliver playing, there would be a lot less depression in the world. He's just sooo stinkin' funny! This post is going to be overly gushing about the 2-year-old... I've given you fair warning.
So these pics are pretty terrible- they're all blurry and dark. But, again... the cuteness- it shines through the bluriness!!
So, Oliver really wanted to help make dinner. He was the best little asparagus cutter ever! He kept saying with every fiber of his little body, "I'm sooo good. I'm really good at cutting. Then they go in the line. I'm sooooooooo goood!!!" The passion with which he praises himself is impressive!
Then, there's the game Memory. Soooooo joyful!!! He just loves it, never gets tired of it, and is sooo happy when he gets a match!!!!!
These are just some bonus shots for those of you not on facebook. I had recently posted about hitting the 50 lb mark of weight loss!!! Everyone wanted to see pics, so here is Jeff (at 40 lbs lost) and I on our 10th anniversary!!!
Wow, April 24, huh?? That was the last time I blogged? Yikes. Well, I'm going to attempt to catch you all up on what's been happening in the last 2 months.
We potty-trained Oliver! Phew! What a relief! He still wears diapers for snoozin', but he is a total pro otherwise! He got lots of treats, toys, stickers, and tattoos during the whole process. I was trying to get a pic of him with his favorite Superman, but this is what I got instead. The kids trying to pretend to be mad.
Up next, the end of Avery's first year of elementary school! Yay! She graduated kindergarten with flying colors and is totally ready for first grade! We find out her teacher this week- I hope its a good one! 
(oh yeah- and Jeff and I are kickin' some serious butt on our formerly chubby selves! Since the end of January he's lost about 40 lbs. and I'm only 2 lbs away from 50!!!! I think Jeff looks super skinny in this family shot!!)
After school ended- or really- the day school ended, Avery had her 1st baseball game of the summer. I'm the coach of the Black Bats and we are doing totally awesome! (sort of) Our defense has come really far and we're making some good progress in all areas!
Then the day after our 1st game, we took off on a road trip for Oklahoma to visit the Bouse House and meet our new nephew, Graham! Grandpa and Grandma Smith were there too, so it was fun to hang with the grandparents!
Our last two visits to the house of Bouse have involved Oliver playing with Jack's SuperWhy! toys! About 1.8 seconds after entering their house, he finds these and monopolizes them the entire visit! He really turns into quite the super hero- I think its the cape.
Well, Grandpa and Grandma thought this was pretty great and got him his own set of the toys!
He then wore his mask and cape ev.er.y.where.!!! Even to Old Navy where he was endlessly mocked by a 3-year-old girl. 
Ok, what else... Avery did a sports camp at a local church. She did the cheerleading track with her buddy. She is the one in pink shorts and a white hat. Sort of behind the coach. This is her final show at the end of camp.
So we're pretty current now. It is officially summer and we've hit the 90's here in Parker, so we broke out the sweet pool! The kids have been swimming like crazy!
So we've gone through a bit of a blogging lull lately... I don't know why, there just hasn't been a whole lot going on around here. We're just doing life, finishing up the school year... ya know. But, we're back and hopefully I'll be much more faithful about documenting life around here!
We celebrated Easter today! Went to church, Avery got to sing on stage with her class and the band- she was pretty excited! She practiced ALOT!!!!!! Then we went to our friend's house and had brunch and an egg hunt. So here are the smith kids enjoying the day.
Oliver doesn't remember holidays from year to year yet, so this was his "first" easter egg hunt (in his little mind!!). He talked about it for days and he was pretty excited! So the pics are a little Oliver-heavy! Plus, I don't like putting pics of other people's kids on the blog, so that severely limits pics at events like these!
Here's Avery singing... she's wearing purple!
About a month ago, Avery started horseback riding lessons! She has learned a ton through the Saddle Club she was attending, and the trainer thought she was ready for lessons. She's got a long way to go, but there is really something special about watching your kid do something that she loves!
The other day I was late to pick her up. The trainer let her watch the next lesson and had Avery "counting strides" between jumps, I think? And even that, Avery just loved it! She said she wanted to stay all day and help with lessons and around the barn!
So this is some video of Avery at her very first lesson!
Evidently I've become a once per month blogger. Hmmm...
Well, I'll be getting y'all caught up over the next few days- or week- hopefully. To get ya started, here are some videos of the kids reading!! Avery is doing so awesome with her reading!! Her homework words this week were: found, turn, answer, letter, and animal. What??? Those seem like such big words!!! Love it that she's doing so great! Avery had only read this book a couple of times... and listen to how great she does!!! Oliver was killing me with finishing her sentences! He was right most of the time too!
Then Oliver had to have his turn too!!!
For those of you that have been around the blog for a while, will notice Oliver's marked improvement in his smiling skills! Thank goodness!
By her new door!
At her very own desk!
Seriously, where did this little girl go? Isn't she still 3 years old and going to her first day of preschool? I don't understand what's happening.
Here is our first new addition! This corner is right outside the kitchen sink window and was all jacked up from the roots of the trees from the house behind us. So we decided to just go with what was already happening, and turn it into a cute little flower bed. The dirt part on the right is totally done and ready for grass! The left, not so much.
This is where we are putting all of the rock. This area was sooooo overgrown with weeds, grass, and weird plants. We wanted to simplify this area and make it almost completely no maintenence. We took out all of the plants- moved some of them and just got rid of some of them. Took out planters, re-weed barriered it, and have been putting all of the rock there. Ahhh, much better. There may be a skinny little shed over here at some point- which would make winter garage parking soooo much easier! Only one more strip to go!!
These are just some bonus shots for those of you not on facebook. I had recently posted about hitting the 50 lb mark of weight loss!!! Everyone wanted to see pics, so here is Jeff (at 40 lbs lost) and I on our 10th anniversary!!!
