The Smobe Scoop

A New Student

2011-08-19T19:05:00.000-07:00

It's official. We now have two students in our house. Tori has started kindergarten. She has asked a million times when she would get to go to school. After much waiting and anticipating, her big day came. I must say that she is the cutest little kindergartner ever. She rides the bus since I work on Fridays and I want to stay consistent so she won't get lost or miss her bus. The first day she went to school Sofia and Adrienne came out to the bus stop with Tori and me. While we were waiting for the bus, Tori leaned down to her sisters and said, "Girls, will you draw some pictures for me while I am gone. I would really like that." She is always looking out for her sisters and wanted to make sure that they would be okay while she was gone. They assured her that they would. When the bus came around the corner, Tori started shouting, "The bus! The bus!" I am pretty sure she was the most excited kid at the stop. After she got on the bus she sat by the window and waved with a big smile on her face. I waved back, fighting back tears. I felt like I was just sending my baby off into the world, by herself. When she got home, I was happy to hear her say my name excitedly while she was getting off the bus. How did she get so big? I am pretty sure I will be thinking this phrase repeatedly over the years to come.

Sofia and Adrienne are getting very excited to start preschool. They want to be just like Tori. They got bikes for their birthday this year and love that they can go riding with Tori on their own big girl bikes. They have gotten pretty good at riding them.

Olivia will turn 2 next week. She is one funny girl. She is always laughing and goofing off with her sisters. Unfortunately for her, her sisters don't always enjoy her company as much as she enjoys theirs. She LOVES Reed. She lets me know whenever she hears him cry. She says, "Reed, crying." She is one of his biggest fans. If he survives her, he will be one strong boy.

Reed is getting big, fast. He is 4 1/2 months old and as cute as can be. He is ticklish and likes to coo and "talk" to me. He is a sweet little cuddler and is my best sleeper yet. Now that I have 5, don't I deserve to have one that sleeps at night? We are really enjoying having a little blue at our house.

Trevor is busy with his 4th year. He has been on graveyard shifts lately, which means that I see him for 1 1/2 hours a day and do pretty much everything by myself. It has given me a little sneak peak into residency and I don't think that I like it. I guess I don't have much of a choice. I am sure that I eventually will adjust, but I warned Trevor that there may be some bitter months. At least I warned him. I also promised him that I would try and be nice and supportive. He is wanting to do general surgery, and from what I hear, I guess I will be able to kiss him goodbye for the next five years after he graduates because he will be gone all the time. Should be fun. He is excited though, so that makes me happy.

I am still working my Fridays and Saturdays and picking up extra shifts here and there. I love the group of dentists I work with. We all work together really well. Life at home is as busy as ever and is about to get busier when the twins start preschool. Even though life can get a little crazy, I really love my life and wouldn't change it for the world. I have a wonderful husband and kids that always put a smile on my face. Who could ask for more?

He is here, he is here, he is here!!!

2011-04-06T20:27:00.001-07:00

Announcing the birth of Reed Lawrence Smith, on April 6, 2011 at 4:12 pm, weighing 8 lbs 9 oz and measuring 20.75 inches long. Elise was a trooper and did not even require the services of an epidural or other pain medications. We arrived at St. Mary's Medical Center at 8 am for a labor induction. Both Elise and Reed are doing great! Below are a few pictures of our new addition.

Catch-up (do I post anything else?)

2011-02-08T19:29:00.000-08:00

I don't have anything too special to blog about, but since it has been so long I will give a short update on our little family.
Trevor is finishing up his family medicine rotation this Friday. I think he has enjoyed this rotation, but does not care to go into this field of medicine. The hours have been dynamite!! The clinic's hours are 8-4 and he is almost always home around 5. He has also had about 4 snow days this block. It has been a nice six weeks. His next rotation in OB/GYN. He will be on this rotation right before I have our baby, so hopefully he can butter up the nurses so that we can get some special treatment.

Tori is getting too big. She will be 5 on the 13th. She can be such a big helper when she wants to be. She has been learning how to read and is doing pretty well. She loves preschool and loves anything and everything princess. She is also taking a ballet/tap dance class. She does pretty well. She is a coordinated little girl. She is very sweet and loves to cuddle sometimes. She is always full of sweet compliments, which can be desperately needed by her ever growing pregnant mom.

Sofia recently has become a bit of a fireball. She can be so sweet, but she has also developed a very independent, sometimes not so pretty side. On the bright side, it looks like we finally are going to have her potty trained. I think she finally got jealous enough of Tori and Adrienne's panties. Hooray for sibling rivalry!! Sofia is also Tori's shadow. She wants to do everything that Tori does and they are great buddies.

Adrienne is my sweet girl who often marches to the beat of a different drummer. She loves to cuddle and always has since she was a baby. I will never get tired of this I am sure. She is very stubborn and will do what she wants, when she wants. When it comes time to clean up, if she doesn't want to help, no amount of bribing will do. She reminds me of my brother Kyle. She is usually very happy and even tempered, but has little desire to help clean and she is fine to sit in timeout while the others do the work. (Kyle used to pay me to do his chores when he didn't want to do them).

Olivia has almost reached that magical age where she can now go to nursery. It will be the first time since the twins were born (almost 3 years ago) that I will not have a baby with me through all of church (but only for 2 months). She tries so hard to do everything her sisters do. She loves to laugh and loves Adrienne more than any other person (other than mom). She has started saying a lot more words and does some pretty darn cute animal noises. My favorite is her pig noise. She does a great snort!

Lastly, an update on me. I am 32 weeks pregnant and am feeling big and uncomfortable. We are having our first boy and are very excited. His name will be Reed Lawrence Smith. He has become very active lately and is starting to move under my ribs. I must say that I am getting excited for this little one to come in a couple of months. I am also still working part-time at Dental Care for Kids. I love the other dentists that I work with. I don't have any problems getting days off when I need them and they are just nice people. My Saturdays have gone from slow to crazy busy now that we see walk-ins. Saturday hours are 10-4 with no lunch. Last Saturday I saw 24 patients by myself! It sometimes flies by, but not having a break in the middle makes it seem like the day is much longer than it is. At least I don't have to be gone as long from my family.

Overall, I must say that we are doing GREAT!! I love our little family and couldn't be happier doing anything else.

We are here, we are here, we are here!!!

2010-09-29T18:41:00.001-07:00

Wonder of wonder, miracles of miracles, I am updating my blog. Obviously lots has happened since my last entry. I had my birthday on April 11. Trevor was great!! He let me take a nap and made me dinner. Obviously this meant a lot to me since I remember it even now. The twins also celebrated their birthday. They are now 2 years old. I think their birthday was as fun for Tori as it was for them, since she understands the birthday thing a little better. She had them practicing blowing out their candles for weeks, so they did very well when it came to the big moment. I decided to make them each their own cakes, using half the cake mix for each. I think they had a good day, even though we didn't do anything too special for it.

Tori also graduated from preschool, for the first time. She is in the same preschool this year, but they have a graduation every year for all the kids enrolled. It seemed a little funny going to her graduation, knowing that she would be going there again this year. She and her friend Paige have a good time there and were very cute at their graduation.

We also went to Utah in June. Unfortunately, we forgot our camera. Hopefully one day, those in Utah with cameras who took pictures of us will give us some copies. One funny story that happened in Utah involved Tori and her first camping trip. One night while in Morgan Trevor and Tori camped over at The Reservoir with my brothers and their kids. Trevor got out a flashlight for Tori to use that night. Tori loved holding the flashlight and Trevor taught her how to use the flashlight so that it would actually serve a useful purpose. Tori slept well that night, and woke up early the next morning. The very first words she spoke that morning were, "Dad, where's my flashlight?" Not "Hi Dad" or anything else. Trevor then explained that they didn't need it now because they had the sun. I think she was a little sad that her flashlight time had come to an end.

Shortly after we came back to St. Louis we were lucky enough to have Mandi (Trevor's sister) and her family move 1 1/2 hours away. They have only been hear since August, but we have already done a fair amount together. Our kids have loved having cousins live closer, and we have enjoying having family nearby too. We now have people to temple swap with and it is wonderful!! Yeah for family!!

Since we now have family close by, we were able to have the first family birthday party that actually included two families. Olivia turned 1 on Aug. 23. I can't believe how fast this year has gone by. I did an Olivia the Pig themed party, and I must say that I think it turned out pretty darn cute. I bought my Tori, Sofia and Adrienne shirts that say "I love Olivia". And I bought Olivia a shirt that says "I'm a Star". I spent more than I wanted, but it was adorable. She only turns 1 once, right?

This September we did our annual 5k that we do as a family. We do it for fun than for anything else, but it does have its health benefits as well. This year we decided to go all out and make Team Smith apparel. We were going to have headbands embroidered, but when I called to see how much it would be, I was told $7 a headband. Our fun was not worth that much. So, we decided to wear plain white headbands and make our own shirts. I got the shirts and the markers, and Trevor did all the designing. We may not be remembered for how fast we ran it, but we will definitely be remembered for our style.

Recently we took the girls to see Disney Princesses on Ice. They were very excited to go, almost as excited as I was to take them. We got them new princess dresses, since the ones that we have look so awful that people would think that Trevor and I decided to take some homeless kids to the show. Everyone had a great time. Even
Olivia was pretty interested. Our girls have played princesses on ice several times since then so we know it was a big hit.

Lastly, if you are still reading this incredibly long post, we have decided that it is time for our family to grow. We are expecting our 5th on April 4. It's crazy to think that I will soon have as many kids as my mom had. Our girls are quite excited. Tori would like a brother. Adrienne wants a boy baby most of the time, and Sofia always says that we are going to have a girl baby. We'll see.

What a Month!

2010-03-11T12:09:00.000-08:00

As always, I am a little slow at updating my blog. A few things in particular have happened that I feel are blog worthy. The first big thing is that Tori turned 4!! I can't believe how the time has flown by. We asked Tori what she wanted for her birthday dinner and she said, "Ravioli." I asked many times if that was what she wanted because it is not one of my favorites. In fact, I am surprised she asked for it because we have eaten ravioli once in the last couple of years. Since it was her birthday we decided we would honor her wishes. At least all the kids ate it pretty well. Tori was excited this year because I made a heart cake for her and put Belle on top. We invited her friend Paige over along with her family for cake and ice cream. She was also thrilled with her presents. Some of her presents included: Barbie and the Three Musketeers Movie and Barbie, a princess floor puzzle, books, and an instructional ballet movie. She is a very loved little girl and I am so thankful for all the sweet things she does. Just a few funny things Tori has said recently or does that make me laugh:

1. When Olivia was getting her breathing treatments using a nebulizer she would say, "Look mom. She's breathing!"

2. She often talks with a twang to her speech. For example, when she says dad, the "a" makes two different sounds that are both pronounced.

3. When we were in Kohls the other day, she was holding my hand and looking around saying, "Where is my mother?" I told her, "You silly. I am your mother." She told me that we could pretend that I was the sister and she continued to look for a manikin that she could pretend was her mother. I think she does these things sometimes just to embarrass me. Needless to say, we got lots of funny looks. Apparently she also hugged a manikin in St. Louis Cardinals apparel and told Trevor that that was her dad and that he was the brother. What a silly girl!

Another blog worthy event (in my mind) is that we got a new bed and upgraded to a king sized one. It is wonderful! It was definitely a worth while investment.

Lastly, Trevor and I got to spend some quality time with Olivia in the hospital. On Sunday she was having some problems breathing and had a fever so we took her to an urgent care center. They took a couple of chest x-rays and diagnosed her with pneumonia, gave her a prescription, and sent her home. The next day I had a follow up with a family practitioner. She felt that Olivia sounded very tight and prescribed a steroid to help her loosen up so she could breath better. On Tuesday evening Olivia was still sounding really bad and she was working really hard to breath. While I was at work Trevor researched and found out that babies with pneumonia typically should be doing much better after 48 hours on an antibiotic. We decided it was time to take her to the ER. Luckily a wonderful neighbor came over to house sit while our other kid slept. When we arrived at the ER we were thrilled to see the waiting room packed. We were ready for a long night. Luckily, (I guess) babies with breathing problems get high priority so we were in like a dirty shirt. After a few more chest x-rays and some more tests, it came back that Olivia had RSV. Her O2 levels were a little low so they put her on some oxygen and checked us into a room for the night. They decided to keep her on the antibiotic because the x-ray looked like she possibly had a bacterial infection as well. Luckily, on Wed. morning they were able to take her off the oxygen and she did all right. Trevor brought the kids to come and visit us and to bring me stuff for the night since the attending physician said she wanted to watch her for another night. Shortly after Trevor arrived the resident came by and told us that he thought Olivia was doing well enough to go home and he was going to talk with the attending physician to see if she was okay with that. He came back to tell us that we were going home! YEAH!! We went home at 5:00, just in time for a neighbor to bring dinner over for us. Olivia is sounding and looking much better today. I hope that was our first and last trip to that emergency room.
Our sick little patient. Everybody fell in love with her smile.
The girls ready to go and see Olivia at the hospital. They are wearing hats so that they would look cute without Trevor having to do their hair. He brought their hair stuff to the hospital for me to do it. I think they look adorable with their hats.
The girls staying entertained at the hospital. They are getting on the bottom part of Olivia's bed.

Now just a few cute random pictures of my girls that I wanted to share.
Adrienne in Tori's ballet outfit.

Sofia with two binkies. She is the binky queen. Sometimes she will walk around with 4-5 binkies in her hand. If she drops one, she is not happy until she has it back. It is going to be a sad day soon when we take them all away.

All the girls watching Super Why. It is their new favorite thing.

Olivia sporting Tori's sunglasses

The girls on a playgroup trip to Krispy Kreme

Tori and Trevor doing yoga

Catch Up

2010-01-24T18:24:00.000-08:00

I am always surprised at how fast time flies. A lot has happened since Halloween. I am obviously not the most consistent blogger. Since so much time has passed, and I don't remember half of what has happened in the past, I am going to give a brief synopsis of what has happened over the past months and post some pictures.

First big event was Thanksgiving. We went to Colorado to spend time with our Smith family. I was worried about the drive with 4 little ones, but I must say it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I think it helped that I had imagined this to be the worst drive ever. We had lots of fun hanging out with family. Tori had a great time playing with Brooke and the twins loved having a few more kids around to run wild with. Olivia got to meet everyone there for the first time. Unfortunately, the time always goes by too quickly. It was really nice to see everyone.

The next big event was Christmas. This was the second Christmas that we celebrated outside of Utah. This year was much better than last, because we had quite a lot of family come out to celebrate with us. My mom, Kyle, Addy, and Michael came and stayed with us for 5 days and left on Christmas day. Since they had to leave on Christmas day we celebrated Christmas eve on the 23rd and Christmas day on the 24th. I am a believer that the holidays are much more fun with family and the more the merrier. This year I had the fun of surprising Trevor with a Vizio 42" 1080P LCD flat screen TV. He was shocked! Kyle and Trevor had lots of fun getting it up and ready to use. As Trevor said, what's Christmas without a project. It was so fun to see Addy and Michael. Tori loved playing with Addy and was quite sad when they left. I can't believe how big those cute kids are getting. It will be fun to see them again this summer. This year we again went to a Catholic Shrine for the "Way of Lights" and rode camels. We took all of our visitors there, which made a total of 3 trips for us. I think everyone enjoyed it. This has become our St. Louis Christmas tradition.

Two days after Christmas we blessed Olivia. We had a small circle with Trevor, Dad Smith, and my brother Trevor. Mom and Dad Smith came out on Christmas night and Trevor and Erin came out on the 26th. It was a little crazy having so many people in our house, but the chaos was welcome. The kids had a good time together. I loved the company, so if anyone is wanting to see what St. Louis has to offer we would be thrilled for the visit.

We were once again blessed to have Kyle out to visit us. He did a presentation for the med school on the economics of physician practice. His presentation was a hit, and we enjoyed having him here for a visit. We didn't do much, but that was nice too. Now we are counting down the time to go visit our friends Paula and Steve in Alabama for spring break and then going to Utah this summer. In the meantime, we are enjoying our busy lives here.

Sorry the pictures are in random order at the beginning because they showed up on my computer funny and I was not able to move them around. I love technology! Always and Forever!

Halloween fun for everyone!

2009-11-01T17:42:00.000-08:00

Last night we had the joy of taking all 4 of our girls trick-or-treating. I know that Olivia didn't get anything out of it, but since we bought a costume for her that went with our theme we had to take her out and show her off so that I could feel that we got our money's worth. I must say that they all looked really cute. We decided to take them just around the townhouses where we live, which didn't end up being many houses because the only people with their lights on were the mormon students. I think the best part for the kids is that they got to run around outside. By the time we got home, Sofia had dumped all of her candy out. The only thing she had was a sucker that someone placed in her hand. Since Sofia had started eating her sucker, wrapper and all, we decided to let her finish it and gave Adrienne a sucker too. Tori did not get to eat any candy that night because she was a pill and did not eat her dinner. Even without having any candy that night, I think Tori had a great time. It is fun to have kids young enough that you can dress them how you want without worrying too much about their opinions. Hope you all had a great Halloween too!!Cutest cat ever!

Thing 1 and Thing 2 after a fun night running amok.

Waiting to say trick-or-treat
Sofia running and having the time of her life.

Here are the stragglers, trying to catch up with the rest.

The Cat in the Hat, minus the hat. (She got "too hot.")

Here they all come!
Olivia enjoying her night of trick-or-treating. Her costume kept her nice and warm.

Happy little girls (and Daddy)! Need I say more?

Where did the time go?

2009-10-28T19:32:00.000-07:00

I can't believe how fast time goes by. Olivia is already two months old and the twins are 18 months old. YEAH! Life at our house has been interesting lately. My brother, Kyle, came out for a quick visit this last weekend. He came at the perfect time for us. Kyle arrived Friday night, and Saturday morning Adrienne had a high temp. and we decided to take her to the urgent care center. They did a rapid flu test and it came back positive for H1N1. Trevor needed to get her prescription filled and I had to work. Kyle stayed home with our sleeping girls and took care of Olivia while Trevor went out to get Adrienne's medicine. On Saturday Adrienne was wiped out. I have never seen a little girl be so still. Luckily, the medicine worked rather well. She now seems like she was never sick and is back to pestering Sofia and pulling Sofia and Tori's hair. Kyle had to leave on Sunday night, and unfortunately we didn't have time to do much. It was really nice just to spend time with him and to show Olivia off. My girls love Kyle because he does lots of fun things with them. He even let Tori use Halloween face paints to turn him into a tiger.

I am excited for Halloween to turn our girls into characters from The Cat in the Hat. After Diane sent us Thing 1 and Thing 2 costumes, I decided that Tori needed to be the cat and Olivia needed to be the gold fish. I will post pictures some time after Halloween. I also like to buy my girls Halloween outfits. I don't know why, but I just think they are cute. Now of course, I need to post a bunch of random pictures for grandmas and others. Hope you enjoy them as much as I do.
This is the first picture that I took of only my girls. I didn't want to bore you with many pictures of this, but let's just say that this pose was short lasting.
Our good friends from Omaha stopped to visit us on their way down to Alabama. Tori and Jacob have lots and fun together and it was really fun to spend some time with them. We were also able to see their baby girl. We look forward to seeing them in Alabama sometime.
This is Kyle painted to be a tiger. Tori took a picture with her camera before Trevor took this one. Before Tori took her picture, she told Kyle, "Say roar." Trevor asked Kyle to say the same thing for this picture.
This is a very random picture, but I thought it was too cute. Trevor was practicing for a neurology exam using these tools on the girls, and Adrienne thought that she would try it as well.
Cute girls is their Halloween outfits. I was not able to get a really good picture of all 4.
Tori loves Olivia and can get big smiles from her.

Tori and Olivia sporting their Halloween cosutmes. Olivia looks like she is being swallowed by a fish.
I think that Olivia is my smiliest baby yet. I was thrilled to catch some of her smiles on camera today. Just so that you know, I know that the pink pants don't really go with the outfit. They are the only plain pants I had. If she doesn't wear the Halloween socks it doesn't look so bad.
theek

Adjusting

2009-09-20T19:14:00.000-07:00

Well, Olivia has been home for almost a month and we are still adjusting to life with a new baby. We had a crazy start to life with 4. Shortly after coming home, my 3 oldest became ill with fevers and runny noses. They were all pretty miserable, needy, and clingy. I was very thankful that my mom and grandma were there to help me. Luckily, by the time my mom and grandma left, my kids were feeling much better. I was a little worried at how life was going to go after my help left, but I must say that it is going a little better than I thought it would. I think part of this is because my last adjustment from 1 to 3 was so hard that adding just one more doesn't seem quite so bad. My house is not as clean as it was before Olivia, but it is still livable and I am staying up on all the important things. I have even managed to take all 4 to the doctor's office last Tuesday so that we could get an antibiotic for Adrienne's ear infection. I was very glad that they all behaved quite nicely so the only looks I got were, "How cute" and "They are all so young" but not "That mother can't handle her kids at all. What was she thinking having so many so close." Tori has started preschool and she absolutely loves it!! She is so excited every day to tell me what she learned. I am very grateful for a friend that has taken Tori along with her daughter to preschool. It's nice that I don't have to pack up all my girls to get Tori there at 9 a.m. Life is going as well as can be expected. I am thankful for all of my beautiful girls and for a wonderful husband that lives in this very girly house.

These are a bunch of random pictures from this past month. Sorry there are so many. It's too hard to decide on one or two to represent a month full of so much!

Olivia in her take home outfit at the hospital right before we left.
Tori holding Olivia the day she came home. Tori had just returned from swimming.
Olivia's first bath.
Great Grandma Bohman with Olivia.
Sofia figuring out what this new baby sister is all about.
A zoo trip with Grandma Kobe and Grandma Bohman
Enjoying outdoors at the botanical gardens. The girls loved the water. Olivia loved the nap.
4 generations of girls with their babies.
Adrienne ate(?) a chocolate cookie, or at least ate what she didn't spread all over her face and hair. When Trevor got home I asked him to smell her hair. He noticed that she smelled like chocolate.
A common scene around our house. They all love to dance. Tori loves her dresses, and Sofia loves her shoes. She is pretty good in heels, but not just heels. Heels that are almost twice as long as her feet. Now that is talent!
Olivia's first day at church. She is wearing booties that Grandma Kobe made after a little begging. I must say that they are adorable. Thanks mom!!!
Tori's first day of preschool. This is the best picture I could get and I could only get this one after bribing her with fruit snacks. She doesn't like to have her picture taken.
Tori loves Olivia. Sometimes her love is a little much for Olivia.

Olivia in cute clothes Grandma Smith sent. This little girl is very loved.

23 Aug 2009. . .Finally!

2009-08-24T13:05:00.001-07:00

Well. . . She’s here! Olivia Louise Smith was born on 23 Aug 2009 at 9:57 pm, weighing 7 lbs 8.5 oz, and measuring 21 1/4 inches in length. She came 5 days past her due date, but we are grateful that she is here. Elise and Olivia are both doing well and they are scheduled to arrive home tomorrow morning ~9:30 am. Elise started having strong, intermittent contractions during church around 1 pm. She left church early to meet her Mom and Grandma who drove from Utah on Sat and Sun. Luckily they arrived at 2:30 pm. At 5 pm Elise and I were off to the hospital because her contractions were pretty steady and very uncomfortable. Thanks to everyone for all of your thoughts and prayers in our behalf. We are grateful for our beautiful, healthy new addition.

Peek-a-boo

7 lbs 8.5 oz

Proud Daddy

Proud Mommy

Proud Big Sister

Proud Grandma

All the Girls Together

All Stretched Out

Eyes Wide Open

Tori at the “Hospital”

Waiting

2009-08-01T09:56:00.000-07:00

Success! We went in on Friday for an external cephalic version. We got there at 8:00 and were told that we would start at 9:00. However, since our procedure was an elective one and because there was not urgent need to start, we didn't get started on the actual procedure until 11:00. After getting checked in, and having my IV started, we waited and waited. Finally, my Dr., a resident, 2 med students, my nurse, and a nursing student all came for the procedure. They gave me my drugs and immediately started to turn our baby. The first time they tried the drugs had not started to work yet, and I must say it hurt quite a lot. I kept tensing up the muscles in my stomach and holding my breath, both which did not help the first attempt. The second time they tried to flip her in the other direction. It didn't hurt quite as much, but they barely moved her back to her original breech position. The third time however, was the charm. The drugs had taken their full effect, and things felt much better. Trevor said it looked crazy to see my belly change into all these different positions while they moved her around. We did an ultrasound at the end and she was perfectly situated in my belly. We monitered her for an hour after and she looks great! I am praying she stays so that I can have a v-bac. Thanks for all your prayers on our behalf. Now we are just waiting for this little one to come on out! We'll update you more later.

Baby Update

2009-07-21T14:35:00.000-07:00

Today I had an ultrasound and confirmed what Trevor and I were suspecting: the fact the miss Olivia is breech. Luckily I still have 4 more weeks till my due date. However, we are planning to do an external cephalic version on July 31st in case she hasn't turned by then. This entails my doctor giving me some terbutaline (to relax my uterus) and some fentanyl (to help it feel better) and trying to push on my belly to rotate our baby into a vertex position. We are really hoping that she will turn because I am not wanting all my subsequent deliveries to be c-section. In the meanwhile, I am trying some other methods I have read about that are supposed to motivate her to turn. We'll see how it goes. Wish us luck!!

Remember Us?

2009-07-11T14:22:00.000-07:00

Well, I keep hearing people tell me that occasionally they look at my blog and nothing has been done on it for quite some time. It's not that we haven't had things going on, when don't you have things going on when you have three kids, but I just haven't had the motivation to use my "free" time updating my blog. Since I have last posted the twins turned 1!! It was a fun birthday that we shared with Grandma Smith and Grammy (Trevor's grandma). The girls performed as expected with their cupcakes (unlike Tori who just cried and would not touch it). They were a mess and adorable. I am going to post a bunch of random pictures with this entry because if I were to write about each picture you might end up reading a small novel, and the pictures are too cute not to share, at least I think so.

The next big thing for our family was a trip to Utah. It was a long two day drive, but worth it. We are so lucky to have great friends in Denver who allowed us to stay with them, and even made dinner for us! Thanks Spendloves! In Utah we had lots of fun with family even though we really didn't do that much. It is just nice to talk face to face and play games and such. Unfortunately, Erin (my sister-in-law), broke her leg while we were out. I didn't get to spend as much time with her as I would have liked and this also limited our activities. My other sister-in-law, Katie and I however, got to spend lots of quality time together taking care a many small children. Katie is amazing and made dinner and lunch every day. It was a crazy time, but I am glad that Katie and I got to enjoy(?) it together. I love to see family!! It was just too short.

While I was in Morgan helping run Kobe daycare, Trevor took Tori down to Orem to visit his family for a couple of days until I could join him. Trevor was able to take Tori to the open house for the Oquirrh (sp?) Temple. I wish I could've been there because Tori loves temples. I am sure that they had a great time. Tori had a great time with all her cousins. We were also in town for Cameron's birthday party. He is a cute little guy and it was fun to watch him devour his cake. That little man can really eat!!

Now we are back in St. Louis and have recently moved. We love love love our new place. Carpet is a wonderful thing. I also love my kitchen that is not a hall way. I will post pictures of our place later. We love living close to people. Tori is close to her little friend and they have already gotten together a few times. They are very cute together. We also got Tori a bike and she has lots of parking lot to ride in. She has gotten pretty good and loves to go out any minute she can.

Sorry for the long post and all the pictures. I will try and stay more up to date so that I don't have to write so much next time. I will probably write more as we get closer to the arrival of Olivia. Only 4 more weeks to go!! CRAZY!! I can't believe that we will have four. Fun times!

Four Princesses

2009-03-24T20:12:00.000-07:00

As you might have guessed we had an ultrasound yesterday and we are having a BOY!! Just kidding. Apparently we don't do boys; however, we do have very cute girls. We will be adding Olivia Louise to our family next. We are quite excited to have four beautiful princesses at our house. She looks very healthy and is growing well.

Tori, Sofia, and Adrienne are also growing well. I can't believe how big they are getting. The twins will be a year in less than a month. I never thought I would say this, but the year has flown by. I am posting a lot random pictures that I think are very cute.

Tori is constantly changing outfits. Here are a few that I found entertaining or adorable.

Random pictures of the twins.

Double Trouble. Adrienne is taking the books off the shelf and Sofia is reading them. They had a blast!

Trevor usually has all the girls asleep when I get home from a later night at work. What a proud daddy and what a happy mommy to come home to such a quiet, peaceful home.

Pictures from Trevor's spring break to come relatively soon.

Inactive Status

2009-03-01T11:47:00.000-08:00

Well, I am afraid probably many members of our ward think we are going inactive. Our kids have taken turns getting sick and we have had the privilege of taking turns staying home. Today, we are both home with kids because Tori is sick with a fever and at 5:30 this morning Adrienne vomited all over me. The joy of kids! Everyone seems to be doing a little better now, but we did not want to take the chance of spreading our joy to everyone else. Tori is currently watching Legacy for the second time. The first time she kept asking us to turn it off. After it ended she begged us to watch it again. I think she wanted to watch it again for the angel Moroni and unfortunately also for the fighting. Oh, well. At least it is a church video. One day we are going to have all well children, I hope. Life is going well anyway. We are enjoying the time we have been able to spend together as a family.

Tori Stories

2009-02-20T19:32:00.001-08:00

I am sorry but there are no pictures this post. Tori still amazes me with all she does. She is now back to wanting to say every prayer that needs to be said. Her prayers now tend to crack me up. I often have to try hard not to laugh. The body of her night time prayers go something like this, "Please bless mommy and daddy and Sofia and Adrienne. Please bless Tori. (She then repeats this 2 or 3 times). Please bless our lunch. Tori did not finish her lunch, because she spit. (She often spits out her food when she is done or causes herself to gag so that she can get out of eating. She always reports back on how well she did with dinner. If she ate it all, she will report that she did.) She then goes on and ends her prayer. Trevor and I have huge grins on our faces when she is done. She also is picking up on all the adjectives we use to describe her. Recently when I was on the phone with my mom, she came up to me out of the blue and told me, "Mom, I am a crack up." This is all too true. Lastly, I am very impressed with how well she learns new things. On Wed. night we were doing FHE (because I work Mon and Tues) we started to teach her the sixth article of faith. We sang it a few times last night, and tonight on the way home from dinner we played the song on repeat. When we came inside I sang it once more and Tori then sang it perfectly (not counting the words she doesn't quite understand and mumbles). I don't know how she does it, but I am constantly amazed.

Happy Birthday Tori

2009-02-15T19:17:00.001-08:00

I can't believe that I am the mother of a 3 year old! Time flies. Her birthday was on the 13th, but I am a little slow on this post. She is an amazing girl. She is smart and always keeps me on my toes. The day before her third birthday she learned the fifth article of faith. She knows 1-5 and can sing them perfectly. I love to her the way she pronounces some of the harder words. She knows we are so proud of her. The first time she sang it to me without any help she asked, "Mom, are you happy?" I was ecstatic! She loves to make me happy. I think she had a good birthday even though some of the time I don't think she knew that her birthday really was here. I kept telling her happy birthday and she would say, "Yes. My birthday is in one day." I was afraid she would wake up the next day and think it was her birthday. I think that the blowing out of the candles is what made the day real in her mind. After we sang, she blew out the candles in one blow. It helps she has been practicing pretty much every day for a long time. After she blew them out she had so much fun that she asked if she could do it again. Since she would have another year to wait for this opportunity to arise again, we lit the candles again, sang, and she blew out the candles once more. She loved it. She didn't eat any cake that night, because she doesn't like cake (so I made a cake that I really like), but she had a memorable night anyway. She loved all her presents and was spoiled. She deserves to be spoiled every now and then though. She really is a sweet girl that brings me endless amounts of joy. As my dad would say, she makes my heart sing. Happy Birthday Tori! We are so lucky to have you and look forward to another year with great memories.
Tori opened most of her presents in the morning before Trevor left for school. I was glad we opened them early because she spent most of the day playing with her new toys.
I love this picture because it shows how excited she was to have candles on her cake. She couldn't wait to blow them out!
Preparing to blow out the candles.
Finally her moment has come! I must admit this is the second time she blew them out because I didn't catch the first time on film. The first time looked much like the second.
Tori's new floor puzzle. She has really enjoyed putting it together numerous times with help. Trevor and I realize it is quite the job teaching a 3 year old how to do a big puzzle on her own. At the rate she is going (doing it numerous times a day), I am sure she will figure it out.

Busy Week

2009-02-08T19:02:00.000-08:00

Last week was a busy, but good week. First comes the baby information. I want to start out by answering a few questions asked by Diane. You see, when a mommy and a daddy love each other very much......just kidding. Anyway, here is more info. On Tuesday I had my first doctors appt. I am not sure why, but I could not sleep at all the night before. I had many short, weird dreams. It was fun to get my due date and see our baby. It is so amazing to me that I can grow a baby. I was informed that I was 12 weeks along exactly and that my due date is August 18. We are very excited. I showed Tori the picture and she said that it is a picture of her baby brother. She also tells me that she loves her baby brother in my tummy. We'll see if she's on to something. On Wed. I had a job interview with Dental Care for Kids. They are predominately a medicaid clinic and hire part-time dentists as well as full-time. My interview went really well and I will be starting on Feb. 16. I will be working Mon. and Tues. from 5-8 p.m. and Sat. from 12-5p.m. I am really happy about these hours. For the next year Trevor will be able to be with our kids so we won't have to get a babysitter. YEAH! They also pay hourly so I know how much I will get each month and they pay for my malpractice insurance. I feel very blessed to have found this job. Life is good.

Baby Brother?

2009-02-04T18:09:00.000-08:00

Firsts

2009-01-30T10:16:00.000-08:00

Lately there have been a few firsts at our house and I thought it would be fun to show you with pictures. About a week ago the twins had their first pony tails. They looked so cute. They hated me putting them in, but after that they left them alone.

I had more fun with the twins hair. I put Tori's bows in their hair. Adrienne did not like it much, but Sofia did not seem to mind. It will probably be a while before they are wearing bows that big in their hair.

Tori has recently learned all the sounds of the alphabet thanks to The Letter Factory movie. We have now moved onto The Word Factory. She is still figuring it out, but she has learned how to spell and write cat. She is very smart and amazes me every day.

These last pictures are not a first but they crack me up. When we say our evening prayers we all kneel in a circle on Tori's floor. After the prayer, we let the twins sit on the floor while we tuck Tori into bed. Because the floor is wood, the twins push with their arms and slide around on the floor till they get stuck under something. One day Sofia got stuck under Tori's bed, Adrienne got stuck under the rocking chair, and Tori had to crawl under her bed so we could get a picture of her too. What funny girls.

Freezing Cold

2009-01-20T16:29:00.000-08:00

We have had the privilege of being in St. Louis when it reached the coldest temperatures in 10 years. Luckily, for me, I stay at home with the girls and don't go out too much. At least I thought I was lucky. I keep my house pretty cold because our gas bills are crazy expensive. Since I keep the main floor at 65, I am used to being cold. However, last Thursday I felt even colder than usual. I went and looked at the thermostat and it read 55. I tried to turn up the thermostat to see if it would do anything and it didn't. Our heater went out on the coldest day. I called Trevor and he came home and looked at the furnace with no luck of being able to do something. We then called my brother Derek to see if he had any good advice. Derek was able to diagnose the problem, but it wasn't anything that we could fix. Trevor then called our landlord who told us that he wished we had called earlier, as if I sat in a freezing house all day but waited until after hours to bother him just to be an inconvenience. Our landlord sent over an HVAC man and he agreed with Derek's diagnosis but wasn't able to get the part that night. Luckily, our landlord offered to put us in a hotel for the night. My only criteria was that there be breakfast in the morning. He found a room for us and at 9:30 at night, we took our cold children outside into the freezing cold. The hotel room was nice and we turned the heat way up because we could. The next day after they fixed our furnace I came home to a house that was about 30 degrees. I sat their for a while and then decided we couldn't sit and wait for our house to get up to heat so I went to a friends house. At 5:00 p.m. our house finally got to 58. By the next morning we finally got our house up to heat. We have all thawed out and survived. The pictures are of the girls at our house in the cold before we left for the hotel.

Tori at the hotel Friday morning.

Sofia and Adrienne with Tylenol bottles. These are their favorite toys right now. They fight over them if they don't have their own.

Christmas with the Smobes

2008-12-25T13:00:00.000-08:00

The following are pictures from our Christmas adventure the past two days. They should be mostly in chronological order. Hope you enjoy!

Tori Stories

2008-12-23T20:41:00.000-08:00

It has been a while since I have posted any new Tori Stories. It's not that she hasn't done funny things, it's just hard to remember them when I get the time to play on the computer. I will try and do better in the future. Today I have only three stories.

#1: On Saturday day night Sofi was sick and so I ended up "sleeping" with her in our rocking chair. Our upstairs gets really hot while our main floor is 60 degrees. It was in the middle of the night when I made the move, and because I was going from desert to the south pole, I put on a sweatshirt so I would not freeze. When Tori came downstairs in the morning she promptly noticed that my sweatshirt was on inside out and backwards. She came up to me and said, "Mom, please look at the tag!" She pointed to the back of my neck and said, "The tag goes right here. Mom, pleeeeeeaaaaasssse look at the tag." She sounded like she was pleading with me to do the right thing. She sounded so disappointed in me. I will try and do better!

#2: All of our girls are currently sick. I didn't realize how much more fun 3 sick kids is than one. It is practically guaranteed that at least one kid will be up all night. Last night it was Tori. In fact, she kicked Trevor out of our bed and sent him to hers so that she could sleep with me. In the morning Trevor came back in for a few minutes after Tori was awake. Tori had an itch and she was begging Trevor to please scratch her. Trevor asked her if she could scratch her own legs. Tori looked at him and said, "No Dad. I'm too busy." Later today Trevor asked if she would like some pretzels. She replied, "I'm too busy." What a stressful life for a two year old. Too busy for pretzels.

#3:When either Trevor or I am holding the twins and we ask Tori to get something for us, she runs and grabs her twin baby dolls and says, "I can't. "I'm stuck." (You can guess who she hear's this from all the time.) I am amazed at how far she will go to get her babies when sometimes the object that I want her to get for me is an arms length away. I suppose if anyone should understand it should be me. When your babies need you, they need you.

Family Pictures

2008-12-19T17:51:00.000-08:00

Today we had the joy of getting family pictures done. All in all, I think they turned out pretty well. Of course, we ended up getting more pictures than we had planned on but we did get a CD with all the pictures on it. By the way, if we ever get it together we might be sending out Christmas cards with our family picture enclosed, so act surprised when you get it.

Time Goes On

2008-12-05T09:00:00.000-08:00

Well, it has been quite some time since I last posted anything. We have been lucky to have lots of visitors this month. My mom came out for 9 days and we had fun doing anything and everything. It's amazing how much more fun it is to do things when you do them with someone you love. I was also very thankful for her coming out when she did because Sofia was put on a medication that has wonderful side effects such as: fussiness (she's already my fussy child), reflux, and problems sleeping. She had about four nights when my mom was there that she cried at least 4 hours at night. I thought I was going to die or that I was going to shake Sofia. I have never been so frustrated before. My mother, being the great mom that she is, took one night with Sofia, allowing us to get a full night's rest. I was a new person the next day. Just so you all know, Sofia is doing much better on the medication and no one was injured. After that wonderful week with my mom, I had one week to get ready for Brett and Cali to come. It was fun to have them here and fun to finally get out and see St. Louis. It really is a pretty fun city, so if anyone wants to come and visit let us know. I am sorry to say that I am not going to write about all the pictures I posted. If you want to hear about all of our activities while Brett and Cali were in town, please refer to Cali's blog, because she is much better at staying up on things. Tori has been sad to not have anyone besides mom around again. She loved having her grandma and Brett and Cali around. Now we are trying to get things ready and in order for Christmas. It will be our first Christmas by ourselves, and I am kind of sad. Christmas to me is always about family and I will miss everyone dearly. I am not sure what we are going to do. I suppose now it is time to think about what kind of traditions we want to start.

Happy Halloween!!

2008-11-02T19:04:00.000-08:00

This was Tori's third Halloween and most fun. It doesn't hurt that she is a little older than last year. Tori was Alice the Fairy this year. Since most people don't know who she is, we told them she was a fairy princess. She was the most beautiful princess ever!! Unfortunately her makeup artist failed her, but she luckily is cute enough to pull off any look. The makeup we bought had a great picture on it, but try as I might, I didn't even come close to duplicating that look. I don't know that it was possible. Oh, well. It's another thing that Tori can look back on when she is older and say, "Mom, what did you do? You are not as artistic as many other mothers." On the bright side, she will have many funny stories and pictures to look back on. We bought the twins little onesies that were white with eyes and a mouth on it so that they would be ghosts. But the day before halloween we went to a party and they wore them. So, we decided that they would be fairy princesses like Tori. We put them in onesies from Disneyland that had pink tutus (sp?) sewn on them (thanks Diane). We put pink tights on them and little white shoes and they were ready. The night was warm enough that none of us needed coats. When people would open their door to Tori, most of the time she would say "Happy Halloween!" Trevor would then prompt her to say, "Trick or treat." Some people wanted tricks so she would jump for them. She looked so cute all dressed up jumping. I was glad that we had all decided to take Tori trick or treating because it was too cute of a moment to miss. I know I have said this before, but I really love my girls!
P.S. We didn't pass out any candy and we bought lots. So when you see us later and we look a little bigger, you'll know why.

6 Months

2008-10-22T17:49:00.000-07:00

Wow!! Time truly does fly, even when you don't think that it does. I can't believe the twins are really this old. I survived 6 months and I am counting on Diane's wisdom in twinhood that after the first six months it gets a lot easier. Right now I am not so sure. They are both teething and are not sleeping well at all. Today Adrienne took one 1/2 hour nap on me and Sofia took one 1/2 hour nap on me (with Adrienne) and one 1/2 hour nap in the swing. I pray the night will go better, but I am not optimistic. This is probably not the best day to write about the twins because they have spent a fair amount of the day crying and I have spent the day not doing anything around my house that didn't directly involve babies. I must say that most days are much better. They giggle and smile and make me so glad that I am their mom. They are such sweet spirits. I love when they smile when I go to pick them up after their naps. I love watching them when Tori is playing with the. They look a little worried but generally end up laughing. They love their big sister. I can't wait for them to be big enough so that they can all play together. Until then, I will continue to love to watch them grow and enjoy their sweet spirits that have not been away from heaven very long. I love my girls!!!

Recent Pictures

2008-10-20T07:43:00.001-07:00

I am new at blogging so some of these pictures are talked about in my post found below. I don't know how to attach more than five pictures to a post. Also, I don't know how to put labels on each picture. If you have answers, I would love it if you would add a comment for me!!! The picture of us at the table is what we look like when we are all gathered around for dinner. We are a crazy bunch!

Life Goes On

2008-10-20T07:17:00.000-07:00

I have not posted in a little while because nothing too exciting has happened here. Trevor has finished his anatomy class and that is nice. We are down 10 weeks and have ? weeks left till graduation. Tori has learned how to write her name. I was impressed that I only had to show her twice how to write it before she did it herself. She is one smart little girl. She is also a pill. She has decided that she needs to choose her own outfits and that one is not enough for the day. Just about every time she goes upstairs I can expect her to come down in a different outfit. If I try to dress her in something she doesn't want to wear she throws a fit. I bought her a cute Halloween outfit (not to be confused with Halloween costume). I have to fight her every time to get her to wear it. I have to show her that even though it is not pink or frilly, it does have hearts on it and bows on the pants. She needs to wear it lots since Halloween is not too far away. The twins are continuing to get big. Sofia has rolled over a handful of times, but Adrienne is content to stay in one place. They both can sit for a little while, even though sometimes it is bent over in half. I can't get over how big they are getting. Tori is getting to be a better help. She will give Sofia her pacifier and put bottles back in the fridge or in the sink for me. We still unfortunately have the occasional eye poking, but she's two. We have only been in our house for three months and have rearranged rooms. We put all three girls in the same room. We'll see how this goes. We moved Tori's toys downstairs so she can play without me worrying about what trouble she is getting into upstairs. We now have an office/guest room so that company does not have to sleep in Tori's room. I have posted a few pictures. We decorated cookies recently. I'll let you guess which one was Tori's.

What Normal People Do

2008-10-04T18:34:00.000-07:00

In case you did not know it, apparently we are "normal people". We went to a picnic put on by Trevor's class. Of course when we go to a picnic it involves packing up all our girls, bags, and strollers and such. We brought along a salad and some cookies for dessert to contribute. One of Trevor's classmates came up to me and told me how much she loved our babies. Later I started putting the salad together and she came up to me and said, "You guys are so cute. You are so normal." I am sure that she has no idea what this "normal" family does. This last week this normal family all survived the plague. Okay, it was just a cold, but from my point of view it could have been the plague and it wouldn't have been much worse. The twins and I came down with all the cold symptoms the same night. I think I got about 3 hours of sleep. The next day I felt terrible and the twins were incredibly whiny, with good reason. Tori wanted to climb all over me, and I was achy and wanted to die. I will admit that Tori watched 2-3 movies that day. I am not proud of it but I was in survival mode. Luckily that day was the worst for me. That night I started feeling a little better. Unfortunately, Tori started to feel worse. She ended up sleeping in our bed. I am sure many people know what kind of night that was. Luckily we are all on the mend, which is a very good thing because we all ran a 5k this morning. We showed up a little late and missed the start by about a minute. We ran it in 35:00 min., which I was happy with since this was the first time that Trevor or I have run 3 miles since the twins birth, and we both pushed strollers. I am just sorry that we didn't get any pictures of us because I am sure that we were quite the site, especially after running. After running we came home and were blessed to watch conference. When Pres. Monson started speaking I felt the spirit fill our home. I am so thankful for a living prophet. As the day went on I started to dread the evening though because I knew that Trevor was going to leave me and I was going to be alone with 3 kids during their worst hours, right before bedtime. I think that the Lord knew that I was not thrilled that Trevor was leaving me. He wanted to show me the importance of the priesthood session and have me appreciate a husband that was doing what he was supposed to do, so he gave me angel children. I was able to bathe all the girls and have all the girls down by 8:15!!! It was a conference miracle. It may sound silly, but these are the kind of things that really build my testimony. Now you know what normal people do, and perhaps you qualify too.

Tori Stories

2008-09-25T14:04:00.000-07:00

I know I just posted something new last night, but Tori has said a few funny things that I don't want to forget. Sofia the other day was crying (okay, who am I kidding. She cries every day more than any one else in this house, with me coming in a close second. Just kidding). Tori came over, put her hand over her mouth and said, "Sofia, stop whining." This is a statement said too many times during the day to count. Tori has recently learned that what daddy says or mommy says goes. She can't play one against the other. She asked me today, "Mom, can I have ice in my cup?" Right after she followed with, "What does daddy say?". Of course I then asked her, "What does daddy say?". She replied, "Daddy says no ice in your cup." Smart girl. Tori has also taken up trickery. I was sitting in a rocking chair up in the twins room. She came in after going potty and said, "Mom, I tinkled on the floor." I ran in to see what the mess was. Well, there was no mess. I returned to the twins room to find Tori sitting in my chair happily reading a book. Another time, just minutes ago, Tori came into the computer room and said, "Mom, I woke Sofia up. She is not sleeping. Go see." I went out to check on Sofia while Tori jumped on my chair next to the computer ready to push buttons. Sofia was still asleep, thank heavens, and I returned just in time to keep her from ruining my current entry. What a con artist!!!

Sofia and Adrienne

2008-09-24T21:18:00.001-07:00

2008-09-24T21:11:00.000-07:00

My mom wanted some more pictures of the twins faces so that she could see more of what they look like now. Tonight they both had baths, so while they were in diapers we took advantage of the moment and shot some cute pictures. Sorry about the quality. We took the pictures with our video camera. Even though they are not the best quality of pictures, you can still see just how adorable our twins are.

Such Cute Girls

2008-09-23T13:40:00.000-07:00

Family Home Evening

2008-09-23T13:15:00.000-07:00

Well, the impossible has happened today. I have 3 sleeping children. I am really enjoying the moment and am taking a little time for myself. YEAH!! Last night we had FHE. Tori really likes it. It's nice to be settled in a place and get back to our routines. We found out in Utah that we had not had family home evening in a while when Tori pointed to a picture of Joseph Smith and called him Jesus Smith. Tori now remembers what we do on Monday nights. We yell, "Hip Hip Hooray! Hip Hip Hooray! Hip Hip Hooray, Smith Family!" Then we sing a song, say a prayer, hold pictures, sing a song, and say a closing prayer. We know that she knows this is the order because occasionally when we tell her it's time for FHE she will go through our routine by herself. She is smart! Last night we added a part to our routine. Trevor and Erin came up with words that define their family from the letters KOBE. It is their family motto. We wanted to come up with our own words that define our Smith family. So the words under Smobe Scoop are what we stand for. Now we just need to stay diligent in doing our FHE over the years so that the kids will know what they stand for.

I am posting some pictures of Tori and the twins. We already bought Tori's Halloween costume. One of Tori's favorite books is Alice the Fairy (Thanks Grandma Smith). This year she is going to be Alice the Fairy. She has wings, a skirt, tiara, and a wand. She has played some with the costume, but is currently not allowed to play with the wand because she thinks it needs to be waved around in the twins faces. She has made contact with them more than a time or two. We'll see if she can be better on halloween.

Still Adjusting

2008-09-17T13:14:00.000-07:00

Well, the twins will be 5 months on Sept. 22 and I am still adjusting to life with them. This last Sunday was the first time that we had company over for dinner since their birth. We were having Hawaiian hay stacks. I got the table set and all the toppings out on the table. Last minute I placed the chicken gravy on the table. Trevor offered the prayer, and in the middle of the prayer I realized that I never made the rice. I started laughing after the prayer was over and informed our guests that dinner was not actually ready. Luckily they brought a green salad that we ate while we waited for the minute rice to cook. Then throughout the rest of the meal, Trevor and I spent time, off and on, standing and bouncing babies trying to get them to be happy while our guests ate. I'm not sure what our guests thought about the evening. They don't have any kids, so we'll see if they want to do anything with us again.

I have also found that I measure my success in very different ways. Before I was successful when I did well in school and I received a good grade or performed a procedure well. Now, I brag to my mom when I am able to get all the kids bathed, clean my house, and when I am still happy and feel like my house is under control when Trevor gets home. On those days I feel like super mom and can conquer the world.

2008-09-14T12:23:00.000-07:00

Today we took pictures of the girls so everyone could see how big and cute they are. Unfortunately, we started to take pictures right before the twins go down for their second nap. Our selection of pictures was quite small. A two year old and 4 1/2 month old twins do not make for the most cooperative subjects. Oh, well. Here are a couple of pictures we took.

Tori Stories

2008-09-14T12:08:00.000-07:00

I have decided to dedicate some posts to Tori because she is constantly making us laugh. She recently became a graduate of my first potty training class! I am so proud of her. We did a little bribing to get her interested and the other day, she reminded me of how much bribing we have done. She came up to me and said, "If you stay all dry for seven days, you get a barbie. If you stay all dry, you get a sucker. If you stay all dry you can go to the park. If you go poop in the potty, you get two candies." I really wanted her to be potty trained. We unfortunately now have the job of weaning her from the treats. Oh well.

Tori also loves to play role reversal with me. She constantly is playing mommy and I have to play the disobedient little Tori. She will lay one of her dolls down and say, "Mommy, don't touch. She's sleeping. " Then she will tell me, "You can touch her." As soon as I go to touch her, she yells "Don't touch!! She's sleeping!" I think she has heard this a time or two lately. The other day we were at the table eating dinner. She finished all her dinner including her vegetables. After she finished she said, " Mom, say I'm so proud of you! You finished all your dinner. Good job." So I had to follow and repeat the praise to her. After dinner we had some cake and Tori dropped some on the floor. She said that she would get it. When she got down to pick it up she said, "Mom, say Oh gosh!! You made a big mess!" Needless to say, I have to watch what I say and do. One last Tori story for this entry. Last night it was time for family prayer and it was Tori's turn. She did not want to say the prayer. Trevor told her that mommy would help her. She still refused. She then said, "Mom, say Dear Heavenly Father." She then proceeded to lead me through the rest of the prayer. At the end she said, "Mommy good job. You are such a big helper. I love you," and she gave me a great big hug. She keeps our lives very entertaining. Everyone needs a two year old at one point in their lives to fully experience life!!

Explaination of Smobe

2008-09-10T21:14:00.001-07:00

For those of you wondering who the Smobe's are, let me explain. We had some knew some people in Omaha who called themselves the "Ludshucks." The wife's maiden name is Ludlow, and the husband's last name was, well, something with "shuck" in it. We thought it was very creative and came up with Smobe for our new combined last name. So, you can refer to us as the Smith's, the Smith-Kobe's, or our personal favorite, the Smobes. But for all legal records, most of us are the Smiths. At church, however, we are all Smiths. It appears as though we have an identity crisis.

WoW!!

2008-09-10T21:11:00.000-07:00

Well, I have finally joined the bloggers. I wasn't sure this day would happen. Right now it is late and I need to sleep, but hopefully I will find time to post funny happenings at the Smobe household.