Our traveling adventure!

We made it to sunny Las Vegas! I already have a sunburn (seriously, I love it)! The trip was long, but the boys were great (even though they were sick). We started out with a three hour drive to Manchester, New Hampshire. To make this trip, we rented a mini-van and I have to say...I WANT ONE!!! I never thought I would be the mini-van type, but I am now. It was such a smooth ride and you gotta love the two TV's! So here I am with my new love:

Once we arrived at the airport, we had a three hour flight to Chicago. Since both boys were sick and they had slept on the car ride, I was really nervous. However, they both did fine. Noah was slightly grumpy, but (fortunately for us) there was a screaming little baby in the back of the plane, so no one even noticed Noah! Here are the boys with their aunts on the plane:

Once we got to Chicago, we had a two hour layover before our four hour flight into Vegas. The boys were so good! We got so many compliments on this flight. After we landed I even had one woman say, "Oh my goodness, I didn't even realize that there were kids on this plane. They are so well behaved!" (Obviously she doesn't know them TOO well.) I was really impressed with how well they did. I must say though, that we flew with some really nice people. Even when Noah would get fussy or Clayton would get restless, no one was rude or impatient with them. That was a blessing.
We got into Vegas at 7:15 Vegas time (10:15 VT time). Poor Noah! He didn't nap one bit on the planes so he was exhausted! He fell asleep on the drive to Grammy's house and would not be woken. It was a long trip, but I am so glad to be here (and so glad we don't have to do that again for a month)! I am also really glad that Ashley and Anisha were with me. I don't think I could have done this without them!
Here are a few pics from our first few days here:
Noah took a bath in Grammy and Grandpa's sink. It was really fun! And yes, that is a tattoo on his arm. Thanks Aunt Ash and Aunt Nish!

Yay, the boys can finally play outside (and wear SHORTS!)!!

Noah didn't know what to think of the grass (it had been too long since he'd seen some).

Well, this is the beginning of our Vegas adventure. We miss Justin and wish he were with us! However, it is nice to be here and be with family that we rarely get to see. It's a real treat! I hope I can post fairly often so that Justin can be kept up to date!

So long winter!

Well, the time has come for us to go to sunny and warm Las Vegas! I am so excited to see my family! We are going to miss Justin though. I have never been away from him for this long and it makes me sad, but I know that he will be able to get a lot done here without us!
I will try to post while we are on vacation, but no promises!

Here are some pics from our Easter. I tried to take some cute ones of both boys together but, those of you with more than one kid can back me up, this is nearly impossible. I had to settle for a pic where they are both looking my direction. I hope you enjoy!!
Searching for Easter baskets.



Here are my handsome men in their Easter finest! They both look so grown up, I can't believe it!



The boys and their super cute aunts!

I have more pics from my sisters' visit, so I will try to include those in a later post! For now, wish us luck on the plane (both boys are sick)! Sin City...here we come!!!!

When it's too quiet...

...bad, bad things happen!!! What am I going to do with this boy!?!

Seriously!?!

Apparently New England didn't get the memo: Spring is supposed to be here...ENOUGH WITH THE SNOW!!!! (If you can't tell by the pic, it's snowing today.)

On a more positive note, I have four things to be happy about:
1. Justin passed his boards! Not only did he pass them - he did really well! I am so proud of him, he's such a smartie!!
2. My sisters are coming in today (weather permitting)!!! They will be out here for a week and then we will all go back to Vegas together!

3. My kids have been so great this week.
Clayton is growing up so fast. Last night a friend of mine came over as he was getting ready for bed. He grabbed her hand and said, "Hi, would you like to come join me?" (He really just wanted her to help him clean his room, but it was still funny.) He has also been pretending to be Tigger all week. I get to be Darby, Justin is Pooh, and Noah is Buster (if you watch the Disney Channel, you know what I'm talking about). We are Super Sleuths! This face just melts my heart, I can't believe he's almost 4!

Noah has been climbing on EVERYTHING! He is such a daredevil! I don't know what I am going to do with this kid, but he sure is cute! He also has an impressive list of words: hi, no, uh-oh, Kinkin (Clayton), teee (cheese), khaki (cracker), cup, up, and daddy (still no mommy though, what's a girl gotta do for a little recognition?).


4. Finally, Amanda Overmyer was voted off of American Idol! Yay! She bothered me. I could never understand what she was saying and why she wanted to look like she had a dead skunk on her head. (...now if only the kid with the dread locks would get voted off...)

Okay, so I suppose I can't really complain too much, life is pretty great lately. I just really wish the stinkin' snow would GO AWAY!!!!

St. Patrick's Day

I got this great idea from Ryan and Katie and it was so much fun!

We began on Sunday night. I told Clayton that if we leave a box in the moonlight, the leprechauns will see it and fill it with treasure. Then they will hide it, but they will leave clues for us to follow so that we can find it. If we can find the box on St. Patrick's Day, we get to keep the treasure, but if we can't find it, the treasure is lost forever. Then I told him that he had to help me decorate a box so that the leprechauns would see it and think that it was so cool that they just HAD to put "super cool" treasures in it! He was up for the challenge! He painted the box and we had the best time! I think it turned out pretty cool. Here are some pictures of the box decorating:




Then, when he went to bed, the leprechauns came and filled his box with all kinds of treasures! When they hid it, they left a path of green hearts to guide Clayton to the treasure. But those leprechauns are tricky!! They made three different paths! When Clayton woke up, he was so excited! He followed the path, but he made a few wrong turns.


Finally, he found the box! Yay! He was so excited when he opened it!


It had two toy snakes in it (one for each boy) and a bunch of Tootsie Rolls! What a great start to the day! Then, after we dropped Justin off at his first clerkship (outpatient internal medicine - yay Justin), we came home and had a "green" breakfast. We had green eggs, hash browns, toast, and green milk. I was a little worried about how Clayton was going to react to this breakfast, he usually doesn't like things that are green, but he was so excited to eat it. He said to me, "Mom, the Lepkins made my breakfast!" Cute! (And yes, it's a Halloween cup - apparently in the Smith house, we own a LOT of Halloween paraphernalia!)


Even Noah got in on the action! (Seriously, how cute is he!?!)

I hope everyone else had a great St. Patrick's Day! Ours was so much fun! I really enjoy holidays with my kids (even the little ones). I think it is so amazing to see their excitement. You can't help but get wrapped up in it with them!

Wonder of Wonders!

Hooray! After many weeks of freezing weather, ice storms, and never-ending snow...today was actually a pretty decent day!! (To put it in perspective, by decent I mean in the 40's.) This meant that Clayton could actually play outside (sadly, it was still a little too slick for Noah). He was so excited - he played outside all afternoon! I was so happy for him. However, I had to laugh as I watched him and here's why:



It's a little hard to ride a bike when the tires are covered by the snow! Instead of riding the bike, he was holding on really tight and jumping around the backyard on it! It was hilarious! I was laughing so hard! His dedication to playing is an art form! What a funny kid!

Hopefully the snow and ice will melt soon so that he can REALLY ride his bike!

Dr. Parker

I know, I just posted. But ever since Erica changed my blog layout, I want to post a lot because it just looks so good!! Thanks again Erica. Anyway, Noah had his 15 month check! Wow, he is getting so old! Only three more months until nursery! Hooray! He weighs in at 22lbs. and 14oz. (25th percentile) and is 31" long (50th percentile). So he isn't the big tubbo that Clayton was, but it is totally understandable because he is a lot more mobile than Clayton was!

So the title of this post is Dr. Parker. He is our pediatrician and I LOVE him with all my heart! I know that a lot of you have heard me rave about him before - he is amazing. When we moved here I was worried that I wouldn't find a pediatrician that I liked as much as Dr. Levin (who was pretty great). Lo and behold, I hit the jackpot!!

First of all, he is in our ward, which is pretty cool by itself when you consider that there are only two wards in the whole state of Vermont.
Second, he really practices small town medicine, which I could seriously get used to! He works out of a converted old house - there are no nurses and no receptionist - when you go to see the doctor, you SEE the doctor! He does it all, weighing, measuring, shots (well, that's not so fun), etc. He books all of his patients for an hour (though the visits don't usually last quite that long) so you can have his undivided attention to ask questions! I love it! He is also willing to come to you. He will look at kids at church, stop by your house, the works. I can't get over how lucky we are to have him!
Finally, he likes to use medication as a last resort. Personally, for me, I like my meds and I like them right away - but I don't like that for my kids. He is all about alternatives to medications for kids. Who knew I was such a hippie (hee hee)!?!

He's great and so here are some pictures of Noah's visit with the best pediatrician ever!

He is so amazing about having siblings in the room. He has this Curious George flashlight that Clayton loves. He lets Clayton play with it. He also lets Clayton ask him tons of questions and he never gets frustrated or annoyed (he's a SAINT I tell you)!

I know I just used this picture, but I love it - so I'm using it again! It's just so fitting for Noah's personality these days. He also has a few new words: in addition to "uh-oh", "hi", and "no", he says "kinkin" (Clayton) and "teeee" (cheese). Still no mama and dada though - sad!

So there you have it - I love my pediatrician and I don't care who knows it. There are several reasons that I love Vermont and get sad when I think of moving - and leaving our pediatrician is one of them. He is so nice that he even offered to help Justin set up his own practice someday! WOW!!

If, for some reason, you ever come to Vermont and wonder where to take your kids - here you go!!

Come back Spring, we miss you!

This past week has been interesting. We have been having ice storms. For those of you who don't know what an ice storm is, it is exactly what it sounds like...a storm of ice! There is ice on EVERYTHING! We can hear it at night. The icy branches of our trees click together in the breeze and I am awakened to many sharp snapping sounds at night as the icy branches snap off the trees and hit the deck. Yesterday, our ward was substantially smaller than normal. Partly because of the time change, but also because some of our ward members couldn't chisel their car doors open! YUCK! Where, oh where is Spring!?! I have tried to take some cool pics to prove that I am serious about ice being on eveything, but my camera isn't great so the pics don't look that impressive. Here are some other fun winter facts for you to digest:

The city has already run out of salt for the roads once this year and Justin saw on the news the other day that they were running out of overtime pay for the plow drivers. Therefore, any plowing that needs to be done after hours or on the weekends would just have to wait! Does this really bother anyone else?!?

So those of you out west: Be grateful! You have no idea how jealous I am of your weather!
Anyway, because winter refuses to go away, we have been indoors A LOT! Here are some cool things that we have been doing (I am using the word 'cool' very loosly):

Having our friends over to play (Clayton and his friend Tate),

learning how to get in trouble in new ways (this kid is SUCH a monkey and yes, he is wearing a Halloween shirt),

trying out new hairdos,

and exploring career options.

I just threw this one in because it's so cute (but he does look like he's trying to pull a fast one though)!


I took my ER story off the blog, so those of you who are reading it now for the first time - sorry. I just wanted to share what had happened (it's very therapudic), but I never had any intention of leaving it up permanently. So just enjoy the cute pics of my adorable boys!

Picture Overload!

Okay, so my last blog was just me doing a lot of talking about my great birthday, so here are the pics to back it up! It is a lot of pics - hope you enjoy!

These are the pics Vanessa took after my awesome makeover. (You can't really see my make-up because they're black and white, but I think they look better this way!) These four are my favorites. I usually hate pics of myself, but I really liked these so I figured I'd post them because who knows how long it will be before I post pics of just me again!!




This is right before Justin and I left to go to dinner:

This was how the dining room looked when I came home (so cute!):

The party!

I love, love, LOVE this pic (below)! I think it is a classic girl/guy relationship. This is Clayton and his friend Gracie. She is talking and so animated and happy and he is thinking, 'Alright already! Let me eat!!' Funny!

Just a cute one of Noah at the party!

Of course, Clayton liked opening presents just as much (if not more) than I did!

Yay, a lazy susan for my spices! It has totally revolutionized my spice cupboard!

My new favorite cooking utinsel! I didn't realize how much time I wasted cutting things until I got a good knife!

The boys are STILL playing with these balloons! This was the party that just kept giving!

Once again, thanks to everyone for making my birthday so wonderful! And thanks, Vanessa, for taking all these great pictures! If you are looking at all these great pics and thinking, 'what happened?', just read my previous blog! It was an amazing birthday, and now I am officially done talking about my birthday for another four years (hee hee)!