A random catch up post

I have a thousand legitimate things to post about, but I'm worried that if I do, all the fun random pictures that depict life around here will never make it to the blog! So let's just dive right in, shall we? Here we go:

I had a lovely Mother's Day. The kids were very sweet to me all day with drawings and songs and hugs and kisses. I said that I really wanted a good picture with them for Mother's Day and they delivered! I know it's a bit blurry, but can we cheer for a moment that everyone's looking AND smiling! I sure do love being the mom of this bunch!

Some of my Mother's Day gifts. Clayton made that vase for me at school. And Noah and Josie filled out "All About my Mom" sheets. My favorite things on these: Where Noah says I have "long" hair and "beautiful" eyes. I also laughed that he says I like to cook salad for my family (ah, you can always tell when Mom's on a diet, eh?)! I also like that Josie said that it makes me happy when she feeds the dog and gets dressed. Nailed it! That does make me happy!

Crazy hair day at school. Noah had a cool ponytail Mohawk, but he was mad when I was taking pictures and refused to have one taken. Love the look Clayton's sporting! He did tell me after school that he was SOO glad he's not a girl because having your hair in ponytails all day kind of hurts! Beauty is pain Clayton, remember that!!

Is it just me, or does this girl look so big now!?! Where's my baby going??

South Bend was super slow to get to spring this year. So we went bowling one morning. It was a lot of fun and sort of competitive! I think this will be even more fun when the girls are a little older.

Love being silly with this kid!

It was cold, but we braved it and got ice cream anyway. Sammy was in heaven with her ice cream cone!

After church one Sunday, Noah told me he had a secret that he couldn't tell Clayton. Of course, this made Clayton crazy. Secret was, he wanted to make him a friendship necklace. Clayton was so happy, he made Noah one in return (with 100 beads, no less)! I love that these boys are best friends!

Clayton has been staying after school once a week for months to be in the fourth grade choir. We went to their concert and it was awesome! Clayton's a great performer and we loved watching him!

The boys and I had a goal to read the entire Book of Mormon by the end of the school year. Last week we finished! It was so great to share this wonderful book with my two favorite boys. I loved watching their testimonies grow as we read. These boys are pretty special!

And, of course, I adore this girl to pieces. She keeps me on my toes, but nothing is ever boring when she's around!

Justin and I celebrated our 12 year wedding anniversary over Memorial Day weekend. We spent our anniversary driving with the kids to Wisconsin to visit our best friends. Not super romantic, but we got to talk to each other and laugh almost the whole way there. It's been a great 12 years and I know that the best is yet to come with this guy! I'm lucky to be married to him!

In Wisconsin over Memorial Day weekend. It was H-O-T! We had a blast and spent almost every second outside, enjoying the summer heat, eating popsicles, and watching the kids play in the sprinklers.

Mmmmm, summer...

These two best friends. They were stuck to each other like glue all weekend. Enoch stepped on glass right after we got there and ended up needing stitches, so he was a little limited with the activities he could do, but Noah stuck with him. I love that when they see each other they pick up right where they left off.

Sammie was enamored with "Baby Cake" (Kate). She would dote on her all weekend. I was starting to feel sad that she will never get to be a big sister...until she started going crazy jealous every time Justin or I even looked at the baby. Sammie loves babies...she's just not willing to share her parents!

Here's the whole crew (minus Kate). We can't wait to see them again in a month!

This was the view from my front porch yesterday morning. Look at all that green! I love a green landscape. Like really, truly LOVE! I'm sad to leave it because the west has nothing that even compares to this (well, maybe the pacific northwest). It makes me laugh sometimes when people in Utah, Nevada, or Arizona post pictures of their "gorgeous seasons". They have no idea. Seriously. None.

Sister best friends!

Grocery shopping with my ladies. They always beg to ride in these car carts. On the occasion that I do cave, they ride in them for five minutes and then spend the next 20 running circles around me while I push this monstrosity around the store. Apparently I'm slow to learn my lesson...

I'm going to have to break this up into two random catch up posts because I've still got quite a few pictures to share before I get into the real stuff (like my awesome solo trip to Idaho to finalize our house finishings...that'll be a good one). So stay tuned...hopefully I can get another post in tomorrow!

Eleven

So, Justin and I have been married for 11 years today. It's crazy how the time flies. I've been thinking about all we've done and been through together and it seems like we crammed a lot into these 11 years. We've moved four times, we've each gotten degrees (I got my M.Ed. and Justin got a B.S. in Biology and an M.D.), four years of medical school, three years of residency, 1.5 cross country moves, we've purchased three houses, sold two, owned four cars, had three pets (our Disco boy and two guinea pigs that - I'll just admit it - were a mistake), and had four of the best kids ever. Seems like a lot right?

But there are a lot of things we've done that I can't quantify. Things like nights spent up with a baby/sick child, evenings hanging out watching TV (when we could very easily be learning a foreign language instead), hours spent listening to music, time we spent up talking when our intention was to go to sleep, countless private jokes, time spent quizzing each other on radio songs, hours of laughter, hours of frustration, hours of tears (good and bad - and mostly mine), hours of worry (okay, that's probably mostly mine too), and so many other experiences that I can't begin to count.

Marriage isn't always easy. Anyone who claims to have a "perfect" marriage is just someone who hasn't let their spouse know all sides of them (and vice versa). I love that we have an imperfect marriage. Sometimes we fight, we make each other crazy, and we get frustrated at each other. However, I always know that at the end of the day, he's going to be by my side. No matter what. We're in this together. Thankfully, our good times heavily outnumber our bad ones. We laugh with each other all the time, we're silly, we work together, and we try every day to be better as a couple and as a family. I know that he loves me and he knows that I love him.

We're a team and there's no one I'd rather be on a team with than Justin. For all our flaws I am his biggest cheerleader and he's mine. We believe in each other, support each other, and love each other.

Happy 11 years Justin. There's no one I'd rather have at my side and no one I'd rather spend eternity with (unless you suddenly loose your sense of humor, then we'll talk). I love you!

**This is our engagement picture. Babes! Babes, I tell you!**

 

10 Years!

It's been 10 years since Justin and I did this:

In some ways it seems that the time has just flown by. I think to myself, '10 years? No way, we just got married!'. In other ways though, it seems like we've been married forever and some days I have a hard time remembering what life was like before I was Mrs. Justin Smith. Either way, our 10 year anniversary is here.

Here are a few stats from the last 10 years:

We've moved four times.

We've owned three houses.

We've owned four cars.

We've lived in three states (four if you count Utah - where we met)

We've gotten three college degrees (me - M.Ed. from UNLV, Justin - B.S. from UNLV and M.D. from UVM)

We've had two pets (one guinnea pig named Frankie that had babies shortly after we got her - she was too much work, she didn't last long with us and our boy Disco who is wild and crazy but we can't help but love him!)

We've had four of the most amazing, smart, funny, and attractive children ever!

My top ten favorite moments:

1. Wedding day (duh)

2. Clayton's birth (a.k.a. - the day our lives changed forever)

3. Sitting at a little mexican restraunt in Vegas (I think it's gone now, I can't even remember the name) and deciding that we were going to move to Vermont for medical school.

4. Noah's birth

5. Josie's birth

6. Match day (so exciting)

7. Road trip to Indiana to house hunt (just the two of us - I LOVE road tripping with just Justin, it's one of my favorite things)

8. Justin's med school graduation (I can't remember ever being more proud of anyone ever)

9. Our vacation to Mexico last year

10. Sammie's birth

(**of course there are many, many more favorite moments, but here's my top ten in a nutshell**)

Of course it hasn't all been kittens and rainbows; we've had some rough times over the past ten years but the happy times outnumber the bad times, the laughter outnumbers the tears, the fun outweighs the fights, and the love overcomes everything. Happy anniversary Justin, I'm really blessed to have you! It's been a wonderful ten years. I cannot wait to see what we do with the next ten! I love you! 

(Our honeymoon in Mexico, WOW - we look sooooo young!)

Dr. Smith!!

Last week we had the opportunity to drive to VT and go to Justin's graduation. He's worked so hard for the past four years that there was NO WAY we were going to miss that! Driving 14+ hours (one way) with three kids was no picnic, but definitely worth it. We were there for a little over a week and we did so many fun things. I literally took HUNDREDS of pictures. I won't subject you to all of them, but this is definitely going to be a picture overload type of situation. So I'll keep the narration short. Without further ado, I give you...graduation week:
The first activity of graduation week was an awards ceremony where Justin was awarded the John P. Fogarty Leadership Award for Excellence as a Leader in Family Medicine. We're so proud of him!
Me and Noah waiting for the ceremony to start:
Justin getting his award (sorry they're kind of dark). He was given a really beautiful watercolor of the Burlington Waterfront. I know exactly where it's going to hang in our house:

Next order of business - giving Chase some awesome 'Starburns' (we decided I should go into 'burns-shaving' business). Before we moved we discussed Chase giving Justin 'Starburns' as a graduation gift, I wasn't sure if he'd remembered that conversation, but oh yeah. He did. Best. Gift. Ever.:
The next 'photo-worthy' activity of graduation week was a boat cruise of Lake Champlain:
We were fortunate enough to have my parents as well as Justin's dad and sister come out to support Justin:

Best picture of the day! Noah can make some pretty awesome faces.


Awesome family pic. The best part is Pootie throwing a tantrum off to the side. Classic.
With the Zinke's. Sniff. I miss them already.
That evening there was a barbeque, but this is the only picture I got of it (I just think daddy/daughter stuff is so cute):
The next day was G-Day! (Bear with me, there are tons of pictures - but, in my defence, I have been waiting for this day for a looooong time!):
On the bus on the way to graduation:
Noah is so handsome in this blazer. When I put it on him that morning, Clayton looked at him and said, 'Noah, you look like the president in that jacket!'
Clayton and Grammy
Noah on the floor of the chapel (where graduation was held). I have pictures of him on the floor of every place went to, but this is the only one I will share. Needless to say, he spent almost our whole VT trip on the floor of one place or another:
Chi, Justin, and Rick pre-MD:


Justin getting his MD!! Clayton came up with me to take pictures of Justin (because we were sitting in the nosebleed seats) and he was so proud of how loud he cheered for his dad. He was so cute!
The proud new MD!
One of my favorite pictures of the trip. I'm pretty sure that NO ONE is prouder of Justin than Clayton is (although I think I come a pretty close second). He couldn't wait to get to Justin as the grads were walking out of the building. Doesn't he look proud!?!
The class of 2010 (well the ones that I could get to fit in my camera). There are 106 grads. Can you find Justin (I haven't yet, but I know he's in there):
Me and my new favorite doctor!

While Dr. Smith was busy getting his picture taken, Grammy and Grandpa were busy keeping the kids occupied. I have to say that these two were such a blessing to have around. They were constantly entertaining our kids which was so nice because that meant that I didn't have to worry about it and could enjoy Justin's graduation week! It's no secret that these kids adore their Grammy and Grandpa!
Grandpa was helping Noah climb trees!
Grammy and sleepy Miss Jo.
Dr. Daddy!

The whole gang!
(Almost) all the new LDS MD's. We've grown so close to these people over the years. I'm so proud of all these guys (and their wives).
Just the wives. I love all these ladies! I'm going to miss them.
(We're almost done, promise!)
The next morning, the adults decided to have one last breakfast together before our families had to fly home. We got to eat at the Inn at Shelburne Farms, which is somewhere I've always wanted to eat. Check out the view from our table:
It was such a gorgeous spot. I'm so glad that I got to go at least once before we left.
The gang (minus Gil) with the Inn in the background:

This day was extra special for us because it also happened to be our 8th wedding anniversary. Justin is my best friend, my favorite person, and the love of my life. I'm so happy that I get to share this life with him!
So that was graduation in a nutshell (a really big nutshell). I've learned a couple things about myself looking at these pictures:
1. I sure do like a good cardigan.
2. I should always make sure that I'm wearing heels or wedges when taking pictures with other people (especially when those other people are taller than me anyway). Sheesh, I'm short.
I have so many other, non-graduation related pictures that I need to post, so now you have something to look forward to!
To sum up - I'm so proud of Justin. I love him so much and am amazed by the things that he has accomplished. He works so hard and deserves every good thing he gets. I love you Dr. Smith! Congratulations!