I forgot

I just remembered we have a blog. Wow. I never thought I'd say that. For so many years (nearly 8 to be exact) I've been fairly regular with posting on this blog. With every kid I've slowed down a bit. I wish I could make this blog my priority- but in reality I totally can't! Instead our lives are mostly documented by photo posts on Instagram.

These gorgeous babies of mine all celebrated their birthdays in May turning: 3, 5, 1. We went to Atlanta for Memorial Day weekend to hang with the Westerns. Since Addilyn finished preschool in June we have been keeping busy by going to the pool, playing in our small pool at home, and hanging out with friends. I was called to serve in Young Women's in our new ward at church. (maybe that's where all my spare time is going?) My mom flew in the day before my birthday and stayed until this past Tuesday. While she was here we spent a week in Savannah Georgia. And while we were there Scott's parents and two youngest brothers stopped while they were on their way to a cruise. Pheww. Now July is half way through. I love summer. Especially for the fact that my kids love the water as much as I do. Now we look forward to getting back to a regular summer schedule, VBS, and getting ready for kindergarten. I know. I know. Hold back the emotions people- I have enough for all of us.

whooops...

I SO wish I could go back and dedicate a blog post to all the exciting and fun things that we have done since my last post. Life sorta got in the way a bit I suppose! Let me do a run down of what has happened the last 4ish months/last of 2015...
August:
-We did as much as we could before our new schedule would start up for the fall. Things like swimming, games, museums, basically anything and everything. 
-Addilyn started PRESCHOOL. I totally melted watching her leave and made Scott SWEAR to me that he would take a picture of her every move going to the school and going into her class. He appeased me and maybe over did it...
-We joined the YMCA (huge deal for me...)
September:
-We drove down to Atlanta for Labor Day and crashed with the Western fam. We went swimming, met their newest addition Tru, went to a crazy parade in downtown, and the cousins played all together. So fun.
-We started painting our house. Ya. we did. But we got so rained out that our 6 week plan got washed out and we have to finish it in the spring. bleh.
October:
-Addilyn had a fall festival at her school that was so fun. They road horses, held a bird, and played carnival games.
November:
-Scott's birthday I surprised him by doing this totally cool ropes course. It was EPIC and totally fun. As he put it, I totally win at birthdays and put him to shame. bahahaha
-My dad flew in from Seattle the Thursday before Thanksgiving. It was so great having him here. He met Ryder for the first time and spent plenty of time playing with the older two and then holding Ryder. While he was here Addilyn had her first preschool program about turkeys. It was adorable. The highlight of his trip here was all of us going to the Renaissance fair. It was so cool. The best part was the jousting. The kids loved it all including the magic shows.
-We dropped my dad off and continued straight to, you guessed it, Atlanta again! Shirley's oldest daughter Olivia got baptized and her youngest Tru had his baby blessing. There was lots of family there!
-Ryder turned 6 months Nov. 26th
December:
-Addilyn had her Christmas program and she was the CUTEST THING IN THE WORLD. But really, her costume was the best. She was a dove.
-My mom flew in from Seattle and while she was here our project was potty training Levi. Which was a success.
And now here are pictures that I threw in to help boost this posts interest a bit. 

Ryder's blessing

Grandmas! And please note that Ryder is smiling!

Ryder Jadwin Smith was blessed July 5th here in Winston-Salem. It was our first time blessing one of our kids at church. Addilyn was blessed at Grandma/pa Smith's house and Levi at the Western's. In addition to the boys in our family who helped with the blessing, we also had our friend Brett Pettit.

Grandma Jadwin

Uncle Isaac

Grandpa and Grandma Smith

(you should have heard the grandmas stressing over this...)

Ryder was blessed in the same outfit that Scott was blessed in, all of his uncles, all of his boy cousins, and his brother Levi too.

The Smith's and Western's

the boys

My BLONDE BEAUTIES

me and my sweet Ryder!

my awesome family

With my mom

(written & posted 8/13/15)

July 4th weekend

Wow. That weekend was a blurrrr. Thursday the Western's drove in and Friday Scott's mom, dad, and youngest brother flew in. Here is the weekend in pictures (not in exact order because the upload was funky):

Passed out after a long day of flying, driving, and swimming!

Grandma Jadwin reading to Levi and cousin Ammon (6 months apart)

Uncle Issac reading a bedtime story

Grandpa Smith brought his harmonica!

All the girls stayed in Addilyn's room

Bolton pool

While the family was here, we went to two different pools. The photos are not in order as to which pool was first and last. We went to Tanglewood pool which has the lazy river and water slides. Shirley was crazy and went down at 37 weeks pregnant... The other pool we went to was on the 4th at Bolton Pool. 

Bolton pool

Ammon & Levi

my girl

water baby

Grandma Jadwin watched Ryder at Tanglewood

Rollin

getting into the lazy river

grandma doing her duty!

cuties

5 weeks

Our dinner was sweet potato taco salad. There was a lot of food and it was delish!

Aunt Shirley!

 Like I said, this pictures are totally out of order. This is from our dinner on 4th of July. We had smoked salmon, broccli salad, veggie pizza, watermelon, corn on the cob...it was soooo good. And there are pictures of the parade we went to in between the food pics. 

At the parade with the cousins!

"If you wave, they'll give you candy!"

 All we did were smoke bombs, sparklers, and poppers. It was plenty! They all loved the sparklers! The only accident was Levi grabbing the burned sparkler with his finger. It blistered!

Afton

Addilyn

cousins!

Levi's first sparkler

(posted & written 8/12/15)