Real Men Play With Pink.....

The poor third child gets all the leftover toys.

And sometimes they happen to be pink!

"Man, why can't I get some of my own manly bath toys?!?"

My Little Pilgrim

Finley was a pilgrim at her Fall Festival the week before Thanksgiving.

How cute are they? The boy beside her is Sam. During the festival, the kids went to many different stations and worked on different projects. They also had a Thanksgiving feast.

And this is her kindergarten class. I wonder if any pilgrims ever wore pink leggins?

I was in charge of making the Thanksgiving treats for Gunnar's class. I found the idea on Pinterest. They had some turkey Cheerios! Ha! Gunnar thoroughly enjoyed tearing the feathers off his turkey! Finley helped me make them with our scrapbook paper scraps and extra baby food jars. They turned out pretty cute.

The Twilight Saga

This shirt makes sense to some people. Mainly the people who would camp outside of theaters. Or just regular mom's that love vampires. Average folks.

Maybe you've heard of a little set of books called The Twilight Saga...........I may or may not be on the obsessive side of loving these books. And since I love the books, it's only natural that I go see all the movies. And I might or might not be a Rob stalker, but that's a whole other blog post. Or not. Maybe I will keep the stalking to myself.

So if you live on the planet, you know that Breaking Dawn Part 1 came out on November 18th!!! Yay! It's the 4th movie of 5, which means I have to wait one whole year to see the last one. Whatever will I do!?! Anyways, Brandi and myself went to the midnight showing of the movie.

I've had the tickets for about two months and they were burning a hole in my pocket! So when that Thursday night rolled around, we were ready. My Twilight partner in crime, Nat, was not able to make it to Lubbock to watch the movie with me, but we sent each other wonderful vampire goodies to take to the movies. One of mine being this cute feather/wood headband that I'm wearing over my hat. Nat made one for Brandi and me.

And just for good times, I had to take some pics with one of Nat's favorite photos of Rob and send it to her on my phone. We love Rob. We might stalk his house.....if he owned one, but he doesn't. He just lives out of hotels. Or stays with Kristen Stewart (Nat, close your ears and don't listen to me saying that. Nat is not a KS fan.)

And I sent Nat this shirt in white (see first photo of the blog). Like I said, it has special meaning to fools like us.

Basically Brandi and I went to the movies matching. Like twins with different colored hair. Like we were kids in elementary school except we are in our thirties. My other Twilight friends got tickets to the other theater, so it was was just the Gage girls.

And this is a horrible iphone photo of me in the dark outside the movie theater. I was really really cold and the line was wrapped around the side of the entire theater. Even though I had tickets, we still had to stand in line for a great seat. We went at 9pm and stood in line. They let us inside at 10 and we sat till midnight. Yes, that's three hours. A small price to pay in the eyes of a Twilight fan. We scored good seats.

This is us waiting in the theater sometime after 10pm. Brandi played her ipad and visited with the 19 year old college girls sitting beside us. We found it hilarious that we were competing for theater seats with people born in the 90's. A normal person might be embarrassed about this fact but not a Twilight fan. We are comfortable in our decisions.

The movie was great although I was very disgruntled with the ending. Disgruntled because I was left hanging for ONE WHOLE YEAR until part 2 comes out!!! Uuugggg! But on a positive note, Brandi made friends with the 19 year old college students and it just so happens that one of them is a sitter! We need good sitters. We might need a sitter for next year when the last Twilight movie comes out.

It's never too early to plan for Rob.

A Boy & His Broom

This boy loves his broom. I love how his hair flips out in the back.

He takes it everywhere. He sometimes takes it in the car when we leave.

Or sometimes he takes it outside and sweeps leaves with it.

But usually, he just wags it around the house. Room to room. I sometimes find it in the bathroom. Or the hall. Or the pantry. I can tell exactly where Gunnar has been during the day.

An even better treat is when he gets to play with the REAL broom or REAL mop or REAL vacuum in the garage. Sometimes he sneaks the mop into the house and hits everything in his path as he drags it through the house.

What's really funny is that this weekend I had about 12 tubs of Christmas decorations, three mini tree boxes, villages, wreaths, & gift bags spread all out in garage. The entire weekend he only pulled out one box and one cord. The rest of the time, he begged (meaning that he stands and points and says DA. DA. DA. DA. over and over like he's asking you a question) for me to get out the REAL mop for him and he pushed it in the garage for hours. He never messed with any of the decorations except the two things he touched!!! This dude is serious about his cleaning supplies!

This week while the other two kids went to Cita's for several days, Gunnar had the privilege of being an "only child" for the first time in this life! He was the center of attention. It was so weird with just one here. And since he goes to bed early, it was really really quiet in our house at night. Kyle and I felt funny with all the calmness. We decided it was a little too boring for our liking. Although I will say that I got to sit and catch up on several television shows without interruption. But I still missed my little herd of Smarts all being together at night!!!

Old McDonald.........

Had a farm.......E--I--E--I--O

Never Speak Too Soon.......

Does anyone recall me writing in another blog that after I finally finished Finley's Christmas stocking, that I would not have anymore children because I didn't want to make another stocking??? Three words for ya...........FAMOUS LAST WORDS!!! I'm working on it, but I'm thinking it's not going to happen this year. Maybe he won't notice that his is a knock-off because mom couldn't finish his stocking.

Taylor Swift Concert

Did I mention we went to Taylor Swift last month?

I ordered this iron-on bling thingy to put on a shirt-it turned out cute!!!

This girl has always loved Taylor!!! We sing her songs on the radio LOUD!

I've only been to a handful of concerts in my lifetime, but I can honestly say that this was the best concert ever! I could not believe what all she did! I've never seen so many costumes, sets, props, lights! There is a reason why this girl is Entertainer of the Year.

The very last song she went over the entire crowd singing from this moving balcony! So Cool! We loved it!

Funny

I just thought this was too funny not to mention. Today we went to church and left Gunnar in the nursery-to his dismay I might add. When we arrived I went ahead and found us a seat and Kyle took Gunnar to check him in. They have you fill out an information sticker that has name, our names, what snacks he can eat, and the pager number. Then they stick it on his back.

Kyle picked him up from the nursery after church and was waiting for us in the foyer. He told me to look on the sticker on his back. Kyle had filled out all the correct info EXCEPT for the fact that he put his name as Slade Smart! I was like, are you serious!?! Kyle said that he was wondering why it took them a little while to bring him back to him!!!

So I guess Gunnar was really curious the whole hour why everyone was calling him Slade! Poor baby!!!

A Few New Things

Mr. Gunnar seems to have grown up over night ever since he turned one almost two weeks ago!

My favorite new thing is that he says, "UH OH!" now. It's very funny-he intentionally throws something to the floor and innocently looks up and says, "UH OH" , like he's surprised he dropped it! He also tell everyone "bye-bye" and waves his fat hand backwards. He's pretty good at repeating words we tell him to say. He gets really close sometimes to the actual word. At lunch he said "baby" to Kyle and it was very clear.

Another new thing is that we are drinking whole milk now. Nope, we haven't given up the bottle. Nope, we haven't even dropped one feeding with the bottle. Yep, we just fill it with whole milk. The way I see it is this-I didn't get to sleep one whole night the entire first year of his life(ok, maybe four nights out of 365 days I got to sleep all night). So now that he is sleeping almost every night till 5 am(minus night before last when he was crying at 3am), I just can't rock the boat. It will take a long time for me to catch up on my last sleep deprived year. So, I might let him have a bottle till he's three. Nope, don't really care what anyone else thinks. And that's all I have to say about that.

I would now call him a "Professional" walker. He's pretty good at it! He also has gotten his seventh and eighth teeth. The eighth one is way in the back-which is crazy to me. His right eye looks a little puffy in this pic bc I think he hit in yesterday. He has a scratch and a little bruise-who knows these days!

And he's getting lots of shiny blond hair. Have I mentioned that he crawls onto the fireplace and stands up now to see if we are going to get onto him???

Perspective

It's very apparent now that Halloween is over, that we are into full Christmas mode as of November 1st! There is Christmas candy, toys, decorations, food, everything in every store you walk into today. My neighbors even got excited and put up their lights for goodness sake! I have been having a hard time getting into the Christmas spirit lately. For one, I feel like its only about September and secondly, I guess because it's been hot most days still so it really doesn't even feel like fall to me.

Nonetheless, my side of the family is having Christmas together one month from Thursday since my cousin is graduating on the weekend we normally have it. So I've been having to think about what gifts I need to buy. One major concern is what do they get my kids. Well, I would say my biggest worry is what toys are they getting. What do I have room for in my small house. I don't want this toy because it's so much like this toy that we already have. And maybe they won't like this toy. Etc, etc, etc.

And then I read Kelly's Korner blog today and I have to say I'm a little ashamed. She's on a trip to Ecuador with an organization called Compassion International that helps get kids out of poverty. And here are two photos she posted today.

This is one child's room. It has a wooden board, not a mattress.

And this is one family's living room.

This week I've been looking at all the dark spots on my carpet, thinking that I need to call the carpet cleaners or deciding if my Scentsy wax is the right pumpkin spice scent. Kyle wants our couch to be re-stuffed because it's been slept on too many times.

I am frustrated every night that there's not enough room for all the toys and all the clothes that the kids have. I actually get angry about all the stuff in their rooms. It's so irritating that their pajamas hang out of their drawers and I have to walk over 50 toys to hang up clothes in their closets. I actually had to take all the summer clothes out of the closet to make room for winter clothes.

Man, life is tough.

And then I looked at the rooms in these photos. My perspective cleared right up.

When the hustle and bustle of Christmas starts to get the best of you, stop and think about that little cinder block bedroom with a board for a mattress. A little kid will sleep there tonight.

We just don't realize on a daily basis how blessed we really are!

Halloween 2010

We decided to truck or treat at our church on Sunday night so we could do birthday dinner on Halloween night for Kyle.

Finley was a cute little witch. She wanted a $48 pink cheerleading costume but I refused to buy it. She was mad. I hope she will be able to go on. I think she looks pretty cute as a witch!

Basically, Gunnar didn't want to wear a costume. I first bought him a really cute tiger costume, but he wouldn't wear the hat. So I opted for a superman costume since it was the only thing that didn't require something to go on his head. I dressed him in the Superman costume a few weekends ago at Brandi's Halloween party. He wore it a total of fifteen minutes I think. He fell down in the floor crying, acting like had just put thorns on him. So I took it back to the store and got my money back. So the night of the trunk or treat-I dug Campbell's caterpillar costume out of the closet and put it on top of his clothes. I think it worked because he thought he had on a coat. For someone who has a birthday so close to Halloween, he sure didn't take to well to dressing up!
Slade isn't in the photos because he didn't want to trunk or treat this year. He planned on hiding in our yard and scaring trick or treaters. Hmmmm, I wonder where that idea came from?

Witch and Cupcake

Emily and G. Russ and Emily went with us to trunk or treat.

Brandi took Campbell to her offices to pass out Halloween treats. She was the baker and C was her cupcake!

Next up are the photos of Brandi's Halloween party!!! We've spent the last two weeks celebrating Halloween and Brandi, Gunnar, and Kyle's birthdays! Man, it's exhausting!!!

A Very Hungry Caterpillar Birthday!

Warning-I loaded about 500 pics on this post. Just saying......

This past Saturday we celebrated little man turning ONE!!! This is my favorite pic of the whole day. I have the exact same photo of myself on this exact swing, my cake in this exact pan, when I was one. I have the same pic of Finley, too. I didn't have the swing at the time of Slade's bday, but I have a professional pic of him on it when he was three. This swing always sat on Nana & Ambo's porch. I'm very sentimental towards this swing.

You are invited to Gunnar's first birthday..........

Fin and I made the caterpillars out of pom pom's, wrote all the party info on cardstock leaves, and we put everything inside baby food jars. My friend Stephanie saved all her tall baby food jars for me and I spray painted the tops!

We glued floral wire on the head for the antenna and painted on the eyes.

I love my boy!

We took some fam pics before the party started.......

Cita bought G some new kicks for his bday! They squeak!

Posing with his caterpillar cupcake cake!

Gunnar's cake that Nana made him in his great-great grandmother's pan. We all get a cake in this pan every birthday!

I bought paper hats at Target and decorated it to match. I really didn't think he would wear the hat, but he did!

Chocolate dipped marshmallows. Do you notice the stand-it's Ramma's Fiestaware. I glued one of the tumblers to an extra plate and made cake plates! I actually made three of them. On one plate, I used a smaller tumbler, so I can stack it on top of this plate. They are pretty cute and I know I will use them more often since they were just sitting in the pantry as extras.

On the mantle I made zero through twelve photo banner-a pic for every month of Gunnar's first year!

Party favors! I used all of my baby food jars and spray painted the tops and put ribbon around the center. My friend, Jessica, a graphic designer who owns/operates Funky Finds blog, kindly made me the labels. I printed, cut out, and glued them on top! Goldfish were perfect for our "caterpillar food".

On Saturday, he ate a lollipop! I just stuck dum dums in this pot I already had.

I loved his cupcake caterpillar. We had red velvet, chocolate, and white cupcakes.

Fruit cups.

The ice cream cones were cotton candy with M&M's in the bottom to keep the cones from tipping over.

Banner I made out of $1 plates.

Man, he's sweet! He had the best day! He loved being outside the whole party!

Angela & G

Brandi & Campbell

Eating marshmallows.

He thought he was really cool walking around with his choc dipped marshmallow. I think he even ate some that were covered in grass.

Violet is 10 weeks older than G

Miles

Kyle and Russ

Travis, Logan, Beth & Baby Girl Wells due March '12

It's cake time!!!

I seriously cannot believe he kept the hat on!

My three Smart's. Yes, he loved Nana's cake.

Gracie & G

C & G

Brandi helping Allie & C at one of our craft table. They painted caterpillars that were egg cartons. They also made fingerprint caterpillar book marks, colored caterpillar sheets, and made caterpillars out of circles of scrapbook paper.

Daren and Violet

Miles & G

Ralna & Landri

Slade was tossing the ball to Miles-it was so sweet. I had to snap a pic!

He loves his Cita.

And before everyone left, they signed The Very Hungry Caterpillar book and left Gunnar a birthday note!

Russ, London, and the Smarts. I guess Russ needs to have some more kids to catch up. : )