Preston's 1st Birthday!!!

This month is such a special one, it's birthday time for you!  On Thursday, a special boy had a special birthday.  It's crazy to think it has been a whole year already, but the calendar doesn't lie.  So, of course, we had to celebrate.

Here is the birthday boy!

Some fun decorations!  We decided to theme the party around race cars, since one of Preston's favorite activities is to have a car in each hand, lay on the kitchen floor, and drive them around while making "vrooming" noises.   It is pretty cute.

Preston was pretty excited about his cake, but even more excited about everyone singing to him.  I think that was his favorite part!

Here is a little play by play action as he dove into his cake.  First, he took the car off.  Then he actually drove the car around the top of the cake, until he realized that the cake tastes good and was all his.  Then the car was forgotten!  Towards the end, I caught him trying to suck the frosting off the car as well.  It was hilarious!

Anyone want to kiss him?  Hugs?

Then it was time for presents...  He really enjoyed that part too.

Doesn't he look so small compared to his gifts?

After he unwrapped everything, Oliver spent ample time trying to convince me that Preston's gifts were really for Oliver, and that Preston's stuff was still at the store.  It's a really good thing that Preston only turned one and doesn't know any different.  I'm happy that they are sharing well.   I have a feeling next year will be a little different.

Preston is an amazing little guy.  He can't walk yet, but he sure can climb.  He pushes the bench all over the kitchen, allowing him to walk around with it.  He is also very mischievous.  He likes to sneak into the bathrooms and play in the toilet water, which, of course, is not allowed.   He also likes to get into the kitchen garbage.  (yuck! and yuck!).  Preston loves to play with his siblings, especially when they crawl around on the floor with him.  Noelle can make Preston laugh, no matter what his mood is!  They are kindred spirits!  Preston doesn't say any words yet, but he is a man with a million sound effects.  He is SO much fun, and we love him, dearly.  Happy Birthday, Preston!

Fall Break in Review

Fall Break started on a Wednesday.  In fact, the very Wednesday that we received our package in the mail.  (Great way to start the fun).  We decided we needed to do some fun things for the break.  It's not easy to think of fun things to do when: 

1.) You aren't familiar with the area 

and 2.) You don't yet have any friends.  

So, we had to improvise.  Here is a lot of pictures of the things we accomplished during the 6 day break:

We did some art.  We used recycle goods to make bats!

 Once the bats were made, instead of hanging them up from the trees outside as planned... we played indoor soccer with them.  I'm thinking that was even more fun.

We explored the canyon.  Look at those colors!  I love seeing the autumn leaves!

 We walked to the only store in town and bought ice cream!

 We played at the park... a lot!  

 On Saturday, we went up "north" to do our supplies shopping.  We decided to make it a fun day, so we left early and stopped at Thanksgiving Point to check out a museum that my awesome cousin, Liz, told me about.  "The Museum of Natural Curiosity".  Thanks to our passes to the Science Center (which we won't be visiting any time soon) we were able to get into the Museum for free.  It was really neat.  Here are a few pictures.

 Brandon was brave and took 3 young kids into a pitch black tunnel.  They didn't like it too much... but they did it.  And I watched from outside.

 In case you were wondering... this is how much the ENTIRE Smithson family weighs.  We all got on together.

Sunday was our first opportunity to visit church.  Until then, it had been conferences and more conferences.  It was nice to sit in regular meetings.  The children still haven't had a regular Sunday, as they have been practicing for the primary program, but at least they got to meet some more kids!

It was a fun Fall Break!

Apple Picking!

Have you ever climbed a tree and picked an apple?  I haven't either!  But now, thanks to our cousin, Shelly, Melanie has!  Melanie LOVED it (talked about it for hours afterwards).  And we loved the apples!  Shelly spoiled us completely with fresh apples, tomatoes, and a watermelon from her garden.  Everything was so yummy!

 Preston enjoyed taste testing all the produce!

Thank you, Shelly, for the yummy produce and for some adult conversation!

Preston

It has been a while since I have blogged about Preston, and only Preston.  Mr. Preston is 6 months old now!  Time has really been flying!  He smiles, giggles, "talks", rolls, crawls, and sits.  Preston is by far my most laid back baby.  He has started becoming aware of when I leave him and will protest, but is quick to regain composure when I return.  He loves his siblings and puts up with a lot of "love" from them.  Preston is just too cute!  I love him.  Here are some pictures:

The kids found this tiny Santa Hat the other day while I was de-cluttering and packing up my closet.  They decided that Preston needed to try it on, but alas, he kept pulling it off.  I decided it was still work getting a picture of.

 Here is a picture of me and my little Teddy Bear!

 Preston fell asleep while we were picking Melanie up from school the other day.  Someone decided he needed a baby to snuggle with.

 Yesterday, I was in the kitchen and look who followed me in!  I laid on the floor to take these pictures and he started giggling so much he couldn't hold himself up too well.  Next thing I knew, he was grabbing the camera away from me (even though I kept scooting back).

 Doesn't his little face just warm your heart?  Man, I'm in love!

Preston, Thank you for joining our family!  We love you!

Camping near Big Lake

We went camping last weekend, just our little (or big, depending on how you define a family size) family.  We left on Thursday and headed up to Big Lake, Arizona!  We love camping up there because it is usually much much cooler and it typically rains.  This trip was rain-less, which was a little disappointing, but we still had a great time.  We camped for a few days and then headed home.  Here are some pictures from our trip.

Preston enjoyed some out door, big boy playing!

 Outdoor camping food is truly the best!  Seriously, nothing ever tastes as good as camp food.

 There was no such thing as clean while camping.  It's amazing how fast faces were covered in dirt.

 I love seeing how these kids imaginations work and what fun ideas they come up with.  I also really love seeing them play well together.  It's unfortunate that it isn't always the case.

 There he is... Mr. Wonderful.  Just had to throw that in there.  I think Oliver "took" this picture.

 Male Bonding Time!

 Preston's first hiking experience.

 And look who carried him!  This was a first for both of us.  He rode, and I carried.  Usually Brandon does the carrying.

 Exploring by Crescent Lake

 I mentioned the dirty faces... right?

 Melanie is truly a monkey.  We traded her in at the zoo a long time ago.  Don't let the zoo know though.  She is too cute to give back.

 More Male Bonding.

 Eating their desserts around the "fire".  (It turned out to be no burn this trip, so they had to imagine their fire, but they still insisted having a camp fire moment).

 Camping bath!  How do you like my awesome socks?  They were my Christmas present from Noelle last Christmas!

 More camp fire moments.

 Okay... the Oreos!  This little man may look so innocent, but let me tell you...  it's a facade!  ha ha!  See, we told the kids the last night that if they ate all their dinner, they could have dessert (which is what the girls were eating around their imagined camp fire).  Well, Mr. Red refused to eat his dinner (which was unfortunate because the aforementioned awesome-ness of camp food).  Needless to say, he didn't earn dessert.  The girls both got cupcakes.  Well, Brandon apparently also bought some oreos, which he informed me were dairy free (I'm dairy free right now).  I'm not quite sure what is in oreos that they can be dairy free, but alas, I didn't want to know that particular night.  I opened the package and ate two.  Then I started to get ready to give Preston his bath.  Next thing I know, Oliver has 2 yummy oreos, one in each hand.  He proceeded to do the most amazing "I stole the Oreos" dance imaginable.  It was quite a thing.  It was too cute that I told him that he had just better hurry and eat his stolen goods before it was time for his bath, or I'd take them away.  And he did just that!

In the end, camping was SO much fun.  We were about 2 miles away from any other campers.  I could let the kids go "free range chicken" and not worry.  As long as I could see them from the camp site, they were fine.  The weather was nice (a little hotter then we had planned, but much cooler than at home).  It was fun to spend time with each other and explore.  I can't wait until we can go again, and neither can the kiddos.