Cousins

Steve has started making a funny smile sometimes when he is being silly. We call it a sneer because he wrinkles his nose up and shows his teeth but all the while he has a little twinkle in his eyes. It really cracks me up! He and his little cousin Anna had a great time fighting over presents during the party (the Aaron Quist family opened some Christmas gifts early because they will be in California for Christmas). Anna got some "sweeeet" new toys and Steve seemed to think that they were for him- even the little doll! Here are some more pictures from the party, including Steve's new sneer and Anna who is just learning to crawl and is so very cute! (Look at those eyes!)

A Family Tradition

We started a new tradition the first year Scott and I were married - each December we have the Quist family over for dinner (always homemade Mexican food) and act out the Nativity complete with costumes songs and scriptures.

We were supposed to have this dinner on Monday night but instead turned it into a combined birthday/nativity/Christmas celebration on Tuesday. (We had to postpone due to an outbreak of a nasty stomach bug started by little Stephen and spread to his Mommy, Cousin Anna, Aunt Chery, Aunt Celsea, Aunt Brooke, Cousins Atley and Talan, Uncle Josh, Grandpa Quist, Daddy, and counting). There were still a few who didn't feel so well but we still managed to have fun.

My brother, Aaron, was Joseph, his wife, Rebecca, was Mary and 8 month old Anna was Baby Jesus. Scott was the star ( I thought he was very convincing as a star) and Stephen was the angel. He was an adorable angel!! The rest of us were miscellaneous shepherds and wisemen. We missed my brother Allen who plays and excellent sheep - he is finishing up finals at BYU. You may not be able to see it in the picture but Scott has a small gold star sticking out of the headband on the left side. It was in the middle of his forehead before...

Happpy Birthday to Me!

Yesterday (December 18th) was my 26th birthday and it was a really good one! Scott bought me some sassy brown boots (that I have wanted for sooo long), and two dozen gorgeous red roses. My mom gave me new PJs and the DVD of While You Were Sleeping (my favorite movie which up until now I only owned on VHS). Scott's mom was inspired to give me movie tickets and a night of babysitting Steve so that Scott and I can enjoy a night out. I also received phone calls from several old friends and several relatives. I felt very loved and had a very good day!

26 seems a little old ... I still feel about 17 or 18 but without the svelt figure. Oh well, I have a wonderful life! Steve really enjoyed helping me open the gifts - he doesn't care what is inside.

A Place to Call Home

Ok, I know you have all been in terrible suspense to find out where we are going to move to. After a suggestion from my mother-in-law we decided to check out the ASU student housing at Williams Gateway. (The old Williams Air Force Base). They are an excellent price and were able to get us in very quickly. Most interestingly, Scott was born there when his dad was in the Air Force 27 years ago. Yeah yeah yeah he is old. So anyway we are just going back to Scott's roots. We are supposed to get the keys on Wednesday so that we can move in but we will not count on it until the keys are in our hands!! The house has 3 bedrooms and a den so we will have plenty of space for all of that stuff that we have. Also, just a few yards down the road is a fun park which Stephen is already in love with. (The slides you know.) He also loves all of the "a- pu" (airplanes) and helicopters flying around. Here are some pictures of our supposed new place. We are excited to actually move and unpack our kitchen and other things (like the iron) that we have been living without. If you are wondering how we have lived without a kitchen I must tell you we have been eating really really well. Some might call it mooching but I call it super good cooking at my mom's house for almost every night for a week! Thanks Mom!!! (She is a really good cook).

Moving Day...or not?

Okay, when is the last time your house looked this good? Mine looks this way now! We have been working like crazy to get all of our stuff (where did all of this junk come from anyway?) packed up and ready to move. Stephen has mostly been a good sport and really enjoyed the empty kitchen cupboards today. Then the real shocker came. I got a call from the apartments we were planning to move into (today, remember?) and instead of saying, "come on down and sign the lease and get your keys," they say, "I'm sorry, your application has been denied." "Um, excuse me???" These apartments are called "affordable housing" and so you have to make under a certain amount to live in them (which we do) but because of some technicality on the application we are out of luck now. (If you want the full story, call me). So now we have our entire house packed to move and nowhere to go. I don't think there is anything left to say (or do). In fact, I just told Scott I don't know what to do right now which is why I am blogging. So anyway, this post about moving was supposed to be cute and funny, but now it is not quite the way I pictured it.

Happy Halloween!

Stephen played with the bowl of candy at Grandma and Grandpa Smith's house for about half an hour tonight. He kept picking up the candy and tossing it and giggling. He reminded me of a piarate opening a chest of gold and letting it run through his fingers.

Here we are waiting for trick-or-treaters at my parents' house. That's me in the front row - second from the left. Just in case you couldn't tell...

Harry Potter and a Clown (Cousin Talan) hanging out at the Smith's. They had so much fun throwing Tootsie Rolls all over the house and crushing some Reese's Cups inside the wrappers!

Carving Jack-O-Lanterns

For FHE we went to the Quist home and had a "Pumpkin Night." My mom made pumpkin muffins, cookies, and pie and then we went out to the garage to carve pumpkins. We had so much fun designing and carving our jack-o-lantern. I designed the face and gutted the pumpkin, then Scott took over and did the carving. Stephen was entertained by my parents' beagle, Indy. He crawled around on the ground the entire time, giggling and getting completely filthy. I was so impressed at Scott's carving abilities - I had no idea he was so talented in this area. It just goes to show that you don't know everything about your spouse! Scott did an awesome job and even gave the back of the pumpkin a semi-transparent "S" monogram. It looks really cool with a candle in it! If you look carefully at Stephen's feet and legs in these pictures you can see how gross he was.

Harry Potter

Ok - here is the standard ward trunk-or-treat post. :) I never thought it would happen to me, but I will admidt it - I am one of those crazy moms who spends hours sewing a costume for my little one...I made it big so that he can wear it a few more years. Mostly it was just fun form me to have a "project." Steve enjoyed the party more than we expected. He got a kick out of watching all of the "big"kids walking around in their constumes. All three of us liked eating cotton candy. We left just as they started the "trunk-or-treating." One-year-olds do not need candy. One-year-olds' mommys also do not need candy. One-year-olds' daddys do not eat candy. (At least that is how it is in our family!)

Wild Nights

We have always been fortunate because Stephen is a great sleeper - he rarely wakes up during his 12 hour nights. . . but every now and again (just when I start to gloat) he has a wild night like last night ...

8:00 pm - Stephen goes to bed.

10:30 pm - Scott and I go to bed - (this is early for me)

11:21 pm - Something wakes me up - after a while I realize that it is Steve's Lights and Sound Aquarium playing full blast. (You have to know that his room is in the absolute opposite end of the house, but the sound carries!)

11:23 pm - I am trying to ignore the music - it will shut off soon - but I am also wondering why Steve turned it on?

11:24 pm - I am awake fully now and go down to check - Stephen is fast asleep under the aquarium with full sound and lights flashing. I turn off the aquarium (with the grown-up button) and go back to bed.

12:07 am - Stephen is crying now - he does this occasionally for about 15 seconds and then goes back to sleep, but this time I am not so lucky - he is not going back to sleep.

12:15 am - Ok he is really not going back to sleep so I go and check on him. I give him a drink and some Tylanol (he is teething) and check the diaper. All very standard procedure. Finally, I take him to sit in the rocking chair for a while. He is very content and as he starts to relax, some toots start coming. Of course - I should have known!

12:25 - I put Stephen back in bed. (He must feel better now). After 5 minutes of fussing he is back asleep.

12:27 pm - Aaahhh, now I can go to sleep finally!

12:28 pm - Scott starts snoring and something is dripping in the bathroom. . .

12:30 pm - Put ear plug in one ear...thats all I remember.

So the question still on everyone's mind is "Why did Steve turn on the music?" I don't think we will ever know...

By the way, these pictures were from a different wild night. I am not entirely sure how he got his arm through the neck hole, but this is how he was when I got him out of his crib. Also, you can't see it in the picture, but one leg was up inside the pajamas.

A Slumber Party

My sisters, Chery and Celsea, came over for a sleep over one night this week. They were on fall break and we took the opportunity for some real "girl time." We have had several of these sleep overs in the past but I don't remember Stephen ever getting so involved. While we were doing pedicures in the bathroom he kept crawling over and throwing random stuff in the bathtub (which was full of water). We tried to wait to make the marshmallow popcorn until after he went to sleep but he was in a really cheeful mood until nearly 9:30 and didn't really want to go to bed. Finally, I put my foot down and he went to sleep. My sisters and I then enjoyed our movie (Serendipity) and popcorn. The next morning Stephen was so excited to see his two aunts still at our house. He had a lot of fun climbing on the trundle bed and pile of sheets and blankets. We finished off the whole party by making crepes for breakfast. Over all, we had a lot of fun.

Our Big Decision

As many of you already know the last six months have been extremely difficult for our family. After Scott lost his job in May we have gone through a series of ups and downs as we came up with plan after plan for our future lives. Because of our financial situation, we are now onto plan ZZZ - we are going to have to move out of our beautiful home into an apartment in November. While it has been a struggle, it has become clear that Heavenly Father must have something in mind for us to do and learn and the only way to accomplish it is to move! We are sad and a little excited at the same time. We are sad to leave the beautiful surroundings of our wonderful little home and sad to leave the awesome ward that we love so much. We will also really miss seeing our awesome neighbors as often. We are excited because we hope that when we are situated in our new place we will find that we can breathe a little easier and not have to stress about money so much. Who knows, maybe we can afford to go on a little trip to California or go to a movie every now and then. But the best part of all is that now we will be able to really focus in on getting Scott through school. To help myself cope with the move I took several pictures of our house the way that I would like to remember it and I want to share them.

One of my favorite rooms in the house is Stephen's bedroom. I love it because we worked so hard on it to get it ready before he was born. Scott spent hours painting the room and making the stripes on the walls perfect. All of the bedding and paint matches perfectly and we spent MANY hours refinishing the dresser. I am very proud of this room and I regret that we will not get to enjoy it any more. Luckily, the most important part - Stephen - will still sleep just as sweetly wherever we go and I wouldn't trade that for anything!

Stephen spent several minutes hidding in the closet earlier today while I took these pictures. He liked going behind the closed part and getting really quiet. It was pretty funny.

In case anyone is wondering where we are going to move to, we found some aparments only about two miles from our current home. They are called San Angelin and are located on Baseline and Sunnyvale Road between Higley and Recker. They were built in 2006 and are a great deal! Here is a picture of the pool and some of the buildings.

Stephen's First Birthday

Stephen celebrated his first birthday on September 27th! We invited the Quist family as well as the Smith family over to eat cake and watch Stephen open presents. It was very entertaining to watch Steve open each gift because as soon as he saw what was inside he would let out a little gasp or squeal. He got a great assortment of toy cars, books, and clothes as well as a new “push and ride” car from Grandma and Grandpa Smith. He even has a new cell phone and car keys from Grandma and Grandpa Quist.

Yes, there is a theme here – Stephen loves cars and everything to do with them. All you have to say is “go” or “car” and he says “bbbrrrruumm brruuummm.” Sometimes Scott lets him “drive” the car in our neighborhood and he is now a pro at turning on the windshield wipers, bright headlights, and blinkers.

After opening all of his gifts we gave Stephen his tiger cake to enjoy in the way that only one-year-olds get to . . . yummy!

Fun Old Stuff

I thought it might be fun to start off sharing a few pictures of Stephen from his first year. These are some of my favorite ones. Stephen is such a happy, smiley little guy and is so much fun to have around. He crawls everywhere and gets into everything. He is also very good at pulling himself up on chairs, couches, walls, table legs, and mommy and daddy legs. His interests right now are cars (brrrumm brrrrumm), cows (mmmmu mmmu), and dogs (panting sound). He also enjoys reading books with mommy and daddy. He is now a really "big boy" because he no longer uses a pacifier. (I think we are through the worst...) No, Krispy Kreme did not pay us. This picture was taken in Provo when Steve was about 6 months old. He really liked tasting doughnuts.

Here is Stephen helping Daddy open his birthday present in July. Steve was 10 months old at the time. He loved playing with the paper and box after the gift was open as I am sure he will enjoy at his own birthday. Scott is a great dad and I love this picture of the two of them together.

Here is Steve is in his walker on Easter Sunday. He has lost interest in the walker recently (he found that crawling gets him to more interesting and hands-on places) but for about 3 months or so he spent many hours in his walker running all around the house. It was really entertaining to watch him try to catch Kloie, our beagle. (He never did.) It was also fun to run from him and hide behind the corners to jump out and surprise him. He could run really fast in that thing and giggled the whole time he was running.

Meet the Smiths

Here is our adorable family - Cami, Scott, and Stephen. While we are stunningly attractive in this picture we actually look better in person! This picture was taken in August 2007 at Val Vista Lakes (in case you didn’t already recognize it). We are very excited to begin this blog so that we can share all of the fun we are having! Stephen’s first birthday is on Thursday, the 27th. I am looking forward to a lot of fun and a lot of cute pictures!