The past 2 months in a nutshell........

WOW I can't believe what a slacker I am!:) Anyway, the past few months have been crazy, busy, and hectic. Some of it was fun and some of it not so fun. I'll try and go in order......I found out in late May that I would need surgery to remove a freakishly large fibroid that was growing on my uterus. I swear I got more blood tests that month than I thought I'd ever get in a life time! But it was not malignant and I cannot describe how thankful I am for that. My surgery was in mid July and it went pretty well. There were a few complications during surgery and I lost a lot of blood and had to have a few transfusions so that was scary but it could have been a lot worse. There are so many things that I am thankful for because of this thing I went through. I am thankful for a loving, supportive, caring husband. Without him I would have lost my mind! He took 3 weeks vacation and he cooked, cleaned, bathed the girls, did their hair, dressed them, played with them, did laundry, ran errands, paid bills, kept up the house and the yard, he did everything! And he didn't even complain once! I am blessed to have him!:) I am thankful for my girls who make me laugh and smile no matter what. They brighten my days. They made me about a hundred get well pictures! I love them so much. I am thankful for my WONDERFUL doctor! He is truly amazing! He was so good at explaining everything in a way I could understand and he was so supportive and caring. He even called me at home once to check on me after I found out I would need the surgery! I feel blessed to have him as a doctor and I am so incredibly sad he's retiring!:( Last week I also found out that I going to need 1 more surgery! UGH! I cannot wait for all this to be behind me! But I am thankful Dr.Tindall is not retiring until July so I'm ecstatic I don't have to have some strange doctor I don't know do my next and hopefully last surgery. I am thankful for blood donors. I am thankful for my niece who watched the girls while I was in surgery so Shane could be at the hospital. I am thankful for everyone who helped Shane with the girls while I was stuck in the hospital for 2 days. I am thankful for all my friends who took turns bringing dinner for a week! They are amazing! I am thankful for all the hospital staff who took such great care of me, especially the nurses who made me laugh. I am thankful for all the friends and family who came to see me in the hospital and kept me sane. I am thankful for medical technology. I am thankful for the lord who watched over me and my family during this time. I am thankful for prayer. I am thankful that I am OK and can watch my girls grow. I am thankful for all of this and so much more. OK, enough of the mushy stuff....I'm gonna start crying!

Now on to the fun things......Mylee Jade got a haircut! Isn't she so cute?? Her hair was so long and now it's so short! I miss doing her long beautiful hair every morning but I do love her short hair. She wanted to look older for third grade, silly girl.:)

2 days before my surgery Shane took me and our good friends Bonnie and Perry to the D-Backs game. It was such a fun time! Even though the Diamondbacks pretty much stink but it was still so much fun! Bonnie and I got a hold of our good friend, Emily from High school who lives in Phoenix now and we hadn't seen her forever! So it was so nice to see and visit with her.

1 week after my surgery was the big Smithson Family Reunion at the beautiful Brady Park, happy land!:) The only pictures I have are ones on my phone which I couldn't figure out how to get them on here! And the ones that are shown are ones from my cousins camera.

This is me, Shane, my brother Will, and my cousin Audrey making dutch oven biscuits and gravy. Well actually Will and Audrey are. I put on an apron to make it look like I was helping.

This is one of Riah and Avah, they were the "biscuit runners" they would bring the biscuits down from Shima's fancy kitchen to Audrey and Will who would cook them in the dutch oven. Mylee was the "biscuit cutter", Shima was the "Biscuit roller", and I was the "stand there and look busy" girl.

This is Mylee with our cousins cute dog who she loved! Mylee is such a little animal lover.

The rest of the post will be boring because I don't have anymore pictures! Dang it! But anyway, the reunion was so much fun! I just love going and watching my girls play with all their cousins. I love visiting with my cousins who I only see once a year. This year was so relaxing because Shane wouldn't let me lift a finger! I swear that man said "rest" like 500 times during the camping trip! So it was pretty relaxing. I didn't have to get kids meals, or clean them up, or get them to sleep, or set up or take down camp, or pretty much anything except walk around. I got to hold and cuddle my adorable new nephew, Adam pretty much the whole time. It was heavenly!:) He is so cute, I wanted to take him home with me!

After the reunion it was hard getting back into the groove of things. I was starting to not be so sore so I was back to my household chores against Shane's wishes! haha. I had to clean when he wasn't looking so he didn't get mad at me!:) He took such good care of me though, what a SWEETIE he is! I got on to school shopping for the girls school clothes. That was so fun! I LOVE shopping for girl clothes! Mylee started 3rd grade and Riah and Avah started Pre-school. This is Riah's 2nd year and Avah's 1st year. I was very nervous about sending Avah. Anyone who knows her know what a momma's girl she is. I was impressed with her though, she did better than me! I didn't want to leave her, and I cried the whole drive home! She's my baby! But, I'm glad we put her in because it is really helping her socially. All the girls love school!

That is all for now, I will try and be better at blogging but don't hold your breath!

Best Daddy EVER!

I just wanted to wish this guy right here a very HAPPY Fathers Day!!!We love him to pieces and I'm so blessed to have him as my daughter's daddy!
I got the girls together and had them all tell me their favorite things about Their daddy and here they are......

MYLEE:
*He helps me draw
*He helps me catch crawdads
*He bought me my scooter
*He works really hard and gives us lots of stuff
*He's going to buy me a four wheeler for getting perfects grades and I appreciate it.
*He loves me with all of his heart!

MORIAH:
*He plays with me
*He lets me go lots of places with him
*He picks me up from school and gets me ice cream and I don't tell my sisters so they don't get sad.
*I like to swing at the park with him.
*He has tea parties with me.
*He looks so handsome.

AVAH:
*He takes me to McDonald's
*He watches dora with me
*He is really funny
*He got me a pink bike for my birthday
*He is silly
*I love him!

Thanks babe for being so amazing, we love you! Happy Fathers Day!!

Tea Party?

The other day I got out of the shower and found this. Avah had put her fairy wings on poor Peaches and forced her to have a tea party with her. This picture doesn't do justice though......when I first walked out Avah had her in a sort of head lock with a tea cup to her mouth! How mean am I that I let Peaches be treated this way until I could grab a camera and snap a picture? C'mon though, I HAD to have a picture of that!
Isn't she the cutest tea party hostess ever!?

Riah&Karter

These 2 girls LOVE each other! This is them on their last Field trip in pre school together. Next year Riah will be in the 5 year old class because she turns 5 in 2010 and Karter will be in the 4 year old class because she turns 5 in 2011. Weird how they do it because Riah is only 3 months older than Karter. Anyway, they are so disappointed. I'm sure they will both make new friends though. Anyway the reason for the post today is I had this conversation with Riah this morning.......

Riah:"Mom can I play with Karter today? I miss her."

Me:"No sweetie remember Karter is only with Uncle Audie on the weekends, maybe next weekend ok?"

Riah:"Well that's just lovely! Now my heart is broken, AGAIN!"

And she stomps into her room. Haha, poor girl. It was so cute though!

Motherhood

In honor of Mothers Day I would like to say how incredibly thankful I am to be a mother. It is the greatest gift god has ever given me. If it wasn't for my 3 girls I wouldn't be who I am today. They make me a better person just by being here.
I am blessed to have these 3 perfect, beautiful, amazing, smart, loving girls as my daughters! Happy Mothers Day to all you mom's!

Our New Addition.....

Shane has been begging me for a pug puppy for forever now. He grew up breeding them and he just loves them! So, when his buddy from work told him that they breed them also he just had to have one. So me being the wonderful wife I am(haha) agreed. Her name is Peaches and she is adorable! We picked her out a few weeks ago and we just got her today. She is 7 weeks old. I was so nervous about house training her but she is doing WONDERFUL! No accidents so far.....she is super smart! And thanks to my awesome brother in law who is a dog trainer and gave me some awesome tips I am confident she will be trained fully in no time. So meet Peaches, the new addition to our family!:)

Birthday Girl

This little beauty is 3 years old today! Is that weird to anyone else?? Because I seriously can't believe my baby is 3!! Where the heck does the time go? Avah is so much fun and we are so blessed to have her in our family. Happy Birthday Avah Brooke! We love you!

P.S. We aren't having her party until Sunday. My niece Sydney's birthday was on Wednesday so Mandy and I thought it would be fun to do a joint party. So on Sunday we are gonna pack up pick nics and head to Woodland Lake Park and have a little party. The kids love it there because they can feed the ducks. Anyway, so since Mandy is the picture queen I'm sure I'll have plenty of pictures to post from the party so stay tuned!:)

Mylee Update....

We finally got the results back of Mylee's EEG. Took long enough, I know! The waiting was very frustrating. Anyway, her results came back as normal. (Big sigh of relief!) The doctor says her passing out was probably a result of a hot shower and an empty stomach. It sounds weird but he says it is actually a pretty common occurrence for thin girls between the ages of 8-18. So we are all hoping that is all it was and that it never ever ever happens again. I don't think any of our hearts could handle that again! We are just so thankful that our Mylee is well. We are also so thankful for all the friends and family we had supporting Mylee. We really appreciate it. Love to all!

Mylee Jade

Some of you know what has been going on with our sweet Mylee and some don't so I figure this is the best way to keep all of our out of town family and friends updated. On Wednesday Mylee woke up like any other morning. Shane and I were still in bed, she came in our room and said she was getting in the shower in our room. So I got up and started it for her and got back in bed. When she came out of the shower she was looking really pale and she said her stomach hurt really bad. So we asked her if she had to throw up or something. Right when we asked her that she opened her mouth and made a weird sound like she was gasping for breath or something. Her eyes rolled in the back of her head and she collapsed. It was by far the scariest thing that we have ever seen in our life's. We jumped out of bed and went to her. She wasn't breathing. Shane picked her up and layed her flat. He lifted her chin to see if anything was blocking her airway and when he did she started breathing and woke up. She was out for about 45 seconds, although it seemed like it was 5 minuets!!! When she came to she didn't remember anything past her stepping out of the shower and saying her stomach hurt. She seemed fine, a little dazed but fine. So we called Shane's parents to come watch the little girls and I called the pediatrician. He wanted to see her right away. We drove up to Show Low. He examined her and said she seemed OK. He said she may have collapsed from a combination of an empty stomach and hot shower, but since that was her normal routine and because she had stopped breathing which was odd, he wanted some tests done. He sent us over to the Hospital for an EKG and an EEG. They got us right in for the EKG but they had to schedule for the EEG. She gets that done tomorrow. Her EKG came back normal. We were relieved, but are still very nervous for her EEG tomorrow. I will keep everyone updated. Thanks so much for all the prayers. We really appreciate it. This whole thing has been so scary! Mylee is doing good though. She seems fine, she is her happy bubbly self. The doctor didn't want her going to school until we knew what happened with her so she has been a little bored at home with boring mom but she is doing good. Wish us luck, and keep the prayers coming. We love our Mylee Jade!
Love, Joanna

Just stuff

I love my girls, I love the funny things they say, I love how they can make me smile no matter what!

Yesterday while Mylee was playing Mario Cart on the wii she kept getting bombed or smashed or blown up or something by "Koopa Troopa" So as she is choosing the guy she wants for her next "battle" she picked "Koopa Troopa" and she says, "You know what they say, If ya can't beat em be em!" I let out at little chuckle and said, "Who says that?" And she replies, "I do!" Gotta love it!

Today The girls were watching Ariel, their all time favorite princess movie. At the end of the movie when Prince Eric and Ariel kiss, Avah shouts, "EWWW they are rubbing lips!!"

Then also today Riah walks up to me out of no where and says, "Mom did you know that if you kiss a prince you will have babies?"

So even though I am terribly sick and was absolutely dreading today because lets face it taking care of 3 sassy, spunky, energetic little girls and being sick is never easy I still had a blast listening and watching them today. I love my little beauties!:)

Going Back to School.....

So lately I have been thinking a lot about my life and what I want to accomplish during it. I have always wanted to be a teacher, and I think I still do! So instead of just thinking about it I decided to JUST DO IT!!! I need to get off my booty and just do it! So that is what I am going to do! I am going to start my classes in the Fall. I am nervous! I haven't been inside a classroom since I was 18! YIKES! But, I am very excited. I will just do part time school for now until Riah and Avah get into school then I will go full time. Anyway, I just wanted to share my exciting news with all of you!:) This is going to be all very new to me but it will be an adventure and I love adventures!:)

Meet Frosty

Today we made a snowwoman, the girls named her Frosty and Riah is convinced that she is going to come alive to play with her.

Mylee is 8!!!!!!!!!

On January 2nd 2002 this beautiful little girl was born and now here we are 8 years later and she is still as perfect and amazing as she was back then. She brought so much happiness into our life's and I cannot imagine life without her happy little self! We had a birthday party for her on her birthday and so many of her friends showed up(15 to be exact) It was a nuthouse! haha. But she had so much fun and it was worth it. Here she is with a few of her friends opening her presents.

Seeing how she wants to be a rock star when she grows up, of course she wanted a guitar cake. I was a little nervous, I had no idea how to make a guitar cake! But thanks to the lovely Internet I found this super easy and cute recipe. The kids loved it. And I must say I am pretty proud of myself, I'm no professional but I think it turned out pretty darn good.

And apparently she thought so too:)

Happy 8th birthday my beautiful Mylee Jade!!!! We love you!!!!!

Our Christmas

We had a fun Christmas, as we always do. Santa came, the girls came jumping on our bed at 7AM sharp screaming, "Santa came, Santa came, Santa came!!!", we dragged ourselves out of bed, let the girls go through their stockings while we waited for Shane's parents to get there, the girls were going nuts waiting, 8AM they showed up and the girls went wild! I didn't get many pictures, but these are the ones we did get.
Avah got a bike and loves it!:)

Mylee finally got her DS and as you can tell, LOVES it!

Riah the horse lover got a big giant horse along with a big giant horse book that is not shown.

My house looked like a tornado hit it and they weren't even done yet!

They loved all of their gifts but this dollhouse from Santa to all the girls was by far their favorite. And ours too! That thing keeps them so entertained! And they all play together so nicely with it.

Hope you all had a fabulous Christmas as well!:)