Haley's Swimming Lessons!!!

I wish we had started swimming lessons for Haley last summer but it never worked out. This summer we made it a priority and we are so glad that we did! We are so proud of Haley and her progress after only five 15-20 min swim lessons!!! We would have love to have had more lessons but Coach Jill is taking a break to enjoy her summer! I'm going to talk to Haley about doing some additional lessons with the swim team coach in our neighborhood so we'll see what happens.

I have a ton of videos from swimming lessons yesterday but here are a few.....

- Haley's favorite....she LOVES to jump into the pool! She's not afraid to make a big spalsh!
- Floating on her back!
- Just getting the lesson started
- Rolling over from back and swimming
- Swimming to the ladder....this one made me a tiny bit nervous

Thanks Sarah for the referral of Coach Jill, she was wonderful to work with!!! Looking forward to her teaching Noah how to swim in the Fall or Spring.

Dadda....Dadda....Dadda....

.....was the first words out of Noah's mouth this morning just after finishing his 6:30am bottle. He just kept saying it over and over and over! I was in denial for a while as naturally I wanted "Momma" to be the first word but Clayton was in the other room and yelled back to me "I hear that!!!" He's very proud that Noah said Dadda as his first word BUT Haley said Momma first so I guess we are even :-) Although.....I'm still a bit jealous!!!! We'll be working on Momma! I'll try to catch a video of him soon and post that too for all of you to see! What's a little crazy is that Haley said Momma when she was 7 months and 7 days old...Noah said Dadda when he was 7 months and 6 days old!!! How crazy is that???

Oh and he learned how to clap last night and he is very proud of himself! Noah also went for his 7 month shots yesterday and now weighs 18lbs 15oz (1oz away from 19lbs)! He was not very happy about his shots but I guess that's the way it goes. I had brought some of his favorite food with me so right afterwards I fed him some avocado and he was a much happier baby! While eating his avocados he always says "um...umm." He's clearly enjoying them!

CUPCAKE WARS!!!

Aaaahhhhh.... I am soooo excited to finally be able to share with you all……….
My twin sister (Sheryl) and I will be on an episode of Food Network’s TV Show,
CUPCAKE WARS airing this Tuesday, June 21st at 8:00pm EST!!!!!!!
Be sure to watch!!

The BAKER herself.....Sheryl....."Icing Makes the Cake"....what a GREAT Teacher!!!Not sure if I have made this clear before......but I HATE TO COOK, BAKE, ETC so this was a HUGE undertaking for Sheryl to try to teach me how to make cupcakes, icing, fondant, etc all from scratch! Even worse was if you have ever seen this show you know that it's all timed, so no time to learn on the go! I still kept calling them muffins....LOL! I also wanted to give a HUGE THANK YOU to my husband Clayton for letting me head out to LA on this adventure with Sheryl for a FULL week while he stayed at home with Haley & Noah!! Noah had just turned 4 months old! It was sooo hard to leave him and Haley but luckily we were VERY busy the entire time out there so my mind didn't really have time to think about how much I missed them!

P.S. This would not have been possible to accomplish without the help of many people including Melissa, Jimmy, Mom, Gary L, Ryan, Clayton, Bob, Mary, etc, etc…

Thank you ALL sooo much for ALL of your help!

Noah's 2nd Tooth & 7 Months Old Today!

As I had suspected his second tooth had popped through the skin this morning! He was still a bit sleepy this morning when i snapped this picture but I thought it was really cute! Noah is 7 months old today and now has his 2 bottom teeth and as of last night is now rolling from back to belly! He's been able to roll from his belly to his back a little bit now and can now officially roll the other way too! Such a big boy these days!!! We love him soooo much.....especially his Big Sister Haley! She wanted me to wake him up last night so she could show him her nails that she had just got painted! I'm sure Noah would have just loved that...haha. Instead when she woke up this morning the first thing she did was run to see Noah to show him...thankfully he looked at them and gave her some big smiles so she knew he really like them too :-)

Noah's FIRST TOOTH Finally!!!

and the 2nd one is RIGHT behind....it will probably show up tomorrow!!! I can feel the 2nd one and see it but it hasn't broken skin yet! Yeah NOAH! Look out Daddy.....NOAH's going to be eating us out of the house soon...............he'll be ready for that steak dinner in no time!!!!! I knew something was up as he hasn't been his usual SUPER HAPPY baby....but still a very "Happy Baby." The biggest hint was that he wasn't drinking ALL his bottles! As you can see this boy NEVER left a drop in his bottles!!! So when he started slowing down I figured either yet "another" ear infection or teeth. Luckily this time it's TEETH! Noah will be 7 months old tomorrow!

I just love this picture!! Katherine and Noah on Memorial Day weekend.....

Haley & Noah are learning how to swim......

Well Noah is really just learning how to "float" and "smack" the water BUT Haley really is learning how to swim! She starts swim lessons next week so we spent both days this past weekend at the pool trying to get her ready. Haley's never really spent much time at the pool as we are always on the lake so letting her near water with out her life jacket on and actually telling her to go under water is a HUGE adjustment for us and her. We have always made it a rule that she has to have her life jacket on before we will even walk on the docks. When we started the day on Saturday Haley ONLY wanted to play in the baby pool. After about 30 minutes I convinced her that we should try swimming in the big pool together. I told her she didn't even have to wear her life jacket and I would hold onto her. By the end of the day she was jumping off the side of the pool and I would catch her just after her face was under water!!! I thought getting her to put her face in the water was going to take a while but really she didn't mind it at all. We just told her to hold her breath or blow bubbles when she went under.....and it worked! Once she jumped into the water I would help her swim back to the wall and then she would walk her self down the edge of the pool until she got to the stairs and could touch the ground. Then repeat. Haley was so proud of herself by Saturday afternoon that all she could talk about was how she was able to swim across the entire pool all by herself. OK....that's not exactly what happened but I was so excited for her I just went with it. Really I was holding onto her the entire time but she did kick and do her arms the entire time so I think that deserves some credit! That's tiring....for both of us!! :-) Since it was just Haley and I at the pool on Saturday I wasn't able to snap any pictures but we finally got some on Sunday! Manace joined Haley and I on Sunday and Haley learned how to swim all by herself using her Princess ring float that Aunt Melissa got her for Easter! Haley was a little nervous in the beginning but ended up really enjoying the freedom. Of course she showed Manace what she had learned on Saturday as well. During the "Adult swim" we would head back to the baby pool where Manace and Haley got some one on one play time! Now that she's been in the big pool she doesn't really want to play in the baby pool which is great BUT after 3 hours of catching her and swimming with her I'm EXHAUSTED!!! Later Sunday afternoon Noah made his big appearance and decided to go for his very 1st swim! He actually LOVED his float and was so excited that he could "smack" the water and splash it in his face. This boy is not afraid of water! I'm thinking we'll be starting his swim lessons next summer as he'll be walking by then and I don't think he'll be cautious like Haley was.

To end our exhausting weekend at the pool both kids came home and got their baths and then enjoyed some movie time together! Once Noah went to bed Haley found just a "couple" more friends to watch movies with her......LOL!

Summer is here!!!

No better way to start off a summer morning then watching Mickey Mouse with your favorite sibling! Haley is such a great big sister to Noah and actually really does enjoy every minute he is with her. From the time she wakes up in the morning till Noah goes to bed Haley is always concerned about Noah. She brings him a toy first thing when she wakes up in the morning, is always entertaining him with her songs and dances and if he ever starts to fuss she is usually the first one over there and is giving him his blanket and a pacifier or a toy! What's really cute is that when she's playing with him and needs to walk away for a minute if he starts to fuss she quickly responds with "I think he needs me" or "Noah, don't worry sweet boy....I'm coming right back." I love that she always calls him Sweet Boy! I'm sure they won't always get along so well so I'm enjoying it as much as possible now. Our summer weekends pretty much consist of either going to the lake or the pool! Noah had his 1st boat ride on Memorial Day weekend! All in all i think he did great!! It was crazy hot...95 degrees or so but really he slept most of the time and when he was awake he was usually just checking everything all out! Of course he didn't really like the life jacket but it went better than i had expected given that he had yet another cold. We had just been to the Dr. on Monday where they gave us the all clear FINALLY on his ear infection after 3 rounds of antibiotics which we finished that Wednesday and then by Friday (only 2 day later) his nose was running again and his eyes were all goopy. I thought for sure the ear infection was back because one of the first signs of an ear infection is the runny nose and goopy eyes but thankfully after a trip to the Dr. Saturday morning they said his ears still looked good and it was likely just another cold! Not great news but I was just so thankful that he didn't have another ear infection. We are in the process of getting him down to 4 bottles a day since he's eating his food so well! As of this past week he has a bottle at 6:30am (i usually have to wake him up for this one), breakfast food at 9:30am or 10am, bottle at 10:30am, 3rd bottle at 2:30pm, dinner around 6pm followed with a bottle at 6:30pm and then it's off to bed at 7pm or 7:30pm.
SPOILED!! Apparently McDonald's has the best play ground and breakfast so Haley and Papa went there first to eat and play today but on the way to school made one last stop at Chick-fil-A to get a morning ice cream snack! Who doesn’t like ice cream at 9am?!?! You can tell she’s definitely got some of mine and Sheryl’s genes in her…lol! Chick-fil-A has outside seating so that’s why their ice cream is better than McDonald’s!

Now who doesn’t love that hair style…haha! It was just before bath time and I thought we’d see what his hair could do! Oh and by the way he’s almost out grown that bumbo seat….when you go to pick him up out of it you have to pry the seat off of his bottom...LOL! It’s actually pretty funny…it’s like a suction cup to his bottom. He must have gotten the "Smith" butt :-)

HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY NATHAN!!! My cousin Rachel and Corey's little boy just turned ONE! Unfortunately we couldn't make it to St. Louis for the big celebration but his Mommy sent me this picture of him eating his Birthday cake!! Looks like he really enjoyed that cake! BTW Nathan looks EXACTLY like his Daddy in this picture!

Makayla and Macy came into town two weekends ago and actually got to stay at our house this time!! It was so much fun having all the girls together! They play so well with each other and really enjoyed some cousin bonding time! All the girls woke up each morning asking for each other....too cute! Once Makayla and Macy get a little older they will get to start having sleepovers!!! Then the fun will really start! Along with that comes the sleepless nights for us parents though I'm sure.


Just a couple of random pictures of Noah growing up and becoming more and more independent :-(