Family Time.....

Last weekend Noah and I went with my parents to Tennessee to celebrate my Uncle Fred's 80th birthday. We stayed with my wonderful Aunt Jan. She always welcomes us with open arms and lots of homemade food and makes us feel right at home. We arrived in the mountains Thursday night after a bit of a delay in Charlotte.

Normally we would not have traveled that way but the decision had been made by the "travel agent" that we would go up through Charlotte and Boone then come home through Johnson City Tn and Ashville NC. The reason for this is so we could see more of the fall colors. We really did not see many colors in the mountains on Thursday since it was getting dark by the time we got there. It was even darker for mom since she actually forgot she was wearing her sunglasses. That provided us with a good giggle....thanks mom. Anyway, Friday we woke to home baked biscuits and sausage gravy. YUM!! I'm tellin ya, Aunt Jan could easily open a 4 star restaurant! My cousin Tina didn't have to work that day so she was able to spend the whole day with us. Bill, my other cousin and his wife April came up later in the day and we all relaxed and had a good visit. Tina invited me to go to dinner with her and her friends (after I whined a little) and we had a wonderful meal and great conversation. Her friends are great! Thank you to the 5 Noah sitters. From what I understand they obeyed his every command and a great time was had by all!

On Saturday, we went to Fatz in Bristol and met up with Uncle Fred, my cousins Freddie and Charles, his wife Debby and two of their youngins, Drew and Morgan. We had not seen Uncle Fred and his folks for more than a year. I always enjoy spending time with my cousins and their wives and children. We have made many a wonderful memory through the years and it is wonderful to reminisce. We did miss Melissa and Chelsea though!

Sunday, Uncle Fred and the gang came to Aunt Jan's. She and mom made a meal fit for kings. You would not believe how much wonderful food we had! It was so great to all be together and to catch up on each other's lives.

I am so blessed to have these people in my life that I call family. They are each very special to me. Here are a few pictures of our time together.

Noah and Morgan chowin down.....the flash kinda reflected off Freddie's big ole head, sorry about that!

The fellas enjoying the meal and some fellowship. Charles, his son Drew, Freddie, Uncle Fred and Pops.
This artistic plate belonged to my cousin Charles. Yes. He ate it all. In his defense, all our plates looked a lot like it and yes. We ate them. And yes. Some of us went back for seconds. Oink. Yum.
Morgan and Noah sittin on the dog house, watchin the guys play horseshoes. Best seat in the arena! Pops is standing watch for any stray horseshoes and making sure no one gets hurt. (thanks pops) By the way, Noah and Morgan figured out that if you stand directly above the stake and drop the horseshoes on the stake instead of throwing them all the way to the other side, you get more ringers that way. Silly us. Making that game so difficult all this time. Leave it to the 4 year olds to figure out that we have been doing it ALL WRONG!!
Hanging around, talking, watching football....there is a TV in the corner of the dining area. My mom and Aunt Jan are huge, HUGE sports fans. Yes. You heard me. My mom and Aunt Jan. They WILL hang up on you if you call during a good game. Trust me......sigh.
I LOVE THIS PICTURE!! Uncle Fred, reading to his granddaughter Morgan.

One thing is for sure and certain. I am so thankful for my family. My parents are absolutely wonderful and along with them, my Aunts, Uncles and cousins are so very precious to me. I don't have all the words in me to truly explain how important they all are. I hope one day I will find those words but until then, I hope they know that I love them all GREAT BIG BUNCHES!!

I love pictures that.....

are self portraits..

show my little guy's beautiful eyes.....

are of sleeping little ones.....

show gentleness in a very active little boy.......

show toes curled in excitement.....

are taken from a different angle.....

show hard work and concentration.....

show laughter and fun.....

show a super hero with his daddy......

show love and cuddles.....

OK. I need to face facts. I just love pictures! My name is Robin and I have a problem....

A very special treat....

Gene took Friday off and he took Noah and me to the aquarium downtown. It really was a very special treat and fun was had by all. What I really enjoyed was seeing the two of them together in an adventure. Since I don't work outside the home, I get to do little adventures with Noah all the time. Gene kind of gets the short end of the stick where adventures are concerned and it warmed my heart just seeing my two guys have fun.

This is a shot of them at the touch tank.....Noah would instruct Daddy on what he needed to touch and then watch him do it. Noah wanted no part of touching.....

This is Noah posing with a turtle at the outside exhibit.

Daddy and Noah at the outside exhibit This fish just stayed right there next to Noah for about 5 minutes. It did not leave until Noah did. Very strange....... Finally, Noah and Daddy playing in the pirate ship.....

Yep. Really nice day!

The cat is in the dishwasher......

Yep. You heard me. The cat was in the dishwasher....I have proof.

I have NO idea why she decided she needed to be in there. Please don't ask.

I need an aspirin.....

Time keeps slippin.....

Hi there! Sorry to all 2 or 3 of my loyal readers for being gone so long. Time just somehow gets away from me. Seems I blink and 3 weeks have passed. What is up with that!!??

So, how have ya'll been? We have been pretty busy here in Smithville. Quite a few of our friends have been having some really bad luck in the health department. Everything from very serious infections to gallbladders and other tummy issues. Everyone seems to be on the mend thanks be to God. We have been so very blessed in Smithville in the sickness and health area. The little guy does have some dermatology issues and is on some meds that are occasionally showing some pretty nasty side effects but compared to what our friends and loved ones are dealing with, we are doin real good. Please keep them all in your prayers. I appreciate it!

As I said, we have been busy. Noah especially. Poor little guy works his fingers to the bone for us! Here are a few examples:

Helping Daddy practice for Sunday service.............

Making sure the kitty is covered, warm and has PLENTY of toys to play with..........

As a side note, kitty was very patient with this whole process. When I removed the papers, there were about 25 trains on top of her. She just stayed there and purred!

Noah has also been doing a lot of baking. He is a big help in the kitchen and helps me make cakes, icing and in this case, brownies.........

FYI- he is wearing undies. He prefers to be completely in the natural but we have compromised and he ALWAYS has at least his dangerous parts covered! Sometimes you will find him with his red socks on too. It really is a good look for him......really!

Well folks....all 2 or 3 of you, it's good to be back and I will try not to let too much time slip away till next time.

Words I Miss.....

As all children do, Noah had some words that he mispronounced terribly. The fact is, I really miss those words. I almost cried each time when he started pronouncing them correctly. This is a list of some of those precious words. I hope you enjoy them as much as we did!

1. Co-pop-a-tate = Cooperate. This happened one day when I was trying to put a very wiggly Noah into his car seat and I said "Noah, would you please cooperate?" He said " Mommy, I AM co-pop-a-tating!!" Gene and I still use this one often.....


2. Kemin = Kevin. This habit of turning v's into m's happened in all words ending in "vin" or ''ven" such as seven, heaven, eleven....you get the picture. Gene and I still call the 15 year old....Kemin.


3. Trigiggle = triangle. I used to make him say his shapes numerous times a day just so I could hear him say trigiggle. He doesn't like to do shapes anymore. I wonder why?


4. Budnets = buttons. In the Smith household, we refer to the remote control as the buttons. They are now, and will forever be, budnets.


5. Mobsters = lobsters. While grocery shopping, Noah would spy the lobster tank and start yelling "mobsters, mobsters, can I see the mobsters?!" People would usually look around expecting to see that Tony guy from the gangster show but alas, all they saw was sea creatures.


6. Smokesnack = smokestack. With his ginormous collection of trains and train books, this word brought us many hours of entertainment!


7. Scamo = Cozmo. Scamo, um I mean Cozmo is our big dog.


8. Firtday = birthday. Are we going to a firtday party? When is my firtday? (singing) Happy firtday to you...... Try it. It's kinda catchy!


9. Feepaway = Felipe. It is a character on Handy Manny on Disney. TOO CUTE!


10. Anything starting with and "L" was pronounced with a "W". Look = wook. Louder = wowder. Best of all......Love = wub. (as in "I wub you mommy") Doesn't get any better than that!

A Sweet Moment...

Noah, Kevin and I went to see my friend Heather in the hospital. She had just had a new baby brother for Noah's friend Jayden. The new baby brother's name is Xavier. It is quite comical to hear Jayden and Noah try to pronounce "Xavier".

After we got into to room and said our hello's, Heather let me hold the beautiful little guy. About 2.7 seconds after I got him in my arms, the conversation went something like this.....

Noah : "NO. Put him back!"
Me: "No, I am going to hold him for a little while."
Noah: " Ummmm, ok"

After a little bit of fidgeting and averting of the eyes, Noah decided to come sit by me and baby Xavier.

Me: "Isn't he cute Noah?"
Noah: "yes" (lengthy pause filled with silence) "Can I sing to him a lullaby?"
Me: (sniff sniff) "Yes of course you can baby"
Noah: (singing) "Twinkle Twinkle little star........" (you know the rest)

He sang the whole song so sweetly and softly that I was wondering if aliens had taken over my Noah's body or something but upon finishing his song, he jumped onto the hospital bed with Heather and immediately started pushing the buttons to change the TV channel and volume and "NO NOAH! DON'T PUSH THE RED BUTTON!!!"
Whew! Aliens are gone and Noah has returned.
I was getting worried!

Cats Can Read From Their Butt and Other Bits Of Info You Need

1. If you sit at a table with an open newspaper, book or magazine and you are owned by a cat, said cat will sit on the item you are reading. This is how they read. Just thought you should know.

2. If your preschool child suddenly starts eating twice his body weight in one day, just drop everything and go clothes shopping. He is going through a growth spurt and will be wearing the next size up very soon. Like maybe tomorrow.

3. If you think you are being smart and go ahead and buy the next size up while the stores are having a terrific sale, the child will then automatically skip that size and go to the next one. Thus leaving you with 27 items (undergarments included) that will never be worn.

4. If everyone in the house is going through a certain food phase, lets say, cucumbers, and you didn't buy enough for everyone to have 6 each that day, gasp! They (the children/teenagers) will act as if you have comitted some sort of unforgivable sin and the preschool child upon realizing there are no more cucumbers will imediatly drop writhing and flailing about on the floor as if he is a heroin addict.

5. The check out gals at Walmart look really funny when I buy 12 huge cucumbers at a time.........

6. If you have a large dog, and the dog is a sweet and loving dog, you must keep a hand towel close by in case said dog suddenly feels grateful that you saved him and gives you numerous "kisses" on your face. There is the possibility that you could very well drown if immediate wiping does not occur.

7. The cat stays mad all day long if the large dog "kisses" her. It musses her fur you know...

8. Dusting is from Satan. IT IS NEVER DONE!!!! As soon as you finish, you just have to do it again. I just try to accept that it is nature's way of placing a protective coating on my furniture.

9. Laundry with three boys is from Satan. IT IS NEVER DONE!!!.......

10. If you try really hard to think of all the funny things going on in your own home, it really helps get you out of your blue mood. Helps you pull yourself up by the old boot straps as it were.............what are boot straps? Do I have any?