Does it get much better than this???

As I look back on all of the great things that 2008 has brought our family I have to stop and wonder......Does it get much better than this? This year Jabin and I became parents for the very first time. A blessing that we will forever be thankful for. I now know what people mean when they say "I dont remember what life was like without her". Each morning when Daley wakes up we like to spend a few moments listening to her sweet angelic voice as she greets the day with her curious babbles and elated squeals. I have been so surprised by the way she has grown so fast. From the first few months of sleepless nights, to struggles with nursing, to colic (or whatever the heck she had) to the joys of her first smile & sleeping all alone in her room by herself. She was so cute whe she experienced her first food and (just a few days ago) her first laugh out loud giggle and her first tooth. She is such a peaceful and happy child that each and every minute with her brings joy to our hearts. She brings such excitement to our lives and makes us laugh and smile each and everyday. We have had a whirwind last 7 months and I cannot imagine how much fun 2009 is going to be. We are looking forward to reaching the milestone of sitting up (alone) and crawling, & her first (real) word....besides "mama". I am anticipating the nervousness in seeing her take her first steps and of course planning her first birthday. As I think about ringing in the new yr without her it kinda makes me sad. I know mommy and daddy need "grownup time" but you are supposed to ring in the new yr with the ones you love right??? Well I cannot imagine loving anyone like I love her! As 2008 comes to a close and we look around the corner to 2009 we are so greatful for the gifts that God has given to us. Here's to wishing that everyone will have a healthy& happy future as bright as the stars. Happy New Year to all and please be safe :)

Christmas with the Smythe's

Well I am going to begin by saying.....I never knew Christmas could be so fun. This Christmas was the best ever!!!! It all began on Christmas eve when we went to Candlelight Service at church. Daley was soooo cute in her #1 Christmas dress. She was also very good during church. She did talk a little too loud during the service but it was pretty cute I must admit. She was mesmerized with all the candles. The whole congregation sang "Silent Night" and she just smiled the whole time. On Christmas morning Jabin was so excited that he was awake at 5:30. I told him under no circumstances was I getting out of bed before 6:30. Poor Daley was sooooo sleepy from staying up late the night before that she didnt even wake up till about 7:30. So Jabin and I had some coffee and opened our gifts from each other. I guess I was a good girl this year cause I got some wonderful gifts. I got a new Canon camera, a new wifi Epson printer and a digital frame! I am sooooo happy. But enough about me :) When Daley woke up we let her play in the walker that Santa brought her and she had a blast.

After Santa came and we had some quiet time with our family the fun really began. My mom (Nana), sister and her family and my Booah and Papaw came over for breakfast and presents. My mom went WAY overboard on Daley and Atlee but the enjoyed every minute of it :) Here is a picture of the tree before we opened any gifts!

Atlee and Kelli

Daley with her new hat and mittens

Daley was so tired after all of the gifts she had to take a nap! Daley and her Nana After lunch all of the family left and we had a long nap!!! Thank goodness mom called and woke us up cause if not we might have slept through the last of the festivities. On Christmas Night we went over to Nana and Papa Bubbas for more food and presents! Daley had fun playing on the floor before we left. Here she is in her #2 Christmas Dress.

We have had sooo much fun with all of our new toys. Here are a few more of Daley playing. It will take us a few more days to rest up from all of the fun but all in all it was an AWESOME christmas. Hope everyone enjoyed theirs as much as we did!

6 mo update

Daley had her 6mo appt with Dr Yap on Monday. And mommy and daddy are proud to say that everything is progressing very well. Daley weighs 14lbs and is 27inches long. She hasnt mastered sitting up by herself yet but he said that is nothing to be concerned with. She can sit up if she puts her hands in front of herself to balance.....BUT she doesnt stay there long. She is quite the little wiggleworn and always falls over. He was very impressed by her fine motor skills. We told him that she can put her own "paci" in her mouth and 8 times out of 10 it goes in right side up. She is quite the little talker still. She babbles and mumbles ALL the time and she is not quiet about it. I always laugh when we are in the car and she has something to say the volume of her chatter depends on the volume of the radio. I think she feels like she has to talk over it to get attention. She is very very tickleish but STILL wont laugh out loud. She will smile from ear to ear, squeal and grunt BUT laugh or giggle NO WAY!!!! Also not to be concerned per Dr Yap. So I will keep on tryin! We will be on a shopping mission this weekend to buy Stage 2 foods YAY!!!! She can also have juice now......BUT in a sippie cup. This outta be fun :) I honestly cannot believe that she is already six months old. It just seems like yesterday that I was getting up with her every two-three hours to breastfeed her (man and I glad those days are behind me). I am also looking forward to this being her very first christmas. I know she is still too young to understand but I am super excited. She has a precious christmas dress hanging in her closet that I cant wait to put on her for Candlelight Service at church. Jabin and I truly are blessed this holiday season to be surrounded by such wonderful and gracious friends and family. We are also thankful for our sweet baby Daley....she brings so much joy to our lives and makes us laugh and smile each and everyday.

Sick Time

Well I havent been a very good blogger in the last month but with the holidays coming up I will try to get better. The Smythe family has been dealing with the Winter Cold. YUCK!!! Daley went to see Dr Yap last Thursday because she was having some head and chest congestion. It breaks my heart to hear her coughing :(. Well needless to say on Friday morning Jabin and I were sick. I took Daley to her Booahs so dad and I could stay in bed and rest for the day. We are so lucky to have grandparents to help out. I dont know what we would do without them. We are all slowly getting better and hope this is the only sick time we have to face this winter. This weekend we did manage to go get Daley and Atlees picture taken with Santa. Just a teaser!!!! I will post the picture later :)

Well this weekend we took the LONG trip to see Jabins parents. They live about 15-20 miles outside of Longview Texas. They live on a private lake called Lake Cherokee! I truly know what it means when people say "God's Country". I am a very proud Texan but I will be the first to admit that Texas isnt the prettiest state I have ever visited. This weekend I got to experience the true beauty of Texas. Jabins partents are in the process of remodeling their house and so a couple who are members of their church were nice enough to let us stay in their home. This was the nicest lake house I have ever seen. It was a joy to stand on the back deck and see the sun setting over the water. I enjoyed driving the windy roads to the house with the sun roof back and enjoying the gorgeous red, yellow and orange leaves on the trees. I also loved how quiet and peaceful it was outside.

This was Daley's first "vacation" and she did exceptionally well. She was a great traveler! We couldnt have been more pleased. She slept in her Pack N' Play in our room and she slept so good! The time change threw her off a little bit but I am sure it is something we will recover from in a few days. I didnt take many pictures :( it seemed like everytime I wanted to snap a picture of the beauty around us my camera was no where to be found. Daley had a few firsts over the weekend. Of course she went to her first Halloween party and was a hit. It was a bit too much fun for her and she was asleep about 15 mins after we got there. On Sunday she went to church for the first time and also went on her first boat ride. She Loooovvveeed that. I was so cute to watch her smile as the wind blew her hair back. We left yesterday morning and we were sad to leave the great company and beautiful scenery but it was nice to be home.

Here is one picture from the weekend of our sweet family :)

Proud to be an American!

Well it is officially here! Election Day :) Last week I had the priviledge to go vote with my husband. As I stood in line I thought about how lucky we are to have to opportunity to go to the polls together and cast our vote for president. No matter what the turnout I feel as an American I did my part and I was proud to cast my ballot!

Ok so I had mentioned in my very first post that I am a bit of a blogstalker! I somehow stumbled upon this moms blog and from the very first time I read it I was intrigued! She is a mother of 3 and the 4th is on the way. And by on the way I mean she is due to have a C-Section in two days. This woman has more courage than I could ever imagine. Her unborn little boy named Stellan has a heart condition. She was told about halfway through her pregnancy that her son wouldn't make it full term much less be born alive or live outside of the womb. Well after lots and lots of prayers and putting her little angels life into the lords hands the condition has all but fixed itself! Amazing it seems:) Of course only God knows what is to become of this little boy in just a few short days. I cant comprehend how but she seems at peace with whatever life he is chosen. Life on earth or eternal life in heaven. Go to www.mycharmingkids.net to read all about her and her cutie-pie family. Also keep her, baby Stellan and her family in your prayers for the next few days! Ok so enough with the serious stuff.......One really neat thing she does on her blog is something called Not Me! Mondays. Like the pic above tells this weekly blog is about being brutally honest and living to tell about it. You may have to visit her blog to understand :)

So in the spirit of Not Me Mondays here goes.....

Last Tuesday I did not burn my arm ironing ALL of my husbands dress shirts so he could sleep in a little longer and have one less thing to do before getting ready for work. Because I am not a good wife.

I also did not secretly get excited inside that my husband would be working late so the I could watch a lifetime movie I have been anxiously waiting to see. I would never wish my man to be at work past 9:00pm.

After making a pact last week to not spend any money before our trip to Longview WE (Jabin and I) did not decide to have a impromptu pizza night. Especially since there wasn't any food thawed for me to cook. No WE would never do that.

On Friday night I didn't put Daley to bed without giving her veggies. I didn't do this because it wasn't past her bedtime and she was in such a good mood! I knew that trying to feed her instead of just giving her a bottle would be too easy to just skip.

On Saturday I didn't completely embarrass myself by having a full fledged hyper-ventilating panic attack (for not apparent reason) in a restaurant. I didn't have to go outside to get some air and lie down on a bench to keep from passing out. If this happened to me...which it didn't!!! I would never have had to ask my sister to come sit with me in fear that I would fall off said bench only to land on the concrete and split my head open. I am also looking forward to going back to Decatur so that I can eat there again (NOT!!!!)

Oh and this one is for you Kelli :)
While visiting my sister over the weekend, I didn't get hit on by my brother-in-laws friend. He so didn't want Eric to give me his phone number. He also didn't tell Eric that if I was to call him I had better made it quick cause he only had one minute left on his pre-paid phone plan. Oh yeah and he also didn't flex his butt cheeks at me in an effort for me to find him attractive. Nope that didn't happen to me. Oh yeah and we (Kelli & I) also weren't laughing so hard at him that I almost had to leave the room. Cause flexing butt cheeks....That happens to me all the time.

Ok your turn try your own version of Not Me! Monday.....its quite liberating if I do say so myself:)

Carter's Childrens Clothing

Attn: Moms

I was told by my grandfather today that there was an article in this weekends newspaper about Carter's children's clothing causing rashes on children. After reading the article I was nervous knowing that my daughter may be wearing some of the clothing from the "Fall 2007" tagless line. Daley has been fortunate enough to be given lots of hand me downs from her cousin Atlee and since Atlee was born in the Fall of 2007 I was sure some of those clothes had to come from that line. Sure enough the outfit she has on today matched the tag in the picture they are showing online.

Daley has also been having some skin irritation issues. Dr Yap diagnosed her with having eczema! Her rash comes and goes and is isolated to her back and tummy. Well her rash has been gone for days but today when I went to see her at lunch my grandmother pointed out that her rash was back. Well I looked on her neck and sure enough it was irritated. Coincidence?!?!? Maybe......but better to be safe than sorry!

I have done some research online and was reading on some ivillage mommy boards and have found out some helpful info. The moms online posted that they have called the Carter's Customer Service line and were told that they would be sent a prepaid envelope to return the clothes for a full refund. Full Refund?? What does that mean? Well they were told they would be refunded the full retail price that they clothes were originally set at. Once the clothes were returned they would be issued a check. Carter's reps are standing behind their products which is commendable in my opinion. Some other tips from moms online....If you have a lot of garments you should ask for more than one envelope in case all of your stuff wont fit in one. Also take pictures of all the garments you return along with the envelope and the letter you send in. Just in case it gets lost in the mail. Unfortunately when you go to mail the items you will not be able to purchase shipping insurance. You cannot purchase additional items when you are sending it in a prepaid package. Yeah I know I wouldn't have ever thought of that!

Oh one more thing. Don't think if you have recently purchased Carter's items that you are safe! I just bought Daley an outfit a week ago with that type of tag. Some of the items may still be on the shelves. Since this isn't an official recall they don't plan on removing the clothing from the shelves either. But they have made a statement that the clothing from the Spring & Fall 2008 line is safe because they are using the stenciled tags. I am attaching a couple of websites that have some very useful information. Thanks and I hope this helps!

http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml09/09023.html

http://www.carters.com/corporate/tagless_message.aspx

I have sent an email to the Carter's company. I will update my blog when I hear back from them and let everyone know the response that I got!

I'm gonna do it!

Ok so I have thought over and over about starting a family blog. I am a "blog stalker" myself and I know how addicting they can be. Honestly I was apprehensive because I never thought I could measure up to some of the clever blogs that I am so totally into. So when my sister sent me an email today and told me she started a blog I thought I better jump on the bandwagon. For those of you who know Kelli know that if she is ahead of you in the technology world it is time to get a move on. I mean they just now got a home computer for goodness sakes! No!!!! I am serious. So I am officially "Keeping up with the Wyricks" so to speak. Anywho......for those of you who aren't up to speed with what is going on in the Smythe household here is the quick version!! Jabin and I became the parents of Daley Elise Smythe on June 6th of this yr! She is the sweetest little girl eva (besides my niece of course) She is so much fun and she is growing so fast. I cant believe that we have been so blessed! I honestly don't know what we did to deserve so much happiness but we will take it. Here are some recent pictures of all the fun stuff going on with us! ENJOY :)