Mommy's Little Book Worm

Daley looooooves books!!!! Well today before lunch I ran to the JBF sale and found a great grab bag of hard back books for her. She plays with her books so much that books with flimsy pages dont last at our house. Well at least they wouldnt last if they were left laying around for her to play with. Those pretty story books stay on a shelf for night time reading. Anywho when I found this grab bag with 7 books for $3.00 I knew I had to take them home to my little bookworm. After disenfecting them (cause of course they will end up in her mouth) I let her go to town. She was so excited that she couldnt even peel herself away from them long enough to kiss her Nanny goodbye. I couldnt resist snapping a few cutie-pie pics for your viewing pleasure.

Checkin out her new Itsy-Bitsy Spider Book

I love my tiny Circus Book
So many books so little time :)

This is her fave book that was a gift from Lauren . She likes to look @ herself on the "Y" page!!!!

I'm Gonna Be Honest

When I 1st heard (a couple of weeks ago) that come January we (and by we I mean Bachelor freaks like me) will have to look at this guy for 8 weeks I was a little disappointed.

Did I hope and pray that I was gonna get to laugh giggle at Reids neurotic personality and witty sense of humor? Yes!!! Did I also secretly hope that if Reid wasnt chosen I would at least get to stare at the masterpiece that is Kiptyn's abs? Uh-huh!!! But it doesnt look like that is gonna happen. Why???? Well to be quite honest I never get my way when it comes to this show!!!

Now dont get be wrong it isnt like I hate the guy....heck he is even cute in a goody-two-shoes-ken-doll kinda way BUT is his season really gonna hold my interest? That is yet to be determined. Ok so lets consider a few things....The women (aka contestants) were selected months ago. Obviously this selection process took place before Jake was selected as the unlucky lucky guy. What does that mean to me? Surely they found some slutty, caddy hookers to entertain me. Cause we all know Jake aka The Boy Next Door (TBND) can be a little boring. I also hope that Jake went back and watched himself from last season and realized the he needs to rev it up in the personality department!!! I mean come on we all like nice guys but we do need a little mystery. A little danger even!!! Also, how drunk were the producers when they voted on the tag line for next season. The Bachelor: On The Wings Of Love. REALLY?!?!?! I mean does it get anymore lame than that???? Come On People!!!! Of course come January I will be watching the show AND it will take up way too much of my time like all of the other crappy TV that I am addicted to SO Jake Pevelka......please I beg of you! Dont Disappoint :)

The Name Game

Here is the Lowdown on this Name Game: Names are important. Your kids’ names were chosen for a particular reason and they mean a lot to you so this would be a great story to share! If you don’t share your kids’ names on your blog you can just tell us where you got the catchy nickname for your little ones or just go through 1-10 and amuse us with your naming antics! No problemo! Copy the image above to use on your blog.

1. Do you have any cultural or religious naming traditions?
No....thank goodness. I know there are people who are obligated because of family or religious ties to use a particular name. In our case we had none of those ties. We were at liberty to choose whatever name we wanted. And considering we didn't need any help conceiving a baby I figured naming one ought to be up to us as well :)

2. Did you or your partner come to the marriage with pre-selected names? No...most females have some name in their head that they always knew they wanted to name their daughter or son. I was not one of them. I had no clue whatsoever what my unborn child would be named before the name picking process began.

3. Did you consider the sound of the first and middle and last names together? Did this make any sad eliminations?
Luckily our last name goes with pretty much anything sooooo that was the least of my worries.

4. Do you have veto powers?
Well lets put it this way....if he suggested something heinous I wouldn't have allowed said name to be put on the birth certificate. It was just an unspoken understanding that we would both agree on what to name our child.

5. Did the baby naming cause arguments?
Arguments NO....heated discussions YES. Not because one wanted something the other didn't it was just that every time I came to him with a suggestion he would make fun of it. Especially boys names......he had a joke for every boys name I came up with.

7. Did you eliminate names because of people from your past or present who you don’t like or because a certain image comes to mind.
Well there was one name I really liked (and I cant even remember what it was now) and I was so excited to come home and tell him what I had found because I thought for sure he would like it. That night when we were talking over dinner and I told him the name he said "Sorry honey we cant use that name" I was like "Dangit...why not?" and he proceeded to tell me that was the name of an ex-girlfriends daughter.

8. Did you / would you survey your children to get their thoughts on the name?
Obviously she isn't old enough to care but I doubt I will ask her if she approves of her name. That is one of the glories of being a parent...you get to make the big choices not them. :)

9. Did you tell people the name or possibler names before the baby was born or were they “in the vault”? Yes we told everyone her name....and everyone seemed to love our choice.

10. Did you use baby name books?
No books. I did a lot of research online

Drumroll Please…What did you name your kids and why?
I named my little angel Daley Elise......Once we found out we were having a girl we had already nailed it down to two names. It was either Daley Elise or Jillian Janay. I really loved the name Jillian and Jabins sisters name is Janay and I thought those two names flowed so beautifully together. BUT Jabin and both of his sisters have "J" names and neither one of us wanted it to seem we were keeping with the "J" theme. I was doing some research one day and saw the name Daley online but they had it selected as a masculine name. I immediately liked the name but not for a boy. I had a feeling that Jabin would hate it so I didn't get my hopes up. When I sent him a text with the idea his response was "I Love It!" I was so excited...I thought it was such a sweet name and very very original. I had never heard of that name before...that was a big thing for me, I wanted something original and one of a kind. After mulling over it for a few days we decided to make the decision to that Daley would be her first name. Now onto the hard part...finding a middle name to flow with Daley. We considered still using Janay but for some reason it didn't roll off the tongue very easily. One day at work I was wracking my brain to find the right middle name and I walked into my bosses office and saw a picture of a blonde haired blued eyed little girl and it hit me. Elise!!!!! My boss and his wife have a little girl and her name is Elise and I always thought that was such a pretty name. AND it flowed perfectly with Daley. I am so glad we chose the name we did cause when I look @ her sweet face I cannot imagine calling her anything else.

3 Yrs

Yesterday was mine and Jabins 3 year wedding anniversary. We decided we would opt for a quiet night at home. Of course Jabin aka "the grillmaster" cooked out steaks and they were delish. After dinner (and wine) we talked and listened to music. We both agreed that we would love ITunes gift cards for Christmas cause there is so much music we want that we dont have. I know a lot of you dont know a whole lot about my husband so I am going to steal from Amanda @ My Life As A Wife AGAIN and post a few things you may (or may not) know about my husband of 3 yrs. Happy Anniversary Babe :)


1. Jabin very rarely gets sleepy. Seriously......he can stay up til 1 am watching the most random crap on tv and then get up in the morning at 7am (with no coffee) and never bat an eye. He can go out and party til 2am and then get up and go to work the next day. Weird - O!!!


2. Jabin isnt a sports fan (which I love) The only sporting event he really cant miss is Formula One Racing. Now for all you ladies out there who have no idea what Formula One Racing is it is obviously a bunch of guys driving race cars around the tracks BUT 90% of those guys happen to be really easy on the eyes. So you dont hear a lot of arguing from me!!! So combine that with the few Cowboys games I am subject to and I can honestly say I feel for those of you out there whose husbands are TRUE sports fans!


3. My husband is really really funny! He makes me laugh A-lot and that is one thing about him that I treasure. I love to laugh som finding a man with a great sense of humor was like hitting the jackpot in my book.

4. I secretly dont mind that he plays shuffleboard every Tuesday. Shhhh...dont tell him I said that. Every tuesday night Jabin meets his buddies out for shuffleboard. He is really good at it but most of all I think he loves that time with the guys where he can let off some steam and have a good time. Of course that gives me time to catch up on my overloaded DVR.


5. He thinks blogging and Facebook are stupid! Yeah I know but he totally doesnt get it. My argument is that all 65 million active facebook users cant be stupid but he still argues with me. Also did you know there are approx 133 million blogs on the internet?? Yeah we are the strange ones?!?!?


6. Jabin was adopted.

7. Jabin loves shoes. Like seriously loves shoes like a girl loves shoes. Not really shoes as much as boots.

8. Jabin is OBSESSED with cars. Obsessed.......like to the point where everytime he gets on autotrader.com I start to getting really really nervous. In the 5 years that I have known Jabin he has had 5 cars. Yeah...now you know what I mean when I saw obsessed.


9. Jabin is a fantastic dad! He loves Daley so much and she is truly blessed to have him as a father.


10. Jabin is a busy body....He like to sit down and relax for very long. He loves to work outside in the yard or on some kind of project in the house.


Well there you go hope you learned something you didnt already know and again.....Happy Anniversary babe :) I love you!

All She Wants To Do Is Dance Dance Dance

I took this about a week ago. She loves to dance!!!! Every evening we watch that days episode of Ellen (from the dvr) and everytime it comes on she starts yelling "DANCE" Too cute :)

In The Mood

Ok so this morning when I walked outside I was so excited to feel the crisp cool air hit my face. Yesterday was the first "official" day of fall and I couldnt be more excited. So in the spirit of stealing from the great blogger Amanda @ My Life As A Wife I bring you my fave things about fall!

1. Fall Colors - I love the colors of fall. Deep hues of orange, red, yellow, purple. Anything that makes you feel warm inside and out. I love that feeling. Of course this fall purple is hot again as is Dark Teal and Deep Reds & Pinks.

2. The smell of spice - So in the cool weather months nothing says fall like the smells of spice. You know pumpkin, cinnamon, nutmeg. I love all those smells. I get so excited when Starbucks starts selling gingerbread & pumpkin lattes. Yummm-O :) I also love to burn spicy type candles in my house. In my opinion nothing is more inviting than walking into someones house and it smells like something yummy is baking it the oven.

3. Fall Clothes - Ok seriously I love me some fall clothes. Coats, Sweaters, boots, jeans, scarves, leggings....all those things make me smile. I cant wait to dig into all of my sweaters & scarves that I havent seen since last year. Of course I have a long long long list of things I want to add to my wardrobe this year. Less that half of which will actually end up in my closet I'm sure....but a girl can dream right?!?!

4. Flannel PJ's - Soooo in case you dont know already I am a bit of a couch potato. Not all the time but in the evenings for sure. My evening routine goes a little something like this: Walk in the door from work. Slip into my pj's. Play with Daley. Cook Dinner for the fam. Play with Daley. Give Daley a bath, Put Daley to bed. Clean up the kitchen. THEN park my hiney on the couch (in front of the tv) for the rest of the night. I do this almost every night M-F. You might call it boring but I call it relaxing. Well in the fall instead of putting on a pair of capri lounge pants and a tank top I get to slip into my soft, warm, cozy, frumpy pj's. I love my many pairs of pjs and I am of course adding another pair to this years christmas list. IMO opinion pj's are like shoes. You cant have too many pairs. My husband would beg to differ ;)

5. My Fireplace - Almost every night during the fall and winter there is a fire at the Smythe house. My husband and I both agree that it makes everything seem so warm and peaceful. Not to mention keeps the house warmer for less money. We are lucky enough to have a wood burning fireplace with a gas line so starting a fire is as easy as stacking the wood, turning a key and striking a match.

6. Grilled Cheese Sandwiches and Tomato Soup - This is by far my fave easy-quick-go-to meal on those cool fall nights. Hubs makes the best Grilled Cheese Sandwiches....I know you are thinkin How hard is it to make a grilled cheese? But until you have had one made by my man you will never look at them the same. He makes them perfectly and of course this is my way of getting him to help with the dinner. hehe!!!

7. Fall Decorations - I dont have very many fall decorations but I am hoping to add some more to my home this year. I want to be the kind of family that decorates for all different times of the year, not just Christmas. I love fairytale pumpkins, fall leaves, & scarecrows. I cant wait to go to Hobby Lobby and get some new cute things for this year.

8. Daylight savings time - I love it when we have the time change. Not only do we gain an hour of sleep (which I love) but it gets dark earlier. I know a lot of people dread this time change but I love long winter night. Call me crazy!!!! I know this is also a strange reason to love daylight savings time but it makes me feel bad that when I put Daley to be at 7:30 it is still light outside. It seems weird to make her go to bed during the daylight hours (even tho I know it is good for her) Well.....Now I know I wont have to worry about that in a few weeks.

9. Long Hot Bubble Baths - This is something I take part in a LOT in the cool months. The only time I leave the couch in the evenings is to take a long hot bath. This is my quiet "ME" time which I enjoy. This is my time of the day to have time with myself to unwind & relax. Of course when it is warm outside no one wants to sit in a hot tub BUT during those long cool evenings I try to make this a priority.

10. Oh yeah NEW TV - ok so how could I forget about the great fall line up on TV. As you all know I am a tv junkie. I love love love to watch tv. The beginning of fall marks the new seasons of some great tv shows. Here are some of my faves: The Biggest Loser, Melrose Place (if you havent watched this it is a must see), Intervention, Hoarders, Greys Anatomy, and of course I also set my DVR to record Oprah, Ellen and The View each day. Sooooo those are just a few of my faves. I also love watching the food network on saturday mornings during the fall season cause they are trying out all their yummy family recipes in preparation for Thanksgiving. Oh one more thing. Does anyone out there watch Mad Men? I have never seen a single episode but I am very intrigued by this show. Please let me know if you watch and also if you recommend it! I have no idea how I would catch up with what I have missed but I would love to know what all of the fuss is about.

These the top 10 things I love about fall. I could probably go on and on but I will stop here. So feel free to join in. What do you love about fall? Please share :)

The Spaghetti Incident

ok so the other night I decided to give Daley spaghetti. Now.....I am one of those moms who doesnt like their kids to be dirty. Not because of what other people will think...my reason is totally selfish. I dont want her to get dirty cause that means I will have to clean her up. BUT the other night I gave in and just decided to go for it. This is the disaster that followed:

ahhhhh.....all clean again :)

New Mexico Vacation

ok so as you already know a few weeks ago we went to Ruidoso New Mexico for a MUCH needed vacay. Just let me say....if you love the outdoors, cool weather and peace and quiet (which BTW I do) this is the place to go. We had a fab cabin, great friends and did I mention the weather. Now I wont go into detail what we did each night (and day) but we did a little bit of shopping, went to the casino, went to the horse races (in the rain) AND had a lot of great food & fellowship.Jabins best friend Brad from Houston and his friend Lori met us there on Friday and we all had a blast. Daley was such a trooper the entire time. I was fearing the car ride but the get-me-outta-this-damn-seat screaming only occured the last 45min of an 8 hour trip. She slept great at night while we were there but for some reason really fought off taking a nap. But considering the change in elevation AND schedule I would say she did really well. So without futher a do!!!! I present to you: The Smythe Family Vacation. Disclaimer: I didnt take a whole lot of pics.....I was too busy being lazy but Lori did get some good ones and once she emails them to me I will update this post.

The view from our balcony after a rainstorm!

Another gorgeous view! I got this on our morning walk :)

Seriously?!?! Does it get any more serene than this?

Daley on the patio of a cool little cafe/coffeehouse where we ate lunch.I love this pic. Morning #2 after a much needed night of rest :)
On our walk....bright and early.

a stop along the way :)

We spent most of our time on this balcony.

A day of shopping :)

Did I mention how cute this little town was?

Giving Daddy kisses!!!

Relaxing afternoon

We had so much fun and have talked about how we cant wait to go back!!!! I know Daley wont remember but we will always have great memories of our first family vacation :)

Random Thoughts

Ok so before any of you ask....Yes I plan on blogging and posting pics from our recent family vacation. BUT I have to upload the photos first. Hopefully I will have that for you tomorrow. So today I am gonna give you my version of Truthfully Tuesday ;)

1. Ok so this morning as I was feeding my little girl her morning oatmeal I heard some really really sad news!!!! Patrick Swayze passed away. Ok so we all knew he was sick but if you were like me and saw the Barbara Walters interview with him from Dec 2008 you just knew in your heart this man was serious about beating this cancer. Well the outcome was tragic and obviously the stage 4 pancreatic cancer took its toll on his life. Obviously if you were a child of the 80's like I was you remember begging your parents to let you watch Dirty Dancing. When my mom finally gave in and let me watch I knew what all of the fuss was about. In my opinion (at the time) that was the greatest movie ever made. To me that movie will forever be part of pop icon history. Johnny Castle is one of the coolest characters out there. He was a bad boy BUT he was good to the girl. He was macho BUT boy could he dance. He was misunderstood by everyone else BUT Baby. I cannot imagine anyone else perfecting that character the way that he did. Of course there are other great movies he was a part of that he totally rocked. The Outsiders, Ghost (which is also a legendary movie), Point Break (totally made me want to date a bank robbing surfer) and last but not least Road House. I mean really does it get any cooler than his character in Road House. He made ass kicking an art form not to mention he had the best mullet to ever grace the silver screen. When I shared the news with hubs that he died he was pretty bummed out too cause I think secretly all men would love to be as badass as he was. As a matter of fact we have a saying in our house (kind of a little inside joke) when Jabin and I see something that is super rad we say "That's so Swayze". This phrase has taken on a life of itself and today it has a whole new meaning. Aside from his movie rolls on the silver screen the coolest thing about Patrick Swayze was his love for his wife. They were married for 34 years......Now that is true love. I cant imagine the pain his family is feeling right now. Rest in Peace Patrick Swayze....you will make heaven even cooler.

2.Ok now onto someone who is so NOT cool. Kanye West......Seriously is there anyone in the whole entire world who likes this guy? I mean aside from the model with terrible fashion sense who accompanied him to the VMA's!!! I mean honestly you have to know you are a complete ass clown when your attempt at freedom of speech is to steal the spotlight from a 19year old kid. I mean really?!?!?! Get a life LOSER!!! I will give props to Beyonce for allowing Taylor to have her moment. That was beyond generous and super classy. NOW here is the part that really ticks me off. Obviously we all know that this isnt Kanye West's first time to open his mouth and say (or do) something really really offensive or stupid BUT everytime he does he always plays the victim!!!!! Last night he was on the premier of the (primetime) Jay Leno show and when asked why he did what he did....he managed to mumble out some crap about not being able to properly grieve over the loss of his mother! WTF does that have to do with Taylor Swift?!?! Seriously who is buying that?? Of course my fave was when he said if there was anything he could do now or in the future to help Taylor he would love to do so. Ummmm Reality Check Mr West. This girl can sell out Madison Square Garden in under a minute....I doubt she needs help from the likes of you.

3. So tonight is gonna be a busy night for me. Like every tuesday (after I put my lil one to bed) I veg out in front of the tv and catch up on everything that is on my dvr. BUT today I am feeling a little overwhelmed!!!! I know this is super lame and would even border on pathetic but I am gonna reveal it anyways. Tonight is the finale of BB11 (Big Brother 11) - GO JORDAN- I have been obesessed (not Bachelorette obsessed BUT almost) with this show all summer and tonight is the live finale. So that comes on from 8-9. The newest season of the Biggest Loser begins tonight. I love love love this show....so inspirational and have been addicted for going on 4 seasons now. That comes on from 7-9. The new Melrose Place (episode 2) yeah if you were a fan of the OLD Melrose Place (or even if you werent) I highly recommend you check out this show. It is filled with backstabbing, cheating, rich, fabulous characters who had me intrigued the minute I saw the first preview. This season is gonna be filled with drama. Um yeah that also comes on from 8-9. So where is the problem you ask???? I have one DVR but it can only record two things at once. Ummmm yeah did you notice the time lapse??? So my plan is to watch Biggest Loser from 7-8, watch BB11 finale from 8-9 (flip back to Biggest Loser during commercials) & record Melrose Place for later. Whew!!!! You got all that. Not to mention after all of that is over. I will have to watch todays Oprah (part 2) interview with Ms Whitney Houston, The View with co-host Kate Gosselin who BTW is supposed to be rockin a new haircut (thank god) and also watch The Ellen DeGeneres show. Who wants to take bets that I wont get to it all by the end of the night?!?!

4. Ummmm so yeah I am a little annoyed that ABC has still not announced the new Bachelor. Obviously I am still pulling for my boy Reid but of course I wouldnt be disappointed if Kiptyn was the choice. Needless to say I am really looking forward to the season premier on Jan 4th 2009. And dont worry my BFF Lauren and I will for sure be planning a fab kickoff party;)

Thats all for now. Heres to hoping that I will have my vacay recap tomorrow!

Bad Blogger!!!

Ok so I will admit it....I have been a really bad blogger. I have not blogged in over a week but mainly it is because things have been relatively quiet around my house :) (Which can be a good thing) I did have a birthday since I last blogged. I am another year older!!!! 32 years old young to be exact. For my birthday we had a great cookout at home with friends and family. It was a really really good time!!!! Of course Daley is doing great. She is getting bigger and bigger everyday. Some days I look at her and I cant believe how fast she is growing. She has such a cute little personality and she is very affectionate. Her fave place to be is in someones lap. She might not stay there long but she always wants to be picked up. It is so cute when she wants you to hold her too cause she will come up to you and look at you with those big brown eyes and in the sweetest voice she will say "Up Please" It is so dang cute and very hard to resist. She is also getting to be more and more inquisitive about the world around her. My mom and I laugh because she literally has to touch everything. No kidding....I think she just likes to discover how things feel. Of course she is still in the habit of putting everything in her mouth and we are trying really really hard to break her of that. She loves to be outside and we have been very thankful for the cool weather over the last few days cause she has spent a lot of time outside. Speaking of cooler weather...that brings me to my next topic. This thursday morning (and by morning I mean 4am) we are leaving on a family vacation. Thats right folks the Smythe family truckster will be making its way to Ruidoso New Mexico. We will be staying there Thurs-Mon. We are sooooo excited to see Brad and Lori (they are meeting us there) and we are also excited to enjoy some cool weather. We have rented a really neat cabin with an awesome view!!! Our plan is to relax, eat, play and just enjoy some much needed time away from work and the daily stresses of life. I am sooooo excited to get away and cant wait to see what this vacation has in store for us :) NOW onto the part that I am nervous about. 8 hours in the car with a 15mo old!!! Yeah it seems a little scary for me but we planned our departure time hoping to get maybe half of our trip out of the way while she sleeps. Cross your fingers and say a prayer for us. I have explained to Jabin that 8 hours is a long time in the car for anyone especially a toddler. Se we are prepared to be patient, not get in a big hurry and be plan for lots of stops to stretch our legs. I am sure we will have a blast and of course I will post pictures when we return. I have a lot to do between now and 4am thurs morning (including a much needed haircut)....heres to hoping I get it all done :)