Smith Family: 2015

We have started off to a great year!! The kids did well with all our traveling and arrived home to get their bikes from Santa. Presley has started back to dance class and she and David are both doing great in school.

Anna now enjoys piggy tails and finally keeps her hairbows in.

David has loved playing with all his new toys from Christmas.

We celebrated Mark Weaver's LTC Promotion the weekend after we got back. We are so happy for him and so grateful we got to be here to celebrate with them. The kids had a wonderful time at the party and played all night long!

Anna is getting into princesses and loves "Belle" and "Rella" the most. She loves her new castles.

And she loves dressing up in her new costume as Elsa.

This little girl is so grown all of a sudden. She is a sweet, feisty, verbal toddler who I get the joy of spending my days with. She continues to be very advanced with her speech. Her new favorite phrases are nuggle (snuggle at night), Rock (rock in the rocking chair at night), hold you (when she wants to be picked up), walk, Anna turn, naming numbers and colors at random. She is so advanced and amazes us with what she says and comprehends. She understands my reasoning most of the time, even though she doesn't always like my answer. She loves to talk on the phone, especially to Nono and Aunt Em. When she wants the phone if I am on it, she will repeatedly say Hello until I give it to her. She loves naming people in her family. She loves going to pick up David from school. They have become big playmates lately. He's been very sweet to her and shares a lot of his toys or checks on her when she's playing independently. Anna can now climb the little playground at the park all by herself- she goes up the steps and down the slide. I can't believe how grown she is all of a sudden.

Presley is growing before my eyes. She's almost 6 and such a blessing. She is my biggest helper!! Always wants to do the right thing and an amazing little girl. She is so helpful and always looking for a way to make my life easier. She's been begging me to let her help sweep the floors, she will clean the playroom without my asking, puts David down for naps on the weekends when she's home, she will jump right in when Anna gets fussy and try to make her happy. She is really the biggest blessing! I love how sweet her heart is and how she always strives to do the right thing and make me happy. She is doing great in school and has so many wonderful friends. They all hug her repeatedly on the way out of school. She is doing ballet with a new teacher this month and she's so graceful and a natural talent! She really wants to go to the church program, but it conflicts with ballet so we've started doing Sunday school on the weekends instead. She loves doing our devotional each day at dinnertime. She has the sweetest heart and gets really sad when Cameron has to go back into the Box. She's so quick to get excited for anything I have planned, though, while he is gone. I truly am amazed by her on a daily basis. She makes us so proud at school and in everything she does!

She's been begging to wear this faux fur vest so she wore it over to Sam and Mark's house one night for dinner. I love how she is so into clothes, fashion and accessories. She loves to pick out her clothes each morning and coordinate her accessories.

The three on a movie night at home.

Anna was so excited to go to David's school one day. I was leaving her at the CDC for a luncheon and she loved it- until I left. She did well, though, and I've gotten more comfortable at leaving her. She actually walks into the church daycare now, happy and everything! It's a huge milestone and been good for both of us.

Oh, Day Day (that's what Anna calls him). This little man is so much fun to be with. He cracks me up on a daily basis. Over Christmas, every time he would open a gift, he would tell us "Don't even hook at it, don't even hink about it." He would wait till he was totally finished opening before he wanted to show it to us. It was so funny. We did have a first with David after Christmas- he started screaming upstairs one night after bedtime and we ran up there to find out he had shoved a rock in his nose. I am so glad Cameron was home that night cause I was panicking. He was fine and was able to get it out without having to go to the ER. Thank goodness! It was awful and I'm hoping he's learned the lesson of not putting anything in his nose EVER again! This child loves to play outside all the time. He asks to play outside every day after school while I make his lunch. He drives his construction trucks all around the rocks and builds mountains. He'll ride his bike on the little sidewalk. He's gotten very good on his bike. He takes off and will leave me in his dust! But, he knows to stop at every break in the sidewalk till I get there and we can look for cars. He plays hard, every day and still naps almost every day! He now puts himself down for naps and cracks me up cause he will tell me not to look at the monitor until he calls. I will have it on and watch him turn it on while he yells down that he's getting in bed. He is such a good, sweet boy! He loves being independent and proves to me on a daily basis he can do more than I limit him to. He's so sweet to Anna and really takes care of her and watches out for her. He will hold her hand and walk her around if she is scared or looking lost at the park. He will let her play with him outside all afternoon. This little man is so precious and makes me so happy! He is doing so great in school and I love hearing his stories on the way home. He doesn't tell me much, but what he does tell is hilarious! He will pick out the most random details and tell me who got in trouble. He usually grins when retelling me things and telling Anna at the same time, she can't go to school yet. He loves to be a big kid and I love watching him enjoy every aspect of his life!

Snuggling their new stuffed animals from Uncle Tim and Aunt Debbie

Looking for Nono to come sit at the picnic table like they did at Mallie's house

We had a standing group meeting at the park every afternoon while the guys were in the box for the longest rotation ever! We all had a great time playing and the kids really get along so well. Presley would coordinate games for all the kids in the fields and wore everyone out! It's so nice having such a great support and good friends here and it helps that we are all in the same situation. We will do dinner nights together with all our kids. It's made the rotations more tolerable and pleasant having nice people to hang out with!

We went to a painting party one weekend.

Anna has somehow acquired more stuffed animals in her bed than the other two kids! She does roll call every night too, so they all have to be present.

Pretending to be Bobalt

Eating pizza at our friends' house. They were all amazed at how much she ate!

She loves wearing her Santa pjs!!

At dance one night trying to do what the girls were doing.

Big girl doing the playground all by herself

So happy Daddy was home one night for dinner over the rotation

Movie night with our friends one night.

Big man in his rain boots the one random day it rained here.

Taking a picture after stopping by the museum one afternoon.

This moment made me stop in my tracks- Retreat played on post and our kids stopped playing outside to put their hands over their hearts and pause during the song. I haven't made a point to mention this to them, but Presley knew and guided the other two. I love that they are growing up to love our country and respect the sacrifices our family and so many others make for love of country. It's humbling to see young kids learning this and learning the respect that should be given to our flag and nation.

Forgot to turn this one- Presley's homework one day made me laugh out loud. I love the ZZZZ's above the zebras head.

We met some friends after school for lunch on post. The kids loved the play area.

We have to walk up to return library books and DVD's. I have let Presley run them up before, but David was so excited one day to take on this task.

Anna has befriended Titus, one of Presley's friends who we meet at the park. He is so sweet to her and they play together most afternoons.

Big man on his bike

We had Zoey over one night to play and have dinner when her mommy wasn't feeling well. The girls had a big time dressing up! Poor David hung with me in the kitchen and we crashed motorcycles in between making dinner.