4th of July

Kendall and I are leaving for Arkansas in the morning, and I wanted to get these pictures on here before I fill up my camera with all the fun we will have next week!

We spent the 4th with Preston, Erica, and Sawyer and had a wonderful afternoon and evening! We have grown to absolutely adore this family and just enjoy our friendship with them so much. I don't know if I've posted about them or not, but we met Preston and Erica at the new member's breakfast at our church over a year ago, and hit it off with them really well. We would run into them in passing at church, and finally went over to their house for dinner one evening back in the spring. That night, I just remember laughing my head off with them and feeling like we had known them forever. So fun! Since then, Erica and Preston have joined our BFG and Sawyer and Kendall have become big buddies. Erica stays home with Sawyer, and was very gracious to help keep Kendall during the last month of school when Evan started his new job.

Erica and Preston are both from Louisville (which we are glad because they won't be leaving anytime soon!) and Erica's parents were out of town this weekend, so we crashed their place! Erica's parents have a beautiful home/backyard, and the plan was to let the girls play outside all afternoon. The rain spoiled our fun and we had to move the party inside.

We stuffed our faces with all kinds of food-steaks, potatoes, corn on the cob, watermelon, spinach dip...you name it! I didn't take a picture of it, but I did make a caramel apple pie from scratch for dessert. It was certainly not the Pie Kitchen, but it turned out pretty yummy!

After we ate, the girls ran around in the basement, dancing and having a big time, then Preston popped popcorn in this cool popcorn machine! Kendall and Sawyer enjoyed watching a couple of videos on the theater screen while munching on their popcorn.

So, these pictures aren't from the 4th and they are a little blurry, but I couldn't resist.

Kendall and I played dress up yesterday. She was pretty cute walking around in her purple tutu and dress up shoes. Besides listening to her clunk around in those shoes, I think my favorite thing was watching her try to keep all those bracelets on her arm. Oh, I love her! :)

another visitor

Don't you love having people stay with you that don't care if you wipe the toothpaste out of the sink or if you have laundry piled to the ceiling? I do! And I was so happy to have my sweet friend Jill with me for a few days this week. The first traditional anniversary gift is paper, and for their first, Jill asked Brad to buy her a plane ticket to Louisville to visit us. We had such a great week! I never have to entertain Jill; we just do our thing and she comes along with us. I love it.

Jill also got a new, fancy camera, so we spent a lot of the week testing it out. I downloaded around 280 pictures last night, so I picked out a few from the week to share. :)

The first night Jill was here, I cooked a roast and then we ventured out to the pie kitchen. (Evan was wondering who he could get to come next week so he could have an excuse to go! HA!) That has become one of our favorite places to take guests. When we got home, Kendall needed a bath. Kendall spotted her sunglasses on the vanity in the bathroom and we COULD NOT get her to take them off, which is the reason for all the tears! All the bathtub pictures with the glasses are from the first night, and the ones of her smiling are from later in the week.

The weather was unseasonably cool this week, which was a nice break. We spent all morning Wednesday playing outside. After Evan got home on Wednesday, Kendall was playing in the pots and pans cabinet and dropped a lid on her foot. Her big toe is now swollen and the nail is black. I'm just waiting for it to fall off! YUCK! Funny thing is that this is the second nail we've lost in a matter of weeks. She had a fingernail come off two weeks ago, although we aren't sure what happened with that!

Thursday was a Preschool Play Date do the zoo. Jill and I were counting on Mr. Sun to make an appearance so we could enjoy the splash park, but before we met up with everyone for lunch, we were wishing we had on sleeves! It was actually chilly outside, but made for a nice trip to see the "aminals" as Kendall would say.

Kendall is not very fond of animals. She likes looking at them from a distance and when they are being still, but heaven forbid one of them move or get anywhere near her! She's come along way, but is still very, very skiddish. Our zoo is wonderful, with really nice playgrounds and the splash park (which Kendall loves) so it makes going there worth it to me-even if she isn't big on all the animals.

Last night we all went to dinner and then Jill and I did a little shopping afterwards. I dropped her off at the airport this morning, and cried the whole drive back to my house! I was sad to see her leave!

i want to remember

that kendall enjoys pandora playing while we do things around the house just as much as she enjoys the tv. and that this morning, God of Wonders played and she kept singing "Holy, Holy." in fact, she's been saying "holy" most of the day



how kendall says the following words and names at 20 months: watermelon, pizza, yogurt, Clifford, George, Christian (her friend...it comes out Chicken), Nana, couch, and i love you


every time we make our final stop in the car, kendall says "OUT!" as loud and plain as she can. she also says, "Mommy, dance" which translates to "turn up the music" when we are in the car



how kendall lets us know that she's unsure about something or shy...she sticks out her tongue wide and flat



last night, when we were eating dinner, kendall stops mid-bite and puts her hands together, like in prayer. then she says "Amen" very loudly. she did the same thing while sitting on the couch drinking milk this afternoon.



that Kendall could out-eat an adult with the following foods...watermelon, popsicles, ice cream, beans of any kind, guacamole, and hummus



oh, how i'm filled with joy as i watch her grow!

Grandparents and Birthday Parties

We were so excited to have Evan's parents here for a visit this past week! Louisville was the location for the Southern Baptist Convention this year, which gave Barry and Sheila a great excuse to head this direction. We've been talking to them via Skype for the past couple of months, but this was the first time we've seen them since Christmas. Kendall was very happy to have her Nana and PawPaw around for a few days!

Somehow, we ended up with very few pictures from the week. You would think that with five sets of rechargeable camera batteries, I would have some ready to go at all times, but that was not the case!

When they arrived on Saturday, we grilled steaks and had baked potatoes and corn on the cob. Evan's precious Uncle Larry and Aunt Loretta always tell this sweet story of how much Evan loved "big corn" when he was a little boy, so when Kendall went for the ear instead of what was cut from the cob, I had to get a picture! Kendall loved it!

Evan's dad spent most of his days at the convention meetings, while Sheila and I took the days at leisure. We did a little shopping here and there, played outside, and took Kendall to the zoo. Sheila also brought her sewing machine to make my kitchen curtains. The fabric is the same that I have on the cornice board in the dining room, but it's a little bit hard to tell which side is the correct side. (Maybe it's reversible???!?!) Anyway, while I was gone to bible study on Thursday morning, Sheila started on the curtains, only to realize that she sewed them on the wrong side! Like I said, it's very difficult to tell which side is which! I felt so horrible because she ended up spending the whole day on a project that shouldn't have taken that long at all. Oh, well. The curtains are great and besides hanging them, that project is finished.

On Tuesday evening, we were invited to dinner at Cheesecake Factory with some of the other pastors from Northwest Arkansas. Of course, Evan and I were thrilled since we love, CF! Kendall, on the other hand, was a mess all night long. She pretty much cried through the whole entire meal and only ate a few french fries, some black beans, and the whipped cream off everyone's cheesecake. I'm just very thankful it was loud in there, because I'm sure many of the guests would have been mad! Evan also decided to branch out and order something different this time, a burrito. Holy Smokes...that was the biggest burrito we've ever seen! (See pictures below of burrito and out-of-sorts child!!)

Nana and PawPaw left this morning, and of course, Kendall has asked several times, "Where's Nana? Where's PawPaw?" We are so thankful for the visit and for a great week!





Tonight, Kendall and I attended Jack and Nathan's birthday party. About 1,000 times a day, Kendall asks me, "Where's Jack?" (Along with "Where's Sawyer?" and "Where's Judah?" and all her other little friends. It's precious. I never get tired of it!) You can only imagine Kendall's excitement when she realized she would get to hang with two of her favorite buddies tonight!

Nathan and Jack have birthdays only a few weeks apart, so their mama's go in halves and do the party together. Perfect idea! This year, it was airplane themed, and crafty ladies Carey and Kedra did a fantastic job, complete with airplane food lunchables for the kids' meal, an airplane cake sitting in clouds, and even the older sisters calling themselves flight attendants! C-U-T-E!!! Kendall was a little overwhelmed at times, but had fun playing in the water and seeing her friends.





ps. Jennifer M, if you read this, I tried your thing with the pictures tonight. It looked like it was working in my edit box, but when I posted, the pictures went everywhere! I'm not very good at it, I guess!

Mommy's Little Helper

We have a big joke around our house that Evan always leaves the pots and pans. I've finally found someone who doesn't mind helping! :)

Am I CRAZY???

First, I just want to say how much I LOVE being at home! My heart is certainly tuned to taking care of our family and our home and it brings me such joy. Of course there are daily challenges, but none so great that I long for the classroom. (I say that with the utmost respect for my friends who are amazing full-time teachers and mommies. I just know it's NOT FOR ME!!)



Second, I am so amazed at my husband's handyman skills. Isn't our kitchen looking great??



On to our week...



I hesitate to even post about this, because I know many people will want to cast judgement, but I blog a lot for my own personal benefit rather than anyone else's and the pictures are so precious I couldn't resist. So...here goes...



I decided to start potty training Kendall this week.







I know, I know. Everyone's reaction..."How old is she??"

20 months. Yes, she's young. But it just seemed logical for so many reasons.

1.) She's been telling us for a while (talking a few months here) when she's poopy. And in her terms, poopy means pee or poop.

2.) I'm home for the summer. This will most likely not be the case when her age seems more appropriate.

3.) I know several people who had great success with potty training around 20-22 months, so I thought I'd try.

4.) I know too many people who potty trained later, when their children can assert their will much more strongly, making it all the more difficult, and I wanted to avoid that at all costs.


I read this article and it just made sense to me. I had a friend who actually used this approach and it worked. So, I thought I would give it a shot. Nothing to loose. While I agree with Dr. Rosemond's "no nonsense, matter-of-fact, this-is-just-what-we-do" sort of approach, we've had to monitor and adjust just a little bit!

The first day and a half were pretty successful. The biggest hurdle was Kendall not wanting to sit on the little potty, so I went to Wal-Mart on Monday night and bought one of those seat-adapter things for the big potty. By the middle of the morning on Wednesday, we had to take a break. We went outside and Kendall peed three times in the 45 minutes we were out there, with the potty chair right in front of her. At that point, I was ready to throw in the towel.

Oh, how I am thankful for encouraging mommies! I called my sweet friend Jennifer who was recently very successful with potty training her youngest daughter. She was SO encouraging! Jennifer is the one I spoke of above who actually used Dr. Rosemond's approach and had success. While comparing stories, I found out that Kendall was doing the same things Anna Kate did and Jennifer was equally ready to give up, so she took a little break, then pressed on. Sooo...on Wednesday, Kendall and I ran some errands and didn't even think about potty training that morning and I just took some time to regroup.

Wednesday afternoon, we ended up having a HUGE success when we were outside playing and Kendall told me she needed to potty. We hurried inside and she made it!!! All while never letting go of her beloved popsicle, which melted and fell into the potty!


I was just so excited that she actually told me AND that she made it to the bathroom that even though her popsicle was almost all gone anyway, I gave her another one! I'm not big on bribery, but in this case, I just didn't care.

As of today, we had two big successes this morning, but took a little break this afternoon because we had company coming for dinner. I plan on working it as much as I can tomorrow and Saturday, then Evan's parents will be in town for the week, so we'll just have to take that one day at a time. I don't want to suck up our visit with them with cleaning up messes or thinking about if she's going to make it or not. So...we'll see.

Of course, in parenting we question ourselves all the time. All week long I've been thinking, "Did I start too soon?" "Is she really ready?" "Why is this not working?" Maybe it is something I'm doing or did. I don't know. Maybe it's Kendall...maybe it's the fact that on the same day I decide to start potty training, she develops a runny nose and seems to be teething. Maybe it's just that she gets stir crazy in the house all the time and it's been rainy all week and we can't go out. I don't know...

I DO know that I'm learning more about my precious child in this process. I DO know that I'm continually learning dependency in God in even this aspect of parenting....Praying for wisdom, grace in the moment, patience...I DO know that I'm not going to give up, because she will get it eventually!

Design on a Dime, Smith Style, Pt. II

Here are a some more pictures tracking the progress of the of the work we've done in our kitchen. To date we have replaced the flooring, removed wallpaper and painted the walls (twice), painted the cabinets, replaced the countertop, replaced the sink and faucet, and replaced the backsplash.


1. The kitchen when we bought it:





2. The kitchen today:

3. The old sink and faucet(Yuck!):

4. New sink and faucet:

5. New backsplash:

Overall, I'm pretty pleased with the way it is coming together.