I Have Another Niece!

At precisely 5:54 PM, EST, God blessed this world with another baby Smith girl.  She entered this world weighing in at 9 lb 7 oz with a full head of dark hair.  It was a fairly quick and easy delivery by the sounds of it.  After six children, you think it should be.

Big sister Jane, holding her new baby sister that most are lovingly referring to as "Baby Sophie."  Jared's not so keen on the name, so I'm sure that won't end up being her name.
 

Proud Aunt Amanda and ecstatic cousin Olivia getting in some much needed baby time.
 

Most of the Smith children, minus Jadon, who at the moment this photo was taken, and actually when I left this evening, still was unaware he had a new baby sister.

Regardless of when she gets a name, she's still perfect, and I can't wait to hold her tomorrow.  Maybe they should call her Mary Poppins because she's "Practically perfect in every way."  (That's a line from the movie in case any of you are unaware.)  Blessings for this new addition and that everyone is healthy and doing well.

Milk, It Does a Body Good....Or Maybe Not

We managed to sneak in a family photo of all the Feyes' together before Aaron and Christy headed back south to warm Georgia.

Well, now that the holidays have come and gone life has resumed some what back to normal.  Most of the Christmas decorations are tucked away until next year, school has been back in full swing, and sickness has continued to ensue in our home.  Mia battled high fevers for a week straight with diarrhea for ten days over Christmas break.  Olivia had a couple days as well with a fever, headache, and sore throat.  I am never happy to see my girls sick, but thought that at least we got it all out of the way over our two week break from school.  Boy was I wrong.  That happened to be Mia's second time sick in a matter of a couple of weeks.  Well, a week ago today Mia had this rash that looked like hives all over her torso.  She seemed fine and it didn't bother her.  I wrote it off as to her skin reacting to her having used an entire bottle of body wash in the tub the day before.  Well, then came the phone call at work Monday saying she had a fever. So, I decided we better get her checked out.  The Dr. said the fever and rash were related.  He said it was a common childhood ailment when immune systems are down.  I expressed my concern with her constantly getting sick, and he thankfully shared my concerns.  He recommended blood work the next day if her fever remained.  Of course it did, so we had blood work, which she was not happy about.  My caring, brave, wants to be a pediatric surgeon, Olivia wanted to go with her sister to support her having her blood drawn.  Well, Olivia was turned around in a chair sobbing her eyes out before the nurses even had the needles out.  I will support her in whatever profession she chooses, but I'm not so sure she's cut out for the medical field. 

After the initial tests were back, the Dr. ordered additional tests after seeing some concerns in the initial results.  We went back Saturday morning to hear his conclusion.  After discussing her diet, he believes she has Milk Anemia.  She drinks a lot of milk, but sometimes milk can block the body's absorption of iron.  Her levels of iron were drastically low.  I can't remember all the levels and what they were for, but on one test she should be in the 80-90 range and she was a 5.  So now my milk lover can no longer have milk and has to take these disgusting iron supplements twice daily.  It is pretty bad tasting and I can smell it on her breath the rest of the day.  It's liquid so I put a drop on my finger to try.  It was like sucking on a mouthful of coins, and the taste lingered for quite some time.  There's no way to mask it.  In a couple months we will have more blood tests and hope to see some improvement.  Her glucose level was also low, but he's hoping that was because of her being sick and not eating much during that time, so we are watching that as well. 

The day before we heard Mia's official diagnosis I took the afternoon off work and my Aunt Joan picked me up and we headed to Ann Arbor.  My Aunt Ruth has been battling rectal cancer and had to have surgery earlier in the week.  The prognosis is positive and she seems to be quite the trooper.  My Uncle Mike was there by her side singing her praises about how amazing his wife was.  We all knew that before, but she is taking this all with such strength.  It was great to see her and know that she is getting such good care.  She has a long road of recovery ahead of her, so my prayers will continue, but I am sure she can conquer this.

Joan then came home with me and stayed the night.  The girls loved getting to see her for a bit.  Joan decided to stay because she wanted to see Olivia's swim meet Saturday morning.  She stayed home with Olivia while I ran Mia to the Dr. and shortly after she dropped Olivia off at the pool for her warm ups.  We got to the pool around 10:15 eager to watch her swim.  When I got there a shivering, crying, Olivia climbed up into my lap.  She complained of her head and tummy hurting.  She felt very warm to the touch.  We had her scratched from the swim meet and headed home.  She's had a fever since.  She says she feels fine today, but her fever keeps lingering in the 100 - 101.5 range.  She desperately wants to go to school tomorrow (it's art day after all), so we will see what the morning brings.  Andy is finally busy at work again, so he really needs to work, because when he doesn't, he doesn't get paid.  At school we are doing all our standardized tests and I have to personally administer most of them to the students I service so it's hard to miss.  Plus I just started last week with a student teacher in the afternoons.  She had to sub for me her first day when Mia got her fever.  I am more than ready for all this sickness to leave our house and be gone for good.

Sorry I don't have more pictures.  My camera battery died a couple weeks ago, and I just finally charged it.  So there you have our January thus far.  Sickness, but smiles through it all. 

Feverish Olivia with Joan and Mia.

New Year's Day 2013

Aaron and Christy arrived from Georgia late at night on the 30th of December.  We met up with them in Ohio at Andy's Aunt Ruth and Uncle Rich's home on New Year's Eve during the day.  The entire family was thrilled to see them.

Aaron snuggling up with Olivia and Mia.

New Year's morning we headed over to Nana and Papa's for round two of Christmas.  Now that Aaron and Christy were here, there were a few more gifts to be opened.

Olivia is still talking about her camouflage jacket so she can do some more hunting with her daddy.  She may end up being a daddy's girl after all.
 

Mia got a huge set of play-doh, along with a play-doh cake maker set.  She's bugging at the moment to play with it.
 

Mia also got a tiarra and make up set.  She did my make up in the above photo.  I don't know that she has a future career as a make up artist, that is unless the current trends change drastically.  Oh well, I was a good sport and let her doll me up.

With New Year's many people make resolutions.  I often do the same, but really try to come up with some meaningful resolutions that I think I can accomplish with hard work.  I've been mulling over lots of ideas for this year.  Overall my resolution this year is to be better.  I want to be a better person, a better mother, a better teacher, have better health, better my relationship with my husband, and better my relationship with the Lord.  It's not that I feel like I am awful at any of these things, but I know I can be better.  We all need to strive to be better at times.  So here's to 2013 being a better year for us all!

Ringing in the New Year!

We decided ringing in the new year this year, would be best done low key.  Last year Andy and I attended a fun adults only party, but we like to have our kids with us to celebrate.  Also, traveling far on New Year's Eve and driving home is just too much for this old lady, so staying home and having friends with their own kids come over sounded ideal.  As I posted earlier, the Randall family will soon be flying south to South Carolina.  Rather than get sad about their leaving, we decided to make the most of the time we have left with them and had them over for an entertaining evening.


Olivia and Emma doing nails and make up.  This is prior to their spilling a bottle of pink nail polish all over the floor and splashing it on the walls and toilet, and then trying to clean it up themselves rather than telling an adult.  Let's just say our bathroom now has touches of pink accents throughout.
 

Abe loving on Mia.  Abe was quite the love machine.  He's typically very quite and reserved.  I got numerous hugs and kisses from him that night.  Mia did as well.  They are best buddies and partners in crime.

Kylee hanging with the youngsters.  And just so everyone is aware, we don't typically keep our loveseat blocking the foyer.  We just needed more room for Just Dance 4 on the Wii, so it had to be moved for the evening.  Everyone except for Jer and Andy, who hid the in the basement the majority of the evening, got into the Just Dance action. 

Olivia and Tina battling it out.  Tina I would have to declare the overall winner for the evening, although valiant and worthy attempts were made by all. 

It was a great night.  Pizza and nacho dip, some drinks, and good friends.  What more could we ask for.  Olivia was the first to crash around 10PM.  Abe and Mia suprisingly made it to almost midnight.  I believe Kylee and Emma held on 'til just after.  The adults made it until after 2AM before we decided to call it a night.  We had a great New Years and hope the rest of the year proves to be as much fun.

Christmas Day 2012

As is tradition, Christmas Day is spent at Nana and Papa's house.  After we left my dad's we loaded up, dropped all the new goodies at home, and then headed over to Nana and Papa's house.


Olivia was thrilled to get the complete set of Ramona books.
 

Olivia and Mia posing with Aunt Jen and her new TV.
 

Olivia and her new sock monkey hat.
 

Mia got a frog hat... ribbit, ribbit.
 

The above photo is from my favorite memory of Christmas day.  It was quite commical, but I'm sure I'd be murdered if I told the story.  Actually, just for posting this photo and mentioning this I'm sure I'll get in some heat.
 

Mia sporting one of her new ensembles and new boots as well.

After gifts the afternoon was filled with too much tasty food, trying out all our new found gadgets and gifts, visiting, and a few young children not feeling all too well.  Mia was a trooper and acted like an absolute sweetheart even though she was still battling with diahrea and a slight fever.  You wouldn't have ever known it.  It was a Merry Christmas for us surrounded by family and loved ones.  Another Christmas of memories to cherish is in the books.  We hope all of you had a pleasant Christmas as well.

Christmas Morning 2012

Christmas morning started as it always does at Dad and Patty's house with Elizabeth, Jared, and their almost six children.

All the cousins together.
 

Grandma and Grandpa joining in with their grandkids.
 

Mia got Pop the Pig, which she dearly wanted.
 

Super Hero James
 

Olivia with Just Dance 4, which has proved to be hours of fun.
 

Jane in her fuchsia girly skirt!
 

Jared was pulling on Jadon's ear.  Of course I can't remember the reason, but it was funny at the time.
 

Asher with his new fishing hat.
 

Titus all smiles with the newest Madden football game for the Wii.

It was a great morning with family, our annual Christmas breakfast, and time to celebrate together.  Dad and Patty even made a new drink that was a delicious spiced cider type drink that I can't quite remember the name of and if I am remembering it right, I'd never know how to spell it.  We've all decided that's a new tradition as well.