Dan's Adventures in England

Dan spent a week in Oxford, England for a conference. Here are some of the photos he took of his adventures there. He also got to spend a little time in London on his way back home. I will try and get him to blog in more detail.

I always wondered how she would look.....

I was doing my hair with my straightener and Maddie wanted her hair done too. I was hesitant to flatten her beautiful curls but I wondered what she would like with straight hair.

Maddie says that she looks more like a princess with her hair straight. What do you think?

Snow Day?

We live in the South- you know heat, humidity, mosquitos, spiders, fried chicken, grits, and confederate flags. It's not supposed to snow in the South. So we were mildly surprised when we woke up to this.

We figured we should enjoy the few little flakes before they melted away.

A few little flakes turned into our house looking like a Christmas postcard.

Our backyard looking like this.....

and well when all was said and done we had more than a little snow.

Valentine's Day

Madison all ready for Pink and Red Day at school.

My Mom gave us the most amazing present for Christmas. It was a huge tote full of monthly craft activities for Family Home Evening. Each month has a bag full of supplies, instructions, and fun activities. February's craft was homemade valentine covers for lollipops. We made one for all the kids and teachers in Maddie's preschool class. Thanks Mom-You are one fantastic lady!

Maddie got this little pink and white kitty for Valentines Day.

The New Construction Pictures-see last post

Can you believe the view! A deck in our backyard so we can sit and stare at those mountains is high on my priority list.

Okay, I realize that none of you really care about a picture of my pipes in the basement, but it sure excites me!

Pictures courtesy of my fantastic parents.

Catching Up

I need to do some catch up with the happenings here in Smithtopia. Make sure you scroll down for the picture posts below.

When we moved to Atlanta almost a year ago Dan was still finishing up his graduate studies and was working part time with his new job. He is now working full time and still polishing off his PHD stuff in the evenings. Between his four callings and two jobs we don't see him as much as we would like to. However, the finish line is in sight. He will be doing his defense mid April and will graduate in May. After 6 years, 5 moves, 10 + callings, 4 wards, and 1 monkey girl we are ready to settle down for good.

Dan's company will allow us to live wherever we want (hurray). After much prayer and thought we have decided to move to Happy Valley (Utah). While we were in Utah over the Christmas break we did some serious house shopping. We decided to build a home. We found a great builder and a lot that is a mere 7 minutes from my parents house. We are so excited to be close to family. We have sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, and cousins on both sides of our family super close. After 6 years in the South with no relatives around it will be so great to be with family again. Our house will be done in June of this year and we can't wait to settle in.

I will be posting some pictures of our house as it gets built soon. I just have to thank my fantastic parents who are watching over the construction of our house and taking care of all our stuff in Utah. I love you guys!

Beautiful Girls

Maddie with her Ludlow cousins - some serious blond beauties.

Collages

If you click on the collage you can see the pictures in a larger format.

Madison Turns 4

I can't believe the little monkey is four years old. This year is the first year that she has got to celebrate her birthday with Papa and Grandma. Dan was at home in Atlanta working like a dog and we were up in Utah with my parents. Maddie wanted pizza, balloons, and a kitty cake. We skipped the big party with friends this year because we are planning a trip to Disney with the family as a birthday present. We actually flew home the evening of her birthday and we got to celebrate again with Daddy. Happy Birthday Sweet Pea!

What We Did at Christmas

So as usual I am so behind on blogging. I am going to create a few collages in an attempt to get caught up. Enjoy a few visual memories of our Christmas time activities.