First...

"big theater" movie for McKenna (and Adelyn): Veggie Tales: The pirates who don't do anything

TOOTH! (Adelyn, of course)... came through on Sunday 1/27

time to sign "eat"! She's been signing milk (haven't caught it on camera yet though) on and off...

road trip without a meltdown from either girl - priceless!

We had a great weekend in McKinney visiting my friend Tammy and her boys (and Howard) - we don't see them much since we moved to SA, and miss them so much! We also got to visit with Lisa and Marcus and Joel got to play golf with some of his Frisco friends! we hope to visit again real soon...

Go Green!

Besides being my favorite color, green is what I hope to be a little more of this year... I know, the media is all over this and such and folks are probably getting really tired of hearing about this, but I thought I would share five easy things I want to do this year to help. As a woman on Oprah described herself, right now i'm about minty green, but maybe this year i'll move more towards kelly or hunter green (might take moving to austin with all the hippies!) lol you Austinites!

1) I'm really afraid of the landfills overflowing and such, so i do my best to recycle all I can. if only I could find a place that would recycle old clothes that were really stained (thanks baby) or torn and such that wouldn't even be good to donate... I take most of my stuff to a recycling center down in SA, but if you're not sure where to get started or want to up your participation, check out Earth 911. You can look up just about everything, and I wish I had posted this before Christmas since it has a great link to find out where to recycle you trees!

2) Do you wanna cut down on all that junk mail and magazines? Green Dimes will plant 5 or more trees for you and take your name off tons of junk mailing lists - o.k. so it does cost $20 for a year, but consider it a donation to the environment. Kind of a cool gift for those in your family hard to buy for?

3) How about all those plastic baggies you use for sandwiches? so some of you don't have school age kids yet, but this makes a great gift too! This cool wrap for your sandwiches makes a little placemat too, and is machine washable! I plan on ordering a few of these for Kenna and our lunches at the gym! Featured on the Today show, so it must be good, right? :)

4) Around the house, i've switched out a lot of my bulbs to the new CFL bulbs (and they finally come in "normal" looking bulb shapes, so if you don't like that swirly look they started with now you have options! They even make them in the recessed lighting shape (but not for use on lights with dimmers...:) I also heard a trick for using less toilet water that I want to set-up this week - you know those tubs that cleaning wipes come in? When you're done with one, fill it with sand or water and place it in your tank - you'll use that much less water each flush and won't even know it! just don't use that economy size tub - that might be a bit much!

5) And what about green with clean? I LOVE Method products, and now you can get them on HSN in neat bundles (have to pay shipping, so Target might still be cheaper?) My favorite is the shower spray and it works so well! Hard to be a neat freak about having a clean home when you have 2 dogs, 2 cats, and 2 kids, but when I do clean these products work great and I love that they are all natural... I know mom - a little vinegar and water cleans well too :)

So I don't really believe in resolutions, but I have resolved to try sticking with these 5 things this year (and adding on as I go!) to do my part. Before I step down from the soap box (big smile)

I have one final thought:

Paper or plastic? Neither! grab a few reusable shopping bags.... here are some links ~

Method Plastic Bag Rehab

ecobags

Chicobag

Christmas Fun 2007

We were very lucky this holiday to get to see both sides of the family! For Christmas Eve we traveled to Austin for a get together with Joel's side, meeting at Uncle Mackey and Aunt April's house! Their first Christmas together as The Smiths!
The Peterssons, Pa, and April's sister Ashley were all in on the fun. LOTS of presents, food, and laughs! Here are some great pics:
Christmas morning we were at home to do Santa presents and have a great breakfast with my parents! For lunch we went to my sister's house in New Braunfels to celebrate with the new baby! Peyton Rebecca Trost 12/11/2007! McKenna is very excited to have another girl cousin, and we can't wait for Adelyn and Peyton to be play buddies! One of McKenna's favorite gifts was a "doctor" kit and she says she wants to be a baby doctor when she grows up! The badge says "Doctor McKenna Holly Smith - Shady Acres Hospital - SIS (Specializes in Stuffies)" Funny when her "stuffies" have the "stuffies"...

And of course Adelyn still loves her exersaucer...

Hope you and yours had a wonderful holiday season and best wishes for a great 2008!

Side by side pics...

~Kenna at 6 months: ~Adelyn at 6 months:


So it's hard to compare Christmas
pics since they are different ages, so

I decided to go with 6 month to
compare! We definitely see a lot
more of Joel in Adelyn now, except
for those BIG BLUE eyes! And they

both take after him in the hair
department.... :)