19 weeks

The votes of the Smith and Clifford kids are in -

3 girl votes to 2 boy votes….who will win?  You won’t know until July!   We like surprises ‘round this Smith house.

Introducing our 3rd Smith lovebug

Watch out world – there is another lovebug on the way!  A cuddly, loveable, sweet baby Smith is coming to our home in mid July!   We are excited to announce the expected arrival and ask for your prayers for the safe arrival of a healthy baby!  Here is a pictorial chronicle of our “growing” thus far….

12 weeks

13 weeks

15 weeks

16 weeks

17 weeks

18 weeks

18 weeks – self portrait on the beach

all you need is ……

Love…and well, this year, lots of activities that are inside, not too rambunctious and things that are entertaining.

My kiddos have been hit hard by a bug, and it’s not a lovebug.  Some nasty virus that turned into a bacterial infection for 2 of the 3 of us.  So we’ve been crafting, loving, watching movies, cuddling and creating for a week.  Yes, a week.  Anna’s fever has been here for 8 days.  It’s on the way out – she goes to bed with a slight fever and wakes up everyday with a normal temp…phew!  Hudson’s body seems to have fought differently and he seems to be on the mend as well…in a shorter amount of time.

Want to keep a record of some of the fun things we managed to do this year, despite the yuckies.  The LOVE banner above is a take on all of those fancy-shmancy cloth buntings people make.  Ours is out of cardstock, tissue paper, glue and contact paper.  Yup, that easy.  You can do it!

I cut the letters out of cardstock with an x-acto knife and then gave the kids free reign with colored tissue paper, glue paint and paint brushes….

(and yes, that is our tree in the background – our VALENTINE’S TREE!)

When those dried, I laid them in the contact paper, strung them on ribbon and voila!

Another fun project is paint printing.  Cover a piece of construction paper with foamy stickers and then paint over it.   While it is still wet, lay a white sheet of paper over the foam paint paper and press down.

See her excitement?  Seriously – this is a fun project to watch     their faces when they see the print.

Anna and I played a fun roll-em, draw-em lovebug game.  It works on number recognition and she got to draw a lovebug!

 

 

 

 

Hudson worked hard on making a multi-level home for some of our Duplo Lego family – it was sooo cool!

May you and yours be filled with lovebugs, not yucky bugs!  Happy Valentine’s Day!!!!!

you may live in the country if….

You may live in the country if you look out your window and you see this going up your street….

and for some reason it doesn’t seem all that odd.  Unique, yes.  But not all that shocking.

IN other news….here’s a fun art project for all you “praw-jekt” luvin’ mamas.  And all you need is glue, qtips, wax paper and glitter!  (Seriously).

First, lay out wax paper and help your little design a snowflake…or if they big enough (like Hugs), then let them design their own.  Cut the qtips if they want – but not necessary.

Once designed, put huge dollops of glue at the tips where each comes to a convergence.  (Yes, I just used a big word there.  Look it up if you need too.)  You can use white school glue, or Tacky Glue would be superb as well.

Then sprinkle the snowflakes with a “goodly” amount – that’s my PA Dutch roots coming through – of glitter.  This Mama likes to do glitter in an old cake pan or pizza box, as it catches the excess and can be funneled back into the jar.

Let them dry overnight and…  VOILA!  A snowflake light catcher!  I attached string and hung them in our entrance hall, because we rock homemade crafts on our walls.