Gabe's Birthday Bash

So its official, my baby boy turned 3 on Feb 13th 2010. We had his party at Highland Park in Washington and it could not have been a better day for him. He had lots of friends and family come to the party and the weather was so beautiful. 70 degrees and sunny, gotta love Saint George weather. Gabe's friends Logan, Michael, Lillian, and Bracken we so cute and they all really enjoyed themselves.

This year we did things alittle different and I went all "Suzy Homemaker" and baked 50 cupcakes, and this amazing spiderman face. I know, I know your totally blown away by my talent. It was actually really cute because when I was done doing it, I held Gabe up to see my masterpiece and he said, "Mommy, It's beautiful, I love it". And that is all that matters so laugh all you want.

Me and my very good and dependable friend Charlie baked and frosted all of the cupcakes on Friday night, it took a total of 5 hrs of continuous baking and frosting to accomplish this amazing feet. 

Uncle "Johnny Rock" was able to come into town from California this weekend, as well and Aunt Taryn and Mackenzie which was a real treat for Gabe, He really enjoys when they come to visit.

Uncle Dennis and Aunt Sherri and their granddaughter Trynity came from Phoenix Arizona as well this weekend so it ended up being a great party with lots of family in town.

Nana was amazing and such a trooper, he back has been really hurting since Papa passed in November. They think that lifting him those last few days caused her De generative disk disease to really speed up. She wasnt sure if  would be able to come, but as usual she was there and smiling the whole time. I love how close Gabe is to all of his family. WE are truly blessed to have such amazing family that we can count on.

 

We got Gabe a Spiderman Pinata which was lots of fun, somehow I managed to cram 2 five pound bags of candy into the poor guy which made him really heavy. The plastic thing that you tie the rope to broke through because of the weight and that is why in the picture with Uncle John he is tying the rope around spidermans neck. It was the only way for the kiddo's to keep trying to break it open because it fell the ground still intact.

Eventually after much perseverance on the kid's part they eventually got  every last piece of candy out of spiderman.

Luckily I came prepared with lots of shopping bags for the Kiddo's to load up there candy in so everyone got plenty. I am sure that there parents were super stoaked that each of them got at least a pound of candy to go home with.

Our good friend Lee, the manager of a local pizza store here in Saint George, was amazing as usual he came to party bearing every child's favorite food. PIZZA and one of the pizza's had a special message for Gabe. If you look closely its say's Happy Birthday Gabe. It was really thoughtful of him make a special one just for Gabe, not to mention the 8 pizza's he he provided for the party for FREE.

Yay for free pizza!!

And lastly before we enjoyed our cupcakes and Rootbeer floats and sent every one home we opened presents, presents and more presents. Gabe got so many new toys and clothes that it took two cars to take it all home. I am not sure Gabe needed that much stuff, but he sure has enjoyed each and every presents he got. His favorite present being a golf club set from Kaley, Bernie and Logan Buhler. It was so difficult to keep his attention on opening presents after he saw that, he ended up heading up the grass with Logan to play golf as I finished opening all of his presents.

In case anyone is wondering, Bud was the cameraman for most of the party so I dont have any pictures of him yet. Troy took many great pictures of the birthday party so I am sure we will have some fun one's of Daddy real soon.

So after a very long and eventful day full of family, friends and good times we headed off to my friend Troy's photography studio to get family photo's done.

Look for our family photo's in just a few days.!!

Bed Time Prayers

Gabe's bedtime prayer went as follows:

Heavendy fader, thank you for mommy and daddy, thank you for da puzzles a class.
Thank you for gamma and gandpa, and my oder family
thank you for my makayla.
heavendy fader, keep the bad dreams away and keep me safe
so i can wake up happy, and gamma and gandpa move to pine bally, so i can wake up to the deers.
AMEN

Gotta love his sweet innocence.

So one of our favorite places to visit is the Southern California Coast. This particular picture was taken at my personal favorite place which is Morro Bay. As a little girl my family used to take the two hour drive from our home and go feed the seals at Morro Bay.

This last summer I had the chance to take Bud and Gabe to see this place and Bud fell in love. Ultimately we want to have our dream home here over looking the waters of this beautiful place but for now we hold it dear to our hearts and visit often.

 Leaving Southern California to build our life together outside of the military was a difficult but very rewarding decision. We were able to come "home" and build a life together with our friends and family close by. However I cant wait to be able to call this amazing place home. Someday!!

Lately my very smart, very mouthy little boy has said and done some pretty funny things that I feel compelled to share with all of you.

*while saying our prayers before bed on Sunday night Gabe prayed for "Jesus to love the penguins", I am not sure if he is talking about actual penguins of which his has yet to see, or the cartoon penguins of Madagascar. Either way I couldn't help but chuckle at his love of wild life.
* At the Temple  Nativity  I told him a short, toddler version of the true Christmas Story, which he quickly followed with " Does baby Jesus and the fake cow live in that castle?"
*  At Chili's on Saturday he peered over the booth wall to the floor below yelling "Mommy, there's a humpedbacked whale" I chuckled and asked were did you hear about Humpback Whales, to which he replied in CAL--IF--ORNIA.
* Everyday he reminds  Bud and I that he either needs "another Sisher" or he needs his "SISHER MTayla"
* Bud and I were talking about the condo in Oceanside and Gabe said " I wanna see the Condor" I said Gabe its the Condo, the place we live at when we go to the beach, is that what you mean, He quickly answered. "No mom, the Condor, CAWW-Caww duhhhhhhhhh."
*The other day he was playing with his toy riffle he got for Christmas and accidetally cut himself on some glass, he said " Mom, I shot me, I shot me in my foot"
*oh and apparently I am Gabes daughter and his dad is his Husbin. Bud and I are not Married because Uncle Darren's wife is Mary and his sisher Mtayla is not daddy kid, she's Gabe's. He not quite grasping the concept of how the family fits, but at least he know we all fit somehow.

You never know what this kid's gonna say, you just have to be ready to explain to people it's it way off the wall. Like lately people are "creepy", how do explain that to the old man in Walmart that wants to say hi to Gabe.

Ok so it's official, I am the worst blogger, facebooker, and myspacer on the planet. I never update status or post new pics and after looking at alot of friends pages I have decided that I Ashley Jo Smitherman will do better this year, this I swear. Now that I have have taken the oath of the new age mommy/wife it's time to get down to business and update all of who have, I am sure, been anxiously awaiting my update.

The first thing I feel compelled to share, for those of you who don't already know. On November 13th 2009, the dearest sweetest man I ever knew quietly passed away in his home after a long and difficult battle with lung cancer. John C. Dewey, was in so many ways my friend, father figure and mentor. He was always so full of life even in the very end. Weeks before his passing he would crack jokes and dance his little dance in the kitchen, barely able to walk he would still try to stop, shake his little bum and make me laugh. I was raised by my grandparents and owe so much of who I am to them. I have to thank my sweet husband for being so understanding when I would spend most of free time with my grandparents after Papa's diagnosis in June of 2009. He stood by my side through the hardest thing I have ever had to go through. It's because of my family, my husband, my little boy, my amazing friends and last but not least my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, that I was able to brave the roughest storm. I love you guys!!

While going through this very difficult time I felt compelled to reestablish a relationship with Christ. However I wasnt sure how to go about this. After many family prayers around papa, most of which were led my Uncle John, I felt compelled to talk to him about helping me find a church for me, Bud and Gabe. My Uncle John and his sweet wife my Aunt Taryn took Bud and me around town to find a Christian Fellowship that would "fit". Bud has such amazing instincts, he picked the Calvary Chapel of Saint George to visit first and after meeting the pastors there we knew that it was the place for us to call our spiritual home. We have been attending this church for several months now and it has been such an amazing experience for us to share. Already we have had such blessings in our life, and I know that many more blessing are in store my family. Thank you Uncle Johney and Aunt Taryn for being such examples to us and helping us to find this amazing church. I love you guys so much and owe each of you the world.

ICE FISHING IN OTTER CREEK

We just went up to otter creek last weekend with Grandma and Grandpa Smitherman, to ICE FISH!! This was mine and Gabe's first trip ice fishing. Lucky for us, my all knowing father in law is a pro and I feel completely safe with my husband around. Even if that leaves me standing on a foot of ice in the middle of an ice cold lake!

Now that warm weather is somwhat on its way, I am sure we are in for plenty of adventures and I look forward to all this St. George warm weather has to offer.

It was Gabe's second Christmas this year and although he is too young to grasp the idea of waking up to presents that Santa brought the night before, he did enjoy each and every one of his gifts he received. His favorite of the gifts being his "v'room v'room" that got from Grandma and Grandpa Smitherman. It is a power wheels motor cycle that has a Harley Davidson sticker on the front of it. His obsession with motor cycles began because of Grandpa Dalton and Grandpa Kevin as well as Daddy all having Harley's. And now because of Grandma and Grandpa, Gabe too can enjoy the wind in his hair and the roar "however small" of his new Harley Davidson. Besides his apparent obsession with Motor Cycles he has come to love sports. Mostly Basketball and Football, but he enjoys all sports, just the same. He likes to watch Sunday night football, standing in front of the TV yelling "get it get it get it and oooooooooogh" when they tackle or drop the ball. It seemed obvious that Santa should get him a basketball hoop and a football for Christmas as well. I think he was brought more toys than he know what to do with but as our only little one at Christmas I felt that it wasn't possible to go "over-board".

On Christmas Day I cooked my first "Traditional Christmas Dinner" which included, Ham, Mashed Potatoes, Green bean Casserole, Dinner Rolls, Apple Pie and a few other things. It turned out rather good, especially the Ham if I do say so my self. We invited over one of Buds friends and little boy so they could enjoy a home made Christmas dinner. After dinner the boys played Rock Band on our New Wii. Gabe really like singing into the microphone, he continued singing even after we were done with rockband and play Mario Cart.

Christmas over all was really nice this year. Except my having surgery on the 19th which left me on crutches and in a boot. I followed doctors orders as far as five days, leg elevated and only get up to the bathroom. And by the way no weight on that foot at all. But by day five I was feeling restless, and after going to the doctor and getting the OK to start putting weight on that foot, decided to go to Walmart and K-mart with out my crutches. Then stand on my feet to cook a feast for five people the very next day. Let just say I am regretting that decision in many ways and have decided to keep my foot up for the most part for the remainder of the day today.

Bud certainly spoiled me this year getting me the new Cannon Power Shot digital camera. I can tell you I was so excited and gratful. I truly am blessed to have such a thoughtful husband. His present has yet to arrive thanks to storms in the north west shutting FedEx down. Hopefully it comes today. I desperatly need to finish this post and get to cleaning up this living room before Bud comes home from his run. So I will end here and post the rest of the Christmas pictures later.

So we just got back from our annual trip to Bakersfield California. We got to spend time with my dad and my brothers, as well as my beautiful niece's Kaelan Jo and Sierra Jo. We had alot of fun with the family doing things like, driving Grandpa's truck and going to LA for a night. Bud had alot of fun in LA, he really enjoys going to Monster Massive every year. This year there were about 80 thousand people there and performers from around the world. We will be going back to Bakersfield for my little brother Darrens wedding a few months. Until then I will miss them alot..

GABE ANDKAELAN JO IN BAKERSFIELD OCT 2008

Grandpa Kevin and Gabriel

Sierra Jo

Gabe got to drive Grandpa Kevins truck..

Grandpa and Gabe infront of Grandpa's truck..

NOW THAT GABE IS ALMOST 2 YEARS OLD ONE OF HIS FAVORITE THINGS TO DO IS GO TO THE PARK DOWN THE STREET FROM OUR HOUSE. ITS SO EXCITING TO GET TO SEE HIM HAVE SO MUCH FUN AND HOW INVOLVED HE IS WITH OTHER KIDS AROUND HIM. THIS TRULY IS AN EXCITING TIME FOR OUR FAMILY...