30 Days of Thanks Day 3

He wasn't thrilled with me taking his picture. lol

I am so very thankful for this man. God placed him in my life at the perfect time. We started dating my first summer working at church camp. We struggled through the long distance thing for more then a year (he lived in Boise while I was in Oregon) before he moved to be with me our senior year. We got married shortly after that in 2003 and haven't stopped since. Together we have been through so much, more then I ever wanted to deal with. I think we have come through it stronger. He is the reason I made the move to Boise. I can't imagine my life if I hadn't taken that step of faith with him. He is the hands on father I dreamed my kids would have. Our girls all just adore him and I can't imagine a person I would raise my girls with. I am thankful that Jimmy has pushed me out of my comfort zone more then I would sometimes like, but he had forced me to be a better person then I ever thought possible. With him I am willing to face whatever life is going to toss our way.

Do you see what I see? Its a rainbow in the cloud. I'm not sure I would have seen it if hubby weren't driving. We were driving together for once on our way to date night! First one we have had in MONTHS! We went to a local theater that serves dinner while you watch, so we dined and enjoyed RED 2 (love Bruce Willis!). Made it possible to grab some ice cream after too. =) YUM! And while we were waiting in line Jimmy started singing to the oldies music playing in the shop. Not so loud that everyone could hear, but loud enough for one girl to hear and point him out to her friends. I couldn't help but smile. Sorry girls, he's taken!

365/181: Guest Blog: What he Loves About Me

What do you think your spouse loves most about you?

Honestly, I don't like this question. lol. So, I decided to make it a post from him. Enjoy this post by my hubby Jimmy! 

• Her smile is number one. Its the first thing I saw about her (to the right here is the smile he fell in love with, taken summer 2000)
• Her goofy personality. Yes, goofy.
• Lets see um..... oh yeah, her wearing her hair up even though I hate it up. I like it down a lot, but she makes it look good. 
• She like football. This has been a ongoing struggle to convert her to a BSU fan. 
• She has a very great personality funny, smiles alot and gives annoying repeating kisses. 
• She shows me how much she cares a lot. I really enjoy the attention.
• and last is a duh one, she is a great mom to our kids. 

Now next blog is her cons ;-)

365/142: Love!

Starting to really enjoy the editing on photobucket. =)

Then there were Two

Me and my love. Still can't believe we will have been married 10 years this June and together for 13! That is ALMOST half our lives. lol. McKayla was kind enough to take this pic. Its been awhile since we had a shot of just us.

My Husband

Okay, so I realized yesterday that I have already said the kids twice. I want to be honest and use the blog this month to list 3o DIFFERENT things, so I will add an extra today. I am thankful today for my husband. He is so wonderfully supportive in all this school and homework stuff. It has to be hard on him to never really have any time that is ours, but he is a champ and never complains about it. =) I love him more than words can express. I also love that he is so wonderful to our girls. It isn't easy being the only guy in the house, but he does an awesome job, showing them what a father is. In fact, right at this minute, he is dancing with "princess" McKayla. Sadly he won't let me take pictures. But you can imagine how adorable it is! I am also so thankful for my car. It may not get the best mileage, but it is so reliable and roomy enough for all of us to take the road trips to see the family in. Eight hours in a car is never fun, but when you have some elbow room it is easier than it could be!

Beautiful song....

Lead Me

I look around and see my beautiful life.
Almost perfect, from the outside.
In picture frames, I see my beautiful wife,
Always smiling, but on the inside,
Oh I can hear her saying

Lead me, with strong hands
Stand up, when I can't
don't leave me, hungry for love
chasing dreams, but what about us?
Show me, you're willing to fight
That I'm still, the love of your life.
I know we call this our home,
but I still feel alone

I see their faces, look in their innocent eyes
They're just children, but from the outside.
I'm working hard, I tell myself
"They'll be fine, they're independent"
But on the inside,
oh I can hear them saying

Lead me, with strong hands
Stand up, when I can't
don't leave me, hungry for love
chasing dreams, but what about us?
Show me, you're willing to fight
That I'm still, the love of your life.
I know we call this our home,
but I still feel alone

So, Father give me the strength
To be everything I'm called to be
Oh Father, show me
The way to lead them.
Won't you lead me?

To lead them with strong hands
To stand up, when they can't
Don't want to leave them,
hungry for love, chasing things
that I could give up.

I'll show them I'm willing to fight
and give them the best of my life
so we can call this a home
Lead me 'cause I can't do this alone
Father, lead me, 'cause I can't do this alone

I heard this song, and nearly cried. God gives father's as much of a charge as he gives mothers. But they are also to hold up their wives. I have started praying for my husband. He needs support too.

Yaquina lighthouse creatures

Then we were there at high tide and weren't able to see many tide pools, but were able to get a look, down in the quary area of these little guys (well not little, lol)

All the light spots are seals

Here is one swimming in the water, you can just barely see his little face

Then this guy is just laying out in the sun, getting a tan!

And this one caught my eye, and I wanted to take him home so bad!!

Just look at those eyes! But Jimmy said no, probably for the best. He looks quite happy in the ocean!

If you are interested in visiting the Yaquinta Head Lighthouse, it is open every day, unless there are high winds. It is the farthest jet of land out the Pacific ocean, so it gets breezy. Anyway, you have to pay $5 to park, but you get a pass for three days. It is located right at the North end of Newport Oregon, and is totally worth it. They have a whole little center to look in, and tide pool areas. They even have things that talk about the whale migrations and best times to see them. (In October and April I believe) They have trained people from the Forest Service (I think thats where) who can talk to you, answer any questions you might have. Children must be 42 (might be 45) inches tall to go up to the top of the lighthouse, so keep that in mind. But I honestly believe it is sooo worth it!!

Yaquina Head Lighthouse

Another one of the trips we made while visiting the coast. It was really cool. Would have been cooler had I not had a panic attack only a third of the way up and had to rush down. You know the feeling of being suffocated and shaky, well mix that with a million stairs, no fun. Have I mentioned that I am basically afraid of everything?? No? Well remind me and I will tell you about all my fears in later posts, might take more then one. lol. 

Anyway. I am a loser, so my husband continued the trip up to the top and got me pictures. :) I love that man for a reason. Anyway, here are just a few of the pictures we got.

Far away (taken from where our car was parked)

Little closer

Little closer still

Too close?? (this was from under looking up, I thought it was cool!)

These are the stairs from the top looking down

This is the light

And then this is the view of our car, the little red one (and the first pic of the lighthouse is from our car)

Stay tuned tomorrow for some pictures of animals we saw at the lighthouse. ;)

Lookie!!

What Jimmy and I got for our 5th anniversary from our very dear friends Andy and Lindsey

Isn't that the coolest thing you have EVER seen?? It is a personalized bottle of Jones Soda! It has our wedding picture on it, with a little message from them:

May you be as

happy now and always

as you were right here.

Love Andy and Lindsey

June 2008

I have the best friends don't I?? (its okay, you can say it, I won't tell!!)

Passages of the Deep

Here are the shots I was telling you about yesterday. It was AMAZING. Seriously, if you get a chance, GO!!! Imagine, being in a tunnel completely surrounded by water with all the fish and everything all around you, swimming above you, under you, beside you. Soooo cool!!!
The shark tank

This was RIGHT above our heads.

Another cave, this one had tons of fish, just a couple to share from there, but they were awesome!

Cool huh??

Oregon Coast Aquarium

Jimmy and I got to go. It was AMAZING. Honestly if you EVER have a chance to come out here and check out the beach, it is THE PLACE to go. Here are just a few of the pictures. Tomorrow I will share some from the main exhibit, Passages of the deep. You get to walk through a tunnel in the middle of all this water. AMAZING. Anyway. Here are some of the other exhibits, you can look forward to tomorrow, more reason for you to come back!

Sea lions

This one was doing flips under the water and totally ran into the glass. HILARIOUS!!

They look soooo graceful under water, you wouldn't even recognize them from the ones on land...



this one was posing for pictures just above the sign! lol.









Crabs (don't they look like they are dancing??)

I don't know what these are.. but they remind me of that commercial about the square fish. Where the guy goes "that's not right" for Long John Silvers. Anyway.


I think this is a lion fish, don't quote me though...


Little jellyfish



bigger ones


Anchovies



Seahorse

5 years

Jimmy and I have been married for five years today. I am going to share a little bit of mushy stuff. Five years ago I didn't think that I would be able to love Jimmy any more then I do now. But some how I do. Seeing him playing with the girls is just the best feeling ever. I get all the warm fuzzies. And even though we've had our arguments things are overall happy in the Smith home. I am sure he won't be reading this, so I don't have to worry about ruining his present, but I got him a new titanium wedding band. I would share pictures of that but I got it wrapped the day I picked it up, so no one gets to see until he opens it tonight!! Anyway, I would also love to share some wedding pictures, but stupid photobucket says they are the wrong file types, so you will have to wait until after this weekend and I will share pictures of our trip to the ocean. This is the first time we will get to stay in a hotel alone. We didn't get a real honeymoon. Instead we got to move. We were lucky enough to find a house of our own to move into the week before the wedding, and the stupid landlord (long story) wouldn't let us move in till 5 years ago today... So, Jimmy got to spend all day long moving. Anyway. So about four months ago I booked a hotel room (got a great deal because of my job!) So, I will take lots of pictures and share them this weekend. I will apologize ahead of time if my blogs aren't posted the beginning of each day. We'll see how it goes! The weather couldn't be better, I asked for no rain, and guess what NO RAIN IN THE FORECAST ALL WEEKEND!! YAY!! Have a good weekend everyone!

FAMILY PICS!!!

Well, don't really see that much of a point in posting these since I have already posted them on all the sites my readers visit me... but oh well, I am just putting my faves here! lol. Edited to add that I felt bad and posted them all for you, but noted where I wasn't pleased with them. The first set are my FAVORITE of the two! lol.

**Please note these were scanned on my new printer/scanner/copier that I didn't even think to clean first! UGH! But I wasn't about to re scan them all....

SET#1 taken early December: Natalie's three month shots

And then the SECOND SET, taken the end of October