The Schmidts

WE LOVE VISITERS! We were so excited for Mom and Dad Schmidt to come and then my mom. What a special treat! Mom and Dad Schmidt came Friday and left Monday. We fed them dinner along with the Sister Missionaries Friday night. Saturday we made the drive to the Blanchard Caverns. We got to tour it again with them -- Sam was so excited to ride the green school bus again. Saturday night while Dad and Justin went to the Priesthood session, Mom and I caught up on Saturdays General Conference. On Sunday we enjoyed General Conference all together. I always receive direction and am uplifted. It is such a blessing to have prophets and apostles today who Christ uses to guide and direct His church. I can't remember when we did these other activities, but we did them. We went to Justin's work and got to see the C-130J simulators from the outside. It's kind of crazy to watch a huge box on hydraulics moving around. Justin explained and taught us more about the C-130J. It's always fun t...

Our little guy is growing too fast. I tell him to slow down often. Although it is so much fun to see all that he is learning and how much he grows. For his birthday we opened presents throughout the day and definitely played outside. Thank you all who helped make Sam's day special.  Sam and I read this book at least 5 times, he loves it - from Uncle Justin and Aunt Lindsay  He was excited for sunglasses that actually fit - too bad we've already lost them.  Josh and Melanie brought over an awesome gift and joined us for the singing and blowing out the candles. Sam knew exactly what to do.  His birthday was on Thursday. The next Tuesday we threw him a party. It was going to be outside at a park, but a storm was rolling in so we switched it to our house last minute. Last minute being after we had set it all up at the park and a few people had showed up. Ha ha, But it worked really well at the house. We had pizza, with a fruit and veggie tray, then cake of c...

I was watching Sam and Anna, when they both came up missing. I went up stairs to find them reading a book together on the lazyboy -- so cute!  Sam loves to cook with me, and yes it's always a bit messy. Why not add cars to our rolls? Sidewalk chalk has been a favorite since the weather has been warming up. :)

We both got a little spoiled and felt the love. :) Yes, Justin got me orange roses and a big box of chocolates! I got Justin a water bottle and a  Commuter Otter Box case for his Iphone 4s. Ya, we blew our budget. :) But it's nice to have an excuse to get surprises. This is our 4th Valentine's Day being married -- we love each other more. I am so blessed to have a wonderful man who accepts me for who I am, encourages me to go after my dreams, supports me completely as a full time Mom, challenges me to always be learning, makes up the weekly menu, and sincerely enjoys being with me and our son Sam. I love him soooo much!

Through the winter we had several ice storms which meant no school for the neighbors and no work for Justin. We partied like we had no school! We checked out the ice, watched movies, read books, played together and stayed inside for almost three days one time. We also played in the snow - which is actually a sheet of ice. People kept saying this year was abnormal. We don't know what normal is here. :) We kind of chuckled at how EVERYTHING shuts down with any precipitation below freezing. Being from Utah school may be canceled if there is 5 feet of snow. In other words if you can get out of the driveway, you're going to school. But we also came to realize that the snow here is definitely more dangerous and everyone should stay inside. It's a sheet of ice under what little snow might be on top.  We also found it funny that right before an ice storm hit Arkansans made sure they had the french toast ingredients on hand. The "french toast ingredients" go missing in e...

The Zambrano's and us combined for a small but fun and delicious SuperBowl party. Justin and I were cheering for the SeaHawks and the Zambrano's were cheering for the Denver Broncos. Way to go SeaHawks!