Life is precious- remember that

              As I sit here by my fathers bedside, holding his hand and watching him sleep- it occurs to me how often we take the "simple" things in life for granted.  At 28 years old I figured my father would be around forever....or at least until he was old & grey!  But that's the funny thing about life, it isn't always as we think it will be.  As my dad said last night "the Lord works in mysterious ways."  And that He does.  I suppose I'm luckier than people who never knew their father's or lost them earlier in life.

     I suppose I should explain that after 12 years of battling cancer, multiple treatments and chemo-therapies; my father decided to go home on hospice Tuesday afternoon.  Ella & I flew to Oklahoma early Wednesday morning to be here with him.  We has a lovely evening last night.  He played with Ella, talked to all of us and made his wishes known.  He is at peace with this decision.  And we are all at peace too.  We know that God has great plans for him in Heaven.

         This morning my sister, mom and I were going through old pictures and remembering family vacations.  I had a pretty darn good childhood, I can tell you that. Lots of precious moments that I took for granted because I thought we would relive them again.  I will try not to take any moments for granted anymore. I'll hug Miss Ella a little tighter tonight. And I'll thank the Lord for all of the blessings in my life.

             

So today I dedicate my blog to my dad, Jeffrey Smith.  Thank you for being the amazing man, father, husband, and grandfather that you are.  I will Love you forever and will see you again one day in Heaven. 

Wonderful Weekend with Friends!

       We just had a wonderful weekend in Minneapolis with our friends the Wiggins celebrating Amelia's Birthday! The weather was PERFECT! Think a crisp 58/60 when you get up and a sunny 70's during the day! It felt like football season, which is almost here!! BOOMER SOONER! It was so great to have our friends here! We stayed up late, ate bad food, drank beer, watched movies & of course we went to Rock Bottom! It was perfect! Just wish it had lasted longer! We explored new restaurants (Rusty Taco is amazing), rode a mechanical bull (much harder than it looks), went to the mall of america (every time I go there I feel like it gets bigger & bigger), ate on a rooftop in downtown Minneapolis, and celebrated with cake & ice cream!! Perfect weekend! Until next time in September when we venture to Chicago!

Happy Birthday to YOU!

LOVE the Wiggin's Family!

Kirkland's on the rooftop

All the girls! (Yes Ella is trying to drink early- just kidding)

The whole crew on the rooftop!! 

         Ella continues to grow and learn new "tricks" everyday!  She has mastered the front to back to front and back again, as well as pushing & pulling herself in the direction of her toys.  I often find her in a completely different spot than where I left her with a huge grin on her face! (Or a toy in her mouth)  She loves to blow raspberries now which is cute until she has food in her mouth (and then consequently all over me)! And she can now sit on her own for a while! Such a big girl she is! We joined a "Mommy's group" last week and have made several new friends as a result! We plan to join the aquarium and the zoo, as well as continue to attend playgroups!

Who put me in a box?

Seriously people- enough with the box! (Although I love it)

Auntie Grace made me a new headband!

Mommy LOVES me!! 

        Jon continues to learn new procedures at the hospital and recently received his own personal lead outfit & lead glasses!! Such a OU fan too- they are all red & the lead shirt has a football on it!! BOOMER SOONER from Interventional Radiology! He is already teaching Ella the OU songs, buying her multiple OU onesies, and teaching her all about the game of football!  He even replaced her crib mobile with an OU one that pals Boomer Sooner & has little OU bears on it! So I'm pretty sure Ella will be an OU fan!

Daddy's OU girl! 

Crimson & Cream are my colors!! Go OU!

BOOMER SOONER-   Love:  The Kirklands!

What a CRAZY 6 Months

        Well- it's official! Ella Lillian Kirkland is 6 months old today, I can't believe it's been 6 whole months since my smiley, laughing, stinker came into this world!  I still remember that day so well! I remember how tiny she was when they handed her to me!  And she's still a peanut today- Ella weighs 15lbs 3ounces and is 25 inches tall!  We are hanging out in the 25-50% in weight & 15-30% in height!

I can measure myself people!!

Ella is full of laughter (she gets the biggest laughs when you call her stinky), smiles, toots (like her daddy of course), drool, and energy!!  Like I said- she loves to be called stinky or told she has smelly feet (which I assure you she does not), she loves to feed herself, she loves to splash & kick in the bathtub, and now she loves jumping in her jumper (she can finally touch the ground with her toes)!  She loves to wiggle, roll & push herself around the room (baby gates & baby proofing are happening ASAP) and she loves to eat paper! Give this girl a piece of paper and she will be entertained for at least 20 minutes (or until she eats it, so she must be supervised)! She brings such joy to our lives!! She's my little buddy during the day while daddy is at work and loves running errands! I can't remember what our life was like before 6 months ago?? (Well it was filled with a little bit more sleep)

Yum Yum Yum

I LOVE to eat & feed myself

I can touch on my tippy toes!! Bounce Bounce Bounce I go.....

Jon was off this past weekend and we all took full advantage of the beautiful weather here! 80 Saturday & 76 Sunday--- it was gorgeous!! We went to the U of M campus and saw where Jon worked, Ella even dazzled a few of his co-workers.  We took walks, ate our dinners outside, enjoyed a music festival, did a mini photo shoot outside and we went to Costco (the greatest place on earth)!! And even better than Costco- we found a Pei Wei close by us!! Jon is in heaven! We may never leave!   No, we will leave- in fact Jon accepted a job in Tulsa, so we will be moving back to the great state of Oklahoma next summer (if it survives the fires) and praying we bring this glorious weather (and Costco) with us!! 

So apparently this outfit isn't going to fit at Christmas time- so we decided to take "Christmas in August" pictures! She LOVED it!! (maybe that's because I made Jon buy her a present just like it was Christmas)

I love my daddy- he's so funny! I love to make him smile at me!

BOOMER SOONER!!! 

I can read X-Rays too! 

BOOMER

I'm a big girl now!  (insert mommys sad face)

The Joys of Motherhood

Hello all! It's been a while since I've last blogged-- but Ella & I have been really busy!! We've been exploring the area, enrolling in a gym, finding a church, crafting, and attempting to meet new people.

    Since becoming a mother I've learned to shower fast, eat fast, pee fast, and fall asleep faster! Everything is fast-fast-fast, including Ella's attention span. We move from one toy to another to another all day long!  And usually it's the wipes, paper, spoons, bowls, other people, common things that entertain her the most. Hence the picture below!

It's the simple things that entertain her!

Ella has becoming a pretty decent napper- she takes 3 naps a day.  So with all this time to myself, I've recently become a Pinterest addict and have been crafting up a storm! Michaels has become my best friend! (We don't have Hobby Lobby here--sad I know) It's nice to have a creative outlet! Hopefully we won't run out of walls! Oh- and everyone is getting crafts for Christmas :)

Our fridge- brightens my day to see all of our friends & family!

A little something for Ella's room!

Welcome to our house!

Chalkboard (I need to get some chalk)

Pictures of our sweet girl

Like I said, we've been exploring more of the area.  So of course we had to take Ella to the Minneapolis Rock Bottom!  We even walked there, the weather has been very nice! She loved it & so did her daddy! We also joined Lifetime Fitness here and Ella has been making lots of friends in the kids-room! She loves when the "big kids" bounce her in the jumper and play with her. And mommy likes a little time to herself to workout.  So overall life in Minneapolis is great!  Ella will be 6 months on Monday- boy how time flies! Sooner football starts in 1 month! And my favorite season (fall) is just around the corner!!

Ella & Mommy at Rock Bottom

Ella & Daddy at Rock Bottom