Strawberry Jam, sort of...

It's Strawberry season in Florida and I am in LUUUUUV! We went to a pick-your-own farm one Saturday morning and really went to town. When we got home we had two huge box tops full of strawberries. I think the lady said we had 14 POUNDS (!). So we decided to make some jam.



The Goods



Jake, mashing "The Goods"


My own home made version of a boiler for canning. I read about different ways to do this online to make sure that I did it safely. Don't worry, folks. There will be no botulism in my house!


The finished product! The only problem is that I tried to do the sugar-free recipe. I realized half way through that I had mashed twice as many strawberries than I needed. Well, I doubled everything except for the sure-gel box and didn't think twice. I realized about two days later when neither of the two jars that I had opened set correctly what happened. It's okay though. We roll with the punches in this house. We are using it as chunky strawberry syrup and it is real good on top of vanilla ice cream.


Sawyer likes it so it must be good!

Writin' it up!

Jane is learning how to write her letters.



I wrote the first letter on the paper above and Jane did her best to write the same letter right next to it. I think she did a pretty darn good job!



Jane really likes to "connect the dots" but she also really likes to color. SO, sometimes dots that should connect to spell "Jane Smith" just make fun shapes.

She's only three though...so I figure she's got time.

Shouting from the rooftops!

My sweet boy Sawyer has started to do something in the morning that mothers of young toddlers only DREAM about! He's been waking up in the mornings while Jake is getting ready for work so Jake gets him a little snack and turns cartoons on.

The awesome thing is that Sawyer will keep watching cartoons and let me keep dozing after Jake goes to work! I'm so grateful (for the first time) that we have a split floor plan! When Jake is getting ready to leave he comes in the room, we say our prayer and then Sawyer comes in and snuggles with me for a second and goes back out to watch his cartoon.

I don't stay asleep very long, usually just another 15 or so minutes because who wouldn't want to wake up and smooch on a little boy that is so sweet in the morning?!

I'm so excited to enter this new stage of life! We've been going to bed earlier, the house is staying cleaner, our money is lasting longer and we're starting to be able to sleep in!! I feel like I've hit the JACKPOT!

Easter Weekend Picnic

Easter weekend was great! Conference was wonderful and in between sessions on Sunday a huge group of families got together to celebrate Easter and life and love and anything else worth mentioning!


All the ladies at the picnic. We're a fun bunch of moms!


Jake and Sawyer on the park together. That kid is a hooligan!


Jane and one of her besties, Savannah.


Sawyer is a spinning king!


Jane, wearing her new Easter sunglasses the only way worth wearing them...upside down!

It's coming along...

Alright y'all (<--- note to all, I will never actually speak that word from my mouth)

I'm getting this rolling on my website! If you want to check out a ton of pure genius you'll head over to my "under construction" photography website. I'm pretty psyched! I've got the logo picked out. I'm working on colors and all will be revealed SOON!

Check it out!

www.starleighsmithphotography.com

Family Tea Party!

A couple of weeks ago we had our first ever (!) Family Tea Party (minus the tea, of course). Here is a peek at the festivities and a small look at our new palace.

The Grub. Those cookies from Publix are SO GOOD. Seriously, print off that picture, go to your nearest Publix and find these cookies. You will not be disappointed.


Daddy and Sawyer. These two are so much fun!


Sawyer is my little cookie/sweets/milk/banana/apple/juice monster. He's great and I love licking his little fingers when they are covered in the good stuff!


Sweet Baby Jane is chowing down! She is practically a woman now (look at her AND she's starting Pre-K in a matter of months!) but she'll always be my Sweet Baby Jane.


A sweet flower from the top of a sweet cupcake that was eaten by my sweet girl.


All in all, the tea party was a success. We had a blast eating treats that we don't eat very often and we got spend some good quality time together. We need to make it more of a tradition. Maybe next time we'll make treats out of my Hungry Girl recipe book. All the recipes are 200 calories or less! Imagine that!

Anyways, spring has officially hit North Central Florida so we'll surely be doing more activities outside! Keep your eyes peeled for more updates. :)

Kind of a downer...

So, I'm completely frustrated with myself right now.

I have tons of goals and dreams and plans and nothing is panning out! I feel like I'm always taking one step forward and two steps back.

1: I want to get out of debt and I feel like that is never going to happen. I need to be able to work outside of the house to make the kind of money we need to get out of debt quickly and anyone who knows me knows I'm not putting my kids in daycare (plus, there aren't many jobs to spare in this economy).

2: I want to take this photography thing seriously but I don't have the start-up money I need to get all the equipment that I need. ie: Photoshop CS4, new lenses, fancier camera, a better computer, lights, flashes, tripods...

I know, I know, I should take one step at a time but I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place. I'll get more work with the nice equipment but I can't buy the equipment until I get more work. Bah!

3: I have friends doing AWESOME things with themselves. I feel like I'm jumping up and down in a crowded room sometimes and no one even sees me. I feel like I'm disappointing some friends by not calling enough and I feel like I'm irritating some friends by calling too much (even though I don't think I'm calling that much)... Sometimes you just get a vibe from people, you know? I just can't find my footing.

4: We are so unsettled! We don't know where we're going to live, whether Jake is going to stay on the career track he's on or not, if we're going to have more kids or ever be debt free. I just feel like nothing is sure. All the people I'm surrounded with know exactly what they're going to be doing. They've made up their mind; they're in grad school and there is no turning back. We keep trying to figure out what exactly is going to work best for us and frankly, it's making me crazy.

Anyways, I know I'm a bummer but since no one even reads my blog anyway it shouldn't matter.

Jacksonville Zoo

Whew!

Alright, well, my eyeballs hurt! I spent the day catching up on my photos! I HAVE been taking pictures I just HAVEN"T been editing and posting! Well, that changed today.

If you want to catch a peek of my work you can head over to my photography blog: www.starsmithphotography.blogspot.com. I actually have MORE pictures that I need to sort through and post tomorrow as well.

Enjoy!

Mmmm, Spring!

I love spring in Florida. Have I said that lately?

I LOVE spring in Florida (and winter, too but I know I've mentioned that).

Anyways, this winter was particularly chilly in a delicious sort of way. I can still wear a sweater in the middle of March! It is amazing.

Today was GORGEOUS! We've been in the process of moving all week so today I took the children to the zoo in Jacksonville. We had a blast! Sawyer was such a good boy. He held my hand and walked around the exhibits and Jane was so polite and kind. When I asked the kids to get back on the buggy and move on to the next exhibit they did just that. Sawyer was practicing his jumping skills and had a ton of fun making new friends.

Sawyer, the poor boy, needs a little brother or boy cousin so badly. He just about jumps with joy anytime he sees little boys playing. You can totally tell that he spends all his time with girls.

Jane, as always, is just a joy. She is learning how to write her letters and numbers. She loves to connect the dots! Sawyer really thinks he is talking and bossing us around. He just walks around shrieking and commanding. The funny thing is that you can actually figure out what he is telling you. He knows exactly what I am saying and we can have whole conversations with him pointing in response or shaking his head yes or no. There are NO questions about what that boy wants!

In conclusion, I just have to say: I love my life! My kids are fantastic. My husband is amazing! Jake works so hard for our family and I am so grateful for his effort and the thoughtful things he does for me. The Lord has been incredibly generous with our blessings lately.

I really feel like I've had a total attitude shift in the last year and a half. I used to feel like things were so hard for me all of the time. Now, everyday feels like it's running smoothly and when I look back on things a couple of weeks later I can see the things that I really struggled with and appreciate how difficult a certain trial was. As an example: all year last year I kept seeing status posts on Facebook about how hard 2009 was and I kept thinking to myself that 2009 was going great. In retrospect though, 2009 was a really difficult year for us as a family. We were getting used to a new city without family close by, Jake's new job with crazy shifting schedules and a new baby. I didn't sleep more than 4 hours in a row once (!) in 2009. I was exhausted all year and lonely a good portion of it. But I got through and I grew closer to my family and Heavenly Father and Jake and I know that we work really well together under pressure.

Anyways, enough rambling. I make no promises about when this thing will be updated again. Hopefully soon but we'll see.

So Stinking MAD!

I don't even know how to start this story.

Lately, I've been noticing a lot of dog poo in the grass by our car. For a while I thought that the lazy bums with dogs, in the complex were just trying to stay warm by not walking across the parking lot to the dog area. But then it seemed like the poo was following my car. I started parking a couple of spots away from my normal parking area and, lo and behold, some poo appeared there as well. I really thought I was crazy.

Today, though. Today, I walked outside, with my children in tow, to go the grocery store and the front driver side tire was as FLAT as a pancake! I am not kidding you. There was no air left in it at all. I assumed I drove over a nail, but I couldn't find one. I thought maybe the tire had a leak but the air has been really good lately.

Then I started to think that maybe someone slashed my tire, but I couldn't find any puncture marks on the tire.

Well, after Jake got home and while he was changing the tire he noticed that the air cap was on incorrectly. Then he noticed a finger smudge on the rim near the air thing.

So I took the tire to the tire store and they dunked it in a tank to make sure that there was no leak. Sure enough, someone let the air out of our tire!

It's frustrating because Jake has arrested a number of people that live in our complex. Some of these people live in our building. I've complained about a college age couple that doesn't pick up their dogs poo and it's not a secret that it was me (something about staying home all day with all the blinds and windows open gives you away...).

So, anyways, I'm not sure what to do about it. I'm frustrated but I'm stuck.

Changes...

So, most of you know I'm making a go of it as a photographer. I've decided to change my name from Star Smith Photography to Star Tree Photography and my new motto is "Reject Mediocrity."

I also got a neat little version of Photoshop and made this cute flier with it... if your in Gainesville keep your eyes open...

You just might start seeing it around town!

It's been SOOOOO long!

I can't believe how long it has been since I've posted a real post!

We've kind of been doing a lot while not doing anything at the same time...does that make sense?

We're still waiting on the notice of transfer from Jake's work. We submitted the paperwork in November only to find out that we weren't eligible to submit until December 18th so thankfully they changed the date for us. The only problem is that the cut off for transfer requests each month is the 15th! So, our request has been pushed from November into the January pile. I'm hoping that we'll have word sometime next week since the 15th is THIS FRIDAY!

For Christmas Jake got a PS3 that he loves! I got a microphone and game called "SingIt Disney" for Jane. She is so cute while she sings Hannah Montana in the living room. She really belts it out if I sing with her; so it is easy to say that we sing-a-lot!

Sawyer, I have decided, moved right past learning how to speak one word at a time into speaking in full sentences. You have to know though that he doesn't "say" words. He shrieks everything. It is cute and maddening at the same time. Anyways, yesterday I shut the door of the bathroom while Sawyer was trying to creep into bathroom and he starts shrieking "You closed the DOOOOOR!" Over and over and over. It is hard to believe that a 14 month old would be able to say that but I swear to you he did. He is always walking around babbling about something.

I will be starting a photography class next week. I'm pretty excited. I love taking pictures and would love to make money doing so but, as with everything else, you need proper training. Keep your eye on my photography blog www.starsmithphotography.blogpsot.com to see an update of my work.

Also, a few product recommendations for my lovely readers.

If you live in an apartment or house with carpet and limited storage (no room for a steam cleaner...) you MUST try the Resolve Deep Cleaning Carpet Powder. It is amazing. Seriously I did it to my whole living/dining room area and the place looks great! I would suggest any mother of small children have this on hand at all times. Since we all know the big stains don't just fall off a plate they slowly reveal themselves as time and traffic progress you need something to clean it up without lugging out a steam machine all the time. You'll appreciate being able to quickly spot clean (or slowly clean your whole living area). I sure do!

Also, I got a new recipe book by Hungry Girl. She has a recipe called Saucy Cheesy Veggie Stacks. It is made with Eggplant, Zucchini and Portabello Mushrooms. I HATE all of these vegetables but when I made it the recipe was saucy and cheesy and oh-so-delicious! Man it was good. AND, if you make it according to recipe (which I basically did) each veggie stack has LESS than 200 calories! You can't be that, Ladies. Get a copy of that recipe because it is delicious and satisfying.

That's all from me for now. I'm going to take a page out of my BFF's journal and start (trying to) blog every day. I'm sure you guys will be biting your nails with anticipation of my next post. ;)

I moved this post from my other blog...

Monday, December 14, 2009

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Wow! It has been a long time since I've given a real post. Life has been pretty normal lately. Recently though we snuck off to Orlando for a little holiday retreat. We got a rockin' deal on a room in the Gaylord Palms Hotel and went to the ICE! exhibit. I have to say, the Gaylord Palms Hotel is the coolest hotel I've ever been to!




Jane and Sawyer getting some pre-ICE! snuggling done.
The entrance to the exhibit. ICE! is 5000 sq/ft of sculpted ice exhibits. Every year it changes.

This is Sawyers' "I'm trying to eat this ice" face. He kept licking the ice even though it's against the rules...naughty, naughty!





The smallest jacket they had BARELY fit Sawyer.




Jane riding on the carousel. This swan boat was really neat.


Sawyer riding on the polar bear.


Jane wants to help Santa deliver his presents this year. She got started with her reindeer riding lessons...





Yes, Jane, there is a Santa...



The cool glasses our hotel gave us to enhance the lights in the atrium at night.


This picture was taken through the glasses. They turned all the lights into twinkling snowflakes.



The atrium

The HUGE Christmas tree!


One of the ponds connected through a system of streams in the lobby. All of the ponds were full of fish! Koi and black catfish! They also had turtles and alligators as well as a castle and a full-size sailboat INSIDE the hotel. Sawyer cried when we left. He thought it was the coolest place ever!

I'm feeling a little clumsy!

Alright, well I just spent about an hour creating a blog post and I posted it to the WRONG blog! I don't know if a year of fatigue is just catching up with me but lately I've been a little clumsy with my driving and just a little out of sorts. Wierd.

Anyways, if you want to read the blog follow this link: www.starsmithphotography.blogspot.com.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Sawyer stabbed me with a steak knife...

I'm not kidding.

Updates to follow soon.

P.S. no one got hurt... :)

Oh, Memories...

So many of our friends are having their first babies (or have just recently had their first baby) and it brings me back to that time in my life. There is nothing like a first baby. It is such an exciting time of life. Everything is uncertain and frenzied. Your body is changing, your relationships are changing. YOU are changing. It is amazing how much one little baby can change a person so much!

Man, oh, man. Sometimes I wish I could go back to that experience and just revel in it. If I could travel back in time and tell myself something I would say:

1) Relax! You're doing great. Everyone is clothed and fed and mildly well rested.

2) Don't rush everything. Baby J will crawl (or roll over or walk) when she's ready. Enjoy her chubby little body while it she sits still on your lap.

3) It's okay if your baby cries a little. It's hard; I know, but trust me, it really does hurt you more than her.

4) Don't complain about tempter tantrums or projectile reflux. Some day (too soon) you'll be clean and rested. Your child will use the potty and feed herself. It goes by too fast so just revel in it now.

I have loved every single moment of being a mother. I can't believe how blessed I am. I can't believe how lucky I am to have a wonderful husband and two cute babies! It is all going by so fast. I wish I could slow it all down and drink it in. I wish I could record the feelings that I have every time my kids give me hugs and kisses. Everytime Sawyer starts laughing big belly laughs for no reason at all. Every time Jane tells me I'm her "favorite girl". It's not going to last. It will all be over way too soon.

New mom's please don't take this time in your life for granted. Your life will never be the same and (most likely) you'll love every minute of it (in retrospect, but only sometimes).

Anyone?

Is anyone out there?

I know I'm not consistent about blogging but is anyone out there? I'll be better. I'll blog once a week. I need adoring comments and updates from my friends! If no one responds to this... I'll keep blogging but I won't enjoy it as much.

ARE YOU OUT THERE??

Check it out...

So, I took a leap and started my own photography website. I've got a lot to learn but I'm proud of what I've created so far.

Check it out!

www.starsmithphotography.blogspot.com

It was a party!

Sawyer turned ONE on Sunday October 25th, 2009! We had a great little party with the Tallahassee family. As you can see Sawyer had a rockin Batman cake (Jake picked it out).

Jane got her own special cake too. That Manga sure knows how to make a big sister feel special!

We had a hard time blowing out the candle. There was only one candle and I couldn't blow it out!

Sawyer was just getting started. Since he didn't have his own cake, we gave him 1/4 of the Batman cake!

It tastes good...

Sawyer sharing with mom. He's nice like that.

After all of that cake he needed a drink of milk, of course...

and a bath,

Sawyer was so good at opening presents! He got the hang of it on his first try.

I thought I uploaded the picture with all four of us in it...rats. Well, Jake was present at Sawyers party. We all had a great time!

Here's to hoping that Sawyer's second year is as wonderful, fun and memorable as the first. I can't believe that my sweet little boy is a toddler!