December 28th - Get Together at Home

After spending the rest of Christmas week working on getting Tyler ’s closet, toys, and the baby’s room organized, we hosted a get-together for the Harness’ clan at our house. We all had leftovers we needed to eat and since there is hardly any of the Christmas Eve chocolate cake left we believe that we did make a big dent in them. There is one slice of cheesecake left but Jen will take care of that tonight. Tyler got a few additional Christmas presents too. (What a lucky little guy!) He loved the wooden Thomas the Train set and is sure to expand upon that in the years to come, and he also enjoys pushing around the fire truck. We’re not sure where he gets so much energy but even after hamming it up for the crowd and playing with the new toys, Tyler and Spencer managed to entertain us even more with their antics. (See the attached video.) Uncle Jeff never did get that cookie out of Tyler ’s hand – Jen is still finding crumbs all over the house!

Well this may be the last of the postings on Smitty3.blogspot.com. We’re anxiously awaiting the arrival of our little girl in February and since we’ve done little to prepare for her thus far we’ll be getting the house ready in the coming weeks. Somehow we’ll figure out how to transfer this site name to something like Smitty4.blogspot.com, or just start a whole new blog once she arrives. We’ll keep you all posted on how it goes. Thanks for reading our stories!

Christmas Day 2008

We spent Christmas day at the Harness’ house. It was a whirlwind event! The food was bountiful and delicious, the company was aplenty – everyone was there – and there were tons and tons of presents. Jen’s were even skillfully (and artfully) constructed with duct tape. Santa must have heard through the grapevine that he lacks some wrapping skills so he tried pretty hard to make up for it this year! Courtney, Spencer and Morgan are excellent babysitters. Tyler always has fun playing with his cousins. He also has fun playing with Grandma’s toys, but he got many new toys to play with too. The cars, see’n say, discovery cups, and of course Thomas the Train set were big hits. Thank you all for the presents!

After spending the day at the Harness' we decided to swing by the Schroeder house for their Christmas before it was time for Tyler to go to bed. He only lasted about an hour but at least we got to say hi to alot of family that we haven't seen in awhile.

What a Christmas!

Christmas Morning

We spent Christmas morning at our house. Tyler must have been very good because Santa brought him way too many presents. The big items are a shiny red tricycle and an Elmo Live. He was a little scared of both, but has already warmed up to them. He knew right away what Elmo was when he starting saying “Elmo, Elmo” but it really sounds like “elbow, elbow”. (We’ll have to work on the “m’s”.) Obviously he is watching a little Sesame Street at school. When we put him on the tricycle he couldn’t get enough of it. He also got some new books and is starting to like his airplanes book as much as his trains book. Anytime we say “sky” or “airplane” he looks upward. Jen and Jeff got some nice gifts from Santa too. Thank you Santa!

Christmas Eve

We thought we’d try something new and host Christmas Eve for Jeff’s family this year and spend Christmas Day with Jen’s family. It was really nice because we got to spend a lot of time with both families instead of rushing around between houses. We’re not sure when we’ll get to do it again, but it was a wonderful holiday. We were really nervous about Christmas Eve dinner though. Aside from committing to prime rib, which we’ve never prepared before, we had an eventful few days leading up to Christmas Eve that led to being real short of time on preparations.

(Pretend there is a picture of a prime rib here.)

To begin with, on December 21st we spent the afternoon in the ER after discovering that Tyler has taken a liking to glass Christmas ornaments. Lucky for him (and us) he chewed up the little he did swallow into tiny pieces because it didn’t show up on the xray. He was looking very guilty after he did it and did not enjoy the ER at all. In fact, it took two grown men to hold him steady on the xray table. He hasn’t gotten too close to the tree since then, but we did take all the glass ornaments down. We thought we had them up high enough but apparently his reach is longer than what we thought…

(Pretend there is a picture of Tyler in his little hospital gown.)

Shortly after returning from the ER, Jen became very ill. It got bad enough that we were preparing to go to Labor and Delivery but luckily the worst symptoms started to ease up shortly after that decision was made. She ended up taking off work Monday and Tuesday. Jeff stayed home to take care of her Monday, but by Tuesday afternoon he was sick too. We both felt better by Christmas Eve, but not 100% until the weekend. Thankfully, Tyler never got it.

(Be glad there isn't a picture of anything here)

Christmas Eve dinner turned out wonderful (except for the biscuits which Jen swears were marked as “dinner rolls” on package – that was a little weird to serve with prime rib). Plus the company was great. Grandma and Grandpa Schroeder, the Carrolls, and Murphy and Jessi were all there. We got to see Ethan’s response to opening Christmas presents (we think he likes wrapping paper) and Tyler ’s response (we know he likes blocks and trucks). Thank you all for the wonderful presents and for sharing Christmas Eve with us!

December 13th - Landis Holiday Party

We joined Grandma and Grandpa Schroeder and the Carrolls at the Landis’ Holiday Party. Aside from Aunt Kathy, Uncle Jeff and June Bartley, we visited with Michelle, Zach and Nick Ziegenfuss and Tony, Jen and Aiden Manker. It was neat to see how Tyler, Ethan and Aiden are all growing. They’re all about 6-8 months apart, so you can just take a look at what the others are doing to get an idea of what is next, or in Tyler’s case what we miss about having a baby. The food was delicious, as usual. Aunt Kathy made some Manker family treats for everyone to reminisce. (The coffee cake was a favorite for us Smith’s – even Tyler enjoyed it.) Zach and Nick are great playmates for Tyler . They shared their castle toy set and even played catch with him. We wish they didn’t live so far away!

December 6th - St. Nick's Day and Breakfast with Santa

In the morning, St. Nick visited the Smith household. We set out our stockings the night before and put Tyler ’s Christmas list in his. St. Nick left us all some goodies. Tyler was pretty happy to get a candy cane and some Matchbox cars. Mommy and Daddy are always excited to get chocolates!

Later in the morning after gym class, we were joined by Grandma and Grandpa Schroeder, Aunt Jen, Uncle Ron and Ethan at Jeff's MSD Breakfast with Santa. After waiting so long for pancakes (only one griddle making pancakes for a lot of people), Tyler was in no mood for Santa pictures. Ethan had some cute pictures though, but we think this one is the best!

(Ethan was excited that pancakes were FINALLY ready!)


(Ethan very upset that the pancakes are not ready.)

November 30th - Santa House

We took Tyler to the Santa House in Affton for pictures, a puppet show, and cookies with Mrs. Claus. Grandma and Grandpa Harness joined us and we all had lunch at Sybergs afterward. Tyler enjoyed the puppet show and of course the cookies. Mommy wasn’t as thrilled about the cookies though, since they were messy chocolate chip. Good thing he had already seen Santa at that point. He did pretty well with Santa. He didn’t cry so we think that’s a success. Maybe next year he’ll realize that Santa’s the man to make friends with this time of year!