making memories... and a mess

It's not often when all four of us Smith kids are able to coordinate our schedules to get together, but every now and then our worlds align and Jayme gets a mega-dose of aunties and uncle attention. Last weekend I had a long over-due lunch with my childhood girlfriend and only planned to be gone an hour, so Bebba or Taycie had planned to watch the Nugget for a bit. Lunch was a much needed and wonderful catchup session crammed into an hour. When we pulled back into the driveway, the clean pig-tailed, princess I left behind with both sisters greeted me with open arms, her uncle Alex (an unexpected surprise) and a full body of warpaint! Turns out that she wanted to help her Aunt Taycie paint her dresser, and rather than keep telling Nugget "No"... the aunties improvised with a box of paint and a canvas just for Jayme to experience painting "a la aunties free-spirit style"

(from top left) "well this is fun!"- "uh oh. Bebba..."- "hmmmmm what else should I paint???"- "I know! my nose!"- "May as well cover my belly while I'm at it..."- "annnnnnd Taycie needs a little warpaint"- "back to work before mommy gets back"- "Look Mommy!!! Hugggg????"

too much silliness in one hour (memories that will last a lifetime)

Annnnnd because I'm such an awesome mom... I left this sugared up mess with the aunties and uncle  (and grampa) on her first official Grampa's house overnight!

 Meanwhile... Ryan and I took care of business... it was a bittersweet afternoon as we unloaded the truck in lieu of becoming a single car family, but our hopes for a first house outweigh the need to have an expensive vehicle (that we no longer need thanks to prayers answered and a career with Edison- complete with work truck!) Doing the math in our heads we figure we will save roughly $700-$800/month for this sacrifice! To counterbalance the initial sadness of departing with the truck that in two short years contributed to many memories (road trips, camping, work, and more) we decided to take in some In n' Out (doesn't that make anyone feel better?!) and The Campaign before a late night of couch potato sitting and mind-numbing Olympic watching (side note- isn't it ironic that these hundreds of athletes spend their lives training to be the best in their sport and the most fit, only to create idle couch potatoes in the millions billions of TV viewers around the world for 2 solid weeks?!)

Back at Grampa's house, Nugget finally learned to let go and swim on her own (literally- she would cling for dear life to anyone in the pool)! Granted, we have a ways to go before she is an official mermaid, but apparently Bebba and Uncle Alex encourage the right bit of confidence she needs to become independent in the pool (so glad we have spent $$$ on swim lessons :-/ )