Happy Annibirthday Shawn and Nick!

Today is a special time for our family. We are recognizing two wonderful event on this day.

The first is the birth of our dear Nick. Thanks for being born, brother! I like you pretty well and I am glad that you are a part of my family.

The second is the marriage of that great guy to my dear sister. Congratulations on your wedding anniversary guys!

I hope that you are able to do something fun!

Bless you both!

Angie

Washington Family Vacation to Santa Cruz, Bolivia 2008 slide show

My kids love looking at the slide shows here on our family blog. I finally am getting these pics up for posterity's sake. We had such a great time!

Pebble by Raimy

Clue 2

Oh, I am sooooo worried that you are going to guess it with this clue. (Insert nail biting emoticon here.) Ha ha ha!

That is ok if you guess it though; it is all part of the fun. :-)

Here is clue #2:

Surprise!

Pray with me that the packages I put in the mail today make it to your hands in a timely manner and undamaged. It is a surprise! I am so excited about it. If you guess it I will tell you that you are right and feel very proud that I have such smart family members. But, I really doubt that you are going to be able to guess it; even with the following picture clue.

Guesses anyone?


P.S. Click this sentence if you want to see an online album of 56 photos of our family vacation to Santa Cruz. It was so much fun!

Fall has come to our back yard!

We have a tree in our back yard that has just come alive in these fast few weeks with some vibrant colors. It has almost lost all of its leaves now but here are a few pictures that we got durring its most beautiful color display.
Sasha loves playing in the leaves. She loves being outside anyway but this fall she has discovered the lovely crunch crunch of the dry leaves. She enjoyed it when Nick and I covered her in leaves and threw leaves on her and she loved throwing the leaves up in the air herself and watching them fall.
Smiths

ps. this was easier then last time. i am getting better.

Halloween Festivities

Allison got to celebrate Halloween twice. Last week her friend Lane had a party and last night we went to the church party. The first half of the pictures are from Lane's party and the rest from church last night. Allison loved being Spiderella and said she wished Halloween was everyday. Kent had a blast too.

Here are a few pictures from our life recently.
I really hope that I did this right. It was really hard.
Shawn

"Sleddy" a story by: Raimy

Illustrated by: Raimy

In a little snowy town in a crushed boat lived a Wolf Dog. She was brown, pretty, young and pregnant. When her pups where born she had 7 pups: 3 black ones, 3 brown ones and 1 white one. She did not know why the white one couldn’t do anything the others did. The mother decided to call the whit one “Sleddy” because the pups’ dad was a sled dog and he always won.

One day all the pups were playing in the snow. Two black ones and a brown one went running around the boat. Two brown ones, Sleddy and a black one went to hide in the snow. The mother just watched them play. But when she called them to get inside Sleddy was missing. She looked all around the boat but she wasn’t there.

She was in a cave and the opening was blocked with snow. She just had to walk through the cold cave. She saw three snow balls with pictures on them. She heard a little voice on the side of the cave. She followed the sound till she saw a snow-fairy dancing in the snow. When the fairy saw her it whistled so loud that it woke all the other snow fairies and they stared to dance in the snow too.

The first fairy that saw her said with a so sweet voice: ”Hello I am Sparkle.”

“I’m Sleddy. Hi.”

Sparkle jumped into the music. All the fairies started to dance around Sleddy. Even though the dancing was lovely she had to go. She said good by and went on.

Sleddy grabbed her courage and ran as fast as she could and tried to get out of the cold cave. Every time she looked at the ice and saw her self she didn’t see just her self but her family with her. She really missed her family so much. So the seventh time she looked at the reflections she ran through the cave and this time she knew that she could not find her mother so now she’s after her father in the race. Soon she found the end of the cave.

But that did not stop her she started to dig and she got under the cave. When she got out she was not in her home she was in the city.

Then a child tried to catch Sleddy but he didn’t. Then six more children tried to catch her, but Sleddy ran into a moving box and the children could not find her. They looked in seven pleases: 1.The Trash can 2.Under the car

3. In the Snow 4.In the Mail Box 5.By the Park 6.In the Pet Store 7.In Mr. Macys Hat. But they never found Sleddy.

When the children left, Sleddy went down seven steps and found a … Pony. It was brown, shaggy, old and tied to a fence. When the pony saw her it was frightened. Sleddy bit the rope and let the poor pony free.

The pony said: ”Hello, young one I am Tony.”

“Hello I am Sleddy, nice to meet you.”

“What are you doing here Sleddy?”

“Well I’m trying to go to my father to go home and not get lost again.”

“Who is your father?”

“My mother told me he was the champion sled dog in the city.”

“I know! The Silver Slick Sled Husky! I can take you there if you want.”

“Oh please do take me there.”

“Ok, hold on tight.”

Then Tony ran with Sleddy on his back. And the two friends ran towards the race. Sleddy kept encouraging Tony so he would get there before the race began, so they wouldn’t miss him. Sleddy encouraged Tony seven times and then he went faster then ever before.

When they got there she didn’t know which one was her father. Tony told her which one was her father and she went towards him and said “Are you my father? Are you? Are you?”

“Only if your name is Sleddy.”

“I am! I am! My name is Sleddy and I came here to stay here with you.”

“Would you race with us?”

“I would if I knew how. I can’t. You have six dogs in your team already.”

Tony and Sparkle got closer.

“Think of your big adventure,” said Sparkle.

“What was your number? Tell us please,” said Tony.

Then Sleddy said, “Well in my family their are seven puppies and I looked at my reflection seven times and seven children tried to catch me, they looked in seven places and Sparkle has seven letters in it S-P-A-R-K-L-E and I encouraged Tony seven times, I went down seven steps to find him and now their will be seven dogs in a sled dog race. Come on, we’ve got a race to win.”

Then her father hooked Sleddy to the other dogs and she was the lead dog in this race. The gun went off and the dogs ran. It was a long way but Sleddy knew she could make it before the other dogs made it there.

Sleddy realized that another sled was faster then hers. Sleddy remembered a story that her Mom told her of a dog that won a race with faith. Sleddy started to have more faith and her team went faster and faster. It passed 16 hours. The race was almost done. Sleddy was in the lead. The flag was waving and suddenly a sled was an inch faster. Sleddy had all the faith that she could and then Sparkle appeared and flew around the other team and distracted it. Sleddy was faster again and she won the big race and a first place blue ribbon.

“You’re a winner!” shouted Sleddy’s friends.

Then Sleddy went home with her father and she told her family the story that I just told you.

THE END

Happy Birthday Timothy!

This is by far the longest slide show I have ever posted. But we had such a fun day that I didn't want you all to miss out. Enjoy!

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday Timothy,
I think October is sucha good month to be born. Its the best weather out of the whole year here in Omaha. And there are not as many other birthdays in October.
I hope that you really enjoy the day today.
We are all thinking of you and wishing you well on your special day.
Lots of Love from Aunt Shawn and Uncle Nick, cousins Sasha and MacKenzie
kiss kiss hug hug

Brag Board Update

Just wanted to let you know that the brag board pictures have been updated on the side bar. Enjoy!

Braids

As you may already be aware I am on strict orders to be resting and not doing anything stressful (read my blog for updates: www.angiewashington.com). It has been good to take it easy seeing as I am not quite up to par yet. Still, I am trying to keep myself distracted. So this afternoon I asked Raimy if she would let me braid her hair. We had a good time. We were happy with the results too. What do you think?

My Art Show: On-Line

MacKenzie Jo Smith

Everyone she is here! She was born on Tuesday 9/23/08 @ 2:48 pm. At birth she weighted 7lb 13 oz, she was 19 inch's long. And she like her sister has a whole head of hair only it is like daddy's. She has nice dark hair and nice dark eyes. After only 55 min. of pushing she was delivered with the cord around her neck, but it was not serious. Both Mom and Baby are very good. Shawn is tired after delivery of course, but doing well otherwise with not much pain. The three of us are enjoying a peaceful time of bonding and we look forward to introducing Sasha to her new sister.

Love to everyone from the newly enlarged Smith family.

Nick

Shawn

Sasha

MacKenzie

today we go to the hospital. Oma got into town yesterday and Sasha has already made her her personal slave. right now she if following her around repeating "oma, playdough, oma, playdough!" i think mom is going to be very busy for the next few days. Nick and i have to be at the hospital by 5 this evening. i have to stay over night and then they will start the induction tomorrow morning. then we get to meet our precious MacKenzie Jo Smith. if all goes well we should be home by Thursday afternoon. When all is said and done we will update the family on how it went. we are all very excited. Love you all.
Shawn

Kent: Bocce Ball

Every Tuesday evening Kent goes to Bocce Ball practice for the Wichita Independence Special Olympics team. First the Bocce team stretches and warms up with the soccer team. Kent started running faster when he saw I was taking a picture of him. Actually he had stopped running and was barely walking before that point. Then the Bocce team heads over to Sedgwick County Park where there are Bocce lanes they use. He seems to have a great time and when it's nice out Ali and I play at the park too. That park is a really busy one with lots of walkers, bikers, roller bladers, kids on several playgrounds, bag pipe band practice, pee wee soccer practice, fishing, basketball and tennis, and whatever else people want to do. Kent is liked by his team and couch, he makes them laugh, a real joker. He is also pretty good at the game. He is also on the Bowling team which practices on Sundays after church.

Tyler is Two!!!

We had so much fun celebrating Tyler's second birthday yesterday. He totally blew out the candles! And then he pointed to the matches so that I would light them again so he could blow them out again. Twice blown out for a two year old birthday - appropriate I thought. Enjoy the snap shots of our little guy.

Happy Birthday Mom!

Nine eleven will always carry with it the pride of one of the first birthdays that I memorized aside from my own. For me it is the day that my wonderful mother came into the world.

55 years young and still kickin'! I love you mom!

Enjoy your day! Enjoy your friends! Enjoy your family! Enjoy your life!

Happy Birthday!

Belated Birthday Bash to be Announced

Hey there!

Thank you, Shawn, for the congrats for Tyler. Yesterday was his second birthday but we didn't celebrate it. We will be doing that sometime this week.

Sunday was a big day here in Cochabamba. It was the "Day of the Pedestrian". It always falls on the first or second Sunday of September. I will have more details on my blog about the day, but basically the use of motorized vehicles is prohibited from 7AM to 7PM. Environmental awareness and all that. So the three big kids were invited to go to a friends house all afternoon. It was nice to have some quiet when Tyler went down for his nap. So when the whole fam is together we will do presents, cake and of course pictures. :-)

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On other blogity business...

I have really had fun seeing almost everyone playing the 'Acronym' game in the comment box. We will do it again soon. If you ever have an idea for a game or other participative activity on the family blog here then please feel free to take the initiative to get it going.

I love you all!!!