Humble Husband

Do nothing from selfishness or conceit, but in humility count others better than yourselves. --2 Philippians 2:3

I'd like to take a minute to brag on my husband. Philip always puts other before himself. This Christmas God used Philip to bring joy to a team member at Chick-fil-A. This team member has a past history of health problems and back aches. She just recently moved into an apartment where the bus could pick her up to take her to work, since she doesn't have a vechicle. She had recently started renting furniture for her apartment, which she thought came with a mattress, but it didn't. She resorted to sleeping on the floor and then another employee let her borrow an air mattress. These arrangements just made her back problems worse. When Philip found out about the situation, he went out and bought her a new box spring and mattress for her apartment and coordinated with others to deliver it to her apartment. She was so happy she cried!

I'm so thankful to have such a sweet husband.

Pre Christmas Celebrations

Dec. 17, 2009 This morning Raegan waved to herself in the mirror! So cute! She's wearing one of her frilly Christmas dresses and a big red bow to daycare today! Can't believe Christmas is next week! Since Nana sent Christmas presents early, we let Raegan practice opening presents last night! She got really cute Christmas pajamas, a mickey mouse piano book, and an Elmo cell phone that says her name!!! She loves it and her Nana! Thank you!

Happy Thanksgiving!

To celebrate Thanksgiving Raegan, my parents and I (Philip had to stay in Norman to serve Chick-fil-A to black Friday shoppers) went to Olathe, Kansas (just outside of Kansas City) this past weekend. It was a 5 hour drive and Raegan did very well, she rode in her big girl carseat. I think she likes it better because she is sitting up instead of laying back, but its not good for sleeping in, her little head just falls straight forward I spent the majority of the trip holding her head up with my hand so she could sleep without straining her neck… (Spoiled, maybe?)
Friday night a group of us went out to eat in Olathe to El Ranchito… mmm it was delicious! They have a queso dip they call Espinaca that I loved! If anyone knows a recipe for it please send it my way! We stayed the night at my Aunt Amber’s house on Friday night. Most of the rest of my family on my mom’s side came up Saturday and we ate around 2. In total there were 32 people at her house, 14 of which were under the age of 14 so it was quite a wild bunch!
Raegan is still not crawling to the point she can get wherever she wants to go quickly, which was hard because she wanted to run and play like the older kids! She loved the dogs and when one of my Grandma’s dogs licked her she opened her mouth and licked him back! Gross, but oh so cute!
Saturday evening the kids played hide and go seek and were running all across Amber’s 3 story home. The men watched sports in the man cave aka the basement and us girls (my mom, grandma, 3 of my aunts, and myself) played Apples to Apples. I also got to see the ending of The Last Castle which was really good. I wanted to stay up and watch My Sister’s Keeper with my aunts, but it was nearly 2am and I was exhausted!
Overall it was a great trip! Its so neat to see all my young cousins playing together, because they are all so close in age. Growing up I didn’t really have any cousins close to my age. It’d be nice if Raegan could have cousins close to her age, because right now we aren’t really planning on having more children.

All About Raegan...
Right now she's our life... she takes a lot of patience, time, and attention... but is also the cutest, most entertaining little squirt!

Recently Raegan has started talking... Her first word was "doh" she said this one day, clear as could be and I thought to myself she has never seen The Simpsons where'd she get that word? I haven't heard her say it since though...

The next word was "dada" the first time I heard her clearly use this word she pointed to the Sprite bottle?!? But now its her favorite word and she uses it often!

She also has said "again" when we do funny things that she likes to laugh at, and she says "muah" when she gives her daddy kisses :)

She also mutters something very similar to "I got it" whenever we put one of her toys in front of her and say "get it Raegan".

So far mama, mom, momma, mommy... aren't in her vocabulary, except when she is upset she will start saying "mmmuummum mmmmummmuummm" hey that's close enough for me ;)

She's not crawling yet, the doctor told her she may just walk before she ever crawls?!? She manages to scoot around pretty good and can pull her self up on a lot of things like the rails of her crib, my leg, etc...

She is also very stubborn, I mean picky... she refuses all food except breastmilk, which makes my job extra hard with taking breaks from work to pump, washing and packing bottles, washing pump parts, waking up every two hours every night to feed her for the last 7 months... the foods we've tried include: avacados, bananas, carrots, sweet peas, sweet potatoes, apple sauce, baby cereal, formula, and gerber puffs...

of those she likes the gerber puffs the best, but for every 1 she eats 10 end up on the floor...

She also has a great personality and laughs when things are funny on her Mickey Mouse Clubhouse cartoon every weekday morning and also for some reason laughs when other babies cry?!?

Anyways, she's the center of our world... here are few recent pics...

perspectives on dreams

The other day a co-worked asked me what I would do if someone gave me a check for $1.2 million dollars.

My response: Buy a cotton candy machine, hire a nanny, and hire a maid (not a nanny who also cleans, but a nanny and a maid so they can keep an eye on each other and tell me if one isn't doing their job right).

I asked Philip the same ? tonight.

His response: Put away money for Raegan's college expenses, take a Colorado ski trip and a deep sea fishing trip in the Atlantic, build a new house and a lake house and buy a boat.

I'm guessing he assumed no taxes! lol!

Anyways, I'm still awake because we watched the scariest movie ever tonight (Paranormal Activity) - it was the only one not sold out at the theater when we got there. Truth be told, we had planned on going to a friend's house for a pumpkin carving party we got invited to. I thought it was on Saturday and wrote it in my calendar and made arrangements for our friend from small group, Amy, to watch Miss Raegan for us. Right before we were about to head out the door, I asked Philip to look at the invite because I forgot the address... that's when he realized the party was actually on Friday and we had missed it! Since we had already made plans for Amy to watch Raegan, we decided to go to the movies.

Raegan has been sleeping since we picked her up! nice! So I asked Philip to come sleep in the living room so I could stay up and watch How to Lose A Guy in 10 days (my fav) and not be scared!

I hope I can get some sleep tonight... :/

I love you Philip!

Heard this song yesterday... made me think of my wonderful husband :) I love you Philip!

You’re better than the best

I’m lucky just to linger in your light

Cooler than the flipside of my pillow, that’s right

Completely unaware

Nothin’ can compare to where you send me

Lets me know that it’s okay, yeah it’s okay

And the moments when my good times start to fade

You make me smile like the sun

Fall out of bed

Sing like a bird

Dizzy in my head

Spin like a record

Crazy on a Sunday night

You make me dance like a fool

Forget how to breathe

Shine like gold

Buzz like a bee

Just the thought of you can drive me wild

Oh you make me smile

Even when you’re gone

Somehow you come along just like a flower

Poking through the sidewalk crack

And just like that, you steal away the rain

And just like that

You make me smile like the sun

Fall out of bed

Sing like a bird

Dizzy in my head

Spin like a record

Crazy on a Sunday night

You make me dance like a fool

Forget how to breathe

Shine like gold

Buzz like a bee

Just the thought of you can drive me wild

Oh you make me smile

Don’t know how I lived without you

‘Cause every time that I get around you

I see the best of me inside your eyes

You make me smile

Tara's 24th Birthday!

So its been awhile since we've made a post... we've been really busy! I'm working a busy season right now, Raegan is changing everyday, and Philip is watching football and helping out a lot with taking care of Raegan.

For my 24th birthday on the 1st, I opened birthday presents including a pedicure gift certificate from the in-laws, a VS giftcard and sweet card from the hubby, and birthday cards from April and Lauren, then I had to work. I left the roses my mom sent to me on Monday in our audit room until Thursday and got lots of comments on how pretty they were! Speaking of my mom, she was real emotional this birthday, maybe because I was turning "2 dozen years old." She even let me know that I was born at 5:57pm 24 years ago... I think me having Raegan now made her a lot more sentimental about my birth. Anyways, Thursday evening we had dinner (Ribs, mashed potatoes, beans, fruit salad, rice krispie treats!) and small group (Living Differently) at Kevin and Julie's house. There were 13 of us there and it was Julia's (26), Gentry's (1), and my birthday... we didn't even plan that. I wonder what the odds are for that.. let me know if you can figure it out, I probably should just ask my dad who could probably figure it out in his head!

Well its after 8 and I'm exhausted, sad I know! So goodnight from the Smith family. Raegan is already dreaming of sugarplums dancing in her head....

wow, what a weekend/Monday... I'm worn out!

Thursday night my mom flew in from Midland due to the weather her plane got delayed over an hour. It never really stopped raining once she got here and here it is Monday night and still raining! Kinda gloomy actually! Once we got home Saturday night Raegan, mom and I hung out and played in Raegan's room pretty late before heading to bed.

Friday morning I picked up a certified letter that was a letter from the Oklahoma State Board of Accountancy saying they were investigating to see why it took me so long to apply for my Oklahoma license after getting my Texas CPA license (aka I had a baby). So now I have to write a letter to explain this in more formal terms of course.

We also went to Once Upon A Child looking for a walker or gate/play yard for Raegan, but instead we just found a lot of cute clothes and bought them instead! :)

Friday I also had to get 3 fillings at the dentist, I forgot how bad those hurt!!! It was awful! I had to keep my jaw open for an hour and a half and didn't get to close it the entire time! My jaws were so sore all evening. Thankfully mom watched Raegan while I was at the dentist. When I came home they were watching an ESPN interview, because my mom couldn't figure out how to change the channel, she should have just given the remote to Raegan she's good at changing channels!

Friday evening we went out to dinner at Chili's where I ordered the chicken club tacos and although I didn't get them until after everyone else had nearly finished their food , they were delicious! I was starving! Oh did I mention, the manager also comped them for us...nice! After dinner Philip and I went out and got gelato, yummy! I got Strawberry/banana and orange and Philip got Chocolate, Chocolate/Hazelnut, and Vanilla Bean. Don't worry we took a walk later to walk off those extra calories ;)

Saturday morning Philip had to head off to work, so my mom, Raegan, and I did some chores around the house, went and got my hair cut at the Blue Lagoon Salon, and then grocery shopping before heading home for a nice long rainy day nap! After our nap we went to our massages mom's was at 3:30 and mine was at 4:30 and we took turns taking care of Raegan in the waiting room ;)

Saturday night Heather, Kierra, Katelynn, Paige, Corey, and Caleb came over after they visited the science museum... the boys played the Wii and the girls played with Raegan... we ordered pizza for dinner... our house was quite a happenin' and busy place =) Mom missed most of it because she went to bed at like 7:30, we found out later she had a fever and wasn't feeling well...

Sunday morning we all woke up (some of us earlier than others... uuhhmm Raegan!) and went to church together and then out for lunch. Kierra wasn't feeling well and had a fever of 101.3 eeks and I had a very sore throat and a weird rash which we thought were ant bites on my torso. After church we let Kierra sleep for a little while and then the gang headed back to Tulsa. Then Philip took me to the Urgent care center (only place open on Sundays) and we found out my "bites" were actually a weird rash called Pityriasis Rosea and the doctor explained my swollen lympnodes as it felt like I was hiding acorns in my throat... we didn't do a strep test, but he gave me antibiotics in case it was strep and I got a steroid shot, there's nothing I can do about the rash and it may last for up to 3 months! yuck!

After such an eventful weekend I wasn't ready for Monday at all... Philip and my mom left the house before 6 am so that she could make her 6:30 flight and even though I was out of bed before 5:30am I didn't make it in to work till 8:20... it takes me so long to pack up every morning... I have to pack:
1.Raegan's diaper bag
-diapers, playtex bottle bags, wipes, pacifier, blanket, etc...
2. Raegan's bottle bag with 4 full bottles and teething rings
3. my brown sack lunch
4. my laptop bag (which I also use as a purse)
5. freezer lunch bag to put pumped bottles in
6. my pumping backpack with 4 empty bottles
and on this Monday an umbrella and exactly $2.50 for parking

packing is probably one of my least favorite things to do!

Philip is closing at work because one of his leaders called in sick... I picked up a hungry, crying baby from daycare (I can't believe I pay $150 a week for incompetent teenagers to watch my child... ugh!) anyways... then I had to get gas and run by walmart to get cleaning supplies before making it home to feed Raegan... so now I'm sitting here writing this blog and watching Jon and Kate which is so depressing now a days... and my back is itching like crazy so I'm going to go jump in the shower before Philip gets home!

Good night!

Labor Day weekend 2009

This past weekend we traveled to Texas for the 3rd time since Raegan was born. This time we went for pleasure instead of work! When we were about halfway to Dallas, I realized I had forgotten our hangup bag, which had our outfits for the wedding in it! ahhh... we decided that we would just buy clothes once we got to Plano instead of turning around to go back and get them and waste 3 hours...

Luckily we found Stonebriar Mall and were able to get in, buy an outift for me and one for Philip (coordinating of course), grab a bite to eat, and meet Philip's parents back at the hotel all within an hour (that's with a baby! :)

Kasey (our friend from Baylor) married Robert Fleming Saturday night... since a picture is worth a thousand words and I don't feel like doing a lot of typing, here are a couple pics from the wedding...
















pic of us before the wedding









Kasey rode in on this white horse carriage, very much a fairytale entrance! :)





Us with the bride and groom










The next morning we took a walk around Legacy Town Center by our hotel and then visited Ikea!


When we got back from our trip we had our friends from Amarillo, Jackie, Tim and Maddison (their 8 week old) over for dinner Sunday night. Here are a couple pics...

I think Raegan was trying to trade the necklace for some of Maddie's hair!

How He Loves (w. lyrics) - David Crowder*Band

Really like this new song by David Crowder - check it out

He is jealous for me,
Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree,
Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy.
When all of a sudden,
I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory,
And I realise just how beautiful You are,
And how great Your affections are for me.

And oh, how He loves us so,
Oh how He loves us,
How He loves us all

Yeah, He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves.
Yeah, He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves.

We are His portion and He is our prize,
Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes,
If grace is an ocean, we’re all sinking.
So Heaven meets earth like a sloppy wet kiss,
And my heart turns violently inside of my chest,
I don’t have time to maintain these regrets,
When I think about, the way…

He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us,
Oh how He loves.
Yeah, He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves.

Happy Anniversary!

September 1, 2009

Two years ago

-we weren't married

-we didn't have a house

-we didn't have a baby

-I didn't have a job

-I worked out everyday

-we lived in Texas

-we drove different cars

I'm sure there are a thousand more differences I'm not thinking of.. but my has life changed in the last 2 years!

Pic of us from two years ago...

Pic of us now....

Trip to Dallas

To all of our friends who live in Dallas, please take no offense. The following are our observations upon returning to the city.

• Apparently you must look like you stepped out of a fashion magazine. Extra large Chanel sunglasses and the Louis Vuitton purse/wallet in hand are staples.


• Its normal to wear a sweater tied around your shoulders even if you aren't on the golf course or shopping at La Crosse.


• 9 out of 10 cars are one of the following makes: BMW, Mercedes, Land/Range Rover, Aston Martin, Lexus or Cadillac.


• Ice Cream shops don't survive in dallas. We seached on google for 3 which we found out are no longer in business (must be the high rent). - the new deal is frozen yogurt!


• We finally thought we had found a marble slab...actually turned out to be a marble & granite showroom.


• Free parking is a scarcity


• A baby in downtown Dallas is very rare, therefore we get lots of stares

Other experiences we've had include:

Tara said "my family" and for the first time was referring to Philip and Raegan, not my parents and siblings.

Raegan got a cultural experience at El Fenix and heard Bill (our waiter) speak spanish to another table. She learned words like "un ice tea" and "Madrid el Capital"

Tara rode in a cab by herself for the first time Monday morning (little scary) but actually enjoyed getting to meet lots of cab drivers throughout the week. Even met one who was 82 years old!!!

Raegan got a weird rash all over her body, we first noticed it Sunday morning and thought it may be hand, foot, and mouth... but she was acting fine and eating well... then by Monday afternoon it was all over her little body, tiny red spots, but she was still smiling and acting happy. Philip thinks it may be a heat rash. It doesn't seem to be bothering her though so that's good. Hopefully it will go away soon! - - - update the rash went away by itself in a couple of days- - -

We spent time with Tara's sister, Jenni, who lives on the same street we did when we lived in Irving! Raegan got to meet her semi-cousin Maison, Jennifer's only child, I mean dog. =)

Raegan and Philip drove to Tyler on Wednesday and Raegan got to meet her 3rd Great Grandma!

Wednesday night we spent time with our friends David and Stephanie, who recently just got engaged! We know them from college and David is the person who introduced us our freshman year at Baylor! We enjoyed good food at Monica's and then yummy frozen yogurt at Yogilicious!
Raegan and Philip strolled North Park mall!
Raegan did extremely well both on the drive to Dallas and the drive back and didn't even fuss the whole way!
Overall, good trip... much easier on all of us than the last week we spent in Dallas, when Raegan rightfully refused to take a bottle (long story)...

Growing Up Too Fast

Why is it that as mothers we don't want our little ones to grow up so fast

Today (8/13) Raegan was the oldest baby in the baby room when I dropped her off at daycare and this made me cry... pitiful I know... but I remember when she first started going she was one of the youngest, now those older ones have moved up into the next room and she's the biggest one in the baby room! I saw a 5 week old in there today, she was SO tiny!

Does this mean I'm going to cry everytime Raegan shows signs of growing up, like crawling, walking, graduating Kindergarten... oh I hope not! I think its just that I feel like I'm going to miss it!

Around our household, we love Sundays so much, that we've come to dread Mondays, well at least I have... so after dropping Raegan off at daycare this morning I headed on to the Monday morning traffic jam on I-35... Oh Monday I thought to myself, from the looks on other people's faces around me and the people cutting others off to take the faster service road I think others were feeling my Monday morning blues. Then when I finally got up to what was causing the heavy traffic, my perspective totally changed. I saw a bad wreck and a mother standing outside of her probably totalled car holding her little boy who was probably only 2 or 3 years old. I said a little prayer for those involved and thanked God for such a beautiful Monday morning. We have so much to be thankful for and far too often take those little things for granted.

PS- its Monday, that means order pizza night in this Smith household! :)

5 shots - no problem

Friday I left work around noon so that I could run a few errands before taking Miss Raegan to the doctor for her 4 month check up and shots... She weighed in at 14 lbs 15 oz. and was 25 1/2 inches long (she's gained 6 lbs and grown 5 inches in 4 months)! She did extremely well with her shots and didn't even run a fever afterwards! I expected her to have a fever and be sick that afternoon, but after a good nap, she was all smiles and ready to play!
Philip called from work late Friday afternoon and asked me if I wanted to go to a bar... I told him only if I could take Raegan and he said I could. So we went to a MILK bar, yes you heard right. Its actually a cupcake shop where you can also buy different kinds of milk... I'm not really a milk fan, but Philip loves his chocolate milk and I'm a big fan of cupcakes! YUM! For the occasion I dressed Raegan in her Sweet Little Cupcake onesie, but she slept the entire time, so she didn't even know we went to eat cupcakes!
Here are some pictures from our cupcake date:

Our sweet little cupcake!

"Does this dress make my butt look big?"

Quote of the day:
"Does this dress make my butt look big?" - 4 year old lil girl at Raegan's daycare

Speaking of Raegan's daycare, today at lunch I get a call from her teacher saying that Raegan has a rash and I need to come pick her up in case its contagious. Of course, I would get this call the one day that Philip happens to be out of town and can't go pick her up for me. I gather up as much work as I can so that I can finish it at home and head out. Once in my car I call the doctor to see if they can fit me in and if we can move her shots we have scheduled for Friday to today so that I don't have to miss so much work. They fit us in, but couldn't do her shots today, so we'll be going back again Friday.

When I get to the daycare, I see the sweet, elderly woman cleaning up the tables where the older children sit to eat. I see her every morning when she is setting out their breakfast. She says to me, "well you sure are early today." I mention that they called me and then headed back to find Raegan, who I expected would have red bumps all over her lil body. When I got to her room she was sleeping in her bouncer (surprise, surprise). (In case we haven't mentioned, everytime we go to the daycare, no matter what time of day Raegan is in her bouncer :(

Anyways, I gather her belongings and then pick her up and her teacher shows me a couple of red bumps Raegan has 1 on her foot, 1 on her thigh and one on her face. Being a first time mom, I don't know what this means, but the teacher and daycare director convince me that its probably hand and foot rash because a baby in the room next door had it last week.

So I take Raegan to the doctor right away. We play and take pictures in the waiting room, which I wasn't sure whether I should sit in the sick baby section or well baby section, I guess it didn't matter as we were the only ones there anyways. When we see the doctor she looks confused and asks what rash I'm talking about. I was like well there's a couple of these bumps. She said it looked like a lil skin irritation (like from clothing or a blanket) and was nothing to worry about and then wrote me a note for the daycare. Wow, did I really just leave work and pay to find out that nothing was wrong afterall... I'm thankful that the daycare is cautious and that she's okay, but they had me all worried over nothing.

They weighed her today at 14lbs 15 oz but didn't take any other measurements... they should do more of that on Friday before she gets her shots, that won't be a fun afternoon!

All in a hard day's work.

Ahh, rainy Monday morning... the hardest time to get out of our big, comfy, warm bed. Raegan sure didn't want to wake up this morning. Quite possibly because she was up singing to us at 2:30 am. Anyways, I picked her up at 7am, after I was about ready for the day and she curled up in a lil ball on my chest, so sweet and warm. Oh I just wanted to lay back down with her, but I needed to wake her up so I could change her diaper and get her dressed and we could leave by 7:30.

I had to take out the diaper trash to the curb, since Philip forgot them and today is the only day of the week the trash gets picked up. But he did remember to turn off the iron today - thanks hun! After packing up my lunch, Raegan's bottles, my computer bag, my pumping bag, my heels (I like to wear flipflops and then change into my heels once I get to the office, saves my feet from blisters) and Miss Raegan + her blanket we headed out.

On the way to daycare we listened to Klove and Raegan sang along... she's so cute! She was the only baby at daycare when I dropped her off this morning. Good thing too, because she had a dirty diaper, that I let Melissa (her teacher) change. ;) That's one good thing about daycare, I don't change nearly as many diapers.

Later... Well I managed to get out of the house this morning without 1 very important thing, the case I usually carry bottles in to pump into, so that Raegan can eat tomorrow... I'm now on my way home so that I can pump and work from home the rest of the afternoon... what a day already :/

Well turned out not to be such a bad day after all... its still raining and very peaceful. Philip is on his way home and is going to pick up Raegan, I can't wait to see them!!!

Raegan's accomplishments

Raegan turned 4 months just this past Friday. She is almost able to sit up on her own. She got a new toy today and is trying to figure it out. We bought her a pink ball to roll around and pick up. She also is standing on her own feet in her baby Einstein play set, previously we had to put blankets under her so she could reach the ground. She laughs, giggles, and drools all the time. We both love her to death.

Philippians 4:6

Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.

First blog

Tara and I have decided to start our own blog. This way people can see what we've been up to and watch Raegan grow.