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....