Christmas time is here! I love christmas decorations, we always decorate right after thanksgiving. Kyle tries to put off getting a tree as long as he can, because I would get one today. This year was a lot of fun, the three older girls were so excited. As I was opening all the boxes Gracie said, "It just keeps getting better and better!" These are the pictures of us along with Devon and Merrick, decorating our advent tree. It's really neat, all the ornaments our part of the nativity. As they put up an ornament we read about it. It's a nice way to get focused on the real meaning of Christmas. So have a blessed christmas season. The Smarts

Thanksgiving was truly a day to be thankful. As I look back on our family's year we have a lot to be grateful for. First of course is Sophia, her birth and now that she is healthy. Second for the health of all our girls, watching them grow-up is such a gift. Seeing the blossoming of their faith is amazing. There are of course many more, but after those two the rest aren't nearly as important.
We started the day at my parents house with my family. With everyone there we have 11 kids 7 and under, so needless to say it is a little crazy. But we love crazy at our house. Next it was on to Kyle's parents, where it was just the grandparents(4 greats, 2 grands) and us. A little different atmosphere. But still a lot of fun. Wendy was worried about two turkey dinners, but I told her even though it's the same basic ingrediants the meals couldn't be more different, just like our familys. I hope everyone elses day was full of love too.

When we were in Cancun all of Kyle's family came with us. There were five generations from the Greats all the way to baby Sophia. Our girls have a total of 10 grandparents. It just amazes me how close they are with all of their Grandparents. What a blessing in our lives to live so close with our family.

Lauren was amazing in cancun, she has no fear and is a really strong swimmer. She jumped waves with Grandpa Steve, dived under waves with Grandma Wendy, and boogie boarded with Kyle. She could swim the whole length of the giant pool. She has great technique, and is really strong. She is probably a better swimmer then me, and I've been swimming a lot longer. Gracie also started to really swim much better. When we first went snorkling she was afraid of the fish, but by the end she was right in there with them. It is so wonderful to be able to give our girls these amazing expirences(thanks Steve and Wendy).

The sand in Cancun is really soft and clean. The girls had a lot of fun building sand castle's and burying Kyle in the sand. Especially Isabel, she would just lay on the sand, and she let us bury her too. She would spend hours just picking up sand nd throwing it into the ocean again. She would chase Grandpa Steve around trying to throw sand on him. I'm sure you can image how much sand she would bring back with her in her bathing suit and diaper. Isabel was also the one most into collecting shells. There are a ton on the beach so she had a lot to choose from. Gracie was into getting the sand dollar pieces, and Lauren was too busy playing in the ocean. Needless to say we came home with nice tans(for my white family), and no sun burns.

We went to Cancun last week with Kyle's whole family. It was a lot of fun. The girls love it. They are such good little travelers. Lauren and Gracie actually went snorkeling with giant sea turtles and a school of fish with at least 5,000. So here are some pictures from our adventure.

The NG tube is gone! Sophia is officially on the bottle and is almost 14 lbs. As you can see by her cute little booty she is doing great.

Halloween was a lot of fun this year. Lauren was a fairy, Gracie was Lucy (from the Chronicles of Narnia), Isabel was Cinderella, and Sophia was a bunny. Grace and Isabel had parties at school, but lauren didn't even get to dress up. My Grandparents come and see all there greats every Halloween, and they keep multipling. After we visited with them we went and saw Kyle's Grandparents. Then we went up to LBF(my parents church), to their carnival. It was a lot of fun. We meet my parents, the Lassiters, Lanes, and Verlangieri's up there. The Girls got their faces painted, ballon flowers, played games, not to mention all the candy they got. They also had a petting zoo, the pig was in love with my boots, and a reptile house. Lauren held a snake, she wasn't scared at all. Isabel touched the snake too but only the tip of his tail. Gracie liked all the snakes too, but she doesn't like to touch. Then we headed up to Steve and Wendy's. By the time it was over, between all the grandparents, it was liked Christmas they got so much stuff, candy and toys. It definitly was a happy Halloween. Mors special because all our girls are healthy!

So as many of you know, we spent almost a week in the hospital with Soph. She had not gained any weight in over two months. I was pretty scared, we had run all sorts of tests and draw lots of blood, but everything had come back normal. So after having some strings pulled by our Dr., we got in to see a G.I. peds specialist at Loma Linda. He recommended that we admit Sophia to run some tests. Kyle and I both just wanted to find out what was going on, so we were fine to do that. We got there Thursday afternoon and they took us to our room with 7 other people. I couldn't believe that was where they wanted us to stay for what we thought was going to be 3 days. There was 1 public restroom for the whole floor. All the parents had to use was 1 toilet, which was so disgusting, sticky, smelly, and dirty. It took all I had to not cry, but I knew we had to suck it up for Soph, and I sure was not going to leave her there alone. That first night was hell. Sophia and I were next to the door, so it was not dark at all. There was no privacy, especially because the lady next to me kept opening our curtain, and letting her little boy run around like a maniac. Thankfully Kyle asked about a room, and when one opened up, they moved us. We had a roomate the first night, but he was discharged the next day. But the hardest part was Friday when soph just crashed. She wouldn't take a bottle and they wanted to monitor her intake, so I wasn't supposed to breastfeed. And just that little bit sent her over the edge. She became so dehydrated that it took two I.V. bags befors she peed. They finally put in the N.G. tube to feed her that morning. We had asked them to do it the night before, but the resident wouldn't do it because the attending hadn't put it in the orders. Once they got her hydrated and feed she started doing a lot better. Sat. morning was when we finally got a answer. The attending was talking to Kyle and saw Sophia do her thing were she turns to her left and arches her back and cries. We always thought it was just something she did, but it turns out it is a spasm caused by severe pain due to acid reflux. It is called Sandifer(?) syndrome, and is something only a G.I. peds specialist knows. So thankfully he happened to be there when it happened. They put her on medication and it helped right away. She would sometimes cry, and we could never figure out what was wrong, she would sometimes only sleep in her swing, she would only feed for a short time, and of course she would do the spasm. So all those things were because she was in so much pain. So now we had our answer, and our sweet Sophia has returned to us. We finally got to leave on tues. 6 days later. I was so glad to get away from that place, even though we were grateful for an answer, I could not handle another med. student waking us up at 6:30 to take Soph's vitals, which the nurse had just taken an hour before. Then the intern would come and do the same thing, followed by a resident and the attending. Needless to say I was pretty frustrated by the lack of communication between all the doctors and us. But we do have our happy ending, thank you for all your prayers, they were heard. Sophia has already gained a pound, and her sisters are so glad to have her back home!

About two weeks ago, we went to Heritage Park in La Verne. They have a pumpkin Patch every year, and so we went with Gracie's class. We went with Lauren two years ago and it was a lot of fun. We went on a tractor ride through the orange grove. Then we got to hold baby chicks, which was so fun, they are so cute. Then we got to pet a pig and two goats. Of course the highlight was the tour of the outhouse which was a double wide, so you could potty with a friend. To finish it off the girls made a craft and got to pick a pumpkin. It is always nice to be outside and get to do things we normally don't get to do.