The Giving Tree

 The last week of October one of the best trees ever got cut down. It was hard to see it go and every time I drive by Dale and Margaret's house I miss seeing the majesty of it. As I went through all the photos with this tree, I thought of two words: happiness and family.

Here it is in its glory!

The best part of this tree was that it had the most of amazing swing that went along with it. All the grand kids and adults have loved this swing and spent countless hours swinging back and forth to see how high they could get and if they were lucky, their feet would touch the roof of the garage. I have loved over the years looking out the side door to see cousins playing together around the swing, taking turns on the swing, twisting each other to see how dizzy they could get as they spun around and around, and watching older cousins and siblings push the little ones. The swing brought so much joy and happiness.

Here's a little blast from the past with more photos of the beloved swing over the years.

This was Baylor's first time going on the swing by herself. She loved it and it's sad that she would only get to enjoy it for a few weeks.

There was a photo shoot the day before the tree got cut down. I wasn't there since I had to get Paige from school but I wish I was. Just looking at these pictures makes me laugh and Nate said that he wished he could have recorded the entire process. These pictures show how much this tree has meant to the Smith family- full of smiles, laughter, and love.

Once I got there with the girls, of course more photos!

The sad day came but it was also pretty cool to be able to see some of the process as they cut it down. Baylor and I were there and it was cute watching Baylor go from window to window to watch the action.

All cut down!

 Nate was sad to see it go and I am sure he has way more memories that he could tell you about this giving tree. 

The swing has of course brought so much fun and joy but other things I can think of are the beauty that the tree brought to the yard with every season especially in the fall; the abundance of leaves that brought work but also fun as we got to jump in the piles of giant leaves; the raccoons, squirrels, and birds that made it their home and that my kids got so excited to see each time; the sweet memories of Paige putting out squirrel food around the rocks with Nona and Pops; the beauty of flowers depending on the time of year that bordered the tree; the scary hole down at the bottom that everyone dared each other to put their arm in but everyone was way too chicken to actually do it and we always said it would be the perfect hiding place for a hidden immunity if we were on Survivor; and last the countless pictures, memories, and moments that were captured around that tree or with the tree looming in the background.

 "And she loved a boy very, very much- even more than she loved herself." (The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein)

Two

 Happy Birthday to Baylor! It is crazy that she is already two. Time just seems to go by faster and faster when you have kids. Baylor is such a joy but she sure does keep my on my toes. She is so cute and fun and I love this stage where there is constant learning and growing each day.

Things about our little 2 year old:

• At her 2 year check up she is a little over 23 lbs (9th percentile) and is 2 feet 8.5 inches (23rd percentile). She is small but keeps growing on her own curve which is great and is exactly how Paige was. They discovered a heart murmur but they said it is something that is very common and she can potentially grow out of it but they will just monitor it. It made me a little nervous when the doctor was listening to her heart because I could tell the doctor was taking more time than usual and kept going back and forth on her chest. The doctor was very reassuring about not to worry about it and that just monitoring it will be best.
• She has the cheesiest smile and the little gap in her front teeth just adds to the cuteness of it all. When Baylor smiles her whole face lights up and makes everyone around her smile.
• She is always on the move and is very busy. She doesn't hold still for more than a minute and hates to cuddle very much to the dismay of Nate. She loves to run around and be silly and is constantly into things.
• She loves books and to be read to. She likes to the read the same books over and over. Her favorite books are ones that have animals in them.
• She loves her stuffed animals and most of all her blanket.
• She loves to point out any animal and can name most of the common ones. She can point to and knows most of the common things on her body. She talks quite a bit and mostly in 2 or 3 word phrases. Though outside of home she doesn't talk much and is very shy around strangers. She will try and copy almost anything you say if you ask her to. She loves to do this mostly with Paige.
• Speaking of Paige, Baylor loves her big sister. After we drop Paige off at school, Baylor almost daily asks for Paige and I will say do you want to be with Paige and Baylor will say yes. She follows Paige around everywhere and wants to do everything she does. They have so much fun and can be so silly together. They both like to tease each other ALOT but most of the time it is in fun but can lead to tears/whining for either of them at times. I love that they light each other's lives up with joy and happiness.
• If Nate and I are both home she prefers Nate. She is a daddy's girl and I love that whenever she sees that Dad is home from work she yells daddy and will waves to him from the window and can't wait to see him.
• She loves phones. Whenever she wants one of our phones, she says cheese because taking pictures on our phones is the only thing we let her do. She loves to pretend to talk to people on the phone and it is so cute. Most of the time she says she is talking to Nona.
• When she has something that she is not supposed to have and you catch her she will either throw whatever she has or runs away.
• She loves to "help" me in the kitchen. Whenever I am cooking she will say "I help" and will scoot a chair right over to where I am. Her favorite thing to do is crack eggs and mix anything she possibly can or just play in the sink.
• She is a great eater and not really that picky but she sure is a messy eater. Every meal there is food all over her, the the table, and the floor.
• She is very mischievous. She is constantly getting into things or pushing and touching things she is not supposed to. She loves to sneak in the computer room and type on the keyboard. She loves to color but most of the time it is on paper for about 2 seconds and then leads to coloring on the table or chair and mostly on her body. She has gotten a hold of a permanent marker before and it was all over her body which I am grateful for since cleaning up permanent marker off anything else is a nightmare. After that incident all markers got put away or up much higher. You can't leave her in just her diaper or she will take it off. She has peed on the carpet a few times because of this and has even taken off a poopy diaper before and was showing Paige her poop that she had in her hand and Paige's reactions is how we found out that she had put poop on some of her toys and there was some on the couch. Thank goodness for disinfectant wipes and now her pjs go on backwards so that she can't take them off. Another thing is that she is constantly into things that are not toys. If she made explosions with toys all over the house that would be fine but she is constantly into things that aren't toys. One time she got the flour bin out and got teaspoons out of the drawer and was scooping flour onto the floor with them. She can't have lotions of any kind because she will put it all over her clothes and the floor. I am glad that she can't open up doors so that I can keep her contained in certain areas of the house.
• She is so happy and loves to make you smile and laugh. She is truly such a happy little girl with a 2 year old mischievous side that can be exhausting but also keeps life exciting.

Her birthday being the day after Halloween can be a little hard. Especially this year since I was so focused on the things that I had to do for the ward trunk or treat, her birthday was on the back burner. So the day of her birthday, Paige and I went present shopping and her cake wasn't anything too exciting. It's a good thing she is 2 and doesn't really care. She loved eating the cake and ice cream and it was cute seeing her get into opening her presents with lots of help from Paige who was probably just as or more excited than Baylor.

Paige found and print out the little cat with the birthday sign to add to the top of the cake since Baylor loves kitties and puppies so much.

 It was so cute watching her try and blow out her candles.

Paige wanted to buy Baylor a present with her own money. So she got a $1.09 out of her piggy bank so that she could get Baylor a present from the dollar store and got her some nail polish. She also added in a bouncy ball. Paige is very thoughtful and it was so cute watching her excitement for Baylor.

It was the best watching Baylor hug and roll all over the ground with her new bunny (mimi in Baylor's vocabulary). 

The next day right before Baylor got out of bed, Paige set up all her presents for a little photo shoot and Paige took a picture of the cute little birthday girl with all the fun things she got.

 Happy Birthday Baylor!

Leaves

We have had a beautiful fall! The leaf colors have been stunning and we have so many leaves in our yard that have been jumped in multiple times. We had a little fall photo shoot and I just wanted to post some adorable pictures of my adorable girls.

Chickens!

Oh, the faces of Baylor!

The girls love the swings in our backyard and Paige especially loved swinging through a hug pile of leaves.

Paige loved playing in the leaves for our photo shoot and Baylor not so much. She was content to watch it all from her swing.

Happy Fall!