HAPPY BIRTHDAY KRISTIN
Very special birthday wishes go out to our sister-in-law, Kristin. We hope you have an awesome day today with your family and friends. We heard of one special gift she already received from her son, Nick. They went to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra last night and they made an special birthday tribute to Kristin. You can't get a better birthday present than that! Lots of Love, Heather, Steve, & Tyler

Christmas in Florida

Daddy took us to a special little town that celebrates Christmas all year round today. Christmas, Florida is a quaint little town that has its' own Christmas tree that they keep up year round. Today we decided to download some caches in the area. We noticed some tourists taking their picture in front of the town's sign and we decided to go over and assist them.

Across the street from the sign was a Christmas display complete with Christmas decorated tree, Santa and sleigh, manger, mosaic, and other Christmas related statues. It was quite neat to see and Tyler really enjoyed it all.
After doing the caches we had planned to do for the day, we still had some time left over. Steve came up with the idea of going to the Winter Park train station and showing Tyler the trains. However when we arrived, there were no trains due to come in for a few hours so we played in the nearby park and went for a walk downtown. Tyler had a blast chasing the squirrels.

We're here!

Well, we made it safe and sound yesterday afternoon. It is wonderful to see everyone again! We already had a short visit with Chellee, Peter, and their girls at Peter's guitar shop. Tyler is having a fun time with Grandma and Papa. This morning, Grandma took Tyler out to see the bunny and Guinea pig. Right now, we are waiting for Chellee and the girls to come over and we'll probably do some caches in the area. It is suppose to 84 degrees today. It feels good to wear our shorts and t-shirts again!

It's off to Grandma's we go!

After resting up over night, we are now back on the road again. Last night, we stayed in the town of Manning, SC. Manning is our usual stop to and from Florida because they have a really nice cafe with awesome cappuccino. The town also has a Sonics, which we don't have in MD, so this morning we grabbed some breakfast there before heading back on the road.

It is currently 77 degrees and sunny! Traffic is a little heavier today than yesterday. We are now south of Savannah, Georgia. Our ETA is currently 4 p.m.

Florida or Bust

After meeting with Ute and updating her on our kitty's needs while we're gone, we are officially on our way to the "Sunshine State"! Approximately 30 minutes ago, we crossed the Potomac River into Virginia. So far the sun is out, the roads are clear, and there is not much traffic.

It wasn't long after we left that Tyler was snoozing in the back. He didn't take his nap before we left, so we weren't surprised at all. He did wake up a short time as we crossed the river, but went back to sleepy time.

We are using the laptop and a wireless connection in the car, so we can easily access the blog for updates. Tonight we are planning on driving to South Carolina and staying overnight in a hotel. We should arrive in Florida sometime tomorrow afternoon.

Christmas Morning

Merry Christmas to all of our family and friends! This morning when Tyler woke up instead of going straight for the kitchen for his breakfast like he usually does, he went for the tree. He remembered what he told him last night, that Santa was coming with some gifts to put under the tree.

It wasn't long before Tyler got into the presents. While Steve and I were getting ready to open presents, Tyler had already opened one of them. It was in a gift bag to Steve and I from Erika. It was so much fun watching him get all excited as he opened up each gift! Santa was very good to us this year. Tyler got lots of pajamas, a couple pairs of mitts (one of which my Aunt Anita knitted), books, a Christmas ornament, Thomas Tank Engine, a Little People car garage, special markers, and various little toys and treats. We re wrapped a train set given by Grandma and Grandpa Smith last year because we didn't get to use it yet, but this year he is just the right age and loves trains. He only had one rip and he could see part of the track on the photo of the box and he already knew it was a train and was so excited!
After we had all the presents open, Daddy and Tyler were busy assembling all those that required putting together and batteries. Tyler was really excited to get started on playing with all his new toys that he assisted Daddy in the process as you can see in the photo.

So far we are having a wonderful Christmas. While Daddy and Tyler assembled the toys, Mommy was in the kitchen busy preparing our Christmas breakfast. We had toast with Aunt Carol's delicious homemade jam, scrambled eggs, bacon, and apple on the side. Now that we are all fed, we are ready to enjoy the rest of this lovely Christmas day. It is a beautiful sunny day. From our family to yours, Merry Christmas and God Bless you always!!!

T'was the night before...

On Christmas Eve we got the house ready for Santa's arrival. Tyler helped with picking up his toys and getting Santa's refreshments ready. Tonight we set out one of Heather's homemade brownies and milk. Tyler sampled everything to make sure everything was just perfect. Can't wait to see what Santa brings tonight! Ho Ho Ho

Christmas Dinner

Since it is just the three of us on Christmas Day and we will be on the road a few days after, we decided to have Christmas dinner a few days early so that we could enjoy it with our friends, Richey and Barbie. I cooked the turkey that we bought but didn't get to use for Thanksgiving because we were in Syracuse.

It was wonderful having Richey and Barbie over. We really had a great time and we definitely have to get together more often like that. It was so nice of them to give Tyler a Christmas present. They gave Tyler a school bus with blocks and Tyler has been playing with it ever since. They also gave Steve and I gift certificates to one of our favourite restaurants and we look forward to another evening shared with our good friends.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHANCE

There's another birthday celebration taking place today and it belongs to another little boy, also turning 1 year old!

Chance is the cutie-patudy belonging to Rayna and Scott of New Orleans. Even though we have not had the privilege of meeting this adorable little guy or his parents, we feel like we know them through daily visits to their blog, 'The Nielson Family'. They are actually friends of Chellee and Peter and that's how we found out about their blog. It's neat that both Chance and Tyler were born on the 21st. Tyler turns 22 months today.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHANCE!!! Hope you have a fun filled day at your party!

Buon Compleanno Marco

Very Special Birthday Wishes go out to a Very Special Boy who is turning 1 year old today!

BUON COMPLEANNO MARCO!!!!

Marco is the son of Desiree and Ernie, and the brother of the adorable Sofia. Marco started walking a few weeks ago and as you can see he is into everything now including the kitchen drawers. Hope you have a terrific day, Marco!
Hugs & Kisses

"Square" Dancing

This is sort of an old story as it happened over the summer while in Canada, but it's too cute not to post. Tyler and I were over at my best friend, Christine's parents house, as it was her birthday. We were all having a great time talking and then Christine decided to put on some fiddle music that her dad made. Then Christine's mom and Christine decide to dance to it and they tried to encourage Tyler to join them. They kept saying "Come on Tyler, let's square dance!" At first, Tyler just stood there watching them, but then he started to go around and point to different parts of the floor. We had no idea what he was doing, but he really wanted us to notice him. Finally, as we continued to watch him point to the floor, Christine's mother figured it out; he was pointing to the TILES on the floor to show us the SQUARES because we told him we were SQUARE dancing. I guess that was his version of "square" dancing or maybe he was trying to tell us we were doing it wrong!

The Smith Family News blog proudly presents The Dancing Elves starring Steve, Heather, & Tyler Turn up your volume, sit back, relax, and enjoy the show! To enter the Elf Zone, click HERE!

Getting into the Christmas Spirit

Our weekend actually started a little early because Steve had Friday off. So to take advantage of the less crowded malls, we headed over to do our annual visit to Santa. Prior to our mall visit with Santa, every time we would ask if he wanted to go see Santa, Tyler would reply an excited "Yeah!" and run over to the Santa cookie jar. So Friday morning, when we were in the car on the way to the mall and we said we were on our way to go visit Santa, Tyler probably thought we were on our way to get some more "dookies", as he calls them.

Last year, he absolutely adored Santa! This year...well, it was a different story. We arrived to find a rather large line-up. Finally we were one kid away from Tyler and wouldn't you know it, he had to be one of those that was terrified at the sight of Santa. We were a little concerned that this might cause Tyler to react the same way and so we tried to distract him the best we could. I guess it didn't help because by the time it was Tyler's turn and we were walking towards the white bearded man in red, he held on so tight to me. We finally put him down in Santa's lap and it was almost immediate that he wanted nothing to do with jolly Old St. Nick. Poor Santa! Oh well, maybe next year will be a different story.
After the mall, we went Christmas tree shopping. We went to a few places and then Steve decided to check Lowe's to see if they had any in. To our surprise, they not only had tons of trees, but they were in perfect shape and 50% off! We were also surprised to find we were the only ones there, so we had the place to ourselves. It was fun walking around and inspecting each tree. It wasn't long before we found just the perfect one to come home with us. Speaking of, our little drive home with the tree tied to the top of the car was another fun adventure. The tree started to slide off the car and the wind had it airborne a little. To say the least, the cars behind us kept their distance!

Steve brought in the tree after we got the house ready for its' arrival. However before this happened, Tyler had fun playing with the tree stand we just bought and its' many parts. So when we finally got the tree up and showed the tree to Tyler, he was quite concerned. Apparently, the parts of stand were shaped like keys. He kept shaking his head and saying "Oh no, keys!" and pointing to the tree stand. We got the lights on, but then it was time to meet some friends for dinner so we had to hold off on the decorating for later. However by the time, we came home it was too late and we had to get some things ready for the party were we going to the following day.

Saturday morning, we got everything organized and made our way north of Annapolis to attend a Merry Cachemas celebration. We joined our caching friends and had a fantastic time catching up, eating, and of course caching. We even took part in a neat gift exchange where we were required to bring a caching related gift and after they picked our number we had the opportunity to "steal" someone else's gift. We all had a lot of fun and Steve and I ended up with a light that we strap to your head..LOL Our caching friends, Beau and Jo, who hosted the event did an awesome job! It was by far, one of the best events we attended.
Meanwhile, Tyler met another fellow cacher just his size. Jake, who is a month older than Tyler, was absolutely adorable and together they had so much fun together. They played trucks, but then they had a blast stepping on bubble wrap to make it pop. It was hilarious to watch them together stomping on the wrap!


Saturday was another late night for us, so our tree decorating finally took place Sunday morning. I don't know what was more fun, taking our decorations out of the boxes and looking at them all or actually putting them on the tree. As Steve and I decorated, Tyler pointed to certain ones he really liked. There was one incident where he was holding one in his hand and he held on too tight and crushed it, but other than that he did pretty good around the tree. We were afraid that he was going to have all the decorations pulled off.

The tree looks really nice. Not bad for a $12 tree! I'm so excited about this Christmas because we haven't had our own tree since our first year we were married, 5 years ago. We always went to our parents for Christmas. There is nothing like your house decorated for Christmas to get you into the Christmas spirit.

Sophie doesn't look too impressed that she has to share Tyler's chair with his other friends.

Unseasonably Warm Temperatures

Last week, we were having very chilly days that were in the 30's, this week the temperatures are climbing up the chart. This morning it was 60 degrees Fahrenheit, however it seemed much warmer. We just had to take advantage of this beautiful weather while it lasts, especially since tomorrow it is suppose to be back down in the 40's.

When I first took Tyler out, he was more interested in the other things to play with than the two trucks and a ball we brought out with us. He was into the sticks, rocks and whatever he could find on the ground that looked interesting. However after exploring every little thing there was to discover, he finally opted to play with his toys.

It wasn't long before we worked up a sweat playing ball and trucks, not to mention running around, that it was too warm to wear our winter clothes. Tyler passed me his hat, then his mitts, and jacket, and was about to even take off his boots before I stopped him..LOL It was lovely to go around with just a sweat shirt on for a change.


We spent a good part of the morning outside having some fun. After Tyler was finished playing with his toys, he was back searching for whatever new things he could find to play with. What he found was the lobster trap that Mommy and Daddy bought while back home in Cape Breton. Tyler had so much fun opening and closing the trap door. He then got his toys and started putting them inside.
It was a fantastic day today and the warm temperatures have us all excited about our upcoming trip to see Grandma Forst and everyone in Florida.

Choo Choo

No, that's not Tyler in the train. We thought it was so sweet of our friends, Maria (Jay) and Chris,who live in England, to post a photo of this little guy riding a train the other day in the mall because they were reminded of Tyler when they saw him having a good time on the train. Here is the photo they posted on their blog. You can access their blog to read more about it on the right hand side under blogs.

It was funny because that very same weekend, a cache took us to a little museum school house and in it they were having a little train show, so we decided to check it out. There were only two tables set up for show, but we enjoyed it just the same. Tyler especially enjoyed watching the "choo choos" drive around. He kept saying "Choo Choo" and laughing. He is really into trains now as his current favourite book is 'Thomas and the School Trip' by Rev. W. Awdry. I usually have to read it to him at least 3 or 4 times a day. He must get his love of trains from his grandfather in Rhode Island. Grandpa Smith has a huge collection of trains.

Born to Cache

We first started caching when I was just about a month pregnant and Tyler's birth never really slowed us down much, so it comes to no surprise that Tyler would eventually get into the fun of caching too. We always ask him "Do you want to caching?" and his response is always an excited "Yeah!", usually because he loves the outdoors. Well, yesterday when we went caching with our caching buddies, Richey and Barbie, we noticed Tyler getting really involved in one of the caches we were trying to find. The focus of our find was originally the bench. After we gave it a thorough look, Tyler went over and looked underneath one particular area and shook his head and said "no" as if to say it wasn't there. Then he noticed Richey and Dad looking in the bushes and Tyler followed them in their search giving a good look too. Steve and I are looking forward to when Tyler understands the game a little more and can help us make the find...LOL

Clearing the way for Santa's sleigh.

Cat Toy?

Now it's not very often that our other cat, Luigi, is featured on the blog, mainly because all he does is eat and sleep. However, the past few days he has taken in a different activity. For some reason, he is interested in Tyler's Ball Popper game. We have no idea why Weegie is all of a sudden interested in this game because we've had it since last year and it is one of Tyler's favourites. However, when the music starts to play Weegie now runs out of the bedroom (his usual hide out) and watches as Tyler plays with the air blown balls flying all over the place. We are glad that Weegie is taking some kind of interest, other than eating and sleeping for a change. Perhaps this is a new start for Weeg and he'll start to be involved in other activities around the house. We hope so as it must be lonely for him all by himself in the bedroom. We love you Weeg!!!
Birthday wishes go out to our nephew, Justin, who turns 18 today. Hope you have an awesome day, Justin!!! We love you very much!!!

Let It Snow

All day yesterday and last night it snowed here. This was our first snowfall and it was very exciting for Tyler. Yesterday he spent much of the day looking out the window and saying "Snow! Snow!"; I would have taken him out but it was much too cold and it was still coming down. The snow didn't really accumulate to much, but it was enough to have a little snow fun outdoors this morning. We didn't stay very long because it was cold! The current temperature is 32 degrees Fahrenheit. It's nice to enjoy the snow from inside the warm and cozy house for the time being.

Speaking of inside the warm and cozy house, this morning Tyler brought me his flashlight that he likes to play with. It wouldn't work because the batteries were dead. When I told Tyler that we needed to put in new batteries for it to work again, he ran out into the living room. I was curious as to what he was doing, so I followed. To my surprise, he went behind one of our chairs to where there were some batteries on the charger. I thought this was pretty neat because I never told him anything about batteries or where to find them.
Then last night, I was trying to teach him the word "Santa". I was using the Santa cookie jar that he received a couple days ago from Grandma Forst, however he was more interested in what was inside rather than learning the new word. Instead of saying "Santa", he kept saying "Please" as he wanted another cookie. Finally, I guess he got fed up and took my hand and we walked to the living room. He stopped to where we have the Christmas cards hanging and pointed to one of the cards. The card had Santa on it. Again, I was really surprised that he connected the two, especially since we never showed him. Just goes to show, that they really are listening and learning all the time.

So Much Love

As I was making our bed this morning, I overheard Tyler say "Mommy! Daddy!". When I looked over to see what he was doing, I noticed he had grabbed our wedding photo from off the dresser and recognized us in the photo. I thought this was cute, but what was even cuter was that he started kissing the photo and hugging it!!! Tyler is such a lovable little boy!




On another note, last night while Steve and I were sitting on the sofa together and Tyler was sitting in his little chair in front of us, Tyler all of a sudden got up and instead of saying "Mommy and Daddy", he said "Guys". Steve and I cracked up laughing. He wanted us to fill up his sippy cup.

Cookies for Santa

What a nice surprise to receive a jar full of cookies for Santa in the mail! Grandma Forst and Papa sent Tyler this adorable Santa jar filled with delicious cookies. Though we are trying our best to try and save the cookies until Santa's arrival, we can't guarantee that there will be any by that time. Between Steve, Tyler, and I taking little nibbles of the scrumptious treats, I will probably end up making some for Mr. Claus by Christmas Eve. Thank you so much Grandma and Papa, how sweet of you! See you in a few weeks!!!

More Babies on the way!!!
After posting yesterday's baby news, we learned of two more former MWR employees that are now expecting. My former supervisor, Karen and her husband, Frank are expecting their first bundle of joy in early May. And my fellow Canadian buddy that worked in marketing, Kaitlyn and her husband, Nate, are expecting their third baby in April. Congrats guys!!!

God's Gift to Sandra and Mike!!!

Early May will bring another beautiful member of the Sosa family. Our friends, Sandra and Mike, are expecting their first baby and we couldn't be more happy for them. Baby Sosa is going to be so blessed to have you both.

You can read more about their wonderful news by going to their blog linked to the right of this page called "Sandra and Mike".

Buon Compleanno to my friend, Margherita, all the way over in Sicily. Happy Birthday wishes to Mara who lives back home in Cape Breton. Both Margherita and Mara celebrate their birthdays today.

Mommy and Daddy clean the car. Meanwhile someone is supposed to be napping...
Eventually he did fall asleep and when he woke up and he helped us wash the car.