Our NEW House!

BEFORE (walking in the front door.) Notice the wall

AFTER (believe it or not this is actually walking in that SAME front door:) NO WALL!!!!

Notice that there are NO WINDOWS

See the windows NOW!! We cut holes into the brick, so fun:)

I'm not going to lie............this house kicked our butts!!! It was stinky, old and disgusting but all I could see were the BONES (and price, lol;) and I knew the bones were full of amazing potential:) We knew we could do it, poor Riley spent MANY nights in the "Before" house.........not a happy place to be, lol! We had help from our family and friends and that was HUGE, thank you helpful people!! There were times when I thought, "Is it really worth it?!" I think a few people thought we were totally crazy but we ended up kicking this stinky houses BUTT!! It's beautiful:) The most impressive part is that we did it in 2 months, thats pretty fast considering how much we did, yay us!

This is most definitely the BEST before and afters but the whole house got this same makeover so there are more pics to come:)!!

Don't Mess With A Smith Bean

First the Disclaimer. My kids fight, kick, yell, and tease each other. It's just part of having brothers and sisters BUT............my kids also adore each other. I have been able to witness it out in public in the last few weeks.

Last week at McDonald's I watched Jack play with a new found friend. This new friend and Jack were laughing at something when London came up to them and this new friend pushed her down. Yes it took every fiber of my being not to go kick that little boys *** but I controlled myself and watched something beautiful happen. Jack immediately stopped what he was doing, got down next to London and said, "London are you OK?" As he was asking he sweetly rubbed her head and spoke softly to her. Once London was all better Jack turned to the new friend and said, "Hey, that's my sister!!!" The friend looked at him like "and your point is?" so Jack said it again, "That's my SISTER!!!" This time the new friend got the message and with regret in his voice he turned to miss London and said, "I'm sorry." London excepted the apology and played with them for the rest of our time there.

Today while we were at McDonald's again (I know we go way to much)I watched London have this same experience with my Dane. London found a little girl to play with and Dane came up to play with them. The friend started to say mean things to Dane and London wasn't having it. She turned to her friend and said, "Hey, that's my brother Dane!" The little girl didn't get it so London said it again, after that the little girl got the point and went and played with someone else. London was fine with that, she and Dane played together for the rest of the time.

When it comes to the smith family, if you mess with one Smith Bean your going to get the whole Smith Burrito, watch out:)!

Every mother has that MOTHER BEAR in her, we can't help it! BUT I am here to say that if we can control ourselves (sometimes I can't) then we can give our children the opportunity to do it for each other and themselves, which in my opinion is WAY MORE effective. Us moms more often than not need to take a chill pill, our kids need to learn the rules to society and socializing and when we get involved and fix everything for them they miss out on that opportunity to LEARN!!! I understand this because I step in way more than I need to but I have learned through watching my little monkeys that it is better for THEM to figure it out on their own. I have watched myself with this and when I step in I figured out that it makes ME feel good about MYSELF, yes it's for them but it's also about ME. If I get rid of making myself feel good and let my children do it then in return I watch THEM feel good about THEM. This is a principle that Love And Logic teaches and it's one that's hard to follow but very much worth it and it's also one I'm still working on:)