Three

November 12, 2017 by Matt Smith

When we went into Lydia's room this morning we asked her if she knew what day it was. Still waking up we told her that it was her birthday. She asked us, "Am I three now?" We told her that she was. She asked again, "Am I now?"

For her birthday we got her two things. One was a little toy doll on a bicycle towing a puppy. The other was a ladybug suitcase. She also received a lot of very nice gifts from friends and family (thank you all).

When she opened her ladybug suitcase she said, "A ladybug suitcase!" When asked what she would put in the suitcase she said, "a lot of fruit bunnies." (Her favorite snack.)

This afternoon Lydia had her first real birthday party. It went very well thanks to a ton of hard work by Momma and lots of help from Grandma.

Here are photos from the big day.

Gallery 1

Gallery 2

Happy Birthday Lydia. May we never forget that God is faithful and that you are an answer to prayer. We love you.

Fall

November 08, 2017 by Matt Smith

It has been a very busy season here these past couple of months. Here are some long overdue photos!

This first set of photos include some pics of Lydia and Keith while we were on our small group retreat, a trip to Lydia's favorite pumpkin patch in Glen Ellyn, and a couple of her in our leaves in our front yard.

This next set includes some photos of us at the Children's Museum. Lydia loves going there and her and Momma put on the goggles and did some woodworking this last time.

Here we are on a trip to a local cider mill.

More from the cider mill, including the second annual photo of Lydia showing how tall she is. Also in this set are a few of us playing soccer on the Wheaton College grounds.

This set includes some photos of a sunrise we went to watch early one morning on Lake Michigan. Also in this set is Lydia dressed up as Dorothy for Halloween. And lastly she is doing some flying, with her cape, while drying dishes.

And here are my girls. Lydia is making sure that Momma's button is done up.

Stay tuned! Birthday coming soon...

Soccer

September 19, 2017 by Matt Smith

Lydia started soccer last week. Here she is doing a little dance on the way out the door.

And here she is at her first soccer practice. She had a lot of fun playing around and did very well with all the boys.

And here are some photos of Lydia on her tricycle.

The Long Overdue Canada Post

September 12, 2017 by Matt Smith

After about 3 years of blogging every Saturday, the streak has ended. We aren't sure if we are going to post on a set schedule or not, but we are going to keep posting (just not every Saturday!). Depending on what we have going on, we may have some weeks with several small posts, some weeks with a big post, and some weeks with nothing at all.

With that said, this post is a monster. There are over 200 photos here from the trip to Canada we took in July and August. We had a really great time - it was an excellent family trip. There are a ton of really good pictures here that look really good on a computer. So if you have the option of using a big screen, do so!

Our trip started off by flying to Vancouver and then taking a ferry to Victoria (all in the same day). Lydia was an expert little traveller. We stayed in Victoria for a few days and then we took a ferry back to Vancouver and met up with The Lafleur's. It had been a year since we had seen them (the longest time we had ever gone without a visit) and it was awesome to see them again, stay in their home, and worship with them at The Village. After the visit at the Lafleur's we went to Kelowna and stayed there for a little over a week. My Mom flew in for the week and The Lafleur's came in as well and we had a really fun time staying at my Dad's. One of our favorite parts of the time in Kelowna was studying various Pslams in the evening together. After the time in Kelowna, we travelled back to Vancouver and spent a couple of nights in the city before heading back to Chicago.

Here are a lot of photos from the trip. They are in galleries so that the page will load quicker. Click to expand!

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