Simply the Smith's

I love when there is prompted writing. About everything! Linking up with Mix and Match Mama ! What we are eating Chicken and lots of it. My husband makes the best chicken quesidilla's ever. He uses taco seasoning (homemade to avoid a ton of sodium) and whole wheat tortilla's. I love them we have them at least once a week! What I'm reminiscing about Our anniversary trip last year. It was so much fun just the two of us and I know we won't be doing it this year because our focus is paying off debt so it will be a date night. I love Cleveland and loved the Rock n Roll Hall of fame! What I'm loving Real Housewives of NYC. The B is back and I love her! What we've been up to Family time and organizing! I got my closet almost all cleaned out and Grayson's is pretty much done I just need to pick up a few more bins to pack away old clothes! Spring cleaning at it's finest! What I'm dreading Michael play...

To really understand how I want to share my faith with my little one you have to understand where I have come from. This is a post about my religion. I'm just sharing my story, my struggle, my life. Background: I was raised in church (Methodist to be exact). I was baptized (at 3 weeks old), we went to church every week. When I was 10 I knew that God was my savior and I started my conformation classes to become a member of the church. I stayed going pretty consistently up until I got married. We got married in the church I grew up in and did all of our marriage counseling through that Church. Michael was baptized in that church one month before our wedding, which to make a long story short through our marriage counseling he found out he had never been baptized (his mom told him he was but when asked for the church she said it never had really happened) and it rocked him to his core so he elected to be baptized before getting married. It was so awesome that I got to be th...

Happy Friday! It's been a crazy couple of weeks and I'm so happy that we have no plans for Saturday and Sunday!  I'm more than ready to catch up on laundry clean my house and just relax! Linking up with Andrea for Friday Favorites One I got this magic bullet a few years ago for my birthday but I never used it all that much until the last month and now I use it everyday! I made a smoothie for Grayson and I in the morning and it gets us a good dose of veggies in before we even head to work! Two This moment between my two boys. Grayson has started to really show affection more unprompted lately and it is just the sweetest thing. He climbed up on Michael lap and said "I yove you daddy" and then snuggled and kissed him. Brought tears to my eyes. Three I made this meal from Mix and Match Mama site. She is genius. Simple meals that can be made fast I love it. I have been trying at least 2 of her reciped a month a...

I love names with a meaning and a little bit of quirkiness.  I was born Katlin Kimberly Gray. Kimberly is my half sisters first name and so my mom wanted her to feel included when it came to the new baby and that is how that happened. Katlin was a name my mom read in an Irish romance novel and it was spelled just like that. My grandmother (dad's side) is as Irish as the day is long and once her and her brother heard and saw the spelling they were thrilled. If I was a boy I would have been Jeremiah Thomas Gray. My name gets misspelled a ton because people want to had an i or throw in a y or start it with a c but I love my name and it's spelling. When I got married I became Katlin Kimberly Smith and I honestly thought about changing my middle name to Gray because it was part of me for 22 years but I like the initials KKS so it stuck.  My sister is named Halli Katlin Gray. My mom decided to stick with a good thing when she found one and my first name is my sisters ...

This weekend was jam packed. I need another few days off to recover but it was a ton of fun! Friday I got out of work a half an hour early and grabbed some food for our trip, champagne, and a tarp (for our muddy boots). Then I grabbed Grayson and headed home to get his bags and let Michael say a quick goodbye then took him to my parents house for the weekend. I have to say it is nice that Grayson is so comfortable at my parents house. I was in and out in less than 10 minuets because hew as just happy to play there. I got home and grabbed our last few things and we jumped in the car. We were on the road by 4:30 and had about a 4 hour drive ahead of us. We only stopped once to stretch our legs and us the restroom and then we were back on the road. We made it to the cabin at 8:45 and unloaded. Our trip down We drank some wine, played cards and had such a fun night. We went to bed way to late but memories are worth it. It was an early day Saturday and I have the hardest time slee...

I'm OCD about somethings. I thrive on organization. I like to know what I'm doing when. I'm not a huge surprise person. The only time I'm not like this is when I'm on vacation and everyday is a cocktail and beach day. So we are gearing up for a weekend trip and I have lists coming out of my ears I had one sitting on the counter that was my master list so to speak My wonderful husband who has two things on that list the trailer and the gear laughed at me because I have a list to look at lists. This is where my OCD comes in I like nice and neat lists that I can check off. If I made one list with everything to pack it would look like a hot mess. So I make my master list and then have my sub lists. I know it's kind of crazy but I write down everything I need to pack. Right one down to socks and underwear and the # I'm bringing. This way I can pack us all up in about an hour and half and be done. Because it's just going down a list inste...

It got up to 78 yesterday which what like heaven. It was nice to do all my running around and not have to wear a huge bulky coat. I felt so free and light. I got home and my boys greeted my in the driveway. They played outside the whole day. Grayson came running up to me with a stick and Riley had a mouthful of dirt and stones. Michael was working in the garage on finishing up getting everything ready for this weekend. I carried the groceries into the house and took a deep breath. I just love the way my house smells when it the windows are open. I could hear the boys running and playing outside while I put the groceries away. I pulled out shorts to put on and it felt nice to have my legs out for once! We had dinner at C&T's house last night and Grayson went with us and it was great to not have to bundle him up. He just headed out in a t-shirt and his baseball cap. I can already tell this summer is going to be so different from last. Grayson is all boy and is all ...

Friday I went to the library that my sister works at and we did a paint and sip. It was so much fun. There was a wine tasting and we painted a picture. I have no artistic ability what so ever so my expectations were low. But I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Saturday we had some running around to do. I had to get all the birthday presents for my Mama's birthday and we made a very big purchase for Grayson. Big Boy Underwear!!!! We were at Kohls and I asked him if he would like to try big boy undies and he said "yesh peez mommy". So we bought 2 packages of undies one Mickey Mouse one Pixar (they included Mike and Sully from Monster University) and he was so happy. We got home that night and he wanted to wear them. So I put them on him and he was so excited. Sunday we got up and first thing on the potty. He got up to grab a toy and started to pee on the floor but I got him onto the toilet to finish and bam he peed in the potty. M&M's and ...

I never really knew this about myself until the other night I was mid melt down with a 2 year old and realized he is just like me. Michael is sick and that rocks my whole world. We have a routine that we do everyday. It's small things but it is what keeps me sane. Michael gets home about an hour to two hours before we do. I always pick up G and he does a few things around the house. On Tuesday he came right home and went to bed only waking up to eat. So after dinner he went up to bed. He needed sleep in the worst way I know that but inside I was freaking out. Michael always gives Grayson his bath when he is home and I was not mentally prepared to be doing that last night. Plus bath time is when I pack our lunches and get everything around for the next day so I knew I was in for a long night. Dishes needed to get done before I could pack lunches and the house was a disaster. I never realized how much my husband does before we even get home every night. He fills the Keu...

I have not forgotten about Dave Ramsey. In fact we are still very much following most of his rules.  The number one thing I took from reading Dave's book, was that you need to stop going into debt further.  Sure you have all this debt but in order to be successful you need to stop that cycle ASAP and do whatever it takes to not add more debt to that pile. Well the last 2(ish) months have been just that.  We live in WNY and February was the coldest month in the record books. Which means our furnace ran non-stop. We use oil as our heat source and well it's expensive. In years past we have charged it on the credit card and tried to pay it off $50-$100 payments at a time. Well this year as of today we have no debt due to oil! My amazing husband started working 6 days a week(temporary) to help prevent more debt and to knock of some already existing and we have done just that! No more credit cards for us!! Plus we have made some extra payments on our sm...

It was a good ending to the week last week. Thursday after dinner we took Grayson over to my parents to spend the night. Once he was finished eating he grabbed his coat and shoes and said "okay I go Gigi and papa now". I love that he is that way with them. They are the only ones that he spends the night with and so I'm glad he is comfortable. Then it was home for us and just relaxing. It was nice to not run around and have a million things to do. Friday I got out of work a little early and then headed home to watch some re-runs of Real Housewives of NYC. They are my favorite. We left our house and picked up dinner then went to my parents to dye eggs and do our Easter baskets that night. Saturday my Grandma and Aunt stopped over. They had Grayson's Easter present which is this awesome solar owl for out in the yard. He flipped over it and this Mama appreciated a no candy Easter present. Grayson and Colleen played blocks and it was nice to visit with them. M...

I love our photographer. She is amazing and fun and does the best job. We get our pictures done once a year and while I would love it more once a year is the comprimise in our house. So here they are my favorites! I love everything about this picture This wrinkled nose smile melts me everytime So blessed to have him in my life I think this a front runner for a canvas My whole world in one picture Mommy's sweet boy Him and his sweet GiGi Love! Typical 2 year old so over pictures My love Erin has taken this picture of us every time since his newborn photo shoot and I love it so much! Linking up with Andrea for Friday Favorites I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter weekend!