We are very excited to announce that our photography hobby is now on it's way to becoming a home business!!! Lately we have had the pleasure of many opportunities to take photos for various families. With their referrals, and more business coming in, we thought it would be best to do things the right way. We will be applying for a business license in the near future and will soon have our very own official photography business. Cody has also recently started Cody Smith Computer Consulting which has also been fun to watch develop. We hope that we will be successful in each of our endeavors. Wish us luck!!! The picture below is my "logo" for now, as Joshua is my favorite subject and the reason I have been working on developing my photography skills. It is the header for my photography blog. You can view it at eloisesmithphotography.blogspot.com or there is a link on the right hand side of our family blog.


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Joshua is almost 1!!!! I can hardly believe it. It makes me so happy and a little sad at the same time. To celebrate his birthday we decided to have a fishing themed party. We created his invitation ourselves which I will share later. He hasn't had his party yet, but I thought I would share some of the pictures from the quick photo shoot we had to get pictures for his invitation. We were lucky to miss the rain. It started to sprinkle so we packed up and headed back to the car just before the down poor. We really liked the way they turned out and can see him as a great fisherman alongside his dad, grandpas, and uncles one day. And maybe even his mom too!

Our 4th of July was fantastic! It was Joshua's first 4th of July and we had SO much fun watching his reactions to everything. We spent the weekend in Safford with my family. My sister Shannon, my brother Richard and his wife, and Cody and I were all able to come from Tucson to share the holiday with my parents. We started the day with a hometown parade which Josh loved. Then to escape the heat, we went to see Ice Age 3. Next, Cody, Joshua, and I went back to our hotel and swam for a while. It was so funny to see Joshua in the "big" pool. After we got done swimming and fixed ourselves back up, we went and took some family picture to remember the day. We were all dressed very patriotic so we thought it would be fun. I was very excited to get to take them!! We had some good laughs and got a few good pictures before it started to sprinkle. You can see a few of them below. After pictures, we headed back to my parents to BBQ and then headed for the fireworks. Joshua LOVED the fireworks. He was really tired so he didn't make it through all of them. He fell asleep on Grammy's lap. It was a great holiday and it was wonderful spending it with my family. I'm very grateful for our freedom and the many blessings living in this country provides.

It is amazing how quickly a newborn infant develops into nearly a toddler. Joshua took his first steps tonight!!! As his mom I was so excited and proud I could hardly contain it! He of course is still wobbly and would not do it again for the video camera, but he is well on his way to being completely independent. I feel like before I know it he will be 19 and heading out on a mission. There really are not words to describe the feelings you get when you watch your children succeed. I never would have thought I could be so proud! We love Joshua so much and look forward to the many other steps in life he will take.

Sunday, Cody and I celebrated out 2nd anniversary. It was a wonderful weekend, but it has been an even greater adventure the last two years. We have grown even closer and welcomed our first born Joshua into our family. It has been very chaotic between work, school, doctors appointments, starting side work, being parents, and of course finding time for each other. It has taught us how valuable our time together is and has helped us to learn to really appreciate the little moments.

This weekend was full of fun! We started out on Friday by going to dinner and then went to see Up. It was the best anniversary movie we could have gone to. It is an AWESOME movie. We would highly recommend it to everyone. Joshua was very well behaved. He slept the whole time. But that didn't mean he failed to entertain. Joshua has recently made the association between the word hi and waving. It's quite adorable in my book. Anyway, he was dead asleep when a comical part came on and he started to stir. The dog Doug said, "Hi there" and Joshua started waving in his sleep! It was priceless. He's not a sleeper, so we were grateful he was out the whole time.

Saturday, my brother and sister in law Richard and Kara were so kind and watched Joshua the WHOLE day for us. I let Cody sleep in and brought us breakfast in bed. We dropped Joshua off, stopped by the mall and then headed out to Breaker's Waterpark. We had so much fun! We went on all of the slides, relaxed in the wave pool, and laughed... a lot. We got cleaned up and then caught an unplanned showing of Wolverine. It was such a great day.

Sunday, we attended church, had the home teacher's stop by, and then had a nice candlelit dinner at home. It was a WONDERFUL weekend. It was so nice to have time together and not have any agenda. We are so thankful for Richard and Kara's help and the chance to remember what it was like before we had kids. :) We love each other so much and it grows everyday. I look forward to many more years together and hope that they are as wonderful as the last two.

This Memorial Day, we had so much fun. My parents decided last minute to plan a fishing trip to the White Mountains. It was Joshua's first fishing trip but definitely not his last. We left very early Saturday morning, drove to Safford and then up the mountain. We stopped at Luna lake just before heading on to Springerville. We stayed the night there and went up to Big Lake the next day. The weather was cold and rainy but we all made the best of it. We had sun, rain, hail, sun, rail, and more hail. The guys still hung in there and caught a few fish despite the weather. We had a picnic and then that night went out for a nice dinner and then watched a movie back at the hotel. We headed home on Monday and hit Luna lake again. This time Cody caught the biggest fish of the weekend thanks to Richard an Kara taking him out on the paddle boat and he was very proud of it. We had so much fun and have a lot of great memories spending time with our family. Here are some of the pictures from the weekend. There were just so many to choose from so there are quite a few. It was just too hard to pick!

I have to say, I am one of the luckiest girls alive! I am blessed with an awesome husband who tries so hard to do things above and beyond what I deserve. He treated me to not only a wonderful Mother's Day, but an entire weekend. Friday he kicked things off and we went to dinner with Cody's mom to thank her for all she does.

The next day, Saturday, I got to sleep in while Cody took care of Josh. I then was treated to an hour long massage at Spa One. It was FABULOUS! After going to our Nephew Noah's birthday party, we got to see the new Star Trek movie while my brother and his wife watched Joshua (thanks guys!!). It was fabulous by the way.

Then Sunday, I got to sleep in... AGAIN!! I woke up to breakfast, presents, and Joshua decked out in a MVP of Mommy's Team outfit. Cody even drew me a rose!! It is beautiful and I can keep it forever (I will post a picture of it later).

Needless to say, I am a very blessed girl. My first Mother's day was very memorable. I love Cody and Joshua both SO very much!


**I'll post pictures soon of my super fun weekend!**