and the festivities begin......

tagg was treated to his first VERY OWN trophy cupcake today.


at first, he was a little reluctant to dig in.


but it didnt take him long to figure out this was his chance! he needed to get going while the going was good.


and that cupcake was history.


i promise: this kid DOES smile. but in every picture he looks like a deer in headlights. but a gorgeous deer in headlights. and my parents couldnt love him any more.


and neither could we. we are so proud of our little one year old. he is such a great time.

more partying to come.......

"there is no skill to this?!"
i just got back from my first girls' trip. every year or so, my grandma and her daughters go on a little vacation and i have been waiting my whole life to be able to go. this time around, i got to tag along.

when we landed in vegas, some slick rick talked us into getting a stretch H2 for our ride from the airport to the hotel. we were laughing so hard at how ridiculous the whole thing was. vegas isnt really our scene, but was a central location for all of us to travel to and was something new.

continued mayhem in the h2.

the second we got into our hotel room, my grandma brought out the goodies: sugar roasted peanuts and m&ms. she had to keep refilling her little candy tray every ten minutes.

as we walked up the strip that first nite, i spotted an outback. i am such a company girl.

inside new york, new york. this guy (total stranger, btw) asked if he could get in the picture and have my mom sit on his lap. my mom said "no"! so he walked away.... but then as soon as i went to snap this picture, he ran back to stand next to her. scary!

brooke helped me with my first slot machine...... and i won! only $25. but by the scene i was making, people thought i had hit the jackpot.

me, making a scene.

getting into the vegas spirit.

our hotel boasted the largest chocolate fountain in the world. it was amazing! this fountain was located in a little crepe/gelato shop that we went to EVERY nite. we all easily gained five pounds.

caesars palace.

we met some girls that came all the way from new jersey to see this laser show at caesars palace. we felt sorry for them because it was pretty lame. how lame? well, the extent of the show is what you see behind us in this picture......nada.

pooped out on a couch in saks fifth avenue. we were SO tired from walking around that we sat on this couch for about an hour. i am sure the ladies that worked there loved us.

my aunt met pete rose! she had to shell out mucho dinero in order for this has-been to sign a baseball for her. but it was worth it because her son, my cousin aaron, loves him. and because she got to be on the "jumbo-tron" during the meet-and-greet.

all of us (we missed you, shanna.), right out side of our hotel. it was gorgeous.

megan was SO excited to find a hotdog on a stick place at the mall. easily pleased. so excited, in fact, that she couldnt wait to scarf one down. the cheese burned her lips. classy lady.

dreams do come true. i was able to talk everyone into eating at the outback on the strip. the menu wasnt exactly the same as home but we got the idea. coincidentally, back in redmond, the men were eating at outback on the same nite!

for dessert, brookie brought out her pharmacy and told us about each little piece of candy.

i have no idea why, but this "performer" got me in a foul mood. she was incredibly creepy. i could not believe that people paid to take their picture with her (megan insisted that we did).

everyone was teasing me that this was the closest that i would ever get to venice, so i needed to soak it all in. even though it was really pretty in there, i hope that isnt true!

my $170 winnings. thanks to double diamond deluxe! all in all, i had one of the best weekends of my life. i was pinching myself the entire time. i was so thankful that craig and grandma smith took fabulous care of tagg so i could go. i am one lucky girl.

is it ok that i am already trying to put together the next girls' trip?......

my little man

is almost ONE. i cannot believe how fast time has flown by. this has been the best year of my life.


we finally got a big boy car seat for tagg. he LOVES it.

the little photographer and "do you work here?"

a couple of nights ago, the smiths headed to outback for dinner. the hostess and servers were quite confused as to where the rest of the circus was. but we told them we just wanted a quiet nite out with just the three of us.

i realize that this picture is disturbing but i wanted to document tagg's first photograph. he loves my camera and enjoys holding it up to his eye and pretending like he is taking my picture. this time, craig helped him snap the button. i am so proud of my little art-eeest!

last nite, was our good friend's wedding reception. we were recruited to help out with behind-the-scenes. we all got matching aprons! before the reception, my mom and i went to get our make-up done at nordies (even the hired help needs to look presentable, k?). the lady doing my make-up asked what big plans i had for that nite. i told her i was washing dishes at our friends' wedding. she thought that was weird. mormon culture sometimes doesnt translate.

my mom was on cotton candy duty. even though we worked super hard all nite long, it was worth it. it was a gorgeous reception and i love any excuse to be with my mommy and auntie. at the reception, i ran into an old highschool friend. she asked me: "oh, do you work here?" i dont know why, but i kinda felt funny about that!

because i am getting PRIT-tee sick of the christmas post.

tucker got a keyboard for christmas. and tagg loves it. if tagg ever gets loose he makes a b-line to tucker's room and starts banging away on the keys. what can i say? he is a boy with some rhythm.


another place that tagg rushes to is the our bathroom drawers. he loves all the crap inside of them and makes it his job to clear them all out. but this time was especially cute because he was brushing his teeth WHILE he worked. teeth are very important in our family.

spectacular, spectacular
the original short kids. our christmas festivities started with a scrumptious christmas eve dinner at outback. we should own freaking stock in that place.

my mom and dad.

two brothers. they love having craig around because they get all his old clothes! that red and white shirt used to be craigs and now both of my brothers wear it. so cute.

i LOVE this picture: tucker is flashing a real smile, sam looks so incredibly happy and cody looks great with his braces off! yay!!

the two hooligans. these boys love each other so much.

holy crap. this picture gets me every time. sam is loving life! after outback, we headed back home to eat dessert and read the nativity.

peppermint ice-cream cake.

me, with my little baby jesus. i felt a little weird that "baby jesus" was wearing a onsie that read: santa is my homeboy.

i could not stop giggling about taylor being the donkey. we didnt have donkey ears, so he was wearing rudolf antlers. it was a hoot.


my dad got the other pair of antlers. i love this picture. we had such a great time sharing christmas eve with our good friends. we were so grateful that they let us crash their evening and even sang us their traditional christmas eve songs! it was a christmas eve to remember. for sure.

tagg's first christmas morning! our little baby enjoyed a morning filled with elmo, elmo, and more elmo. he loved it! the constant attention from all of us didnt hurt either......

best friends.

thats right. a white christmas morning! we couldnt stop pinching ourselves that we got to open presents while looking out at the fresh snow falling. it was amazing.


we all walked over to the elementary school to watch tucker go off some jumps with his snowboard. taylor and i were laughing because we both agreed that the short family has always had the most white trash snow gear. there are some families look like they just stepped out of an REI catalog. the shorts? we have been known to hit the slopes in jeans and baseball hats. we just dig thru a bin that has crap from the 80's and pile it on. whatever works, right?


tucker is going to hate me for putting the picture on here, but i dont care. i think he looks so happy and handsome.

speaking of white trash. we rounded out christmas day with a classy dinner at bullwinkles pizza (sam made a special request). instead of the candle-lit dinner with china, we thought it would be fun to gorge ourselves with greasy pizza and nachos. it was a complete blast.

what a perfect way to end a fabulous christmas! this year, we did things a little differently, but it was still a great christmas. happy first christmas, taggy.