Winter Ball 2012

Aw, Winter Ball.  You just know that a girls' choice dance is gonna be more fun than Homecoming or Prom.

 Aaron, Nate, Chad & Chris were persuaded by Nate's sister Jessica to write an invitation to the dance on their chests and accompany her and her potential date to a wrestling match.  The boys didn't think the match would be very well attended but there were actually a lot of people there.  Nevertheless, they couldn't let Jess down.  So, they threw dignity to the wind and removed their shirts at the appointed time much to the delight of the crowd.  Happily, Jessica's date said, "Yes!"  If only one of them had taken a less blurry picture on their cell phone.

Chad left class a couple of weeks ago to retrieve something from his locker.  When he opened the locker door, about a hundred of these came rolling out onto the floor.  I guess it's a good thing it wasn't passing period.

Chad & Baylee getting ready to leave for dinner.  They look way better than Brad and Angelina at the SAG awards, I must say. :)  Incidentally,  I'm not sure but I think Chad's sisters may like Baylee more than they like him.  No offense, Chad.

 Baylee did way better with the pinning than I would have.  Why can't boys wear wrist buttonieres?

See what I mean?  Way easier.  Don't you love the bandage on Chad's hand - most attractive.  Sadly he had field clean-up and hitting lessons earlier that day and consequently had a nasty blister on his hand.

Bethany and Amber both wanted to take pictures with Mr. Handsome and he graciously obliged.

Amber was so not ready to take formal dance pictures.  She had attended a Build-a-Bear birthday party all day and she was covered in ketchup and chocolate.  Also, I don't think her hair had had an encounter with a brush in many hours. :)

Chad & his good friend Nate waiting for Nate's date to arrive.  It sounds like both couples has a great time and they even got home before curfew.  Good times!  Now if only the rest of the weekend had gone as well.  Why don't you all ask Aaron how Hummingbird Music camp went next time you see him. :)

Fabulous Hair!

Yesterday, Miranda's Activity Day was a lesson on hair care and styling.  Thanks Annie, Courtney, Ellie, Victoria and Chiara for making these cute girls look so darned beautiful.  I wish I brought my camera so that I  had a record of all of their cute does, but at least I got pictures of Randa. Look at how Courtney fixed her up.  I don't think my waving iron has ever worked this well.

And this is the best.  What if I could make my fingers do an awesome French braid like this?  It would revolutionize my life.  Every week, Courtney's little girl comes to primary with fabulous hairdoes.  I am always green with envy and I think I have decided to become her braiding apprentice.  What do you say Courtney?  If I can learn to crochet, I can certainly learn to do this, right?

Studying with Mom!

Last night, I was studying with Aaron for a science test that he has to retake because he refused to study with me the first time and ended up getting a 50%.  (When will these children learn that I am always right?) :)We went through covalent bonding, ionic bonding, metallic bonding, electron valences, crystal lattices - who knew there were so many different kinds of bonding?  Anyhoo, when I study with the kids, I make them learn all the vocabulary words, answer all the questions in the end of section reading checks and take both of the pretests at the end of the chapter.  It can sometimes (okay, usually) take the better part of an hour or two.  So, by the the time we had gotten halfway through the final pretest, Aaron was squirming around like a fish on a hook and asking me every five minutes, "Are we done yet?".  Finally, Chad (having a lot of experience in the studying with Mom department) walked by and snarked, "Aaron, it's Mom.  Trust me - you will never be done."   Ha!  How rude!  I will admit that the fact that I'm taking chemistry myself this semester may have altered my studying techniques this time around.  (For instance, I may not have spent fifteen minutes trying to find the answer to one of the pretest questions that I didn't know if I didn't figure that I might need to know that particular answer on a future test of my own.)  But really, where is the appreciation people?  Is it really so horrible that I want my children to be fully prepared for any question that might come up on an exam?  And besides that, I have seen both boys stay up until midnight on more than one occasion studying for a math test with Sam.  But is he the object of their disdain?  No Siree Bob.  Wildly unfair, I tell you!

Blog Book

It is always fun at the end of the year to turn twelve months of blog posts into a family scrapbook.  My kids love these books even more than they love rereading our Christmas letters from years past and present.  As soon as the book arrives, there is a line to read it.  They laugh over stories about themselves and their siblings, they get mad if they aren't mentioned as much as someone else and most of all they love to look for typos and other mistakes that somehow made it through my rigorous blog post editing process. :)  Well, you can imagine my embarassment when Bethany found an unfortunate and terribly ironic typing error in this post. http://thesevensmiths.blogspot.com/2011/08/sweet-bethany.html Can you find it?  I thought of fixing it - but at this point, I think I'll keep it there for the girls' entertainment and just for posterity in general. (And to remind myself not to get to smug in my writing abilities.)

Noel, Noel!

I guess it's time to finally post pictures from Christmas so that I can finish the year off and order my 2011 blog book. So, here it is.

 This is the nativity the girls made this year for our Christmas Eve program.  Oh, dear!

 And here are Mary and Joseph from behind.  I guess if your heads are made from basketballs, you have to wear sneakers instead of desert sandals.

We went to Sadies for Christmas Eve dinner this year.  It was quite tasty but I think their salsa is a little spicy for my tastes.  For a person who grew up in New Mexico, I am a shameful gringo.  By the way, I think I mentioned this in a previous post, but never get gum graft surgery right before the holidays.  It spoiled the fun of tortillas chips, toffee and pretty much any candy or cookie with nuts.  It has been four weeks since my surgery and I can finally eat normally, but the roof of my mouth still feels like I burned it and my gums are still numb in a lot of places.  And I have to do this again for the top in a few months.  Ugh!

The two "C"'s - Chad and Chance the Christmas elf!

 And now, two precious Christmas elves!

Grandma and the big silly! Amber had a great holiday.  She gota  lite brite, Husky the talking pup and a baby pillow pet; plus, she got to play with her cousin Sammy for a whole week.  They got along great until he dared to sit at her place at the kitchen table - at which point, Amber threw a terrible tantrum because she had, "...already warmed that spot up".  (It's possible that she may not have gotten quite enough rest with all the festivities.) :)

Here's the loot before the carnage began.  Every Christmas, I think that next year I'm just getting everyone gift cards to avoid the wrapping paper mess.  The boys would totally go for it, but the girls would blow a gasket.  At least Bethy and Miranda wrapped every present under the tree except their own.  That was awesome!

Angel Miranda opening her Christmas eve present.  She had been waiting for the mini bumblebee pillowpet forever!  I think everyone was pleased with their presents and of course we all gained 5 pounds over the break even with gum graft surgery.  So, I call Christmas a complete success!

Uncle Robert Rocks!

I never posted pictures of Robert And Rebecca's wedding in June but here is a picture of the family with the happy bride and groom.   We love having Uncle Robert in the family.  He lets the boys have his old snow boarding equipment, he gives us donations for the annual La Cueva baseball golf fundraiser, he provides the girls pirate paraphernalia for their summer musical.  He is the best!

Robert is one of the managers at Itz pizza.  If any of you don't know what Itz is, it is like Chuck E. Cheese on steroids.  They have an all you can eat pizza (and other stuff) buffet, video games, bowling, rides, etc.  It is so much fun.  Sadly, you can hardly go there without wanting to pull your hair out because there are just so many people.

Lucky for us, Robert invited us to the the Itz family Christmas party last week.  On the night of the party, the restaurant is closed to the public and only the families of employees get to attend.  While there, family members get to eat whatever they want and play all of the games and go on the rides for free.  It is awesome.  I can tell you that Itz not crowded beats the heck out of regular Itz.  Above is Bethany on the bumper cars - always a favorite.  One day, when we went to Itz just after Rebecca and Robert got married, Bethany cried because one of the bumper cars was out of service and therefore she almost didn't make it through the line fast enough to have a ride.  Uncle Robert rode to the rescue, fixing the car, and holding it for Bethy.  Needless to say, they have been fast friends ever since.

Chad & Chance taking a break between games.

Aaron & Sam playing a riveting round of air hockey.

The girls spent the entire morning before the party designing "I love Itz" tshirts for the occasion.  They had the greatest time and even got goody bags at the end of the night.  Thanks Uncle Robert!