Happy Birthday Sam!

Here is the card Amber picked out for Sam yesterday.  I told her it contained a naughty word, but she didn't care.  She absolutely insisted that this was the card that expressed the feelings shared between her and her dad.

What would do in this stressful Smith family without our little bundle of comic relief?  Anyhoo, happy birthday, Honey.  I may not be skinny, but I'm still really glad we're friends.

Spring!!!

Okay, so it's still a bit nippy outside and I haven't yet abandoned my stash of winter sweaters, but it has been spring at the Smith house this last week and here is why.

Chad's girlfriend Baylee is in the New Mexico Ballet Company and we have wanted to see her perform for a long time.  We finally got a chance last night when we attended her "Spring Sports" dance concert.  The first half of the concert was a more traditional ballet performance (see the picture below) while the second half was an ode to sports (and not just spring sports either as you can tell from the picture of the basketball dance above).  They were both great, but the sports section was just darling.  It was as clever as can be and even Chad had a grin on his face the whole time.

In one of the dances, Baylee was dressed as a baseball player and I told her mother that I thought she might possibly be an even cuter short stop than Connor (with Chad, below) is.  No offense Connor. I still think you're the bee's knees.

 Chad and his little jock.

Bethany adores Baylee and she asked me several times yesterday how long it was until the concert started.  Let me just say that she thorougly enjoyed the performance.

And below is another reason that it is spring at our house.  Do you see this wreath of feathery goodness?  My Aunt Sandra passed through a couple of weeks ago (Oh, happy day!) and made this bad girl for me.  It is all pastel fluff and cuteness and I absolutely love it.  I know Easter is still another month or so away but I don't even care if I'm in season or not. I have said it before and I will say it again, Aunt Sandra is the bomb!

And as you can see, all Amber wants for Easter is her two front teeth.  Look at this toothless wonder.  Before I know it she'll be all grown up.  She's even reading books all by herself now.  Where does the time go?

Little Smith on the Mound

Chad's friends always call Aaron "Little Smith" even though he is 6' 1" and taller than many of them.  Whenever Aaron got a good hit last year,  the big boys would always say, "Little Smith's going hard,"  or "nice shot, Little Smith."  Aaron's is a much more natural hitter than Chad (much to Chad's great dismay) but he does not like to pitch.  Nevertheless, his coach insisted that he try it out at the last game of 2011 spring season.  Unfortunately, I was at a La Cueva game and didn't get to see it.  But fortunately, one of the mom's was taking pictures and now the festive event is recorded for posterity.  She fiinally remembered to give the picture disk to me at a band concert this week just in time to get excited about Aaron's upcoming season.  He looks sort of beastly, don't you think? :)

This & That

La Cueva High School presents:

Sam & I attended La Cueva's version of Guys and Dolls because we knew several of the cast members from church and from Sam's classes.  And were we ever glad we did!  Those kids rock!  I would never have thought a high school drama department could put on such a professional production, but they sure did.  I kept turning to Sam and saying, "Did you know (he/she) could do that?"  The answer was no, of course.  My goodness!  All of these hidden talents.  So, I sort of forced Aaron to attend the Saturday night performance, knowing he would like it even though he whined and complained for the hour before the production.  Sure enough, by the time he got home, he was humming the tunes and quoting his favorite lines.  Shortly after the play, registration for next year was due and Aaron signed up for drama.  Do I know my boy, or what?  Now if he can just stay out of trouble at school for two weeks.  We're currently on five days and counting.

Miranda was invited to accompany her great friend Sidney to Sidney's sister's tae kwan do birthday party on Saturday afternoon.  Since Miranda had a basketball game right after the party, the girls and I stayed and the tae kwan do instructors were nice enough to let them all join in the fun.  We have never done martial arts of any kind in our family and I must say that it was quite a hoot.  They even got to keep these awesome belts.

The sword fight was a huge hit.  I think we need to get some of these bad boys for home recreational purposes. 

Aw Saturdays!  I would have to call this past one a success, as far as Saturdays go.  Bethany had softball tryouts and she did great.  When I commented on how much her hitting had improved since last year, she informed me that she has always been an expert on the pitching machine.  Okay.  I guess I didn't know that since she usually hits off of a live pitcher.  And speaking of live pitch, Chad had to pitch to our varsity players in a scrimmage on Saturday and if you have seen our varsity team hit, you know how frightening that can be for a pitcher.  He was pretty nervous, but he did okay (not his best, he said, but not a total embarrassment.:)) so hopefully he can shake off the jitters a little bit for the rest of the season.  He is apparently going to be a back-up relief pitcher for varsity game or two, so the situation could come up again.  Scary!

And here is the best Valentine's Day present ever.  Can you see the pictures of Chad & Baylee on the back of these M&M's?  So awesome.  Baylee gave Chad an entire canister full of this cuteness yesterday.  Chad was amazed and also somewhat worried that his gift to her was not quite going to cut it.  Apparently he needs to step it up a little bit.  You rock, Baylee!