The Seven Smiths

This & That

2012-02-15T11:50:00.002-07:00

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, 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!

Winter Ball 2012

2012-01-31T08:13:00.001-07:00

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!

2012-01-26T08:05:00.000-07:00

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!

2012-01-20T08:35:00.006-07:00

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

2012-01-20T07:58:00.004-07:00

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!

2012-01-10T08:01:00.000-07:00

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!

2012-01-01T18:20:00.001-07:00

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!

Devil Town

2011-12-22T11:13:00.004-07:00

Everybody knows that my favorite television show of all time was Friday Night Lights. Every week, I wept with joy at its sheer awesomeness. It took place in the fictional town of Dillon, Texas where everyone was obsessed with high school football (and probably other sports too, but that's for another program). It was all about community, family, Texas pride and great barbeque. The greatest moment of the whole series was the scene at the end of the first season when the Dillon Panthers won state and the town celebrated by having a grand homecoming parade set to the tunes of "Devil Town". It gave me chills. So, imagine my thrill when my sister Jane moved to Childress, Texas this fall - a town that could actually be Dillon. It is all ranches, school pride, state pride and small town goodness. Here is a sampling of what we encountered on our trip to little Sam's baptism this last weekend.

Amber hanging out with grizzly bears and cacti. I love living in the southwest.

Amber and Miranda at the Big Texan in Amarillo. Everything is bigger in Texas, particularly the chairs. And as a sign in the restaurant said, "In Texas, it ain't bragging if it's true."

The park in my sister's town is totally decked out for the holidays. Every civic organization has created some fabulous wire and lights creation and they are put up everywhere. There must have been a hundred creations just like this one. It was gorgeous. Merry Christmas, Ya'll!

This was the entrance to the park. Grandma was enthralled with the poinsettas.

Miranda, Sam & Amber heating up at our fabulous bbq supper. (Thanks, Uncle Carl!) Clearly we need to teach these kids some better restaurant manners.

One of the town's oldest homes. You do not know how much I wanted to ring on their doorbell and ask for a tour of a house. Notice the small "Bobcat Pride" sign in the corner of the house. I would say 75% of the houses have these signs out front. The bobcats are the mascot for the elementary, middle and high school.

I saw these signs on a fence outside the most awesome antique shop ever. I think this just about says it all, don't you?

And here is a typical Childress home with a better view of the "Bobcat Pride" sign.

Here's Bethany just hanging out in the saloon with her buffalo. Good times!

Bethany, Miranda and Sam just after his baptism. The cutest bunch ever. Sam attends a small branch and it was really an interesting experience attending a branch. Members come from up to an hour away just to get to church. They are a close knit fun group though. The best part of our branch experience was when the primary kids ended the "Hello" welcome song with a resounding "Yeehaw!". I totally cracked up. I bet the Stingels will have a great time living in "Devil Town"! Now if only we would run into Tim Riggins next time we visit.

Holidays!

2011-12-20T11:27:00.000-07:00

Well, another holiday season is almost over and I have not made a post in over a month. You know how it is. Parties, Christmas letters, concerts, weekend trips. Good times baby! Above is a sampling of the Thanksgiving pies. Yummers! I made 14 and we ended up throwing out the last leftovers about two weeks after Thanksgiving! I think we'll do cheesecake for Christmas.

Over Thanksgiving, we dog sat for our friends the Hunts. Their dog Louie is just as cute as he could be and the kids took him everywhere with them. He was spoiled rotten. He must have had a good time because when we went to visit him last week, Louie gave us all kisses galore and whimpered when we left.

All of us girls and Aunt Emily went pinecone hunting in the mountains just after the leaves turned colors. It was gorgeous, I must say. We usually collect acorns but I think we missed our opportunity this year because they were all gone to some squirell's winter lair by the time we got there. I made the wreath above. The ribbon was problematic as you can see.

The first weekend in December, we went up for the Hurst Reunion in Blanding. The girls stole the camera and took a lot of pictures of cousins and door handles (don't ask me). Here is cute Kaylee.

Miranda getting ready to load up on grub. We had ham, scalloped potatoes, cookie monster salad and desserts galore. Never let it be said that the Hursts do not know how to throw a party.

Visiting between card games and white elephant exchange. I love my family so much.

Before the lunch, we went to Blanding's Christmas craft fair. It was so much fun. While we were there, baby Chance had a tete-a-tete with Santa.

Bethy & Nauli being silly.

And here is a picture of Sam, Miranda and me taken in the mirror of Sam's new ipad. Awesome. Can you see my swollen cheeks. I just got a gum graft done last Monday. Never have this surgery done in December, people. Never!

Family Pictures!

2011-11-16T17:27:00.001-07:00

I talked Big Amber into taking our family pictures a couple of weeks ago. She was very nervous, but didn't she do a great job? I foresee a fabulous career in her future. :)

Two handsome boys. Wouldn't you know our kids would get old enough so that we don't have to work miracles to get the youngest to smile, but now Aaron is the hold out. Teenagers!

Chad in his last official pose with braces (we hope).

Sweet Miranda!

These girls love to pose.

Sisters and friends.

Bethany thought she got the raw end of the deal on this picture because she didn't get to be on anyone's back.

Spunky Little Amber!

Look at that smile.

Aaron looking not totally pained. I guess that's all we could hope for.

Bethany does love to be photographed.

We took this under an arch of trees by the Rio Grande. The colors were fabulous and this arch was custom made for picture taking.

Take a look at how the boys have gotten since our last photo to the side. I'm going to change that picture, but I wanted to leave it for a week or so for comparison's sake.

We had to take a picture in the tree!

By the river. Amber took one with us looking at the river from behind, but I will have to photoshop my derriere before I make that available for general viewing. :)

This is one of my favorites. Bethany insisted on taking a picture on this log which she calls the murder log because she scraped her knee really badly one time when we went hiking here and she tried to climb on it.

Mom and Dad.

I can't decide which of the next two pictures I like better. One of them will go out with Christmas cards. I am taking votes.

Almost the same, but Aaron is actually smiling.

Happy Fall everyone!

Halloween 2011!

2011-11-07T18:29:00.002-07:00

It's time to post Halloween pictures in a completely non-chronological order because apparently my camera has lost its mind and I'm too lazy to organize the pictures manually. Maybe the camera is haunted. Spooky!

So, another Day of ghosts and goblins has passed successfully at the Smith house. Pumpkin carving was a hit as always. Chad's pumpkin had a quite intricate carving of the Red Sox Emblem. If you are his Facebook friend, you can see a close-up picture of it. If you are not, you are one of only six people left in the country who Chad does not now count among his Facebook Friends. (Not to make you feel bad or anything.)

The lighting of the Jack-O-Lanterns, a time-honored tradition!

Aunt Strawberry Shortcake, the best aunt in the world taking pictures of her cosmetic handiwork.

Aunt Becca and baby Chance. Isn't he delicious?

What a scary little spider our Amber is.

On the way to the ward Halloween Carnival. Bethany's quite obviously mad about something that I can't now recall, but that pretty much goes with the territory.

Chance in costume #2. I guess when you're this cute, one just won't suffice.

Aunt Emily, Amber, Miranda and Collin getting ready for the big haul. Bethany was with her bestest friend Alia on this night as always and we didn't see her until trick-or-treating was complete.

Mom and the girls at the ward Halloween carnival. The boys were otherwise occupied with the fanciest and scariest spook alley in the history of La Cueva Ward. The young men worked on it for weeks and Chad & Aaron didn't get home until 10:30 that night taking it down and cleaning up.

And so we're on to Thanksgiving. We had a great October, complete with Halloween parties galore (including one at our house complete with 19 little girls and nineteen pillows that were supposed to be used for sitting but ended in being used in one big pillow fight) and all the ding-dong booing we could possibly want. Good times!

Court of Honor

2011-10-18T18:16:00.001-06:00

At last we had Chad's Eagle Court of Honor on Sunday an entire year after Chad completed his project. It's just as well that we waited so long, though, because now we got to share the evening with Chad's friends Steven, Jared & Ryan.

The cake. I thought it would be simple yet elegant. It turned out that it just bugged me the whole night because the top tier was slightly tilted. So, that's it. From now on, if I have to make a tiered cake for a wedding or anything else, I'm renting one of those awesome cake stands where you put each tier on a separate plate and it automatically keeps them straight. It will revolutionize my life for sure.

Jared, Ryan, Chad & Steven. As you can see, I am the only mom who is not domestic enough to sew merit badges onto a scout sash. I told Chad he was pretty lucky I sewed his little league patches on his game shirts back in the day.

Jared and Chad's display table. Chad's was slightly sparse because there are just so many things you can carry when you also have to bring a picnic dinner, two cake tiers, a book full of primary program songs and a backpack full of sacrament meeting entertainment to church. Luckily, Jared's dad put together a fabulous slide show that covered prettty much all of Chad's hobbies and hopefully embarrassed him as it was intended to do. :)

Sam and Chad reading over Chad's letters of recommendation. I didn't know I would get to read them. Awesome!

Chad giving Sam his eagle pin. Believe me, Sam deserves it. No dad ever worked harder to get his child to the eagle rank. Unfortunately he expended all of his energy and I think Aaron may be on his own. Ha! So there it is, one down and one to go. Thank goodness the rest of the kids are girls.

It is raining in my house!

2011-10-05T08:15:00.001-06:00

It seems that the monsoon season has finally arrived in New Mexico and look what joy it has brought to my bedroom ceiling. Whoever said that Spanish tile roofs were sure to last for 100 years is full of bolognie. We had to put a huge laundry bucket filled with towells under this particular spot and you could hear the melodic sound of drip, drip, drip all night long. I remember when I was a little girl and I used to sleep in my grandma's attic on rainy nights. The sound of that dripping was quite cozy. Not so much this dripping. It was more like Chinese water torture. So now we will be spending yet more money on home improvement. (We've already replaced the hot water heater and the swamp coolers this year.) Sometimes I wonder if home ownership is all that it is cracked up to be. Sure, we don't have a house payment, but we might as well with all the repair bills. How am I supposed to pay for lessons at Ultimate Dugout people? :) Anyhoo, does anyone know any great roofers who don't have a two week long appointment wait list? No? I didn't think so. I just can't help but think that if Sam and I were Charles and Caroline Ingalls, we could climb up on the roof, cover the leak with a seasoned bear hide and then shingle over the hide with wood squares we had cut from the trees down by Plum Creek. Those guys rock!

Snow Bunny

2011-10-04T07:42:00.000-06:00

Amber decided this was her year for snow boarding, so she helped herself to all of Chad's equipment. She is such a hoot! The other day Chad said, "Hi, Dude!" and she replied, "Hi, smokin' hot dude I wanna' be." She really likes her brothers. Good thing one of the sisters in this family does. :) Amber is a total tomboy. All of her best friends have been boys and when I ask her if she ever plays with girls at kindergarten, she tells me no because, "they only want to play dumb princess games". Should I be worried?

Homecoming

2011-09-25T09:27:00.004-06:00

Homecoming 2011 will be a night to remember (at least I assume it will be - Chad still isn't awake to report on the evening). Chad and 25 of his closest friends took the party bus to dinner, the dance and back to the Erikson's house for a late (or early) breakfast. Awesome!

Look at this handsome boy. Can you believe my baby is sixteen and old enough to attend a school dance? Now if only I could talk him into going to the stake dances with Aaron. Chad went solo because he figured there weren't any girls he liked well enough to spend an extra hundred dollars on. (He's not nearly the womanizer that his brother is :)). I decided that I would make him a buttoniere thinking it couldn't be all that hard. Sadly, the moment I pinned it on his vest, the rose snapped off its stem. I guess next time we'll leave it to the professionals.

There were just as many, or maybe more parents than kids at Cameron's house taking pictures. What a magnificent photo op. Below are Chad and his friend Darrin.

Cameron, Chad & Aubrey

The three amigos - Cameron, Chad & Zak

The LC baseball boys minus Alek and Darrin who had moved to the front yard by this time - Cam, Zak, Alex, Connor & Chad.

The whole group in front of the party bus. It looks like it might be harder to find dresses with sleeves for my girls when the time comes than I originally thought. I better start looking at dress patterns. :)

Amber sitting on the party bus. That thing was awesome. One of the girls' moms asked me when it pulled out if she should be worried that the back of the bus said "Lucky Boys". Hmm... Fortunately, the driver had driven the president and his posse around before, so he assured us that keeping these crazy kids in line would be a piece of cake. Amber was so sad when the bus pulled off. She wanted to follow it in our car and she kept sighing all evening and saying, "I miss Chad".

Bethany, Karson & Kate seeing their respective brothers off. Bethany was a little tired of all the picture taking by this time and just wanted to go to Cam's backyard and jump on the trampoline. The girls really enjoyed seeing all the kids dressed up though. It's hard to believe that it won't be too long until they are going to homecoming themselves. In fact, I can't believe they will be at middle school next year. I remember these girls running around Chad's and Connor's little league baseball games when they were just starting elementary school. The time sure does fly. Stay little, Amber!

Autumn Delights

2011-09-14T12:57:00.004-06:00

Things I love about Fall.

#1 - The annual Brown pool party to celebrate my dad's birthday. Now this is how you do the day before school starts right.

Aaron in mid-flip.

And Chad will cerainly not be outdone by a fourteen year old.

I'll tell you. The Browns have quite a set-up in their backyard. These new fangled salt water pools are the wave of the future. (No pun intended).

Shirlene and Marilyn. Two foxy ladies staying dry by the fireplace!

#2 - The balloons are starting to come out. Oh, what joy it is to get up in the morning and see something like this in the sky. Only two more weeks to fiesta time. Yahoo!

#3 - The beginning of the school year. Actually I have ambivalent feelings about this one, but for the most part it's good. The house stays clean for part of the day and I have a delightful uninterrupted nap after lunch. As long as I pretend there is no such thing as Snap Grades and ignore all emails from Aaron's science teacher, I do just great.

Chad's goals for this year - to get "yolked", to perfect his slider and to prove to Sam that he is responsible enough to have a driver's license.
My goals for Chad - that by the end of the year he will of his own free will and accord put down the cell phone and crack a book like maybe twice a week.

Bethany's goal for this year - to be a "Star Student" each week when progress reports are sent home by having absolutely no missing assignments and getting "3"'s on all the ones that aren't missing.
Miranda's goal for this year - to get better grades than any of her siblings, because she's pretty sure she's the smartest. :)
My goal for Bethany and Miranda - that by the end of the year, they willl give up their obsessions with mess making - oops, I mean craft making and pull out some brain teasers when they are bored instead.

Aaron's goal - to convince mom and dad that next year he is way too old and cool to participate in band or piano lessons. And to flirt with as many girls as possible in a nine month period without his family members suspecting anything.

My goal for Aaron - that by the end of the year, he can sit quietly in science class and that he will hang up his towel after taking a shower, like maybe twice a week.

Amber's goal - to learn to read her favorite Dora book and to score at least ten birthday party invitations.
Mom's goal for Amber - that by the end of the year I will have at least a week where I don't have to send in yet another set of clean clothes because Amber either had a bloody nose or was locked out of the bathroom by some very slow potty-going fellow kindergartner.

Look at this great kindergarten girl go! You might think that she is the newest member of the Smith family to enter school, but you'd be wrong - because (drum roll, please) this year I am taking a class in preparation to apply to nursing school in a year or two. I am having a blast. I just took my first test and it turns out that I actually listen to myself when I tell myself to study and consequently I have 101% in the class. So, apparently, I'm the student I always wanted to make my kids into. Who knew?

#3 - Fall Baseball - Do you know how much fun it is to have baseball games practically year round? It is amazing, people, absoolutely amazing. The weather is perfect, the company is divine. It just doesn't get any better than this.

Above are Bethany and Miranda at one of Chad's club ball tournaments in Rio Rancho. I could be wrong but I think it may not be as fun for them as it is for me since Bethany had to take pictures and Miranda had to take a nap. Whatever!

#4 - the Mountains - below are the kids on our favorite hike. My sister Emily and I take them every fall to collect acorns and pinecones for fall crafting. Deliciously festive!

#5 - Apples - I love them. I love the way they look. I love the way they taste. I love Dixon's Apple Farm. And I especially love decorating my kitchen with them. This is the only time of year when my kitchen is decorated appropriately for the season. Please note the new gold paint on my walls. What do you think?

Aunt Lizaboo's Funeral

2011-09-10T17:15:00.001-06:00

It was not great to return from Denver shortly to have to leave again for my third trip and second funeral in a period of three weeks. This time I took the girls because Bethany was convinced that Journey would need her moral support as well as a plate of caramel rice crispies. (As if this would make up for losing one of the greatest grandmas a ten year old girl ever had - Bethany having the other one). Journey was indeed glad to see her though. It is actually always great seeing everyone except that at funerals you become so keenly aware that there is someone very important missing. I remember thinking that at my dad's funeral too. "Wow, what a great party this would be - if only...". Oh well. I guess someday we'll have that perfect party and then hopefully no one will be missing. Speaking of which, my Uncle Dale bore his testimony the Sunday before the funeral and he told his daughters that he was really sad that their reunion had been interrupted. (At least they were all there with Aunt Liz when she died though. There was no other way she would have wanted to go) But that now, it was their job to get ready for their next reunion and that he didn't want any of them to not be there. Let me tell you, there was not a dry eye in the place. Uncle Dale does have a way with words.

Here is the floral arrangement we got for Aunt Liz. I had to specially order the ribbons but it was totally worth it.

We had to fiddle with ribbons until we got it just right.

My cousin Amy, my Aunt Cindy, My Aunt Sandra (who got to come because she was still in West Jordan with Stephanie's family) and my cousin Kathy. I love these guys to pieces. Stay healthy guys!

Mom, Becca, Cordell and Aubrey finishing a quite delightful dinner.

Amber on her way home from the funeral. There was some reason she posed in front of a Coke cooler but I honestly can't remember what it was. That is what you get when you go too long between photography and blogging.

Apparently Bethy got ahold of the camera during the trip home and decided to try out her budding talent. Not bad for a moving picture. This was on the Napi route between Ship Rock and Cuba. We finally figured it out Amber.

It's a good thing Bethany took the picture above and below because I no sooner got home than I lost the funeral program. I have been wanting to cry about it until I saw these on the memory card.

Sometimes, I wonder if it will ever be the same going to southern Utah without Liz being there. But I know she would want us to keep the family close, so we will give it our best shot.

Chad's first Out of Town Baseball Tournament

2011-09-10T16:42:00.003-06:00

So, the bad news is that I turned 40 about a week and a half ago and I am now settling into my dotage. I have bought myself a rocker and learned how to knit. Now I just have to add on a front porch to our house to complete the image. The good news is that for my birthday, I finally got a new computer. Yeehaw! And so now I will catch up with our summer pictures, one post at a time, starting with Chad's first out of town baseball tournament to Denver. (Funny, that was where his first out of town basketball tournament was too). For this trip, I took two of my favorite guys along for the ride. Aaron already got to go to SLC with me the week before so he had to stay home with Grandma. Below are the aforementioned men in a Mexican Restaurant in Trinidad. The picture in the middle is a brick in the cobblestone sidewalks. It's kind of a cool little town. (Alert! Lyssa has just informed me that Trinidad is actually a den of iniquity and that you should run and not walk if ever waylaid there. Who knew?)

And here are Wyatt and Chad getting ready to take on some team from Parker, Colorado. I think they won that one. They also won a couple of other games but they got killed about three times by the same team from San Antonio during the following two days. Those boys were for sure rustling cattle and eating a constant diet of steaks between baseball practices and I was not sorry to bid them adieu. The boys had a great time though and maybe now Chad will give me a short break from the talk of how I've ruined his life by never letting him play on a club team. He actually had another tournament last weekend and now legion ball has started again so the whining will no longer be tolerated.

Meanwhile, Sam and I had a grand old time. We went to dinner with my friend Lyssa before she left for Italy, visited the Molly Brown museum, went to dinner mystery theater and checked out the tourist section of Pueblo on our way home. Chad somehow talked us into leaving him in Denver with his friend, Darren, to finish up the tournament. Of course this meant that he somehow arrived home without his bed spread. Luckily I was replacing it anyway in the course of the grand boys' bedroom remodel (more to come on that later.) Awe! Good times!

The Jolly Mountain Spirit

2011-09-05T15:23:00.001-06:00

Well, it's birthday month at the Smith house and soon I will get my brand new computer with photo uploading capabilities (courtesy of my darling husband) and then you will know all that we have been doing since my last picture upload 50 years ago. In the mean time, here is what Aaron's awesome birthday present can do. He got an ipod touch and it is actually quite fancy. We went to the mountains for breakfast this morning and we found this little tree whose branch kept waving back and forth at us as if it were welcoming us to our familiar and much beloved hiking path. Aaron pulled out his handy dandy ipod and took a video. He called it the jolly mountain spirit. It just makes me feel happy.

Aargh!

2011-08-12T10:32:00.002-06:00

I'm finally getting around to recapping the fabulous time that was this summer's musical theater. Thanks Sarah and Sharee for another delightful experience. This year the kids put on "So You Want to be a Pirate!" and boy did they look cute. I was out of town for the performance and I am looking forward to getting the dvd so that we can watch it for FHE and I can at last see these talented kids in all their glory. In the mean time, here are pictures from their dress rehearsal. Thanks for taking them, big Amber! ( I have to keep calling her that because my blog friends are thinking that my little Amber is a child prodigy at photography and that's not true as far as we have yet been able to determine. :))

Ahoy Mateys!

Miranda and her fellow 8 (or soon to be 8) year old pirates. We have such a great group of girls that age in our ward and they get to do all kinds of fun things like this together.

Bethany concentrating on her dance moves.

And Miranda working on hers.

Tadah!

The whole pirate group posing on stage.

Miranda and Bethany got the most awesome lines. Bethany got to say, "Aye, Jack, they look good enough to eat!", and Miranda got to say, "Ya should have stayed home with your mother, matey. Ya ain't no buccaneer!" They were so cute practicing their lines every day. Good times!

River Rafting!

2011-08-11T10:13:00.001-06:00

My fabulous sister in law sent us pictures of our river rafting trip from their waterproof camera, so now I am posting about the great fun we had on the Colorado River. Too bad I'm such a sad sack that all I could think of when I got them was, "Oh, when these were taken, my Aunt Liz was alive and well and 45 minutes away." Crud!

Here is beautiful Aunt Betsy and Gwen. I used to think Betsy looked just like Kelly McGillis in "Top Gun". Now I think she is way prettier.

One of Bethany's most favoritist cousins ever, Grace. They are pen pals and make friendship bracelets for each other. I wish we got to see this great girl more often.

Taking a break from rowing. Eventually all of the kids got in the river during these breaks. It didn't last long though. The water was just too cold.

Rowing through the rapids. What fun!

Chad and Aaron loved these rapids. Chad kept telling everyone, "Dig, son, dig!" They want to try out some class 3 rapids next.

We survived. Yahoo! I highly recommend this very fun family activity.

Sweet Bethany!

2011-08-10T08:36:00.000-06:00

I woke up to find this cute book by the side of my bed. Being a mom is just great sometimes! Now if only we can get Bethy's spellling in hand. This is the fifth grade year after all. :)

Aunt Lizaboo

2011-08-02T17:37:00.008-06:00

Elizabeth, Melvin, Darlene, Virginia, Cynthia & Dwight Hurst.

Aunt Liz being sassy. She was always a hot chick and believe me when I tell you that she had a fan club from childhood on.

It seems that this summer could hardly get any worse, but sadly it has. So, here I am now to memorialize my fabulous Aunt Elizabeth who died yesterday of complications from diabetes. She was my dad's sister and best friend. He called her Eli and she called him Dwightus. He would do just about anything for her and I know why. She was full of fun and spunk and she was the glue that held our family together after my grandma died. She was in charge of all family reunions and get togethers. She made it to almost all baptisms, weddings, graduations, etc. She even went to my kids' games when she was in town. She made the best raisin filled cookies, dutch oven potatoes, divinity and homemade rootbeer in the world And whenever you came to visit, she would insist on treating you like royalty even when you would assure her that you did not actually need a five course meal. When my dad died, Aunt Liz made him a personalized floral arrangement complete with raisin filled cookies, a photograph of them together when they were younger, a letter written especially for him and an excellent Rook hand. It was absolutely perfect. We treasured that arrangement. Aunt Liz was the first person to head over to Stephanie's house after she died to comfort Aunt Sandra and give her support. She was the one who sent the flowers. For that matter, she was always the one to send the flowers on our family's behalf. She was the one whose house we stayed at on our way to Stephanie's funeral. My kids called her Aunt Lizaboo and loved her to death. They felt as comfortable at her house as they do at Grandma's. They even knew that they could talk her into making them macaroni and cheese even after she had slaved all day to prepare a huge Thanksgiving dinner for the entire family and they hadn't eaten enough to make them full. That was just Aunt Liz. She was the light of our family and I don't know how we are going to get along without her. At least I get some small comfort in knowing that she and big Dwight are back in business after three years. I suspect that was a glorious reunion. Let's just hope Grandma can keep those two reprobates under control.

You see what she will have to deal with. :)

Steph II

2011-07-30T21:30:00.002-06:00

Thanks Aaron for helping me upload this. You are the bomb.

Untitled from Amy Clark on Vimeo.

Stephanie

2011-07-25T20:13:00.002-06:00

Last Tuesday one of my favorite people in the world passed away. My cousin Stephanie was only 39 years old and she left behind a family of four young children. It has been pretty devastating. Above is a picture of me, my sisters and Stephanie when she spent a couple of weeks the summer after I graduated in Albuquerque. Every year, we would go and visit Stephanie and her family in rural Mississippi. We looked forward to this trip all year long. Oh the fun times we had. I can't believe that someone so fun and wonderful was taken from her family at such a young age. Sometimes life is just rough. Steph was one of my Aunt Sandra's beautiful daughters. I posted about their family here. :http://thesevensmiths.blogspot.com/2009/04/aunt-sandra-uncle-roy.html

Here is a program from Stephanie's funeral this last weekend in South Jordan, Utah. It was a wonderful meeting and pretty upbeat, all things considered. And of course it was great to see cousins and friends I hadn't seen in years, but wouldn't it be nice if we could all get together under different circumstances? Luckily, I was blessed to be able to see Steph last September when I went up for another cousin's wedding. It was so much fun to catch up and laugh about old memories. I tried to see her when we were in Utah the week before she died and never was able to catch her. I can't figure out whether I am happy or sad about that now. Either way it had gone, it would have broken my heart.

Above is Stephanie's beautiful family. Stephanie, her husband Rob, and her children Conner, Natalie, Carson and Landon. Stephanie's brother Wade spoke at the funeral about how at first he was so angry thinking how Steph wouldn't be able to watch her kids grow up and then he realized that that wasn't the reason he was angry. He said that he knew Stephanie would still be able to watch her kids grow up. He was angry that he wouldn't be able to watch her watch them growing up. I guess that's maybe the way I feel too. It's a good thing we know that families are forever and that someday we will see the whole plan and hopefully it will all make sense. In the meantime, here is what I wrote on Stephanie's facebook page.--

Oh, how I love Stephanie. I didn't write my favorite memories down at the funeral because I thought there were just too many to choose from. But here are some of the best - cruising up and down the Brookhaven streets and eating Dairy Queen blizzards, watching Karate Kid and Ferris Bueller, singing "The Glory of Love", picking wild blackberries, swimming, shopping at Fashion Gal, going to Putt-Putt (I went back there a week and a half ago and laughed out loud thinking of the time we went there and Renea told me to hit the ball mamma-jamma hard, after which I hit it so hard that it left the putting green and hit someone on one of the other courses), and of course getting coke slurpies at every 7-11 we ever came across. Until we meet again, I will be missing you most fabulous cousin ever.

At last I post!

2011-07-17T22:28:00.002-06:00

Well it's time to make the longest post ever because I still do not have a computer to upload pictures with. I am totally lame. So, get ready for what should have been several posts. And make sure to hang on to the end when you will see the glorious new triple decker bunk bed. Now don't get too excited. I know it's hard.

Here is our energetic little five year old on her big birthday. Boy is she a big party in a small package. I've got to start posting some of her more quote worthy conversational gems. She is something else.

I'm pretty sure Chad's friends did this while I was still awake. Am I truly that unobservant?

Bethany, Miranda, Grace, Gabe, Gwen and Amber in Moab. Cousin time. What fun! We went river rafting and it was great fun. Amber stood up during one of the rapids and screamed, "This is sick!" Wish we had a picture of that.

Amber is an expert at collecting salt water taffy and tootsie rolls during the Blanding 4th of July parade. Here she is stuffing her pockets.

This is the grave of someone my dad knew quite well. Sadly Willard Harold went by "Dick". You can imagine how his school years went.

While Aaron and Chad enjoyed Lagoon with their friend Tanner, Dad, Mom and the girls did some sight seeing. Here we are at the "This is the Place" monument. We were hoping to come back and actually go into the park but it is a little bit pricey so we changed our minds. Apparently, it's a blast so maybe we'll go when we're feeling rich.

How would you like to have Sacrament Meeting in a chapel this fancy? Somebody spend some serious time on the Joseph Smith Memorial Building.

The fountains. Always the best part of temple square.

Daddy and the girls at the top of Wilson Arch. Miranda was still climbing and she was somewhat hysterical by the time she reached the top. She's a little bit chicken like her mother.

Aaron, however, could use a little more healthy sense of fear. We spent the night before the Fourth at the Monticello hospital because we thought Aaron had broken his wrist in a pretty scary four wheeling accident. And he thinks he wants a dirt bike. Sure!

Miranda and Bethany before the hike down.

Back home it was finally time for Amber's long awaited swimming lessons. You can't tell she's having a good time, can you?

Here is the girls' remodeled bedroom. I painted the walls lavendar and it looks really good. You may recall how much I do not like painting, but the results are almost worth it. Now we just have to finish the boys' Fenway Park walls. Here are Sam and Aaron putting together the most monstrous bunk bed I have ever seen.

Miranda at her first swim meet. During her 50 freestyle, she took off before the race (thinking it was a relay), swam all across the pool and had to come back and start over. Then she didn't know it was a 50, so she got out of the pool instead of turning around. She still got back in and finished up the race though. She is a total trooper.

Look at her go.

And here it is, the moment you have all been waiting for. Check out this bed. Bethany bonked her head about three times getting out of bed but they sure have a lot more space in their bedroom. Awesome!

High Adventure!

2011-06-21T09:50:00.001-06:00

Last week was the greatly anticipated (well sort of anticipated) high adventure biking trip for Sam and Chad. Chad actually was really mad about missing a week of legion ball. I think he is not entirely confident that his team can go on without him; but he survived and so did they. :) So anyhoo, these boys were definitely high (in the mountains that is-get your minds out of the gutter) and it was definitely an adventure so we consider the trip a success.

Warriors ready to head out. They biked for several weekends in preparation for the trip. Chad missed a few of those trips and made them up cycling at the gym. It is kind of fun to have a gym buddy.

A big thanks to Ty for getting these great pictures. I see a great future ahead of him in the field of photography.

Chad cycled his little legs off and still gained five pounds on the trip. That says a lot about Brother Schoof's gourmet cooking. :)

We are lucky that the boys didn't encounter any forest fires in the mountains. Fires are breaking out everywhere and having a sky full of smoke has become commonplace in the Albuquerque metro area most evenings. Aaron tried to get a picture of the sun during a particularly smoky sunset but he wasn't able to quite capture the eery brilliant red color. That Wallow fire is something else!

Here is what they did encounter though. This crazy bear kept coming into the boys' camp site even after the boys yelled and drove him off several times. He even took one of the boys' back pack. The forest ranger had to come and "relocate" him. Unfortunately, this particular bear had been relocated twice before so we have the feeling he might have met a much more sinister fate. Yikes!

Catch Up!

2011-06-07T13:35:00.001-06:00

The exhausting month of May is over at last and while I still don't have a computer, I was able to upload some pictures to document the whole, glorious affair. So, here are the highlights of how the Smiths spent the last month of the interminably long 10-11 school year.

Miranda joined Runner's Club this spring and became quite a sprinter. Here she is at the 2010 DCES jogathon. She didn't even break a sweat.

We have an eight year old. Roller King wouldn't let us bring any outside food in so we had to make Miranda's roller skate cake at her family birthday party.

And so here is the much inferior cake at Miranda's friend birthday party. :)

And the whole crew enjoying pizza between skating rounds. The girls did quite well and most of them even said they would go again. Score!

Amber likes to wear the skates but she spent most of her time in the game section.

Look at all these cute skaters. Miranda just loves her darling friends.

Piano recital 2011. Miranda was the only one in the group picture because...

Poor Bethany had strep and barely got through the program with the help of a lot of Motrin. Here she is after her song.

And of course you all know that Aaron is too cool to take a group recital picture. All three kids did great though. If only I hadn't been too lazy to video their performances this year.

Here I am with some friends taking Lorie Jones out to lunch the day before her family moved back to Utah. Boy, will we miss the Jones's. Chad will especially miss Tanner. We're still thinking about visiting SLC at the end of this month if we can get legion baseball and basketball done by then.

Seventh Grade Honors Assembly. Desert Ridge has a lot of honor students and the gym is a sweltering nightmare with the amount of people there. Still, I was so happy that Aaron made the honor roll that I told him I would have gone out of state to attend this assembly.

Aaron was thrilled to be here as you can see. He got a little bit more excited when we went to Cold Stone after the ceremony however.

The cake for Bethany's end of season softball party. We had a great time this season. We met lots of new friends and Bethany even hit a home run. Rock on!

Miranda and her great friend Sharlotte at her baptism. I can't believe these girls are old enough to be baptized. I remember when I taught them preschool back in the day.

Daddy and Miranda. What a handsome couple!

Miranda after the baptism. Doesn't she look like an angel?

This dress took the better part of several months to crochet, but it was totally worth it.

Amber's end of the year preschool party. I can't believe all of my children will officially be in school next year. Boy does the time fly!

Amber will miss you Miss Melissa and Miss Sandy!

And finally, the last day of high school. This picture demonstrates how we felt to be done with finals. Papers all over the floor, Chad with his head stuck in a locker. I have never been so happy to have a school year over in my life. Chad studied his cute little tushy off for his finals and I am happy to repor that he totally rocked them and at last has his beloved cell phone back for the summer. Now if he can just keep the momentum going in the fall. And so, we wish you goodbye school year 2010-2011. You were sometimes gloriously fun, often horribly frustrating and always just a little bit stressful for the mama. We will miss you, but not for a few weeks. :)

The Look of Sheer Concentration!

2011-05-19T09:08:00.001-06:00

Chad has always gotten so lucky when the time for taking action photos rolls around. For some reason, he's always pitching on picture day or just getting more playing time than usual for whatever reason. This year, he got more action photos than anyone else in the basketball program - even more than Bryce and Kory Alford. And if you know New Mexico basketball, you know that no one gets more playing time than UNM Lobo Coach Steve Alford's sons. They are absolute beasts on the court. But when it comes to photo ops, no one beats the Chadmeister. I think Chad got 67 basketball pictures and 63 baseball pictures. A lot of them were just awesome, but the ones that are the most fun are the ones that show his concentration face. These eight were so funny. Chad asked me if he really looks this dumb when he's playing and I assured him it's only weird looking if you catch the individual moments. Still, I don't think any of these pictures are going in his Facebook albums. :)

I don't even know what is going on here. It's just a warm-up throw for goodness sakes.

Now he's getting serious - so serious that he's sucked in his entire lower lip and it looks like his lower arm is attached to his elbow at a very unnatural angle.

Chad rarely hits without sticking his tongue out. One of these days he's going to bite it off!

There are those strange unnatural looking arms again. Maybe it's just because they are so long and skinny.

Now that is a stink face.

I don't think he even opened his eyes before he took this shot. I'm dying to know if it went in.

The crazy three point shooting face!

And the twisted, creepy lips. Can you see how intimidated his defender is by those lips?

La Cueva Beasts, I mean, Bears!

2011-05-15T09:53:00.005-06:00

I have not posted in forever because my computer is broken and Sam's computer does not have a way to upload pictures from my camera. So, eventually, I will post pictures of all the goings on of May, which are many, and maybe even a picture of my new gorgeous 8 year old. But for now, here are pictures I've stolen from Facebook of the most awesome baseball season ever!

Here is La Cueva C Team after winning their final game of the season. They were 12-1 and tied with Eldorado for first place in Albuquerque. Sadly, C team doesn't have play-offs so we couldn't settle that dispute once and for all and will have to be happy with a shared title. Darn Eagles! Oh well. Chad is #15. He had a great season, finishing with a 2.1 pitching ERA (at least according to my calculations). I will probably get some more statistics at the baseball banquet on Tuesday night so no doubt I'll post them because I'm just that weird. :)

And here is La Cueva JV after their final game. They were 19-1 and won the play-offs making them #1 in Albuquerque. Go boys! That's Chad, back row, 6th hat from right. He got moved up to JV for the district championships where he got to sit the bench, pinch run and collect fly balls for about two weeks. Awesome!

And here is varsity last night after the state championship game at Isotopes Park. They won 11 to 10 in a nail biter against Volcano Vista. They rock. Obviously Chad is not in this one. Maybe in a couple of years if his arm doesn't give out on him. :) Man, I love baseball!

Rebecca & Robert

2011-04-29T11:15:00.000-06:00

Amber took fabulous pictures of my sister and her fiance for her wedding announcement. This is one of them that I love. Amber rocks!

2011-04-29T11:12:00.002-06:00

Here Comes Peter Conttontail!

2011-04-20T09:47:00.000-06:00

Well, here we are at the 3rd/4th/5th (?) annual egg hunt. I can never remember how long we have been doing this. Amber has been asking me every day for two weeks, "Is today the day of the Easter Egg hunt?" And finally, yesterday, the answer was, "Yes!"

Bethany was feeling mildly sick to her stomach yesterday morning but was back to good health by 11:00 and decided she should take the full day off of school and help out at the party. (I'm a firm believer that everyone needs a day off sometimes!)

Amber with her first prize egg!

Bethany is a great helper. She made sure Amber got twelve and only twelve eggs and then helped her sort out the goodies, and...

then she was on picture duty so that now we have a picture of Mommy & Amber. All in all another successful hunt. Thanks big Amber! It was a blast.

Cutest little jocks in the world!

2011-04-10T09:53:00.001-06:00

This is what happens to Amber when the boys are alone and in charge of watching her. She all of a sudden becomes an Oakland Athletic. Is she cute or what?

Here is Miranda about to throw back to the pitcher. She is a beast. Now, if only she can learn to hit the ball.

Has there ever been a cuter catcher? Here's my latest favorite softball chant. "Down in the softball cemetary. That's where your team is gonna be buried. Six feet wide and seven feet under. Cuz when we hit, we hit like thunder!" Those softball girls can be kind of mean.

Bethany's 10!

2011-03-28T09:10:00.001-06:00

Bethany celebrated her birthday by playing in her first softball game. Is she cute or what? We were a little worried when she first started practicing that she would never be able to catch a ball or make a throw from one base to the next, but she gets better all the time. She didn't get any hits this time around, but she sure did swing! I hope she will eventually score a run so she can do the coming home chant. It goes like this. "Bethany, how do you feel?" "I feel special. I feel great. I just stepped on home plate." "And you let her have it, and that's a bad habit. Neener, neener, neener. Oscar Meyer Weiner." I asked Chad & Connor if they would sing that song at their big La Cueva/Eldorado game today but they both declined. :)

And later that day, it was time for the Ramona and Beezus birthday party which of course had to start with trampoline jumping.

Here is the official birthday table just before the girls came in.

I don't know how I got these two pictures so blurry. I think it might be time for a photography class. Call me Amber. Anyhoo, here are the guests making their pre-movie suncatcher craft. What a bunch of darling girls.

And here is the grand finale. The movie was a tad longer than I remembered (not to mention that there were technical difficulties getting it started in the first place) so we ran about a half an hour over and a lot of parents got to see candle blowing ceremony. Sorry parents! Bethany got a great haul and I think a good time was had by all. One decade down. Several more to go, hopefully!

Spring Break!

2011-03-18T17:24:00.000-06:00

This week was the time for our semi-traditional road trip to southeastern Utah with my sister Emily and the two most obnoxious boys this side of the Rio Grande. Last year we were dying to try out this roadside diner between Farmington and Ship Rock. We thought it looked very "divey". It turns out it was actually all that "divey" at all. The hostess was nice enough to take our picture in front of the marquis.

We decorated Poppy's grave on the third anniversary of his death :(. The boys were being somewhat irreverent with their poses, but seeing that Poppy was fairly irreverent himself, we think he would approve.

After we took pictures, we headed up to Monticello, where Aunt Elizaboo spoiled us with her hospitality as always. It's always fun to see Uncle Dan, Aunt Sheila, Brandi and the kids too. Journey kicked our trash at Gin Rummy, but what else is new?

Here are the boys on our way out of town. This bell stands in front of the first church built in Blanding. It was actually the tabernacle for the whole southeast corner of Utah for a long time. It is where both my dad and I were baptized.

And here we are at Bluff Fort. We were there a couple of years ago but they have been working hard on the site since then. They now have a visitor's center, several replicated cabins, tee-pees, hogans, etc. Our tour guide (and my dad's best friend growing up) said they had gotten over a thousand visitors this last year. Apparently people from Europe are all into touring the old west.

The inside of a hogan. It is actually quite awesome.

Steve Bronson (aforemetioned friend and tour guide extraordinaire) and Emily posing in the "Butt" cabin. The Butt family recently changed their name to "Blake" but we had to keep the original name on the cabin for historical purposes. Apparently when the cabin was finished, the family all took a picture with their rear ends pointed at the camera. That picture does not appear in the cabin, however. :)

Emily teaching the boys a lesson at the old Relief Society Building.

The Goosenecks, where my dad used to take his old girlfriends to "talk" - yeah, right!

Aw Spring!

2011-03-08T09:23:00.004-07:00

Well, it's almost spring in New Mexico and the joys of the season have definitely begun. Above is a picture to document our post baseball game trip to Walgreens. Our main purpose for this shopping expedition was, of course, to stock up on icy hot cream and heat wraps for Chad's pitching shoulder which has never completely recovered from the injury he got two years ago. We're hoping this current shoulder pain is just a temporary, getting back into the swing of things kind of pain, but who knows? Chad threw some pretty nasty pitches Thursday, but you have to wonder if it's all worth it.

Another way you know it's spring is the condition of the person behind the camera. If you could see me, you would know that my hair looked like Medusa's after ten miles of bad road because I forgot to tie it back and the wind was whipping it around somethin' fierce, my mascara was running because allergy season has officially arrived and I had grit and dirt stuck to my teeth, face and scalp. Delightful. Incidentally, since I'm feeling so positive right now ( :) ), I'd like to call your attention to Amber picking out a drink in the background of the picture. I'm sorry to report that she puked up that very drink less than six hours from the time this picture was taken. Bummer!

On a less negative note, look at these awesome outfits I got for the girls at the WalMart spring sales. $7 apiece, Baby! Score!

Sam's Over the Hill!

2011-02-28T09:05:00.000-07:00

Happy 40th to my fabulous husband. It seems like just yesterday that my dad turned 40 and my mom had to throw him a huge surprise birthday party to soften the blow to his ego. And here we are. Now just one question - wouldn't you think my fairly intelligent daughters would know how to properly spell "Daddy"? Things that make you go hmm!

Bethany's First Band Concert

2011-02-18T12:03:00.001-07:00

Bethany played her trumpet in public for the first time last night. She played a solo of "Go Tell Aunt Rhodie" and she was so nervous, but she did great. Aaron recorded the event for posterity and you can hear but not so much see our little trumpet maestro. So, below is a picture of Bethany setting up before the concert. I tried to get a picture afterwards but Bethany was off with her friends as soon as the applause ended. We are pretty proud of you Bethyboo!

Crazy Stunts and Wicked Curve Balls

2011-02-14T08:55:00.001-07:00

We are so sad that our cousin Collin is moving away to Utah tomorrow. The girls will miss him dreadfully. We decided to give Collin a huge send-off before he left and what better send-off than an evening at the circus followed by ice cream at McDonalds. I hadn't been to the circus since I was probably nine years old, so I'd forgotten (or more likely never realized) how nerve-wracking it could be. I'm just getting too old too watch some of those death-defying stunts. The tight-rope walkers gave me a panic attack, I had to cover my eyes during the flying trapeze and I was about to offer the chair stacking gymnast $100 not to add another chair to the wobbly tower on which he was performing hand stands. These people are crazy! I told Miranda at one point that I just couldn't watch anymore and she told me, "What are you worried about mom? If that guy falls, it's his problem - not yours." Sure - until I'm in therapy after seeing his mangled limbs sprawled out all over the colliseum floor.

Chad finally had time to squeeze in a pitching lesson one week before baseball tryouts. It was the first and last lesson he will have this year with Scott who is heading off to spring training this week for the Toronto Blue Jays. Consequently, we thought we'd better get a picture after the lesson. Scott hadn't seen Chad since last year before he left, so he was pretty surprised at how tall he had gotten. As a matter of fact, you can tell that Scott told Chad he'd pose for a picture only if Chad crouched down jus a litle bit. Funny!

Brrr!

2011-02-08T08:57:00.003-07:00

Last week was one of the coldest weeks I have ever experienced in New Mexico. School was cancelled for the entire week except Monday. First it was because of snow and ice on the roads, then it was because it was too cold to start the busses, then it was because we had a gas shortage due to increased usage that came along with the freezing temperatures. These crazy boys (the one in the black coat is Chad's good friend, Tanner) decided that having days off from school and basketball practice was a perfect opportunity to go skiing/snow boarding at Sandia. By the time I picked them up at the bottom of the tram after four hours in the snow, they were like two ice cubes. Chad said that the temperature at the top of the mountain was 24 degrees below zero with the wind chill factor and that they had had to go into the lodge regularly just so that they could regain feeling in their fingers. Yikes! Now, just when it's starting to warm up again and everybody is getting gas and water back (a lot of pipes cracked including those at our church - causing the biggest water mess you have ever seen and a closure of San Victorio Chapel for probably a few months), we're expecting another snow storm this afternoon. What ever happened to global warming?

Hummingbird 2011!

2011-01-31T09:33:00.002-07:00

It was Hummingbird weekend again for the Smith family. This year it was just Aaron and that works out great because we officially had a legitimate excuse to take pictures of him. Aaron does not like to pose for his mother's camera these days so he's rarely on the blog. You all probably wondered if he'd moved out. (Actually sometimes I wonder that myself. Every afternoon, I can count on getting a phone call saying that he is with his friends at Taylor's house and he'll be home later.) Aaron claims band camp was lame and that he had a horrible time, but I will just say that last night he updated his Facebook status from "single" to "in a relationship" - so you be the judge.

This was Sam's fourth year at Hummingbird and he is now a pro. Technically, he could be a chaperone for the next ten years if all of our kids choose to play in the band. Oh who am I kidding? They don't actually have a choice. :)

Chad looking out at Soda Springs. We have a tradition of visiting Soda Dam on the way home from the Jemez each year. Chad was glad to make the trip up to Hummingbird but says he was grateful not to have to stay for the whole weekend for the first time in three years. His big band trip this year is to Anaheim. Things sure do change going from DRMS to LCHS.

Exploring the caves Of Soda Dam.

Two tired camping warriors.

Checking out the falls!

Aaron crossing the springs. The girls were furious that we wouldn't let them do it. Sadly, they are not quite as agile as Big Aaron and we knew such a feat would inevitably end in tears and wet clothing.

Addicted!

2011-01-27T09:21:00.002-07:00

It's been a long time since I added a post and now you know why. I bought Sam the above puzzle for Christmas, but it was me and the girls who became addicted to putting it together. It was 1000 pieces and took us two weeks to finish but what a lot of great entertainment for $10. The girls were really mad when I took it apart instead of gluing and preserving it (does anyone know how to do that, by the way?), but it was taking up half of the dining room table so it had to be done.

To appease them, we got this puzzle and spent the last week putting it together. It was a little bit easier because of the more dramatic design and color contrasts, but still a ton fun. The girls, Sam & I stayed up way past our bedtime trying to finish this last night but eventually had to call it quits. I promised the girls I wouldn't finish it before they got home from school today so I'm going to have to remove a few pieces before 3:30. Shhh! Don't tell!

For Jeanne F

2011-01-12T11:28:00.002-07:00

Here are pictures of the Hurst family from last Christmas. It's lucky I like you Jeanne. It's not just anyone that I will post make-up free pictures of myself for. :)

Back to Business

2011-01-11T09:12:00.000-07:00

I have to admit that I was not looking forward to the end of Christmas break. Two glorious weeks during which I didn't have to worry about a single homework assignment or test and my only stresses were deciding what movies to watch every night and what goodies would best complement each movie (ah, good times!). But it is kind of fun to be back on a schedule. We took this fall off from all sports. Nobody did soccer or baseball. Our Saturdays were pretty much completely free. Sam loved it. Me - not so much. So, hallelujah, basketball season is in full swing and our weekends are once again full of delicious sporty drama.

And, not only that, but we had the added bonus of getting a visit from my Uncle Len and cousin Evan this Friday night. What fun. Above is Amber snuggling with Grandma Great.

Evan is going to be a famous movie director in a few years and he has promised me that I will be his first date to the Oscars. My mom's cousin is Marg Helgenberger from CSI and she has yet to invite me to the Emmy's. Whatever!

Uncle Len looking quite fit and trim. He had a couple of tumors in his kidney this fall and had us all quite worried. Now, though, he has been given a clean bill of health. Right on!

The hornets at their first game.

Miranda did a great job and even scored a basket. I thought she'd be a little bit timid based on her past soccer experience, but she got right in there. Miranda thought it was pretty funny that she had to guard her good friend Brynn from the other team, but they were both total professionals.

Here's the post game pep talk for the Yellow Jackets. As you can see, Bethany worked hard. :)

Bethany actually had a great time. I don't know why she looks so grumpy. Maybe I should have waited to take a picture until after the cupcakes were handed out.

We had the C-Team dinner here this weekend. You would not believe how much pizza twelve 15 year old boys can consume, or how loud they can be on a trampoline. Chad would barely speak to me Saturday night because I got the wrong kind of pizza (teenagers!) but he admitted to me at church on Sunday that the party actually went better than he had anticipated. So, score one for mom!

Chad has a Web Page!

2011-01-05T20:41:00.003-07:00

How fun. Chad is on the internet. Here is their team picture. And, if you click on the Title above, it will direct you to his individual picture. Go #44.

Amber Quote of the Day

2011-01-03T17:00:00.002-07:00

"Mommy and me are getting married. We've got in love." - Aunt Rebecca asked if she could marry us too but Amber said she couldn't afford that many rings.

Fun in the Snow!

2011-01-01T19:35:00.001-07:00

We decided to brave the cold on one of our last official days of Christmas Break. It was about 70 degrees below zero, but we stuck it out for an entire hour before heading off the mountain for hamburgers.

Miranda froze her heiny off the entire time we were there but she was a cute little snow bunny.

Our cousin Collin came with us and he is quite a dare devil. Aaron was really cranky with him for always being on "his" sledding trail though.

Bethany could get that sled rocking. I think she went farther than anyone else.

Chad had to try out his new snowboard. This was his first official biff.

Aaron going down "his" slope.

Miranda thinking about that nice warm car.

Christmas!

2010-12-25T10:37:00.000-07:00

Santa's Little Elves!

Lighting the Luminarias.

Feliz Navidad!

Papa Felipe's. Yum!

Away in a sort of exotic manger.

Oh, my gosh! Aaron got Air Hockey!

Chad is ready to hit the slopes.

It's finally time for Amber to open presents (after asking every 5 minutes for the last two days).

Nutcracker!

2010-12-24T09:58:00.000-07:00

After taking Bethany and Miranda to see "The Secret Garden" last December, we decided that taking the girls to a show each Christmas should be a new holiday tradition. So, here we are at "Nutcracker". The theatre was just lovely but I think it was built in a time when people were much shorter. I couldn't even sit straight without bruising my knees on the seat in front of me. Maybe next year we'll go to Pope Joy Hall. The girls had a great time though and they even had an accidental encounter with their friend Jocelyn who was sitting just across the stairs from us. Good times!

Amber Quote of the Day

2010-12-21T11:02:00.000-07:00

Amber - "Daddy, I think you're Santa Clause."
Sam - "No, I'm definitely not Santa Clause."
Amber-"Okay, Daddy. I guess you're actually Mrs. Clause."
Sam-"Now there you might be right."

Last Day of School before Christmas Break!

2010-12-17T09:55:00.001-07:00

T'was the day before Winter Break and All through the house, not a creature was frowning except for Aaron who had to perform in a band assembly, Chad who had a geometry final, and Amber, who thought she has frostbite. (At least Amber let me take a picture.) The above picture is actually from a couple of days ago when Amber and I dropped Chad off late at La Cueva. There is a teddy bear tree in the front office and Amber fit right in.

We got a couple of inches of snow last night and that is almost always enough to put APS schools on a two hour delay. So, here is Bethany building a fort during her unexpected leisure time.

Building a fort was fun for a while, but Amber's hands just got too cold!

Miranda wasn't thrilled about the delay. She made presents for her nearest and dearest friends and she is ready to deliver them.

Here is a sampling of our teacher / friends gifts. The bear, snowman, and reindeer in the back are jars filled with cookie mix. Are they the cutest things ever or what? This year, we made ten different cookies and candies for our goody plates. Yum!

The Trouble with "Smith"

2010-12-07T09:06:00.001-07:00

I knew when I got married that my life would change in many ways, but what I didn't consider were the mistaken identity problems that would follow me for the rest of my life thanks to my now very common name. When we lived in Washington, there was a woman with my same name and birthdate and it confused the voter registration people to no end. Every other election, I would have to talk to the people in charge who would tell me that I had already voted or that my materials were sent to a different address or voting location per "my" request. I would get that straightened out and I assume the other Julie Smith would have the same problems during the next election. You'd think they could use our social security numbers, but apparently that would be too easy. I'm not sure if it was the same Julie Smith, but someone was always racking up library fines for me and tarnishing my credit report. It was a mess. Since we moved here, I've had much less trouble. But now, we have the issues of double (or maybe more, who knows?) Aaron & Bethany Smiths in the school system. A few weeks ago, I arrived home and answered a call from Desert Ridge asking me to please disregard the SBA testing results that they sent home with Aaron that day at school and to send them back to the counselling office. I was confused because Aaron had gotten his test results several weeks before and he hadn't given me any new ones. So, I asked him about it and sure enough, he pulled out test results for an Aaron Smith from another middle school. I was feeling kind of smug because my Aaron's test results were much better than the other Aaron's test results. I happily sent them back and didn't think any more of it. Move forward in time to a couple of weeks ago at parent-teacher conferences, when I asked Bethany's teacher why I hadn't gotten her SBA test results yet. She was surprised and said she had sent them home a long time ago. I told her we hadn't gotten them and she said she'd make a copy and send them home again. So, last week, Bethany brought home her SBA results. When I saw them, I almost screamed with joy. She did so great - better than Chad or Aaron. I smiled nonstop for an hour, again smugly thinking about my fabulously brilliant children. Everything was great, until Miranda came up and asked me, "Mom, is Bethany's middle initial 'M'?" Umm...no. Tragically, these test results belonged to a different Bethany Smith who goes to another elementary school (probably the other Aaron Smith's sister :)). Bummer. So, it turns out that kharma is indeed a naughty word that I can't say, but that you can probably guess. We still don't know how our Bethany's SBA test results came out, but I'm guessing not as well. It's not that she isn't bright. She is. It's just that she has a theory about reading comprehension and it is that if a story is not interesting enough to read carefully the first time, it's certainly not interesting enough to go back and peruse after you're done in order to find answers to useless questions about its contents. As for me, I'm wondering if it's too late to start using my maiden name again.

Turkey Week!

2010-11-29T13:16:00.001-07:00

Thanksgiving Dinner #1. We were lucky to be able to go to Monticello for an extended family dinner the weekend before Thanksgiving. Aunt Elizabeth made a fabulous meal, as always, and the kids enjoyed a day of uninterrupted cousin time. The girls look forward to this dinner every year. They have second cousins coming out of their ears and they always write and perform a musical play together for the adults after we eat.

Journey and Bethany are best buds. We got to see Journey's basketball game before the party. She is a beast. I think she made 20 out of 32 points for the game. Later that night, they had a sleepover and I could hardly get Bethany to get in the car to come home the next day.

Here are the girls with all nine pies right before driving to Grandma's for Thanksgving dinner #2. The girls each got to choose a pie that they wanted to make with me. Bethany chose chocolate mint cream. Amber chose peach. And Miranda chose lemon meringue. They were all sinfully good.

And here is the dessert table at Grandma's. Oh yes! We take our Thanksgiving desserts quite seriously.

Chad at his third Thanksgiving meal (actually a basketball dinner). The La Cueva Freshmen have team "bonding" dinners almost every weekend until the end of the season. Let's hope they get very "bonded" and that the familiarity will translate into great teamwork on the court. :) We all were pretty excited that Chad made the team. All of us, that is, except for the girls who are mad that Chad doesn't get to go to preseason baseball training anymore (some weird NM high school sports rule - whatever!) when they had been having a great time hanging out with the Calvert twins when we went to watch. Oh well! Basketball season is only 3 1/2 months, ladies. Hang tight!

Chad's New Suit

2010-11-21T22:16:00.000-07:00

Boy, I hope this doesn't have to be dry-cleaned.

This is what happens when your kids get bored on Sunday afternoon part 2!

2010-11-21T22:08:00.000-07:00

Oh Boy!

This is what happens when your kids get bored on Sunday afternoon!

2010-11-14T17:22:00.000-07:00

The first words I uttered once I regained the power of speech were, "That had better not be in Sharpie!" It's not.

All Spooked Out!

2010-11-02T16:31:00.007-06:00

Everybody knows I love Halloween. I love ding-dong ditching treats and being ding-dong ditched. I love making marshmallow eyeballs, mummy dogs and graveyard cakes. I love the costumes, the parades and the carnivals. I love trick-or-treating. And Goodness knows I love the candy! But, I have to say that I am pooped, People. We celebrated all weekend long. We had school parties on Friday and we had trunk-or-treats/carnivals on Friday and Saturday night. And that doesn't even take into account the actual trick-or-treating. And now I am ready to put away the candy, throw away the jack-o-lanterns and take down the spider webs until next year. I think I'd like to sleep until it's time to make Thanksgiving pies. Above is Miranda at her class party with the coolest cupcakes ever.

Here are Morticia Adams, the big bad wolf, the vampiress and Colin the dragon trick-or-treating at Great Grandma Woods's house. We colored Miranda's and Bethany's hair black for one night but quickly decided it wasn't worth the mess.

Three of the cutest Halloween goblins in town ready to head to party #3 on Saturday night. Aunt Emily did their makeup and they were quite dazzling. Sadly, I have no pictures of the party poopers, I mean boys, in their costumes, because of course they refused to wear any.

And now that the week of fright is at last over, it's time to move onto a week that is truly scary, haunted by election results and La Cueva Basketball tryouts. Spooky!

Amber & Chadisms

2010-10-25T09:11:00.003-06:00

Amber - Saturday afternoon we were talking about the upcoming election because I was planning on early voting between a Costco run and a party we were attending in the evening. One of the congressional candidates is named Jon Barela and we've talked about him quite a bit because Chad is friends with his son JD. As I was finishing up the graveyard cakes below, Amber was running around with nothing on but a trash bag cape and underwear saying, "Mom, you can't vote for Jon Barela because he doesn't believe I'm a super-hero. (Come to think of it, I probably should have gotten a picture of Amber in the cape. :))

Chad - This morning, Chad came downstairs and asked, "Mom, have you seen my other shoe? I can't find it and I've looked everywhere. Who could have taken it?" I asked him, "Did you throw it at one of your siblings?" He looked apalled and replied, "Of course not. Oh, wait...!" Then he ran upstairs only to return a moment later with the missing shoe. "Mom, you are a genius!" Oh boy!

Jack-O-Lanterns!

2010-10-20T09:05:00.000-06:00

It's that time again - when spooky ghosts and goblins roam the streets and creepy looking pumpkins line the walkway to our front door. The kids wanted to make their jack-o-lanterns this week even though they will be totally gross and moldy by Halloween.

Bethany carved her very own pumpkin this year without any help. Can you tell that it is a Halloween Cat? I think it's cute.

Chad & Aaron worked as a team this year. Chad carved their pumpkin and Aaron was the pyrotechnic specialist. Here he is perfecting his craft.

Since Amber is too young to cut the pumpkin herself, she made a pumpkin face with gumdrops. She thought jack-o-lantern night was a pretty good time.

Insanity is Inherited - And not just because you get it from your kids!

2010-10-12T13:29:00.003-06:00

This is a picture of my grandmother when she was a young woman, probably about the time she went on her mission. By all accounts, she was a wonderful person. She was vivacious, hard-working, hilarious and totally devoted to living the gospel. Grandma grew up in rural Mississippi and like pretty much everyone in her family, she was a great story-teller and had a personality that filled up any room she was in. She canned, quilted, baked bread, gardened, wrote letters, sewed clothes for her doll collection, prepared meals for every social function you can imagine, accepted every church calling she was ever given and raised five children who are the funnest, kindest and warmest dad, uncle and aunts that any girl could ever dream of having. But...she was also totally crazy. Since my grandma died when she was only 59 and I was just 8, I have always felt like I was jipped in the getting to know her department. Luckily, she kept a journal for the last several years of her life and I have a copy that I treasure. While I love to read about her day to day activities and thoughts during this time, it also makes me sad because it is a well known fact that my grandmother literally worried herself to death over her children. Some of them went through a phase where they weren't living the gospel as she wished they were. Some of them didn't get the kind of grades she would have wanted them to get. Some of them chose spouses of whom she did not approve. Some of them had serious health problems. Most parents have these troubles at some point in their lives, I suspect, but she just could let any of her worries go. And here is where I come in. I can totally see the same issues that my grandmother had with anxiety and parental control in my own life. I cannot watch a sporting event that my children participate in without becoming so anxious that I cannot feel my fingertips by the end. I have to take a deep breath each of the three times a day that I check Chad's Snap Grades Account to summon the courage to discover what I might discover about his grades. I feel an ulcer coming on when I get the email informing me that Aaron's progress report will be coming home from school that day. I find myself nagging them constantly about homework, practicing piano, filling out Eagle applications, lifting weights (don't ask), wearing rubber bands and head gear. I try to stop. I really do, but it is nearly impossible. By this past Sunday, I had stressed myself to distraction about the fact that my freshman does not seem to care nearly as much as I think he should about his scholarly ambitions. So later that day, when I checked his grades and found that he had received a bad grade on a project that I had begged him to let me check before he turned it in (he assured me that it was absolutely not necessary), I totally lost it. I will not tell you how much I yelled and stormed around the house but suffice it to say that the low point was when I not so calmly suggested that if Chad wanted to grow up to be a loser, he might as well move out and start now. Am I proud of this? No! Absolutely not. Did I feel terrible about the things I said? Of course I did, - just like I always do when I say horrible things to my children (because believe me this was not the first time). Furthermore, do I want to someday refuse to attend my daughter's wedding because I dislike her choice of a husband? Or do I want to encourage another daughter to divorce her husband for the same reason? Or do I want to write a letter to my son in college saying, "If you're too busy to write to your mother, then you're too damned busy!" (Okay, that one was actually kind of funny. Love you, Grandma!) Most importantly, do I want to die young of a heart attack because I 've become too depressed and anxious about perceived disappointments and hopelessnesses to care about or attend to my own health? No, no, no and no. But boy, stopping the crazy sure is easier said than done.

Bugs!

2010-09-30T09:02:00.001-06:00

Don't you just love Biology class? Feeding mice to snakes, dissecting frogs, examining cow lungs. Ew! Chad's latest project is the dreaded insect collection. Luckily, his teacher wasn't a stickler on pinning the bugs. So we went with the photograph option. Let me just say, though, that it is really hard to find 20 different species of insects. We are still short 4 and the project is due tomorrow. We'll find a great bug, look it up, and it turns out to be an arachnid or a woodgrub. It's a nightmare, I tell you. Here are some of our specimens.

Does anyone know what this insect is? I'm sure it's some kind of grasshopper but I don't know what kind.

This picture is actually a shell of a cicada caught in a spider web. We decided it would have to do, though, because how were going to find a live cicada?

We found this cricket hanging out on Amber's stroller. Gross!

Dragon fly down at the Rio Grande.

You would not believe how hard it was to get this picture. We have 6 pictures that were supposed to have him in it and do not because he was just too fast.

Amber is loving this whole insect project. Between looking for bugs and checking out fire hydrants for the eagle project, she has become quite observant. Whenever we go for walks, she keeps her eyes glued to the ground looking for any creepy crawlies that might be lurking about. Whenever we pass a fire hydrant, she will either say, "That fire hydrant is pretty!" or, "That fire hydrant is funny lookin' ". Earlier this week we drove by a hydrant that someone had painted as Smoky the Bear. Amber started laughing and said, "That fire hydrant reminds me of President Monson." What? Funny girl.

Eagle Project

2010-09-27T10:06:00.000-06:00

Attention! Attention! Chad is officially an Eagle Scout! Okay, not officially. He still needs to have his board of review, but still - he's just about there. Yahoo! For his Eagle project, Chad chose to paint firehydrants in our area. Our neighbor Charlie gave us the idea. Thanks Charlie! Chad stressed out about this project more than I thought possible. (If only he would stress out this much about school projects!) But he did a fabulous job. Here are some pictures to document Chad's triumphant journey into the ranks of Eagle.
Chad planning out the routes. We had eight groups of painters who painted a total of 50 fire hydrants.

Chad cutting out the card board guards that we put around the hydrants to keep paint from dripping on the ground.

Garrett prepping a hydrant for painting. We had to wash & dry the hydrants and then brush off the rust before painting.

Ty and Miguel with one of their finished products. Doesn't it look shiny and pretty? Ty risked having yellow hair and skin for his homecoming date later that evening. He is a trooper!

Aunt Emily, Aunt Becca and mom working hard. We got so messy. The paint we used was terribly sticky and got stickier as time went on. I think the clean up of the cars/skin/clothes was harder than the actual painting.

Steven & Sue. What a great mother/son team.

Nate, Chris, Aaron & Larry. True friends and skilled artists. :)

Ryan, John & Chase looking quite official as they tackle one of the more weathered looking hydrants.

And here is the payoff at last. Chad finally has his long-awaited cell phone. He claims it is his treasure and vows that he will not lose it, get it confiscated at school, or get it taken away at home because his grades are not up to par. We'll see. For now, though, you have never seen a boy so excited with a new toy. He has probably sent 100 text messages in the day and a half that he has had it. Thanks everyone for helping with Chad's project. He has the best and most loyal friends in the world. We love you guys!

The Birthday Boy on His Faithful Steed

2010-09-07T09:08:00.003-06:00

We went to the mountains for breakfast yesterday and Aaron saddled up Rebecca's dog, Linus. Okay, not really, but they did have a great hike together. Aaron will be the big 1-3 on Friday and I will sadly be out of town and not with him when he makes the official transition into teenagerdom. I tried to talk Sam into letting me take him with me, but alas, he didn't go for the idea of Aaron missing two days of school. Do not fear, though. We'll have the party of the year when I get home and everyone's invited. Aaron, we love you. You are mischievous and a little mouthy, but you are also a big party in a handsome package. Our family would not be nearly as much fun without you. Happy Birthday!

15 rocks!

2010-09-02T09:23:00.001-06:00

Would you look at this adorable baby? Can you believe he is fifteen years old today? It's hard to believe that within a year, he will become an Eagle Scout, aquire a cell phone and learn how to drive (purposely in that order). Kind of exciting! Kind of scary! We love you Chad. You are so much fun. Have a great birthday!

First Week

2010-08-26T09:19:00.003-06:00

Well, the first week of school is officially over and we've lived to tell. Aaron has only been tardy once (I think) and so far we haven't heard any complaints about mouthiness in class. Chad has a mostly unblemished academic record (I am so going to love Snap Grades), Bethany has only been reprimanded once for being too chatty, Miranda got her name mentioned over the school intercom for doing a random act of kindness, and Amber hasn't gotten any bad reports in the dreaded preschool notebook. So, I guess things could be worse. In fact they probably will get much worse. Stay tuned! I will say that I'm already tired of the homework nagging and we haven't even restarted the piano practice nagging yet. Ugh! The strange thing about this fall is that we usually have baseball and soccer going by this time and we stay pretty busy even without the homework. But, this year, we didn't do fall ball and Bethany is still on the waiting list to get on a soccer team. It feels kind of strange not having a million practices to go to during the week and games all day Saturday. I'm not sure I like it, but I'm totally sure Sam does. Anyhoo, here are some pictures of Amber's first day at preschool.

We're carpooling this year and I don't do drop off. So, thanks Amber Senior for taking this first day picture of Amber Junior hanging up her backpack. I guess she's a big girl now and knows the drill.

And here are Amber and her friend Kade getting ready to show the other kids how it's done. Let's just hope Amber sails through the trial period this time around. Fingers crossed!

Back to School

2010-08-18T10:27:00.005-06:00

It's off to school again for these cute 2nd and 4th graders. We met their teachers last week and I think they will work out just fine. Good luck girls! I hope you have a great year.

And, it's seventh grade for Mr. Aaron. This is the first day of the first school year in Aaron's life during which he has a school all to himself and doesn't have to share with any Smith siblings. Let's just hope he'll behave without Chad's watchful care or the threat of Bethany's tattle telling.

And this is what Amber and I think of being left alone all day. You'll notice Amber isn't nearly as upset about it as I am. Probably that's because she knows she gets the toys all to herself for a whole day and then tomorrow she'll be back to school herself. I was feeling kind of down about this whole turn of events earlier this morning. But now as I sit here blogging in peace without hearing, "Mom, Bethany took my book. Mom, Aaron called me stupid. Mom Amber took my ipod somewhere. I think we should put her up for adoption.", I think I might be able to adjust after all. Besides that, I drove by the seminary building this morning when Chad was returning to the school for his next class and I am thrilled to tell you that he and his friends actually waved to me. Yes, you read that correctly. Not only did they not cringe with embarrassment, but they actually acknowledged my existence. My baby is growing up! Maybe the passage of time is not such a bad thing after all.

Cousin Time!

2010-08-18T10:08:00.001-06:00

This weekend Uncle Ben and Aunt Stephanie and family came to visit on their way home from Utah. We had a great time. We gabbed and played and saw pictures of river rafting, bungee trampoline jumping and alligator hunting. (Seriously, they live in rural Louisiana, so they really do encounter alligators.) If only they could have stayed longer. Pictured below with Miranda and Amber are cousins Abby & Chase. We have always thought Abby and Bethany look enough alike that they could be sisters instead of cousins. What do you think?

And here are some other cute cousins - Bethany, Fiona & Isabelle. Oh, I wish we saw you guys more often. Come back again. And next time, we will go on the Utah vacation so we don't miss out on all the fun.

See You Next Summer!

2010-08-14T17:54:00.002-06:00

Well, I guess summer is officially over. The end of the season swim team party was this week. And now, sadly, Bethany and Miranda will not swim another stroke until next June. Bummer! To make matters worse, the party itself was kind of a dud because some kid threw up in the pool earlier in the day and we couldn't even swim to celebrate our swimming season. The bitter irony was almost too much. :)

Here is Bethany getting her swim medal from her coach, Miss Allison. I know you can't tell from Bethy's facial expression, but she had a great time this summer. I had no idea she could move that little body through the water so quickly.

And here is Miranda with Miss Allison. The girls loved her so much. Incidentally, Allison was Sam's calculus student during this past school year. Aw, the circle of life. Miranda finally competed in one of the last meets of the season swimming the breast stroke. She was quite good, I thought. Bethany beat her to the finish line, though, and that kind of ruined the moment for her. Oh, well. At least Bethany will have to compete with the older girls next summer.

And here is what I did before the party. This is a cake I made for Caitlin & Zach's soon to be born baby boy. Zach is a fabulous baseball player and in fact has taken Chad out and worked with him on his pitching from time to time, so I thought the design would be quite apprapos. The shower was fabulous. Sara & Kim sure know how to put on a great party.

Have a Nice Day, Big Freshman Stud!

2010-08-11T09:29:00.002-06:00

So, today is Freshman Orientation and above is my eldest heading out the door. Sniff! Sniff! Chad is excited. Me - not so much. Most summers I am totally ready to have the kids head back to school. This year, however, I'd really rather they just stayed here with me. Maybe it's because we've had an awesome time together. Maybe it's because I can't stand the thought of getting back into my usual mode of nagging about homework and piano practicing. (We've had a preview of what's to come this week as Chad has been trying to read the 500 pages of "The Three Musketeers" in less than two weeks. How did I not get the memo that all Honors English students had to read this book over the summer?). Maybe I'm worried about all the sports tryouts that Chad may or may not make and be devastated about. Shoot, maybe I'm just going to miss swim team. I don't know what it is, but I just don't feel ready. Oh well. Here we go anyway! At least the house will stay clean for most of the day if I can keep Amber under control until afternoon preschool. That's something, right?

Vacation!!!

2010-08-04T16:00:00.002-06:00

Well, everyone, we're back from our humanitarian mission to provide hundreds of starving mosquitoes and chiggers with two weeks worth of meals. We had a blast and got in some great cousin time too. Here are some highlights.

While Aunt Betsy and Uncle Dennis took the boys to the local skateboard park, I watched the littler cousins as they played in the pool. While I was occupied making cheesecake, the kids decided that they might as well get clean while they played. Obviously I had to get pictures (after removing the empty bottle of bubbles and hand soap). Here are Gabe and Bethany, bathing beauties.

Bathing Beauty #2 in her very own pool.

Gwen, Heidi and Amber - our three four year olds. These girls are the cabooses of the Peck, Adams & Smith families and we are sure glad we have them. Check out their matching do's (Thanks Aunt Sarah!).

After Kansas City, we stayed overnight in Hannibal Missouri. Sam & I took a lovely dinner cruise on the Mississippi River. The food was divine and the banjo/harmonica music was great. Hannibal is a lovely town and it has almost too much to see in one day. We may need to readjust the amount of time we spend there next time.

Grandma, Amber & Sammy overlooking the mighty Mississippi at Lover's Leap, Hannibal.

Amber, Miranda, Clayton & Carson in front of Carthage jail. The boys travelled with Grandma, Aunt Emily & Aunt Jane from Hannibal to Nauvoo and I must say it was quite pleasant having only three kids in the car for a couple of hours.

One of the best parts of the trip to Nauvoo is the carriage ride and tour. There was only one day that we were even able to go because the other days were just too hot for the horses. (Holy Cow, it was hot as the blue blazes this year!). Thanks Uncle Jason for getting up at the crack of dawn and getting us tickets. Here are the kids petting Ben & Rocky after the ride.

You wouldn't think we'd have a lot of time to do bumper cars between the Nauvoo pageant, the shows, the house tours, the shopping & the pioneer fairs but we managed to squeeze it in.

A couple of cute girls visiting the temple on the way out of town.

Aunt Emily at the Winters Quarters visitors center. It is quite impressive. The temple there is just lovely too. After we got the tour, we went out to dinner with Aunt Michelle, Uncle Len & Lauren in Omaha. Thanks for being such great hosts, guys. And an extra thanks to Uncle Len for checking out Chad's gimpy shoulder. Don't worry, he's doing his exercises. You can check out his back muscles at Thanksgiving. :)

After Omaha, we stopped by Alma, Nebraska, the town where my mom grew up. I hadn't been there since before Aaron was born. We went to the pool that my mom lifeguarded at as a teenager, we took the lakeside walk, we had a yummy bbq at Sandra's house (Thanks Sandra!), and we got a tour of the house where my mom grew up and where I have tons of fond memories of visiting my grandparents. It was so nice of the family who lives there now to let us see it. Here are Grandma, Em & Chad on the front steps. After Alma, we headed home again. We really missed the family we didn't get to see in Utah for what was supposed to be the second part of the vacation, but we were just too tired. We still love you guys though and next summer we will go wherever you go - promise!

The Glorious Food

2010-07-19T10:24:00.002-06:00

Here it is my friends! The giant tupperware full of snacks that we have made a tradition of taking on our long trek to the midwest. Miranda christened it "The Glorious Food" last summer when Sam first created it. (Aaron tried to name it "Snacks Galore" but it never really stuck.) It is a subject of absolute fascination for the kids and for their cousins, who still remember it from last year. Here are Daddy, Chad, Bethany & Amber at the grand unveiling of this year's snacks. Don't you guys wish you had "Glorious Food" at your house?

Goodbye Kyra! Sniff! Sniff!

2010-07-19T09:33:00.000-06:00

Pictured above are the two cutest 4 year old friends you will ever see. Kyra moved here with her family near the beginning of the year. Before that time, Amber was the only Sunbeam girl in her class. Oh, the fun they have had. They held hands at ward picnics, they played princesses, they built blocks, they made colossal messes like this one. We were devastated that Kyra's family had to move this weekend to an orthodontic practice in Los Alamos. Amber gave Kyra her favorite princess phone and a miniature Book of Mormon so that Kyra would always remember her. Come visit Kyra!

Summer Kids!

2010-07-12T15:44:00.001-06:00

Chad was at High Adventure and Helaman's Camp this week. He said the mountain biking and river rafting was a blast - the ropes, not so much!

Here he is working on the rope course.

The drama for the week occurred when Chad cut his finger whittling and his scout leaders had to meet me in Santa Fe where I picked him up and drove him to the emergency room. I don't know what capillary that boy cut but it must have been major because we could not get that finger to stop bleeding for anything. The doctor finally glued and splinted him up at 2:30 in the morning. Boy, did we have some tired girls by that time. Here we are after driving him up to Sam & Aaron's camp the next morning. The scouts were kind enough to treat us to lunch before we headed back.

And here is what Aaron was up to at scout camp. Clearly he was misbehaving and had to be publicly punished!

Sam says Aaron was quite a marksman. We may have the new Robin Hood on our hands.

And here he is practicing his water survival techniques. He is pictured above trying to inflate his clothes to use as a flotation device. Who knew you could even do that?

Bethany at the Fourth of July Breakfast. Isn't she festive?

Bethany went to her first swim meet this weekend and she did great. The girl is a fish. She won first place in both Freestyle events and she got a 2nd in breaststroke and a 4th in back stroke. Now she wishes we'd gone to all of the meets before.

Miranda swinging at the 4th of July Breakfast. Randa is such a ray of sunshine. I wish I could bottle up her giggles and spray some out whenever I need a smile.

Miranda is also on swim team and though she hasn't participated in a meet, she says she wants to go this weekend and get first place in the breast stroke. :) She isn't interested in the other strokes though.

Amber staking out the cereal table at the breakfast. She takes her breakfast cuisine very seriously.

What a cutie. Chad told her yesterday that she stinks and she said, "Chad, stop smelling me!"

Welcome to the Jungle!

2010-06-30T17:15:00.003-06:00

Help! I am becoming the world's worst blogger. My end of the year scrapbook is going to be pathetic. You would think I'd have much more time during the summer for this type of thing, but it seems that I just get exceedingly lazy the minute school gets out. The following pictures were not even taken by me. How sad is that? So, thanks Erin and Amber for making a record of the events in my childen's lives.

The girls performed in a musical called "Welcome to the Jungle" this summer. It was so much fun. My only complaint is that the songs were so catchy that we still find ourselves singing them again and again even though rehearsals have been over for almost two weeks. When we get a dvd of the play, I will make sure to post a song or two and then you will see what I mean. Here is Miranda, who had her first speaking part this year. She didn't want a part at first but she changed her mind. And thank goodness she did. She was magnificent. I'm telling you, people. A star is born. (And she makes a darling giraffe, don't you think? I always knew that long neck would come in handy some day.)

The grand finale. These are some seriously cute kids. And didn't the face painters do a great job?

Bethany's final curtain call! Encore! Encore!

Here is Miranda with the rest of the giraffe brigade. We had remnants of this make-up on for several days.

And here is Bethany with the other zebras. Bethany got to be the main zebra and she had several lines. She thought she was pretty hot stuff. Do you love the ears we got off of Ebay, or what? Thanks Sarah and Sharee for making musical theatre class so much fun. You guys are the best musical theatre directors ever!

We Have a Four Year Old!

2010-06-15T09:40:00.001-06:00

Here is a picture of our silly birthday girl on the morning of her 4th birthday. Boy do we love this crazy, funny little lady.

Amber picked a candy bar cake because there is no one who loves candy more than she does!

Amber made quite a haul this year. She got several great toys and outfits to add to her collection. Her favorite gift, though, was a container of nickels from Grandma Great because she wants to take them to the "connect stand" (concession stands) and use them to buy otter pops. I didn't have the heart to tell her that baseball season is over (see the post below) and that we probably wouldn't be getting to the connect stands again for awhile. Oh well, at least she still has her noodle ball. Happy Birthday, Precious!

The End of Little League

2010-06-15T09:16:00.002-06:00

Baseball season is a funny thing. It lasts from March until June and let me just say that there is a dramatic change in New Mexico's weather over the course of those four months. For the first month or so, The kids wear multiple layers of Under Armour and the parents bundle up in jackets and blankets if they can tough it up enough to sit outside of the car. By June, the kids wear multiple layers of sunscreen and the parents sit under umbrellas and drink gatorades and slushies. This is a picture from Chad's last weekend game. It was at 1:00 in the afternoon and it was over 100 degrees. The boys had their sleeves rolled and their buttons undone. They looked wilted by the end of the game. It's about this time that we are really ready for the season to be over.

This is the team party after the final game on Wednesday. As you can tell by Chad's look, it didn't go well. The Yankees actually had an excellent record but you wouldn't know it judging by the way they played that night. Maybe they were just tired of baseball season too. Sadly, this may prove to have been Chad's last baseball game ever depending on whether he tries out for and makes the high school team next year and unfortunately, he struck out on his last at bat. And since you all know what a great sport I am, you can imagine what a delight I was for the rest of the evening. (Incidentally, that's why Chad isn't wearing his uniform. I told him I was in too bad of a mood to go out and party after the game, so we went home and he had time to change before I caved and took him.)

Here they are after a good meal. Aw! The miraculous healing powers of Chilies cuisine. Man I'm gonna miss little league. Thankfully, Aaron still has two more years.

Amberisms and Mirandaisms

2010-06-06T20:34:00.001-06:00

#1 - Sam was talking to the girls in the car this week and since Amber's birthday is coming up, the subject of birthdays was inevitably discussed. Here are a couple of quotes from the drive.

Miranda - "Bethany, what year were you made again?"

Amber - "I was boring on June 13th".

#2 - Amber has taken to giving her family members kisses and afterwards telling us to "Rock that!" The other day I asked her to come over and give me a kiss. She wasn't cooperating, so I went up to her, stole a kiss and told her to "rock that". She turned to me and said, "Ooh, Mom, I will never rock again."

Silly girls!

Finished at Last!

2010-05-30T17:08:00.000-06:00

I'm happy to report that the 2009/2010 school year has at last come to a suitably successful conclusion. Both boys made the honor roll thanks to some hard work and a lot of parental nagging and homework assistance. As a matter of fact, I think Sam and I were more tired than Chad & Aaron of the homework and studying. And so I say, halleljuah! We are done for two whole months. Here is Aaron at the 6th grade Honors Assembly. Now if only next year he can stay out of lunch detention.

And here is the only picture I currently have of 8th grade graduation. Some 14 year old whose name shall remain anonymous broke my camera a week and a half ago while trying to film his skateboarding exploits and we are still working out the kinks with the new camera. So, here is a picture of Chad and a couple of his possy from the Facebook files of Nathan Hewitt. Thanks Nathan!

It was a great day for Chad and he even got a brand spankin' new skateboard deck for graduation to replace the one that got run over by the car last week. (Chad's had a rough week. He also put his ipod through the laundry. I ask you, do you think this boy is responsible enough for high school? Yikes.) After the ceremony, we went out to Chillis, and later he had a sleepover where not much sleeping at all was done with a few of his first class pals. Look out, La Cueva, here they come!

Summer, come quickly!

2010-05-20T12:46:00.004-06:00

Do you ever feel like the month of May will never end? I am exhausted. I think I could probably take three naps a day. I have been out almost all day for most of the past few Saturdays. I am tired of projects, finals, concerts, games - everything! And I've turned into a whiny cranky pants, if you didn't notice. :)
Here is the NM Select Boys team after their final tournament game on Saturday night. They look the way I felt by that time. It was their third game of the day (following Aaron's double header and the kids' piano recital earlier in the day) and it was about 100 degrees in the gym. They were completely wiped out and, being the obnoxious mother that I am, I decided to document their fatigue with the camera.

And here they are the next afternoon after a good night's rest doing their semi-formal end of the season picture. Holy Cow! These boys have worked hard. For the record, it is not a good idea for your middle schooler to do two sports at a time unless both you and he have more energy than we do. Chad is absolutely thrilled to have a week free of practice. Now if only baseball was over - and everyone knows I never want baseball to end! I'll probably be bored out of my gourd a couple of weeks from now when school is out and everything else is wrapping up, but boy does a little down time sound nice about now.

Recital!

2010-05-16T21:20:00.009-06:00

Saturday was the annual recital for Mrs. Jensen's fabulous piano students. They all did a wonderful job and we, the audience, were quite impressed.

The Smith boys - relieved to be finished. They suffer from some serious pre-performance anxiety.Bethany, Kaitlyn & Emily - La Cueva Ward's resident musical prodigies.

Here is Bethany playing "Shortnin' Bread". She made me want to get up and dance a jig.

And Aaron playing Sliding on a Rainbow. Love those glissandos.

Chad playing Moonlight Sonata. He's practiced this song for months and I never get tired of it. This was Chad's final piano recital. Miranda is taking his spot next year. But, do not fear, music lovers. He has committed to practice one hymn a week on his own from now on.

How you can tell That Amber Needs Shorter Naps

2010-05-13T08:53:00.001-06:00

So, last night, the girls were all tucked snugly in their beds - or so I thought. I snuggled into my own bed with an excellent book breathing a sigh of relief that pajamas, teethbrushing & prayers were at last complete. I got through a paragraph of my book when to my surprise, onto my bed popped a cute little three year old. This is how the next half an hour went.

Amber - "Mom, It looks like I forgot to get a hug."
So, she got a hug and a scoot back towards her bed. Five minutes later.
Amber - "Mom, it looks like I forgot to get a kiss too."
So, she got a kiss and a not so gentle scoot back towards her bed. Five minutes later.
Amber - "Mom, I forgot to get a drink."
Five minutes later.
"Mom, I can't read because the girls turned off all of the lights." (Yeah! Kind of the point.)
Five minutes later.
"Mom, I can't sleep because the alarm clock scares me."
Oh boy!

Miranda's Birthday Date

2010-05-09T09:15:00.004-06:00

Yesterday was Miranda's 7th Birthday. Being a busy Saturday, we decided to put off the party until today. So, the big event for Miranda's actual birthday was a lunch date with Grandma. Miranda decided she wanted the two of them to go to Applebees alone. When Aunt Emily and Aunt Rebecca asked Miranda if she was sure she didn't want them to come along, she answered quite emphatically, "Really Sure!" So, these two lovely ladies headed off to the restaurant. As they pulled into the parking lot, Miranda noticed something next door. "Ooh, Grandma, it's a Burger King!" And just like that, there was a change in plans. Instead a nice sit down lunch with molten chocolate lava cake for dessert, they got macaroni and cheese and chocolate milk. Oh well! At least Miranda is a cheap date. We are so lucky to have this thoughtful, creative, meticulous, funny little girl in our family. Happy Birthday Precious!

Big, Bad Chad

2010-05-07T09:41:00.003-06:00

It's May, which means that my children are overscheduled, we have parties and/or games almost every day and I am too discombobulated to remember to take any pictures. Luckily, some parents have clearer heads than mine and hence, here are some shots from Chad's game last night taken by one of the awesome North Valley Dads who was kind enough to share his album with us.

The wind up!

The extension!

The release!

Trying to steal second.

And now trying to steal home.

I love this picture. Chad looks like such a beast.

Up to bat!

And starting his slide into home.

And here is Chad holding a conference at the mound with Cameron and Justin. Justin has been on Chad's team for four years now and I am going to adopt him as soon as I can convince Teresa and Reno to relinquish custody. He is the coolest freshman I know (and I can say that since Chad's only in 8th grade). Cam's not so bad either. I think I'll adopt him too.

Bear Party!

2010-04-26T13:30:00.005-06:00

For Miranda's 7th birthday party, I decided to go with a bear theme. Miranda wasn't sure about this theme at first, but I talked her into it. Here is our little bear cake.

We fed the girls this very fluffly bear pizza for supper. I thought it turned out pretty cute. The girls all liked it but said that they didn't want a piece of the face, because of the olives and pepper. There's no accounting for taste, I suppose. :)

Here are Megan and Bella stuffing their Build-a-Bears. We got these kits from Hobby Lobby and they were so much fun. Bella and Megan picked up on the stuffing thing very quickly and then helped the other girls to stuff their bears properly.

Cute Kirra, Sharlotte, Lily & Miranda with their bears.

And there's Kirra again with the equally cute Brynn and Rachel. What a fun bunch of girls.

After building their bears and eating dinner, the girls settled down for a showing of "The Care Bear Movie". Miranda wasn't thrilled with this choice at first, but she admitted afterwards that she liked the movie and though it was okay for big girls too.

And here Miranda is blowing out her candles after the movie. The cake tasted yummy and she totally loaded up on awesome presents. She says it was her best birthday party so far. Score Mom!

Quote of the Day

2010-04-23T07:10:00.003-06:00

"Mommy, I had an accident because I was laughing so hard, it made me allergic." - Amber. After her sisters laughed hysterically, Amber said, "Mommy put that on the log." Oh boy! This is for you silly girl.

Bluebird

2010-04-18T17:07:00.003-06:00

Amber learned this song in preschool and she sings it all day long. She even sings herself to sleep at naptime. When she first started doing it, I thought it was quite darling, but the song is really addictive and now I find myself humming it in the car, in the shower, in the grocery store...you get the idea. Also, please note the obnoxious older sister to the left of Amber. This is what we deal with on a constant basis.

Quote of the Day

2010-04-17T12:48:00.001-06:00

"There's a new sherriff in town. " Chad, when I commented that at his most recent basketball tournament, the usual starters were getting less playing time and the benchwarmers (Chad included) were getting more. :)

How We Entertain Ourselves on Road Trips

2010-04-11T20:53:00.001-06:00

Okay, I finally got the list of crazy rockstar baby names that Emily, Chad, Aaron and I came up with on our long radio-free trip to Blanding over spring break. Here they are, A to Z.

Girl / Boy
Aspen / Ajax
Bubbles / Big Chief
Cameo / Chaos
Drama / Death Lee
Ecstacy / Energy
Fidelity / Felony
Giggle / Greenpeace
Heaven / Hershey
Intimacy / Indigo
Jailbait / Juniper
Kismet / Kix
Luxury / Liberty
Moxy / Mercury
Neptune / Nascar
Opal / Onyx
Panama / Panther
Query / Quest
Rainbow / Rendezvous
Savory / Shredder
Travesty / Trip
Unity / Urine
Vendetta / Villainy
Wisteria / Wolf
Yesterday / Yaz
Zephyr / Zen

Now if only we could find the list of romance novel heros and heroines. We came up some true classics in that one.

Denver

2010-04-06T13:17:00.001-06:00

Chad and I went on another road trip this weekend to the Southwest Classic AAU Basketball Tournament in Thornton, Colorado. I was a little bit worried when Chad was running a high fever two nights before the trip was scheduled, but he dragged himself from his deathbed to take one for the team (and because he was just a little bit excited about his first out of town tournament). I promised Chad that we would find a non-chain restaurant to eat lunch at. Sam always makes him eat at Subway or Taco Bell when they travel together but we were feeling much too adventurous to eat somewhere that boring. So, here he is in Pueblo at Auntie Bev's Cafe waiting for a hamburger that was really quite awesome. If you're driving through the Pueblo historic district, we highly recommend it.

And here Chad is in one of his uniforms. He is quite proud of it, I must say. I think he even stroked the fabric when he first got it. The team played four games and lost all of them. (You would not believe the skill level of some of the teams who come to these tournaments.) But I didn't really care, because I was so mad at Chad's coach for only letting him play about 1 minute per half during the first couple of games. I had a mini-melt down after game #2 and went to the bathroom to cry. It was terribly embarrassing, especially because one of the other moms saw me. Luckily, she sympathized and said she was about to murder the coach herself if he did not keep forcing half of the team to warm the bench for the majority of the game while trying to give the other half cardiac arrest. What's the point of having 12 boys on your team if you're only going to play 6 of them, I ask you? When the third game came along, Chad was furious by the time he went into the game. Lucikly, that tends to make him quite aggressive so he went in, took a charge and made two baskets in quick succession - thus, ensuring himself a bit more time on the court for the rest of that game and the next. But, in case you're wondering, I'm still mad.

And here is Chad at the Old Spaghetti Factory. We'd never gone before but the rest of the team was going together so we decided to give it a try. I loved the decorations and ambience. I felt like I'd gone straight back into the early 1900's. If only we hadn't had to park in downtown Denver. Holy Cow, that is one seriously sprawling city. We liked it though and I especially liked seeing Lyssa and her family in their fabulous 1912 home. What a fun tour I got. Thanks, Lyss!

Little Stinker

2010-04-06T12:57:00.000-06:00

"I just needed a granola bar, Mom."

The Hunt is On

2010-03-31T13:22:00.002-06:00

Here is Amber lined up and all ready to go at the Annual La Cueva Ward Easter Egg hunt. Bethany and Miranda were so mad that Easter wasn't during spring break this year. They begged me to take them out of school so that they could participate. Sadly, I did not think their teachers would be really keen on that idea - especially during NMSBA testing. Luckily for them, Amber is a very generous sister and didn't open her eggs until the girls got home so that they could all share.

Amber was somewhat slow getting started (partly because she's had a pretty nasty cold since Sunday that has been keeping her down a bit) but she eventually got all 11 eggs. We were supposed to bring a dozen but Aaron lost one earlier this week entertaining his sisters with egg hunts of his own planning. Everyone should have a brother like Aaron!

Heading for the home stretch!

Mommy and Amber showing off the loot. We love Easter!

Dessert Mania!

2010-03-26T13:40:00.001-06:00

Since today is Bethany's birthday plus the big youth fundraiser activity where each young man and woman is in charge of making a dessert to auction off, I have been a busy lady. (And, might I add, a lady who will for sure have gained a couple of pounds this week.) Here is dessert #1. Bethany didn't want a big birthday party this year. She just wants to go out to Chilli's and come home and watch Harry Potter 2. So, here is her movie "popcorn". I thought it turned out pretty cute.

Here is Aaron's chocolate, cream cheese, strawberry pie. I would have let the boys make their own desserts but they wanted to bring chocolate chip cookies - and frankly that would not do seeing as I have a reputation to uphold.

And here is Chad's raspberry, white chocolate cake. Yummy! Now if I can just bring myself to part with the latter two this evening. How important is scout camp anyway? :) Of course none of these compare with the product that I completed nine years ago today nor are they nearly as sweet.

Bethany is Nine

2010-03-26T08:31:00.002-06:00

Happy Birthday, my big 9 year old girl. How lucky we are to have this incredibly strong personality in our family. We love you, Honey!

Trippin' with the Boys

2010-03-23T08:44:00.002-06:00

Last week was spring break and since I took the girls out of town last year, I decided it was the boys' turn. So, we made a decision on Monday to drive up to Blanding for the day on Tuesday and decorate Poppy's grave with Aunt Emily. It was quite an adventure. We took the small car with no amenities and we also decided to stay at the least expensive motel we could find just because sometimes we feel like roughin it. Emily commented that it was just like going on a college road trip - to which Chad replied, "Yeah, because you're taking a crappy car and two ugly boys." Aaron was deeply offended by this because he takes his good looks and appeal with the ladies quite seriously. His comment about the trip was that he didn't feel as financially secure with me as he does with Dad. Whatever! Anyhoo, since we had no radio, the ipod charger was down and Aaron was grounded from his Nintendo DS (due to an incident that is sadly too embarassing to blog about), we had to get creative. Hence, we spent 5 hours going through the alphabet and finding rock star baby names, romance novel hero names, Hollywood star baby names, movies, songs, rock bands and tv villains that started with the letters A-Z. It actually takes longer to think of some of these than you would think. We had a great time and as soon as Emily gets home from work, I'll have her get out our written lists so I can post some of our favorites.

The cemetary was still covered with about 6 inches of snow, but we managed to hike in and decorate for Easter.

While we were waiting for our motel room to be ready, (it was the first day the motel had been open since last summer and boy did it need some sprucing up- but it did cost just $31 -rock on!) the boys did a little skating. Blanding has a great park with fabulous baseball fields and the above skate/bike park. Every year, they hold a huge 4th of July concert there. I love small towns.

Later that evening, we went to the Lamplighter restaurant for dinner. It is run by my dad's cousins and if you are ever traveling to Salt Lake via Monticello, I highly recommend it. It is expensive but worth it. Chad and Aaron were not on their best behavior and I'm sorry to say that their manners were somewhat lacking. Next time, I'm just taking Sam.

And now, spring break is over and we have to get back to the ugly business of homework, practices and tournaments that infuriate me because Chad only gets 5 minutes playing time. Luckily one of them is in Denver next weekend, which means - look out Lyssa, a bad sport is coming your way.

Two Years

2010-03-16T08:19:00.001-06:00

Death's Finger

When death's cold icy finger
Reaches out to make its final touch
Will it be on winter's landscape
Or during summer's bloom?

Will the reaper touch the aged brow
With his crazy quilt of wrinkles
The tottering, frail or lonesome soul
Whose life is long since spent

Or will its certain finger take the young
The little boy at carefree play
With tussled locks and dirty hands
Engaged in grownup games

The funeral which is most deserted
That of hoary ancient brows
Who have lived beyond their friends of youth
Whose lifeline few recall

Or little children whose breath so new
And whose lives have just begun
Whose circle yet a feeble one
Whose friends are last to know

Let me sleep in prime of life
With friends to toast my passing
To remember me with laughter
With tears and hearty passion

Friends who in a scarlet dusk
Will see my face therein
And hear my voice on distant cloud
And feel my essence near

- M. Dwight Hurst
9/1/46-3/16/08

We miss you, Dad!