Wednesday, August 11, 2010

The back to school blues

Today was the start of a new school year!
The endless school supplies were bought, the backpacks were packed and the ever important first day of school outfit were layed out ready to go. Excitement and fear were in the air. We had a little laughing and a lot of nervous crying, but what girl doesn't do that right?
  This is a big year for us!

Shayne is now big man on campus.. 8th grade!

Megan is big gal on her campus... 6th grade!
 
Ashley is headin to 4th grade!
and Emily is heading to the doctor! 

Posted by PicasaOur poor little girl has strep. 
What a way to start off 2nd grade!

I'm hoping and praying that this is NOT a sign of things to come!!

After school report:  Everyone (minus Emily) had a great day!  I love when that happens!!

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Roadtrip

Every two years the Smith family has a big fat reunion. Every comes to a designated spot... this year Yellowstone!
We even "rented" another boy to tag along for Shayne's sake. 15 girls and 3 boys can sometimes be a bit much for a kid ya know!
We played in many rivers. We even tubed down a clean, non glass filled, non drunken river!  You can't find that in Phoenix!  The best was when we broke out the air mattresses and tubed down on those babies!  The kids thought that was the best!!

Aunt Laura is adding to the girls in the family with a new baby in November.  So the little girls had a surprise baby shower for her one night.  They had each come with a little "offering" for the newest little cousin.  Such a fun night!
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Most of the grand kids at Mesa Falls.
Great Grandma Grace even joined us for this reunion!  We had a great time getting to know her better and her knowing our kids better.  She is a true trooper!  For being 80 something she went everywhere with us!
Yes, Shayne is taller than me...
The stinky mud pots.  Emily's face says it all!
We were in the typical bison traffic jam..
The red beauty is Kevin and Laura's car.  We were right behind them.  This bison wasn't so fond of Kevin's red car!  He snorted and growled at the car for a good 15 minutes or so!  We all wanted to have an up close view of a bison... I guess we got our wish, multiple times!
In one of our bison jams, Shayne spotted some bison fur on a near by tree.  Lucky for us, he got out and grab some for a souvenir.
Old Faithful didn't disappoint.  Funny, I thought it shot up higher when I was a kid!  The wind was blowing so hard that the blast was more of a sideways blast instead of the straight up in the air kind of blast.

We made all the Utah stops..
This stop about gave a few dad's a heart attack!
BYU Idaho..
got to love the free magazines!

We had the BEST time!!



A boys dream come true

Shayne marked off one of his dreams this year as he got to attend a football camp at BYU that was lead by former BYU players.  Since we were heading to a reunion anyway, we decided to leave a day early and let Shayne ooohhh and awwww at some of his football hero's!



Getting a pep talk from Max Hall.
Shayne and Dennis Pitta.  Dennis was Shayne's coach all day!  His team played against Johnny Harlings team and Shayne made an incredible diving catch.  He got high-fived and patted on the booty after his catch, isn't that the right of passage in the football world?
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Max Hall and Shayne
He had the time of his life!  He got great tips and hints and some new found confidence that will last him a lifetime!

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

11

Eleven short years ago, a little tiny girl entered into our family...
and just look at her now!!

Growing up with all brothers I never thought I'd have a little girl of my own.  Megan is like the sister I never had.  She loves to go anywhere and everywhere with me!  She is my shopping buddy, my best helper and loves so many of the same things that I love!
She's a smarty pants that excels at school, and loves to read. 
She's as witty as they come and the one liners she comes up with on the fly makes us smile.
She is an artist and a musician.
She loves to cook and bake and is learning how to sew.
She makes a mean batch of brownies and she creates some dang good stuff.
She's our responsible mind of reason and a great peacemaker.
She loves to play basketball and volleyball and is learning to hold her own in the wrestling department with her bother and sisters.

Happy Birthday to our one and only
Mag-mo
Megs
Maggy-pie
MJ
and
Megan

We love you!!


 

Thursday, April 29, 2010

This little girl of mine


is SEVEN!!
Its been a long standing tradition in our home that the week approaching any birthday is "birthday week".  That week the birthday child get to pick all their favorite meals.   Emily, lets say, has some very good taste buds! 

On the menu this last week:
loaded baked potato soup
Mongolian shrimp and scallops over rice
jambalaya
ranch burgers
citrus pork chops
ultimate nachos

We love Emily's birthday week!  We eat SO well!
Emi loves the camera
She loves to make us laugh

She almost always has a smile on her face
She loves adventure, getting dirty and all things scary

We've had 7 years with a funny little girl that comes up with one-liners like no other!

We love you Emily!!
Happy Birthday


Wednesday, April 21, 2010

spon·ta·ne·ous

One thing that I love about Todd is that he is spontaneous.  I tend to be more of the planner type but not him.  He'd rather wake up and decide to go somewhere and off we'd go.  Last weekend we had a bit of a spontaneous trip to our favorite place, Magic Mountain.  We got season passes for the park for Christmas so we love to go anytime we're able.  I always thought that the park was geared toward older kids.  That is partly true, unless you have a bunch of daredevils for children!  Check out this ride.  The X2.  Emily's favorite ride in all the park!  Emily is only 6!  You can only see her little toes sitting next to Todd! 


I love this kind of thrill rides and I'm so glad our kids do too!

I'm not sure what got into our kids but we were all thrill rides all day long!  No more waiting in lines for baby rides!  Love it!







And in other exciting news... Megan got contacts! This trip was her first time without glasses and it sure made going on all the free falling-face-first-death defying-loop turning rides so much easier!  And of coarse, NO trip to Cali would be complete without a stop at the beach.



Someday, somehow we will have a beach house!  I could sit and watch the waves forever!  It seems like no matter what is happening in life, the beach is always a place to go and get some perspective on life. The analogies are endless.  All I can say is I'm thankful for spontaneous living! 

Sunday, April 11, 2010

A DVR kind of life

I often wish that life was more like my DVR. Ya know, like wouldn’t it be great to rewind and relive certain parts of your life? And wouldn’t it be great to hit the pause button or the extreme slow motion button to hold on and cherish the moments that seem to be going by to fast? But then there is also the fast forward and extreme fast forward button. I admit there are many times I think I’d be likely to fast forward through the rough spots. I’ve been thinking about this DVR concept a lot lately. Kind of like the movie, Click.

This weekend I had a chance to meet up with an old buddy of mine from back in day, Bruce. Bruce and I were pals that did lots of stuff together with our group of friends. We chatted and I got to met his adorable family and go down memory lane with him for a bit. As I was driving home, I couldn’t help but think of all the fun we had and all the crazy things we did too. I’m not sure there was a resort in Scottsdale that we didn’t at one time or the other sneak into to go pool hopping. Oh the good old days. I got to thinking about this “rewind” concept. We chatted about people I hadn’t even thought of for 15 years! While most of the memories were great and I had fun reliving them, a few of the memories got me thinking about how I should have been better. I should have chosen better. I should have not treated others so poorly. I should have been a better example, darn it! Then my mind shifted to a talk I read a few months back by Elder Holland. Who in my opinion is a rock star among the apostles, is that bad to say? A talk given at BYU last year, called Remember Lot’s Wife. Love this talk!  I started thinking, am I being like Lot’s wife. Am I longing to go back, relive, redo or stay in the past? Sometimes, yeah. I think Satan has a way of getting into our thoughts and glamorize the past. I don’t have a great memory AT ALL, but all my memories were great! How does that happen? Maybe it just happens to me.

I’m currently in need of the pause/slow motion button. Time is going by way to fast. I have a teenager and my baby, that is not so much a baby, turns 7 in a few weeks! This time in life is so fun. So busy, but so fun! I love having kids that are in a way, independent. We are officially out of “baby” mode and into a totally different phase in life. I love it. I really, really love it! But boy how I long to hold onto my kids at this stage for longer!

That fast forward button is a button that as of late, I think about to often. I keep thinking, if we could only get past this rough spot or that rough spot we’d be better, happier. But I then was reminded in this last Conference that we learn the most in these rough spots while we are waiting for them to pass. And let me tell you what, I’ve learned a lot. I’m actually becoming a little thankful for the rough spots in a weird way. I’m not at all the same person I was a few years ago. Hopefully, more patient, more understanding, more compassionate and less judgmental, to name a few.

While the thought of having a life DVR is exciting to me, I guess I can only try to hold onto the good, learn from the past, stay present and be hopeful for the future. My kids were watching Back to the future 3 the other day. According to that movie we should in the year 2015 be able to time hop with all the new technology. I guess in the end I might get my wish. I’ll only have to wait just few more years to go back, go forward or stay put according to Doc Brown and Marty McFly!

Sorry for my rant, but if you endured my soap box confessional at least now enjoy this new pictures~