So Much To Say

Where has the summer gone?!! It's corny and cliche but it needs to be said...this summer is FLYING by! There is so much to get caught up on, yet so much fun to be had (and so many kids to be entertained - all.day.long :) ) One day you might find a big ol' post of pictures from May to August, 'cause I'm not sure I'm gonna get caught up until school starts again.

For now, though, here's what we did this 4th of July:

We spent the week of the 4th in Utah. So Monday morning I opted out of the Riverdale 5K I was planning on. Mostly because (is this too vain?) I was going to be away from home the whole day and would've been stuck in my sweaty running clothes all day, oh yeah, and because I can't run the whole thing - I gotta take walk/jog rest breaks (I really am trying to be a good runner but, alas, so far it's not workin' for me the way I want!). Since Cameron didn't want to run it either (he was saving his strength for his 200 mile bike-packing trip the next day - a tale for another post), I talked my dad into running with me that morning around the neighborhood instead. Little did I know I'd be running a 5K anyway. My dad is hard core. But he is also merciful and let me jog/walk most of the time. A little something I love about my dad: I know he was dying to run but he stayed with me during my "rest" times and let me talk my head off about nothing and everything. He has a special way of listening that makes me feel like he really cares about what I'm saying - even when I'm sure he's got other things to think about. I told him I'd be able to run the whole way next time - so I didn't run with again that whole week! I'm working on it though, oh yes, yes I am.

Impossible to get 4 kids to sit still, smile, and look at the camera

Later in the day we met up with Cameron's family at his sister's house. It was fun. The kids played and played, in fact, I barely saw Landon and Austin; they were MIA with their cousins most of the time - and when they weren't, they were on the half pipe.

Shauntelle stole my camera and took a few shots. I'm still wondering if I was annoying her with all my picture taking and it was her way of showing me what it feels like to be on this side of the papparazzi. But I did get proof I was there too. Pictures of me are kind of rare these days:

I love that my kids are so lucky to have wonderful grandparents. I love LOVE that they can build relationships with my parents and grandparents and Cameron's parents. Isaac cracks me up in the picture with my dad...wish I knew what they were talking about!

After we left Shauntelle's we headed to my grandma's house. We tried an unsuccesful nap time. Then we met up with more of my family at my Aunt Benette's. Her kids are my cousins but they might as well be my kids' cousins. Her boys and mine get along like best friends. I love it. I didn't take one single picture. I was having too much fun stuffing my face with food and talking and relaxing while all 4 kids were entertained.

We stayed until almost dark. We decided to do our own little fireworks at my parents house so Cameron could get to bed a little earlier since he had to be on the road early the next day for his bike trip. Ella went to bed too. I let Landon have a sleep over with Colton at Benettes. It was weird not to have him with us for fireworks: I kept counting heads thinking how come there's only 2?! But I was happy that Ella was asleep and Landon was having fun with his {second} cousin.

I love this picture of Cameron and Austin watching the firework they lit together:

This 4th was great.

And the rest of the week was so fun too - boating, swimming (I was so happy that Shauntelle met us at the pool - and it was fun seeing one of my best high school friends there), visiting. I even got to go with my mom and Aunt Kim to the American Idol concert. (It was SO much fun {and SO SO loud - am I old to think that?!} I was cracking up at the people around me - all 30+ year old women; should've heard 'em when Stefano took his shirt off. ha ha :) It was seriously so awesome, though, to spend some time with my aunt and mom.)

Last Week

Last Tuesday our family joined the families of the boys in Cub Scout Troop 175 to cheer them on and celebrate their hard work at the annual PineWood Derby. Oh yes, it was an event. And to sweeten the deal our Landon came in second place. He was so proud. He could barely contain the smile after each win. BUT, he was very poised and had great sportsmanship, as he high-fived each of the kids that lost to him. After the last race, the one that determined if he'd come in first or second, his smile faltered. But only for a second; it came right back, as big as ever, as he congratulated his buddy for coming in first. AND, that is what I was most proud of that night. *You've come a long way over the past year, Landon; growing up more and more everyday. I am proud of the big kid you are and the young man you are becoming. How'd I get so lucky to have you as my son?!*

{his car is the gold one...he designed it himself, although Cameron helped cut it out. He bought the paint for it himself too. I offered to buy him a can of spray paint from Walmart, but he insisted on "model" paint from the hobby shop. So Cameron told him since it was so expensive, he'd have to use his allowance. With Easter being the weekend before and our nights crowded by baseball we didn't get a chance to get the paint until Tuesday afternoon. The paint was still wet when we left for the Derby. Cameron had make him stop painting so we wouldn't be late! It didn't slow that thing down, though! And gotta hand it to Cameron, he spent a lot of time with Landon, helping him. He's a good dad.} The next day I left for four days of "me-time". I scribbled out notes, put a diaper bag together, left Cameron some "just in case" ideas for meals, and hugged everyone goodbye, leaving Cameron with a LOT on his schedule. There was something to do for one of the kids every night I was gone.Austin had a speaking part in his Kindergarten show and I was SO SO sad I would be missing it. Cameron said, "he did awesome!" and that was pretty much the report I got. Judging by listening to him practice his parts I'm sure it was fantastic. I love how excited he was to participate; I'm pretty sure he felt as grown up as he looks...can't believe he's on his way to being SEVEN!
Isaac's preschool held their annual Art Show the next night. He, too, was FULL of excitment about his part. He told me on the phone that day, just before they headed out to the show, "You HAVE to come see my art. It is really really good. Are you going to come in the car and see it?!" I wished I could have. But, luckily, Cameron took great pictures and they brought a STACK of artwork home for me to sort through.
Saturday, I got a text: "meet the newest member of our family." Seriously, at first I thought Cameron was joking. But when I looked closer at the picture I realized the motorcycle was strapped into the back of his truck. When I realized he had bought another motorcycle (the middle one: Landon's size), I wished I had done more shopping...LOTS more shopping. Why was I feeling guilty for the pennies I had spent, when he spent, well, lots more?! I'm coming to grips with the new member of our family that lives in the garage, but, Cameron, NO MORE! :) The boys, needless to say, are in heaven. Austin is so excited that he doesn't have to bring his bike to the pits to ride while him and Landon take turns on the little motorcyle.
And while they were doing all that, I was doing this. Thousands of women swarmed BYU for the LDS Women's Conference and I was among them. It's my second year and I hope it becomes a tradition. It was so much fun. So enlightening. A great reminder that, "By Small and Simple Things are Great Things Brought to Pass."
At this point in my life, I often find myself feeling alone in my seemingly mundane, mostly thankless, normal life. I had many points of inspiration and clarity during this conference. I realized that the "sunday school" answers are the things that I need to focus on; the things that will bring great things to pass: boys that will become responsible, loving, righteous husbands and fathers and a daughter who will know her worth and settle for nothing less than the path back to our Father in Heaven. One great moment for me was at the last session when Susan Bednar, Elder Bednar's (a member of the 12 apostles for the LDS church) wife spoke. She spoke of raising her three sons; my life seems similar to how hers was. I realized that this amazing woman - she must be to be the wife of an apostle- struggled with some of the same things I struggle with. She reminded me "not to be like Naimin"; to have enough faith to do the "simple things".
And while I was enjoying the classes I was also enjoying some GREAT company. I don't have a picture, but I drove down to Provo with a friend from here in Mountain Home, Amanda. She is so fun to talk to that the drive seemed to take minutes, rather than hours. It started the week off great. She dropped me off at the dorms to meet up with my "Colorado friends". I have missed ALL of them so much over the last couple years. It was so so fun to see a few of them again! Let me tell you, Women's Conference is NOT for sleeping. How could I? It was one giant slumber party. I laughed my head off for four days straight - in fact, I think my face still hurts from smiling!
We did some shopping in Provo and some in Salt Lake. We also spent the day on Saturday seeing, not one, but TWO movies at the Gateway. We took a peek at the "Project Runway" Fashion show going on (and took a picture with Tom Gunn's poster just to prove it!) We spent some time on Temple Square. We ate WAY too much food. And we talked and talked and talked. Our group changed a bit here and there through the conference. We met up with another CO friend, Jaquie, who lives in Texas now - it was so fun to see her, I was wishing she could have snuck into the dorms for a night to have some real girl-talk. We also stayed in a group with Colleen's friends from college and their friends and their friends... It was a great time, getting to know more girls who I have things in common with.
The week can be summed up with two words: SOUL FOOD...spiritual, emotional, and physical (yes, physical - I practically begged for extra gluten, nuts and dairy at every meal! ;) )

Sunday morning while I waited for Amanda so we could head home again, I spent the morning with my parents and Alina. It was good to be with them without distractions. I grew up wanting sisters and I'm just now (after 7 years) realizing that I actually DO have sisters. (kinda lame it took so long, I know, but when they were adopted there seemed to be so many years between us. Alina isn't a little girl anymore, she's growing up into such a fun cute girl.) It was fun to get to know Alina a little better and chat with my mom and dad. I always feel like I'm their "kid" again when it's just me and them...kinda nice sometimes.

I kept in contact with Cam, mostly through texts because, during the day I was in class from 9-5 and at night I didn't realize what time it was until it was WAY too late to call him. I am so lucky for a great guy that will let me get away. I got two texts from him that will make me smile forever when I think about them. One was, "For the life of me I CAN NOT get the elastic thing in Ella's hair!" It was so endearing to me that he was trying to do a squirmy, short-haired one year old's hair. And also, a video text of the meal he made for dinner on Sat. with all the kids telling me they missed me but how good of a cook Dad is. Watch out Cameron, you're gonna be on dinner duty now!! I came home to happy kids and a clean house; in fact I'm not sure they missed me! The kids seemed to have grown up in four days, especially Ella. She went from walk/crawling to running and became a little tornado of destruction - every article of clothing is on her floor right now because she emptied her drawers one by one while I was making dinner. Thanks, Cameron for holding down the fort {flawlessly!}. love ya.

Last Weekend and OTHER Random Moments

Cam and I got to go on a little weekend get-away last weekend. I'm now a new believer in weekend get-away's - NOT to GET AWAY from the kids but to be REJUVINATED and RECONNECTED to eachother. A night away is the perfect time for us to be away: long enough to get that just dating feeling back {again} but short enough that it's not too hard on the wallet or the kid-sitters. {Cameron's Parents; thank you, again. the kids had fun... and, we stopped over at my parents house for a night too - our kids never knew we were getting-away, they just had fun with their grandparents.}

We stayed at Little America in Salt Lake. I love downtown SLC. It's not overwhelming like Chicago but still PLENTY to do and see, easy to navigate and, since we're Utes and both lived downtown before {and after} we were married, it feels like home.

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We ate at our favorite places: Market Street Broiler and Caputos - if you're a Salt Laker stop by. Seriously. Market Street has the BEST clam chowder {you'd never know it was clam chowder, by the way, just DANG good soup} and Caputos is a little Italian Deli with THE BEST sandwiches on the planet. Really.

We went to a 9:20 movie at the Gateway. I slept through the WHOLE thing - WITH my MOUTH OPEN. Cameron's been teasing me ever since. I was TIRED!!

We tried to go to a session here at the temple but I realized my recomend was expired just before we got to the door. So we went into the remodeled visitors center. WOW. So much to learn about not just Temple Square, but the LDS church, and it's teachings, in general. Very neat. *if you want to know what we do in the temple, the above picture of a plaque from the Visitors Center pretty much sums it up. (want to know more? click here)

This little girl is growing, growing. I took this picture of her and a few days later put an outfit my Mom gave her on. She looked so cute I took some more pictures. I can't help it. I just wanna capture her cuteness!
FYI at 9 months Ella is 21 pounds, loves meat, she's rolling around to get where she wants to go and can get into a sitting position from laying down, almost crawling, smiling ALL.the.TIME. she's turned into a blanket snob - she will only sleep if she has one of her aden and anais blankets, still has only 2 bottom teeth, doesn't want to be snuggled when she's tired - just put her in her bed, loves to sing songs and play peek-a-boo, dances to music

We finally made it to a pumpkin patch - on NOVEMBER 1. We didn't get any pumpkins but we had fun in the mazes and corn "sand" box and this HUGE climbing pile of hey.

We found a little place in Glenn's Ferry with a "micro" hiking trail. Hiking is not the same here as it was in Colorado. We miss it. But this flat trail was at least {mostly} pretty and had other vegetation besides sage brush.

Landon has QUADRUPLED his AR reading goal twice. His teacher can't move him up anymore levels because the subject matter in higher level books isn't appropriate for 3rd graders. He's reading Harry Potter right now. He read the first four books in September and October. (Book 4 is over 700 pages and he got 100% on his reading test - the kid has a brain like a sponge, I tell ya, like his almost photographic memory dad. crazy) I made him take a little "Harry" break and read some other books - He likes Geronimo Stillton but he can read a whole book in a half hour. SO we're on the lookout for age-appropriate high level reading material (any ideas?). He just started HP #5 today.

While Cameron was on TDY, the last week of October, Landon sang in his Chior concert. He was nervous. He asked me to print off the words to Star Spangled Banner and sang it for 2 days straight to practice, so he wouldn't mess up.

Isaac is such a little wanna-be Big Boy lately. He trys so hard to do everything the older boys do. Earlier this week I took Austin to Target to spend his accumulated allowance money. Isaac wanted something SO much too, of course. So he "bought" these gloves with his "allowance" money. Made him so happy. He's been wearing them every day since.

Austin was the Special Person in his class last week. He got to present this poster and be the line leader all week. He picked out the pictures he wanted to put on his poster. He also drew a couple pictures for his class (the triangle picture is a drawing he drew of the mountains we stayed in when we went to Big Sky and Yellowstone - he even remembered to draw a ski trail)

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lots of fun going on around here lately

spring V A C A Y

We spent Spring Break in Utah... always fun to be around our families and friends

We met up with some friends at the Dino-museum in Ogden (we missed you Jessie). We wanted to meet up with more friends but Utah's spring break is this week so with kids in school this was as much as we could do. Landon had fun flirting with the girls and Austin was in heaven climbing the valcano and chasing the other boys around. Isaac - well he got "lost" twice; can't keep up with that kid! I miss my friends (thanks for letting the kids sluff school so we could see you guys!) but at least we all have a common denomenator: Utah.
We spent a lot of time just hanging out and being around eachother. We LOVE Grandmas and Grandpas
Ella turned two months old. Oh how I love this girl! She is the most pleasant baby. I've started calling her Stare Bear becasue she is happiest staring at someone while they talk to her. She smiles all the time. I know she has her first real belly laughs just below the surface - it will be soon. She still sleeps a LOT during the day and has a hard time settling down for bed before midnight but we're working on it.
As if keeping Zac out of trouble at home wasn't hard enough, keeping him out of trouble at my mom's: near impossible. Yes that is her lipstick he put on. {a little side note I've been wanting to document - I love this little boys voice! He sings all the time. He talks all the time. He's starting to scream less of the time. His normal voice sounds like Jar Jar from Star Wars, "that movie ISA cool." or "I want to go to THEESA store too." and when he's sad or worried about something he gets this little English accent, "Daud is MAUD at me." or "what's the MAUTER Dauddy?" LOVE this kid and his cute little voice}

Ella got to meet lots new people. The cousins wanted to hold her. I loved watching my Grandma - Ella's Great Grandma - meet her for the first time. something special about that

We did lots of Easter stuff. This was my attempt at an Easter picture. Not one for the mantel but a glimpse of reality. Isaac singing, Landon posing, Austin goofing off, and Ella screaming. "feed me already!"

I also tried to teach the kids the real reason we celebrate Easter. While the guys were at the priesthood session I told the kids the Easter story. We read some versus from the Bible and from the Book of Mormon. The next day my dad asked Isaac about Easter. I reminded him that we talked about Jesus the night before. "what happened to Jesus?" Isaac's response: "Jesus loves me!!"

Easter eggs at the Smed's. I didn't get pictures of the "BIG HUNT" because Easter morning the kids all woke up at 6:50. I got up and tried to convince them all to go back to sleep. No luck. So they all hunted on their own while I tried to keep them quiet and let the rest of the "normal" (the ones that sleep in on Sunday mornings) people sleep.

Easter eggs and General Conference at the Perigos.

Great week. Happy times. Loved it.