I am woman...

So most of you know that I made a trek to Utah BY MYSELF (as in without my husband). I have to give credit to my Garmin as she helped me get there without a glitch. My kids were pretty much awesome the whole trip (a few exceptions, of course) and we had an AWESOME time. Next time, I won't pack so much and I might have a suit case for each house/hotel we stay in as unloading and loading and then unloading and then loading again 6 large bags FIVE times by yourself while carrying an 18 month old is less than fun. Oh how I appreciate a man to carry my overzealous packing after this trip!! Here is a recap with lotso pix:

The new Smith Family Living Center. I can't believe how different BYU looks!! This is with Sam and Val's family. We had so much fun hanging out with that cute family!!
In front of the BYU law library where I spent many of my days studying (in hopes of hanging out a little bit more with a favorite law student).
At the creamery where Levi is wearing his newly purchased BYU beanie...I spent way too much money on brainwashing BYU paraphanelia...with ice cream to seal the deal.

On another day of our trip we visited Kif and Stirling and gang and went to "Color me Mine" a pottery store and the kids painted plates and mugs and absolutely LOVED it.
Had to document the lovely cheapskate hotel I splurged on. Here was the first time I nearly lost it on the trip as I had 6 bags a stroller, 4 very tired, hungry and wound up kids and went to find the elevator to take us to the top floor where our room was...only to discover that $40/night hotels don't HAVE elevators. Hmmmm....
The pioneer village MIGHT have been our favorite part of the whole week (though it is impossible to choose one favorite as we had so much fun everywhere!). The kids dressed up in pioneer clothes and had free reign to roam all over the village. They had "Deseret bucks" that they handed out to hardworking kids and then a town store where they could buy candy and toys with their money. This was highly motivating to Levi! There was a train they could ride at will and games, crafts, it was so much fun! (Mostly b/c of all the older kids, I got the chance to sit and visit with my SIL's).

all in all, a great trip. I hope to do it again in the future, and though trips with Spencer are a million times more fun, I am happy to know I am not housebound when he can't take off work.

Our Hungarian Missionary Returns!

The long anticipated arrival of Uncle Trent finally came two weeks ago (June 25th to be precise) much to the joy of my family. We waited forever with our 15 signs at the security gate and you can see the look of awe and amazement on the faces of my star-struck kiddos. They were so happy to see him. Even Caden joined in for big hugs for the never before seen to him uncle. It was a great reunion and we are so happy he is back and I am so grateful for the example he is to my kids.

Two wheels?

My darling, brave, little Emma started to ride her bike without training wheels this w/e. At first it was wildly successful as she had encountered a cousin who (briefly) younger than she was quite good at navigating a two wheeler. Emma had some decent balance, speed, and agility on her initial attempts. After a multitude of both painful and painless falls she would bounce back up with a tear in her eye and say (with thumbs up) "I am fine. Let's do it again." Things were going more or less swimmingly until (I have to add here that it was ME who brought this fatal thing to her attention) we taught her to use the brakes to stop rather than her shoes and consequently her knees and hands...which unfortunately resulted in both RAPID and CONSTANT braking. Now, for those of you who try and ride your bike, balance, and hit the brakes repeatedly at the same time, you are probably well aware that it is substantially more difficult to make forward progress. After many (many) inch long "retries" we put the bike back in the garage. Hopefully she will forget about the newly discovered brakes soon and we can move on to bigger and better things!!

Family Easter Pictures

For various reasons I became obsessed with trying to coordinate our family for Easter this year and then when we did finally all match, I had to document the effort! Other than the pouring rain, it worked great to have friends take our pictures before church (to avoid the matted down "I just survived sacrament meeting" look that we had for the rest of the day). We were hoping for some spring time pictures, but with the rain and then the wind (which kept blowing my white skirt all the way up) we settled for the very spring-like brick building background. In addition, if you are wondering why I am a few shades darker than the rest of my family...details regarding my exotic solo vacation might have to wait till a later post...

Spring Break Fun

We went to Eagle Crest for Spring Break and it was SO much fun. It always amazes me how much more fun I am on vacation. The kids dont' irritate me, there is less fighting and whining and impatience from me. What does that mean? I wonder if I am just too stressed and perfectionistic at home so I am the cause of all the grief we have on a day to day basis. I really wish I could learn to relax and enjoy regular life as much as I relax and enjoy vacation! For me, the appeal of a vacation isn't just the exotic location (which didn't qualify for this vacation, though it is certainly a nice place, we had a hot tub in our house and it held to about 60 degrees and sunny the whole week...quite a step up from 45 and raining at home), but just the shutting off of outside pressure and life! No phone, calling, homework, and who cares if the kids watch more TV than usual? I don't get paranoid when they eat some candy in the afternoon. Wear your swimsuit all day. Sleep in. Don't clean up your room. Who cares if there are a few dishes in the sink? NO GUILT! Ahhh...I love it.

Quick Catch up

My mom and I at the Oregon Culinary Institute after our appy class. We made Louisiana Shrimp, Caviar Torte (yikes), and salmon cakes. It was so fun!!

Kiara came home from school before the night of the school Talent Show and said "Mom I have to make a bug costume for our bug parade" and I with Levi's homework and running kids to everything there was just no way that I could make anything. Meanwhile, she spent hours in the office cutting and gluing away. I let her have at it till I had two minutes to help her. Before that two minutes arrived, out she comes dressed up in her paper bug costume that was probably 10 times better than what I would have made for her. It had sleeves and everything! So fun when they can start to take care of themselves (occasionally). I personally thought she was the cutest bug there...

This weekend we went to see the much publicized "Wicked". I was a little skeptical just b/c of all the hype...but after, thought it was awesome! We went with my parents and Derek and Jaymie and had a great time.

In an effort to win "Dad of the Year" Spencer not only made a Pine wood derby car for Levi (who took 2nd place by like 1/100th of a second or something ridiculous), but to be all-inclusive, made one for the girls too. They only got to race theirs one or two times, but both of their cars won as well. The girls and Levi were thrilled with their derby cars. (Grey car is Emma's, Camo is Levi's, Orange is Kiara's). Such fun.

Boy Crazy?

While Levi appears to abhor all women of any age, size or adorability (excluding his mother, of course), Emma will be giving us a run for our money.

Due to a number of factors, I decided to switch Emma from morning preschool to afternoon preschool. The transition has gone virtually flawlessly, except for one small glitch...Emma has fallen for a boy in her class. She seems to have fallen pretty hard too. First day, she starts naming her dolls after him (much to the poor boy's chagrin), then the next day of preschool when I come to pick her up, both teachers are nearly in tears telling me the story of Emma's persuit tactic of the day. She changed from her preschool clothes into a revealing little princess dress (that is a gripe for another entry...why in the world do they make clothing for toddlers so skanky?) and kept putting her cheek to her shoulder (see picture) and batting her eyes. When the teacher asked Emma what she was doing, she replied that she was "calling for her Prince". They asked who her prince was, and she said "Sam". Emma explained to them, quite frankly, that if you want to get a boy to be your prince, you needed to "call them. Like this." (again, see picture). Later that day, I asked her what Sam thought of her provocative come on and she said very matter-of-factly and with zero remorse: "He just threw a stick at me." AHHHHH!! Not only boy crazy, but NOT READING REJECTION CUES. Does it get any worse than this?

At church today, the same boy (Sam) has an older brother (also a very cute boy) who picks up our fast offerings, and passes the sacrament. She would not stop bouncily waving to him and I was practically threatening her with her life to be reverent, when by some stroke of bad luck he ended up passing it to our row (with Emma sitting at the very end...more bad luck) and handing Emma the tray. She literally looked star struck. She blindly grabbed the bread as she could not take her eyes off him and her grin was nearly bursting her face. I tried to ignore her bubbly bouncing in the seat, and passed the tray down, but after the poor guy (who handled the whole thing remarkably well) moved to the next row, she puts both her hands together and squints her eyes while smiling (again, rather wildly) and says: "This is the best day EVER! Dallin gave ME the sacrament."

Did my child turn 13 overnight or something? Have we watched too many Princess movies? I am in awe of her sudden fascination and pray it is a short phase that she will soon grow out of. Please little girl, start star gazing over soccer balls and Nancy Drew books...and by all means, NO MORE PRINCESS MOVIES!