While The Cat's Away, The Mice Do Play

David went to Cheyenne, Wyoming for a few days in the beginning of May.  He had to take a continuing education course on "Exercise and the Frail Elderly."  I really wanted to tag along and bring the kids for a mini vacation.  I found a hotel that had bunk beds and free breakfast.  But the more I thought about the logistics of pulling the girls out of school, driving for six hours with the kids, hanging out all day in a strange town without David, etc., the less appealing it became.  I decided instead, that we would try to make the most of our time without Dad. 

He didn't leave until Friday afternoon, so most of the week was normal.  But after school on Friday, we picked up Payton and McKenna from their school.  We played at a park for an hour or so, then came back to our house for a little while.  When Kristin was finished with her shift at the hospital, she called me and I brought all six kids to her.  We ate dinner at the hospital cafeteria, which is really fancy, yummy cafeteria.  We ate outside by the ponds.  It was very fun.

That night, I had a horrible time sleeping.  I was aware of Dave's absence.  I missed having him nearby.  I heard every creak and clank in the house all night, certain that someone was going to break in and kill us all.  I ALMOST went downstairs and grabbed a kid to sleep next to me, but I guess I wasn't quite THAT desperate because I finally fell asleep.

The next day, I met Kristin and her kids at Costco.  We did a little shopping, then headed to a place called Kangaroo Zoo.  It's basically a warehouse filled with a dozen or more inflatable slides, bouncy houses, etc.  In other words, its like heaven for energetic little kids.  Our kids zipped around that place non-stop for a little over an hour before they were totally exhausted and each one wounded in some way (mostly friction burns on elbows).  From there, we ran over to a cool new park in Ogden.  They had toys I've NEVER seen before. They were scientific and futuristic - oh I can't explain them.  I wish I'd taken pictures!  Maybe I'll go back and take some because I honestly can't describe the toys, but they were amazing.  That evening, we got pizza and watched a movie together.  Fun day!  Oh and I had no problems sleeping that night. 

There were a couple of toys that only little kids, like Bronson could go on.  Toddler toys - good idea in a place like that!

McKenna

Josh

Alison

Bronson

Joshua

Bronson and Payton (all my pictures of Payton were blurry - the camera can't capture someone as fast as him!)

Ali in pink and Payton in green. I don't know the other kids.  Taken through a mesh window.  This was the favorite toy of the older kids.

McKenna and Nicki stuck together the whole time.

Sunday was Cinco de Mayo as well as my little brother's 30th birthday.  After church, we headed over to my parents' house for a fiesta!  We celebrated both the holiday and the birthday in STYLE!!! 

My sister Katie had a "30 and thrilling" sash and a crown left over from her 30th birthday.



Ole!  I bought those plate tins at Costa Vida.  I thought they were super cool!

Katie's family (Scott's in-laws) were all there too.  They're such fun, easy going people!  Just like Katie!

Scott's awesome birthday cake, complete with light sabers. 

Wow!  That's some seriously blue frosting!

Kristin brought a pinata.  All the kids took a turn trying to crack it, but it was the birthday boy who finally got it open!

Adam loves the trampoline at Grandma's house!  But he likes to have someone on it with him.  So while all the kids were busy with the pinata, his mom bounced with him for a while. 

What a fun weekend we had!  Too bad David missed out an all of it.  Of course, he was having a blast learning about faulty hips and neurological deficits. 

And BINGO Was His Name-O

I'm always looking for a good time for my family - preferably a FREE good time.  On April 19th, we went to a free pancake and bingo night put on by the city recreation department (the same group that had a Valentine's dance a couple of months ago).  Yeah, I know it's kind of geeky, but guess what?  I'm a geek.  Anyone surprised by that?  Didn't think so.  And we had a fun time, so who cares?!?!?

Wow!  Looks like Bronny got a blackout!

We ate a lot of free pancakes and played many, many games of Bingo.  Dave was the first person in our family to win.  He got a candy bar for his prize.  The girls were green with envy, but they each won their own by the end of the evening.  Josh played on the bleachers most of the time.  He had a total blast.  I love to see him run around like a crazy man - he's pretty cute to me.  Bronson played for a little while, then went to the bleachers with Josh, then came back and vomited all over the floor.  He wasn't sick, he just ate too many pancakes then ran too hard or something.  Or maybe Dave did something to induce the vomit because he QUICKLY volunteered to go home and take Bronson to bed.  A little too quickly...hmm.... 

Look Ma!  I won!  Ali is MAD in the background.

Anyway, Dave took the baby home and the rest of us stayed until they kicked us out.  Sadly, Josh (whose card I was keeping track of while he played on the bleachers) and I never won a candy bar.   Sweet hearted Nicole took notice of this and gave her winnings to Josh.  I LOVE to see that kind of thing happen between my kids.  It warms my heart.  Makes me want to play Bingo more often!

A Lovely Surprise

Ask me my favorite flower and I won't hesitate to answer.  Tulips.  They have been for as long as I can remember.  They're so pretty and simple and joyful!  So imagine my surprise when on my first spring in Utah, I discovered that our house is surrounded in HUNDREDS of tulips! HUNDREDS!  Big, bright, beautiful ones!  Most of them are yellow, but the side of our house has several colors mixed in.

It has been such a joy for me all spring long to see these beautiful flowers!  I consider it a tender mercy of the Lord that the house I bought in Utah would be bursting with my favorite pick-me-up!  I kept a vase of tulips on the entry table for over a month.  Each time I walked past my table, I'd smile. 

 

 

 

Then on about May 1st, a wind storm blew all the petals off, leaving behind just a bunch of empty stems sticking up out of the ground. Oh well. It was fantastic while it lasted, and I've got next spring to look forward to.

 



 

Baptism Day

Nicole Rae Gee was baptized on Saturday, May 13th at 2:00 pm at the "stone church" in Layton, Utah.  Our stake has each ward take their own time for baptisms, so it was just Nicki and one other boy from our ward (Jayden Outz, for future reference).  Grandma Smith gave a talk on the Holy Ghost, Grandma Gee gave a prayer, and Aunt Kristin played the piano.  We had lots of family there, so Nicki felt very special.  It was especially exciting for her to have some of her Idaho cousins show up.  That's quite a lot of driving in one day!  Their sacrifice made her day extra special.  Really, everyone did!  Everyone was so kind and thoughtful and generous with her and also so helpful to me throughout the day.  What a blessing family is!  What a tremendous impact every one of us makes on each other's lives!  I sure love our family - both the Smith side and the Gee side!

Let's see if I can do this: L to R: Jim, David, Evan, Scott above Jodi holding Eden, Katie, Megan, Payton, other Katie, Maddie, Isabelle, and Alison above Sander, who's above Hannah, Kristi in back, Nicki in the white, McKenna behind her.  Suzette, Ainsley, Addie, Gracie, Grandma Gee, Grandma Smith with Josh poking his head out from behind her, Grandma Church, Bronson and part of my head, Kristin, Grandpa Smith.

Our family.  That's about the best picture we could get.  Hard to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.

David baptized and confirmed Nicki.  It was so fun for me to be in the dressing room with her right after the baptism.  I'm really going to miss that special moment when my boys are baptized!  She was so happy and glowing and jittery with excitement (or maybe she was just freezing).  We stood in front of a big mirror and looked at the newest baptized member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints for a while.  While I was helping her get dressed, I stopped and looked her in the eyes and told her how much I loved her, and how special I thought she was, and how blessed I felt to be her mother.  She smiled and I thought we were having an important moment, until she looked at me and said, "Wait a minute.  Did you tell Alison all this when she got baptized too?" 

I regret to admit that I don't remember too much of what was said when David confirmed her.  Partly because I waited too long to write this post and partly because I was wrestling two very un-interested boys during the confirmation.  I remember him saying that she would continue to be an example and very loved by her parents and siblings throughout her life and that she would have a strong testimony of Jesus Christ and His gospel.  Those two things are good enough for me!

The cousins all came up to congratulate her afterwards.  So cute!  The man in the back is Brother Brown from our Bishopric.

After the baptism, everyone came over to our house for lunch/dinner.  We ate.  And ate.  And ate.  And tried to give away plates and plates of food.  And ate. And ate.  Then slept.  Then woke and ate.  And ate. And ate.  It was a blast!  It had been a long time since I'd had the opportunity to plan and shop for and prepare a big spread like that.  I LOVE to do it!  I guess I'll spare you the details because you probably don't love food like I do.  Oh, but it was fun!  I loved visiting with everyone and it's fun to watch the two sides of our extended family mingle. 

I had fun making a display of all Nicki's portraits throughout her life. It was a little shrine to Nicki.

So that is the nutshell-version of Nicki's big day.  We are so proud of our girl!  She is a natural peacemaker and friend to everyone.  I am so blessed to have a front row seat to watch her life as she continues to grow and learn.  It's gonna be quite a show!

It's Showtime!

We're still pretty new to the area.  We're learning about the traditions of our school and ward and neighborhood.  One tradition we recently learned about is our school's spring musical show.  I guess every year,Creekside Elementary School puts on a show.  Each grade performs one musical number and the entire school sings the grand finale together.  The kids worked on their numbers for months.  They learned actions, had to wear specific clothing, and everything.  If you couldn't attend, you had to let your teachers know in advance so that they could fix the choreography and placement.  It was a pretty big deal!  It was held at our local high school's auditorium.  It's a big auditorium, but we had no trouble packing it!  I guess with the whole school inviting their families (grandparents, relatives, etc.) there's bound to be a big crowd. 

Waiting for the show to start.  We were pretty high up in the balcony.

Alison's grade sang "Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better" from Annie Get Your Gun.  She already knew the song by heart because it's one that we listen to in the van all the time. 

Do you see Ali in the blue and white?  Right next to her is one of the ladies that acted as an Emcee/side show. She and another lady acted like janitors who got pushed in to emceeing the show when the real emcee had to rush to the hospital because his wife was in labor.   I'm telling you, it was quite the production. 

The girls all wore dresses and were given flowers for their hair.  The boys wore solid colored shirts and were given snazzy hats.  Alison told me that she was supposed to act all annoyed by the boys, but she was supposed to look out at the audience.  She was concerned that someone might be offended by her because she was SO good at her facial expressions.

Nicole's grade sang "Hakuna Matata" from The Lion King.  Their dance was very cute.  She practiced it lots and lots at home, so I knew she had it down! 

Nicki is the third person from the left in the polka dotted dress. 

 Her class had to wear black, navy, or brown clothing and each person was given an animal print visor. 

 

The grand finale was "So Long, Farewell" from The Sound Of Music.  They had a few children sing solos at the appropriate times.  They were very good!  Dave and I were about the only adults in the whole crowd who sang "Good Byeeeeeeee" back to the kids at the end.  Seriously?!?!  Come on, people!!!! Haven't any of you seen the movie?!?!?!?  Hee hee.  I know we're geeks, but we really did sing it back and no one else did. 

 

This picture may be blurry, but it's the best one I took after the show.  Sorry. 



General Conference

I love General Conference.  I NEED General Conference.  I vote we hold them more often!  Just kidding.  I have more than enough to study, improve upon, and implement in my life as it is.

My kids love General Conference too, but I'm afraid it's not for the same reasons I love it.  They actually refer to it as "Candy Conference."  I've explained in the past how we play a listening game for one session.  We set out several bowls of candy, each with a picture and a word attached to it (like family, faith, temple, etc.)  Each time a speaker says a specific word, our kids can have a treat from the corresponding bowl of candy.  I have mixed emotions about our little tradition.  In some ways, its really fun. Our kids LOVE conference and they are listening very closely to the speakers.  On the other hand, it's not very reverent (we learned the hard way on our very first candy conference to pick our words carefully - you really don't want them screaming out certain words every few seconds).  Then there's always the, "Mom, can we count 'parents' as 'family'?", "Bronson!  Stop stealing the candy!  He didn't say 'scriptures' yet!",  "He said 'President Monson' - does that count as 'Prophet'?", and "Oh man!  Not 'faith' again!  When's he gonna say 'temple'?" commentary that doesn't really add to the spirit.  Also, its not very healthy.  Dave and I have been trying to be good, but the month of April was stacked against us.  I mean, we still had Easter Candy and Birthday Cake in the house and on the hips!  So, with these things in mind, David and I decided to tone things down a bit this time.  We'd have less bowls to choose from and have a few with healthy treats in them like yogurt covered raisins, pretzels, and nuts.  Good plan, right?  I thought so.  But every plan has a weakness and our plan's weakness was sending David to the store to buy the healthy treats.  He came home with a few healthy things and a few unhealthy things, which added up to a lot of bowls of treats!  I tried to be mad at him, but the dieting fat girl inside of me was pumped!  Maybe next time...maybe not...

The really exciting part of conference this year was that David got tickets to the Sunday afternoon session.  That is definitely one of the great things about living in Utah.  We're close enough to attend a session of general conference and literally sit in the same room as the prophet!  David, Alison and Nicole went.  It was the girls' first time.  Nicole barely became old enough two days before.  I was so happy for them to be there and feel the spirit in the session. Dave said they did great.  It wasn't easy for Nicole to sit for almost an hour prior to the session as well as the two hour session itself, but she did a good job.  Alison was soaking it all up.  She wanted to discuss every talk with me when she came home.  After the session, they walked around temple square for a little while and then strolled back to their car.  They had a wonderful day.  Meanwhile, I stayed home with the boys.  I timed their naps so that I was able to sit alone in a quiet house and soak up the whole session without any distractions.  It was amazing. 

Nicki's Birthday

I can NOT believe that my little Nicki Rae is eight years old!  Where did the time go!?!?!?  She has been such a joy to have in our family from day one.  She literally lights up any room she walks into. She's simply irresistible!  When she was a baby, total strangers would kiss her and/or threaten to steal her when they saw her at the grocery store, etc.  Once a hard-lookin', gruff-talkin' tattooed biker woman walked past us at the court house (we were getting something recorded on our property - I'm not sure why the biker woman was there) and grumbled, "That's one cute baby."   She really is.  Still.  Always will be.  That's not to say that she doesn't have her moments...her temper flares up almost as quickly as mine.  Yikes. 

Her birthday fell on a Friday this year.  I think it was a pretty fabulous day for her.  After scripture study, she opened a few presents from her family.  She got a few fun things, and even better, some cash!  Then she had a special breakfast comprised of foods she picked out herself - sugary cereal and apple juice. 


Josh is supervising.

I love her cool, clear umbrella.

School was wonderful because There wasn't any!   Her birthday fell on Spring Break this year.  She brought fresh donuts for her class treat on the following Monday.  For lunch, we met Grandma and Grandpa Smith at NYPD pizza.  She got free dessert for her birthday.  Wow!  Have you been keeping track of her diet so far?  Can you say "sugar rush"?  Grandma and Grandpa gave her her very first set of scriptures.  She was thrilled!  I remember my first set when I was eight.  It's pretty neat to see your name spelled out on a book - a book with golden-edged pages! 

After lunch, we drove to Ogden and picked up Payton and McKenna from school.  Kristin had to work, so we watched them for a few hours.  It worked our perfectly!  Nicki was thrilled to have a cousin play-date on her birthday.  When Kristin got off work, she came over and gave me a hand with the birthday party.  Megan came to help too. She was awesome! Between Kristin, Megan and I, we kept things pretty much in control.  It also helped that David took Payton and the boys to Burger King for most of the time.


Megan and the birthday girl.

Speaking of the party, here's what we did:  Nicki had an "almost sleep-over" party.  Everyone came in Pajamas and brought blankets, pillows, etc.  We decorated pillow cases with permanent markers.  I had pre-stenciled each girls' name on their pillow case, so they just colored in the letters.  Then, they signed each others pillow cases.  It was a fun, easy craft.  After that, we ate breakfast.  Since no one would be around in the morning, we had our pancakes for dinner instead.  What a hit!


Breakfast!

After breakfast, the kids painted their toe nails and watched TV.  I gave each girl a bottle of nail polish (Wal Mart - cheap!) and some toe separators (see previous comment in parenthesis).  Megan was a HUGE help during this part.  She's really good at painting toes.  Nicki had one friend at the party that was a boy, so he just watched TV during this part.  I think he took some nail polish home to his mom, though. The great thing about this activity is that we're getting new carpet so I didn't care if they spilled or anything.

Painting toes.

Nicki opened presents next. She got a lot of fun stuff!  Then, we ate cheesecake and root beer floats.  What a combo!  That's what Nicki wanted.  After that, everyone went home and slept in their own, comfortable beds and woke up pleasant and refreshed.  I'm all about "almost sleep-overs."  They're win/win in my book!

Payton came back from Burger King in time to help light the candles.

We had a little balloon fight while we waited for moms to pick up their kids.

I really don't think we could have crammed one more fun thing into Nicole's Birthday if we tried.  I hope she felt as loved and she truly is.

April 4th

Grandma Smith's birthday is the day before Nicole's.  She had a great day with my dad.  They worked in their yard together (I know it sounds crazy, but it can be really fun to work in the yard with your spouse!) and they went shopping at Citicreek.  Since it was a day or two before general conference, they got to meet several general authorities.  That was cool.  In the evening, they met up with their kids for a birthday party.

This year, we decided to celebrate with a family gathering at a park in Kaysville.  It was so much fun!  Each family brought their own food so we could all eat as healthily or unhealthily as we'd like.  I packed sack lunches for each of us in our family.  I thought is was a blast!  I never get to brown-bag it!  The kids ran around and played on the park toys, fed the ducks in the stream, and had a blast.  We adults visited and ate and had a blast too!  I made two cakes: one was a from-scratch carrot cake with cream cheese frosting.  The other was an out-of-a-box yellow cake with canned chocolate frosting.  They were both delightful!  And I know because I ate too much of both!  I'm no cake snob - I don't play favorites...


Nicki and a duck feather. 

Alison, Megan, McKenna.  Isn't that a cute picture?  Megan took it.

Around the time our family was winding up the birthday party, Shawn and Amy's family came to the park!  Yes- I said Shawn and Amy!  They were on a family vacation and they stopped to see us as they were passing through!  It so happens that it was Amy's birthday too.  Crazy, huh!  She didn't have any cake, though.  Sugar and Amy don't get along.  Our kids were ecstatic to see their long-lost cousins from Idaho!  They played together at the park for a few minutes, then they all came over to our house for a quick tour.  I felt TERRIBLE about the state of our house.  We're in the middle of a paint job.  But, what can you do?  Now the next time they see it, they'll appreciate it all the more, right?  It was fun to talk to Amy again and I loved watching the kids play together.  We kept them too long - I know they probably didn't arrive at their final destination until very late that night, but we had so much fun seeing them!

I feel bad I didn't take many pictures, but we were just too excited to think about it!  That's Caden and Maddie.

I stole this picture from Amy's blog:  Maddie and Alison.  I couldn't believe how much ALL of Shawn and Amy's kids have grown!  They said the same thing about ours.  Makes me kind of sad about missing out on the every day, growing up stuff.