Easter Eve

The Saturday before Easter is always pretty fun around here, thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Smith's neighborhood Easter egg hunt.  They live in a circle with about twenty five houses or so.  Each year, many of those houses participate in the hunt.  They leave eggs and treats in their front yards and invite all their grandkids to take a treat from each house.  It's kind of like trick-or-treating in the spring.  Our kids get so much loot from the hunt that the Easter Bunny doesn't really have much left to do.  This year, Kristin's family and our family joined in.  Katie's family decided not to come because Megan is older and Adam doesn't care.  We missed them, though. 

Waiting for the hunt to start.  Nicole gave the boys cool hairdos!

Here we go!

Ali

This is what happy looks like.

McKenna and Nicole running to get more eggs.

Nicki, McKenna, Ali, Bronson, Payton, Joshua

Well, between these two pictures, you can find a good picture of each kid...
 

But we didn't miss Katie's family for long, because that afternoon we had a big family picnic.  My parents wanted to do something all together to celebrate, and let off a little steam, and say thanks for the help during the election.  So we all met at a park in South Ogden and ate a TON of food, provided by Mom and Dad.  Then, we played (well, I just held a sleeping baby, but everyone else played) for a while.  It was a beautiful day and we had a great time.  It's fun to watch the kids grow up a little and start to play basketball and Frisbee-type games instead of just swinging, etc.

Could life be any better?

Don't you just want to kiss those chubby cheeks? And the baby's, too?



Family game of PIG.

Nicki and McKenna

Bronson looks cute, but he was getting sick. 

Looking for shapes in clouds.

Kristin, Scot, Bronson, Grandpa Smith

Adam and Katie

Adam loves to swing!



Frisbee!

Who do you think will catch it?

Hanging out in the van with the baby.

In the evening, we colored Easter eggs.  For the second year in a row, I almost forgot about them.  Last year, we dyed them on Easter morning right before eating them. 

Mariln the Ghost Fish

Last October, Joshua received a beautiful red Beta fish for a birthday present.  He had really been wanting a pet of his own, so a fish seemed like a safe way to go.  He named his fish Marlin, after Nemo's dad.  We've been keeping him on our kitchen counter.

For the first little while, we fed Marlin and watched him, and waited for him to die.  Not just because I have a bad track record with fish, but because Marlin wouldn't eat.  Anything.  Ever.  The instructions on the fish food say to give him two pellets twice a day.   We'd give him one ONCE per day, and he STILL never touched it.  Every few days, we'd fish out the uneaten food so that the water wouldn't get too gross. 

So we waited for Marlin to die.  And we waited.  And waited.  Sometimes we thought he was dead because he'd be holding so still, but  he'd always wake up.  After a couple of months, David began to wonder if Marlin was a zombie.  Or maybe a ghost fish.  How could he still be swimming without food in his stomach!?!  Finally, months and months after Josh's birthday, we saw him eat.  Hooray for Marlin the ghost fish!

But the story of Marlin's survival skills doesn't end there.  A few weeks ago, David was performing the weekly water refreshing.  He purifies water overnight, and the next morning, he scoops out about two thirds of the old water and replaces it with the new, clean water.  Well, on this particular day, after draining out the old water, David realized that Marlin was no longer in his fish tank.  He quickly looked down the kitchen sink (you know, the one with a disposal in it!!) just in time to see Marlin wiggling, then slipping into the drain.  David immediately threw everything that was under our sink all over the kitchen floor and undid our pipes.  There, in the U-bend, David rescued Marlin.  He put the poor guy back in his tank and thought, "Well, that's it.  He's dead now for sure."  I had to agree.  I thought, "Marlin may be a pretty tough old guy, but there's no way he could survive the drama and filth that he just underwent."

So again, we held our breath and waited for Marlin the Ghost Fish to die.  And again, he lived.  Pretty impressive, if you ask me.  Either impressive or spooky...

The County Convention

I debated how much of this story to write on my blog, and I've come to this conclusion:  This isn't just a blog, its our family history.  I print it up every year and save it for our family.  I don't write this blog to impress anyone or say, "look at us," but to preserve memories for my posterity.  And I definitely want my great grandchildren to hear this story.

Saturday, April 12th, was the Davis County Republican Party's County Convention.  It was the day that the 900 delegates from all the precincts in Davis county would vote for their candidates.  It was a BIG day!!!

I wasn't able to help out as much as I'd like to with my dad's campaign.  But thankfully, Katie called me several times per day.  Sometimes she'd ask for advice ("What should I title this email?"  "Listen to this post - does it sound right?" "Who should we invite to this event?" etc.).  Other times, she'd just update me on what was happening or vent about crazy political people who drive her crazy.  I was so grateful that she did this because it made me feel useful and involved.  It was such a huge undertaking - and so stressful! 

In order to avoid a primary election (and the stress/time/expense that goes along with it), Dad needed to get 60% of the votes.  Going into the convention, we honestly had no idea if he would be able to do it.  When you looked at the actual candidates and their qualifications, it was a no-brainer.  Dad was clearly the best candidate, but you never know what other people see.  You know, there are some really crazy people out there - and many of them are political.  Plus, let me just say that people can say very mean and hurtful things in the political arena.  No one said anything terrible about Dad, but even the little digs hurt!  I don't like politics! 

Dad had two opponents. The woman, Michelle Sharf, was running a crazy BIG campaign.  She had some very vocal supporters and was working her tail off.  Frankly, she scared us.  The man, Barry Flitton, wasn't doing much campaign-wise, but he: a) made some disparaging remarks about both of his opponents, which has the potential to sway some delegates and b) just by virtue of being a third person in the running made it pretty hard for either of the other two candidates to hit the needed 60% of the votes. 

A day or two before the convention, Katie sent me a rough draft of dad's speech for the convention.  She asked me to read it and give her any comments or advice I had.  That night, my parents, Katie, and Dad's two campaign advisers spent a long time fine tuning it.  Making it as concise and clear, etc. as possible.  I wasn't there, but I think it was a long and stressful night. 

On the night before the convention, my dad held an open house for delegates.  Katie and Kristin attended.  I showed up near the end. After everyone left, we listened to Dad's speech and gave him our opinions.  I'm not sure if we helped or hurt him.  We all spewed out advice, but we didn't really know what we were talking about.  He ended up saying, "Thanks for the advice, but I think I'll take it from here," more or less.  I thought it was a good speech, the points he was making were important and good, but it just didn't sound very much like my dad.  I figured he just needed to get more comfortable with it so that he could make it his own. 

After the speech session, we had a really wonderful night with our family.  We ate left over cookies and fruit from the open house while we talked and expressed our love for each other and support for Dad.  We had a very special, emotional family prayer, given by Kristin.  Then, I headed home.  I felt so good and peaceful after that night!  All of us did!  It was a significant event in Dad's campaign and in all of our lives.  It really didn't matter if Dad won or not after that.  Either way, we knew that he ran a good, hard, clean and positive campaign and that made him the winner no matter what the votes said.   In some ways, we all kind of hoped that he'd lose and be spared the pain of actually being County Commissioner for 4 years.  I said it would be kind of like Abraham and Isaac -- the Lord would say, "I see that you're willing to go through with this, but I'll spare you the pain."  Mom and Dad started talking about mission plans if he lost, etc.  We were all very much in a "Thy will be done" kind of a place. 

The next day, the day of the convention, an associate of Dad's wrote a very nice and .flattering email entitled "5 things you don't know about Jim Smith" and sent it to every delegate in the county.  It talked about what an exceptional leader, brilliant business man and good person he is.  Dad didn't ask him to write it or anything - he just did it because he wanted to.  It was so nice!  When Dad called to thank him for the kind words, he said, "Jim, about your speech.  People don't vote for policies, they vote for people."  Somehow, those words resonated with dad in a major way.  He decided to totally re-write his speech.  We all said, "Great!  Go for it!  We trust you." 

So the convention started at 3:00 in the afternoon.  David was a delegate so he had to be there.  All of my family that could attend were there working the crowd.  I stayed home and babysat Kristin's kids so that she could be there (babysitting Kristin's kids actually makes my life easier because they keep my kids entertained).  Occasionally, David would call or text me so that I didn't feel totally out of the loop.  I could give many more details about the convention and his opponents' tactics, but I'd better move the story along...

Brian got off work around 5:00 pm and brought pizza over to my house for the kids.  They were all eating and happily watching Frozen, so Brian insisted that I go over to the convention for a while. He even dropped me off at the front door.  I only stayed for about an hour, and nothing was happening at all while I was there, but at least I was able to witness a little bit of it.  Then, I went back home and Brian took the left over pizza back to the convention to feed the hungry masses there.  When Dad gave his speech, both David and Katie texted me saying that it was fantastic.  "Knocked it out of the park!" was an actual quote from Katie.  I couldn't wait to hear it.  (Katie Smith video taped it). 

The kids had a fun night playing together, watching TV, making ice cream sundaes, etc.  Around 10:00 pm, Kristin and Brian came over.  Kristin told me all about it in the way only Kristin can!  She's a great story teller - I almost felt like I was there.  She talked about Michelle Sharf's HUGE camper with banners and her dozens of supporters in turquoise shirts that filed up onto the stage while she gave her speech.  She told me how Barry Flitton pledged to give 20% of his salary back to the county if he was elected and that he got a huge response for it!  She talked about how disorganized the convention was and how crazy the whole thing felt.  She said that Dad's speech was amazing!  Nothing like ANY of the other speeches.  His presence and demeanor were both so powerful and yet comfortable.  He was animated and dynamic and commanding.  He spoke a little bit about policy for a minute, but then said that he wanted people to know a little bit about him personally.  He said the best way to do that was to talk about the two men who influenced his life the most.  Then he spoke about both of my grandfathers.  He told of Grandpa Smith, who was born on the dry farms of Idaho and moved to California during the depression.  Who, after losing a 13 year old son to kidney failure, paid off his medical bills by building the doctor a new office.  He was never rich, but he was hard working and honest.  Then he spoke about Grandpa Church who was stationed on Guam when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor.  Three days later, he was captured and spent the entire war in POW camps, yet he never became bitter.  He said that these two men are his mentors.  It was an amazing speech.  My sister said that she was sobbing (we both were crying as she told the story).  She said the spirit was literally in the room and she knew that both Grandpas were present.  She said, "I don't care if a single person votes for him.  I know how fabulous he is."

So Kris and Bri left.  The girls went to bed.  Eventually, David came home.  He was telling me about his experience when, at around 11:30 pm, the phone rang. I ran like a mad woman to it, then froze.  I had to force myself to answer it.  It was painful!  I said, "Hello?"  It was Katie.  She said, "Kelley."  I was dying.  I didn't want to hear, but I had to know.  Finally, after what felt like an eternity, Katie cryingly said, "He won in a landslide."  I started crying on the spot and said, "What?!?!"  She said, "He quadrupled the other people's votes!  He had 71% of the vote.  Michelle had 18% and Barry had 10%."  It was a miracle!  What a relief!  What a blessing for both of my parents!  It's been fun to hear some of the stories from my other siblings as time passes about what they experienced and how it all went down, but I think I'd better end this novel.  Let's just say that the three weeks leading up to the convention were tough, but the closeness and love that we felt as a family in those last two days made it all worth it.

And of course we are all over the top thrilled for Jim Smith, the Republican candidate for county commissioner seat B.  Now we just have to do this again one more time in the fall...

Do-Dads

I few sundry items to write about:

*I always write about "candy conference" - the general conference session when we have bowls full of candy linked to several words.  The kids can take a piece of candy from a bowl each time they hear its corresponding word.  It may be a little bit rowdy at times, but I love it for two reasons.  1 - the kids are listening to the talks.  They aren't in la-la land playing with their toys or napping or complaining.  They're LISTENING!  And 2 - they genuinely love general conference.  Sure, it may not be for the same reasons I love general conference, but I'll take it anyway.  I can totally see this tradition going on forever - even after the kids are gone...

This year, our amazing home teacher came the week before conference.  He gave a lesson about the importance of anchors (he used to be a professional salmon fishing guide in Alaska).  He told a story from his fishing days when a anchor saved several fishermen's lives.  He "anchored" Josh to his dad with a rope to demonstrate how it keeps him from wandering too far.  Then he talked about some of the things that anchor us to the Savior and His gospel.  Things like scriptures, prayer, family, etc.  He said, "I know you are getting ready for candy conference.  Maybe this time you can listen for anchor words."  We thought that sounded like a great idea.  In fact, I said, "We've talked about having a special grand prize word in the past - something random that would be very unlikely to be said.  Let's make "anchor" our grand prize word!  If anyone says it, we'll have a big prize."


We love our home teacher, Brother Gardener. 

So this time, we carefully chose anchor words to listen for as we watched conference.  Also, the kids drew a big picture of an anchor to remind us to listen for the grand prize word.  It was a nice conference, but I never heard the word.  However, on Monday afternoon, our doorbell rang.  There was our home teacher holding a box of Drumstick Ice Cream Sundae Cones.  He was so excited.  He said, "Did you hear it?"  I guess President Packer said anchor in his talk.  I am ashamed to say I missed it, but in my defense, President Packer's voice is getting harder to hear, especially with the kids around.  Our home teacher had his wife and several of his friends and family listening for our family's grand prize word.  So sweet, huh?  I'm sure his faith and love for our family played a part in that word being said.

*Bronson recently got added to the rotation for teaching home evening lessons.  He is such a big boy!  On his last turn, he told the story of King Benjamin's address.  Then, we built a tent out of blankets and chairs, with the door facing the "Prophet" (the TV) and we watched a church video together.  It was so fun to see Bronson beaming with pride at the success of his lesson.  He kept smiling and saying, "This is awes-tum!"  It really was.

*On April 12, we were lucky enough to go to Spanish Fork and participate in both Sander's baptism and Creed's baby blessing.  It was a very special occasion.  Jodi has such a cute family!  Quin did a great job on the drive, but I missed most of the baptism thanks to his fussing.  Oh well - the kids and David got to be there and that's the important thing.  Afterwards, Jodi put on an amazing spread!  I don't know how she does it!  She's amazing - or as Bronson would say,  awes-tum!

Sander, the man of the hour!  I swear he was thee years old a few days ago!!  Where does the time go?!?

Darling picture of Evan and Creed!   That baby blessing was really beautiful and touching!

*And finally, more baby pictures.  Quinton can officially smile!  He's so fun!

Cute picture of Quin and big brother Joshua.

Nicole's Birthday

Believe it or not, Nicole Rae is NINE years old!  Oh how we love that girl!  Her birthday fell on a Saturday this year, which is great because the celebration spans out over a few days that way.

On Friday, she celebrated with her class.  She brought a poster to school about herself and was "spotlighted" by her teacher.  She also brought cans of A&W Cream Soda for her class treat.   Her grade happened to be having an outdoor party that day, she won a prize for being the second highest reader in her class this past term, PLUS Fridays are early-out days, so things were looking pretty good for the almost-birthday girl!

Saturday, her actual birthday, was also General Conference.  She wasn't too excited about the idea of sharing her birthday with six hours of churchy TV, but in the end I think she had a great day.  She opened her presents in the morning.  She got candy, a kite, a big ball, lotion, Rainbow Loom refills, and a new pair of roller blades.  Around 9:00 am, Grandma and Grandpa Gee came over!  They had been in Salt Lake City for a mission reunion and they came over on their way home.  They ate Nicki's birthday breakfast with us.  We had pancakes with coconut syrup and sugared strawberries, juice, sausage, and potatoes.  It was delicious!  Then the grandparents left so they could be home in time for their shift at the visitor's center, Dad and I watched conference, and the kids went off and played with Nicki's new toys.

 Between session of Conference, We made homemade pizza for Nicki's birthday lunch.  Everyone made their own.  We totally loaded them up with cheese and toppings (for those of us that like toppings).  Man!  They were delicious!  I also surprised Nicki by giving her her favorite treat - Sushi!  She LOVES California rolls!  What grown up tastes, huh?

After lunch, I took Nicki to Wal-Mart to pick up a few items we needed for the rest of the day.  She brought along her birthday money from the Gee's and Grandma Church.  After much deliberation, she only spent a few dollars on some candy and decided to save the rest for later.  Wow!  She really is growing up!  I'm still not very good at waiting to spend my birthday money!

 She played some more while Dave and I watched the second session of conference.  Then, Grandma and Grandpa Smith came over for dinner.  We ate fabulous grilled hamburgers, fresh fruit, Cheetos AND Doritos, and pickles.  This was not a very low-calorie day, as you can tell, but it sure was delicious!    Grandma and Grandpa gave her some cute clothes and an awesome light ball thingy that makes light designs on her ceiling at night.  She loves it!

Again, Nicki has grown up tastes. For her birthday cake, she chose a cheesecake.  I got the sampler kind that has several different flavors to choose from.  It was tasty.

 Then, the men folk went to the priesthood session of general conference and the rest of us stayed home to watch "That Darn Cat" (an old Haley Mills movie).  Grandma stayed for most of it.  I haven't seen that old show since I was a little kid myself.  It was pretty funny.

Cookie even watched it with us.  I think she liked the cat.  I hope she didn't pick up any ideas from that mischievous feline!

The next day was "Candy Conference," which I'll write more about some other time.  In the evening, we went to Aunt Katie's house to celebrate Nicki and Grandma Smith's birthdays.  We had cake and ice cream with cousins.  It doesn't get much better than that!

I sure love Nicki!  She has such a kind, generous, nurturing spirit.  She helps me in so many ways around the house and with her siblings.  And she's just plain fun to be around!  She loves to entertain people.  It's part of her inner drive to make others happy.

The other day, David was having a meeting with the missionaries (he's the ward mission leader).  Of her own accord, Nicole decided that she wanted to give each missionary a dollar.  She happily gave them $2.00, which was a big chunk of her birthday money.  We haven't figured out a good allowance system in our family, so her birthday money is practically the only cash she gets all year.  Yet, she didn't hesitate to share it with the elders - she was thrilled to do it.  Such a sweet, giving kid.  I'm lucky to have her example in my life.