One Last Old Lady Prom

For as long as my dad's been with the Davis Chamber of Commerce, he has recruited his daughters to help him with his big fancy annual event - the Davis Chamber Gala.  I've only been able to do it a couple of times, but I've LOVED it each time.  As a busy mom, I only get gussied up like that and eat super fancy meals...um...never.  So it's truly a delight for me.

Now that Dad's out of the chamber, I won't be needed anymore.  Bummer!  In fact, this year, he didn't have to be involved.  But he was being honored by the chamber, so he invited Katie and me as guests (Kristin had to work).  I was so happy to be there one last time!

Dad and Mom were invited to sit with some other business associates in the very front, so Katie and I took their seats at the Commissioner's table.  Basically, we hung out with the other commissioners and their wives.  I felt a little out of place, but they were all so nice to us.  They said, "You're part of the family now."  We had a great time visiting with them.  Katie is the fun, witty,  sassy daughter who is always cracking jokes.  I'm the sweet, appropriate, slightly reserved one. Together we're a good pair.  She livens things up, I smooth them out when she goes to far!  Hee Hee.  Just teasing you, Katie.

Dad was honored with an award.  Everyone loves him.  Seriously.  Every.  One.  He had to give a little acceptance speech, which I thought was very classy and very sweet.  Then, it seemed to me that nearly everyone else who got up to the mic that night commented on how much Dad had taught them and mentored them or how glad they were to be able to rub shoulders with him.  It was touching.

So my days as a thirty-something-dressing-up-like-she's-going-to-prom are behind me now.  Maybe not.  Maybe I'll get gussied up to go to the grocery store someday.

That's A Lot of Love

Conversation yesterday morning while I was getting ready for church:

Bronson and his beloved "Baby Blankie."  "She" is always with him.  It's the kind of thing where I only get to wash her if I sneak her away when he's not looking.  And I have to clean her and get her back to him before his next nap.

Bron: "Mom, I love you more than anything!"
Me:  "Oh, I don't know about that.  Do you love me more than Baby Blankie?"
Bron:  "Hmm.  I love you and Baby Blankie the same. It's like this:"  He raises one hand in the air, then the other hand to the same level, then the first one higher, then the second one to the same level.  I'm okay with that.  I know how much Bronson loves his blanket.  I'm willing to share that much love!

I apologize for the shirtless pictures, but we were getting ready for church and we don't put the boy's shirts on until after they've eaten their pre-church snack.

From the other room, Josh (my cyber boy who would be on the computer/tablet every waking moment if I let him) was listening. Not wanting to be outdone, he yelled, "Mom.  Guess how much I love you.  I love you one thousand twenty-five PLUS a bonus!"  I think that in video game talk, that's a lot!

See, he's playing on my tablet as he says it.

The Story Of Our LOOOOOOONG Night

The evening of January 12th was a calm, peaceful night at the Gee house.  All the children were tucked in thier beds, dreaming of the day to come.  Mom and Dad had just settled in for a long winter's nap.  At about 10:30 pm, baby Quinton started to cry.  Baby Quinton had been sleeping through the night since he was five months old, so this was very unusual indeed.

Momma Gee stumbled out of bed and tried to soothe her poor baby.  It didn't work.  After changing his diaper and his pajamas, (in case something was secretly poking him or something) checking his temperature, and rocking him for several minutes, she decided that he would just have to "cry himself to sleep."

One torturous hour later (for Momma Gee, not Pappa - he had long since put ear plugs in his ears), it was clear that something was very wrong.  Momma decided to sleep on the couch with her child.  This only worked in three or four minute spurts, then the baby would scream again.  Lack of sleep and stress of listening to hours of crying started to play tricks on the poor mom's mind.  She imagined her child dying a slow, painful, preventable death whilst she stood by doing nothing.

Finally, around 12:30 am, the frantic mother woke her slumbering husband and begged for help or advice.  He thoroughly examined the child and, in a shocking deviation from normal practice, did NOT recommend that we "put ice on it."  Instead, he heroically took the baby from the worn out mother and spent another hour or so putting him to sleep, just to have him wake up crying a few minutes later. Momma still was not sleeping either, so she came back into the fray. Finally, Pappa administered a priesthood blessing to the young pup, and recommended a visit to the local emergency room.  Both parents were unsure if the issue was ER worthy, but they could not bear to watch their child suffer another minute.  And they certainly were not willing to wait until the pediatrician's office opened eight hours later.

Pappa had to stay home with the other slumbering children, so around 2:00 am Momma loaded up a very sad baby and drove to the hospital.  In another surprising deviation from normal practice, the baby did not suddenly become well when he entered the building.  Instead, he put on quite a display of misery and woe.  The doctor examined the child and declared that he had horrible ear infections in both ears.  This, although frustrating in its timing, was a relief to the momma, who knew that her child could be easily healed from such an infliction.

The child was administered a dose of antibiotics and some numbing ear drops.  Within sixty seconds of the drops, all crying ceased and the baby collapsed in deep sleep in his mother's arms.  By 3:00 am, Momma and child were safely home and back in bed.  All was once again calm and peaceful at the Gee house.

I assure you that the frantic mother did not take a picture of her sick baby - she was otherwise occupied.  This portrait was taken at a later date, during one of the baby's less charming moments.

Family Portraits

While Dave and Jenny were still in town, we thought it would be a good idea to get a family portrait with the WHOLE Smith gang.  We met at the Union Train Station in Ogden.  Katie's friend, Amy Shaw, is a great photographer and she was nice enough to tackle a project with our crazy family.

I think Amy did a great job, considering what she had to work with!  Post-holiday bloat, little kids including a non-smiley baby, a boy with Autism who had to be restrained so that he wouldn't leave us all, most of us adults who were at their heaviest weight in years and DIDN'T want our picture taken...  Still, we look pretty good, eh?  I can't even begin to tell you how much I love each and every person in that photo!  

Look how old my kids are!  I'm kind of freaking out! 

Cute picture!  I'm sure you're doing the math right now and noticing that almost half of the grand kids are Gee's!

After we were done with our little photo session, we all went to the Union Grill Restaurant.  We were at the Union Station, after all - and we Smith's love our food!   :)   Grandma and Grandpa had given all of their kids a gift card there for Christmas, so they basically paid for it. Thanks, Grandma and Grandpa Smith!  I think it's probably the fanciest restaurant my kids have ever been to.  They were fairly well behaved - more-or-less... from a distance...at least nothing was broken...and we weren't asked to leave, so I'm calling it a win!   And the food!  Oh the food!  I don't get to eat out like I used to and I've always been in love with good restaurants.  This was a special treat for me! I ordered blackened salmon and it was amazing, but the real winner of the day was David and his beef medallions.  I am STILL dreaming about them!

These were taken by David's phone.  Not quite the same quality as the professional portraits, but you still get the idea.  Food!  Glorious food!  Or at least the remains of it.  My dad is wearing sunglasses because he's cool...and also because he had pink eye.

Our group took up several tables,  Scott, Katie, Brian, Kristin,and Katie W.  are behind Quinton and me. 

Bron

In January, Bronson graduated to a Big Boy Bed!! He'd been sleeping in a car-shaped toddler bed for a while, but it was literally falling apart, so we bought him a new one.  He loves it!  Plus the old car frame is now in our backyard as a sandbox-type toy so it's double awesome for him!

When we picked up Bron's new bed, we had to put all the seats in the van down so that it would fit.  Nicole came with me.  She BEGGED me to let her drive home in the back while laying on the mattress.  I have to admit it looked really fun to me too, but the law-abiding side of me prevailed and I made her sit in a chair with a seat belt.  Boring!

Nicki helped me put all the seats back up and replace all the car seats and boosters that we use.  I appreciated her help, but I didn't know until the following day that she hadn't latched the back seat all the way down.  I was backing out of my driveway on my way to pick Joshua up from kindergarten, when all of a sudden, I heard Bronson's voice (in total panic) yelling, "MOM!!  MOM!!! MOM!!!!"  I looked in my rear view mirror to see what was wrong, but where Bronson's head should have been, I saw two feet dangling in the air!  His seat, had tipped back into the trunk.

Of course, I slammed on the brakes, opened the trunk and ran back to help him get up.  But I couldn't suppress a little giggle.  It was just such a funny sight - those dangling feet!  Bron had already wiggled out of his seat belt and stood up on his own. We got him all fixed up, but for several minutes afterward he was totally wigging out!  He kept saying over and over, "Mom! Dat was hweeky! (freaky)  Dat was weewy hweeky!  Dat was doost so hweeky!"  I could hardly respond because I was trying so hard not to laugh.  Great mom, huh?  But I'd like to see you try not to laugh when you see those feet in your rear view mirror!

Swearing In

On Monday, January 5th at 9:00 am, my dad was sworn in as a Davis County Commissioner.  Bronson, Quinton and I were lucky enough to be there.  So was David!  He worked his schedule around the event.  Also attending were my brother David and his wife Jenny.  And my mom, of course.  Did I really even need to say that? Well, I did - Mom was there.

Mom and Dad

This is Louenda Downs, the commissioner that Dad is replacing.  Pure class!  Amazing woman!!! And tall to boot! I LOVE her!

There's the Jim Smith cheering section.

That was the first time I'd ever been to a swearing in ceremony.  It was interesting.  There were probably about 10 people getting sworn in to various offices.  My dad was one of the first.  I found the whole thing fascinating, but do you know who didn't find it very interesting?  Quin.  He only made it through with the help of a LOT of baby snack puffs.  Bronson wasn't super great either, but Dave wrestled him most of the time so I hardly even noticed.  

Look how captivated the boys are...

After the ceremony, we ate fancy breakfast refreshments and mingled for a while.  I got to meet Dad's new office staff.  They seem really sharp!  Then, Dad took us up to his new office.  It's very nice.  Right next to his office is the chamber where they hold their meetings.  It looks a lot like a courtroom.  Dad and the other commissioners sit up on the bench.  Dad's nameplate was already up.  Good thing too - he got right to work the moment we left!

Here's a picture of the new public officers for Davis County.

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New Year's Day 2015

Since David went to bed early on New Year's Eve, he was well rested in the morning.  That made one of us - but I'm pretty used to sleep deprivation.  So, we all got up early on New Year's Day and drove to Idaho!

We spent the morning visiting with Grandma and Grandpa Gee, as well as Jodi and her youngest kids.  The older girls had all had a sleep over at Shawn and Amy's house the night before. It sure sounds like it was a pretty eventful night (the throw-up, scared-of-the-dark, not-a-wink-of-sleep kind of eventful night). Shawn and Amy will be sainted someday!

Everyone started showing up in the afternoon.  We had such a great time eating and visiting and playing with our Idaho family!  I even got a group of them to play a charades game with me!  Gee's don't like games so that was a pretty big deal.  I may or may not have accidentally fed Quinton a taste of ice cream before his first birthday. Oops!  I hardly saw Josh and Alison the whole time.  They were running around with their cousins.  It sure was fun!  We didn't get to stay nearly long enough!  In fact, we were back on the road in the early evening.  David had to work the following day, so we needed to get home at a decent time.

Me (yes - I'm in sweats and looking like a troll, but I didn't sleep much, okay!) Kristi, Amy, and Grandma Gee holding Hazel (Kristi's baby).

Cute Nicki and Quinton.

Abby, Ali, and Maddie.  Oh how I wish Alison lived closer to these two!

 And thus begins 2015!  In years past, I have chosen a word to guide my thoughts and actions throughout the year.  Two years ago it was "deliberate."  Last year's theme word was "survive."  I spent a lot of time thinking about what my 2015 word would be.  I toyed with "engage" and "serve" but in the end, I went with "appreciate."  I need to enjoy the NOW!  I need to embrace the various stages my kids are all in, to appreciate all that Dave does for me, and recognize how over-the-top blessed I am.  As part of this, I've committed to share my testimony in church (something I almost never do because I get too nervous) four times this year and to write at least 2 thank you cards per month.  Hopefully, 2015 will be a year of gratitude and contentment as I focus on appreciating!