All Because I Said "Yes"

National Treasure

2012-02-05T17:11:00.000-08:00

The other night we watched the movie "National Treasure" as a family. We've seen the movie a few times before, but it's one that we all enjoy. At one point Caleb remarked, "Do the people who made these movies just come into our house, look at our scrapbooks and then decide where to make a movie??"

Since "National Treasure" has scenes from Washington D.C., New York City, and Philadelphia, I can see his point. (And National Treasure 2 takes place out west where we've been, too.)

These pictures were taken just a few weeks ago. For Todd's birthday I bought him tickets to see the revival of Sondheim's "Follies" on Broadway. I told the family we were going out of town, but didn't tell them where we were going or what we would be doing. We went to Philadelphia first for two reasons. First, as a decoy. Any time we head east of Ohio, they automatically assume we're going to NJ. They weren't wrong this time, but I didn't want them to know that until the end of the night. Second, Caleb has been studying Colonial History this year, and has been asking to go to D.C. and Philadelphia. So, it was a little surprise for him as well.

In front of the Liberty Bell. Security is WAAAY tighter now than it was on the field trips of my youth.

Independence Hall

Upstairs where many American soldiers wintered and died during the Revolutionary War.

With a Statue of a guy named "Barry" who I'm sure is famous for something, though I can't remember now, and was too cold to properly read the sign while there.

Following this outing, we headed over to the City Tavern for dinner. The menu and ambiance is strictly Colonial period. Caleb and I discovered just how tricky it would have been to be gluten free in Colonial times and Benjamin ate rabbit.

Once everyone's tummies were full, we piled back in the car and headed up to NJ, so Todd's parents could babysit kids and I could take my husband into the city for dinner and a show.

Memorable moments of the trip: driving through a blizzard in eastern Ohio/western PA, and Lilyanna wetting both Todd and me on separate occasions.

Chickeny Goodness

2012-01-31T15:58:00.000-08:00

If it were legal to have chickens in our lovely town, I would tell you that we have chickens. 4 beautiful Ameracauna hens. They seem to be enjoying our icky winter backyard just fine.

Their names are Chicken Pox, Chicken Jane, Chicken Little, and Camilla.

There are two currently laying. One lays greenish blue eggs, and the other lays pinkish brown eggs.

Apparently wild chickens are forest creatures. I never before realized how well chickens could blend into a forest setting, but seeing their colors against the dried leaves, I can see how they would survive in the wild. Also, they are FAST. Chicken Pox is the fastest. If there were chicken races somewhere, I would totally enter her!

Lilyanna learned her lesson last time we had a chicken in the backyard and is wearing the proper footwear for the occasion.

It's a good thing...

2012-01-18T17:47:00.000-08:00

...that Todd is getting back from a business trip tonight, because otherwise Caleb might not make it through another day. It has been a couple of those types of days with him that remind me how incredibly difficult parenting can be.

...that macarons are too expensive and too far away to get very often. They are a delectable gluten free treat.

...that all of the kids are nearly asleep, because I need to go to bed, too (after I quickly pick up the living room so Todd doesn't come in late tonight to a complete disaster. A semi-disaster I'm fine with.)

...that Lilyanna is so stinkin' cute. She is as precocious with the terrible twos and the accompanying tantrums as she has been with every other milestone. She has also recently decided that she's too cool for her high chair. The crib, she loves. The high chair, no dice. (Also, she's upstairs right this minute teasing her 11 year old brother by calling him Benjabooboo. It's very cute to listen to him protest against her adorable little voice calling him by his hated childhood nickname.)

...that chickens have some instincts, because otherwise, we'd be sure to kill them off with our wacky schedules.

...that I have a blog to catch all the wispy thoughts I have floating around in my tired brain, so I can look back and remember them some day.

Comics, Coupons, and Negotiating

2012-01-09T06:38:00.000-08:00

When we first moved to Ohio 7 years ago, I bought a subscription to the local paper in an effort to get to know the flavor and flaws of the area better. It did help tremendously for both of those things, but after a couple of years, I switched to just the weekend papers so I could still get the coupons. At the time a subscription only cost me about $5 each month. Two or three years ago, they increased the cost of receiving a weekend paper to $13 and change/month!!

I started tracking the benefit of the coupons I clip and use each month. It averages out to about $9/month. Not enough to pay for the paper anymore. Yesterday, I announced to the boys that I would be cancelling our subscription. Benjamin and Caleb were horrified. Nathaniel was, too, initially, but then he figured out how much the paper cost each year, and decided he could just get comic collections from the library for free.

Benjamin was ready to sign over his first born right there and then if I promised to keep getting the paper. We came to an agreement that I would pay $8 each month for the paper, but it would cost him $5 each month. He was willing to pay more just for the chance to read the Sunday comics, but I tried to use the moment to teach him about negotiation. (He is historically awful at negotiating. Nathaniel on the other hand seems to have a little Tom Sawyer in him. I caught Benjamin doing Nathaniel's chores the other day, just for the chance to play Nathaniel's DS. Benjamin owns a DS, too, but couldn't find it at the time.) Caleb wanted the comics, too, but knew Benjamin would pay. So he disappeared for the negotiations saying, "Well, I don't care that much about comics."

Benjamin is good about earning money. He's willing to work hard for it. But once he gets it (after he puts a percentage in savings and tithing) it burns a hole in his pocket. Ah, well. I feel like he will learn the lesson eventually. And probably sooner rather than later. Smiths seem to be genetically predisposed towards accounting or other financial services. In the meantime, I will try not to take too much advantage of him.

Facebook Etiquette

2012-01-02T08:27:00.000-08:00

A while ago Facebook created a feature that let you just hover over the birthday reminders on the news feed and send a message from there without looking at the person's wall at all. I was a fan. The less clicking around the better for me.

I was glad that I wasn't really on facebook the last couple of days because it meant that I didn't hover and type. My friend Sunshine had a birthday a few days ago. The same day that her husband and two of her daughters were involved in a car crash that took the life of her oldest daughter. They were on their way to buy a birthday cake for their Mom.

While I know it's nobody's fault, it is heartbreaking to look at her facebook wall and see all the "Hope your birthday is the best ever!" and "Have a great day, Sunshine!" comments. Some of them were made before the accident, and several people came back and wrote apologies and condolences on her page afterwards, but there are a slew of messages still there because people just weren't aware and still aren't.

My heart hurts for her and her family. I keep thinking how next year might be for her. Will people forget and wish her "the best birthday ever" again because it's just so easy to hover and type without really knowing what's going on in a person's life?

This makes me feel like it's time to winnow my friend list (which I've never done before, I've always felt the more the merrier). If I don't have time to really have some idea what is going on in the life of a friend, then I don't know that I should be listed as one of their friends.

Here are a few links to articles about the accident for those of you who knew Sunshine but hadn't heard.

Resolutions for 2012

2012-01-01T19:33:00.000-08:00

I typically do resolutions as the kids are headed back to school at the end of summer, but there are a few things I need to do better with right about now. I post them publicly here to keep myself honest.

Spiritual Goals:
*Read/Listen to a talk from General Conference or the Ensign every day.
*Touch base more than once a month with those I visit teach.
*Be better about saying prayers in the morning.

Health Goals:
*Track via Weight Watchers online EVERY DAY. (I'm a cheater on this one. And it shows.)
*Get adequate rest to keep myself healthier this year. Seriously. The sickness has got. to. stop!
*Exercise 6 days a week. I currently do hour long exercise classes 3 days a week, but then do nothing the rest of the days of the week. I need to be strong enough to do all that my family needs me to do. No more being a bump on the log 4 days a week.

Organizational Goals:
*Clean for 1 hour every day 6 days each week. This is the most painful for me so far. The plan is to set a timer for 15 or 20 minutes and do as much in that room as I can do. Then I get a break to read 1 chapter of whatever book I'm reading. Then on to the next room, etc. I think it's achievable for me.
*4 pages each week in scrapbooks done. I recently had to move all of my scrapbooking stuff from the basement up to the Family Room while we redid the basement. Seeing it all again rekindled my desire to work on it. My kids love looking through their books so often that I feel terrible they don't have more to look at.

Me Goals:
*Read some classics. Have a few friends over to discuss while we work on whatever crafty projects we have. Me? I have a cross stitch to work on.
*Sign up for and run another 5K but get an awesome time.
*Sign up and fund raise for the MS walk in the Spring.
*Explore a new place in Ohio.

What are a few of your goals for the new year?

Ready? Set? GO!

Things I Miss

2011-12-12T05:48:00.000-08:00

Several months ago Caleb and I stopped eating gluten. Both of us have bad reactions to wheat. Mine plays out in getting dishydrotic eczema all over my hands. His makes him crazy hyper. Neither one of these is a situation we would like to have, so we gave it up.

I cheated over Thanksgiving and was rewarded with painful blisters all over my hands that have just recently healed. It's a powerful motivator for staying on a diet, let me tell you.

I'm not a huge bread person. Regular bread does nothing for me, but a wonderful crusty baguette either with garlic butter or olive oil and salt? Oh, that I miss!

When I couldn't eat any fat a few years ago because my gall bladder decided to quit working, my favorite go to comfort food was a big bowl of pasta with some of my delicious homemade tomato sauce. I miss that a lot. (Trust me, gf pasta just isn't the same.)

And this time of year when everyone is making their goodies and sharing with all, I miss brownies, chocolate chip cookies, pie, and chocolate covered pretzels. (Thank goodness I can still eat chocolate!!)

I have very real and painful consequences if I eat any of these foods, but like most things forbidden, there are just times when I WANT!

I was thinking a few weeks ago how much easier it would be to "be good" if we suffered physical pains for cheating at other things. Like if I broke out all over my face if I didn't read my scriptures every day. Or if I got a canker sore each time I had an uncharitable thought about somebody else. I'm glad it's not that way. I certainly try to be Christ-like, but I often fail miserably.

And now I'm off to try to plan holiday meals without gluten. Yippee.

Thanksgiving 2011

2011-12-02T06:33:00.001-08:00

Thanksgiving was a whirlwind with many many hours spent in the car, but it was wonderful to be able to spend some time in FL and GA visiting with relatives that we don't get to see often enough. And because I just spent the last couple of hours working on this, you can see the pictures for the story.

Click here to view this photo book larger

I love Shutterfly for making a quick post-vacation photo album possible! Shutterfly photo books.

I hope your holiday was wonderful, too!

Washington D.C. Legos

2011-11-06T11:30:00.000-08:00

Caleb had a unit in school where he learned all about many of our national monument. He got really into it and would come home each night excited to tell us new and interesting facts about whatever they'd discussed that day.

One night while I was making dinner, Caleb came up from the basement to show me this wonderful creation. From memory, he did the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial and the National Mall.

He insisted I take a picture so he could send it in to the Lego magazine. Each month they highlight kids who create something new and different out of the gazillions of Lego sets they already have. He's very excited by the very idea of being in correspondence with the good people at Lego.

I am very proud of Caleb who is forever embracing all of his creative interests.

Halloween in High Fashion

2011-11-02T11:20:00.000-07:00

If I needed any hint that Lilyanna is very much her own person and not a little copy of me (despite all baby pictures to the contrary), last night was the perfect event to highlight a few of those differences. Lilyanna cares VERY MUCH about shoes. This has been the case since she was old enough to wear them. Now, I understand a love of shoes. I wear a size 10.5 which is a nearly impossible size to find and thus makes it so I don't have a closet rivaling Imelda Marcos. Lilyanna may eventually inherit this unfortunate shoe size, but in the meantime, she will happily change shoes 6 times a day according to her mood. By the time she was 14 months old, Todd was irked that she was taking up more room on the shoe rack than he was.

It was her love for shoes which inspired her costume this year. That and a sale on sparkly shoes at Target. $10 sparkly shoes? Yes, please.

Lilyanna understood how to trick or treat in a way that none of my boys understood this early in their development. I figured we would go down our street and then come back and join Todd in passing out candy to everyone else. Not so. Lilyanna literally pulled me around the block AND insisted on going up every single driveway to EVERY house regardless of whether it was inhabited or not. We were out almost as long as her brothers. She also kept her candy basket in her hot little had the whole time. It probably weighed half as much as she did, but she refused to let go of it, or go home because it was getting too heavy.

It was a little chilly on Halloween and Lilyanna's costume had short sleeves, so I brought her red hoodie along. We had the following conversation several times:

Me: Lilyanna, are you cold?

Her: Yeah.

Me: Do you want to wear your jacket?

Her: NOOOOO!!! Pretty dress!!

While she doesn't have words for this yet, she didn't want to ruin the lines of her outfit!! This is where she and I wildly diverge. I am happiest in comfy clothes. I used to look through clothing catalogs and say, "Ooo, doesn't that look comfortable?", to the eye rolling of the gaggle of gay boys. At one point Mark declared I wasn't allowed to shop by myself anymore because I dressed myself like "a granola crunchy lesbian" (A term endearingly used by the Queen Mother, John, in reference to me) when left to my own devices.

It appears Lilyanna has not inherited THAT propensity of mine.

Anyway. Here is the cuteness:

"Yes, Mommy, I did already eat some chocolate."

"I have my shoes, my dog, and my basket. LET'S GO!!"

"I am cute."

We reached a neighbor's house who had a fire going in the driveway. She was freezing by then, and pulled up a chair to sit by the fire and warm up before she headed back to our house. But she still refused her hoodie. She is cute, but oh, the opinions!

Halloween 2011

2011-11-02T10:29:00.001-07:00

Halloween was an interesting experience this year. It's usually the holiday that I go all out clever for, but this year with all the sickness and surgeries of this month, I couldn't quite muster up the energy for anything extra. Decorations only happened because the kids finally told me they were going to do it 2 weeks ago. I did manage a fun Halloween dinner including mashed potato ghosts with caper eyes, and this was the after school snack which was a HUGE hit and was devoured within minutes of the boys walking in the door. Frankly, it was a wonder even this happened. Lilyanna decided over the weekend that she didn't need to sleep anymore in the middle of the night, so I was a bit of a walking zombie on Halloween day. (That way I didn't need to even don a costume...so, it was mildly convenient...)

Warren stopped by right before Lilyanna and I were about to nap during the day and thoughtfully offered to come over that evening to take the boys trick or treating. Here is the lot of them before they went that evening. His dedication to the task lasted only until a female friend of his came along and he went off with the girl.

Notably absent from the picture is Benjamin. Benjamin learned a hard lesson this Halloween. As a member of his studio's tap and hip hop dance companies, he agrees to a higher set of rules than everyone taking recreational classes. One of those rules is that he is only permitted 2 absences per quarter. He is going to miss one week before Thanksgiving because we'll be out of town, but he squandered one of his other absences in September when he just didn't feel like going. He didn't feel great, but wasn't sick, but decided to stay home and play that day. So, no trick-or-treating for him this year. He was alone in most of his classes on Monday, but he not only recognized the lesson, but also got some really good one on one time with his dance teachers.

Caleb was VERY proud of his glow in the dark skeleton costume and loved running up to his dark bedroom to test it out all afternoon before they went out trick or treating. Nathaniel was a Ninja with spikes...he had a better name for it, but I don't remember now what it was. Lilyanna was Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz. But she gets her own separate post.

Despite all of my hoopla this year, the kids had a great time. This makes me think that maybe in future years, I can not drive myself so crazy with plans and preparations, and we can still all have an enjoyable holiday. We'll see if I actually remember this lesson next year. ;)

The ongoing saga of my fertility...

2011-10-29T12:50:00.000-07:00

...has come to an end!!

Yesterday I went in for tubal cauterization on the one side that just wouldn't quit. The surgical center was lovely, all the staff friendly, and the whole thing went swimmingly! I came away with only one tiny incision.

(Going into it I was more than a little nervous because of my last experience with laproscopic surgery, but that was an entirely different set of circumstances involving a gangrenous gall bladder and trying to recover while nursing a 6 week old, and more holes poked in me than your average pin cushion. It didn't go well.)

I felt wonderful yesterday!! Well, wonderful with regular doses of percocet, but still just wonderful! The only thing that was a little odd was that when I first woke up from the surgery, my jaw muscles were SORE, like chewing bubble gum for 12 hours kind of sore. I asked the nurse about it, and she asked the nurse who worked with the anesthesiologist. She said it was a slight reaction to one of the medicines, that sometimes it can do that. So, I went on my merry drugged way and didn't really think anything more of it.

I am extremely fortunate to have a very dear friend who is also an anesthesiologist. When I talked to her later that night, she explained that there is a muscle relaxer that is given that can have that effect on patients, but we didn't really go into further details.

At 5am today I awoke in PAIN. Everything muscle above my belly button hurt like I had done isolation exercises on just that muscle for hours the day before. I whimpered and groaned my way out of bed and into the bathroom where I quickly took another percocet and tried to figure out what the heck was going on with my body. I did a little stretching, but it was so painful that I just whimpered and groaned back to bed and let the percocet put me back to sleep.

When I finally got out of bed again at 7 to take Lilyanna downstairs, nothing was better. It hurt to breathe, move, laugh, cough, and even swallow. I've never been as aware that my tongue is made up of muscles as I am today. I emailed my dear friend and asked if this was possibly related to the whole jaw thing from the day before. This was her response:

Dear Emilia,
Your intuition is right - it is exactly the same thing as your
jaw muscle effect. I was thinking of mentioning to you yesterday that
you got "lucky" it was only your jaw muscles and you don't feel
overall achy "like you had the flu". You are right to feel that
every muscle got an isolation work-out. The way this relaxant works
is it EXCITES every neuromuscular junction until they're pooped out.
Which means ALL your muscles twitch/spasm before they relax.
If it makes you feel any better, they normally say
"muscular/athlethic" people have this problem more than flabby couch
potatoes ( since you're into silver linings ;) )
Hmmm - you know, from now on, if (Heaven forbid!) you're going
to have surgery, we need to talk about what they'll be doing, and then
we are going to form an anesthetic plan for you. :)
Next time, tell them you had an adverse reaction to
"succinylcholine" and please don't use it!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

How awesome is my friend, Sukhvinder, for being there for me through my medical mysteries, btw? I love and adore that lady!

AND how awesome is it that I'm in complete agonizing pain because I'm "muscular/athletic"?? It's a small victory, but still.

AND AND AND I don't ever have to take birth control pills again!!!! Hooray hooray hooray!!

So, you know, a little adverse reaction to anesthesia aside, everything went very well yesterday and it is not a surgery to be nervous about.

The End.

Can you STILL hear that sound??

2011-10-21T12:24:00.000-07:00

That is the universe guffawing at my attempts to become infertile.

Not only did Wednesday's procedure not work AGAIN, but several different doctors all came in to have a go at it. All unsuccessful.

So, next Friday I go in for the real deal. Anesthesia and cauterization, people.

My dear friend, who is also a doctor, said, "If your tubes withstand burning, I think it's worth considering it a sign from above."

If my tubes withstand burning, so begins my life of celibacy.

Signed,
STILL FERTILE Myrtle

Do you hear that sound?

2011-10-18T19:57:00.000-07:00

It is the universe laughing at my attempts to become permanently infertile.

6 months ago, I had a procedure done. Essure, if you care to know.

Last month I discovered that it had only worked on one side. (This was not a big surprise, because there were problems on that side during the procedure. The Doctor was a mess afterwards with apologies and literally said, "I'm so sorry, this has never happened to me before. I've never had it not work properly." I admit that I snickered.)

So, tomorrow I go in AGAIN to try to get the still functioning side taken care of.

Throughout all this, I've had to be on the pill for the first time in my life. With it I have had all sorts of miserable side effects. Like most of the bad side effects you can get (including my eyes being so dry I can barely wear my contacts for more than an hour or two, and my nose so dry it's been cracked and bleeding inside, etc. We won't even talk about the weight gain. Ugh.)

So, cross your fingers, say a prayer, do a dance, light a candle, whatever you do, please do it for me that this will all work well tomorrow!

Thanks,
Fertile Myrtle

Typhoid Us

2011-10-13T09:49:00.000-07:00

I once watched a documentary about typhoid Mary. A very interesting woman just trying to get by the best way she could. Cooks made much better money than housekeepers, you see. The fact that it made every family she worked for get sick and have a few deaths in the family is sad, but I'm sure at the time she found it difficult to believe that was really her fault.

While I don't have typhoid, and to my knowledge haven't killed anyone with my germs. The last year has been physically rough for our family. And I'm not really sure why. The kids take vitamins, eat well, get adequate rest, spend more time playing outside than they do with their face in a screen. We all exercise several times a week for an hour or more at a go. We wash our hands. We daily wipe down all light switches and door knobs and piano keys.

And yet, Lilyanna seems to catch EVERYTHING out there. And once she gets it, we ALL get it. I have 15 piano students come to my house each week. So even if she wasn't going to catch something that her brothers brought home from school, with 15 more school kids coming into the house, she's going to get it. Not to mention all of her own peer interaction with Library Story time, her tumbling class, nursery, and the gym playroom.

There is a part of me that wonders if all the emotional stress of the last few years destroyed our immune systems. Doesn't it seem a little long for that, though? A lot of that stress has dissapated in that last several months, but we still seem to be getting ill at an alarming rate.

Last year we got sick once a month (the whole family) from November through June. (We did get the month of April off. And then July and August.) September, Lilyanna got sick. Cold/fever and I think bronchitis. She still has a lingering cough.

Saturday night I came down with a fever and a horrible headache. The type of headache that makes you think your head exploding would be a relief. The headache lasted until Tuesday morning, when it was replaced by a normal garden variety i-have-a-fever-headache. The fever didn't stop until this morning. On Tuesday I was diagnosed with bronchitis and an ear infection and some wacky fever. (I was also tested for the flu. Wow. That test is AWFUL! The CDC can get their stats somewhere else, because I do not ever need that test again. I almost punched a perfectly nice NP while she shoved that swab up my nose.) On Wednesday I was diagnosed with strep throat. Yesterday, right before I was diagnosed with strep throat, Nathaniel came home sick from school with a fever and nasty cough. Caleb and Benjamin are also coughing and walking around with that slightly gray look. Ironically, Todd with his autoimmune disease has the best immune system of all of us and seems fine so far.

I am not sure how to break this cycle. How do you completely rebuild the immune systems of an entire family? I am open to suggestions here

I [heart] NY

2011-10-09T15:06:00.000-07:00

One day at the beginning of August, Todd called from work and asked what was on the calendar the week before school started, because needed to go NYC. I said, "Oh, no problem, I was going to take the kids to an amusement park during that time, and spend the night at a nearby hotel, so go ahead." He said, "Um, no. It's for all of us. My boss's boss in NYC is having a party in the backyard of her mansion in Scarsdale and families are invited.

Now. Do you all remember that movie "Mona Lisa Smile"? There is a scene in it where Marcia Gay Harden's character puts the fear of God into her Home Ec. students by presenting a scenario in which their husbands bring the boss home for dinner on the spur of the moment. She goes on to say something to the effect of "You are being tested as well as your husband. You may very well make or break that promotion he's up for." This is what popped into my mind when he asked if I'd like to go. That, and the idea of keeping our children well behaved in front of all of Todd's co-workers, yikes!!

The thing that eventually won me over was being bribed by a hotel right at Rockefeller Center and tickets to How to Succeed In Business Without Really Trying. Apparently, I can be bought. ;) I still freaked out about clothes and hair for the two weeks leading up to the trip, but it all went swimmingly in the end.

Literally! The boss had a beautiful pool in her backyard and had hired two lifeguards to amuse [read keep track of so the parents didn't have to] the children. So, keeping my boys well behaved wasn't so bad after all. Also, the caterer had planned a dinner just for the children and he basically served them all. The outdoor kitchen/pool house was probably bigger than my regular kitchen or bathroom here at home. I don't think I said anything too awful to anyone, and actually enjoyed intelligent adult conversation where I was not mocked for staying at home with my children for over a decade, as I expected. AND there was a flourless chocolate cake, so this gluten free lady was HAPPY!

We all survived and enjoyed it and then drove into the city, where I finally drove in NYC!! First time in the 35 years I've been going into the city.

The next day, Todd went off to work and the kids and I ate breakfast and then headed over to the Intrepid where we met Uncle Mark and saw all sorts of cool things!

We just happened to be at the Intrepid on the same day that there were ASTRONAUTS there from the last Atlantis shuttle mission !! I had a vague sense that something was happening so, Lilyanna and I got in line while Mark had the boys down in the submarine. It turned out that before they got out I had the Shuttle flight commander's autographed head shot and then got in line to meet the female Astronaut. She was very friendly and happy to chat to all the boys while signing. I tried to tell Lilyanna how awesome it was to meet a female astronaut, but she wasn't impressed.

A LEGO replica of the Intrepid Aircraft Carrier.

Mark is a total space program geek, though for some reason knows more about the Russian program than the U.S. program. He's a little weird, that one. ;)

No pictures, but we also went to Serendipity for huge amounts of ice cream and had pizza that was like heaven in my mouth. (I bailed on the gluten free thing for two bites. It was worth a rash!)

Uncle Mark took us back to our hotel and we lounged around until Dad got back and we went out for fancy shmancy Indian food at a place called "Mint". I recommend it.

The next day, I told the boys I had a surprise for them. (It wasn't this very odd sculpture in front of an office building.)

Or going to St. Patrick's Cathedral. We just passed those things on the way. Here is the video of what happened when we arrived at the dummy location. [Warning: you may want to turn down the volume for Nathaniel's initial reaction.]

Not only was the store at Rockefeller Center all things Nintendo, the ground floor was also devoted almost exclusively to Pokemon. Making it my boys' dream store and my nightmare store. Funny how that works, isn't it? Still they were really excited and happy, and we basically had the store to ourselves, because the Today Show had one side of the plaza blocked off for an Enrique Iglesias performance.

And THEN we went to the American Girl Store. We weren't going to buy anything but Lilyanna ended up with a bitty baby and matching bunny slippers for her and her baby. She was obsessed with this video at the time we went.

After this, we hopped on a bus and headed down to the village to eat at a S'Mac, a place that does nothing but macaroni and cheese and will make any of their dishes gluten free! Caleb and I were in heaven! (It's right across the street from Angelica's Kitchen, the Vegan restaurant where Todd and I took his brother and wife and our two little boys 9 years ago.)

Then we headed over the river to NJ to see Todd's parents. We took his Dad out to dinner for his birthday, had a nice day playing and chatting the next day, and then Todd and I headed into the city to see ~~Harry Potter~~ Daniel Radcliffe and John Larroquette. They both looked like they were having tons of fun onstage, which makes any show a delight to see. Also, I LOVED the set design of this show. It was minimal but really well executed!

Todd waiting for our train back to NJ in the wee small hours. Btw, the Seacaucus station is GREAT! It's been practically empty every time I've gone through it! Although walking to the parking lot in the middle of the night alone is a little creepy thanks to how far away it is from the station.

And then after church the next morning, we headed back to Ohio, where we jumped immediately into before school conferences and the first day of school.

It is my fantasy to someday live in NYC. Not forever. Just for a year. There's just so much to do. I'd homeschool the kids and we'd take TONS of field trips. Sadly, at this point, that looks like nothing more than a fantasy. But who knows? Things could happen!

Cub Scout Fall Camp Out

2011-10-09T12:20:00.000-07:00

In the five years that we've been doing Cub Scouts with our boys and our community troop, I think this is the first time we've been able to go to the fall camp out. It usually conflicts with General Conference, but this year they were a week apart, so we were able to go and camp out for one of the two nights. (We don't camp out Saturday to Sunday, so this only works if the pack is camping for two nights.)

I had the privilege to take the boys on the trip. It's usually Todd's job, but it's gotten too cold at night for Mr. Zero Percent Body Fat to comfortably go without getting sick. Ironically, as I'm writing this the day after the camp out, I have a fever.

We could not have asked for better weather! It was cool at night and in the early morning, but no more that a few layers could fix, and the afternoon was nice and warm. We had sunshine the whole time! This is a miracle in Ohio. By next month, we will enter the gray season, and won't really see the sun again until April.

Beautiful changing trees! Every time there was a gentle breeze, the pretty yellow and orange leaves came fluttering down upon us en masse!

I don't know what you all do on a camp out, but our boys play chess. These boys were thoroughly engrossed for at least two hours in the tournament they had set up.

We were in a huge open camping area, so Caleb had wonderful amounts of space to wander while I could still see him from my spot at the fire pit. He loved it!

Nathaniel and Caleb both wanted nothing more than to play in the fire and were not amused by the strict "no scout may throw anything in the fire unless supervised by an adult. And any stick you stick in the fire, we will throw in the fire." Lame safety rules. ;)

I listened to a church talk a couple of weeks ago that talked about not just looking at your children, but truly beholding our little ones. I took as many opportunities as possible this weekend to behold two of my sons.

Things that fall from the sky

2011-09-30T08:26:00.000-07:00

The start of school this year has gone really well for us. Supplies were found, schedules worked out nicely, teachers are good. But my boys have still been a little forgetful with what they need to take with them to get out the door. I told them they each had one beginning of the year pass. I will bring things one time this year, and that's it.

Benjamin has already used his passes for his trombone and dance shoes. He only has lunchbox and backpack left.

Caleb hasn't forgotten anything yet, which gives me hope for him in the world. Seriously. This is miraculous.

Nathaniel has been hyper-vigilant about packing things up the night before to make sure he's all ready to go. Nathaniel is all about doing well in school, and in our particular school, 4th grade is the year where much is required of students. Nathaniel is loving it! Anyway, the other day I realized he'd left his assignment book at home. 4th grade teachers are very serious about the assignment book. I have to sign it each night after checking to make sure that Nathaniel did indeed complete all the assignments. I decided that even though Nathaniel hadn't called, I would be nice and drop it off at the school for him so he wouldn't get a missed homework. I remembered to grab it on my way out the door for my spinning class, I then proceeded to park illegally in front of the school and sprint it in all the while thinking how grateful Nathaniel would be. When I got into the office, a teacher that we know well offered to drop it off at his classroom for me since she was heading down that way. I thanked her, sprinted back across the lawn (no parking ticket) and made it to my spinning class only a couple minutes late.

All day I was thinking about how appreciative Nathaniel would be when he got home that day. I met him at the school playground at the end of the day. We chatted for a minute about his day and finally when he didn't mention the assignment book, I impatiently said, "Well? Aren't you going to thank me for bringing you your assignment book?"

This was our conversation:

Him: What? You did? I thought it just fell from the sky.

Me: [beat] Seriously??

Him: Well, I thought I'd forgotten it, but then I went to music and when I got back, it was sitting on my desk.

Me: So your book falling from the sky seemed like the most likely explanation to you??

Him: shrugs shoulders

Me: Arg!! I was being nice. I risked a parking ticket to bring you that book! Mrs. Laughman walked all the way down to your class to bring it to you!

Him: Oh. Well, that was nice.

Me: realizing he's all done with this conversation Oh, go play with your friends!

Him: trots happily off to play with his friends

No more niceness from me! They will need to call and beg first before I bring them stuff at school from now on!

Nathaniel meets Scrabble

2011-09-30T08:11:00.000-07:00

Todd and I have been playing a lot of Words with Friends lately. Often the kids are hanging over our shoulders while we do this, so they've learned the rules of the game. The other night for family night, Todd was out of town, so I decided that I would teach the boys how to play honest to goodness Scrabble. I anticipated helping the boys along, since their spelling isn't always great. After the first two turns, Nathaniel announced he needed no more help. He then proceeded to absolutely kill Benjamin and me. I mean KILL. Like he figured out that if he had a "q" he needed to figure out how to get that q on the triple letter square. And he did. And then he figured out how to layer the words on top of each other so he was getting credit for for 4 words at a time. I think I only recently started doing that. Apparently, he's inherited Todd's Scrabble abilities. Not mine.

I think I'll just play with Benjamin from now on.

Decorating Help, please!!!

2011-08-31T07:39:00.000-07:00

Todd and I had our room painted last February right before we got our new, grown up bedroom furniture. I still haven't put up curtains in the room. I have bought a gazillion, but none of them looked right against the paint, so I've also returned a gazillion of them What I thought was a basic beige paint, is actually a little pinkish it turns out. It looks great with the dark wood of the furniture, but I'm going to have to go with just white curtains. I have the added difficulty that I have to do the two windows on one side of the wall and I also need curtains for the two closets on the opposite wall.

Do I do 4 of the same style curtain? Or 2 for the windows, and 2 different for the closets?

And, I prefer silk curtains, but have had a difficult time finding white silk curtains that I like. Here are a few ideas, I've found. Please chime in!!!

http://www.pbteen.com/products/ruffle-rings-drape/popup/more-views.html?active=1

http://www.potterybarn.com/products/peyton-linen-cotton-drape/?pkey=climited-drape-sale

I did find these, which are the duponi silk that I love. But now I'm not sure. Do I need to switch my comforter to a more "like" material with the silk curtains being less than two feet from my bedspread? arg!!! I was going to switch the bedding anyway, but I wasn't planning on going silky. Dry clean only bedding simply isn't an option in my house. There are too many children with dirty fingers.

http://www.amazon.com/Dupioni-Silk-style-Insulated-Curtains-White/dp/B003YQ1G1O/ref=sr_1_1?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1314801142&sr=1-1

Thank you in advance for all of your ideas.

Sincerely,
Interior Decorating Challenged in Ohio

No! Part 2

2011-07-14T08:36:00.000-07:00

Beth has been busy with the camera again!

So, remember a couple of days ago when I said Lilyanna had learned "no" but it was still all cute and she hadn't really figured out how to use it? Yeah, that's over.

She had a chocolate cookie in her hand yesterday. The last chocolate cookie in the package, in fact. All of her brothers wanted a bite. (She'd pretty much eaten the whole box during their swim meet, so I didn't stop them from pestering her.) She literally ran all over the pool side with that cookie in her hot little hand yelling "Nonononononononononono!!!!" at her brothers while they chased after her.

They never did get a bite.

No!

2011-07-11T10:58:00.000-07:00

Guess who just learned a new word!

At least it took until she was almost 18 months to add this in to her vocabulary. And she's very cute when she says it, like she hasn't quite figured out its power yet.

Still. It feels a little like the beginning of the end...

Take me out!!

2011-07-08T19:59:00.000-07:00

A conversation between Todd and Nathaniel while at the Clippers v. the Mudhens game tonight:

Nathaniel: Why do they do the wave?

Todd: Because baseball games are boring so the crowd has to entertain itself.

Guess who's not such a big fan of baseball, but took his kids anyway. Good Daddy.

Linguistics

2011-06-24T11:31:00.000-07:00

Parenting a child with ADHD (that is, trying to do all the right things for their specific needs) is a little like living in a family where you must speak one language to one child and a different language to all the others. You've been learning the language all along, but sometimes you are so tired that you just want to communicate in your native tongue. Everyone else around you can speak it? Why doesn't this kid just hurry up and learn it already??

It's not an exact comparison, but there are times in working with my children that I vividly remember a night when Todd and I were having dinner with several Brazilian families. At the time I understood Portuguese fairly well. All of my piano students at the time were Brazilian and Todd spoke it beautifully still, so I was exposed enough to pick up on a lot. As the dinner wore on and it got later and I grew more tired, though, it was as if somebody switched off something in my brain and all of a sudden I couldn't understand anything that was being said around me anymore. It was just gone for that night.

There are times when I would like to be able to speak in my native tongue to all my children. But the Lord seemed to think I could handle learning a new language.

There are times I do not agree.

This Week

2011-06-24T11:20:00.000-07:00

*Benjamin is off at his first ever sleep away roughing it scout camp. They are sleeping in tents, bathing in rivers, and getting rained on every day. My father in law is with him. I'm grateful that he was able to share in this adventure with Benjamin and I'm excited to have the both home tomorrow. From the sounds of things, though, we should maybe just burn all the clothing they took with them. When I was "helping" Benjamin pack for Scout Camp, I had the thought that he is going to to be just a little bit further away from childhood after this week. It makes me sad to think that, but happy at the way he seems to be growing up.

*It's been fun to hang out with Nathaniel without Benjamin around. However, I never realized before how much he talks. I pretty much zoned out for all of dinner last night because I couldn't. listen. to. one. more. word! Benjamin apparently does a lot of listening so the rest of us don't have to absorb it. Last night I pulled out the silent game just so Todd and I could get a word in edgewise. Nathaniel is about to teach me how to play Mario Cart on the Wii. I've never played.

* We discovered with our huge elimination diet that Caleb is very sensitive to wheat. When he has a lot of it, ADHD symptoms are significantly worse for him. We also discovered on our diet that when we took away much of the hyperactivity we were left with other things that need work. I'm grateful that we are in a position to help him work on the things that we need and that there are resources out there for Todd and I to learn how to be the kind of parent he needs.

*Lilyanna is a climber. She has scaled the piano and dining room table this week. Chairs and couches are not high enough for her. I'm considering a large kennel for her when I need to do something where I can't have my eye on her directly. ;)

*I am buying new running shoes next week and hitting the pavement asap! I had to give up my 3 exercise classes a week with all the kids home this summer and boy does it show! It's not just that I've put on a couple of pounds. It's that I don't feel good. I actually need to exercise to feel like I have any kind of energy for the rest of the day. Without it I feel bleh all day long.

How's your week going?

Tony's 2011

2011-06-13T20:23:00.000-07:00

I didn't watch last night because I was sure that NPH couldn't possibly be as funny as last year. I mean he was great at both the Tony's and the Emmy's last year. It just didn't seem statistically possible that lightning could strike a third time. I was wrong. And last night's opening number? SOOooo much better than the monstrosity that was last year's number.

And could anything have been more fun than watching Daniel Radcliffe dance?? My boys are going to be excited to watch this number. It's not my favorite song from the show, but the energy in it is great!

But back to Neil Patrick Harris. Again with the very funny and talent showcasing numbers! This time with Hugh Jackman, who I didn't love as a host to be honest, but that's just me.

It looks like it was a great show, and I may need to see if I can watch the whole thing later.

Photo Book

2011-06-06T14:36:00.001-07:00

Click here to view this photo book larger

Dress Rehearsal 2011

2011-06-05T20:23:00.000-07:00

I mentioned the broken camera, right? Here are Benjamin and Nathaniel's dress rehearsal videos. They're not great, but you get the idea. Nathaniel's dress rehearsal (he's the one in the blue shirt) was good considering it is his first time dancing on stage, but he did GREAT in the actual show. (which we're not allowed to record, so you'll just have to trust me. ;) ) I'm so impressed with how far he came in the few short months that he's been taking dance. He's all fired up to do it again next year! Benjamin is adding Jr. Tap Company to his Jr. Hip Hop Company AND dancing a duet for next year. He's very excited. (I'm mostly excited that we've worked it out that I only have to be at the studio twice each week as opposed to four times!!! Although, then I might have to start cleaning and/or cooking again...) You may recognize Benjamin's dance as being the same one from the talent show but this time with the rest of his class. He was going to do his own choreography to another song, but since it was the thick of competition season, he went with something he was already working on. And here are my dancing boys!

Showtime 2011

2011-06-05T15:52:00.000-07:00

This is Warren singing "Stars" from Les Miserable at his high school's pops concert. He was in a quartet that was fabulous also, but unfortunately, my camera is not functioning properly and the recording was unwatchable. :( Enjoy this one, though!

School Talent Show 2011

2011-05-22T20:19:00.000-07:00

Benjamin finally danced in the school talent show. Sorry for the quality of the video. I can assure you he was great and extremely poised on the stage. It was fun to watch! (also, you can hear Lilyanna trying to say "Benjamin" on this video. Adorable!)

Peck Peck Peck!!

2011-05-16T06:10:00.000-07:00

This is a picture of my daughter. And a chicken. The chicken is currently living with us. It is a special needs chicken. The other chickens it used to live with knew this and tried killing it on a regular basis. Other than the fact that she can't get herself up when she falls over, and looks pretty beat up, you wouldn't know that she had issues. Lilyanna loves the chicken. They spend a lot of time hanging out next to each other when I'm gardening in the back yard. Usually Lilyanna is fully clothed for these things. This Saturday, however, she followed me outside wearing just her diaper.

In typical fashion she went over to the chicken and sat down for a good conversation. (Pick a little, talk a little!) This was fine. The chicken went about eating grass and bugs. And then she found something that looked like an irresistible treat.

Baby toes.

Lilyanna was NOT pleased with the results. The chicken wasn't overly pleased either. She got screamed at and pushed away AND didn't even get to eat the yummy looking things.

So now she's just back to bugs and chicken feed.

Brotherly Dynamics

2011-05-04T12:43:00.001-07:00

Nathaniel and Caleb are about as different as two brothers could possibly be. Coloring, body type, personality, interests (with the exception of Legos and Pokemon) are all opposite. It often leads to arguing all day long and in fact over spring break I was sorely tempted to put them in separate rooms for the duration and not let them out until Todd got home from his business trip. I didn't, though. So instead I spent all of Spring Break mediating fights between the two of them. I'm sure anyone who has more than one child has had those moments. And most of us manage somehow to not eat our young, though it makes me more understanding again of those animals that do.

The other night we went out to dinner for Caleb's birthday. The children were brought cups with plastic lids on top "to keep them from spilling" which has never prevented my kids from spilling in the history of ever. But I digress. Somehow, halfway through the meal Nathaniel lost his straw. I'm not sure how it's possible to lose one's straw while one has it right in front of one, but nonetheless, the straw went missing. And my genius child looks at the cup with the plastic lid and says, "Well now how am I supposed to drink??"

Caleb regarded his brother without rolling his eyes and without sounding like a know-it-all said, "Nathaniel, take off the lid."

To which Nathaniel responded, "Oh. Yeah. That would work." As if that idea had never occurred to him.

I guess it's a very good thing that they are totally different kids. Otherwise, Nathaniel might have died of thirst .

That's my kid.

2011-04-29T16:55:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, a friend of ours told me the following story about Caleb in Primary. (The equivalent to Sunday School for the kids age 3-11 in our church.)

Teacher: And we don't say bad words.
Caleb: You mean like Damn?
Teacher: Yes, Caleb, that's an example of a bad word that we don't say.
Caleb to a friend: That's my favorite word!!

According to our friend, Caleb's teachers did not laugh at this. Our friend on the other hand was highly amused. It takes a special person to appreciate Caleb's awesomeness.

Photo Book for you!

2011-04-27T14:30:00.001-07:00

Click here to view this photo book larger

Dear Mom and Elaine,

Happy Mother's Day! This will be arriving in the mail shortly for you. If you are bad about checking our blog, then it will be a surprise. ;)

Thanks for being the fabulous and wonderful mothers and grandmothers that you are. We love you lots and lots.

The Smithly Horde (My friend, Heather, called us that today. I like it.)

Crazy Hard Diets

2011-04-26T07:58:00.000-07:00

We Smiths are embarking on a huge elimination type diet next Monday, May 2. Caleb's birthday is the day before and there was no way I was going to make him go without cake on his birthday.

This was first recommended to me last summer when I started seeing allergists with regards to my hands. There was too much else going on at the time for me to even consider such a thing. But since then, life has gotten a little easier and my hands aren't nearly as bad as they were then, but they still aren't better. Also, a few other members of the family are suspect for some food sensitivities.

So, starting Monday we will be eliminating dairy, soy, all artificial flavors and colors, gluten, corn, eggs, sugar, citrus, yeast, strawberries and peanuts. Also, no red meat or pork. The artificial stuff, beef and pork are very rarely present in our diet anyway, so that will be the least painful. The most painful? My guess is sugar. It's in everything!

If anybody has any recipes they can recommend that doesn't have any of those things in it, I'd be grateful. In the meantime, we'll be eating lots of chicken, rice, and veggies.

Right now, breakfast is the trickiest to think ahead about. No eggs, gluten, or dairy eliminates a lot of traditional breakfast foods. I do have some yummy smoothies that we will have, and maybe just some fried potatoes.

I hope this helps some or all of us. When Todd and I first got married, we did a similar type of diet. We felt great. Todd was able to gain weight, I was able to lose weight, food tasted better in general. But it's difficult to maintain. The whole family is committed for at least a month. Though it may take several more weeks to phase things back in.

Wish us luck or pray for us or whatever it is you do. We'll take it! ;)

Quick trip to NJ

2011-04-25T15:06:00.000-07:00

Back in February the father of one of my dear friends from college passed away. It happened to coincide with a long power loss in very cold temperatures here in Ohio, so packing up 4 kids and driving to NJ for a weekend seemed like a very reasonable thing to do. My boys were thrilled because they were excited to see Grandma and Grandpa Smith. (Read eat sugary cereal, wrestle with Grandpa, and watch Cartoon Network.) Here is a fine example of that Cartoon Network thing:

I left the boys in the capable hands of my in-laws and headed up to North Jersey for the wake and funeral. The experience of that weekend could be a blog post all alone, but I can't put it into words in a way it deserves. To sum up, my friend Dr. Dan is an amazing human being and clearly his father was as well. I am a better person for knowing Dan and getting the smallest glimpse at his family.

This, however, is where Lilyanna and I spent the majority of the funeral mass. The foyer. At least she's consistent. The foyer is where we spend most of sacrament meeting, too.

This is Grandpa Smith bribing Lilyanna into being his friend. He fed her ice cream right out of the container. Greg, the Grandfather in this case, once said to me, "Do you know why grandkids and grandparents get along so well? They have a common enemy." It worked, btw. Lilyanna was his friend following the ice cream incident in a way she just wasn't before. ;)

It was wonderful to visit with so many dear friends, both at the funeral and at a luncheon my Mother in law had for some other visiting friends, and at church as we were on our way back out of town. But it was also nice to return home to Todd and our dear friends here

. It's interesting to me that the way I feel about going back to NJ is the way that someday my kids will feel about coming to Ohio. This is home to them. They are Ohioans. Right down to the accent. I'm sure my father (from Wyoming) was similarly horrified by my NJ accent as I was growing up. (Which by the way, I grew up pronouncing as "harrified". Also, that fruit that is also a color is an "arange". And people retire in "Flarida". It's okay. I don't do that anymore. I try to comfort myself with that idea when I listen to my kids speak.)

MS Sucks!

2011-04-19T16:38:00.000-07:00

I saw that phrase on a T-shirt at the MS walk on Saturday. I think it sums things up nicely. First of all let me say a HUGE THANK YOU!! to everyone who donated to Team Smith for the MS walk this year. We raised $791.00 thanks to the incredible generosity of our friends and family.

The walk itself was delightful, which is saying something considering I had broken? fractured? sprained? one of my pinkie toes the day before and my eyes were badly allergic to all of the lovely flowers and trees in bloom.

The walk was at the zoo before it opened which meant all of the animals weren't just out and awake, but frolicking! We saw animals as we walked by that we have NEVER seen awake in all our years of going to the zoo! The red panda actually does more than sleep. Who knew?

We met back up with Todd, Lilyanna and Caleb a little earlier than the finish line because Caleb was being a pill. We slowed our pace and finished all together. Because there were so many people with MS participating in the race with various mobility abilities, we were able to also stop and ride the carousel before we finished and we still came in ahead of lots of people. I'll have to remember that for future races. I just need to find a bunch of people who have a difficult time walking and compete against them in a race if I want to win! No? Oh, well. It seemed too easy. Which is why they don't give out any placement awards or anything like that. This is purely a walk designed for everyone who wants to participate and to raise money for support and research.

We will make this a regular part of our spring from now on.

Thanks again to everyone. We really appreciate all of the incredible support, both financial and emotional you gave us. <3

Ten Things I Learned from Benjamin's First Dance Competition

2011-04-10T20:44:00.000-07:00

1. I am really grateful for the age appropriate costumes that our studio director insists upon. One word to describe the majority of the little girl dance outfits there: Prosti-tot. Also grateful for the age appropriate choreography that our director insists upon. Watching 8 year old girls do pelvic thrusts and shimmies is just a little awkward for everyone. One of the Moms next to me said, "Well, someone has to train the future strippers of the world." It was that bad at times.

2. Benjamin is very chill in the face of a big deal when there are lots of girls watching him.

3. I am not very chill in the face of a big deal for my baby! I stood and fidgeted for almost two hours before he even came on stage. Only then did I sit down.

4. I NEED to pack ibuprofen for the next competition. I had a headache and the loud and blaring music combined with shrieking girls was no fun.

5. I am so lucky to have a boy because it means I don't need to mess with the crazy eye makeup and false eyelashes that everyone else in the studio has to worry about.

6. Simply having a boy in your dance gets you an extra 3 points in competition. It's not much, but every little bit helps, right?

7. Apparently bronze, silver, and gold are passe. Instead we now have gold, high gold, and platinum. Ridiculous.

8. When you own a studio and know a few neat little tricks and have like 80 numbers from your studio performing on the same day, PLEASE don't put those few neat tricks in EVERY SINGLE DANCE. I wanted to throw rotten fruit at the choreographer every time the girls from that studio did the same move in every dance. I should bring rotten fruit next time. And buy a program so I know who the choreographers are.

9. The kids at our studio are really kind to one another.

10. Benjamin is a good dancer. I don't know where it comes from, but I'm glad he got it, and I'm glad he's really enjoying it. Next year he wants to compete with the tap company also. And be an assistant for tap and hip hop classes. I'm glad he's loving this right now. I don't know how long it will last, but the social and physical skills he's learned over the course of the last 6 years will be an asset to him forever.

Tomorrow I will...

2011-04-08T19:19:00.000-07:00

plant the peas and lettuce!!! After I clean out the garden bed and add in the compost that's been brewing since last summer!

I will also make a stab at cleaning out the garage. Because it's terrifying.

I can FEEL spring coming! I'm all energized about doing projects and getting dirty and that's after a week of my kids being on spring break while my husband was on a business trip and my dishwasher being broken!

I'm ready to do a happy dance out in the sunshine tomorrow!!

Did I mention that we got a light box this winter for Light Therapy for all of us? It helped. It really did. I could tell the biggest difference in Caleb if he used it in the morning. But that light was NOTHING compared to the real honest to goodness SUN!! Caleb and I are both bouncing off the walls full of energy and ready to GOOOOO!

What are your plans for Spring?

Duotrigintillion

2011-04-06T20:59:00.000-07:00

This is a picture of Nathaniel dressed as a ketchup bottle. No, it's not Halloween. No, he's not going to a costume party. A friend brought over a box of stuff they were getting rid of and it was in there. He put it on and wore it for the rest of the morning. And today.

Nathaniel is a genius. They spent about 6 weeks at the beginning of the school year testing him to see if he needed to be in an accelerated math group. Every day he had the tests I would ask him after school how things went. His response was always the same. "Fine. I knew all the answers." Todd and I would smile at one another in that oh isn't he so cute thinking he knows everything when he really doesn't kind of way. And then we saw all the test results. It turns out that he really did know all the answers to all the questions. So, they skipped him ahead a grade. It would have been ahead two grades, but he hadn't yet learned long division, or any division for that matter, and they thought that socially two grades might be too much.

Last night at dinner there was a discussion about the biggest number. Googol was being thrown around by Caleb. Benjamin said Infinity. Nathaniel said Duotrigintillion. Todd and I smiled that smile again and then said, "but that's not even a real number, Nathaniel!" Nathaniel assured us that indeed it was because his friend Jacob had seen it in a book in the EPP teacher's room. So, Todd whipped out his smart phone. (how did we ever solve family disputes at the dinner table before smart phones??)

And it totally is a number. Nathaniel even corrected Todd's spelling before Google could.

When will we ever learn?

By the way, Googol is 1 with 100 zeros after it. Duotrigintillion is 1 with 99 zeros following. I think, though, that Benjamin's answer was best. How do you argue with a quantity with no end?

Although, I'm sure that in a few years, Nathaniel will figure out an argument.

The Annual Smith Family April Fool's Day Letter!!

2011-04-01T12:30:00.000-07:00

April 1, 2011

This year has been a little crazy for the Columbus Smiths. You may recall we had some trouble last year. The robot council had us banished to an asteroid. That hasn't undermined our holiday cheer. And we know it's almost springtime by the marks we make on the wall. That's our favorite time of year.

April Fools’ Day!

Okay, so that didn’t really happen to us. We stole the lyrics from Jonathan Coulton. The boys thought it would be funny to use this as our holiday greetings. Here’s a link to a video of the song.

But it has been quite a year for us.

Lilyanna turned 1 in January. At about 9 months she discovered she could walk. She’s hasn’t stopped running since. She loves shoes and playing dress-up with the laundry Emilia has just folded. It seems the Smiths have been blessed with a girl. Lilyanna also loves all music, especially VeggieTales and spends her waking hours trying to get her parents to play every VeggieTales album all day long.

Caleb turns 7 next month. He loves first grade, especially art and science. He took a couple of sculpting classes this winter and really enjoyed exploring that medium. He has decided to channel his daredevil streak and wants to join the summer diving team. Emilia is already practicing watching him do dives through her fingers that she slaps over her face every time he does some crazy backward twist into the pool.

Nathaniel, 8 years old, started second grade this year, but he was bored. So after winter break, Nathaniel moved up to the third grade. Nathaniel also decided to join his brother in dancing and is now a student of the Boys Hip Hop class at our studio. Nathaniel was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints this summer while we were in Wyoming. Nathaniel is doing a very good job at being an 8 year old by telling everyone all the jokes from Boys’ Life as often as possible. “What has 6 wheels and flies?”

Benjamin is 11. His parents are in denial about his age. Benjamin just finished the fifth grade play, Rats: The Pied Piper of Hamlin. He played the Head Rat. This year Benjamin joined his dance studio’s junior hip hop company and loves it. He’s also still doing tap and this year started taking ballet. (It’s one of the requirements of being in company, so he HAD to, but has discovered he’s great at it. Emilia and Todd are very confused as to where he inherited gracefulness from...) Benjamin also crossed over from Cub Scouts into Boy Scouts and earned his Arrow of Light Award in scouting.

Warren, 18 this past fall, is a senior this year. Warren played Harry Brock in the high school production of Born Yesterday and then Alfred P. Doolittle in the musical, My Fair Lady. Now Warren is excited to be living the Thespian dream, working at a restaurant, while he finishes high school. He currently plans to attend Columbus Community State College next year sometime. This past summer Warren was sealed to our family in the Mt. Timp Temple where Todd’s Grandpa Clay is a sealer. He also got to go horseback riding for the first time in his life when we were in Wyoming.

Emilia was recently released from being chief oompah of the church ladies. (That’s Relief Society President, in case you’re unfamiliar with our more colloquial titles.) This allows her to be more full-time soccer mom, not that any of our kids play sports. (Really she’s a dance mom and at the studio 4 days a week, but someone please slap her if she becomes the stereotypical dance mom. In the summer time she becomes a swim/dive team mom just to mix things up a little. No slapping required, as it’s seasonal.) Emilia is also still enjoying teaching piano lessons to neighborhood children.

Todd still works in the marketing department at Chase bank. (And Emilia still has no idea what he does, though it’s amusing to listen to her try to explain. As mentioned in last year’s letter Todd switched responsibilities last year. His new job has something to do with Strategy, whatever that means.) In the church Todd is still the secretary in the Young Men organization. Any free time Todd likes spending with the rest of his family.

Send us an email, drop us a line, stop by and visit if you're ever in or around Columbus!

Love,

The Smiths

Jump Rope for Heart

2011-03-14T14:49:00.000-07:00

Caleb dragged me over to the bulletin board in the gym and told me to take these pictures because he "jump roped a hundred times in a row!". According to the sign, he jumped at least 12. So, maybe it was a hundred. He does know how to spell his last name, btw, but he told me he was too tired to do it the right way after jumping so much. I <3 him. Just like that little girl on the star.

Cub Scout Cross Over/Blue and Gold Banquet/Arrow of Light Thingy

2011-03-08T20:22:00.000-08:00

Do you see this boy? As of three weeks ago is no longer a cub scout. Oh no. He is a big bad Boy Scout. (Do you see the patches on his shirt? Most of them I sewed on 2 weeks before this dinner even though he's owned the shirt for almost two years. And then I had to buy a NEW shirt to sew on NEW patches for his Boy Scout meeting the very next week. Arg!!)

This is what was left of the group who started in Cub Scouts together so many years ago. They are a nice bunch of boys when they're not trying to light things on fire. ;)

This is Lilyanna with her outfit inspired by my Glamazon sister, Elysa. Hello?? Animal print and accessories?? Clearly a must. Also, she has a lollipop. That was pretty much how we could get her to sit through the event. She didn't start screaming and running away until Todd and I had to stand up in front of the room with Benjamin. Naturally.

So, after the boys cross over the bridge thingy, the new Scout Master puts little green thingies on the scout's shirt. I have no idea what they symbolize, except they used to be blue and now they are green.

And there they are. Two minutes before the picture was taken they were itty bitty Scrub Scouts as Todd likes to call them, but now they are aforementioned big bad Boy Scouts.

And this is what happens when you give boys real arrows when they earn their Arrow of Light award.

And here are the Dads who didn't kill them even after working with them for so many years. Bless their hearts.

And here we are. Looking terrible. It had been kind of a long day. I promise we enjoyed it all much more than it looks like here.

One down, two to go.

What happens when Beth is left alone with her camera and my baby...

2011-02-25T13:21:00.000-08:00

These are just a few of my favorites. Count yourself lucky that I didn't include the entire file, because even though I'm content to stare all day at pictures of my cute kids, I'm sure the rest of you have other things to do. I get these wonderful emails of amazing pictures every time Beth watches Lilyanna. Which makes me think that she needs to go hang out with her WAAAAY more often. ;)

thank you thank you thank you, Beth!

Blessings

2011-02-23T13:52:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago, I went upstairs during the dreaded mania that is bedtime. (3 boys going to bed at the same time is a nightmare of loudness and activity and teasing and NOT brushing their teeth and jumping on beds and suddenly remembering that they have a masterpiece of an art project that they wanted to do that day and they must to do it right then and I'm so mean because I won't let them!! Ugh.)

When I reached the top of the stairs, Benjamin said, "Mom, my room smells funny." Again, with that many boys in my house, a room smelling funny is not breaking news. But I finally went into that room and smelled BURNING!! I thrust the baby at Benjamin and started looking for the source!

I have no pictures of the actual event, but what I found was one of these lights which are clipped on to my boys' beds for reading. Unfortunately, this one had fallen down into Caleb's nest of pajamas that he'd left on the floor instead of in the basket under the bed. The lamp wasn't on when it fell down, though, because it's plugged into an outlet that is controlled by a light switch. It wasn't until Benjamin came upstairs to read and flipped on both switches that the trouble began.

I know there are many concerns out there about childrens' pjs these days being made from flame retardant materials. I get the concerns, I really do. But that light burned holes through three separate pairs of pajamas and didn't light a fire, because of those chemicals. The light itself melted in the process and didn't start a fire in those pajamas. The edges of the clothes melted into a hard line forming an almost perfect hole in all three pairs and was rapidly approaching the carpet when I finally got it out. The light and pjs were ruined, and the room did indeed smell funny, but my kids and my house were safe and for that I feel very, very grateful and blessed.

Lilyanna at age 1

2011-02-14T09:51:00.000-08:00

Miss Lilyanna is a person. She has opinions, thank you very much.

  At age 1, her favorite songs to have sung to her are "Frosty the Snowman" and "The Itsy Bitsy Spider".

  Her favorite album to listen to is "Snacktime" by Bare Naked Ladies, and anything Veggie Tales.

  Favorite books are "Frosty the Snowman" and "Food for Thought".

  Favorite toys? My canning lids. Seriously. HOURS of entertainment there. She likes the jars, too, but Todd is a big meanie and wouldn't let her bang glass jars on the tile floor. He put them on a high shelf that she can't reach. Of course I can't reach them either...

Ball Regular Mouth Lids

Her words to date are "Baby", "Up", "Uh-oh", "Mom". She has sounds for "thank you", "all done", "bottle", "Benjamin", and "Dad", but not real words yet. She LOVES shoes and babies! These are her two favorite things in the world. She also loves her brothers very much and all the fun things they do. (Rides on their shoulders, and wrestling with her to name a couple.)

Lilyanna loves to dance and listen to music. During every piano lesson, she's right there "helping" my students play. They really appreciate it. (Ok. They don't. But they put up with it because she is cute. And then they say, "I messed up because Lilyanna was playing." And I say, "No, you messed up because you only practiced this today 5 minutes before your lesson, now try it again and pay attention this time!")

It's hard to believe a year has gone by already. I can't really remember what life was like before this little girl joined our family. We sure are glad she's here!

Shameless Begging

2011-02-08T11:00:00.000-08:00

In case you were unaware, we here at the Smith home have a deep and abiding hatred for Multiple Sclerosis. SOOOooo, since we can't do much of anything else about it, we're going for a walk!

Specifically, the MSwalk in April.

Please consider going here to donate to research and support of those who live with MS.

Team Smith thanks you!

Love,

Emilia, Benjamin, and Nathaniel (and possibly Caleb if he can be convinced that it's worth walking that far for anything. ;) )

Happy First Birthday!

2011-01-23T18:51:00.000-08:00

Miss Lilyanna at her first birthday party. She invited all of her most adoring fans over to share in the day with her.

This was when Lilyanna stole the lid of the jar of the other baby's food. She was crouched down, licking the jar, behind the table. We call this picture "Guilty!"

Stealing more of Katie's food. This may inspire Katie to learn how to walk.

Daddy and Daughter! So cute.

Sugar coma has begun!

Delicious!

The fruit bat and Evil Mr. Kevin.

Happy Birthday!

Veterans Day 2010

2011-01-19T18:32:00.000-08:00

My blog is a little erratic lately with the dates. I'm posting more, but just with what catches my fancy. Chronology Shmonology is what I always say! (Actually, I've never said that before. But now is an excellent time to start!) ANYWAY. Here are the Webelo 2 scouts from our pack. You can tell which one is my kid because he has NO patches sewn on his shirt. That has since been remedied. Ya know. Just in time for him to cross over to Boy Scouts and not need the shirt anymore.

These boys did the flag ceremony for the Veteran's Day assembly held at the elementary school. I cried pretty much the whole time. Something about lots of old men in uniform telling war stories combined with patriotic music. I can't handle it. I take an entire box of tissues to the Memorial Day parade in our town each year. It's the cars full of former POWs that get me every time.

This group of boys, though small, is good. I've been pleased with the experiences Benjamin has been able to enjoy while associated with our neighborhood Cub Scout Pack. It's weird to think he's almost a boy scout. My BABY!!

Nathaniel's Baptism!

2011-01-16T17:16:00.000-08:00

Nathaniel and his Dad

Nathaniel turned 8 years old this summer and was baptized out in Wyoming by his Grandpa Bradshaw. Benjamin and Grandpa Smith spoke at it, and Todd confirmed him a member of the church. It was fun to have so many relatives there to participate with him. We are really proud of Nathaniel for making the decision to be baptized.

Nathaniel, Grandpa Bradshaw, and Benjamin

Lilyanna getting acquainted with her Great Aunt Julie and her Great Grandma Bradshaw. She seemed to really take to Great Grandma Bradshaw. It was very sweet.

The whole gang: Smiths and Bradshaw and Hales and Clays and Christensens and more!

conversation about hair

2011-01-16T14:09:00.001-08:00

Me: I can't tell if all the color from the highlights I got a year ago is out of my hair or not. Is this all my natural color now?

Todd: That's easy. Is your hair gray?

We Got Weather.

2011-01-10T18:39:00.000-08:00

This is a common phrase in Ohio. It baffled me a little at first. Weather? Everyplace has weather. In fact you don't have it. It just is! But when they say it here, it never means anything good. To say, "There's going to be weather this afternoon." means there is going to be a tornado/blizzard/wind storm/pouring rain/flooding. And all of those will cause our power to go out. I didn't know it was possible to lose power as often as we lose power. We live in well established suburbs of a well established city. But the wind blows and we lose power. Maybe that's why so many Amish people settled here. We're all pretty good without electricity around here...

Anyway. I just found these pictures from a summer afternoon this past August at our town's swim club. We love it there. Tonight there is weather in the forecast. (This time weather means snow.) These pictures make me happy to look upon to remember warmth and summer and a lazy afternoon with my kids in which I didn't have to pick up after them.

Benjamin learning to dive off the board. He is finally doing much better off the block, but the diving board seems much further away from the water.

This one is probably going to hurt.

And this one.

But the splash isn't too bad.

Lilyanna doesn't mind Benjamin learning to dive. It means she gets to sit longer in the grass and eat bugs. Mmm...bugs.

All done with the bugs. The thumb isn't so crunchy.

Speaking of Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice...

2011-01-09T16:34:00.000-08:00

This. This is why it is fun to have a little girl. I had no idea the fun I was missing! Getting little boys dressed for church just isn't fun. Oh, you can have little handsome outfits for them. Tuxedos, even. With Converse. It's cute. You giggle a little when you look at them all day. But that is NOTHING compared to dressing a little girl in velvet, taffeta, tulle, and patent leather shoes!!

More Conversation

2011-01-07T05:10:00.000-08:00

Nathaniel: Lilyanna's bum smells like gingerbread.

[She had just been sitting on a squished piece of gingerbread, so this comment wasn't quite as bizarre as it sounds.]

Me: Why are you smelling her bum?

Nathaniel: I wondered what a girl's bum smelled like. [I do find it humorous that the answer here happened to actually be "like sugar and spice and everything nice"]

Me: I wouldn't mention that to any other girls if I were you.

Nathaniel: Yeah. They'd probably strangle me.

Good to know he's figuring these things out.

Dinner Conversation

2011-01-06T07:10:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite things about teaching middle school age kids is that they understand sarcasm, but are still relatively obedient. Benjamin, who is in 5th grade, is beginning to discover how sarcasm can be used in humor. (We try to discourage it in other forms, like to be mean.)

And here is a brief glimpse into last night's dinner conversation:

Nathaniel: Mom, why haven't you finished reading the Pokemon Ultimate Handbook yet??? You've been stuck on the "E" section for weeks now! All of us read it in like 3 days!!

Me: Nathaniel, the difference between you reading and me reading it is that you care about it.

Todd: [snort] (he was drinking at the time, but it wasn't quite funny enough for him to get it up his nose.)

Nathaniel: Well, that's mean.

Me: No, it's not. I have lots of things that I'm interested in that don't interest you guys.

Benjamin: Like what?

Me: Like Pride and Prejudice.

Nathaniel: I like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

Me: I mean regular Pride and Prejudice. How about you sit down with me one night and we can watch all 4 hours of the movie together.

Benjamin: What is Pride and Prejudice about?

Me: 5 daughters. Who talk.

Todd: For 4 hours. [Can you tell he's not such a fan?]

Me: Well, sometimes they walk.

Benjamin: [fist pumped in the air] Woo hoo! Action!! That's MY kind of movie! Walking??? Excellent!

Nathaniel: Can we have popcorn and movie candy and drinks while we watch it?

Me: Sure.

Nathaniel: Okay. I'll watch it.

Benjamin: Action movies are awesome!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This is a fun age! I feel like I have to capture all of the wonderful and fun moments now in preparation for the gathering storm of teenager to come. I have seen it in action. It ain't pretty.

Happy Thanksgiving/Merry Christmas/Happy New Year!!

2011-01-05T11:23:00.000-08:00

This is how those holidays looked at our house. Just imagine all members of the family taking turns on the couch. Again, not so impressed with the results of the flu shot. (Although, to be fair, Lilyanna and Todd had the shot and didn't get it. Todd got all sorts of other fun sickness, but not the flu.) Now, if we'd all gotten sick at once, this could have been our Christmas card for next year!!

Baby Eczema

2011-01-04T06:30:00.000-08:00

Is lame.

I've been struggling since July with a nearly debilitating version of dyshidrotic eczema. After a gazillion visits with "the premier specialist in the field" (in several fields, actually. The doctors can't decide whose problem it should be.) and all sorts of wacky tests that last for days and days, still nobody knows why. You can see why having hands like this would be little tricky for anyone, but especially a mom who must wipe away tears and change diapers and do dishes oh, and be a piano teacher. (warning: that link leads to a gross picture of somebody else's hands, but is a fairly accurate representation of my hands at their worst.)

Last month, Lilyanna developed regular garden variety eczema all over her face. It is so sad and she's so uncomfortable. (And yes, we're doing all the stuff you're supposed to do to help.) And I know it doesn't work like this, but there is a part of me that keeps trying to strike bargains with the world. "Look, I'll take this nastiness on my hands for another year, if she can just get better, please. PLEASE!!"

Apparently given my struggle with eczema my whole life, and the fact that Todd has asthma and allergies, it's something of a miracle that all of our children didn't struggle with it as babies. For that, I am very grateful. I am also grateful that she will happily play for long periods of time. But then it's like it all comes back to her how itchy and uncomfortable she is and she has a little meltdown.

Did I mention it's so sad to see her so uncomfortable?

You can see it looking not so bad in this picture, but it's definitely spread more since this picture was taken a couple weeks ago.

Baby eczema is lame.

Boston in the Fall!

2011-01-03T18:40:00.000-08:00

Do you see that gorgeous lady and her gorgeous baby?

Not me and Lilyanna, the OTHER gorgeous lady and gorgeous baby, silly! ;)

They are some of my favoritest people in the universe. The husband/dad that go with them is in that category, too, but he was too busy taking pictures to be in the pictures.

I had a plane ticket to use before December, so when I thought of who I could go visit who lived in the same time zone, Liz and her family jumped right into my mind! We haven't seen one another since right before we moved to Ohio back when Caleb was a baby! And when I emailed Liz, whom I've known and loved for more than two decades now, and suggested that my baby and I should come invade their life and home for a weekend, she said, "YES!!" Because she is wonderful and warm and welcoming like that. To hear her tell it, she's not like that with everyone, but I don't know if I believe her...

Here is Lilyanna showing Mr. B how the walking thing is done.

Here is Mr. B being not so sure about Lilyanna invading his space.

It was very sweet to get our kids together to play a little, and even better to have a relaxing weekend visiting with old friends. Being with old friends always reminds me about all the stories we could tell our children about one another that for now we don't. I'm sure someday we'll share some, but for now, these kids wouldn't appreciate hearing about our wilder days anyway. (I have a 10 year old, though, who would LOVE to hear the socky-time story... See? This is what I mean. Some things people don't need to know. They should just stay buried in 1986 where they belong.)

And, we went to the beach!! I have no pictures of that because it was really very cold. However, I discovered that Lilyanna enjoys sand, water, and chasing seagulls. I find all of these likes very encouraging for future beach going! And I was able to visit with my beautiful, brilliant AND nice cousin. (Seriously, is it really fair to have ALL of those qualities. Almost Dr. Jen, can't you share a little with the rest of us??)

Many thanks to my wondermous friend, Liz and her husband and baby for a delightful and relaxing weekend!

Mr. Footsteps

2011-01-01T13:32:00.000-08:00

2011: Must blog more.

With this in mind, I found this picture from last June when Benjamin was literally crowned "Mr. Footsteps" at his recital. His studio gives this award to one of the boys at the studio each year who they feel has exemplified some quality that "makes Jesus smile". Benjamin was selected for last year because of his incredible individuality. Mentioned by the studio director were some of his fearless fashion choices, but also how he remains true to what he knows is right.

We already know these things about Benjamin, but it's nice to get a crown, scepter, and sash as proof that other people see them, too.

I promise that's a costume under the sash and not further proof of the fearless fashion choices.

Newborn Lilyanna

2010-11-09T07:41:00.001-08:00

I have all of the wonderful intentions and supplies to make pretty scrapbooks, but I just don't have or don't make the time to do it. All my other kids are only 1 year old in their books. I loaded up these pics to shutterfly right after Lilyanna was born and did nothing with them. Today before I logged out from doing something else, it autofilled these for me. I added a few captions, switched a few pictures to different places, found a coupon for free shipping and ordered it. I would love to devote days and days to creating a one of a kind piece of artwork for Lilyanna's scrapbook, but that is not the reality of my life right now. So for now, I will appreciate this feature and I think the rest of my kids will, too.

Click here to view this photo book larger

"Harses, Harses, Harses, Harses"

2010-11-01T18:39:00.000-07:00

My nephew enjoying a ride.

What could be more Wyoming than horseback riding?? When I was growing up, my Grandpa Bradshaw always had horses and ponies for we grandkids to ride whenever we came out. So even though we were a bunch of city slicker easterners, we could still hold our own on a horse. It did not even begin to occur to me that not everyone knew how to ride horses until the year I took Todd horse back riding. It became quickly obvious to everyone watching that riding is actually something learned and people don't just know how to do it. (Although, he can beautifully navigate through every major city's mass transit system with zero problems. We all have our strengths.)

Warren's first time on a horse.

Nathaniel and Benjamin trying to remember how to do this. It's been a few years. "But Mom, WHY do I need to put my feet in the stirrups??"

Anyway, my parents have failed their grandkids in providing horses to teach them these valuable life lessons, but fortunately they know people who can help. Some cousin of mine (second-ish, I think) was absurdly nice and loaded up a bunch of horses and a pony and drove all the way from LoneTree to the rodeo grounds in Lyman just because my Dad asked her if she could help out his poor deprived city slicker grandkids. Some of whom have Never Even Been On A Horse!

"Horses are stinky!"

The summer that I was 16, I went out to Wyoming to live with my grandparents for the summer. Every morning my cousin Cassie and I would go down the dugway to where my Grandpa kept his horses. Apparently, I pleased him that summer, because shortly before he died, he mentioned what a "fine horsewoman" I had become. (For a city girl.)"

Anyway, it was fun to share some of my love of horses with my children. I'm grateful that they, too, have Wyoming Grandparents and that they can see and experience some of my favorite things from my childhood.

Aunt Rachel decided that the pony was more her size. ;)

Caleb, on the other hand wanted the big horse. He actually trotted for a little bit. (Not on purpose, and it spooked him a little bit. But he did get back in the saddle one more time after that.) Good boy!

C'est moi!

Lilyanna and HER Grandpa Bradshaw teaching her about horses.

Ballroom Dance Camp

2010-10-18T17:53:00.000-07:00

Brigham Young University (my husband's alma mater) for all that I mock it, does provide an excellent education at a very affordable price. One of their particular areas of expertise is dance. Benjamin went to dinosaur camp last summer in Wyoming, so when he realized that we were going to be out west again in the summer, he asked if he could attend again. Unfortunately, they'd changed the camp to day trips that didn't really work out with our schedule anyway, so we started looking down in Utah for camps. The only one that fit his age and interests happened to be the Youth Ballroom Dance Camp at BYU.

Benjamin has been in dance classes since he was 5 years old, so he's no stranger to the world of dance, but for some reason I was totally surprised by how excited he got when I mentioned Ballroom Dance Camp. He's never done anything like this before, but he was really excited to try. So, we signed him up.

He had a wonderful time and at the end of camp was begging to be able to go every year until he turns 18, at which point, he informed us, he'll just be able to take college classes like that and won't need camp.

I was really proud of him for walking into a brand new place with hundreds of other kids he didn't know. (Although, at the end of camp showcase we realized there were no fewer than 5 kids from our old stake in NJ, and one of them was a former piano student of mine.) He was also in charge of himself all day and hung out with extended relatives at night, but he loved it and did a really good job with both of those things.

(We will not mention how often his mother had to call to talk to him because her BABY was in an entirely different state without her!!!)

Lilyanna enjoying the end of camp showcase from underneath a chair.

This is a clip of them doing their New York Swing at the final Showcase. Benjamin is as per usual the tall skinny one, he's in a white shirt and dancing with the cute blond wearing all black. There were actually too many boys in their age group, so they did it twice so all the boys could have a turn. Benjamin is in the back corner of the ballroom the second time through with a couple other boys. You can tell which one is him by the one man dance solo he is putting on for himself and 500 other people in the ballroom.

This kid makes me smile.

A lot.

Corbin's Baby Blessing Day!

2010-10-12T19:55:00.000-07:00

One of the things we were able to do while out west was attend our nephew's blessing and subsequent feast! We are all about the feasting. This took place two days after Warren's sealing and follow up feast, so we were still in the celebratory mood. Also, both Warren and Benjamin were off at camps at BYU, so we were feeling fairly foot loose and fancy free. It's amazing how 3 kids can feel like such a breeze when you are used to 5.

Here is Miss Lilyanna enjoying some homemade plum baby food. Mmmm. We had to bring the Bumbo cross country with us to use as a high chair because she was too skinny for regular restaurant high chairs. She's also too skinny for the Bumbo and would do a backflip out of it any old time she was bored with it.

These are another niece and nephew of ours. I don't think Charlie and Emma know who I am, but Charlie does know and loves Benjamin and Todd. I'm glad they can know a few of us since we are so far away.

Nathaniel was a little lost without Benjamin, but he seemed to figure it out after a few hours. Here he is holding down the table cloth to SAVE THE DESSERTS!!! Nathaniel takes dessert very seriously.

And here is the little man of honor. All sorts of cute and cuddly!

A Quick Tour of Salt Lake City

2010-10-12T19:32:00.000-07:00

This is the fountain on the roof of the conference center, it continues on all the way down the building. Salt Lake Temple in the background.

Last year, Caleb insisted that he wanted to go on vacation to Salt Lake City. Todd and I kept saying things like, "Are you sure??" and "Why?" We did not ever say, "But, Caleb, there are too many damn Mormons in Utah!" Because we try to be decent parents. And besides, Salt Lake isn't so bad. ( Provo is a different story entirely...)

When we were out west visiting family and dropping off kids at various camps at BYU, we took a day to go visit SLC and see some of the sights.

This is also found on the roof of the conference center. What look like photographs are actually images sand blasted into marble. It was amazing to see and touch.

Caleb appreciating Temple Square.

I think I take this same picture every time I go to Salt Lake.

Benjamin before he and Todd almost passed out/threw up from heat exhaustion. We Smiths know how to have a GOOD TIME!

Blinded by the Light!

2010-10-03T19:14:00.000-07:00

We live in central Ohio. Central Ohio is not known for it's sunshine. NJ isn't known for it's sunshine, either, but Columbus has more in common with Seattle as far as sunshine is concerned. After a year of living here, I noticed I needed sunglasses for even the dingiest of sunny days. I'm turning in to one of those blind cave fish. Apparently, so is the rest of my family, because we could not handle the bright, blinding, Utah sunshine. See for yourself:

These were all taken outside the Mt. Timpanogoes Temple following Warren getting sealed to our family. Both Todd and I had been able to go through the sealing ceremony with our adopted siblings when we were children, so it was nice to be able to share that with our children as well.

It was so great to see so many family members and friends come to this momentous event for our family. Todd's Grandpa was our sealer, also!

My Aunt and Uncle even hosted a soiree at there house immediately following. Did I mention that they had been up THE ENTIRE NIGHT BEFORE dealing with their brand new finished basement getting completely flooded thanks to a broken city pipe??? They are amazing and generous people.

We really wanted to get a cake that said, "Haha! Now you're stuck with us forever!" But Todd's parents did the food shopping, so we didn't want to complicate it for them.

Ahoy! That's better!

And.....we're all done here! Poor Caleb.

Fun Times at Grandma's House!

2010-10-03T18:21:00.000-07:00

So, no visit to my parent's house is complete without an awesome bubble bath in the whirlpool. It is because my parent's installed a huge whirlpool in the bathroom in their NJ house when I was 9 that has made it so I haven't taken a bath in a regular sized bathtub ever since. You can't grow up with that and then downsize.

Nothing says FUN like a bath full of bubbles!!

I promise that somewhere in there, there is a tub.

Meanwhile, Lilyanna discovered the joys of crawling all over the place and cleaning up after everyone who dropped food. To be fair, in this picture she's just cleaning up the tortilla that she dropped, but she was just as happy to help the morning that somebody spilled the cocoa krispies on the floor. It's amazing what the last child gets to eat that the first child would never even have been able to touch.

Happily, my Mom still had a walker up in the storage room from when my nephew was a baby. The boys had a great time tying a piece of string on the front of it and pulling her all over the house. Later in the week, the string even got attached to a bike so they could pull her even faster. Again with the youngest kid, thing...

We all had a great time in Wyoming this visit. It was really relaxing to hang out at my parent's house and enjoy spending time with them as they enjoyed spending time with their grandkids.

A Visit with Great Grandma

2010-09-23T08:34:00.000-07:00

While in Wyoming, the younger kids and I went the few blocks down the street to my Grandma's house to introduce her to Lilyanna. Happily my cousin, Becky, and her family were visiting as well. Her daughter, Harper, is a week older than Lilyanna and just as physically precocious. It was really fun to see them play together, and great to see Becky again after so many years. Lilyanna snuggled right up to her Great Grandma Bradshaw. It was very sweet to watch.

Natural Corrals

2010-09-12T18:15:00.000-07:00

Natural Corrals-one of our favorite places to go in WY. This is 15 mins from my parents' house. Wyoming is amazing and breathtakingly beautiful. It's a stark beauty. But it is Beauty.

Caleb was fearless and scampered all over the hills like a mountain goat. (MY child.)

My boys and their cousins hunting through the dried clay for bones.

Look at the huge pile of huge bones my children found!!

Okay. They were only this big.

This is how high up I was when I scampered up to the top!! I always feel like I'm in a Ford commercial when we're climbing out in the hills!

Prairie Dogs

2010-09-08T11:48:00.000-07:00

"What are YOU lookin' at?"

taken by our new friends from California.

I have no great love for prairie dogs. They are an extremely prolific animal that take over vast quantities of space making it dangerous for horses and every time I see a colony of them, they make me want to play "whack a mole".

However, on our drive from Denver to our destination of Lyman, WY, we stopped at a rest area that featured a whole colony of prairie dogs who are extremely tame. It made time at the rest stop much more enjoyable as my boys scampered all over the place trying to see where the next one would pop up.

There was a large van full of people there dressed in lovely billowing clothing with lots of jewelry hung on hemp. Without censoring myself for judgement, I immediately thought, "THOSE people are from No. California." A glance at the license plate confirmed it and they all decided to make friends with my children and me as we watched prairie dogs. It was very amusing to explain to them, that, yes, it is okay to pick a sprig of sage brush. Sage brush can more than take care of itself. If it can survive the winters of Wyoming and poison every plant around it, some California hippie wasn't going to hurt it. (Keep in mind that I and two of my children were dressed in tie-dye that day and I would move to northern California in a heartbeat if given the option, but for some reason, that day, I was feeling smug about knowing so much about Wyoming, a state that I normally make fun of whenever possible.)

We had a fun time chatting about life while the kids and a few of the adults ran around chasing prairie dogs and had an all around pleasant time with one another.

If you ever get the chance, stop by. It's the Bitter Creek rest stop at mile 144 on I-80 west bound.

Denver, CO

2010-09-08T11:20:00.000-07:00

These kids are far too cool for their own good.

So, I have no pictures of our friend, Linnea, to whom this rad scooter belongs and who invited me and four of my children to come stay with her while we trekked west. AND who made us dinner including homemade ice cream AND took my kids for rides on her scooter because she is fabulous like that. Linnea is also famous for getting me to paint my toenails a few years ago (the last time she invited us to stay at her house). I've been doing it in warm weather ever since, and really the world thanks her for it. AND for encouraging me to start running. Hm. Linnea is responsible for a lot of things in my life...

A BIG HUGE THANK YOU TO LINNEA AND ARTUR FROM THE SMITHS!!!!

still churning the ice cream!!!

Summer Swim Team 2010

2010-08-31T06:41:00.000-07:00

Both Benjamin and Nathaniel did our local swim team this summer and had a lot of fun. It was great exercise for them and it's good for kids who are really good at a lot of things, to spend some time working on something that they aren't so fabulous at. Both of them made it to championships, which caught me totally by surprise, but they loved that they'd qualified.

This picture is of Benjamin at the end of year banquet winning the award of "Jr. Coach". He would do an hour of practice with his age group each morning and then stay an extra hour to help with Nathaniel's age group. Teaching the younger kids helped him get better at a few things, too.

We are really happy to live in an area that provides our children with so many wonderful opportunities.

And we are proud of our boys for all their hard work this summer!

More Zoo

2010-07-11T18:13:00.000-07:00

There's not really an explanation for the above picture.

Being at the zoo with 5 kids makes me tired, too.

Polar Bears!!!

Goofball!!

Goofballs!! (The plural of goofball, obviously.)

I love these weirdos.

Zoo!

2010-07-11T17:16:00.000-07:00

This year we are trying to use ALL of our coupons from the library reading program. The boys all earned zoo passes, so while the weather was lovely last week, we went and enjoyed seeing the fun polar bear area!

But first, the goats:

Is it still called currying when it's a goat?

Lilyanna was unimpressed with the goats.

The goats were not impressed with her pretty blue eyes, you see.

But all of these goofy guys are:

For Beth

2010-07-08T10:52:00.000-07:00

Are you all noting the cuteness and the CRAWLING??

5 months

2010-07-08T10:30:00.000-07:00

Mmmm. Mommy's hair and my thumb. Now I can calm down.

Do you see that?? If she does sideways crunches in an effort to get away from me, she almost has rolls!! No other time, though. Still, the doctor was happier with her growth. Girlfriend likes to EAT! While all of my babies have enjoyed food, Lilyanna takes the cake (haha), for being the most intense about it. We almost can't eat in front of her unless she has food, too. Even if she has just finished eating. She is up to three meals a day and is enjoying oatmeal, avocado, apples, pears, peaches, sweet potatoes and peas. She doesn't love bananas. Which is weird to me. But if I mix them in with something else, I can get her to eat them.

In other news, she is totally mobile. For real. She gets up on all fours and rocks and lunges forward. and then repeats, in addition to scooting and rolling all over the place. j

And then there is the my hair in her mouth thing. That is her "lovie". I constantly wear my hair in braids now because it hurts less when she yanks on it to stuff it in her mouth. Come winter, I will have hairsicles if this keeps up.

Lilyanna is by far the most social of all my babies. Is that a girl thing? She actually cares if there is another baby around and will try to interact with that baby. My boys would do that for 45 seconds tops and then move on. Lilyanna is very happy to sit and chat for several minutes.

It's difficult to believe it's been almost half a year...

Dance Recital 2010

2010-06-03T08:05:00.000-07:00

This is actually from the dress rehearsal, which is the only time I'm allowed to record.

This first one is from his tap class. For some reason the entire thing is blurry, but Benjamin is the only boy in the class, so it shouldn't be too hard to follow.

Next is from his hip-hop class. Which is just funny to me. Five skinny white boys doing hip-hop. He loves it, though, and has been accepted into the jr hip-hop dance company at his studio, so he's really excited! They danced to "Ice Ice Baby" which I hated when it first came out. The fact that I've had to listen to it A LOT for the last six months has done nothing to improve my opinion of the song, but Benjamin loves it. Benjamin is the tallest one, mostly in the middle.

This was their exit for their dance. I just include it because I love the little thug boys on stage with the ballerinas!

Happy Memorial Day (Belated.)

2010-06-03T06:47:00.000-07:00

3.75 mos

2010-05-14T06:19:00.000-07:00

Yawn.

Yesterday, the little miss had a doctor appointment in which we pretended she was 4 months old. She's been on something of an accelerated schedule there because we have to keep going back for weigh-ins.

Two major things:
first, we're going to need baby gates by next month. The doctor watched as Lilyanna flipped herself onto her tummy, held her head straight up, and then began pulling her knees under her tummy and scooting herself forward. The good doctor then turned to me and said, "I don't really look for that until six months. And, I'm so sorry! It's going to be a long year with a baby who is this mobile this early."

second, Lilyanna has only gained 2 lbs. 12 oz. since birth and only another half inch since her last appointment. So, we've been given the green light to start with rice cereal, even though it's a little early. We have to go back in next month to get weighed and measured to see if it's helping. If she's still not growing or gaining, the doctor is ordering many, many tests. In truth, I haven't been that worried about her tininess because 3/4 of my babies have been tall and skinny. Benjamin's growth chart was very similar, although, he grew longer more quickly. And given her father's metabolism and how very active she is, I'm not overly surprised by her growth. I agree with the doctor, though, that it's worth checking out next month if solids haven't made any difference.

In the meantime, we will continue to feed the baby bird whenever she wants.

Lilyanna is a delight to so many of us.

My Little Spin Doctor

2010-05-13T06:34:00.000-07:00

A couple of months ago, Caleb announced to me one day after school, "Mom, I'm doing really great this year at school!"

"Oh, yeah?", I said while getting dinner ready and only half listening to him.

"Yup! I have only had to go down to the office ONE time this whole entire year!!" He said this very proudly.

"Oh, real-...Wait? What??" He had my full attention at that point. "Why did you have to go down to the office?"

Caleb shrugged. "I made a poor choice." And he strolled out of the room. I decided to talk to his teacher about it before pursuing it any further with him, but she had a bunch of personal stuff happen, so I didn't get a chance.

A few weeks later, Caleb announced proudly one night at dinner, "Mom, I'm doing SO great this year!! I've only had to go down to the office TWICE!"

In my head, I was sure he was just repeating his story of a few weeks before. And then the new number registered in my head. "Wait. What?? Twice?? Why?"

He shrugged, "Miles and I were breaking crayons and throwing them."

"Why??"

"Because I have a hard time following the rules in the morning. I do better in the afternoon."

Me: "..... Um, Caleb, you know it's not okay to break crayons and throw them."

Caleb looked at me and continued, "I know that. Besides, I've only been to the office Two Times. Miles has been down there like a million times."

And then his brothers took over with stories of the famous Kindergarten Miles who has been to the office a million times already.

I've never had a kid who got sent to the office before. I'm not sure what to do with him.

And it was really hard both times to wait until I got all the way up to my bedroom and shut the door before I started laughing. I seriously love that kid.

Remind me to tell you about Caleb's Crime Ring next time.

Perspective

2010-05-05T06:06:00.000-07:00

I have a fever/cold/sinus thing. It makes me whine and feel very put upon indeed that I still have to fulfill all of my regularly scheduled duties as a wife and mom. And then I see this:

And I remember how very very blessed I am.

Music for kids, part 3

2010-05-03T14:59:00.000-07:00

Music for kids, part 2

2010-05-03T08:20:00.000-07:00

Music for kids, part 1

2010-05-03T08:11:00.000-07:00

My sister in law is about to have a baby and asked Todd and me for some music recommendations. These are a few of the CDs that don't make our brains want to melt and ooze out of our ears with repeated listening. I'll be posting more throughout the day.

Stolen from Heather

2010-05-02T18:04:00.000-07:00

I just stole this from Heather's blog, because it makes me smile a lot. That's my kid!:

Here, for your edification, is the overheard discussion between Adam and his friend Caleb on the way to Gym, Snack and Swim class yesterday. We had just seen a most impressive, really huge snowman in someone's yard.

Adam: WOW! That snowman is HUGE!!!!!
Caleb: Yeah! He's the biggest I have ever seen!
A: He is reaching his hands up all the way to touch the sky!
C: He is reaching his hands up all the way to Jesus' throne!
A: ?! Jesus isn't a KING!
C: Yes he is, he is the king of kings.
A: Caleb, Jesus is DEAD.
C: Yeah, but he wanted to die so he could be with God his father.
A: ?!?!??!?!?!?!??!?

Methinks that our Sunday school program isn't as on the ball as the Smith family's. In our defense, we have only been attending meeting for 6 months, but still.

Musical Monday

2010-04-26T06:45:00.001-07:00

Todd thinks it's creepy that I sometimes sing this to our daughter as a lullaby. In my defense, I'm usually just humming it to her.

Three Months

2010-04-23T06:53:00.001-07:00

Miss Lilyanna is now three months old. I have no idea how much she weighs or how long she is, except that she looks longer, and her cheeks are a little fuller than they used to be. She just learned to roll over (back to front) and is very determined to scoot herself around once she makes it on to her tummy. I don't remember my other kids trying to scoot so early, but maybe they did. It's all a blur.

Speaking of blurs, I can't believe that it's been three months already. I've never begrudged the passage of infancy before. It's not my favorite time of child development, honestly, but I'm enjoying this so much, that I hate to see these months slip by so quickly. I could seriously just sit around all day and stare at her.

In other news, it looks like we are going to have a thumb sucker on our hands. I haven't decided yet how I feel about that, but it doesn't really matter. She will do it, regardless.

This little winter baby is loving spring! She likes to lay on a blanket in the grass while I get in 5 minutes of gardening at a time. And then she wants to eat again. I'm learning to do everything in life in 5 minute intervals.

Lilyanna is loved. All of her brothers are convinced that they are her favorite brother. But Nathaniel is pretty sure that he's winning:

Black and White Cookies

2010-04-08T07:36:00.000-07:00

The problem with living in basically one place for nearly 30 years is that I wasn't really aware that the foods I grew up enjoying were regional and not national. I've explained before the culture shock (for food) I experienced when I moved to Ohio. But Black and White cookies were something I didn't even realize I couldn't get here. (I have actually found them at a pizza place in Pickerington, but it's owned by people from Pittsburg and so is just slightly off on both pizza and black and white cookies.) Some friends of ours mentioned them a couple of years ago when they were talking about a trip they took to New York City, and it was like waking up. I looked around and realized I'd not seen a black and white cookie in Ohio.

Anyway, one of these same friends mentioned to me a few weeks ago that he was travelling to NYC and asked if I needed anything while he was there. Nobody ever wants to bring me back a pizza. Believe me, I've asked everyone. So, since he was going to be in Times Square anyway, I asked him to go Here:
And to bring me 7 of these:
And he did.

And the Smith family loves him for it.

Thanks, Eldon!

The Competition of Cuteness

2010-04-05T17:47:00.001-07:00

Who is the cutest one in the land (or Smith house, as the case may be) ?

Him?

Or her?

Seven Habits of Mildly Effective People

2010-04-02T19:22:00.000-07:00

As per request...

7 Habits of Mildly Effective People

Today I wish to speak out against a serious vice that plagues our world. Ladies and Gentlemen, I feel an urgent need to address an addiction growing ever more prevalent in our society. I speak not of drugs or alcohol, not of gambling, smoking or Krispy Kreme donuts; I speak of our perverse addiction… to succeed. This desire to reach for the stars, to be "all that we can be" is extremely addicting and adds unneeded stress to our lives. I am here today to say, we can overcome this addiction. By cultivating modest habits we CAN train ourselves to be content with doing the bare minimum.

I have discovered and would like to share with you today the 7 Habits of Mildly Effective People. Mastering these habits will help you achieve greater levels of mediocrity. But before sharing these habits with you, let's be totally realistic: Mastering seven habits? It's probably not worth the effort. So let's settle for one or two. And mastery? Come on! How about proficiency!

First, to reach our true average selves, we must develop the habit of procrastination. Procrastination has gotten something of a bad rap from self-help gurus, like my friend Steve Covey. But let me say, procrastination is totally different than quitting. When the going gets tough, losers give up. Mildly effective people, however, commit to press on… later. Why start that hard exercise program today when you could wait until New Years? After all tonight there are Facebook quizzes to take: "Which Harry Potter character are you?" "Which Beatle do you most resemble?" "How long would you last if attacked by a tribe of cannibals?" Yes, procrastination is key to successfully overcoming our desire to succeed.

The second habit in becoming mildly effective is proper goal setting. Now you might be thinking, "Goal setting? I thought goal setting was something only high achievers do." It's true. Achievers teach that we should set SMART goals: goals that are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, blah, blah, blah. If you want to shoot for the stars, SMART goals are for you. But if you are content to watch lift-off from the comfort of your couch, then I suggest you set SLUG goals.

First, the S in SLUG teaches us that SLUG goals are SMALL. Big goals are for big dreamers, like Rockefeller or J.P. Morgan, not the Smith's of the world. Set small goals for average success. For example, if you wanted to add culture to your life, you could set a goal to master the Spanish language by the end of the year. But that would be a lot of work. Instead why not set a goal to eat more chimichangas? Not only is that less work, it's tastier too.

Next L. SLUG goals are LEISURELY. Honing that first habit, procrastination, really helps you set leisurely goals. For example, if your manager asks you to change a light bulb, don't say, "I'll get right on that." Instead explain that you may need to do a feasibility study and then do cost comparisons between bulb brands. End by announcing that you may be able to get to it sometime next month. You may even exceed expectations if you change that light bulb sooner. Which reminds me: How many Toastmasters does it take to change a light bulb? Five. One to change the lightbulb; one to welcome everyone to the light bulb changing; one to time the light bulb changing; one to evaluate the light bulb changing; and… ah… um… oh yeah, one to count the ums and ahs.

But back to SLUG goals. U. SLUG goals are Unchallenging. For example, with this contest and 6 contestants, I have set a goal to place no lower than the top 10. As long as I'm in the top 10, I'll have achieved my goal. Set unchallenging goals and avoid stress.

Finally, SLUG goals are General. For example, you could set a goal that says "I will read 10 pages of Moby Dick every night." However, if TV Land is showing back-to-back-to-back episodes of Kojack, you might just skip Captain Ahab. And then you get depressed because you've missed your goal. Instead change your goal to say "I will read more." Then in the checkout line at the grocery store, reading the headlines to this week's National Enquirer counts as meeting your goal. Look at that, Jon and Kate and Brittney Spears have helped you achieve your goal.

In short, SLUG goals, goals that are Small, Leisurely, Unchallenging, and General coupled with proper procrastination can help us overcome our tendency towards over achieving. Let's strive to be more common. Let's try harder to be more average. Let's start… tomorrow.

The Learning of Sarcasm

2010-04-01T10:25:00.001-07:00

An email exchange with Benjamin who is beginning to display those "I'm inching out of childhood and into tween" characteristics:

Dear Benjamin,

I just wanted to let you know that your Dad and I are really proud of how hard you've been working lately. You've been really diligent about getting your homework done and earning money for your hedgehog. You've also been a really good helper with your sister. We love you a lot and appreciate the sweet spirit that you bring to our home and family.

Love you,

Mom

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

His response:

So does that mean you're raising my allowance?

Love,
Benjamin