Seven Things Sunday

Phew! This week has been exhausting. Here are 7 things we did this week:

1. Lilyanna went to her friend's birthday party. After 2 days of school being cancelled due to frigid temps, some playtime with friends on Saturday was a blessing. Getting her face painted like her beloved white tiger was a dream come true for her!

2. After 2 days of those aforementioned frigid temps we then got a large snow storm on  Saturday. The roads were awful Saturday morning, but alas, the school district's science day did not get cancelled. Nathaniel was not happy about having to slip and slide through the storm.

3. Friday night was the opening of  the high school's production of "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying". Now the last time I saw this show was on Broadway, so I went in with very low expectations. I was pleasantly surprised, though, and enjoyed the show very much. Their Bud Frump was better than the Broadway version, IMO. Benjamin was one of the Junior Executives and in the chorus and had a great time dancing and singing his little heart out. And then Saturday's show was cancelled due to the snow. (NOT THE SCIENCE DAY, just the play. Grrrr.)

4. Earlier in the week, Nathaniel deigned to get his haircut before his audition for his school's production of "The Sound of Music". I took lots of pictures of the process and kept trying to convince him to stop at each phase, because he had kind of a cool emo thing going on. Alas, he didn't think it would be authentic to the period of the play.

5. Nathaniel was cast as one of the children in the Von Trapp family. I believe he was typecast, as Kurt is the incorrigible one after all! ;)

6. All of my careful trip planning for this summer fell apart this week. We were supposed to spend part of our trip this summer visiting our relatives in Spain, but they discovered this week that they have a conflict the only days that we can be there, so in a flurry of fb messages, phone calls, texts, and emails, we managed to purchase tickets for a few weeks from now so we can visit the Spanish relatives in the Western United States while they are visiting other relatives. We're really excited to see everyone, but figuring things out almost cured me of my omnipresent wanderlust for the week. (Almost. I was back at it today to try to figure out where to go for the days we would have been in Spain. I know. We should all have such "problems".)

7. Warren got not 1, but 2 jobs in the last couple of weeks! Fingers crossed and prayers said that all will go well for him.

BONUS:

8. I had my first mammogram yesterday. After the first couple of pictures, I wondered what all women were whining about. (Unless they are relatively flat chested women. That would be awful.) THEN they did the sideways pictures with the arm up and all manner of contortions and just OUCH!! The technician gave me chocolate afterwards, which did help assuage my shock at the whole thing. But still, I think at the very least a good dinner beforehand should have been warranted. Oy. This was also on the same morning of the icky, slippery roads. The upside of all of this was that everyone else had cancelled, so I was in and out of my appointment before my appointment was even supposed to begin. Silver linings, you know. 

"On Christmas Day in the Morning!"

Thanks to facebook and the like, you're probably all tired of seeing everyone's Christmas pictures.  But as this is my blog and you actually clicked over to it, I can put however many picture I want.  

Lilyanna is at that fun age where Christmas is a magical time of year.  It's been a delight to see her excitement and enthusiasm about this holiday season.  (And sometimes a little exhausting.  Emotions have been running pretty high with all the intensity of her excitement.) 

Our Christmas day was relaxing and low-key.  Last year, we decided that everyone could only give one present to everyone else.  Including me and Todd.  It significantly changed how I thought about and bought for people, but it many ways has made the experience nicer for all of us. 

In past years Lilyanna has been timid about tearing wrapping paper.  NOT SO this year!  She happily tore into her own presents and the presents of anyone else who would let her help them!

Nathaniel holding up some of his haul.  This was the first year he didn't get upset when Todd gave him a pretend present first.  (In the past we've always done socks and underwear and watched him throw a fit.  This year he handled it gracefully, which means we probably won't tease him like that anymore.  So sad.

All things princessy.

Caleb with all 11 of the incarnations of Doctor Who in minifigure form.  Happy day!

The ultimate!  Nathaniel has been begging for Minecraft for years now! I finally gave in for this Christmas.  He was truly surprised and has hugged and thanked me every day since then for this present.

Caleb is ditto with the hugging and thanking on a daily basis thing.

Three Smithly Batmen in their pjs.

What they all did when I said, "Now do a Batman face!"

Merry Christmas from the Smiths!

Halloween 2011

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.  ;)

Showtime 2011

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!

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

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

Corbin's Baby Blessing Day!

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!

Blinded by the Light!

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.

More Zoo

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!

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:

The Annual Smith Family Newsletter 2010

Hello, all!

Well, another year has passed us by and we find the Smith family still living out their idyllic lives in Ohio. 2009 was a complete delight. Easiest year ever. In fact we were desperately sad when we had to ring in 2010.

Happy April Fool's Day!!!

Not to offend anyone, but we were more than pleased to kick 2009 to the curb! It was a year of too much yuck. But also some really wonderful things.

We'll start with the wonderfulest of them all! Lilyanna Smith joined our family in January (technically a 2010 event, but still...) She is adored by her parents and 4 older brothers. And it looks like Emilia's blue eyes may have won again!! (Emilia views all eye color in her children as a genetic competition between her and Todd. The score now looks to be even.) Lilyanna is two months old now and as long and skinny as Benjamin was at the same age. She is very sweet and such a blessing to our family at this time. Emilia, though initially wary of a girl, has embraced the pink and flowers and patent leather shoes quite nicely.

Caleb. What does one say about Caleb? Caleb is a wonder to us all. He is fearless. In fact we went to see a movie this summer with some friends, and the 12 year old girl sat next to Caleb in the theater in case SHE got scared during the movie. He had a wonderful summer at our local pool club. He is quite the fish and also spent the summer flirting with all the cute middle school girls at the pool. He would flex his 5 year old biceps for them and smirk as they oohed and aahhhed and giggled. Then he'd confidently walk over to me and say, "Yeah. They think I'm cute." He's been enjoying all day Kindergarten this year and has really discovered a love of art. His other favorite love at the moment is LEGOs. A frequent quote uttered by him, "I'm a geek about LEGOs."

Nathaniel is in 1st grade and still knows everything. He also had a great summer at the pool and came so far in swimming (he started off the season reluctant to put his face in the water) that he's decided to join the swim team this summer. When winter weather forced him inside he turned to his LEGOs. Nathaniel has discovered a love of reading and has read nearly 50 chapter books this year. Nathaniel definitely keeps us on our toes and makes sure that when we tell him something we leave no loopholes. Lawyer in training perhaps?? Nathaniel also joined Emilia on a trip to San Francisco in the fall for a wedding, so he now feels like quite the world traveler.

Benjamin is in 4th grade and has set some really high academic goals for himself this year. We have been really proud of his diligence. Benjamin is 10 years old! (Todd and Emilia are still having a difficult time with his double digits.) When he turned nine, he received a present to go to a week-long dinosaur camp in Wyoming. There he learned how bones are cared for and processed in a museum, but also took part in an outdoor dig where the kids actually did find some bones! After camp was over he enjoyed the rest of his time out west visiting with relatives. He's still dancing and doing cub scouts and theater and being a great friend and brother. We are grateful to have Benjamin be part of our family.

Warren (mentioned last year as Jake) had his adoption finalized in August and changed his name. He was also baptized in April. Busy year! Warren, a junior in high school, has been actively involved in Worthington's extensive high school theater department. He can often be found helping to build sets when not rehearsing on stage for a show. He played the part of the Reverend Brown in "Inherit the Wind" and also the part of Conrad Birdie in "Bye Bye Birdie". It is always a treat to see him on stage, and it makes his brothers excited to participate in theater, too. As much as he loves theater, after a visit to New York City last April, he decided that Broadway isn't the place for him. He was unimpressed with the noise, dirt, and bustle of the city.

Emilia is still serving as Relief Society President in our congregation. Between discovering she was pregnant (with a girl even!) and nasty gall bladder issues, life was a little rough for her. But, Lilyanna has been born and the gall bladder has come out and all is well with the world. Emilia is really enjoying having a baby to love and cuddle. She still teaches piano lessons, and is studying to take the GREs so she can apply to grad school in the next few years. Because she is crazy.

Todd still works for Chase in their marketing department. After several years managing their list processing team, Todd recently moved over to support the Retail Strategy team. What this really means is that just when Emilia was able to explain what her husband did at work, he changed jobs. Last year Todd joined Toastmasters and has competed in several public speaking competitions. His humorous speech "Seven Habits of Mildly Effective People" took top prize at several levels of competition.

And there are the Smiths' in a nutshell. Come visit us in Ohio! It's lovely here... Well, in the Spring and Summer it's lovely. But WE are here. That's enough of a reason to come. Happy Spring, everyone! Hope you had a fun April Fool's Day!!

Love,

Todd, Emilia, Benjamin, Nathaniel, Caleb, Warren and Lilyanna

Bye Bye Birdie

Warren played the part of Conrad Birdie in his high school's production of "Bye Bye Birdie". He was absolutely wonderful in the role and it was fun to see him perform the Elvis type character. And I love this picture of him!

Incidentally, this play has history for Todd and me as well. When we were teenagers and I didn't like Todd anymore, he came to see me in it. I had a crush on the boy playing Conrad Birdie, though. Also, I didn't return the favor and go see Todd's play a week later. (He was the Wizard in "Once Upon a Mattress".) He still brings it up. ;)

Happy 17th Birthday!

It's kind of funny when the first birthday your kid spends with you is his 17th, but we're okay with doing things slightly less than conventionally around here.

17 things I really like about Warren:

1. His genuine laughter.

2. His beautiful green eyes.

3. His desire to be a better person.

4. The dedication he puts into acting.

5. His spiritual intuitiveness.

6. His willingness to face and deal with his awful past.

7. His rosy cheeks.

8. His love of history.

9. That despite the fact that someone ruined the concept of Mom and Dad for him, he's willing to try again with Todd and me.

10. That he's learning how to be a friend in a way he's never had to before.

11. He's quick to recognize when he's wrong, and quick to apologize.

12. He's learned that he can be a very successful student.

13. and is learning how to apply that knowledge.

14. He loves the scriptures.

15. He tries.

16. He can be very sweet.

17. His love of music.

Happy Birthday, Warren!

It's Official!

So this is what we came home to a few Thursdays ago. The Broads had decorated our house with wonderful "It's a Boy" balloons and noisemakers. It was VERY fun to come home to!

Here is how conversations with the neighbors went. (It all made me realize that while I really love having a bunch of stay at home Dads on my street, we just don't spend much of our conversation time talking about personal stuff.)



Neighbors: "Did you have a baby?"



Me: Um, no. (Really??Did they think I could hide that for nine months?) But I'm pregnant.



Neighbors: "You are?!"



Me: yeah.



Neighbors: "And it's a boy?"



Me: Well, no.



Neighbors: "....oh."



Me: We finalized the adoption today!



Neighbors: "oh. Well, that's nice too, I guess."



Introducing the latest addition to the Smith family:


Warren Logan Smith!

This is a picture with him and the woman who has been his caseworker for the last several years. We like her a lot. And are sort of sad she won't be around anymore.

This is the whole new and improved Smith family with the FABULOUS judge. He's showing us the notepad that he doodled caricatures on while we were having our hearing:



When Caleb first met the judge, he asked him to bang his gavel and say "Order in the court!" The judge looked a little worried and said, "Um. I don't think I actually have a gavel." Caleb was not amused. Seeing that the judge was about to lose a five year old fan before the hearing even started, he walked all around the chambers looking for a spare gavel. (The idea amused me. Like people keep extras in their desk?) He finally came back in the room and said, "Well, I couldn't find a gavel, but I did find this." And he proceeded to pull out a tape measure and bang it on the desk. The gravity of the statement was sort of lost on the fact that every time he banged it on the desk, the tape actually flew out a few inches. He was a great judge, though, and helped to make the experience very positive.

We are very happy that Warren has chosen to become a part of our family and feel fortunate that we were all able to enjoy this day with him.