Smith Family: November 2009

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Walking the Dogs

I haven't been very camera-happy lately. There just isn't much to capture this time of year. The leaves have fallen and brown has become the predominant color.

Very boring.

Winter is taking it's sweet time, and with temperatures hovering in the 40's and 50's there's not much hope for snow. When the white stuff does fall I'm sure my inspiration will return, but as of yet my camera has been somewhat dormant.

Not completely though.

We have this new puppy (Sierra's persistence has dubbed him "Cody", much to Dad's chagrin), and we've enjoyed taking him out to see his new world. With his floppy ears, clumsy paws and wagging puppy body he follows us across all sorts of trails, streams, and rocky shores. At first he was hesitant to even dip his paws in the water but he's coming along...

And of course, Cody has a very good teacher...

I took the kids down to Brighton Beach one day with the dogs. Kina loves rocks for some reason, a little too much...

We were having a great time until Taron discovered some slippery rocks. I took some video right before he had his big splash...

And here is the "after" shot, he was not a very happy camper...

Then yesterday we headed to the Lakewalk with the dogs. The terrain there was a bit easier to travel...
Sierra brought a friend, they had been in a parade the night before but were still up to walking another few miles. This time they didn't have to dance the whole way though...

Taron brought his bike and he thought it was the coolest thing ever to ride down the grassy hill, but the push back up wasn't so fun...

And, what good is a day in the park if you don't climb any trees...

At the beach, Taron collected driftwood...

And played on the life-size Lincoln Logs...

We watched a ship come in as we headed back...

And after a day like this, the best thing about taking the dogs out for exercise is......

Life is an Amusement Park...At Least in This House

The kids made a new discovery...

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Learn a Trick, Get a Treat...

Just when I thought we were done potty training...

Halloween brought more than pillow cases full of candy, Chris found this little guy online and drove all the way up to Hibbing to pick him up.

He is a purebred lab, pick of the litter. So far, things are going well, he didn't destroy the garage while we were at church, and seems to learn quickly. Kina is a little jealous, but hopefully that will wear off over time.

We are having a bit of contention over his name... some are set on "Cody" but others want the name "Bo", so I am asking for advice. Which do you think he looks like?

Halloween

Somehow I missed photos on Halloween before the kids headed out (it was a little hectic), but I snagged a few at the ward Halloween party. I was busy painting pumpkins and rainbows on kids' faces so Solei and her friend took charge of the camera work for me.

Taron was Darth Vader but with no masks allowed, he might as well have been dracula..

Pinata time!

Zombie bridesmaid Sierra and friends...

Everyone wanted a pumpkin on their face, which made my job easy...

The young women ran the haunted house and it was a hit.

Caden giving light saber lessons, or something...

The two Cinderellas...

Another Year Down

Our sweet Taron is growing up! He just had his 6th birthday this last Thursday. Unfortunately we had a bit of sickness in the house so we couldn't throw a friend party yet, but had a nice little family one.

Happy Birthday, Tare Bear!

Up on the Rooftop

A few Saturdays ago we went to help some friends tear down their roof, and thought it would be a good chance to get the kids involved in some service. A few of the kids actually ventured onto the roof...

While the rest of us stayed on the ground.

I was really impressed at how hard Solei was working, it wasn't easy picking up all the scraps from the ground. We worked all morning and we still didn't get it all done! After that, I am so glad we won't be needing a new roof anytime soon!

The Mind of a Child...

When Solei was a toddler, she found some bark that was lying at the base of a tree and said in disgust, “Ooooooh! Tree poo-poo!”

When the girls were little, we were taking a walk with the dog who was bombarding Sierra with her friendly but slobbery kisses. Frustrated, our sweet little Sierra yelled out “NO KINA, I'M NOT YOUR ICE CREAM CONE!”

Telling Ella how to crawl, Caden explained “But I’m four, so I crawl standing up.”

I was sitting with Caden one day and I told him that the couch used to be a cow (it is leather), and I said (half jokingly) “did you know that cows turn into couches?” To which he replied, “No they don’t, they turn into pies!”

Watching the Tabernacle choir sing during conference, Solei (who was 8 yrs old at the time) said that they should sing “Do as I’m Doing” (with all the motions, I’m sure).

We put in an underground fence for the dog and Caden (age 5) saw us burying the wire. We then put up little white flags to mark where it was. A few days later he went outside and turned on the hose. When I saw him, I asked him to turn off the water. He looked at me questioningly and asked, “Until when? Until the fence grows?” He thought it needed watering!

Taron (2) looked at the varicose veins on grandmas legs and said, “owy... lightning!”

When Caden was 5, he would ask if he could go play with his friend in the morning, and I would sometimes reply, "No, it's too early". Well one day he finally asked me "can we not play on 'too early's? Can we play on 'one early'?"

Sierra told me one night that when she was little, she used to think the word “couch” came from the word “cow”, and that our couch had a cow inside (partially true since it is leather). She would try to sit down carefully so it would not run away. She thought the wood parts inside were it’s bones and the black pegs on the bottom were the feet.

Sometimes Taron (age 2) would find dog poop and say “Eew! Dog poop!” and then proceed to stomp on it as if it were a bug.

Caden (age 5) and I were talking about the sounds letters make and he asked if I knew what the sleepy letter was. I replied that I didn’t and he said, “It’s the Z... when you go to sleep then the Z’s come out of your head. And there’s a big round white thing too but it’s invisible. Maybe he had been reading too many comic books...

Sierra (age 8) made a Halloween card for her friend and wrote ENSTINE (meaning Einstein) on it, I thought it was an odd thing to put on a Halloween card so I asked if she knew who Einstein was and she said "Isn't he the guy who made Frankenstein?"

Caden (age 5) asked if it was a ghost who said the sacrament prayer because he couldn’t see anyone at the podium but he could hear the voice.

When Taron was 2 he would always respond to an “I love you” with “Much”.

Taron (3) woke up one morning, started to play and when I asked him if he wanted a pancake, he said, “Oh yeah, I was supposed to be hungry!”

Dad was singing “Jesus wants me for a sunbeam” and Taron said “Jesus likes sunbeans, they’re delicious!”

I was teaching Taron (5) how to read, and came upon the word "loose". I told him, "the two O's say "oo" and the E is silent. Slowly and deliberately, he sounded it out........"Loooosssilent".

Caden had been learning to tell time in school and was asking me about the big hand vs. the little hand on the clock. Apparently Taron was listening somewhat because he held up his right hand and asked "is this the big hand?"

Ella (4) came up to me with some of my reading glasses and said "Mom, when I put glasses on, I still don't know how to read!"

At a restaurant, Ella was impatiently waiting for her food and, looking for the waitress, she asked "when is the human coming back?"

One morning I said, "Ella, come look! There's a wild turkey in the backyard!"
Ella (excitedly): "Can we kill it?!?"
What kind of daughter am I raising???

Ella mistook another guy for Chris and was about to follow him to his car, but soon realized her mistake and said, "I was about to follow the 'not dad'".

Smith Family