Smith Family: April 2011

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Catching Up

I'm finally catching up... quickly... nothing fancy, mostly just want to get my photos on here with a bit of journaling before I get too behind. So sorry folks... not much creativity this time around, just all business.

Easter Smiles

This morning Chris looked out the window just in time to stop the dogs from eating the Easter bunny... or at least a good imposter of one. Apparently they had discovered a rabbits den under some bushes and were doing a good job of digging the poor things out of house and home. We told the kids that the dogs were chasing the Easter Bunny but he got away, so I guess we can still expect more egg deliveries in future years.

I figured I would take advantage of the photo op that Easter presents. The kids may look like angels in some of these, but in others you get a peek at their true selves... :)

Row Row Row Your Boat

Solei has been spending 2 grueling hours a day for the last few months training for the rowing team at her high school, and it paid off this weekend at their first regatta.

They "caught a crab" or two on their first run and came in second (they were racing against the other school's "A" Boat while they are just a "B" boat, so the odds were against them from the start), but the second race they won by a huge margin.

Solei is the one smack dab in the center of the boat.

Here's the grand finish...

The water was pretty muddy because it is in flood stage, which we discovered first hand as we made our way back to our car on the river trail...

Needless to say, we had to backtrack and take a different route.

School Concert

The boys had a great school concert last week, it was fun to see all the things they have been learning about music. I won't post video since that would take all day, but here's a photo.

Model Child

Some of my kids are more camera shy than others, but not this one...

I made her day a few weeks ago and gave her a full-on photo shoot... here's a few of her "famous poses"...

In the Hood

We found a dog park near this school that was totally gangsta... the playground looked like something out of the seventies, all run down and all, but the kids didn't care, they just wanted to play while the sun was shining (rare these days).

Craigs Cruisers

Spring break was pretty boring for us, except for one day when the sun peeked through and I took the kids to Craig's Cruisers. A few miles before we reached our destination, I heard a funny noise and stopped to check the tires... yes, we had a flat. After an hour at the nearest tire shop, we were back on our way.

Caden's favorite was the Laser Tag...

Ella's was the Frog Hopper...

And everyone loved the bumper boats...

And the go carts...

Punk

After letting their hair grow all winter long, we finally got around to cutting the boys' mops. Halfway through, Chris stopped so I could take this photo of Caden. Now all he needs is some purple hair dye and a few body piercings...

En Garde... Again

Taron finished his fencing class and I caught a few more photos and videos on the last day when they had their tournament. Here's my little knight in shining armor...

Friday, April 15, 2011

Greetings, Earthlings

No, we haven't fallen off the face of the planet... It's just been busy and my poor computer is feeling neglected. So neglected, in fact, it is retaliating with the "blue screen of death" quite often now. Hopefully it will let me finish this post.... which will be quite short because I am eating prunes. Or trying to, with a clogged salivary gland, while the wind blows so hard I keep wondering if I have a wayward construction crew on the roof. So yes, we are still alive. I hope you are too.

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