St George Collage

Here are some pictures Cindy posted on her blog from our trip to St George. 

Thought I'd share in case you didn't get to see them.

Oh happy day

It's almost time!!!! I can't wait to see you all!

Weekend of birthdays!

Happy Birthday to 4 WONDERFUL people. Cody, Josh, Genica and James!!! I love you all very much and hope that you all have such a great day on your birthdays.!

I still can't believe Cody is now 12! Holy Schmokes!!!! :)

Refinished

Here is my newest project. It's the first time I ever tried to refinish something. It's three windows. They started out like the tall one on the right. Then I painted it the grayish blue.
When that was all dry, I put on a coat of black. After that was dry, I sanded it like crazy. Ok, it wasn't like crazy because I could only do it by hand, and after the first half of the first one, my hand was dying. And I had to do THREE!

When that chore was finally done, I put on a coat of stain. I think they turned out pretty darn good if I do say so myself. I'm excited for them to go up. Now all I have to do is finish painting our master bath, and then maybe repaint our room, cuz lets face it, the color scheme I had in my head didn't look so good in person. It needs to be lighter. Yes, lighter. I hope I can get it done.

New Arrival!

Congrats to Shelly and Josh on their upcoming addition to their family! We all love you and want you to know we are so excited to meet our new niece or nephew!

Over the weekend

This weekend I went out with some friends to do some scrapbooking. I love it. It's always a blast! This time, we went to a store called Archivers to scrap for free during the day. Now, the bad thing about that is we walk right through the store to get to the back where you get to work. Several times when I've been there I've seen these CUTE wall hangings that I have wanted to do. This time, I gave in and just did one. It took me several hours to do, pretty much cuz we talk the whole time and giggling is not that much of a help when you need to concentrate. :) I stamped the background paper myself too. It's not pre- bought. So it took me even longer to do that. But I like it. It will go great with our furniture for our living room that should be coming into our house in the next 2 weeks (keep your fingers crossed).

Next time I'll have to show you the windows that I am painting. I'm so excited for them. I really hope they come out in real life the way they look in my head :).

Birthday wishes

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my two wonderful sisters! I hope you both have a wonderful day! I am so glad that I am your sister. You both mean so much to me. I love you like crazy!! :)

Ajo With Dad

I took the kids to Ajo to visit Dad for Labor Day. We couldn't go down on Sunday because of my calling at church, but we got to go for the day on Monday.

I had called Dad a few days before and made sure he was okay with us coming and crashing at his house. He told me Labor Day was actually going to be his moving day. He moved into the house he and Mom are in the process of buying.


This picture is a bit deceiving as to the size of this house. You can kind of tell it's long, but it's very deep. Check out that window on the left of the house. That's going to be the office. It opens into another room that will be the workout room. You could easily use both of those rooms as decent sized bedrooms. The workout room opens into a full bath. The bath opens into a large laundry room which then opens into a big walk-in food storage room. Those are the rooms just along that east wall of the house.

I think Dad's favorite part is the swimming pool. We got into town in just enough time to miss the major moving of the furniture, but we still were able to talk Dad into letting us swim. Like he needed any prompting. I think he's really excited about this pool.

We also went to help him feed the horses. Here's Takela.

And this horse is Dad's new one. Houdini. He's starting to get used to Dad. He was mistreated at one point in his life, so he's a little skittish. He didn't approach us at the fence. But he does seem to like Takela. Dad said that Houdini will bang on the shed that separates the two of them to get her attention. It seems to be a bit of a typical relationship. He's hot for her and she's pretty oblivious. Hee hee.

This car is practically buried right across the street from the horses in an arroyo (intermittently dry creek). I thought it was kind of cool.

Ajo itself is an interesting place. It's a died down mining town. The mine didn't shut down because it dried out. It shut down because of labor union disputes. (I think it's kind of ironic that we were there on Labor Day.)

I think I've thought of a good way to describe Ajo. Think of Alamosa and what it would be like if the college closed -- how many businesses would close (and take away the Walmart). Then take away all the neighboring towns so it's the only town in a 40 mile radius. Some parts of town are a lot older. Remember driving through La Jara, where Josh was working? Or the other side of Alamosa with the tired, worn out houses? There is plenty of that through the town.

It's about 2 1/2 hours from Dad's house to ours. About the same drive as going from Alamosa to Pueblo.

But, I met a few of the ward members and they all were very nice. When the Elders Quorum showed up to help Dad move his stuff, a sister from the ward brought her two teen daughters and they cleaned the house for him. Good people.

The house will be a wonderful place for us to all gather. Especially after it's gotten a bit of a facelift.

And the pool is super fun.

A little thought

Don't you love it when you have to go through your childs room finding 2 garbage bags full of trash, 5 big black garbage bags full of goodwill valuables, and toys you had no idea that you had. Yeah. That was my life today. It does look better. I just wish we could get a shed to put all the storage stuff in there and get his room to actually look like a room.

House videos

I fixed the house videos on my last post, so check it out!!

House Hunting With Dad

Dad came up this Sunday to celebrate the 4th of July/Matt's birthday with my family and Shelly's. On Monday, he and I went out to Buckeye to look at what type of houses were available. Buckeye is about an hour and a half west of Queen Creek. It is an older town with scattered farms and horse properties. Most of the houses we saw were within a few minutes from I-10 (which can take you out to Queen Creek) and Hwy 85 which Dad will take down to his work only a mere 1 1/2 hrs away. There were a few stores and restaurants just up I-10 with a short 9-15 minute drive. We saw some interesting things out there. I had my camera with me and it has the ability to video tape so I got some footage of the houses. I have to warn you: I occasionally tipped my camera to get a more vertical view. I assumed that since my view finder was showing everything right-side up it would play that way. I was wrong. So you will be getting a neck stretch with these.

Here are our top three choices from what we saw:

Coming in at house #3, this 1977 or 1979 (I can't remember which) rancher is located near many shops and has a little over one acre. It's attached garage was converted into another bedroom, laundry area, and storage room. It has a nice, big kitchen with a lot of cupboards, a fireplace, a detached garage with a workshop with the exterior of a barn and a master bedroom with a small walk in closet and a bathroom with a separate shower and tub. It would need new carpet, has small bedrooms, needs to be repainted, and requires a good 3 yr plan for cleaning up the backyard, and installing fencing and shade for horses. Also, the laundry room is in an awkward spot. I started recording this house but only got 2 minutes worth. Unfortunately, my batteries died.



With fresh batteries installed in my camera, let me introduce you to our Pick #2. It is a newer southwestern style house with about 2,000 sq. ft. It has a cute entrance and courtyard and has a lot of charm and character throughout the house. The master bedroom was large with double sinks and separate shower and jetted tub. The other 2 bedrooms were a good size, the laundry room had nice cupboards, and the kitchen had a pretty corian countertop with an integrated sink. It had a reverse osmosis system hooked up. These are great, because you don't have to buy water from the grocery store! The tile and carpet were in great shape and it had a large "Arizona" room; basically a built-in porch. I did not think it had a great spot for a dining table and the back yard would need quite a bit of cleanup including, once again, adding fencing and shade for horses. Also, the previous owners ran their paint company out of their converted garage. They did not finish the transformation on the outside of the house so you still can see the patch work and it the new stuff is not painted. Overall a great house, just needed a little bit of lovin'.


Coming in at a strong #1, our favorite of the day was one Dad walked through the week before. When I walked in, I said, "Wow! Why did we even go see the other houses?!" This 2400 sq. ft. beauty is and an obvious custom home. It has the best looking neighborhood and sits on just over 1 acre with irrigation. There is not enough good things I can say about this house. It has the most closet space of all the houses we saw, has a 3 car garage, large laundry room with additional cupboards and countertops, beautiful stone/tile work throughout the home, granite countertops, 2 large bedrooms, a large master bedroom with separated bath. Each of the two showers in the home are beautifully stoned with a regular showerhead and an overhead rain showerhead. The kitchen is not large, but it has beautiful cabinets, decent countertops, and has room for a dining table. The front door is a gorgeous wood and there are gigantic wood pillars in the home itself. The back and front porches are large and should be shaded for most of the day. It does not have an R.O. system installed, so that would need to happen, but that is relatively inexpensive. The yard has virtually little cleanup to do but would need to be fenced and shade built for horses. However, a good portion of the land is located on the side of the house. This is where the horse would go and it is partially fenced. There would still be plenty of room for a nice sized swimming pool and even a volleyball court. Did that make you laugh? I know I cracked Dad up with that comment. He he! I not only videotaped this house, but took a few more pictures, too.



The front door:
The garage door that opens to the front porch:
A wood pillar separating the formal dining room from the hallway:Tile detail separating the kitchen from the hallway:

More Pictures From Abby's Baptism

I thought I'd post some of the pictures Jabon got from Abby's baptism and BBQ. I put most of these on Facebook, but I know we have a few family members that look here but not Facebook.

Abby in her baptism dress

Millie.

Genica, James, Peter, Shelly, Grandma Pearl

Mom, Lori, Genica

Brayden fell asleep munching on Poppa

What a cutie Grandkid 11 is!

Smith stuff

I guess there's been a few things that have happened to us lately. Trenton lost 3 teeth in one day. He looks totally different. And once these teeth grow in he will look COMPLETELY different. He's always had such tiny teeth and the one that is growing in looks huge.

I also went to the doctor this week. Memorial Day I was hurting really bad. I couldn't even get out of bed. So Tues. I called and went in to see the Gynocologist. They did an ultrasound and found out that I have a 6cm cyst on my left ovary. If you don't know, that's pretty big. You dialate (however you spell that) to 10cm when you're about to deliver. Nothing is going to be done about it though. It just has to go down on its own. If it was 7 or 8cm's then they would do surgery on it. I'm glad it's not cause I can't afford another surgery, but in the mean time I'm still hurting waiting for it to go away on its own. They put me on pain killers and ib prophen. Next Tues I'm going in to have another ultrasound to see if it went away. So... I'm hurting, I'm depressed and my husband is working all the time. I sooooo cannot wait until 2 weeks!

Cody's First Horseback Experience

Dad came up to our part of AZ last Friday night to pick up Takela and bring her back down to Ajo. Cody got to go down with his grandpa and hang out for the weekend. So, of course, since the horse was close, Cody got to ride around on Takela.

Grandpa is giving him some horse riding lessons and this last weekend's lesson was 'How to Ride Bareback.' Grandpa said Cody did really good and it seemed to be natural for him. Cody says he has a new love in his life--Takela and horse riding.

Cody is excited to spend more time with Grandpa and ride on the horse. I think if it was possible for him to be down in Ajo every weekend he would!

Here's a pic Grandpa took with his cell phone:

Happy Mother's Day!!

Dear Mom,

I don't know if I can ever truly express how grateful I am to you. You've always been an incredible example of what a mother should be and how a woman should live.

Thank you, Mom, for loving me when I was difficult. Thank you for supporting me when I ran in five different directions. Thank you for listening to me when I talked your ear off about nothing in particular. Thank you for not throwing me off a bridge when I annoyed you. Thank you for showing me how to make a bed properly. Thank you for teaching me how to cook. Thank you for showing me the importance of being my husband's best friend. Thank you for instilling a love of the gospel into my heart. Thank you for inspiring me to go to college. Thank you for lovingly speaking to me over the phone when I freaked out over my own drama. Thank you for letting me get to know you better by sharing your past with me. Thank you for crying when I moved across town from you. Thank you for wanting to spend time with me. Thank you for always working so hard for our family. Thank you for being such a wonderful mother.

I love you, Mom. I think about you all the time, wishing I could emulate your talents and remember your example. I couldn't have had a better mom than you. Heavenly Father knew I needed you. I love you!

Love,
Shelly

Toysoda

As some of you know, we got a new car the other day. It's a Sequoia. I really like it right now. Hopefully that won't change. We use to call our other car "The Mazda" since that's what it was. So I thought we could just call this one "The Toyota". Teagan has other plans though. It's not a ToyOTA. It's a ToySoda! Cutie guy.

Brayden Comes Home!!

To all of our extended family and friends out there, Pete and Genica's son Brayden is going home today. He's spent 48(?) days in the hospital and is finally well enough to go home. I don't have any pictures of him yet. I guess we'll have to plan on seeing him as soon as we can!

It's amazing what the Hand of God can do. I know the prayers, fasting, and faith of everyone has helped to heal him and prepare him to go home. I'm so grateful for modern medicine!

For the love of Spider-man

The other night we watched Spider-man. We hadn't seen it for a while, so I don't know if Teagan remembers any of it. After the movie I started singing the song. Teage told me to stop so he could sing it. It was so cute. I love it when kids sing songs their way. But of course, while I was recording him, he got distracted by Tyler coming into the room and trying to sing it with him.

He also loves to sing his ABC's, Twinkle, Twinkle and some primary songs. I gotta record him more often. Especially with the way that he pronounces some stuff. With him (hopefully) going into preschool next year to help with his speech, I won't have that many more opportunities. Maybe you'll see more soon.

Going Private

I'm going to take the family blog private in just a few days. If you still want to be able to read it, just let me know. Leave a comment or send me an email. You'll have to log in with your Google account (or whatever you use to leave a comment).

All friends and family are welcome to continue to follow us. :)

Bowling for Spring

Whoever named the vacation "Spring Break" has never lived in or even visited Divide while this break is going on. There is nothing "Springish" about it. Snow, snow, snow was what we had. And with that, there wasn't much that the boys and I could do for it that was not going to kill us by freezing to death. So, I took them bowling for the first time. They loved it!

It was really fun. We were only able to do one game because it was really close to nap time and Teagan was letting us know that, but he still did pretty good.

The boys posed as bowling balls. See their mouths are even round like the thumb hole. I'm really glad I was able to take them and do this. Tyler has been bugging us for a long time wanting to go bowling. Next stop is roller skating.

What A Laugh

Does anyone remember when I carried around my planner and kept comic clippings in it to pull out and read when I was bored? I'm still not sure if I was a nerd or brilliant.

Anyway, I came across them the other day and thought I'd share some of the ones that pertain more to my current phase of life:
Motherhood.

And I think each of us have been in this situation at one time or another (either as the parent or the kid):

Of course, I can't upload comics without posting something from Calvin and Hobbes, the greatest comic strip ever. This one is one of my favorites:

I thought I'd just share these. Hopefully they made you laugh. If nothing else, they gave you something new to read.

Our newest addition

Meet Pixie!!! She's our newest addition. We just got her yesterday after church. A family from church had puppies. Actually it was one of my young women. (I am now recently in Cub scouts.)She is a malti-poo. Maltese and poodle. I've been wanting a dog for a while now. And was having a hard time finding a little one that Ty was not allergic to. He seems to be just fine with her. YAY!!

We are also trying to kennel train her. I'm definitely no pro at that. So I hope we're doing it right. She does have some tear stains, but we are giving her food that does not have red dye in it to see if it helps clear it up. I just gotta get rid of the hair that's already stained.

She's just so cute and loveable. Her favorite toy right now is a pink and white tug of war. I think it's her favorite cause it's the only one she can fit in her mouth. Her food and water are over by the kitchen sink. But she wouldn't go in the kitchen. The floor is too slippery. So I had to put my kitchen rugs as a runner so she can get there. Some minor adjustments for a cute little friend.

The boys love her. Teagan wants to carry her around everywhere. I have to constantly ask him to put her down. These last few weeks, if you asked him anything, he would answer that he's getting a "drill" puppy. That's girl puppy in Teagan talk. He was so excited!

Trenton wrote her a note. It says " Dear Pixie you are one funny puppy." "Dear Pixie you are cute." "Dear Pixie you are one loveubl puppy." Dear Pixie I love you." Then you flip the paper over and he drew a picture of him and Pixie. It has hearts and swirls all over it. That's why there's so many "Dear Pixie"s.

Small 5

Brett has to constantly compare himself to his closest cousin in age and location: Matt. He loves to wear Matt's old clothes and shoes and will constantly say how Matt's sandals make him fast. Jabon and I tell him they are his sandals now, but there is no convincing this boy. I had to give Brett a 'Matt' haircut. And now, with them both having heart doctors, it just adds fuel to Brett's fire.

Matt is 5 and so is Brett. Brett is a good 2 inches shorter than Matt. Each phone call he got on his birthday, you would hear him say, "I'm 5. Matt is a big 5, I'm a small 5." If he could see you, he would then stand up on his tippie toes and say this is him as a big 5.

I think he fully expected to be as tall as Matt the instant he woke up on his birthday. The kid is crazy.

Thanks for his birthday wishes!

Happy 5th Birthday, Brett!!

Happy birthday (yesterday) to Brett. Can you believe he was ever this small, Tara? Even if he is just a Small 5. (I'll let you tell that story, Tara.)

Announcements

Just in case anyone needed reminding....

Peter and Genica are having their baby soon. Genica will be induced February 24. HOORAY!!!

If we are still in this ward in June, Abby will be baptized June 19th. We'll let you know if the date changes.

Heather and James are getting married in Glacier Park on August 19th.

I'm just putting these dates out there. Everyone is welcome to come hang out with us in June. We'll let you sleep on the floor.

I do think it's funny that each of these events happen around other special events: Our new nephew will be born just after JC's birthday. Abby will be baptized on Pete and Genica's anniversary. Heather and James are getting married on Lori's birthday.

I guess some dates are special all the time, for lots of reasons. Josh just guesses some dates just come around once every year.

Tyler's crayfish

When I was learning about crayfish in class I got into it. Crayfish have eight legs, two long antenna and two short antenna and if it has a white hole it is a girl and if has things that look like little legs than it's a boy. I got to take two home! I picked a boy and a girl. I named them Joe and Savannah. Then me and mom went shopping to get stuff for Joe and Savannah's tank. We got a half end pirate ship, tree stump with four entry holes and two windows, bubble blower, treasure chest, and ONLY COOL FISH ALLOWED sign.

Written By, Tyler James Smith

Happy Birthday Teagan

Happy Birthday to my little man. I can't believe that he's 3!! Where does the time go? Today Teagan got to go to McDonald's and have some fun with friends. There were 5 of his friends that were able to come. I think he had a really good time. It's so easy to be 3. Everything can be exciting.He got some Chinese food for dinner and some cupcakes for dessert.
What a pose he did huh? He is most definitely 3. I love how their personalities show around this age.
Buzz Lightyear is a new favorite (again) around here. I really want to see the 3rd movie. I bet it's great.

He also got a dragon. He walks, flaps his wings, snaps, and growls. Teagan is snapping along with him.
One more year has come and gone. I'm getting so old. My baby is 3. When are they going to stop growing!?!?!?

Where The Wild Things Are

Phoenix Zoo, January 9, 2010....

Fun!