The Smith Family

Lydia's 3rd Birthday

2011-12-07T08:19:00.000-08:00

Our little Lydia Belle turned 3! Oh how we love you Lydia! I think Grandma Bennion put it best in your birthday card when she said we hope you never loose your Sparkle and Shine. However, I could do with a little less mischievousness! You didn't take a day off even though it was your birthday. You started bright and early by squirting toothpaste (poospaste in your language!) all over the bathroom towels. While I cleaned up that lovely mess you got your self a drink from the fridge but filled the cup up a little to full. You couldn't be bothered by dumping the excess out in the sink ( it was your birthday after all!) instead you just dumped it out on the kitchen floor and then continued the process of filling and dumping, filling and dumping until that just wasn't fun anymore and you left the mess for me to discover (at least my floor got cleaned that day!) and went on your merry way. Later in the day I also discovered that you had helped with the laundry by placing an entire box of dryer sheets in the dryer! So helpful you are!!!
When we asked you what you wanted for your birthday you always responded the same, "Purple flower burtday and thkirths and thparkly shoeth!" (skirts and sparkly shoes...you have a bit of a lisp, which I just love!) We tried to give you some ideas of toys you might like but you stayed firm on your request of skirts and sparkly shoes...so skirts and sparkly shoes is what you got along with a purple flower cake and some great presents from Grandma and Grandpa Smith and Grandma and Grandpa Bennion that you really did love!

We love you so much Lydia Belle and really do hope you never loose your Sparkle and Shine!!!

Happy Whooolaween!

2011-11-22T11:43:00.000-08:00

We had a fun Halloween! I saw the idea for these owl costumes and fell in love with them. When I showed it to the girls they all loved the idea too! I figure my years of being able to convince them to be what I want them to be are probably coming to an end so I have to take advantage of it while they still think I have good ideas! Of course it wouldn't be Halloween without a trip to the pumpkin patch or with out carving pumpkins. Jake did all he carving of pumpkins this year. I'm just now realizing that we never got a picture of the girls finished pumpkins! Jake of course did another amazing pumpkin!!!

Fall photos 2011

2011-10-24T13:15:00.000-07:00

It is GORGEOUS here in the Fall!! We took a drive up Santaquin Canyon a couple Sundays ago and I was almost emotional about how beautiful the trees were. I kicked myself the entire way for not bringing my camera. The colors were so bright that they literally looked lit up!!! I told Jake that we Had to take pictures this week to catch the gorgeous colors. The Friday after our Sunday drive we went to take pictures. Although it was still very beautiful it was amazing how much the leaves had changed and were just not as vibrant as they had been a few days earlier. Oh well...I guess I'll never forget my camera again!!! Anyways, here are a few of the pictures I took of the girls and our family...

Hattie's rockin some "Mom Jeans" for sure!

Brynlee...wearing the same thing she wore in last years photos!! ha ha what can I say, I'm cheap!

Brynlee is 5!

2011-08-17T09:25:00.000-07:00

Brynlee turned 5 this month! Her Birthday landed on a Wednesday and we planned a "friend" party for the next Saturday so her "real" birthday was spent with the family. I told her we could do whatever she wanted, a dangerous thing to tell a 5 year old! However, her requests ended up being quite easy to fulfill. A backyard lunch of Mac N' Cheese, a movie for quiet time, decorating the house with streamers, and dinner at the Pizza Factory (they make a special breadstick in the shape of the number of years old you are on your birthday!) After dinner she opened her presents from us and Grandma and Grandpa.

Then Saturday Finally came!! This was Brynlee's first "friend" party and she was pretty excited. She decided she wanted a Hello Kitty party, so a Hello Kitty party is what she got...and if I never see Hello Kitty again I would be just fine with that!!!!

The cake

The Decor

Brynlee and her guests enjoyed a lunch of Nutella and Bannana and Nutella and Strawberry Jam sandwiches cut in the shape of flowers, strawberries, watermellon, strawberry jello, and popcorn.

The Games

Pin the Bow on Hello Kitty

Pass the Present

The Guests

Doesn't Hattie look thrilled!

Happy Birthday Brynlee, we sure love you!!!!!

Oh Lydia...

2011-08-01T16:17:00.000-07:00

This is Lydia. She is 2.5 years old. She is... well curious about all things

Creamy,

Destine...she has smeared this on herself, walls, beds and furniture no less than 437 times despite my efforts to hide the darn stuff.

Sanitary,

Hard to see but this was an entire bottle of hand sanitizer, thankfully it was travel size. However, 2 days later she did drench herself with a regular sized bottle...clean freak!

and Powdery.

My brand new makeup. Not shown...the lip gloss she later smeared all over the walls!

Jello anyone? You can't see all the boxes in this picture but she emptied 9 boxes... in 30 seconds! And she had to get through this barrier first... and don't think she just pushed that card table over to get through, since there is a bookshelf and a 50 pound barrel of wheat holding that table there, she climbed over it instead!

She also loves clothes. So much so that she changes them 52 times a day and tries to get as many items on at a 1 time as she can.

The best part about this picture is that we were running late to get somewhere when she came out in this 4 shirted ensemble. I didn't have time to change her so she was out in public in this beauty!

Oh Lydia, I hope you have a 2 year old just like you someday! Life would be boring without you, I love you!!!

Hattie 10 Days old

2011-07-20T11:45:00.000-07:00

Hattie's first bath

2011-07-18T12:51:00.000-07:00

Hattie doesn't like baths, which is weird since all of my other girls loved their baths!! I didn't get any pictures of her actual getting bathed...it's difficult to take a picture and give a bath to a screaming baby at the same time! Here she is all calmed down and snuggled in her warm towel.

This little Miss Lydia may be the death of me...she is quite the stinker and is always getting into everything! This time it was the baby lotion!

All clean and dressed, there's not much that is better than a freshly cleaned and lotioned baby!

Hattie Jane

2011-06-22T18:35:00.000-07:00

Our little Hattie Jane finally came on June 11 at 2:58pm. She was 6lbs 15oz and 18 1/2 inches long. We were starting to wonder if she would ever come! Although her due date was not until June 13th we were scheduled to be induced on the 8th. They told us we would need to call on that day to make sure there was a bed available, we knew that since both Gracie and Lydia were induced labors. We talked a little about how terrible it would be if we called and they made us wait a few hours before going in and how utterly disappointing it would be if they made us wait until the next day. Well sure enough we got up, got ready and called and they were full! "Call back in 4 hours" was what they told us...4 hours uhg! 4 hours finally came and we called again...still full! Call back in 2 hours...at this point I was preparing myself to not go in that day and just getting used to the idea of going in the next day. After 2 hours we called back and they scheduled us, not for the next day or the day after that but the day after that!!! I couldn't believe that after making all the arrangments (Jake taking time off work, Grandma here to watch the girls...) that we had to wait 3 extra days, which in pregnancy days is really more like 30 days!

Saturday finally came and we were elated when they actually called us and asked us to come an hour earlier than we were scheduled. We got there at 11 got all checked and explained to the nurse that I wanted my epidural before they broke my water (I go Quick once my water breaks so I've figured out after doing this 3 times to tell them what I want right off the bat!) She told me that would be fine and that my Dr. would be in in a few hours to break my water. It sounded like a plan! Well my Dr. decided to show up to deliver someone else's baby after I had been there all of about 20 min. They hadn't even started the pitocin and the nurse came in and said "It's time to get that epidural, your doctor wants to break your water now!" I have never gotten an epidural before I even started contractions, it was all a little weird, but nice! I'm usually getting the epidural in between contractions so it was great to not have to deal with the pain of labor on top of getting giant needle in my back! So Epidural, break water, then start pitocin...it's never been in that order before! I didn't feel any of the contractions although from the mountains on the monitor I knew they were there...this was awesome! However, after about an hour I suddenly could feel them...oh could I feel them!! I got an extra dose of medicine that left me COMPLETELY numb and unable to even wiggle a toe. The nurse checked me, laughed and said "whoa, I've got to call the doctor your baby is coming NOW" it took the doctor what felt like forever to get there. The babies heart rate started to drop. The Nurse kept telling us it was just because she was in the birth canal and she wanted to come out but I'd be lying if I wasn't panicing a little. Jake and I kept staring at the heart monitors, a heart rate that was once 130 was now only 79...was the nurse positive this was normal?!? Just about when I was about to tell Jake to just go a head and deliver this baby the doctor ran in the door huffing and puffing because he had run from the parking lot and up 4 flights of stairs...it did make me feel good that he was trying to hurry! He got his gown and some gloves and told me to go ahead and push. I leaned forward to push and Hattie was ready to be out she came right out without even a push! The doctor seem quite shocked and kept telling all the nurses, "did you see that, she's a face baby, a brow baby!" I still don't quite understand what that meant but she was apparently turned to the side in a way that most people wouldn't even be able to deliver. They were so shocked that she came out that way and that she came out so easily that way! I didn't know whether to be offended or proud that I had just delivered an impossible baby so easily...what can I say, these wide hips are good for something!!!

It was so special to finally see Hattie. Jake and I both just laughed because she looked so much like one of our babies...not like any of them individually but like all of them at the same time. We also both felt so strongly that we just knew her, she was so familiar to us both. We are so grateful that she is here and healthy!

We love you Hattie Jane!!!

Why Do You Love Dad?

2011-06-19T11:24:00.000-07:00

Gracie age 6

Why do you love Dad?

Because he's so much fun
He is Special
He lives with us
He plays with us
He takes care of us
He comes with us when you(mom) stay home

What do you like to do with Dad?

Play with him
Play Horsies
Color and paint

Lydia age 2 and a Half

Do you love Daddy?

"yeah"

Is Daddy Fun?

nods her head yes

What does Daddy do?

"Have Fun"

Brynlee age 4

Why do you love Dad?

Because I love him
He plays with me when we ask him
He's fun to play with
I love him so much because he gives us snacks at church
He's so much fun
Sometimes he goes with us to the store and buys us new shirts
He colors with us

What do you like to do with Dad?

"Hold his hand when we're buying stuff."

Happy Father's Dad to the most wonderful Dad a girl could ask for!

We love you!

Love your Girls,

Gracie, Brynlee, Lydia, Hattie and Kenna:)

Gracie's 6th Birthday

2011-05-18T17:14:00.000-07:00

Gracie turned 6 yesterday. She requested a "Red Star" birthday party...not sure why but it had to be stars and they HAD to be red and only red. We lucked out and stores already had their 4th of July stuff out and we actually found a few decorations that worked out pretty well!

I attempted my first Fondant cake! It was fun but MESSY. Thanks Jake for your help...next time lets not wait until late at night to do it k!:)

Jake even got creative and made stars in the salad...can you see it?!

The girls are really into Pinata's lately...did you know they cost $20?!?! No thank you...we went the homemade route and decorated a paper bag. I was worried that they wouldn't all get a turn hitting it before it burst open but I was WRONG! After about 10 turns each and a half hour later Jake finally ripped the thing open for the girls to get the goodies. They whacked it so much that the sun glasses and even tootsie rolls that were inside were all cracked and broken! Who knew a paper bag could withstand so much abuse!

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for the Fancy Nancy doll and book. Gracie has been asking all day if she looks fancy:)

Brynlee enjoyed the opening of presents as much as Gracie!

The favorite gift of the night was of course the cheapest...$3 Real princess lip gloss!

DI dress ups! I must have been feeling really cheap when planning the party because besides the pinata I couldn't bring myself to buy a $20 dress up outfit either. We found a plain purple dress for $3 at DI and added a few things to it to make a Rapunzel dress. The green one we got for $4 and thought it made a pretty good Princess and the Frog dress!

I can't believe Gracie is 6 and done with Kindergarten! She is still such an easy going, go with the flow girl which is such a blessing in a house full of girls where the drama level can get pretty high! She has mostly overcome her fear of lighting and thunder since her teacher told her it was like the clouds were bowling...that seemed a logical explanation...however, strong winds are still unacceptable! She also does NOT like having her teeth fall out although she has lost 2. She learned a few weeks ago how to ride her bike without training wheels and is a master Hula Hooper. Gracie is getting better and better at reading and can even add and subtract! We are so grateful for Gracie Girl and the Joy she brings to our family. Happy Birthday Sweet Girl, We LOVE you!!!

Easter 2011

2011-04-26T13:05:00.000-07:00

Easter was great this year, even if it was Freezing! These pictures are all out of order but oh well...here are all our Easter festivities...

The girls before church in their Easter Duds

What is it about a front door that just seems to be a classic picture spot?

When Jake got home from meetings Sunday afternoon the Easter Bunny surprised the girls with a living room egg hunt...he even left Hula Hoops!

Then the girls surprised us by doing the dishes after Easter Dinner!

For FHE the Monday before Easter we of course had to dye Easter eggs. I'm sad to say that I don't really have memories of doing this with them before...could we really have not done this until now? They thought it was pretty spectacular!

Of course Jake had to get in on the action...a solid color just wouldn't do

This is the first year we did the Santaquin Easter Egg hunt. They always say that it starts at 9 am Sharp is over by 9:01...they weren't kidding! They had the kids split into different age groups so Lydia and Jake were over on another field. They all made a pretty good haul and at least the snow didn't start until we got in the van to come home...where is Spring?

Gracie, Easter morning after finding her basket. She was up most of the night I think. She was more excited for the Easter Bunny than she was for Santa Clause!!!

Uhh Mom....Brynlee's stuck

2011-03-18T08:42:00.000-07:00

While getting ready a few weeks ago Gracie came to me and said a little sheepishly and quite concerned, " uhh Mom...Brynlee's stuck." I asked where, not really wanting to know the answer, "the highchair" was Gracie's reply. Well that's an easy fix... I headed to the kitchen to take the tray off and free Brynlee. However, when I got to the kitchen and the highchair Brynlee was no where to be found! Gracie then explained that Brynlee was stuck in the highchair downstairs. You see for Christmas 2 years ago Jake built the girls a kitchen set complete with a highchair for their dolls. In order to prevent this exact situation from occurring he rigged the chair so it was just big enough for a doll to fit but there was no way a kid could and then secured the tray nice and tight. Our plan didn't work...

Apparently, it was big enough for Brynlee (with the help of Gracie coaxing her to do it) to just slide in, but not slide out!

After pulling, tugging, and tipping both Brynlee and the highchair I realized there was noway she was coming out the way she went in. Brynlee was now panicing and I was a little myself! We were going to have to rip off that tray. I got a hammer and a crowbar thinking it would pop right off...wrong again! While the highchair is a made of sturdy wood (it was a from Jake's grandpa's house that we cut the legs off and made into a doll chair) the tray was made of partical board and just chipped away when I tried to pry it off. So after about 20 minutes of chipping away and and ruining this priceless piece, Brynlee was finally free and relieved...until I informed both her and Gracie that they were now in charge of cleaning every single teeny tiny piece of wood that was now left on the floor from chipping the tray away!

It's a.....

2011-02-02T17:38:00.000-08:00

Girl! Of course it's a girl...a boy wouldn't make any sense in this house! When the ultrasound tech finally got a shot (she is VERY modest...we like that!) and we saw what we know to be a girl I had an odd mix of emotions. I was shocked and yet so unsurprised at the same time...why would we have anything but a girl?!? We are so excited to have another girl. We can't imagine what a 4th will look like! I would be lying however if I said the teenage years don't scare me!!!!!

Announcing...

2011-02-01T07:52:00.000-08:00

Well I'm sure everyone that ever looks at our blog is already well aware of this but on the off chance that someone besides my mom ever takes a peek I thought I'd announce that Baby #4 is on its way!! We are very excited and are finding out the gender tomorrow....so take the poll and weigh in on what you think it might be! So far Gracie is the only one that says it's a girl (however, in my heart of hearts I really do think it will be a girl:) ) We of course will be happy either way, healthy is all we are hoping for! And since Blog are no fun without pictures here are our current cuties right after they were born...I think it's safe to say what ever this new baby is (boy or girl) it will be short, bald and chubby...thats how we like 'em!

Gracie

Brynlee

Lydia

Christmas 2010

2011-01-18T10:00:00.000-08:00

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. I was sad that we weren't going to be able to spend it with any of our extended family but it ended up being very fun! We of course had to carry out the traditional acting out of the nativity. Lydia began by being a Bethlehem Ballerina but by the end was an angel complete with a laundry basket pedestal. Gracie wasn't thrilled about having to be Joseph (we need a boy!) but she thought her "beard" was pretty cool. Brynlee of course was thrilled to play Mary. She was also the "director". She was insisting that Mary should be kneeling while Joseph stood behind her...her sister's didn't feel the need to cooperate:)

Before

Waiting to go see....

can hardly stand it...

Wow! Santa ate all the cookies!

Chocolate for breakfast!

Lydia got a "Vac"!

Gracie was so excited to give Jake his present. She wasn't sure what it was, all she knew was that it was a "hunting thing" so he had to like it!

And he did of course!

After!

Here are the girls before church in there Christmas outfits. Somehow we didn't get on all together.

Lydia's 2nd Birthday

2010-12-17T16:25:00.000-08:00

Lydia is 2! Boy is she 2! She is silly, funny, loving and everywhere! She loves shoes, clothes, lotion (especially when she can smear is all over things like carpet or her sisters hair) and singing. Her favorite songs are I am a Child of God, Jesus Wants me for a Sunbeam and Do as I'm Doing or as she refers to them "God", "Jesus" and "Dooo it!" Lydia brings meaning to the word Joy, we don't know what we'd do without her.

Post Bath Birthday Party

2 fingers is hard to do...good job Brynlee

Halloween 2010

2010-11-14T18:42:00.000-08:00

Halloween of course started with the carving pumpkins. This year all our pumpkins came out of our very own garden...unfortunately they're the only thing that came out of our garden!

It wouldn't be Halloween if Jake didn't carve a Pumpkin! Someone even asked for his card this year...maybe this could become a seasonal money maker! ha ha

3 little Cupcakes...

Apparently, clouds were moving in extremely fast behind me which was cause for concern from our weather conscious girls Gracie and Brynlee...Lydia on the other had no idea.

We were able to convince them it was ok ...

But we were wrong! We should have been paying closer attention to those clouds because even though we were literally across the street and up 3 houses from our house we got caught in a hail storm that came on faster than I've ever seen. When it hit we ran for it. Brynlee lost a shoe and of course thought she needed to stop, sit and put it on even though she was so terrified she could get it on! We couldn't make it to our house so when we came to a fence we were able to smash the girls up against it and cover them as best we could. I felt like a mother hen trying to get my babies under my wings, but my wings weren't big enough! We thought it would pass as quickly as it came and even though we were getting drenched we were at least it a position where the girls (not Jake and I of course) weren't getting pelted by the hail, so we stayed put. Unfortunately, it wasn't letting up so with the girls screaming, sure they were going to lose their lives, and Jake and I laughing hysterically at the situation we were in, Jake made a run for it to get the van. The girls were now traumatized and had No desire to go trick-or-treating....until about 20 minutes later when the rain/hail stopped and we promised we'd take the van this time just in case.

Drenched!

We hit about 10 houses and man were they thrilled with the abundance of candy before them!! Jake and I were laughing pretty hard and how much they were freaking out how much candy they got...we just went right along with it with our "WOW!" "Holy Cow!" "That's a TON!" Some how in a few years I don't think those 10 pieces of candy are going to cut it!

I love that in Utah everyone just trick or treats on Saturday even when it's on Sunday, it's great!

After Church on Actual Halloween

Happy Halloween!

Bennion Family Christmas Name Draw 2010

2010-10-17T17:25:00.000-07:00

Yes, I do realize we haven't even celebrated Halloween yet but for my own selfish reasons ( I needed to know what Super Saturday projects to sign up for!) I've once again taken over the Annual Bennion Family Christmas Name Draw! Here are the results...

Giver- Reciever

Dad- Lydia
Mom- Gracie
Chloe- Dad :)
Camille- Connor

Kara- Sophie
Jason- Jenny
Brianna- Brynlee
Emily- Kenna
Dallin- Chase
Savannah- Tyler
Connor- Claire

Krista- Chloe
Chase- Savannah
Tyler- Tanner
Halle- Camille
Sophie- Brianna

Kenna- Halle
Jake- Derrik
Gracie- Krista
Brynlee- Emily
Lydia- Baby Girl Jones

Tanner- Mom
Jenny- Jason
Liam- Dallin

Claire- Liam
Derrik-Jake
Baby Girl Jones- Kara

Well there you have it. Chloe it's your lucky year! Love you all and leave a comment so I know you saw it! Happy Gifting!

First Day of School 2010

2010-09-19T17:17:00.000-07:00

We had such a great summer! So great and so filled with fun family visits and more pictures than you could imagine that blogging about it all is a little overwhelming! So for now we'll skip ahead and get caught up with what is going on now....School! Brynlee started her first year of Preschool and is loving it. She feels like such a big kid, especially when she gets to do homework...to bad that won't last! When she got home after the first day I asked her if the wanted to have a snack and watch a show on T.V., her response was, "No thanks Mom, I've got SO much work to do. I need to get my homework done first!" WOW! I hope she has such work ethic when she's 15!

The day after Brynlee's first day of preschool, Gracie started Kindergarten! I know I can hardly believe it! She was so excited for the big day. We walked to school with her friend Riley who out of pure luck ended up in her class. The 2 girls skipped along while me and Riley's mom and my good friend blubbered about how my oldest and her youngest were about to enter the real world!

I was so worried I was going to get emotional and make a blubbering fool out of myself, however, when I tried to leave Lydia and Brynlee waiting out in the hall while I quickly said one last goodbye to Gracie they both through a gigantic fit. So, quite embarrassed we rushed out of there without any tears shed...of my own tears anyways. Of course we won't talk about how I cried all the way home after picking up Gracie the 3rd day of school and witnessed a boy as big as me grab a girl by her shirt and shove her into the wall...homeschool was not sounding as radical as it used to. :( Don't worry Grandma, her school is safe and I Love, Love, Love her teacher! I suppose they have to go out into the world sometime, but sometimes I sure wish I could keep them in my little bubble!

Motherhood:-An-Eternal-Partnership

2010-08-30T16:05:00.000-07:00

I needed this today:)

Motherhood:-An-Eternal-Partnership

3 Parties for Brynlee's 4th Birthday

2010-08-17T10:16:00.000-07:00

Our sweet Brynlee turned 4 this month! She has been requesting a "Hula" birthday since February...so a Hula party (or parties) is what she got. When we found out we would be in Montana a week before her birthday and that Halle, her cousin, would be there too, it would be a perfect time for a birthday party. It wasn't until we got to MT that we found out that ALL of the cousins were going to come which made it all the better! So thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Bennion's perfect backyard setting, cute decorations and Yummy food, Brynlee had a wonderful Hula Birthday!

The Girls...Jake didn't make it there until late that night.Sand Castle Cake... the Chocolate seashells the best part, they were dangerously good!

Brynlee was beyond thrilled about this outfit. My mom and I spotted it at a store and just laughed...if Brynlee were an outfit this is what she would be! When she saw it she exclaimed, "Just what I always wanted!" There is a better picture of it later on in the post.

Greatest Cousin's Ever! This is everyone but the 3 Babies.

On our way back from Montana we stopped and stayed the night in Lander with Jake's parents. Grandma Smith surprised Brynlee with another Hula party! Brynlee really spread the word about this Hula theme! Grandma Smith took us all out for pizza then we came home for cake, ice cream and presents!

Such a cute "Hula Girl" Cake. Brynlee thought is was so neat...and it tasted delicious too!

A Beautiful Princess "Nightdown" (as Brynlee calls them!) So thrilling:)

Even though Brynlee had already had 2 parties by the time we got back to Utah, none of them actually fell on her actual Birthday. It didn't seem right to not do anything on the special day so once again Brynlee got to celebrate. This picture cracks me up...I'm not sure who's face is better. Lydia's Joyful "I'm gonna grab those candle's and I love this helmet face", Brynlee's "Oh yeah all the attentions on me" face or Gracie's"Oh come on, she gets ANOTHER cake...I want to blow out some candles!" face! Brynlee was very kind and allowed Gracie to help her blow out the candles this time...it was very sweet:)

Brynlee got her very own Big Girl "Tony Hawk Hula" bike. Okay so it's really not a "Tony Hawk" bike but we kinda had to tell her it was. You see we took her to Toy's R Us awhile ago to see what kind of bike she wanted. To our surprise she passed up every princess sparkly bike and fell in love with a pricey Tony Hawk trick bike, with pegs on the back wheels and all. When ever anyone asked her what she wanted for her birthday she responded "A Tony Hawk bike" without hesitation. Well I just couldn't picture my sweet little princess loving girl riding around on this Tony Hawk bike, and there was no way I was going to pay the price for it anways! So when we found this "Hula" bike we convinced her it was a different Tony Hawk bike and that it fit better with her Hula party. Luckily she bought it...but nobody tell her it's not really a Tony Hawk bike!!!!

On the day of her birthday, Brynlee got her hair cut. When the girl cutting her hair found out it was her birthday she gave her this awesome bow to go with her awesome outfit!

Luckily I was able to convince Brynlee that is a Birthday outfit, and it can only be worn in public on her birthday!!!

Happy Birthday Brynlee, we love you some much. I'm so grateful for your tender heart, spunky spirit, sassy style and your love of snuggling. May you never loose you lisp or your excitement for life! xoxoxo

4th of July weekend 2010 Mega Post

2010-07-07T10:04:00.000-07:00

In our family there usually isn't much discussion on where we spend the 4th of July. I'm pretty sure there has only been one year since we've been married that we haven't spent the 4th in Lander, Wy where Jake is from. It's like nothing you've ever seen, you really have to experience it because there is no describing it! Anyways more on that later....

Here are some photos of our weekend. We played at the park, watched and lit fireworks, celebrated my nephew Justin's Birthday, and even rode horses. It was such a great weekend!

4th of July attire

Playing at the park

The reason Lander is so phenomenal on the 4th is because of the Fireworks. Every year a local orthodontist, Dr. Bills, puts on a firework show that is amazing! 10,000 people come to see the show! He is also a member of the LDS church and before the show missionaries serve ice cream and watermelon. The best part is that it's all free!!

Here we are waiting for the fireworks to start. We had to take cars down to save us a spot that afternoon, otherwise there's no way we would have been anywhere near the fireworks!

As you can see we are sitting on the side of the road so Jodi is giving a " don't cross the white line or you'll die" lesson! It worked, good job Jodi!

A view of some of the cars... there were SO many more than this though!

"Writing" with flash lights... pretty neat I think!

Lydia sat and watched TV with Jake's dad for longer than I've ever seen her sit still. She loves Papa!

Justin's Birthday is on the 4th of July so of course with celebrated! Pinata, cake and presents!

Lydia's ready to watch her Uncles put on a show of there own...love the outfit!

Snaps!

Sparklers!

Like I said, it's hard to describe what it's like in Lander on the 4th, you just have to experience it yourself. The whole town in like a giant Firework display, everyone is letting off Huge fireworks. Just to give you an idea here is a video of the fireworks that people were letting off just down the street from Jake's parents house.

My mother in law just sent me this picture of Lander in 2006. It's a pretty good representations of what it's like!

Everyone got a turn riding Grandpa's horses. We were so glad with Lunch (the horse) decided to join our picture!

Lydia and Zack, can you believe he's only 13!

Feeding Pokey...I love Gracie's face in this one:)

We had such a great weekend! We hope your 4th was enjoyable too!

SWAGGER WAGON

2010-06-23T18:04:00.000-07:00

My friend Ashley had a link to this on her blog and when I watched it I just laughed my head off! So I thought I'd share it with all you mini van drivin' Moms and Dads out there that can relate! Enjoy:)

Gracies's Preschool Graduation

2010-05-21T07:45:00.000-07:00

We had our first ever graduation last night when Gracie graduated from Preschool! She had such a wonderful time in preschool and learned a lot too. Ms. Kiley did such a great job all year long and with the graduation night. It started with a program of songs and poems by all the preschool kids. We were surprised when Gracie had a part singing a song about Lollipops!

They recited a poem about being a star, the sunglasses were a fun touch!

We also didn't know that the "graduates" (the ones going into Kindergarten) would be wearing a cap and gown. They even marched out to "Pomp and Circumstance" (is that the right name?)

I had an odd flash forward to Gracie graduating high school and I about lost it. I had to keep telling myself what a fool I would look like if I starting blubbering at a Preschool graduation! Aren't they cute though!

Gracie with some cuties from our ward. The other mom's and I joked about taking the same picture at High school Graduation... wouldn't that be funny!

Congratulations Gracie!!

Now let's make sure High School Graduation doesn't come as quickly and Preschool Graduation did!

A Pinkalicious Birthday for Gracie

2010-05-18T16:33:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it but my little Gracie turned 5 yesterday May 17th! 5 seems like one of those landmark birthdays to me. 5 is a real kid. Officially out of toddlerhood, starting school, and into the big girls section at the store (don't love that!). I can remember when she was a baby thinking that this day would never come... but it did and way too fast!!

We celebrated her Birthday with a Pinkalicious party. It's odd to think that you may not have ever heard of the book Pinkalicious since it is read not less that 3 times a day in this household. If you have a little girl its a must read, so check it out! Gracie invited 4 friends over to decorated crowns and wands, play the typical birthday games with a Pinkalicious twist (cupcake, cupcake, yum instead of duck, duck, goose, pin the heart on the necklace instead of pin the tail on the donkey), read Pinkalicious and decorated cupcakes. It was a lot of fun.

Pinkalicious Decor

Not one of those balloons survived the entire party, I swear the wasps were popping them!

We started with 12, there were only 6 by the time the party started!

Silly Faces

Love this action shot, it was an intense game!

Later that night when Jake got home we gave her our present, a scooter. She loved it, can you tell?

After a Wonderful (ha, ha) McDonalds dinner (Gracie's choice) we came home and enjoyed some Pinkalicious Cake

We are so grateful to have Gracie as part of our family. She is such a joy and a blessing to us. In honor of her 5th birthday, here are 5 things about Gracie:

1. She is a go with the flow kind of girl. I love this about her. It makes my life so much easier!

2. She still loves to hum and now has started singing quite a bit. She never knows the words, but that doesn't stop her from belting out a song anytime, anywhere! I've had to stop her couple of times in sacrament meeting even. Her favorite song to belt out lately is "All the Single Ladies" the chipettes version of course.

3. She has a very tender heart. If she happens to catch anything even a little violent on TV or somewhere she is instantly concerned and leaves as quickly as possible.

4. She hates Funder (thunder). There is nothing Fun about Funder! I've bonded with her in this aspect. I was extremely afraid of thunder when I was little, so I never turn her away during a storm!

5. She can handle her big wheel bike like nobodies business! She has a sparkly pink princess bike but she prefers the radio flyer big wheel. Her favorite trick is to go as fast as she can then turn so sharp that she skids around in a circle. It's pretty funny to watch.

Happy Birthday Gracie, We Love You!!

Happy Mother's Day

2010-05-10T11:47:00.000-07:00

I love Mother's Day! Probably because I am a Mother and therefore get treated special all day long. A guilt free pass to having to help with dishes, change diapers, make dinner, or eat healthy! The gifts are wonderful as well. What says Mother's Day better than toilet paper tubes, paper plates, hand prints, messy paintings, and flowers of all kinds! This is just some of what I received this year. Brynlee also brought home a hand print flower on a paper plate made into a wall hanging from church. It is hanging in my kitchen at this very moment.

Probably the best gift was that Jake didn't have church meetings Sunday morning. He's in the Bishopric of our ward, so that leaves me to get myself and the 3 girls ready for church by 8:30am. So, having him home before church made for a much less stressful morning! We even had a moment to snap a few pictures! Jake also made me breakfast complete with a cup full of dandelions freshly picked by the girls and on Saturday I got to go pick out some hanging flower baskets and flowers for pots. Our porch is now nice a springy!

I am so grateful that I can be a mother, especially to these 3 sweet girls. Some days can be long, but the years go quickly it seems. I look forward to many more years of hand print flowers and toilet paper tube crafts. Why is it that those things are so much more precious than diamonds or pearls? Happy Mother's Day to all you Mom's! Especially to all the Mom's in my life!

Spring So Far

2010-04-13T11:11:00.000-07:00

Spring so far started with Jake's birthday. He turned 34! Happy birthday Jake, you're the best!

Then we got some surprise visiters, the Tanner Family! We LOVE the Tanners! We met them while we were all living in Montana. At the time they had 4 kids and we had none. Now they have 6 and we have 3! We quickly became great friends and love any time we get to spend with them. Here are Brynlee and Gracie with Justin and Jayce... we've already planned the weddings!:)

You know you're good friends when someone will drive hours and hours and then as entertainment you can sit in the messy garage on camp chairs and watch the kids play!

I just had to put this picture of Jadan and Lydia, it was just too cute.

We've been enjoying the nice days that come here and there. Here are the girls having some fun with bubbles the Easter Bunny brought.

Speaking of Easter, we went up to Rexburg, ID for the Easter weekend. My sister Claire lives there with her hubby Derrik and my Mom, Dad, Chloe and Camille came down from Montana. We had lots of fun staying in a hotel, swimming, shopping, movie and conference watching and bowling! Unfortunately, my camera died after only getting a few bowling pictures. So this is all I have to document Easter!!

I had so get some pictures of the girls in their Easter dresses! As you can see No one was in the mood to take pictures, including me. This was after a long day of church on a fast Sunday, everyone is hungry and tired... can you tell?

Thanks for peeking:)

Christmas Part 2...Hey, better late than never!

2010-03-17T14:18:00.000-07:00

Yes, I know it's March!!! I do have a good excuse... somehow all (by all I mean every digital picture we've ever taken!) our pictures disappeared from our computer! It was not a good feeling! However, my Brother in law saved the day and found them...they had been moved probably by some click happy girls trying to find their "puter games"! But all is well, we have them all back and now for Christmas Part 2!!

We headed up to Billings to be with the entire Bennion Clan!! We don't ALL get together very often so I was so excited to be able to spend sometime with everyone. We all joked in the days leading up to everyone's arrival that with that many people and especially that many kids gathering in one place for several days, people were going to get sick!!! Boy were we Right! I think 20 of the 24 people got the throw ups... our kids got it twice, Gracie had croup, and Lydia, we found out after coming back home, had a horrendous double ear infection!!! Needless to say Motrin and hand sanatizer was in high demand at the Bennion household! My favorite quote, "It's like it doesn't matter how hard you try or how much you sanatize, it's in the air!" - Chloe, referring to the fact that there was no avoiding the inevitable sickness. Even my dad and Jake got sick, seeing how I can count on one hand the number of times I've seen either of these men get sick, it's saying a lot!! Despite the fact that everyone had a designated "throw up bowl", 1/2 the people were on the verge of passing out during our family picture, and we may never want see each other on Christmas ever again, we DID have a GOOD time. Proving that you can do anything when you're surrounded by the people you love!:)

The night we arrived Santa did too! Bringing Christmas Jammies for all!

It wouldn't be Christmas Eve without the Nativity... which has been officially passed to the grandkids!

Christmas Morning... is there anything better?!!!

Walking ponies, princess dress ups, zhu zhu pets and More!

While we were there my 2 older sisters blessed their babies. Aren't Connor and Sophie precious!

Grandma Bennion got all the grandkids Christmas outfits ... matching of course!

Crafts!!

Male bonding

Well there you have it, Christmas part 2! By the way Happy St. Patricks Day!

Christmas Part I

2010-01-04T11:44:00.001-08:00

I hope everyone had an excellent Holiday! Ours had it's ups and downs but mostly ups!! Christmas started early for the girls since we were going to be in Montana for Christmas and Santa knew that some of the presents he was planning on bringing would not be easily transported back home! So the morning we left for Montana the girls woke up to find their stocking filled with things for the long car ride and and letter left from Santa himself!

They were so excited about the stocking stuffers I had to read the letter twice before they realized that the letter was telling them to go downstairs where they would find this....

Don't you LOVE it!!! Okay so imagine that it's not in an ugly unfinished basement and that the walls and table are painted super cute, and there are curtains on the window...these were all part of the original plan but this was a difficult project to work on without the girls finding out about it!

Jake really gets most of the credit, he is so good to put up with all my grand ideas that usually mean he works really hard and I reap the benefits. It all started when I saw a kitchen set in Pottery Barn magazine that I just fell in love with. Well of course it was all outrageously expensive and I could never imagine actually buying it...but making my husband make one was still an option! Jake agreed to do it and I think I LOVE it more than the girls. I honestly cried when I saw it all together for the first time thinking about not only our kids enjoying it but hopefully our grandkids!! This was certainly a labor of Love:)

It didn't take long for before the girls were cooking up a storm!

Jake built this entire stove from scratch and it's my very favorite piece!

This cabinet is one that was at Jake's house when he was growing up. It was a dark stained wood so we just painted it to match!

Jake also made the fridge from scratch...I LOVE how much storage he put in it!

I was so proud that we were able to do this whole thing on a budget. Like I said Jake built the stove and fridge so that was the only wood we bought. The handles on both of those pieces are made out of PVC pipe we had laying around and the sink was made with a bowl purchased for a dollar at DI. As I said we got the cabinet from Jake parents. The highchair is an old highchair Jake's dad actually ate in as a baby. Jake took it apart and put it back together nice and sturdy and cut the legs down. The table is an old table from Jake's Grandpa Smith that we also cut the legs down on. The 2 (soon to be 4) little folding chairs are old primary chairs Jake's parents picked up for us and they are covered in Wal-mart fabric. Even the rug under the table was half off at Target!! All in all with paint and everything we figure we spent $150-$170! Sure beats Pottery Barn $1000+ price tag!!

I love that each piece has a story! Thank you, Thank you a million times to Jake who worked so hard on this in his few precious moments of spare time, I Love You!!

Brynlee's New Do

2009-12-11T20:33:00.000-08:00

Brynlee's hair is slow growin'! And it is quite thin, whispy, and very uneven! I decided something needed done and asked my friend Hailee who cuts my hair (LOVE HER!) to cut Brynlee's. She traded me babysitting for a free hair cut...I SO got the better end of the deal! We went over to her house(she has her very own salon, but was so kind to let us just stop by her house) and this is what happened...

Brynlee had a grin on her face the entire time! She's a true girl...loves to be pampered!

The results....

The cutest hair cut Ever! Look how much thicker it looks! I love it and so does Brynlee, Thanks Hailee!!

One Year Old...Happy Birthday Lydia!

2009-12-07T11:47:00.000-08:00

My baby turned one at the end of November! I can't believe how quickly this year has gone by! Lydia had a fun quiet birthday with the family. She very much enjoyed opening presents...

She had her head in that bag for a good couple of minutes trying to reach the prize at the bottom...

Got it!

YUM!!

Thanks Gr. & Gr. Bennion, Gr.& Gr. Smith and Aunt Jodi for all the fun and adorable gifts!!

A little help from the sisters!

She was so excited for the cake...it took her a little while to figure out she could eat it but once she got a taste there was no going back!!

Happy Birthday Lydia

We Love You!!

Pumpkin Carving, Trick or Treating and Dinner Eating...Halloween 2009!

2009-11-02T11:16:00.000-08:00

Well it wouldn't be Halloween without carving pumkins!! Lydia was more interested with making out with her pumpkin that anything else! Gracie and Brynlee loved it and Gracie even got to do a little of the cutting (while I hyperventilated behind her!)

Here they are with their finish pumpkins. This was right before Lydia kicked hers off the steps and smashed it...oh well!
And of course Jake always has to show us all up with his amazing pumpkins!! I didn't even do my own this year...how can I even compete with this...

Since we had already done our little photo shoot with the girls earlier (previous post) we didn't take many pictures on Halloween night. The girls LOVED Trick or Treating. There were only about 5 of 6 people home in our neighborhood so they didn't get a ton of candy...which is OK by me!!! Lydia had a good time trying to keep up!:)

After trick or treating we came home and had dinner. Mummy pizza, witch finger breadsticks dipped in blood, monster eyeballs, apples with carmel and orange julius...YUM!

I wish I would have gotten a picture of the girls handing out candy to all the trick or treaters. I think they enjoyed that the most. Every time the doorbell rang they'd say, "Oh, more customers!" Ha Ha Jake and I laughed at it every time!

Three Little Witches

2009-10-29T10:53:00.001-07:00

My in laws bought a house near us that has a super cute little shed in the backyard. They are going to be renting the house out for a few years before they move in. Since renters were going to be moving in soon I had to get over there and take a few (ok a LOT!) of pictures of the girls since the shed was the perfect Halloween background!

Here are a few favorites...

This little girl is getting so big TOO fast! She is even walking and has been for a good month! This was very shocking to us since Gracie was 16 months and Brynlee 13 months before they started walking...Lydia took her first steps at 9 months!!!!

Happy Halloween!

2009 Bennion Family Christmas Name Draw

2009-10-15T12:36:00.000-07:00

Okay all you Doug and Cindy Benniooonee's! It's that time of year to find out who you drew for Christmas! After getting permission from Mom, I took it upon myself to do the drawing. So, drum roll please..... the 2009 Bennion Christmas Gift Exchange will go as follows:

Giver-Receiver

Mom - Tanner

Dad - Brynlee

Chloe - Jenny

Camille - Jake

Kara - Lydia

Jason - Claire

Brianna - Mom

Emily - Derrik

Dallin - Chloe

Savannah - Kenna

Connor - Baby BOY Bennion

Krista - Savannah

Chase - Brianna

Tyler - Kara

Halle - Emily

Sophie - Gracie

Kenna - Camille

Jake - Jason

Gracie - Krista

Brynlee - Connor

Lydia - Tyler

Tanner - Halle

Jenny - Sophie

Baby BOY Bennion - Chase

Claire - Dallin

Derrik - Dad

So there you have it! Let the ideas start flowing! Remember the price limit, which I'm honestly not sure of but think it's between 0 and 10 dollars or something like that! Please forgive me for any missed spelled (or wrong) names...I just heard through the grapevine about 5 minutes ago that Kara and Jason are going with Connor (So Cute!) but I'm not sure how they are spelling it...and Krista I never checked with you on how you are spelling Sophie (also So Cute!). Leave a comment so I know everyone has gotten it. Love you all!!!

Girls in the Hood

2009-10-02T07:42:00.001-07:00

Well fall is officially here and the weather has officially changed. I usually hate this part because all I can think about is the snow that is about to come and the confinement to the house that it will cause. I'm trying to be better though and think positive, think about the good parts of a new season...like a cute new wardrobe for my girls! (okay so I really wish that said cute new wardrobe for ME, but unless I get a cute new body combined with a cute new budget that just isn't going to happen, oh well!) Grandma Smith gave these outfits to the girls on each of there birthdays, and they were so excited to have a day cold enough that they could wear them. They were obsessed with the hoods and kept chasing Lydia around to put her hood up. Brynlee kept saying, "Mom, it's like a hood!" Yep Brynlee, it's Exactly like a Hood!!! Thanks Grandma for the cute outfits!

Back to "School"

2009-09-21T11:37:00.001-07:00

At the beginning of the month Gracie started her first year of real preschool (real because we have to pay for it!) She goes twice a week for 2 hours and LOVES it. I have a feeling she may be one of the more "spirited" kids in her class who has a difficult time focusing on doing her work but oh well it's preschool right...we'll worry about focusing in kindergarten!

group shot...best one I could get, nobody was in a picture taking mood!

I had to include a picture of Gracie's backpack. I looked forever for a backpack that wasn't as big as her body and couldn't find anything. So in an ambitious moment I decided I'd make one! Oh dear is all I have to say. I thought it would take me like an hour to do...and it should have...however, some how and I really don't even know how but it took more like 4 hours! And in my attempt to give her a backpack that wasn't so huge I made it way to small and nothing that she ever brings home from preschool fits inside of it! Oh well, I tried!

notice Brynlee's lack of backpack...the plan was to make her one too but after Gracie's I haven't had any more ambitious moments to actually attempt one for Brynlee!

The week after Gracie started preschool, Brynlee started joy school and thank heavens for that! She was lost without Gracie around. She was constantly asking when we were going to go pick her up. There are quite a few kids Brynlee's age that live near us so there are 8 kids in her class. It's a little crazy having 8 three year olds at my house, but the good news is that I only have to take a turn ever 8 weeks...totally worth it! I can't believe next year I'll have a real for real school age kid!

Brynlee is 3!

2009-09-14T11:55:00.000-07:00

Well for anyone that actually looks at our blog I'm happy to report we are still alive! We've had a few computer problems coupled with busy life which made blogging fall down on the list of things to do. However, now I'm sad that I've gotten so far behind on documenting our oh so interesting lives {ha, ha}! So time to play catch up...starting with Brynlee's birthday!!!

Brynlee turned 3 on August 10th {yes over a month ago!} The above picture is of her cake that Grandma and Grandpa Smith suprised her with a couple of days before her birthday {the picture is suppose to be video but I can't ever get video to upload, any suggestions?} Boy did she LOVE this cake. Her and Gracie are still playing with the princesses!

On the day of her birthday I decided it would be fun to take her out for a birthday lunch. I wanted to take her to somewhere with a playplace so we headed to McDonalds. However, much to the girls disappointment {and my relief I have to admit} they had ripped out the entire germ infested playplace. Their disappointed wasn't anything some chicken nuggets and french fries couldn't cure {don't worry I got the apples too so I could be a good responsible mom, ha ha} Well just our luck when we walked into the "restaurant" it was a sea of asian people. I hadn't noticed the Giant tour bus in the neighboring parking lot. There was no way I was going to be able to convince my kids to leave so we stood in line trying to not be bothered by lack of personal space only to get our food and have no where to sit. I spotted some table outside and figured that was perfect. Of course I quickly realized why no one else went outside...it was HOT and oddly Bright! Brynlee kept saying "I need some sunglasses!" We sweated out our lunch and had lots of the asian visters laugh and point at us. I think they were amazed by Lydia's white, chubby bald cuteness...I know I am:) All in all it actually was a fun lunch. Lydia even tried her first french fry!

That night we decided to go to farm country at Thanksgiving Point so Brynlee could ride the ponies...she LOVES ponies!

Then since we had already had a cake with G'ma and G'pa Smith we decided to get a banana split and the fun ice cream shop there at Thanksgiving Point. I think this is going to be a new birthday tradition. The girls thought it was SO fun that we got such a big dish of ice cream. I was trying to get them to look at me and smile but I think they were afraid that we weren't really going to let them eat such a massive dish and that it was going to be taken away at any moment so they had better eat it while they could!

And eat it we did!! YUM!

Then all sugared up we headed home for presents...horse toys of many variety, a princess doll, some clothes and a scooter!

Happy Birthday Ninny!

Here are a few things I don't want to forget about Brynlee
*She has movements like a cartoon princess...always dancing and twirling around and moving her hands so gracefully. However, she's also a Klutz (sp?) so many times those twirls end with a fall, and the dancing puts her right into the wall or a piece of furniture.
*When she talks she really exaggerates her "L" letting her tongue come all the way out. She also has a lisp when she says her "S's" which I secretly hope she never loses because it's just so darn cute.
*She loves to snuggle. I remember when she was a baby she loved to rub her face on my skin. At church she would wrap her arms and legs around my leg and rub her cheek on my bare legs. She still loves to kind of rub her cheek on your face, arm or hand as she snuggles.
*She's a helper. She almost always does what I ask her to do if she thinks its being a helper (throwing away diapers, getting diapers, watching the baby ect.) unfortunately she doesn't view cleaning up toys as helping:)
*She loves talking on the phone. When Jake calls to say he is on his way home she ALWAYS has to chat with him and usually the entire time it takes him to get home.
*She LOVES, LOVES, LOVES horses and would love nothing more than to have a pony of her own to ride whenever she wants.

We Love you Brynlee and wouldn't change anything about you. Happy Birthday!

Wiped Out

2009-06-26T14:10:00.000-07:00

Well the weather here has been quite rainy. I'm not complaining because I know we need it and it's nice that we aren't hearing about tons of fires, so for that I'm glad. However, it does make playing outside a bit difficult. So when a hot rain free day finally arrived we took advantage of it and pulled out the pool, which was in a little rougher shape than it had been in when we shoved it in the corner of the garage last fall. We attempted to patch up the holes, which didn't work as you can see by its sad deflated state, but the girls (with their cute little friend) could have cared less! I couldn't hold them back any longer and by 11 o'clock they were out splashing around, filling up bowls of water, dumping them out, "painting" the patio with water, and having the time of their lives. They stayed, and stayed and stayed out there which meant I stayed which meant the laundry inside grew yet another day! It was so nice though I didn't mind doing absolutely nothing but sitting in the sun desperately trying to add some color to my ghostly white legs (yes I did succeed they are now nice and RED!) By 4 o'clock I made them come in and put some clothes on and take a break from the pool. Well it wasn't very long after that I found this........
I thought they must be faking it, but oh no they were definitely asleep, there was no waking them! It cracks me up...doesn't it look like they just dropped right in the middle of playing and just zonked out!

Brynlee is my favorite. I'm pretty sure I can't sit like this let alone sleep like this! She didn't even bother to turn her head to the side...I should have taken a picture of the sweet carpet mark on her forehead when she woke up...it was good:)

6 month stats

2009-06-11T12:57:00.001-07:00

Weight: 17lbs 4oz 74%
Height: 26 in 58%
Head Circ.: 17.25 84%
Ha Ha how do you like those stats!! She's defineatley one of ours...short, plump with a Huge head (you know for all those brains of course!)

Well it's been 1/2 of a year since Lydia was born!!! I know I say this all the time but I really can't believe it's been that long. She has been such a joy to have in our family. Her accomplishments thus far include: eating "solid" food, rolling from your tummy to her back ( yes I know she should be rolling everywhere but just like my other two she has decided rolling is over rated!), sitting up, being the smileyest and giggleyest baby ever (which we love) and she even slept through the night last night!!!Yay!!!! We've also learned that Lydia LOVES music. We found this out awhile ago when the girls would "play" the piano Lydia would instantly stop crying. We now have a CD we take everywhere with us...without fail if she is upset and we play music she stops...its the greatest! Oddly enough I happened to look up what Lydia's name meant and would you believe it means musical!?! Crazy...wonder if she will be??

Don't you just want to bury yourself is those cheeks!! Okay maybe not but trust me they really are as kissable as you might think!!

Happy 4th Birthday Gracie Girl!

2009-05-18T13:47:00.000-07:00

I can't believe Gracie is 4 years old! Her birthday was Sunday so on Saturday we had a little (very little, as in invite one friend...thanks Riley for coming!) party for her. We have some friends who have horses so we took her over there to ride them. Both Gracie and Brynlee LOVE horses but I honestly thought they would be scared to get on them when they saw how big they were...boy was I wrong! They both couldn't get enough of the horses. Brynlee kept telling Jake she wanted to go faster so he finally let the horse run...again I thought for sure she would hate that and would be done riding forever. Wrong again, I believe her response after running with the horse was "Go faster... I want to do it by myself!" Gracie didn't mind going fast either...looks like I've got a couple cowgirls on my hands! Thanks Sorensens for letting have our own personal pony rides!

I don't know when I'm going to remember that the last picture becomes your first when you upload pictures on here...so the pictures are a little out of order.
Here is Gracie on her actual birthday Sunday morning.

A new "big girl" princess bike and equally exciting...

her very own "puter" (Thanks G'ma and G'pa Bennion!)

Gracie requested a pink pony cake...the little girl who came to her party asked if it was a mouse...sadly I had to agree with her, it looked more like a mouse or a poodle than a pony, oops!

I made these pony ears and tails for them and it was funny to watch them run around with them on. Brynlee hasn't taken her tail off since and shakes it for you anytime you ask.

Here are a few things I want to remember about Gracie:
*Besides horses she loves cars, trucks and tractors
*She often asks to play "puter games on PDS kids" (computer games on PBS kids)
*when we play outside she always finds a patch of dirt or a pile of rocks to dig in...even when there are swings and trampolines around
*She has a very kind heart, I've never seen her hit anyone and she always wants everyone around her to be happy never crying
*She's a great hummer...she only has to her a song once or twice before she's able to hum it without missing a note
*She likes to Clap...not like after seeing a performance or anything, just at random moments she enjoys inserting a clap. I don't think she even knows she is doing it...it's just a part of her
*She is very easy to please and takes joy in the simple pleasures of life...the other day I told her if she took a nap she could eat some pretzles outside to which she replied (after a clap of course) in the most thrilled tone " Oh Wow Mom, Thanks!"
Happy Birthday Gracie Girl We Love You!

Chucke Cheese, Photo Shoots, and Smores (Montana trip part 2)

2009-05-01T13:55:00.000-07:00

I was finally able to download some pictures from our trip to Montana. It started out with a trip to ChuckE Cheese. Now I'm not typically overly germophobic, however, this place really brings it out in me. I really had to talk myself out of going around spraying every square inch of the place with my Lysol to-go (yes there is such thing!) In the end it was a lot of fun and I was able to get over the germ thing and just make sure I scrubbed the kids down afterwards

Of course it's all about the tickets! Krista was really gettin into the Whack-a-Mole so she could rack up the kids ticket count...you know so they could get some 10 cent piece of junk that they can lose in the car on the way home!

Brynlee was't very impressed by ChuckE...I don't understand why she wouldn't like a giant rat coming right at her??

Our next item of business was a photo shoot with the grandkids. We took over my mom's kitchen, gathered some props and let the fun begin. I think we went through 5lbs of jelly beans bribbing the kids to cooperate. Here are a few of my favorites.

Playin play dough!

And of course it wouldn't be a trip to Grandma and Grandpa's if we didnt' roast marshmellows and make S'mores!

Gotta love the Marshmellow roaster stuck to my dad:)

My dad trying to tell his classic "scary" story about 2 polocs sitting in a boat. As you can see from Emily's face it was really "scary"!

We had such a great time on our trip and were very sad to leave. We can't wait until the next time we can all get together again!

Claire's Wedding

2009-04-27T13:28:00.000-07:00

This isn't the greatest picture but I didn't have many that showed off Claire's dress...it was GORGEOUS! I'm pretty sure it's my all time favorite wedding dress.

It certainly has been a long time since my last post. I'm blaming it on one rough month which included kidney stones, back injury, and eye troubles followed by a much needed and Fun trip to Montana for my little sister Claire's wedding. Unfortunately, along with the health issues we now have computer issues and I can't upload all pictures from our trip but here are some of the wedding...I'll have to post more later of the rest of our trip.

Claire and new hubby Derek with all the nieces and nephews, as you can see Brynlee was in a great mood!

Lydia (now 5 monthes old!) in here dress for the wedding ...and yes those cheeks are as kissable as the look!!

Gracie and Brynlee in their wedding attire...I'm so sad I don't have a picture of all the grandkids together, they look so cute in all their matching outfits:)

Claire and my cute niece Emily at the reception

It was a fun day and we are so glad to have Derek as part of the family...of course I'm not sure he knows what he's gotten himself into by becoming a part of our crazy family:)

Lydia is 3 months old!

2009-02-23T19:59:00.000-08:00

Our little Lydia is 3 months old today! I can't believe that it has been 3 months already and at the same time I can't believe its only been 3 months...I just can't imagine not having her in our family! I just had to capture her chub-luba figure! I just wish my chuba-luba figure was as cute as hers!

New Camera....lots of photos!

2009-02-03T11:25:00.000-08:00

I was SO excited when Jake surprised me with a new camera for my birthday! Our old one was weighing on the side of ancient and when somehow all our pictures from Christmas morning were somehow erased because of a camera malfunction I very openly expressed my distaste for the darn thing! Well Jake heard my cries and got me an awesome new camera with lots of fun features...so lately I spend all my free time testing it out. These are some photos that came from one of our testing session:)

Sisters make the best friends

2009-01-19T14:46:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite things to do lately is sneak up on Gracie and Brynlee while they are playing together and listen to the conversations they have. They play all day long together and are lost if the other one is not around. It was pretty difficult to have babies 15 months apart for about the first year or so but now it's so fun for them to have each other and dare I say worth it! (however, I don't see myself ever having kids that close again!) I just hope that when they are teenagers they will still be able to stand each other! Sisters really are the greatest, I know because I have 5, and I'm so grateful each of them. I'm just so glad that my girls get to have that sister bond too.
P.S. I also have 1 brother that I love dearly! I don't want to leave you out Tanner:)

Lydia's Blessing

2009-01-11T17:52:00.000-08:00

Here is our sweet Lydia in her blessing dress. Poor girl has definitely gotten the 3rd child shaft when it comes to taking pictures. I'm pretty sure we took at least 60 pictures when Gracie was blessed ( you know... getting her ready, one with mom, one with dad, one with mom and dad, one with grandma and grandpa, one with everyone there, just the Smith's, just the Bennion's, standing, sitting, smiling ect.) but we actually had to put Lydia back into her dress at the end of the day just to get a picture of her...sorry baby girl:( Any how she looked so cute and the blessing was beautiful. We were also so glad that we were able to have so many family members attend (something else we didn't get a picture of!)

A little update

2008-12-22T13:39:00.000-08:00

Well it's been almost a month since my last post so despite the fact that I'm in desperate need of a nap I'm going to take a few moments to put a few updated pictures. Lydia is growing up so fast and has already lost that newborn look which I'm sad about:( However, she is pretty darn cute if I do say so myself!

All the girls in their Christmas dresses. I'm proud to say that I actually made some pieces and parts of these dresses, however the real credit goes to my talented mother in law for the real work!

And I thought I'd throw this in as a representation of what seems to be going on more often than not these days...lots of mischief! If you are ever wondering what happens when you leave a 2 and 3 year old alone to "watch a movie" and forget to block off access to the food storage and more specifically to about 20 packets of Hot Chocolate mix...this is it! Our basement had a nice dusting of Hot Cocoa all over it and still smells like chocolate several days later! And don't worry my girls don't mess with the cheap walmart brand they went for the nice expensive gourmet Hot Cocoa that was intended as Christmas gifts!

Merry Christmas!

Our New Addition!

2008-11-26T10:41:00.000-08:00

Lydia Belle Smith
7 lbs 10 oz 18 1/2 in
Born at 9:59am on November 23

We are so excited to show everyone our little Lydi Belle. Everything went very well and Fast! I was in Labor for just over an hour before our little Lydia came into this world screamin! She and I are both doing great and Gracie and Brynlee are loving their new little sister. Today I walked into our room to find Gracie and Brynlee looking down at their little sister gently rocking the cradle and sing Families are Forever...seriously it was so precious!:) (Don't worry we've also had a "don't lay on top of the baby" talk too!) I'll have to get some more pictures up of Lydia now that she is home...so stay tuned!

Halloween, Halloween, Halloween

2008-11-05T17:56:00.000-08:00

First of all has anyone else had "posting" problems? It's taken me 2 days to get my pictures to post and for some reason I can never type anything above first picture...anyways on to our Halloween Festivities! Of course it wouldn't be halloween without a package from Grandma Bennion! The girls LOVED their Halloween movie and "neckaces"...Thanks Grandma
We also hosted a preschool party that was a lot of fun. The kids had a lunch of mummy hot dogs, chocolate covered ghost strawberries, spider crackers and bug juice...YUM!

The girls are VERY in to Horses at the moment so we thought if fitting that they be cowgirls for Halloween...I think they look pretty darn cute if I do say so myself! My favorite part of their costume was their boots...$3 and $5 on ebay!!

Then of course in true Jake fashion he carved this Awesome pumpkin of me and the girls! Seriously there is no competing with him so if you'll notice in some of the above pictures mine is the "S" pumpkin! I was just sad that it's a pumpkin that is going to rot and have to be thrown away...I'll have to convince him to do something with a little more staying power:)

Fall Photo Shoot

2008-10-18T15:05:00.000-07:00

Daddy's girls
(don't you love how Gracie looks like she is determined to take him down!)

I love watching on the leaves change when fall comes around. I've really enjoyed fall here in Utah because there is actually a fall! In Montana it seems like it goes straight from summer into winter without much transition but here we've been enjoying the 70 degree weather, beautiful colors and most importantly No Snow! We decided it would be fun to get some pictures of the girls with "fall" in the background. Unfortunately, because it is fall it gets darker much earlier so we didn't get as many good shots as we would have liked before it got to dark and cold. Here is what we got...

This one is in our backyard...notice the grass in the background...finally Yeah!

I'm not sure what Brynlee was reacting to, but it made for a good picture!

Weekend Getaway

2008-10-07T19:07:00.000-07:00

The view from the deck off our room. It would have been really cool except for the construction EVERYWHERE and the fact that we shared the deck with the room next door!

Some of you might remember that back in March Jake won the "March Madness Pool" at work and we decided we would use the winnings for a weekend getaway with just the two of us. Well now that it is October we finally were able to go! Jake's parents were so very kind to drive all the way down from Wyoming to watch our kids and Friday night we took off to Park City. Friday we spent most of our time listening to a lady trying to convince us buy into a timeshare (yes we are that cheap that we went to listen to the 90 presentation...but we got the hotel room for $25 a night, you can't beat that in Park City!) Anyways, after saying No to the lady about 50 times we were finally able to get on our way. By the time we got into our room it was pretty late and we hadn't had anything to eat so at about 11pm we decided to go find some food! We were both beat but decided to go just because we could, it felt like we were dating being able to just get up and go no matter what time it was and not have to worry about the kids! Saturday we spent the day shopping at the outlet mall (Awesome!) visiting Olympic Park (see picture below) going out to eat and even seeing a movie! By the end of the day we could not believe everything that we were able do...it's amazing how much you can get done when you don't have the kiddios around!

We had a fabulous time spending some one on one time with each other but by Sunday we were really missing the girls. It was great to get away but it's always great to come home too! Thanks again to Grandma and Grandpa Smith for watching the girls...they had a blast and I'm pretty sure they didn't even notice we were gone:) And Thank you Jake for a wonderful weekend, I love you forever!:)

Happy Birthday Tanner and Jenny!

2008-09-21T16:28:00.000-07:00

We are so glad we were able to have Tanner and Jenny over for a little bit to celebrate their Birthdays with a little B-day cake.:) Their birthdays are only a few day apart so I'm sure they'll be having a combined birthday from here on out (sorry guys!) Happy Birthday!

Gracie blew out most of the candles before they had a chance to blow out any, but they were good sports blew out the last few that were left. Please ignore Gracie's "been to church, had a nap, been rollin around in the couch pillows" hair do that she's sportin'!

First Day of School...kind of

2008-09-18T13:52:00.000-07:00

Some ladies in the neighborhood and I decided to do a little Joy School/preschool this year with our 3 and 4 year old kids. Today was the first day but it was more of an opportunity for us Moms to get together and decide what and how we wanted to do this. I wasn't sure if Gracie even knew what "school" was but when I told her about it she was super excited. She was most excited however to wear her "packpack" of course. So we went to our friends house to have "school" which was really just a play time for the kids while the Mom's planned everything out and the entire time Gracie refused to take off her "packpack" and kept coming and telling me she wanted to go to school. Then when we left and she realized we were heading home she started throwing a huge fit about how she wanted to go to school! I realized then that the only time we ever talk about going to school is when we are refering to the park at the school at the end of our street which we frequent often. So needless to say I hope Gracie isn't disappointed that school is where you go to learn and not slide down slides! I guess we'll have to wait and see!:)

Brynlee got to come too since it was just a planning day so of course she had to bring her "packpack" too! It will be interesting to see how they do without eachother...it's really the first thing that Gracie is doing that Brynlee isn't.
I had to get a shot of the back packs to show how huge they are, they are as big as them! If I'd know we would be using them for preschool I would have gotten something different but I must confess that I got them last year on clearence thinking I'd use them as 72 hour kits...well that was as far as I got with that so I figured we might as well get some use out of them!

A few random tid bits

2008-09-16T15:06:00.000-07:00

Well I suppose it's time for a new post since I haven't posted anything for over a month now, so here a few Random things we've been up to! I guess it's been so long that I've forgotten how to post things because for some reason I cannot get the above picture to go where I want it...so I guess I'll start there! I thought some of the the RC 305 roomies might like to see some pictures from Katie's reception(sorry none of them turned out well but at least you get the idea!). Katie is one of 5 girls that made the best roommates ever! I was so glad that I was able to go her reception. She looked Fabulous, and we had a lot of fun! However, I have to say being 7 months pregnant and standing next to TINY (seriously she really is!) Katie doesn't do much for the self esteem! Oh well:)

Here is Katie dancing with her new hubby Scott, they were so cute together:)

And here she is line dancing and showing off here white cowboy boots!:)

The above picture is a little treat I did for our neighborhood block party that Jake and I were put in charge of. Yes, I said "put in charge of". See here in Utah you get assigned by the bishop to do things like throw a block party...isn't Utah great! Anyways, I thought the chocolate carmel chex party mix in paper cones turned out cute and they were a big hit at the party.

And last but not least here is a picture of the girls last Sunday when we were miraculously ready early enough to take a picture before church! It seems like we are scrambling most Sunday's especially since I was put into the primary presidency and now have to be there by 8:30 to set up chairs...so it really was a miracle that we were ready early and had to document it!

So there is a little update on what we've been up to however random it may be!

Brynlee is 2!

2008-08-14T07:52:00.000-07:00

Our little Brynlee Mae turned 2 years old on the 10th of August. She is such a sweet little girl and we are so glad she is part of our family. We love you Brynlee!

Brynlee's latest obsession is horses so we made a "horsie" cake for her. Jake did some great "rope" work with the licorice! I wish I would have gotten a picture of him carefully cutting each piece just right, making tassels and everything!:) Of course Brynlee Loved it!Grandma Bennion sent this adorable tu tu and head band. Brynlee put in on and immediately started shakin her tushy:) It was great, thanks Grandma!

Jake's Grandma Crawford gave us this little doll crib a little while ago. It was a crib that Jake's Mom used to play with as a kid. I wish I had a before picture of it but Jake fixed it up, painted it and I made some bedding for it and it turned out really cute! I think it's so neat to be able to pass things done from on generation to the next.

Smith cousin's! It's so fun being close to family...thanks everyone for coming and for all the great gifts, we love you all!

Blowing out the Candle!

Reunions, Reunions, Reunions

2008-08-04T10:39:00.000-07:00

I've heard people talked about how they hate going to family reunions, I on the other hand Live for them! I love being able to see all of my family members that I haven't seen in a long time and reminisce about old memories and make new memories as well. After each reunion I am even more grateful that families are forever! This summer we had 3 different family reunions all within about a month. It was a lot of traveling but so worth it!
The first reunion we attended was the Murdock reunion. We all got together to celebrate my mom's parents 65th wedding anniversary and my Grandpa Murdock's 90th birthday! This is them cutting their cake, aren't they cute!:) These two are some of the most special people in my life. They are such great examples and wonderful people, I'm so lucky to have them and Grandparents.Grandma and Grandpa with the Grandchildren and Great Grandchildren that were able to be there that night. (Hard to believe this hardly makes a dent in all of my grandparents posterity!)

Brynlee enjoying some form of ice cream on a stick!

The Circle Game!
Only a true Murdock can appreciate the circle game!:)

The Talent Show
Gracie, Halle and Claire entertained everyone with a little "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" with a little help from their mom's me, my sister Krista and cousin Cindy

After the Murdock reunion we said goodbye to Jake for a week and hopped in the car with my parents and spent some time up in Billings. It was so much fun since Krista and her family were there and even better when Kara decided on a whim to fly up with 2 of her little ones and join the fun. We had a great time swimming, going to the zoo, shopping and doing a lot of chit chat! I didn't get many pictures on the trip but here are a few at the Montana Zoo.

There is a peacock that just roams free around the zoo, Gracie was pretty curious and got pretty close.

After our trip to Billings we headed to the Smith Family reunion in Lander Wyoming. We took one day and went to Martin's cove. The kids were even able to ride in a handcart and pull one too (at least long enough to take a picture!). It was a really neat experience to walk the trails the pioneers walked and to feel the spirit there.

Jake's dad Paul is in a little reinactment of the war before the firework show over the 4th of July each year. It's fun to see him all dressed up and ready for battle!

Gracie and her cousin Marin waiting to the fireworks to begin. Lander puts on the Best firework show I've ever seen or heard of, it's so fun to go a watch!

The Smith Cousins and Jake watching the 4th of July Parade! We all have to laugh because each year there is a float that hands out free beer to the crowd. Tons of people flock to that float and follow it down the road to get their share...only in Wyoming!

After the Smith Reunion we went to the Bennion Reunion. It was also a lot of fun. We spent some time on temple square, swam at the pool, went to Lagoon and had our annual Bennion Tennis Classic. Unfortunately, despite our efforts Krista and Chase took the trophy for the 2nd year in a row and Jake and I had to settle for 2nd:( We'll be ready next year!

The Bennion cousins on temple square (minus Kara's youngest Savannah who was sleeping)

All of us!

Just the Smith's

It was great to be able to spend some time with Jenny, Tanner's fiance. She is so great and we are so excited to have her in our family!

Gracie and Brynlee loved going on all the rides at Lagoon

Well it seems like the summer is just flying by and it was sad to say goodbye to all of our families but we are so grateful for the time we were able to spend with all of them and hope to seem them all again soon!

We're Having a ....

2008-07-09T18:15:00.000-07:00

GIRL!

Yep Girl #3 can you believe it!? I thought for sure that it was a boy because I was so much more sick with this baby than I was with my others. I guess that just means the sickness will get worse with each pregnancy...yikes! Anyways, we are very excited! It's been fun to have Gracie and Brynlee so I'm sure another little girl will be all the better. I also have 2 older sisters and LOVE it so hopefully they will be great friends! So bring on the name ideas...we need 'em!

The Jam Experience

2008-06-10T11:57:00.001-07:00

I've been wanting to make strawberry jam for a couple of years now but I never was ambitious enough to try it. Partially because my Grandma Murdock makes AMAZING strawberry jam and I didn't think I'd be able to make it taste like she does...and I proved myself right! I followed the steps just right, measuring everything exactly, stirring it at all the right times and things were going well until it came time to stir in the sugar. I gradually stirred in the sugar into the fruit mixture just as the recipe stated. And I stirred and stirred and stirred and stirred.... something just wasn't right. I knew jam had quite a bit of sugar in it but this was ridiculous for the amount of fruit I was mixing with it.Well I continued to stir the stuff until my arm could no longer move and it wasn't making any difference. I had been reading and rereading the recipe over and over trying to figure out what went wrong and I had finally come to the conclusion that I just didn't have the "love" Grandma Murdock has to make the perfect strawberry jam:( Then I looked at the recipe one more time and suddenly realized I had been following the recipe for Strawberry-Rasberry jam instead of just Strawberry jam... and because of this I had only put in HALF the amount of strawberries that I needed to! So I quickly called my mom for advice hoping that not all was lost and we decided the only thing I could do was add the rest of the strawberries that needed to be in there. So after a frantic trip to Walmart for strawberries and more jars (since now I'd have way more jam than I was planning on!) I was able to finish the jam. No it doesn't look or taste like Grandma Murdock's and it didn't quite set up all the way but it's done and in the freezer and I'm chalking this one up as a learning experience! PS if anyone wants some runny jam please let me know... we have A LOT!! (it's really not that bad, especially if you don't have Grandma's jam to compare it to:) )

On another note: I discovered this nest in my hanging flower basket the other day and don't know what to do about it. I feel bad taking it out but it makes it rather difficult to water the flowers with it in there. (notice the water I poured in the nest before I realized it was there!) Anyways, would I be terribly cold hearted if I took out? Do you think the bird would be okay with me just watering around it? What should I do?!

And the Redneck award goes to...

2008-06-02T08:27:00.000-07:00

JAKE!

Jake decided it would be fun to try out a new look...what do you think!?
Don't worry he shaved it off after I laughed hysterically and told him I wouldn't go out in public with him if he didn't! And the same day as the above picture I found him outside with the tiller rigged up to his four wheeler. You should have seen all the "double takes" people driving by were making. Our neighbor even came over and and told him that he wins the neighborhood redneck award!

Happy Birthday Gracie!

2008-05-18T19:38:00.000-07:00

Our little Gracie turned 3 on Saturday. We had a lot of fun celebrating her big day. It's the first year she has really understood that it was her birthday and was telling everyone " It's my bertday!" We started the day by taking her out to breakfast at IHOP since she LOVES pancakes. When we are at home she'll eat 5 or 6 ...of course when we went to the restaurant she ate about 2 bites and spent the rest of the time trying to talk to all the people we were sitting next to! (we don't get out much!:) ) The best part was when they came out and sang Happy Birthday to her. We thought that she would love it but it kind of scared her to have all these strangers to come out of nowhere clapping and singing/yelling some strange chant/song! However, they gave her some ice cream and left and she kept talking about the people clapping at her for her "Bertday":) She thought it was pretty cool! After IHOP we went home to open presents . She got some great stuff (thanks everyone!) The only thing she had been asking for was a bike so she was pretty disappointed after opening all her presents and no bike, so when Jake brought it out you should have seen her face...it was priceless! Showing that she is now 3!

She was just so excited to see her brand new "Retro Red Radio Flyer Trike"! So was Brynlee!

Taking Brynlee for a spin! Gracie never gets very far on it because she stops every few feet to ring the bell...you'll always know when she's comin!

Isn't she cute!

Eating her ice cream at IHOP...yes it was like 10am!

The only other thing Gracie asked for besides a bike was a race car cake...she thought this "Bertday tate" was pretty neat:)

Happy Birthday Sweet Girl!

On a second note, Jake and I happen to share our anniversary with Gracie's birthday. Since we don't ever get to do much celebratin' I at least wanted to tell my wonderful husband Happy Anniversary... it's been the best 6 years ever:) I love you!

Announcment!

2008-05-06T16:37:00.000-07:00

So some of you may have noticed the ? added to the list of family members in our "blog title". I was curious to see how long it would take before someone noticed and commented about it, well it didn't take long...way to go Cinders, very observant! Yes, we are expecting baby number 3! We are very excited and a little nervous at the thought of having 3 kids 3 and under! The baby is due the day before Thanksgiving...I'll be interested to see when the baby actually comes since Gracie came a week over her due date and Brynlee came 3 weeks early! And I suppose it's very possible I'll be enjoying Thanksgiving dinner at the hospital!

A Trip Home to Montana!

2008-05-02T07:34:00.000-07:00

My Brother Tanner, who goes to BYU, was going back home for a week in between ending and starting semesters and I thought that it was the perfect opportunity for me and the girls to go and see my mom and dad and two sisters up in MT. So we hopped in the car with Tanner and drove the 10 plus hours. The drive to and from Billings was painfully long and I'm certain Tanner will never agree to be in the same car with us ever again (thanks for being a good sport Tanner!) but it was worth it! We spent 7 days playing, shopping , eating, chatting and being taken care of and super spoiled by my wonderful mom! Jake even surprised me and flew up Thursday night and stayed until Sunday! It was such a great week and I'm so glad we went! The only bad part about it is that I'm more home sick than ever and Gracie and Brynlee are constantly asking to go see "Gama and Papa" and " Toey and Mill" (Chloe and Camille...my two sisters at home) Thanks for such a Wonderful week, we miss you guys!

I had some good intentions on taking lots of pictures while we were there...but of course I never thought to get the camera out! I did however snap a few when my mom took the girls to Build-A-Bear Workshop which was a lot of fun! (Sorry they are all out of order!)
Gracie "Bathing" her newly stuffed bear

Making a wish on the little heart they stick inside the bear

Brynlee putting some "makeup" on her bear

Stuffing the bear

Putting the heart in the bear

The finished product! Bella and Ellie Bear, poor Ellie has already lost a shoe! I think my mom and I had more fun picking out all the clothes and accessories...there was SO much to choose from!

Go Kansas!

2008-04-08T10:21:00.001-07:00

Okay so I'm not one that follows college basketball, or any other sport for that matter, very regularly. However, when I learned that Jake chose Kansas to win in his bracket at work and more importantly that if he won he wanted to use the $200 plus to go toward a weekend getaway for just the two of us my interest was peeked! So for the first time in my life I've followed March Madness very closely and have actually surprised myself how exciting it has been. And last night was the most exciting of all when Kansas beat Memphis in an INTENSE final game to take the NCAA championship! GO KANSAS! Even though most people favored Memphis to win, Kansas proved to be the better team (thanks to Memphis' inability to shoot free throws... and Chalmers sweet 3 point shot with 2 seconds left which sent them into over time...way to stay focused under pressure!) So weekend getaway here we come!
This is how I felt too when they won...we haven't had a night without the kids EVER...it's time!

Happy Easter

2008-03-25T10:20:00.001-07:00

We had a fun Easter weekend! Saturday we went to Jake's sister Jodi's house and had an Easter egg hunt and a yummy lunch with the Smith cousins. The girls Loved the egg hunt and got WAY too much candy! On Easter Sunday we enjoyed a quiet day dressing the girls in their Easter dresses...Thanks Grandma Smith (which we never got a good picture of!) going to church and having dinner with my brother Tanner and one of his friends.

Smith Cousins

Happy Birthday Jake!

2008-03-17T09:41:00.001-07:00

To celebrate Jake's 32nd birthday we got to go out to dinner with some of his siblings and his Mom at Harvest at Thanksgiving Point. It was So Yummy and so fun to go out with everyone without any kids...except for brand new baby Kylie (12 days old!) Thanks for a great time guys!

Blowing out the candles with lots of helpers!
Happy Birthday Jake
We love you!

Bath Time Fun

2008-03-12T15:07:00.000-07:00

We got the girls some Bathtub Color Tints from Crayola as stocking stuffers at Christmas. I was afraid to use them because I thought that it would surely dye the tub, the girls hair, towels or something a weird color. I finally decided to give them a try because my girls love having fun bath times but bubbles kinda drive me nuts cause I can never get them all the off. Anyways the worked great! It was to funny to see their faces the first time they saw the colored water and Gracie didn't even want to get in, but now they love it! And amazingly enough it didn't dye anything a different color!
*they do dye your fingers if you pick up the little tablets with wet fingers...but once they're in the water there isn't any problem!

Worst Hair Cut Ever!

2008-03-03T11:34:00.000-08:00

So the other day I was desperate to get my hair cut but I didn't want to spend a ton of money to do it, however, I also didn't want to go to some cheapy place either(sorry I just don't trust people there unless I know them!) So I decided to go to the Crazy Daisy here in Santaquin since they were kinda in the middle. Well the name should have given it away...I went in thinking my hair needed to be cut so bad that anything they do would be better than how it already looked...I was wrong! I'll let the pictures speak for themselves...

HELLO!! Have you ever seen such an awful job! I look like a 5 year old that got a hold of some scissors and cut my own hair! It's so bad that when I got home I completely skipped the crying phase and just started laughing. Even Jake, who normally would never say anything negative about the way I look, could only stare and laugh when he saw it. And it's not just the bangs that are bad... I've got these weird side layers that make me look like I'm in some 80's rock band too! So there you go have a good laugh with me and don't bother telling me they don't look that bad cause the pictures don't even really do it justice! Needless to say I'll be pinning my bangs back for awhile until they grow back:( Anyone else have any good bad hair cut stories to top mine?

Spring Fever

2008-02-26T13:33:00.001-08:00

I don't think I've ever been so ready for spring to come. We've tried a few times to go play in the snow but between the snow being to deep for the girls to walk in and the mud underneath the snow (ugh I can't wail until we have grass!!!) making a HUGE mess we are pretty much stuck indoors:( So it was a nice treat to receive these springing flowers yesterday (they were suppose to come Valentines Day...long story!) from Jake! I find myself just staring at them imagining what warm dry weather feels like!:) Is anyone else ready for spring? What do you do to entertain your kids indoors... I'm out of ideas!

Milestones and Marshmallows

2008-02-20T12:56:00.000-08:00

Well I'm sick of looking at my Valentine Dinner but don't have much to blog about so this is what I came up with! This is our cutie pie Brynlee who is in charge of the "milestones" portion of this post. I am happy to announce that Brynlee is officially a nursery goer and both she and I are very happy about it!:) She did fabulous, she took Gracie's hand and walked right in and didn't even flinch when we left her there. Truth be told it made me a little sad that she didn't care that I left:( but I guess I can't complain! This is the first time in over 2 and a half years that I've actually been able to sit and Listen in Relief Society and Sunday School! Yay!

As for the Marshmallows... you'll have to check out this link! I saw it on the Ellen show awhile back and I couldn't believe how hard I was laughing sitting there all by myself! So if you need a good laugh check it out!

Marshmallow Game

Okay so the link doesn't work...sorry! I can't seem to figure out how to put YouTube movies into my post...anyone know how? Anyways if you go to YouTube and put "funny Japanese game show - marshmallow eating" in the search box you'll be able to watch the video...it's pretty darn funny!

Valentine Dinner

2008-02-13T16:20:00.000-08:00

We had a yummy early Valentine Dinner on Sunday since my Brother Tanner was coming over. It was a lot of fun and my girls are still asking for pink rolls!:) What are your valentine plans?

Good Friends

2008-02-13T15:58:00.000-08:00

Our good friends Mike and Julie Tanner called us Monday and surprised us by telling us they were in town! (they live in Boise, ID) We were so excited to see them and since Mike is turning 40 this weekend (holy cow old man!:)) we decided to throw him a little surprise birthday party. Thanks Mike and Julie...it was a blast, we miss you guys!!

Mike with his "old man" gifts

To Grandma's house we go!

2008-02-04T12:22:00.000-08:00

Some of my best memories are from visiting my grandparents house so it's so fun to see my kids making some good memories of their own. They sure do have some of the Best Grandparents out there! Here are some pictures from our trip to Lander this past weekend to see Grandma and Grandpa Smith.

Brynlee sneaking some cookie dough

Valentine Cookies...YUM! The kids did the decorating of course!

Coloring cousins

My mother in law is an awesome cake decorator and made me this Birthday cake! Thanks Marlene!

Smith Look-alike Meter

2008-01-31T08:13:00.001-08:00

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Family finder - Free genealogy

I thought this was kinda fun, and I was surprised that both my girls looked more like me! You should try it out!

Smith Look-alike Meter

2008-01-31T08:08:00.001-08:00

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebrities - Collage - Morph

Ode to Grandma Murdocks Strawberry Jam

2008-01-28T12:52:00.000-08:00

We were SO excited that Tanner so Generously shared some of his strawberry jam that he got from a recent trip to our Grandma Murdock's house. You really can't appreciate the pure yumminess unless you've tried it! I think we each ate 5 to 10 rolls smothered with jam...except of course Brynlee who skipped the rolls all together and just ate it by the spoonful! Yes it's really THAT GOOD! YUMMY! Thanks for sharing Tanner!!!

SnowMAN!

2008-01-14T11:32:00.000-08:00

This is what we like to call snowman building "Jake" style! After Jake and Gracie had been building their snowman for awhile I came out to give them a carrot , like any good Mom would do, but when I walked around the front of the snowman and saw this I just handed the carrot to Gracie for a healthy snack! Jake was kinda sad that he didn't have time to finish it... arms, legs etc... Way to go Jake!

Holiday Update

2008-01-04T12:36:00.002-08:00

Well it's taken awhile to recover from all the Holiday festivities, but I've finally found a minute to post all our Christmas fun! After a rough start having to take Brynlee to the ER (she had a fever so high she had a seizure...YIKES not fun!!) and Gracie waking up the next night throwing up... we had a great time up in Montana! It was so fun to spend time with my family and for Gracie and Brynlee to have cousins to play with 24/7.

My wonderful family minus my oldest sister Kara who we missed tremendously!

Brynlee, Gracie, Tyler, and Halle in their cute
matching Christmas outfits from Grandma

The "ruffle bum" tights were too cute not to take a picture!

The nativity Bennion style

Matching Christmas PJ's

Love the pose guys!

Gracie was pretty excited about her "Rose petal Cottage", that is of course until she saw Tyler's race track which she played with the rest of the vacation... such a little tom boy:)

Brynlee being a good little mommy

I hope your Christmas was as good as ours! Now on to a new year!!

Enough Said

2007-12-12T22:32:00.001-08:00

I'm not sure what to say about this picture... I'm just glad that I had sense enough to take a picture of it knowing that at some point I would think it was funny!

Jake's Weird?

2007-12-01T20:36:00.000-08:00

So its my turn to tell you random things about me.
1) When I was six weeks old I had a hernia and had to go under the knife. I stayed over night in the hospital and had a woman roommate. Hope Kenna doesn't know about her?
2) I worked with a Funeral Director (mortition) for four years during my high school years. I did yard work, washed and waxed cars, yes even the hearst. Had the opportunity to take bodies to Casper Wyoming for Cremation. Good times!
3) My sophomore year in high school I went duck hunting with a friend every chance we got. While hunting we would shoot stray cats because they eat ducks and pheasants. One day I shot a cat that wasn't a stray as I found out around Christmas time. His name was Floppy Bob and the owner wanted to meet me but better then that he wanted me to crawl under a rock and stay their permanently. So needless to say my Wrestling Coach heard this story and my nickname became Floppy Bob.
4) I am a perfectionist and at times it scares and frustrates me. It helps out at work but I have to know when good is good.
5) I've never broken a bone in my body. I guess I'm no stunt double!
6) Kenna Bought me a watch on our wedding day and at first glance I didn't like at all. But after all these years it's my Favorite present she has ever bought me. I Love You Kenna!
I hope you all enjoyed this post. I have really enjoyed catching up with all of you on your blogs and look forward to more to come. Now its my turn to tag Scott W., Seth P., Chase P., Jason M., Dad B., Dad S., and Jason J.

'Tis the Season

2007-12-01T07:42:00.000-08:00

Well it is that time of year once again to gather addresses for Christmas cards and such. It seems my address book is never updated with everyone (including ourselves) moving around so much! So I'm asking for your help! I would greatly appreciate if you could email your addresses to me at k.smith@msn.com. Thanks so Much!!