Celebrate good times...

We had a great 4th of July. The weather was perfect. We started the day at a pancake breakfast in the park with our church.

Maya enjoyed the parade. She thought she was so big riding her scooter with all the big kids!

This is Jacob (with his brother Jared). He is one of my hero's. He was a great parade leader and led the kids around the park with great enthusiasm. He kept the beat with his drum and sang "America" and "The Star Spangled Banner" the whole time he led the parade. Such a privilege to know this young man.

We ended our evening at a BBQ with family and friends. The boys (minus Tanner and Matthew who were away at scout camp) enjoyed swimming and goofing off and lots of great food. The toddlers were hysterical and kept all of the moms busy as we tried to keep them all in our sights (and sharing with each other) with the pool being right there.

Maya really got into her fudgesicle, and sweet little wild man Brock would spray anyone who dared to try to take the hose away from him!

We went to La Sierra for a big free fireworks show and LOVED it! A new tradition for sure.

Maya was not pleased with the fireworks at all. She was about 10 feet away from me when the first three "big booms" went off, and I think she cleared that ten feet and climbed up my body to get to my arms in about 1.5 seconds flat! She soon felt a bit safer in her daddy's arms, but only with her blanket pulled over her head!

Thanks to the other Smith family, Kanzler family, Christensen family, and the Moser boys

for a great evening!

Ugh!

Gotta love the terrible two's! Maya is going through it big time. I keep wondering where my sweet little girl went to, I really hope she comes back someday! We are full force into operation "Tame the Princess" which really does not help the terrible two's at all. She really does think she rules the world you know...okay, okay I over indulged her just a tad ;) I am dealing with it I'll tell ya.

Oh the DRAMA!

Fun Friday!

So I am going to try something new this summer called Fun Friday. You see, I am one

of those mom's who makes their kids actually do something besides veg in front of something plugged in.

The boys have this schedule:

1- get breakfast

2- get dressed and groomed (deoderant PLEASE!!)

3-get you room done (beds, dirty clothes to laundry, picked up)

4- read for no less than 30 minutes

5- journals ( not so strict on this with the teenagers, but a must for Mr. Jake)

6- math (again mostly for Jake)

7- practice piano for 15-20 minutes

8- extra chores that mom assigns

9- work on a scouting badge and exersize for Physical Fitness badge

This little routine takes around 2 1/2 hours but earns them swimming time, computer time, Wii time and friend time.

I am also going to throw in extra incentives to get up and get going so that I do not have to babysit the boys through the whole morning.

Anyway, after reading about Fun Friday on my friend Debbie's blog I thought it would be a great way to make summer a bit more fun and something the kids have to look forward to each week. It will not always be a movie..um hello 50 bucks for the tickets today! UGH!

So in honor of our first ever FUN FRIDAY we went to see Kung Fu Panda and it was pretty good. Maya sat through the whole thing and started "HI-YAH-ing" during the fighting scenes. She loved it.

Speaking of Maya, she is doing great, the whole concusion thing slowed her down for all of 24 hours and then she was back to her cute little bossy self. We did keep the injury trend alive this week as I put a nail through the ball of my foot and had to go get a tetnus shot-and my arm hurts worse than the hole in my foot! OUCH! I am wondering what will happen next week.

Our Terrible, Horrible, No Good, very BAD day!

Friday, the last day of school, the day I knew would be a tad bit more chaotic than the rest of the insanity that the past few days had been, the day it was all going to be over and we could breathe again. I said to myself "if I can make it to Friday we are home free" on several occasions this past week. So Friday comes and...

7:40-ish (am)- I hear a horrible scream coming from Maya who I had just left moments earlier playing with her big brothers while I finished getting ready for Matthew's 6th grade awards ceremony. I gather Maya off on the dining room floor and was not a happy mommy! Maya is crying like I have never heard her cry before. I ask (okay- well, I scream) "what happened to her?"

Poor Tanner..now, I know what you are thinking here, Tanner is usually involved with everything that goes wrong in this house, and you are exactly right! (!!!!!!) but this time he was trying to play with her so I could get out the door. He had her playing airplane or something but he was holding her up above his head or right around head level and he tripped on Jake and in an effort to not fall right on her, he dropped her right on her head. Wood floors with concrete underneath and little heads to not mix very well at all.

So, I try to calm her down, put her on the couch and have Tanner sit with her while I run to Matthew's ceremony so that he would not be devastated that I missed it. Watch him get Outstanding Science and History student awards and receive his 4.0 trophy (SO PROUD OF YOU MATEO!!!) snap a few pictures and run back home to check on the two who fell.

Maya was not looking great and she was still crying HARD. I called my advise nurse who sent me to the ER. I have to admit I was not happy about going to the ER. I knew I would have to sit there for several hours, pay my $50 co-pay and then they would tell me she bumped her head and send me home.

9:15am- I am turning into the ER parking lot and Maya throws up everywhere. I start to panic but cleaned her up and got her into the ER. They got her to triage really fast and told me to go back to wait for the next room. I sit down and the *nice* man who wants my $50 dollars approaches us to get my check...Maya looks at him and projectile vomits all over the waiting room...I panic a bit more wondering what was going on with Maya, but laugh at the man who wanted his money and got thrown up on instead...we are put in a room immediately.

For the next two hours we wait...Maya throws up several more times, I am covered and she is still crying this horrible cry. The *nice* Man approaches us again for our co-pay and gets his check this time. ER got 5 ambulances while we were waiting. Finally, a very nice doctor comes in to check Miss Maya out and she throws up again.

She was diagnosed with a moderate concussion and then he said he wanted to do a CT scan and started talking general anesthetic if I could not hold her still. WHAT!??!? He wanted a CT scan to make sure it was not something more because she was throwing up so much, but it was now 12:30ish and I had been trying to calm her down and listening to her cry for way to long to hold her down for that. I begged him to wait until David could get there to do the holding and calming because she was not going under if I could help it. 15 minutes later Dave showed up and Maya snuggled right up and promptly went to sleep (don't worry, the nurses kept checking on her). We waited another hour and 45 minutes and she had the CT scan which came out normal thank goodness. She hated the CT scan, but was a trooper and did the best she could.

We got home around 3:00pm. Just in time to send Spencer and David to the DMV to get this!

Let the gray hair begin! He has a learner's permit!

Funny thing-when I checked in to the ER the nurse asked if we had been there before with Maya for accidental ingestion of pain pills, I must have looked like I thought she was going to turn me in as I said "suspected accidental ingestion" because she said, "Don't worry hon, I'm the nurse who adopted from China!" Not a great thing when the ER nurses recognize you!

So, Maya is fine now, she quit throwing up around 5pm that night and was acting pretty much normal on Saturday. She has some nice deep bruising on her left cheekbone, eye socket bone and the temple area. She tells us the story of her "hut" head and the big scary "chine" she had to go in, and how hse coghed and got her pretty shirt all dirty! Tanner is fine too, he spent the day in tears and feels very bad for what happened to Maya. Spencer is great, he had a drivers permit.

Summer is off to a rocky start!

This post is for a certain Bro in law who has a fancy for fish and flowers....

The Geraniums are going crazy this year

And everyone knows "there's nothing better than a finicky Agapanthus!" Name the movie! They are blooming a bit early this year, usually we have the "fireworks" flowers for July!

The Trumpet Vine is pretty to look at, but a haven for huge black bees and it takes over eveything in its path...it has to go soon.

I am so excited to fianlly have these growing in my yard this year, they are one of my all time favorites and I can't wait to dry them! We also have white Hydrengeas.

And last but certainly not least, I have two Gardenia bushes right as you walk into the front door and I love the smell of them...I may have to move them because I think they are getting a bit to much sun.

So big A, if you ever did move here it would be lots easier to grow these beauties than in that cold state that you live in!

Oh, and for your fish viewing pleasure, we could always high tail it down to Monterey Bay, or Maya pulls a pretty cute fishy face indeed!

It is that time of year...

Only two more weeks of school for my boys which means two more weeks of non stop projects, reports, finals, swim parties, park parties, end of school parties, graduation parties, finding the lost library book that has been lost since the beginning of the year, more non stop projects and end of year wrap up. May and the first part of June is the only time I really seem to notice I have five kids because two parents cannot be in four places at the same time!

But this time of year is also a favorite, the weather is perfect, Baseball is winding down, it is Mission School field trip time and best of all Santa Cruz time!

I spent Tuesday thru Thursday at Calaveras Big Trees with Jake. This place is awesome and we had a ton of fun learning about those huge trees! It is hard to imagine that the stump pictured below can easily hold at least 250 people on it! We had 60 second graders and 75 adults on it and there was a lot more room. We hiked a bunch and got to play in an ice cold river.

My favorite part of the trip had to be the Mercer Caverns. We were able to go down 165 feet in a vertical cavern and look at all the stalactites and stalagmites, we saw "cave coral", and other amazing things that are only found in caves formed by water. Jake's favorite part was when they turned the lights out and it was completely black, you could not even see your own hand in front of your face. I was happy to have the lights turned back on!

They had Gem Mining set up right out side the cavern, it was fun to see the kids try their hand at gold/gem mining. A definite must if you ever venture that way.

On Thursday we left Calaveras and headed to Santa Cruz. Dave and the rest of the crew were already there...brave Dave to take the kids by himself!

Santa Cruz was amazing and relaxing as always. Every year it amazes me how much I enjoy it there. Believe me, I am a non camper kinda girl, but I do not mind it there. Must be those ocean waves lulling me to sleep each night...or the endless smores!

The kids had a great time-Maya was in heaven at the beach, but between all my kids I am pretty sure we brought a big portion of New Brighton Beach home with us!

Another year a Santa Cruz has gone by and we are back to reality in a big way...just add 14+ loads of laundry and camping clean up to the list of end of school stuff that you read above and wish me luck!

He made it to 14!

Yesterday was Tanner man's birthday, I can't believe he is 14! It really does seem like yesterday that he arrived into this world with his own little agenda and quickly let everyone around him know how things were to be from that day on! He sent his parents into a tale spin with his rough start and then being on apnea monitors for SIDS during the nighttime--I learned to sleep watching those lights blink and often woke up just before all the bells and whistles began when Tanner had not taken a breath. I think that prepared me for all the sleepless nights he has caused and has yet to cause me as we begin this true teenager part of his life!

14 things I love about Tanner:

1- He is a comedian, all of my boys are pretty funny, but this kid can make me fall over laughing sometimes!

2-He is a leader, not a follower and as long as he sticks to the straight and narrow path I have no worries about who he will become or where he will go in this life.

3- His imagination-the stories this kid can come up with in the matter of seconds is well, quite amazing--to bad that the best stories are when he is trying to get out of trouble!

4-His stubbornness- sometimes this is not a good thing, but I do have peace in the fact that if this kids does not wanna do something NO ONE will be able to get him to do it...a great quality for out there in the real world...not so much for getting him to clean his room.

5-He is really quite handsome if I do say so myself!

6-He loves his brothers and sister- Yes it is mostly a love/hate relationship with Matthew and Jake but when he knows they really need him, he is there. He adores his little sister, and his best friend in the world is Spencer.

7-He's a good friend and makes friends quite easily.

8-He has a testimony of Jesus Christ and takes his church responsibilities seriously.

9-His smile- I guess I better love it, it was very expensive! No really, I love it when he flashes me a genuine smile.

10- He is one smart kid- If he sets his mind to it the kid can do wonders in any area...but there is the problem, he has to want to do it!



11-He can play the piano and lately I have loved listening to him learn "100 years".



12-I LOVE to watch him play soccer! He is the type that is good at what ever sport he is playing, but soccer is his love and it shows on the field.



13- I love that he "likes" girls and turns beet red if I ask for names...



14-I love him most because as hard as it has been raising him to this point and as hard as the next few years will be, he teaches me life lessons along the way and has so much patience for his mom.





Happy Birthday Tanner! So glad WE made it to 14!

A few things I've learned by being a mom to the Princess:



~little girl squeals can cause one doozy of a headache by the end of the day!



~She always must think she is in control



~She IS the boss of everybody



~A purse must contain the following items (which are subject to change at a moments notice!)







~I must keep my distance from the little girls department or several "oh so cute" items find there way home. I really should join a 12 step program for this!



~Princess dress up shoes go with any outfit-especially when mismatched!





~If she is this moody as a two year old I am toast when she is a teenager!



~There is drama to be found in every situation



~You should be very scared when she is quiet, it usually means there is a disaster to clean up.



~ Lipstick is for so much more than your lips in a two year olds eyes!



~ Pigtails are really hard to get even!



~ She is so stinkin' CUTE! But I am the momma so I am a tad bit biased!

The Naptime Routine

Lately, this is what it takes for the princess to take a nap...

1 binky-check

1 blankie (only her pink,purple and green striped blankie will do)-check

1 sippy cup- check

3 dolls-check

1 (sometimes 2) carebear- check

1 ellie-check

1 blankie for dolls, bears, and ellie the elephant- check

and

1 horsie pillow- check

All naps must be taken on mom's bed not in the crib

If you are missing any one of these elements, you hear the little footsteps coming down the hall to get whatever it is you forgot....which I hear now....looks like its 2 carebears today!

Oh Dave's Aching Back!

So, my husband is on drugs...the kind of drugs that make him fall asleep mid-sentence, the kind he MAY NOT operate machinery with, or drive with or even talk on his cell phone with...but it is a good thing.

Dave had back surgery yesterday. The actual procedure only took a little over an hour and was performed by a very small neurosurgeon with big head little man syndrome (seriously the guy has the personality of a doorknob!), but it was a complete success and he is home.

Already his is walking straighter, his mood is much lighter, and I can see the old David slowly coming back. Let's just hope he learns a bit of a lesson and treats his growing older everyday body with a bit more respect!

I am so glad that he was able to get this surgery, it really has been hard to watch him be in so much pain. He is a hands on type of guy, especially with his kids so it has been different around here for the last several weeks, but it will be better soon. I just hope he can survive me, his non nurse maid kind of wife ( I really hate to take care of sick people, but I am being nice, I promise!)and Maya Papaya who loves to take care of her daddy!

By the way, it states on his post surgery instructions that "tea" parties with your two year old are a definete must to get better!

Home Again!

We are finally all home after two very busy weeks in beautiful Utah.

We always have so much fun when we go to visit family, Maya loves all of her

cutie pie girl cousins and especially likes hanging out with her Kinners. They love each other so much and it is so fun to watch them play together.

All the kids were thrilled to be able to attend Nannie's neighborhood Easter egg hunt. We have not been able to make it for a couple years and it was fun to be there in all of the chaos again. The egg dying party on the night before with all of the cousins was a favorite. Maya did much better this year with collecting candy and eggs and gathered up plenty of the good stuff for mom to munch on this year! She was all about the dum dum suckers! The boys were all over the eggs worth money, and everyone left with a over flowing basket full of goodies. Thanks Nan!

Maya and McKinley had a Easter dress photo shoot thanks to my little sister Marilee. She rocks in the photography department, she amazes me! I LOVE every picture she took.

After Easter it was all about the wedding. My little brother Mike and his sweetheart Ashley were married in the Salt Lake Temple on March 28th. It was a beautiful day. Friday night they had a wedding reception and it was really fun to catch up with so many friends that I do not get to see often. The boys and Maya had a great time. Maya loved dancing to the music and just running around with all the kids.

So now we are home, catching up on laundry, life, homework, and definitely going through what I have lovingly named Utah Detox with our sweet girl who has not been told "no" for two weeks. If I told her no, she found her nannie!

Baseball has started up for Matthew and Jake so that means 4-6 games a week plus hitting practice...I should just move to the ballpark for the season! Dave will have back surgery soon to fix him all up so he can play with us again which will be great, if we can get through the surgery part of it. Please keep him in your prayers.

As you can see, life does not slow down at all...