one piece at a time

Jacob and I started a puzzle late Friday night.

It was an unspoken word that we weren't going to bed until it was finished.

We finished but paid for it the next morning. I think I'm getting too old too stay up doing stuff like this.

From 4lbs 2 oz to 42 pounds

Happy Birthday Katanya!

Like all my other children as they turn older, I can't believe my youngest is five.
Katanya came out a fighter and she is still one determined girl! She can hold her own with her other siblings but she still has a sweet & strong spirit. I can't imagine our family without her.
This year she celebrated her birthday over two days. Yesterday she opened her presents (a new bike and other toys) and picked out where we ate dinner. We ended up at Chuy's (with a little persuading) and she was delighted! They had yummy chicken nuggets, they sang to her, and she got a frozen push pop. Life couldn't be better! (Plus the adults ate good too! Way better than the McD's that she wanted.)
Then for today (we had planned on going to a outing with Jake's work but it would have ended up taking 10+ hours and we weren't comfortable leaving the kids alone for that long so we changed our plans) we went swimming, went shopping for puzzles (explanations with future posts) went on an evening bike ride and enjoyed chocolate cake....with sprinkles!
I hope this year is great for Anya. May her birthday wishes come true!

Then and Now

The tides have turned. I have gone from a Craigslist seller to a Craigslist buyer. This is my morning's great find.

A little color to an Idaho white boy

We made it to Austin on Monday, and early Tuesday we headed down to South Padre Island. This was our sixth trip. I'm so thankful that Betsy invited our family to join hers. If you want to see some pictures of our activities, click here to go to Betsy's blog. We all got a little too much sun on the first day but I like Jacob's statement the best.....

"Getting sunburned makes me look pudgy."
(I don't think he's pudgy, although on the other hand, I want to know how he got his sunburn in that odd pattern.)

To Do List

Last week, I had a whole list of "to dos" to do. I hope I saw everyone and if not I'm very sorry! It's hard to pack years worth of friends and people and day to day life into just a week. Here are a few of the things we did.
We finally got to meet and hold my brother's baby. Meet Korver Jhett Michael Smith. I'm so glad that someone else used four names too! His abundance of hair reminds me of how much Kirsten had as a baby.
We had an afternoon / evening with Jacob's side of the family. It wasn't long enough but it was fun to see everyone.
McKay met a cousin, Jason. Her Aunt Jamie had her son on Memorial Day but she had to wait til Friday to hold him. He's another adorable baby! Between the two newborns my kids were begging me (again) for another one.
My dad took the kids to their favorite fishing spot. McKay's big catch for the day got away, but we did get a picture to prove it.She was not happy when Kirsten wanted to hold her fish (and every other fish). In fact that is what caused the escape. Kirsten accidentally unhooked the fish and it started flopping and was released back into the fish pond.
Saturday afternoon, we finished going swimming at my mom's friends house. The pool was about 95 degrees and the kids enjoyed every minute.

Other things not pictured but happened during the week: McKay going to do baptisms for the dead for the first time, our own Memorial Day BBQ since the Smith family one was cancelled due to bad weather, Saturday night game night.

We will miss our family that was close by us.

Got milk?

As we were headed up to Kamas to go fishing with my dad, one of my kids asked, "Mom is that milk?" (And it wasn't the youngest.)

The protecting power of prayer

I don't know where the last two weeks went. School finished up one of them and the other was spent visiting family and friends. Jacob was very sweet to let me spend some quality time with my family while he packed out. He met me in Utah late Saturday night and after my brother's baby blessing on Sunday, we made our start for Texas. Since we got a late start (2 p.m.) we decided that we could drive through the night and make it there by afternoon on Monday. As we were driving I kept thinking, "I'm not taking this way home". Then I remembered its not a vacation and that we were only going one way this time. It still feels surreal.

Everything went smoothly until the last 20 miles. Jacob had been driving when I started to hear a different sound. We switched drivers and the noise got stronger and a little louder. I asked him about it and he said it was the bearings in our small tow along trailer and he would fix it later that night. I drove another 20 minutes at 80 mph and then brought up the noise again. I had thought it was coming from the muffler on the van so I pulled off the freeway. Jacob got out and inspected the trailer when he came to me and said, "pull off to the side very slowly and come look at this." I did and got out. The trailer tire looked like the picture.
All of the lug nuts were gone. Again very slowly we drove off the small space between the freeway and the access road and by then all the studs were gone. We were close to Betsy's and only 4 miles from a trailer store. Betsy picked me and the kids up, Nate brought out some tools and within 45 minutes Jacob was "home" too.

We know how bad this could have been. We could have lost the tire at a high speed, ruined the trailer, possibly have wrecked, or even stated a fire. We know that we were protected and blessed. We always start every road trip with a prayer and we have never had anything major happen. I'm grateful for the Lord's hand in everything.