SpRiNg BrEaK

                          

For Spring Break Spencer and I decided to take the kids to the zoo.

Before we headed for the zoo we had lunch at Chuckarama. This is still my favorite place to have lunch at specially when I am preganant and it has become the kid’s favorite place too.
They were all so fascinated to see the trains go by from the window inside the restaurant. They screamed and yelled everytime one would go by.

The weather that day was a little bit on the cold side but it was still pretty good.
When we got to the zoo all the kids could think of was riding on the train but we left that for the very last.

Walking through the zoo it felt like there were only monkeys since most of the animal habitats were under construction; there were no zebras or bears to look at this time around, but we still managed to see lots of other cute animals.
The baby elephant has grown a lot since last year and Julia and I were in front row to see this cute baby monkey. The mama came right to where we were standing

The kids loved walking hand on hand from exhibit to exhibit and finding new animals to look at. Andrew was really getting the attention of some of the monkeys.

After we saw all the animals we headed over to the playground. The kids had lots of fun going down the slides and playing with the other toys.

Their favorite toy was this big teeter-totter. It got lots of laughs from my kids who wanted to ride it over and over. Julia had to try the monkey bars the entire time we were there; Determination is something this girl does not lack.

Andrew was fearless to anything like usual. He tried the huge snake slide (Joshua has barely managed to get enough courage to go on it). It was funny to see him single out this slide and just run for it after he figured it out where to climb it from. He climbed that fort by himself and went down head first

And of course we had to try the train. They were truly excited about this, could hardly stand in line waiting for their turn. They loved going through the tunnel and I loved hearing the conductor’s comment regarding the invisible animals that were supposed to be in some of the cages (invisible because the cages were empty)

Ok I’d better get caught up with my blog before Josh’s birthday or I’ll be way behind.
Here we go back to March 18th. How could you describe the best day of your life, you simply can’t.

On Saturday we made Spencer’s favorite meal: Spaghetti and Meatballs and the kids insisted we get daddy’s favorite drink which is root beer.

Sunday, his actual birthday, we spent it with family. His mom cooked roast beef for him.

The Monday after his birthday Spencer decided to take us out for dinner for our Anniversary and his birthday. He called at 4 and asked me if I had started dinner yet which I hadn’t and 30 minutes later we were meeting him at Olive Garden.

We couldn’t have asked for a better evening. We usually talk about the kids when we are alone but it was so good to have them there with us and laugh about some of their comments. They were all so well-behaved even Andrew who was silly and friendly to all the waiters that came by him. We came home extremely happy; there is no better reward in parenting than the knowledge that perhaps you are doing a good job with your kids

The more Spencer and I reminisce at the way we met the more special it becomes. Everything was just timed perfectly. He only had 6 months left of his mission, I found the Church, My aunt willingness to invite the missionaries over and hear them.

It still blows my mind that out of all the places where he could have served his mission he was sent to NYC and to BedStuy non the less.

He says he knew who I was from the first time we met, sadly I didn’t feel the same way, although I do remember looking at his eyes and thinking to myself how cute they were.

Our best topic of conversation throughout these 9 years of marriage is recalling the night that we met in a corner in Myrtle Ave. We remember every single detail of that day even me, as if my brain knew that that day was meant to be special.

It was 7:00 pm, it was freezing cold. He had his big blue coat on and his hands were on his pocket which made him look kind of sweet and child like. (He never took them of his pockets except to give me the missionary hi-5 which I had learned from Elder Tyler Mickelsen). I was wearing my big long ugly but warm blue coat and my glasses. I had 3 minutes to catch the bus to my aunt’s house and I wanted to avoid at all cost talking to Elder Russell Tomlinson (he always talked about his sheep…only his sheep) but I had to be nice and ended up staying on that corner talking to him for 20 minutes. Spencer approached us. His cheeks and nose were bright red which drew my attention straight to his eyes. He tells me that my cheeks were red too, I am sure of it since I stood in that corner for the longest time.

Spencer introduced himself and I realized he had been the Elder hitting my cousin with a pillow a week before. We smiled at each other for the first time and then it got too cold to keep talking.

Now here We are, 10 years after that wonderful night and 9 years after we got sealed in the temple, 3 ½ kids and thousands of memories of our family and keeping them all as the biggest treasure that we will ever get.

I have loved every second of our journey together so far. The ups and downs, the hard times and good times, all the memories that our kids have bestowed upon us and that will be with us forever. I can’t wait to see what forever has in store for us.

Happy Anniversary my Sweet husband

March recap

March was such an especial  but busy month for our little family. We had so many things going on so I’d better start from the beginning.

March 2nd.

I had all three kids playing downstairs in our newly finished basement. I was not having a good morning so I was resting on the couch. Suddenly a very overwhelming smell woke me up. When I asked the kids what they were doing down there I heard Julia say: “Josh is playing with my make-up” Since she doesn’t have any make-up I ran downstairs to find no other than 3 different pink fingernail polish spilled on our CARPET!. Josh’s pajamas were all pink. Josh then said to me: Julia was trying to paint my toenails mommy. GRRRR!. Let’s just say a bottle of nail polish remover and 4 hours after I was done getting the pink out of the carpet.

Can you see the guilty face…. Yeah they knew what was going on.

                                                     

Surprisingly Andrew, the one that is always causing all the messes around our house decided not to participate in this little adventure.

U of U Gymnastics

That same night we had arranged with my friend Deanna and her daughter Audrey to go to the U to watch the gymnastics team compete. It was a nice break after that crazy.

The competition was amazing. Julia was so impressed with all the tricks that these girls could do; I was impressed to see her talking about the different tricks and hearing her calling them by their name. She committed herself to try really hard at her tumbling class to get as good as the girls that she was watching.

We left home at 5:00 and we were back by 9:30. It wasn’t that late but Julia’s bedtime is usually at 7:00 so she was fast asleep by the time we made it home.

                        

March 5th
The boys decided to have a party in Julia’s room after she left for school. I sent them back to her room to pick up the mess that they had made everywhere and what did I find?.....These. I love my boys!

                                


March 8th
We had a Doctor appointment early that day to find out the gender of our little baby and decided to wait until Julia got home to tell all the kids. As I posted before Julia’s heart was broken the second she pulled out the blue cloths out of the gift bag. Here is the picture of Daniel that we took that day and a picture of Julia after the news. They are both priceless, wouldn’t you think.

March 9th
Fieldtrip to the Syracuse fire station

We got to go to the fire station this day. Josh was really excited about this field trip. Santa brought him a big fire truck for Christmas this year.

We watch a movie before we toured the station; little did I know they thought the movie was scary. I don’t think we had ever talked about what to do in case of a fire so the whole idea was stuck in their heads. Our next Family Home Evening we made sure we talked to them about our escape plan and reminded them how safe they were.

Andrew and Julia got to join Josh on his field trip. They were all so cute holding hands and watching out for each other. Andrew was very impressed although I don’t think he trusted the fireman after he put on his gear. The kids got to blow the horn on the fire engine and see the inside of the truck.

I really think Andrew found a lost love that day because ever since his favorite book is the Big Fire engine and he fights daily with Josh over his fire truck.

March 11th

I am really not good with holidays. But in honor of St. Patrick’s Day Spencer helped the kids make some cookies and we sprinkle them with green sugar. While Julia, Josh and I were working on the cookies, Andrew decided to have some time alone with daddy.

           

March 18th

We had a beautiful day this day. It was Spencer’s birthday and our 9 year anniversary. How fast does time go? I can still remember the night before my wedding how nervous I was and the fact that I got a total of 3 hours of sleep.

This year this special date landed on a Sunday so there was not much that we could do, but luckily we had my niece’s birthday party schedule for the same day. Spencer’s mom made roast beef especially for Spencer that Sunday. I could keep going but I am going to have to do a separate blog about this special day

                                            

March 24th

The Tinkerbelle’s soccer season started again on Saturday. Julia was so excited to get out to the field and start scoring some goals. That was until all the girls realized what a long winter they had had. After 30 minutes of practice they were pretty much done running. Julia gave it her best though. Even though it looked like her heart was going to come out of her chest at any minute she managed to score two goals that day.

We called one the Super goal because she scored it right from the middle field. Spencer and I watch the ball as it went slowly but surely into the net. I was so happy that I took a picture of her kick right as she hit the ball.

She was so proud of herself and the great effort she put on that day. Hooray for the soccer season!, now we have something fun to do besides chores on Saturdays.

March 27th

Yet another field trip for the kiddos this month. This time the destination was the TREEHOUSE in Ogden.

Josh was excited for it and Julia had early out that entire week so it was just me and the boys.

I was kind of nervous at first about chasing after Andrew with my 5 month pregnant belly since they don’t allow strollers in this place but I had nothing to worry about, the kid was so good. I was very proud of the boys. They played with each other and they follow one another from place to place. They played together nicely. I must admit though that we spent the majority of our time at their train station. Thank goodness they had 4 train tables there enough for all the kids to share.

These are my favorite pictures:

                                            

They had a puppet show and the lady needed some helpers. I love Andrew’s hand raised up next to Joshes’ even though I am sure he has no idea what he was volunteering for.

My Andrew has the sweetest smile ever I am glad the camera was fast enough to capture it right here while he was playing peek-a-boo with me

This one just makes me smile. In the play kitchen Josh asked me to sit down at the table because he was going to bake me some cookies (takes after his daddy). He didn’t know Andrew would be the one tasting everything after he prepared it.

                                        

My cute firefighter, he put the hat on and rode that fire truck for a minute before Andrew decided it was time to move on

Josh was determined to bring this horse home. He kept saying:  ”Mommy Julia would love this daddy horsy”. He is always thinking about his sister.

 The boys were so good that after the Tree house I decided to go to Costa Vida for lunch. I just ordered one big burrito and we all shared it. I discovered that Josh doesn’t like Horchata; after two zips he told me mommy I really don’t like your drink and decided to have water instead.

On our way back to the car we stopped by Fat Cats and played on their playground trying to kill some time until it was time to pick Julia up from school. The kids had tons of fun mainly because we were the only ones there.

As we approached my car I discovered a little yellow note stuck to my windshield. First I thought it was a flyer but after closer inspection I realized that I had been given a ticket. My first ticket ever!  I was so mad if I had only decided to drive my car to Costa Vida instead of being a good sports and make the kids walk.  Such is life I guess.

March 31st

We went to Grandma James’s home for an Easter egg hunt. Even though we started getting ready with plenty of time somehow we managed to get there 5 minutes late. By the time we made it into the house the hunt was already over. They had so many eggs it would have been great for the kids to try to get some. As we were walking in one cute little girl notice that my kids had not gotten any eggs so she gave up hers and gave it to my kids. This was the sweetest thing ever. All my kids were excited to open each and every one of the eggs.

 After that we went to the cafeteria to greet the Easter bunny and to get some free doughnuts.  I don’t think Andrew like the Bunny but at least he didn’t scream like he did with Santa.

that same Saturday we had a soccer game and after we watched the Prpphet speak to us in Conference. The kids were such good listeners mainly because i had promised them a piece of candy if they could tell me what the President Monson talked about.

We were reminded by him in this conference the reason why we came to the earth and our purpose in life.

When I asked Julia she told me all this and then some, but when I asked Josh the same questions he said: “Mommy I told Heavenly Father that I missed my toys so much and that I wanted to come to this house to play so I came to your belly”.

There you have it folks great ending for a great month.

Announcing........

Did you guess?..... YES!!!Our family has been blessed one more time and we are so excited to announce that we are expecting our fourth kid and third little boy Daniel Steven Smith by the middle of August.

After going through a C-section with Andrew my doctor performed some surgery on me. Chances of getting pregnant were slim and we were just told to wait and see if the miracle repeated itself.

I went through the process of getting rid of my thyroid through ablation which is the intake of a small dose of radioactive iodine on December of 2010. I was told that I needed to wait at least 1 year to try to get pregnant again and with Andrew just months old at the time that didn’t seem too hard to do.

11 months rolled around and I remember specifically blowing my candles on my birthday and wishing for this baby to happen. I knew it was time for this baby to come even though having three kids had definitely proven to be more of a challenge for me.

I guess birthday wishes do come true. I was so excited to find out I was expecting just a couple of days before Christmas. This was the best Christmas present you could wish for.

Spencer and I decided to keep the baby a secret for the longest time and there were a couple of reasons why.

I needed to make sure we were safely past the first trimester; if anything happened to the baby I knew I would have been on tears every time I talked about it.

Our second reason was Julia. This girl had been wishing for a baby girl for the longest time and we didn’t want her to get her hopes up just to be disappointed at the end.

The day came on March 9th when we went to the doctor to find out what we were expecting. All my boys were in the room with me.

When my doctor started the ultrasound Josh’s first comment was: “That’s in your belly mommy?” I asked what he had seen and his reply was “a kitty”.

After just a couple of minutes the Doctor told Spencer the gender of the baby because I was too nervous to find out. Spencer went to the store and bought something for the baby and wrapped it up for me. I loved pulling the cute little blue outfit that Spencer had bought his new son.

We were both overwhelmed with emotions. The realization that Andrew was finally getting the little brother he was intended to get 2 years ago was sweet. It felt so right for our family.

We waited until Julia came home from school to tell all the kids the good news.

The kids were very excited about getting a new baby for our family until that is we told Julia to pull out the baby’s cloth out of the gift bag. The second she recognized the blue on them her smile turned upside down and she started crying for 30 minutes.

It took a lot of convincing and explaining to get her to calm down. I felt so bad that tears broke out of my eyes too. I was sad to see my girl so heartbroken.

Over the next couple of days I was overcome with emotion too. I knew from the time that Spencer and I started dating the name of all my kids. I knew Julia would be first and Josh would be next. Even though Spencer didn’t feel too good about the name Andrew I just knew his name had to be Andrew Dale.

So being pregnant this time and having no premonition or good feeling what so ever about my baby’s name made me really uncomfortable and sad. I was feeling like a bad mom for not knowing my kid’s name already.

Spencer and I spent the next night trying to figure out names. We knew his middle name was going to be Steven we just weren’t sure about a good solid name for the kid.

I loved the names: Adam, Alex and Benjamin but his initials would have gotten him in big trouble. The only other names that I liked all started with the letter J: Jeremy and Jason but I think Joshua and Jacob are enough trouble already for Grandma Smith to be adding another J name to the grandkids list.

We narrowed it down to three names: Shawn, Daniel and Michael. After thinking it over and asking the kids what they though we finally agreed on Daniel. It was surprising to hear both Julia and Josh pick the name Daniel and it sounded oh so cute when they called their little brother that.

Now we are in the process of getting his nursery ready. He will be sleeping in Julia’s old room which has pink butterfly wallpaper and a pink butterfly ceiling fan so there’s lots of work to be done.

Here is one of the first pictures we got of Daniel. Maybe you can see it but in case you don’t let me explain the picture to you; His footprint is noticeable on one side of his tiny body.

Julia as a 6 year old

What can I say about my precious girl? She is becoming more and more like a young woman. Her personality is fully developing and we are in love with what we are seeing.

She has her own taste on music and gets excited when her song plays on the radio. She also has a like for Michael Jackson songs (yes!).

She cried for the first time during a movie a week after her birthday. She was watching Puss in Boots and they got to the part where Humpty Dumpty falls and breaks and she couldn’t keep her tears back. This was so touching I was so proud of her for showing her true and honest emotions. I am going to love going to the movies with her. Instead of having Spencer laughing at me for crying I am going to have someone to cry with. Pride and Prejudice has gotta be one of our first

She is a sensitive and a simple little girl. I am pretty sure she gets that from her daddy. She never asks for much and I am glad that she gets to appreciate all that we can get her. When we asked her what she wanted for her birthday her reply was whatever you would like to get me. Of course that just made us want to give her the whole world.

She is becoming less shy around people and has been able to make a special friendship already with a friend from school (I don’t think I had a truly best friend until I was 8 or 9). On the days that I volunteer at her school I’ve been most amazed on how much she respects her friend’s opinion. She is not bossy or pushy or the other way around and is a follower. These two girls treat each other equally and they love using their imagination.

She is doing fantastic in school. She is an overachiever in reading, she loves to read. Sometimes instead of watching a show she would ask me if I would listen to her read.

They had a challenge in school where if the kids read so many hours they could earn a bracelet. We read more than what we were supposed to. A couple of days after the challenge ended she was so proud to show us her new bracelet and a special diploma they had given her for reading so many hours.

I couldn’t ask for a better example at home for the boys. She is always trying to teach them something whether it is something from school or new tricks that she learned at tumbling. Josh can already do a head stand and is almost there with a cart wheel; Andrew can do a perfect summersault and it is all thanks to her.

She loves doing Chores, crazy but oh so helpful. If you ever come on Saturdays to our house you will find that her room is just pitch perfect. Spencer jokes that she has OCD when it comes to cleaning her bedroom but I am glad that she likes having things in order.

She is still liking tumbling and has now managed to do a back hand spring all on her own. She did it just a week before turning 6. She told me that 6 year olds should know how to do that and she tried her hardest until she got it done.

She last lost 2 teeth so far but has 3 other loose teeth that just won’t budge. The new bottom teeth she got are more aligned with her jaw which makes her under bite less of a bother to her. Hopefully we can get her on braces next year and fix that problem.

Josh and Andrew adore their big sister. Andrew loves to sit on her lap and Josh asks for her every second that she is at school, wondering if it is time to go pick her up every 10 minutes.

Julia age 6:

Height: 46 inches

Size shoe: 12 ½

Size clothes: 6x

Favorite color: yellow and pink

Favorite thing to do: color, draw and make up her own stories.

Favorite time of the day: morning before she has to go to school

Favorite food: even though she would eat anything:  Pizza, Corn Dogs and apples are her favorite

When she grows up: she wants to be a doctor so she can help babies when they are little

Favorite toys: she makes sure all of her toys get played with. I think Toy Story had something to do with this

Favorite thing to do: Cart wheels (all the time)

Night time routine: Story from mommy, songs with daddy and cricket sounds from her sound machine

Favorite treat: bubble gum

Musts:

-Must have music when she cleans

-Must have stories, songs, her sound machine going and her princess pillow to get a good night of sleep

-Must read at least twice each day

-Must have a morning hug

-Must have her dinosaur candy (vitamins) every morning

-Must practice her cart wheels every day

-Must tie her own shoes and get dress by herself each day

It has been so much fun to see her grow up and become more mature this year. It’s been a blessing to watch her though her successes and help her gain more confidence on herself. The only thing that I can ask of you at this time is to stop growing so fast. We love you our little princess.

Julia's Pinkalicious 6th birthday

My baby girl just turned 6 on February 26^th. This was the first year that she was really into planning her birthday. We started by deciding what kind of birthday party we wanted to have and after much though she came to the conclusion that she wanted a pinkalicious birthday party.

Here is the invitation I made, very pink  

Pinkalicious is one of her favorite books that Santa brought her over for Christmas. It is about a girl who eats too many pink cupcakes and turns pink.

Her birthday landed on a Sunday this year so she really started celebrating it on Friday. I was lucky enough to be volunteering in her school that Friday. She was brought to the front of the class and all of her friends sang Happy Birthday to her in English and Spanish while she wore a birthday crown that was specially made for her. After the songs she got big hugs from her teacher: Mrs. Hansen and Mrs. Jorgez.

I was glad to be able to see her big smile and her eyes sparkle when she was getting all of this special attention.

We decided to have her birthday party on Saturday. She was so excited to wake up that morning to see all the decorations that I had put up the night before.  There was pink everywhere.

She had lunch at McDonalds that day, she wanted subway but the lack of playground to keep her brothers entertain made us choose the other place instead.

I made some cupcakes that looked like the cupcakes from the story for the kids to eat, then I made a smaller cake for the adults with the garden flowers from the story as well and a big cupcake shaped cake just for Julia.

For party favors I made white chocolate covered popcorn and I die the chocolate green.  Because you know the only way to get rid of the pink is by eating a steady diet of green food. I was amazed that I had enough for the party considering Andrew and Spencer kept eating it while I was prepping it.

She also requested a Goldie piñata. Goldie is Pinkaclicious pet unicorn so I started building that a week before hand and let’s just say I might be done building piñatas from now on.

 I had some games set up for the kids besides the piñata. We played pin the cherry on the cupcake, cupcake toss where the kids had to throw paper cupcakes attached to clothes pin into a basket and if they threw enough in they could turn pin… Just kidding! Finally we read Pinkalicious and every time they heard the word pink they were supposed to twirl around. I think the girls were dizzy by the end of the game, I didn’t realize how many times the word pink is mentioned in the book.

After all that fun there was time to open presents of course.  When I asked Julia what she wanted for her birthday she said very sweetly whatever you would like to give me mommy.  That answer melted my heart. She has been dying to get a Rapunzel’s dress ever since we saw the movie but all the dresses at the department stores were way too little for her. So after researching on the internet for weeks I was able to find her a dress made perfectly for her.  It was more than what I wanted to pay for a dress up dress but oh she is so worth it and she looks so beautiful in it. 

I loved the picture were Andrew is giving her an empty candy wrapper, so thoughtful 

After presents it was time to blow up the candles. Here are some pictures of that

 She was so thankful for all the presents she got and for all the sweet people who called her and came over to celebrate her birthday with her. We invited two of her favorite friends from school.
Here she is with Brooklyn, Emmie and her cousin Keldrie

Super Man

The most recent trend for my boy is to watch The Incredibles daily and to run downstairs to the dress up trunk where we keep his cape and his mask; Then to hurry to his bedroom and put on his boots, because all super heroes have boots you know.

He likes to call himself Superman because he has super powers and he is a man. He has a gang of super heroes that usually hang out with him: Flash Gordon, Batman and two others that I have no idea who they are. My aunt Vilma sent him these McDonald's toys a while back and ever since he has picked up on the Super hero thing these toys and him have become inseparable.

The second movie that we HAVE to watch every day is Megamind. Dear Santa brought this for him for Christmas and it has become a #1 hit in our house, it is such a funny and entertaining show. Anyways I really think the movie made Josh realize about the "good guy-bad guy" thing and he has become fascinated by it.
I don’t really want to introduce Marvel characters yet, a bit too violent for my taste but the Incredibles and Megamind are just the perfect super hero fix that this little man needs each day.

Here are some pictures of his latest adventures, as you can see he has a very serious face in some pictures and that would be because he was trying to save Rapunzel at the moment and I assumed he was concentrating hard.