GOTCHA!!!!!

April 14, 2019

and EMERSON turned 13. Crazy. 

EVERYONE in the family knows Emerson wants a phone....you know because "all his friends have phones" and "only kid in the world" type things. Well, as I was assembling Emerson's junkbox to be wrapped....IRIS (of all people) came up with the idea for me to put a few packs of gum in an empty iphone box that I had. So I did. #irisisbrilliant

Pictures don't do this justice but thankfully I took a video. 

This is Emerson's face when he saw the box (and look at Iris behind) hahahaha

We got Emerson hook, line and sinker with his reactions and he could NOT wait to open that box and get his "new phone". (Iris can't keep it in so she hid behind the pillar)

 Then he opened the box...... 😂😁

Then he smiles and said, "you got me". What a good sport. but reactions of epic proportions. hahaha

One thing he WASN'T disappointed on was his party of paint balls (literally little paint balls to throw at each other), drinks, cake, football and hanging out with friends.

That Sunday we pulled out the new Pie Face Showdown game where you have to hit the lever harder/faster than the other person so THEY get the whipped cream in the face. The faces in the pictures are of happy siblings playing together. .....my favorite kind of pictures.

 Emerson is juuuuuuust about to get it in the face.

 Camden too. ha!

 We did it bracket-style of course and it came down to a final match between Bronson and myself.

 I don't mean to brag or anything but Pie Face Showdown is my THANG! Or at least it was that day because thankfully I walked away un whipped. It was beautiful.

General Conference April 2019

Listening to our modern day prophets of Jesus Christ here on earth is ALWAYS something 

I look forward to. It just makes me want to climb into a box with a blanket and take notes!

Actually no, that's what Kellyn does. I enjoy some good warm fuzzy feelings from the Spirit while I get warm fuzzies snuggling someone cute like Wynn.

This was the first year Emerson was old enough and had the priesthood in order to go to Priesthood session with the menfolk AND out to eat. They went out to eat as Sumo's.

But really, so do the smiles above tell you "I'm happy to take a picture"? Or do they say, "Mom is making me take this." ? (Bronson/Camden) Emerson looks genuinely happy to be there and Brooks looks a tad constipated but man, I can't be picky right? I asked for a picture and I got one. #anattitudeofgratitude

Speaking of Emerson look how sweet he is reading to the twins. Little Wynnie-bear is still a thumb sucker.

In April I took the opportunity of taking some of the kids to a temple open house. For all of them it was their first time going to all the parts of a temple and seeing it. I was really looking forward to this experience. The drive to Memphis was about 3.5 hours so we used it as a fun weekend getaway. Aleeya and Iris had soccer and the twins would be 150% NO fun walking through a sacred building with so I left them all with Brooks.

On the way we stopped at Sonic for some cookie ice cream sandwiches and lucky Everly caught a green frog too outside the bathroom! #deathgrip

 (the frog was free, the cookie wasn't)

We made it to the hotel and we got one of those two bedroom rooms and all of us had some nice sleeping conditions except maybe these two who were thrilled to be sharing pillows on the floor together.

 Of course it had a pool. Everly didn't get any farther than that in the pool without her floatie. She's pretty resistant to the idea of learning to swim.

 It was a RAINY day but we made it. It was neat to go through the temple with the kids. I hope they felt what I did.

Then again, maybe they didn't. Because when Emerson found out they had to wear something called "booties" over his shoes he couldn't stop laughing. Oh and Kellyn and Everly forgot to pack white shirts so bright orange and cheetah under dresses it is!

Then we walked through the exhibit at the church and the girls wanted these pictures by pictures of the Savior.

 Kellyn wanted one alone. And although this image of the Savior isn't my favorite, the idea of Him drawn to children and they to Him has always been something that I have felt strongly about. The idea is beautiful and so true to me.

It was still pouring BUCKETS (like some of the hardest rain I've driven in) but on our way out of town we decided to stop at the Pyramid. Which is a huge Big Bass Pro shop with fun things to look at...... like these hum-dingers.

 The boys all wanted to go here so look at boats, weapons, camping stuff, fish, ducks and all things cool. Speaking of cool.....

Fun trip all around and actually a really easy trip with the six kids I took.

March Madness 2019

March Madness is the Smith boy tradition my husband and boys probably look forward to most. I always demand pictures and they did a pretty good job sending random ones from Utah.

They just love this tradition with their cousins and with Uncle Casey's declining health it was nice that Bronson was old enough to take the cousins to games occasionally.

The first day of games though apparently these boys finagled their way into getting front row seats.

And Emerson's goal of always getting on the Jumbotron remained firmly in place.

Don't ask me how they get to other seats but they do. I guess that's the disadvantage of the one blogging not actually being there and getting texts from males in five words or less.

Of course there was golfing. Hallie even joined the golf game one time while Casey stayed home to rest

Brooks' stories of making Casey laugh were my favorite. I think Brooks took it on as a personal goal to keep Casey laughing and watching his chest move in his chair. All the brothers with their dad.......this March Madness tradition of theirs together have gone through the decades now.

The second day of games involved Emerson's morph suit and texts about being sent to the security guard....but again not too many details. Probably a good thing right?

It's SUCH a boys trip thing to do to have the adults stay home and watch games and have the minors go to a game and end up in the company of a security officer. *face palm*

While the boys were in Utah, I drove down to Dallas to hang out with my sis-in-law since we were both husbandless and I'm SURE the first thing she wanted with a young new baby is 8 more people in her home. But really we HAD to meet baby Mae..... SHE may not approve of us however.

I so enjoyed snuggling this little angel.

And getting her to fall asleep in my arms like the good girl she is. (this was actually the picture I texted to Brooks to rub it in that I got to hold the baby)

Linsey and I made a solemn vow that we wouldn't do anything that required extra work. We would cook (actually combine is more like it) the simplest of meals, not get ready and not do any "hosting" type activities. Our one outing included going to the park and going to Sonic (kind of a must if you ask me)

Iris and Lucy just have the sweetest bond

As do Aleeya and Houston.

I never DID get a picture of Kellyn with Elle because they were mostly off playing together and every mom knows you don't CALL the kids to you to see if they are okay. You just assume it until you hear otherwise, right?

The kids colored a lot. Iris' pictures are my favorite though and DEFINITELY worth documenting.

(no lack of self-esteem here!)

Iris' picture of the twins

And her interpretation of Everly

😂😆😂😆

Our couch-full of 11 kids. 

Look at Wynn's face just adoring baby Mae

Iley kept demanding to hold her in a more hands on way.

Then there were Iris and Aleeya who were legitimately helpful. 

What a fun trip for the boys AND for us Girls (and Royce😀)

The funny, the cute and the Ugly

The Funny:

Ol' Emerson needed a big pot for school for some reason. He ALSO rides the mile to his school everyday on his bike because he hates the bus. Just the visual of him riding to school like this made me want to take a picture

A week later a friend saw me and mentioned that she saw Emerson riding to school the week before with a pot on his back. It happened to be raining that day and SHE thought he was riding around like that to see if he could measure rainfall or something.😁

The Cute:

I was getting ready in my bathroom and heard noise out my bathroom window in the corner of the back yard where no one goes because of all the spikey pinecones. I saw these three princesses playing with the leaves like kids are supposed to. I loved this view.

The Ugly:

Let's just say Iley got a hold of scissors and gave herself a haircut.

 The Unfortunate One strikes again.

St. Patrick's Day 2019

For our St. Patrick's Day jellybean race of 2019 we decided to go to a bigger area. We went to our church gym and grabbed a chalkboard and wrote down the bracket so things were done properly.

As the races went down (double elimination) some took it better than others.....

some decided that they HATE doing it and it was WAY to much work for a measly jellybean and just quit. (the twins)

Others bowed their heads in shame after a tough loss

and still others had some unfortunate events that made them lose the race.

Emerson, Brooks and Bronson smartened up though and put tap over their noses to prevent rug burn. It was actually Bronson that had the idea first when he used a dollar bill taped to his face for luck. However, he wouldn't let me get a picture of that, but BROOKS was willing. 😆

The FINAL match came down to Bronson (who came up through the loser bracket) and Brooks. Bronson started with the lead

And Brooks just couldn't recover......the 2019 winner and restaurant-picker is 

BRONSON

He picked Fat Daddy's