Remember that awesome new......

nail polish my friend gave me for my birthday?................

Let me repeat that....... Remember that awesome new nail polish my friend gave ME for my birthday?

Apparently, Aleeya didn't get the memo.

Newest Smith Addition

Okay, so it's not official YET, but Brooks' brother, Gabe is getting married in July (in Orlando) to the cutest girl ever, Adriana. If you don't believe me, check these out!!!!!

Their pictures turned out AMAZING and there were many more I didn't even see, but these two are just so photogenic! If there was ever a beautiful match made in heaven, this is it.

We are sooooooo excited for it to become official.

Camden was looking at these pictures and I asked who it was, and he said, "Tio Gabe". Then I asked who the girl was and he didn't know. I said it was "Tia Adriana". He looked at her and said, "What language does she speak? Spanish or English?" I told him both. Then he smiled real big and said, "Hey, she's JUST LIKE ME!"

Look who has decided.......

TO TAKE OFF!!!!!!!!!

AND FAST!!!!

In fact, while I was uploading these she had walked right into the bathroom to play in the toilet.......over the years my ears have been trained to hear that sound a mile away!

But seriously, isn't she just the cutest?!

Sneaky Sleeper

This is how I found Camden during one of his naps last week......

Maybe I didn't clarify that when "we don't have toys in our beds", I should've said, "TOYS OR ANYTHING ELSE.......ESPECIALLY TOOLS!!!"

It's like he laid it out perfectly just to show me that he IS "the Sneak Man" (what he calls himself) and was able to get it past me.

But seriously.......pliers?!?!?!?

I leave the kids alone with Brooks for 1 hour........

And LOOK what happens!!!!

They caught this by our back yard.........

They knew they should just grab him by the tail.......this is as CLOSE as Aleeya got to him/her(?)

Then Brooks showed them to hold it RIGHT by the neck and squeeze, then wrap it around their neck. Great, huh.

Camden tried it too.

For the record.........they are NOT poisonous. We found 3 of these LAST year. I guess they (in theory) COULD bite, but no harm would happen. His name is Clark. I have and WILL not touch Clark (just ones at museums.....that's my rule)........and Brooks wants to hide it in the beds of the Preston and Mason (Brooks' friends) who are staying with us now.

Anyone want to come visit us? :)

Smarty Pantalones

I love Bronson's school. For those of you who don't know, it's a Magnet school that has an International emphasis. Bronson's classes are taught in Spanish. His 1st grade teacher is on a teaching visa from Chile. He DOES have English class/words taught from another teacher for a small part of his day. (It's supposed to be 70% pure Spanish during the day and 30% being in English.....that part including his "specials" like PE, music, art, library etc.) Anyway, this is one of those proud parenting moments when your child comes home with a perfect spelling test grade (he has a Spanish test and English test every Friday). So this isn't new, because 95% of the time he gets perfect scores, but I wanted to mention here what words he did this week:

1. centimetros

2. merengue

3. galon

4. hermano

5. hamburguesa

6. mariposa

7. blanco

8. despues

9. primero

10. rectangular

11. biblioteca

12. anaranjado

13. esfera

14. pulgadas

15. capacidad

16. zoologico

17. semillas

18. travesura

19. crisalida

20. arriba

Okay, okay so I may be missing the Spanish accents thrown in, but you get the idea. I even had to ask him what esfera and crisalida were. Great, now it starts.......the whole kid-knows-more-then-parents thing. I've already surrendered that though when it comes to animal knowledge!

All right, bragging done.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!!

AHHHH! I'm officially 29!

SUPER CRAZY!

I still feel like I'm 22.

I had a FANTASTIC birthday week (since we Degn kids all think our birthdays should last a whole week.....and we DRAW it out!.....and I did just that.)

My official birthday was last Wednesday. I went and got a massage that day, got a surprise Smoothie from Brooks and later that night picked up my parents for their visit.

Quick history:

When I was little we would always have a birthday dinner on the Sunday closest to our birthdays where we picked the menu. Then we had cake, presents and included in the presents was a "junk box". All of us kids saved it until the last to open because it was our favorite. It's a box of all our favorite foods......that are JUST OURS!!!! You didn't have to share. Growing up in a family of 8 kids.....well, that was HUGE. So when Mom asked what I wanted for my birthday, I said, "A Junk box and a birthday dinner".....because I haven't had EITHER since I've been married and I wanted to feel like a kid again.

History done.

Sooooooooo, on Sunday, we all chipped in and made steak, asparagus (because the store didn't have artichokes....by favorite food), fruit salad, mashed potatoes and gravy.

Then we had a white cake that was layered, but between the layers were peach and raspberry sherbet. Super yummy. With a lime/whipped cream topping.

THEN came the main event.....my junk box. Here is what I got:

(Because Iris ate my the other day)

(Fruit smoothie drinks)

Chocolate covered raisins (don't worry, they were in a bag and not just loose)

pistachios

My sister sent the biggest bag possible of Swedish fish.....yummy!

I have NO clue where they found the oh so delicious artichoke.

Only-in-Utah-chocolate-covered-cinnamon bears

Mamao. (Or a big papaya)....but mine looked better. It was HUGE, dark orange and the MOST flavorful one I've had since living in Brazil. I had an ulcer in Brazil and the doctor told me to eat one of these each morning for breakfast (rough huh...) and it just took me back to those days!!!

My junk box ROCKED.

Not only THAT, but Brooks got me tickets to the U.S. National Figure Skating Championship for me and my sister to go next January!!!!!! I can't wait....but obviously, I'm going to have to.

But that's not all. I've got the best friends ever.

-My friend Amanda dropped by some REAL fruit leather (one of my FAVS!!)

-Andrea brought me nail polish and strawberries/brown sugar/cream dessert

-a few of my friends surprised me with breakfast and TONS of lotion and hand soap (does that mean I have to wash my kids' hands now?)

-Ann made me a CUTE pin to wear

-and I JUST drove in my driveway from FOUR stores looking for electric blankets (with 4 kids) and was a little pooped and my friend Rachel (who just had a baby and doesn't need to be thinking of me right now) had left some BUBBLY (A&W rootbeer), Skittles, NIPS and a rockin' poem to go with it all! (I know you're all thinking I posted Nips as my favorite thing right before my birthday as part of an evil plan to get some........which you would be wrong..........but whatever effect it had, I'm GRATEFUL)

It was a pretty awesome birthday.........week.

Check out who's 4!!!!

I took this picture because I think it's the funniest one.......

but first, let me explain. I let my kids invite who they want to their parties and usually put a number limit on it (and the whole family comes along too). Since my Dad was doing a magic show I let him invite 4 friends/families and these are the friends he picked:

He LOVES "Mr. Spencer" and wanted to make sure he came! :)

Here's some pictures from the magic show. (Yes, Aleeya IS in pjs, but her aunt just sent them to her and she wore them almost everyday since we opened it.)

And his cake. He wanted a RAINBOW cake like we saw on my friend's HSF blog so the cake has a TON of colors for the batter. He was SUPER excited and LOVED it, and that's saying a lot because he doesn't usually care for cake. (After grabbing the dinosaurs off, we all just looked at each other and said, "Who needs presents now?!?!" He was perfectly happy with the dinosaurs!)

How did my baby boy grow up so fast?!?!??

The Visit....that my kids have WAITED and WAITED for....

And they were NOT disappointed, because there was a lot of this:

And this.........

And definitely more of this.......

isn't that all that kids want anyway?

ZOO ACTION

I just HAVE to start with the BEST picture ever!!!!!

Isn't that just the best one of Aleeya and my Dad??!?!

Aleeya LOVED riding the lion at the Asheboro Zoo. I still can't believe it but we spent 6 hours there!!!!! The kids were great.

(painting with water............MY KIND OF PAINT!)

Fishing for tadpoles.....um......bear style. (I made sure this was our last stop in the zoo for obvious reasons.)

We had a blast.