True Love

I believe I love Brooks with one of the truest and most dedicated kind of love......

but there's ALWAYS been ONE thing that has really disproved that point.

Sure I clean for him, cook for him, try to make him laugh, birth him 7 kids and all.....but there was still something I was not willing to do yet.................until now.

Allow THESE "things" in my home.

I know, I know anyone who knows me is probably blinking over and over again, but yes, those are INDEED shrimp.........IN MY KITCHEN. And I touched them. Ew.

I haven't allowed seafood in my kitchen since over 11 years ago on our first anniversary I decided to surprise Brooks and cook him salmon on the grill. I cooked in on the GRILL so the smell would stay OUTSIDE. Turns out that the smell does NOT stay outside if you bring the tinfoil-wrapped salmon in your kitchen and open it up in there. I was pregnant with my first (READ: olfactory senses were on OVERDRIVE), and told myself, regardless of HOW much my husband loves seafood, that I would not cook it in my kitchen.

Brooks has to do tours for prospective residents here and take them out to eat.....every time he gets to pick the place, he finds someplace that serves shrimp and grits. Even when the hospital cafeteria serves it, he comes home with an extra skip in his step. 

As MUCH as I love hospital cafeteria food (and really, I do) I will NOT let them show me up.

It only took me 11+ years, but y'all, I have MADE IT! I have PROVED that my love for Brooks will overcome anything.

So shrimp and grits it was. We decided NOT to tell the kids what the meat was because we just wanted them to try it. This was their initial reaction to it.

Emerson gives the thumbs down for EVERYTHING (unless it's spaghetti) but in my defense, he hadn't tried it yet and after he tried it he finished his whole bowl. 

 Once we told Camden what the meat was he immediately went to find my camera and took this (odd-looking?) selfie just to correct his former judgement because he loves shrimp. Great, just great.
Bronson downed 2 bowls (much to Brooks' I-want-the-leftovers-in-the-fridge chagrin), Iris and Royce finished their's. Aleeya decided she didn't REALLY like it at all (she's like me) yet Brooks still wouldn't let her leave the table until she finished the bowl......which she did.

Me? Do you really think I was going to eat it?!? That would be a big fat no. 

I think Brooks ate enough for the both of us........eh-hem.......THREE of us.

And there it is folks............what true love looks like.

Tree Time

 Now that Halloween is over, it was definitely time to pull out our Thanksgiving Tree.....

(aka- our Christmas tree covered w/ "thankful" leaves so I can feel like the tree gets more time up then just 1 month)

As an added bonus for ME, my baby is scared of the tree.

Let me just say, there are VEEEEEEEEEERY few (if any) Christmases I have had with children that I wasn't trying to keep the youngest away from the tree, out of the inside of the tree or out from under the toppled over tree. Hopefully her fear lasts about 2 months.

Seeing what people write on their 7 leaves I gave them gives kinda a peek into that child and I love it. There were a LOT of "home", "church", "gospel" leaves but here are some of the other ones.....

Bronson's..............SO HIM.

and Iris' random and free-spirited answers made me laugh. But she TRULY is grateful for these things.

Emerson wasn't as charmed by Iris' answers. In fact he looked at them and said, "Those aren't even USEFUL!!!! I am only going to write things that we NEED in life." So according to him, here are our needs.....

Yes, "grandparents" are needs because without them.....I guess we wouldn't be here. Pretty smart kid that Emerson.

Here are a few of mine........need I even explain?

And Brooks'..........his "healthy body" one almost made me think he was rubbing it in. ;)

Camden was at basketball when we filled them out, so when he got home I handed him the 7 leaves. Let me explain, he's one of those kids that is the first one done with his tests at school (rushes through them JUST so he can read)....whether the answers needed to be double-checked or not. So I wasn't surprised when he quickly finished. NOR was I surprised when I read his leaves with "legs", "arms", "body", "head", "clothes".........you get the idea. But his last 2 leaves cracked me up. It's like he was trying to think of 2 more things to hurry and write to get mom off his back.....

But Aleeya's leaf actually sums up the whole tree for me:

 We really DO love each other........

even if it takes hugging your sibling for 3 minutes while telling them 3 things you absolutely love about them just to PROVE that point.

$Millions$

Brooks just told me "We should put cameras up in our house and film every minute......we'd make millions." I laughed but didn't think he was serious because our days are pretty boring. Especially today, we didn't go anywhere, they took their naps, I fed them their meals, we deep-cleaned the boys' room, we did homework, etc. Nothing too exciting or nothing worth millions for sure. Then I got to thinking back just on TODAY and thought, huh.......yea, today had it's entertaining moments mingled with "boring". And yes, the below list is JUST from today.......

-Waking up Aleeya this morning..... She didn't move. I came back in later and she saw me and said, "You again?!"

-Emerson LOST it this morning (we're talking melting on the floor and melting down the stairs only to puddle at the bottom of them) because Bronson poured water on him since he wasn't waking up

-Someone was sitting in the bathroom and noticed there wasn't any toilet paper. I asked Royce to go get the toilet paper (he loves doing that) and he came back all proud of himself holding one square of tp.

-At lunch with Iris, Royce and Kellyn, someone passed gas. I asked who it was and Royce was REALLY fast to say, "Iri" (which is his form of Iris.......have I mentioned he doesn't talk well?).  Iris said it was NOT her. So I asked one more time who did it (even though I knew it was Royce) and Royce did not skip a beat before he said, "Mommy". 

-Aleeya, Iris and Royce led Kellyn up the driveway so they were all sitting in timeout together (you can imagine how effective that was...but I was getting lazy). There was a LOT of giggling. I told them they would stay longer now and Aleeya said, "See? You are ALWAYS mean to me!" Brooks came in just then and said, "Aleeya, are you happy now?" "NO!!!!" "Well, that means you've been disobedient. Because happiness only comes through obedience." Aaaaaaaaaaand, you can imagine how well that went over.

-Me talking to Camden and Emerson, "Now boys, I JUST cleaned your bathroom today around the toilet and on the floors.....", then Emerson interrupted, "We know we know, we HAVE to flush after we poop so our room doesn't stink and our pee has to make it in the toilet. We got it."   "Uh, well, I was just going to say to keep your clothes off the floor, but feel free to go the extra mile and do those two things too."

-Iris vacuuming the car out today........that's all I need to say about that, because it was hilarious to watch

-Iris and Royce sneaking my hot dog buns out of the kitchen today to make the "sacrament" in their room. Those were my dinner!!!! So Royce was punished by sitting in the buckle seat....meaning his booster seat that has a buckle on it ( because holds him in there) in the other room. -Immediately when I buckled him (I'll admit, I was pretty hot at this point) he yells, "PEE PEE!!! PEE PEE!!!!" I wasn't going to fall for it, so I (maturely, I might add) yelled back after I closed the door, "FINE! Pee your pants!!!!" Funny how he never peed his pants.

-Camden was telling us about his friends' favorite book called "Moody Dick". I told him I think it was "Moby Dick" and he said, "Oh, I didn't know it was with a 'd'. "

-Brooks asks what they did nice for someone everyday at the dinner table. Bronson talked about picking up someone's book, Camden helped kids in class with their Spanish and at Emerson's turn he said, "I tooted so it could make everyone laugh." Yes, very helpful indeed.

-Aleeya wouldn't say what she did nice for someone because she kept saying, "Mom RUINED my life today. She put me in time out! And my teachers ruined my life today because they asked, 'What are you doing over there?' and DAD really ruined my life because he wouldn't let me go with him and Camden on the bike ride today." So if she amounts to nothing..........we'll know why and exactly which day to track it back to.

-All day I've been trying to keep some contraption on Royce's arm/thumb to keep him from sucking on it. After 4 different and creative tries, I think I finally found a winner. That kid is HUDINI!!! But I might add, my smarts in the end reigned champion.......no one likes sucking their mom's fuzzy pink sock.

-Aleeya just said I was the "Best mom ever! " because I have dance parties with her in the kitchen. "Really?" I asked, because I thought I was just told today that I ruined her life

-Before going to bed, I told Aleeya we needed her to go to bed a little earlier because she was hard to move this morning. Then she said, "I just HATE getting out of bed because I hate taking a shower. That's WHY! I'm just so cold in the shower. And even when you turn the water more hotter then I can't open my crack to let it clean my bum because it's too hot. See? It's not because I'm sleepy that I don't like getting out of bed." Suuuuuuuuure.

Here's to another "boring" day tomorrow......

Easter

  I realize Halloween just ended but I can not WAIT until Easter!!!!!!!!!!! (April 20th)

I'm even counting down the WEEKS until then.

I started counting about 16 weeks ago and from then until Easter it ends up being 40 weeks.

Yep, you guessed it, Smithling #8 is ON THE WAY!!!!

The kids are thrilled because they've been asking for one since........um Kellyn was born and it seems like Brooks gets even MORE and more excited with each baby. So to say the Smith family was celebrating a LOT LOT LOT would be pretty accurate.

(To read about my thoughts on having children you can read HERE. Ironically enough, I found out I was pregnant 3 days after it was posted.)

A few weeks ago I decided to take my OWN pictures of the pregnancy since the family seems to snap pictures of me being pregnant that aren't so ..............um...............lovely? For example:

(while cooking I would take breaks and rest my head on a pillow, on the freezer with the fan going. Just because I'm pregnant doesn't mean I've lost my smarts!!!!)

This is me closing my eyes trying to pretend that the snuggling sick Mommy is NOT in the picture. I think it worked, you can't even SEE me. I learned that trick from Royce.

I'm 16 weeks now (okay, okay, I won't be until Sunday but we prego people like to "round up".......as we "round out". BWHAHAHA, I'm so funny)

So yes, I took the pregnant-taking-picture thing into my own hands!

Here's from a few weeks ago

 Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand I'm pretty sure that tshirt will be retiring soon........as in now. It looked like it was just about to split in half!

And with THAT exciting news, here is some EQUALLY exciting news...........

Kellyn's hair now fits in a piggy-tail. You can barely see it, I realize that, but don't you DARE pop this pregnant lady's bubble........because I can't get over the cuteness.

So while my kids count down the days until Christmas..............I'll be countin' down to Easter.....by way of "weeks".

We Choose to Eat Bugs, I guess

 I remember having the "DARE" program in elementary school and learning to say "no" to drugs.

This week the kids had something similar........well, if you can say that. 

Aleeya and Emerson came home wearing some ribbons (Aleeya wouldn't show it for the picture)

 This is what it says, "I'd rather eat bugs then do drugs"

There are sooooooooo many humorous issues with this.

#1- "I'd" isn't even a word 

(okay, so TECHNICALLY now days it IS a word but when I tried it on my college scholarship application  my mom about had a heart attack. Then again I also used the word it'd. Talk about the ugliest words ever!)

#2- It might be promoting drugs! 

Aleeya's reaction illustrates this perfectly. She had no idea what it said, so when I read it out loud she got this horrified look on her face and said, "I will NOT eat bugs. I would rather do drugs."

Then she asked, "What are drugs?" (talk about a great and informative lecture at school!!!)

#3- It might be promote BUG EATING!!!

For those kids who didn't even think eating a bug was an option, NOW all of a sudden they have the idea put in their heads.

What happened to the ol' "Just Say No" campaign?!?!?

And SPEAKING of Aleeya and school.........I know it's been said before that she looks a little like me. Well, let me just say, she really really REALLY acts like me......and sometimes it just doesn't work.

I REALIZE this is waaaaaaaaay old news to my parents, but I am NOT a morning person. I mean I'm REALLY REALLY NOT. Don't look at me, talk in my direction or ask me to do anything. (Hence the reason I have to wake up 20 minutes before my kids do so I can mellow out and "get happy"........or else I would eat them.) ANYWAY, little Aleeya-beeya is the same way. 

Allow me to state the obvious here, THERE CAN ONLY BE ONE NOT-MORNING-PERSON AND I'VE ALREADY CLAIMED THE SPOT!!!!!!

2 weeks ago I think we had 4 tearful/rough mornings in a row from her. Not always tearful, sometimes it's yelling and snapping back at me. For example, one morning I didn't ask her to say the family prayer and she bawled through the prayer and out the door to school......hopefully she stopped before school. The next morning I went in to wake her up (because her alarm does NOT wake that heavy sleeper up.......once again, like me) and when she rolled over and saw me she said,

 "OH COME ON!!!!!! I JUST FELL ASLEEP!!!"

I told Brooks I was NOT going to do this EVERY morning and he said he would talk to her.

Now talks with her don't ALWAYS go so well, but Brooks can handle anything. ( I laughed so hard when I snapped this picture with my phone of them "talking" one day and the look she was giving Brooks.)

So yes, he talked with her in our room. I have no clue what was said, but whatever....... it was magic.

And that was all it took I guess.............no issues since. Sometimes it just takes a dad.....

Trunk or Treat

Yesterday was our church's Chili Cookoff & Trunk or Treat. Of course the kids have been counting down the days to dress up in their costumes.

Royce, aka: the muscular football player

 Aleeya as Spidergirl...........and yellow shoes.

She assured me they were "more comfortable and warm" then her black boots. 

Suuuuuuuuuuuuuure.

Iris as Tinkerbell..............in tennis shoes.

Once again, a shoe battle was not on my list of things to care about.

But I WOULD like a little props for getting the mulleted Tinkerbell's hair back. Because it's actually REALLY hard to tame.

Our little princess as Cinderella.

 But she couldn't leave without some major snuggles from dad.

Emerson as some sort of Transformer (am I supposed to know all their names?) His favorite part was the built-in muscles.

Bronson as a zombie-thing and Camden as Aniken Skywalker. What's funny is that the mask actually LOOKS like Camden if it was a dirty blonde color. It has the same pointy nose and defined chin and everything.

 Since I didn't think fast enough (nor would I have convinced my kids!) to be Snow White and make the kids dress up as my 7 dwarfs, I settled for this........

 But I secretly really liked it..........how old am I?

 And Brooks' "costume"........ (Cinderella actually has a sheer/sleeveless dress thing, but it was quite nippy outside so her blue sparkley sleeper underneath just added to her "beauty" don't you think? Maybe the real Cinderella should've tried it.)

My dear friend is due next week. I wish I would've KNOWN she wasn't going to dress up, because she definitely would've fit in my costume, and she would've LOVED the built in fan to keep it blown up!

You know how Cinderella just slipped away from her prince in the movie? Well, Kellyn kept "slipping away" too. I kept finding her in other people's arms......THIS Cinderella gets around I guess.

6 years

Aleeya Beeya turned 6 on Thursday!!!!

Here she is listening to her grandparents all the way from Brazil calling to sing Happy Birthday while Grampy plays on the piano. To be honest, it's the thing I look most forward to on my birthday. Nothing like Grampy tickling the ivories and going crazy on his rendition of Happy Birthday.

On her actual birthday she didn't have school for Fall Break but she and I headed over to her classroom for her parent/teacher conference. 

We had her birthday party scheduled for Saturday. It was a crazier week so I didn't really get around to doing her pinata. She mentioned she just wanted a big ball before so I didn't think there was any rush. Then the day before she settled on a purse pinata. Which is a one day project too, so no biggie. THEN we saw an ice cream cone one online from a link a friend sent me, and I looked at it and thought, "Seriously? That's a ball and some posterboard!!! Talk about an easy design!"

Aleeya was hooked on the idea so ice cream cone, it was.

(but let me have it written in the Books of Eternity that I will NEVER voluntarily do the tissue paper twisty things again for a pinata. I thought it would be a "great" idea and it turned out it was a "great idea" that was an extra 6 hours (maybe more but after midnight you stop counting) of twisting tissue paper. I. KID. YOU. NOT. So painting pinatas from now is the name of the game. But seriously, I was SO pleased with it just because SHE was so pleased to have her rainbow sherbet ice cream cone.)

 She wanted the icecream sandwich cake and made SURE I didn't forget a cake topper. When I saw this Rupunzel dollhead at Goodwill a few months back I knew it would be perfect. Sure her hair was a ratted mess (hello "TANGLED"!!!) but I could just throw fabic softener/conditioner/whatever tricks the internet has in it and call it good......right?

Turns out none of it worked. The morning OF the party I was trying and trying to untangle her hair and it didn't work, so Rapunzel had a haircut.

I threw her on top of the cake to put it BACK in the freezer and apparently her hair was still wet from her "shower"/hair cut that morning. Her hair froze in this funky position. haha. Aleeya LOVED it though. She just was so proud of it.

 Here are the 3 friends that could come, Aleeya and Mullet-head posing with their princess drinks.

 Opening presents. With most kids you have to coax your kid to act grateful or say thank you, etc. With Aleeya she just was squealing with delight over each gift and saying, "thank you thank you, this is the best EVER!" She's something else.

Whackin' the pinata. Iris' face is so funny.

 Aleeya also knows how to throw her weight into every hit, like a real Smith kid.

 The loot inside.

Where are the boys you ask?

Well, Brooks took Bronson, Camden, Emerson and Royce over to his clinic to eat their treat bags, hang out and play with the wheelchairs. I realize it doesn't sound like fun, but I guess they loved it.

Happy 6th sweet, endearing, energetic and sensitive-yet-tough-as-nails little girl.

It's Fall Y'all

This post is JUST to prove that we aren't ALWAYS at baseball games and practices......

although some might argue to the contrary.

Camden wanted Royce to put on his "bubble" coat so they can match and pose in front of the pumpkin.

But seriously, this picture melts. my. heart. What a handsome set of boys.

It's been in the 70s here all month but there was one morning that it was raining so the temperature was a little cooler when the kids walked to school. They went through the gloves/coats/hat bin and were so excited to try on everything again. We're just excited Emerson's hat makes Kellyn look like she actually has more hair.

 Kellyn LOVES walking around on top of the leaves, throwing the leaves and playing BY them.

IN them?......Not so much. Emerson kept telling me she liked it.........I beg to differ.

But this genius of a kid made me laugh when he put the leaf blower IN the bottom of the pile of leaves because it made this vent/airway through them with leaves flying up. Emerson thought it was so cool to sit in the leaf-blowing hole.

Our house is SURROUNDED by huge trees. We have so many leaves, it's ridiculous. Fun for the kids, yes, but I hate the look of leaves on top of the roof in piles bigger then my laundry (and that's a LOT!). So blowing leaves off the roof is a regular job around here......a favorite, of course.

I'll Walk with You

Last month Aleeya sang a duet in church during sacrament meeting 

(the big meeting with all the people).

She wasn't nervous or scared at all (not a surprise, trust me). I took a video during the practice run-through right before she went in and sang. I've had it for a whole month and finally getting around to posting it.....

What BETTER day to post it though then on my Dad's birthday?.........aka-the man who ENDLESSLY played the piano while his little girls sang. Happy 73rd Paieeee!

(during the middle you'll see her cheezing it for a while.....it because I was holding up my camera video taping and she thought I was getting ready to take a picture. Such a ham)

(here's the video if the above doesn't work)

Fun Runners, Homeless Fans

I'm actually pretty good at hiding scissors (from myself too).....so the fact that Iris DUG through one of her brothers' backpacks to find their scissors should show how determined she was to give herself a haircut so "she could look pretty".

She obviously pulled it off with FLYING colors.

 BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's a MULLET!!!!

 And this is her explaining to me WHY she did it. she thought she looked great!

(and no, "we" don't button up our shirts)

 (Until the boys all laughed at her and said she looked like a BOY!!! It was THEN that she realized it probably wasn't the best idea since looking like a boy was NOT her intent.)

Regardless what WHAT gender/nationality/homeless status she looks now, she still cut off a ton.

 It's nice that I never have to go anywhere and could stay in hiding for a few weeks so no one could see her hair..............oh wait, just kidding. The next DAY we walked over to the kids' school for their "Fun Run". I mis-read the times so we ended up running out the door without giving myself 2 hours to work on her hair......so she got a headband. Seriously, those bangs....

 (we STILL don't button up our shirts)

Aleeya's Fun Run was first and since they handed out free sunglasses she was NOT about to run those 35 laps without them on.

 She ran the entire time........most of it with a smile on her face.

 With her ever-enthused fans.......

 There's 45 minutes between each Fun Run, so we walked home, had a popsicle, played and walked back for Camden and Emerson's (2nd and 3rd grades ran at the same time. YES!)

Camden came out sprinting and was NOT about to let anyone beat him.......regardless of the fact that he still had 34 more laps to do.

 Yea, that didn't last too long before he had to come over to the side because "he was going to die".

 Emerson is there for social reasons............and the free cups of water that he would get EACH and EVERY lap just to throw on him. He would walk the laps, smile, talk to all his buddies, wave, put his arm around a classmate and drink more water. It wasn't until I told him he had a time limit and that he didn't NEED  water EVERY lap that he finally got moving.

Royce had to pee and since there were too many people there to sneak behind a bush we had to run into the school. I didn't have my license on me (hello! we walked!) so I couldn't take him across the hallway to the bathroom. The secretary ended up having to take Royce fast while asking "does he stand or sit?" I told him he stood. Next thing I know he's coming back into the office with an icepack on his head.

Y'all, even I haven't done THAT to my kids!!!!

Apparently everything went fine until he reached down to pull back up his drawers and his forehead kissed the toilet. As big of a clutz that I am, I was actually relieved to know that I haven't even done that. Perks of being a girl?

We DID make it back to watch them BOTH finish the 35 laps in time (the majority of the kids didn't finish in time).....which surprised me because I thought Camden was going to die and Emerson was too busy visiting. So this was big. 

 We walked back home for a little while and while we were there Iris broke her headband. We were on our way out the door, so I grabbed too bobbypins and tried my best. Bless it.

My big 5th grader was just a runnin' his heart out.

I guess 5th graders are too cool to run or maybe too out of shape, but Bronson was probably one of 3 that actually finished (and ran....actually he kind of gallops) all the laps (notice everyone walking). He's such an over-achiever and I love it.

The field had quite a few fire ant hills so I had been careful all morning, but apparently not careful enough and I got bit 3 times on one of my feet. It was itching/burning like the dickens. So there I stood, itching, bribing Royce/Kellyn with food/treats and watching Bronson run.

Then I turned around and saw this homeless looking girl just a dancin her heart out to the music being BLARED over the speakers.

 Dancin' like no one was there (yet it was crowded)

 It was the funniest thing and it made my day how carefree she was.

 He finished the 35 laps in time. That's my handsome boy.

My kids are pretty awesome. I'm glad we could watch them all, AND I was even glad I was bit by the fireants. Why? Well, of COURSE it made my foot swell up to a size that my flip-flops wouldn't even fit, so it made more sense for me to stay home with Royce and Kellyn for the church campout the next night.

Brooks (who hates camping) took the older 5 all by himself!!! hahaha Sucker.

*don't get me wrong, I LOVE camping but we would've gotten there late and had to leave EARLY the next morning for baseball practices so the effort put IN wasn't worth it to me to take the babies if we weren't staying longer.*

But don't feel sorry for Brooks, Brother Leckie had a tent set up for my family when they got there and an air mattress for Brooks to sleep on. Yea, he was REALLY roughing it.

I can't complain though, I put the babies to bed at 7:30, took a bath so I could put my foot up and read my heart out while relaxing in the bath. All thanks to those fireants.....