Easter

 We had a wonderful Easter weekend this year! We made so many good memories and had so much fun with the kids. I really wanted to keep Easter focused on Christ, so we had a couple of lessons throughout the week about Jesus and what we were really celebrating. I made some paper Easter eggs that we taped to the wall and the kids got to pull one off each day this week. On the back was written an act of service to do that day. We talked about how Jesus gave us the gift of life after death, so as a gift to him we can serve others. I think the kids very favorite activity was making these little birds nests out of rice krispie treats that we delivered to some neighbors.

As soon as we finished those we dyed Easter eggs. I'm a little embarrassed to admit that Chase is five and this is the first time we've ever done that! The boys loved it though. 

 On Saturday morning we had an epic Easter egg hunt at Nana and Papa's house, followed by a delicious lunch. It was so fun! The kids were all so cute and excited about the eggs and little toys they found, and so sweet and considerate of each other. At one point, Hudson spotted an egg and said, "Here Nora, you can get that one!" Nana knows how to spoil these kids.

The boys were so excited for the Easter bunny to come that they had the hardest time going to sleep Saturday night. All that work on making things Christ-centered, and the most exciting part was still the Easter bunny to them! The Easter bunny even "caught his tail in the door" (aka- a cotton ball) in his hurry to leave our house. They were thrilled with their baskets!

 Ben made us a delicious breakfast- strawberry shortcake on biscuits! It was delicious!

 We have 11:00 church so we decided to make our contribution to dinner in the morning- which was dessert, of course a bunny cake! Chase helped me make the cake and Hudson helped Ben with the frosting. Hudson insisted that they needed sunglasses to properly make it- and insisted that Ben wear MY sunglasses.

We had a wonderful meeting at church. Chase got up with the primary kids to sing "He is Risen" and did so great! He's been practicing for a few weeks now. I was thrilled that both kids gave us fairly accurate and in-depth explanations of what Easter was all about afterwards. Hudson's version included angel's knocking on the door of the tomb and then afterwards Jesus took off in a rocket-ship. So, ya know, close. 

 After church we met up at my parents house for a delicious dinner and family time. My mom always pulls out all the stops for stuff like this and we ate like kings! Mostly it was so great to be surrounded by family celebrating this beautiful holiday.

As I get older, Easter means more to me. Part of it is me trying to teach my kids what it's all about. I think part is that as I've gone through more trials and hardships that have come with being an adult, the Savior and his Atonement mean more. I'm so grateful that we have the gospel in our lives. I'm thankful for Christ and the hope and joy his life, death and resurrection bring to me. I'm grateful that I know He lives. Happy Easter!

Out of the Mouth of Hudson

After we had told Chase to go back to bed for the 5th time one night, we heard Hudson yell from his adjacent room "Go. To. Bed....STINKER!"

After finally deciding that his beloved Elephant was named Ellie, he has now recanted. "No, his name is just Elephant. Elephants don't have names. Bears have names. There is a grrr-bear and a polar bear. Grr-bears are black and brown and polar bears are white."

Walking up to a lady in our neighborhood who has her one-year old in a stroller, "We have a baby too, Noira. Only, our baby talks." (Hudson has been calling Nora "noira" for awhile now. And let it be known that the non-talking baby is a good 6 months younger than "noira")


He ends every single prayer with "and don't hit and be nice to my bro-ver" (This behavior is out of his hands now, he's calling on divine help)

One night he said a particularly sweet and specific prayer: "Please bless that my excema will go away. Please bless Nora that she'll feel better. Please bless I don't hit and be nice to my brover. Please bless us to have a baby gwil..." (Occasionally, both boys pray for a baby girl- because, ya know, Will and Matt have one (a baby sister) and they want to be just like them.)

He yelled out in the middle of sacrament meeting, "Three, Two, One....FIRE!" and then when Ben sat him all by himself between Ben and a wall he muttered "this is RIDICULOUS!"

While watching the Land Before Time Hudson became very concerned about how little foot's mom died. He finally gave himself some clarity, "She just went POOF! She poofed it!"

Hudson: This just makes me sick! (while rubbing his arm)
Me: What does Huds?
Hudson: My fur!
Chase: Huds, that's hair not fur!
Hudson: No, it's my fur!
(Hudson does pretend he's some type of animal quite frequently)

On this particular morning he was hanging out completely naked FOREVER. When I asked him to put clothes on, he pointed his little fist at me and through a totally mischievous little smile yelled, "Never! Never! Never! You little nugget!"

(He was really proud to show me how he made his bed without being asked)

Second Half of February

As soon as I got home from Florida, Ben left for 5 days in San Diego for work. Ben actually flew out on his birthday (we did get to have cinnamon rolls for breakfast with him first and give him his presents). I didn't take any pictures of Ben's birthday, but let it be recorded that he turned 31 and I think we all feel good about that. 

While Ben was gone the boys were so good! I was pleasantly surprised once again. It was probably partly due to the fact that I came home from my girls trip really refreshed and rejuvenated and much more patient with my kids. And they really were just really good. We watched Nora a bunch while her parents were working on packing up their house and moving and one day I pulled out my camera and took a bunch of pictures of the kids. I kind of loved the result- just really candid pictures (because heaven knows that posing these three is just really not an option) that shows how much they love each other (and Nora's persistent mistrust of Hudson- even though she likes him the majority of the time). 

We spent more time at the museum and then went to the free day at the zoo! I love those days! We always get there right when it opens so we have a good hour before it gets crowded (because by 10 it is REALLY crowded). We took Nora with us, which was fun and cute and a little crazy. Hudson was so excited to see the elephants (all named Ellie, of course) and Nora loved the Polar Bear. Chase was really into the reptiles, and I noticed that since we've done that dang reptile house probably 10 times now I'm growing from paralyzing fear to just normal fear of snakes. I'm also fairly certain that Chase loves the reptiles partly because he knows how much they creep me out!

 The weather started getting warm, which means the boys can finally use their Christmas presents from Santa! Chase easily mastered the new scooter and zooms around the neighborhood on it. Hudson is having a slower learning curve with the balance bike, but he's been persistent and I'm sure he'll get it down soon.

Girls Trip 2016

Our girls trip this year was epic! We flew into Tampa Florida and went to Treasure Island, a little island right off the coast. It was beautiful! We stayed right on the beach and really loved all our time together! It was Nora's first girls trip and she did awesome! It was a long day of flying and she was a champ!

 The weather wasn't super warm, but warm enough for us to be on the beach and enjoy the sunshine and beautiful scenery! The water was such a beautiful color. One day we all took a little ferry out to Shell Key- a tiny island that is a nature preserve and it was literally COVERED in seashells! Nora especially loved collecting shells- every time she saw one she liked she did a little dance, picked it up and said "yike it!" (like it!) I loved just walking on the beach and chatting with my cousins.

 It was so fun to be able to spend time with my cousins! I love them all dearly! One night we got together in one hotel room and watched "It Takes Two"- an Olsen twins movie that we LOVED when we were little. We laughed and laughed at how ridiculous it was and paused and rewatched the scene that we were SURE had El in it back in the day (spoiler alert- it's not really her- but we sure thought so 20 years ago). We also had a surprise bridal shower for Halie one night where everyone brought their favorite thing to gift to her and Nate.

 The whole gang- 28 of us in all now! Every female that is a descendant of Bob and Georgia White was there! (Including all the girls who have married in to the family)

 Traditional "Hot Babes Quartet" picture. I love these girls so much and loved spending a few days totally uninterrupted with them!

 Our crew is getting so big now! It used to just be the three of us on this trip, suddenly there are six Smith girls going!

The flights home were very eventful and stressful- but we all made it home! A big storm made for late flights and missed connections- but we luckily made it home only two hours later than planned (after a lot of stress, maybe a few tears, and a super nice man letting us go in front of him in the forever long customer service line while trying to rebook!) Heidi takes the cake for an unexpected 30 hour layover in a city she wasn't even supposed to make a stop in and several cancelled flights later she finally just bought a one-way ticket with a different airline! Totally worth it though- I absolutely loved this time with my mom, sisters, aunts and cousins!

And my boys did just fine without me while I was gone. Hudson was a little sad initially that he didn't get to go on the trip, but Chase was all excitement that mom was going away. He even told me before I left, "You know what is great about when you go on the girls trip? Dad doesn't even make us use placemats at dinner!" Ben did a bunch of fun activities with them, including the trampoline park, dinner out at Pizza Pie Cafe, a steak dinner at my parents with my dad and Will, and bike riding. I even came home to a completely clean house and all the laundry done! 

First half of Feburary

I used to just try to "get through" the winter months. Now I feel like I've been finding ways to help us enjoy and celebrate even small things- and now these winter months are fun! Parenting is so much easier March-October when we spend hours outside and playing in the dirt and at the park. I've realized it takes just a little extra effort, and we don't mind this time of year at all! Our life lately has felt kind of weirdly busy- in a good way- so here are just a few things I've documented this month!

First of all, this is just Hudson with his elephant, whom he finally named, Ellie. Ellie mostly lives in Hudson's bed, but occasionally joins us for breakfast.  

 This is Chase one morning before preschool. His teacher warned me that further into the year the novelty of preschool would wear off and he wouldn't be nearly as excited to go. This is not the case. He is still totally psyched to go every single time!

 We had an early Valentine's day celebration! Since I'm going out of town over the actual Valentines Day we moved our date up a week. My mom sweetly agreed to take the boys overnight and we decided to just have a quiet night at home. We made a fancy dinner together and just enjoyed being home together and had a very relaxing evening. We loved it- and we missed our boys. One night away from them is just perfect for us right now. The boys loved their sleepover with Nana. She took them to play at McDonalds (and for dinner- Hudson loved the dinner, Chase loved the play structure) and then back to her house for a movie and sleepover. The boys were already asking two nights later when they could sleepover at Nana's again.

 We did Valentine's sugar cookies. Chase's little friend Freddy was over playing so he decorated with us. The boys had a great time and only made a small mess and ate spoonfuls of frosting and sprinkles. Chase informed me with the first cookie he frosted that he really wanted to decorate it special for Aunt Heidi. I explained that we probably couldn't mail it to her- and he responded with "Well mom, you could put it in a baggie in the freezer and then take it on the airplane with you on Friday to give to Aunt Heidi!" (I was leaving a week later for our girls trip). Good thinking Chase! That's exactly what I did.

 We spent a fun Friday morning at the Hill Airforce Base Museum with Drew and Ryder Bennett. Chase and Ryder always have a great time together and they ran around the whole place and admired every aircraft. I think they are really impressive too, and every time we go I remind myself that we need to go more often. It's so cool, close and FREE!

We continued with our around the world tour with a night learning about France. To our surprise, Chase already knew where France was on the map, I showed the boys the famous landmarks in France, learned a few French words and then ate crepes. The boys loved crepes. Chase even remarked that he liked crepes a lot better than German food.

Then we celebrated Chinese New Year the next week! It was fun prepping for this night! We made little flags (hanging from the Valentine's garland in the picture below) and I made Chinese food for dinner (Americanized Chinese food). I made lemon chicken and ham fried rice and we had fortune cookies. My mom joined us for dinner and brought some picture books about China for the boys. We all wore red and we gave the boys each a red envelope with a little money in it (I think it was like 38 cents). I looked up some words in Chinese to show the boys what the Chinese characters looked like. And then the next night (after eating the leftovers) we watched Mulan.  It was all super fun! I know there is SO much more the boys could be learning about these places and cultures- but with them being so little I'm just trying to give them a taste of what is out there. I love seeing Chase's view of the world broaden as he's starting to understand that there is so much beyond Layton, Utah.

 And then Valentines Day! I was gone for the actual day, so we celebrated a little early.

The night before I realized I had totally forgotten to get them Valentines- so I quickly ran out and found these cute books for them. They were really happy when they came down for breakfast and found them.

 Chase made this Valentine for us at preschool and I love it so much, it will be on the fridge for awhile! They had a class Valentine's party and were instructed to bring Valentines to hand out to their classmates. They've really been working on writing their own names so his teacher reminded us that this was a good opportunity to practice that and to start early since it takes awhile for little ones. Well, we forgot. So the night before (while I was out doing the boys Valentine's shopping) Ben sat down with Chase to sign his Valentines. Apparently after just a few Chase got really antsy and unfocused, and when Ben reminded him to keep going he responded with "This is just SO STRESSFUL!" I love the way Chase signs his name these days with his cute backwards S.

 That night we pulled out the chocolate fountain! The boys thought it was the best thing in the whole world! We had marshmallows, graham crackers, strawberries and bananas to dip and the boys really went to town! It was messy, and we quickly stripped Hudson down to just his underwear so his jammies wouldn't become a casualty. It was a really fun way to celebrate and will probably become a tradition!