Love Month

 One thing I love about kindergarten is that they do so many cute projects! My fridge is covered in darling stuff from both boys from school and it makes me so happy. This little project was for Groundhog's Day, which I completely forgot about until Hudson brought this home. At school it was just the one groundhog, but he added a daddy and baby groundhog once he got home. When you flip it over on the back he'd drawn an elaborate sketch of their burrow, complete with bunkbeds and bookshelves.

 We had another fun SuperBowl party at my parents house. Ray, Diane and Nathan came as well. My mom made a late birthday cake for Huds along with his favorite "blueberry cement jello" (a name Hudson came up with) with dinner. Hudson was so excited about the SuperBowl and was cheering for the Patriots, just because Aunt Heidi lives in Boston and we had to break it to him that he couldn't cheer for BYU. It was the most boring game but the company was excellent!

 This is just a sweet memory. Davis, as toddlers do, had destroyed something that was important to Hudson, I can't even remember what it was. Probably something paper. Hudson was furious and heartbroken and sobbing. I calmly acknowledged his hurt, but also talked about how much he loves his baby brother. I asked Davis to apologize, and although I'm sure Davis didn't understand that HIS actions had caused Hudson's tears, he happily came over ready to give a "love" to help the sad big brother. This sweet little hug lasted quite awhile and a thankful Hudson was saying "Thanks Davis!" Once this happened Hudson immediately forgave the infraction and we all moved on.

 We had a fun Chinese New Year dinner. In my effort to educate my boys and expand their world, I tried to teach them a little about China. We decorated with chinese writing, lots of red, some fun centerpieces that actually came from Chine (courtesy of my friend Megan who lived there). I asked Hudson to make a pig to represent that Year of the Pig and he made this cute minecraft pig, Roobin. I made Sweet and Sour Chicken and Ham Fried Rice and we gave the kids red envelopes with a little change in them. We talked a little about Chinese customs, found China on the map, and the kids were mostly concerned about which quarters they had each gotten. After the whole dinner was over Ben said "Why is there a pig on the wall?"

 We had a super fun Valentines Day! I made pink waffles with whipped cream hearts for breakfast (Hudson's request). The boy's Valentine's from us were new socks (they needed them so bad!) and a little box of chocolates. They were thrilled! Both boys had fun parties at school that day. They prepared all their own valentines- hot wheels from Chase and Star Wars for Hudson. Ben got home from a business trip that night in time to have dinner with us and do our traditional chocolate fondue. It was such a nice day!

 We had a really fun date night for Ben's birthday! It actually started as the gift we gave Will and Kate for Christmas, which was for all of us to do an escape room! Our friends Anthony and Andrea came with us too (and another random couple who just joined in) and it was such a blast! I'm proud to say we got out with 9 minutes to spare. Afterwards we went to get Korean food, and Will and Anthony treated us since it was Ben's birthday. It was such a fun night! While we were out my parents had all five grandkids (the fab five we call them) and they had an equally fun night- it was a party!

 This sleeping babe. I am loving his babyhood so much and it's going by just way too fast. I can't get over how cute he is. Everything he does is adorable to me. He's perfect. Even though he's actually super demanding and exhausting, I'm just loving this stage! Anna used to call him DD, so we call him that sometimes. And we decided it's fitting, because DD stands for Demanding Davis!  He's more attached than ever to Bei Bei, and frequently walks around the house with Bei Bei tucked securely under his little arm.

 Davis tried to join the big boys story time one night. He was hilarious and it didn't last long, but when Ben went to snap a picture Davis yelled "CHEESE!" and made us all laugh. I'm reading Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets to the boys right now. We read the first Harry Potter book through December and January- when we finished Hudson was TICKED that Snape wasn't the real bad guy! He felt so tricked he cried. We had to take a break for a day so he could process before finishing the book. We took a Harry Potter break to read Charlotte's Web, and now we are right back into the magical world of Harry Potter. I've been surprised how much Hudson understands of the story, but he's soaking in every word!

We've had some decent snow this month (on and off- it melts and then we get a little more). I grabbed several neighbor kids for a fun afternoon of sledding. Davis lasted about 6 runs and the big kids kept going for another hour. Slowly the kids trickled into the house, and finally after we'd been there two full hours I had to drag Chase and Luca off the hill and into the car. They had a great time.

 A sweet friend gave Chase a giftcard to the Leonardo Museum for his birthday- so we spent a Saturday morning there as a family! My boys eat up this stuff. It clearly showed their different personalities though. Chase wanted to learn, read all the informational displays and take it all in that way. Hudson was in a pretend world the whole time- flying the plane, inventing things. And Davis just bopped around and enjoyed exploring.

Winter Fun

 January was...long. And rough at times. We had so much sickness. We've never had a winter like this- but 2 of our boys have had ear infections TWICE. They've all had a bought with fevers this month. Chase got a migraine. We've all had colds (mine was super brutal- I had no voice for three days- super hard to parent with no voice). Basically, I have been longing for spring like never before.

However, it's always nice in the middle of winter to get outside and really enjoy it! We finally got enough snow, and it magically happened on MLK day so the boys didn't have school. We went sledding! Chase had been begging to go and we finally made it happen! Davis loved it, Hudson was hesitant at first but ended up liking it. Both of the little guys got tired and cold after a half hour. Chase and his friend Jaxson went again and again and again. I think they stayed outside for a full 90 minutes. It was a super wet snow and we all came in soaked, but so happy that we got to enjoy the beautiful weather!

 Right at the end of January we had a few really nice days in a row. And by nice I mean 43 degrees and sunshine. It's funny how your standards change. We made the most of them and bundled up and spent as much time outside as possible. The boys love riding bikes and scooters and they need this type of physical activity so much!

So basically, somehow we made it through January. It's not a month I'm sad to leave behind. We made the most of it, but we will be so thankful when Spring comes!

Front Room Re-do

This front room was low priority when we first moved in. All the furniture in here was free, generously given to us by a family friend who didn't need it anymore. We had it for five years and I was so thankful for it, but also ready for a change and something more my style. We've slowly saved up and this past year made a bunch of changes to this room and I like it so much better this way! It still isn't finished- we need blinds for the windows, a new light fixture by the door, and someday our piano will go in here. But it's a pretty great version of itself right now, so I thought I'd post our "after"-ish pics. Who knows when I'll finally save up enough for the rest of that stuff!

 I bought this rug on black friday deal in 2017 and got it for a steal! A year later it still looks great! We finally sold the brown chairs in April and bought these ones. I love these so much more. Those brown ones were high end, but definitely made for tall people! I couldn't sit in them comfortably. These ones are so much better. They are extra wide too so I can sit a kid next to me while we read- which we do often. This is my homework spot with Hudson.

 Over Christmas my friend Lindsay helped me do this gallery wall and I love it! It's not the best picture, but every single one of these photos is so meaningful to me. I gave Ben the picture of Christ for Christmas, and Heidi made us the "things have a way of working out" print for Christmas this year. So we used those as the base and then went all over my house stealing pictures and frames from other rooms and pulled the rest of this together! These are some of my very favorite pictures of my favorite little people.  The dragonfly painting at the top was a card Halie painted for me, and I liked it so much I had it framed.

 Awhile back I got sick of all the brown in the original room, so one day on a whim I bought some spray paint and painted the mirror gold and the bench white. I love it that way.

Owning a home is always a "work in progress" and even though I get impatient and want to get it all done now, it's nice to see where it's come from and appreciate the way it is now. I love this room and I spend a lot more time there now.

Hudson's Birthday

Hudson turned 6! He's still the cutest little guy. People tell me all the time that he cracks them up. His teacher at school loves him and his creativity. He talks like a little adult and uses the biggest words all the time. He's seriously such a joy! He still has a temper- he's just a deep feeler! High highs and low lows. Overall he's doing so much better about all that!

For his special day we had blueberry muffins at breakfast and opened presents. I took him to lunch at McDonalds (he had a great time, as did Davis). After school we had a little friend party. He wanted a Star Wars theme (shocker...) and asked that we serve vanilla ice cream. We played a few games, had ice cream sundaes, opened presents and let the kids play. They all had a great time!

At 6 years old:

• He's 43 pounds (49th percentile) and 48 inches (90th percentile). That puts his BMI in the 10th percentile. He's long and lean!
• Loves all things Star Wars. He checks Star Wars books out of the library. He plays with light sabers all day. He builds Star Wars stuff with legos. He watches Star Wars shows during quiet time. He's obsessed. 
• He's the best kid at "quiet time". He loves to go down to the basement and will play by himself down there for HOURS. He loves to pretend and build with legos. I don't think he's ever bored in his head.

•  He's doing so well in kindergarten. He's the very top student in his class and has worked really hard to learn to read so well. His spelling is my favorite!
• We have a serious lack of little boys his age in our neighborhood. He doesn't let that bother him! He happily plays with the girls his age, with Chase and his friends, with several kids who are a year or two younger than him. I love that he isn't limited in who he'll be friends with.
• He's not a big eater. He still loves blueberries, certain kinds of yogurt, pizza, buttermilk waffles, toast with jam, and tomato soup. In fact, tomato soup and cheese toasties was his requested dinner meal.

•  He desperately wants to lose a tooth- he doesn't even have one loose one.
• He's had a bunch of ear infections this winter- in fact he spent most of the month of January with one! His early January infection likely never cleared and 20 days later I took him to his well-child check only to find out that both ears were super infected! Poor kiddo had been suffering for weeks!
• He got to have a special birthday date with each set of grandparents for his big day and he loved it! He loved having their whole attention for an afternoon and getting to pick where they ate lunch.

 Ben and I love this kid so much! He's the perfect middle child. He keeps life exciting all the time and makes us laugh every single day. He gives the sweetest hugs and kisses and is so sweet to his brothers. Happy Birthday Huds! Six years of you has been amazing!

2019

2019- It's gonna be a good year!

We started the year nursing our very sick Davis back to health, and thankfully it only took a few days and he was back to his normal self.

We set a few goals this year. Ben and I chose a new theme scripture for the year- Mosiah 2:17. We plan to have a family home evening once a month that is a service activity for someone else. I'm excited to see where this one goes!

Ben and I also set 2 goals as a couple this year to help our family grow. The first one is to really embrace the new "Come Follow Me" curriculum and teach our children diligently here at home. We plan to study it ourselves and then use our dinner conversations throughout the week to teach our kids using the scriptures and our own experience.  Our other main goal is to do a little family vacation this year just the 5 of us. We realized that although we traveled a whole lot in 2018 (Florida, Arizona, Colorado, London, camping) we didn't do one single trip just the 5 of us. We'll likely stay close to home, right now we are thinking a little staycation in Park City would be just perfect.  It's fun to plan stuff like this and see where it takes us!

Of course we have other goals as a family and individuals, but these are two at the forefront of our focus right now. I'll try to write more during the year about how this is going.

Our theme scripture this year is "When ye are in the service of your fellow beings, ye are only in the service of our God" -Mosiah 2:17  We are hoping to spend the year learning and practicing to serve more!

Chase is 8

My sweet first born is 8 years old! I don't know where the time went, because 8 years have gone past in the blink of an eye! I can still remember so clearly those early days with him as a newborn. They were seriously some of the best days of my whole life. He was (and still is) a dream come true. And amazing as it was to hold my brand new baby, I wish I could have known then what an incredible, smart, talented, driven, hilarious kid he really was going to be.

He wanted a Harry Potter birthday party this year. So I made him this golden snitch cake and we invited 12 kids over for a fun party! We started the morning with presents. We got him scriptures and he has loved looking through them and reading them. 

 We started a little tradition last year that I take the birthday boy out to lunch and he was super excited for us to do it again. We went to Old Grist Mill, just like last year. As we walked out of school he said, "You know why I love this? It's JUST US!" He's the best big brother and is so nice to include his little brothers all the time, but it is so nice to have some time with just him. I love hearing about all his thoughts and ideas.

 And then came the chaos of the party! It had been a really crazy week leading up to his birthday with Davis getting so so sick for so many days, the errands I planned on running didn't happen quite like planned. Luckily things still came together pretty simply! We did a potions lesson, shot dementors (I made out of trash bags and hung from the ceiling) with dart guns, played a quidditch relay game, played "pin the scar on harry" and then just played with balloons. We did cake and presents and Chase and his friends had a great time!

 The next day was his baptism! It made for a crazy weekend, but I think overall he felt well celebrated.

 Chase got baptized with his buddy Luca Bacciocco and McKinley Porter. It was a pretty simple program so we could just focus on the baptism and ordinance and it went great! I got a little emotional leading the opening song, looking at my boy all dressed in white, so excited and eager. This boy tries to choose the right all the time. A few weeks before as we were talking about his baptism and what it all meant, I asked him what happens after his baptism and he said "I will never make a mistake again!" I told him it's still okay to make mistakes!

Chase asked Ben to baptize and confirm him. In the circle were both his grandpas, Reed Smith and Ray Hugo, Uncle Will Smith, our friend Jesse Joseph, and Brother Hurst from our bishopric. I didn't get to hear most of the confirmation since Davis got really loud and I hurried him out to the hall. Luckily, Ray recorded it so I got to read it later.

This is a good shot of our daily life. Davis being crazy, Hudson not cooperating (in reality- I was back in urgent care with Hudson later that night with a major ear infection...and by the time I got home Davis was also running a fever that lasted for several days- neither of those poor boys were feeling well). I had told myself over and over before the baptism that no matter what, we were going to enjoy the day and not focus on the "fluff" and everything going perfect. And although things went really smoothly, I'm glad we were able to feel the spirit and love of the day. Chase had so many family members and friends there to support him- he's one loved kid!

Chase at 8 years old:

• Loves math and has a great mind for numbers. He's doing so well in school. He's still loving reading and recently read and loved "Wonder" and has started the "I Survived..." series. He also loves the Dogman books and reading various Minecraft books.
• Wakes up early to get his piano done before school. Most days I hear him down there playing the piano before even realizing he's up for the day! He has a "get it done" attitude. He so takes after me on that one. Just get it done, then you don't have to worry about it.
• He's very responsible about getting ready for school in the mornings. I hardly have to remind him of anything and he goes about quickly getting his jobs done and getting himself ready pretty independently. Most mornings he has time to do his jobs, eat breakfast and get ready, do his 30 minutes on the piano AND his 20 minutes of I-Ready on the computer (homework). He likes to get it all done so he can play with friends after school.
• He's loved having his own scriptures. He reads them sometimes without being prompted by me. With turning 8, and church shortening, we told him he's done bringing entertainment to sacrament meeting. He mostly spends that time just looking through his scriptures, which I love.
• He's just the best kid around. I adore this boy. He's a great big brother and a wonderful friend. 

Wrapping up 2018

 We had a couple of normal days after all the Christmas hoopla was over. We used our Discovery pass one last time before it expired. I love that place to much. We've had a pass 4 of the last 5 years (and likely will again)- it's so much fun for the whole family! I love having this huge space where my kids can play, touch anything and use their imaginations. They were thrilled because this beehive exhibit was open finally! They got to play in it for a good 45 minutes before it started getting crowded.

 This thing was huge and high and Davis got stuck a lot. Chase so sweetly would help him, grab him around the waist and help lower him or boost him to whatever level he needed to be on. He was such a good helper!

 We didn't realize it at the time, but Davis had a bad ear infection brewing, so naps got difficult. He preferred to sleep like this. Ben wasn't complaining too much!

 We had a fun game night at my parents house. The babies didn't play with us, instead they just cooked and took care of baby dolls.

 One game was to make a snowman. Hudson insisted he was a "snow wookiee" instead.

 Hudson made up a game with ninja turtle cards, complete with a board he made himself. He convinced Nana and Heidi to play with him. The rules are pretty subjective and change at will (Hudson's will). They were good sports and had a lot of laughs.

 Just another pizza and movie night. Hudson loves to help me top the pizzas, and almost always makes faces with the pepperoni. He was especially excited on this particular night because watched Rouge One.

 And then Davis got hit with the horrible bug the other boys had before Christmas! This poor kid was so miserable and threw up endlessly for days! Finally on day 3 I took him to the doctor, which was a good thing. Between the time I me madethe phone call and seeing the actual doctor (2 hours) he got significantly worse, threw up like six times and got very lethargic. The doctor was pretty concerned and ordered some zofran to hopefully help him keep some fluids down, but told me to take him right to the ER that night if he didn't improve. He also found a raging ear infection (I had no clue) and we gave him a shot of antibiotics for that. This poor baby! He was miserable, Ben and I were both exhausted from long nights, so much laundry and cleaning up messes and just general frustration and worry. Luckily the zofran helped significantly and we were slowly able to rehydrate him and avoid the ER.

Luckily we didn't have any New Years Eve plans anyway, so we watched "Thor Ragnarok" on the couch (such a funny movie) and cuddle our sweet, sleepy boy, waking him up every 30 minutes to drink another 20 mL of fluid. We called it a night and were in bed by 10:45. When you are that exhausted, it just isn't worth it to stay up until midnight. 

 2018 was a really, really great year for our family. I felt like were really in a groove this year. 2017 was filled with so many changes (3 new jobs, a new baby) and 2018 was much more smooth and stable comparatively. Instagram put together my "top 9" photos, which really do show some great highlights of the year.

My top 5 experiences this year would have to be:

1. Going to London with Ben. That trip was seriously a dream come true!

2. A fantastic summer adventuring with the boys- full of parks, swimming, campfires, hiking, going to the museum and zoo and just soaking them in all summer long.

3. The boys starting school this fall. They both have the best teachers and are having such a great experience there. I love having kids who are excited to go to school every single day!

4. Davis learning to walk and talk and just be adorable. 

5. Our Thanksgiving in Florida- a perfect vacation with the whole Smith family!

(honorable mentions would have to be our Colorado and Arizona trips, camping with friends in American Fork, fun Halloween with all three kids, our Christmas celebrations with healthy kids, and finally decorating my front room).