Fun with kids

Spring is almost here, and kids are enjoying time to go outside for a few moments each day, and I am loving it too.  They are growing up so fast and changing just before our eyes, and so am I, my clothes are just a little too tight right now, and I'm now officially over half way through this pregnancy, so that means we had our ultrasound and discovered we will have another boy!! How did this happen? Everyone else in my family only had one boy and multiple girls, I'm just not following the trend.  Eden was sad that she won't have a sister quite yet, but still excited for the baby.  Here are how our kids are looking today, so grown-up:

 Here is Eden all ready for school

 Enoch is growing up so fast, and so is his energy

So here is Micah's true love: Snow White, he is all boy, playing with cars, wrestling, trowing and climbing everywhere, but when he's sad or tired, he must find his Snow White doll and he'll cozy right up to sleep.

 So this picture is from Eden, the other day it was so windy that Aaron took the kids outside and had them fly their 'bag kites', just a simple bag on a string. The kids were just in love with it and boy was the wind strong, after a while a big gust of wind came along and pulled the big bag out of Enoch's hand, he just screamed and cried as his kite flew above the houses and away in the wind.  Eden was so kind, she came out of the house with a new kite for Enoch, a small colored piece of paper with a string taped to it and she gave it to Enoch, he held on tight and the small kite twirled in the wind and he was happy again.  So this picture show Eden flying her kite and Enoch sad watching his kite blow away, and a few rain drops falling from the sky.  Eden is the artist in our house.

Catching up with life

It's been months since the last post, mostly because life has been really busy and crazy and hopefully it will slow down soon.  In early November I discovered that I'm expecting again.  Eden is convinced it is a girl, or just really hopeful. I will find out in March if it's pink or blue, and we will welcome Smith #4 in July.  Being pregnant has caused me to be very sick and I've had to take each day one day at a time.  In December Enoch had his 3rd birthday and then a week later we celebrated Eden's 5th birthday.  It was fun and now the kids can't wait until the next birthday party.  A week later we had Christmas!  My brother was in town and it was fun to be with loads of cousins.  A little over a week later my mom was admitted to the hospital and after a few tests we learned the cancer was back and transplant to save her life was very risky. So after a day to think it over, my mom went home from the hospital to my sister's home on hospice.  It's been a long week for my family, but it has been good to see one another and support each other.  I don't know how much longer she will be with us, but we will soak in every moment we have with her.  Her energy is very low, but her love to all, especially her grandchildren, is very high.  We love you, mom.  We will miss you!!

 Our Big 3-year-old

 What is better than a 'bigger digger' and dinosaurs for a three-year-old

 Eden insisted on a Tigger cake

 Our 5-year-old princess

 Merry Christmas from the Smiths

 Christmas morning in the Smith home

 Eden passing out the presents

At Temple Square with Grandma Linda, we will miss you!!

Halloween is here

Well, Halloween came and Eden was so excited, I guess going to school and being around other children will bring in the excitement.  After all was said and done I realized that I didn't get a picture of all the kids together in their costumes, so here are pictures of the boys in their costumes and then a video of Eden in her costume at our ward fall festival doing the cupcake walk.

 Micah was our duck

 Enoch was our frog

Eden really wanted to be Cinderella, but we couldn't find a costume, so we did the next best thing, a fairy!  Since Micah and Enoch were the duck and frog we decided Eden was our pond fairy.

Our pumpkins, Eden designed hers herself. Happy Halloween!!

Happy Birthday Micah!!

I can't believe that it was a year ago we had our little Micah, and so much has happened, he has grown so much!! The kids were so excited to celebrate a birthday again, it's been since June that we had a family birthday, so we were due.  We blew up balloons and put them around the house.  They each picked out a gift at the dollar store and wrapped it for him.  Which was fun, since it was the older kids who unwrapped the presents for him too.  Micah is so funny, he loves to watch his siblings play and just laugh with them.  He has begun to try and take his first steps, I'm sure he'll be running with his siblings in no time.  We love our little Micah, we are so grateful he is apart of our lives.  Happy First Birthday Micah!!

 Our big ONE year old

 In case you don't know how to work your new toy, don't worry, Enoch will show you how it works...or maybe he'll take it away from you instead since it is a pretty cool toy

Wow mom, is this whole cake for me?!?

 

 Wow, this is so good...

 I just can't get enough of it...

 ok, maybe I've overdone it, that was a lot of frosting...

 Mom, I'm done, take it away now!!!

Brigham City Temple

Last month we had the opportunity to go visit the Brigham City Temple open house.  It was a long drive for the kids to go see the temple, but once they got there, they were not disappointed one bit!  Eden and Enoch have always had a fascination for temples, but now to go inside was just wonderful.  They loved the baptismal font (I was surprised it was filled with water and they let us walk right past it!! We were luck my kids didn't jump right in.)  They loved how there were flowers in all the circle windows.  We later learned that they were the peach blossoms, because of Brigham city's fame in peach orchards.  As we walked into the Celestial room, the kids were so amazed at the beauty and I just held Enoch and we talked about how it was Jesus' room, that really helped him understand how special that room was.  I'm so glad our kids love the temple.  After we left we went to Wendy's to get some food and Eden got out a piece of paper and drew a picture of the Brigham City Temple, a rectangle with two big spires, one on each side, and a bunch of circles all over the temple, a small flower in each one.  She showed it to me and said, "mom, this is the Brigham City Temple, it is my best friend."  How sweet our children are!!

 Eden outside the temple

 Oh how Enoch loves the temple, and their water features

 Walking outside the temple

Our little family in Brigham City

Summer Fun: Part 2

We attempted our biggest road trip as a family this year  We went to visit my sister in Illinois!  We spent a few days driving there and spent a week in Illinois and visited Nauvoo and saw the new pageant there as well.  The kids loved it and are still asking when we can go back to Illinois.

 Here we are outside the Winter Quarters Temple, it was a great stop to see a Temple after a long drive.

 Here we are outside the Carthage Jail, it was a hot day, thank goodness Dairy Queen was just across the street.

 Here we are with our cousins at their pond, we had fun feeding the fish and finding all of the bull frogs. 

 Here is Aaron and I sitting on our bench at the Nauvoo Temple, here is were we got engaged almost 7 years ago.

 Eden and Enoch with cousins Jesse and Kori at the Nauvoo Temple, now one of the kids' new favorite Temple, a highlight on our trip.

 Aaron and Shea pulling all of our kids in the handcart during the evening activities in Nauvoo before the pageant. 

 We had fun playing in the kids area in Nauvoo, Eden wanted to make sure everyone had a chance to dress up, even Micah.  

 Enoch with his hat, that's as much dressed-up that he would get.

 Karla and Eden dressed up

 We had fun on the oxen ride, it was really bumpy, I'm grateful for our van that is smooth and goes 75+ mph.

 Eden and the Nauvoo Temple one last time!

 One thing that made the trip so nice was to see cousins in Iowa.  We got to stay with them going out to Illinois and coming home.  They were a big highlight for all of us.  We miss our Smith cousins, we hope to see you again too.

Summer Fun!! Part 1

Summer was sure fun, but now it's over.  Here are some fun pictures of where we went this summer:

1. I went to Disneyland with my mom and sisters.

Here is us with us with Cinderella at the front gate of Disneyland.

 Here is our beautiful view from the Disneyland Hotel, and the amazing swimming pool.  It was just a dream vacation!

 Here is Kerri and I in our beautiful Disneyland Hotel room.  Every night we had chocolates on our pillows, a beautiful touch to the magic.

 Here is us in our matching shirts and the castle.

 We sure love our mom.  This was a last big trip with our mom as she finishes her fight with cancer.  We will sure miss you mom!  Thanks for such a fun trip!!