Summer is over

Summer is over, already, Aaron is back to work and school and Eden and Enoch are now is school...so what did we do this summer?

 

 We celebrated our family's 8th birthday (aka: our 8th wedding anniversary), and the kids decided we needed a treasure chest cake, the candy was enjoyed more than the cake.

 We went on a few family hikes, this one was to Little Moab

 

There were a lot of little caves like this one to get cozy in

 

And big rocks to climb down, it was great fun to explore and only an hour away from home.

 

Next there was a wedding! Aaron's little brother was married and we all dressed up. We love summer weddings! Don't those boys look cute in their bow ties? 

We celebrated the 4th of July by watching the hot air balloons rise

 We had a family reunion on Karla's family's side and went rafting and boating in Deer Creek

We also hiked to the waterfall and played in the cold water with our cousins! What fun cousin time!

 

Ammon turned one-year-old! He is growing so fast and moving just as fast too, what a boy he is!

 

 We then went to St. George as a family and hiked some more

 We went to Zions and found waterfalls and deer and went through tunnels and worked until we were exhausted, but it was so fun to be in the cliffs of Zion.

Here we are at weeping rock in Zions

 Here we are in our condo that we stayed at in St. George, eating a late night dessert, the clock proves it, just after 10pm, but it was so fun, the kids just loved it and can't wait to do it again. 

So that was our summer in a nutshell, now school is underway, Aaron has until April and then he will finish school and next summer we will enjoy more time with Aaron not having to share him with UVU. 

Family Pictures

Here it is, the Smith family growing so fast, hard to believe that we've lived here in our home for 4 years now and also we've been married for almost 8 years, and our family is now a family of 6! Wow, where has the time gone by. Here are the images from our latest family pictures, now a family of 6:

 I felt it was time Aaron and I got a new picture together, since our most recent of the two of us was our wedding day, we were definitely overdue.

 

 Here are the BOYS of the family

Here are the GIRLS

 Trying to get all of us looking, happy, at the camera at the same time is pretty tricky, so this was the best shot we got from our kids, and Eden is giving us a 'thumb up'

 I think this picture show truly our nature, each child is doing their own thing and having a great time doing that, this is what we lovingly call 'Team Smith'

Here are all the cute kiddos, personality and all, we sure love our little, lively bunch!

Finishing up 2013

2013 is finally over, it was a year full of events, both good and hard. We finished the year with birthday fun, Enoch turned 4 and Eden turned 6. Christmas was so much fun as our kids are getting older and bringing in such a fun, child-like spirit. On December 7th my grandmother passed away so two days after Christmas we packed-up our little family and drove to Oregon for her funeral. It was a quick trip, but we all enjoyed being together to show love for my grandmother. Now 2014 is here and we are excited for the new year and the new adventures we will have this year.

Enoch really wanted a watermelon and strawberry cake, so here they are, they were truly the highlight of the birthday for him. 

Enoch with his first transformer car

Here is 'Team Smith'

Eden wanted to have a dress-up party for her birthday, so here are a few friends at a princess party

Each girl decorated their own miniature castle cake for the party

Here is one of the highlights from our trip to Oregon, the coast! Eden and Micah loved the waves, Enoch was a little intimidated by all that water, but we had fun running from the waves.

After we ran from the waves coming up on the sand the kids then took time to find shells and things for their nature collection. Enoch's favorite find was all the crab legs, including a few crab claws.

It was a beautiful day at the Oregon coast, the sky was blue and the temperature perfect for December.

Even Ammon had a wonderful time with us on our Oregon adventure, we will have to go back again soon and spend more time exploring at the coast and go on a hike through all the giant trees, which was by far, Aaron's favorite part of Oregon.

Happy Birthday Micah and first family picture

Time has gone by so fast, and now Micah is 2 and Ammon is now almost 3 months old! So here is Micah's second birthday, he loves all boy things from balls to cars and trucks and trains and yes, still his Snow White doll that he must sleep with every night.  He was so excited to have a train cake, and the kids were just excited to have an excuse to have a party again!! Here are also picutures of us overlooking the Utah Valley from Squaw Peak. It was so nice to see the new fall leaves, and since we were there we had someone else take a picture for us, our first full family picture since Ammon was born!  Wow has our family grown in the last few years, it is amazing! 

 Can you believe Micah is now 2 years old!! Wow, does time fly by fast!

 Micah with his train cake

 The kids just had to have a pinata for the party

 Enoch and his little brother Ammon, he sure loves him

 Our family at Squaw peak on a small hike

Our first family picture together from Squaw peak

Welcome baby Ammon

He is finally here!! Ammon Louis Smith was born early on Tuesday morning, July 23rd.  The story goes like this: I was due on the 20th, waiting for a scheduled induction on the 25th.  On the early morning of the 23rd, at about 1:30am, I began to feel contractions, but nothing too regular and not too painful.  At about 2am I became more suspicious because they were different in their intensity, so I began to time them.  After about 30 minutes I walked around to see if they would go away, after all, I didn't want to be the girl who cried 'wolf' at 3am to have someone come watch my kids to just come home a few hours later from false labor. Well, they didn't go away and they started to become more frequent, about 5 minutes apart. So at 3am I woke Aaron up and told him that I thought I was in labor, he wanted to time them, but I just wanted to call my sister to come over because now the pain was getting worse. So at 3am I called my sister and she came right over and we left for the hospital. I was put into a room and  waited for a nurse to come in and check my progress to see if I should stay or not. At this time I looked at the clock and it was 3:30am.  The nurse came in and I was dialated to 8 cm! They quickly checked us in and got me my IV. Moments later the anesthesiologist was in for my epidural (thank goodness), by this time the pain was so intense that I found myself shaking, thank goodness for modern day medicine.  As soon as the epidural kicked in the doctor broke my water. We waited through two more contractions to let the baby drop, then two pushes later he was here!  I looked at the clock again, it was now 4:30am, just one hour after we had checked in! He came in weighing 7 pounds 12 ounces and was 20 inches long and a lot of beautiful hair. The kids love little Ammon and adore him, he has been so much fun to have.

 First glimpses of life.

 Ready for his bath, look at all that hair!

 The proud dad, happy to be at the hospital instead of at class that day. 

Big sister loves her little brother.

Summer flying by

I have been wanting to post something for a long time, but our camera was having issues, so all our great pictures are on our phone and I don't know how to quite download them onto my computer, so needless to say, that is why I haven't said anything for a while.  But then I thought, I don't need pictures to put out an update! So here I am.  Summer has been fun, but challenging.  As soon as summer started, Aaron began his Master's program at UVU in their education department, it has been a lot of work and we haven't had as much time with him as in summers past.  He has loved all he is learning, but he is now looking forward to a break, next week is his last week for his summer courses.  That being said, today is my due date to have baby #4, but here I am, very pregnant and wondering if he'll ever decide to come.  I told Aaron I will wait as long as his classes go this next week, then I will go to the hospital and have this baby.  So next week on Thursday the misery of 9-months pregnant should be over.  The kids are excited to meet their little brother, but he's taking his time to make an entrance.  In the meantime, we've done all we can to have fun, we went on a family weekend trip to Park City last month and the kids are still talking about how fun it was to sleep in a bunk bed, swim in the hotel swimming pool and ride the free trolley up and down Main Street.  We have also visited a few splash pads this summer and hiked the local waterfall (a 5-min hike).  Summer has been fun, but also very hot, especially for me.  I hope we have some picutures to share soon with our new family addition and our last few weeks of summer fun once Aaron gets his break before the school year starts up again.

Visiting Vernal and Grandma Linda

Earlier this month was our spring break and we had the chance to go to Vernal with the kids.  Our kids love dinosaurs so we thought the dinosaur museum would be fun for them.  It was a long drive for the kids, Eden was ready to turn around after the first 1 1/2 hours, but once we got there, it was worth it!!

 Those dinosaurs are sure big compared to our little kids

 Digging for dinosaur bones

 Micah loved playing with the toy dinosaurs as well

 Our little family at museum

 I think the pteranadon was the favorite (thank you to Dinosaur Train)

Seeing the dinosaur giants, the kids were amazed

Just this last week Grandma Linda's headstone was put in place, we went out on one of the few sunny days we've been having this spring and visited our Grandma Linda.  It was a beautiful sight.  

 Karla at the graveside, I love the picture and simplicity of her stone.

 We went and visited her on Easter weekend and brought some homemade Easter Lily flowers made from the kid's hand prints, we found them still there nearby and put them in her vase.

Eden and Enoch visiting Grandma Linda, we sure miss you, Grandma!!