baby J.

Thoughts on Baby J. She is opinionated, she knows what she wants and screams until she gets it. She thinks she can do everything the other kids can do. She is busy and loves constant entertainment. She used to love to eat and now we have to trick her into it, this could be caused by the fact that she has only 2 teeth and is 15 months old...she's had everything soft to eat in the whole wide world! She says "hi" to everyone. Loves to play outside. Does NOT like to shop. Loves to crawl into my lap whenever I am sitting, and especially loves to read books with mama and be held. In short she keeps me very busy right now, and sometimes all I want to do is sit down with my own good book - but I can't imagine life with out her!

Baller

I want to be a baller, shot caller, 40 inch blades on the impala. ( that is from my days in Fontana). Anyway Livi finished her first season of Basketball, she LOVED it and we loved watching her. She has the best chance for basketball because she is the tallest kid in our family, although she lacks aggression because she is too sweet to steal the ball from anyone! Go Lady Hawks!

It's a hard knock life...

Jilly is at the age where she is falling all the time and sometimes she hits things. It seems to bother me much more than it bothers her. Poor baby, but she is still constantly on the move!

Let's go fly a kite!

For Livi's first grade project they had to build a kite and then go fly it at school. She loved making her rainbow kite and doesn't look at all disappointed that it didn't fly unless you were running full speed.

9!

Friends for pizza
snowboard cake and my mad cake decorating skills
Rig and Rangi got home from the mountain just in time!

For Rigdon's birthday he wanted to go snowboarding. Rangi said he was a natural and by the end of the day was very confident. I am so grateful to have Rig in our family, I cannot believe how fast he is growing up. I love the relationship that he and Rangi have. Rigdon loves science, so much so that this year we gave him the options of a DS, a Wii and a telescope; and you guessed it, he wanted a telescope! In fact for his birthday he also got a chemistry set and a microscope (thanks grandma and grandpa Smart he LOVES it!!!) and glow in the dark planets that orbit his bed. He is a very unique boy and I love every bit of him! He is the BEST big brother and LOVES to help me by playing with his sisters. Happy ninth Rig!

stewardship report

In church I recently had to do a stewardship report, I've decided to do one for my own personal life. January came and as usual I made many New Years Resolutions 1) spend more time with kids 2) read my scriptures more 3) date with Rangi every week 4) make awesome dinners 5) plant an expansive garden including fruit trees and flowers 6) EXCERCISE 7) get more organized 8) read more good books 9) reach out to more people 10) update all my photo albums 11) budget better and a couple more that I can't remember. So here's the report- I'm failing!!! Or am I? I tend to set a lot of lofty goals for myself and then wonder what is wrong with me; so the other day I was taking inventory of my life.

I don't exercise but I do clean my house really hard and fast and that gets my heart rate up, I am also working in my yard ripping out the biggest roots you can imagine from 20 years of growth (to get ready for the expansive garden see #5) ...can that count as my exercise too? I am also usually running late with a baby in tow so there you have it, weights! I am reading the book of Mormon in a 100 days and so far, so good. I'll let you know in 98 days:) Date with Rangi-OK so that's a gimme but I have to boost morale somewhere. Make awesome dinners, at least I have been making dinners, it's a step in the right direction maybe someday they can even be awesome! More time with my kids, that's all I do! between the park, the library, Disneyland, homework, taking them with me on errands, and reading books maybe I should try to spend LESS time with them! Just Kidding they are already growing up too fast for my liking. Read more good books- this one hit me the other day... I spend about 1 1/2 hours a day reading books to the kids, 15 min. per kid per day, and I pre read all of Rigdon's books so they may not be the most intellectually stimulating books but hey there is only so much time in a day. Organization, photo albums and budgeting, the way I see it- by not organizing and making photo albums I am saving money. Check, check, check. Reach out to more people... does blogging count?

The great thing about goals is that even if you are not perfect you are doing them more than you would have right? And that is a step in the right direction, at least for me. So there it is my life in a nutshell.

Normal... for us that is

Today I was at the Dr. with Jilly for her one year check-up. She was weighed and measured as usual, then the dr. was putting her numbers on her percentile chart...

Dr.- "21.8 pounds that's average, 27 inches..." silence... "I'm going to have the nurse re-measure her, her height seems too low."

In my head... there is probably no need to remeasure we just have extremely short children.

Sorry baby J but the nurse DID measure you correctly.

Life in general

Caroline is a little sick today so she requested to watch a movie, her choice... Ann of Green Gables. She LOVES this movie! I LOVE this movie and book. If you have not read it or seen it I really recommend it. It is such a beautiful story about a spirited redhead. Caroline is certainly my spirited red head. On Sundays she wants me to curl her hair so that she can look like Ann Shirley (she requested this completely out of the blue a couple of weeks ago and continues to do so). Something that is especially funny... the other day she and a friend were trying to watch a movie, the friend wanted to watch a movie that she didn't want to, so she proceeded to "find" a movie (Ann of Green Gables) and said,"I think this is it, let's just try it okay". Nice try sweet pea, but I couldn't just stand there and let Caroline "push" Ann of Green Gables on the average three year old; what if she was crushed to find out that everyone doesn't love Ann Shirley the way we do??? I will admit that I wasted my day today watching it with her, and not many movies waste my time.

Pinewood 2010

Anticipation, Old Grayback ready to race, this time in it for first!
Looking good so far!
Here it is old Grayback (named after the mountain that Rig and Rangi summited last summer, and painted to look like it, the white is snow flying off from the cars exceptional speed.) That is exactly the way Rigdon saw it. The car next door... made and painted by a fellow wolf scout, a first timer, Rangi thought he would help them out with the speed factor. He did everything the same, when we saw the draw we thought this was the car to put Rigdon out. Rigdon placed...he didn't. Probably seems real fishy to a certain mom. I promise we did everything the same! (This is the last time we offer to help!!!)
The photo finish! Old grayback or should I say silver bullet?
Rigdon can't handle the pressure. He refused to watch his car in the finals.
Another third place finish, he was excited, what luck to place at two derby's ?
My favorite part of the night was watching Rigdon in the flag ceremony. The flag was a little heavy for him and he had to follow it around a little.

Happy Birthday Baby!

That's right my sweet baby J. is one!
Loving the attention more than the cake.
I was pretty proud of myself for making all the decorations. You will probably be seeing a lot of them!
She absolutely LOVED opening her presents! Every red haired girl needs a Raggedy Ann- at least that is my grandma's philosophy.

Beautiful rain!

I love the rain! I love having a reason to light the fireplace and read lots of books to the kids, I love making warm dinners for cold nights, I love the snow on the mountains, I love the way it cleans the air, I love the way it smells, I love the way it sounds, and
I love watching our kids play in the giant puddle in our backyard.

January Bonfire

Thinks she can catch a bird ...
All Caroline ever talks about is getting a "little cage" for her birthday so she can catch a bird or a squirrel, do we get her one and let her learn the harsh realities of catching wild animals (or inability to catch)?
I love, love, CDM there is so much to do and we all love the cool boats that pass by to the harbor.
We all love her!
We loved having all my brothers and sisters together from the four corners of the earth...
Rangi's favorite niece (I doubt the red hair has anything to do with it). For the record maybe it is MY family that carries the strong red hair gene!
Here we are at the cool secret underground location that we LOVE! Let me know if you ever need really cool things to do in So. Cal and maybe I will let you in on this.