family pictures

getting family pictures taken is always a stressful time. moms... you know what i am talking about. first you have to find the photographer, decide on the location, and worst of all.....pick out the coordinating outfits. which, for me, requires a lot of thought: 'what do we have that will work?' 'what colors should we wear?' 'what do i need to go buy?' 'ok, i can do this... i am going to go shopping with the kids.' 'you know...i just need to find something that looks good on me and make everyone else work around that.' 'why does nothing i try on look good on me?!' and 'what will tyrell wear? (one thing i picked out for tyrell was a v-neck sweater, you would have thought i was asking him to wear a dress!) 'ok fine, we are just going to wear this because it isn't hideous and i am not going to worry about it any more!' :).

after all this is accomplished, the real fun begins as P-day arrives! when you must somehow get everyone clean, dressed, happy and simultaneously cooperative. quite the task indeed. but, i suppose, it's worth it in the end when you get pictures of cute smiling faces. never mind that your smile is perhaps a little less than genuine :)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

yard

i really wish i had an original picture of our front yard so you all could appreciate how it looks now, but here is an in progress before picture.




















and here is an after picture. there is still more work to do but the grass is growing (it's patchy, but it's growing), and it's not looking half bad!

we live on a dirt road and it FINALLY got scraped! the boys sat outside for a long time watching the tractor, and the driver even stopped in front of our house and let carter get inside. living on a dirt road has it's perks :)

this and that

max loves to dumpster dive. he is constantly pulling things out of the trash can. somethings are worse than others... empty wipes bag = ok, vegetable peelings and raw chicken packaging = NOT ok!

aren't these the cutest smiles you have ever seen?

we have an unfinished basement and it is GREAT for ridable toys!

we found this guy in our garage a month or so ago. they are pretty scary, ty and i both may have screamed a little :)

consistent parenting

yesterday was one of those days. the kind where carter tested my patience to the N'th degree, and i could clearly see my mother-of-the-year award, slipping further and futher out of my reach. he screamed all through safeway, refused to obey almost everything asked of him, and later in the day cried about EVERYTHING! he was in and out of time-out all day, had a spanking or two, and even more threats hissed at him through clenched teeth.

as i went to bed last night, after i had expressed my frustrations to tyrell, i lied there wondering why i can't be a better mother? i lose my temper, i raise my voice, and sometimes...on the worst days, i consider my child's imminent demise :) i mean, where is the loving, calm, and wise, mother who will be praised by her adult children as a great teacher and disciple of Christ from the pulpit of the conference center? :)

it is at these low points, where one needs a little support and validation that not everything you do as a parent is in need of revision. and who better to buoy you up in your time of need, than the man who loves you no matter what. so in an attempt to fish out a compliment, i posed a question to tyrell:

"does it make you so sad that i am not a great mother?"

to which he so lovingly replied:

"no. it just makes me feel better about not being a great dad."

well folks, there you have it... at least here in the smith home we are all on the same page, providing consistently bad parenting :)

ok so here are a few pictures of our summer adventures

summary

i keep getting on here, ready to make our summer adventures public, but discouragement sets in and i can't decide where to start. my neglect has rendered me immobile. so, in an attempt to move forward, i will provide a short pictureless synopsis of our summer's happenings. after which, i will attempt to keep my updates more current :)

JUNE
-re-modeled our master closet
-max started crawling and pulling himself up
-we tore out most of our old landscaping (tons and tons of rock) made a circular drive, hauled in dirt for grass! lots and lots of shoveling and rock displacement.... killer
-re-roofed the house
-trips to the lake
-ty fixing cars
-boys being adorable and occasionally horrid :)
- i started working out in the mornings, loving it


JULY
-home to AZ:
*4th july in SJ, BBQ, fireworks, foot races at the park, beautiful weather lots of family
*pima to fix car (to no avail), play with friends, cousins and ty's parents
- carter learned to jump off side of pool, float with floaties, and 'swim' to the stairs all by himself
-trip to lake navajo with friends: awesome new lake, got sun burned, camped with both boys for the first time, minimal sleep, mosquitoes, good water, kids had tons of fun on the shore.
-ty went to scout camp
-ty fixing more cars
-ty had training in denver: the boys and i went to stay in the hotel with him for a few days, swimming, mall and more importantly escalators (carter's favorite), out to eat, pump it up (bouncy place, carter still a little too young), temple
- lake trips


AUGUST (so far)
-ty to emerald lake for back packing trip with high school friends
-the kids and i to my family reunion at the homestead: volleyball, treego, race (carter kept running over the finish line so people would cheer for him), games (carter LOVED being able to yell and cheer as loudly as he could, he was very enthusiastic), cousins, dancing (no one danced their heart out like carter) , dirt, carter in heaven!
-leveling and trenching for sprinkler system (moved more rocks...boo) grass on the horizon !!!!
-ty started work
-max top teeth in
-carter can now tell you how old he is "I'm two!" :)
- more lake trips

and there you have it!

GET IT!

so we had a problem. a HUGE moth problem. for a few weeks, we were plagued with millions of moths (i think they were bad here in PW, but i believe our house was a little worse because we have 'butterfly' bushes, which apparently, also attracts moths). they were swarming near every door and had the audacity to dive-bomb your face every time you walked outside. the front door was barely usable at night, the garage was infested and the house was their next target. so i had to take action.

a bunch of them made it into the house and they got the fly swatter treatment after i couldn't stand the sound of their gross little bodies hitting the walls, the windows, or the lights!
i also had a personal bug man, carter, who is awesome at catching bugs. he came bringing me one once and so i started directing his talents to the moth problem. it's pretty cute because every time he sees a flying insect, he gasps and says "GET IT!", and then proceeds to hunt it down. he is kind of like a cat who catches and releases until he has maimed the poor thing, but i stopped feeling badly for them after there were 20 or so in my house. he puts the dead ones in the trash or throws the maimed ones outside, where i hope they inform their friends that anyone caught trespassing will be tortured :)

after my friends suggestion (from her bug man) of a bucket of soapy water only delivered three dead moths, we took a more 'ghost buster' style approach.... the shop vac. if you don't have one of these GET ONE! they are so useful and can be used for an array of projects, and if you were wondering, sucking up moths is one of them :)

i turned on the outside lights, luring them in with my warm light goodness, and then shop vac-ed them to their death. i stood out there for a good half hour sucking up hundreds of them. but the truth is... it didn't' even make a dent. they had a million more friends waiting for an open spot at the light.

but then, just as i was headed to the store for a bug zapper, they disappeared just as quickly as they appeared. odd... but i'm glad it's over:) perhaps i should go ahead and buy that zapper so i can be ready for them next time.




this doesn't even do it justice.

hurray!!!!

well tyrell did it! he graduated on the 7th of may with his masters of business administration and we are so proud of him! he has been working full time and going to school full time for two years and at last, all that hard work has paid off! we are excited to have him around again and for our summer adventures. congratulations tyrell, we love you and are so proud!

sometimes the cuteness is more than i can stand!!!!!

WANTED

ok, so as previously mentioned, we went to pima for part of our spring break. and it was there, in pima, that carter had his first run-in with the law (probably just like his daddy).

at gma and gpa smith's the kids typically play in the front yard. this particular sunday morning was no different, the kids were playing outside as usual, with all the fun ride-able toys (carter's favorite). he was riding around on the big wheel and i was checking on him from time to time.

i checked on him and then proceeded to change max, get ready for church etc. after a while i went outside to check on him again, but he wasn't in the front yard. so i searched in the house, in the back yard and still no carter. i told tyrell that he was missing and we all started to look.

i couldn't see him up or down the street, i headed over to the church and looked around the lawn and around the back... but still no carter. i started heading toward the highway when some church goers, who saw that i was in search of something, asked me if i was looking for a little boy. i told them that i was, and they informed me that " the cops got him". he said it so casually i thought he was joking. so i quickly replied "it's about time they caught him. he causes a lot of trouble." i smiled, and he told me they took him up toward the tasty freeze. so all of a sudden i realize "oh, you're not joking." he reassured me that he wasn't and i started running that direction.

at this point i wasn't thinking clearly i guess i thought the police would be AT the tasty freeze, but it was sunday and i could see they were closed up ahead, and i started to wonder if i was going to have to go to the police station to pick him up. but then i spotted a cop car pull out from a side street and head down the highway. i tried to get their attention by waving my arms and yelling while i was running, but they did not see my charade. luckily they didn't go far. they stopped at a house just a little ways up (to see if the boy belonged to them) so i ran down and across the highway to let them know that HE'S MINE!

about the time i was in the middle of the highway, i saw tyrell round the corner in the 15 passenger van. he saw where i was going and we all met up with the police about the same time. the police man had a woman with him and carter was on her lap smiling at me from the window.

the cop said they saw him on the side of the highway on his big wheel (gma and gpa smith's house is only 100 yards or so from the highway). they were afraid he was going to get hit so they stopped and picked him up. he went willingly and they threw the big wheel in the back. the lady said she enjoyed holding him because he smelled so good. she told because he looked nice and clean she wasn't too worried about him (thank heaven he had had a bath that day :) they had been driving around the block to see if they could find who he belonged to. and even while she was expalining all of this to me, carter was back on the big wheel heading toward to street!

we reprimanded him, but i don't think he knew what was going on. we went back over the 'no, no' and 'yes,yes' areas of grandma's yard, but we sure kept a much closer eye on him the rest of the time.

this whole ordeal probably took place in minutes, but it was a little scary. thank heaven we were in a small town, he didn't get out onto the highway, and it was the police who picked him up and not some crazy! i am pretty sure he would have gotten in the car with anyone, and he wanders all the time.

so for the upcoming months.... we will be working on stranger danger and road safety!

hopefully this will be the only time i have to retrieve my son from the police :)

march

in march we went home to AZ. we had a crazy trip which consisted of going to SJ, show low, mesa and pima. its was tyrells spring break and my good friend chuck was getting married so we headed home. we got to sj, i went with my mom and max to mesa for the wedding (which was great i have never seen a live sealing with children involved, it was touching), ty kept carter and helped his brother with their new house in showlow, then we met in globe and both went to pima ( which was the only time i took pictures). we had a fun time, riding tractor (carter didn't ride in the bucket he was more interested in sitting on grandpas lap and watching how to make the tractor work), four wheelers (we went out to red knolls and braved the wind), watching uncle flynts airplanes, crawdad fishing, and visiting with lots of friends and family. then we went back to sj for a few days. it was great to see everyone but these trips take it out of us!

in this picture i imagine they are using the buddy system to make sure it's safe to cross the street.

february

so i am a few months behind so brief updates. February brought us a few snow storms, so ty had a great opportunity to shovel snow (a task he claims he really likes) and we got to take a trip to the mountains and use the chains. we made and decorated cookies for valentines day and carter is my best helper when i bake. he loves to put the ingredients in, and turn on the mixer, but most of all he likes cookie dough! and of course, our kids are adorable and we love their sweet little faces!