Grandma

This week my sweet Grandma passed away.

I have thought so much about her the past few days. Here are some of my favorite Grandma memories:

• As soon as I walked in Grandma’s door, she was feeding me something and saying, "You don't eat enough to keep a bird alive!"
• The steps to Grandma’s basement were so steep; I fell down them all the time.
• I loved spinning in the beauty salon chairs downstairs until I threw up.
• I never believed Grandma that the beer in her downstairs fridge was just for doing hair.
• I loved swinging on that huge, rolling gate in Grandma’s driveway.
• We would fight over who would brave Grandma’s scary basement to go down and bring us all up popcorn balls.
• I could never get the lid off of Grandma’s glass candy jar without making noise.
• I loved Grandma’s bright pink and green decorations and cuckoo clocks.
• When I called Grandma to tell her that I had opened my mission call and I was going to Guatemala she said, “Oh hell! Now I am going to be worried sick about you for 18 months!”
• Whenever we saw Grandma, she kissed us all over our cheeks (remember those fast kisses) and left bright pink lipstick all over our faces.
• Grandma’s kitchen always smelled like cookies, her bedroom always smelled like Vicks and her bathroom always smelled like a lit match.
• Grandma used to send us birthday cards each year with her pretty handwriting and a dollar for every year old we were.
• Grandma always looked and smelled beautiful.
• Grandma always made me feel like I was her favorite. "Oh bless your heart!"

I will miss her.

Birthday Boy

This week, we celebrated Jason’s 35th birthday. He is such an old man.

We had German pancakes for breakfast and then he opened his gifts. He got a cover for the back of his truck and a coupon to get it detailed. He got some funny t-shirts (he loves those) and some artwork from the kids.

More than anything, he was excited that I got him his own library card. (He has wanted one for months, but never has the time to go and get one.) Now he can check out as many nerdy science-fiction books as his heart desires. ☺

Cutie

Macey is getting so big. She runs all over the house like she owns it. She always acts like she’s doing something really important – like stacking all the cups in the dishwasher is a matter of national security.

Her two newest phrases are “Shay-Shay”, which she says so cute, and “Push play!” which means make this TV turn on with a show that I like on it, and hurry.

Dang, she’s cute.

Second Grade Lunch

Friday was Second Grade Lunch Day at Shaylin’s school. On that day, the second graders get to vote on the lunch menu (pizza, kiwi, celery and P.B. and popsicles) and their families get to come and eat lunch with them.

Shaylin was so proud to have us all come to lunch with her. She loved showing us all what to do. “That is where you get your milk. Eat your celery before your dessert. Be sure to put your carton in the recycle bin.” She was in her element.

It was fun to see how she acts at school. She is very motherly to the other kids, especially to the boys in her class. “Brian, don’t forget your coat. Teagan, be sure to hand in your math.” But they seem to love it.

She is such a doll.

Scientist

Skyler is still our little scientist. He HAS to know how everything works. You should have seen him at my Grandma’s funeral. He was the first one to go see her at the viewing and he had a million questions.

I can’t tell you how awkward it was (as teary friends and relatives were walking passed us) to have him asking “Now, exactly how long does it take for a human body to decompose? Are you sure that they should bury Great Grandma with all of her clothes and jewelry? What about grave robbers? You know in ancient Egypt…”

How embarrassing.

Sawyer's Day

I don’t have a long Sawyer paragraph for you. Instead I will just SHOW you what he has been doing today. Can you see that bump!?! That is from sliding down the stairs inside his laundry basket. Ahhh!

I think that I need to cover him in bubble wrap every single morning.

Shaylin's Post

this morning I got macey out of bed. I asked her if she could say shay shay. then she said shay shay so perfect.

then I carried her down stairs and Skyler said to macey can you say Skyler? And macey said skygoo. everyone burst out laghing. I love macey!

from Shaylin

Valentines Day

We had a fun Valentines Day. We did all our favorite traditions:
• We had pink, heart-shaped pancakes for breakfast.
• We all wore red or pink (I even made Jason wear his maroon scrubs.)
• Shaylin got a heart hair do.
• The Valentines Fairy brought everyone gifts and cheesecakes.
• Jason brought all his girls flowers.
• We decorated sugar cookies for our friends.
• Jason and I went on a romantic date.
• All day long Sawyer told everyone, “Merry Valentine’s Day!”

We tried to teach Macey how to say “Happy Valentines Day!” She could only say “Appy Day!” Now the kids love to say that. “Bye Mom. Appy day!” Cute.

Bad Day

I have to tell you a cute thing that Skyler did this week. He had a rough morning one day because everyone was staying home from school sick but him, plus he was running late and he couldn’t find his gloves.

I kept thinking about him all day. I felt like something was telling me that he needed a little extra TLC.

By 4:00 I could tell that my sick kids at home were all fine, so we decided to do something special for Skyler. We packed up all of our swim gear and hid it in the back of the van.

When we picked Sky up from school, he was very depressed because there had been a lunch change (hot dogs) and he had lots of long-division math homework. He worked on his homework while we drove, and I could tell that he was fighting back tears.

When we stopped the car he looked up and said, “Why are we at the Rec Center?” That was our queue, so we all yelled, “SURPRISE! WE ARE TAKING YOU SWIMMING!” Skyler burst into tears and threw himself into my arms. He said, “Thank you, Mom. I had the worst day of my life. Thank you for making it all better!” It was such a precious moment.

I know that God was probably answering a lot more important prayers that day, but I was so grateful for His answer to mine. I am grateful for a Heavenly Father who loves us enough to care about something as seemingly insignificant as a little boy who had a really bad day and just needed his mom to take him swimming.

Puking

This is going to be a short, boring update because this is what I did last week:

1. First, Shaylin was sick and throwing up. Then she got better.
2. Second, Macey was sick and throwing up. Then she got better.
3. Third, Skyler was sick and throwing up. Then he got better.
4. Fourth I was sick and throwing up. Then I got better.
5. Last, my dryer broke - not good timing when you have lots of vomit-covered things to wash.

I am feeling very behind today. Ugh.

Chili

Jason did want me to make sure that you all know that his chili won the “Judge’s Choice” and the “People’s Choice” awards at our ward chili cook-off on Friday.

He is planning on getting his certificates framed so that he can hang them in his office. Really.

Another Reason Not to Buy a Treadmill

This week, Sawyer was playing on the treadmill (while I ran into the toy room to check on Macey for like TWO SECONDS) and he fell and his arms got “sucked” under the treadmill. The belt rubbed the skin off of his little arms in a few places. But I was mostly concerned because he cried over it for an hour before he finally fell asleep whimpering on my lap. (Sawyer never cries over getting hurt for more than 45 seconds. Then he’s off and running again.)

After he woke up, his elbow had swollen up like a tennis ball. And I SWEAR that it was bent at a weird angle! So, naturally, I freaked out and drove to my parent's to have Grandpa check it out. Then, as my mom put it, “Somehow his guardian angels put him back together on the way from his house to ours. We are sure that Sawyer has guardian angels that are always running to save him. And if they aren’t fast enough, they heal him. Poor angels. I’ll bet they’re completely worn out at the end of every day.”

I was kind of embarrassed that, after all that fuss, he was perfectly fine, but I am soooo glad that he is okay. He is such a sweet boy.

I had a long talk with him about staying off of the treadmill at ALL times. He said, “But Mom, I’m really fast. I only fall when I try to do flips or turns.” I am hiding the start key.

Our Spontaneous Trip

Since we were in Utah, and the roads were terrible and the kids had Friday off anyway, we just decided to stay. We relaxed at Grandma’s, went to McDonalds, went bowling, and mostly just watched the snow fall.

On Friday, we took the kids to Kangaroo Zoo where they have tons of big, bouncy inflatable jumpers and slides. The kids had a blast. Even Macey was climbing and sliding and having a ball.

Uncle Kenny came and convinced the kids that he worked there. Then he organized several races and games. He’s such a big kid.



That night, Jason drove up and joined us. We had a big dinner with all of my cute sisters and their families. After dinner, the Moms (and Shaylin) played games while the little kids watched Cars and wrestled. The Dads went and played at a Nickle Arcade until midnight. Skyler and Isaac were very honored because they got to go too. They had a great time. Skyler is still talking about it.

On Saturday, we went to the baptism of our cute niece, Kylee. Afterwards the kids played with their Smith cousins until we drug them all to the car. We had to start driving home because we knew that more snow storms were coming.

It was a great spontaneous trip except that I didn't have a camera or enough underwear.

Snow Days

The kids had Monday and Tuesday off for snow days. (Why did we never get those in Utah? They are the best!)

This is how Shaylin spends her snow days.



This is how Skyler spends his snow days.



You should see how much snow we have now! It’s crazy. Our van got stuck in the driveway on the way to church this morning. We all had to pile in the truck.

Today was fast Sunday, and I think that Skyler fasted for another snow day tomorrow. We’ll see.