easter 2011

The boys are at the perfect ages for all the Easter festivities. Charlie is not too old and Cannon is just old enough to get that it is a pretty special time filled with family and crazy traditions. He kept looking at us like, egg hunting? Seriously? We have carpet in our dining area, so there was definitely not going to be any egg dying at the table. What else is the huge island for other than to climb up on and get crafty?
So typical of Cannon, trying to boss Charlie around. He definitely thought he was the egg dying master. He took charge of what colors all the eggs were going to be, whether we wanted him to or not.

The word "gentle" is not in Cannon's vocabulary, so most of the eggs looked like this when we were done:

Cannon wanted the Easter bunny all to himself. Have I mentioned that he is 2???

Once we tried to get Charlie in the picture, he was over it.

We headed to the cousins' house in Des Moines for Easter weekend. The kids LOVE visiting their cousins.

Although he thought it was crazy at first, Cannon had no trouble catching on to the egg hunt concept once he found out there was candy involved. Charlie of course was an old pro at the hunt. Four very happy kids. :) Checking out the loot.

I think it is safe to say Easter 2011 was a huge sucess!

we miss her.

This picture was taken in August when we were in Boise for a visit. It was a million degrees and she was in quite a bit of pain due to her hip, but she was determined to go out on these paddle boats with the boys. She took Charlie in her boat and I had Cannon with me. Cannon kept trying to climb out of the boat so I had to watch him and try to paddle at the same time. Our boat kept getting stuck in the mossy stuff. I was sweating and getting a bit crabby but I tried to keep up with Grandma P. and Charlie. When we were finished, you could tell she was in a lot of pain and she was just as hot and sweaty as I was, but she had a big smile on her face and she was so happy to have this special time with the boys. At the time, I thought she was a little crazy for dragging us out there. But now I am so thankful for this memory. This is the last picture I took of her.

I can't believe it has almost been a month since she passed. She is in my thoughts all day long. I still can't believe that she is gone.

I miss her for my boys. She loved them with all of her heart. After she passed we had to stop by her office for some paperwork. All four of us walked in and Eric made a little small talk and then introduced himself as Priscilla's son. Her co-workers smiled and said "We know, we recognized Charlie the minute you guys walked in. He sure was the light of her life, she never stopped talking about him." Grandma P. and Charlie had such a special bond and I am so sad for him. I don't think Charlie completely understands what has happened but I hope he is not too young to remember that love that they had for each other.

I miss her for my husband. She was his number one cheerleader. When we first got married, I would get upset because Eric would share some news with her or ask her for advice when I thought he should be talking to me. But I quickly learned that they just got each other. They were alike in so many ways and she always knew how to encourage and support him in just the way he needed it. Instead, I became grateful for the support that she gave him because it made him a better husband and father. I know he is in a lot of pain. I wish I could ask her what to say to him, to encourage him like she could.

I miss her for me. It took us a while to really get to know each other, but once we did, I felt so blessed that she was my mother-in-law. Not only for what she gave my kids and husband but what she gave to me. I am so thankful that I had a wonderful conversation with her just a few days before she passed. I wanted to know how she was recovering from her surgery, but she quickly brushed that off and used the time to encourage me. She asked about our new home and our jobs. We laughed about the funny things that the boys have been doing recently. She told me that I am a good mother and wife and that she loves me. I wish that I would have said more to her.

I pray that we gave to her even a tenth of what she gave to us. We love and miss her so very much.

home...

I am back from L.A. and it is nice to be home. CHA was fun, but I have never been more exhausted! We were working most of the time, but we were able to sneek away one night to the Magnolia bakery to get a cupcake. Yum.
We also got some dinner and were planning on seeing a movie, but we were just too tired to go!

It was nice to get a little break from the boys. It was easy to leave them behind because they were being left with their beloved GG. They hardly even noticed I was gone but they asked for GG the whole day after she left. I know where I rank!

The last few days have been spent playing playdoh, drawing puppy dogs and watching cartoons. Even though I may not be their first choice, I will say it again, it is good to be home. :)

Looking forward to relaxing this weekend before things get crazy again. Today Charlie told me that he was so glad it is Saturday tomorrow so that he could sleep in. I just wish by "sleeping in" he actually meant sleeping past 6:30am!

blur.

The last six weeks have been a total blur. I suppose that is what happens when you have 2 kids, move 1400 miles across the country, attend school and start a new part-time job during the holidays. Life has been moving at a tremendous speed lately, but you know what? We are all doing just fine. We are together and we are taking care of each other and things are good.

With the big tradeshow coming up and lots to do for that, things will continue to be busy for a while but we will just keep taking it all one day at a time.

I wanted to get down a few thoughts about our holidays before I completely forget! This year we really scaled back. We just didn't have the time to do everything we wanted to but it made me evaluate what is important. Even though it was the last thing I wanted to do after unpacking all our boxes, we did get the christmas decorations out. Overall, the boys couldn't care less about decorating the tree, but they did love this little toy. It has always been a favorite of Charlie's and now Cannon has discovered it too.


The one thing Charlie insisted we do is make cookies for Santa. He didn't care about anything but making sure he got the Michael Jackson Experience game for his Nintendo DS. He was pretty sure Santa was bringing it for him so we had to be sure to take care of the big guy by leaving him some treats.


>

The boys slept pretty well and even waited till 7am to get up. They got lots of great things from their friends and family and we all felt very blessed and loved this year.
Cannon figured out the presents thing pretty quickly.
After presents we got ready and drove to Des Moines to spend some time with Eric's sister and her family. It has been a while since the boys got to play with their cousins. It was great to relax and catch-up.



Because of all the craziness lately, I was happy to get all the decorations put away and get things back to a little more "normal". It was nice to keep things simple this year and focus on what is most important. I will definitely have to keep this in mind next year.

six!!!...

A special little boy in the Smith household turned six this weekend. We have spent the last few days celebrating him and all the amazing things he brings to our family. I don't remember being as reminiscent of his actual birthday in the past as I was this year. Throughout the weekend, I noticed I kept thinking about that day that he was born. It was the scariest day of my life. I had never felt so helpless and terrified. But it was also one of the most wonderful. Six years ago, this little boy made me a mama.
The boys got gift cards to Build-A-Bear so we started the day there. Neither of them have really been into stuffed animals (or plushes, as Charlie calls them) so we have never thought to take them there. They really liked it. They were quick to decide on their animal. Charlie picked the monkey and Cannon picked the panda bear.
Cannon holding his panda's heart and making a wish. You can see he was very serious about this.

Charlie didn't like the noise the stuffing machine made.

Making sure his panda was filled just right.

Naming their new friends. Charlie had already decided right away that his monkey would be named Monkey Man. Cannon had no idea so we came up with Pongo.

Charlie had gotten a kid's meal coupon for Rainforest Cafe from school and decided that is where he wanted to celebrate his birthday.

Another failed attempt at a group shot.

Cannon loved when the little show would come on. The lights would flash and there were rumbling noises.

They sang happy birthday and Charlie got a birthday sundae. We were lucky enough to have our friend's Heidi, Tanner and Chloe at dinner with us, but of course I forgot to get pictures of them. So typical.

Then we headed home for cake and presents. We didn't really have a party theme going on so we went with the good ol' standby for the cake. Charlie can always use a little Spongebob.

It was a very, very good day.

alive and well......in minnesota!

I know some of you have been wondering where in the world I have dissapeared to. Well, the answer is that we packed up our family, said goodbye to Utah and moved ourselves to Minnesota! Eric got a new job here (with a scrapbooking company of all things!) and it was too good of an opportunity to pass up. He left the beginning of November while I stayed behind and got all of our stuff packed up. Then on the weekend before Thanksgiving, Eric came back to load up the moving truck and start making the 1200 mile trek across the country to our new home. I knew there was no way I was willing to spend 20 hours in the car with Cannon, so he and I flew. It was totally worth every single penny to do that.

Eric took a few pictures of their adventure. The weather was terrible and he encountered many storms and setbacks. Charlie remembered riding in the moving van from Idaho to Utah so he was excited to do it again. We tried to tell him that this ride was going to be much longer, but he was insistent on riding with daddy.
Snowy roads for miles and miles.

There were several long stretches where they never even got over 15mph. They eventually had to stop on their first day in Laramie, WY because the road was closed. It took them over 9 hours to go just 350 miles.

One of the many wrecks that they saw on their way

Our car after the long trip.

They made a stop at Cabela's on the way to get an elk sandwich. (Yuck. Good thing I was not there because I definitely would have vetoed this decision!)

Crossing into Nebraska....

Ahhhhhh. After 3 days of driving, they finally reach Minnesota.

Since I previously blogged about how much I loved the Utah mountains, I thought it would be amusing to share this photo. This is the big ski hill here in MN. How sad.

And this is the view from our new place after our first snow storm. We now have about 12 more inches since this picture was taken. It is beautiful. Very cold, but beautiful nonetheless.

We are getting settled in and exploring our new surroundings. The school district here is one of the best and that was a huge factor in our decision to move. Charlie loves his new school and he has an awesome teacher. Both of the boys have done great with the move and we are feeling good about our decision to move. Just another part of our adventure. Sometimes I wonder what could possibly be next. I never would have thought that we would be moving to Utah a year ago and now here we are in Minnesota. Life can be crazy sometimes. But we are embracing it and loving (almost) every single moment!