Oh, what a week!

No pictures today, but just a quick update in our world.

During the past week, Chris and Greg had their 6th grade choir concert, 6th grade band concert, first youth temple trip, a broken hand (Greg), and the stomach flu (Chris). This week they have voice recital and semester tests. When did 6th grade get so busy?

Greg broke a bone in his hand doing bear crawls in pre-athletics (PE). He just landed on his hand funny. We were lucky. The break was not displaced at all and the orthopedic surgeon only splinted his hand and buddy taped his two middle fingers. He gets re-x-rayed in 3 weeks. He even had permission to take off the splint for the band concert. He's been reduced to playing the piano one-handed and even with that limitation I can't keep the kid off the piano.

Chris's stomach flu hit Saturday night and he was better by mid-afternoon Sunday. So review for their first semester tests wasn't affected.

Alex and Katie are trucking along. Spending most of their evenings at the twins' events. Their time will come...

We are all ready for Christmas break. We'll be in Pampa through Christmas and then we head to Grapevine for the weekend for my cousin's wedding. Can't wait!

Thanksgiving Weekend

We had a terrific and relaxing weekend. Mom came over for the turkey and fixings. Chris, who is interested in lots of everything, decided he wanted to help cook and carve the turkey. Paul and Chris brined the turkey overnight--isn't it pretty?--and then Chris carved. A bit of a rite of passage...

Otherwise, we spent the weekend decorating for Christmas and watching lots and lots of college football.

Birthday Party Fun

I have never been a huge fan of the "friends" birthday party. I love birthdays, I love to make a big deal of them, but I love to keep them to family. So the kids only get to have a friend party on my designated "big" birthdays. To date, the big birthdays have been 5-years old, 8-years old, and 12-years old. Of course the twins just turned 12, so it was party time.

We did have to postpone the party until after football season, but last Friday was the big night. We kept it small--just 3 friends came, but it was one of the most fun evenings we have had in a long time.

The boys' friend, Josh, just came home from school with them, so they all practiced their instruments together--by choice. They are all band geeks at heart.

(Greg-Clarinet, Josh-Trumpet, Chris-Trumpet)

After the other two boys came, we had pizza and ice cream and presents. One boy brought his Guitar Hero World Tour for the Wii for us to play. How fun! I highly recommend it. In fact, we hope Santa brings it to our family this year. We all took turned playing the guitars and the drums and singing. And then we played Wii Sports and Mario Kart.

(Chris on Drums)

(Paul on vocals, Chris and Alec on guitar, Ben and Josh watching)

One of the gifts was a Nerf gun set for two. And Josh had thoughtfully packed three more guns and darts, so all the boys had one. I had no idea that our house was the perfect setup for all-out Nerf Assault. We have several loops in the house and a pass-through window in the kitchen. We had already cleared out the living room for maximum Wii room, so it was on--Nerf style. Probably the most fun part of the evening.

(Greg in full Nerf getup)

It was a great evening. I wasn't even sad that I had to miss scrapbook night for it. I was having too much fun at home.

Happy Birthday Chris and Greg!

Chris (in Astros shirt) and Greg (in UT shirt) are 12 today!! [Mom brag on] And they are really great young men. They started Junior High this year (6th grade) and are really thriving. They took a credit-by-exam test last Spring and both were able to skip 6th grade math, so they are with 7th graders for one period a day. They were both on the A honor roll for the first 6 weeks and were nominated for "Outstanding Human Being" during the school's academic pep rally.

They are also in band and choir this year and love all the music. They were both selected for the area 6th grade honor choir which performs this Saturday. They are also still in piano lessons.

They love scouts and are very close to finishing their Second Class rank.

They can't wait to get the Priesthood next Sunday (and be in their last Primary Program).

They are great friends and brothers to each other.

I'm lucky to have these two great kids are my first! [Mom brag off]

4 Years Ago Today...

On October 6, 2004 I was hugely pregnant with my last child. And when I say huge, I really mean it. I was 36 weeks and 6 days.

I had convinced my doctor that I was not going to make it through the weekend and since he was headed out of town, he took pity on me. But no c-section without an amnio to check lung maturity (since it was still fairly early). The plan was to have the amnio on the 6th and c-section on the 7th.

Several hours on the monitor later (which was actually showing early labor) and a good amnio result, the c-section was moved to NOW. We had to wait on Paul who was picking up the twins from school.

We had not found out the gender of the baby since we were convinced it was Joshua coming to join our family. It was such a great surprise when Dr. Ellis pulled the baby out (even with a c-section, it still took the vacuum extractor to get her head out ) and said "It's a girl!" I have video evidence of me screaming "NO WAY!" It was such a fun surprise to have this 10 lbs, 3 oz baby girl join our family.

Four years later, Katie is still a surprise. She's a tomboy and a princess and a diva all wrapped up in one package. She keeps all her brothers and parents and primary teachers on their toes.

I can't wait to see what the next four years hold. Happy Birthday Katie!

Random Kindness of Strangers

So Paul is in San Francisco this week along with 50,000 of his closest friends for the annual Oracle Openworld conference. He arrived last night around 7:30 (Cal) after a particularly long day. (New Elders Quorum president and YW president and Stake President was in our ward and Bishop Paul spoke.) He had just gotten off BART and was heading to the conference center with suitcase, day pack, laptop bag when apparently cell phone fell off.

About 11:15 Texas time, the home phone rang. (I had just gotten to sleep of course). Saw that it was Paul's cell, but it wasn't Paul on the other end. It was random man who had found the phone. So I had to call Paul's hotel and connect the two men. Finally around 1 a.m. (Texas) they met up outside Paul's hotel and random bearded homeless man gave Paul his cell. Very odd evening. But pretty cool. And again a lesson that all isn't as it may initially seem.

Today has gone much smoother. Hoping for better sleep for all.

Alex is 9!

Alex turned 9 today. He was "Baby Alex" for so long, that it's hard to see him grown up reading Harry Potter (finished all 7 this summer) and building big Lego models.

Today for his birthday we went to the park and shot off rockets--the blue one didn't survive its last flight.In the afternoon, Grandma came to the pizza party--pizza for dinner and pizza-decorated cake for dessert.

We love that Alex is part of our family. He thinks of so many clever things that make us laugh! He was our wonderful surprise when the twins were not quite 3 years old. He was our best anniversary gift ever!!

Happy 9th Birthday Alex!

Happy 17th Anniversary Paul!

I'm blaming the Olympics...

I love the Olympics. Always have--it's genetic I think. So I'm staying up entirely too late every night watching. The ensuing fatigue is a good excuse for all sorts of things though--bad Word Twist play on Facebook, skipping workouts, dishes in the sink. Go USA!!

We are on the countdown to school. Just like everyone else in Texas we start on the 25th. I personally can't wait. When the kids are bored of the Wii and Spongebob, you know it's time for school.

Welcome to Google Reader, Christine!

Texas--Part 2

Where were we...ohh, still in Houston. Now at Minute Maid Park. Astros lost 8-7 (not a shocker, I know).

And for grins, here's Paul with his sister Sherri and his brother Rob. Maybe someday all 7 siblings will be in the same place at the same time, but for now, they are spread cross-country.

Stop #3: Austin to see my sister Christine. We toured the State Capitol and drove around the 40 Acres. (The University of Texas--Hook 'em!)

Doesn't Katie look like a young Annie Oakley?

We drove a lot but never left the state (still saw 38 state license plates), and we had a great time! Thanks to all our hosts!!

Tour of Texas

We haven't been down to Houston in lots and lots of years, so it was time to make the trek.

Stop #1: The Linford home (Lisa's aunt and uncle) in Grapevine (DFW area) for school shopping and swimming in their backyard pool.

My Aunt Pat has lost over 190 pounds since April 2007 on the Medi-Fast program. Doesn't she look awesome! I need to get some of her determination and willpower.

Stop #2: Cohn home (Paul's sister and brother-in-law) in Clear Lake City (Houston)

Lots and lots of fun here with Paul's family. Sherri has 2 sets of twins and another daughter so we had lots of twins running around--and lots of kids in general.

Chris and Greg (11), Veronica and Stefani (18), Eric and Melody (17 mo.)

Alex (8), Maddie (15), Katie (3)

While we were in Houston we went to Space Center Houston and saw a Saturn 5 rocket (it's huge!) and Chris decided again that he wanted to work for NASA.

We also spent time at the Kemah boardwalk. Rides were expensive and okay. Running around in the dancing fountains fully clothed was free and awesome!

Part 2 of vacation forthcoming...

Where did July go??

July was a very busy, very fun month for us. Lots of Cub Scouts, lots of travel.

During the end of June through the beginning of July, I was the program director for both of our district's Cub Scout camps. One was a twilight camp with around 35 scouts and the other was a day camp with around 70 scouts and siblings. (I know these seem puny to you big city folk, but big enough for me!) Rain was a bit of a problem during the day camp, but otherwise both camps went relatively well. Both camps met a series of 50+ standards to be nationally accredited by the BSA. Pretty big deal, so Roper (camp director) and I were happy--but I really think that we were happy that it was the last day of camp...

Vacation fun to follow in another post.

Tennis, Swimming, and Cub Scouts...

It was a crazy, crazy week at the Smith house--thus the lack of blog posts.

Alex and Katie were in swimming lessons the last two weeks. Katie had to be bribed to jump off (or rather be lowered off) the diving board. Alex is better. He can make it from the diving board to the ladder with a pretty strong doggie paddle.

Chris spent the week in tennis camp. He's never even picked up a racket until now (yes, mom and dad aren't exactly athletes), but he did decently. More importantly, he had fun.

I was the program director for a Cub Scout Twilight Camp this past week. We had 34 cubs attend for three nights. It went amazingly well--only minor, minor problems. My big day camp starts a week from tomorrow, but I'm so much calmer now that I have the first camp under my belt.

All in all, it's a good summer so far.

Katie and her Cinderella hair bows

My cousin Melissa made the cutest hair bows for Katie, so I had to show them off! Aren't they (both the bows and Katie) adorable! Thanks Melissa!!

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all the men out there.

We've had a nice quiet day here--thankfully! Katie is back to normal, Paul cancelled PEC, ribs are in the oven, gift is open.

We gave Paul a digital picture frame for his office. Fortunately we had picked out the frame prior to Katie's outpouring...

Here's the happy dad with his clan. (Chris, Paul, Katie, Greg, Alex)

My Afternoon in the ER

Katie had her first ER visit today.

Short story: mild concussion--lots of vomiting but clear head CT

Long story: While playing in the sprinklers, Katie ran inside to get a toy. Boom, crack, head on wood floor, lots of crying. I consoled and let her play more. We cleaned up to go to Walmart for Father's Day gift, cards, meal supplies. Katie complained of a headache and was fussy. But onward. We got the gift and were at the crowded card aisle (my fault for waiting until the last minute) when Katie threw up everywhere. Yuck!

With the help of a friend that was at the store (X-ray tech), I made the decision to take her to the ER. So got her and the boys home and Katie into new clothes. Called Paul (on his way home from the temple with the youth) and headed to the hospital. Fortuately, it's a small town and our house is 2 minutes from Walmart and the hospital (which is next to Walmart). A less-active member was working the admit desk (yeah) and we were just finishing the papers when our Home Teacher and 2 other members of the ward walked in to give Katie a blessing. Paul's van-full had been busy on their cells! Poor Katie threw up 3 more times in the ER but was a trooper. She even told me before it happened so I was able to get her to the sink. Yeah Katie! She held still for the CT and finally she was allowed to go to sleep, so I watched The Princess Diaries on TV while we waited for enough time to pass.

She is home and doing great--color is back, smiling and talking, but not sleepy anymore... I always knew that she was going to be our first ER trip (except for me and my checkered OB history).

All in all, not a bad ER experience. Seen right away and only 2 1/2 hours start to finish. But better safe than sorry. Think of me at midnight, 1 a.m, when Katie is still awake because she napped.

Family Night

Since it was only 79 degrees out yesterday (YEAH!!) swimming was out for FHE last night. So instead we played Cranium's Family Fun. Pretty funny--it's really turned into a family favorite. Everyone can play and there's actually no fighting!

Greg won the game for his team with the move in the picture. He had to start laying down and then stand up without dropping the block from his forehead. Everyone (except me) gave it a try--even Katie.

Okay, I'm entering the blog world...

I enjoy so many other blogs--I'm truly a blog stalker. So fair's fair and here I am trying to capture the life of the Panhandle Smith in an interesting way. Keep your fingers crossed.

We've survived Week 1 of 12 of Summer 2008. Dentist appointments, walking at the church, lots of Wii... Alex is a bike rider finally.

More of the same this week. I do have to bite the bullet and plan two Cub Scout Day Camps this week. I'm seriously procrastinating!

So there it is--post #1. Next I'll attempt pictures.