Deer Creek with the Cousins

My mom, sisters, sister-in-law, and I took all of the kids to Deer Creek on Thursday. We stayed all day. I had so much fun with them all.

Cutest kid ever. I know! He's my baby and spoiled to bits. I love having a little toddler and being able to give him the attention he wants. Right now I should be having another baby if I were to be following my previous baby schedules, but I'M NOT! :)


He played in the sand the entire time with occasional trips to check the water temperature (which was never satisfactory). He even skipped his nap and never whined once. What a stud muffin. Sheesh. He is always furrowing his eyebrows in his pictures. WHY!!! Oh well. It's cute!


Another picture of my baby just because he's adorable!


Love this picture. Kent had a blast. I didn't even lose him once! Which, if you know him, was a miracle. He stayed in the water almost the whole time just floating around in that little tube. He came out a few times to play in the sand, but not for long. We were there for over 8 hours, so he was definately water logged.


Kent in his element with his cousin Kade.


Erica and Ellery. Two little bugs. Kids with goggles on always remind me of bugs! But these two are definately pretty little bugs!


Here's another picture of my pretty little princess, Erica, because you couldn't see her face behind the bug eyes. Isn't she gorgeous!


What up, yo! Jace is so easy now. I just send him off (still in a life jacket because I'm a worry wart) and let him play all day. He had a blast! He was also my personal life gaurd. He kept an eye on all of my kids that ever touched the water. He's my angel!


Jace and the cousins on Trudy's fun rafts. They kept the kids entertained the entire time and tuckered them right out I might add. I had NO problem getting them to sleep last night!

Wow! Long post! I need to stop taking so many pictures because then I want to post them all. Believe it or not, I didn't even come close.

My baby Ryan is 2!

My cute little Ryan turned 2 today. It's funny to think there was ever a time where he wasn't here. I love him to pieces and wish he could stay this age forever. I love him just like this!! Here Ryan is driving his brand new "house". He calls all cars or pretty much anything with wheels "houses" for some reason, and to him, any animal is a tweet tweet. Oooh I just love him!

Some funny things about Ryan....

He is a bully!!! Who would've thought that a 25 lb 2 year old would be the terror of the nursery. He has a problem with pushing the kids down. He's so used to playing with his rough and tumble brothers that he thinks that's just what you do. We've been working on it though. So this week Ryan walked into nursery and walked up to all of the kids and said "nice" to each one. See...isn't he cute!!

Ryan is my first child that is not terrified of dogs. Somehow all of my others are absolutely petrified of them. Now that they're older, they try not to show it, but you can tell they are because whenever they see a dog walking by they are somehow right behind me just casually walking there, or suddenly decide that they need to walk very far off of the sidewalk. But Ryan, I have a hard time trying to get him not to stick his hand right into the dogs mouths. He reaches his hands into fences to try to pet them, pulls on their tails, and begs to pet everyone dog he sees.

Ryan has a bedtime song. I give all of my kids their own song that I sing to them before I put them down to bed. His is "I Know My Father Lives". Ryan now sings it with me. I sing, "I know my father lives and loves me..." Ryan sings "tooooooo". Me "the spirit whispers this to me and tells me it is..." Ryan "toooooo" Me "and tells me it is" Ryan "toooo". Every time he says "toooo" he gives me an eskimo kiss by rubbing our noses together. Needless to say I love getting him ready for bedtime and naptime. Daddy and I fight for it at night!

Ryan is also our future wrestler. Whenever he sees anyone on the ground, he yells uh, uh, twe, GO... and does as big of a sprint as his little legs can and throws himself onto them for a body slam. Then if we start yelling "get him, get him" he'll start hitting them in the belly with his little hands. I guess this is more like UFC, but we call it wrestling. It sounds better. Now that I think of it, I'm really wondering why he's a bully. We're always so gentle and soft in our home.

There are so many cute things about Ryan that I could go on at on but lets just say he is the baby of the family and very spoiled. We'll just leave it at that. Happy Birthday to my baby Ryan!

GRASS!!!!!!!!!!

We've waited a year and finally got to put in grass. I even laid most of the sod myself (with my neighbor Lani) for Tony as a suprise early Father's Day present. We mowed it today for the first time. My kids are loving it! Me too!! Now as soon as the hydroseed grows a little longer in the back, we can have them all fenced in nice and safe. It's so exciting!

Kent Turned 4!

For Kent's birthday we went to the zoo with lots and lots of our cousins.



Then we went home and had a spiderman party.

Then we finished with Jace's baseball game. These pictures are actually from his last game, but we'll pretend they were from yesterday.

Lastly just a randon picture in the life of Carrie when I tried to get something done outside without my kids. They babysat eachother. It was a great idea. You can't see it, but that cup there used to hold apple juice. Now the apple juice is just marinating the Marshmallow Mateys so they taste better. At least the apple juice didn't follow the rest of the Marshmallow Mateys into all of the beds and couch cushions. The bunch of goofballs!

The Pinewood Derby

Jace and Tony worked very hard on this car. Jace did most of the painting and sanding. We have a friend who loves to do wood working and obviously had a great time in making this car look the way it does. Jace originally designed it, but our friend, Kade, cut it and added a little extra curves and flare. During the practice runs, Jace's car took first every time, but by the time the races started, his wheels started to get loose and wobble and it began getting a little slower. He didn't win, but did get a "Best Workmanship" award. Congrats to Jace!




Jace's car is the fourth from the left

Smith Family Reunion

We went with most of my family...we missed you Ben, Matt, and families...to the funnest camping place which I will not reveal for selfish purposes. There was golfing, fishing, swimming, a playground, paddle boats, canoeing, 4-wheeling, and we were not right in the middle of a city even though it sounds like it. It was so fun! My side of the family hasn't done a lot of camping trips together since we've all married off, so hopefully this is the beginning of more to come!







Catching tadpoles!! EWWWW! We even came home with a new pet toad. UGH!


Hanging Out At Camp



Playing At The Lake




Some well deserved R & R


What a great trip!!

Just The Boys

I'm realizing that I used to do all of these fun things with Jace and Erica when they weren't in Elementary school yet. Kent and Ryan are getting the shaft! Because I always have to be close by at nine, noon, and three for school pick-up and drop-off, it's hard to go anywhere for long. So on Wednesday and Thursday the boys got to "see what it tastes like" to actually have a fun mom and get some REAL attention. Erica got to go play with her cousin, Ellery, after Kindergarten on Wednesday, and then her good friend, Porter, on Thursday. This way I could have until 2-3 to be out.

On Wednesday we went to the Zoo with my sisters, Jessi and Becky, and their non-school-attending children. Then on Thursday, we went and watched my mom's 3rd grade program. Afterward, we went to McDonalds and then fed the ducks with my sister, Jessi, and her daughter, Whitney.









Feeding the Ducks
(It was so cold, we only stayed about 5 minutes. But hey, it's all about the experience.)




"How much you wanna make a bet I can throw a football over them mountains?... Yeah... Coach woulda put me in fourth quarter....we would've been state champions. No doubt. No doubt in my mind."