SMITH SCOOP

Owen's First week

2011-11-12T16:22:00.001-07:00

Meeting two pirates and peter pan for the first time..

coming home from the hospital..

getting Grandpa's take on the weekend..

Getting lots, and lots of love..

According to Carson.. "He is SO welcome to our family!"

Brag Moment

2011-09-06T14:21:00.003-06:00

So this arrived in the mail today!! Ben has yet to see it, but I hope he doesn't care that I posted it on here, but I wanted Deane and Ella to read it. This was so fun to witness in that cramped taxi car on the way to the airport! Way to go Ben!! Missionary work 10 years later!

If you click on the letter it will get bigger. Love you all!

It is time to update our blogs!!!!!

2011-08-16T10:43:00.002-06:00

That is POOP, not chocolate. DON'T BE CONFUSED!!!

2011-07-23T09:10:00.004-06:00

Sorry, no pictures of this. Nasty is all I can say. Mia came upstairs with no diaper and had smeared herself, yes her mouth too and the entire stairwell with poop. Nasty!!!!!!!!

A Zoo at the Zoo

2011-07-22T13:12:00.004-06:00

Thanks Mom for going with me and the kids to the zoo. There were many "zoo" moments...wild frantic screaming for bandaids...thank you for the drama Porter! Not to mention the baby herding while we were waiting in line for the train...how many packages of fruit snacks did the twins eat in a five minute period?? It was fun! Thanks again!

R.I.P Rainy

2011-07-19T04:28:00.001-06:00

We had a sad day at the Smith home last week. Our fish Rainy (sometimes called Shiny) passed away. In her/his Eulogy some kind words were spoken. She was given to Carson for his 2nd birthday and was special to Addie because she picked her out, it was raining that night hence the name.
Ben spoke of her drive to stay alive despite her malnourished little life. I admitted sometimes it was hard to remember to feed her and clean her bowl, but she made our kids so happy. We will miss you rainy, but can visit you often as we didn't flush you down the toilet for the sharks to eat, instead we buried you in our backyard despite the insistence of the parents. R.I.P our little fish.

Happy 4th of July!

2011-07-18T12:42:00.001-06:00

We hope you had a great time!

Diaper Drama

2011-07-11T21:22:00.001-06:00

This post is courtesy of Ky. He was laughing so hard he started crying and begged me to share. I hope you all have a good laugh at my expense. :) A day in the life of Jeanell...so many diapers, too many to count.

Ky: Stay where you are and turn your head
Jeanell: What? Why?!
Ky: (snaps picture and laughs)
Jeanell: What?!
Ky: Turn around and strut your right hip.
Jeanell: (rolls eyes and sighs)
Ky: Is that a dirty diaper?
Jeanell: Yes
Ky: Where are all the wipes?
Jeanell: I found a pile of wipes on the floor and I couldn't figure out where they came from!
Ky: (Laughing hysterically to the point of tears)

With a little luck..

2011-03-16T22:11:00.000-06:00

we are hoping to catch a leprechaun tonight. We have the trap set up perfectly with 5 pennies set to entice...

unfortunately I don't think we will be successful because the sneaky little bugger already rampaged through our kitchen.. (just as he did in Mrs. Trilling's first grade class this week)

Oh, well better luck next year! the kleenex box was wrapped in tin foil earlier this evening, but didn't make it the whole night that might have been the downfall.. everyone knows that it is the shine that attracts them.

Hopefully we still have a little bit of luck left over for tomorrow's activities!!
Happy St. Patrick's day!!

Sites in Perigueux France

2011-01-30T14:08:00.011-07:00

Merry Christmas Everyone!

2010-12-22T22:01:00.002-07:00

Hanging out with Carter at Thanksgiving!

2010-12-09T21:56:00.004-07:00

It was fun hanging out with those who were at Mom & Dad's for Thanksgiving this year. We were all so thankful for many things, but as you can tell the person we are most Thankful for this Thanksgiving is CARTER! Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving wherever you were this year. We missed seeing you and spending time with you as well.

Jodi was also there but she had to go to work before we had photo shots with Carter.

Welcome to the family...Carter!

2010-09-07T11:10:00.002-06:00

We are so excited that you are finally here! We have waited so long for your arrival. I can hardly believe it is real...I had to remind myself that I am YOUR MOM and not Aunt Lishy to you. We love you a lot!!!

So Long, Farewell...we'll see you in 2 years!

2010-06-17T16:46:00.003-06:00

Can you believe it? "Elder Matt" is actually in the MTC now. I remember when I left for my mission, and he was only 4 years old. WOW!!! Where has the time gone? Since Ben, Tanelle, and the kids weren't able to be there I thought I would share some of the photos that were taken as we all said our goodbyes. WE missed not having you there, but I know he felt your presence there. He is going to be such an AWESOME MISSIONARY! Our "baby" brother is all grown up!

The basement

2010-04-14T13:14:00.002-06:00

Here it is the big reveal. Kinda bare, but we think it turned out pretty good. There are still a few things we have left to do, like light covers and a few paint touch ups but overall we are done. Needless to say we are VERY HAPPY this project is over! we don't really have a before and after picture, it was just cement everywhere, no den or closets anywhere and it was a lot bigger! so what do you think?

Skyler & Mia

2010-04-09T23:15:00.005-06:00

This is the kids impression of what I looked like-- what do you think? They thought they were pretty hilarious. They couldn't stop laughing.

Here they are...so cute!!

Administrative priviledges on the blog

2010-03-31T15:28:00.002-06:00

Hello everyone...some have asked if they can make changes to the family blog. During our visit here with Ben & Tanelle, Tanelle & I were able to change the settings so everyone has access to make changes to the blog. Not just posts. So get your creative juices flowing and feel free to make changes and updates to the blog.

France Toulouse Mission!!!

2010-03-18T14:08:00.000-06:00

Congratulations to Matt on his mission call yesterday!! We are all very excited for you!

2010-01-21T14:20:00.003-07:00

Hey! Somebody changed the background and put Christmas away until next year. Thanks. I scanned everyone else's blogs and nobody had changed theirs. I thought that would be clue as to who had done it. But NO. I have some crazy pictures of when I was a little girl I might put them on the blog for a good laugh but it is going to take a lesson from Matt on the Weekend. We love you All. The family pictures are coming along send in your requests soon as you can. I think the background was changed by Tanelle because it is the color of her bedroom. Does anyone else have a clue as to who did it???

Winter Picnic 2009

2009-11-25T18:08:00.006-07:00

This years whole crew Brian, Shelley, Taylor, Amy, Ryan, JaNae, Mason, Jenson, Deane, Ella (taking picture), Alicia, Aaron, Sara, Tim, Jens, Ellie, Tate, Drew, Garrett, Jeanell (+ 2), Ky, Annaka, Porter, Jodi, Matt, and Jen (Matt's Friend)
Sara at the picnic with a view of the sledding hill.
Taylor with a spranged ankle, Sara and Amy
Annaka, began to stack rocks in a circle Porter gathered sticks and Ellie joined in. They started to pile snow on it and lost interest. When the kids quit we lit it up with Jeanell's lighters from her emergency preparedness kit in her car. By the end of the day we all smelled like a bonfire.
And for the excitement of the day Drew locked himself in the car. Tim was up on the hill with the keys. You can tell from the grin on Drew's face that we wasn't to concerned about being locked in the car. There were some other pictures that I thought I got on but they aren't here. One was a line of cars backed up to the intersection of this little road and the main road. We had three rangers stop by. Some years we don't even see one. I guess we were the best party on the street. We were the only party on this particular street. A good time was had by all even though the thermastat never got above freezing.

I am tired of my excuse that I don't know how so here goes

2009-11-16T17:10:00.003-07:00

I was just hoping to get the dates listed for the holidays. There will be a refrigerator magnet list in the mail before this night is over. On another note Grandma Smith's only surviving sibling, Alice. passed away and her funeral will be on Thursday in Heber City. I don't have much news but I want you all to try ZITI Parmesan. I was introduced to it by Tanelle it is in the Blue Ward Cookbook on Page 35 it is a family pleaser. Love to all Grandma

She'll be missed!

2009-09-10T12:08:00.003-06:00

And I Quote... "Those boys are gonna love me!"

What do you think??

2009-07-28T14:35:00.000-06:00

old Halloween tile

New tile (there are three flower tiles in the middle that you can't
really see on the picture unless you enlarge it

This is what the kids did while we were busy

And this is what the kids did the other day when I was busy

Congratulations Matt!!

2009-06-04T08:43:00.003-06:00

We are so excited for you-- it's official, we have all been DARTS!! It was a close one-- glad you didn't have to be a lancer.

Yummy Chicken!

2009-02-24T20:28:00.003-07:00

Okay-- so I thought I would share this with one and all. I found this recipe at the grocery store and decided to try it. It was REALLY good!! It was in the "Healthy Eating Recipe" stand and since I think a lot of us are trying to be a little bit healthier, I thought I would pass it on.

Oven-Fried Chicken: Prep time: 5 minutes, Cooking time: 20 minutes. Makes 5 servings

Ingredients:
1/4 c. flour
1 1/2 tsp. seasoned salt
1/2 tsp. Oregano
1/4 tsp. Ground Black Pepper
1 1/4 lbs. boneless skinless chicken breasts halves or thighs
1/4 c. milk
1 Tbsp. butter, melted.

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Spray cookie sheet.
2. Mix flour, seasoned salt, oregano and pepper in a shallow dish. Moisten chicken with milk. Coat evenly with flour mixture. Place chicken in a single layer on cookie sheet. Drizzle with melted butter.
3. Bake 15-20 minutes or until chicken is cooked through

Per serving: Calories: 190; Fat: 6 g.; Carbs 6 g.; Cholesterol: 80 mg; Sodium: 457 mg.; Fiber 0 g.; Protein: 28 g.

Anyway--- we really like it. I let it cook for a while longer because I wanted it to be crispy. I turned the chicken over about half-way through. Hope you like it...it tastes a lot like fried chicken. Oh...and there was a website too. It was www. spicesforhealth.com.

Dad's 60th Birthday!!

2008-11-09T15:48:00.004-07:00

So, these pictures weren't on his birthday (they were at the family dinner), but hey--Happy 60th Birthday Dad!! I thought it was fun to watch the kid swarm and each take their square of paper off his gifts.

(Here is a picture of my kids in costume...)

2008-10-16T08:02:00.001-06:00

we were thinking it was time for a new recipe.. lish??

PRIVATE

2008-09-21T13:57:00.004-06:00

There have been a few concerns about privacy. We are considering going private as many others have. We aren't sure how this will affect how many of you can see this. If you would like permission to view it in case we do, then leave a comment with your email.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ADDIE!!!

2008-09-17T17:06:00.001-06:00

Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday dear Addie
Happy Birthday to you!

We miss you and hope you have a great day!

Happy Anniversary!!

2008-09-16T12:48:00.001-06:00

We hope you guys have a great day Alicia and Aaron! Happy Anniversary, we love you guys! Ben hopes you don't try to make a romantic dinner in that kitchen of yours. (it might not be that romantic this year!)

Idea?

2008-09-14T13:24:00.004-06:00

So we were thinking of doing a recipe swap type thing on here. I always need new dinner ideas so I thought everyone else might too. how about we would just go down the line and start with Mom, then Lish, Sara, Elizabeth, Us, Jeanell, jodi and Matt (yeah, right I think I have seen him make an omlet!) What do you think?? you can email me the recipe and I will put it on the blog for everyone to see... so Ella, your up!

Bear Lake Pictures

2008-09-11T23:14:00.006-06:00

Since I was updating our blog I figured I should post some of the fun moments we had on our trip to Bear Lake. Enjoy!

What a fun family we have.

Ben, Tanelle & kids we missed you!!!

Matt's Gettin Boogy!

Our little miracle

2008-09-11T15:14:00.003-06:00

This morning we woke to find that our baby-sitting, or rather, dog-sitting charge was gone. We are watching Lori's dog while she is on a trip. We looked everywhere, canvassed the neighbors, called the city, the humane society, the pound, animal control, you name it. We even tried to break into Lori's voicemail since her cell phone number is on the dog tag. This afternoon Annaka wanted to go out looking for Chester and so I told her that I would look where ever she told me to go. It was amazing. She told me exactly where to walk, when to turn, etc. We were walking about two blocks from our house and she told me to cross the street in the middle of the block and there he was...one house up on the other side of the street in the backyard. If we had waited until the crosswalk like I suggested, we would have missed him. It was a miracle. She knew right where he was and told me exactly where to go to find him. Just goes to show that kids are more receptive to the spirit than me. Way to go Annaka! We had a very similar situation happen with my 2nd counselor this week and bird that flew away and her 8 year old son finding it in the neighbors tree three days later, convinced that Heavenly Father would help him find it. How great would it be to have the faith of a child?? Anyway--it was amazing, thought I'd share.

Family Reunion

2008-08-10T16:15:00.001-06:00

We had a lot of fun at the family reunion and wanted to show a few of our pictures. Enjoy.

Pictures from the trip

2008-08-04T18:55:00.001-06:00

We had a great time with dad, mom and matt here with us! We hope they had fun as well! we tried to put pictures in order by the day we did them, there are a lot more but we tried to chose between them! We hope you like them. maybe you can get a commentary from mom and dad for some of the pictures.
we love you all and hope you had a good time at bear lake!

Homeward Bound

2008-07-28T07:58:00.002-06:00

We are getting ready to leave Ben and Tanelle and family. It is paradise here. Well a warm paradise. We have had a great time thanks to all the advanced planning and efforts of Ben and Tanelle. We are checked out of our cottage by the sea, returned the mini van and headed for the airport. Good bye Grenada

They arrived!!

2008-07-21T20:04:00.003-06:00

Here is a little taste of the vacation so far... this is at the cottage they are staying at.
The kids were resting after a long day at the beach and this is what Matt and Ben decided to go do. Anyone else think of the word... idiots??

Matt's Patriotic Spirit

2008-07-19T19:06:00.004-06:00

Adding to Matt's post...we were able to take a picture of his nice display of colors to celebrate the 4th! Pretty wierd...but he did get a lot of attention.

Thanks to JaNae for adding her touch!

Matt was very glad to cut it off just in time for Drew's baby blessing and even had a little hint of pink left.

Thanks for the laugh Matt.

We actually had pictures taken!

2008-07-19T11:00:00.005-06:00

I know it's crazy, but we have actually taken steps to come in into the main stream and get family pictures and begin to communicate with the outside world. We went to Elizabeth's uncle's house (John Morgan) and Elizabeth's cousin, April, took the pictures. We think they turned out pretty well & we're excited that we have recent pics of the fam.

This is one of the collages that she was able to do with her program. Pretty cool!

Tres

We updated it!

2008-07-08T06:44:00.002-06:00

I turned the blogging over to Elizabeth and taught her how to use it, and now I can say that we've updated our blog for all those who care.

Tres

Check my new "dew"

2008-07-03T09:30:00.002-06:00

I lost a bet concerning the eufa euro 2008 soccer championship.......and this was my punishment, go ahead laugh all you want!

2008-05-30T14:31:00.002-06:00

2008-05-30T14:31:00.001-06:00

2008-05-08T16:27:00.002-06:00

Pictures of Carson

2008-05-08T16:19:00.002-06:00

We really are NOT trying to be the only one that posts on here, but I wanted to share these pictures that my friend took of Carson. She took some of the other kids too, but I don't have them yet. If you want to look at them here is the link:

http://weirhere.smugmug.com/gallery/4887004_oGSTr#291526065_zFS8Z

She was really into the Naked Baby, and I don't really like that, but she got some cute ones!

Young Women

2008-05-07T18:53:00.002-06:00

I just wanted to share a article that was done on one of my young women here in Grenada. She went to BYU-Hawaii in January and she is doing great! I know Lish and Elizabeth are in young women's so I thought they might like to see this. The youth here grow up so different than I did, it is amazing when they come out as strong as Salisha did. Anyway have a great week everyone!

Here is the link...
http://newsroom.byuh.edu/?q=node/1714

Oops...I did it again!

2008-05-01T13:22:00.002-06:00

On monday this week I decided to start my exercise routine again. You know how it goes...on one week and then off the next. I decided to order some of "The Biggest Loser" workout videos and started to workout with Bob. Let's just say that he definitely gave me a workout, but he also helped me dislocate my left knee again. So, it is back to the good old physical therapy. We don't know the extent of the damage this time so I will have to keep you all posted. When I went to physical therapy on Wednesday my knee started to sieze up while exercising so my PT thinks I might have torn some cartlidge but we are watching to see if I will need another MRI before we know for sure. Hope everyone is doing better than I am.

Congratulations!!

2008-04-24T06:00:00.002-06:00

Congratulations Sara and Tim! Drew is beautiful, and we hope everything goes well!! We love you guys!

Playlist

2008-04-13T18:51:00.002-06:00

I added a playlist at the bottom of the blog. The choice of songs was for you Dad, and for a little nostalgia for the rest of us. You have to scroll to the bottom of the blog (where it is located) before the songs will load, but then they will play as long as you are on the blog main screen. Enjoy

The Poulsen Party!

2008-03-28T17:24:00.002-06:00

Hey everyone!

We finally started our own blog! Yippee! Just in time to get pictures of the new baby posted. No, not yet! But I would like to say any day...sometime in the next 2-3 weeks. Everyone check it out...www.thepoulsenparty.blogspot.com I am still working on up-to-date posts, but I did add music and a slideshow today. What a feat! I am starting to feel like a real blogger (Not clogger! That was in 3rd grade!)

Sara

We made it!!

2008-03-12T16:34:00.001-06:00

3 days and counting! We will let you all know as soon as we do! We go to Princess Wishes, Disney on Ice tonight so after that I am good to go into labor anytime. I will have a happy little 3 year old who got to see all the princesses, a 18 month old who got to see balloons, and I have a husband in the United States!

Life is full of laughs!!

2008-02-10T18:46:00.000-07:00

Hi All! So the new and exciting things at our house a pretty much centered around Annaka. Porter is starting to talk and do some baby sign language (please, thank you). His favorite thing is to say "Roar!!" or "Wow!!". They sound a lot a like-- it just depends on what he is doing. Anyway...Annaka...life has been crazy with her lately. Last week she got into a bottle of vitamins--Dora, they were highly tempting. Anyway, we had a run-in with poison control. She understood that they were going to make her "poop a lot" in order to get the vitamins out of her stomach, well, this cascaded into an interesting 3-year old logic. Never mind the candy scarfing in the bulk-food section of the store and the pay first, eat later lesson that week as well. Anyway, this week she had a cookie left over from my Activity Days activity. I had her bring me something in the other room, and Porter made a break for her cookie. He came in the room smiling with two fists full of cookies and a jam-packed mouth. She was hysterical. "Make him give it back! Get my cookie out of his belly! Make him poop out my cookie!!" She was obviously distraught and I was laughing so hard I was almost crying. I tried to explain that it didn't work that way and she responded with, "Girls don't eat poop! We eat cookies! Make him poop out my cookie!" Mom, I know it is potty talk, but sorry. It was funny. She also gave herself a pretty haircut this week after getting gum out of my purse, and into her hair, and back out again with scissors while I was in the shower. I need to take shorter showers (apparently!). Well, that is an update from our neck of the woods. More to come later. Love you all!

2008-02-02T09:14:00.000-07:00

I know you thought that I would never be able to do this but here I am . On the home front all we are doing is repairing the snow blower and blowing snow. Jodi has cabin fever and so she is cleaning out closets and tieing (sp) quilts. It is great for me. The grandmas are doing better. Matt has been in two of the six one act plays. It is a four night thing two nights are over and they will also play on Monday and Tuesday nights. I am going to try and add a picture of our snow. If you go out the side garage door the piles are so high that you can't see the cars that are parked on the basketball court and it just keeps on snowing.

Back in Paradise?!

2008-01-18T07:29:00.001-07:00

So our good friends had a little welcome back party and the theme was back in Paradise! We all laugh at that because anyone who lives in a tropical country has a hard time calling it paradise all of the time! Anyway it was fun, our friends packed their huge kitchen aide blender (and you all thought Addie's bike was bad Ella!) so we reaped the rewards and had strawberry daiquiris and Pina Colodas. It was really fun and it started us off on the right foot!

Check out my Slide Show!

2008-01-18T07:25:00.001-07:00

Birthday's and Anniversaries

2008-01-18T07:04:00.000-07:00

Ben said that my families blog is actually open to the public, but I don't think it is. You can look on ours though and I will put a link to everyone else's if they want it on here and if they have one. I need a correct list of birthday's and anniversaries so if you guys can all post that I will put it on the side bar. Let me know if you want to change anything!
To post a new post on here for everyone to see just go to new post and hit publish post. if you hit save now it won't go onto the main page it will just save it for edit later. If you have questions just ask them!
Everyone have a great weekend!
Tanelle

New Blog

2008-01-17T12:07:00.000-07:00

Mom and Dad have said that their website expires in February. Tanelle and I have found this to be a great way to communicate with others, especially Tanelle's family as they also have a blog for everyone in the family to post to. It is incredibly easy to use and comment on. We have enjoyed it and hope it works out for everyone. Perhaps the ease of this will make it a better way to communicate than it was in the past if we will just give it a try. If you want to see how it has worked for Tanelle's family you are free to view theirs at anderson-clan-7@blogspot.com. I think it is open for all to view. That reminds me, do we want this closed in for jusat the family, or do we want to let all see it and view what is posted therein? All comments will be considered. Right now Tanelle are considered the administrators but hat doesn't mean much other than we change the background and sidebars, etc.. We can do that to whatever anyone desires. Anyway, let me know if you think this is a good idea. Thanks.

P.S. Tres and Elizabeth just started a new blog as well of their own if you want to check it out. It is www.smithfrat.blogspot.com. I think I got it right. There is a link on our blog too for it!