Soccer Season

I'm getting pretty behind on family updates. Soccer season actually ended a month ago, but I am finally posting pictures. These came from one of the last games of the spring season. Some of the earlier games we were bundled up so well, with the boys in the car watching a dvd, that you wouldn't have been able to tell who we were! But by the end of the season, the weather had consistantly warmed up and we enjoyed a family night at the soccer fields.

This was Emma's maiden soccer season, and she improved so much through the season. She had a really fun team with lots of girls from her school and class on her team. Emma was a little disappointed when the team changed its name from the Pink Princesses, to the Pink Panthers, but she was a good sport about it.

Catherine also continued to improve her skills and was a key defensive player for her team. There were many games when she played the whole game! We were really proud of her good attitude and hard work, especially in spite of her allergies kicking in.

The boys were good sports too, supporting their sisters.
Fortunately there was also a playground at the soccer fields.

An early Mother's Day present

And perhaps one of the best presents yet. A light at the end of the every-day-for-the-past-10-years-diaper-changing tunnel!

Animal Kingdom in Orem, Utah

A few weeks ago, Spencer suddenly rode his bike into the garage, almost in tears and said, "Mom! There's a snake!" Thinking it was probably just a large worm, I set out to reassure him and said, "Don't worry, I'll come look at it." So we started walking up the sidewalk at which point I saw the snake out of the corner of my eye right before I nearly stepped on it. I then shrieked like a little girl.

And there it was. In a crack in the side walk between our house and the neighbors'. Eeek. In all my years of living in Utah I had never seen a snake like this.

Pretty soon a crowd had gathered.

Once we had confirmation that it was just a garter snake (or "gardener" snake as my kids kept calling it) it was immediately taken into captivity by our 8-year-old neighbor. Who then brought it in our kitchen with Spencer who wanted to know if he could hold it too. (I screamed again and gently but emphatically invited them to do it outside.)
Then the snake proceeded to poop on Spencer's arm. I never knew that snakes pooped or where the poop came from. Now we know. (That poor snake was probably scared to death.)
Later that night we were feeding the ducks at a local park for Family Home Evening where we witnessed some more animal drama. A male mallard duck started attacking a female and biting her on the back of the head while she was trying to get away. (In front of young children, no less!) Then another male duck came and got him off her back and the two 'good' ducks flew over to the rocks. The poor female had a hurt leg too! Then every time the female duck went back into the water the 'bad' duck would come after her again. We're talking some serious drama. It drew a crowd and we had to finally tear ourselves away. So much excitement in one day!

"Idaho sure has a lot of stuff"

This year we took a quick trip over spring break to visit Michael's brother's family in Rexburg. This was everyone's (with the exception of Amy) first trip north of Logan, Utah. So it was the great unknown. As we crossed the border into Idaho we saw some trains, some semis, some mountains, and after a minute Spencer enthusiastically commented, "Idaho sure has a lot of stuff!" We're thinking of sending that to the Idaho board of tourism as a suggestion for a new add campaign.
Spencer was right! Here is the new Temple in Rexburg. You can see it from the Smarts front porch.
We had a great visit with John and Heather's family. All of our boy cousins are concentrated in their family, so this was especially exciting for Spencer. They were great hosts and we loved being with them.

The pizza dads.

We were also there to celebrate Heather's birthday!

This was a pretty quick trip for us. We drove up Thursday afternoon and had to get home Saturday morning. But we are definitely looking forward to seeing more of the stuff Idaho has to offer on future visits.

When boy cousins get together

Spencer had some Dorito breath.

Trip to Gardner Village

One of our annual Spring Break traditions is to go to Gardner Village with the Cannons. Allowances are saved for months just for this special trip.

But this year it rained. At least it was far less crowded than usual.
The boys were excited none-the-less because they got to use the umbrella that I always tell them they can't play with at home.

They were not to be daunted in their search for the elusive ducks who were hiding out because of the rain.

At one store Emma and her cousin Abby found a new toy they were both excited about.

And so did David.

Our David

For David's birthday this year, Grandma Rosie sent flannel board pictures for the story of David and Goliath. This made a perfect Family Home Evening activity. First we told the story using the flannel board. Then we acted it out. Here is David throwing his stone at Goliath.And here he is cutting off Goliath's head. David is a very brave boy.

Have yourself a happy little Easter

I am finally catching up on the past month, so lets start with Easter.

Here we are dying the eggs that weren't boiled all the way through. Yuck. Fortunately we found out after only 7 or so, so we reboiled the rest.

Cute kids after church.

Later that day we had a fun egg hunt at Grandma's house.
We were so lucky with the weather that day. Very nice.

With Great-Grandma Udall

It was extra great because the Bowens and cousin Norah in town!

Life's been a bit nutty

I'm about blogged out! I had the incredible opportunity to be a Guest Mom at a famous blog Design Mom this past week. Design Mom is written by Gabrielle Blair, a mother of 5 living in New York, and just so happens to have lived in Stover Hall at the same time I did during our freshman year at BYU. So it was very kind of her to invite me to do this but this blog is a bit swanky and stylish and I was totally stressed about coming up to those standards.
I was going to write stuff a bit more generic, but a good friend encouraged me to write about sewing and quilting - that would be a more unique angle and more reflective of me. So I have been sewing like crazy for the past month. I even wrote to a big fabric company and asked if they would sponsor my fabric because I wanted to write about one of their products. And they did! I got an amazing box in the mail with all kinds of goodies! It was very fun - and something totally out of my normal realm.
I'm very grateful to my sister Laura, sister-in-law Meredith, and brother-in-law Nathan for their help taking pictures. This was the the thing I was most stressed about. They kindly shared their time and good cameras so that my pictures would look more professional. And I am SOOOOO grateful.

So you can read my posts by clicking on these links: here, here, here, here, and here. I wrote a post for every day from the week of April 13-17. I was very grateful (and excited) by the positive responses.
Also, amid the chaos, I opened a small online business selling quilts and quilt kits. It's something I've been thinking about for almost a year now, and finally having a deadline has got me do it. It is part of an online craft community called etsy.com. My store is called amysmart.etsy.com.

So I'm especially thankful to Michael and the kids for their patience and help over the past few weeks. I'm looking forward to getting back to "normal" whatever that is. :)

Also, I have many family posts to write about David's birthday, Easter, Spring Break, our trip to Rexburg, etc! So keep your eyes peeled. I promise to finally start posting here again AND to finally make this blog private. :)