Happy Halloween

Hope everyone is having a Happy Halloween. The kids costumes have turned out cute and I'll post them, plus our pumpkin patch pictures soon. In the mean time, I give you: Pac Man. If only I still had that bobble-antennae headband.

The need for Sunday naps

Sundays around here are kind of crazy. Mainly because we have 1:00 church. I am SOOOO excited for that to end after Christmas. In the mean time, David's Sunday nap schedule is totally messed-up. I used to be able to get him to take a morning nap before church, but no longer. So this is what happens about 5:30 when he hasn't had a nap all day. In the middle of dinner. My favorite part is how he wakes-up, eats something, then nods-off again.

After we all got such a kick out of this, Spencer decided that he would "fall asleep" during dinner too.

First day of Fun Fall Weekend #2

Last weekend was Fall Break for all of the public schools in Utah. Michael had to go on an overnight business trip so I thought the kids would like a fun outing to sleep over at Grandma's house. I always think "this time things will go easily - now that the kids are getting bigger" - but every time we do it I remember, "oh yeah, this is why we don't do this very often." :) This time David was up until 11:30 - singing and being cheerful, but up never the less!

So anyway, Thursday morning Jenni and I were trying to come up with a fun outing that wouldn't be over-run with half the kids of Utah and where we wouldn't have to stay forever to feel like we got our money's worth even if the kids got cranky (namely, my night-owl kids.) So she suggested: Wheeler Farm. Close-by and Free. Perfect.

And it was! I hadn't been to Wheeler Farm since I was a kid. It was great! Plus it was a gorgeous day and not even crowded. The perfect activity.

Our visit was enhanced by my friend Elisabeth coming with us. This was somewhat poignant as I have vivid memories of going to Elisabeth's 6-year-old birthday party at Wheeler Farm.
I couldn't get a good picture of the adorable 10-day-old baby pigs. I could totally see why Fern wanted to keep Wilbur. They were so cute! Their mom: not so much.The collection of old and new tractors were as appealing as the animals to the boys.

Feeding the ducks was a highlight.

I caught the cutest ever video clip of Spencer doing a charming duck-walk. I even thought it was YouTube-worthy. Then . . . I realized I had pushed the wrong button and it hadn't recorded. So here is me trying to get him to recreate it, with only a little-bit of success. Bear with the quickly-panning camera. It gets better.

The Fruits of our Labors (or someone else's labors.)

I can take no credit whatsover for this produce. Isn't it gorgeous?? The apples came from a tree in our backyard. A tree I have largely ignored for the 4 years we have lived here. And this year it produced gorgeous, delicious fruit. I think it's pretty just sitting in the bowl! (If only I had Martha Stewart's photographers and lighting technicians to catch the true beauty.) And for once I can have something live on my dining room table that doesn't trigger Michael's allergies.

Then: A neighbor gave us tons of grapes from their yard. They'd been eating grapes for the past 2 months and didn't want anymore. So they let us pick 4 BIG bowls full. I decided to attempt to make grape juice. Last fall I overheard a lady talking about how she makes a year's supply of grape juice every fall, and I thought, "Oh, I could never do something that domestic." Then this fall I saw my mom do it and realized how E-A-S-Y it was and I thought I might actually be capable of doing it. . .

. . . And . . . I did it! I actually made grape juice! I made 11 quarts - which doesn't seem like as much as it should considering how long I had that juicer going - but I am still proud of it. I think there would have been 12 quarts, but we drank a lot right out of the juicer. It is SOOOO good!

Before:


During:
After: Ta-dah! It really wasn't hard at all. My only recommendation - don't let the plastic tube fall on the stove burner and melt 4 inches of it while at the same time filling your kitchen with toxic smoke. Especially when the juicer belongs to your kind neighbor. Argh. I'm so stupid. Fortunately I could just cut-off the plastic part that was melted and re-attach the end valve, but now the tubing is 4 inches shorter. I did confess to my neighbor and she is an understanding soul. She had done the same thing to her mother's juicer. Phew.

This was our best vegetable harvest in the past few years. And I take great pleasure and pride in it. I finally realized that I am officially a tomato-snob. I can no longer eat grocery store tomatoes. They literally make me gag. But home-grown ones are heaven!! So for the past few summers I've tried, with not so successful results, to home-grow some. Mainly because I had nursing babies or really little ones whose audible cries were more critical than the non-audible cries of the tomato plants (who were probably crying none-the-less.) Well, this year I tried our plants in a new sunny spot, actually remembered to water them, and: VOILA! Deliciouso. The little ones are Sweet Hundreds. SO GOOD! And in other culinary experiments I tried roasting cherry tomatos for the first time. And they were GOOD! And it was so easy. Here is a great explanation.And here are our cute little white mini-pumpkins. I love white pumpkins and I love mini-pumpkins and I can't believe I grew my own hybrid!! Thank you Gregor Mendel. Amazing! This was not the original plan, but by the time I got myself down to the nursery in the spring (read June) most of the plants for the regular, larger, orange pumpkins were gone. But they had these ones so we gave them a whirl. Yea! They are very adorable. Almost as cute as my own children.

Fun Fall Weekend #1

October has been a great month so far at this house. Last weekend was packed with fun stuff. First of all, we got to have Grandma Rosie and Poppy Dave and Uncles Tim and Matthew come visit! The temperature had suddenly dropped a lot cooler, but it was a gorgeous afternoon for their visit. We got to show them our backyard, give Grandma a tour of the house (including the very messy basement), have sword fights, read books, and eat Michael's homemade pizza - with pesto and tomatoes from our garden!

Somehow in all the excitement I did not get any pictures with the girls in them. Oh well. Next time.

Saturday, Michael and I went to the BYU vs. New Mexico Game. (Back when they were still ranked in the Top 10. Sigh.) Other than freezing our bippies off, we had a great time. Michael goes to all the home games, but it's a rare thing for me to go too because of my work schedule and/or the length of baby-sitting time required.

Besides being cold, it was a beautiful fall day. And the snow held off!
Here is Austin Collie's touchdown catch in the bottom-right corner. Sorry about the people standing in the way. But at least you get the flavor. :)

And then we woke-up to this Sunday morning. Not sure I was quite ready for it, but the kids were sure excited! (Doesn't everyone need a hoola-hoop to have fun in the snow?)

Soccer Sisters

Title suggested by Catherine. And how could we be so lucky as to get pink AND purple uniforms?September was soccer month at the Smart household. This was Catherine's third year playing soccer and Emma's first! We had double-header games every Wednesday night and Saturday afternoon. Plus practices a couple of times a week. Makes for kind of a crazy month, but it was a fun family activity and we were proud of our girls! They both improved a lot from the beginning of the season. Catherine really had to step-up this year as one of the older girls on her team. She plays defender, but scored a goal! Emma made a lot of progress as well and also scored a goal!
Catherine: My mother mentioned I scored a goal and I must admit that It was scored in a very funny way. At the time I was playing center defense, I went up to the person coming at me and took the ball away then I dribbled it down the field when I got past the defense on the other team I went up to the goal to score but the golly came up and tried to take it away from me so I moved to the right ended up getting tripped and hitting the ball into the goal with my body. Weird isn't it?

Here are Spencer and David keeping themselves entertained during game 2 one night.

Watching Conference

Here is how we enjoyed a few minutes of peace during the Saturday morning session of Conference. Michael offered to let Spencer 'help' him put together the new bookshelf for the boys' room. Spencer found the styrofoam packing materials enthralling and had a great time shredding it with a screwdriver. Our floor is now covered with bits of styrofoam, but it was a small price to pay for a little peace and quiet. :)

Britannia Rules

I think that we are finally getting over the jet-lag and the 12 loads of laundry and all of the other chaos associated with returning home from a week away in a foreign country. First of all, MANY THANKS to all who helped take-care of our kids while we were gone. We're pretty sure that it wasn't easy. Thank you for your sacrifices and all that you did for us. We couldn't have gone without knowing our kids were in good hands.

I plan to write more details in journal/email form but these are the brief highlights: The original reason for this trip was that Michael was invited back to train the Church Public Affairs representatives from each of the countries of Europe. We had met many of them last year when we attended the same conference in Frankfurt. They are amazing people and we have grown very fond of them. I also liked being able to watch Michael do his training workshop. He's done it for many professional groups and I never get to see it, so I enjoy that part too.

The day before the Conference we were able to go with this group on a tour of Church history sites in Lancashire. I love Lancashire because I have a lot of Lancashire blood flowing through my veins. We visited two places: Avenham Park in Preston, the site of the first LDS baptisms in England in 1837 and also the site of Michael and Amy's first conversation (one that was both brief and awkward as we were both missionaries at the time.) It was very cool to return there together and this time to be able to hold hands.


We also visited a little town named Downham which looks nearly like what it would have looked like 170 years ago when Heber C. Kimball was teaching the gospel there. Some special stories associated with that site that we can share with you sometime. Also special about it: I have ancestors from that town! It's one of my favorite places in the world and we loved going back!!


The other wonderful reason for this trip was, as mentioned above, we both served missions here and this was our first time going back. Wow, it was so emotional. I've dreamt of what it would be like to go back to Manchester and Lancashire for years - it was amazing to finally have the opportunity. We visited started the trip in my 'greenie' area and were able to spend a lot of the day with Michael Mellor and his wife Shaziah. My companion and I found and taught Michael before his baptism. Wonderful to see him again and to see him so strong in the Gospel. Shaziah is from Pakistan and was raised a Christian there. They are recently married. We loved meeting her - she is a special girl.
The area I stayed in the longest as a missionary - 6 months - was the Isle of Man. It is really expensive and time-consuming to get there from England so we sadly knew that we couldn't go there in the short amount of time that we had for this trip. In one of the greatest tender mercies of my life I found out, just days before we went, that a group of members from the Isle of Man would be at the Preston temple the very weekend we were there! It was truly a miracle as I was able to see my dear friend, Tanya, who I also taught as a missionary, and to attend the Temple with her. She is an amazing example to me - facing a huge trial in her life right now with so much courage and faith. Michael and I both felt inspired by being with her.
Seeing the Temple itself was a wonderful experience for us. Michael was there for the ground-breaking and it was under construction the whole time I was in England as a missionary. So this was our first time to see the finished product!
Another great visit was with Ken Cummerson, a sweet man that Michael taught as a missionary. He has since been active in helping the missionaries and working in the Temple. I loved meeting Ken. He was such a lovely man! He and his wife took us to a pub for a meal. (Another first for us as we didn't get to eat in pubs as missionaries!)We spent a lot of our time tracking-down and visiting people. Members of the wards we served in, people we taught as missionaries, and former companions. None of whom we had seen for 12-15 years, and yet it instantly felt as if no time had passed in between the last time we'd seen them. It was so wonderful! Some instances were exhilarating to see them doing so well, and some instances were heart-wrenching, to hear that things in their lives had been very difficult since the time we'd last been together. It made for a very special, but emotional week. On the last night of our trip we were staying in Wales and through some really miraculous circumstances we found Teresa Jones, a woman Michael had baptized in Colwyn Bay, Wales. I loved meeting Teresa! She is one who had been through some incredibly difficult times since Michael last spoke to her. We were able to spend some time with her and gave her a ride that night. After we dropped her off, I felt so strongly that the Lord really is mindful of 'the one who is lost' and I felt humbled that Michael was given the opportunity to find her again.

In between all of these people we did do a little bit of sight-seeing. The Lake District was wonderful. We stayed in a charming Bed and Breakfast in Ambleside where we made a wonderful new friend, Bob. He was awesome! :) We'd be happy to give you his number if you're going to the Lakes anytime soon.
In the Lakes we took in some gorgeous scenery and even drove past Beatrix Potter's farm. (Thank you again, Michael.)

Our last stop was in Colwyn Bay, North Wales. My first time visiting there. Absolutely gorgeous! (Quite the contrast from Liverpool where we'd been the day before. Although, Liverpool has charms of it's own -mainly the cheeky people.)

Here is Michael at Ros-on-sea with Colwyn Bay behind him.

Conway Castle built in the late 1200's in North Wales.
Michael did a great job driving a clutch on all those narrow roads on the other side of the street. The first day was kind of scary, but by the end of the week Michael had regained his form and we were even getting good at navigating our way around. I love those round-a-bouts!We also had great food! Good old fish'n'chips, KEBABS!, pub grub, Wagamama's in Manchester, Vimto, curry made by Shaziah (Michael's favorite), and British crisps and sweets. I also brought home a suitcase full of many more favorites (Hobnobs! Lion Bars! Jelly Babies! - I'm hiding them from the kids so I can ration them to last a really long time.)

It was also funny to hear ourselves start talking like Brit's again - not necessarily the accent, but the words and inflections. I love it, me. It was right lovely. Cheers to you all!

There are more photos and commentary for those who are interested at this WEB ALBUM.

My parents are home............. at last.

My parents are home! I'm soooooo glad! Okay, I admit we had fun while they were gone. When jenni came down to watch us she brought the movie Robbin hood and we loved it. Now we've propably watched it about 10 times. Anyway, WE were watched by 6 babysitters during the time my parents were gone. But now we are glad to have them home.

Were we really there?

We just got home last night from our fabulous visit in Great Britain. It was an emotional return. Not really a vacation, as we felt like we were running the whole time, but a special reunion with people and places that are dear to us. There is a piece of my heart that lives in England - I think partly because of many progenitors who left at great sacrifice - and part because of the experiences I've had there myself. It was nice to return and find that piece of me again, to get reacquainted, and and to carve my love for that place even deeper in the part of my heart that stays with me.

More to come. Today is laundry, clean-up, catch-up-with-the-kids day.