Here they are!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My glasses!!! Double click on the picture to get a closer look.

Playing catch-up

I have been woefully behind on our little family blog. Partly because I am also entering the 'professional' blogging world. Kind of. My other blog is about my life as a mom who is a quilter and I am in the middle of setting-up an etsy business too. In a couple of weeks I am going to be a guest mom on a big mom-blog called Design Mom. Needless to say, life has been a little crazy. I am making sure that it is only the house that suffers (and boy is it suffering!) and not the kids. Fortunately it's too cold to go out in the yard, or that might suffer as well.

This is only a short-term thing and in a few weeks we should be back to 'normal.' At the same time it's been an incredible opportunity and I'm going to run with it and hope I don't trip and fall disastrously. :)

In the mean time, here are a few posts to let you know what's been going on around here. (And yes, I really am making this blog private. I wasn't just trolling for comments. :))

Smart Family West has a party

A couple of weeks ago we had a great get-together with Michael's siblings who were in town: Aunt Lynn in town from Washington DC and John's family down from Rexburg. As seems to be the case WAY too often, this reunion was potentially threatened by a stomach bug that week at our house, but everyone recovered just in time to get together still and not get anyone else sick. (At least no one has confessed that we made them sick.)

Lots of fun was had. Birthdays were celebrated. Wii was played.

Stickers were stuck to the wall. (Sorry Meredith and Luke! I didn't know about this one until I was going through the pictures later.)

Matching shirts were worn.

Horsey rides were given.

Good times were had.

Spencer the gymnast

In January Spencer started a gymnastics class at the Little Gym here in Orem. He has LOVED it! Recently David and I got to watch Spence perform some of his sweet moves and then we got to run around too! Woo!

This month is such a special time, it's birthday time for . . .

. . . Michael and Amy and a bunch of other people . . .
For my birthday Michael and the kids were so nice and made me chicken burritos for dinner and brownies for dessert (my request.) In the middle of dinner my wonderful Ecuadorean neighbor brought over home made Ceviche!! (This is my new favorite dish. It's basically a cold soup made of citrus juice, tomatoes, purple onion, cilantro and shrimp!) This was extra thoughtful because she is tired and very pregnant and this was an effort. She had brought it to a New Year's Eve party where I fell in love and was so thoughtful make the effort for my birthday. It went perfectly with the burritos and I had the rest for lunch the next day!

I received lots of other thoughtful gifts including a granola bar wrapped in kleenex from Spencer. Thanks again to everyone for their kindness! It was a fun day.We have many extended family birthdays in March and had fun celebrating at Grandma Cathy's house on a couple of Sunday nights. Also celebrated were: Lily Cannon's 1st, Uncle Bret's and Aunt Jenni's. And also Aunt Lynn's another time! Whew!
The kids also had fun getting ready for Dad's birthday party at home. He requested the traditional Meatloaf and Peas (which I must stay turned out fabulous) as well as vegetables and ample amounts of rolls. In honor of Dad's love of meat we also had Little Smokies (since the kids weren't as excited about meatloaf.)Dad got lots of his favorite treats for his birthday as well as a BYU Pez dispenser, a special necklace made of straws by Spencer, a Lego sculpture from David, and a vintage 1991 VHS copy of NBA's Dazzling Dunks and Basketball Bloopers starting Frank Layden from me. :)
We also celebrated our birthdays with all you can eat Alaskan Crab (mine) and all you can eat Meat at Tucano's Brazillian Grill (Michael.)

And now that we're 35 we wish we had lots of great wisdom to impart, but we'll save that until we're 40. And that is scarily un-far away.

Important Announcement

How I found Spencer one night.

A marathon day here at the Smart house. So much I was going to get done today, but haven't got close. Most Sundays are busy around here, but this one was topped-off by a barfy 2-year-old. Poor boy. He's had a rough couple of days. And now I'm just waiting to see if we all get it!

Anyway, that's not the important announcement. This is: We are finally taking this blog private. (I don't know why it has taken so long.) We'll send out an email invite where you will have to log-in one time to be able to view our darling children. If you are interested in being a part of this exclusive group, and you think we may not have your email address, please leave it in the comment section of this post. I will be taking action next weekend. Grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, you are automatically enrolled in the FourHappyKids Fan Club. Anyone else who is interested, you are more than welcome. We're only wanting to prevent some person we've never met from stalking our children. And once we're private, we can give you more exclusive details on our thrilling lives. I know, you can't wait.

For the Grandparents

The recent piano recital footage.

Catherine wasn't feeling great this day - had come home from school early, so she wasn't super-happy about her performance. But she did it. Good job, Cath.

A fun weekend

Last Friday I got together for dinner with some friends I lived with in London on Study Abroad in 1993. Yes, that is a long time ago! We had such a great time reconnecting and LAUGHED a lot. They are still as fun as they were (ahem) 15.5 years ago. (How did it get to be so long??) That experience (living in London) was one of the funnest of my life and the girls (the whole group was girls - no guys that semester!) were some of the most outstanding I've ever known. Plus they all knew things like: all the lyrics to the Sound of Music, or how to enjoy a world class museum, or how to sniff out a gift shop, or how to eat a lot of Hobnobs. Definite kindred spirits. Still are!
Saturday night we took the kids to the last BYU home basketball game.

That night when we went in to check on the boys we found this:

Love it.

Random Dad experiences

Michael here. The next post by Amy is much better than this. I don't have the photos off my phone yet but if I don't write this now I never will. Wanted to record some of the regular, random experiences my kids give me:

1. Taking the girls to their piano "festival" yesterday - a pretty formal performance at a big house in front of a bunch of strangers, after which they receive a score from four judges. As we were walking in I stopped them and said, "I just want you to know I'm proud of you both and I love you very much." Catherine leaned into me and smiled demurely. Emma shook loose from my hand so she could keep walking in and said, "You already told us that."

2. Telling bedtime stories. Things have evolved to where I make up a story for the boys every night. I've been doing it a while so I'm running out of ideas. One night I needed something good so I went right to a proven winner - the old time-travel-to-the-land-of-dinosaurs. The little boy landed right on the T. Rex's head and it roared and shook him back and forth. . .
Spencer: and it was a really nice T. Rex and it didn't want to eat him
me: okay, and he realized that the black box in his hand was a remote control that controlled the dinosaur. . .
Spencer: No!!!! and don't make it that it runs out of batteries or that the dinosaur eats it, either!

3. Dad movie nights. On two recent Fridays Amy was away so we rented a kid movie and I watched it with them. First was Madagascar II (excellent). This past Friday we ramped it up and were allowed to eat our pizza WHILE we watched the movie. This incredible novelty was strong enough motivation to drive the kids to clean up the entire family room unsupervised while I made the pizza. The movie was Beverley Hills Chihuahua (not excellent). It's fun that they are all at ages where we can do something like that together and they are all interested.

4. Entertaining the boys during the girls' piano recital. At a different piano-related event to which the whole family is invited, David took off his shoes and socks and was running around. When I picked him up and stood in the back, he started yelling, "This is stoooooo-pid! This is stooooo-pid!" So I took him out and Spencer followed. They ran circles around the piano store we were in and were almost knocking stuff over. I took them outside the store. It was dark and about 45 degrees. David loved running barefoot around the sidewalk. I got them to race each other the length of the strip mall about five times. During intermission, after both our girls had performed, we got David's shoes to take the boys home. But they wanted to explore the strip mall. So we looked through the windows of two different dentist's offices, a mortgage firm, and that pet urgent care facility. Then we came to the health food store! It was still open and for some reason they loved looking at the $11 bottle of cranberry juice, $75 jug of maple syrup, and slabs of free-range organic pork shoulder while I got the full-court press on the magical medicinal properties of unpasteurized milk. Because the sales lady was so earnest I bought a can of coconut juice and we shared it when we got home. The boys loved holding the glass with their pinkie extended and smacking their lips after each gulp.

New Temple in Draper, Utah

Last week we took the kids to visit the new Temple built in Draper, Utah. This was a special opportunity for our kids to visit the inside of a temple as children rarely go inside Temples. Temples are different than the chapels we attend for services on Sunday and activities during the week. They are used for special occasions such as marriages and "sealing" families together for the next life as well as a place where members can learn more about and formally commit to follow Jesus Christ and his example. Before a Temple is 'dedicated' an open house is hosted for the media and anyone from the community to tour the building.
Temples are always beautiful buildings, carefully constructed and decorated. We believe that they are the house of God - a place where we can go to quietly meditate and communicate with Him. I have personally had beautiful experiences in temples where I have felt, through peaceful and happy feelings in my heart, that God knows me and wants what's best for me and my family. Above is a picture of 'the Celestial Room' - a room that symbolizes Heaven and the opportunity we have to be there with our Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ and all of the people we loved in this life.
This room is "the Bride's Room" - a room where the Bride puts on her wedding dress and prepares for her wedding with the help of her mother or chosen friend. I have to admit I got teary walking in that room with my girls (which caused them to roll their eyes at me). I remember dressing Catherine in her little white dress as a baby for her blessing day and thinking about what it would be like to help her dress in her white wedding dress one day - just as my mom helped me.

Here is a link to a really lovely, brief video explaining more about temples.

After touring the building we took pictures outside.

David eating his cookie he received afterwards.

This new temple is built on a mountain bench in the southeast corner of the Salt Lake Valley. Gorgeous views. To accommodate the thousands of people touring the temple each day, they have official parking at nearby chapels with shuttles up to the temple.On the way down I asked each of the kids what their favorite parts were:

Emma: the Bride's dressing room
Catherine: the Bride's dressing room and the baptismal font
David: "riding the bus." me: "what else did you like?" David: "riding the other bus."
Spencer: the cookie. (I think he liked other parts too, but he was eating his cookie when I asked him.)

A nice getaway and time to remember

Last weekend my kind mother offered to give Jenni and I a much needed break and take us to California. It was lovely. We stayed the first two days in Carmel. Talk about happy memories!
Here we are at the Carmel Plaza, across the street from our favorite Carmel hotel - the Wayside Inn. Carmel is full of family memories with our immediate family, our Grandparents and our cousins. My mom visited Carmel often when she was growing up, as did my Dad when they lived in Merced. My parents came on their honeymoon and I can't even remember all of the times we came when I was a kid.

Below is a picture of the last visit, taken in the same spot as the picture above. That trip was to cousin Steve Allison's wedding at Pebble Beach. It was a memorable last trip with my grandparents. I remember it being stressful at the time :) but I'm so grateful to have those memories associated with them. I was about 3.5 months pregnant with Catherine. We had a great time at the wedding - although we definitely looked like "the Mormon cousins from Utah."

Along the coast of the 17 Mile Drive.At the beach with Pebble Beach Golf Course in the background.

Jenny eating artichokes.

Some great Carmel architecture. That place is like no-where else.

The good old Wayside Inn.

It was great to have the time to relax and reminisce together. And without anyone fussing at us or needing diaper changes. :) We also had a great visit with Mom's best friend since Jr. High days, Ellen Porzig and her husband, Klaus. Just visiting their home in Palo Alto also brought back waves of memories. They've lived in that home for as long as I can remember and we had great times staying with them and their daughters as we were growing up.

They fed us lovely food and we got to see incredible pictures of their cruise to Antartica! Amazing. They are as wonderful as ever and it was so great to visit with them again. Sadly, we forgot to take pictures of that part.

Sunday morning before we came home we visited Berkeley in the pouring rain. We had planned to attend church there - at the building where my Grandfather was bishop for 8 years, and where my mom attended growing-up and had her wedding reception. Such a beautiful old building.
Sadly, when we arrived, no one was there and the gate was locked! The only thing we can figure is that it was Stake Conference and everyone was meeting in Oakland. Sad.

The Ordway Street house where my mom's family lived when she was born.

10 The Crescent. The home my grandparents built and owned for 30 years in the hills of Berkeley. It has changed since my mom lived there - the roof above the garage has been cut-off to create a deck and some of the trees are gone. Very sweet memories to drive by. Just seeing it made me think fondly of my grandparents. I know I stayed there as a baby before they moved to Provo. The only time I remember going in was when I was about 4 and the Tanners were living there before my grandparents sold it. I remember wondering who these "squatters" were in my grandparents' house. :) We wished it wasn't pouring so we could get out and walk around.
A really reminiscent trip. I'm sure it was even more emotional for my mom. And she and Jenni have more pictures, so I may add more later. Thanks again, Mom, for inviting us a long. Thanks again, Jen, for letting visit quilt stores a long the way. Thanks again, Michael, for being super-dad.

Trip to St. George

We had a great little trip with the kids to St. George over President's Day weekend. Above is the view from the back of the condo we stayed in. (When we first got there, David pointed to the mesa on the right and said, "See that mom, that's a volcano."

Our kids were so excited when we first told them the plan a few weeks ago that they immediately started packing. They were especially into packing stuff to do in the car because we'd never really done a substantial car-trip. The most exciting of all? To get to watch dvd's in the car! Richard Scary books are also exciting.
When we took a potty-break in Fillmore Spencer spotted this four-wheeler and asked, "Can you take a picture of me by this, Mom?" So we did. :)
We rented a one-bedroom condo with a sofa couch, figuring we could put some kids on the floor. Then we discovered the whole thing had tile flooring! So smart Dad put three kids horizontally on the sofa bed and made a bed for Catherine from the couch cushions. They all slept amazingly well! Whew. Our kids thought the condo itself was so exotic. When we walked in Spencer said, "I want to live here the whole winter!" I kind of felt the same way! It was just so nice to walk around in the sunshine with no coats on. Locals felt like they were having a bit of a cold spell, but it felt great to us!

Sunday after church we took the kids to the St. George Temple and visitor's center. I love how the white temple contrasts with the red sandstone cliffs surrounding. (I didn't take this picture, but thought it was a good one.) This temple was the first completed (around 1870) after the pioneers came to Utah.A fun part of that was meeting up with Bret and Laura who were also in St. George for the weekend staying with Bret's parents.
Strangely, these are the only pictures I have with the temple in them. Laura took some of us with her good camera, so we'll post those another time. But for now, here you have Spencer doing his new favorite trick of hopping on one leg while rubbing his stomach and patting his head at the same time.
Inside the visitors center we saw a new movie called the Stonecutter about John Rowe Moyle who President Uchtdorf talked about in his last conference talk, "Lift Where You Stand." Beautiful little film and very inspiring.

In trying to keep David from climbing on every surface or running away for the 17th time we told him we'd take a picture of him by Jesus.

Then everyone else got a turn.

We also toured Brigham Young's winter home in St. George. The last time I went here (11 years ago) the wood trim was all white, which complimented the sandstone. They've since restored the wood trim to the colors that they were when Brigham Young lived here.

Cool quilts.

We also enjoyed swimming on Saturday and Monday (at indoor pools) going for walks, eating at restaurants, visiting some old friends from our mission (and their fancy house!) and watching Horton Hears a Who on the king size bed. (That show is funny! We all laughed a lot.) And making rock creations. (Spencer, behind our condo.)
On Monday before we left we stopped at the dinosaur tracks museum. About 9 years ago a retired farmer in St. George found these fosillized dinosaur foot prints and tracks on his land. It's one of the biggest and most extensive dinosaur discoveries in recent years. This is only a tiny fraction of them. Those doing the research and preservation have since built a museum right on top of the site itself.
This is a T-Rex print from New Mexico, just there for size perspective, but Spencer was really excited about it. He walked around with a notebook writing down important information the whole time we were there. David amused himself (but not us) by climing over barriers and purposely touching everything with a "Do Not Touch" lable. Can't you just see him scouting his next exploit?After the dinosaur museum, we hit the road for home. But not before waiting in a 17-car-line at the drive through at In and Out Burger. It was worth it. :)

On the way home we stopped at Cove Fort, built in the 1870's by Ira Hinckley (Gordon B. Hinckley's grandfather) on assignment from Brigham Young as a way-station on the route to southern Utah. (we were definitely back in the cold climate again!)

More quilts on beds.

I really like Cove Fort. They've restored it so beautifully. I can't imagine living there though. A mile and a half from a running creek until they finally diverted the creek. Pretty desolate. Ira Hinkley planted these trees inside. He also made friends with the indians and never had to use the fort for defensive purposes, only as a rest-station, mail and telegraph office, etc.

On top of the wall.

Back to the road.