Too much Mamma Mia

You know your kids have been watching too much Mamma Mia when:

Ruby was sitting on the couch with an open Book of Mormon "reading" it to Katy.
Quoting the movie, Ruby said, "They laughed on the beach, they talked on the beach, and dot dot dot."
Katy pipes right in and says, "Dot dot dot?"
Ruby then replied, looking back at the book, "You know, that's what they did back in the olden days."

Has it Been 9 Years Already??

Happy Anniversary to Steve and Alicia. We were in Alabama with SNOW! It has been a good year and things are looking great for the next. I love you Steven! Thanks for our date night last night with NO kids! Your Mom is awesome for taking them all afternoon and most of the night.
On our wedding day after the reception in Jacksonville no less.

Here we are this year 2009...

Super Lips and An Offer

Monday was a HUGE laundry day for us! When I say HUGE it was really HUGE. I took up 5 of the FIVE load washers at the laundromat and when I dried them I used the 2 huge dryers and 5 of the larger ones all at the same time. That is the very easy part with getting clothes washed and dried. The hard part is getting home and taking the time to sort through all of them my who they belong too and then for the little girls getting things sorted into outfits (ie. shirt, pants, sweater or dress, sweater, and tights). This makes it much easier for us in the morning and I am not running around the house saying 'where is that (you fill in the blank)! I know that I have seen it around here.' You know what a mean.
Well I was going on about hour 11 of folding clothes. YES this is always an all day event with the girls at home. It's not a full 12 hours but the piles are always looking at you, so even if I took a small break the clothes were always begging to get folded and put away. Sorry....back to the story. So it was getting late in the evening and I was getting the piles smaller and then Katy walked back into the living room. Something was way wrong with her lips and mouth. She kept trying to say something like lip gloss. I take a good look and she has all this stuff all over her mouth and she isn't moving her mouth very well. Of course I ask what that stuff is. I honestly thought she had gotten into Steve's lip stuff, but it wasn't that. She goes and brings me back................SUPER GLUE!!! My baby had super glued her lips and teeth!!! Now this being my baby and third child I didn't get into much of a panic. I mean she was breathing okay and was very awake and oriented. Who wouldn't be?? Your lips are hurting since there is glue on them right?? Steve had just gotten back from taking Hannah to swimming, so I sent him downstairs to find out what we use to get it off. Isn't that bad that it didn't even cross my mind to call the doctor, but go check the computer instead? Well the super glue people said to use soapy water or nail polish remover. Well I didn't think that either of those would work, so in the end we broke down and called poison control. I mean parents who are not meaning to poison their kids call right?? and if you are harming your kid on purpose probably are not calling poison control right???
We get the advice to use butter to get it off and have her drink some Kool-aid to help her mouth feel better. Guess we are not the first people to have this problem. Granted the butter really did help and we got some lips unstuck! The stuff on her teeth I just got off with my finger the next day. Katy started picking stuff off of her lips after that and all is well.

Last night brought a super great e-mail! We have an offer on our house and it is exactly what we needed to have it clear on the short sale. That means we won't owe anything out of pocket and the house is sold for less than what we bought it at. It really is a HUGE blessing for us. Just for it to be sold will be great. It should close right after the New Year.
I was thinking this morning that I know it was the right choice to move in August. There is so much snow out in Utah right now and it wouldn't be very fun to drive that drive this time of year. I don't even want to think about what it could have been like right now if we were still in Utah and it being Christmas time and getting ready to move now!! **Snap** back to reality. I am here in Alabama and there is no snow. I like that idea much better.

It's time to get the kids up for school! It's should be a fun day with a lunch date with Steve (and half pint in tow), Christmas shopping, and picking up Christmas cards! Today is that fun stuff. If I don't have your address, please e-mail it too me so I can get you a card.

December is Here

December just brings tons of stuff to do every week in our house. I think that it is the same for most families too. Seems like every night there is some activity or party that we need to go too and I am not complaining at all. Being busy is fun!

This week brought an afternoon at Wal-Mart to scope out the girls' presents for Christmas. Their outfits have all been bought except for a few pairs of jeans for Hannah, so at least part of shopping is done. I think that Steve and I are going for less than $50 for ALL of the girls this year. It's a budget year, but they have most everything and I am very grateful for grandparents who love Christmas too! Simple things is just fine with me. I just have to figure a way to sneak some money out of the budget for Steve's Birthday/Anniversary/Christmas present! Then hold him off until Christmas. That is the problem with having all three big days in a short span of only 12 days from start to finish. Steve's only request for the B/A/C is socks and white ones at that. Man we are getting old. Asking for socks for his birthday.

Each of the girls have requested an iTouch for Christmas. They have each explained to me that they need to do 3 things with them. 1. Homework 2. Watch movies and 3. Listen to their music. Who would have thought that from a 6, 3, and 2 year old, but ever since I got my iTouch I really haven't been able to use it. My kids always wanna play their games or do homework. I can't take it to church and let them see that I have it since it causes World War Three.

My Christmas wish list this year consists of a Bread Knife. It's not fun cutting up hot bread with a dull butter knife. Not so good. And now that I am putting that out on my blog I will probably end up with 50 bread knifes from all you readers!! Don't worry....I will take them all and probably send you back the knife with some home made bread. :-)

My other big project for the week was getting the DVD Christmas card done for the grandparents. It did start off with me just editing my pictures and then of course that leads into movie stuff. You can play around with stuff like that on your Mac!!! Well an hour lead to two and after midnight I was burning my 15 minute movie all choreographed with music and pictures. It even included some snazzy menus and video clips from this year. I sure am excited for all the grandparents to see the girls this year. Who else would want to sit though 15 minutes of just pictures of my kids?!?!? Hannah commented when she watched it...."Mom where are you and Dad in all of these pictures?" My only answer was "Well someone has to take them and usually it is Mom." Guess I will work on that next year to be in more pictures. Too bad I can't afford a whole camera crew to hang around and shoot video or snap pictures every couple of weeks.

Well that sums up the first week of December. Two more weeks of school and then it is Christmas break for all. The calendar is getting full. I am sure before I can blink that it will be Christmas morning with the girls. Hopefully it will be after 7 am!!

Thanksgiving Day

We are all so grateful for the family and friends that we have! This year has been good to us so far even with the few struggles here and there. Our family was so lucky that we were able to go and spend Thanksgiving with Emily, Danny and the boys. The girls had so much fun and other than who could tell more that someone was whining it was a great short trip. The turkey was wonderful! My tummy was very thankful to Emily's great cooking.

I got to see New Moon with Emily and it was just as good as the first time that I saw it on opening day. The theater was awesome and I felt almost under-dressed for that fancy movie theater. Who knew that you could order a bar drink and then go in and watch a movie??? NO.....we didn't order drinks for a girls night but you could if you wanted to because in this part of the theater only people over 21 are allowed in. The seats were HUGE! and leather too. I have been way too spoiled to think of seeing a movie any other way. Thanks Emily!!!

On the way home we stopped by the Unclaimed Baggage store in Boaz. I felt so sad driving to try and find the place. The whole outlet mall looked so run down from what I remember of it but the Unclaimed Baggage store was still hoppin'!! That store was the extent of our after Thanksgiving shopping trip. We scored some awesome deals. I found a super nice stroller for Katy. I know, I know. Isn't she getting big for a stroller?!?! Sure she is getting big, but when I take long walks all over campus for things that I need to do, she can't walk all that way and I will not carry her. She can ride in style in her stroller that I scored for a whole $20.99!! It's a really nice Maclaren stroller. Seen here ------> They retail at Babies R Us for $130!!! So I was in stroller heaven!

Ruby scored a great deal with finding a booster seat. She had to have one since she is 3 and Brett sits in one. I was okay with that since she found one for only $10! That is what we were going to get her for Christmas and well let's just say now we have to think of something else to get her.

The BEST deal of the day was finding a Singing Time DVD for the girls. The girls love this show and it teaches them how to sign. Katy was so excited to tell the lady checking us out that she had an Alex and Leah movie. They sell for around $22 from them and what did we get it for??? Only $2.08!! Yep only TWO whole dollars. I am so excited to learn new signs too.

Well that was the extent of our Black Friday shopping, but man we got some good deals! My computer time is almost up, so I will get back to posting again soon. I am so grateful that each of you take the time to read my blog. Where would we all be without blog readers. All of you are amazing!!

A few video links

Here is one of Hannah's Video's from school!



Here is another one from hannah!


Here is one of Ruby singing michael jackson

Long awaited update

Okay...Well what can I say. It is fall time and there are plenty of activities for the family to do and life just seems to speed up once my birthday is here. Seems like we blink and we are in a new year. Like for instance. Did you know that Christmas is only 7 weeks away on Friday? and that we are only 24 days away from Thanksgiving? See what I mean. It will be 2010 before we all know it. The only good thing is that I get to start playing Christmas music on my blog in 25 days!

I feel like the blog has been totally neglected but when your husband's computer gets fried for work I had to graciously let your iMac go downstairs to now be the work computer. One day we will be able to get his computer to work again or at least beg for a new one. I am missing my blog bad. Oh and another reason why is that my camera battery went dead and I couldn't find the charger. I mean who wants to read about my crazy little family with no new pictures attached??

Sorry for the side note. I am reading the start of this blog over again and I think I sound like the mom from the Middle. That new show that is on Wednesday nights. You know that one that is exactly my life. Even down to the whole part about library fines??? I swear that I just about pee my pants every week because it is my life. Anyway...back to the update.

This past weekend was so busy! I can't believe that I stayed awake for as many hours of Halloween that I did. It started for me at 4 am. Hannah and I left the house at 4:30 to meet up with her coach to drive to LaGrange, GA. The only thing about this swim meet is that we had to jump ahead an hour because of being in GA. Hannah did awesome! **See previous little post** and we were home by 3 pm.
At 3:30 pm we left for the ward Fall Festival. Holy Cow I was already getting tired, but we had to get some great use from our Halloween costumes. The fall festival turned out great and the kids had a ton of fun. April saved me by getting me a Dr. Pepper to drink. The drink was a huge welcome and gave me that second wind that I was really needing at this point of the day! Steve and I got to help decide who had the best chili since we didn't bring any. That was a fun job for Mr. Incredible and Elasta Girl.

We were all home by 6 pm and went strait to Trick-or-Treating. The girls all had so much fun and begged to come home less than an hour and a half after we started. It was getting cold, so I understand. Katy freaked out at one house. Ruby was arguing with her feet because they were not moving fast enough. Hannah just kept the rest of them going from door to door to door to door. Well you get the idea. We did finally get home after we dumped candy a few times. We did have one last house to go visit and that was the Bishop's house. Well that turned into a long visit because the kids were having so much fun and we stayed until 9! I practically passed out when we got home and I tried to watch the ball game but was not very successful. I crawled into bed and didn't wake up until the next morning. I was still not all the way recovered but it sure was a fun long Halloween!!

Hannah swimming her 25 fly. She is the girl swimming in the lane furthest way.

Today Ruby's preschool class finally got to go to the Pumpkin Patch. It has rained so much here that everything has been rained out. The kids got to go on a hay ride, play on a fun playground, listen to stories, sing songs, make a craft project, and even got a snack after all that hard work.

Trick or Treat Meet

We are still alive! I will be getting a full update on what has gone on in the last week soon! Today was the Trick or Treat meet for Hannah in LaGrange, GA. We left the house at 4:45 this morning and are just now getting home at 3 pm!! I am so tired and glad that Steve gets to drive us to the ward fall festival here in a few minutes.

Hannah was able to get 4 first place ribbons in her swimming today! and the High Point Trophy too!! Go Hannah!!

25 Free- 34.25 (lowered her time by 5 seconds!)
25 Fly- 38.01 (lowered her time by 20 seconds!)
50 Free- 1:08.66 (first time she ever swam this event)
25 Back- 32.30 (lowered her time by 20 seconds!)

Over all it was a great day! I will post more probably tomorrow b/c i am really tired today!!

Pantry Monday

Tonight is an easy version of that stuff in a box called Hamburger Helper. I hate that stuff but love the stuff that I make.

Pantry Items:
1/2 bag of elbow mac
1 can of tomato sauce
1 can of tomato soup

1 lb. Hamburger browned and drained

In one pan cook your hamburger meat and while you are doing that cook your macaroni (follow directions on the bag). Then in the pan you cooked your hamburger in add your tomato sauce, soup with a little sprinkle of salt and pepper, and your noodles of course. Cook on medium low until hot and ready to eat. Add shredded cheese on top if you want to make it taste even more yummy!!

There you go! Much better tasting food!!

One little variation that we like too. For a Mexican meal flavor instead of tomato soup, try a can of enchilada sauce and add a can of corn. Cheese is a must for this one! Add it all together like before and there you go!!

Her Ears Are Pierced!

Katy finally woke up this morning and we headed off to get her ears pierced. She is the last girl to go through this rite of passage for little girls. Katy has been asking for awhile now, so why not since she is potty trained now? She really didn't know what was going on when we got to the store, but she was super happy when the lady started putting the purple dots on her ears. Then it took a sec for the two ladies to get her ready for the earrings themselves. On three they were in and the tears started to flow. Katy wanted nothing to do with me any more and went strait to her dad. It took a few minutes for the tears to dry up and then she was very pleased with herself that she had earrings. So all my babies are grown up and we are sporting pairs of earrings in each of the girls. I can't wait for a few months to pass and we can all go out and get matching ones.

Pantry Monday

Maybe I should start a new segment on my blog. Pantry Monday. Easy meals that are tasty and all from stuff that is hanging out in your pantry.

Here is Pantry Monday for all of you today, but especially for Mary and her sick Hubby. This is what we are having for dinner tonight and I do have a disclaimer. I do NOT use recipes at all. I just throw and guess and take a pinch here and there.

Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup

I made this in the crock pot today but I guess you could make it in a really big pan if you want too.

Pull these cans off the shelf...
2 cans cream of chicken soup
2 cans evaporated milk
2 cans of carrots
1 or 2 cans of chicken **or use some of those chicken tenders or breasts that are hanging out in your freezer just begging to be used!!**
a Bag of pasta (i still don't know what kind we are using. probably egg noodles or elbows)

To make in the crock pot add everything but the pasta. I also put in a little bit of milk too. (Regular milk from the fridge) Turn it on low and let it cook away.

Add your noodles (how ever much you want) about 30-40 minutes before you want to eat so they have a chance to cook and be done.

If you do it in the pan, cut up your chicken and cook it before you throw it all together in a big pot. Add the rest of the cans to your pot, stir and cook on medium low. Add your noodles about 30 minutes before you want to eat.
**Or make your noodles separate and just add to the soup mix. Sir, heat until warm, and serve. you don't want your noodles to get mushy!**

**You can also add celery, but my kids don't like it. That is why we add extra carrots!**

Heat and enjoy. I am going to pick up some French bread for this meal too. Heat in the oven and serve with butter!!

Pantry Monday! Hope that everyone will enjoy and that Mary's Hubby feels better soon!

Going to Private......

We are taking our blog into the world of passwords and setting it on Private. I am going to be doing this in the next day or two!

This means that if you are going to still follow the Blog, I need you to send me your address or put it in a comment ASAP!!

Strange Traffic Flow means not everyone gets to see anymore! So Sorry for the rest of you, but that is how it is going to be!

I already moderate the comments so don't worry about leaving your e-mail. I will just put it on the list and then delete it. I love having people reading the blog, but some visitors not so cool.

The Swim-A-Rama

Hi out there to all of our friends and family! Hannah's new swim team is having a Swim-A-Rama in October and she has been asked to raise $75 before the end of October. If you would like to donate, she can take a flat donation or if you are feeling adventurous, then you can choose an amount per lap that she swims that night. All is for a good cause. The money earned will let the team buy more equipment, ribbons for meets, and help with meet fees.

Steve does have a PayPal button on the side to do on-line donations, but a few dollars will go a long way. Find a dollar or two in your couch and it will help her out and your couch will feel a little lighter.

Thanks so much! Swim team season has begun!!!

We Did It!!!

We made it! We did it! We don't have to buy any more.....
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DIAPERS!!! NO MORE DIAPERS! Say it with me: NO...More...DIAPERS!!!

Needless to say it has been a long time coming, but we are done! Katy has been diaper free for 6 days now and no accidents at night! Well, we did have one accident last night that Katy peed on her panties because Steve was going to the bathroom and didn't finish fast enough for Katy, so she peed on the floor and all over his foot!! Serves him right. When a girl says she's gotta go, she's gotta go!

I need to throw a party just because we are all done with diapers. I think she has been the easiest of all the girls because we really didn't do anything. Just lots of praise from everyone including the big sisters and well diaper days are done. I can say that this is one of those happy days of being a mother. I know that the girls are not little anymore, but we are moving on to bigger and better things with no more diaper changes!!

Eight Years Ago Today...

WoW! Eight years have come and gone, seasons have changed, addresses changed, sisters added and today would have been your baptism day. I look for you my son in the things that I do. The butterflies that gently float by remind me of you. I look at your sisters and think about the boy that you would be today. Today your father would have baptized you with all of your family and friends gathered together, but somethings must wait for later. I love you my son and wonder sometimes what you are doing in heaven. Are you having fun with all of your grandparents and other angel babies who check in on their parents from time to time?? I sure miss you but know that you are busy and happy. No longer bound to the little body with a broken heart, but perfect in every sense of the word to run and play and do all those things that little boys do. Today I will be able to go to your grave on your birthday for the first time and reflect on the few short hours that we had together all those years ago. You are my child and I am so thankful for eternal families. Hug your babies today and tell them that you love them!!

In moving and unpacking I found a letter that my grandma send me while I was preggers with Ben. And it's so true. Only after being a mother, do I get it. I thought that instead of posting Ben's story this year I would write this out for you. If you wanna read Ben's story it is posted on his birthday last year just click here ---> Ben's story

Grams letter:
We are sitting at lunch when my daughter casually mentions that she and her husband are thinking of "starting a family." "We're taking a survey," she says, half-joking. "Do you think I should have a baby?"

"It will change your life." I say, carefully keeping my tone neutral.

"I know," she says, "no more sleeping in on weekends, no more spontaneous vacations...."

But that is not what I meant at all. I look at my daughter, trying to decide what to tell her. I want her to know what she will never learn in childbirth classes. I want to tell her that the physicals wounds of child bearing will heal, but that becoming a mother will leave her with an emotional wound so raw that she will forever be vulnerable.

I consider warning her that she will never again read a newspaper without asking "What if that had been MY child?" That every plane crash, every house fire will haunt her. That when she sees pictures of starving children, she will wonder if anything could be worse than watching your child die?

I look at her carefully manicured nails and stylish suit and think that no matter how sophisticated she is, becoming a mother will reduce her to the primitive level of a bear protecting her cub. The the urgent call of "MOM!" will cause her to drop a souffle or her best crystal without a moment's hesitation.

I feel that I should warn her that no matter how many years she invested in her career, she will be professionally derailed by motherhood. She might arrange for childcare, but one day she will be going into an important business meeting and she will think of her baby's sweet smell. She will have to use every ounce of her discipline to keep from running home, just to make sure her baby is all right.

I want my daughter to know that everyday decisions will no longer be routine. That a five year old boy's desire to go to the men's room rather than the women's at McDonald's will become a major dilemma. That right there, in the midst of clattering trays and screaming children, issues of independence and gender identity will be weighed against the prospect that a child molester may be lurking in the restroom.

However decisive she may be at the office, she will second-guess herself constantly as a mother.

Looking at my attractive daughter, I want to assure her that eventually she will shed the pounds of pregnancy, but she will never feel the same about herself. That her life, now so important, will be of less value to her once she has a child. That she would give it up in a moment to save her offspring, but will also begin to hope for more years- not to accomplish her own dreams, but to watch her child accomplish theirs.

I want her to know that a cesarean scar or shiny stretch marks will become badges of honor. My daughter's relationship with her husband will change, but not in the way she thinks. I wish she could understand how much more you can love a man who is careful to power the baby or who never hesitates to play with his child. I think she should know that she will fall in love with him again for reasons she would now find very unromantic.

I wish my daughter could sense the bond she will feel with women throughout history who have tried to stop war, prejudice, and drunk driving. I hope that she will understand why I can think rationally about most issues, but become temporarily insane when I discuss the threat of nuclear way to my children's future.

I want to describe to my daughter the exhilaration of seeing your child learn to ride a bike. I want to capture for her that belly laugh of a baby who is touching the soft fur of a dog or cat for the first time. I want her to taste the joy that is so real, it actually hurts.

My daughter's quizzical look makes me realize that tears have formed in my eyes. "You will never regret it, " I finally say. Then I reach across the table, squeeze my daughter's hand and offer a silent prayer for her, and for all the mere mortal women who stumble their way into this most wonderful of all callings. This blessed gift from God....That of being a Mother!

Oh Lordy...I turned thirty!!

It has been a fun first day of being thirty! It started on Friday night when Steve grilled me up some awesome salmon. Let me tell you it was the best thing that I have had in a long time. We had enough to gorge ourselves and have some left over all for less than what one meal would have cost us at the OG. It was yummy and the best part...no tip for the server :-)

Last night Steve and I had a great laugh with the letter and present from Hannah for me! Here is the letter from Hannah....It reads..."Hi Girl! I got what you want. She is a cooger. I got it in them now. Love Mom Happy Birthday. Love Hannah" She even gave me her little Cosmo cougar that she has. Steve and I just laughed and laughed about the whole "hi girl" part all night long!

Today was awesome. Even with Steve leaving today we made the best of what time we had together! I so skipped breakfast just because I knew Steve was taking me to Superior Grill for lunch. I haven't had cheese dip for EIGHT YEARS!! It was still as good as it used to be. yummy! Steve of course ate all of his plate of his Crazy Javier and I had to save some for later tonight. I do eat those leftovers! Yummy!

Grams present was here for me when I got home from the airport. She sent me a whole new set of bread pans. Little ones, medium ones, and big ones too! I can't wait for bread day this week. I need to make some white bread and I promised the people who own our house orange rolls too!! With Steve gone I have some time to kill in the evening, so why not try out some new bread and orange rolls!!!

My gift from my mom, dad, and the boys came later today. It's a HUGE ice cream maker! Needless to say we will be making some sort of dessert tomorrow. Us girls know how to do it when the only boy of the house is gone for the week!! I can't wait to pick something out to make!! The part that you have to freeze was in the freezer about 5 seconds after we got it out of the box!!

Today has been a good day. I still can't believe that I made it to 30!! WOW! Those 20s are gone. The next 10 years should be a lot of fun. Just raising the kids, going to school, being a mom, and wife. It is going to be an incredible journey!!

Can we say Busy??

It has been an awesome, fun, and very busy first few weeks in Alabama. We have had the Price's over for dinner and to talk, been to Mt. Cheaha for a Labor Day BBQ with folks from the other ward, and already been to a birthday party (no not mine) but for Rowan (my friend Evyn's little girl). Needless to say the house still has a lot of boxes in it, but who wants to unpack when there are more fun things to do??

It has been a fun weekend too with all the college football games that have been on! We waited very patiently for the BYU game to come on Saturday night and it was an awesome game! Holy Cow we took out Okalahoma and their #3 ranking. I was proud that we could do it after Utah beat up on Alabama last year. Sorry to bring that up for all my friends who are Alabama fans! It was good for our conference and earned us a little bit of respect in the college football business.

Speaking of Alabama and Auburn....Steve and I decided that we have some rules on who we will cheer for and when. We are TRUE BLUE fans for BYU, so we will not be picking a side in the long battle for the state of Alabama. We will cheer for any Mountain West team that is in a bowl game or any big game. Case in point...we had a lot of fun wearing our 'Utah Red' for the game last year. So the Smith house is neutral territory for all you crazy fans out there. You can come here and have some fun. So when you see the van with it's BYU flags sticking to the windows, that is us. You don't have to do double takes. Our biggest rivals are probably the Tippetts here in Jacksonville when it comes to the BYU-UTAH game, but that is okay! We will stick out in our blue and white and have a good time.

Our best thing yet about being BYU fans was standing in line for the free chicken sandwiches at Chik-fil-a on Labor Day. We had lots of double takes with our van and still riding high from our win over Oklahoma. We are there waiting and a guy comes up in all his Roll Tide Stuff and tells Steve. "Can I shake your hand and give you a high five??" Steve was like okay....Then the other guy bursts out with "Thanks so much for taking Oklahoma down!!!"

So there you go. That is what we have been up to these days!!

GO COUGARS!!

First Days of School

The first thing that we got to do on monday morning was get the girls ready for school. I already knew that Hannah could not start on the day she registered, so we were prepared to start school on Tuesday. I figured that Monday morning would be great for school pictures, so here they are!



Hannah was so ready to go! until she realized that she had to run a morning full of errands with me after we did the whole school thing! Katy is no where to be seen since she decided to sleep in until 11 am that day!! It was an easy day for Steve to watch her.

Ruby loved school and hasn't looked back since that first day. She is having so much fun and loves her teachers. The Children's House is the best ever and they really do love their Ruby Jo.

Hannah loves her teacher too and loves that she is getting 100% and A+ on her assignments. I am glad that she is now at the top and enjoying being an awesome student! No more fights about homework, since the whole weeks worth is how much she would normally have on a single night back at Challenger!!

thoughts on moving

Maybe it is a start over or maybe because I feel at home back here in Jacksonville, but moving for me has been a new start. Maybe moving back to my home turf has allowed me to feel like life is a little easier and the pressures of the conformity of Utah are gone. It is fun to be ME out here. I am unique out here in this little town of Jacksonville. The typical mom stuff is fun. Going to take my kids to school and to be there when they are done is fun. Creating a strict schedule that the kids have never had before is working well, even though it is a lot of work every day. I now understand why my Mom would get up early in the morning before us kids: To enjoy a quiet moment before life started for the day. Eating a bowl of cereal and catching up on the news for a few moments before that schedule starts is refreshing to me.

The house is amazing and I have never been "in love" with a house before this one. Every little nook and cranny is even better than the last. The space is amazing and I just have to sit in amazement that it is mine for now. The yard is HUGE and I feel safe to let my kids go outside and play. Be kids and explore without the fear of a busy street. Heck we don't even have sidewalks. Taking a stroll down the middle of the street barefoot is just fine here and all the neighbors either stop and say hi or wave as they go by. The Southern comforts...maybe that is what I have been missing in my life.

I love knowing that dinner is at 5 pm every night and that I don't feel overwhelmed by a kitchen. Sure I still have boxes around, but they are slowly getting put away. We have the internet after a fun day of trying to get it. To take a break from the TV and the web was nice. It sure does make for more family time and evening walks. For instance Katy and I took a walk yesterday morning just to get out of the house. We needed a break from the house since it is just her and I in the mornings now. We took a stroll over to where my mom used to live. Only 3 blocks away from our house now. Katy got all mad because her grandma wasn't there. She even called and said "Hi Grandma. I'm at your old house. Where are you?" Sure it is hard being away from my mom, but in many ways it is like my mom is here. We drive the same streets. Hannah is with old teachers of my brothers and well....it is Jacksonville. Changed but still the same.

I just take a deep breath and realize that I have come home. Home to my neighborhood that I wanna raise my children in. Home to where the life is a little bit slower. It's okay to sit on your porch and watch the fireflies dance in the night. Slow to take your time to notice the sounds of nature that are all around you. Slow to know that life can go at a little slower pace. I will catch up eventually, but right now I am taking it all in. Yes, moving has been good to me. I just hope it lasts through all of nursing school.

We did It!

We made it to Alabama very late on Friday night! It was a super long car ride and at times it was hard to stay awake and drive, but we did it! The girls and I left American Fork on Thursday at 4 pm. and raced to the airport to get my dad at 5. We took off in our attempt to catch Steve and Paul. It took us a few hours but we did. In the first run, Steve almost ran out of gas in the truck! I will let him tell you the story.

We drove all night long and in the morning we were already almost through Nebraska! Then into Iowa for breakfast and on our way into Missouri. We stopped in Independence for a short stop, by then it was almost lunch time and we still had a long way to get to Emily's house. The kids were doing great both days, since they slept a really long time and then on Friday for most of the day Ruby was in the truck!!

Our last stop was about 40 miles outside of Nashville. Steve was so tired that he was acting like he was drunk! The poor lady said she couldn't understand him when he wanted gas and told me a few times that he didn't need to be driving any more. That is the only part that makes me worried for him to drive by himself in a few weeks. I hope he doesn't push it too hard. I need a husband around.

I was tired but my dad and I took the last leg into Emily's house. He told me that this was my move, so I needed to head it in for the last leg! So I loaded up on my 32 oz. Dr. Pepper and a bag of sunflower seeds and I was good!! We pulled into Emily's house around 1:30 in the morning. Total hours in the van from American Fork to Harvest, AL only took us 33 1/2 hours!! I think that is great with a 26' truck packed to the gills, 3 kids, and a cat!! Nutmeg did great with the drive and is glad to be out of her crate.

I gotta get Hannah from the bus, so I will post later for what we have been up to since then!

On our Way

Tomorrow is our moving day! The truck is packed here and this is one last post from Utah. My next one will be from Alabama. Don't be looking for one any sooner than Monday or Tuesday. This Momma has lots to do with getting the kids into school.

I am sitting here in our house and it is feeling rather empty! There are echo sounds all over and well it looks like we are moving. Somehow it doesn't seem like we are going, but we are. Guess I am in denial about that 27 hour drive that we have starting tomorrow evening.

I am glad that we got that 26' truck. It is packed to the gills and we are leaving a few things b/c it is so full. Guess that Steve will have to get a new grill when we get there, since it didn't fit into the truck! I really wish it was all those baseball cards that didn't make it in there, but what's a girl to do??

The kids are finally asleep after a very long day. They have been wild since the get go for us today. Tomorrow we have to stop by DI or Kid2Kid one last time, since all their clothes are packed and in the truck! We gotta get a few towels so that everyone can take a bath before we go. My little family smells bad! Oh well...one last trip to DI! should be fun and it will be the clothes they are in until we unpack on Saturday night. I am so thankful that I have packed their bins for a whole week, so I am not looking in all of the boxes/bins for clothes and everything that we need!!

Well I am signing out! See everyone in Alabama. I am sure going to miss all of our friends here!!

Love you ALL...

Alicia
or Ya-ya as some of you know me by :-)

Moving Week

Our moving week is upon us already! Our dining room is getting full of boxes and more boxes! We have gotten done with the whole upstairs and the only thing left there is the girls beds, but we are getting rid of Katy and Ruby's beds this week since my mom and dad are letting us have all the old captain's beds that they don't use anymore. Those captain's beds are going to be the first things in the truck on Wednesday.

Packing has been going great too for the rest of the house. Everyday we are getting at least 5-10 boxes packed. It is almost fun to be able to pack a box or two and then take a break. Steve and I were talking yesterday that this move seems a lot less stressful than any of our other moves. Maybe it is because we are doing this for us and not because we have to for work or a crappy apartment that we need to get out of. It has the fun element in it and I can really sense the difference.

Today we are going to finish on our room and start to pack up some of the kitchen. I am so excited to get rid of my microwave, since there is a new built in one at our new house! I am on the hunt for 4 bar stools since we have a little place that the kids can eat right there in the kitchen too! We are almost down to all that little stuff that no one wants to pack anyway and that is a good thing since it is Sunday!

We have also done good with the kittens. So far we have given 5 away which is half of them. We only have Shadow's kittens left, so if you know of someone who wants a cat let us know. I hate to give them to the shelter, but that is what we are going to do if we still have them on Tuesday.

Well back to packing! We are moving out in FOUR DAYS!!!

BYU Fall Sports Preview Night

As one of our last BYU sports functions while we are living in Utah, we had to pack up the kids for Provo one last time. This is our 3rd or 4th year of Fall Sports Preview night with the kids. We ate dinner where else but at the Brick Oven. Gotta love their food!! Then it was off to the athletic department sale that they have every year. This year was no exception with good deals we got stocked up on shirts, workout clothes for Steve and of course the only time of year that Steve will even look at shoes, so Steve got a new pair of shoes for $10!!!

Then it was time to go outside and meet the teams!

Here we go....
First was a few members of the Cougarettes (the dance team that BYU has) One of the girls had the same name of Katy so that was fun. Ruby was so cute and asked if I would take a picture.

Then the girls found the Cheerleaders! They were so nice and I hope that I can whip out my sewing machine and make some matching uniforms for them soon!! I got a semester before I start school, so I should have sometime for a fun project!!

Then we found a Football player! All about the girls getting pictures with who they can!!!
Then the found the dance team again and Ruby and Katy had to introduce them to their big sister Hannah!! It was so much fun for them and more pictures of course!!


After that it was time to go meet the girls soccer team for the team picture signing and kicking the ball around with the girls! Hannah was being so good for waiting in line to get her poster signed.

Then we walked over to the line to meet some of the players for women and men's basketball! Yeah they were tall that is why they wanted to pick up the girls for their picture.
After that Ruby was in the mood for her Dad to hold her up in his hand like the cheerleaders do. We found some cheerleaders again and one of the guys held her up like her daddy does. They loved it that she popped out a high-v for the qupie too!! It was awesome!!
We even ran into the Fosters who just moved here from Alabama!!! It was totally random and so much fun to see a friendly face in the crowd. And Mikelle your kids are HUGE!!
The girls wanted to do the track and field thing again for about the 20th time which should get all of their energy out. They were so cute getting ready to run!!! Here they are coming in for the finish!!



To top it off for the night we had our annual picture with who else but Cosmo.
In all it was a super fun night and the kids had a blast. What a fun way to spend Family Home evening this week. Guess we have to get back to reality and start packing again tomorrow.

We are on 10 days and counting

I have a few minutes this morning so I can update the blog real quick. It has been a busy week last week with packing and getting things ready to go. We have been robbing the dumpster at the OG for their boxes. Ruby thinks that it is just great to get in there and pass boxes back to mom. Katy loves to help me pack (or should i say unpack). The girl can get stuff out of boxes faster than I can put it in there or just start throwing stuff into boxes, so I have to go unpack it. We are getting boxes done though.

The week has been busy for Hannah. Her tooth finally came out!! I never thought that it would come out. It was sticking all the way out and still holding on. She lost it on Friday night right before we headed out to see Harry Potter (which was awesome by the way). The Tooth Fairy ran out of money, so she left a really cool lip gloss thing instead. Hannah was good with that and woke up so early on Saturday morning.


Hannah also had her swim meet party where she got her trophy and a ton of ribbons! It was great to see that she got a metal for finishing 6th in backstroke for county! She was really excited and happy to have had a good summer swimming season. I really don't want to drive forever to get to swim practice so I might just have to get things started for a team in Jacksonville.


Other than Hannah fun we are just busy packing. Today I am headed to the Laundrymat to get all of our stuff washed. I really just want to get everything done at once, so I will take the kids for a little adventure today. We are washing everything. I think I have enough dirty clothes to last us this week and we are going to wash all their sheets, towels, and any thing else that needs to be washed. It should be a fun adventure today!!

Well off to getting things done today!

Here we go!

So it has been quite a week for our family. Last Monday night we talked to a real estate agent about options for our home. It was the answer we were looking for and the ball has been picking up steam since then. We had a plan and felt good about selling our house with this guy (named steve of course, so I just refer to him as the real estate agent). After he left us on Monday night, both Steve and I felt like a great weight had been lifted off of our shoulders and we were at peace. From there it was just looking at the calendar and saying when we were moving. It was either the 20th or the 27th of THIS MONTH! I was trying to get there so that I could start school this semester, but after a lot of thought, looking at the calendar, and prayer I am waiting until January to start on this education adventure of mine.

Alabama schools started today, so Hannah is going to miss 3 weeks of school, but I figure that she won't be too far behind since she has really done a 1st grade curriculum with her school last year. Hannah is excited to go but is a little worried about new friends. I am sure that she will make some new ones fast and there will be play dates before we know it!

Since we decided on a date, we needed to get on the bandwagon for somewhere to live. It was easy to get a rental truck and extra drivers to help us make this 27 hour adventure that we are embarking on in 17 days. We had already been approved through a rental company in AL so that was nice. They had a 4 bedroom house near the high school that we didn't get, so there were two other houses that would be good for our family. Steve's dad was nice enough to go and look at the two that we were interested in. I guess the first one wasn't so nice and the second would do. It was nice but not one of those houses that you just have to have.

I was looking through the house listings just for fun to see what houses still were for sale. What would you know the house that I fell in love with in April was still up for sale. I talked to Steve about calling their listing agent just to see if they might rent it to us since it is the end of summer. Well that was Friday afternoon and to sum it all up it is the house that we are renting!!! I get to live in the house that I love and that is perfect for our family without having to buy it.

The house is perfect. It is a four bedroom, three bath house that is 2800 feet! Plenty of room for our girls and for Steve to work! The best part about this house is that there is a HUGE room in the basement for Steve to work from home. No more commute to work, unless you count walking down the stairs. Steve's boss is going to pay us a little for the 'office space' and even pick up the tab for the internet and phone too.

The house should be really quiet in the mornings. Hannah starts school at 8 am and Ruby needs to be to school around 7:45, so it will just be me and Katy every morning. We will then go and get Ruby at 11:30 and probably make a tradition of finding some fun place to eat around town and then heading off to the library or taking a walk on the trails while it is still warm out. Then we can hurry home so that we can meet Hannah getting off of the bus.

But I guess instead of day dreaming about what we will be doing in 3 weeks, I need to get to packing my house once again, but at least this time we have a 5 year plan and even a little bit planned after that too. Our family has been so blessed in this big change of our life. It seemed like it was never going to happen, but we did know it was going to happen and not when. I guess looking back at everything that has happened since we have moved into this house, it was getting us ready to head back to college again. The Lord's time frame is working and I have learned to trust in that. Yes I am sad to go, since once again friends are moving here and new friendships are growing and the Smith's are packing up to leave. The best part is that I have friends all over the country and have the BEST friends ever!

It is getting to be that time of year that my thoughts reflect back to my son and his short life and I can't tell you how special that for his 8th birthday we will all be close to his grave. I am very thankful for that and to know that there will be many service days spent at his grave with the girls to make it pretty. In a way for me, all of my children will be together and that makes me happy.

So that is the Smith's and the big changes that are going to be happening in the next few weeks. Phone calls are getting done and we are embarking on our 4th cross country adventure in 17 days!!!

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

Well the Smith's have some big news in the works and in the next few weeks we will be giving out the new details. How is that for a teaser post?? Things will be going really fast in the next little while so I am sorry already if the blog isn't kept up all the time.

Other than that news we are staying busy with a few projects and end of summer things. Hannah had her county swim meet last week and she did awesome! She ended up 20th in Free out of the 34 little girls in 6 & Under. Butterfly she dropped her time by 16 seconds! Although she was DQ'ed she showed that she can swim it and swim rather fast when she wants too!! 25 Back was the silver lining in the day. Steve had taken the girls home b/c they were not doing too well and my mom and dad had to get home, so it was just Hannah and I at the pool. She was in heat 2 with 5 other girls. Her seeded time was 46.2 seconds and she swam her little heart out and found her motor!! She swam it in 34.4 seconds which was a faster time than any of the other times going in to the race in her lane. If the other girls swam about their seed time she should be 4th! Out of 30 girls I was way excited. Hannah was excited to get the heat winner ribbon after being really sad about fly. It was an emotional up and down meet, but we did it and finished on a high note.

Hannah also has her first loose tooth! Is she that big already?? It is getting close to coming out and she has her little tooth fairy pillow already for this little tooth that first made its presence known when she was 9 months old. I have been having this mom moment that I can't believe that I am that old to have kids loosing teeth already. I just want them to stay little forever! It really is going way too fast for me!

Oh yes, my Katy story. The girl had my phone a few days ago pretending to talk to Garrett again. Well she also has a thing about chewing on everything and my phone fell victim to this bad habit. She literally ate my phone. Teeth marks and all on my phone and she cracked my screen so no more seeing text messages or even who is calling. Lucky me has had to be on the lookout for a new phone that works.

Ruby had a hard day last week too. I think it was just one of those stressful days for me and for Ruby. She woke up crying and it didn't stop for hours! I was done after 5 hours of it, so I called my mom. She sent Cody down to pick her up and I was so thankful for the break. It was a little quiet in my house for the first time that day. Ruby of course ate really well while she was gone and got some snuggle/nap time in with her Grandma! I wanted a nap and I wasn't the one that was crying for 5 hours strait.

Other than those few things we are busy! More news will be posted soon, but until then you will have to be patient!!

There are no words to say but "Cheese!"

Another Summer Update

It has been a few weeks since I have gotten around to sending love out to all of my blog stalkers!! So here we go with what we are up to these days and we can go from youngest to oldest.

~~Katy~~

Into everything from food to cat food to anything she can make a mess with. Katy has also started to potty train herself. Today is still a diaper day, but most days she will go potty at least once or twice on the potty or do what she loves to do...just pee on the floor. I swear she thinks that it is funny, so I spend lots of time washing the floors and clothes. A pee on the floor is a diaper and dollar saved so I will keep on cleaning my floor!
Katy is also a little fish in the water too!! It is much easier to take the kids to the pool this year! They are all confident in the water and don't mind jumping off the side, going down the slide or anything else that has to do with water! Katy is getting her little tan for the summer too! After a few more trips to the pool we will do the tan line shot!!

^**^Ruby^**^

Well Ruby is Ruby! We are having a lot less screaming fits but the constant nagging is going to do me in! When does school start?!?! Ruby is really missing school and the friends and teachers that go along with that. She is my most rewarding child since I cherish the good days :-) She is doing great in nursery and is starting to look like the big kid in there. I can't believe that I am going to have a Sunbeam in a few short months. Where did all that time go?? Ruby loves to sing, play and color! I love that she is left handed and I could watch her all day. There is just something about watching her color and concentrate that I love!
Ruby loves the pool too! She loves going down the slide with her Daddy! Guess he goes really fast or something with her. I found her a new suit at a yard sale on Saturday and she looks so much older in it! HOLY COW!! my baby is getting big.

##Hannah##

It has been a busy few weeks for Hannah with swim practice early every morning and swim meets on the weekend! We were a little afraid that she wasn't going to get a legal time in Fly but she got it a few weeks ago and we didn't know about it! Her meet this last saturday was against provo and she did awesome! I really wasn't sure what she did on Free since she didn't improve her time, but everything else was the best i have seen her swim in a long time! She dropped her time in 25 Fly by 6 seconds for a time of 51! By what I could see she finished 3rd this week. Her 25 Back was awesome too and dropped that by 4 seconds, so we are sitting with a time of 42. It will be a fun county meet.

!@!@! Alicia and Steve !@!@!
It has been one of those interesting months for us! It has not been the best month money wise for us, but great for memories and time with the family. I have been at work a lot this month and Steve has been doing more than his fair share with work and watching the kids while I go to work.
In the last few weeks we had the opportunity (thanks to Cody for coming to watch the girls for us) to go out for a Temple date night and dinner! It was an awesome time to be able to do the work for my Grandma and Grandpa Navarro. It was a lot to get done in one day, but everything seemed to flow and work out at all the right time. WOW! What a special experience from start to finish for the both of us.
We have also decided to take our house off the listings with the rent to own company. It's not that we are giving up on moving, but things are just not working out with them since we have a different idea of how things should go then they do. When you are not on the same page it is not a good thing. We are going to have the For Sale sign out still and see how it goes, but I don't need the stress of keeping my house super clean for people to drop by at anytime of the day with my 3 whirlwinds that live in my house. We are still planning on moving and know that is where point B is at, but I think like life goes we are going to have to take the long guided tour to get there!
Days at the pool have been so much fun with all the kids and hopefully we can get a few more in before school starts in September.

Well that is us in a nutshell!! Oh yes...almost forgot all of our kittens! They are all getting so big and learning to walk is the new thing that they are doing. Last night Steve and I just watched them learning how to play and sitting in amazement at how their little personalities are starting to show. We have about 3-4 more weeks before we can sell them, so we will have fun with them until then. I am waiting for one to escape this week and then really getting them used to the kids. They will be awesome for families for sure after my kids!

The Kitten Update

Well our house is full of little kittens. Shadow started having her babies when I left for work on Friday night. Steve was texting me all night long to tell me the progress of how things were going. When I got home there were already 4 and we thought that was it. Well while I was in the living room talking, Shadow had another one!! Then later that night she had her last kitten. I was glad that I was there only b/c she had been in labor for a good 7 hours and was really tired.

So in all we ended up with 11 kittens from Riley and Shadow. I took a few pictures of them today in the closet. We put Shadow and her babies in the closet (but a different place than Riley) and they both ended up together babies and all. They are now taking turns feeding and watching the kittens. Right now it just looks like a big pile of fur!! Riley's babies should be opening their eyes at the start of next week and Shadows will soon follow.

Wow! We have lots of kittens and this is the easy part too!!!

Here is how I found Katy

I think the title says it all!! Katy seems to be getting into everything lately and it is driving us all nuts. I have gone to the laugh about it approach and started taking pictures of her little adventures.

This was her adventure a few days ago. Butter, spaghetti noodles, add a little bit of water and there you go.....Needless to say we are out of butter now.

Post #200

Holy Cow!! I am at post #200 already?!?!? Seems like I just started blogging a few weeks ago, but I guess it has been almost 2 years to the date since my first post on 7-1-07!! We have come a long way in postings since that first one. I wanna thank all of my faithful blog readers, blog stalkers, and anyone else who manages their way to my blog.

We have come a long way together and may the next 200 entries be just as much fun as the first 200!!

Here we go on another adventure!!

A FREE Weekend Away!

This blog is brought to you by the Virgin River Casino.


I signed up for their Free newsletter when I made our reservations for last month when we found a steal of a deal for a hotel night. Only $24 for a night and a pool for the kids when we went down to Laughlin a few weeks ago. Well I thought nothing of it and I got something in the mail from them yesterday. This is what my letter said....

Dear Mrs. Smith,

Thank you for signing up for our ePromotions contest. Your name was drawn for the month of June.

Enclosed please find your hotel package. These certificates are valid seven days a week and will expire on September 30, 2009.

Congratulations and enjoy your getaway in Mesquite!

Respectflly,

The Virgin River Hotel and Casino

My getaway includes.....

A Room for 2 nights, Bowling for 2 people (3 games each and shoe rental included!!), and Dinner at the Chuckwagon Restaurant for $50!!!

hummmmmm........maybe I can twist my mom's arm to watch the girls so we can get away for my birthday weekend in September! It is going to be my 30th birthday after all, right?!?!

We Had Quints!!

YES you read that right! We had QUINTS 2 nights ago! More babies to add to the Smith family, but too bad they are the fur kind!! We added Thriller, Billie Jean, Saddle, Dot, and Curlie to our family 2 nights ago.

I had gotten home from work and was getting ready for bed. Riley was yelpin' at us about something and Steve goes "She has a little tail sticking out. It is time!" So I got Hannah out of bed since this is her cat and when I say her cat...I mean her cat. This cat does anything that Hannah wants her to. Guess it was all those nights that Hannah made Riley lay in bed with her and not move. The cat won't let anyone really love on her, but if it is Hannah it is a totally different story. Belly rubs and all where the rest of us are lucky if we get to touch her head.

Anyway...here are a few pictures of the kittens after they were born. We thought she was done at three, so Hannah slept with Riley in the little room off of our bathroom and when she woke up in the morning there were FIVE!!!

Hannah is being a good little momma to the new momma. Making sure that she gets food and water when she doesn't want to leave the kittens. All is well though and to the pictures we go......



The one with the turtle looking thing on its back is Saddle, next to it is Dot (that one has a brown spot on its back with a very cute back tail and other black dots), next to that is Billie Jean, Then it is Curlie (named that b/c when that cat came out it had a curl on top of its head), and then the dark colored one is Thriller.
Yes my kids really are into the 80s Michael Jackson so that is why we have a few MJ names in there.

They are all in a closet for right now and we will take pictures of them once a week so everyone can see how big they are getting. Shadow is almost ready to have her babies too and I am sure there will be way more than 5 since she is double the size that Riley was!!!

Our fun 4th of July weekend

The summer is half way over and we celebrated in style by getting away for a few days. As a family we took off on thursday afternoon to head to mesquite, nevada. We stopped in St. George to see the temple. The girls had a fun time and it was good to stretch everyone's legs before getting back in the car. It was a fun side trip!!

The kids were okay on the short leg of the trip and had a ton of fun swimming in the pool all night long! Steve had a great dinner since his steak, potatoes, veggies, and a roll were a whole $4.99!!! We got the kids really tired with a 3 hour fun time in the pool. Guess we were there a long tine since people that were at the pool left and came back and were like "you guys are still here?!?" We got all the kids to have some fun and even go underwater. We have some fish on our hands!!



The next day we headed down to Vegas for the morning. We took the kids to M&M World and then back to MGM. Lucky for us we got the kids out without having to buy way over priced M&Ms that we can get cheaper some where else. They thought that the lions were rather cool too!!! Steve loved the fact that there was a HUGE Transformers sign on the black pyramid.


I had to make a stop at the famous welcome to vegas sign for a new family picture. We have all been to Vegas a zillion times and never took a single picture with the sign. So here it is!!

Then we packed the kids in and headed into the desert! We finally got to Laughlin and met up with the family! Lunch was at no where else, but In and Out Burger!! It was fun to get to meet the rest of the cousins and catch up with all the aunts and uncles. Who knew that the family was so big?!?! It was the first night that we took all the kids down to the river to play for a few hours. Everyone had a great time and could not wait to go back the next day. In the evening it was still a whoppin' 118!!! So yes the water felt great!
The next day we had doughnuts for breakfast and then hit the pool for about an hour or so. We then headed back to the river for another 5 hours for fun in the sun and water. We all got rides on the boat thanks to an awesome cousin. Hannah didn't want to get out of the boat and Katy thought the tubeing ride was fun after she opened her eyes!
The fireworks that night we so much fun too! Yes it was still way hot and Katy fell asleep before they even started, but that is okay. It's about being with family right? It was a good show!! The kids were way tired and it ended up a fun weekend, but it is nice to get home too!! Now I can't complain when it is 90 outside, since it is way cooler than that 118 that we spent that weekend in!