Great. One more thing to be known as a slacker at...my blog. I keep thinking of stuff I need to put on here, and then someone will scream or hit or need mom...and that is as far as I get! So I am just going to sit here for a minute and ignore the dirty kitchen and the kids, and finally do it. I have a bunch of pictures I just wanted to stick on here...so enjoy!



Small-Fry continues to grow and be happy. His smile is about as big as his big brother's famous grin! His first little tooth popped out last Sunday. I can't believe how fast time is flying by! He crawls, although not up on his little knees yet. He gets up on his hands and knees and does some serious rocking, but if you sit in front of him though and try to get him to crawl to you, he will just hold all arms and legs up while balancing on his tummy and sit and make little fists and kick his feet while he waits for you to come get him. Hard to describe....just imagine a turtle turned on it's back. Same thing really.

Smiley got surgery. He was smiling the entire time, and of course had the nurses wrapped around his fingers. They kept bringing in more toys that they found, and he was so sweet to them all. He recovered quickly and was really brave about the whole thing!

Halloween 2008


Harry Potter - Bumblebee - Smiley Bumblebee

The ward had the annual Halloween party and so we carved a pumpkin for the carving contest. I confess, I took over and had a lot of fun with this. =)



Too bad you can't see it too well in this picture, but I even put "blood" on the feathers. The spider is Dallin's. It's actual size! Disturbing. We won the prize for the scariest pumpkin.

Another night when we were driving home, we were discussing the pumpkins we were going to carve when we got home. Spider-man goes, "I want a vampire pumpkin." Oooooh....scary!



Smiley says, "I want a happy pumpkin!" Cute little guy!



Bear goes, "I want a scorpion eating someone, with someone in it's pincers, and two people running away!!!"

......

......

blink blink

So daddy tells him, "Well, we may not be able to quite do that."

Yep, well I totally did it. One of Mommy's finest moments! It was spectacular. Look closely at the pictures...unfortunately, it is very hard to capture that kind of art work on film!



These are the two people running away. Again, really hard to capture in a picture.

Spider-man just kind of looked at his and tried to be happy. I think he will want mom's help next year. He didn't really think mom would be that good at this job. HA!!

Our Halloween stories would not be complete though without telling about Dad's work party. OH MY WORD. Omniture goes ALL out. They were totally on the news for how crazy it gets there. Every department had a theme and they spend days before decorating for the event. There was a Ghostbusters section, complete with a Stay Puff Marshmallow Man, a Super Mario Bros. department. There was an entire forest...Sherwood Forest of course. A complete saloon, and the executive's floor was the land of OZ...complete with all the characters in hollywood-quality costumes. The CEO has some weird thing for Dwarfs, and he flies a group of them in every year for Halloween. This year they were dressed as the Munchkins (he was the Wizard of Oz of course). Another year they were the dwarfs from Snow White. And yet another they were Umpa Lumpas and the CEO was Willy Wonka. If I were in that position, yep....I would totally do stuff like that too. Forget politcally correct....that is just plain funny!!

Oh, I forgot...there was an entire department decked out in BYU vs Utah decor (in honor of the approaching game) complete with REAL GRASS FOR THE FIELD and the real Cosmo the Cougar and some of the cheerleaders! It was AWESOME!! BYU was hugely represented, and then there was a few dorky little Ute things there trying to compete. =) Brought tears of joy to my eyes.




Notice the REAL field they are standing on. And too bad the picture doesn't capture it, but my boys were just staring at the cheerleaders. It was really funny! (eye roll) =)



October brought us something else creepy!



Look closely. Those D*** bugs ate our freaking lawn. Now, if you know us, it took us FOREVER to finish our yard, and the hubby treated the lawn TWICE this past summer for them. Did it help? Nope. So sorry for the harsh language, but it still makes me see red to think about it. This spring when I have to buy another pallet of sod, and lay that sod, you will definitely hear more language.

Wow. This post just keeps going and going and going. I am just going to post it now though and put all the Christmas pictures in a different one. I have heard you can back-date these so that it will be with the right date, but then I will still look like a slacker who hasn't updated my blog. So you just get to read about Halloween and other fall stuff. Plus, it is WAY too late for this girl to be figuring out how to do that.

Oh wait.

It's actually really easy to do. But there again, I will still look like a slacker. So read all about pumpkins in front of a valentine's background. Weirder things have happened around here!

I am such a neglectful mom!

While writing that last post, it was awfully quiet around here! I got an email from my neighbor with some pictures showing me that my kids were over there and what they were doing! I really need to not blog during the day!



Thanks Angela! You are awesome! If anyone needs me tomorrow, I will be babysitting her kids. =)

Mommy's Bid for Freedom...

So my lucky friend is getting her basement finished...very great thing to be doing! But the poor girl has been on house arrest for the past month so that she can babysit contractors in her house all day. (Not going to leave some random guy in your house, free to rummage around and use your husband's bathrobe! Inside joke, sorry.) So anyway, we decided we needed to make a run for it last night...SEE YA!!!

The cost of freedom has always been great.

Before I left I thought, "Hey, I'll be a good mom and wife tonight and actually make dinner!" (this idea is becoming more and more novel around here. Directly proportional to my expanding hips.) =( So in a cheap attempt to make sure everyone ate enough to prevent the inevitable whining, "I'M HUNGRY! I didn't get much to eat!" I decided to make tons of little pancakes and we would have a pancake eating contest.
The kids gathered around the table in anticipation (also a novelty at the dinner table) and I put that stack in the center of the table. They dished up and all three of the boys decided to opt out of syrup. I asked, "Are you sure you don't want syrup?!"

"It will slow us down Mom!"

The contest started and the oldest folds his pancake up and shoves it in whole. Obviously been watching "Hurl" with Daddy again.

"NO BOYS!! We aren't RACING! Just keep track of how many you eat...you can take all night if you want!"

Little disclaimer...I had eaten very wisely all day and hadn't snacked...so I was really hungry. So Smiley was done at 3 and happy because he is 3. Everything is way cooler if you are that age. Bear was holding his hands over his mouth at 6 and just staring. We were telling him, "Stop eating!! You're going to puke!" He took our advice, sat back for a few, and then finished another half pancake so that he would beat Daddy. Spider-Man got to seven and said he was going to barf. I won....sniff sniff. In my defense, these were really small pancakes. So I would just like to thank my husband for not showing up to the competition and letting his wife waste him like that. Really good for the ego. Thanks Honey.

After we were done, the boys decide to wrestle. Yep, I'll bet you see the problem with this idea too. So I suggested that they play some Dead Dog instead.

"What's that mommy?"

"When you have eaten too much, you just lay around like dead dogs."

They thought this was an AWESOME game. The funny little guys decided that it is more accurate if you lay on your backs with your legs in the air. This is apparently the correct form for dead animals. And ever the mean big brothers, the two oldest were telling Smiley that he looked like a dead fish instead of a dead dog...which he was sad about. They worked it out though in boy-fashion and had fun. I went upstairs smiling to myself for my mommy awesomeness.

Then my friend and I made a break for it! We headed to the mall.

I have never remembered to do this, but apparently some people get new clothes for Christmas. We went into the Children's Place and they had sweaters 3 for $20!! I wouldn't have normally bought my boys sweaters, but they had been little snots for the most part of the day, so I got them. They think they are DYING if they have to wear a long-sleeve white shirt for church. I asked the cashier if that makes me a mean mom if I am buying them sweaters just to tick them off.Poor girl probably peed a little laughing at that. =) (Good thing she thought I was kidding. Totally wasn't though.)

We went to Victoria's Secret to get a new bra. They are having an AWESOME sale on bras so we decided we would like to invite the girls back up for a visit. So the cute, skinny, blonde, stylish girl (hate her) asked if I know my size. Nope. We walked back to the dressing room area to measure. Now for any boys reading this, Ferris's head almost exploded when trying to think of what this might involve. It is a simple procedure involving a tape measure and no weirdness at all. This is even coming from a girl who is not so into touching anyone. Totally wouldn't have been weird...oh, except for the young guy just standing there waiting for his little girl friend to try on some bras. (I judge. I guess they could have been married...those little newly weds are looking younger and younger.) Anyway, I was kind of looking at him like, "So, you just going to hang out here for this?" Yep.

She finishes measuring and informs me of the damage. The number was a little higher then I am used to. Being the joker that I am, I tried to laugh it off and save my ego. "Does that mean I have like a chubby rib cage?"

"Um, yep. Yah."

Not even kidding. That was her response. Said in a way that made me want to pop her little head right off. Almost as if she knew that she had touched a soft spot, she then told me how they really don't have much selection in that size. =| Thanks. You're a sweet little puke.

Girl-trying-bras-on-with-boyfriend-there asked my opinion on which one. I recommended the red one with the scalloped edges...it's a bit more sassy. Also, let your mom know that you are bra shopping with A BOY!!!! The boy liked the other one. What the heck to boys know though...we vetoed him.

(For those of you still in shock that I would blog about my pathetic bra size, you obviously don't watch the People's Court and you probably missed the one where I told the judge that I hid an entire tape recorder in my bra. That is a whole different blog post.)

Off to Target! We wandered aimlessly for a long time, collecting random crap. Hopefully some of it will prove useful in the next few weeks. We headed home and watched The Office with hubbies....what Thursday night would be complete without that?!

Remember that "cost of freedom" comment? That all happens when the lights turn off and all is quiet.

Little Small Fry....

Pause! Time Out!

For the record, this whole "nickname" thing is retarded. I feel like the biggest idiot every time I write something about "Spider-Man" or "Bear"! Just sounds dumb. So if it is painful for you to read, remember that I feel your pain. It's always cooler when someone else is doing it...then I do it and it looks just plain dumb. Sorry.

Unpause!

Little Small-fry has always been such a great sleeper. This little 4.0 version of the Smith baby may be the perfected model! I put him to bed the other night at 8:30 PM. He got up at 6:30, drank a bottle and sweetly went back to sleep. I finally went in and poked him at 10:30 AM to see if he was alright. This is not a-typical. He has always been a great sleeper. Even at The Children's Place that night I say a cute little onesie that said "Silent Night...yah right" I smiled to myself thinking how cute and clever it was and how I would get it if it were true at all. (another inward smile to myself and a pleasant sigh)

So I crawl into bed at 1:00 AM (because I am an idiot) and then at 2:30 his crying finally pulls me out of my coma. I stumble down and get a bottle and then go in there and he is wedged in there kind of weird. (Remember those pleasant swaddling days? Gone. sniff sniff) His little head was wedged sort of weird, so I get him out of that and sit down to feed him. Literally I could not keep my head up. Then the little cute stink wakes up a bit and is staring at me like, "Oh, hey mommy. What are you doing in here." He didn't smile or anything, just stared at me and seemed to really wonder why I had gotten him up. I just stared back in a daze.


Back to bed and he was crying again at 6:30.

Why does life work like this? WHY do these things happen if you just tell someone he sleeps well? Happens every time! So if you ever ask me how my baby sleeps, I am going to tell you he sleeps like crap!! I promise to whine and lie and tell you he is up every couple hours.

That was the second night in a row he has done this. Tonight I might see if the Tylenol fixes the problem. =)

Is this wrong?

7 Things....

So remember when I said I was a blog retard? Well I got tagged on my friend's blog and I was all, "Um, so what does that mean? Am I suppose to do that now or something?" She was probably rolling her eyes when I asked her...but being the nerds that we are, we were on instant messenger so I can't see the eye roll. (I don't think either one of us know the short-cut symbols for those eye-rolling faces because we never seem to use those.) =)

Anyway, here I go on my first tag. I know...I am WAY cool!

7 Things About Me

Seven things I want to do before I die:

1. See all my kids grow up and make really good choices and always stay close to the church with their families.
2. Meet the Prophet.
3. Learn a new language.
4. See all of my boys serve honorable full-time missions.
5. Learn to ski.
6. Live out of the country for awhile so I can pick up a really cool accent. =) I know...important huh?! I just never knew that I would be making these huge life plans this morning while sitting on my couch! It really is huge!
7. Read CRAP loads of books. I have SO MANY on my list of ones I want to read.

Seven things I can do:

1. Do CPR. I used to be all sorts of certified in this. Haven't done the cert stuff in years, but you still stand a pretty good chance if you ever need CPR from me.
2. Say a few important lines in Thai, Portuguese, Spanish, and Pig-Latin. (Getting more and more limited as the years pass, but I used to be REALLY good at those few lines!) Oh, and a few Samoan cuss words.
3. Joke about ANYTHING. (not always a good thing. Sometimes it may come across as not taking things seriously, but not true. I am just that good...I can be totally serious about a subject and still plug in a good joke. Ok, good joke is debatable, but I can still try.)
4. I can wrap gifts like you wouldn't believe. Truly amazing. (totally humble, I know!) But for real, like Nordstrom's catalog, picture-perfect pretty wrapping jobs. I got it from my mom. Thanks mom!)
5. Do makeup really well. I used to think this was something that was pretty idiot proof and wasn't much of a talent, but after hearing everyone talk about how they have no clue how to do makeup and wish that they did, I realize that it might be something that not just anyone can do. Totally useful talent that will help me in all the Eternities...I know!
6. I can do math. Love it! Trig has always been a favorite. (nerd...I know)
7. Kick pretty much anyone's butts in Dr. Mario.

Seven things I can't do:

1. Walk in heels. I keep buying them hoping that I will learn, but then I get too scared to wear them anywhere. I am getting better though.
2. Take good pictures.
3. Get up and go to the gym in the morning.
4. Go without going to Disneyland at least yearly. (little traumatized right now...we are missing this year for the addition of Small Fry to our family. He is cute, but COME ON!!)
5. Remember my kids names and call them by the right name. Also got this one from Mom.
6. Do the splits. Never have been able to...no great hopes for the future.
7. Can't get my dogs to stop barking.

Seven things that attract me to the opposite sex:

1. Tall, dark, and handsome.
2. He is a great dad.
3. Great singer.
4. Can change light bulbs without even standing on anything.
5. Puts up with all my trips and doesn't say anything about staying home and changing poopy diapers while I am off playing...I mean working...with the girls.
6. Has gotten very good at knowing when to compliment my makeup. And once in awhile his opinion on it is almost getting useful.
7. Speaks 3 languages. Surprisingly, pig-latin is not one of them. He is remarkably bad at that one.

Seven things I say most often:

1. No. (I'm sure this would be Spider-man's input if he were helping me. He is convinced that I say no all the time. At what age do I get to tell him, "I always say no because you always ask for dumb stuff."?)
2. Who peed all over the floor boys?!?!
3. I need a vacation.
4. Quit hitting!
5. Dog, don't lick the baby!!! SICK!!!!
6. I love you more!
7. Son of a BUCKET!!

Seven celebrities that I like:

Celebrities are lame. I love the Brad Paisley song about how reality has gone bye-bye for these crazies. I especially hate when they get political. So I will tell you which ones I like on the surface, but I take no responsibility if they are, have been, or turn out to be crap-bags.

1. Patrick Dempsey. (He has been married for a long time and loves the dad and husband thing. That is good in my book.) Not to mention that he is very very pretty to look at. =)
2. Hugh Jackman. (see comment above.)
3. Brooke Shields. Cute mom and she made Tom Cruise look like an idiot. What could be better.
4. Jennifer Garner. Cute mom.
5. Michael Vartan. Just plain pretty.
6. Matthew McConanughey. ahhhhh.
7. Christian Bale.

Wow...do you see that most of the list is because they are nice to look at. What does that say about how important they are. Not important at all...can totally be done without. Someday huh?

Seven favorite foods:

1. Lasagna
2. Dessert
3. A nice grilled steak.
4. Mexican
5. Candy
6. Whoppers (not the candy, the burger. The candy would be included under #5.) =)
7. Pulled Pork anything

Seven people that I tag:

1. Peggy
2. Rachel
3. Erica
4. Melinda
5. Kate
6. Emily
7. That's pretty much all the people that I know that may actually see this post and have a blog. =)

Code Names!

I have really been bummed at the thought of going private with my blog. Really, what fun is that? So I decided I would opt for the "code name, no specific information" route. So I asked the kids what they wanted their "code names" to be. The oldest one was first...his little eyes lit up. He was all "THE TARANTULA MONSTER GROUP!!!!!"

(Eye roll)

"No buddy, a name for just you. We are not changing the name of the blog." (It is not like Smith isn't just as generic as any code name could be.

So he picked "Mr. Tarantula". I said ok, but I was going to shorten it to like MT or something. He then changed it to Spider Man. So don't think of the fun comic book hero when you read that. No no. Think of the nastiest, hairiest, scariest spider you can think of. That is what he wants to come to your mind. =)

#2 picked "Bear". He has a fetish for bears...it is really cute. He actually has a GREAT nick-name, but I don't want to use that either because I call him that more then his real name.

#3 got his picked for him. Smiley. Don't know if that is spelled correctly, but it is now. Really with names you can spell things however you want! If I wanted to use numbers and stuff I could. So how about Smquil4eeeey? Nobody can even comment anymore because that is just how name spelling is done in our world these days.

#4 got his chosen by #1. Small-fry. That brings up the issue though, do I hyphenate this name?

Then I yelled into dad about what name he wanted. Without a moment's hesitation he said, "Ferris!" Cool honey.

So I guess I will be Sydney. We have been watching all the seasons of Alias lately. =) I miss that show.
Crap. Bag that idea. I can't be Sydney...I have other work-related blogs that show me as an author and that is just plain confusing if it says Sydney.

Sigh...told you I missed Alias.


However, I am reminded of a very funny episode of The Office when Jim finds a screenplay that Michael has been writing about Secret Agent Michael Scarn. He had used Dwight as the bad-guy originally and then used the search and replace feature to change the name. But he had misspelled Dwight once so that didn't catch it. Dwight was totally ticked off...it was so dang funny!

Sure wish this blog had a search and replace feature. =S Oh, I guess I will be Pam. She's fun!