Smith Family Happenings

Wow, April 24, huh?? That was the last time I blogged? Yikes. Well, I'm going to attempt to catch you all up on what's been happening in the last 2 months.

We potty-trained Oliver! Phew! What a relief! He still wears diapers for snoozin', but he is a total pro otherwise! He got lots of treats, toys, stickers, and tattoos during the whole process. I was trying to get a pic of him with his favorite Superman, but this is what I got instead. The kids trying to pretend to be mad.

Up next, the end of Avery's first year of elementary school! Yay! She graduated kindergarten with flying colors and is totally ready for first grade! We find out her teacher this week- I hope its a good one!

(oh yeah- and Jeff and I are kickin' some serious butt on our formerly chubby selves! Since the end of January he's lost about 40 lbs. and I'm only 2 lbs away from 50!!!! I think Jeff looks super skinny in this family shot!!)

After school ended- or really- the day school ended, Avery had her 1st baseball game of the summer. I'm the coach of the Black Bats and we are doing totally awesome! (sort of) Our defense has come really far and we're making some good progress in all areas!

Then the day after our 1st game, we took off on a road trip for Oklahoma to visit the Bouse House and meet our new nephew, Graham! Grandpa and Grandma Smith were there too, so it was fun to hang with the grandparents!

Our last two visits to the house of Bouse have involved Oliver playing with Jack's SuperWhy! toys! About 1.8 seconds after entering their house, he finds these and monopolizes them the entire visit! He really turns into quite the super hero- I think its the cape. Well, Grandpa and Grandma thought this was pretty great and got him his own set of the toys!

He then wore his mask and cape ev.er.y.where.!!! Even to Old Navy where he was endlessly mocked by a 3-year-old girl.

Ok, what else... Avery did a sports camp at a local church. She did the cheerleading track with her buddy. She is the one in pink shorts and a white hat. Sort of behind the coach. This is her final show at the end of camp.

So we're pretty current now. It is officially summer and we've hit the 90's here in Parker, so we broke out the sweet pool! The kids have been swimming like crazy!

So we've gone through a bit of a blogging lull lately... I don't know why, there just hasn't been a whole lot going on around here. We're just doing life, finishing up the school year... ya know. But, we're back and hopefully I'll be much more faithful about documenting life around here!

We celebrated Easter today! Went to church, Avery got to sing on stage with her class and the band- she was pretty excited! She practiced ALOT!!!!!! Then we went to our friend's house and had brunch and an egg hunt. So here are the smith kids enjoying the day.

Oliver doesn't remember holidays from year to year yet, so this was his "first" easter egg hunt (in his little mind!!). He talked about it for days and he was pretty excited! So the pics are a little Oliver-heavy! Plus, I don't like putting pics of other people's kids on the blog, so that severely limits pics at events like these!

Here's Avery singing... she's wearing purple!

About a month ago, Avery started horseback riding lessons! She has learned a ton through the Saddle Club she was attending, and the trainer thought she was ready for lessons. She's got a long way to go, but there is really something special about watching your kid do something that she loves!

The other day I was late to pick her up. The trainer let her watch the next lesson and had Avery "counting strides" between jumps, I think? And even that, Avery just loved it! She said she wanted to stay all day and help with lessons and around the barn!

So this is some video of Avery at her very first lesson!

Evidently I've become a once per month blogger. Hmmm...

Well, I'll be getting y'all caught up over the next few days- or week- hopefully. To get ya started, here are some videos of the kids reading!! Avery is doing so awesome with her reading!! Her homework words this week were: found, turn, answer, letter, and animal. What??? Those seem like such big words!!! Love it that she's doing so great! Avery had only read this book a couple of times... and listen to how great she does!!! Oliver was killing me with finishing her sentences! He was right most of the time too!



Then Oliver had to have his turn too!!!

6th Birthday

In so many ways she's still so little- she still wants me to pick out her clothes, she wants us to brush her teeth, she cries when she stubs her toe.... but in so many other ways she's soooo big- she's reading, writing her own birthday thank you cards, trotting on a horse by herself, cracking legitimately funny jokes, and mastering the art of the cartwheel!! Amazing. Amazing to be a part of it all and to watch her grow up!!!

And now, on to the party! This year, we had a Horse Party at a nearby stable. There were three horses- 2 saddled and 1 bareback. Everyone got a chance to ride a saddled horse and a bareback horse. All of the kids also had the chance to groom and brush the horses. Avery was very serious about sharing her horse knowledge with anyone that would listen! So here are lots and lots of pics of Avery with her favorite animals!!!

Grooming...

A great time was had by all!!! Oh yeah, Oliver was there too!! He didn't do much of the horseback riding, but had a great time running around!

We're having a snow day from school today, so I thought I'd reflect some on the sunshine and warmth we experienced on our trip to Arizona this Christmas!!! But first, I had some favorite pics from Christmas here that I never posted. The kids picking out our tree!! They're just so cute all bundled up!!!Then, while we were setting up the tree, I kept smelling and exclaiming how good it smelled... so Oliver followed suit!!!As the rest of the decorations were coming out of storage, Avery found our kid nativity set...and then modified it! Her depiction of the birth of Christ!After our family celebration in Colorado (see post below) we hit the road for another successful road trip! We visited lots of friends- at one friend's house, Oliver discovered his new love of Mr. Potato Head. The family had a TON of potatoe heads and just happened to have gotten him one for Christmas!!! We spent a TON of time with the cousins! It was always caos-filled with the energy of kids ages 5, 3, 2 and 2 exploding around the room! Here was an attempt to calm things down... Avery reading to the little ones! See how they're all sweaty and flushed??! Ha!!Then we went to Tucson and saw Great Aunt Nita! The kids always love eating at the Golden Corral and getting a ride on the golf cart! Though Aunt Nita's new puppy trumped everything else this year!!!We went to a few different parks!!! Railroad park with Grandpa!!!Typical.... Oliver jumping off something! Then came the big day!!! Christmas and all of its fun! We had mentioned to Santa when we saw him that we'd be in Arizona, so we made him some fudge and put out a treat for the reindeer!

Now some of you may not think these are quite as cute as we do, but Oliver is killin' us with his cuteness lately! So here are some videos of him being cute!!!