Day 109: April 30, 2009

The tooth fairy brought Michelle a pile of coins. She must've known that Michelle is learning to count money at school.

Day 108: April 29, 2009

Megan has started a computer-based preschool program that's part of a research program with the state's education department. She loves her "school". Tomorrow is her kindergarten registration. She can't wait for the real deal. Although she's having fun teaching Gabriella all her new skills: "Gabriella, this is a D. It makes a duh sound."

Day 107: April 28, 2009

My own little energizer bunny. He woke up at 5:15 am to run 5 1/2 miles (mile intervals) then came home after work and before dinner spent an hour mowing our huge lawn.

Day 106: April 27, 2009

Bargain of the year. I bought this scooter for $5 from a neighbor. It's the best $5 I've ever spent. Michelle has ridden it rain, snow and sun.

Day 105: April 26, 2009

This is for you Mom. What could be more Dutch than orange tulips?!

Day 104: April 25, 2009

Trevor's family birthday party with the lemon cake I made for my cutie pie.

Day 103: April 24, 2009

Cold Stone ice cream cake. I've been waiting months for Trevor's birthday so we'd have a good excuse to use our gift certificate. YUM!

Day 102: April 23, 2009

Day 101: April 22, 2009

Day 100: April 21, 2009

"Look Mom, the tulips are waking up!"

Day 99: April 20, 2009

Even though I have dozens of daffodils planted, this is the first one to bloom in over 2 years.

Day 98: April 19, 2009

Due to unexpected mass amounts of treats we had while camping, the s'mores got put off until we got home. 9 seconds in the microwave makes perfect s'mores - and there's running water nearby to help with the inevitable mess.

Day 97: April 18, 2009

My brother-in-law knew of this hot springs out in the middle of nowhere. I didn't brave it, but apparently the water was like warm bath water. Of course since the wind was blowing it made for a very cold walk back to the car.

Day 96: April 17, 2009

We hiked to some Anasazi Indian ruins.

Are those actually short sleeves I see?! Don't worry it didn't last too long-yet again the rain clouds came back.

Day 95: April 16, 2009

Our hike to the waterfall. This morning had started out sunny and warm but by this time (only 11 am) the rain clouds started rolling in.

Day 94: April 15, 2009

This 5 inch snow fall is the reason we're going down to Utah's dixie to camp tonight.

Day 93: April 14, 2009

This is just a fraction of all the supplies we'll need for our Spring Break camping trip tomorrow.

Day 92: April 13, 2009

This morning I went up to a pioneer museum and since the capitol building was right across the street with beautiful blossoms, I couldn't resist the photo shoot.

Day 91: April 12, 2009

Easter morning goodies!

Day 90: April 11, 2009

Easter Egg Hunt at Grandma and Grandpa Smith's house. We were treated afterwards to ice cream at Macey's.

Day 89: April 10, 2009

I'm lucky enough to have a husband and kids that are just fine with eating cold cereal for breakfast. The warmest breakfast they get is toast, and if they're really lucky Toaster Strudel. The only problem is when the kids get about 2 or maybe 2 1/2 yrs old they want to eat cereal like the older people. That includes milk in the bowl. Fortunately, today Gabriella decided to forego the spoon since eating with her hand gave her greater success.

Day 88: April 9, 2009

Mail is like dishes and laundry, it never stops coming.

We get double the trouble since Trevor's office's bills are sent here. I get the luxury of being the bookkeeper. I'm also a procrastinator. Those two don't mix very well. I've spent the last 2 days holed up in our home office doing paperwork for all of last year - will I ever learn to do things as they come?! Megan and Gabriella have probably "suffered" the most. They've been couch potatoes as I've been forced to use the tv as a babysitter. They can sing you the theme songs to almost all Disney Playhouse shows.

Day 87: April 8, 2009

Caleb played his second indoor soccer game. He played against a team that had 2 very experienced players that ran and dribbled circles around Caleb's team. That coupled with the fact that we had a goalie that had never played goalie before. We lost 13-3. But it was good for Caleb to see things from the other side.

Day 86: April 7, 2009

Caleb has gotten into the March Madness basketball fever. When the college basketball tournament got to the Elite 8, he and I both picked teams to win. Amazingly, Michigan State made it to the final game; however, my North Carolina team won the whole enchilada.

Days 73 - 85: March 25 - April 6, 2009

March 25, 2009: Due to the interesting weather we've had (like getting 6 inches of snow) Michelle has been forced to ride her scooter in the basement.

March 26, 2009: My grandmother's grandparents that came to Utah from England in the late 1860's via ship, train, wagons and walking. My pioneer ancestors: William Swansea Lewis and his wife Sarah Walsh.

March 27, 2009: Ever since Michelle's school friend moved away she's has found new friends that have taught her jump roping. In just over a week her skills have greatly increased and her jumping rhymes brought back childhood memories: "Cinderella dressed in yella, went upstairs to kiss a fella....."

March 28, 2009: Gabriella lost her favorite stuffed animal Dottie. Trevor, Caleb and I searched for 2 hours both inside and outside with no luck. After enduring over an hour of crying in her bed I finally resorted to giving her the spare Dottie. She looked at it strangely but decided that we must've just really cleaned up her old Dottie. You should have seen her face when I happened to find her old Dottie crammed inside the box of wipes at diaper changing time (who knows where Gabriella hid the wipes). She held both Dotties for a few seconds before tossing the new one and kissing her old one.

March 29, 2009: Maybe the girls wearing new Spring dresses will encourage Spring to actually come...and stay.

March 30, 2009: The new Walmart has a huge Star Wars guy (I'm sure Caleb knows the guy's name). The kids stopped and stared for 10 minutes before we could go any further into the store. At this rate it'll take us days and days to make it all the way through Lego Land on our upcoming vacation.

March 31, 2009: The slowness of the office computer about drove me nuts as I was simply trying to scan the computer to make sure it wasn't infected with the conflicka virus/worm/whatever it was.

April 1, 2009: Caleb's first ever organized soccer game. He was a great first half goalie and an even better second half scorer. His team won 7-3.

April 2, 2009: I took the kids to the pet store while Michelle was at clogging lessons. We have a hamster but apparently Caleb still has issues with mice.

April 3, 2009: Snowy, cold days brought out the need for Play-Doh.

April 4, 2009: The Smith family tradition of a get-together during General Conference, had the kids doing crafts such as Caleb's blue and white Pokemon mouse.

April 5, 2009: I didn't even think about taking a picture today, but Megan saved the day by "borrowing" my camera and taking lots and lots of pictures. This is her self portrait. Most of her other pictures were close-ups of her thumb.

April 6, 2009: During yesterday's "nap" Gabriella decided not to sleep but to undress herself including the diaper. Therefore her sheets and blankets were in the wash so I gave her a new blanket (she'd actually been given it for Christmas when she was 10 days old). She loved the pink blankie with puppies on it so much she couldn't part with it this morning.