Gavinisms

Gav: "Grandpa, I love you more than all of the lightbulbs in all of the houses."

First camping trip of the year

We took the family camping up AF canyon the end of this week and had such a blast! The boys were absolutely in dirt HEAVEN and couldn't be more excited about it! They were so cute and so much fun. Actually the first day we got there was a little rough, but I think they were just so excited and had so much energy. After a good nights sleep they were angels the rest of the trip! We went hiking and walked around Tibble Fork. We took a drive up to Cascade Springs (which is where Keith and I kissed for the first time if anyone is wondering :) ) It was so nice to be out and enjoying nature. I've been so miserable with my allergies but actually was better up in the mountains than I am at home so I really was loving it! I loved just spending time with my little family. We had no cell reception so we just spent time enjoying each other and no one bugged us. Can't wait until we can go out again. July is shaping up to be the busiest month ever so who knows when our next chance will be!

I pulled the camera out, Max sat down and yelled, "Cheese!" Man, I've got him trained!

This picture gives new meaning to this shirt...good thing it was already an old stained one!

Probably one of the only times this one would cooperate for a picture!

I can't believe how full the rivers and lakes were. This is the spillway of Tibble Fork

This little deer was just hanging out at the campground...

Gavin got in a little bit of rock climbing

Again...can you see who always cooperates for pictures????

And yet again....

Isn't it beautiful? I think this is the prettiest it's ever been when we've come here.

Well, at least Gav is looking....

I think he was tired of all the walking and just said, "Down" and sat.

Just checking things out

He loved running up to look at these little information signs

Gavin wanted to ride his scooter around camp all day long! He loved it!

Camp Out

A couple of nights ago, Keith thought it would be fun to have a mini campout with Gavin in the backyard. How cute was that? Gavin has really been wanting to go camping lately so Keith found a way for it to happen :) What a great dad! As today is Father's Day, I just want to say how thankful I am for someone who is a wonderful father to my children. He works so hard for them (and me) and makes it possible for me to stay home and raise them. What a great guy we have!



Also, Happy Father's day to my "dads". I'm lucky enough to have 3 of them, and thankful for all of them in my life and all that they do for me. I truly am blessed.

Blue Bear's Birthday

Gavin has a favorite stuffed animal named Blue Bear. I might have coerced him into naming it that because I had a favorite bear in my childhood I named Blue Bear. In any case, it works because the stuff animal is a bear and well, blue.

Gavin LOVES birthdays. Loves is actually an understatement. He pretended it was my birthday every day for 3 weeks after my actual birthday. It was sweet and he would draw me pictures or pick me dandelions. I finally stopped having birthdays and we moved on to Blue Bear. It has literally be 2 weeks of every day, "Mom, it's Blue Bear's birthday today. Can we make him a cake?" So cute, but really EXHAUSTING. He constantly wants to decorate with streamers and balloons, sing happy birthday, light candles, the WHOLE she-bang. While at the grocery store the other day they had this silly little Lightning McQueen cake on a clearance rack and I said SOLD. It was pretty small and I thought would be perfect. Only problem was when we got home, Gavin wasn't patient enough to wait for me to take care of Max and put the groceries away. The cake may have sort of accidentally ended up dumped over on the floor. I thought we would have a melt down over this (him and me...) but I think he realized it was his fault and said, "It's ok, mom. Blue Bear likes it this way!" In any case, I never got a picture of the actual cake just the pile of cake that followed!

Looks like someone had a taste before we started!

Blue Bear is so excited for his special day!

The monstrosity cake that followed!

This picture just cracks me up because you can totally tell how into singing Happy Birthday he was!

Harvest!

Okay...all it was, was a single head of romaine lettuce, but YAY! I am determined (and by determined I mean DETERMINED!) to have a good garden this year! 7 year of trying means that this has to be the year! I'm not pregnant, no teeny baby to worry about, no huge vacation on the horizion...THIS IS THE YEAR! We have the strangest little teeny weeds that pop up every single day and are impossible to deal with. I literally spent 5 hours out in the garden on Thursday and got up all of them that I could. They are already growing back. They were here last year too and are a big reason why I quit most of the garden last year. I will win the war this year! So if you come to see my garden, just know they are so much easier to pick when they are a little bigger...don't judge!

This is also the first year I tried lettuce. And assuming that it taste as good as it looks, I will definitely be doing that again! It was so easy to grow...the hardest part I've had was deciding when to pick it, but after getting some advice from my master gardener sis-in-law, Susan and Googling I decided we'd try it. I also learned some new terms like "bolting". Had no idea what that meant, but now I feel lots smarter :) Now I'm just upset I didn't plant more!

Lost and Found

I was folding laundry the other day and it had been a little while since I had heard from Gavin. I called for him and no response. Max and I went looking for him and couldn't find him anywhere, just a strange tent in the living room. Gavin had built himself a tent by pushing my coffee table over and draping blankets on it. He was lying in there fast asleep...with a binky. Seriously...he is 4 and still thinks it's funny when he can steal Max's. Don't worry, he didn't get to keep it in his mouth. It drives me CRAZY that he will do that. I guess I should just get Max off of it, but that darn thing just is so useful! Here is Max finding Gavin.






A little while later, this is what I found.
And yes, that is marker on his head. This was all on the same day of the mud incident. We may have also had a run in with chocolate milk, orange drink and a sucker that day as well...

Such messy fun kids.

Easter...was 2 months ago...get it together, Janelle!

Just looking for a picture and realized I never blogged about Easter. Not going to say much about it now because, let's face it, I already forgot what we did for the most part, but here are some cute pictures I didn't want to let go to waste!

7th Annual Smith Family Reunion

Keith's family has a family reunion every year with his parents and siblings. Funny how we all live withing 15 miles of one another, but seems like we rarely see each other. Each of his siblings as well as his parents take turns hosting the reunion each year, meaning they plan and carry out whatever we are doing. It was Kevan and Mandy's turn this year and they did WONDERFUL. I hate to say but I really am disappointed. Not in the fact that their reunion was great, but now it means IT'S OUR TURN. Is anyone else freaking out yet? The thought of coordinating when everyone can get together and planning what to do and everyone relying on me sounds TERRIFYING. I'm not going to lie...I get anxiety sometimes with his family. I finally narrowed it down to what it is...I'm the youngest. I've never experienced being the youngest in my life. I'm always the oldest. Probably why I feel anxiety in my ward a lot too I've realized. In any case...I've GOT to figure out how to get over it because this year is going to be over before you know it. So I'm throwing this out...if anyone has an GREAT IDEAS of where to go or what to do...PLEASE pass them my way! As of right now, I've got a whole lot of nothing.

This year we just stayed around town for the reunion. Thursday evening we went out for an adult dinner at Buca Di Beppo's. Friday was guys and kids fishing trip and girl's and younger kids craft day. Then Friday night was over to the splash park for picnic, water and rocket launching. It was a little chilly but that had absolutely no effect on my kids...!!! Saturday was family pictures, swimming and pizza and games. We naturally played The Game of Things which if you haven't played....let's pick a day and play! SO FUN. And for all of you Smith readers out there...all I'm saying is "The Obvious" :)

Sunday was a BBQ at Kevan and Mandy's followed by a fun game of Jeopardy and FHE.

Thanks for all you did Kevan and Mandy! It was a great reunion and so nice to spend time with all of you!

Here's cute Mandy who was in charge!



I found that Gavin and his cousin Josh are GREAT playmates! I'm pretty sure we'll have Josh over all summer knowing that!

Sometimes it's rough when you can't do the same things as the big kids...

So excited about his rocket that he made and was about to launch!

My sweet mom in law...I love her to pieces :)

I just love this picture of Ash...she looks like she's totally being sneaky :)

Lauren is sure growing up...this was their version of giving bunny ears...only they were using a foot...

Briana (one of the best babysitters EVER!) and Pops. oh yeah...Rob's there in the background :)


It's rough when you're mom is in charge of a whole family reunion :)

Kevan giving part of his Family Home Evening...Mandy's other half.

She was cracking me up! This was how she was begging Grandma for something!

How sweet is this? What a great end to a wonderful reunion!

The whole lot of us :)

Mud

We have a garden spot in our backyard and then a second smaller spot across the grass as well. This year we didn't plant anything in that smaller spot and Gavin and Max have used it to dig in the dirt and "build" things. Mostly it just stores all of the junk they like to dig with and drives me nuts. Well today was NO exception to my loathing of this spot. I walked outside to work in the garden after Max fell asleep and found Gavin just letting the hose run into the dirt. Now we have a mud spot. And don't think that sounds bad? He was COVERED.



I'm trying to be a better mom and I'm really working on not flying of the handle the instant something goes wrong. It's hard for me. I tend to react quickly to things and I'm pretty darn good at yelling. This has been a super slow process but today I calmly walked off the deck over to Gavin and asked him what he thought I should do about this situation. He responded, "Uh...hose me off?" How on earth do you not smile at that? The whole situation was so frustrating and here he was with a really rational solution. I talked to him about the consequences for what he did and then decided it wouldn't be all that bad for him to just play in it since he was covered already. So I weeded, he played and then when it was time to clean him up he was great. When it was time to do his extra chores to make up for making the mud mess, he didn't complain. Hopefully I can remember to react that calm in the future when things get a little out of hand. Maybe I just need to look at the situation more rationally and remember that most of the time, we can just "hose things off".

My family....

is so good lookin :) Finally pleased to have a real family picture that includes Max. It only took 19 months....Thanks so much dad!

Spiderman

Gavin has been begging us for a "real" Spiderman costume lately. Someone (Grandma...) took pity on him :) He thinks he is pretty cool. We have yet to have the Ironman experience (Grandma Marcia, if you are reading just wanted to say thank you for that costume that Gavin had to wear for 3 days straight...including to every store we went to!!!) There is a mask that goes with it, but it just wasn't cooperating while we were shooting webs out in the backyard!





He posed like this all on his own...LOL


Spiderman is never too busy fighting crime to give his momma kisses!


If Spiderman had a sidekick, this is what he would look like :)