Fabulous February

So February was short, but busy!  Lots of successful things happening at the Smiths.

Trixie the incredible shedding Border Collie celebrated her 13th birthday on Superbowl Sunday (really sometime at the end of January, but we just celebrate on Superbowl Sunday for ease in remembering.)

Chris and Greg were promoted to the 7th/8th grade boys' choir at semester, so they got to compete in the junior high solo and ensemble competition.  They both made I's on their solos and the boys' ensemble also received a I.  Not bad for a couple of 6th graders.

They also competed in the WT (West Texas A&M) Piano Festival last weekend.  Chris play a Sonatina and received a I.  Greg played Mozart's Fantasia in D Minor and received a I+.  Stinker is better than me!

Twins also earned their Second Class rank in Boy Scouts and are well on their way to First Class.

Alex took his first TAKS test this week and we expect good results.  Katie competed in a small tumbling competition and was 1st in her group of 4.  Lisa and Paul just keep trucking along... Just trying to keep up!

A giddy, giddy day!

So Greg was giddy because he got a good report from the orthopedic surgeon. No more stinky splint! No restrictions except for no boxing or punching walls, brothers, etc. for the next three weeks. Not so much a worry for Greg. We'd barely crossed the threshold before he was playing the piano with both hands and he quickly moved on to the clarinet.

I was giddy because the kids were back at school after Christmas break. It was a fun break, but it was time to get back to a routine. I was really, really giddy after the Texas Longhorns pulled off another come from behind last minute miracle. Every year...every bowl game. Hook 'Em!!

Oh, what a week!

No pictures today, but just a quick update in our world.

During the past week, Chris and Greg had their 6th grade choir concert, 6th grade band concert, first youth temple trip, a broken hand (Greg), and the stomach flu (Chris). This week they have voice recital and semester tests. When did 6th grade get so busy?

Greg broke a bone in his hand doing bear crawls in pre-athletics (PE). He just landed on his hand funny. We were lucky. The break was not displaced at all and the orthopedic surgeon only splinted his hand and buddy taped his two middle fingers. He gets re-x-rayed in 3 weeks. He even had permission to take off the splint for the band concert. He's been reduced to playing the piano one-handed and even with that limitation I can't keep the kid off the piano.

Chris's stomach flu hit Saturday night and he was better by mid-afternoon Sunday. So review for their first semester tests wasn't affected.

Alex and Katie are trucking along. Spending most of their evenings at the twins' events. Their time will come...

We are all ready for Christmas break. We'll be in Pampa through Christmas and then we head to Grapevine for the weekend for my cousin's wedding. Can't wait!

Thanksgiving Weekend

We had a terrific and relaxing weekend. Mom came over for the turkey and fixings. Chris, who is interested in lots of everything, decided he wanted to help cook and carve the turkey. Paul and Chris brined the turkey overnight--isn't it pretty?--and then Chris carved. A bit of a rite of passage...

Otherwise, we spent the weekend decorating for Christmas and watching lots and lots of college football.

Birthday Party Fun

I have never been a huge fan of the "friends" birthday party. I love birthdays, I love to make a big deal of them, but I love to keep them to family. So the kids only get to have a friend party on my designated "big" birthdays. To date, the big birthdays have been 5-years old, 8-years old, and 12-years old. Of course the twins just turned 12, so it was party time.

We did have to postpone the party until after football season, but last Friday was the big night. We kept it small--just 3 friends came, but it was one of the most fun evenings we have had in a long time.

The boys' friend, Josh, just came home from school with them, so they all practiced their instruments together--by choice. They are all band geeks at heart.

(Greg-Clarinet, Josh-Trumpet, Chris-Trumpet)

After the other two boys came, we had pizza and ice cream and presents. One boy brought his Guitar Hero World Tour for the Wii for us to play. How fun! I highly recommend it. In fact, we hope Santa brings it to our family this year. We all took turned playing the guitars and the drums and singing. And then we played Wii Sports and Mario Kart.

(Chris on Drums)

(Paul on vocals, Chris and Alec on guitar, Ben and Josh watching)

One of the gifts was a Nerf gun set for two. And Josh had thoughtfully packed three more guns and darts, so all the boys had one. I had no idea that our house was the perfect setup for all-out Nerf Assault. We have several loops in the house and a pass-through window in the kitchen. We had already cleared out the living room for maximum Wii room, so it was on--Nerf style. Probably the most fun part of the evening.

(Greg in full Nerf getup)

It was a great evening. I wasn't even sad that I had to miss scrapbook night for it. I was having too much fun at home.

Happy Birthday Chris and Greg!

Chris (in Astros shirt) and Greg (in UT shirt) are 12 today!! [Mom brag on] And they are really great young men. They started Junior High this year (6th grade) and are really thriving. They took a credit-by-exam test last Spring and both were able to skip 6th grade math, so they are with 7th graders for one period a day. They were both on the A honor roll for the first 6 weeks and were nominated for "Outstanding Human Being" during the school's academic pep rally.

They are also in band and choir this year and love all the music. They were both selected for the area 6th grade honor choir which performs this Saturday. They are also still in piano lessons.

They love scouts and are very close to finishing their Second Class rank.

They can't wait to get the Priesthood next Sunday (and be in their last Primary Program).

They are great friends and brothers to each other.

I'm lucky to have these two great kids are my first! [Mom brag off]

4 Years Ago Today...

On October 6, 2004 I was hugely pregnant with my last child. And when I say huge, I really mean it. I was 36 weeks and 6 days.

I had convinced my doctor that I was not going to make it through the weekend and since he was headed out of town, he took pity on me. But no c-section without an amnio to check lung maturity (since it was still fairly early). The plan was to have the amnio on the 6th and c-section on the 7th.

Several hours on the monitor later (which was actually showing early labor) and a good amnio result, the c-section was moved to NOW. We had to wait on Paul who was picking up the twins from school.

We had not found out the gender of the baby since we were convinced it was Joshua coming to join our family. It was such a great surprise when Dr. Ellis pulled the baby out (even with a c-section, it still took the vacuum extractor to get her head out ) and said "It's a girl!" I have video evidence of me screaming "NO WAY!" It was such a fun surprise to have this 10 lbs, 3 oz baby girl join our family.

Four years later, Katie is still a surprise. She's a tomboy and a princess and a diva all wrapped up in one package. She keeps all her brothers and parents and primary teachers on their toes.

I can't wait to see what the next four years hold. Happy Birthday Katie!