Alex's Big 5

Somehow I only got 1 picture of Alex's little birthday party. I guess that's how most of the day went. I was going to let him have a birthday party...didn't happen. He loves store-bought cakes, so I was going to order a birthday cake early this year so I wouldn't have to create the monster truck one he wanted out of a Halloween cake and Milky Ways...didn't happen. I wanted to take lots of good pictures of his cool new bike and other gifts...didn't happen. Basically I put very little effort into making it a 5th birthday to remember. Oh well, I don't remember mine either. Needless to say, we had a busy day, or month, really. My parents were down for his birthday. We went to his soccer game first thing in the morning. Then we came home and threw a quick little party before my parents left for Vegas. He blew out the candles of this AWESOME cake! Ha! We gave him a new big-boy bike and some other things that I can't even remember now. My parents gave him a Jake pirate ship, and Tanner's parents gave him a baseball pitching machine, which has basically been the hit of the neighborhood since it entered our existence. I swear there is some kind of alarm that alerts all children within a 1-mile radius when it gets turned on. It's been quite the friend-maker.

Then we went to the town Halloween carnival. They're a cute little couple, aren't they?

The months leading up to Alex's birthday, we were trying to prepare him to be a BIG 5-year-old! He kept telling us things like, "I'll eat my vegetables when I'm 5 because then I'll be a big boy!"  Well, since I'm writing this 2 months later, I can say that he hasn't tried a vegetable once, but it's still a pretty good way to get him to do things. We love this kid. He's definitely our sweet little boy who always cares about everyone and doesn't want to hurt anyone's feelings. Getting mad doesn't work near as good on him as just doing a pouty face and acting like he hurt my feelings. It just makes him melt. His preschool teacher tells me all the time that he's her and her mom's favorite (her mom helps with the class sometimes). They say he's always nice to everyone and always participates and listens in class. He's a good big brother, and he's got a little sister and brother who look up to him big time. Happy Birthday, buddy!

For Sale:

3-year-old
Redhead
Sassy as all get out
Aspires to be barbar--skills currently lacking
Fantastic penmanship on couches
Great baby"sitter"
Enters vacant neighboring homes to collect mouthfuls of gumballs and other snacks
Can accomplish above in less than 24 hours

Ella Overload

They're all from Ella lately. The other day at the store she told the cashier, "When I'm done with 3, I'm gonna be 16!" Boy, isn't that the truth! (Though let's hope she's not wearing this giddup then...)

Remember:

Ella was laying one block on each tile and said, "Don't worry, Mom, I'm just freestylin'."

Rhyming

Alex has been learning rhyming words lately.

He just came up to me and said, "Mom, warm rhymes with porn. Huh, mom?"

Proud of ya, son.

Mawage is what brings us together today

Alex: Mom, when can I have a bathroom in my bedroom?
Me: When you get older and get married.
Alex: Can I get married when I'm 5? (everything revolves around turning 5 right now)
Me: Uh, maybe when you're 25.
Alex: Can I get married to you?
Me: Nope, I'm already married to Daddy.
Alex: Can I marry Daddy?
Me: Nope, Daddy's already married to me, and you should marry a girl.
Alex: (eyes light up!) Can I marry Ella??
Me: No, she's your sister.
Ella: (sweetest voice ever) You can marry me, Bud!
All day long: They were married.

Funny Little People

Just had a couple things to write down that the kids have said/done lately that I want to remember.  

ELLA:

She has a little crush on my cousin, Jordan. She's met him one time in her whole life. When we went to watch the Aggies play in the WAC tourney in Vegas, he came with my dad and brothers. I don't know if he even said a word to her the whole time, but boy did she have googly eyes. That was 3 months ago and her love is still going strong. About a week after the tourney she was talking to my mom and asked where Jordan was, though she calls him Jorgan (George-un). That particular time he was (probably) at school, so that's where he seems to be all the time in her mind. She calls him on her (broken) cell phone constantly and talks about him even more. The other day in the car she made up a little song about liking Jorgan and being with Jorgan. She's starting too early for my liking.

Lately she's been changing the names of her 2 favorite babies every couple days. The first time she named them Brenda and Enda. Don't think she actually knows anyone by the name of Brenda, or Enda for that matter. She and Alex went to a little summer camp put on by a girl in our ward last week. The girl's brother's name is Stockton. The next day her babies were named Stockton and Rockton. Looks like Jorgan's got a little competition.

She's known for her long prayers at bedtime, basically just listing off things she did throughout the day and wants to do the next day. Among several other things (I wish I would've had a pen and paper to write them all down), she said, "...We're not tall so we can't have Coke. We can only have little kid drinks. Guess what mom and dad do after we go to bed? Bless us to not get out of bed..." Hmmm, don't know what she meant there. Or maybe I do.  

ALEX:

Yesterday I was taking Ella potty at church while holding Daxon. Alex was standing outside of the stall while I was helping Ella. I didn't close the door behind us and it ended up hitting Daxon in the head. Don't worry, no tears (maybe cause he doesn't produce those yet), but I was apologizing and giving him plenty of loves. Alex asked what was going on, to which I replied, "Dax hit his head." Alex was hysterical, "Daxon is dead?!?!" To me it sounded like he repeated what I said, so I just said yes. He was very distraught. Then it hit me. Sorry buddy.  

DAXON:

 He's cute.

6 Weeks Old!

Where oh where does the time go?? Since Daxon hasn't gotten as chunky as Alex and Ella did so early, I still thought he looked about the same as when we brought him home from the hospital. I couldn't quite explain why his clothes suddenly weren't fitting him anymore. But I just went and saw my friend's baby that is only 2 weeks younger than Dax and he is tiny. Time is going by way too fast! After watching Alex and Ella run and run and run constantly for 14 hours straight every day, I just want this little boy to stay small and sweet forever, minus the getting up at night and the loud gas at church, etc. Since our families haven't seen updates for a while, here's what our little guy looks like now: He started smiling at a month and a day old, just like that. The thing that really gets him going is patty cake. I'll have to put a video on for the grandparents. I don't know what it is about that song, but he must think he's going to be getting some second-hand cake soon, and he's probably right. Here's Alex making him smile, though it looks a bit more like gas by the time my camera finally snaps the picture. Even though Alex is constantly trying to maul the poor kid, he seems to smile most at him. Here's Daddy making him smile. He probably smiles at Dad second-most. Ella is quite the little mother hen. I was quite worried she would be a little too motherly by suffocating him all the time with too many blankets and hugs, but she's done really well. She loves to hold him and tell him what to do, like, "Yeah, put your hand like that", after he's already put his hand like that. She just likes to feel like she's telling him what to do. Sound familiar, Jason, Shaun, Jeff, and Scott?? Here's the whole gang, though Daxon was only about 2 weeks old when this was taken. Gee, it's hard to get a good picture of all of them smiling, hair combed, fingers out of their nose. This will have to do. Looks like Dax is already starting to copy his older brother. We love this kid! He already raises his hand to ask to go to the bathroom. So considerate! (I have no clue why the pictures and words didn't line up like I had them, but just go with it.)

Alex's Preschool Graduation

Alex graduated from his first year of Preschool a couple weeks ago. I was a little worried putting him in this year because before that he didn't like to go to his church classes or anywhere without us. He ended up doing great and really loving his teacher, Ms. Dianne, and his friends there--especially his girlfriend Maddi. His teacher always told me how sweet he was and how much she loved him, so I just assumed he was shy there. He's definitely not shy at home, but he is at stores and with strangers, where Ella is just the opposite. On the last day of school she told me she was going to miss Alex and how fun he was. I asked her if he was shy and she said DEFINITELY NOT! I guess I wrongfully assumed he was this sweet little quiet boy all the time, but it sounds like not. Tanner had to work during the graduation program, so I went with 2-week old Dax, Ella, and Alex. Unfortunately I couldn't take pictures and run the camcorder at the same time, so I ended up filming it while bouncing the tired baby (yeah, probably shoulda gone with the still pictures). The filming doesn't disappoint, though, because Alex was a total spaz the whole time. I was actually a little worried about his mental state during the whole program. He stood there and made crazy faces and did weirdo things with his hands and poked and prodded the kids next to him the whole time--it was very entertaining and hilarious! And Ella just sat there the whole time and yelled, "you're funny, Alex, do that again!" For their program, they sang songs they'd learned, did their names in sign language (they learned the alphabet and a few other words this year), and got awards. Alex's award was for being the best smiler. He sure is that! He sure loved preschool and is sad to be out for the summer. We're so proud of him!

Ella's Dance Recital

These pictures are from Ella's dance recital. It was the cutest thing ever! Out of the 12 girls in her class, only Ella, her friend Ella, and another girl danced the whole time. Most of them sat by their parents and cried. Ella really was the best one, and I'm not being biased! We were very surprised because at home she's the least graceful girl ever, always falling down and running into everything, but those rubber floors do wonders for her balance and dance skills! She actually tried to follow the teacher and she did a great job. We're very proud of her!

One Week Old

This is the sweet face we've been staring at for the past week:

Daxon is such a sweetheart! We just love him already. He's such a good baby. Mostly we love when he crinkles his forehead when he's straining to look at who's talking to him, his big dark eyes, his extremely long chicken legs, and how he punches himself in the face every time he sneezes...and he sneezes a lot. He also has the smallest head ever. Alex and Ella have both had 100 percentile heads their whole lives. Daxon's is 22 percentile--much appreciated by the birther. We had a feeling (or wish) that he would be a little more mellow than Alex and Ella, and we're thinking (or hoping) that's true. Maybe because he might not have red hair. It's still hard to tell, though. Hopefully he won't get overlooked by the old ladies at the store if he doesn't. Other than a few close calls, Alex and Ella have done pretty well. They seem to like their little brother.

Introducing:

------------------------- DAXON JAMES SMITH -----------------------------

------- April 23, 2012 ------- 7 lbs 6 oz ------- 21-1/4 inches -------

A Terrible Mistake

I was folding laundry yesterday while Alex was drawing letters. He proudly told me to come look--"I wrote BYU!"

The kid was so proud of himself that I didn't know quite how to hide my utter disappointment. I grabbed my phone and sent the picture to my family. Along with a phone call from my mother, I immediately received the following near death threats from my brothers:
"Wow! He is now my least favorite nephew."
"I had a big smile on my face when I saw who the text was coming from. However, the feeling has now changed. There is one thing cute about the picture and one thing extremely terrible."
"Don't ever bring that kid back to Logan."

I decided I had better let him "finish" what he was writing so he wouldn't be shunned from my family til the end of time.


(He also always writes a bunch of letters and asks me what they say. Usually they say nothing, but one day he wrote MOL. I told him I guessed it said mole. Now he always writes it and says, "I wrote mole!")

(And that's a big scrape under his nose from falling at the splash pad--not a booger...or a MOL.)

BFFs

I'm a little nervous to add another kid to this family since Alex and Ella have been best buds since Ella was born. They do everything together and always get themselves into silly messes. Hopefully they'll be able to welcome our little guy into their clan!










They seem pretty excited about his quickly approaching arrival, though!

Not to Forget

I was going through my camera and found a few random pictures I wanted to post, along with a few random memories I've written down over the past few months.

Alex:
* Whenever we're watching any kind of game on TV, he calls it "the Aggie game" and he likes to get into them like Tanner does. One day we were watching a basketball game and he started yelling all these crazy things at the TV, including "they didn't kill a foul!", "did they take a touchdown?", and "they have a baseball club." Looks like he's not going to be much of an athlete, but he does have quite the temper!
* Alex has been getting so smart. He loves to sit and write his letters and can write everyone's name in our family without help. He's been asking lots of difficult questions that I can't answer lately too, like "where does the sun go when it's nighttime?" and "how does a caterpillar turn into a butterfly?"
* And an update on the playing outside situation. That came to a screeching halt a few days after my last post when I thought butthead was the worst word in the world. The same 4-year-old was yelling the F word the next time we went out to play. So, yeah, we're done with that. Whoever said TV and no fresh air wasn't good for kids??

This is on a hike we took recently when Tanner's parents came to visit.

This was the first and last day I ever let Alex dress himself.


Ella:
* She calls the oven and the microwave muffin. "Are you going to put that in the muffin, mom?" I don't correct her cause I think it's cute, and sometimes say it myself just so she'll continue thinking that's what it's called.
* If I put my hair in a ponytail she gets really mad and tells me to put it back down.
* We went to Vegas to the WAC tournament a couple weeks ago with my brothers, dad, and cousin. Ella stayed awake the whole (really late) game and was way overtired and on one by the time we got back to the hotel. The Aggies lost, it was late, and we were in Vegas, and my cousin jokingly said, "Let's go to the bar!" Ella repeated that phrase for the rest of the night. She seemed to fit in fine in Vegas, which is a little worrying!
* She'll say, "I love you." We'll say, "I love you more." She'll say, "I love you almost." (like on Tangled, except just almost!)

The other day I was cleaning out the bathroom and she got all of her bows and did her hair.

She started taking dance in January and LOVES it! She likes to say she dances "like a pretty princess" though she's not the most graceful or fit and trim girl in the bunch! Definitely the cutest, though.

Naughty Words

So I'm a mean mommy who doesn't let her kids play outside unless I'm there with them at all times. I don't know if it's because I don't want other kids being mean to them or other kids teaching them naughty things (which is quite common in our neighborhood), but I just don't like it. Today, right now, is the first time I've ever let Alex play outside without me there with him. Ella is taking a nap and some kids asked if he could come play. I wanted to say no, but I never let him play with other kids (except my friends' kids, who are mostly girls) cause I think they're mean and know way too much at their ages (in this neighborhood anyway). Well, I decided he's probably old enough to go play in our little cul-de-sac without me for a couple minutes. I've been trying to work but haven't been able to focus very well. I keep getting up every 30 seconds to peek out the window and see if he's okay.

I just opened the door a crack to see how things were going and he was out there playing in the rocks with another kid his age and two older kids. This is mostly what I don't like--kids too old always playing with kids too young around here. I could hear the older kids saying, "Alex, Xander called you a butthead." I was about to intervene (already) but thought I'd see how he responded. Alex just gave them a puzzled look and said, "What's a butthead?" Atta boy. Then the kids said, "Alex, Xander just called you a poopy head," (yes, these kids are like 8 and 10 and are saying awesome stuff like this), to which Alex very sternly replied, with his finger raised, "Don't say poopy head--my mom doesn't like it!" Atta boy again.

Well, I don't know if this is a good story or a bad story. I like that Alex maintained his innocence, but I don't like that the first time I let him play outside by himself he learns words like "butthead" and how to use a word for defecation as an insult. Hmmm, teenagers should be fun...

Funny Smithisms

Tanner (after being accused of being scared): "Honey, the only things that scare me are midgets and the second coming."

Ella (after going potty): "Get me a wipe...and stop smiling at me."