Run, run, as fast as you can. You can't catch me, I'm the...

Gingerbread man time! Every year we try and decorate these cute little guys. The funny thing is no one really likes gingerbread. We all take a bite, maybe 2, eat the candy off of it, lick the frosting, and throw the rest away. (luckily I made the frosting so it was DE-LICIOUS) Oh well, I guess it's all about the experience.

 

Feeling Nostalgic

This week Noah turned 10. I got a letter in the mail from my Stake President giving me Adam's baptism date. I  started teaching Seth how to read. I set up Joshies 2 year well child check...I am feeling nostalgic. I thought I would go one step further with Noah's birthday post and show some pictures of him as he has grown up. It took me 2 days, but I sifted through every picture I ever saved over his 10 years. "sigh" it really does go by so fast...

This is Noah's brand new baby picture at the hospital. He was an adorable baby who loved to eat and hated to sleep. Not much has changed today.

When Noah was 1 he loved to play with cars and trains. His 2 absolute favorite things in the whole world were his binky and his mom. He never left home without them.

I just like this picture. He is still 1 in this one.

This is his 2nd birthday. He really loved Thomas and Bob the Builder. He was speaking full sentences and singing a lot of basketball John. Anyone remember this song? From the Jazz? He loved it!

For his 3rd birthday he was already into soccer. I just can't get over how much hair he has! Still to this day he has so much. I don't hink he will ever go bald. This picture was taken before he bit through his lip so he has his beautiful mouth before the scar plagues him.

This is him at Christmas time at 4 years old. He was in pre-school doing so well. He loved to play legos, and still addicted to sports of any kind. He started playing on his first soccer team that spring.

This is his 5th birthday. He was into star wars and video games at this point in life. I want to apologize for the hair do, but i can't. If you know Noah at all you know that he did his hair (and everything else in his life) the way he wanted to. I have no say. This hair-do is all his!

For his 6th birthday we went to chuck-e-cheese. Noah still loves food, star wars, video games, soccer and is starting to get into baseball, but can't play yet.

He is 7. I can't believe it. He is into hot wheels, and Utah Football!

He finally turned 8 and got baptized this year. He is really getting good at soccer and getting awesome grades in school. We moved to our brand new house in Centerville and he is making a lot of new friends.

His 9th birthday pictures kind of stink, you can probably tell by the one I chose. Noah played on his first baseball team this year and made all-stars. He won multiple awards and trophies for playing chess in tournaments on the chess club.

Here he is the big 10. He is such a handsome boy. I wonder what the next 10 years hold for him.

Double Digits

Yesterday my oldest son, Noah, turned double digits. He is officially 10. We had a fun day planned for him and everything ran smoothly. I asked him a couple of weeks ago, check that, I told him a couple of weeks ago that I refused to make a cake that had anything to do with football, baseball, basketball, or soccer. There weren't going to be any fields or courts of any kind on the cake. I am tired of doing this because it has been every birthday for all of them for their whole lives. So, I told him I was making a monster cake.

 He had to go to school so I took some Costco cream puffs to school for him to share with his class. After school we opened presents and picked up a couple of his friends. When Ben got home we went to Chuck-A-Rama and in true Chuck fashion stuffed our faces! Then we took the kids to jump, slide, dive, slip, and play dodge ball at Get Air. We bounced the night away and came home to eat cake and ice cream then called it a night.

I am so grateful to have Noah in my life. He is not only my first born, but my favorite Noah in the whole world. He is kind, thoughtful, smart, fun, athletic, and loves everyone. He has a testimony of Jesus Christ and knows that he wants to be a good person. What more can you ask in a son? I love you Noah! Happy Birthday!

It's been a while

I haven't bought gas with my Smiths card for a while. When I went to fill up my tank today I had a $1.30 off per gallon reward. It made my gas very, very cheap. When's the last time you've seen gas at this price? I say again, it's been a while.

Festival of trees

Every year around August I get a call or text from my sister Carina asking me if I want to help with a tree for festival of trees. Carina has been involved with the festival for a long time, but for the past couple of years my mom and sisters and I have decorated a tree and dedicated it to my mom. She is the strongest, most lovely, selfless, brave and wonderful woman I know. I am so proud to call her my mother and I like to call her Moner every once in a while. She fought a good fight and beat cancer. She is currently cancer free. My whole family is so grateful to have her in our lives. So, we take the opportunity to celebrate her life, and support her in her battle every year by dedicating a tree to her. 

This year Carina thought, and we all agreed, to try our hand at a wreath. After some research we decided that the next big thing in wreaths was to make them with tulle. So, we went with it and made a wreath with tulle and named it "just tulle-in' around". (My dad came up with the name...who needs college). Anyway, it was a great time creating this wreath. It sold for more than we thought, which is great for the Children's Hospital.
The best part of the whole experience was setting up the wreath. When we got there we had 2 planter boxes for our 2 small Christmas trees. We got put in a space with a tall, skinny door. Not nearly enough space for our wreath and planter boxes. So, Steph and I proceeded to move the doors next to us over so we could have more space. As we moved them the metal stands that the doors were stabilized on scraped on the floor and made a horrific screeching noise. It sounded like fingernails on a chalkboard times 100. Plus, it was amplified by the fact that we were in a huge echoing building. We figured first come first serve, right? We were laughing so hard we nearly wet ourselves. Maybe you had to be there.
Anyway, I love you mom. I look forward to creating many, many more trees/wreaths, and memories over the years with you.