The Big 11!

So yesterday, December 16th @ precisely 2:35am, Dallin turned 11. It's crazy to think of him as that old! In one year, he'll be in YM's, in a little more than a year, he'll be in middle school. I look at old pictures of him, and it's almost hard to remember him at that age, and at the same time, I wonder where the time went. Even though he likes to push our buttons, and we get frustrated with him more than we should, he is a great kid! He has been keeping busy lately. He works hard at school and is always bringing home tests with 100% on the top of them. He loves to read and is currently on book 5 in both the Percy Jackson and Harry Potter series. He recently took 4th place in the Spelling Bee, getting out on the word, frou frou. Come on, is that really a word? When they read his word to him, Benson and I just looked at each other and asked, "is that a real word?" He spelled it fru fru, which was a great guess. He also got an extra year to compete in the Pine Wood Derby, because they held it a couple of months early this year. He was so excited, because the last three years he took first place in style, but hmm, 2nd to last in speed. So this year as soon as he found out that he could do the Pine Wood Derby again, he was determined to do better. We checked out books from the library and he set to work. And in the end, he finished in 3rd place!! (oh, yeah third from first, not last - although both would have beaten his old record=). He also continues to take piano lessons, and will - on his good days - admit that he really enjoys it, and he is sounding really good. He still enjoys sports and is currently on a basketball team whose record is 6:0 (all wins by double digits), and is still being coached by Coach Dad. If you are wondering, he still has - or thinks he has =) - the memory of an elephant, remembering every age and detail of things that have happened in his life. Dallin has also just recently started babysitting for us for short stints of time, which is very helpful as Talie is in high demand as one of the ward's favorite babysitters. He is good with the little ones and Peyton loves his big brother! Happy Birthday Dallin!! We love You!

It's A . . . . . . . . Boy!!!

Well, it is a . . . . boy! We went in for the ultra sound today, and found out that we are going to finish up with a beautiful, healthy, little BOY! Everyone had their guess as to what they thought or wanted the baby to be. Of course the girls wanted a girl, and the boy's wanted a girl. I had mixed feelings - of course I did, I'm a woman. But when the ultra sound technician showed us the general area, it was obvious, there was no mistaking that it was a boy. She even typed: Boy oh Boy on the ultra sound picture. And every Sunday morning as I am fixing girls' hair, I am again grateful we had another boy=).
Somehow it just seems like the perfect ending to our little family. Girl, boy, girl, boy, girl, and now boy. I know it sounds cheesy, but we have our own little Brady Bunch. I am grateful for my little family and the blessing each one of them is in my life!

My BABY is 3!!!

Kennedi turned three on December 3rd, it's crazy that my baby is that old! She remains our tiny one, weighing in at a whopping 23lbs. at the age of 3. But the doctor was happy because she jumped up from 2% to 6% on charts for weight. She still drinks whole milk with her chocolate milk, and eats fairly well when I hand feed her, but sometimes I forget.
Being the youngest of 5, she is a spit fire and thinks she knows just about everything! Her common response when I tell her something is, "I know." The other day, we were in my bedroom, and she started to argue about something that I had said. As I realized that she was right in her mind, I decided it was definitely NOT worth arguing over. So I stopped and said, "Sometimes child, you are impossible." To which she quickly responded, "No. I am a child of God." She definitely knows who she is. She loves her older siblings and they adore her. I often get confused as I respond to her calling, "Mom" to realize that she is just talking to Ashlynn as they are playing. And Peyton is her buddy - they do everything together!
Kennedi quit napping before she was two. I would even lay down with her and Peyton, make the bed on top of them, and read stories in hopes that they would fall asleep, but all that would happen is that I would start nodding off and they would get after me for slurring the words together and not finishing the story.

Although Kennedi doesn't think she needs a nap and can keep up with the rest of us pretty well, sometimes she will just crash - mid action. One day we couldn't find her anywhere and started to worry, when finally after the third attempt at searching her room, we found her completely under the covers in her top bunk.
Kennedi loves story time and getting books from the library. She loves princess books, Fancy Nancy books, and princess/Barbie movies from the library - but she is lucky if she gets to watch her library movies even once before they are due, as she seems to get roped into watching dinosaur movies with Peyton.
Kennedi loves church - especially nursery! Last Easter, after church, I was lying down with her in my bed and asked her what she learned in nursery. She responded by telling me that "Jesus died, they put Him in a cave, and an angel rolled the rock away." I am thankful for wonderful nursery teachers!
Kennedi loves people and always makes them feel like her best friend. She is like a magnet. Today we went to eat lunch with Ashy, and stayed for recess and all of Ashy's friends just swarmed around her the entire time. Then, after they went back to class, a group of pre schoolers came out to recess and all the kids ended up in a circle around her under the playground.

Kennedi is beautiful, with BIG blue eyes - I wish she got them from me - but she does have some disgusting habits. She has her finger up her nose a lot, and when she finds something, she wipes it on her cheek. Gross, I know, we're still trying to break her of that habit.
Although Kennedi has been the baby for a long time in the Smith house, I think she will be a great big sister. She already kisses "baby Tanner" (aka, my belly), and is the only kid who says she will change his poopy diapers. Kennedi, we love you and Happy Birthday!

Trick or Treat!!

I have decided that Halloween is one of my all time favorite holidays. It is so fun to watch the kids choose what they want to be and to help them get all dressed up. Then, I love their unbelief as they realize that all they have to do is knock on someone's front door, say, "Trick or Treat", and the person will just give them candy! Everyone is just out walking around with their trick-or-treaters, then everyone comes home, checks out their loot, make some big candy trades and the holiday is over. It is very fun, simple and relaxing, and it is the start of the Holiday season. This year, since Halloween was on a Sunday, our ward had a Trunk or Treat. The kids really got into it and even decorated the back of the car for the trick or treaters.

Ashlynn was Daphne, and I thought it would be really cute if everyone else dressed up like Scooby Doo and the gang, but nobody wanted to be Velma - poor Velma, so there went that great idea.

Talie was a Hippy, and she went to her first school dance with her friend Megan. She had a lot of fun, and didn't dance with any boys (of course we had to get the full scoop=).

And, Kennedi was a princess, well, kind of. For the Trunk or Treat she was a dragon, but when she saw that all of her friends were princesses, she decided that she needed to be a princess for Halloween.

Yes, I know that there are no individual pictures of the boys in their costumes, apparently, they didn't make Talie's photo shoot. Dallin was Bob Marley and would sing requests - if you want to call it singin=), and Peyton decided that being Spider Man was so good last year, that he had to be him again. Score for Mom!

Here are our final masterpieces. Unfortunately the next morning we woke up and the squirrels had eaten the front off of all of our Jack-O-Lanterns

I was surprised at Peyton's long attention span when he and I worked on his Jack-O-Lantern together. We carved a haunted house and he stayed right with me the entire time until it was finished. We also got into Halloween books this year and found a favorite, "Mr. Neewollah".

Although pumpkin carving gets a lot easier and more fun each year as the kids grow older, somethings don't change. The kids thought the pumpkin guts were gross again this year, and they still agree that pumpkin seeds are not worth eating. Aaahh, I love fall! Happy Halloween!

Iss No Problem in Costa Rica!!

In October, we decided to take the three oldest kids to Costa Rica for fall break. Peyton and Kennedi stayed here and had fun with my Mom - thanks Mom! And we took the three oldest on a BIG vacation! We thought it would be fun for them to experience a different culture, food, language, and see how differently people live outside of the United States, while they were also able to enjoy the ocean, warm sun, and beautiful nature that you can find in Costa Rica. It was a BLAST! Our airplane flew out around 1am, and we had a 4 hr. lay over in Georgia. So we started out a little tired=). Thank goodness for sky clubs, we were able to find free breakfast and a dark room to take a nap in until we had to catch our next flight. That was one of the highlights of the trip for the kids=).

DAY ONE:

We arrived in the capitol, San Jose, around 11:00am. We got our rental car, checked in to our hotel room and went for a drive! Our first stop was the San Jose temple. Thanks to my superb Spanish from high school =) (or maybe the hotel employee's English directions, we were able to find it very easily. We met a number of missionary couples, and then we went out to find some authentic Tico food (Costa Rico is GREAT, but the food is definitely NOT a highlight). We found a little cafe where Ashlynn ordered a mother load of Spaghetti, which made everyone else's sandwich look second rate. We drove down to the city, San Jose, and just drove around and looked at the markets and the hustle and bustle of a big city, where there are no street signs and seemingly total chaos, but lots of horn honking. We got back after dark (which isn't hard to do, as it starts to get dark around 4:30-5:00), ate dinner and met up with our good friends the Albrechtsens.

DAY TWO:

We got up early, and went to see the Toas Volcano, where you can look over an edge into the crater of an open volcano. On the way, we ran into a little old man with an ox and a cart who let the kids climb into a cart that the ox pulled (of course asking for a small tip).

It was very rainy and overcast, so no matter how long we stared or how far we leaned over the railing, we couldn't see the volcano. So what do you do . . . ?

Smile, pose for a picture, and hike around in the rain until you move onto the next thing.
Next on the agenda, was a drive to the Arenal Volcano up North. We decided to take the scenic route on rural roads which was supposed to take about 2 1/2 hrs, but we discovered that it takes twice as long as people say it will take, to get anywhere .
It was a beautiful route where we saw some beautiful country side and some amazing waterfalls.
We got in, again, after dark and went to see the town of La Fortuna. We looked at tourist shops and saw plenty of stray dogs. We then went back to the hotel to swim in the supposedly heated pool, and watch for the lava falling from the Arenal volcano


DAY THREE:
We woke up early and ate breakfast at the hotel and met with our tour guide for a morning of horse back riding and zip lining.
On the drive, we passed a herd of raccoon-type animals who love tourists and whatever they feed them. They were very friendly and came right up to our fingers to eat the animal crackers that we had to offer.
HORSE BACK RIDING:
We all got to ride a horse and hoped that it didn't rain. We did have to dawn our parkas but the downpour didn't dampen our fun.
Our tour guides found it very funny that Benson thought he was a caballero (cowboy), apparently his horse didn't agree either.

Some of the horses would race to stay in front.

ZIP LINING:
Next was Zip lining. They strap us all up.

And we're ready to go.

Dallin obviously is loving it!

Sheer concentration

The Tarzan Swing was the high light at the end, where you just swing through the jungle off of a little platform. Benson was the only one brave enough to go upside down.
On the way home, we saw a bunch of locals with their cars pulled off to the side of the road, so after we were dropped off at our hotel, Benson and I hopped into our rental car and road off to see what the great attraction was, and found an amazing hot springs! La Fortuna is known for having numerous hot springs that cost $50+ a person to get in to, but thanks to the friendly and helpful Ticos, we were able to find a public entrance right next door to the resorts where the price was just right: FREE!

Benson & the boys found a cave that was under waterfall.


The natural hot springs was beautiful and was my kind of creek - WARM!

The girls found an oxe to ride outside of a steak house that we found in La Fortuna. All of the restaurants consist of a roof supported by poles, with no walls

We came back to our hotel and found a HUGE frog waiting at the front door for us.

The frog and raccoons were not the only wild life we discovered. Aaron and Dallin kept wrestling in the back patio area of our hotel room. And of course the day had to end with another dip in the pool in the rain.

DAY FOUR:

All in all, La Fortuna was a very wet place, that never quit raining until the morning we left. Here is the closest we came to seeing all of the Arenal volcano. We took one last trip to the natural hot springs and then off we went to our beach town on Flamingo Beach.
After driving ALL day.


I think everyone was tuckered out and it was a good chance for everyone - well almost everyone - to catch up on some sleep.
We got to our hotel, walked out to the beach and jumped into the pool again.

DAY FIVE:


Megan & Talie on the beach.

Dallin & Miss Kristy

Ashlynn just couldn't get enough sand! After a full day on the beach (where we got completely fried!), we went Jet skiing for a couple of hours, and then went and drove to a surfing town about 20 minutes away to eat at a Pizza Hut, boy was it time for good 'ole American food, and man did it taste GOOD!

DAY SIX:


We woke up early again and went on a fishing boat that took us snorkeling. Costa Rica is not known for good snorkeling, but on the boat we saw two Killer Whales and a huge turtle.
As we snorkeled, we saw some colorful fish and swam to shore and collected some very cool shells which we brought home. After snorkeling, we went back and forth between the hotel pool and the beach where we kept seeing these large lizards who were just trying to sun themselves, but did not like to be bothered by tourists - but of course, that didn't stop Dallin=).


Then we went to Conchilla beach which is known for its sand that is made up entirely of crushed shells. On the way to the beach, we stopped at a hotel entrance to ask an employee some questions and saw a bunch of wild monkeys in the trees.














Can you tell which of the monkeys is native?

That night we went to a sea food restaurant on the beach - again, which literally consisted of some plastic chairs and a plastic table under a make shift roof - they washed all of our hands in flower water, and gave each of the ladies a flower for their hair. The food was good and the atmosphere was fun and relaxing.

Then, 4 older gentlemen came over and sang a song to us with their banjos. Benson's birthday was the next day, so we requested a birthday song for him, and then they stood there until Benson gave them a $5 tip. They stepped a couple of feet away from our table and discussed something at length. Then a couple of minutes later one of the gentlemen returned and said, "Excuse me, do you have another $5 for us?" Benson told them that we were out of cash, and they just seemed to have no idea what to do, until Kristy gave them another $5.

DAY SEVEN:
This morning, we woke up early, ate breakfast at the hotel and drove South to Jaco Beach where there are many tourist shops, Crocodile tours, and Nature Reserves. We drove around Jaco, and spent the evening walking through the shops and relaxing in the hotel pool right off the beach.

DAY EIGHT:
We woke up early and drove up North to Tarcoles to get on a crocodile tour.
The beginning of the tour.

Our tour guide, getting up close and personal with a croc. that didn't seem very hungry. But it was no problem (that was the phrase that we picked up from Costa Rica. All the Ticos would assure us, "Aaahhh, Iss no problem.")

After wards, we drove back to San Jose to sleep at our hotel and get ready for our flight home in the morning.
DAY NINE:
Benson had started getting an ear ache from diving deep while snorkeling, so we went to find a local pharmacy to find him some antibiotics. Unfortunately his condition just got worse and by the time we got home to Denver, he was dying! Luckily we had some left over Vicadin at home and an urgent care close by. We returned home to a tired Grandma and Peyton and Kennedi, who had apparently partied pretty hard while we were gone as well. Good Bye Costa Rica!!