*Updated* Smith Grandkids

Mom- which color theme do you like best?

Sunny picnic with mom

Nothing like vegan enchiladas on a beach towel with your mama in the Spring sun!

Winfield Park Annual Easter Egg Hunt

Somebody's coloring is improving!

Kinda shocked at my son's sudden interest in actually putting effort into his artwork! He went from silly scribbling to this!

Saturday morning adventures...

I was going to do a fun race I had been looking forward to, but Dad talked me into a ski trip instead. Honestly, I would've preferred to do the race...I mean, I've skiied a LOT this winter (like more than I have in the last 10 years combined maybe), and I haven't done many races lately. But there are a bunch of races coming up, and definitely not a bunch more ski days. I'd say today was our last...but I said that 2 weeks ago and was obviously wrong. But if it WAS our last, we went out with a great one! Clear skies, nice temps, decent snow, no crowds at all. And a crazy show at the annual "Pond Skim" where skiers/boarders go zooming across a big ice water pool. So basically a hypothermia party. Weirdos. Skilled weirdos. Very entertaining.
While we were playing in the snow, our children were dyeing eggs, then taken on a hiking adventure to Bowl & Pitcher at Riverside with mom, mere, and bobby! They had so much fun!!

Easter hair

If I had my way, I'd spend hours playing with my girls' hair... learning new styles, chatting with them, taking pictures...
But the reality is that I typically barely have time to do a quick ponytail.
However, friday mornings I'm forced to have a free period of time between when Brianna goes to piano and the gym opening. So- we used it to have some fun with sweet Courtney's 'do!

filling 2000 eggs

It's that time again!
The Winfield Party annual Easter Egg Hunt.
That I'm in charge of.
Because no one else will do it.
So... I do it.
Kinda crazy.
But I'm glad I have a few friends to help!

Easter F.H.E.

We watched did Easter activity sheets, watched Easter veggie Tales (thank you Nonny!) and had Easter pancakes (their Easter candy gets chopped up and added to the pancake batter, which is full of healthier ingredients - it's our compromise ;)
We're ready for the holiday!
Almost....

He Lives!

We got to attend an amazing Easter celebration event on the South Hill put on by the Spokane Stake. They performed "Lamb of God" by Rob Gardner. Choir, soloists, readings, orchestra, and the incredible display of images and items from the Life of Christ pictured here.....it was top notch. Totally worth driving all the way out there and letting the kids stay up way too late. I love teaching my kids what Easter is really all about!

Easter @St. Matthews

  

"Seahawks dress" at Costco

I'm not sure if our local Costco did this on purpose....green and blue dress...no official NFL logo on it...But my kids spotted it a mile away and shouted,  HAWKS!
This town/state is pretty obsessed over their foosball team!
And I'm pretty obsessed with Costco. They're always bringing in new items in the produce and natural/organic/superfood or whatever you wanna call it genre. Plus samples of course...the kids had madras lentils, salmon burgers, energy bars, brie, yogurt, crackers and tillamook cheddar for "lunch", ha!

Freaky strawberry

Toddler QT

   She wouldn't take a nap this afternoon (slept in til 10:30am after being up too late last night), so we played! Coloring, BUBBLES, nails, dancing (she's got amazing moves), and using old eyeshadow for painting.  

Being two is pretty fun :)

I told her she's my best friend.

She looked up at me and said, "Ok, we can hug now!" and tackled me with a good one. Then said, "UggaMugga Mommy," (thanks Daniel Tiger), and kissed my face.

I kinda adore her and would really appreciate being able to keep her this way forever. Not too much to ask?

While I'm on the subject... she says really adorable things. Like when I said, "How are you doing baby girl?" She quickly retorted, "I not a baby. I a toddler. And I doing WELL."

She goes around singing (often songs from Sophia the 1st or Primary songs from Nursery). 

She loves to be tickled, tackled, wrestled, nursed, smooched, and totted around. 

My church girls!

my little egg peelers

Cute watching them help me take the shells off our hardboiled eggs :)

Lucky enough!

I felt pangs of FAILURE as St. Patrick's Day came and went this year. I didn't do all the fun activities/projects I had intended to. Not the silly leprechaun lying-to-your-children stuff... I don't roll that way.  But I had planned to do some cute photos, have all-green (healthy, not Lucky Charm crap) meals, and make some fun festive gifts for family/friends.  It didn't happen. We DID wear lots of green, decorate the house inside and out, and they did some St. Paddy's crafts at school/YMCA....but that was about it.
Oh well.  Story of my life... great intentions, imperfect follow-thru!

Parking skillz

Sometimes people take pictures of my van parked and text it to me with various commentary... I could choose to be offended, humbled, judged.. but I'm pretty sure they're just jealous, so I choose to be flattered.  

THEY love outings with papa...*I* have to bite my tongue.

It'd be great, if only for a venue change... Not a fan of the junk pilfered at the golden arches. But I was grateful for the babysitter Tuesday night to take them away so I could attend mom's first healthy cooking class at her home, then go out to dinner at Prospectors with Brian and his new boss!   

A little visitor

We got to have this cute toddler join us for the day. Her mom is going through some crazy rough times - new baby in hospital with health issues, baby Daddy drama, injured arm, older kids, a needy puppy, no family help....

Church family to the rescue!

I'm glad for opportunities to help others. It feels good. 

Darn agency...

This photo/post requires some explanation, obviously....

So we all know about that flyer we get from schools.... starting at preschool.... every month. Scholastic reading club. Cute books/art/writing kits, etc. Very overpriced (IMO) and just totally unnecessary considering the crazy amount of books we already have at home AND all the other stuff - art sets, toys, stickers, games, etc collected from Grandparents and friends at birthdays, Christmas... plus some from other sources like library sales, yard sales, etc. It's just too much STUFF - there aren't enough hours in the day to use/play with them all. But of course... the kids see these attractive flyers... and want MORE!

But I'm excellent at saying no, changing the subject, and discarding the flyer. 

It's worked great UNTIL... miss smarty pants Brianna pulls the line I can't argue with: "I want to buy these with MY money Grandma gave me for my birthday."

Dang it. She's right. Grandma gave her 50 $1 bills. How can I tell her she can't spend it on this? I tried to dissuade her - reminding her she barely uses all the items so similar to this in her "treasure trunk" and art desk....even showing her it's less on Amazon...but nope. She wanted to. So she gave me the cash and I'm placing the order online. Begrudgingly.  

Allowing my children to use their God-given agency to make choices I don't deem wisest - even in what may seem a trivial situation to others - is TOUGH! Bleck.

Fred Meyer drop in childcare

   A hour of freedom each time we go!

Though almost every time I end up hearing my name over the loud speaker at least once....  "attention customers, would Chelsea McKell please return to the child care. Attention customers, would Chelsea McKell...."

Ugh. 

At least I get to enjoy that adorable look of pure joy from Charity when she sees me :)

Finally- HIS turn to drive :)

I did the entire 5 hours from Spokane to Seattle. AND the 3 hours to Camas. And I'm sure I'll do the whole drive on the way home from Great Wolf Lodge Monday evening.  And it's ok - he needs to work. I'm glad to give him the chance to do that. But dang it... my bum is hating all this SITTING!

So he drove from Brady's house to Great Wolf Lodge. 90 minutes of respite for me .... but apparently NOT for Charity, who isn't happy to be sitting anywhere that isn't mommy's lap.

Cousins at church in Camas

Blessing day for baby George! I'm so glad we came....but I've done more driving in the last 24 hrs than I usually do in a month. No more cars! 🚗
:)

YW Improv night

I needed a last-minute activity for my 7 Laurels...one that would be fun, would help us prep for upcoming Youth Talent Show, and would be appealing to a particular teen in our group who isn't too keen on our activities.
This idea came to me last minute and fit the bill perfectly! I can't thank my Father in Heaven enough for sending me inspiration to help me with this calling that I'm just not naturally great at. He fills in the gaps for me.
We did some improv games that were twists on ideas from the Whose Line is it Anyways show. The girls had a BLAST!! Like laugh-til-red-faced blast.  I did too! I love this stuff. I'll see if I can incorporate it into our Smith Fam Reunion this summer somehow. I have a few siblings that would be awesome at it.
Now to plan the next yw activity...and the next...and the next... ;)

February showers bring March flowers?

YELLOW violas and primroses at Fred Meyer were too much to resist. Had to buy a couple flats. The kids loved planting them and I love looking at them!! Now let's hope they LIVE longer than most things I plant...

A little too excited to be at #TOFWSpokane

#OneHeartOneFaith
So nice to be here with girlfriends...away from babyfriends....

I was really dragging my feet and regretting my decision to attend... cuz there was so much to do at home to get ready for our roadtrip tomorrow morning and this takes up a huge chunk of my night - considering the time it take to get there, park, go in, wait for it to start, the intermissions, instruction time blahblahblah... kindof annoying how the ladies I went with were slow getting out...

But it was worth it!!!

Amazing speakers and music!

So uplifting and inspiring.  I wish Mom had come (they left for Seattle earlier).

One of my favorite quotes, "We become what we want to be by consistently being what we want to become each day"

Froyo Earth

Invited Mere/Lily/Bobby to join us for a Family Night treat...The store has a Monday night promo where you guess the weight your yogurt and it's free ....I won! 9 ounces on the dot! That sounds like a lot of frozen yogurt to be eating...and sadly, I probably had twice that much in the samples beforehand...time to curb the sugar intake!!

3-ply

One of their favorite isles at Fred Meyer. Maybe soon I'll go ahead and buy a couple years worth of tp just so they can take it home and build towers out of it...cuz they'd be in heaven!