How was your Friday?

This first photo says it all....
Needless to say it was a good night at the Smith home. Jordan had a spectacular game against Springville. I was texting an update every five minutes to my brother Ed, who was out of town and to Brendan's brother, Chris, who lives in Minnesota, two of Jordan's biggest fans. I figured that copying my texts to them is a pretty good way to document the game.

1. "Jordan threw 100 percent 5 for 5 for a 73 yard drive and then he ran it in for Lehi's first touchdown of the season on our first possession of the game! The crowd went crazy! 7 to 0 Pioneers with 6:45 left in the first."

2. "It's the 2nd quarter. We are now up 14 to 0. The last score was a 6 yard run into the end zone. Jordan threw a sweet 25-30 yard pass to Jordan Dew that was caught!"

3. "Two passes into the end zone were missed, but we scored a field goal. 17 - 0."

4. "Last second touchdown by them right before the half. 17 to 7."

5. "Fight! Two Springville players ejected! CJ (our best running back we have left) just hurt his knee. His Dad went down and said he'll be ok. It was just a twist. Whew!"

6. "Jordan just ran it up the middle about 45 yards on a QB keeper. He ran SO fast. He got stopped on the 10, but we got another field goal. 20 to 7!"

7. "Jordan's in as receiver now. He just caught a pass for a 12 yard gain."

8. "I guess the coach wanted to give the back up sophomore QB some experience, but he's not doing too good. He looks nervous and just had a turnover. The whole crowd started chanting, 'Jordan!' Jordan!' 'Jordan!' He's back in as the quarterback now."

9. "Another field goal with 2 min. to go in the 3rd. 23 to 7"

10. "WE WON!!!!" 25 to 16 thanks to a safety by Bear! Right after the game ended, the players ran out to the field to celebrate and then they came back to the sideline, took off their helmets, and took a bow! The crowd went wild. All the kids ran down on to the field with the team to celebrate!"

Big Smiles from my boys after a Big WIN! Jordan to Jordan!

It seemed like half the school went over to Sonic to celebrate afterwards. We stopped by to honk our horn and get some slushies. The guy at the drive thru window said, "Sorry about the wait, I don't know why we have hundreds of kids here from Lehi High school." We told him that they had just won a really big football game. To which he responded, "No offense, but who cares about football?" ARE YOUR KIDDING ME???!!!!!

We came home to our recorded versions of the news and were thrilled to see the following recap of the game on Channel 2...

I'll be posting some great photos of the game to this post as soon as I get them from the photographer. I'll apologize now and should say that we should rename this blog...Lehi High Football Central for the next few months. It consumes our whole family completely (yes, even Allison looks forward to the games). So if football isn't your thing, check back at the end of October. For you die hard fans, stay tuned for a great season!

Best time of the year!

(I had to hurry and post something to get Jordan's big, nasty foot off the top of our blog)

We interrupt this family to bring you the football season...

JORDAN'S FIRST SNAP AS STARTING VARSITY QUARTERBACK!

These photos were taken at the BYU 7 on 7 camp this past summer. Jordan won the quarterback challenge the following week at a camp with over 12 schools represented.

Getting some feedback from Coach Peyton

(not sure if it's good or bad?)

Here we go with dinners at 8 p.m. everday, many extra loads of

VERY SMELLY laundry, little black turf pellets all

over our house and cars, freezing and refreezing ice packs

everyday, weekly team dinners, car pooling five

days a week back and forth to practice, boiling and fitting new

mouthguards, either sweating to death or

shivering in ice cold wind and rain on the hard

bleachers twice a week, appointments at the doctor,

chiropractor, physical therapist...and two

boys who live for this every fall having the time of

their lives!

PRICELESS!

...we wouldn't have it any other way! GO PIONEERS!

P.S. I haven't forgotten about photos of Jake, it's just that I don't have the luxury of having a professional photographer cover his games like they do for Jordan and Jake won't let me anywhere near him on the football field to snap a photo..."Way too embarrassing, Mom!" I was only able to sneak in this one.

Just call him "Socks"

If Jordan were a pet, we'd call him Socks. Check out his tan line from playing football all summer. His feet never see the sun, but the rest of his body is fried crispy!

He took this picture himself for a self portait assignment in his photography class. It sums him up well.

Back to School for Mom

My kids couldn't understand why I would sign up and spend my mornings attending classes at BYU when I could stay home, sleep in, watch TV in my jammies all day, and all the other things that moms do while their kids are in school :).

I'm so glad that Heidi invited me to join her and Kerri to attend Education week. I was only able to attend Wed-Fri, but I got so much out of it. I haven't been able to go since I was expecting Jordan 18 years ago. I explained to my kids that it was like Youth Conference for grown ups, then they kind of got it-

We attended 4 classes each day and brought our little sack lunch to eat as we walked from one class to another. It was such a great feeling to be walking across a college campus during the day with your friends...oh the good old days. Some of our favorite speakers were Randall Wright, Stan Crippen, Connie Sokol, and Merrilee Boyack. I ended up going to one class on my own because while Heidi and Kerri wanted to learn how to Feel Fit and Fabulous (I don't let things like that become a priority in my life, if you can't tell already) I felt I needed to go to a class about overcontrolling parents (you think?) It was SO enlightening and only reaffirmed what I already knew about me and how to fix it. Another class that was awesome was one on "How to organize our time and home" and one on "How to help our kids feel the spirit." "Little things that count in a marriage" was also a great one. I took 19 pages of notes and have to figure out how to slowly incorporate these things into our family without overwhelming them.

We finished the last day with a trip to the BYU bookstore to get mint brownies only, but ended up finding a treasure of cute book bags for our girls to give as birthday presents to their friends for only $4.00. It was a great way to start off the new school year and I'm so thankful for friends that help me become better in all areas of my life.

Even though I left at the same time my kids left each morning and was home before they got back, they asked me each day if I would be gone again. I'm glad that they feel a sense of safety knowing that I'm home holding down the fort. It just reaffirmed to me the fact that I need to stay home and I'm so grateful that I can and for all the things that I learned this week to help me be a better mom, wife, homemaker, and daughter of God.

Just practicing

I know, I know...I'm freaking out looking at these pictures too.

A year from now Jake will be able to get his learner's permit so why not start practicing at the church? Brendan took Jake out just for fun this past weekend when the parking lot was empty. Other than parking for Sunday meetings, isn't the other main purpose of church parking lots to provide a place for everyone to learn how to sit behind the wheel for the first time?

I wasn't with them, but Jake told me that it was a good thing no one was there or he would have taken out at least 5 cars. Parking and backing out of a spot were the hardest, he said (for this lesson anyway). Of course that is why we practice for a long time before the real thing. He got to drive the car home, but stopped at the driveway. Squeezing into our tight spots in the garage is a challenge even for me sometimes. Poor Jake, he said that after this first time, he's not too excited anymore about driving..."It's a lot harder than I thought and it's scary to be in control of a real car." I'm not too worried about it--he'll get the hang of it soon enough...unfortunately. Thank goodness Jordan will be on his mission when Jake turns 16 because the insurance on two teenage boys....I don't even want to think about it.

Alive and well

This post is for my Mom who checks our blog periodically from her mission in Bogota.

Just thought you'd like to see photos of your "babies" and that I've been able to keep them alive now for 7 months. They're growing bigger and doing well, just like all the grandkids. Now your little cactus plants are a different story, but 3 out of 5 is a record for me!

Sorry Jake

I took first day of school photos of Jake and downloaded them to my computer and then deleted them off my camera. Then I couldn't find them on the computer and thought they were gone so I made Jake give me another "First day of School" pose the next day. Not exactly his favorite thing to do. Then I realized I could recover them from my recycle folder. To avoid him posing in vain, here are Jake's first and second day of school photos.

Jake is probably the hardest working student at our house and really strives to do his very best at everything. He's a little nervous that grades this year "count" for college applications, but I have no doubts that he'll do great! He's excited to be part of the "big guys on campus" this year. Last year of Jr. High...wow, how time flies!

First day of Jr. High

Allison started school one day earlier than her brothers. All 7th graders had the school to themselves to get settled in to their new school without all "the pressure." Thank goodness her rash has much improved and she only had a little bit on her eyelid and behind her ear at this point. She has been counting down the days for school to start for the last two weeks! She is so excited and loves her new teachers, except for one, but you can't have it all. She is especially excited about the Back to School dance on Friday! I may have to sign up to chaperone that one...she can't possibly be that old :(

First and Last

Kindergarten: Complete with Toy Story back pack, Power Ranger shoes, knee high socks, tucked in shirt, and hair combed to the side. You gotta love it!

Senior Year: Nothing but Hollister and American Eagle will do now, no show socks please, and a pair of Michael Jordan shoes to finish it off.

I don't know if I was sadder seeing Jordan leave on his first day of kindergarten or saying good-bye as he drove off to his last "first" day of school ever! I'm sure he won't allow "first day of college" photos to happen. I can already tell it's going to be a year full of tears for me.

Ok, it's our turn

A lot of our friends have done this on their blogs and while we have had a blast downloading our photos and getting all sorts of funny results, we've yet to post them. So here are our family's celebrity look-alikes. Jordan and his friends even took pictures of themselves to download to our computer so they could do this. It's really fun. Give it a try if you haven't already (myheritage.com and click on face recognition) and then vote for who you think is our celebrity twin.

I had to post two photos of Brendan because I think it's hilarious the different results you get.


I vote for Ed Harris on this one. Hey, is that "Grandpa Munster?" How do you get Kim Rossi Stuart and that Pierluigi guy in the same collage?


What? Maybe a match on the eyebrows, but that's it.


I totally see a mix between a short haired Matt Dillon and Wayne Brady. By the end of football season, Jordan will be looking more like Usher 'cause he's getting so dark out in the sun.


I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Cary Grant so this made my day! Jake's really maturing and changing almost daily. Not my baby boy anymore, but just as sweet!


Where in the world did Diana Ross come from? My vote is for a young Sally Field, but maybe she's really the lost third Spears sister. J/K!

Give me a break...please

It's times like these that I have to remember to count my blessings . This week I have had to really count them one by one to get through it. I totally understand that things come up and it's all part of life, but do all those things have to happen all at once? I'm not fishing for sympathy comments, but sometimes you just have to vent a little bit to get it off your chest. So here goes....

If you think you're having a bad day, then read about my week to feel lot's better...

We started off with Jordan's back issue that led us to the Emergency room and subsequent MRI. Thank goodness there was nothing serious.

Allison had a severe allergic reaction to chemicals in a friend's hot tub. She has a rash all over her chest, back, neck, and face and had to go to the doctor and is on medication...just what every twelve year old wants to have all over her body on her first day of Jr. high!

Jake pulled a ligament in his knee at football practice and is hobbling around now. He'll have to sit out his first game this Saturday and hopefully heal quickly to get some playing time in a week or two...just when he felt that he was really in shape and able to run without it killing him.

Jordan rear ended his boss (of all people) last week. Thank goodness for insurance because the damage to his boss' car was $900 and his own car was $3100! Jordan was responsible for the insurance deductible for his accident and the increase in insurance premiums which is such bad timing now that he can only work on Saturdays because of his football schedule and school.

The rock chip that he had on his windshield cracked all the way across and that wasn't covered because the chip was pre existing so the windshield cost an additional $200. Then they tell us that the windshield molding may not seal all the way and could leak because of rust under his roof, but that's another $500 to replace so we told Jordan to keep a towel handy in the car on rainy days :).

His car is also up for inspection, emission, and registration this month.

Brendan took our Expedition up to Trek to help transport all the kids last weekend. When I drove it on Monday I noticed that the brakes didn't sound normal. I took it in and both front and back brakes needed to be replaced!

Brendan's Sebring needs 4 new tires to top that off.

All three boys needed to get Contact exams this week and a fresh new perscription of contacts ordered.

Has anyone paid school fees for one in high school and two in Jr. High? I had that privilege this week and I felt like I was paying for college tuition!

Not to mention everyone needed school clothes and shoes.

Oh, one more thing...football camp and uniform fees were due this week too.

I picked up the phone last night and it was the National Fire Fighters Association asking for a donation...FUNNY!

Scary morning!

This morning I got up at 5:45 a.m. to say good-bye to Jake and Brendan as they left to go on our ward's pioneer trek. I will let Brendan post on that later, which I'm sure will be an experience of a lifetime!

I thought of going back to bed, but I had to take Jordan to football at 6:30 so rather than trying to get out of bed a second time, I decided to start some laundry to pass the time. (I will do another post later to explain why I am driving him to early morning football). I dropped him off, came home and about 30 minutes later I got a call from Jordan's cell phone. I dread hearing the phone ring when either boy is at football practice.

Jordan said, "Don't worry Mom, but coach needs to talk to you." One of the coaches got on the phone and said that Jordan had an unnatural squishy bump on his spine just below his waist. This coach happens to be an ER nurse too so he evaluated it and even called his colleagues at UVRMC to see what they thought it could be. Jordan doesn't remember getting hit or hurting his back in any way. They haven't even started hitting yet in practice. It didn't hurt, it wasn't bruised, but it was about 1 1/2 inches in diameter and definitely fluid of some kind. The coach was nervous that it could be spinal fluid leaking out of his spinal column which needed immediate medical attention! HELLO .... heart attack time for mom!!!!! He said that if he was his son, he would be on the road to the ER immediately. In fact, he had already called down there to let them know all the details and to expect us within 1/2 an hour. Oh my gosh....my stomach got that sick feeling...you know the one you get when something very serious happens!

Well, I got ready in about 1 minute and called Brendan as I drove to the high school. Not much he could do since he was almost 2 hours away by then. By the time we got to the hospital the bump was about 3 inches in diameter. The doctor examined him and said that his guess was that it wasn't spinal fluid, but there was no way to rule it out 100% without an MRI. So I'm thinking, "Do the MRI already!!!!!" Jordan got an IV put in (his first one ever), but it was the "hospital gown only" situation that made him the most uncomfortable. That was funny!

Notice the Cruise-like swan towels. What the...?

The MRI took about 20 minutes and the results came back negative. No spinal fluid! Huge sigh of relief!!!!! The doctor said it was a healing hemorrhage (but we can't pin point the cause of an injury) and that there was nothing really they could do other than drain it, but the chance of infection near his spine from a needle was not worth it. He said that it would resolve on its own in a few days and that he could resume all activity, even football. I was able to get a hold of Brendan who was ready to transfer his carload and head back home by then, but thank goodness he didn't have to.

So here I sit tonight with a very thankful heart that everything is ok. In fact, we took advantage of the day off football and work to get Jordan a haircut and do some shopping. I took Allison and Jordan to South Towne to get some school clothes and shoes and then we had lunch at the food court. It ended up being such a fun day for us to all be together! The one unfortunate thing out of all of this is that the ER copay was $100 plus we have a $750 deductible plus 20% for the MRI so this morning put us in the hole about $1000! But I am so grateful that I didn't spend the day at the hospital waiting through a surgery and all the scary things that could have been.

Camping Adventures

We love to camp even though we haven't gone as a family in about 4 years! I guess with the boys (and now Brendan) in scouts it seems like they get their fill of camping, but Allison and I have really missed it. .

So we had what we like to call a "family reunion" of sorts because we spent the weekend camping with a few friends that we honestly consider family. Each of the kids also got to invite a friend of their choice to come along. Jordan's friend couldn't come at the last minute and neither could the friend of the McGuire's 16 year old son Dillon. They both put on their teenage grumpy faces about having to go on a trip with "mom and dad's" friends. We told them about each other but they thought it would be lame to be forced to hang out with someone they don't know. They hadn't met before but you would never had known that from seeing them together. They found so many things in common and instantly became the best of friends. They both admitted later that they had a ton of fun...what?...teenagers saying that mom and dad were right?

"ONE O'CLOCK CLUB"... details below

SILLY FACE CONTEST
All of the kids had a blast and acted like cousins together. That is especially fun for our kids since all of their cousins are under age 8 (except for 2 that live in Iowa.) They formed a club called the "One o'clock club" referring to 1:00 A.M.! This was open to people between the ages of 13 to 17 only! Meetings began around the campfire each night after all the parents went to bed. This was not a meeting of hushed secrets since the tent sites within a 1/2 mile could hear all that went on. What is it with the volume of teenagers? They cracked up over silly jokes & stories, exploded things in the fire, and had the time of their lives. I was impressed that the boys walked the girls to their tents each night too! Then they separated into the boys tent and the girls tent, where the laughs continued.


It wasn't the greatest camping spot at Diamond Fork, but it was all we could reserve at the last minute. We made the best of it though. Between us all we had a four wheeler and a couple of motorcycles which we took out for a ride on Saturday afternoon. We thought it would be a two mile ride up to the trails, but we ended up driving for about an hour trying to find not only ATV trails, but a shady picnic spot for us "non=riders." We ended up in a little shady area decorated with cow pies everywhere. Not the best place to have lunch, but it was the best we could do and we can now laugh about it.
Highlights included Charades of movie titles around the campfire, Richard's Pert shampoo commercial, Brendan's Haka, and listening to Brian Regan jokes from Jordan's I-pod broadcast on Brandy's I-home each night. If you haven't heard of Brian Regan you are missing out! Smores, dutch oven pineapple upside down cake, tin foil dinners, sourdough pancakes, cowboy potatoes...we all contributed to some really fantastic food. A special thanks goes to our great husbands for going down a few miles to cook our steaks on grills since our campsite didn't have any. Thanks to Ryan for teaching the kids an old Indian stick game. It's amazing how much fun kids can have with a tin can, sticks, and a little imagination!

We bonded like you only can out in the beauty of nature! The kids are all looking forward to making this a tradition each year and are already talking about how much fun we are going to have next summer when Lake Powell is our planned destination!

Over the hill...not!

We had so much fun celebrating Brendan's 40th this past week! I felt the pressure, put on only by myself, to do something extra special for him this year. I had watched Brendan create a slideshow for Jake's Eagle court of honor so I tried to remember what he did and do one for him! I spent Sunday evening scanning all the photos I could find of him as a baby and of us dating. I had to do this right after we got home from camping and thankfully Brendan was exhausted and took a long nap! Monday morning I gave him some boring gifts of clothes that he needed to kind of throw him off for the day. I spent 3 hours that morning after he left for work frantically trying to figure out how to add music to the slideshow and how to make it to a DVD. I took several years off my life from all the stress I gave myself, but I finally got it. He wasn't expecting that I would drive up to his office with the kids to bring him black balloons, golf clubs, and 40 golf balls. The kids and I tried taping the balls to form a cake with tees for the candles, but after several failed attempts, we bagged that idea and put them in a gift bag. So after going up to surprise him at work, we all went out to lunch at Famous Dave's (it was HIS birthday afterall so no "girlie" place would do.) We discussed going to see the new Batman movie at night and he was really excited about that. We knew all along, of course, that there would be no movie but hopefully a full on surprise party that night. Jake came up with the idea of going golfing to get Brendan out of the house for a few hours. They got on at about 5:00 and I told Jake that if they finished golfing before 7:00 that he would have to pretend to be sick and hide out in the golf course bathrooms until 7:00. He was so cute! He said that he felt just terrible about lying to his Dad all day and that it just wasn't right. I told him that he was right and we shouldn't lie, but today was an exception and that we could repent later :0! I made a homemade German chocolate cake and so did his mom...his absolute favorite! Even Jordan (and his buddy Jordan) made him a cake...almost 18 and his first attempt at baking a cake didn't turn out too bad!
We had all of his family over and a few neighbors and friends gather in the living room and on our stairs to shout SURPRISE as he came in. He really thought we were going to the movies and even called from the golf course to make sure Jordan met us there in case he was running late. Brendan is impossible to surprise. He guesses the end of every movie and book and I have NEVER been able to surprise him, but I think this time it worked. We all had dessert together, watched the DVD of his life photos so far, and had a fun time celebrating his 40th! Our family is so lucky and blessed to have Brendan lead and guide us and we can't wait to see what the next 40 years brings us! HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEETS! I LOVE YOU!

Sacrament Talk

You know you are old when your "baby" is old enough to give her very first talk in Sacrament meeting! Yep, Allison spoke today and did a great job! She happens to be good friends with our Bishop's daughter so she got cornered while playing at their house, but it was bound to happen sooner or later. She spoke on Agency and Making Good Choices. She spent several hours on Friday and Saturday preparing her talk. We were just really impressed that she wrote the whole thing herself, looked up scriptures, and even borrowed Brendan's timer to time herself giving her talk (to herself) to make sure it was close to 5 minutes like the Bishop asked. She said it took her about 5 minutes after she was done to stop shaking. Her voice was understandably nervous sounding, but more surprising was how much she sounds like me! Not really sure if that's good or bad.

Coolest cake ever!

We haven't had much exciting things going on around here the last few weeks (other than working on pulling our weeds for 7 hours straight last Saturday!) So I thought I would post a photo of one of the most creative cakes I have ever seen. My brother and sister in law threw the coolest Star Wars party for my little nephew Gavin's 6th birthday (see details on Carlos and Julie link on my sidebar). Unfortunately we couldn't be there since they live in California. Julie made an amazing cake that would be a dream come true for any Star Wars fan at any age. She said that you can't tell from the photo, but she even put dry ice for smoke coming out of the volcano. Hope you don't mind Julie, but I just had to show this off. Way to go!

4th of July 2008

No, we didn't go to the Stadium of Fire (we couldn't even get into the website before the tickets were sold out), but we spent the day with Brendan's side of the family doing our yearly traditions. Tank wars, BBQ, lots of snaps for the little kids, climbing up the hill across the street at Timpview High School to see the Stadium of Fire fireworks, and then staying up till midnight doing our own "Cul-de-sac of fire." (We did miss Joe's homemade rootbeer though...what happened with that?) I think that Brendan's brothers get more into the 4th of July than they do even Christmas. We had SO MANY fireworks and had about 5-6 people lighting them for a non stop one hour show! The grand finale was great. Their neighbors brought out ice cream cones for the whole cul-de-sac which was a really nice treat. It was a LONG day, but I think it was another fun year that everyone will remember for a long time!