There is Beauty, All Around...

Spring is a beautiful season.  I am enjoying it even more, now that I have seen trees bare.  I truly understand the song "Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree" now. 

Here we are, enjoying spring in Utah!  It's very different than spring in Arizona.  Everything blooms in both states, and I love them both, it's just different here.

These next pictures are all from the Thanksgiving Gardens.

Do you Want to Build a SnowMan?

Okay, confession time...  We are from Arizona.  We didn't know what this white stuff was when it fell from the sky, and we definitely did not know how to play with it.  We tried.  Believe me, we tried.  But seriously, how does one build a snowman?  So, we went through the entire winter trying to make a snowman, in vain, several times.  

Then, we had this random "freak" snow storm in March.  It was a good one too.  Snow stuck to the street even.  That afternoon, Noelle was outside playing in the snow.  Our neighbor was walking by and asked Noelle why she wasn't making a snowman, and Noelle informed her that she didn't know how.  So, Sister Spence (our neighbor)  remedied that problem!  They built a snowman.  Soon, we were all outside helping.  We built a snowman.

Oliver was in love!  He had to hug it!

Then we had to test our skills without Sister Spence's help!

Even the small of the smalls got out on this (though his hands weren't covered, so I didn't let him in the snow)

 We built 3!  It's a whole snow family!

Now we know how to build snowmen!  We will be ready for next winter!!!

Fall Break in Review

Fall Break started on a Wednesday.  In fact, the very Wednesday that we received our package in the mail.  (Great way to start the fun).  We decided we needed to do some fun things for the break.  It's not easy to think of fun things to do when: 

1.) You aren't familiar with the area 

and 2.) You don't yet have any friends.  

So, we had to improvise.  Here is a lot of pictures of the things we accomplished during the 6 day break:

We did some art.  We used recycle goods to make bats!

 Once the bats were made, instead of hanging them up from the trees outside as planned... we played indoor soccer with them.  I'm thinking that was even more fun.

We explored the canyon.  Look at those colors!  I love seeing the autumn leaves!

 We walked to the only store in town and bought ice cream!

 We played at the park... a lot!  

 On Saturday, we went up "north" to do our supplies shopping.  We decided to make it a fun day, so we left early and stopped at Thanksgiving Point to check out a museum that my awesome cousin, Liz, told me about.  "The Museum of Natural Curiosity".  Thanks to our passes to the Science Center (which we won't be visiting any time soon) we were able to get into the Museum for free.  It was really neat.  Here are a few pictures.

 Brandon was brave and took 3 young kids into a pitch black tunnel.  They didn't like it too much... but they did it.  And I watched from outside.

 In case you were wondering... this is how much the ENTIRE Smithson family weighs.  We all got on together.

Sunday was our first opportunity to visit church.  Until then, it had been conferences and more conferences.  It was nice to sit in regular meetings.  The children still haven't had a regular Sunday, as they have been practicing for the primary program, but at least they got to meet some more kids!

It was a fun Fall Break!

It's New

It has been a while since I have been able to blog.  As a result, there is a lot of things that I wanted to post and remember, that I have yet to do.  Most of those pictures and memories are on my camera, which is, regrettably, currently detained.  So, I decided to start with what's new.  I'll hopefully get back to the other memories soon.  

So, what is new?  Well, there is a lot that is new.  In fact, most everything feels new right now.  First off...  we live in a new place.

 After 11 years of owning our house, Brandon and I decided to uproot our little family and try something new.  Moving from Mesa, Arizona (population in the valley being roughly 10 million) to Oak City (population around 600) is considerably different.  Oak City is beautiful.  I'm already in love with the mountains around my house.  They are gorgeous.  We have grass!  Seriously! (In fact, it needs to be mowed, but that is another story).  The kids can play out front!  It's really nice.  Do I miss home? Yes.  Will I like my new home?  Yes as well.

 Melanie started school the day after we got here.  She goes to school in the next town over, which means she rides the bus.  The first day, I drove her to school and met the teacher with her.  Then she rode the bus home.  Poor Melanie was very emotional upon getting off the bus.  She was so scared that she was going to miss her stop.  Now she is a pro!  And she is even tricky and does her homework on the bus ride home so she is ready to play.  (Smart Girl!)

Melanie's teacher is Mrs. Fowles.  Her first day of school was a Wednesday.  The next day, they had a ballet come visit the school.  Friday was a field trip (to Oak Canyon).  Monday was eat at school with your kid day (which I'm glad I participated in). Tuesday was fire safety day, put on by the Delta Fire department, who brought their trucks and let the kids tour them.  Needless to say, she has been having a good time.   She loves her teacher and the friends she has made have been a lot of fun.

 Noelle is part of a joy school and started the Thursday after we got here.  She already LOVES it!  The group consists of 5 or 6 girls, so it is nick named the "Princess Preschool."  Noelle fits the bill.  Every day she asks me if she can go to school.

 We live walking distance to the town's park, so we frequently walk there (almost every day, in fact.  There are only a few days were, for whatever reason, we didn't head that way.)  Here are some pictures from our adventures at the park.  It's a lot of fun!  Sometimes we like to walk from the park to the only store in town, which we have dubbed the "ice cream place".  We can get ice cream sandwiches there.  So fun!

 One "new" thing I have really been enjoying these last few days involves the change in the season.  That's right...  a CHANGE IN THE SEASON.  We have Autumn here!  Real, Actual Autumn.  And that means, cooler weather and colorful leaves.  I'm in love!  It's wonderful!  I took Oliver to the Canyon after dropping Noelle off at school last Thursday (which is only a 5 minute drive).  I showed Oliver the beautiful trees.  

Me: "Look at that tree, buddy, Heavenly Father made it red.  See?"

Oliver: "He painted it red just for me?  Wow!  It's beautiful!"

I feel the same way when I look at the beautiful trees.  How blessed we are.

I have more adventures to share over the last 3 weeks, and hopefully I'll get them organized and posted soon.  But, for now, I just wanted to share that we got here.  We are happy.  And most of all, we feel blessed.