Mama's Restaurant

Hello, Welcome to Mama's Restaurant. I'm mama! How many will there be tonight? 1 Adult and 2 children? Okay, follow me this way!

Yesterday I had the cutest little family come into my "restaurant". The girls colored on the coloring pages as I took their orders (from my menu of leftovers) and brought them their salads.

Even my kitchen crew (Oliver) thought they were a fun group.

It was a fun way to get rid of the leftovers. This is actually the second time we have done this, and the girls had been begging me to do it again. With all the random leftovers we had from last week, I felt it was a good time. The bill came to 8 Kisses and 7 Hugs, which I was paid and received a few extra hugs and kisses as a tip.

After dinner, we had a family home evening lesson on talents. We told the kid what a talent was and then listed talents each person has.

Melanie:

singing and making up songs, drawing pictures, writing

Noelle:

running, making people smile with her facial expressions, climbing

Brandon:

fixing cars, helping people without question, making things

Oliver:

smiling, making mom jump

Camille:

math, cooking, entertaining kids, and, according to Melanie, feeding Oliver.

Feeding Oliver was something I had never thought of before, but I suppose it is something that only I can do. Melanie really made me think about that one. Afterwards, we watched some fun family videos which displayed our different talents. It was a fun night.

Lost Dutchman's Half Marathon

This weekend was the Lost Dutchman Half Marathon. I decided quite last minute (a few weeks ago, the day before the prices went up) to sign up for the race and give it a shot. I have only ran two other half marathons and my fastest time prior to this race was 2 hours, 16 minutes, and some change. I didn't really expect to beat that, but I wanted to finish my first long distance race (since having Oliver exactly 3 months before the race) and feel good about myself. Well... I did it!

Here I am with my favorite cheer team (minus my ultimate favorite cheer captain who was taking the picture). Oliver and Melanie are sharing a seat and keeping each other nice and warm.Here I am running to the finish (I had just pasted mile 13, and had the last .1 mile to go) P.S. I passed that man right after this picture was taken. I don't think I passed the girl, but I was close.

So, here is my run down. I started feel really good. We were running into the sun for the first 2 miles, then turned and the sun was beaming on the left side of us. Then around Mile 4.5 we turned and headed toward the sun again. I was still feeling really good, and being passed like crazy... good grief! ha ha! It was when I made that turn, that the first place runner passed me, headed the OTHER direction! wow! I cheered him on, but I think he was too much "in the zone" to have noticed. I was following and pacing myself with a gal in a pink running shirt and black head band and kept thinking I'd know when the turn around point is because I'd see her coming the other direction. Eventually, I turned around and started heading away from the sun... and down hill! (That felt really good!). At this point, I actually passed my pink shirt pacer. I was really feeling good. I had not stopped running at all until mile 10, where I walked through the water station, just long enough to get some water (I had been drinking my sports drink and wanted to get some of the sugary taste out of my mouth). I started running again, and still was excited and feeling good. At this point, I was at the turn around for the 10K race, and I was passing 10kers. That was kind of fun. Ironically, I was also still passing half marathon walkers that were only 3.1 miles into the race.

At mile 11, I pulled my phone out and called Brandon to tell him I was almost done. It was right after I hung up the phone from calling him that I had an "emergency situation". At mile 12 I ended up making a long pit stop, sigh... But then I ran my last 1.1 miles super strong. I ended up making a personal record of 2 hours, 11 minutes, and 49 seconds. I wouldn't change a thing in my running... and the stop was out of my control, so I'm really happy. I have been looking at the numbers over and over (because I'm an engineer, and I over analyze everything) and you can really tell from my pace break downs that I was really quite consistently around 9:30 min/mile. But then you look at the overall pace, at just over 10 min/mil... that tells you how much my stop effected my time. But, as I said, I still ran strong, so I'm happy with that part (and if you are wondering, yes, I'm trying to talk myself into being happy with my time even though I had to stop for MINUTES! But I am in no way upset with how I ran the race)

When I registered for this race, I was really worried about how boring it may be for the rest of my family. They are always such loyal fans and come to all my events, but I know that the longer races mean more down time for them. But, after the race, I uploaded the pictures and found these:

Turns out, they had a blast at the park, then enjoyed the blow up obstacle course bounce house.

And while they waited for me, they took turns pointing out everyone that was wearing an orange running shirt... even the men. Melanie kept laughing at daddy and telling him "no, mommy is a girl, not a boy". "No, that's not mommy, her number is up high". "No, mommy is wearing a belt, like this". And when she found me, I hear "MOMMY!!!!" And a lot of giggles from her and Noelle (who also was screaming "mommy!".) It makes me smile and want to cry at the same time when I hear them cheering me on.

The rest of the day, both girls kept talking about how mom ran in a race, and how she was "super fast". :) I couldn't ask for better fans. They make my love for running mean something more than just a crazy hobby or obsession... It means I'm teaching them the value of setting goals, and following through... and for a brief moment, they make me feel like a super hero. It's kind of an emotional thing.

Random bits of Happiness

I am blessed. There are so many great things for me to be thankful for. Most of them are little moments. So, let me share.

The other day, Noelle was having a hard time napping, so Brandon went in to help. I had somewhere I had to be, so I finally went in to tell him I had to go and to give him Oliver... and I found this:

Brandon was sleeping in the toddler bed, Noelle was sleeping on the floor. I joked that it looked like he kicked her out of her own bed. But he is such a wonderful dad.
Wednesdays are our wards park day. We have only been twice, and the second time, we showed up at the wrong time (oops). We still had a lot of fun, and I enjoyed my time at the park with just us. Above is my little man. Yesterday he turned 3 months old. It has only been 3 months, bet I can't remember not having him in my life. He is very smiley and a mommy's boy. I just love him to pieces.

Noelle has to be the spunkiest yet sweetest thing ever. She cracks me up. She is full of energy and facial expressions. Though I probably understand her better than most, Noelle has quite the vocabulary. Her favorite thing to do is call daddy while he is at work.

In the following picture, the girls insisted on posing with their graham crackers. Silly girls!

Melanie is very inquisitive, asking hundreds of questions a day. She loves science experiments, so we do them often. A few days ago we planted bird seeds in a clear cup, towards the side of the cup so you can see the seeds. Then we put black paper around it so we could keep it dark. Everyday we watered it and checked it out. The seeds have sprouted! But before we saw the green peeking threw, we got to see the roots growing. It was very neat!

Can you say merry-go-round? I love seeing their faces light up when they do something fun and special with dad.

Wait a sec... whose seat is this? Is that Noelle sitting in Oliver's seat? yep! Goofy girl!

Melanie thinks she is a mermaid, which I'm sure you can clearly see in the next picture. What? /you can't tell. Well, all mermaids get married with veils (hence the tutu on her head), wear sea shells (hence the pj dress all wrapped up) and have a tail (hence the snow white dress around her hips)

For family home evening on the 13th, we made, decorated heart cookies to friends in our ward. I couldn't taste test them (because they have milk products in them) so the girls did for me. Noelle, pink face and cute as ever, looked at me and said "yumm... ooo la la".

Speaking of food... the girls feel the need to have me photograph them holding food... so here is a sneak peak of my life (jealous, aren't you)

If you are thinking Oliver misses out in the fun, you are wrong.

Melanie is funny and talks about Oliver and food a lot. "Mom, here is a cookie I made for you. It has fake milk in it for Oliver". "Mother, we got fake milk at the store for you to eat so you can make special milk for Oliver".

Yesterday, Noelle found this dress (handed down) ans=d was so excited. She called it her "pinkalicious" dress. This morning she put it on and, upon coming out of her room, she informed me she was ready for church! Then she checked herself out by way of the piano.

Finally... I have to laugh at this next photo. Apparently this is what happens to the barbies when they misbehave

Butterflies At Grandma's House

This morning, we were making balloon decorations for a good friend's birthday (to decorate her door), when it dawned on me... YESTERDAY was my MOTHER IN LAW'S birthday. I can't believe I forgot! Seriously! Bad Camille. So, the kids and I decided to repent by decorating Grandma's door too. Grandma has a beautiful garden in the front of her house, so we thought birthday butterflies were the way to go. The girls painted the butterflies.

And then they helped decorate.

I think it turned out very lovely. Hopefully Grandma will think that too. Happy be-lated birthday Grandma! We love you!

Oliver's Blessing

Yesterday we blessed Oliver at church. I'm so grateful to be married to someone that honors his priesthood and can perform such a beautiful act. He was joined with his dad, brothers, brother in laws, my dad, grandfather, and a few uncles. It was also the testimony meeting, and I was blessed to hear the testimony of Grandma Great and also a few of my nephews and nieces.Here are a few pictures of the family after the blessing.

Above is a picture of all the Smithson cousins. If you look closely, you may spot Brandon. :)

Above is a picture of my lovely cousin, Liz, and her beautiful family. I was so happy they joined us.

This picture is of my Grandma and Grandpa George, and my dad (along with me and Oliver, of course). After church, we invited everyone over for lunch. We made soups (I made 3 different soups, and my wonderful sister in law made a 4th). And the rest of the Smithson's brought rolls and every kind of finger desserts you can possibly think of. It was amazing. (And, unfortunately, I was unable to try any of the desserts because they all had dairy. It was really hard... but I suppose this no-dairy thing is a blessing in disguise because my waist line won't hate me today from over sampling yesterday).

Oliver, Thank you for joining our little family. We all love you so much.

Glendale Chocolate Affaire

This past weekend was the Glendale Chocolate Affaire. It is always a fun, yummy time. We went on Friday as a surprise to the girls.

I was particularly excited about the "Science of Chocolate" booth. I had a little bigger, granter thoughts of what it was going to be. Don't get me wrong, it was a neat booth, but I seriously thought it would be more than what it was.

The experiment was to demonstrate that chocolate dissolves gum. You can try this at home. Put a piece of gum in your mouth and chew it until it is nice and smooth. Then pop a piece of chocolate in your mouth and chew them together. You will notice that the gum will either disappear or become extremely small. I don't recommend mixing spearmint gum with chocolate though... just saying.

They have several chocolate vendors, tours of the chocolate factory, book signing (local romance novelist... which one of my favorite authors was there, but I didn't get to have her sign a book for me... and no, it's not a romance author. I suppose she was there because she writes foodie mystery books about a woman that owns a bakery that makes only cupcakes. See the connection... chocolate... cupcakes. Anyhow, I don't have to explain myself to you. ha ha!) I did meet a really social author that was really trying to sale me her book. She gave both of my girls one of her cards with chocolate attached. I had to quickly remove the card from the candy and keep the cards, because they had some very intimate pictures on them. hmm... But, the lady was nice.

It was a fun, yummy time. Glendale has this festival every year, so I recommend looking out for it next year.

Bicycle

Yesterday was SO beautiful (yet again) that I decided to take the kids for a walk. I asked Melanie if she wanted to go on a walk, and she said no. (She was content playing in the back yard). I begged her... "please can we go for a walk". She says "I want to ride the the carriage" (referring to the bike trailer). That's when I told her my plan was for her to ride her bike! I have never seen her move so fast as she got the right shoes on and got her bike already. I think I won!

This was her first bike ride in the front. (We have cement slabs in the back that she rides on). She was really nervous. We went really really slow... but she did really good.

We stopped and had snacks at the half way point. She made it around the block. She did need a little help and will need to practice pedalling faster to get up those hills. I'm so proud of my growing girl!