The last photo is Tayah being mesmerized by the mirrors in our room. So cute!
Friday, April 18, 2008
Snowbird Fun
Monday right after work, we headed up to my parents' time share condo in Snowbird to spend the night. We had been there before and it was as fun and beautiful as ever. We enjoyed staying with my stepmother and taking in the scenery. Kadence even had a dip with Mommy in the hot tub. Here are some photos of our time there. It was a quick trip, but we enjoyed it. Thanks Donna!
The last photo is Tayah being mesmerized by the mirrors in our room. So cute!
The last photo is Tayah being mesmerized by the mirrors in our room. So cute!
Saturday, April 12, 2008
The Important Things in Life
Most of you know that I have a morning routine (scriptures, literature, Japanese study) that gets the day started off on the right foot. In fact, I can be a little OCD about it (in a good way!). Yesterday, little Kadence woke up screaming at 4:45 PM, we think due to a nightmare. The only thing that would console her was holding her. While the routine is great, that was certainly the most important thing I could be doing...holding my daughter. Or as Kadence says, "I want to snuggle my Daddy." Puts everything in perspective, doesn't it?
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Fans and Fun
Tayah has taken a fancy to fans. Anytime she gets fussy for a diaper change, Kadence is kind enough to turn the fan on and make the sign for it with her. Pretty cute stuff!
Kadence's catch phrase this week is "how fun!"
We spent a fun Monday night at Springville Museum taking in a night of Japanese music and origami. One of our goals is to look for different things to do this year as a family. We've already got some things up our sleeve for the summer months. As Kadence would say, "how fun!"
Kadence's catch phrase this week is "how fun!"
We spent a fun Monday night at Springville Museum taking in a night of Japanese music and origami. One of our goals is to look for different things to do this year as a family. We've already got some things up our sleeve for the summer months. As Kadence would say, "how fun!"
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
March Nuts and Bolts
Our entry in the Smith Family Nuts and Bolts newsletter for March:
“March comes in like a lion and out like a lamb.”
We’ve all heard this adage, one that applies to March weather. The past month applied fittingly to the Smith Family too! Our eventful March begun with the inevitable ward split that occurred on Fast Sunday. It was definitely time as our ward swelled to 710 people (more than double from the 330 we started with). Some took it hard, but most were excited for the change. We kept most of Devon Glen (our neighborhood), Green Acres (our mobile home park), and the block north of it. We’re now sitting at 470 members, still a large congregation. It’s exciting knowing that we’ll now have more time to bring people back to Church. Picking up the pieces after the split has kept us hopping as we’ve since reorganized the Relief Society, High Priests, Elders Quorum (we lost both quorum presidents), Young Men, Ward Mission, and Activities Committee. Matt Kieffer, the 2nd Counselor in the bishopric was also released and Kevin Wilkins is now serving with us. Things have died down considerably, but I think we were busier than when the ward was created from scratch!
Tayah is now a sitter and we couldn’t be happier. She now will sit and play for longer periods of time. She has been attending the same baby sign language class Kadence did and now can do five or so signs (including Daddy…how fun!). She has followed her sister’s example by waking up early, usually around 6:30. She still sleeps 12 hours and takes two good naps so we can’t complain too much. She likes to pull herself up to a standing positions and has her fair share of bumps and bruises. Tayah is such a good, sweet baby and brings us so much joy. Kadence has her moments where she enjoys “disciplining” her sister (“No, no Tayah!”), but they already have quite the special bond with each other.
Kadence has grown right into a two-year old. In fact, she’s a pro! Of course, she’s so fun and sweet most of the time, but has developed the occasional attitude. It’s so fun to watch her grow daily. She loves reading and can spend long periods of time immersed in books. Kadence will often walk around the house singing non-stop. She particularly loves Primary songs. She and Tayah were both under the weather this month, but before that, she managed to have several play days with neighborhood friends. Kadence doesn’t talk a whole lot in Nursery, but enjoys her teachers and the time there. She says funny things each day, things we’ve endearingly dubbed Kadenceisms on our blog. Kadence and I also had our first Daddy/daughter date to the Springville Museum of Art.
Elizabeth turned 29 this month and we’re ever so grateful for all she does. We had a fun day with gifts, lunch at Tucano’s and a quiet night at home. We had a family party on Easter Sunday for her. She was in charge of arranging the rides and tickets our Young Women had for the General YW meeting. She worked a lot in our yard as we had a large amount of compost delivered to our house. I’d often wheelbarrow it out and she’d make it look pretty. We also planted some trees and are excited to get a lot of this work done in the cool Spring (sometimes cold) weather. She also had the second half of her exhilaratingc root canal. She does so much for our little family!
I had an eventful month at work as we finally moved into our new LDS Philanthropies building located at 1450 N. University Avenue. It is a beautiful building and is a world of improvement over our previous locale. It has been a fairly smooth transition and we’re still getting settled. We have had an enormously successful year, already raising nearly as much money now as we did in 2007. We hope it continues! We enjoyed having all 70 employees to our house for a fun to-do (two nights). We also went around and visited with most BYU’s deans, distributing Annual Fund money to them. We also held our annual student giving campaign on campus. I conducted sacrament meetings in March.
Other events: Achievement Days Recognition Night, Cougar Club with Dad, my mother had eye surgery, a temple trip, a fabulous Easter with new Easter dresses and Easter egg hunts (ward and family), a party with my high school friends here, a mission preparation fireside (with a former mission president in our ward), St. Patrick’s Day, visits with the Stake Presidency, Hansens’ reception, a ward canned food drive, and some new additions to our DVD collection(Enchanted and 101 Dalmations).
Come to think if it, March actually came in and went out like a lion…what a wonderful month!
“March comes in like a lion and out like a lamb.”
We’ve all heard this adage, one that applies to March weather. The past month applied fittingly to the Smith Family too! Our eventful March begun with the inevitable ward split that occurred on Fast Sunday. It was definitely time as our ward swelled to 710 people (more than double from the 330 we started with). Some took it hard, but most were excited for the change. We kept most of Devon Glen (our neighborhood), Green Acres (our mobile home park), and the block north of it. We’re now sitting at 470 members, still a large congregation. It’s exciting knowing that we’ll now have more time to bring people back to Church. Picking up the pieces after the split has kept us hopping as we’ve since reorganized the Relief Society, High Priests, Elders Quorum (we lost both quorum presidents), Young Men, Ward Mission, and Activities Committee. Matt Kieffer, the 2nd Counselor in the bishopric was also released and Kevin Wilkins is now serving with us. Things have died down considerably, but I think we were busier than when the ward was created from scratch!
Tayah is now a sitter and we couldn’t be happier. She now will sit and play for longer periods of time. She has been attending the same baby sign language class Kadence did and now can do five or so signs (including Daddy…how fun!). She has followed her sister’s example by waking up early, usually around 6:30. She still sleeps 12 hours and takes two good naps so we can’t complain too much. She likes to pull herself up to a standing positions and has her fair share of bumps and bruises. Tayah is such a good, sweet baby and brings us so much joy. Kadence has her moments where she enjoys “disciplining” her sister (“No, no Tayah!”), but they already have quite the special bond with each other.
Kadence has grown right into a two-year old. In fact, she’s a pro! Of course, she’s so fun and sweet most of the time, but has developed the occasional attitude. It’s so fun to watch her grow daily. She loves reading and can spend long periods of time immersed in books. Kadence will often walk around the house singing non-stop. She particularly loves Primary songs. She and Tayah were both under the weather this month, but before that, she managed to have several play days with neighborhood friends. Kadence doesn’t talk a whole lot in Nursery, but enjoys her teachers and the time there. She says funny things each day, things we’ve endearingly dubbed Kadenceisms on our blog. Kadence and I also had our first Daddy/daughter date to the Springville Museum of Art.
Elizabeth turned 29 this month and we’re ever so grateful for all she does. We had a fun day with gifts, lunch at Tucano’s and a quiet night at home. We had a family party on Easter Sunday for her. She was in charge of arranging the rides and tickets our Young Women had for the General YW meeting. She worked a lot in our yard as we had a large amount of compost delivered to our house. I’d often wheelbarrow it out and she’d make it look pretty. We also planted some trees and are excited to get a lot of this work done in the cool Spring (sometimes cold) weather. She also had the second half of her exhilaratingc root canal. She does so much for our little family!
I had an eventful month at work as we finally moved into our new LDS Philanthropies building located at 1450 N. University Avenue. It is a beautiful building and is a world of improvement over our previous locale. It has been a fairly smooth transition and we’re still getting settled. We have had an enormously successful year, already raising nearly as much money now as we did in 2007. We hope it continues! We enjoyed having all 70 employees to our house for a fun to-do (two nights). We also went around and visited with most BYU’s deans, distributing Annual Fund money to them. We also held our annual student giving campaign on campus. I conducted sacrament meetings in March.
Other events: Achievement Days Recognition Night, Cougar Club with Dad, my mother had eye surgery, a temple trip, a fabulous Easter with new Easter dresses and Easter egg hunts (ward and family), a party with my high school friends here, a mission preparation fireside (with a former mission president in our ward), St. Patrick’s Day, visits with the Stake Presidency, Hansens’ reception, a ward canned food drive, and some new additions to our DVD collection(Enchanted and 101 Dalmations).
Come to think if it, March actually came in and went out like a lion…what a wonderful month!
Sunday, April 6, 2008
Kadenceisms and Tayahisms (04.06)
Kadence says such cute things every single day...so much so that I could easily fill every post with Kadenceisms. Here are a few from this weekend:
-"Thank you!" (she says this when she picks up something she knows she shouldn't and then hands it to us, like she's doing you a huge favor :))
-"Shoot...I need to take a nap!"
-"I like a star shining brightly..."
-"For beauty of earth...brother, sister, parent, child"
-"You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. You make me happy, sky gray. You never know dear, I love you. Please take my sunshine away!" (so funny!)
Tayah now signs Daddy! I remember the first time Kadence did this during sacrament meeting. She looked up at the stand and made the sign. Yesterday, I scooped Tayah up after her nap and as we were going down the stairs, she looked up and put her hand on her forehead, signing Daddy. These types of things melt a daddy's heart!
By the way, isn't General Conference fantastic? I truly feel President Uchtdorf's talk during Priesthood was one of the best I've ever heard. Looking forward to today!
-"Thank you!" (she says this when she picks up something she knows she shouldn't and then hands it to us, like she's doing you a huge favor :))
-"Shoot...I need to take a nap!"
-"I like a star shining brightly..."
-"For beauty of earth...brother, sister, parent, child"
-"You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. You make me happy, sky gray. You never know dear, I love you. Please take my sunshine away!" (so funny!)
Tayah now signs Daddy! I remember the first time Kadence did this during sacrament meeting. She looked up at the stand and made the sign. Yesterday, I scooped Tayah up after her nap and as we were going down the stairs, she looked up and put her hand on her forehead, signing Daddy. These types of things melt a daddy's heart!
By the way, isn't General Conference fantastic? I truly feel President Uchtdorf's talk during Priesthood was one of the best I've ever heard. Looking forward to today!
Friday, April 4, 2008
Weekly Highlights
Since we've not updated much this week, here are some highlights from each day:
-Sunday: wonderful sacrament meeting with inspiring talks about service. The bishopric shared the 5th Sunday lesson, covering talks from the recent Worldwide Leadership Training meeting about families. I was able to cover President Monson's talk entitled "A Sanctuary from the World." It was a wonderful topic to study.
-Monday: Family Home Evening about the First Presidency. According to Kadence, they are "President Monnnsennn, President Iiiiring and President Dorf!"
-Tuesday: Elizabeth attended a wonderful Enrichment night where the sisters shared their talents. I had our end of the semester banquet with my staff. Seeing as it was April 1st, I thought it prim and proper to pull a little prank. Jeff, the Annual Giving director, told my students that I accepted a position elsewhere within LDSP. The looks and dead silence were priceless. Sorry guys!
-Wednesday: Tayah signed Daddy! She has also done ball and more. She's in a baby sign language play-group (the same one Kadence went to 1 1/2 yrs ago) at the Wilkins'. So fun for her to communicate beyond the typical scream or cry!
-Thursday: Kadence is in love with "Princess Gell," or for the rest of us, Princess Giselle from Enchanted. I think we found a winner!
-Friday: Tayah got up at 6:25 this morning. When I went in there, she was standing up, grinning from ear to ear. Time goes by too quickly!
We're looking forward to today. We've got the day off and we're making the most of it. Tayah has her nine-month appointment and the girls are going to have Grandpa/Grandma time while we go to the temple to do sealings as a bishopric. Great times!
-Sunday: wonderful sacrament meeting with inspiring talks about service. The bishopric shared the 5th Sunday lesson, covering talks from the recent Worldwide Leadership Training meeting about families. I was able to cover President Monson's talk entitled "A Sanctuary from the World." It was a wonderful topic to study.
-Monday: Family Home Evening about the First Presidency. According to Kadence, they are "President Monnnsennn, President Iiiiring and President Dorf!"
-Tuesday: Elizabeth attended a wonderful Enrichment night where the sisters shared their talents. I had our end of the semester banquet with my staff. Seeing as it was April 1st, I thought it prim and proper to pull a little prank. Jeff, the Annual Giving director, told my students that I accepted a position elsewhere within LDSP. The looks and dead silence were priceless. Sorry guys!
-Wednesday: Tayah signed Daddy! She has also done ball and more. She's in a baby sign language play-group (the same one Kadence went to 1 1/2 yrs ago) at the Wilkins'. So fun for her to communicate beyond the typical scream or cry!
-Thursday: Kadence is in love with "Princess Gell," or for the rest of us, Princess Giselle from Enchanted. I think we found a winner!
-Friday: Tayah got up at 6:25 this morning. When I went in there, she was standing up, grinning from ear to ear. Time goes by too quickly!
We're looking forward to today. We've got the day off and we're making the most of it. Tayah has her nine-month appointment and the girls are going to have Grandpa/Grandma time while we go to the temple to do sealings as a bishopric. Great times!
Thursday, April 3, 2008
"I Like Daddy-Daughter Date Daddy!"
Kadence and I went our first Daddy/Daughter date on Saturday. Now that she's two years old, I hope to make it a monthly occasion for the two of us. We made a trip to the Springville Art Museum and had a grand time together. It was so cute for her to yell out (not in her "quiet voice"), "Daddy...a dog!" "Look Daddy... a choo-choo train!" She was fascinated by the art, especially by the mechanical fountain in the main area (those who've been there know what I am talking about). There was even a new exhibit starting that day, so we took advantage of the cupcakes they were offering. Afterward, I asked if she wanted ice cream from Burger King or McDonald's. Her reply: "McDonald's Daddy. Old McDonald had an ice cream!" What a precious time together. It was especially fun as several times, out of the blue, she squeezed my hand and said "I like Daddy-daughter date Daddy!" I was meant to have little girls!
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