sweet sixteen weekend

two fridays ago, on the fourteenth, 

this little baby girl...

and this little one year old girl...

and this little two year old girl...

and this little four year old girl...

and this little five year old girl...

turned into a big sixteen year old girl!

really?

yes really.

i know.

i can't believe it either.

but it happened.

because fridays are so crazy around this place, and no one in the family, including the birthday girl herself, would be able to attend our traditional birthday family dinner, she opted for a saturday morning french toast kind of party with everyone in attendance.

(it's not fair that she is so cute, even in the morning without getting ready.)

most of her presents started with the words "justin bieber", as in: justin bieber perfume (it actually smells surprisingly lovely), justin bieber posters - which we will post later after we've found room on her walls for them, and maybe her favorite present of the day...

 a justin bieber tshirt!

in case it's not already clear, allie is a huge j.b. fan. HUGE.
and while sixteen may not be the average age of a girl with bieber fever (more like 12), that doesn't bother her in the slightest. she's loved him from the beginning and doesn't care that it isn't a super popular way to be in high school. i love this about her, she is not a fair weather fan. everyone knows of her love for j.b., even ethan knew a card with justin bieber on it would be a hit, all without any help or prompting from me.

 (justin on the front wearing purple, his trade mark color, and allie in yellow with pink hair. 

i can translate ethan writing, it says: justin loves you allie. i love you too. ethan)

needless to say, i think this card was her second favorite present!

later on saturday her big birthday plans were to go get a pedicure with her BFF, lauren, but when we went to pick her up, there was something in the backyard that lauren was dying to show her....

SURPRISE!

lauren, with a little help from her cute parents, threw a fantastic sweet sixteen party for allie that she never saw coming! it's possible i'll go straight to hell for all the lies i had to tell her over the last few weeks and especially on saturday, but they worked because she never had a clue about any of the preparations and was genuinely surprised to see so many friends in lauren's back yard. it was awesome.

the girls ate and played games and roasted smores by the fire pit, ate cupcakes, laughed their heads off and then snuggled up in blankets to watch a movie outside in the backyard. allie was so touched, she's pretty much been smiling for the the last two weeks over it.


it was a great thing for her to feel so loved and so special on her big day! 


my thoughts on having a sixteen year daughter are complicated. i admire her strength and her love of others and her strong testimony of our Savior's love. i worry about falling short on being the mother she needs - its often hard to balance when to push and when to step back and let her figure it out. some times i feel like i can't keep up with the hormones and drama of being sixteen! but more often than that i feel so proud of all the good things that she's choosing for herself and excited for her future that looks so bright. 


love. this. girl.

happy happy birthday allie !

 sixteen is going to rock.

(p.s. allie, i did this whole post in purple in honor of your beloved j.b.)

birthday love

here's my first part of a september re-cap...

september is a big deal around here because rich and i both celebrate our birthdays within a couple of days of each other. first rich, then me. but i'm the photographer so we usually only have photos of him. :)

we always have a date somewhere in the middle of our special days to celebrate, and i love sharing that with him. this year, the date was just us, which it usually isn't, and while it's always fun to have a group date, it was lovely hanging out just the two of us. 

somehow, we always end up going to the restaurant that i want to go to. i always try to persuade rich to choose his favorite place, but he's too much of a gentleman. we ate at happy sumo, because somehow my birthday always makes me crave sushi. (i crave it all the other days of the year too, but whatever.) 

the thing i took away from birthdays this year is just how much LOVE we have in our lives. everyone was so thoughtful and went the extra mile to make us both feel special and loved. and it worked! there was something kind of big going on every day for a full week - a birthday WEEK. it was a big deal. and a lot of fun. and humbling because i really just feel so blessed.
we have the best friends and family.

have i written out the thank you notes? 

no i have not. i need to get on that. 

tomorrow.

right after i post the second series of september happenings.

seventeen years

the first week of the school year always brings one very important event,

taylor-bing's birthday!

this year is extra special since he is also celebrating his last year of high school.

we celebrated with taco salad and lemon cupcakes, his requests.
i found these super cute candles that i thought were so great.

that is, until we lighted them and they were pretty much melted before taylor could make a wish!

so funny!

i had a ton of fun shopping for t this year because there wasn't a main gift that he wanted and so i was able to accumulate a few smaller things which were totally taylor. i love giving gifts that fit the receiver perfectly.

the biggest hit was a spock bauble-head. its sort of an inside joke about the SBO's theme for the high school his year, "live long and conquer" (instead of spock's traditional phrase "live long and prosper"). his reaction was perfection.

but he also loved the captain america shirt we purchased sneakily during our trip to orlando. it was especially sweet because he went crazy over it in orlando when he saw it, but didn't have enough of his own money to purchase it. :) i love surprises.

and a giant orange watch

(seriously, you could deflect bullets "wonder woman style" with this thing)

and my favorite thing that he actually asked for, a good old fashioned pair of ray-bans.

taylor has excellent taste. later on, i taught him how to "pop" his polo collar so he looked like a true 80's boy, but i missed a photo of it, bummer. i must have been too busy laughing.

so...SEVENTEEN is a big deal.

at least HIS seventeenth year will be.
a lot is going to happen before he turns eighteen next year - including graduating from high school and starting college. it's also going to be a year of a lot of learning and growth with all of his student government responsibilities. two days after his birthday, he was introduced and sworn in as an officer at the back to school assembly.

it was such a proud mom moment for me to see his name come up on the screen and see his little video clip and then later, standing on stage with the other officers getting sworn in. i'll admit to being a tiny bit misty-eyed, i'm such a softy. he was proud too, i could tell. and he should be. he's such a good kid. i mean, man.

on sunday, he received his patriarchal blessing, it was a very spiritual experience, one i am sure he'll never forget. no surprise to me, heavenly father has a lot in store for this sweet boy. it made me remember that a loooong time ago, my own patriarchal blessing promised me a righteous posterity that would bring great joy to my life. check.

(with brother ostler the stake patriarch)

love you t-bill.

you are awesome-spice.

live long and conquer man.

i already know you will.

tall enough to be a man

i have a big christmas catch-up post coming soon.

but before that, there are more important things to blog (and brag) about...

like wishing a happy 14th birthday to this handsome boy,

i mean, man, i mean, young man.

i get a little weepy when i think too much about what a big year this has been for spencer.

he was always a good kid, but this year, i can tell that he knows it.

spencer has the best attitude and most positive disposition.

WHAT? yes, that's right i said, positive and spencer all the same sentence.

no more being the eyore of our family, like i said, i can tell that he feels better.

a lot of times in the last few months, i have found him in the kitchen, doing the dishes without being asked.

just because they needed to be done.  

and even though i would love him if he didn't do the dishes, this is just an example of the kind of kid he is.

yes i'm bragging, i just think he's great.

this year, he scored more then 12 lacrosse goals, i lost count.

earned lots of merit badges at scout camp

auditioned for and made it into the jr. high musical (coming this spring)

helped ethan with countless hours of whatever wii game he was trying to master.

pulled thousands of weeds and moved at least that many boxes

wrestled for the first time with the jr high team

(and only threw up once during their hard-core conditioning)

helped taylor hang our christmas lights

ran track for the first time and rocked the hurtles

starting shaving good grief!

grew at LEAST six inches and two shoe sizes to pass allie and catch up with taylor

with a lot of hard work, he's earned all As and Bs so far this year

plus lots of things i'm forgetting

man i love this guy!

tonight we'll be celebrating with a spaghetti dinner, strawberry cupcakes and a late lacrosse game with his indoor league team. and maybe later saving the world from the evil covenant.

in other words, his version of a pretty much perfect night.

happy happy birthday spencer

i love you

just a little guy, kind of

i'm having a hard time believing it myself.
but it's true!

my little ethan man, e-dog, big E, tail ender, caboose, BABY

is FIVE years old today.

and i know this, because he's been counting down the days.

in a high pitched squealy voice that becomes less audible with each number closer to one.

hillarious.

the day started (for him) with a funny phone call from the neighbors seconds after he woke up.

he chose mc-a-dee's for lunch (mcdonalds)

enjoyed tons of well wishing phone calls throughout the day

and FINALLY opened presents after dinner.

the theme was toy story, of course.

and we moved into the big leagues with a new bike.

the neighbor boy will be happy that ethan can now stop stealing his.

while i am thankful every day for the joy that this little boy has brought into our home, i'm also a little heart-sick over losing the four year old version of him. there's just something so great about FOUR. i know there will be lots to look forward to with five, but it feels a little like it's officially big boy stuff from now on, he can definitely no longer be considered just a little guy.

sigh.

it's a good thing, i have photos to remind me of how squishy he once was...

but i guess he is still pretty squishy.

and silly

and sweet.

ok, five is good too.

please pass the catch-up

it's late sunday evening, and i'm reveling in some quiet computer time - finally.
there have been about ten too many end-of-term projects going on at my house lately with three teenagers and their demanding school schedules. luckily, the end of term is coming soon. listen closely, and you may hear a collective deep breath on thursday when the school bell rings. we are all looking forward to a three day weekend.

i should be taking advantage of my turn on the computer, and the quiet house by taking care of some things on my "get it done" list. things like editing these loooong over due photos of my beautiful new niece.

or editing photos of this darling family whom i love.

or working on updated photos for grandma's apple tree.

but i can't.

because, my blog is nagging at me.

i have this dilemma .
i haven't been a consistent blogger since spring break, maybe even before that?
i don't want to try and catch up, because, that's a little too overwhelming, but i feel like for documenting purposes, i need to at least summarize what we've been up to in the last few months. so here goes.
starting with a summer recap.

i had mixed emotions all summer long.
i didn't want to spend the whole summer unpacking boxes and miss the time with my kids. especially because taylor will probably be working full time next summer saving money for school, because he will be a senior next year. what? that's a post for another day.
back to summer.

we spent a lot of time trying to cool off because the heat was such a bear!
sometimes cooling off involved the back yard hose,

or a local water park with friends or cousins, or friends that feel like cousins.

 or, eating as much frozen yogurt as humanely possible

 but some days the heat was so bad, all little ethan could handle was laying on the tramp with a squirt bottle to cool off.

 i learned how to tend roses this summer thanks to patsy, and allie enjoyed photographing them regularly!

of course we loved going to see toy story three!

and especially loved getting a copy of rich's game to play and play all summer long.

allie and taylor spent a week re-roofing, painting and cleaning up in a low-income area of salt lake with our church's youth group. i don't know why i don't have a photo of taylor, he looked just like a chimney sweep in mary poppins most days since he was tarring the roofs. a ton of hard and hot work, but they loved it!

i learned how to work the grill this summer thanks to my dad, and so we hosted several bbq get togethers which was so much fun! i love the easiness of bbq, everybody brings something, there's not a ton of preparation involved, eating outside, chating, our new little kids picnic table, love everything about it.

oh, and i got to hold and kiss the newest smith in the family, sweet little emmie cakes.
ethan is in love with her too. who isn't man? she's such a princess. and she smells so good.

and i guess these photos remind me that i also wore super bright red hair for a little bit of the summer.

 thanks to grandpa's nice ebay hook up - we also lagooned for a day with cousins.
this included, the green dragon which ethan LOVED (cole not so much), bumper cars, some more serious roller coaster riding by the older kids, me and grandpa, funnel cakes (of course), going up in the giant farris  wheel with grandpa, and allie winning at bingo at the ebay party!

 and we stayed until closing which meant that everyone slept like rocks that night.

 we celebrated our country's birthday, as well as our state's.

 and all the smith birthdays in august with the happiest little cupcakes we've ever made!

of course, we did a million things that we didn't take photos of - like unpacking boxes

furniture shopping 

trying to decorate the walls

lots and lots and lots of weed pulling - yuck

driving lessons

movie marathons
halo nights with friends and dad
girls' nights out
eclipse
reading and reading and reading
ethan finally got a hampster!!
and more...
i was sad for it to end.
especially since today, it was so cold, there was SNOW on the mountains. sheesh.