Do you think the property manager will approve if I put this in my yard?

I couldn't resist...Happy Fall!

This made me laugh...I don't really know why, but it did

Whats in a name?
1.YOUR ROCK STAR NAME (first pet, current car): skittles pilot
2. YOUR GANGSTA STAR NAME (favorite ice cream flavor, favorite type of shoe):
mint sandal
3. YOUR NATIVE AMERICAN NAME (favorite color, favorite animal): teal elephant
4. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME (middle name, city where you were born): Anne Orem
5. YOUR STAR WARS NAME (first three letters of your last name, first two letters of your first name): smi ra
6. SUPERHERO NAME (2nd favorite color, favorite drink): purple water
7. NASCAR NAME (the names of your grandfathers): bill james
8. TV WEATHER ANCHOR NAME (your 5th grade teacher's last name, a major city that starts with the same letter): Fredricks Fremont
9. SPY NAME (your favorite season/holiday, favorite flower): Summer Lily
10. CARTOON NAME (favorite fruit, article of clothing you are wearing right now): blueberry sweatpants
11. HIPPIE NAME (what you ate for breakfast, your favorite tree): Smoothie Maple

copy and paste it. Everyone needs a laugh once an a while.

Learning to SHARE...

The picture says it all.

Chop Stix Baby

I've been a little obsessed with my new rice cooker...How I ever made rice without it?...I don't know. Anyway... We had a teriyaki meal the other night and Bridger wasn't satisfied eating with his hands. He tried to figure the chop sticks out, but I quickly realized the potential Poke-an-eye-out threat that they posed and reverted back to the eating with hands method.

...and they call the thing a Rodeo

Last weekend we went to the St. George Rodeo with our Friends the Haynes.

since we missed the Lehi round-up Rodeo this summer(A Smith family Tradition) we knew the year just wouldn't be complete without our fill of wranglers, bad hair dye jobs, belt buckles, and rhinestones. I actually get totally into it...I think that I was supposed to have been born a cowgirl!

YEEE HAA!

The Haynes
Olivia and Macey

Just what I need to read...EVERY day

"Author Anna Quindlen reminds us not to rush past the fleeting moments. She said: “The biggest mistake I made [as a parent] is the one that most of us make. . . . I did not live in the moment enough. This is particularly clear now that the moment is gone, captured only in photographs. There is one picture of [my three children] sitting in the grass on a quilt in the shadow of the swing set on a summer day, ages six, four, and one. And I wish I could remember what we ate, and what we talked about, and how they sounded, and how they looked when they slept that night. I wish I had not been in such a hurry to get on to the next thing: dinner, bath, book, bed. I wish I had treasured the doing a little more and the getting it done a little less”(Loud and Clear [2004], 10–11).

Last night Chad and I took B to the track at the local High school. We laughed at him as he started in a squatting position and then raised up to a stand, over and over. It's not yet a walk, he hasn't even attempted to take a step alone. He's just standing, and we think it's awesome!

Nothing special to anyone but us, but to us those moments were priceless.

I need to take time to enjoy every stage. To stop rushing to the future.

Why Do I Run?

The other day I was out running and a little girl yelled out to me from the safety of her doorstep..."Hey Lady, Your running in circles!"
How am I supposed to take that? Why did it discourage me? Well, I guess technically she's right. Most of the time I do run in a big circle. The streets in our neighborhood all form a kind of circle that I will run around over and over. But usually if your just running in circles your getting no where right? So I've been thinking a lot about it...Why do I run?
These definitely aren't the reasons why...

• I Don't LOVE to run. Some people get all euphoric and "in the zone" while they are running...rarely happens for me
• I'm slow
• I Hate the sound of my feet slapping on the pavement.
  

Maybe this is why I run...

• Sometimes it's the only 30 minutes I spend outside my house. When I go with friends, Sometimes it's the only 30 minutes of socializing I get in...Who doesn't need that?
• I LOVE a good sweat!
• When I know I'm going running that evening, I have no problem indulging in a nice mid-day bowl of ice cream with chocolate syrup!



• When I run, I'm a better Wife and Mom. I'm more patient and I have more energy.
  

So After weighing my options, I decided that I Like running. Still not a LOVE thing for me, But the benefits outweigh the bad stuff. So if all my neighbors think I'm literally and figuratively "Running in Circles"?...You can meet at my house at 9pm most nights and try it for yourself!