I LOVE my sister

Rebecca is so cute and cuddly. She likes to cuddle with me. She always wants to play with me. And that's all!




Ammon has had such a special relationship with Rebecca since before she was born. She loves to play with him and smile at him, and he loves to take care of her and show her new things.
Today at the park the love they have for eachother shined so brightly.

Little me in Iowa

Guess what everyone-I have my 1st tooth!! My mom saw it tonight at Simeon's baseball game. (They lost-but Simeon had 2 great hits!!) It's my left canine, but my family lovingly calls it my "fang". (I guess that's what I get for having a mom who read all those vampire books while she was pregnant with me!)

And another thing my mom is so super excited about-I have a curl on the back of my head. I don't understand what the big deal about 1 single little curl is? She said something about wanting to have at least one curly haired kid-and since I'm her last she's really hoping I get some curls that stay longer then 2 years. But really I don't have alot of hair-so who knows what it will really be like.

Can you see the curl? It's there in all it's glory!

My mom is obsessed with her new camera and since I'm stuck at her side I get my picture taken ALOT. It's not too bad being in the viewfinder all the time, but when I'm done with my glamour shots I let my mom know by crawling into my her lap. She usually lets me see the pictures she's takes. It's quite the life!

Here are some from my last photo shoot. I was having fun playing with the grass-but it's also tickly so I always keep one foot up, out of the tickly grass.





And so you don't think I'm the only one getting face time, she does take pictures of my siblings and the pretty pink flowers in our backyard. I don't get to touch the flowers though because they have big black ants all over them. That's why they are in the back corner of the yard-away from the house!



Aren't they pretty-and HUGE. I could pull so many petals off-so much fun.

Peek-a-boo and baby dolls

Rebecca has discovered the joy of playing peek-a-boo and it is so incredibly fun to watch. She gets so into hiding behind what ever she has. Today it was a towel that she pulled down from the stair railing. Without any prompting she started pulling it over her head and hiding until I said "Where's Rebecca?" Then she'd pull it down with a HUGE grin on her face.



One day Rebecca is going to be a great mommy. She LOVES her dolls so much. She hugs them, kisses them and plays with them so lovingly. It's so fun to see her love babies and dolls so much. When I was a child I was the same way with my baby dolls. Corrine also possessed this trait. We have to be careful with her and real babies, since she doesn't realize that they are real and she wants to hold them and play with them like she does her dolls.




It's so fun to be able to watch Rebecca grow and discover the world around her. Since I get alot of one on one time with her I can sit back and watch her discover. It's almost as if I've seeing things for the 1st time again.

Ammon's Last Gymnastics Class

Today was the last Preschool playgroup at the Gymnest. Ammon has already asked me about doing it again this summer. He had such a great time at the class. He made some really good friends and became stronger. His teacher is Tommy's mom. Tommy and Ammon became fast friends. A few of the boys made up a game and spent their free time everyweek playing it. It involved LOTS of running around the gym and some hiding. It was so fun to watch Ammon being so carefree and enjoying himself so much.

At the end of each class they hold hands and walk in a circle singing some song. Then they sit down and do head shoulders knees and toes.


They then walk on the balance beam and sit down. They get stamps on their hands, feet, knees and once even on his stomach at the end of class.

This summer we are planning on going back to do lunch bunch.

MY NEW TOY

OK so what toy could I get that I would be so excited about-a Nikon D5000 SLR camera!!! That's what kind of toy.

I've been looking at these for years, and recently really stepped up looking so we could get one and learn how to use it before our trip this summer to Idaho for a family reunion and then Yellowstone. I was looking at the D3000, but Johann surprised me and got the D5000, which also takes HD videos-sweet!

So here are some of my 1st pictures. I've had it about 2 busy weeks and haven't had alot of time to figure it out, but I'm working on it.










Rebecca has become my subject alot of the time because she is so willing and always at my side. The day I took the pictures of Ammon & Corrine jumping off the couch, they were so excited that mom was letting them jump off the couch.

A busy weekend

We started Friday off srubbing the our bathrooms walls. Then the smell got to me so I headed outside for a break. Next thing we know we've cut 4 branches off the lower part of the tree in the front yard. It seemed like an easy thing to do at first, but then the piles of branches kept going and going. We finally got it all cleaned up, and moved back to the bathroom to finish scrubbing the walls.

This picture only shows 2 of the branches. I had already started bundling the other 2 branches.

Saturday we put our energy towards cleaning and organizing the garage. Of course when you do this you unearth treaures that have been hidden and are now fun again. The kids didn't really get into the fun of cleaning out the garage, so they didn't get a whole lot of say into what didn't get put back it!

Rebecca got her 1st ride in the wagon. At 1st she wasn't sure about it, but soon figured out how fun it was to have her siblings pulling her around.




I was having fun taking pictures and I really like the way this one turned out of Corrine, even if she's not looking up.


Ammon was so cute playing baseball and I love the way this picture turned out.

How many balls?

Today we met some friends at the Iowa Children's Museum to play. In the Notion of Motion room, the kids saw another kid line alot of balls up on the Ball Bucket ramp. They decided that if they worked together, they could get then entire ramp lined with golf balls. Simeon sat at the bottom holding the balls on while the other kids lined them up.



Corrine took a turn holding the balls on and then letting them go.

My New Backpack

Today Ammon got a new backpack. He got it from Jessica. She's coming over to do activities with him to prep him for kindergarten. It's a program through the county neighborhood centers.
The 1st day she brought Ammon this backpack with a composition notebook, crayons, pencils and the book Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible No good, very bad day. He seemed indifferent to the backpack and supplies, until she was walking out and we caught him looking through it. He hasn't put it down since. He "studies" with his notebook-bugs, animals and books. He sharpens the pencils, uses them a few times then decides to throw them away and get a new one. Simeon stopped the throwing away of pencils since he always needs erasers because his are always gone.
He's added a few things to the backpack-more books and supplies to study with. He is so excited for kindergarten, that he'll practice walking the kids to the corner in the morning with his backpack on.

Cookie Girl Corrine

Girl Scouts Cookies have been sold, delivered, eaten and all recognition items earned. This year Corrine sold more Girl Scout cookies then last year and earned every recognition item that she could including a special party. In the end she sold 525 boxes of Girl Scout cookies.
At the party they had dinner, got a trophy, certificate, their camp credit and got to vote on next years recognition items. Corrine sat at a table of girls her age. It was cute how they were so quiet, then the next thing you know they are great friends.

I LOVE to eat

Rebecca is an awesome eater!! She tries and likes almost everything we give her. Today she tried blackberries and raspberries. She was in heaven and kept eating and eating and eating until I stopped giving them to her.

She also got to try spaghetti and she got to eat it by herself. She put her plate on her head and was so cute. I got the camera, touched my head and asked her to do it again and she did. She is so fun!

It's so nice to have such a great eater.

Simeon turns 9

Today Simeon turned the ripe old age of 9. It's crazy to think that a whole year has past since he was baptized. This past year has been such an exciting one and he has grown up so much this year. Since his last birthday he finished chemo and got his port out. Because of not being on chemo he has started to grow taller and is starting to pt on some weight.
We had such a hard time trying to find even a short block of time to have any friends over to celebrate. We found time Saturday night after he got back from camping. He invited 3 friends over to play wiffle ball, eat pizza and play Wii. They all had such a great time that we extended the party by another hour so they could play longer.
I didn't get many pictures of the party since I was hiding in my room to avoid passing strep onto the boys.

For his cake this year he wanted a baseball field, and he wanted cupcakes. So we combined the 2 and made this cupcake baseball field cake.


This afternoon we celebrated Mother's Day and Simeon's birthday at Grandma and Grandpa Smiths house. We made a chocolate ice cream cake with half vanilla and half strawberry ice cream. He got lots of money this year. Some for a watch and the rest for whatever he wants. He also got a San Diego Chargers jersey-which he was so excited about.


We feel so blessed to have Simeon in our family. He is such a great helper and such a strong person. We are so proud of how he has faced his challenges head on without giving up, and with a positive attitude. We love you Simeon.