Rebecca (18 months) continues to be the happiest little girl around. She runs, talks, climbs onto everything (bunk beds included), loves her baby dolls and stuffed puppies. She likes to color and write and thankfully most of her drawings end up on paper. She’s learning Spanish along with her siblings. She knows body parts and some animals, and her 1st Spanish word was “papa” which is what we call Grandpa Jenson. She is absolutely adored by her siblings and loves to follow them around doing what they do. Thankfully she likes to be outside (when it’s warm) and enjoys going to all her sibling activities. She is the most advanced with teeth for this age and has a mouth full with 4 more coming it.
Ammon (5) started kindergarten his fall and loves it. He’s learning to read and draws pictures and writes notes all the time. He played T-ball in the summer and soccer this fall. His favorite Spanish words are hamburgesa y papas fritas. He went to sibling camp (a special camp just for kids who have/had a sibling with cancer) for the 1st time this summer. When we picked him up he wasn‘t sure if he’d go back again this year-it was tough being away from mom & dad for a whole week, but I have a feeling he’ll want to go again. This past summer he learned to swim underwater and asks to go swimming every chance he can.
Corrine (7 and 10/12ths) is in the 2nd grade and loves everything about school. She is our budding artist and draws pictures for us all the time. Last spring Corrine flew off a swing in our backyard and broke her right arm. She healed incredibly fast and only had a splint or cast on for 3 weeks! She played soccer this fall and was the only girl on the team. She was in Girl Scouts and sold so many cookies she got a special party! She loves horses and was so excited that her troop went horseback riding this fall. She went to her 3rd year of sibling camp, where she also got to go horseback riding. She is such an awesome little mommy to Rebecca and is a great helper in the kitchen. In February she’ll turn 8 and be baptized!
Simeon (9) is in the 4th grade and doing very well in school. His favorite subjects are math, social studies and recess! He’s involved in K-kids, science club, Spanish club and will be joining choir again. He lives, breathes, and talks non-stop about sports! He played baseball and soccer this year, and played enough backyard football/baseball/ basketball you name it games to count for multiple seasons! He also learned to swim underwater this year. He earned his Wolf and Bear (both early-so he also has arrow points for both). He’s been done with chemo for 1 year and is doing awesome! He has grown so much in the past year. In January he will start playing on a baseball team for the high school. It’s alot of practices and games-and he’s so excited for this opportunity.
Kari has been busy keeping up with all the activities going on with our family. She’s in the Young Women’s presidency at church, Corrine’s Girl Scout leader, and volunteers regularly in Ammon’s kindergarten class and with his Spanish class. After 2 years of being the President for our local MOMS club group, she’s now enjoying just being part of the group. She got a nice camera in the spring and has been having so much fun taking LOTS of pictures with it. She’s been on a quest to be more organized and thankfully has a husband who knows how to build storage shelves, hang hooks evenly and put up a giant whiteboard!
Johann became the Young Men’s president at church this spring. (Yes having both of us in youth positions does pose some scheduling issues-but we always seem to make it work. Thanks in part to Johann’s mom always being willing to help with babysitting!) After 10 years of coaching a Babe Ruth (teenage) baseball team, he changed gears and helped coach Simeon’s baseball team this year. That was a lot of fun to see father and son out on the field together!
This summer we went on an almost 3 week vacation to visit Kari’s side of the family. We explored in Utah, played in Idaho, traveled all over Yellowstone and visited Mount Rushmore. Our faithful van worked hard and put on over 4,000 miles on our trip, and we only needed to make one unexpected stop for new brakes. We had such a great time playing with cousins, seeing grand & great grandparents, chasing chickens, climbing the Y, counting buffalo, earning 4 Junior Ranger badges and 1 Young scientist badge, counting the 1,000’s upon 1,000’s of motorcycles in South Dakota and coming home to look through over 2,000 pictures!!
We hope this letter finds you enjoying the wonderful blessings in your lives. We are thankful for each of you and the blessing you are in our family lives. We look forward to 2011 and all the blessings, trials, joy, business, friends and family that will surround us!
The Smith Family
Johann, Kari, Simeon, Corrine, Ammon and Rebecca
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