The Question

Jonny cracks me up daily but today I was reminded of something he said a while ago. He was looking at my engagement and wedding ring and asks in a completely serious tone: "If daddy gave you a ring when you got married, who did you marry before daddy to get the other ring?"

"Let Me See"

If Jonny has his way there will be no more babies in this house. I was helping out a friend of mine who was sick by watching her little boy today. He's 6 months old and completely adorable. Not to mention pretty darn good for a kid who's used to mom all day. Well we have a fine day. Rachel likes him and has fun feeding him and playing with him. Then it's time to pick up the boys. First it's Jonathan. He gets in the car and is surprised to see a baby, I tell him I'm babysitting and he seems to accept it. A few moments later I look in the rearview mirror and he's got this disgusted look on his face. He says "Why is it looking at me?" I say he must like you and we keep going. A minute later and Rachel reaches over to hold his hand and Jonathan screams "Don't touch it Rachel, you'll get baby germs". We get home and everyone else thinks Samuel is great and Jonathan just ignores him, until.... it's time to change a poopy diaper. Now he says he wants to watch!

our youngest is 4?!

Where is the time going? While Rachel still looks like a little kid to us, the years just seem to be getting faster. Despite promising her mother she would turn 3 for a second year in a row, Rachel reminded us all clearly yesterday she was four--in fact, she hopped up on our bed and showed Jeff that, in fact, her legs were longer this morning!Because she was the birthday girl, Rachel had the final say in her outfit for the day. Her special day revolved around favorite meals at favorite spots. To spare further fights over Jonathan's bicycle, Rachel received her own two wheel (really 4 wheel).
One nice thing about having the grandparents move closer, is they can drop in for birthday dinner and presents!
Well, we finally got our computer back and have 100s of pics loaded (of course, >50% are blurred with motion)... as you can see, we added some to old posts. Enjoy!

12 "events" of Christmas

Well, Christy won't stop pestering us for pictures--and, no, Christy, we still don't have pictures. Hopefully, this blog will be littered with pictures in a week or so. So, we offer this little verbal recap of our holidays. We could have probably included some other "incidents", but we're trying not to blog too much about our extended family or we may lose all of our readers. So, without further ado, we present the 12 "events" of Christmas...

12. Mom and Dad's Move - Man, what a nightmare. The day before Christmas in the rainy weather with sketchy schedules. Thank goodness there were other Smiths in town to toe the line better than our clan. Brave to do given the timing and the hordes that descended upon it's new carpet. Just thinking about it makes us shudder....

11. Follow the Leader - Stripped of their wives (but bound by children) the Smith brothers entertained a small army of kids (who if they were smart should've banded together and made a break for the nearby swimming pool or skate park) at a local playground. The youngest of the crew soon started a game of Follow the Leader that soon had other kids following suit. Pretty cute, actually.10. The Chandelier - Despite Uncle Brad denting his skull multiple times on the low light system in our office (curse the Smith tall genes!) and telling us to raise it repeatedly; it wasn't until Jeff was stumbling around one night and clipped his own scalp that it finally got raised. Kari did not appreciate her husband waking her from a dead sleep (with blood streaming down his face onto her nice floors) and asking "Does my head need a staple?"9. Uncle Chip's Nose Ring - So, Chip posts this Facebook pic of himself with a nose ring--and by nose ring we're talking like "El Toro". And he walks off the plane with this thing in his face and has everyone thinking he's gone off the deep end. He keeps the charade up for at least a day if not longer before he pulls it out and reveals it's just a fake clip.
8. Giddyup! - The kids had fun riding Mickey and Lucy -- the White's horses. Now we know what they're gonna want under the tree next year!7. Sibling Santa Swap - It was a first for the sibling Santa swap--it was pretty entertaining. Pooping penguins, liquor flasks, microwave S'more machines... things every family needs!
6. Game Night - Previously mentioned in earlier posts--board games tend to take the Holiday spirit out of our family and flush it down the proverbial toilet. We won't recreate the memory--but Jeff still believes he can get the answer just based on how the question is read and all the teasing in the world won't change his mind.5. Missing Chicken Toes - An event that was witnessed by none except a few poor backyard animals (and apparently heard by our neighbor across the street). Short story--families leave for lunch and return to find each chicken missing at least one talon. Blood everywhere but clues were scant. The kids are still tracking the culprit...4. Fireworks - Roman candles were made to be lit and pointed at your favorite loved ones--just not the ones that are big enough to require a PVC pipe to launch! Our kids learned some bad habits to ring in the New Year...
3. Rock Band - it's tough to find a video game that draws the whole family in--okay, so the grandparents weren't so crazy about it... and maybe most of the wives...
2. Sulphur Springs State HS Football Champions - again, already been commented on... pretty amazing experience in and of itself--even more so watching the community get caught up in it. They finally had the "parade" for the team tonight. The boys really enjoyed giving the players hi-5s as they walked past--especially the star quarterback. It was a town party!1. Christmas itself - I think the quote of the holiday was Jonathan's. Santa got the kids a Wii and the kids hadn't even asked for it. Jonathan said, "That was nice... Santa didn't have to do that".
Christmas was nice and we really enjoyed seeing everyone. Happy New Year!

rock band stole our christmas...

needless to say, if the video game Rock Band had existed in the early 90s, Jeff would have bypassed the hours of frustrating attempts to sync guitar riffs with CD recordings and just plugged in the XBOX. Not to mention the fact that if the real drums are half as fun to play in real life as they are on rock band, he would have skipped the guitar altogether. While Kari would have it sound as though Jeff spent his whole vacation playing the video game, the truth of the matter is Hannah, Jake and the cousins were the true rock junkies. And as a result, we have banned the songs "Eye of the Tiger" (Survivor), "Say it Ain't So" (Weezer), "Orange Crush" (REM) and "That's What You Get" (Paramore) for life--thank you, kiddos, for wrecking perfectly fine songs through overplay. If Kari's smart, we will continue to save Rock Band reunions for visits to Uncle Brad's.

Speaking of games--the holidays confirmed to us once again that the Smiths should not play board games together. The competitive virus is apparently spreading to the spouses as well--nobody's safe. Marriages were tested. Integrity was questioned. Eternal progressions were held in the balance. The game "Battle of the Sexes" will probably be on eBay by week's end.

The wives made out like bandits--shopping sprees, vampire movies, carb binges. The poor kids and fathers are still recovering. New Year's Eve held some redemption--pyromania was reexplored and young generations of Smiths were introduced to the seductive dangers of viewing their parents take pot shots at each other with Roman candles. Some things never change...