American Idol Season 20 Finalist?

So when Avery goes pro with her singing career, after she wins American Idol Season 20, you'll be able to say you saw her when she was just starting out...

Here are the songs she's sort of learned in her own way so far:

- "Close Your Eyes" - a lullaby we learned from an episode of JoJo's Circus

- "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star"

- "Ring Around the Rosies"

- "No More Monkeys Jumping On the Bed" (but is this really even a song? I don't think it really has a melody so maybe it's just a rhyme)

- "Happy Birthday" (she's just barely learning this one a little bit, but we're trying to teach her to prepare her for her 2nd birthday one month from today!)

A Few Photos

For Memorial Day we had a BBQ with some Kohl's people near the playground in our apartment complex. Avery is becoming quite the monkey and loves to climb up and then go down the slide all by herself. It was a nice 82 degree humid day... much better than the 40 degree weather we experienced today!!





Here's Camryn sucking on her hands. She loves to do that. And it's so cute!







Avery with four pigtails in her hair. She kept wanting more and more!

Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice...

Camryn turned two months on Monday and had her first full round of shots Tuesday. Poor baby. But she didn't have any reactions so that was good. She was 12 lb 1 oz and in the 78% for height, weight, and head circumfrence. Good girl! She's a real smiler and loves to coo at us. And the past few nights we've put her in her bed awake and she's put herself to sleep and slept 5-6 hours straight! Let's hope she keeps it up!
Avery is so excited about colors these days. She points out what color everything is. "RED!" if you're wearing a red shirt. "GREEN" if she sees her green blanket. It's pretty fun. She's still amazing us with how she can read words out of the blue too. She has a great visual memory. She loves Camy very much but is starting to get demanding - When she wants me she points at Camy and says "Seat! Seat!" because she wants me to put the baby in the baby seat. Oh and she's also been practising nursing her teddy bears. One day she sat down on the floor, put a blanket on her legs, lifted up her shirt, put the teddy underneath, looked at me and said, "Milk." So matter-of-factly. She sure is observant.
Well it's been fun learning how to juggle two kids. It sure keeps us busy! Merrick has been busier than ever too. He's in the Men's Athletic Shoes Buying Office at Kohl's and there's always lots of work to do. A month or so ago he was called as the 11 year old Scout Leader/Primary Teacher so he's gone every Wednesday night. Plus he's on a softball team with some Kohl's BYU Alumni and they play every Thursday night (They're undefeated!!). So I'm trying to really enjoy this time I have with the girls, since it's a really precious time in their lives. The weather's getting nice and it is so amazingly green and beautiful here- it definitely looks different than when there was 3 feet of snow on the ground! We're hoping to be able to take advantage of a lot of fun things to do around here this summer. It's nice to get outside after being cooped up all winter.

Yay David!

So I'm so excited that David Cook won!! I thought for sure he was doomed after Simon wrote him off last night but then I was thinking today that maybe that just motivated people to vote for him even more. I guess however it played out he won the show. I really did love David Archuleta too and I would have been happy for him if he won, but I think it's an even more exciting victory for David Cook after all the criticism last night. He's really been one of the best the whole time and the most original Idol ever, and I'm proud of him. I loved the finale tonight. It was so fun to see everyone again. So was anyone else pleasantly surprised tonight? Or are you crushed that Little David didn't win?

Double Stroller

So here's what I got with my birthday money this year - a double stroller. Yes, it's mammoth. Yes, it's like driving a limo. But what double stroller isn't? And this one is lighter than most and is actually really versatile. My favorite color is red so this had added appeal.

(Avery was not happy here for some reason. What a cute whiney face.)

It's a Baby Trend Sit N' Stand Plus. It's like a regular double stroller but it can also convert into a Sit N' Stand stroller because the backseat snaps off. So the picture above is the standard setup- two kids sitting up riding in it.

There is an attachment you can put on the front that allows for the baby carseat to clamp on. Or you can remove it and put a cupholder tray on.

This picture above is how it looks with the backseat removed. There is a "jump seat" that kids can use to just jump on if they're running around at the zoo or the mall or whatever and it's easier for when they're jumping on and off. It has a seatbelt too though so it's safe. This will especially be useful when Avery is older.

Then there's also the "stand" part of the sit n' stand which means there's a little platform that Avery can stand on and hold on when she's a little too old for a stroller but will sometimes get tired of walking. Oh and the shade things come off too (which is how it looks in the two previous pictures) which is nice if I'm just going to be using it inside. That way I can actually see my kids!

And it folds up pretty good. Not a whole lot bigger than my huge single stroller. So we've used it a few times and it's been pretty fun so far! I'm pretty pleased with it. What do you think?

Almost 2 Months and Almost 2 Years!

Our girls are growing up! Camy will be 2 months next week and Avery will be 2 years next month. Camryn is a smiler all the time now and loves to coo at us, even when we're not looking. Avery is in the push-the-chair-around-the-house-and-get-into-everything stage. My favorite...

Now that the weather is finally in the 50's, 60's, and occasionally the 70's we've turned our deck into a chalk art studio for Avery. She has covered almost the whole thing in chalk, including each individual railing. Hey at least it's some healthy outdoors for her.

Avery's hair is getting longer and most of the time it looks like this picture - a little funky because she did have her hair in a rubber band earlier but she's taken it out halfway through the day. I still refuse to cut her bangs, though. Maybe someday, but for now she just needs the length wherever she can get it. If she gets called "little guy" one more time I think I will feel like I failed as a mother permanently. Just kidding, but it is quite annoying. (Heaven forbid she wear purple because for some reason lavender is a gender neutral color ??!)

Oh and by the way, Camryn really isn't as chunky as she looks in this picture. For some reason her smile makes her look like she's gained a few pounds (hmm she must get that from me). But most of the time she looks like the picture at the top.

The Host

Well I finished reading The Host, Stephenie Meyer's new book (she's the one who wrote the Twilight series). I'm very interested to get some opinions about it from those of you who have read it already. Here is my initial reaction (don't worry, no spoilers here):

I read it really quickly, which is a good sign. I actually hadn't read much about it before I delved in because I wanted to experience it untainted. I did see, however, that Meyer said it was supposed to be science fiction for those who don't like science fiction. And I personally don't crave scifi although I'm not totally gung ho about it either. So I think this book suited me quite well. It was also written for an adult audience as opposed to the Twilight series which is more for young adults, although enjoyed by all.

I think the major strength of the book was that it was thought provoking about human nature more than emotionally captivating like Twilight. I enjoyed the perspective, which was surprising and original, and I think Stephenie Meyer once again proved her creative genius in creating a world so unique and fantastical and yet so human and believable that we could imagine its existence quite literally.

All in all, without going into any details, I liked it a lot. I'm kind of relieved that it was only one book and not a series because I'm not left with a cliffhanger or the disappointment of realizing that I have to wait so many months or years to get the rest of the story. Anyways I highly recommend the book. Stephenie Meyer turns out another bestseller. Can't wait til Breaking Dawn this August, and I can't wait to see how she can entertain me with other stories in the future.

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all of you out there!

Goodbye Jason

Farewell Jason... We liked you for a while. You even won my American Idol favorites poll a while ago... but you let us down these past few weeks and we had to let you go.

We're 25...

Well it's official. Today I caught up with Merrick and we're the same age again. 25. Wow I'm a quarter of a century! Halfway to 50. I was looking online today to try to find something cool that happened on May 7 but I didn't really know any of the famous people born today, except Alex Smith, former rival Utes QB (correct me if I'm wrong). And all of the fun historical things that happened today were oh so thrilling. I'm sure you guys would be interested in many more but I'll just give you the biggest one: "On May 7, 1945, Germany signed an unconditional surrender at Allied headquarters in Rheims, France, to take effect the following day, ending the European conflict of World War II." Pretty significant I think.

Oh my great great (I think just 2 greats) grandma Frances Yost had the same birthday as me too. My great aunt called my mom after I was born pretty put out that she hadn't named me Frances. Now how many of you would have liked me better if I were a Fran or Frannie? I rather prefer the alternative. Thanks Mom.

Speaking of Mom, I was telling Merrick the other day that birthdays really ought to celebrate the moms since they're the one doing most of the work that day. Now that I've had some kids it seems like I should give a party to my mom every May 7th thanking her for enduring all the 20 some hours of labor to bring all 10 pounds of me into the world. But Merrick says that's what Mother's Day is for so I guess that will do, plus it kind of helps that her birthday is May 4th so it's a busy month. My Mother-in-Law's birthday is also this month too. Pretty crazy.

Okay that's all the commentary I'll give. Thanks to everyone who has extended birthday greetings so far today!

Twilight Movie Trailer!!!!

Twilight in HD


Oh man I'm so excited for this movie... I think it's going to be awesome!!!!

How Do I Look?

Hi, I'm the Smith Family Blog. I got a makeover today thanks to some help from sjhblogdesign.blogspot.com. I got my backgrounds from digitalscrapbookplace.com.

Don't I look pretty?

Oh Camy-O

Well Camryn Olivia is now 6 weeks old and we finally got curious enough to get her weighed today. She's 10 lb 14 oz, which I think is pretty good. That's an average of 7 oz per week since her 2 week appointment, at which she was 9 lb 3 oz. So I'm happy with that. She eats really quickly but has definitely been growing out of her newborn clothes and is filling out her 0-3 month stuff really well now.

Yep, she's still a sleeper, especially in that carseat. Oh and she started smiling back at us a lot more lately. That's such a fun stage. I think we'll keep her.

Utah Trip, Part 2

Well to finish up my trip summary, Saturday there was a baby shower for Merrick's cousin's wife so we went to that for a little while. There was a girl there who had a baby two days younger than Camy. Saturday evening we had everyone from both sides of our families that were in town come over to Merrick's parent's home in Bountiful and we had a dinner and blessed Camryn. Yeah, I guess you can do it at home, as long as there's a member of the local bishopric there. So that was nice. We had 60-70 people there probably, including all 4 of Camy's grandparents, all 8 of Camy's great grandparents and a multitude of others. The most exciting event that took place was that the table with all the drinks and pitchers on it broke, shattering some glass water jugs and stuff and leaving drinks and glass chips all over. What a mess. But some kind people pitched in and cleaned it up in no time.

(Avery with Grandpa Haws)

The blessing was very nice. Merrick didn't alter the name at all and Camryn didn't cry at all (neither did Avery... we train them well I guess... or maybe we should be thanking the inventor of the pacifier).


Sunday we went to church in the morning to Merrick's family's ward where they reorganized the bishopric. We spent the entire meeting listening to testimonies of the people involved. At the end of the meeting, President Henry B. Eyring who is in their ward, also bore his testimony. It was nice to hear from him because most of the time that he's there he doesn't really want to interfere and impose upon everyone else doing their part, so he doesn't say much. But he had some good counsel and so it was nice to be there for that.




Sunday afternoon we went down to Provo to see a few friends, and then we went back up to Bountiful for dinner and to try to pack up all our stuff. We got quite a few baby gifts and it was pretty tough to get everything fitting in there. We were at like 49 lbs in one suitcase and 48 in the other the next morning at the airport.

We flew home through Detroit again and of course Avery fell asleep just as we were landing after a 3 1/2 hour flight. Figures. She stayed asleep when we put her in the stroller, luckily, and got a nap for a little over an hour in the airport while we waited for our flight to Milwaukee. Both the girls did pretty good on the flights, so we were happy.

And arriving in Milwaukee, of course it was in the 30's and freezing. It was in the 60's when we left! Bummer. Well Spring will come someday.