The Big 3-0

Well boys and girls the day has finally come that our beautiful Ariane has turned thirty. To celebrate her birthday and to honor the passing of her youth I have written an obituary:

Ariane Peterson Smith's youth and innocence passed away Sunday, Feb 28th, 2010 in a tragic but unavoidable birthday. Ariane was born on Feb 29th, 1980, to goodly parents (Ben and Cathy Peterson) in or around Salt Lake City somewhere. She is the oldest of 5 very strange, but lovable siblings Jared, Ashley, Anisha, and Jeremiah. Her siblings still enjoy their youth currently. She spent most of her youth growing up in Las Vegas, NV. There she completed Elementary, Middle, and High School. At Las Vegas High School (GO CATS) she enjoyed band, boys, and cheerleading. She was popular in her youth as evidenced by her election to the homecoming court. Following her graduation in 1998, she matriculated at Southern Utah University. A decision which would prove to be the best she ever made. During the first semester of her freshman year in intermediate swimming class she met a stunning, charming, intelligent, and lovable man named Justin. Justin would later win her heart, and they were married in 2002 after she graduated with a degree in Elementary Education. She worked as a teacher in Las Vegas teaching 1st grade while her husband went to school at UNLV. As a teacher she touched many young lives and taught many kids to speak English. She was respected for her tenacity and unwillingness to let school administration push her around. In the summer of 2004 Ariane gave birth to Clayton, the first of her three children. She continued to teach through Clayton's early months, but decided to give up her career for much harder work when she and her small family moved across the country to Vermont. A few months after arriving, Ariane had her second son Noah (who would later be named "Pootie") in 2006. Being a stay at home mom proved to be a challenge for her, and she found it very difficult to keep up with the laundry. Her family loved and supported her anyway. A glutton for punishment, Ariane had her third child, and first daughter in 2009. Clayton, Noah, and Josie kept her very busy during her years in Vermont, and even though she would frequently describe her self as a "wife-cicle" she learned to love New England. The passing of her youth came just weeks before the Match where she would find out where she was moving next.

Her youth is survived by just about everyone she knows including her husband who is a mere 29 years of age. Upon reaching middle age Ariane was heard describing herself as a "cougar." As her life moves on Ariane looks forward to: having a stable income, having all of her children in school, being closer to family, and many other things I'm sure. The things of her youth she will miss most - her pre-pregnancy body.

Here's to you Ariane. You are the love of my life, you are the queen of our house, and you are the best mom these kids could ask for. Here's to looking to the future...a future full of aches and pains, joint creams of various sorts, buckets of medications, grey hair, and worst of all - teenagers.

Love you Babe! Happy Birthday :)

What, you don't hang out and watch TV like this?

I realize that Justin is holding Noah in this seemingly ackward position, however, it should be noted that the reason I post this at all is because Noah frequently sits like this (seriously, this exact same position) on his own. He sits like this to watch TV, to listen to stories, to snuggle, and (most recently) to keep Josie from eating his shoes. I'm thinking about signing him up for an audition with Cirque du Soleil.
Not to be outdone, Clayton had to show us his contortionist skills also (not quite as skillful as Noah, but still pretty impressive).
Oh, to be young and bendy.

A few things...

There's no rhyme or reason for this post. These are just some cute and funny things I've been noticing lately about our darling diva, Miss Josephine...

I know I already posted about her sweet bedhead, but this was too awesome not to share:
Every girl should have a musical jewlery box with a twirling ballerina in it. Josie has recently discovered hers and is fascinated with it (and check out those delicious thighs):
Her 'what, I'm innocent' face:
I also love this progression:
Trying to grab the ballerina (probably to try to eat her):
Uh-oh, caught in the act!!
This smile cracks me up! "What mom, I'm not doing anything!"
You may not know this, but Josie is a celebrity look-alike:
Doesn't this girl (who is totally posing):
Remind you of this guy:
And when I see this:
I almost always think of this:
But lately, I look at this cute face:
And I can't help but see this cute face:
Two final things:
These images are brought to you courtesy of the Girl Scouts of America and their delightful Samoa cookies:
Check out that pure joy!
I can't believe my baby is going to be 10 months old tomorrow! She's getting big WAY too fast (she took her first unassisted steps today - SOB). I love this girl and can't get enough of her!!

Valentine's Day

We are not big Valentine's Day people. I think that, if I was going to pick a day for Justin and I to celebrate our love with gifts and dinners and cards and candy, I'd much rather celebrate on our wedding anniversary. However, I do think Valentine's Day is a fun day to celebrate with my kids. We actually did the majority of our Valentine's Day celebrating on Friday. We started out with a special Valentine's Day breakfast in Clayton's classroom:
Clayton showing off the Valentine's shirt I made him (don't look too closely at it - so many flaws!!):
Eating a pumpkin muffin. They went ALL OUT for this breakfast! Pumpkin muffins, ham and cheese scones (yum), chocolate chip scones, an amazing raspberry danish, chocolate covered strawberries, etc. I was so surprised (I was expecting bagels and juice).
I just thought this was funny. Clayton is NOT an artist. He has no desire to color, draw, cut, or paint. He just doesn't like it. Never has. He's much more of a techinical/logical thinker. He likes to solve problems and see how things work. Not much of a creative streak with this kid. Years ago I used to compare his lack of artistic drive with other kids his age and I'd feel sad that all these other kids were drawing these amazing pictures while my kid would put one red line down the center of a paper and call it a day. I've since realized that Clayton has many other talents and interests and art isn't one of them. I've stopped comparing him to other kids, but when I went to his class on Valentine's Day, I had to laugh at the comparisons I saw:
All 15 of the kids Valentine's bags were lined up in a row and Clayton's was BY FAR the least decorated. I asked him, 'Why didn't you decorate your bag?' His classic response (eye roll), 'Mom, I wrote LOVE on it.' (DUH!)
Every month the kids have to draw a self portrait of themselves. At the end of the year we're going to get them in a portfolio to see how they've grown as artists over the course of the year. I'm a little sad to say that this is an improvement. It's not that he can't color in the lines. He just doesn't want to take the time to do it. There are other things he'd rather do. So, while the other kids spend about 10 minutes making their self-portrait, Clayton spends 30 seconds. He doesn't actually think he looks like a monster. I about shot orange juice out of my nose when I saw this. Funny. Classic Clayton!
After the breakfast, Noah, Josie, and I got ready for a Valentine's party with our regular Friday playgroup.
One of my favorite things about holidays is dressing up for it. I thought the kids were super cute in their Valentine's outfits:
I couldn't find anything cute and Valentinesy for boys this year so I just went ahead and took red shirts that they already owned, some fabric that I happened to already have and - voila - 'manly' Valentine's Day shirts (again, don't look too closely):


Josie was a different story! There are, of course, countless cute things for girls to wear for Valentine's Day. I found this cute outfit for a STEAL at Gymboree and couldn't resist:
BTW - she's so close to walking. She can do it, she just needs to gather the courage to do it on her own. So close!!

There were so many fun things to do at the party. The kids decorated Valentine's bags (Noah loves this so much more than Clayton), listened to Valentine stories, ate a yummy lunch, decorated sugar cookies, and passed out their Valentine's. Here are a few pictures:
Noah decorating his sugar cookie:
He loved it!
Me and one of my four favorite Valentines! (Gotta love that happy, messy face!)
Cute Josie.
She discovered a pickle sitting abandoned on someone's plate and thought it looked delicious!
I was dying laughing! She kept making the most sour face, but she was determined to eat that pickle! (Eventually I traded her pickle for a sugar cookie, which she was very happy about.)
On Sunday, we had a relaxing, no-big-deal Valentine's Day. I gave my guys chocolate hearts from our favorite chocolate shop - Lake Champlain Chocolates - and was given the BEST gifts ever by Justin. He let me take a nice nap and he did the dinner dishes for me. SWEET!

It was a pretty nice couple of days. I'm sure lucky I have so many wonderful Valentines in my life!

Just some stuff

Nothing too exciting going on around here lately (seems to be a theme). We did get an offer on the house, but it was so ridiculously low that we were slightly insulted and refused to 'play ball'. Other offers will come though, so we're not too worried about it. Here are a few things that have made me smile so far this week:
In my last post, I mentioned how Clayton is now a letter writer. I've been trying to write notes to him when he gets home from school. He LOVES it! Yesterday evening, I found this one:
Translation needed:
For Mom
I love you
Love,
Clayton
P.S. By the way
you're running on the treadmill
This cracked me up! He's so funny. This is definitely my favorite note so far!

Today was Clayton's 100th day of school! He's been talking about this day for WEEKS now! I know they had a parade and a special trail mix of 100 treat items that each kid brought in (Clayton brought 100 cheese crackers - he also brought home some '100th day trail mix' it didn't look so appetizing). They had a parade and read 100 books. I'm not sure what else they did to celebrate - Clayton isn't the best at recapping his days for me - but I do know that it was a fantastic day!
Here he is after school with his special 100 glasses that he wore for the parade:
Since he's been talking this day up for so long, Noah was really excited for today too! He had it in his head that he was going to go to school and celebrate too. In order to make him not feel disappointed, we did one of his favorite things: COOKING! He loves to cook, but I'm not always the best at letting him help me. So today we baked cupcakes. It combined his three favorite things: cooking, baked goods, and chocolate! (Before you look too hard at this picture, I'll just admit it, yes - he has a stuffy nose and his face is snotty, but we weren't giving these cupcakes out so I let it go.)
After the cupcakes were cooked and cooled it was time to DECORATE THEM! We had sprinkles and M&M's and marshmellows (oh my!). Noah and his friend Nathan (who we get to spend part of the week with) were in heaven decorating cupcakes. I think they liked the idea of eating the decorations more than the actual decorating, but that's all part of the fun!

This makes me laugh. Nathan didn't want to get his hands dirty, so he was trying to eat his cupcake without actually touching it!
I realize this is gross, but Noah was following me around saying (with a mouthful of cupcake), "Look Mommy, look!" and then I'd turn around and he'd open his mouth and laugh. Typical gross boy.
Finally, I went to get this little girl up from her nap and was just amazed at how absolutely perfect and gorgeous she is. She always has such a big smile for me when I go get her out of her crib. I'm so in love with this little girl!!! And yes, she did actually sleep with that bow in her hair. Usually I take them out of her hair for naps but today I forgot. It's part of what inspired me to grab the camera when she woke up this afternoon - I was impressed that it was still in her hair!
So far it's been a good week. I have lots to smile about!

Letters

I need to preface this post by saying that I have the BEST firstborn child EVER! Sure he's a little whiny, a little anxiety-riddled, and overly cautious, but those traits could never overshadow all the awesome things about him.
He's responsible, honest to a fault (even when it gets him in trouble), protective of Noah and Josie (he's especially good at protecting Josie from Noah), funny, sweet, extremely friendly, outgoing, imaginitive, smart as a whip, obedient (a trait that I appreciate more and more the older he gets), easily forgiving, gentle (he's SO good with little kids - they all just ADORE him), equal opportunity (he'll be friends and play with ANYONE - age, race, gender, etc. don't matter to him), and endlessly loving.

I could literally go on and on about all the great things about him, but these are a few of his best quality traits. I love him so much and am grateful everyday that he's my son. All of us (me, Noah, and Jo) all get so excited to see him when he comes home from school. He brings such a happy spirit into our home and we all feel it the second he bounces in the door.

On to the story. A few nights ago I was upstairs feeding Josie when Clayton called me to come downstairs. I went down and found him and Noah sitting on the couch looking very somber. I asked what they wanted and Clayton told me that he broke the ceiling. 'What?' I asked. He took me into the guest room and showed me where one of the ceiling tiles had fallen down. He confessed that he'd done that and he was 'really REALLY sorry'. (BTW - he's such an honest kid, he totally could have blamed Noah and I'd have believed it). I could tell by the look on his face that he really was sorry (and the look on Noah's face suggested that he had 'sympathy sorrow'). I told him that I was very disappointed but that I appreciated that he told me right away. I then told him that his punishment was going to be telling Daddy what happened when he got home. This crushed Clayton. He idolizes Justin and I could just imagine how upsetting it was for him to think about telling Justin what he'd done. So I suggested that he write Justin an apology note and put in on the garage door so that he'd see it when he came home. This perked Clayton right up and so this is what Justin found when he came home from work that day:
Allow me to translate:
Dear Dad,
I'm sorry for breaking the roof.
Love,
Clayton

A few hours later I headed to the store. When I came back I found something for ME on the garage door:
Again, translation:
Dear Mom,
I'm sorry for dumping your books.
Love,
Clayton

I chuckled to myself (the books he'd dumped were a couple of Justin's old textbooks that sit abandoned on a low shelf in the basement) and turned to Justin. I showed him the letter and asked if it was Clayton's idea to write it. Justin good-naturedly rolled his eyes and as he explained to me that it was, in fact, Clayton's idea to write my apology note he handed me one more:
One more translation:
Dear Noah,
I'm sorry for unstapeling the bed.
Love,
Clayton

I've created an apology note monster (and I love it)!! I'll end this post with one more letter:
Dear Clayton,
I love you so much. You make me smile every day. I can't imagine a better oldest kid. Noah and Josie are so lucky to have you as a big brother. Dad and I are so lucky to have you as our son. I feel so blessed because I get to be your mother. I'm sorry if some days I fail to make you feel as special as you deserve to feel every minute of your life. You light up my days!
Love,
Mom

'Round Here...

This morning I was on the phone with my mom and she chastized me for going so long between posts. I told her that it hadn't even been a week since my last post to which she replied, "Yeah, but that one only had ONE picture!" It's not that I don't want to blog it's just that around here lately we've had SO much going on, yet at the same time, we've had NOTHING going on. Sound weird? It does to me too, but it's the truth. We've been super busy trying to get the house ready to go on the market (it will list officially tomorrow by the way), painting, packing, putting up chair rail, cleaning, staging, etc. that we haven't really had time to do anything interesting or blog worthy. I haven't even been really taking pictures lately (shame shame). But, because I love my mom, I'm going to give you a breakdown of the goings on:

Justin: Officially started his LAST MONTH of school!!! Hard to believe that this time next month he'll be DONE! Graduation isn't officially until May though so he'll be loafing around with me and the kids for a few months (which we are SUPER excited about). Hopefully we'll be selling this house, buying a new one, and moving during his months off though so there shouldn't be too much 'loafing' going on! We won't find out where we're going for residency until March 18th. That date seems so close and so far away at the same time. We have made our rank list, but we aren't going to certify the list for a while though. We are still hoping to go to Indiana. Keep your fingers crossed for us.

Me: Between the painting, packing, cleaning, staging, etc. I haven't really been up to too much. Right now I'm just happy to be able to take a small break from the house for a minute and hang out with the kids. I have been running again though. I'm NOT a runner, but this past week I've really started to see why people like it! I honestly never thought I'd ever understand!

Clayton: Clayton is, well, Clayton. We love him. He's the best big brother ever! He's obedient, smart, funny, imaginitive, and loving. I'm grateful every day that he's mine! Justin and I recently took him with us to Indiana to check out the program that we hope to match to. He had a GREAT time! The highlights (according to him), 'Seeing Landon, going to Chili's, seeing Landon, going bowling, seeing Landon, driving go-carts, seeing Landon, going swimming, and, oh yeah, SEEING LANDON!!' Here are a few pics of the trip:
At the airport. He'd earned his 'wings'. He was really excited about this but he assured us that he wouldn't be flying the plane because he, 'wasn't 30 yet' (apparently that's the only real criteria).
Clayton and his cousing Landon at Chili's. He had perma-grin the whole time he was with his cousin! It would be so nice to move to Indy so these boys could hang out more often!
Landon looks cute and Clayton is in the beginning stages of his sassy, 'Are you serious mom?' face.
Waking up at 3:30a.m. on Friday + staying up late having a slumber party at Landon's house + waking up early to go on a tour of South Bend = a sleepy boy who missed the whole tour!
Bowling. Clayton was actually a pretty decent bowler (he beat me - serious)! Justin helped him the first few times...
But then Clayton found his own style (throwing the ball). Here he is waiting anxiously to see how many pins he'll knock over.
He was always SO excited when he knocked pins over. I tried to capture his excitement, but this was the best I got. Trust me, it was cute (he did get a strike once - impressive)!
Go carts. All that Mario Kart has paid off because Clayton was an ANIMAL on the go carts!!
Swimming at the hotel with the Peterson's!
Tori
Ella
As you can see, it was a great trip. South Bend is a great city and I hope we get to explore it further over the next three-four years!

Noah: Noah has been perfecting his 'Pootieness'. He climbs all over things like a monkey, hides my stuff under the cushions of the couch (if you lift them at any given time it's not unusual to find acrilyc paints, remotes, DVD's, toys, etc.), and endlessly torments his brother and sister (although his sister is starting to dish it back out - I love it). He asks me everyday if he can go to school and it breaks my heart every day to see his face when I tell him 'not yet'. He's recently started showing a talent for art and draws the cutest pictures! He and I still have good days and bad days, but I love him and think he's one in a million!
This face cracks me up! It's still one of my favorites!
I have to admit that this face makes me LAUGH OUT LOUD! It doesn't even look like him!!
That's more like it. Man alive, he's one handsome kid!
I came across this picture recently. This is Noah and Enoch when they were probably about 10 months old. These two boys have really grown up together and are such cute best friends! I can't imagine moving to a place with no Chase, Missy, and Enoch! It seriously makes me teary!
Josie: Cute as always! She is such a joy! Her newest trick:
We expect walking to come any day!
She's also starting to become more 'girly'. She's finally realized that dolls are fun and has been playing with them a lot recently (especially the cute on my sister-in-law Kerstin made her for Christmas). I have also been having a lot of fun with her lately too! Her hair is getting longer which, of course means:
Before:
After:
We love this cute, sassy little girl! Her personality gets more fun every day! She's so quick to smile and laugh, she's easily entertained by her brothers, and - in true little sister fashion - has started to pester them! So there you are. Those are the happenings at Casa de Smith. Lots going on, but nothing really interesting. Now maybe Mom needs to talk to Kerstin and Anisha (hint hint)...