Sunday with the Smith's

Since church begins at noon we have time to eat breakfast as a family on Sunday mornings. This is my favorite morning of the week. Skyler hates mornings all together. He never wants to get dressed, eat breakfast or be nice to anyone. If he wasn't so cute I would set him on the front porch and quietly lock the door. This Sunday he decided to wear kaden's biking helmet to the breakfast table and I wasn't about to protest as long as he was eating. Josh came downstairs and asked him if his breakfast was dangerous and everyone laughed except for Skyler. He just grunted. Ha. Ha. Kaden is my morning child. He is the cheeriest one in the family. He loves breakfast and gets dressed before everyone else. He has become so self sufficient.

Church was so fun. We had a ward missionary conference. I had never experienced one of these and I am unsure if it is new but Josh said this was a first for him too. When we left church today Skyler kept handing me a white piece of paper and asking for a piece of candy. I had no idea what he was talking about and told him he had to eat good food before I would let him have any candy. When we arrived home I looked at the papers he was holding. One of the papers was a happy birthday sticker and the other was a coupon to give the Bishop to receive a piece of candy on your birthday. Kaden told me that Skyler had told everyone in primary that it was his birthday and everyone sang to him. I asked Skyler if today was his birthday and he said, "Yes, where is my candy?" After I was finished laughing I explained that his birthday was not until November and he had to wait until then to use his coupon. He was sad for a moment and then just walked away. Skyler can work any crowd if you let him!

After church we visited God's backyard (Farmington Lake) and invited a friend from nursing school to come along with one of her sons. Josh gave the boys lessons in how to flex and kiss their muscles.

Sundays are the best!

Summer Has Arrived

We are all so happy to finally come up for air and relax. What an extraordinary first year in Farmington. Skyler finished his first year in preschool, Kaden finished his first year of Kindergarten, Josh has reached his one year anniversary at Webb Chevrolet and I finished my first year of nursing school. This summer our next big task is to buy a house here in Farmington! We miss our home in Albuquerque and hope our tenants are taking care of it while we are away. It is wonderful to have Grandma Mills and the Palmers close by. They are such a blessing to us. Kaden and Darien are the best of friends and would spend every moment together if we let them. Being here in Farmington is truly bittersweet. We miss our friends and family that we have moved away from, although moving to Farmington has been accompanied by so many blessings. When given the time to stop and watch my children play, giggle, sleep, or accomplish something great it is the most clear reminder of why we work so hard, make sacrifices and strive to be more like Christ every day.

Skyler had his tonsils and adenoids removed and tubes put in his ears this month. He is doing very well now. He is able to hear, speak, eat, breath, and sleep better.

He is so proud of preschool but he is so sad that he can't ride the bus to school with Kaden. He is Kade's shadow. He says and does everything Kade does. I think I will change their names to Pete and Repeat. The picture on the right is Skylers first school picture. His teacher said that everytime the photographer snaped a picture Skyler said, " Oh! How cute." He is such a ham.

The population census of 2000' for the small city of Ouray was 813 people. I can't imagine the population being much larger now in 2009'. It is such a beautiful quaint little town. We stayed in the most charming bed and breakfast and even went to bed one night at 9:00pm. We visited a vapor cave, sat in the hot springs and hiked up the world renowned ice cliffs (which is a hiking trail in the summer). The part I loved the most was having time to chat with Josh without any inturruptions and having a silent breakfast while we just starred at each other. Silence is golden. What a wonderful way to recharge our batteries.

The picture above and to your left is a little waterfall. Water flowed between cracks in the rocks directly out of mountains and cliff faces. The picture above on the right is whats left of an old mine. The pictures in the middle are pretty much the entire city nestled in this little valley between the surrounding mountain terrain.

Last week we visited my parents and some friends in Albuquerque. We helped my dad with a few projects. The boys had a blast fixing lawnmowers, a rototiller, a generator........my dad had a lot of broken stuff. Lucky for him Josh is a mechanical genius. He He.