Halloween 2009

Halloween was a lot of fun this year because Jeff and I decided to dress up too. Kiera had her costume planned out very early this year. She was a Safari girl and Ellie was an Indian but Kiera liked to call her 'pocashantus' translation Pocahantus. We had our third annual Smith family Halloween party at Jim and Amanie's. A lot of the mom's and dad's dressed up which was awesome! Then all of the cousins went trick or treating. Ellie picked up on this tradition very fast. In fact when we passed a house by either because they were not home or we were trying to catch up to everyone else she let me know that she was not happy. Hope you enjoy the pictures.

Sick days at the Crosbie's

Kiera stayed home sick for a week in October. Jeff and I had to alternate days to be home with her. She finally went to school the following Monday and they called me again to come and get her. This time she stayed at my office. This picture is of her sleeping under my desk. She said it was like camping. The poor little girls slept almost the entire day under my desk. But good news she is feeling better.

Crazy Hair Day

Ellie had Crazy Hair day at preschool. I had fun doing her hair, I am pretty sure that she didn't enjoy the experience but she looked cute and crazy and she knew it. She kept checking herself out in the mirror.

Twins

While Brinlie is about 2-3 inches taller they still look like twins. I love that they are growing up together. This day Brinlie showed up to our house so that we could take her to school and the girls were wearing the same dress. They thought that was so cool. So ofcourse they had to take some pictures.

GYMNASTICS

I was in gymnastics when I was young and loved it and Kiera has been wanting to do dancing or gymnastics. Her first day she was in a Little Bounders class with a bunch of toddlers. She quickly was advanced to Level 1. I think she was advanced because she looked like a giant. Her and Brinlie go to gymnastics every Tuesday. Kiera really enjoys it but seems to love the stamp at the end of class the most.

Top of Utah 1/2 Marathon

I completed my first 1/2 marathon earlier this fall. I actually loved it. Jeff and the Girls cheered me on and met me at the finish line.

First Day of School

Better late then never on the First Day of School Post. Kiera started kindergarten on her 5th birthday, all the way back in August. She loves attending Edith Bowen and having Mrs. Roghaar as her teacher. She has made lots of new friends. Every once in awhile she will come home with a note from one of her friends and Kiera tells me that on the note is her friends phone number and we need to call her so they can play. The note is usually a picture with some random numbers on it. Pretty cute that they are already attempting to exchange digits.

Edith Bowen has been perfect for Jeff and I as well because the school is right on campus so it is easy to drop her off and pick her up and be involved with her classroom.
She also attends Morningside Preschool in the afternoons and enjoys that. Her cousin Brinlie also attends Morningside and that is fun for the both of them to be together. Amanie and I have created a master carpool plan that works great! :)

Hogle Zoo

Jeff has been talking about wanting to go to the zoo all summer. We finally made it and it was a good thing because the week after we made it to the zoo the temperatures dropped! It was a special time at Hogle zoo because they had so many baby animals. Ellie loved seeing the animals and Kiera loved telling Ellie everything that she knows about gorillas, giraffes, rhino's etc. It was amazing to see the baby elephant and giraffe. They were so cute.

Kiera's First Hunt

So Kiera has been bugging me all summer to go do real camping. She doesn't feel that throwing a tent up at the cabin is true camping. She said that she wants to do the stuff like the bear guy that we watch on TV. You know, the "bear" guy that eats snakes and lizards, bugs, fish and all the other fun stuff. We all know him as "Man vs Wild". She has decided that is true camping. I really want to take her on a back country camping trip, but I am not certain that she will really like it yet, so I decided that we would take the next step and get her out in the wilderness to do some activities that are not quite so extreme yet and just let her get a taste of what's out there. A few weeks ago, my cousin Steve and I took her out scouting for deer one night. She loved being with the guys and had the time of her life sitting on top of a mountain with her binoculars watching all the deer around us. She was convinced that we had gone hunting and informed me that she was disappointed that we did not shoot anything to bring home to eat. So this last weekend was the opening for the Grouse Hunt here in Utah. My dad and I took her up on the four-wheelers and took her out on a walk through the thick brush and trees to see if we could find any birds. She was a trooper and actually made it through the three mile hike and only needed a little help in spots where the brush was too thick to get through. In the end, she helped find the grouse in which I shot. She retrieved it and was so excited to finally have something to take home to Mom for dinner. She made me promise her that the next grouse we saw, she wanted to shoot it. Unfortunately, we did not see any others to shoot. To my amazement, she even helped me pluck the feathers and clean the bird. She was awesome and I had a great time sharing in this little adventure with her.

Kiera is 5 years old

I can't believe that Kiera is 5 years old. She is at such a fun stage because she loves to explore and spend time outdoors and loves being with her family. She enjoys being a big sister and I think she embraces her role more and more each day as she is realizing that her little sister adores her. Kiera chose to celebrate her big day with the family by going minature golfing and having cake and ice cream back at the house. Kiera's Aunt Joni made this amazing ladybug cake for Kiera and I can't thank her enough. Kiera loved it!

Stopped to see the wildflowers up Little Cottonwood

We had been driving all day but I wanted to stop by and see Shay on our way home from California. When we got there she was raving about the sunflowers at the top of Little Cottonwood Canyon. I had never even seen Alta or Snowbird in the Summer time so I was up for the detour. We hoped in the car and drove up. I wish we could have spent more time hiking around because it was beautiful and we got a decent family picture out of it. THANKS SHAY!

Golfing at Three Rivers, CA

Jeff, Kiera, my dad and I went golfing in Three Rivers, CA one of the days that we visited. It was a small quaint course but we had a blast. I again found out how bad I am at golf while Kiera continued to hone her skills. She loves being on the course with Jeff and she requested many times to ride in papa's cart. We got to practice our skills amongst the sprinklers which Kiera really enjoyed.

California Trip

Kiera had been telling us all Winter that she wanted to swim in Nana's pool. We usually visit my family in the Spring to avoid the Central California heat but the pool is usually not quite ready by then. So we decided to come later in the year to be able to enjoy the pool more. We headed off to Cali in Late July and crossed through Las Vegas and the desert to get there with temperatures raising well above 100 degrees. I kept asking myself what we were thinking. My parents are amazing and were willing to meet us in Barstow and pick up Ellie while Jeff, Kiera and I continued onto San Diego to visit the beach and Sea World. I know that Ellie would have loved our little adventure but in order for us to truly enjoy it and focus on Kiera's experience we needed to leave the busy, busy, did I say busy Ellie with my mom. And what better hands to leave her then with Nana and Papa. I promise you Ellie didn't miss her mom and dad at all.

Sea World was a blast and it took me back to my original thinkings as a teenager and younger that I was destined to be a trainer at Sea World and doing shows with Shamu. But I had to be content to be in the crowd. Kiera was great and enjoyed seeing everything. We went on the helicopter ride to the Artic and she truly believed that we had traveled by helicopter to get there and was concerned about how we were going to make it back to Sea World.

At my parents we truly enjoyed the pool as we got in 2-3 times a day.

Our Stop at the beach was short but sweet. We had a long drive ahead of us to get back to Visalia but Kiera enjoyed only the second ocean encounter in her life. She was about 4 weeks old when we traveled to Santa Cruz for my cousin's wedding. She was a bit unsure about the water that rushed up on the beach but she loved collecting things off the beach, rocks and shells. I think Jeff enjoyed the experience the most. He loves to explore and look for things. He found Kiera a very tiny clam.