Kayt is Growing Up

Today was one of those days were you have ten million things to do and you wake up praying that your children will be troopers through it all and then your dreams come crashing down and you find yourself in a mommy time out. I don't know how many of you have experienced these kinds of days but they are horrible and seem to be coming more and more often. I think it may have something to do with Kayt growing up.

My little baby girl, which she is still called quite often, is not a baby anymore. If you happen to question, she lets you know rather forcefully, "I am a big girl and a noodle (the nick name her Uncle Will gave her)." She is bound and determined to do everything all by herself all the time. She does pretty good with most things but there are somethings she just can't quite get; like combing the back of her hair where her hands won't reach yet. Or, brushing the teeth in the back part of her mouth. So everymorning we battle about me helping her. I have to catch her at just the right moment as to avoid a total "big girl" melt down.

The first thing Kayt wants to do in the morning is get dressed. "Mom I need to be pretty" she tells me and goes to her closet and picks out an outfit complete with shoes and jewelry. She gets herself dressed with little help from me, (I have to lay the clothes out so she gets the tags in the back and the buttons in the front) she then combs her hair and runs downstairs to Scott and asks, "Do I look pretty daddy?" or "How do I look?" or "Tadaa!"

Kayt has also become the worlds best helper in the kitchen. Whether it is doing dishes or cooking she is there. SHe is getting really good at cupcakes! She loves to mix and scoop and taste. We have a cooler in our kitchen from the power outage that she has adopted as her stool. (I have got to get something to replace it.) She drags it to wherever the action in the kitchen is and starts grabbing, chopping, dumping, mixing, washing it doesn't matter just as long as she is doing something. She always sings the song, as best as she can, "when we are helping were happy and we sing as we go." That's about all she knows. Or she'll just make up her own song and sing.

She loves to push Ella in her stroller, make her laugh, give her the binky, sing to her, read to her, give her toys. She is her little mommy. Consequently Kayt is Ella's favorite person.

Kayt also loves to shop, everyday she asks if she can go shopping. We went to Old Navey the other day and she picked out an entire outfit for herself and was crushed when she could only have the shirt because it wasn't as cute without the pants and socks that matched.

She loves to dance and sing and make up stories and play with princeses. She is getting so good at coloring and drawing. She draws pictures of people based off of their eye color. For example, she is always drawn in brown, Ella in blue, me in green ect. She draws faces and hair, and hands and feet. I am going to take a picture of one of her drawings and post it on here because it is great. I was so shocked when I first noticed it. I just thought to myself, "you drew a person, not just a scribble wow!!"

With all these amazing new feats of independence Kayt has started testing limits and I just don't know what to do. I feel so disrespected and unloved some days. I know it is all just a part of the process but it is such an overnight transistion it seemed from "I need my mom for everything and she is the best", to "let me do what I want all by myself." Like I said I know it is good but it has been tough to actually have to argue with Kayt and set some rules and really have to discipline my sweet baby girl. A mean look doesn't do a whole lot anymore. BTW disciplining bites because it makes me realize she is doing something wrong which I never thought would happen.

But Kayt is still my little Kayters and after we battle it out she always gives me a great big love and tells me she's so proud of me and that I look really pretty. All wounds are healed until the next round.

Today we battled and tonight we made up and all was right in the Smith house.

The Modern Conveniences

The tree laying on the line infront of our house, for a week!!!

Well, our power came back on Saturday at 10:30 am. six day after it went out. Yes, that is right we were without power for six days!! Apparently hurricanes hit Ohio. They say that Hurricane Ike traveled across the Midwest and ended up in Ohio Sunday afternoon. It was quite an adventure. There were trees being blown over, power lines snapping, it was nuts. Scott and I weren't quite sure what to think about it. We were sitting in church when the lights went out and everybody just continues as normal. When church was over, one of the members had a tree sitting on his broken windshield and everybody acted like it was normal. We watched outside our window as people rode their bikes and walked their dogs and Scott and wondered "what in the world have we moved in to?!" Three days later when most of the city was still without power I think they finally realized it was a little bigger deal than anyone have thought. As for us, we busted out the camping equipment and weathered the storm.

We took advantage of the power being off to go the Kirtland, OH and the John Johnson farm. It was amazing. I think that Kirtland is the most overlooked church history site we have. God the Father and Jesus Christ appeared four times in Kirtland and we were able to sit in two of the places that it occurred. There was such a special feeling there. It was almost overwhelming. We were able to go to the Newel K. Whitney store and sit in the room of the School of the Prophets, and we saw his home where the prophet stayed. The John Johnson home was the most amazing to me though. It is where the plan of salvation was revealed. It is also the location where one of the most tragic stories in my mind of persecution occurred. It is the place where Joseph Smith was taken in the middle of the night and tarred and feathered while his baby was sick. And his son died five days later form exposure to the cold. There is a powerful spirit there. It was such a faith building, rejuvenating trip for both me and Scott. I came away with a stronger testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith. I know that he was the first prophet of this dispensation, that he had been chosen by God to restore the gospel for our time. I know that he saw and spoke to God and Jesus Christ. I know that his life was spared many times so he could complete the work that the Lord had sent him here to do. His life is an example of faith, perseverance and love and I am so grateful to him for never shrinking from his task, even when his life and the life of those he loved was at stake.

We got to stop off at Aunt Lynn and Uncle Wayne's house on our way home. It was so nice to be with family. They were so kind to let us hang out for a bit and they equipped up with a cooler and some ice to serve as our fridge for the next couple of days. It is nice to be close to someone.

I am also proud to announce that we got our final room unpacked and we are officially moved in. It feels so nice. Home is good place to be now. It came just in time. Scott starts school tomorrow and we are off and running. He is really excited to get started.

My lovely Ella

I just wanted to say a few words about my beautiful Ella. She is a shining light. I have never seen a baby who can light up a room with a smile like Ella can. Her whole face sparkles. She loves to play, love to make noise and loves to attack anything within her reach. Everything goes strait to her mouth and there is usually an audible grunt as she tries to stuff it in. She is a hardheaded as Scott and I combined but is so sweet and cuddly as well. She is never content to just sit. She always has to be exploring something. This could explain why she rolled over front to back and back to front all of the sudden on the same day. She is eating cereal now, which breaks my heart. I am not ready for her to be getting bigger yet. She needs to stay my little snuggle bug, but there's not much I can do about that I guess. Oh, and she suddenly stopped taking a bottle this week so if anyone has suggestions, send them my way.
Anyway, I just had her on my mind.

Columbus, Ohio

Our back yard

Well, greetings from Columbus, Ohio. We have been here a week and are finally feeling settled. We got most of our stuff up on the walls last night. It is a bitter sweet feeling for me. It has really made it final, that we are here for at least the next year, which is a little hard to wrap my mind around at times, but it has also made it feel like home a little more.

We live in community called Clintonville that is about a mile north of OSU and about 10 minutes from downtown Columbus. The neighborhood is friendly and we live by a great park and biking path. About a 3 minute walk away there is also a park that we visited several times already. It really is an ideal location for us. We are deffinatley not in Idaho anymore though. As you drive down our street you will see Ohio for Obama signs proudly displayed in every other yard. The one McCain sign is safely displayed in someones front window. That may just be coincidence! There are mostly single people and their dogs!! which go by our house every evening around 5:30 to the big green space next door. We have seen more big dogs in a one week then the whole of Rexburg contains I swear. Scott and I are more and more convinced we will never own a big dog unless it has a place to go to the bathroom that we won't step in it and don't have to pick it up. The comedian Brian Regan hit it on the head when he said something to the effect of, "If aliens come to this planet they would think dogs were the ruling species, they have schedules excercise, lots of toys and someone who picks up their poop!" We see it everyday.

As we talk to people in the neighborhood we get little glimpses of what Clintonville is culturally like. It is very green friendly, excepting of all lifestyles, and very left wing. Today we went to the farmers market, which was fantastic, and really got a feel for the community. We felt a bit out of place but comfortable. On the corner driving home there were groups on each side of the street. One holding Bush War Crimes signs and on the other side of the street was a man with a sign that said, "the left hates America. Honk if you love America". Scott and I took a lap around the block to be the only ones who honked at his sign while a long line of cars kept honking at the other. As if the Idaho liscense plate wasn't a dead give away, we honked. It was a great day!

Last Thursday we went to the Columbus Zoo which was a lot of fun. It is a huge zoo. We were there for 5 hours and still didn't see the whole thing. We bought a pass so we can go back whenever we want. The animals were great. They were all very active. Kayt especially loved watching the Manitee's. They are huge, in the words of Kayt. She even donated some of her potty money to help save them. Another highlight of the day was the gorillas. We though this one resembled our little Ella just a bit, now that she has found her toes, it is a position we find her in often.

All in all, things are going well. We are anxious to get started in school and get more involved in our ward. We went to dinner at a ward members house Thursday night. They live a couple of blocks away. It was a lot of fun. I have to admit, it was nice to get out of the house and socialize some. They were the Curtis's and he is getting a PHD in exotic languages.

The biggest highlight of the week however is Kayt's potty training success. We have only had two accidents since Tuesday morning. Glorious Day!!! We never though it would happen but here we are. Thanks to my cousin Lisa for her potty training advice.

Hope all is well with everyone, we love you all.

moving

Well, I just want to give a little update. I don't have enough time to write all that is on my mind, but I wanted to get something up because I am sure you are all just dieing to know how we are doing? And...I need something to distract me while Scott tries out all the photo templates on his cell phone. So far I have been a pirate, clown, googly glasses girl and floozy mermaid. Wonderful isn't it?
We have officially moved. I never thought is would actually happen but we have successfully gotten through one full day on our own. Scott's parents left yesterday afternoon. It was hard to watch our connection to the 'Burg drive away and realize "this is it". So far though things are good.
We live in a nice neighborhood right by a park and bike path. It's nice to be so close to it and we can get in some good people watching if we really want to. Columbus seems like a pretty great place. The traffic isn't too bad, the noise level is good and the weather is not too hot. We hear we are hitting it at about the right time as far as weather goes. Oh and the grocery store people are friendly. What more could you ask for?
We have started to potty train Kayt also which is a post in and of itself. But lets just say things are getting better.
Well, I have a running date with a few ladies in my ward so I need to get to bed but...we are alive and well and so far enjoying ourselves. Love to all.

Moving On

It has been an interesint couple of weeks for me. The reality of really growing up is starting to set in. It has been hard to watch a chapter of our lives close, especially since it has been full of so much joy. Scott and I have come to realize that we are no longer an appendage of our families but rather our own family. I know this probably sounds retarded but hear me out. For the last four years our families have functioned as they always did when we were growing up. We continued to go to our siblings sporting events, we stopped in a hung out whenever we felt like it, we went on all expense paid family vacations, we went and visited grandparents ect. ect. Life has been wonderful. But, this summer major things are happening in both of our families, Jared is getting married (which makes the married couples outnumber the non, sorry jake and sar), Brad and Traci are moving off to medical school, Jake and Jeffrey are going to college and preparing for missions, Hayley is still on her mission, Emily and Will had their first baby, we added our second and are moving across the country. Everybody is growing up and life is moving on. It is all very exciting but making the transition has been difficult. It is hard to see the chapter of growing up life end and move into the time of Family Reunions and more scheduled get togethers. Everybody now has something going all the time and family time is getting more difficult to come by. We are all in different spots in life with different restraints. It has been hard to take others limitation into consideration as we have tried to keep things with the status quo. We have finally decided that, like i mentioned before, the status quo has changed.
As everyone's lives have gotten busier we have had to redefine family time and take advantage of the weekends we can all be together just hanging out at mom and dad's. It doesn't involve the fan fair of a huge family vacation but the time spent together is and should be as enjoyable. I hope this is all making sense.
That being said, we had a fantastic time with my family over the fourth of July. Jake and Will made a good showing at the local tennis tournament and Kevin and Jessica's party was great. And, after I had herded everyone out the door we all enjoyed water skiing as well.

We also had a great time up in Linvingston with Scott's fam. Kayt continues to talk about going to her new house in the mountains. It was beautiful and very relaxing. Ella also had her first taste of rice cereal!!!

We are so sad to be watching Brad and Traci leave. They are off on their medical school journey. We are glad we have been able to spend so much time with them the last year. I know it is probably selfish to say but we're glad they didn't get in last year. We would have missed the whole Laini experience! Good Luck to them.
The countdown to Jared and Cassi's wedding is on. The more detials I get the more excited I am to see the finished product. It is going to be spectacular. We are also very excited to be heading to California and get in alittle site seeing while we are better gone then around. Jared and Cassi are so fun to be around and we are so excited for them!! It's nice to have someone to keep Jared in line. We never thought it would come.
Finally, the moving adventure continues. Scott has all of our ulitilities set up at our new home. 215 W. Weber Rd. It is official. I have started the first round of dejunking. I have several boxes to take to DI already. Hopefully in the next three weeks the pile will grow. I can't believe how much accumulating we have done in four years. I guess it takes that long to getting emotionally unattached to your junk.
Well, back to the packing my quiet hour is over. Good Luck and Love to All!!