it happened today

I turned on the Air conditioning...

88 degrees outside

82 degrees inside

My sweet little kids were sweating and their cheeks were all red

and they were all sitting at the kitchen table.

it was time!

Fair is in the Air

Don't you just love the smell, the noise, the food and the freak show that comes with a county fair?

The girls got to participated in the Arivaca 4H folklorico dance show at the Pima County Fair...again!

Last year was their first year...so this year it wasn't so scary and new.

After the girls danced...we partied.

With Luke out of town....I took the 5 kids to the carnival and I let them decide where

they wanted to spend their 80 tickets and their 5 hours.

They all had a blast and I even heard from the big girl

 "this was one of the best days I have had for a long time"

We all laughed till we cried watching Cedar make his way through the glass wall maze...he ran into the windows several times and it was just so funny.

We has such a great time and were so pooped when we tried walking to our car.

And lastly this photo is for Ashon....
the name of the ferris wheel

Happy Mother Earth Day

It rained today on our little part of the Earth and how appropriate was that?

It rained all the dust, the gunk, the smoke, the dirt out of the air and made the Earth clean.

OH, how I wish there was a way I could bottle the smells that I enjoyed today.

I took a drive with my 3 boys and sweet husband while the 2 girlies were expanding their brain power in school. We decided to take Luke to work today for the fun of it.

We drove 45 mintues out to......

While there it rained and hailed and the smells that seep from the Earth out in the country are simply unbelieveable.

The smell of

FRESH EARTH,

CLEAN EARTH,

WET EARTH!

it brings back so much to my mind.

it brings back my grandparents house on their little farm.

it brings back family reunions in the mtns.

it brings back spring showers and may flowers

it brings back playing in the rain

it brings back driving in the rain just to drive

it brings back so much more

It took us 45 minutes to get to the ranch and 2 hours to get home...I had to stop and take a few photos and bark at a few dogs that wanted to eat us.

If you know me...then you know I am a lolligagger when I want to be...and a drive could last all day.

I had to close my eyes and breath it all in....HEAVEN.

I hope you took a minute today to enjoy the EARTH that we call home.

                                                                                        peace

Why didn't I think of that?

We have lived in this home for 15 months and our tramp has been in a big heep in the backyard collecting dirt, spiders and sun. Just 2 months ago my little boy came into my bedroom and asked "why don't we have the trampoline up?" I could give many reasons on why we hadn't put it up just  yet....

1. We might move soon and we'll have to take it down.

2. The yard isn't really that big and you might jump over the wall.

3. I would have to put it up.

4. We could be missing some springs.

5. It's too much fun and we don't believe in having fun.

any of the above answers might of worked except I couldn't make my mouth say them. So, I jumped up and in a matter of 15 minutes and with the help of my 2 big boys we had it up and were jumping on it.

Let me just say...it's been the best thing since......

popcorn

bubble gum

swimming

chocolate

tv

computers

food

sleep

Why didn't I think of it sooner?

My kids jump on it for hours and hours. Infact just this morning little Muscles was out jumping at 6:45 am. I made him jump real quietly because our neighbors are close and possibly still sleeping. Saturday mornings are hard because that's what they want to do first thing in the morning.....and it's really loud with 4 rowdy kids out there.

Poor Shelby is under them all....laughing.

(believe it or not)

We love our Tramp!

The little things you Just don't want to forget

Sometimes, actually MOST the time, it's the small things that make a world of difference!

And it's usually just those things that get forgotten in the ol' memory bank.

Here are 3 things I just couldn't let get lost.

-1-

Here is the results of a mom having a bad day and letting the kids know about it.

My sweet little Chevy "scrapbooked" this letter for me and put it on my pillow....so I might have a better day.

-2-

The boys in the back yard picking "flowers" and bringing them in with their hands full.

"Here mom, We love you, we'll go get more"

-3-

Walking down the sidewalk with Birdie, My Oldest, and having her slip her arm though mine so we are elbow to elbow and tucking her head into my shoulder and her saying.

"I could do this all day long".

like it's the most comfortable place in the world.

ps she just got these glasses and their adorable!

these just warm my heart!

I love being a mama

Doll FACE

Could HE get any cuter?

I think NOT!

MR. Lil' Guy 8.5 months!

BeezBowl

This little man LOVEs LOVES LOVES Baseball and does a great job at it.

He is quite good, I have to say!

He hits normal overhand pitches from his Dad that aren't that slow.

We enrolled him in this TBALL buisness and he is pretty bored.

Cedar: "Mom, I like playing baseball, but I am tired of playing with the little guys,

I want to play REAL Baseball"

tis the season to be jolly

Muscles kite would not come down, even after he was tired of holding it and tried to let it fall...
it was wanting to fly.

Easter 1/2

Of course we have to post the dying of the EGG!
It's always a egg-xiting time when the dye and eggs come out.
This year we only had 2 cups of dye spill...pretty good for us!

LOTS of Fun!

Easter 2/2

We had such a great time celebrating Easter in Mesa with most of the family. Grandpa & Grandma Hallows invited us all over for a feast, some fun and some wonderful family. We ate yummy food then had a great easter egg hunt, (thanks to Mimi & Papa), had a dynamic Softball game in the backyard (thanks to Grdpa. Hallows), sold sweets and citrus in the frontyard (thanks to Grma. Bobbie), the men hit the Priesthood Session at the local Church and then the Southern AZ Hallows hit the road and made it home just in time to hit the Sack and snooze it up.
Love you Hallows-Smith Family!
There is none other like this clan!

Prehistoric Indians in Arizona

Birdie came home 6 wks ago with an assignment from her teacher, the assignment was to do a project/paper on Prehistoric Indians in Arizona. We had 6 wks to work on it and research it and put it together...wouldn't you know that we waited till the last 7 days to do it. Birdie had been assigned 7 or 8 different prehistoric tribes like, Aztec, Hohokam, Anazasi, Mollogon and a few more. She focused her attention on the Hohokam and the Anazasi indians and what they developed so long ago and how it effects us today.

Thanks to her & her Grandma they came up with an A+ diarama that teachers from other classes came in to get a peek at. She also had to do an oral presentation along with her paper that also came in as an A+.

Good work Birdie & Gram

Who was the fool?

The girls have been planning for a week what type of joke they could pull on their dad come April 1st.
Some of the ideas were:

1) a big bag of water inside his pillow (birdie's idea)
2) glue in his toothpaste (birdies' idea)
3) whip cream in his shampoo (birdies idea)
4) stickers in his shoes (muscles & cedars idea)
5) a paper taped to his back that reads "spank me" (chevy's idea)
6) short sheet his bed (birdie's idea)
7) shaving cream in his hand while he sleeps and then tickle his nose with a feather (chevy's idea)
8) Truck & toys & garbage & things in his shoes and when he steps into his shoe he will say "hey, there is garbage in my shoe" (muscles idea)
9) cut holes in the soles of his shoes (birdie's idea)

Finally after saying NO to everything, because either it would make more work for me or it would bodily injure that dad......we came up with an idea!

when Luke got home we had painted Birdies' eye like she had gotten in a fight at school. (I prepared him before so he would play along). The story was that she got in a fight because someone was making fun of her sister and Birdie was defending her sisters honor. Birdie tried her hardest to sell it...but after 2 minutes of him pretending to believe her....she had to tell the truth. It was cute to watch her.

My joke on the kids was trying to convice them that I was making Liver and spinach for dinner. I pulled out a recipe and showed it to Birdie...I had her crying. I am so mean!!!
She was not going to eat with us...she had made up her mind that starving would be better than eating liver and spinach. when it came time for dinner...I had soup, rolls and salad on the table. She was glad of that!

Last joke of the night came after dinner when Luke finally got home from work and we had talked for a bit about april fools with the kids. Muscles had spilled a bowl of soup on the floor so I was on my knees wiping up the mess and heard a loud voice across the house say
"April fools Dad, Your Ugly"
I shot snot rockets out my nose! I laughed so hard and when I finally saw Luke's face...he was cracking up too!
what a silly guy.

One last thing I forgot....earlier in the day this was the face that greeted me while I was feeding the baby. Yes, that's peanut butter....and he did it to himself.
what a nut!