Friday Night

I'm bugged that I don't have any more pictures than this.  Mike and I went with the boys to cheer Allie on as she danced in the dance that she choreographed with another cheer leader.

It was a half time dance and it was so cute!  I have it on video, but these are the only pictures I have of the night.

 Mike has been asking her to add the Church Lady's "superior dance" (from Saturday Night Live) every time she has any control over the dances.  She tells him over and over that people wouldn't get it and that the moves are too slow for the fast pace of the dances they have to do.  So, at the end of this dance (and yet another dance that he didn't see the Superior dance performed), Allie got Mike's attention and did it just for him on the sidelines.  The wide smile she had for her dad was really cute, but I didn't get any pictures. 

We left at half time because the boys were tired and Nate had an early game the next day.  The Bobcats were losing to Orem high.  They were our high school's rival and they were good 30 years ago, so I wasn't surprised that they were beating us.  I was surprised to come home and hear the news that the Bobcats had pulled off a win!

Fun night for these kids for sure.

Football Saturday

We are still neck deep in football season.  The boys both have practice every day and games every Saturday.  We go to the Sky View games to watch Allie cheer on Friday nights, so we're doing all the football all the time.  It's good though.  I keep asking Mike to tell me all the things because until this year, I didn't really even know what position my boys played. I used to go to the games to watch people...not the athletes. :)                            

Nate is 21 closest to the camera 

Nate's game was super early in the morning in Brigham City. He played receiver on offence and corner on defense. As far as I could tell, he held all his blocks and did well. 

He caught his third reception of the season too. He's 3-0 in catching the balls thrown at him in a game now.  It was a thrill to find that I had my camera in my hands and got the picture of the catch too. He got far enough for it to be a first down so that's exciting.

They won 57-0

                                       

Jason played offensive and defensive lineman.  He got a few tackles and a few pancakes (when they block so well they're knocked on their butts).  Mike is still talking about the pancake in the first play of the game.  I missed seeing it because I was getting settled in my seat, but I guess it was pretty awesome. 

It was fun to see Jason be able to play so many defensive plays. I loved to watch him break through his blocks and make a beeline for the QB every time.

He got through his blocks a lot and then one time he chased the QB down followed him and tackled him.  It was fun to watch for sure.  He's a big kid and he's aggressive so I can imagine it's scary to see him coming for them. :)

Jason is #97

                                                                                                                                    

                                         

I thought this was a fun picture too because he gave it a huge effort to block the kick.

                                       


They won 41-0.  It's sad to see them demoralize a team, but it's also fun to watch them play.  They don't always get a whole lot of play time if we're not winning. We've been completely whooped before too so I guess what comes around goes around.

Dinner Prep

The boys helped me with dinner prep today.

Jason helped before church and was completely grossed out by the texture of the pork roast, but was a willing participant.  I thought his choice of apron was funny. (why did he bypass the Harry Potter aprons?)

They both shucked corn and I wrote down the conversation...

 Nate: I'm the head shucker in the family.  Remember how much I used to love shucking corn? 

Me: Yep.  You were a great shucker for sure.

Nate: That was before I realized it was a chore.

Homecoming Dance

Allie went to Homecoming with Dawson Summers.  I thought she looked beautiful in her green dress. 

Dawson is 6'5" so she could wear her tallest shoes and still look short. 

 For their day date, they went to do mud go cart racing. 

                                      

                                    

                                     

They also made their own pizzas for their dinner.

She has a fun group of friends!

Homecoming Game

Mike got back from Star Valley just in time for us to load up and go to the game.  The boys got into their jerseys to support the team.

I don't have many good pics of Allie tonight because it got dark fast and I never found a good place to stand and take pics.  So she's a base on the right of this frame.  

She sure is a beauty out there!

We went over to the visitor side of the stadium after half time to sit by my friend, Nancy, who was there watching her daughter cheer.  It was fun to see the Sky View crowd from that perspective.  The stands were crammed full till the end of the game.  It was a bit of a nail biter.  There was less than one second on the clock and Mountain Crest went in to kick a field goal.  Their kicker is really good, so Mountain Crest fans were just sure that they were going to tie things up.  But it went too much to the left and Sky View was elated to have won their Homecoming game.  The boys loved watching and it was a great night to be out enjoying football.  Am I becoming a fan?

 

Sam's Friends

We have met up with Sam's heart friends for 15 years now (Diana and I brought Lisa in 13 years ago). We used to meet up often, but it became just once a summer for the last 10 years or so.  This summer was crazy busy and we didn't make time to get together until today.  We met up for lunch without the kids. With Jake on a mission and the others getting too old and busy, we were just glad to be able to get together as moms.  We talked about our kiddos and caught up on life.  The time passed quickly and it wasn't enough, but we did take a picture and feel like teenagers with our .5 shot. :) 

I'm so grateful that Merideth, Sam, and Cale brought us together!  They're friends that I probably wouldn't have stumbled upon any other way and they're ones that I love and always will. So thanks kiddos!

Sam

 15 years today.  Cute little Sam baby came into our lives and changed us all.  It's so crazy to think he'd be a freshman.  Allie would be giving him rides to school.  All the little freshman girls would be buttering her up to introduce them to her cute little brother (how would he not be the most handsome freshman at the school?!) 

I met someone a few months ago who is carrying a baby with a terminal diagnosis.  I was able to cry with her and tell her about Sam and the wonderful and also agonizing parts of having him come to our family. I just went down the rabbit hole of reading his blog.  It's crazy how memory works. I really don't remember writing most of those things. I'm so grateful for the record. 

This blog has been a blessing for my family.  The kids love to look back at it and I love reminding myself of the things that consumed my thoughts and made me the person I am today. I always resolve to continue, but I also choose other things that keep me away from writing.  I really need to be better.

Back to Sam...I love that he still has an impact on people.  Allie was in Africa, visiting a woman who was living in very humble circumstances and as Allie visited with her, she knew her brother was there with her.

As I talked to my new friend who will be having her baby in a matter of a few weeks, I could tell her that I wish she didn't have to go through this trial.  I could tell her that I wished her baby could have been healed.  I could tell her all those things, but I loved that I could tell her that I wouldn't change a thing about my experience with Sam.

I wouldn't change that my kids have grown up knowing that Heaven is real. They know that Sam still lives. They have felt him check in with them and bring them comfort.

They know that when they are feeling weak, they have a brother who is cheering them on.  

We all know that Jesus is our Savior. We know that He knows our pains and cheers us on in all that we do. But how lucky are we to know that our cute Sam is there too. I like to picture him taking friends to listen as Jake teaches discussions in the Philippines.  

I like to picture him meeting the people we do temple work for. I like to imagine him being proud of his siblings when they go to the temple or speak in church.

I love knowing that he got to be there to say hello to Grandpa Joe when he moved on from this life. He probably dragged my dad along with him so he could have both his grandpas together again.

I love that he knows Heidi. 

I just feel so blessed to have had him in my life and to know that he's still with us and always will be.

So happy birthday Sam boy!  I love you so much and am so glad you came into our lives 15 years ago!

 

First Days!

First day of school for these kiddos! 

Nate was the first one out the door.  He is big man on campus now in 8th grade.

He's looking forward to orchestra and PE.  Those are his favorite classes for sure, but he's pretty happy to be going back to school.  He likes seeing his friends and having that routine.

Allie headed out next.  She didn't have to leave at 5:30 for practice, so she got to sleep in and get ready at her own pace. 

She performed in an assembly so she had to wear her cheer uniform and bring her clothes to change into.

She's looking forward to cheering at the games and making fun memories with her friends for her senior year.

Jason was the last to go. It's his second year on the bus without Nate and this year there were tons of kids at the bus stop.  It's crazy how things fluctuate in the neighborhood.

Jason is looking forward to being one of the oldest kids in elementary.  He also thinks it will be fun to change classes for the different subjects.  They rotate teachers to start getting used to having lots of different classes in middle school.

I had a dentist appointment right after Jason left, so I rushed off to that.  I didn't have any time to be alone in the house before Allie was back home for lunch with a few of her friends.

I made them sandwiches and listened as they talked about the first day.  They're a cute pack of girls.

I made Allie pose again so I could document the clothes she wore after she changed out of her cheer uniform.

Lily and Isabelle were good sports to pose with her.

Last year for all of these girlies!  I won't get emotional about it all.  I'll just be excited for them. I loved my senior year and have memories that I still look back on with happiness. So I wish that for all of them.

I hope all the kids have a great school year.

They're capable of doing well and they're such good kids.  I'm proud of them all and so grateful that they're mine.  I'll claim any friends that I can as well and look forward to watching them accomplish awesomeness.

2024-2025 school year is starting out great! Life is good.
 

Update on the Smoot House

Allie had Tuesday morning off from cheer so we burned up to Star Valley to see if we could get some work done on the house.  I feel like we're getting through some of the worst of it and now we're close to being able to make things better.  It was encouraging that when we walked through the door, it didn't stink. (We are crossing our fingers that we've fixed that problem).

We tore out the carpet in the back bedrooms.

It wasn't pretty.  Years and years of spills and mouse poop.  Ugh.

But underneath the carpet was a beautiful hard wood floor. The red oak floor has many different colors of paint and it tells the story of the family who lived in it.  We're hoping to be able to strip it down and save it.  Mike's called a company who will come next week and sand it down.

So we spent today pulling tack strip and nails from all over.  It's not finished, but we got started.

Allie pained Joe's room.  She's good at just getting in there and getting it done.

The boys pulled nails and were great at the heavy lifting of old nasty carpet.

I spent the day helping where I could, but I was also sorting through Joe's old clothes and other things.  I set aside some shirts and I'll make some pillows with them. He's funny...when he found a shirt that he liked, he bought several of them. Same size, same color. So now I know why it seemed like he was always wearing the same shirt...he was.  :)

I got emotional when I went through his hospital bag.  He went to the hospital so much in the last 6 years that he had a bag already packed with everything he'd need and he just had to take it along when he went.  I miss him and wish he could see what we've done with the place.

He was content living here and didn't think things needed to be fixed up, but we're ready to clear the place of mice and mouse poop.  We'll see what we can do to make it feel clean and welcoming.  I'm sure he'd be happy with the end result.

It wasn't all work for Allie.  She got to take off and go fishing.  Nate did too.  This is the pic Allie sent me. She caught a few and Nate blamed her when he didn't catch any.  Never mind that he went 2 hours after her, he blamed her for scaring the fish off.  :)

It was a quick trip up and back because Allie had to be at a game and the boys had practice.  We stopped at the landfill and added more to the pile there.  I hate knowing I'm contributing to all of that, but I guess that's the price of making the house more beautiful.

I hope we have some awesome "after" pictures to share soon.

Update on the House

The framers are finished! 

Tonight, when we got to talk to Jake on the phone, Mike did it from the comfort of the upstairs. 

We love going up there to see the sunset. It's been fun to have easy access with the stairs.  We don't have to ride in the scissors lift anymore. :)

The most exciting part is this...

 Topper came over and wired in the ovens so I can bake as usual this week. It's plugged into the same outlet as the air conditioner so we can't run them both at the same time, but I'll just cool the house off as much as I can and then bake.  Should be awesome!  

People keep asking when it will be finished. I feel like I did when I was 9 months pregnant. Everyone wants to know when the baby will be here and you just don't know. No one wants that baby here more than the momma who feels how uncomfortable it is to exist with a baby who seems to be gaining weight by the day.  

Our house is uncomfortable. We are stuffed to the brim with garage stuff. We had to re-arrange the food storage room and take out all the stuff that we had stored under the stairs. So we are just stuffed to the brim with junk. It's going to be so nice to be able to put it all away and clean things up. But for now, we'll just be patient. We'll keep walking past the mess and try to ignore how annoying it is to have electric scooters charging in the hall next to our bedroom.

We just feel so lucky to be able to do all of this.  It will be so nice in the end.  And now that my ovens are plugged in, I can just chill out and be patient for the rest.