More about college.

Taking over exposed self portraits is all the rage!Here are some of our Manny, they sure are cute. She got her first ACT scores back and got a 31!!!!! Way to go Manny!! We are proud of you! This should open many scholarship doors especially since she has a 4.0 GPA too.
She has decided to take her senior classes at Skyline for the first half of the day and online classes the other half. She will do debate again next year and is looking forward to going to Nationals in debate June 12-22 in Kansas City, MO. They will also do some sight seeing in Nauvoo and St. Louis. It should be a super fun trip for her.
I can't believe that I only have a year till my baby girl leaves home and heads to college!! Maybe it will be Boise State, maybe some where else that gives her a nice scholarship, either way she is planning for the future--what an amazing girl!

Campaigning

Kieran used "Superman" "Man of Steele" as his campaign theme for 9th grade Student Body Officer. He received the third most votes which makes him Eagle Rock Student Body Secretary for the 2010-11 school year. Way to go Kieran!
He has enjoyed student council this year and although he would have preferred to be the Student Body President, he was happy that he did so well in the election.

The Ride

So here are some more pictures of Kerry's new "ride".
Not riding in this photo but looking sharp!
A quick spin to take some pictures but otherwise he wears the helmet. :)
Feel the wind through your hair! The freedom of riding a motorcycle. Kerry as really been enjoying his new bike. At the rate gas prices are rising, we may all need motorcycle transportation. $3.00 per gallon for regular unleaded!

Easter 2010

Easter came early this year, right after spring break, April 4th. It was a cold and snowy weekend. Roger and Peg stopped by on Saturday to bring us some Easter goodies just as we were coloring our eggs.
Look how pretty the eggs are!
Friday night the Easter bunny showed up, one day early. When I was a kid that used to happen too. Kason was thrilled to have an early Easter basket but a little disappointed that he didn't bring more goodies on Easter too.
Here are the baskets. The whole family got the Wii Fit. So far we have loved the Wii. Bowling and archery have been especially fun when we have friends and family over.

Skinny

This is Skinny. You can see how he got his name. He showed up the first day of spring break thanks to Kason's efforts. This was taken the third day of spring break. What a cold and snowy break!

College, coming to fast for me and not fast enough for Amanda.

Last week Amanda took a road trip to Boise with her friend Amanda Roos. I volunteered to go along but they wanted to give it a go on their own. Our Manny was invited to be a Boise State Capital Scholar based on grades and test scores, she visited the campus, took a guided tour, attended the banquet and was awarded a $5000 scholarship, $1000 usable each year at BSU. Not only were the girls perfectly capable of finding their way to Boise and the campus award banquet but the also found Panda Express and the mall with no problem. :)
They spent the night with Amanda R's grandparents, which was so nice of them, thank you. BSU is definately one of Amanda's top college choices and she was very impressed with the campus and student options there. With the ACT test taken, Amanda can start applying for more scholarships as soon as she gets her scores. Her freshman year is going to be here to soon, only one more year of high school left!

Somebody Steele

He may not have a job til summer, but this is a working boy. He has strait "A's" in his 8th grade classes and in his Algebra 2 class at Skyline. He plays in the orchestra and in a before school Symphonic group combining orchestra and band. He does track after school and yesterday took first in discuss and shot put (personal best in both) and ran the anchor in the 4x400 relay in which his team took first. He still finds time to play PS3 and take care of his dog. Also, he is running for Student Body President at Eagle Rock, the elections are next week.
Good job Kieran for always doing your best, we just wish you were home more so we could see you! :) I had to take a new picture of him so he would have something to use for the election. I am such a lame photographer mom not to take more pictures of my kids!

On my facebook page, Brandy Skaar, a mom of one of Kieran's friends posted this comment today. It is worth sharing.

Your son is an amazing athlete and a very neat kid.. I enjoyed watching him yesterday. When they were getting the line up for discs the coach would not attempt his name so he kept calling him Somebody Steele. After he threw I don't think he will forget his name. The look on he coaches face was price less. Kieran threw 115' and the next closes threw 77'. The rest of the meet we were all cheering on Somebody Steele. Hope you have a great day!

The Calendar 2010

Each year I put together a calendar for my family. It is a bunch of work I tell you to gather a picture of every member of my enormous family. Let's see that's right about 70 of us. Good thing I take lots of pictures. "The Smith Family Calendar" comes out in January. See, I just don't have time in December and January is a boring month anyway. So, it is a 13 month calendar, from January to January. It has all the birthdays and anniversary dates for each family member, a full calendar! This year I decided to do a collage page each month featuring one of my siblings. Yup, 12 siblings for 12 months. The above collage of my family got the 13th month spot. Here's a quick rundown on my brothers and sisters. Not in any order.
Tyson, born my senior year of high school, I came home from college every weekend just to see his smiling face. He is still one of the nicest people on the planet. He is in Arizona finishing his first year of medical school. If you even need to know anything about plants, he is the one to ask!
Sarah, one of the twins, was born when I was still 4 years old, giving my parents 5 daughters age 4 and younger. That's the year I learned how to change diapers, cloth ones with pins! Sarah is such a kind and wonderful sister, good at remembering special days. She is married to Mike (who loves Buell motorcycles) and they have their sweet little girl, Serena.
Valrie was born when I was a Junior in college! Twenty-one years between the oldest and youngest of my parents kids. She is still working on college and jobs and is married to Cody who is in California doing the college thing too. Valrie's great love and knowledge is horses, especially hers, Bently.
Rebecca is an woman of great inner strength. She has four beautiful girls and lives with her hunting and fishing loving husband, Travis, in Rigby. Only 4 of us live in or near Idaho Falls so it is nice to have her close enough to see regularly. Her green thumb is much more developed than mine. Flowers flourish so beautifully for her.
Nathan has always been energetic and fun. I was 8 years old when he was born, making 8 kids for my parents. Keeping busy with pediatric dentistry lets him have lots of fun as you can see by the pictures. I love his wife, Tiffany! I really enjoy visiting and hanging out with her. We wish they lived closer because their five kids are so terrific!
Ohio is too far away! Tharon and Alicia live there now with little Dakota and soon a new baby girl. I've only got to meet sweet little Dakota once and since they are moving soon to Chicago for Orthodontic school, we won't be seeing much more of them anytime soon. Tharon has always had this special way of flashing his charming smile and getting everything he wants. It has worked out very well for him, after all he has Alicia!
Adam and his talented and amazing wife Tina were just here for a visit. I sure wish I could cook like she does. Adam is a physician assistant in Eastern Washington, close to the Idaho border. He and Kerry can talk doctor talk and swap ER horror stories when they get together. Their five adorable kids are a hoot and are so so cute!
Thank goodness Jamie lives nearby! She helps me out so many times watching my kids after they get out of school. It is great to have sister-friends! Her three little girls have fun with my kids. We get to see them the most of any cousins. Virgil does our taxes for us which we really appreciate and lets face it, he is just an all around nice guy!
Golden and his beautiful and talented family live only 15 minutes from us! Yea! Shelby is just like a sister, I just have the best sisters-in-law!! I tell people all the time what a wonderful optometrist brother I have right here at the local Wal-mart. If you ever need some spur of the moment fun or games or acting skills or just some help, they are always willing and are only a phone call away.
DaNell and her great family just live entirely too far away. My kids match up in age with all of her kids but reunion time is just not enough to satisfy the need for cousin play time. It is not enough time for sister talking either. I love to visit with DaNell, she is well read and smart and a great writer too. Mark is the one person in the family who likes to talk about cameras and photography with me. I am glad someone else likes it!
Well, Rachel, Matt and their family only live 2.5 hours away now but, it seems farther. I am so glad her girls have been friends with my girls! Garren and Kason are friends too. Matt his hoping to take the two of them fishing someday soon and he took Kieran bird hunting last year too. I'm not keeping up with her though, her younger kids just won't have cousins their ages at my house. I am so glad that Rachel and I get to have phone visits. She is my great friend too!
Shelly spent more time at mom and dad's this past summer, it was great to see her more! She has accomplished a lot with school and is my only sister with a Masters Degree, way to go!! She is the oldest of the twins and I have always thought it was cool to have sisters that are twins.
This is the cover of the calendar with pictures of Mom and Dad. They got home from their mission almost a year ago and I have been so grateful to have them back! They are such great examples and parents for me! I am glad they taught me about the gospel and about hard work and about service. I am glad they gave me so many wonderful siblings. My brothers and sisters and my parents have been a huge blessing in my life!!

So I Put it in a Book.

A few weeks ago I ordered a book which is simply my blog printed out and bound. It was easy to do with "Shared Book". It was really fun to look through the last year of pictures and text from my blog. A journal of sorts for our family.
I should really blog more since it is the only journal I keep. Here are a couple of pages. Remember the baby bunnies, the quick trip to SLC, new pots, the first day of school and the start of football, all on two pages! Yup, those pictures really help me remember everything which is why I take them. My blog gives me a good spot to use them.
Yum, sugar cookies! Now I am getting hungry.
A busy year with fun, crazy and sad times. But now at least it is in the book!!

Shooting

Eventually in Idaho the spring tries to come, the snow melts, the wind blows and even though it is only 40 degrees it seems time for some outdoor fun.
We took the kids out and all had a blast shooting. I forgot my camera but the phone pictures turned out pretty good.
Here is Kason, a little nervous but doing well with the .22 pistol.
Lauren hit everything she tried for with the .22 rifle.
Kieran just loves all the guns!
Kerry must be a great teacher, or Lauren is just naturally a good shot.
Kieran with the 12 gauge, clay pigeon take flight, get it! Good!
Roger and Peg gave Kerry a thrower for Christmas. We finally got a chance to use it and it worked great! Pulling it was the fun part.
Everyone had a lot of fun.
But it was still chilly so the kid warmed up under the tonneau cover.
Lauren was a crack shot with her first ever shotgun experience too. She hit 3 of 4 clay pigeons.
She had so much fun, I think she'd like her own gun now!!