A NEW PARK!

We had a very special visitor at Lauren's soccer game this weekend. Great-grandma Margaret came a watched the Wildcats in action! She is 89 years old!

Hi everybody, I know it's been a long time. Life is just so crazy with 4 girls, and our camera broke. So our big news is this is our new house!. We should be moving in about 2 weeks. So with school and soccer for Gracie and Lauren, now I also have to pack. We our really excited, it is a beautiful area, right up against the foothills. The development actually backs to the National Forrest. Kyle's sister Kendra and her husband Nick, are buying a house 20 houses down that will be done in Dec., and the Reynolds will be moving in above us in Oct. It's going to be a lot of fun. Kyle's partner Rhami and his wife our also looking to buy there. So it will be even more crazy around here for the next couple of weeks. When we are in we will have everyone over for a party.!

There is this new thing called a meme that is basically a chain letter for blogs. I have to write 8 random facts about myself and then tag 8 more people to write about themselves.

The rules
1. I have to list the rules first.
2. They need to be 8 random facts
3. I need to tag 8 people at the end.
4. Each person I tag needs to blog 8 facts about themselves.
5. Don't forget to let the tagged people know they have been tagged.

So here goes 8 random facts about us.

Fact 1- When Kyle was younger he got in a lot of trouble for playing show and show. My favorite story is when he called all his friends into the bathroom at school. He then put on quite a show for them. He stood behind the stall door and stuck his penis out so that was all you could see. He got called to the principles office on that one. When he was in 5th grade he drew a picture of ninja's fighting, apparently it looked like instead of hands punching the bad ninja's face that he intended, the adults thought that it was the good ninja's penis. So I guess it's good we have all girls.

Fact 2- Kyle is the only person I have ever kissed. When we first started dating I was terrified. Kyle had quite a reputation as a ladies man at our church. In fact my Mom was warned he would break my heart by a couple of people while we were still in Hungary.(That's were we started dating.)

Fact 3- When my sister Dawn was pregnant with her daughter Devon I suggested they name her Sophia. I thought it was a beautiful italian name that would go with their very italian last name, Verlingieri. My brother-in-law said no way. He thought it was an old lady name.

Fact 4- When I was younger I wanted to marry someone who could sing and play guitar, because I thought that was so romantic. The funny thing is, I don't really care for music, I don't like concerts that much at all. Then when I met Kyle he had just learned how to play the guitar and started leading worship. I really thought he was going to be a worship minister and not a doctor. On the subject of music, Kyle and I shared one C.D. in common(I only owned like 4, and he had like 100). I bet you can't even guess. It was They Might be Giants. Our girls now have their abc video they made for kids.

Fact 5- When we got married we thought we would probably have only 2 kids. Then it was just so addicting. We love having kids. If we had unlimited time and money we would have more.

Fact 6- When I had my bridal shower we played a game where I had to match Kyle's answers. I hardly got any of them right. I found out later that Kyle wanted to make it hard for me! So all those people who came where probably thinking "Wow she doesn't know him at all." I felt like such a dork. One of the only questions I got right was what animal would Kyle be. I said dolphin and so did he at first. But after Kevin and Ryan made fun of him he changed it to tiger.

Fact 7 -My biggest pet peeve, when someone asks if we are going to keep trying for a boy. WE WERE TRYING FOR A BABY, AND NO WE ARE NOT GOING TO TRY FOR A BOY. WE ARE THRILLED TO HAVE FOUR BEAUTIFUL DAUGHTERS! Thanks for asking.

Fact 8- I sing to my girls all the time. I just make up songs. Funny because I don't like people to sing to me.

Now I'm going to tag:
Darlene- you have a blog use it
Dawn- this is a great way to start
Debbie- I can't leave you out
Jen R-I figure if I tag you too then you have to do it.
Darby- this is a great way to start too.
Evan- I know you read this
Pikes- can't wait to see what you have to say
Armstrongs- see Darlene

Lauren is almost through with 1st grade. She is my star. She is super competative like her parents. She reads everything, (Junie B. is her favorite) we can't spell anything out loud any more. She loves Hannah Montana, Zack and Cody, and High School Musical. She loves to draw and color. She loves the outdoors, swimming and monkey bars. She is always leading her sisters on new adventures. She is very sensative and a perfectionist. She has nicer hand-writing then I do. She loves fashion and clothes. She will try anything once, any kind of food or anything her Dad can think up. She loves Disneyland, mostly the rides only she is tall enough for. Her favorite places are Cancun and Yosemite. She is still BFF's with Devon, Kenna, and Lizzie. She can ride her bike without training wheels, and is a little dare-devil.(She scares Kyle and I all the time.) She is getting so big, it seems like only yesterday that we found our we were having a girl. She will be 7 in August, time just goes by so fast. We love her and our so thankful for her.(Hopefully I will post pictures from her last day of school soon.)

These are pictures from Isabels last day of her 2's class. She is getting so big. She is my ball of fire. She answers everything with "I know it", no matter what you just told her. She finishes singing the abc's with "next time you will sing with me" It makes me laugh everytime I hear it, because that is how she thinks. She lives to chase the boys, and play in the dirt. But she also loves make-up and dresses. She thinks she's as big as her sisters and sings Hannah Tanna(Hannah Montana) songs at the top of her lungs. We love her and she always keeps us on our toes.

It was Gracie's last day of pre-school this week. They had a waterballon fight with 4,000 waterballons. One Mom spent 6 hrs. filling 2500. It was pretty crazy. Gracie loved it, but Isabel just wanted to watch. The pictures are of Gracie's teachers Miss Cari and Miss Heather. They were great, they are also Isabels teachers this year and next year. I can't believe my little Gracie is going to start real school next year. She is my little sunshine. She loves to take care of Sophia and always has a smile and hug for everyone. Her favorite word is "actually". She is a free spirit who just does her own thing. She loves to wear bright colors and boots. She will just lose herself in the moment. She laughs easily and often. She loves fast rides at disneyland, and only eats chicken. We adore her and are so glad she is a part of our family. That's just a little bit about her.

Sophia turned 1. We had her party on her actual birthday. We rented the bouncer-slide again, and it was a big hit with all the kids. I can't believe she is one already. The year has just flown by. I'm trying to cherish all the baby moments because I know it would last very much longer. She is standing up by herself but will not take a step. When she does stand up she expects everyone to clap for her. She has become quite the little diva. She has her three different crawls that she uses to get around, and she seems happy with that. She says "Mama, Dada, Uh-oh(her favorite), Thank you(dah- do), and what. We are working on bye-bye. She loves to give hi-fives, and raspberries. She is such a blessing to our family. We are so thankful for all our beautiful girls.

For the girls birthday we took them to Libby-Lu's as a present from us. Gracie was a rock star, Isabel was a dancing queen, and Lauren was Hannah Montana. Too cute! Soph already looks like a little princess so no makeover was needed. Gracie also got choosen to do some Jedi training. Which she took very seriously, and carried her certificate everywhere for about 3 weeks. It was a lot of fun and we topped it off with dinner at the Blue Bayou. It was a great family celebration!

I know it has been a long time, but we have been busy! It was birthday season for the Smarts, 3 in 3 weeks. First up was Gracie's, she turned 5. She had a dog party, and we rented a bouncer-slide combo. As you can see from the pictures the kids had a blast. Isabel turned 3 two days later and she had her party at the Sawdust Factory. She got to put her hand print on the wall. It is so special to know it will be there for a long time. All the kids got to make a dog house or barn and choose an animal to go in it. As you can see all the creations turned out so cute. The best part no clean-up. More birthday posts next.

Here are the Easter pictures. Paul took them for me this week. I can't decide which one of Sophia I like better. So if anyone still reads this blog, help me out and vote for your favorite.

On saturday we had the Glitter Glam at Flipside. Lauren was a rock star, Gracie was a movie star and Isabel was a princess. They had so much fun. 107 girls came, only 30 had signed up, it was crazy. Lauren and Gracie are both with their friends named Madeline. After they got all made up, all the girls got to walk the runway. The picture of Lauren is her rock star pose. It was a great night, the girls loved it, and I loved watching them have so much fun.

I know it has been a long time, 4 girls keep you really busy. This is a picture from CBC's winter camp. Kyle was the speaker. Sophia, Isabel and I only lasted a night. Sophia decided see really didn't feel like sleeping in the cabin. She wasn't cranky, she just wouldn't sleep. Normally we would just let her cry, but we were all in one room so we had to keep her quiet or it would have been 4 girls not sleeping. Kyle, Gracie and Lauren stayed up at Camp Care while we came home. They had a great time playing capture the flag and all the other fun camp games. Kyle also helped with the music, so it was a busy weekend for him.

Happy Valentine's Day. Kyle worked till almost 10 on Valentine's day so we didn't do anything. I can't really complain because he gave me a beautiful mother's ring right before we went to New York, and we spent the whole weekend togeather. I did get to help the girls make their Valentines, and give them each a little something. We celebrated by getting McDonalds, which I think they liked much more then some romantic dinner. The pictures are from Gracie's pre-school party, which Isabel and I had a fun time visiting. It was a nice day, and I was very grateful to spend it with my girls.

We went to New York last weekend with our friends Bill and Carrie. Kyle suprised me for my birthday last month.
We had so much fun, I loved New York. I can understand why people love living there. There is so much to do in such a small area. I loved all the old buildings, they have so much character. We did so much, and only scratched the surface of what there is. We stayed at Times Square, right by all the shows. We saw Chicago and Spam-a-lot, went to the Empire State Building, Ground Zero, Statue of Liberty, the Met, Tiffanys, Chinatown, Little Italy, rode the Subway, took a bus tour of Manhatten and Harlem, and we could have stayed a week more and not seen everything. I can see how New York is part of the people who live there, like a family member. We can't wait to go back and take the girls when they get older.

Our good friends Darby and Barnard brought home this sweet baby girl on tues. They named her Bryawna, and we are so excited for them. Kyle and Barnard met as freshman in high school, and have done almost everything togeather. They went to college (first Texas then UCR) togeather, were in Medical school at the same time(on different sides of the country). Barnard was our Best man, and Kyle was his, they did their Internship year togeather at arrowhead. Barnard is now a surgeon and Kyle is F.P. And now they are both Fathers of beautiful daughters. Sophia is excited to have a new friend, and we are blessed to see such a miracle happen to our friends.

Christmas was a lot of fun this year, the girls are at such great ages. We spent 3 days opening presents this year. We started on the 23rd with my extended family, the 24th was my parents and sisters, then the 25th was Kyle's family. On the 26th Gracie asked where we were going to open our presents today. I had to explain that Christmas was over, she was pretty disappointed that it only lasted 3 days! We had a great time being with our families. Some of our favorite gifts were, passes to the zoo, Lauren's doll clothes(for Molly), Gracie's camera(which she sticks in Soph's face and blinds her), Isabel doll that talks, and Sophia's play camera. Here are some of my favorite pictures from Christmas morning.

Before school got out for winter break, the first grade at Caryn put on their annual christmas play, The Littlest Christmas Tree. Basically it is about a tree who is made fun of by all the other trees for being too small, but she is the only tree that knows the true meaning of Christmas, so Santa chooses her to be his tree. Lauren played the littlest tree, and sang a solo. She actually brought some of the parents there to tears with her song.(Not her own parents, but some really sensitive ones.) It was very cute, and Gracie got very upset that the other trees were teasing Lauren. We had to explain that Lauren was just pretending to be sad. We were very proud of our tree!