Smiths Still Adventuring

Lee and I went on a trip! And spent 2 nights and 3 days away from the kids (thanks, mom!) It was awesome! We were celebrating our 9th anniversary, and since I have already decreed that for our 10 year I want to use my passport, I thought it would be fun to travel somewhere for 9 as well (and Southwest had great deals on flights to New Orleans). Here is a list of where we have stayed for our previous anniversaries... 2000 - The Crescent , Dallas 2001 - The Crescent , Dallas (saw Angie Harmon and Jason Seahorn on their wedding weekend) 2002 - Castle in northern England 2003 - Hotel Zaza , Dallas 2004 - Wildwood Inn , Denton 2005 - The Mansion on Turtle Creek , Dallas 2006 - Spring Creek Ranch , Jackson Hole, Wyoming 2007 - Hacienda Las Barrancas , Santa Fe 2008 - W Hotel, Dallas 2009 - W Hotel, New Orleans We woke up Monday morning, April 27th, to thunder. That is never good when you are planning to go on a plane! We had a perfect plan of dropping off the kids at school, parking th...

I have always loved garage sales and Madeleine has a new love for them as well. Here are some of our recent garage sale finds on Madeleine. Both the leotard and boots are from a few weeks ago and this past weekend we got some roller skates! Another fun activity for me is to see how the kids make toys out of any and/or everything. Madeleine had the great idea of putting all of Everett's stuffed animals in his crib, and then on the floor into a pile so they could jump on them. Then, Madeleine wanted to try this in her own room. It did take a while before Madeleine was willing to put the stuffed animals back where they go. And, we are not allowed to purchase stuffed animals at garage sales because we have too many!

Madeleine has been going to ballet every Saturday since September and loves it. Here are some pictures from the recent ballet recital, Madeleine and Sydney were gumdrops on the candyland express. After Madeleine's performance she wanted to watch the other 27 dances. I did not realize how many classes meet at the Dallas Ballet Center ! Madeleine had to have her hair in a bun, and wear lip liner, rouge, and blue eyeshadow!

This is yesterday morning as Everett was waking up Madeleine...

I recently heard Bishop Robert Schnase, author of Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations , share material for his work-in-progress next book, Five Practices of Fruitful Living. Here are some notes that I took… Obstacles to us receiving/accepting God’s love: What keeps us from God? We have a fast forward lifestyle. There are high tech sounds and sensations all around us. We live in a fast forward motion in our physical world. We invest time, passion, and energy in things that do not merit it. We surf the internet and change the channels on the TV remote without purpose. We must swim in our celebrity culture daily. Watching TV is good because it provides fantasy and relaxation, but where does a pattern of years of unreflective life lead us? Think of someone that you admire. Do you admire that person because of all the things they purchase? The extra hours they spend at work? The hours they spend on the internet? The celebrity facts that they know? None of these leads to a rich life tha...

What a wonderful Easter! Here are some pictures from our Easter... Pictures from the Smith gathering at Aunt Patty's in Denison. This is the pinata, youngest children get to swing first. Everett and Lee egg hunting, the trick is to call them balls and then Everett gets them. Lee with the kids me and Madeleine

I have had this dish for a long time. My grandpa Nicholls got it from the Chantal outlet in Houston. My grandpa died in the summer of 2002, but he had lived a mile away from me since I was in 7th grade. I used to go to his house after school, he would often pick me up from junior high. When I think about my grandpa Nicholls I think of his incredible cooking. He would make me chocolate chip cookies that were the most delicious, buttery filled goodness made from heaven. His mashed potatoes and swiss steak were melt in your mouth yum. Grandpa's secret for his mashed potatoes was "to beat the hell out of them" after they had boiled for 20 minutes. Grandpa's cooking abilities began out of necessity after his wife died when I was just 6 months old. My mom always told me that my grandma had said that she was going to live until she saw me, and she did. My grandpa was instrumental in my life. Having him live so close to us helped me to get to know him better and he...

Last Thursday was Madeleine's monthly preschool art class at the Dallas Museum of Art and we ventured to the downtown branch of the Dallas Public Library. This 8 story building has a reputation of being populated with many of Dallas' homeless and we did observe a few folks outside of the library in makeshift beds. The library is huge and there is an entire floor dedicated to children's literature. Madeleine and I were the only non employees on the 2nd floor last Thursday when people started to congregate in the area reserved for storytime. Then the group of school children, then the news crews, then the mayor, then ... Deion Sanders! They were kicking off a reading effort (or something, it was hard to pay attention because Madeleine was not interested!) but Deion read The Little Engine that Could . I was amazed at how small Deion was, no huge muscles, no huge height, he seemed ... normal. Maybe he's the little engine that did! Madeleine loved the entire shelf...

Recently when Lee and I were on a date at a restaurant we decided that our hobby is eating out at different restaurants. I love to get my D Magazine or Texas Monthly and cut out articles about new restaurants in Dallas that they recommend. I also love the D Best reviews of restaurants and the Dallas Observer Best of Dallas . I had amassed a large pile of these cut out articles, so this past weekend I decided to write down in the computer all of the restaurants that I wanted to try. I included restaurants that I had been to before if the article recommended a certain dish that I wanted to try. I have 179 restaurants in Dallas and Fort Worth that I either 1) have not been to and want to try or 2) have been to and want to try a certain dish, dessert, or cocktail that was recommended. I do not know how I feel about the large number of restaurants that are on my list, but I do love to eat! (Thank God for Weight Watchers!) Through this adventure I found a lot of parks that had been...

Last Thursday my brother-in-law Andy and I took the 4 kids to the zoo! They had a great time and I'm not sure if they enjoyed the zoo more (not many animals were out, it was cold and late in the afternoon) or playing with their cousins more... Here they are with the penguins.