Micky's Greenhouse

This deserves a post all to itself. Aunt Mickey has built the most amazing greenhouse in her back yard. Devan and I are going to move into it as soon as she gets some heat and a refridgerator in there.

Up the stairs...

And down the stairs...

Coolest thing I've ever seen in my life. Don't lie, you want one too, huh?

What a week of thanksgiving

This was our year to go to Washington for Thanksgiving and we got to spend an entire week there! (Such is the glamorous life of the unemployed) Some of my favorite images of the week:

Thanksgiving was lovely. My sweet aunt Dena (my dad's sister) was so kind to invite my mom and her siblings to have dinner at her house. It was so nice to only have to go one place for Thanksgiving. The food was amazing and the company was even better. After the meal was over, Hannah got to meet cousin Maddie's dog, Danny. He was all over her and she loved it!

We got to spend part of the day on Friday with my dear Heather and her family.

Hannah likes Nathan. I love how she really goes for it. Totally my daughter.

Nathan is a whole year younger than Hannah, you can't tell, can you?

This is my "hung-over from Thanksgiving food" look.

It was so great to see Heather. I hate her living in Oregon.

Later that night we saw Zoolights with Dad and Grandma. It was spectacular.

Devan made sure the extra blankets stayed nice and warm. Not the least bit ashamed, either.

4 generations of Smiths

Such a great trip. So excited to start thinking about Christmas!

Yoga and Soup

We learned some new things today

Hannah was a big help in preparing our turkey stock.

But she had to be careful because was hot.

Yep, still hot.

We did a little yoga before bed.

And when we got tired of yoga...

we had some "hot dog races"

Fun day. We're excited to eat our soup tomorrow! If you're in the neighborhood, stop on by!

Just an Update

We had a pretty fun week. The beginning was hard for me because I had two tests and a research paper all due on Wednesday and of course I didn't start doing work for anything until the weekend before. To make it worse, this was a really hard chapter of math for me. I'd sit and work for 20 minutes on a problem, want to bang my head against the table and then have to take a break. Devan was really good about taking Hannah away to let me study. This is how well that went...

There's more, but I think you get the point.

But now it's all over. I don't know how I did on anything, but at least its done.

This week we bought 33 pounds of wheat and took some of it over to Devan's friend's mom's house and she ground it into flour for us. Devan has been having a lot of fun playing with our whole wheat flour (He's the bread maker in the family. I'm still learning.) Monday and Thursday nights he made us some half-wheat cinnamon rolls and Friday he made some yummy rolls. I'm so proud of him. When we first got married it was a struggle just to get him to eat whole-wheat bread. And now, he was arguing that we should make whole wheat cinnamon rolls instead of half-wheat. What a guy.

They turned out delicious, so delicious that we had to make sure we gave most of them away immediately.

Cinnamon Rolls were dinner on Monday.

This was Taco Tuesday at our house

And Chinese food on Wednesday (and yes, she did wear the same shirt for like three days in a row)

This new independent eating thing is going swimmingly.

Thursday she finally changed her clothes and got a ponytail in her hair for the first time, and I didn't care anymore that she's a messy learner.

Friday we took Hannah for a drive. She had no idea how great it was going to be

We all went for a walk in the mountains around Draper

I love how it looks like she's glowing in this picture -- like a little angel

Friday night I went to an event called "Time out for Women", which is sponsored by Deseret Book Company. It's a two day event, but a friend of mine couldn't make it on Friday night so she gave me her ticket. It was a refreshing spiritual feast. Two very smart, very funny women spoke and then we got to hear from Jenny Oaks Baker, a concert violinist who I absolutely love. I didn't get the tickets until a few days before the event, so I wasn't able to find anyone to go with me. I asked 5 or 6 people (and then there were a couple I already knew were working or out of town) and they all had valid reasons why they couldn't go, but it still left me feeling a little like a loser. I almost didn't go, but I knew it would be good for me. As I got close to downtown where it was being held, I realized about half the women on the train with me were going there too. There was such an excitement in the air. I was surprised at how many people were there. I heard the total was about 3,300 women.

As I sat alone in the auditorium full of women, the realization dawned on me that everyone in that room was just like me. We all have the same fears of inadequacy and rejection. Most women find it hard to reach out to eachother and build meaningful friendships. Realizing this made me commit myself to being a better friend to those who may feel alone and not having such weird hang ups when I occasionally have to go to something alone.

This night was exactly what I needed. A lot was said about living up to your potential and finding out what you were specifically sent to earth to do and then doing it. I left feeling so wonderful and determined to be better than I am. I wish I could go every year, but the tickets are almost $60 for the two day event, so I'll probably never go again. I'm so grateful I was given this opportunity.

Now I'm off to bed. I have a 21 pound turkey half submurged in ice water in my kitchen sink right now. I really hope it's thawed by morning. I have to put it in the oven first thing in the morning for a Thanksgiving dinner at church tomorrow night. Eeek! Devan and I have an alarm set for every half hour all night long to get up and make sure the water is still cold and to flip the turkey. I'll let you know if our dinner tomorrow consisted of turkey popsicles.

First Snow

This morning we had an activities committee meeting at our house. We made pancakes and eggs and Lisa's amazing apple strudel muffins. When the other people got there I asked if it was cold outside and they said, "No, not really." Later that day we took a nap and woke up to this.

So beautiful.

Hannah got to go out and play in the snow for the very first time. She didn't quite know what to think of it at first.

She spent a lot of time staring at the ground. Then she got excited.

Dad "taught" her how to throw snowballs...

Look how ready she is to take it

Dad left to get the mail. We weren't too happy about that

All this fun snow and she still wanted to play on the playground

Then we went inside and that lucky little girl got some hot chocolate in her sippy cup.