The Smith's Have Goats!

Gotcha!  Yes, the Smith's have (3) baby goats - it's just not these Smith's!  I'm not overly clever very often but I thought I was pretty clever with this one.

The other Smith's are the previous Bishop of our branch and his wife - Bill & Louise Smith.  (No relation - darn it!  They might not want to claim us but we would claim them in a heart beat.)  The have (3) three week old baby goats that they are bottle feeding.  They had invited anyone who wanted to come and see them and take a turn feeding them to come on by.  So come on by we did.






It was a Monday.  What better thing to do for FHE - thank you Macey for your insistence.  John was in Palm Beach Gardens for some partner meetings so he missed our little family 'farm' experience.  It would probably have brought back some fond memories of home.  He grew up on  a small farm.  I don't think he had goats as a child but they did have cows and chickens.

I had taken two of the young women to Joann's after school to pick out their TREK skirt & bonnet material.  One of the girls lived out in the same area as the goats so I offered to take her home.  We called the 'other' Smith's on our way and they said, "come on out!"  We had a blast in case you can't tell.  The kids thought they were in heaven.

Parker insists that's the life he wants to live - on a farm.  I've tried to impress upon him all the work that this would entail.  He seems to think it would be 'fun'!  He moans and groans when I ask him to let the dog out, mow the small backyard or take out the trash.  Mmmm - I think he would tire of 'life on the farm' real quick.

The Night the Lights Went Out in Florida!

One night just before dinner - the lights went out in Florida.  It was an odd occurrence since there wasn't a storm brewing.  Turns out it wasn't a wide spread blackout - just 45 houses in our area. John had a business dinner so no sweat for him!  What about the rest of us you ask.  Well we decided to rough it (no McDonalds's necessary).


Before it got too dark we dug out the flashlights and lantern, pillows and blankets and parked it on the front room floor, camping style.  They really wanted to break out the tent and set it up (uh, no!  wouldn't fit for starters and it was a school night - thankgoodness for me!)


We ended up fixing peanut butter sandwiches and enjoyed our little camping excursion right in our own front room.

Bowling Bonanza!

We had a long weekend with the kids being out of school on Monday & Tuesday.  We had considered going to Orlando but didn't really make firm plans (not unlike us).  It was probably a good thing though because Macey came down with a fever on Saturday through the morning hours of Monday.

So Monday our two choices were Miniature Golfing or Bowling.  We had decided on Miniature Golfing until we got in the car and on our way.  The sky had gotten quite dark & cloudy and it seemed like rain was in the near future - so we headed bowling.  Good choice as it did soon start pouring down.

John

Macey

Melanie

Parker

Macey won the first game and John won the second.  We had a really good time.  Perfect rainy day activity.

Ringing In The New Year 2011!

Ready to ring in the New Year!

Macey & Alli Gator

The coolest dog in the world!

Macey and Parker.

Got to make some noise.

Parker sipping some sparkling cider.

 

                     Sparklers for some nighttime fun. 

Our New Year's Eve was fairly laid back and spent with just the (4) of us.  We enjoyed our time together.  We had homemade hamburgers - best I've made, went on a walk, watched some football and a movie and watched the ball drop to ring in the NEW YEAR 2011 and wave goodbye to 2010!

Earlier that day - We slept in and then got going.  Parker went to work on a Scout Activity & Macey was invited along to play with her friend.  John headed off to the office for a few hours himself.  What to do?  I thought my time was limited so I didn't do much - normal things - straightening the house, dishes & laundry.

Nothing went according to plan so was somewhat of a wasted day for me.  Parker's friend that was going to come over got sick.  Since he didn't come I didn't go to pick Parker up from the Scout Activity early.  So they both stayed for the day basically.  I did get a letter mailed to Riley and a 'get-well' package off to Austin.  Then a  few returns done and groceries bought for the weekend.

I'm not sure if it had gone differently if I would have felt like diving in to a new project before the new year began - lazy I guess.  I know the list I have made for myself is a long one. 


 

B. . .Y. . .U . . . Cougars! Go Cougars!

We hope a little cheering from the very depths of Florida will give a boost to our BYU football team!  We love BYU football.  It is the one sport I can follow and actually know something about.  I can usually tell what the penalty is when it happens - offsides, pass interference, etc.

This is one of the first games we watched from our living room with Macey all decked out in all her BYU apparel!

 As a treat John bought tickets for all of us to attend the BYU vs. Florida State game played in Tallahassee, FL. We were able to attend the fireside put on by the BYU Football team the night before the game. It was literally standing room only. This is Parker & Macey after the fireside standing in front of one of the buses after the players had loaded.



Fall football in Florida = HOT! It was probably one of the hottest days we've had. We were all hot before the game even started!


Good thing we brought sweat rags to mop our brows! We took refuge during half time by the concessions in the shade trying to cool down a bit.