Wisdom teeth are HUGE!

I just got back from taking Kiah to get her wisdom teeth taken out. They wrapped her teeth up in a nice little packet and gave them to me. I took one look and had to put them away. It's been so long since I had mine taken out that I don't even know if my parents kept mine or not but those things are HUGE. No wonder we have to have them taken out, there wouldn't been any space in our mouth for them. I feel bad that we had to wait for our insurance to roll over again for the new year, because by the time I took her in, they had all pushed up through the skin. She was scheduled for tomorrow and today I called to see if there was any way to get her in because she's been in so much pain. Luckily they had a cancellation and were able to fit Kiah in. She was one loopy person when they wheeled her out to the car. She kept poking at her lips and gum's. I would tell her to just lay back and sleep but she would pull the mirror down and poke at her face and try to talk to me and say how huge her face was. It was a bit entertaining to say the least. I had my wisdom teeth taken out when I was 16. My parents didn't have the greatest dental insurance and had to pay for it out of their pocket. They weren't so happy to hear I had 6 wisdom teeth. It was a joke for a long time that I couldn't just have 4 like everyone else but that I had to have 6 and it was 100$ a tooth. My dad only had 2, his parents were probably very happy. I think Kiah will do great and recover fast. She has a pretty high pain tolerance and she is young. It's just hard to watch her go through all these steps that get her closer to leaving the house. Like turning 16, dating, driving, next year she's a senior, getting her wisdom teeth taken out. All those teenage milestones that get her closer to becoming an adult. I will have to take some good photo's later of her, swollen cheeks and all.

Photo's from a funeral

I hope a couple of these photo's aren't looked at as morbid but that you can sense the happiness that we all felt at Grandma Smith's funeral knowing that she was with her husband and parents and other family members that have passed on. These photo's show the great posterity she left and the family that came together to honor her and her life.

Softly and Tenderly Jesus is Calling

Mark's sweet Grandma Smith passed away last Sunday and we drove to Rigby, Idaho for the funeral on Wednesday. Her daughter-in-law and two of her granddaughters sang the song "Softly and Tenderly Jesus is Calling" at the funeral as per her request. It was hard to not cry and also hard to not have a big smile on our faces because she has been ready to go for a long time. Her first husband passed away when Mark was probably a year old and then her second husband passed away in 1992. She has missed him very much and has said for the longest time that she was ready to go and be with her "Howard." She also loved to tell us that she could be taken at any moment because she was humble after all. We haven't seen Grandma Smith for a few years because of her health and because of the distance. We were in her area last Thanksgiving and would've gone to see her but she didn't know who anyone was anymore and Mark wanted to remember her when she was spunky and had her memory. I think it would've been too hard to see her the way she has been the last few years. I wanted to list a few things that I remember about Beula and that I will treasure about her. When they had the Teton Dam flood in 1976 there was tons and tons of fabric that people thought had been ruined by the flood and people were just going to throw it away. Mark's Grandparents (being the resourceful people they were) knew they could wash it and reuse a lot of it. Grandma Smith washed tons of fabric and cloth and made quilts for people who had lost blankets due to the flood and then later she made quilts for her family. We have a quilt with some of that material. Mark's Grandma also made our wedding cake. It was three layers and was beautiful. It had red roses on it. Her and Howard also cooked a lot of the food that we had at our reception. Grandma Smith loved her flower garden and took care of it with such love and grace. The flowers in her backyard were immaculate. Grandma Smith also had rows and rows of raspberries. If we ever stopped by her place in the summer we would go outside and pick raspberries and sit and eat in the backyard and talk to her. She wouldn't let us leave without taking some jars of bottled raspberries. They were delicious.Grandma also flew out to California when Kiah was baptized and then when we went to the Temple with Sofia later that day. She was so happy to be there with us and her family. Grandma Smith had many trials in her life and a lot of them brought on by her own family members but she never gave up and her faith never wavered. Mark's uncle Doug and his family did a video one night a few years ago of Grandma and interviewed her, they wanted to ask a bunch of questions about her life before she couldn't remember anymore. They asked at the end of the CD what she would like to tell her family, that she would want them to remember. She said " to always stay close to their Heavenly Father and to always bear their Testimony of him." Then they asked if she would like to sing a song and she sang the one I mentioned above. It was so sweet. She will be missed but at the same time, she lived a full life. She was 86 when she passed away. We all know she is with her "Howard" and as happy as can be.

My baby is growing up!

Miles lost his first tooth this past week. His permanent tooth had popped up behind his baby tooth and the baby tooth had been loose for a while. Sofi came home one day and told Miles that his baby tooth was bleeding and could she wipe it with some toilet paper? He is not wise to the ways of an older sister that has had this same trick pulled on her by her dad. She grabbed the tooth of course and yanked it out without him knowing that she did it on purpose. He just thought it came out on it's own. He was so excited and is still excited that he lost a tooth and had the visit from the Tooth Fairy ( 5$ was not my idea, that was Mark's). Sofi sewed a little pouch for him to put under his pillow for the tooth to go in. It was very cute to watch Sofi get all excited and to get Miles more excited than he already was. It's amazing how fast the teeth start to move. His big one is already moving up to where it's suppose to be. Now another is popping up behind a baby tooth. I think the kid is going to need braces. For right now though I'm enjoying these 1st's with my youngest and trying not to think about the day when he will be bigger and when he's not my baby anymore.

Oh no you didn't!!

While at Kiah's state drill competition last month Sofi played with the silly putty that I bought for her and Miles. The competition was an all day event and I knew they would get bored so I packed some things to play with. Silly putty should be safe right? Wrong when your 9 year old thinks it would be funny to put it on her dad's hairy arm. I love the look on his face though and her head peeking through like "am I in trouble?" It took him a while to get it all out and he lost some hair. I thought it was pretty funny actually but then it didn't happen to me.

High Tea with my girls

We went to Vancouver Island for Spring break last week. The first part of the trip we backpacked out to Mystic Beach (which is very beautiful) and the second part was spent in Victoria,BC. There is a Hotel there, the Empress Hotel and it's famous for it's High Tea. Kiah and Sofi wanted to have High Tea but I wasn't about to spend 45$ per person for them to experience it. We instead found a cute little place called the "James Bay Tea Room." It was very cute and quaint and charged 16$ per person instead of the highly overpriced Empress Hotel(which is cool to walk through and walk around the grounds). These are some pic's of our Tea time. They have all these yummy little sandwiches and crumpets with jam. They have herbal tea or caffeinated tea, you choose what you want. I have to explain that the photo at the end is Sofi sad that the tea and all the goodies are gone. I had to add it because Sofi loves to drink hot tea. It's all herbal of course but she drinks it when she gets sick, when it's cold outside and even when it's hot. The girl loves tea with sugar and now that she discovered tea/cream and sugar she wants me to fix it at home. It was a nice time spent with Kiah and Sofi. They were very cute. It was a beautiful day. The only bad part was when I coughed so hard (I'm still dealing with bronchitis) that tea came out my nose. I ran outside to cough so that I didn't scare any of the old people that were there having their tea and crumpets (I think we were the only young people there).

My baby keeps getting older!

Kiah(my oldest) turned 17 today. Next year she will be a senior and then out of the house. I can't believe she is already 17 though. I've always associated this time of the year with three things and all of them to me, mean "life, hope and love." I associate this time of the year to those things because Kiah was born on April 3, it's always around Easter and when she was born it was Conference weekend and here we are again with it being conference weekend. I don't want to brag about Kiah on here (because I could ya know, I am a bit bias and I will brag with photo's instead, hee hee). Except to say she amazed me as a baby, a toddler, in Elementary school, Middle school and now High school years. I love her with all my heart. She means the world to me. Happy Birthday Kiah!





That's my girl!!!