The Smithson family thinks to a different beat on a few things.  One being how the Christmas story is told.  Steven and myself love the traditions of the Nativity story but much of the story is just that– traditions that ADD too Scripture. We personally own three Nativity sets.  Steven loves to dote on the fact that they are ALL far from realistic.  I must admit we have gotten into a few light-hearted “arguments” over how we want the story told to our children.  Steven’s version– facts only.  Mine–  build the basics and then reveal the trivia later. I mean you don’t have to tell them Jesus wasn’t born in a stable when they are two!!!

Regardless, have you been able to do your research this year??  Do I have you totally bewildered by what I’m talking about??? Well here’s a little clip we loved so much we showed to the youth department this morning.  Igniter Media did a great job in capturing both truth and the real meaning of Christmas in this little diddy…  Enjoy!

You know you’re a mom when you look at having surgery as a vacation!!!   Sad huh!  Well just so you know the vacation ended this morning.  Monica must have crawled up in the bed with me because when I opened my eyes she was curled up behind me jabbering away.  She held up a diaper as though she wanted me to change her.  I was awake enough to realize Steven wasn’t in bed so of course as the good responsible mommy– NOT!— said go ask your daddy!  Apparently that would not suit her for she threw a fit and landed the diaper right in my face. I was glad she did for little did I know that when I rolled over I would find an already diaperless child with poo smeared ALL OVER my sheets! EWE! I’ll spare you the rest of the details and just let you know we got her cleaned up.

After that was accomplished I began the hunt for the soiled diaper.  Well Monica being quite the responsible child, kindly had already thrown it in the trash.  Good for her! -despite the fact that I had little trail now through the house–  I found the contents had rolled out in a pile near the foot of our bed.  Nice huh!!  We’ll leave that description at that, except for the part about Steven.  (Sarah you’ll appreciate this =) )He’s so polished and distinguished you know… when he rounded the corner he exclaimed, “Wow, that’s like bigger than Rosco’s!!!” (our dog)

Like I said …. the vacation’s over!! But I guess it’s good to be needed…

Being away from the blog a few days has been a new experience. I find myself anxious to sit down and catch up and yet not exactly sure how to start.  I’m afraid I cannot accomplish a review of the week without being “listy.”  So instead trying to be creative and putting off catching up I’m just going to have to be “listy”. Here’s an embarrassingly long day by day of our 7 day trip.  I PROMISE to never write a post this lengthy again….

DAY ONE

Traveling was nice.  I love to have focused conversations with Steven.  Our kids are pretty good little hitchhikers so with their cooperation Steven and I generally get some good “talk” time together. Thus the process of de-stressing began…

Also we took our first trip to Silver Dollar “Silly” as Eli called it.  You can see below that we jumped right into the thriller rides.  The kids were fine…. I was scared. =)

I know you won’t find this surprising but Eli wanted to ride EVERYTHING and was scared of nothing.  There were a few instances he cried because we told him he wasn’t tall enough to ride.

DAY TWO

Our next trek to Silver Dollar City.  The highlight of this day was dancing with my boys.

We stopped in an old barn with probably 300 elderly people.  Some of them were square dancing while “woody’s round-up gang” played.  Of course they really weren’t “the gang” but Eli believed it.  Eli and I went out on the dance floor to which all of the older couples thought was just precious.  Some dance partners stopped and asked if they could keep our kids while Steven and I danced.  For the very FIRST time Steven really truly danced with me in public. He would say he did horribly but I thought it was FANTASTIC!!!  He probably was 10 shades of red for the remainder of the morning but I was sooooo proud!

DAY THREE

We went to our timeshare presentation.  SIGH…. not fun but our lady was precious and not pushy at the end when we told her “no.” You do what you must when traveling with a budget.

Krispy Kreme, Rib Crib, good shopping, and a beautiful excursion to the Branson Landing were the points of interest on day three.  I must tell you I knew in advance that the Springfield Symphony Orchestra would be performing that night…..  as I listened I cried!  I know crazy, but the level of performance they gave was impeccable. With a year of music major background I have an ear for the perfection required to perform at that level and it was just AMAZING!!!  I was never gifted enough to achieve such standards but I love to listen to those who are. Steven was so kind to walk the kids to the playground while I listened to the remainder of the performance!!!

DAY FOUR

Time to load up and move out to “Gateway to the West” -St Louis!!! Upon arriving we shopped at a few malls, ate dinner, and then watched a red box movie in the room.  We were very low key this day and VERY glad it wasn’t time to go home.

DAY FIVE

While planning our adventure I did alot of Internet research and let me just say if you are looking for lots to do at very low cost St Louis is a great place to go.  They have TONS of great places to go with kids and just for adults that are totally and completely free.  We honestly could have stayed a few more days and still had things to do…

Anyway the St Louis Zoo was our attraction of the day.  The elephants, penguins, grizzly bears, and butterfly exhibits were our favorites.  All these animals seemed to be aware they had an audience and really put on a show for us!!  Our kids went 3 1/2 hours past nap time and weren’t complaining at all…

DAY SIX

If you are looking for a completely abstract and out of the ordinary experience we had it on day six.  The first stop was a place called The City Museum.  Upon entering we were informed that there were no maps to the five story location.  We were “just to experience as we went along.”  For this “type A” girl let me just say I didn’t quite know what I thought of that concept…  Anyway my kids had a BLAST!  I was pretty hesitant to let them climb on the outside play structure but Dad was cool and took Eli with him.  Check out the pics below…..

After our “artistic” enlightenment we ate lunch at Union Station and then made a drive to the Arch.  Monica was asleep by this time so no, we didn’t go to the top.

DAY SEVEN

It was time to drive home but we weren’t ready to end our adventure.  We made one last stop-  Purina Farms.  It was a place that many national dog shows are held.  We didn’t know quite what to expect but to our delight found a magical little place filled with animals, barn swings, hay mazes, wagon rides, and more.  We LOVED it!

So I will end with that.  We have learned that traveling with toddlers requires a relaxed pace, activities that can be paused for afternoon naps, and evening events that everyone can enjoy such as malls or hotel swimming.  Our time away was very peaceful! Steven and our kids experienced that time of bonding so desperately needed in these crazy times.

If you made it to the end– I’m impressed.  Thanks for reading and like I said it won’t EVER be this long again.

Our printer died a while back and we’ve been putting off getting one for awhile. Yesterday was the day. I, Stephanie, for the first time in my life scanned a picture on our new printer/copier/scanner. Yep that’s right I took my index finger and “pushed” the little button that says “scan”and…….. Voila a picture!!! I realize this is nothing to get excited about and that I’m very much behind the times. Regardless, it’s good to know I have capability of such things. Here are the wished for wedding pics from my anniversary post.

I’ve decided to try and conquer the neglected photos from the past 5 years. Organizing and filing memories from that many years is quite a job, but I know if I keep putting it off the pile is only going to grow bigger. I must confess my rummaging has brought back a TON of memories.

In the box , I ran across the CD recording of Steven singing at our wedding. He sang “Love of My Life.” It’s the sweetest treasure EVER!!! Of course I wanted you to hear it sooooooooooo I’ve put a ton of random photos together for you with this song. The recording is a bit garbled but his voice is clear– I LOVE IT!

There is no artistic order to these. They don’t flow from thought to thought. However, I have attempted to put them in chronological order but they do make major skips. Sadly, digital cameras didn’t come into our lives until about three years ago so you’re missing 3 1/2 years of our relationship. I do have a few that were scanned at some point from our dating years- but not many.

As I was going through the pics I just kept thinking what a gift marriage is. No one else gets to walk through so many seasons and experiences with me except Steven. Sure we are a normal couple with normal disagreements but the gift or “yoke”of togetherness (depending on the day =)) always outweighs our struggles.

We haven’t been privileged to go on spectacular vacations, live in great wealth, or change the world together….. yet………. But beyond just getting to experience life together, God entrusted us to give life to beautiful kidos. Eli was such a surprise at the time but we can’t imagine life without him. They’re our proudest achievement to date. God has been so good!! I’m so grateful I can truly say I am married to the “Love of my Life.”

“Every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father of light, with whom there is no variation nor shadow of turning.” James 1:17

Oh and the pregnant pic of me was taken the day I went into labor with Monica– just so ya know! =)

Soooooo I’ve been carrying around wedding pics to scan. I wanted to post them on the blog BUT I don’t think it’s going to happen. Sorry… We had a great day together! Here’s a couple of picks the baby sitter took before we left.

Okay so last night was the highlight of my week! We went to a great sixteenth b-day party down on the river. It was held at a location that has a 1939 ferris wheel and beautiful old carousel. The parents has rented the location so we could ride the rides over and again. SUCH a retro and gorgeous spot!!!

After our kidos had ridden everything several times, I looked at Steven and asked, “Would you make one of my life-long dreams come true?” It was so exciting that he knew EXACTLY what I was talking about without me telling him. YAY for him!!! So without further ado, the kids stayed with friends and we loaded up on the ferris wheel. Up! Up! Up!! Yep you guessed it– we kissed right on the very top!!! ooooo butterflies just thinking about it!

Actually it was very sweet BUT the “dream” was a bit distorted because we had kids from our youth group on both sides of us going, “Yuck Smitty!! Come One!! Please Oh Please none of that!!!” sigh… If it’s not Eli and Monica it’s the rest of our kids.

Sorry, I left you without warning… =)

Thursday morning our family picked up and headed off to Tulsa, Oklahoma for a few days to get away before summer youth ministry craziness is in full swing. We didn’t go very, far but we had a great time!! While we were gone we shopped, ate way too much, went “zooing”, watched Prince Caspian (it was definitely as good as the first Narnia), and just hung out at the “hill-tell” pool, as Eli called it.

We tried two GREAT restaurants that have been recommended to us for a long time.

1. Ted’s Mexican restaurant

2. P.F. Changs

Both restaurants were everything others had cracked them up to be. Thankfully our kids liked them too! Thanks to ALL of you have talked of Changs– yes the Mongolian Beef and Chang’s Chicken were fabulously Yum-MYYYY!!!

One thing of interest was that the very nice lady voice in Steven’s GPS and I did not hit it off very well. This is the first vacation that I did not print off directions due to the fact that my husband’s newest ‘gadget’ was supposed to be capable of directing us without them. However, after driving 35 minutes we exited as we were told to WITHOUT seeing any zoo signs. Steven reminding me to hang tight said he thought it was probably just around the corner. Welllllllll just around the corner we made a right at a stop sign into a neighborhood and “Maggie” (the GPS lady) announced in her very professional voice, “You have arrived!!!” I’m telling you the only animals I saw was a little squirrel, a robin, and a white stone lion sitting on someone’s porch.

Finally realizing the zoo was not “right around the corner” we made our way back to the interstate. I proceeded to point out all of the little cement animals we saw on our return trip. Steven was thrilled with my acceptance of the situation– NOT!!! We arrived at the zoo an hour after we left the hotel. Mapquest said it should have taken 15 minutes. Oh well, I guess I’m going to still be printing off directions from now on because “Maggie” absolutely did NOT win any brownie points with me!

It’s 9:00 pm on Wednesday evening. Our carpets are getting re stretched in the morning and I had planned on shampooing them tomorrow afternoon myself.

However…. I JUST found out that the entire youth group is invited to our house tomorrow night!!! Steven and I had talked about starting an “Office” party and have kind of an open house every Thursday when it comes on. Mind you we had talked about it. I thought it was starting next fall or something… Nope guess not- it was announced Sunday in class and then tonight at the youth service! (I must have stepped out during announcements). I got the memo at 9:00 tonight. YAY!!!

I’m rejoicing that I found out today I guess, and not tomorrow afternoon. So hey– if any of you are up for hot dogs and some hard core watching of “The Office” come on over! We’ll have a crowd and it’ll be good to see you- my carpets will at least be clean. =)

My husband is the greatest!! (sarcastic smile inserted)… My husband IS the GREATEST!! (all sincerity added too) He loves people like I do so it makes it all good!

Hope to see you tomorrow!

Yesterday Steven had the privilege of leading a group of teens on a storm clean up mission for the widows in our church.

He came home “smitten.” One of the widows he assured me I would fall in love with too because of her spunk. Her story reminded me a little bit of the movie the Notebook minus the Alzheimer’s. She shared that her love story began years ago, but she and her husband didn’t really begin to “live” until he was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer when she was 60 years old. Upon receiving the grave diagnosis, they immediately scheduled a trip to Hawai “yah” (she has a bit of a southern drawl). They promised to themselves to go every year until they couldn’t go any more. She and her love went 23 years straight!!! That’s right she’s 83 and it will be the FIRST year she hasn’t gone to Hawaii in a LONG time!- so much for the death warning… Reflecting with a grin she confessed her husband wouldn’t let her take surfin’ lessons like she wanted!

Her husband passed away this year. However, she’s left with albums filled with memories of past suntans and luaus with her sweet heart. She’s still so in love with her one and only!! PRECIOUS!- As she was finishing her stories she remarked, “I don’t know if I’ll go to Hawai”yah” again but I’m sure hoping Heaven’s pretty close! =)

I think I could learn alot from her outlook– we’re hoping to make a trip to visit this marvelous lady soon.