St. Patty's Day

never too late to share our St. Patricks day, right? March 17th, 2009

TaLk abOUt GIrls iN gReeN!!!
(talk about a subliminal advertisement for Utopia)

Your not kiddin me, and if you could have seen the other 450 kids runnin around that playground covered head to toe in green! Man, I could barely spot out my own.

It was a fun day for a POT- LUCK lunch in the Park!!! (Haha, get it?). This little Milly has found her heaven on earth! She loves playing outside, and especially on the playground. She is in her own world. You should have seen her this day- She did not back down for one second to the big, crazy kids tryin to but in front of her for the slides!

Disney on Ice!

Grandpa took all the Ericksen-side cousins to Disney-on-Ice!

One bag of cotton candy with a funky hat attached? ~15 Bucks.
One keepsake Arial cup with a rainbow snow cone? ~10 Bucks.
That feeling of relief when Grandpa's buying?... PRICELESS!
Ha ha ha, what more could a kid ask for? Being able to spend the night with Grandpa, watching some of your favorite Disney characters skate along the ice for hours?!

Rylee's Favorite? Tinkerbelle, by far, then the giant Aligator who ate Hook!?
Milly's favorite part? The ENTIRE FIRST HALF! She was completely taken in by all the action. She sat on Grandpa's lap and either grinned from ear to ear, clapping her hands off, or pointing so seriously to make sure we were seeing what she was seeing!

Thank you grandpa for the fun night out!

Draper Temple!

Our family had the opportunity to go to the Draper Temple open house. It was really a neat and rare experience for Rylee & Amelia to be able to see the inside of the Temple.
When we entered the Celestial room, Rylee said to Steve: "Daddy, I want to stay in this room forever." It really was that peaceful in that room, and I have no doubt that she felt the spirit there. When we were sitting in the sealing room, she looked up & said to me: "Mommy, Jesus is here?"
Rylee is a very in-tune little girl. I hope she will remain that way, and always stay close to the spirit. I hope that one day both her & Amelia will aspire to return to the temple to receive the many blessings it offers.


We went with a fun group: The Taylors, Roes, Dodges & Wisemens.
After our tour, we went to Cheesecake Factory, where we had the Best Dang Waitress EVER... my sister, Kimmy Ray!

For anyone who was not able to make it through this temple, I STRONGLY suggest taking advantage of the opportunity of going to the public open house of the Oquirrh Mountain Utah LDS Temple starting June 1st.
For all the information on how, when, etc, go to:
http://www.ldschurchtemples.com/oquirrhmountain/

march 10th, 2009

warming up...

So, was the end of March just a Warm heat flash TEASE??? It was so dang nice out for a while there, we thought it was summer!

LeTS go fLy A KiTe

We had a little Mid-March Kite flying day when the weather was so nice out!
Rylee found this cute little princess kite in our garage, and we realized we'd never flown kites before... so Daddy taught Ry Ry how to fly her first kite!!!
and these are her "FLYING GOGGLES!!!"



And OF COURSE... MILLY HAD TO TRY TOO!!! (even the flying goggles)
And silly little Milly even loved it. She just held that string with all her might, and concentrated so hard on that kite in the sky. This was more focused than i think i've ever seen her!

GO PRINCESSES GO!
Boy oh boy, I guess i'd forgotten how fun kite flying was... we ALL had a blast!

our month of february!

Well, I haven't updated you on our lives since Christmas pretty much... We are overdue!
And I know you were all WAY anxious to see our adventurous year thus far! So, BRACE yourselves for a LOT OF PICTURES:

THE CIRCUS!!!

Face painting, pony rides, elephants, and... TIGERS!

Great Grandpa Smith's funeral.

Grandpa Smith was in the quarum of the 70's, and Grandma Barbara Smith is the former General Relief Society President. They are both very close with many General Authorities, so we were able to see and meet many of them!
At the funeral service, we were blessed to hear from President Monson, the Prophet of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints as well President Packer. They both spoke of the wonderful man Douglas Smith was.

Rylee was able to shake the Prophet's hand:
don't mind my face, but look at the sweet look on Rylee's face... she's really pondering something. She said to me: "hey, I've seen him on TV!"

WELCOME HOME ELDER SMITH:

Steve's brother Brett returned home from Sapporro Japan! All the Smith cousins flew in from out of town. It was a PAR-TEY:)

When Brett came down the escalator, Rylee was the first to run out and give uncle Brett a big hug!

Karaoke Night with COUSINS!

VALENTINE'S DAY FUN:

With a Valentines Princess Tea Party at Belle's!

Rylee's FIRST time making a Valentines Box!
I swear the holidays just get more fun every year

And what's Valentines Day without Sugar Cookie decorating:


Girls' night & sleepover while Daddy was out of town!
After mom's friends left, Rylee woke up and woke her friend Hannah up, then Milly woke up


More Cousin Time celebrating all Ralph-babies' birthdays!
It's so cute- they are all starting to walk around & join in the bigger kid fun:)

Silly Milly with birthday cake!


Treehouse Museum with cousins. Milly was in heaven with all there was to do there. This is her kind of place... Freedom for little miss independent to discover, explore and destroy!!!


INDOOR ARTS! With my crazy little painters


And some OUTDOOR snow time!



playgroup sledding!