We've Moved to OHIO!!!!!

Ok, we moved two months ago, and we are mostly settled now, and I'm finally getting around to writting about it on our blog.  I don't have any new pictures of the house or our new town to post (boring, I know), but maybe I'll get around to that.  Nick hadn't been verry happy for a while with his old job, so this summer he started looking for a new one.  We were really blessed to have a few options to choose from and the one that felt best was here in Zanesville, OH.  Nick has really been enjoying working for Kelloggs!

Nick moved here and lived out of a hotel for about 3 months before we got everything wrapped up in Waverly.  The kids and I flew out Nov. 1st, and lived with Nick in the hotel for another 2 weeks.  It was a great adventure, all six of us in two small rooms with a mini fridge and small microwave for a half a month!

We finally closed on our new house and  have gotten all but a few book boxes unpacked.  The kids miss their friends and say they don't like school here now and then, but they seem to be adjusting well and are happy.  Nick has been called as the adult Sunday School Teacher and is doing a great job.

I got the hot pink with brown dot room painted to a nice light mint color (5 coats later) for the baby.  We are excited for the new little one- due on Feb 2nd or 3rd.

Christmas was great.  Chance says it was "the best ever," even though we didn't have snow.  We got TONS the day after and a few days after that.  Now it looks like a winter wonderland- just too late for a white Christmas.  I do have a few pictures of the snow from our backyard.

Everyone told Nick that he wouldn't get a chance to use his new snowblower here and we were a little sad that we hadn't had a chance to sell it before we left IA.  Boy was Nick excited to take it out and fire it up and take on the snow!

We found deer tracks going just in front of our front door this morning, and I've seen up to 6 deer grazing around the back yard.

We are well and happy and I will try to get some more pictures for those who are far away!

Happy Birthday Grandma Jo!!!!!

Oh, just shut up!!!

This is dark, and I really wish that I had gotten our practice sessions, they were more true to the original event.  Ari was especially good at the attitude.  Oh well, when the camera turned on, they were on their best behavior.  The singing is still pretty typical Smathers.  Love ya!

School is out for the summer!

The kid's have been asking for weeks when the swimming pool will open.  It seems to be the highlight of vacation.  Since it wasn't open yet, but it was HOT, I let them get out the pool they won and blow it up.  The only condition, I wasn't going to help at all.  They were very smart about it and did a great job.  Even better, it popped at the end of the day and we are done with it!

I'm never very good at updating this... so I resolved to do it. Chance turned 5 this weekend. He was lucky that I had two of my old roommates and their families over. It made it into one big party for him. They had a ton of fun destroying the spider-man pinata. Chance also got a nerf gun and a sling shot, so he is well on his way to having outlets for his budding testosterone! Here is the cake we made. it was a mess during production, but it turned out all right. Sadly, I'm too inept to turn it around on this!

This is Chance's annual video interview. It is pretty funny. Nick insists that he gets it from me... I don't claim it, although it makes me laugh...now. Be warned, this clip is rated PG-13 for language.