I think I may be overdue for something.  Apologies to Grandparents in foreign lands that don't get to see my kids much.  We do love you!

Ari was baptised last month.  It was really special for all of us.  Grandpa and Grandma Smathers, Tyler and Matney and Rob's families were able to make it.

Uncle Tyler, as usual, was especially popular.  Will his student's ever learn anything other than how to have fun?!

Dad and Ty had to get back to "work," so we had a week to play with Grandma Jo.  We didn't know it when we moved here, but we have a lot of family history right here.  The Comin side of our family lived here and we went and visited  their graves.  The leaves had started changing color and it was beautiful visiting these small country grave yards.  We had almost left without finding some of the graves, but after some gps and traffic cerffafles, we ended up, providentaly, at the right grave yard.  Mom found a gravestone of a Young Comin.  I was standing several yards away and she lost it, she was so excited.  The next contestant on the price is right has nothing on her screaming and jumping abilities!  For a few hours, we even thought we had found someone we hadn't known about.  Even if we didn't find any new information, it felt to me like we were standing in holy places, standing next to our kindred dead.  Chase and Pierce were great while we explored too!

So life has been really crazy lately.  Part of that is my own fault, and part of that is just life.  I painted the boys room a few weeks ago.  Painting with a new baby is tricky, but I enjoyed it, and I'm really proud of the end result.  The camera messed with the blue color a little, but this picture is pretty close.

Chance thought that now he can drive his cars on the walls!

We celbrated Chance's 6th Birthday yesterday. He wanted a Captain America cake, a batman pinata, and he got the green aliens from Toy Story for his class treat. The cake was my first fondant experiment, which was fun.

This side looked more like cat woman!

Chance got boxing gloves from his mom and dad and an air soft gun from his aunt and uncle.  We may be crazy!

The first Sunday of the month, Pierce was blessed.  Matney, Rob and their family were here.  It will be so nice to have family closer!  It is always a really sweet thing to see one of our babies blessed.

Pierce is growing too fast.  He isn't a really chubby baby, but his fat cheeks make him look a lot chubbier than he is.  Right now, with his last growth spurt that has left him bald and his chubby cheeks, he looks like a hound dog!  It is sweet to me how preciouse a baby is and how beautiful I think he is, even when he is in a funny looking stage.  He hasn't slept in his own bed for more than a nap since he was born.  

Last week, I drove home from church.  That was the last time that we saw our car keys.  We looked in every conceivable place for them.  I looked in most inconceivable places for them.  We can’t find them.  I was pretty bummed about it; I knew that keys with chips are expensive; I just didn’t know how expensive.  The keys are pricy and then we have to pay to program them, but the bad part is that the car has to be at the dealership for them to program new keys.  Yes, the friendly man at the dealership was kind enough to clarify it for me; this means that the car has to be towed, since the keys are lost.  I became a little more upset over the lost keys after figuring this out.  The kids and I talked about it and we said a prayer and began to tear the house apart- again.  Still no keys.  Every time we prayed, we asked to find the keys- still no keys.  One night, as I put the girls to bed, Brynli asked me, a little upset, why Heavenly Father hadn’t answered our prayers yet.  I must admit that I had struggled with asking them to pray for the keys, knowing that if we didn’t find them it could precipitate this very question.  Oh ye of little faith!  I asked them why Heavenly Father doesn’t answer all our prayers right away.  Ari, smart girl, piped right up: “Because then our lives would be too perfect.”  And then I asked the really hard question, “Why don’t we want our lives to be too perfect.”  Ari new the answer again!  “Because then it wouldn’t be a test,” she answered.  She’s right and although Heavenly Father maybe hasn’t answered that prayer yet, the way we would have like, He gave us a better opportunity to talk about things that are more important.  This week as I’ve stressed and thought about those stupid keys, I’ve had a chance to really see how unimportant those keys are.

 (Thanks to my visiting teacher, who suggested I call our car insurance agent, the car got towed Saturday, no expense to us- thank you State Farm!)  Now we just have to wait for our appointment on Tues, pay a ridiculous amount of money for keys, but not towing, and I should be able to drive again!)

Pierce Grey Rowley is here!

 

The day Pierce was born, I had a doctor's appointment.  He said I was already at a 5 and should go straight over to labor and delivery.  Instead, I had to stop home because I had forgotten to give Nick the van keys and he was stranded at home with all of the kids, who were out of school on a snow day.  (They will cancel snow here for almost anything it seems.  For those of us used to rugged weather it seems a little wimpy and on that day inconvenient!)  At around 11 the doctor broke my water and at 3, I was still at a 5.  Things picked up from there and Pierce was born at 5:20.  He came so quickly in the end, I think we scared the nurse, who was hollering out the door... "I need anyone in here, I don't care who...help."  Our doctor was delivering another baby at the same time and got there just in time to pick our new boy off the bed...he missed the birth by a few seconds.


The kids are fascinated with the baby and all things associated with him.  The girls want to watch a labor on the internet (not happening) and Chance especially is curious about this breast feeding thing.

Pierce's hair is a little darker than the other boys' when they were born.  It is especially cute, since he has the same hairy ears that Nick and the boys have, his is just a lot more obvious, since it is dark.  He was 7 lbs. 7 oz and 19.5 in. long.  Despite his average size, he has Smathers' sized feet and when touched he can spread them out like his Mom!

Pierce was a real mover when he was in my stomach, so I was a little worried about him being too active once he arrived.  He is the sweetest, most peaceful boy.  Which is a good thing, because he has a really "piercing" cry when he does use it!

I'm doing well recovering and Nick and the kids have been great about stepping up and helping.  The kids were already discussing at dinner the other night where the next few kids would be able to sleep and how we could rearrange rooms to accomodate more!

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.