Happiness, thine name is Minou.

  Happiness, thine name is Minou. We added another member to our family - kitty Minou.  Minou is what the French, 'how you say, "kit-ty"'. 

As you can plainly see, she is the most beautiful, the cutest, the most intelligent, and the most fearless kitten.  I love this little kitty and am so thankful that everyone else does too!  She's kind of hard not to like except maybe when she plays to rough - her teeth and claws are very sharp!  Even Mi-Noopy, i mean, Snoop likes her.  :)      

 

Home Sweet HOME!

"Take me home to the place that I belong..." 

We LOVE our new home!  The boys have had so much fun making their rooms their own.  We are all enjoying the extra room (4.5 more rooms) our new house provides us.  Darrell was adament about getting unload and unpack ASAP.  But when he came across boxes of mine from four years ago and wedding gifts not yet used, he saved them for me to open.  I had so much fun revisiting my belongings from the past as well as finding a spot for the new.  We had never had a spot in the old house for our wedding China so we had never used it.  Our new house has storage space for China and so much more.  And most importantly, more space for us to grow together.    We still have plenty of decorating to do and furniture to acquire, but we are here and we love it.

Yes, I are completely humbled by the grace of God and His blessings on this family.   The house is so much more than I had hoped for or allowed myself to dream.  I couldn't have asked for anything more.

 

Besides preparing to move and moving (Ugh!), we have had some fun in the sun moments.  We have been to the lake a few times with Tom and Vicki, some ball games and a firework or two may or may not have gone off on the 4th at Denison street.  :) 

 Thanks too all of you who helped us along the way with selling the old house and moving.  We are so fortunate to have the friends and family that we have and appreciate them all!

From Denison Street,
The Smarts

The Vegas Experience

The month of February brought a wonderful trip to Vegas, courtesy of Darrell's employer.  Neither one of us had ever been to Vegas and honestly had never thought of it for our vacation destination.  But, on Februrary 27th we arrived in Tinsel Town along with our good friends, Derron and Michelle Day.  The airport had slot machines in every direction, limosines were all around and a strip of casinos, one right after the other, for a ten mile radius.  The Mirage delivered everything we had imaged, from VIP service, grand casino rooms and shoppes within the huge resort.  Our hotel must have taken up a whole city block. And it was only one hotel, there were dozens more.  The Bellogio took a 15 minute hike to get from the street to the front entrance.  We watched the fountains expolde to the tip toe tune of the Pink Panther and it was incredible.  The water danced like a cat's tail swaying back and forth. 

We then entered the world of the Blue Man Group at the Venetian (reservations made by our own personal conciege at the Mirage VIP louge).   It was very entertaining.  I enjoyed revisiting this show after so many years.  Their unique interpretation of sound and movement mixed with comedy kept us wowed and in stitches.   Darrell really enjoyed it.

We ventured up in the Stratosphere, similiar to Seattle's space needle, and peeked down at the town below.  We hadn't been sitting for long before we saw something fly by the window.  A few minutes later, it happened again.  People were bungie jumping off the top of the Stratosphere! 

Darrell, of course, had classes to attend during the day and a trade show convention to see but we still were able to share time together, and that was priceless.  
Michelle was the perfect tour guide.  She took me around to all different places including two Ross stores.  We rode the roller coaster on top of New York New York and laughed the entire time. It was a great day. 

We learned on day two that walking the Strip was for the birds and bought a Day Pass for public transit.  Even so, we were still sore by the end of the day from walking across large intersections and from shop to shop. 
We ran into Corey and Tara who were also there for a convention.  Corey skated the Strip, read and relaxed while Tara attended classes.  I think she also was able to find some time to spend enjoying the scene.

Oh, What a Wonderful Life

Holiday greetings!  This season we are reminded of all that we are blessed with; a loving family, supportive and dear friends, a warm home and loads of love.  The kids are so excited to be out of school for two weeks and Darrell and I, well, we are dealing with the much anticipated Christmas morning.  We are still searching for a few additional gifts to complete our extravaganza.

This season we made a special trip to Dry Gultch USA.  This was our first time to visit and we weren't sure what to expect.  We were wonderfully surprised by this unique step into the past.  We travelled the old streets recreated to look like the old West and took a ride on a passenger train.  On the train, we travelled through a recreation of the Gospels narrated from the birth of Christ to his death.  It was so powerful and amazing.  We hope to make it a annual tradition.

We recently went to Winterfest in Tulsa and the boys ice skated for the first time. Tulsa has a new outdoor rink that is small but good for the Okie's. Its much smaller than the beloved Williams Ctr and much colder! You can imagine I found myself in the heated tent with hot cocoa in hand more than once. But it was totally worth it to watch the boys slip and slide and race and have as much fun as a kid could have. And Darrell had as much fun as they did! What a big and wonderful kid I married. He has such a giving spirit and does anything and everything for his boys and for me.

We want to wish everyone a safe and spirit-filled Christmas. We love all of you and we'll see you in the new year!

The Smart Family

Summertime,..

 We had a very special visitor come our way in July.  None other than the fabulous and always energetic Elsa Harbison!  She had loads of stuff to do while visiting Muskogee such as shopping, lots of swimming, crafts, Cherry Berry visits, and her first ever self-manned fireworks show!  She had so much fun.  Since shooting off fireworks is illegal in the city limits of Chicago, she has never had the opportunity.  That just wouldn't do!  As Okie's we felt it our American duty to teach her how to pick out the best fireworks and how to safely set them off.  She loved it and although the boys were not present to enjoy the show, we had so much fun watching her let loose. What fun!  We are so glad she was able to visit and were happy to share our little traditions. 

Kanyon turned eleven this year.  He had a special birthday with family and friends.  After opening the many many gifts he received we took the kids to the swim park.  You may have heard of the intense and unrelenting heat wave that we have had since late June.  Well, its effected the water holes as well.  The pools of water at the swim park were luke warm at best which felt more like a warm bath rather than a refreshing cooling off.  But the kids didn't notice which is the most important and they had a blast. 

Yes, Kanyon had a wonderful birthday and yes he received an awesome 3D Shark Slip-n-Slide from his Aunt Cindy and Uncle Jim.  Very fun.

We are getting ready for school which begins Aug 11th!  Darrell and I are particularly excited.  LOL :)  The boys 'say' they aren't ready to go back but I believe they really enjoy seeing their past teachers and friends and wearing their new clothes etc...  They play cool and collected but I've heard nothing but questions about when they can wear their new clothes for the past two weeks.  Yes, we wait until the first day of school to wear our special new clothes. 

Darrell is trying to just get through these dog days of summer and is continuously nagged by me to stay hydrated and wear his sunscreen!  But the days are long and hot and he's been completely deflated in the evenings.  Although he doesn't complain, the heat is taking its toll on him.  As well as on our yard, what flowers we have left and the trees.  Its a desolate land around here and we are praying that the good Lord will send us some lower temps and some much needed rain.

We have a new addition the our wonderful family.  The Collin Seitz' family welcomed sweet Hudson into their lives.  We've been told he eats and sleeps and enjoys his big sister, Hannah. I don't know who will  have their hands full more..Hannah or Hudson!  We can't wait to see him in person and experience his personality!

**Be sure to check out our new pictures at the flickr.com link to the right. 

Hope eveyone is enjoying the summer and we hope and pray that you will keep us in your prayers as you are in ours.  

We love you, Susan    +

Introducing,.... Mr. and Mrs. Corey Seitz! We were so happy to share in the celebration of Corey and Tara marriage on March 26th. Although the weather was a little chilly, the ceremony warmed our hearts. How wonderful it is to watch a boy I consider more my brother than my nephew grow from boy to man. And how fulfilling it is to share in his growth as he starts a new and powerful chapter in his life. I am so very happy for this sweet guy!
And now, straight from Taiwan, introducing Miss Hannah Grace Seitz! You have seen her in Facebook photo albums and the Seitz blog page and now she's here! Having Hannah, Collin an Allison here to share in Corey's wedding was incredibly special. As they continue their missions journey in Taiwan, travel to the States is a pricey endeavor and unfortunately we don't get to see them as often as we want. Having them here for two months has been a priceless blessing for all of us. We celebrated Hannah's 2nd birthday a little early and Oh was a celebration! She had countless presents from her adoring "fans". Every eye was on her and she LOVED it. What a ham she is! Collin and his family are preparing for their journey home to Taiwan and although we hate to say goodbye to them again, we know their mission is honorable. They are called to spread the word of God and we know they will be blessed by obeying God's calling. I am so humbled by their dedication to their faith. We all are.

Well, as the school year ends, we enter into baseball season. Carson is playing baseball this year and his games start this week! He is so excited especially now that he has his good friend, John Mark, on his team. It should be a fun season.

We hope all of you have a great summer and hope you stop by often to see our updates.

Blessings, The Smarts

The Concert:

It was AMAZING! A first for the father/son duo - Ben and James Taylor in concert. Ben said it was a boyhood dream of his to play on stage with his father. Tulsa was the first stop on the tour. They arrived in Tulsa a week prior to the concert to prepare for the awe inspiring night.

What a memorable night for us. As corny as it may sound, James' music began our beautiful journey together. It was our love of his expressive and soul-filled lyrics that made us realize that we had more in common then just music. And although his Covers tour was enjoyable, this concert blew the roof off the Brady theatre! He even asked us to join in a sing-a-long! We didn't want the night to end.