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.

Day 4 of Winterfest 2011

We woke up this morning to MORE SNOW! We had heard there was a chance of maybe .5 - 1 inch of snow forcasted for today. So we watched and waited. Ten hours later we are still watching and waiting in disbelief! Don't have the official count yet but last heard we would get 6 more inches today. It is still snowing in Muskogee and heard there is more to come on Sunday and then again on Wednesday.

We are still in search of a second sled. We've been trying since Monday afternoon but they're hard to come by right now. New shipments come in and then are gone before we can get to the store. So its a lesson in sharing and patience between brothers for now. Part two of the lesson was tested today at Civitan Park! Darrell said they were only on the hill for about an hour and the kids were ready to come home. :)

We are looking forward to attending Corey and Tara's engagement party this Saturday evening. It will be nice to get out of the house and mingle with "new" people. I swear, we are going to be like the family that came down from the mountain!

Darrell has been the family hero more than once this week. Besides being the guy that takes the kids sledding, he has thawed the frozen water pipes that we woke up to on Wednesday, cleared the snow from the satellite dish numerous times and put in a new thermostat for the house. What a guy! (He still makes my heart go pitter-patter!) So, these ice cold beers are his reward!

Hopefully all of you well and enjoying this beautiful time of year.

Be safe! - Susan and the guys

Snowpocalypse 2011

SNOWED IN!

We are snowed in with a record amount of snow for February. So anyone up for a game of "RATS!"? We haven't heard the official snow count but we did meassure the snow in our front yard which was a wopping 9.25 inches with snow still falling. School is cancelled for tomorrow as well as my work. I suspect that it will be another week out of school for our kiddos. Right now, we can't even get out of our driveway. Darrell has shoveled twice today and we hope, if a situation arises, that we will be able to get out. Thank goodness our satellite only went out once! Our pipes haven't frozen or electricity went out and we have plenty of food for many days. We are very fortunate.

But now that the snow is mostly over, they are predicting dangerously cold weather for the next few days. Temperatures below zero and the wind blowing at 30 MPH. EWWWhhhh, that's cold!

On another note, the boys have proven their cognitive abilities once again. Each received academic awards for the semester! Kanyon received the Citizenship award once again as well as Attendance and Muskogee Honor Roll. Carson received the Academic award for first grade and the Dance award, which he was very excited about! Shake yours booty booty! (an ongoing Carsonism when he was younger). To celebrate their hard work and achievements they chose the China King for their reward. So they stuffed themselves on shrimp, shrimp and more shrimp. Oh, and of course a trip to the ice cream machine. We are so proud of their accomplishments! And all though they like to complain about homework and school in general, they are very proud of their accomplishments too.

We hope everyone is staying safe and warm in this winterfest 2011.

Bye for now,

The Smarts

2011 - Happy New Year!

What a wonderful and especially blessed Christmas we all had! We all got more than we need or deserve but how happy we are that Santa thought differently! Darrell bought me a new All-in-One touch screen computer which I am using now. He was estatic to open up his new flat screen TV on Christmas morning. He was quite amazed and hasn't been able to turn it off since!
Kanyon and Carson both got I-touches, new video games, and a new XBOX 360. Quite a tech year at the Smart's house this year.
We are happy to welcome in the year 2011 year. With the new year we have celebrated one birthday (ME!) already. What a lucky girl I am to have three such wonderful guys in my life. They treated me to cake and ice cream and gifts. What a great celebration.
Kanyon had his first Rougher competitive basketball game last Saturday night. They lost by three points but he made an awesome save while the ball was bouncing out of bounds. By hoisting his body through the air, grabbing the ball and throwing it back into play and skidding out of bounds himself. Very impressive.
Carson sat out of sports this winter after his Upward Basketball league finished up in Nov. But, not to worry, he is signing up for baseball this month.
Both boys are doing extremely well in school this year with straight A's on both report cards. Carson is reading on a second grade level and math on a third grade level. Kanyon loves 5th grade and thinks his teacher this year is awesome. His class read Where the Red Fern Grows this year and we heard that he cried at the end of the book. He's such a sensitive sweetheart.
We have a had househunters view our house but still no offers. We have faith (most days) that it will happen when its supposed to but, my goodness! The wait is well, not what we had hoped for. We are so excited to have more room to spread out and for the boys to have their own bedrooms. But, all in good time I suppose.
We hope you all find yourselves in good health and eager to take on the new year with new expectations and adventures.
Blessings to all,
The Smart's