The Smiley Wileys

West Jordan Rodeo

2009-07-09T10:39:00.003-06:00

On July 2, we were able to go to the West Jordan Rodeo (a family tradition).We were right up front and had a lot of fun!

Double Rainbow

2009-07-09T10:33:00.004-06:00

It rained a lot after we got home from the zoo and we were able to get a picture of this cool double rainbow from our front door. Unfortunately, I was not able to capture how large the rainbows were.

Zoo Fun

2009-07-02T08:42:00.003-06:00

Our zoo membership ran out at the end of June, so we decided to make one last trip to the zoo. We had a lot of fun! I struggled with my energy toward the end but tried to stay happy and keep going for the kids. I found out a few days later that I had strep throat. Yuck!Joseph's favorite animal is the Giraffe.

Pinewood Derby

2009-07-02T08:18:00.004-06:00

A few weeks ago Jacob participated in our ward's Pinewood Derby. It was a crazy but fun day! I spray painted his car throughout that day (since we did not get it ready until the night before) and put the last coat on about 5 p.m. (the Derby started at 7 p.m.) About a 1/2 hour before the derby Trent put the wheels on and when we got to the church I glued Jacob's Orc's on (he LOVES Lord of the Rings). We forgot the camera so Trent had to run home to grab it so I helped Jacob the weigh-in. It was a madhouse with all the Dads trying to get just the right weight for their son's car- or should I say Dad's! I was very happy when Trent got back and could take over. Jacob's car did well and he had a lot of fun. It was a GREAT night!

Farewell Mom & Dad!

2009-06-10T13:55:00.011-06:00

Most of my family were able to come to my parents farewell on May 31 so we took advantage of the time together to take a picture.Last Sunday (June 7) my parents came home from the MTC for the weekend. We were able to eat dinner with them and get one final picture with them. They leave on Friday to drive out to their mission.
I'm really going to miss them! Hopefully the next 18-24 months will go really fast!

The will be great missionaries!

Parent's Mission Call

2009-05-09T15:28:00.002-06:00

I just wanted to congratulate my parents on their mission call to Hartford, Connecticut! The are leaving on June 1 (just 3 weeks). They will be running the mission office and helping the mission president and will be gone for at least 18 months (the president would like them there for two years). I am excited for them but trying not to think about how much I am going to miss them! I have become accustomed to having them less than 10 minutes away. I know it will be a big adjustment for me but a great opportunity for them! Congrats!

2009-04-18T15:22:00.002-06:00

Jacob and Joseph started taking piano last fall and they have been doing awesome! They used to share their piano books to save money until they started competing and comparing too much. They have both moved up more than one level and really seem to be enjoying themselves. Yesterday, the had their first recital and did great! Jacob seemed a little nervous but Joseph had nerves of steel. We were very proud of both of them!

Fabulous birthday and Easter

2009-04-13T10:59:00.017-06:00

What a fabulous weekend! Saturday was my birthday and I ended up being spoiled almost the whole weekend. Friday night we went to dinner with Trent's parents, Saturday morning took me and the kids out for breakfast, and Saturday night Trent and I went out to dinner with my parents. It was GREAT!Our traditional Saturday afternoon egg hunt at Mom & Dad Wiley's home. It was a little chilly and kept sprinkling but at least we did not need coats this year!This year we brought over a bunch of eggs to my parents Easter afternoon so they could watch the kids run after the eggs. I think they enjoyed it.Check out MaryAnn running after the eggs!Sarah loved looking for eggs and eating the candy!

Visiting Teaching

2009-04-02T15:24:00.002-06:00

Laura sent me this cartoon via email and I enjoyed it so much that I had to post it on my blog. Enjoy!

Poor, poor Sarah!

2009-03-26T14:27:00.003-06:00

Our poor little Sarah has a lovely black eye. On Sunday, she tripped on my parents driveway on Sunday while carrying her sippy cup. Her sippy cup hit the ground and she landed on the sippy cup with her eye. We didn't realize that she hit her eye until about 15 minutes later when MaryAnn asked me why Sarah's eye was purple. Her poor eye was very swollen but she would not let us keep ice on it. Of course, she had her 18 month doctors visit yesterday while having such a lovely eye. I took these pictures on Tuesday (2 days after her fall). You wouldn't know now that she was injured since she never slows down!

Jeff's Wedding

2009-03-25T08:35:00.012-06:00

Jeff and Braydee were married March 14th in the Los Angeles Temple. The ceremony was beautiful and I was so glad we were able to go (the driving all over was awful- I don't want to live there!). I decided to pick just a few of my favorite pictures to post on my blog (I don't want to steal Jeff and Braydee's glory).Braydee's Dad called these "Peter Pan Outfits". They looked cute but I think he was right.My favorite picture of Sarah! (my Dad took this one)Our family that could come.The reception in California was catered by In-Out Burger. It was the first time I had it. Yum!Abby loved the chocolate fountain!

Disneyland 2009

2009-03-24T16:42:00.006-06:00

We had the opportunity to spend a day at California Adventure and a day at Disneyland. It was so much fun. Here is a picture of us at Goofy's Kitchen (we did this before everyone else arrived).

I had a hard time choosing from the rest of our pictures so I decided to just make a slideshow of them.

Huntington Beach

2009-03-18T10:30:00.012-06:00

We had a ton of fun playing in the waves at Huntington Beach.! It was windy so we had some great waves to play in.

Sarah didn't like the sand but she loved being up on the pier!

Knott's Berry Farm

2009-03-18T10:21:00.005-06:00

We traveled last week to California for my brother Jeff's wedding and took the opportunity to visit several places in the L.A. area. Our first place was Knott's Berry Farm (my first visit). It was great! There weren't very many people and we hardly had to stand in line- most of the time the were just waiting for people to get on the rides.

Abby's 4th B-day

2009-03-17T16:08:00.016-06:00

I finally have gotten around to posting pictures from Abby's 4th birthday (March 7th). She loved getting breakfast in bed (our new family birthday tradition) and enjoyed all the attention she received from Trent's family at her party that night. She was smiling all day! Landon and Abby are only 5 months apart in age. They are very cute together!

MaryAnn's 6th Birthday

2009-02-16T08:31:00.006-07:00

I feel bad because I have neglected to post pictures from MaryAnn's birthday. Her birthday was January 29 but we celebrated it with our family on January 30 (day of my Dad's retirement). I started celebrating her birthday a few days earlier by making her breakfast in bed (before she went back on track). She loved that I let her drink from one our special glasses.

McKenna, MaryAnn, Brandi

It's funny to see these three together! Brandi turned 6 in November, MaryAnn in January, and McKenna will turn 6 in May. Looking at this picture wouldn't be able to tell who was the oldest of these 3.
MaryAnn really wanted a hula-hoop for her birthday and she has become VERY good at doing it!

I took the easy route this year and purchased a princess cake from Sam's Club. She had a great birthday!

Dad's Retirement

2009-02-03T14:22:00.010-07:00

As many of you may know, my Dad finally retired this last Friday. His work had a little open house at the office and we all decided it would be great if we could get all of his kids there to surprise him (I don't remember the last time all 7 of their kids were together). Doug flew from Rochester, MN to Vegas on Thursday and caught a ride to Dona's where he spent the night. Eric left right after work on Thursday and also spent the night at Dona's. Bob took a 24 hour train ride from Omaha, NE to SLC and arrived at 11 p.m. Thursday night. Trent picked him up at the train station and he spent the night at our home. On Friday, we all met up outside my Dad's office at 1 p.m. so we could arrive at the same time for the open house. It was great! He was very surprised and was brought to tears.

Christmas Eve

2008-12-26T23:40:00.007-07:00

Here are a few pictures from Christmas Eve. What a crazy but fun day! I found all these matching pajamas online. Yeah! Most of the Wiley family. We were able to do the Nativity with the Worthingtons and Wileys (the ones there).

Wiley Christmas Party

2008-12-15T14:27:00.012-07:00

On Saturday night we had the fun oppurtunity to attend the Wiley Family Christmas party. We had a lot of fun visiting with everyone there. There was great food and fun. They had two pinatas- one for the kids (Jacob found $5- the big prize) and one for the kids over 60 (full stuff for older people- Bengay, denture cream, pill boxes, etc.). Then we had an adult gift exchange- like white elephant game only with good gifts. Then the kids were very happy (and surprised) to have Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus come. They were great! After they kids all sat on Santa's lap, they let anyone hat wanted to come and take family pictures with Santa. Of course I had to take advantage of it. It was a great night

Ward Christmas Party

2008-12-15T14:02:00.003-07:00

We had our annual ward Christmas party on Friday night and they had the primary perform the nativity and it was very cute! MaryAnn was an Angel, Joseph was a Shephard (I forgot his tie so he had to use MaryAnn's), and Jacob was a wiseman. It was amazing how watching the kids perform it really strengthened the spirit there!

School

2008-12-05T11:06:00.005-07:00

Yesterday was a crazy but great day of school. In the morning, I was able to go with the kids to their pastries with parents. Then, we went outside and walked a few laps for the Gold Medal Mile. It was a bit cold but mostly I just heard Abby complain she was tired so I left with her and Sarah soon after. When I went to pick up MaryAnn from Kindergarten, she came running up with this cute little note from her teacher.

MaryAnn is our child that needs praise the most so she was very excited.

When I came home from picking the boys up from school, there was a message from the principal on the answering machine praising Joseph and his creativity. It was the first time the principal has ever called our home. I always thought principals only called for bad things so it was a nice surprise to have her call for something so positive. She also gave Joseph a sticker saying his principal loved him and he had to wear it everywhere we went (he even put it on his shirt for tithing settlement). I tried recording the message and will add it on here. Just beware that I recorded it just for the message and that the sound did not turn out that great (we need a new phone/answering machine).

Coldplay

2008-11-26T13:55:00.008-07:00

I had a lot of fun with Lori at the Coldplay concert on Saturday night. I hate to admit it but I think that was the first REAL concert I have gone to. I've been to others but nothing like Coldplay. It was fun but I do not think I was prepared for the volume. I almost wished that I had taken some earplugs from the guy handing them out before the concert.

Here are a few pictures that Lori took with her camera. Keep in mind that we were in the nosebleed section.

Utah -vs- BYU

2008-11-23T20:58:00.008-07:00

I never really understood that there was a real rivalry between the University of Utah and BYU until we moved out here. I am sometimes still amazed at how into it people get. Well, we have a couple of neighbors that are best friends and one family is majorly for the U while the other family is majorly for BYU. They lovingly like to tease each other throughout the year and especially when they play each other. They just so happened to play yesterday and the University of Utah was decidedly the winner. So, I could not help but laugh when I looked out the window this morning when I glanced at the BYU family's front yard. I thought the U of U family did such a good job decorating the BYU family's front yard that I had to take some pictures.

It will be fun to see what the winning family comes up with next year!

Dancing Sarah

2008-11-17T09:31:00.003-07:00

Sarah really loves to dance! Well, this morning I turned on my Coldplay CD (to get myself excited for the concert on Saturday) and she really started dancing to the music. She stopped when I turned on the camera so I had to tell her to dance to get her started again. She was very cute and I really love her!

Random

2008-11-17T09:18:00.004-07:00

I've realized that it has been a while since I posted anything (just life going on). I found a couple of funny pictures on our camera that I thought I would post.

This is a funny picture I took of Sarah the other night. Sarah loves to brush her teeth! That night, she climbed up on the stool when no one was looking and started brushing her teeth with her siblings toothbrushes that they left on the counter. She was so funny and sneaky that I had to take a picture.

Joseph begged to take a picture of me. Since I don't really like pictures of just me, I grabbed my girls (I still can't believe I have 3) and had him take it of us 4. He did a pretty good job I think.

Halloween

2008-11-03T12:55:00.006-07:00

We had such an awesome Halloween. It was so much fun to have Halloween on a Friday. The weather was fabulous! The kids didn't even need jackets! In the morning, we went to the kids school. I helped out in MaryAnn's class and then went to watch the parade. After the parade, Trent went and helped out in Jacob's class. When he was done, we went and voted early (yeah, it's done!). I took the kids trick-or-treating to the circle near our home and then I brought Sarah home. Trent took the kids out the rest of the time while I handed out candy. Our kids were very excited to have their cousins Ethan and McKenna trick-or-treat with them. Later, we took the kids to my parent so they could see their costumes. I was extremely exhausted bu the time we made it back home!

Disneyland Vacation

2008-10-17T17:06:00.009-06:00

We had such a fun time at Disneyland! A few days before we left, Trent's Mom decided to join us and that was a great help! We really took advantage of the babyswap. We did as much as we could and were very tired from it all. It was great! Abby even was able to meet Snow White. Yeah!

Sarah & Jacob's B-day Party

2008-10-04T22:55:00.010-06:00

On Friday night, we were able to have a family party to celebrate Sarah's 1st birthday (September 25) and Jacob's 10th birthday (October 10). We had a lot of family there and we had a lot of fun. Sarah really enjoyed her cake and was not a bit shy about eating it. At the end, she seemed like she was on a major sugar high- which was fun to watch!

Jacob really enjoyed having everyone sing "Happy Birthday to You" to him and began singing "Happy Birthday to Me". It was very funny!

Weekend Pictures

2008-10-01T20:36:00.008-06:00

We are very fortunate to have my brother Doug and his family out visiting from Minnesota. Well, last weekend my sister Dona and her kids were able to come for a visit and we were able to get a few pictures from the visit.

The awesome Joseph

2008-09-30T11:02:00.005-06:00

I picked a very good week to try to take pictures of Joseph's soccer game. He had a very good game and received the player of the game award. Joseph is excited because the award includes a free kids meal at Village Inn.

I also decided to take a picture of all three kids in their uniforms while I had the camera handy.

Sarah & her bunny

2008-09-26T14:34:00.008-06:00

I started taking Sarah's picture with a big pink bunny when she was a month old and I have been taking her picture with it every month. Well, today I was looking at the pictures and when you put her 1 month picture next to her 12 month picture you can definitely tell she has grown and changed a lot over the last year.

Sarah's 1 year check up

2008-09-24T11:54:00.002-06:00

I know people are constantly telling me how small Sarah is but I'm around her so much that I really don't notice it. Well, I took her in this morning and I now totally agree with everyone else. She only weighed 16 lbs. 12 oz. (well below the 3 %) and was 27 3/8 inches (8 %). She does weigh more than Abby at the same age (Abby was only 15 lbs.) Her head was in the 25% which the doctor says means she is developing well mentally. Sarah is very small but extremely healthy which is my main concern.

Jacob's Soccer Pics

2008-09-23T17:30:00.005-06:00

I decided since I put some soccer pictures of MaryAnn on I better do the same for the boys. I will start with Jacob (since I remembered the camera for his game).

I loved his expressions! He actually looks like he was into the game!

The Twilight Series

2008-09-19T12:57:00.012-06:00

I knew that I was a bit obsessive with the Twilight books a few months ago when I had a hard time letting Trent borrow them. I thought I had finally overcome that. That is until I told someone they could borrow my Twilight book to read. I then started to panic- What if she is a slow reader and I don't get the chance to reread the book before the movie comes out. So, when I saw a shelf full of paperback copies of Twilight at Sam's Club I purchased one for her. I know I am being really obsessive but I am sure Stephenie Meyer doesn't mind the business. Plus, now I don't have to worry about getting my copy back. Everyone is happy and I can rest well!

Disney

2008-09-19T12:57:00.011-06:00

Yesterday, we were so excited to receive our package from getawaytoday.com for our Disneyland trip that we are taking in October (Thanks for the advice Laura!). The kids can't wait! They keep saying how excited they are to go off-track and go to Disneyland.

Abby can't wait to meet Snow White!

Principal Pride

2008-09-12T12:13:00.008-06:00

Jacob and Joseph received the Principal Pride award today at school. Jacob received his for getting 100% on his Spelling. Joseph received his for a wonderful Family Story that he wrote. I don't love the whole ceremony of the Principal Pride award but the kids think it is great. They do get a free kids meal from Winger's and from Applebee's which I do love. I was excited that they earned their awards on the same day so that I only have to come back one more time for when MaryAnn gets hers!

Soccer

2008-09-10T16:34:00.011-06:00

This last Saturday, Jacob, Joseph, and MaryAnn had their first games of the fall season. I was only able to make it to MaryAnn's since all 3 games were at the same time (I missed Joseph making a goal). I forgot my camera at the game but I did take a few snapshots at her practices (which she enjoys better than her games anyway) that I made into a collage (first try). Her team is the Blue Thunder.

I also made a collage of some pictures of the Iron County Fair from Labor Day weekend.

12 wonderful years

2008-09-07T18:47:00.006-06:00

Today is our 12th anniversary. I can't believe how fast those years have flown by (I guess having 5 kids will do that to you!). I still feel extremely blessed to have Trent in my life! What a mighty good man!

Kindred Spirit

2008-09-04T11:53:00.008-06:00

Those of you who really know me know what a huge Anne of Green Gables fan I am. I have always felt that if she were real we would be kindred spirits. Some of you may remember that I even hit a boy on the head with a book once when I was angry- very embarassing. Well, a few days ago Trent showed me an article from the Deseret News entitled "Kindred spirit turns 100". So, in honor of the book being 100 years old, I would like to add a little wisdom from Anne to my blog.

"Some people go through life trying to find out what the world holds for them only to find out too late that it's what they bring to the world that really counts. OR It's not what the world holds for you it's what you bring to it. "

"Isn't it splendid to think of all the things there are to find out about? It just makes me feel glad to be alive--it's such an interesting world. It wouldn't be half so interesting if we know all about everything, would it? There'd be no scope for imagination then, would there?"

"It's so easy to be wicked without knowing it, isn't it?"

"Marilla, isn't it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet?"

"For we pay a price for everything we get or take in this world; and although ambitions are well worth having, they are not to be cheaply won, but exact their dues of work and self-denial, anxiety and discouragement."

Such wisdom!