April 2011

 So Rex loves cookies!  I'm starting my grandma tradition early can't you tell?  A friend of mine showed me this cool baby eating thingie, it is so great to put food into and let them have at it.  The type of cookies they make for babies he would put in him mouth and choke on it but this way....no problem.  He just goes to town.  He also likes bananas this way too.

 Jourdan is doing so well at Pilots school!  We are so very proud of him.  I had to create a LO for him!            He just finished with flying colors his flight instructor test.  It was a major test and he did so great!  His instructor told him she would like to be able to give him his last two test because she really enjoyed  working with Jourdan!  Way to go!
Any one up for flying?

Labor Day

Our Labor day started out with our annual family bike ride up the Provo River trail. It was slightly overcast so it was excellent weather for a ride. Spencer was able to join us for the first hour before he had to turn back to head back to work. We rode from Utah Lake to the Shopco on the diagnal for a total of 12 miles.

Meilin and Mom on the bridge where we turned around. We then headed to Maceys for Icecream cones! Yum! Yum.

Shrotly after this Mitchell crashed into a young father with his child. Both were ok, but it was Mitchell's second crash of the day, poor guy!
After lunch at Burger King it was off to the Spanish Fork Airport to go flying with Jourdan! What fun! This was our first chance to see him in action and fly with Him.



Mitchell thought it was "Totally AWSOME!!!" Meilin giggled the whole flight and Dad got to fly to Provo airport and do a touch and go with Jourdan. Upon returning the weather started to get windy so Mom's ride had to be postponed. (Darn!) It was the highlight of the day! Thanks Jourdan!

Care-O-Van

So what does this picture of children in an orphanage in South America and Jourdan have in common? To find out what he will be up to this summer check out his web-site at: http://www.care-o-van.org

Helium

After our bowling trip the kids got a little silly with the helium....

Water Polo

Friday Ron and I went to watch Jourdan in his final water polo game of the season. His team was in the championship finals. It was a great game but they lost. It was a lot of fun watching them though. It is a tough game. It was hard not to get tired just watching them! After the game they all jumped in the pool and celebrated. We thought it was funny that their coaches wore swim trunks, white shirt and fish ties.

Lower lights keep burning.....

ok so Jourdan sent a few vedio clips along with his SD card. I will add them on our blog for you to enjoy. Keep checking back for more updates.

Pictures from Elder Smith

So Jourdan finally sent us his SD card with some pictures from his mission. It was great to get a bunch of pictures but the sad thing is there are no captions on the picutres so we don't know who is who. Guess we will have lots of catching up once he gets home!

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Pictures from the Mission field

For my birthday Jourdan sent his SD memory card home filled with pictures. What a wonderful gift it was! He continues to do very well. His letters are very upbeat and inpirational. He is currently a trainer and is dedicated to helping his compaion be the best he can be. He continues to be a strong influence for good out there Ohio.

Becasue the pictures were on the memory chip nothing had a caption on it....so we are up to ourselver to figure everything out. I believe this first picture is his companion in Twinsburg, Elder Bell. The second picture is the gentleman that they lived with in Twinsburg. Last is a picture of a woman he called his second mom. She took good care of him while he was in Alliance

Ohio Trivia

The Other areas ad misionaries in the district are Sister Cope (Kennith cope's neice) and sister Skinner in Solon. and sister Packer and Sister Ruff in Hiram. Hiram ohio is where the John Johnson farm is. a few sections of the D&C were written there. the prophet Joseph spent a lot of time there. Sister Skinner's parents jsut moved to salem Ohio. which those of you rembember was in the last ward i served in-alliance. so her parents just moved into the mission. that would be so crazy. don't get any ideas mom and dad. also i learned something cool about Salem Ohio this week. The first angel Moroni that they made and put on the SLC temple was cast and made in Salem Ohio. there are still all sorts of steel yards and iron casting factories out there today. kinda neat.

Freezing Rain

This is the latest news from Jourdan. He helps us understand the wonderful weather in Ohio. Burr it sound fun!?!

i want to tell you some of the wonders of freezing rain, so you can know just how wonderful yesterday was.
so its cold. and its raining, so natrually that rain freezes, and for some reason it doesn't turn to snow. it turns into little bb like ice drops that sting when they hit you. when they hit you instead of like hail that bounces off, it splatters and freezes. your probibally thinking that after a few hundred drops hit in one spot you could get a pretty good layer of ice there. Well your right! and the rain hits everwhere. and it rained all day. so yesterday ohio was covered in a nice thick layer of ice. and so was I! haha it was nuts!! now i know it sounds great and all but, there are a few things that you need to be aware of when your world suddenly turns to ice.

1. you fall. . . . a lot
2. for those of you who have seen cool runnings when Sanka is in the ice cream truck and snaps of a peice of his hair.... that is real.
3. there such a thing as a chevy malibu-popcycle
4. its probibally safer to run with scisors than to drive.

so if you ever are caught unawares in a frozen rain storm, be prepared for those 4 things

To read all of Jourdans letter and to hear about his latest baptism please visit his website. Forgot the password, just email and we'll send it to you.

Jourdan is transferred and made District Leader!

Here is some highlights from Jourdans letter this week. Again remember this is only a highlight if you want to read the whole letter to get the big picture you'll need to visit his web page.... http://www.missionsite.net/enterpassword.php?id=372&returnto=/main.php Remember you'll need his password so if you forgot please email me and we will forward it onto you.
Transfers have to be the epitomy of bitter-sweet. at least when your trying to get out of a walking area. I don't think that i can ever get used to saying goodbye to the people that i have met and taught. they are just as big as an impact on me, as the missionaires are on them. its ALWAYS so hard to leave.
So now i am in Twinsburg. which is kinda close to parma, my first area. and guess what?? I HAVE A CAR!!! wooo!!! haha. this place is sweet. we are living in a members home wich is like a million times better than any appartment i have ever seen. free landry, home cooking, etc... its just wonderful. my comps name is elder Bell he has been out for 6 weeks. he just got done being trained. they made me district leader too. i'm a little bit nervous about that one .... so that will be fun, and new.
Elder Smith

Jourdan and riding bikes in the winter....oh the joy!

Jourdan week 16 in Alliance

I have decided to post a few snipits from Jourdans weekly letters here on our Blogg. For the whole letter you will need to visit his web page.

"last sunday was the youngstown stake conferance. so that was fun. we had Elder Madsen from the seventy come and talk. he was AWSOME. i love general Athoritys, they are soo sweet.
Every time i set a baptisimal date with someone, their life gets hecktic. why? becasue its probiblally the most important thing they could do here on earth. and satan knows it so he does everything within his power to try and stop it. so for that reason i always get a little nervous when we set a baptisimal date with people. I am doing great. i love it here. i hope your all doing well! i love ya!

love Elder Smith

So Jourdan left today for the great state of Ohio. I tracked him on Delta's flight tracker and watched him land. It was a bit of a heart jerker to see that my first-born son was 1500 miles away from home. He is, as we are, excited that the time has arrived for him to finally leave. It was a bit hard for me today. Something with the fact that we are not looking at the same mountains anymore, he is in a different time zone and I have no reference point when it comes to Ohio. Well he is in the Lords hands now and I know he will be fine, it is just that those apron strings are bleeding a bit from being cut today.

Now we look forward to hearing about his experiences in Ohio.....Can't wait for that first letter!

MTC here he comes!

Before we dropped Jourdan off at the MTC we took the opportunity to have one last family dinner together. Alyse was able to get off work for only an hour and she was able to join us at Abpplebees. It was a great lunch!(ask Mitchell) Then we were off to Purple Turtle to pick up Andrew and then finally the MTC. Jourdan was a bit nervous at this point and just wanted to get there and start his mission! After the quick (yes it was very quick) movie we said our sad/happy good-byes and he was off!

Priesthood Power

Jourdan was set apart by our Stake President on Aug. 14 at 8:00pm in our home. Those present were our Bishopbric; Bishop McMurtry, Bro. Ash & Fong. President Welch and President Serman, Grandpa Smith, Ron, Old YM President Bro. Dailey. Friends, Chris, Kellin, Jordan and Seth. Let us not forget of course Jourdan Smith