The Kandells: 2006

Friday, December 29, 2006

Christmas Break

December has been such a busy month for us. We have had so many fun things and had a nice time spending time with family. Right after Thanksgiving we had to hurry and get decorated for Christmas because on Saturday December 2nd, Hailey had all her high school girlfriends down for a Christmas Dinner Party, it was a lot of fun and everyone loved the fondue. Then on December 16th we had Eric’s company party at Riverside Country Club, it was a nice dinner with everyone and Ady went and stayed the night at Grandpa and Grandma Smoots, she loved playing with her aunts Breanna and Christa. Since Adyson was staying up in Centerville, Eric and Hailey went and stayed the night up at a Mountain Suite in Sundance to celebrate Erics birthday, it was nice we went to the spa and just relaxed.

Then the week before Christmas Hailey, Ady and the Smoots headed down to stay at our St. George house so everyone could go to Vegas on the 21st for the Vegas Bowl, we had to go a support BYU. And they totally dominated the entire game. Eric was too busy at work to join us for this little trip but he wished he could have been there. We also felt bad leaving him home on his actual birthday so Shane and Stacey took him and Hailey out to Ruth’s Chris for dinner the night before we left.Then on Christmas Eve Eric, Hailey and Ady stayed up in Centerville and got to go to church and see Bishop Shane Smoot in action, and watch the nice Christmas program, Ady kept pointed at her grandpa up on the stage and grandma too since she was singing with the ward chior. Then Christmas Eve we had yet another Erics bithday celebration with the whole family. He got so spoiled this year.Christmas morning we spent opening gifts and trying to get Ady to play with her gifts. It was a great time, then we headed up to the Smoot cabin in the early afternoon for a couple days of relaxing and snomobiling. Also a new tradtion was brought the the cabin this winter, for Christmas all the boys got paintball guns from Santa (Shane and Stacey) so all the boys were playing paint ball wars out in the woods until they either had welts that hurt to bad or they were too tired. Eric loved it so much he is already talking about war strategies to try out in the Spring up there. I have to keep reminding him that we will be having a new baby in the Spring so there may be less time for paintballing.

And that is pretty much in a nut shell what we have been up to the last few weeks. Time is flying and in just 14 shorts weeks we could have our new baby boy at home. We cannot wait to see Ady be a big sister. This month she will be getting a big girl bed in preparation to give her crib up to Ethan when he comes home from the hospital, so we will let you all know how that goes. Have a Happy New Year and we love you all!

We can't believe it is almost Christmas!

We have to say sorry for not having written anything in quite a long time. It seems like time is flying by and we are always sooooo busy. We have done a ton of things as a family since our last entry and are excited to update you all.

We took Ady to Disney on Ice at the Delta Center in Salt Lake last month and we went with Aaron Waller and his Fiance Ashley and her daughter Brea. It was awesome to see how excited Adyson was the entire time. We would have thought she would have lost some interest over time, BUT she didn’t. Everything was lit up bright and lots of music and dancing Disney characters and she just laughed and smiled and made sure Mommy and Daddy were well aware of the fun she was having.

We spent Thanksgiving in St George, Utah with Eric’s Family. Jim, Sue, Lisa, Steve and Easton were all at the house in St. George and we spent 5 days there. To go and see some of our Thanksgiving pictures click here. Adyson absolutely loved playing with Easton. It was so interesting to see how they interacted together. There were times that Ady would just scream and cry anytime Easton would come near her. However, there were other times when if the two of them were apart more than five minutes you would think that their worlds were falling apart. We cannot wait for Ady to have a brother at home so she can play with him all the time.
Speaking of a baby at home, Ethan has been really active lately and we can even see him kicking now. It is one thing to feel little kicks here and there, but when you can see them it is really cool. Hailey seems to be feeling much much better than she used to so we think the morning sickness is almost over!

Okay back to St George and Thanksgiving….. We DEEP FRIED A TURKEY THIS YEAR! Trust me it was so good. We deep fried the thing in peanut oil and the whole turkey cooked in less than a half hour and it was so juicy. You really need to try this sometime if you have not already. A highlight was watching BYU beat UTAH of course. We were all scared because we could not get the game on tv since COMCAST is not in St George. We even called Chilis and some other places and NO ONE had it. We finally found it playing at a smoke-filled ghetto BAR up the road and we watched it there. That was one INTENSE GAME.

Well we had a great time just relaxing and being with Family. We are now looking forward to Christmas. We will be spending Christmas with The Smoots up in Wyoming at their cabin and cannot wait.

Love The Kandells

Ethan it is then!

Well we liked all the boy name feedback we recieved. And we really wanted to have a name picked out sooner than later because we like being able to call my belly by name. So, we decided we would both pick out favorite 2 names and take turns referring to the baby as those names and it turned out both of our favorites were Ethan! So, we started talking to him as “Ethan” and we didnt even get to the other names on the list. It just seemed like that was “the name”. So I guess we did end up going with our original first choice. I still reserve the right to change my mind but we already put it in his Baby Journal so I doubt it will change.

Happy Halloween!

We had a blast this year for Halloween and it was so much fun because we were able to teach (or at least try) Ady how to go trick or treating. It seemed like every door step we were on though, that she was more interested in the pumpkins or whatever else she should not have been getting into. We had a party with a buch of Hailey’s highschool friends and all of their families. We all dressed up. Our family was the Wizard of Oz. Go check out the cool pics in our latest album.

Baby Boy Names???

Ok, I know I said we only had one boy name and if it was a boy there would be nothing to discuss, but that has changed, we now have several boy names we like (well somedays) and would love to hear some more suggestions from our friends and family. We dont want any negetive comments on names we like cuz that dosent help. But do tell us names we have that you do like or suggestions of your own.
Here is what we like this week
Madden
Sawyer
Ethan
Austin
Henry
Landon
Hunter
I am probably forgetting some but that is all i can think of from off the top of my head. So anything else?? Just leave a comment right here on the website with your suggestions, ideas, or opinions

It's a....BOY!

Yes, this monring we had our Ultrasound, and in about 10 seconds something was every obvious between the legs. So we are expecting a little Boy! We are of course very excited, and Eric is pumped to have a little boy to mold into his mischievious image. We think we are so lucky to have gotten one of each right at the beginning. Yay!

Eric's take on little Jr.

Yes Yes Yes. I was able to man up and give Hailey and Adyson a little boy. For some reason I had dreams that I would have 6 little red headed girls running around my house before I ever had a son. Well suprise suprise but what a way to start a family. Hailey and I could not have planned it any better. I am so excited. We are still thinking of names and supposedly Hailey is nervous that the little guy will be hyper and drive her crazy. Dont tell her I said this, BUT HE probably will! Well I couldn’t be happier. Ill write more later.

Gender Ultrasound This Week!

That is right, I am 16 almost 17 weeks this week and we are going to find out what we are having on Wednesday! We are so excited, we feel like once we can stop calling the baby “it”, the pregnancy seems to feel more real. Not that throwing up most mornings dosen’t feel real but we just like it better once we can start planning. Our appointment is at 9:30 am this Wednesday so expect a new website update before noon, we will write one up as soon as we get home.

In other Kandell family news, we just got home from a long weekend at our St. George house last weekend for UEA, we took my family, the Smoots, it was tons of fun, we swam and hiked and relaxed. It was nice to be able to go down there now that the house is all built and decorated, it was our first time down there just to hang out not work on it, or to bring down furniture. We look forward to many more winter weekends down there, escaping the snow.

Adyson is still as busy as always, always dancing and getting into stuff. Luckily I am starting to get enough energy back to keep up with her. And Eric is so busy at work, sometimes he coes home and falls asleep on the couch within 15 minutes of walking in the door. he has had to scramble to hire some new employees this week cuz things keep getting busier and busier. Good for him but bad for his sleep.

Well, we will write again on Wednesday hopefully with the news of our baby.

Finishing our first trimester with baby #2

We are just finishing up our first trimester with baby#2. I have been feeling a little better the last couple days, I am learning what foods to avoid just like I did with Ady’s pregnancy. We are also excited that in just a couple weeks we will be finding out the sex of our little baby. On Ocotber 26th, we have our gender ultrasound so be sure to keep checking the website for updates. Right now we kind of only like one boy name and it is Ethan Shane . But we have a couple girl names, we like Lily (mostly just eric does, i think I know too many Lily’s), we also Like Lila, Bella, Elle, and Abigail (but the pronblem with Abigail is we can’t have an ADy and an Aby, wel that is what i think, Eric disagrees) . So it may be easier for us to have a boy, we really would have not much to discuss. Feel free to email us baby name suggestions. We would love to hear ideas. Love you all!

Boy names?

Ok, I know I said we only had one boy name and if it was a boy there would be nothing to discuss, but that has changed, we now have several boy names we like (well somedays) and would love to hear some more suggestions from our friends and family. We dont want any negetive comments on names we like cuz that dosent help. But do tell us names we have that you do like or suggestions of your own.Here is what we like this week
Madden
Sawyer
Ethan
Austin
Henry
Landon
Hunter
I am probably forgetting some but that is all i can think of from off the top of my head. So anything else?? Just leave a comment right here on the website with your suggestions, ideas, or opinions

End of First Trimester

Our First BYU Football Game!

This past saturday we got Ady all dressed up in her BYU Cougar gear and headed off to to the stadium. It was great! We bought tickets from a nice lady who’s kids could not come (Eric saw her in the parking lot) and we bought her tickets. They ended up being on the 30 yrd line 4th ROW! Nice hu? Well go see the new pics in our gallery.

Immune to Medication?

Pregnant Hailey here, 12 weeks along now and getting closer to my second trimester. A couple of weeks ago my doctor prescribed me some anti-nausea medication. For the frist few days it was great, made me really tired but was helping a ton with the nausea. I was so excited, i only threw up like 1 time in the first five days I was on it. Now is seems to be losing its power, I have been sick again the last 4 days. It’s like I build up an immunity to it. I am going to keep taking ti since it does still help a little but it may not be quite the miracle I was hoping for.

As far as everything else is going. life is great. Adyson will be 15 months old soon, and is getting more fun all the time. She is starting to learn animals noises from the books we read her, and she is becoming so independent. She is only taking one nap a day now. One day a few weeks ago she just up and decided she was too old for 2 naps and switched. I was a little bummed out since I am more tired being pregnant and enjoyed the 2 naps.

Eric is doing well also he is so busy at work that he had to hire my little brother Spencer to help him process files. Eric loves being busy though and so we are glad he is happy with that even though his work days have gotten a little bit longer. We are hoping to spend some time at the St. George house now that the weather here in Provo is getting colder by the week. It will be nice to have warm weekends down there where Eric can golf year round and Adyson and I can swim. We will post pictures as soon as we can find a free weekend to get down there.

Our Day at the State Fair

On this past saturday we took Adyson to the state fair and it was soooo much fun. At first we thought we shouldn’t go because it was way cold and rainy, but we are glad we took the chance and went because as you can tell by the new pics, it was a blast.

The highlight for Eric was when Ady was chomping on her own corn on the cob. It was the cutest thing ever and then our friend Aaron Waller that was with us, bent down to watch her and she took a few steps toward him and opened her mouth and took a big old bite out of his corn on the cob. It was absolutely hilarious. She loved it.

Hailey loved watching Ady walk through the barn full of ducks, roosters, chicken, etc and Ady kept sayint “duck duck” to every bird in there. Then we went to the cow barn and she kept yelling and running and saying “duck.” I guess you had to be there to see how funny it was.

We went on rides, aint junk food and just had a great time. We went with Aaron Waller and his girlfriend Ashley and her daughter and some of her friends. We had a great time and can’t wait to go again next year with both our kids! That sounds crazy doesn’t it?

The Joys of Being Pregnant

Well this week I will be 10 weeks along, I have my first real appointment with the doctor on Tuesday. And so far not so good. We found out we were expecting at about 4 weeks, I felt fine until like 6 weeks, then the morning sickness started in again, a very familiar feeling since i just was pregnant with Ady last year. At first I thought this time a round the morning sickness wasn't as bad as last time but I think I was just getting warmed up, becuase it has been getting worse by the day this week, no fun. But, we are still very excited to be expecting next Spring. At first just a few weeks ago I thought because I felt better that this baby just had to be a boy, but now I am thinking we may have little daughter number 2 just because it all seems to be just like my first pregnancy. We can find out the sex of the baby at the end of October, so we will keep everyone posted. Also, I would love any suggestions on baby names, for our first pergnancy we had a list of boy and girl names but we dont really have much this time, so if you have any suggestions email me at hailey@thekandells.com

We cancelled our TRIP TO CABO!

Yes can you believe it? Hailey and I had our 2 year anniversary trip all planned out this weekend to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico and a recent hurricane has caused us to cancel! Not to mention Hailey is really sick with MORNING SICKNESS. If you had not heard by now, YES SHE IS PREGNANT AGAIN. We will tell you more about that in a minute. Back to this hurricane they are calling JOHN. It is still too early to tell what damage it will have caused but can you believe we could have been right in the middle of that mess?

We are currently thinking about traveling elsewhere this weekend so that we can still celebrate. We have a babysitter all lined up for Ady so we figure we may give it a try. We will have to tell you all about it after this weekend.

So as I said, Hailey is PREGNANT again and though she is still sick, it doesn’t seem to be as bad as it was on the first pregnancy with Adyson. She is due on the first week of April. Yippeee.

Wonderful time at Smoot Cabin in Wyoming

We went to the Smoot Cabin in Wyoming for three days last week and it was very fun. We were there Wed thru Fri (July 26-28 2006). If you can believe it Eric took 2 days off of work and it was well worth it. We enjoyed the entire day on Thursday at Flaming Gorge on the boat and we were out on the lake for 6 hrs! Probably the most amazing part about that is that little Adyson was on the boat the entire time and she was soooo good. We are so lucky to have such a wonderful daughter and we are loving every moment of it. Some memorable events on the lake include knocking Hailey off the tube, seeing Shane and Stacey Smoot tube together and a little fiasco of seeing Breanna Smoot, Hailey’s littlest sister get flipped off the tube after convincing her Eric would go easy with her back there!
The cabin is so relaxing and fun. For those that have never been there just imagine being in the middle of miles and miles of untouched trees, mountains, streams etc way up in Wyoming. The cabin is very rustic with your typical deer mounted head, mountain line skin hangin on the wall, old snow shoes and skeys and a huge leather couch. There is a loft, old steal stove and range, lots of 4 wheelers and snow mobiles and just the opportunity to lay around and relax or go out and shoot guns at targets, play horseshoe, hike or whatever you want. We just love it there. Hailey especially loves it because there is no cell service or computers for Eric.
This trip was special because it was the first time Brady Smoot has got to really hang out with the entire family since Hailey and I were married and had a baby. Remember, Brady just got home from his mission not too long ago, less than a month even. As we have said before we look forward to many more years of fun and memories up there.
UPDATES ON ERIC, HAILEY and ADYEricEric has been busy at work and is excited to be working on a project in St George soon with Hailey’s Uncle Bryce Burns. Bryce will be developing a bunch of residential property in St George and has decided to allow Eric’s mortgage company be the “preferred lender.” Eric and Hailey are both busy with the Cub Scouting in their ward. Eric is enjoying Adyson’s new favorite word which is DADA. Eric is excited to have his good friend Aaron Shelton, a roommate from BYU; to come and vistit and stay with us for 2 days along with his wife Keturah and their brand new baby Austin
HaileyHailey is as busy as ever with Ady. You will see why when we update you on all that Ady has been doing lately. One of Hailey’s best friends, Danielle White has moved back to Utah from Las Vegas so this has really made Hailey happy. Another thing Hailey has been busy doing is visiting all her friends that are just having their first babies. She has had 2 friends have babies in the past month or so and a couple more are expecting. Hailey spends a lot more time on our scouting calling and is great at organizing events for the boys and getting them excited to pass off all their stuff. Hailey really wants to have another baby soon too so we will keep you posted on that.
AdyAdy keeps getting cuter and cuter each day of course and is finally really growing a lot. She is not just walking but tries to run around now and is a huge handful; but we love her. Her hair is now long enough for Hailey to give her 2 pig tails. She is still sleeping all through the night with NO PROBLEM at all and really loves reading, playing and her newest thing to do is pick up everything she can and carry to the closest person in the room and just give it all to them.
We hope you continue to use our site to see what we are up to and we cant wait to see you all soon.The Kandells

Brady Smoot got home today

At around 8:45 pm on Tuesday July 11, 2006 Hailey’s brother Brady Smoot came home from his mission! It was so good to see him again. When he left on his mission Hailey and I were not even married and now we have a one year old baby girl. Brady had lots of family present at the airport. Here is a list of his biggest fans:*His mom and dad Stacey and Shane*His sisters Hailey, Christa and Breanna*His brother Spencer (Austin was in Boston at wrestling camp)*Me (Eric) and Adyson*Grandpa and Grandma Stan and Mary Ellen Smoot*Aunt Stana Kjar
Brady was so happy to see all of his family there and Stacey was the first to run and give him a huge hug as he walked towards us. Hailey won’t quit saying how good he looks, so if there are any single girls out there looking for a good looking returned missionary, please email Hailey your resume and she will see if she can hook you up.
After leaving the airport, we went to the stake center and met with the stake president and had the chance to listen to Brady go over some of his most memorable and spiritual mission experiences. Brady was such an awesome missionary and we could get a peak at how his friends in the mission must have felt by being with him every day as he shared the gospel message. If you are unfamiliar with the LDS faith and would like to know more about what message Brady shared for 2 yrs in Russia and Ukraine click here .
Brady will get back to normal life soon as he is enrolled at BYU Idaho for this fall semester. Good Luck Brady, we love you.Eric, Hailey and Ady

Ady about to turn 1 yr old!

Eventhough Ady doesnt really turn 1 until July 7th, we had her big birthday bash this past weekend on July 1st. We had an abolsutely wonderful time and thank all of you who came and partied with us! Go see all the new pictures in Adyson’s Birthday Gallery.

The week actually started off by Grandma Kandell and Aunt Lisa (Eric’s Mom and Sister) coming to visit. Lisa brought cousin Easton and he and Ady loved playing together all week long. Grandpa Jim flew in town later in the week and we all went to Riverside Country Club on Thursday night for the weekly pool-side BBQ. We had such a good time there. Our cousins Danny, Mariah, Sophia and Oliver all come along and we ate and swam for a couple hours that night.

Saturday July 1st was such a fun day. The highlight of the day of course was Adyson’s birthday party. We had water toys, the jacuzzi was turned into a swimming pool for the kids, and all the parents just enjoyed relaxing and watching the kids have a blast. Adyson’s great grandparents Stan and Mary Ellen Smoot came and were the first ones at the party to wish Ady a happy birthday. Ady was lucky to have all of her granparents there. Jim and Sue Kandell and Shane and Stacey Smoot came to also wish Ady a happy birthday. Ady doesn’t realize it now but she is certainly loved by so many. Adyson’s highlight was when Hailey let her have her very own birthday cake and she sat in her high chair while we all sang to her. Ady really won’t turn 1 until friday the 7th of July but we sure had a fun time celebrating with her.

Later that night we left Ady and her cousin Easton Lovell with Abbie Smoot while all of us adults (Eric, Hailey, Lisa, Jim, Sue, Shane, Stacey, Spencer (and his date of course), Christa and Breanna all went to the Stadium of Fire at the BYU football stadium. The highlight of the night for us was Taylor Hicks’ performance and of course the fireworks. If you think you have seen a good fireworks show, trust me you have not unless you have been to the Stadium of Fire. I bet there were at least 20 minutes of straight major fireworks at one point.

Well We have ab0ut 2 weeks or less until Hailey’s brother Brady comes back from his mission. It is hard to believe that when he left we were not even married and now we are almost 2 yrs married and have a 1 yr old baby and another on the WAY! (just kidding for now!)

Ady's first day on the lake

We had a bunch of fun this past week. It sure has been nice to be back into the normal swing of things since getting back from Greece. Eric is never completely in his comfort zone unless he is working and Hailey loves being back to the house where her and Ady can do so many fun things. Ady’s new fun thing to do is take walks everywhere and anytime she can. We thought it would be great when she started walking and sure it is, but man we cannot keep her in one spot. She just walks and walks and walks. Speaking of walking this past Saturday, Hailey’s mom and dad and her two brothers Spencer and Austin finished a huge walk. Grandpa and Grandma Smoot were called to serve as “Pa and Ma” for a Mormon Pioneer commemoration trek. They were in charge of their own family of ten and walked about 40 miles in the middle of the desert for 4 days. They are required to pull handcarts and there is no cooling of water and minimal food. The point is to help you get a better understanding and respect for the pioneers that settled the Utah Valley.
Adyson went on her first boat ride (GALLERY) this week and got to go with Christa and Breanna Smoot (her aunts). Hailey and I watched Christa and Breanna for a night while their parents were on the trek. We had a fun time as always and all of us went out on the lake for an evening ride. This was the first time getting the boat in the water since storing it for the winter and we felt a bit embarressed as we sat in the marina of the lake with a dead battery. Luckily we found some guys that helped us jump the battery and we were off. We went out with some good friends of ours from our ward named the Lindahls. Adyson absolutely loves water. She loves the hot tub, the pool, the bath, the streams, the shower believe it or not and now she loves the lake. We loved seeing her in the life vest and just smiling and jumping up and down. She hasn’t learned that she can’t throw stuff out of the boat though. I think she lost at least 2 toys into the lake.
Hailey and I have always been good at keeping her covered in sun block whenver we go outside. As a matter of fact just 2 weekends ago I had her at a pool for about 2 hrs one saturday and she didn’t even get a hint of red. Well on saturday when we went to meet Hailey’s parents at the end of the treck we didn’t expect to be waiting for them for so long and Adyson was outside with no sunblock. Don’t worry she is fine, but as you will see from the pics in the gallery, she got really pink and it was actually pretty cute, though we thought for sure she would not be sleeping and it would be way painful. Luckily for us, as always Ady proved to be a “super child” and she wasn’t even phased today at church. Hailey and I did have to explain that we are not negligent parents however.
This coming saturday we are celebrating her 1st birthday since Jim and Sue Kandell are going to be in town and so is Aunt Lisa (Eric’s Sister) with her son, cousin Easton. We cannot wait.

Home safe from Greece

Well we have safely returned from Greece and both Hailey and I survived being away from Adyson for the week. We are so grateful that Grandma Smoot was able to watch her. We are bit scared Ady might get bored at our house now that she has become accustomed to having a houseful of friends to play with at the Smoot house.
If you have not read our daily logs from our Greece trip just click on the travel link under categories on the right side menu and you can see what we did day by day. Greece is definetely one of the most beautiful places we have ever been or may ever go. We have looked at the pictures since returning and just get frustrated because there is no real way to capture the beauty other than to just go there. Imagine waking every morning and walking out onto your own private villa patio and leaning over your fence looking straight down off a cliff and into the bluest water of the mediterranean sea! The weather was perfect, not too hot and never too cold. We had the best food ever and are now addicted to Greek Food. We stayed on the Island of Santorini just a few miles out of a little village/town called Thira. We are not sure if we will ever go back but sure would love to. If you are ever planning a trip of a lifetime, Greece is definetaly one to think about. We wont go into a bunch of detail here since we have logged it all into the travel category which you can also find by clicking here. DONT FORGET TO GO TO PREVIOUS ENTRIES when at the bottom of the page if you want to see all we did.
We have recently posted some amazing pictures we took in greece so go to the gallery and view them there. Remember once in our gallery you can go to slideshow mode and choose the speed to watch the pictures and how large you want them on your screen. We hope all of you are doing well and can’t wait to see or hear from you soon.
The Kandells

Town of Oia

Today we had a rental car all day and were able to drive around almost the entire island. It was so much fun, we went to the Black Sand Beach (Perissa) and believe it or not the Red Sand Beach. The black sand beach was awesome. The sand was so hot you could not walk on it without shoes, and the sand was a bunch of tiny little rounded rocks. I got in the water and it was way cold. Hailey and I have noticed the water in the Mediteranean in much colder than we are used to. We hung out at the black sand beach for a while and then drove over to the red beach. We didn’t actually lay out at the red beach, but it was beautiful.
The main part of the day we spent our time in Oia. This is the little cliff town where they filmed the movie “sisterhood of the traveling pants.” We were amazed how different this town was than the town of Fira that is much closer to our hotel. Oia is a bit smaller and less touristy. We ate a really good lunch on the roof of one of the highest points in the town and just overlooked the sea and all the cliff side towns along the way. Oh I almost forgot, the entire drive to Oia was along a thin road along straight down cliffs with no road barriers! Needless to say I drove extra slow and careful. At one point the road and the island become so thin you are practically driving on a road and on both sides you see the sea right next to you.
We finished off the night by eating dinner at a sea-side restraunt called Katina in Oia and we were so excited to have fresh fish. The sea captains were bringing in fish right in front of us and grilling all sorts of sea food over coals right in the restraunt. We ordered grilled prawns and a fish called sea brea. Well, we knew something was wrong when they brought Hailey’s shrimp and it smelled really strong of wet dog! Next came my fish and the eyes were still in it. My fish was not all that bad after peeling off the skin and bones and eating around the eyes. We just chalked this up as a fun experience and headed back to Fira for some crepes and some shopping.
Back in Fira we went back to Fresh Line, the new handmade and natural cosmetics place that Hailey has fallen in love with and then found a place in the middle of an isle that made us some really good crepes. The crepe place was fun because some drunk dude called us to come up to his restraunt and we could get anything we wanted. We quickly found out he meant he could make us any drink we could think up, but when he found out we didn’t drink he thought we were crazy. It was funny because he promised he would make us the best crepes ever, but this place did not look like a crepery. Hailey and I just sat there and laughed because this guy was taking for ever to come up with crepes. He walked to every table drinking and laughing with everyone but just kind of ignored us. We almost walked out twice but then he came through and they were the tastiest crepes we have had and we have no idea where he got them, but he did. We can’t wait til we see what tomorrow (our last full day in Santorini) has in store

Last day in the islands

We are so sad to be leaving the beautful Island of Santorini tomorrow, it has been like a dream being here. But, at the same time we got the news today that Adyson is now walking (of course she started while we were gone) so we are excited to get home and see her.
Today we did a lot of relaxing and soaking up the last rays of sun. We woke up and lounged around by our pool, then we had two massage theraptists come to our villa and we got massages. It was great, and very relaxing. Then early afternoon we headed into town to our favorite little dive place Lucky’s to eat lunch there for our last day. The rest of the afternoon we spent shopping in Fira and relaxing back in our villa. Then tonight we had out hotel get us reservations at the beautiful cliffside restaurant called Sphinx, the food was great and the views were as always abslutely stunning.

Another amazing day in Santorini

Today we got lots of sun and chilled at our pool at the villas all morning. The first day we got here it was way windier than normal and caused the weather to feel a bit cool. When we got up this morning it was amazingly calm and hot. After lying in the sun and swimming all morning we took a taxi again back into the town on Fira and walked around and had lunch. The coolest thing that we did downtown today was ride the cable car! There is a cable car you can take all the way down the cliffs to the ocean and back. What a view! We ended up talking with a few families that were all part of a cruise that was for 10 days and went all over to tons of cool European places.
After lunch we came back and relaxed and did some more sun bathing and watched a movie and slept a bit before returning to town for dinner around 9:30 pm. The normal time for dinner over here is about 9:30-10:00. We found the coolest store called natural line, which is all sorts of skin care products that are hand made and you can buy them in any quantity you want etc. Hailey and I thought my mom would love the place and it is kind of like the bodi deli she goes to in St, Johns. Anyway we cannot wait for tomorrow since we are renting the car and going all over the island!

Santorini Greece is amazing

This morning we woke up pretty early as we are still trying to get used to the new schedule. We felt like we were in a movie or something because there were armed guards, policemen, metal detectors etc all in front of our hotel. We think there was some high priority individuals there because there was a big Banking meeting taking place. Anyway I just kind of sat on our balcony looking out over the parliament building and the main square and people watched most the morning.
We headed to the airport to take our flight to Santorini. The flight was a quick one and only took about a half hour. As much as I hate flying, this flight was pretty cool, because we just flew over islands and the ocean is so blue it looks fake. Landing in Santorini was like landing in paradise. For real, this place is unbelievable. Santorini is an island that used to be a complete circleof land around water, kinda like a donut island. Well there is a volcano right in the middle and thousands of years ago in the bronze age there was a large eruption that destroyed parts of the ring of land and now it is more like a half circle. The island is full of steep cliffs that go straight down into the sea and on these cliffs you can see some of the coolest little villas that are all white washed and just perched on these steep cliffs
Today we went into the town of Fira and ate at the best GYRO stand in the city called LUCKY’S. It was awesome. Fira is so cool, it is little cobblestone streets that wind all through these white-washed buildings and it is just a bunch of tiny diners, shops, and jewelers. You have to see it to believe it. Hailey and I both agree that pictures do not do this place any justice at all. It is believed that perhaps the best sunsets in the world are found from the island of Santorini. We ate at a cliff side restraunt called Niks tonight and watched the sky turn a bright orange and fade to a bright purple by the time the sun went all the way down. We cannot wait til tomorrow. We have lots of things planned for this week. We leave here and return to Athens on Friday.
Our little villa is great! We sit on the side of a cliff and have a private couples swimming pool, lounge chairs, etc. We look very forward to just hanging out and relaxing for a while.

Our first day in Athens Greece

Well after a very long plane ride, Hailey and I finally arrived in Athens today. Talk about jet lag. We were so tired by the time we got here that we could hardly keep our eyes open. The time difference is 9 hrs from Utah so we have some catching up to do. Once we got to our hotel in Athens, we decided to clean up and go get some lunch. We then got a taxi and went and visited some really cool ancient buildings right in the middle of Athens. It is so amazing that right in the middle of a major city, that there are these huge ancient buildings and ruins that we learned about back in school but really never paid much attention to. Hailey and I are amazed at how nice all the Greeks are. After walking around the Parthanon for a bit we took some side streets down the mountain and into town. By this time we were totally ready for a nap so we came back to our hotel and slept for about 2 hours before we had to get ready to go eat dinner. We had dinner at a restaraunt called Spondi. This place was very romantic and sat on a small rooftop and had all sorts of potted plants and gardens around it. It was amazing food. Hailey had lamb and I had filet. What we have found out about eating in Greece is that you take your time. We are not used to this since we have to eat so fast with Adyson at the house. It has been really nice to just sit back and relax and take things at a slow Greek pace. It is now almost 1 am and we have to leave to the airport at 9:15 am so we are going to head to sleep because tomorrow we fly to Santorini for 4 nights. We most likley won’t be able to get pictures into the gallery until we return but we will continue to keep posting interesting things we do each day. See ya all soon. Love Eric and Hailey

Grandma Kandell and Lovells Visit

The week of May 2- 10, 2006 Adyson’s Grandma Sue Kandell came to visit all the way from Ohio and had a blast with all of us. Even Aunt Lisa and Uncle Steve and Ady’s cousin Easton Lovell were in town to join in the fun. It was great to watch Adyson and Easton learn to play together. The first of the week it seemed every time Ady had something whether it was a toy, food or just junk, then Easton would come over and take it from her and her face turned a bright red and she started screaming! Well after the week progressed they were best friends and Ady was chasing Easton all around the house and couldn’t get enough of him.

Hailey and I were supposed to have been in New York this weekend to celebrate Hailey’s birthday, but there were mechanical issues with the plane and the short story is that we did not go to New York. We did take advantage of Grandma Kandell and Lisa being in town so Hailey and I spent the weekend at the Stein Lodge in Park City. It was awesome. We got to sleep in, get room service and just relax! As parents this relaxation is something that is priceless. We went to an amazing restaraunt for Hailey’s birthday called Chimayo and loved it. Eventhough our weekend in Park City was not as quite as fun as New York would have been, we sure had a good time.

We are looking forward to Adyson’s 1 yr birthday party in July. Both Grandma and Grandpa Kandell will be in town and the Lovells are coming too. Of course the Smoot Grandparents will be at the big party too! We are going to be celebrating her birthday on july 1 eventhough her actual birthday in July 7. Ady is so close to walking that we can’t believe it. Oh that reminds me, she really started to get some good practice with a box that Aunt Lisa put taped together for her. It is a great tool and she just stands behind it and pushes it across the carpet. Ady took her first step by herself on the May 18th, 2006. Well before long we will be writing all about the fun time at her birthday.

Daddy's Weekend with Adyson

Last weekend Hailey took a long needed short break to go visit some of her friends from school. I had the wonderful experience of staying at home with Adyson and man did WE HAVE A BLAST! She is such a wonderful baby. We took walks, ate junk food (not much), bought her a new walker and even stayed up late. I am so amazed at how much I love my little baby Ady and it is crazy how much she is growing every single day. It is good to have Hailey back with us now, but I really did enjoy taking care of Ady all by myself.

Hailey and Ady go to California with Smoots

Hailey and Adyson had a wonderful time last week in Palo Alto, California. Eric was not able to go unfortunately due to work but promises to make the next Smoot trip for sure! The girls (Hailey and Ady) had a blast doing all sorts of fun stuff with the Smoots. They went into San Francisco one day, went to the beach, went to the salt water aquarium (like a zoo of fish), ate at every tasty restaraunt you can name and just simply had lots of fun. They were gone from Saturday the 8th to Thursday the 13th. Go see some of the awesome times they had in the gallery. To tell you the truth I didn’t think I would have that hard of a time without my girls but I missed them a ton as I realized how long they would be gone as I was walking to church ALONE Sunday morning. Needless to say they are back now and I cannot get enought of them. Today is Saturday the 15th and Hailey just put Ady down for a morning nap. Later today we are goint to go get lunch and run some errands. While we are out we are going to take Ady to play at Cabelas. This is a a large sportsman and hunting store that is located in Utah and there are lots of live fish swimming around and supposedly KIDS love it. We will go see if so. Hailey is really excited to be making a Herb Box for our back patio this spring/summer so we are also going to go get some supplies to do that today. Talk to you all later.

Breanna Smoot is Baptized

On April 8, 2006 Breanna Smoot was baptised a member or the Church of JESUS CHRIST of Latter Day Saints. Her older brother Spencer performed the baptism and for all those that were not in attendance; this was a wonderful and spiritual experience! Breanna looked very beautiful and pure in her white dress. There are some pictures of this great day in our gallery. We are very proud of your decision Breanna.

Austin Smoot Wins Districts

Well the SMOOT family continues to dominate in the sport of WRESTLING. Austin Smoot, Haileys youngest (but probably toughest!) brother JUST WON THE DISTRICT WRESTLING TOURNAMENT. For ninth graders in Utah this is the equivalent of having won the STATE toruney. We are really excited to see how well Austin does next year in High School. He has a great legacy to carry on as both his older brothers were dominant wrestlers in high school. Oh and by the way, Austin MAN HANDLED the kid he wrestled in the final match. I believe the score was 13 to 3. Hey Austin did you even break a sweat? Way to go!

St. George Memories

This past weekend Hailey, Adyson, Grandma Sue Kandell and I all drove to St George, Utah with a Uhaul full of stuff and spent the weekend setting up and decorating our new home. We are so excited to have this home and can’t wait to begin building many memories for our family down there. The weather was soooo… nice. We built beds, set up chairs, couches and hung pictures. We got to see some long time friends of Sue and Eric’s from years ago in Boca Raton Florida. The Lamoreaux family were good friends of Eric’s grandma Gladys and through all his years visiting his Grandma in Florida, Eric too became good friends with them. Well believe it or not, they have lived in St George for the past 6 yrs and only live about 1 mile or so from our new home! The house is very comfortable and we cant wait to start spending many memorable family weekend get-a-ways down there.

We cannot wait for summer

The past two weekends we have had really nice weather in Utah. Last week it was actually close to 70 degrees if you can believe it. Needless to say OUR ENTIRE FAMILY cannot wait to have summer here. Hailey just can’t wait to start putting Adyson into her new “spring wardrobe.” Last fall we had Spencer Smoot plant around 200 bulbs around the front of our house. This is another reason we are so ready for the winter to be gone. You will just have to wait for the pictures to show up in our gallery.

We have started letting Adyson swim in the hot tub and as you can see from our gallery, that Ady loves it. Speaking of Adyson, she is OFFICIALLY CRAWLING ON ALL FOURS. She has been army crawling on her stomach since the day after Christmas and we were wondering when she would start crawling for real. Every single day Hailey and I are amazed at how much Adyson is growing. We love her so much. We are so blessed to have such a wonderful daughter. She makes our lives so much more fun. We went out for sushi in salt lake this weekend and took Adyson with us. She is amazing. She just sat in her high chair and ate her favorite little snacks (veggie puffs). It is great because Hailey and I can go out for dinner and spend time together and we never have to feel like we cannot because of Ady. We love her so much.

March is an exciting month because our St. George home is almost built and we will be closing soon. Jim and Sue Kandell and our family have built a home together in St. George and we are so excited to have this new home to begin many memories together. The home will serve as a great place for Grandpa and Grandma Kandell to come throughout the year and spend time in Utah with their grandkids. We are all waiting for Jim Kandell to finally retire so that he can come visit as much as Granma Sue does.

Spencer Smoot is State Champion

Hailey’s brother Spencer Smoot dominated during the Utah Division 5 State Wrestling Championships. Spencer is a senior in highschool and went into the state tournament ranked NUMBER 1 and proved why he was ranked that way.

He pinned his first opponent, had a technical decision on the second match, won by like 6 or 8 points on the third match and had a major decsion to win the CHAMPIONSHIP match. Way to go Spencer!

Spencer had way too many girlfriends prior to winning the state championship and now he can’t keep his cell phone from ringing.
Congrats!

Return from Sacramento

This past weekend our family flew to Sacramento to celebrate Easton Lovell’s birthday. Easton is our first nephew and we had a blast with Steve, Lisa and Grandpa and Grandma Kandell also.
Unfortunately when I (Eric) booked the tickets to Sacramento I didn’t realize we would have to take 3 plane rides. We flew from Salt Lake to Vegas and then to Ontario and then to Sacramento. Needless to say both Hailey and Adyson were not real thrilled. By the time we got in Friday night, we ordered take out from Bucco di Beppo or something like that and ate dinner at Steve and Lisa’s home.

Saturday was a really fun time. We went to the park and watched Adyson and Easton swing on the swing set, play on the jungle gyms and watch the ducks. You will defintely need to look at the amazing pictures in our gallery.

Later Saturday afternoon we went to Steve’s parents home and had a HUGE family BBQ. Lisa made my famous FLANK STEAK recipe. If you have never had this amazing steak dish, you need to ask me for the recipe. We opened presents, played games and ate.

We are looking forward to having all our family out here in July when Adyson celevrates her 1st birthday. Adyson is growing up very fast. She is crawling all over the house and trying to get into all that she can.

Oh by the way something really SCARY that happened to Hailey and Adyson while we were in Sacramento…. Basically we went to church on Sunday for stake conference and near the end Adyson was getting really hungry and grumpy so Hailey grabbed the car keys from me and went to feed Ady in the car. We were parked about 2 blocks away from the church so I didn’t feel like there was a lot of reason to go with them since church was almost over. Well about 15 minutes later Hailey came back to church with a horrified look on her face. She had been followed to the car by 2 jerky men who blocked her car in with their car and were knocking on the window and sitting on the hood of the car. Luckily nothing more than that happened, and I think they were mainly some idiot kids that were trying to scare her. Hailey had to drive over a curb to get out of the parking lot and to top it all off, before she had known they were following her, she had left Ady’s car seat and her car keys outside the car. Luckily these guys had no idea and when they were sitting on the hood, she jumped out and grabbed them and then was able to take off. This almost seems like something you would read in a scary book or something. We are just happy nothing else happened!

Austin Smoot's Birthday

We went to Centerville for Austin’s birthday on monday and celebrated his 15th birthday. Hailey wanted me to tell Austin, if he is reading this, that he has a Hottie Boddie! Anyway it was a lot of fun to spend time with the Smoots and Shane made a really cool compilation DVD of Austin’s childhood memories. We can’t wait for Breanna’s birthday in March.

Friday, December 29, 2006

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Monday, November 6, 2006

Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Sunday, October 29, 2006

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Sunday, October 22, 2006

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Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Monday, September 25, 2006

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Saturday, September 9, 2006

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

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Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Sunday, July 2, 2006

Sunday, June 25, 2006

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Thursday, June 8, 2006

Tuesday, June 6, 2006

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Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Thursday, April 27, 2006

Saturday, April 15, 2006

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Tuesday, April 4, 2006

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Sunday, March 5, 2006

Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Wednesday, February 8, 2006

Monday, February 6, 2006

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