Holiday feel good movie

I understand that my movie recommendations are usually cause for most people who know me to run inside, bolt the door, screen their calls, and cancel mail service for the week just in case I try to slip them a disc that way.

This one is also mostly recommended by Aimee so that you can rest assured that it does not contain; animation, subtitles, vampires, a sad ending, bad guys winning, or bicycles. Also, because I liked it you know it's not straight from the 80's ;)

So, if you dare take a recommendation from the me after the slight disclaimer, go rent 'Lars and the Real Girl' immediately. You'll thank me later. Or hunt me down and smash my bike ^_^

Christmas Pizza Party

Click above for the gallery, or below for the rest of the post.
Last weekend we managed to get all the brave Smith souls up to our place in spite of the raging winter blizzard. Good thing too 'cause I'm not sure I could have finished off 18 pizzas myself ;)

The cousins kept each other very well entertained without too many shed tears and the kitchen staff kept everyone well fed. We had some fantastic desserts, a beautiful salad all the pizza everyone could eat (chicken asparagus with the fav of the day). Hopefully everyone enjoyed themselves enough to be willing to do it again soon!

Christmas doctor fish

Ian found the ploy; all the fish are from Finding Nemo! Avyrlie loves Christmas and animals.

Aimee and Ian Down Under

Click the pic for the gallery:

Hate downloading from Flickr?

Want to download a bunch of pictures easily from Smithpix? You can stop pulling your hair out and click below for a simple, speedy solution :)

Apparently, not everyone loves Flickr as much as I do. It makes my life much simpler especially for searching through photos.

The best tool I've found for grabbing a bunch of photos quickly is a program called FlickrDown.
Below is the link to the download page. Grab either the .exe file or the .zip, whichever works for you.

Click here to download FlickrDown.

The first screen lets you search for a user's photos. My username is 'eouio'. Enter it in the search box and hit 'Lookup'.


FlickrDown pulls up a list of all the sets I have available. You can either choose the entire set or click on the name of the set for a list of individual pix with thumbnails so you can see what you're getting.
After you've made your selections, choose a folder to download the photos to and hit 'Download'.

Thanksgiving 2008

Thanksgiving was at the end of a pretty hectic week for Avyrlie and I. Top it off with her REALLY needing a nap and the day was just shy of relaxing ;)

It was great to see everyone although it was a smaller crowd than usual. Jarom and his family were feasting elsewhere, and Chelsi, Kendall, and Greg's family all just stopped by to sample pies :P Can't say I blame them at all; Pies and turkey is what it's all about...

The kids played pretty well with a few bruised egos, but nothing serious. Avyrlie asks when she will get to play with her Big Girl (Austyn) again.

I enjoyed the chance to be brain-dead for a bit and spend more than a couple hours outside of a vehicle.

Welcome to the Family

I have no small obsession over chocolate (especially dark) and always have an unhealthy supply at hand. You can imagine my excitement upon discovering Guittard's (my favorite brand) Extra Dark chocolate chips. Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies just got better! My only complaint is that they are not over-sized chips so the cookie tends to drown them a bit...

On the mend

Ian had a Dr appointment with the orthopedic surgeon to day to make sure his shoulder is healing up nicely and hasn't somehow been broken, again... We snagged some x-rays as well.

Original Break:


After another football fall at school:


and this morning:


still not 100%, but good enough to do about anything but contact sports

Snowboarding will have to wait :(

Little Turkey

Avyrlie's favorite stop, the deli.

Jimba, and a bow to the littlest Smith

I even set the thing up with them and then forgot to mention it here. This is why I have a day job ;)

Chelsi, on the other hand, has recently posted about our newest arrival to the internet: Our Parents. Kudos to Chelsi for remembering her elders and I humbly accept my lashings.

Head on over to Jimba for the latest and greatest happenings in the grandparent world!

Lloyd, Live and Unrehearsed!

There us just nothing quite like Coach Lloyd's end of the year football banquet. Some things have become pretty cool traditions and others have become traditions just for the sake of tradition. This is my quick laundry list and later I'll put up some pics and such (yes Chelsi, 'more later' meaning some unspecified time before or after my death ;)

Location: very cool. We've had it at a private room in a golf course clubhouse the last couple years. Food is nothing to write about, but edible and the size and privacy are perfect. Only complaint is the lighting for photos. I need to to brave it and just set up some strobes.

Trophies: also very cool. Just the right size with name, league, and team. I'm expecting something more if we ever best Grantsville though!

Posters: We all agree that black and white is the way to go for these. Our Team Mom does an awesome job picking out a great shot of each kid and making up an 11x14 print. All the kids and coaches sign each others' posters and put the stickers from their helmets on them. This is the third to go up on Ian's wall and look pretty cool together.

Presentations: Cool. Almost very cool, but they tend to go a bit long for the attention span of 16 football playing eleven-year-olds. All the coaches really care about the kids and enjoy coaching so it's fun to have a chance to them to give the kids some praise without the pressure of the season.

This year our team mom also made me a color poster of the offense with Ian out front. It was one of my favorite pix of the season and, of course, I was all teary eyed heading back to my seat. What a pansy ;)

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Everyone who eats these asks for two things: Another one, and the recipe. Send a self addressed box for the first. Click to the rest of the post for the second ;)


Mix dry ingredients seperately:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
(yes, fresh. this is why these taste better than yours ;)
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ginger

Beat together till smooth:
2 eggs
1 cup sugar

Add to egg/sugar mix and blend:
1/2 cup canola oil (only canola will do)
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Combine wet and dry mixtures. Then add:
1 cup Ghirardelli or Guittard oversize milk chocolate chips. The cookies are hopelessly ruined without this exact key ingredient.

Use 1/4 cup scoop to measure dough onto greased pan.
Round with spatula.
Bake at 325 for 16 minutes. A toothpick should come out not-quite-clean.
Cool for 5 minutes then transfer to rack.
Sprinkle powdered sugar on top if your diet allows.
Put in ziploc as soon as they reach room temp.