Ward Christmas Party...

December 2, 2009
The first Christmas Party of the Season....Yahoo. I remember going to my first Christmas party in the 8Th ward (2004) and I felt sooo uncomfortable. We didn't really know anyone and the only reason we were there was because we were on the activity committee, but man have times changed! Now it feels like just another family party! We always trade with the 2ND ward so they serve us-we serve them. This year we had roast, potatoes, corn, the works..

Waiting for Santa...

We finally got to Santa and of coarse the Smith kids freaked! So I took this cute picture of my neighbor Cooper showing Santa his Toys R Us ad.
My kids will probably be 15 before I will ever get a pic of them with Santa!

The surprise of the night was Cael going up and singing with the primary. He has matured sooo much the last couple of months and I about fell off my chair when he headed up to sing.

On December 13 the primary did their program in Sacrament meeting. Cael had a part and both sets of Grandparents came to watch him. His part was "God's creations blesses us." He had is memorize by show time and did such a good job. Before they went to their seats at the front Cael had told grandma Linda he was going to be ok because he had a lot of candy in his pocket. The sunbeams were on the front row and about half way through Cael kept disappearing behind the railing. I couldn't figure what he was doing until he stood up with his mouth full of candy. He said his part without having to be helped and then gave us all a big grin! The last song must have got to him because he started singing Opera style with his mouth wide open and his head moving back and forth as the words flowed out! I had no idea he liked to sing that much. His favorite song is "I am a builder." I wish I could have got a picture. He loves Primary and I appreciate the leaders for always making it fun. He even loves his 3 Pre-O ring (ctr). We are just hoping he doesn't choke on this new ring like the last one.

Sledding....

Hooray for snow, and a warm day to enjoy it! While Nikki and my mom went Christmas shopping the kids came over to play and the boys spent most of their day outside....which was fabulous! They quickly made a snow hill out of the slope in our yard and pretty much only came in to change gloves. They have been obsessed with Batman and of coarse I only have one pair of batman glove for them to fight over. So I had to be creative and convince Gavyn that the grey pair with green strips was The Riddlers, Multi stripe was the Jokers, and the blue pair was Mr. Freeze's. My plan backfired when they started fighting of the Mr.Freeze pair! Anyway....When Casey got home from work they convinced him to get the 4-wheeler out and take them for a spin. The weather was perrrfect so Halle joined them for a tour of the neighborhood! Kensie missed out due to her over due Nap time, but I'm sure there will be plenty more good days.

First BIG snow storm...

We finally got a big snow storm. You can see the snow on the roof of the dog kennel. We woke up on Dec 4 to 8 inch and it continued through the day and we ended up with over a foot. Then on Monday the 7 we woke up to another huge storm. It always drives me crazy when people forget how to drive in the snow. I had to take my kids to Nikki's and it took me over 45 min to get from my house to Mona. There were cars off the road and a little path for both sides to try and drive on! On the way back to Nephi I took the free-way, which had been plowed, so I made better time.
It was still snowing like crazy when I went and picked up the kids. We decided to have Gavyn sleep over so Nikki wouldn't have to come in early to bring him to school (her tires are not good). Cael loves sleep overs and we have always just had them sleep on the floor, but my dad gave me the idea to have them sleep foot-to-foot. They slept so much better and I didn't hear nothing from them until 7:00 am the next morning.

Unfortunately they didn't call a snow day, but luckily my car has All Wheel Drive and I was able to get them into preschool. There were a lot of the parent who couldn't get out of Wilde-4-learning's drive way. Welcome Winter!

Smith thanksgiving party..

The end of November was a busy time for us this year. We had Kensie's birthday party, thanksgiving, cousin Raylund homecoming, and the annual Smith Thanksgiving party which was held on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. Casey's grandma has always had her Thanksgiving dinner on a different day so the whole family can be there. Of coarse I had my camera with me so I finally got a 4 generation picture with Grandma Morgan.

Chris and Jakoye's family picture, oh wait Kensie not in their family (she kept sneaking in).

The party was great! We always have fun visiting and eating the yummy food. The Turkey was sooo moist and to top it all off Aunt Tammy made her famous toffee cake...Yummy!

Nephi Light Parade...

The light parade is becoming one of my favorite traditions. There is nothing like cool air, kids singing, and Christmas lights to get you in the mood for the holidays! The kids loved it and after the lights were turned on they gave all the kids glow sticks to wear for the parade. The City does such a nice job and they added a bunch of new things this year.

We saw Jory, Casey's good friend from high school. I love running into people we've not seen in a long time!

Our Family favorite...

They were so proud of their X.

Crystal waited in the cold to hear her daughter sing a solo which never happened. I wonder if she ever found out what happened?

Are we Crazy????

The answer would be "YES!" I've pretty much always shopped the day after thanksgiving. We would leave Nephi around 5:30 make a few stops on the way to Provo, mostly getting there after the doors were open and rush over. Well this year Toys R Us did something different and started their sale at Midnight. There ad was amazing and we decided to start there! We got there around 10:30 pm and the line was already to FYE. We quickly got our lawn chairs, blankies, and hot chocolate out and got in line. We had the funniest girl named Angela standing in line by us. If it wouldn't have been for her we never would have made it! She was yelling at random people, stealing carts to "protect from line jumpers!" When we got closer to the door she would cheer for the people coming out and ask what they got. They were only letting around 50 people in every 15 minutes. We started to get really close to the door when these to B-OCh's started screaming at this lady and accusing her of jumping in front of them. I guess they couldn't get there cart (with a little girl in it - another thing that drives me crazy!) up the sidewalk so they stopped and this lady kept walking. If you're going to bring your kids and have a cart then you need to accept that people may get in front of you. I finally spoke up and tried to defend the poor lady by letting them know she didn't line jump. When I looked back through the pictures that I took this poor lady was only one or two people behind them. Big Deal! Uggh. Anyway this was pretty entertaining and of coarse our neighbor Angela got right in the middle of it and started yelling! From this point on it pretty much went down hill! We had people constantly butting in front of us, several I knew (but still love-you know who you are :)]. We finally made it in and I ran to the Lego's and luckily they still had what I was after. After grabbing a few other things I decided to get in line because it was pretty much wrapped around the store. I got in line and after a few minutes the manager had us move to the blue tape area, where the check-out line was starting. Yeah right! They were sooo unorganized! They had no crowd control and we ended up spending over 2 hours in a line that did not move because every one kept making there own check-out line in front of us and they were letting them! I was about ready to scream at someone! Finally they realized the problem that everyone waiting in the line had figured out hours earlier! We finally made it the check-out and later learned they had a lady pass-out and they had to call the EMT's. Honestly, never again! After figuring our savings we pretty much only made under $10 an hour.
Crowd control- maybe it would help if you got out of the car and arrested the line jumpers! They're stealing money from everyone they butted in front of! I'm writing my congressman to see if the government will take action next year!

The people standing on the right side are facing us which means the line had went to the end of the block and started to wrap back around and now the people at the end of the line are by the front door. What Chaos!

The crazy bunch! This is who started out, but after our nightmare at Toys R Us my mom, Nikki, and Jess went home. The Smith girls kept it going all night and when Nikki called me a 10 am the next morning we were still going strong! Nikki and my Mom ended up coming back up to finish. We made it to every single store and made it home around 3:00pm. I have to say that I really didn't get too tired. We moved a lot and I drank a lot of Dr. P. It really didn't hit me until I got home and took a hot bath. Then I was history. I slept a couple of hours and then got up for a couple and then went to bed at my normal time.

I can honestly say that I will never do this again! I've even got myself talked out of going at all, but maybe I'll change my mind before next year. :)

i AM THANKFUL.....

A couple of days before Thanksgiving Cael was at my Mom's house and he asked her why we celebrate Thanksgiving. She started to tell him (in a simple version) about how the Indians lived here when the Pilgrims discovered America and how they didn't get along. Then they decided they wanted to get along so they had a big feast to celebrate. Cael got a very confused look on his face and asked "Where do the Indians live?" My mom said " they lived here." He still was confused and asked again " Where do they live?" My mom answered again "they use to live here a long time ago." My mom continued to try and teach him American History until she thought he understood what she was trying to say. Later that day they ran up town with Nikki and the minute they started out the lane Cael piped up. With the Thanksgiving story fresh on his mind he immediately say " Nikki, guess what, Indians live at grandma's house!" My mom almost split a gut laughing. Nikki got confused and my mom quickly corrected him by letting him know that when she was saying "they lived here" she meant lived in America not at the farm. My mom finally understood why he was so confused about where the Indians live!"

This year we went to Nikki's for Turkey Day. Of coarse it was Yummy and I ate way too much. We just relaxed after and then went home to prepare for our Big Night!

The boys showing off there new obsession - Playing with capes (blankies) these boys are to funny.