December

Wow it has been a while. I thought I was getting closer to catching up and then I slipped again. Finally here it is; December 2013.

This year was no exception to craziness, over excited kids and anxiety and joy. The kids were so perfect to each other. They wanted to watch the movie about the birth of Jesus and just appeared they were really into the spirit of Christmas. Jingle came on December 1^st as usual and this year he kept tricking the kids. My favorite part of the morning was seeing the kids run upstairs to try and find were that mischievous elf was hiding. 

I tried getting some Christmas pictures but I just couldn't. Getting 4 sets of eyes to look at you at the same time just is a mission impossible. I did however; get this cute picture of the boys. I love to see their friendship develop as Daniel becomes older.

And speaking of older, Daniel has learned how to talk in the phone. This is a must at 1 of course!

This is just a random picture of Andrew. One second he was asking me a question, next thing I know he had fallen asleep on the armrest of the couch. I don’t know how he does it but he manages to fall sleep on the weirdest ways.

Ward Christmas Party

This was an event we were all looking forward to. I can’t tell you how excited the kids were (especially Josh and Andrew) when they announced in primary that the theme was going to be “the polar express”. This is our favorite movie to watch during Christmas and maybe even year round.

We were told to wear pajamas, bring a blanket to the church and be there by 8:00. We were given a golden ticket just like the one in the movie when we arrived at the building. The decorations were fantastic.  Someone dressed like the conductor and was explaining what our trip was going to be like. The young men and young women dressed up as the waiters and delivered our hot chocolate while the hot chocolate tune from the movie was playing on the background.  It was really impressive.  We really felt the spirit of Christmas during this celebration. As we were leaving we were given a little bell.

Smith’s Christmas party

We also had our traditional smith’s Christmas party. It was snowing so hard this day that some of our family ended up missing. It was a lovely evening: playing with cousins, opening presents, and drinking hot chocolate.

Traditions and more Traditions.

Every year since Julia was a baby we have made it one of our traditions to decorate a gingerbread house. I think this year has been the funniest one yet. The kids basically took over the decorating. I was in charge of spreading the icing where they need me to and Andrew of course had to be the one eating the candy.

We made our visit to temple square. It was a very cold night but it was so wonderful to be out there enjoying the Christmas music, looking at the twinkling lights and feeling the spirit. Before we went to Temple Square we had to stop for our other tradition: cheesecake factory.

The kids wrote their letters to Santa.  Josh is getting really good at writing. Andrew wanted me to draw the things he wanted. He did not want Santa to get confused about what he wanted for Christmas.

We tried making some sugar cookies this year. Baking is really not my things but we gave it a world and the peppermint frosting actually turned out really good

T&T Competition.

This year Julia is doing competition tumbling. She absolutely loves it. On Dec 14^th she had her first event at her gym. Out of 8 girls she took 1^st place. I loved seeing her face as they kept calling other girls name but hers until it was time to announce the winner. She was in shock. Her face was lit up and couldn’t keep smiling. All her friends were cheering so loudly for her it was very emotional for me. She is such a good friend and a great athlete.

Andrew’s Christmas program

On the 16^th Andrew had his Christmas program. It was so cute to see him sing and run around too. Julia and Joshua helped out with the living nativity set we did. He was Joseph. And he kept telling the three kings to leave his baby alone. 

Christmas time

This was a busy day. The kids played all day while I spent my entire day in the kitchen making cookies, preparing dinner and reading a breakfast casserole for Christmas morning. Next thing I knew it was 7 pm. The kids devour dinner in 5 minutes and then the clock started to drag for them. They had to finish their chores, we usually watch the nativity video but josh cracked it as he was attempting to get it out of its case. So it was a good thing I had checked out a live version of the nativity story from the library so we watched that instead.  

After the video we gathered to open one present from under the tree. After playing with the new toys for an hour the kids had to get Santa’s milk and cookies ready for him and off they went to sleep.

I was dreading the night for some reason I just kept thinking the kids were going to wake up and sneak into their presents even though Spencer had warned them that if they woke up too early their presents would disappear.  When morning finally rolled in I was very tired even though the kids didn’t wake up until 7:30.

They were all wide awake except for Daniel who we left sleeping until it was time for breakfast.

Once all the presents were opened and the stocking were emptied we were on our way to Grandma Smith’s house who had prepared a delicious brunch for us all.

New Year’s Eve.

This was a very lazy day. Spencer had to work so we just played games and watched movies all day long. We had Mexican food carry out for dinner and waited until the ball came down in temple Square (New York time).  I just realized there is nothing to watch on regular TV anymore

This was such an amazing year. It went too fast. I am so grateful for cameras which let us bring back those memories of the wonderful times we have spent together as a family. I know we have grown closer to each other and I hope we can continue to

Simplify our lives, 

Make every moment count, 

Increase our testimonies,

Teach and learn meaningful things and

Have no regrets.