Ethan's 4th Birthday

On the 4th (the same day as my grandma's b-day) we celebrated Ethan's 4th Birthday. Ethan's big stipulation for his birthday, was that he HAD to do something with his best buddy, McKay! So we all went to JCW's for the best burgers around, and then we headed over to the movies to see "Tangled" (which if you haven't seen, you NEED to! I Loved it, and I have to say that it is one of my all time favorite Disney movies.) ANYWAY, after the movies we headed home. On the way we stopped at Maceys for a birthday ice cream cone. It was such a fun day. I love my little cowboy. Ethan is growing into such a fun little boy. I love how excited he still gets every time he sees a cow or a horse. He still wears his boots EVERY DAY, and heaven forbid we don't have a pair of wrangler jeans clean for him to wear.(: He is definitely his daddy's little boy. Ethan is constantly making us laugh. He loves to say randomly funny things and he is starting to love his little brother more every day.(: Any of the Toy Story and Cars movies are still his favorites. He loves Lego's and he is constantly asking to watch our Living scripture DVD's (that is hard to say no to.(:) He loves preschool. He knows all of his shapes, including octagon (crazy) and he will randomly start saying the pledge of allegiance (sometimes during a prayer that he is saying.) He makes us laugh, and our family wouldn't be the same with out him. Happy Birthday bub!
Eating the BEST burgers ever!The gang! Mike's mom and dad came and spent the afternoon with us. It was fun to have them there.It's REALLY hard to get a good picture of my father-in-law! He likes to be silly!(:Before the movie started, McKay and Ethan were showing me their "mean" faces. Such boys!(:Spencer and grandma Smith at the movies.so fun!

The Forgotten Carols

If you have never seen Michael Mclean in the Forgotten Carols, you need to go! It has kind of been a tradition of ours to take our kids and see the fabulous show. We usually end up going about every other year. The fun part is that it is the same story line, but they do it a little different each year, so it never gets boring. As soon as the music starts, the spirit feels the room and it truly puts you in the Christmas mood. I love it! Anyway, this year for my grandma's 90th b-day, we decided to take her with us to the show. I love that my kids get to spend such quality time with their great grandma. And, as always, grandma always makes everything more fun. My mom had relief society the night of the show, so my dad came along too. We had such a great night.
Eating at five guys, burgers, and fries...SO GOOD!getting ready for the show to startMike told the girls over and over that he was not buying anything, "so DON'T ask!" I don't have to tell you that he's a push over!(:Me and my grandma

Oh Christmas Tree...

I love going right after Thanksgiving and picking out our Christmas tree. We've had fake trees before, and yes they are way easier. You don't have to worry about them dying, or worry that they aren't going to get watered, or worry that they are going to combust if you plug the lights in (I've totally had to worry about that before). Anyway, we keep going back to the live trees, because they just smell SO good! It's become a fun tradition to pick the perfect tree out, and this year we left it totally up to the kids. I think they did a great job.
The One!(:Ethan wanted this one (seriously, it was like 12 feet tall!)The finished result...ok, we did tweek it a little after it fell over and most of the ornaments fell off, but you get the idea.(:

The Dean and Belle Smith Family Christmas Party

Ok, so here is something weird about me. I married a Smith, and my mom's maiden name is Smith. Trust me, I totally checked it out when me and Mike were dating. Mike and I were definitely not related before we got married!(: Anyway, the Saturday after Thanksgiving we get together with my mom's family and have a Christmas party. This year it was in Ogden, so my mom and I (and all of my kids) headed up north to officially begin our Christmas season. We had yummy waffles, the kids did crafts, played games, and shot hoops, the rest of us visited and enjoyed each other while we waited for Santa to come. Oh, and of course we played the white elephant game that has been a tradition ever since I was little. Such a good way to start of the season.Christian and Spencer getting their game on.(:the cute craft tableSome of the great grand kidsMy cousin Shawn entertaining the kids while we all waited for Santa.Our musical entertainmentI love Dalaney's face in this picture...pure excitement.I love this shot that my brother got. Look at all those faces looking at Santa.(:Ethan LOVES Santa!Spencer playing ball with one of my Favorite uncles.
Dalaney and SantaEthan "modeling" Santa's bellsSpencer is ALL about the candy!Katelynn is too!(: Her and Whitney DID NOT want to sit on Santa's lap, but Katelynn was persuaded by the candy.(:Some of the Smith clan.

One Amazing Woman!

On December 4th, my grandma turned 90! My grandma is such an amazing woman. Growing up, I was lucky enough to live right next door to her. So we got to spend a lot of time with her. Some things I loved about being at grandmas house growing up, was watching old movies and of course watching Lawrence Welk. Having sleepovers where we would take turns rubbing each others backs, and of course always getting into the candy jar. My grandma is one of the strongest women I know. She lost my grandpa in 1975. She went on to work at BYU in the veterens office, and she served 5 missions. She has a ton of grandchildren, and even more great grandchildren. All I can say, is that she is amazing! I love her, and I love that my children get to spend so much time with her, and learn from her example. We love you grandma!Isn't she beautiful! My parents put this whole party together for my grandma, and I got to make the invites. I love how they turned out!My grandma with 4 of her 6 kids. My dad is the second one from the right.All the kids thought that it was great that they got to run around in the gym. Sarah was nice enough to entertain them.(:This is what happens when I try to take a nice picture of my parents! (thank you David and Katelynn!)
I finally got it!Me and some of my cousins. It was so fun to see everyone and to be able to chat with them. (Do I look tired? Because I totally was!(:)A little chunk of all of my grandmas great grandchildren. this picture was super fun to take.(:

Black Friday

I seriously LOVE Black Friday! Even when I have nothing to buy, I love just going and experiencing it each year. This year was a little crazy. I don't know about all of you, but midnight sales...who came up with that!(: Me, my mom, my sisters (Kathy and Kristi), and our new sis-in-law Sarah decided to pull an all nighter. We hit the Modbe store at 11pm, headed to walmart at midnight, ate at Denny's at 2am, and then finished up the rest of our shopping everywhere else and got home around 9:30am. Normally that all would have been fine, but I couldn't come home and sleep the rest of the day, because we had my grandma's 90th birthday bash to attend. So I took a quick power nap and then headed off to the party with my kids (Mike had to work). The next day was Saturday, and we had a family party in Ogden. So I was seriously a zombie for the whole weekend. Was it worth it? Of course it was! I loved every minute of it!

Kristi, Sarah, my mom, Kathy, and me

Thanksgiving!!!!

Ok, ok, I know that I am totally behind AGAIN! But in my defense, December is seriously just plain crazy! Anyway, I am going to get caught up before Christmas this week, so that I'll be able to post our Christmas pictures shortly after Christmas. So, back to Thanksgiving. This year it was our turn to spend Thanksgiving with the Smith Family. We stayed over Wednesday night, and then spend most of the day on Thursday with the Smith's. Thursday morning while we were getting everything ready for the meal, we watched the Thanksgiving day parade, then we watched the annual dog show (my favorite part...said sarcastically), and looked through all of the Black Friday ads. We had such a great day just being together as a family. I got an idea this year from another blog to do a Thankful book. So I took a big group shot of the Smith family, and then I had everyone write what they were thankful for this year. I know I am seriously a pain, but I am so excited to start this as a tradition and pull it out each year for everyone to see. For dessert, we headed down to Springville to be with the Robbins Family. We ate lots of yummy desserts, and of course made our plan for our ALL NIGHT shopping expedition. I thought that this year instead of listing the MAIN things that I am thankful for (family, gospel, Jesus Christ, etc.) that I would try to come up with things that I appreciate day in and day out. So here goes:
1-Nap time (it seriously was the first thing to come to mind)

2-When dinner is all cleaned up, and I can sit and relax with my family.

3-A warm home in a nice neigborhood with an amazingly awesome ward.

4-When I'm by my children and they randomly hold my hand.

5-A hard working husband who tells me he loves me often.

6-A spotless house (I appeciate this one, because it so rarely happens)

7-Great friends who are always there for me.

8-My Brothers and Sisters who are seriously my best friends.

9-Laughter

10-My parents and my in-laws who are so supportive

My mother-in-law and the girls peeling potatoes (I love having older kids!)(:
watching the dog show...seriously...it's not that entertaining...but my kids sure think it is!(:
The craziness begins.
Dalaney and Savannah. The pen behind Dalaney's head is suppose to be a feather.(:
Spencer is all about the desserts!(:
The COMPLETE Smith Family
Ethan was worn out by the time we got to my parents house.
Does this look fun or what!?
Breaking the traditional chocolate wishbone (my sister Kathy makes them.)
My mom had these funny shaped pipe cleaners that looked exactly like mustaches. I held one up, and the kids thought it was great. My mom was sure to tell me that that is exactly what all of her 4th graders did (great minds think alike!)(:
Spencer couldn't quite figure it out.(:
But Ethan did!(:
We hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!