Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Incredible Igloo

Our neighbors, Josh and Melissa came over this morning and asked if our kids wanted to help them make an igloo. Everyone helped, but Sarah definitely stuck with the task the longest. They were all thrilled with the final product. It's SO big, that all the neighborhood kids who helped can fit in it. Thanks Josh and Melissa for a lot of fun and great memories.

The beginning....


...still at it...


...taking a hot cocoa break...


...the hard worker...


...almost done...

...a picture of the final product.


Sarah wants to sleep in it tonight. Anyone up for a 9 degree sleepover?????

Book of Mormon Party

Sunday night we completed reading the Book of Mormon. So, to celebrate this amazing goal that we accomplished we went to Cafe Ole (kids eat free on Monday nights :) for dinner and to Powell's Sweet Shop afterwards. We always have Book of Mormon parties (usually during FHE) when we finish reading it, but this time it was EXTRA special because we read the WHOLE thing...not just the illustrated Book of Mormon stories....but the REAL thing!!! It's taken us almost 2 years and we have been reading a lot each day for the past two months so that could finish before the end of the year. Yep, we were pretty proud of ourselves and thought we all deserved to celebrate!!

Christmas 2009

On Christmas Eve we acted out the story of baby Jesus. Everyone had very important parts to play.

They all got to open one gift....they got sleeping bags from Nonnie and Grandpa...THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!

They got the cookies and milk ready for Santa and put reindeer food outside for the reindeer. Then, they all promptly went to bed...not sleep, just their bed. Sleep didn't come for awhile!!!!!

Early Christmas morning, four cute kids are ready to come downstairs to see if they have been good enough for Santa to have stopped at their house in the night.

Our dad took this picture before everyone came downstairs. He kept on saying that there was something he had no idea what it was. Santa had left four Zhu Zhu pets and a playground and no one at our house knew what they were until we started playing with them and looked them up online.

This is how our cute kids spent a lot of their Christmas day...just relaxing and enjoying all their "loot"!!




Santa completely spoiled them again this year. They must really be on the "NICE list"!!!

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

White Christmas??

We woke up to snow on the ground this morning. The kids went outside and played for most of the morning making a snowman and fort. We LOVE the snow!!!! We just wonder if it will last until Christmas!?!?


Merry Christmas

Our Four Cute Kids wish you all a Merry Christmas!!!

December Happenings

December has been busy with many different "happenings". We will just post a few of them.

We went looking at Christmas lights. This is ONE house and it is SO amazing!!!!!! We thought it was funny that the house next door says "Ditto!" with an arrow pointing to this house.

We went and picked out a live tree for our front room. I had won a $50 gift certificate at a local nursery, so we got this tree for 87 cents. I LOVE a bargain!!!!!

We made candy cane reindeer for an advent activity.

This was a fun project that we did for one of our advent activities. Dad showed us how to make cardinal ornaments for our Christmas tree.


We went to Aunt Dee and Uncle Dave's home in Nampa for a Smith Family Christmas party. We love being able to see and spend time with our Great Grandma Smith. We also went to her home at the beginning of December to celebrate her 89th birthday!!!!


Benjamin and Spencer enjoying yummy treats at Spencer's school Christmas party. Sarah and Andrew had fun parties as well.


Andrew had a Christmas Music Program at school. He did a great job!






We went to our ward Christmas Breakfast and visited with friends and SANTA!!

Thursday, December 03, 2009

Happy Thanksgiving

We had a fun time with family on Thanksgiving! We ate LOTS of yummy food! We had a memorable program! We made FUN projects! We played ALL day with cousins!! We LOVED having Thanksgiving at the barn! Thank you to everyone who made it a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving!!


PS. Big bummer that Eliza's mom and dad were sick that day so she missed out on being in the picture!

Real Shepherds

Our Grandpa Smith went to Jerusalem and Egypt and brought back some fun gifts for everyone. Here are a few pictures of what he brought us. It was interesting to see the videos of his travels and to eat food from Jerusalem! Thanks for thinking of us, Grandpa! We can't wait to wear our gifts when we act out Luke 2 on Christmas Eve.

Nathan is wearing real Egyptian clothing. Everyone else is wearing clothing from Jerusalem.

Uncle Karl and his boys are wearing clothing from Jerusalem. Don't you think Uncle Karl looks like a REAL shepherd??

Saturday, November 07, 2009

Birthday Boy Benjamin

Friday was Benjamin's THIRD birthday!! He started his day opening presents....getting a basketball hoop, a sky ball, Mr. Potato Head and a Clone Wars book. We ended his birthday with having taco salad (he loves salads) and Birthday cake!! He had a great day and we can't believe how grown up he is!!
!

Any Guesses??

Can you tell what's on Benjamin's Christmas Wish List?

This was Benj today in ToysRUs letting us all know what he wants for Christmas!!! LOVE IT!!!!!

Volunteering

On behalf of the Idaho Food bank, Sarah volunteered with her teacher, Mrs. Brooks, and several of her classmates at Walmart today. Sarah has really gotten "into" the donation spirit. She has taken our wagon around the neighborhood to collect items, asked family members for donations and raided our pantry several times. At this point she has brought in the most canned goods of all the students in her classroom. We love her giving spirit!!!

Sunday, November 01, 2009

Girl from India, Mummy, Stitch in Outer Space and Luke Skywalker


Trick-or-treating!!

Yum, so much candy!!!

BSU Game

Andrew was a SUPER lucky boy on Saturday as he was invited by Bishop and Sister Johnson to go to a BSU game with them and his friend, Collin. He had an AWESOME time and told us in great detail all about it when he got home. He was SO impressed with the band, the noise, the fog, the players, that they made a touchdown right away and when the kids came out of the helmet. Please go to Sister Johnson's blog and read about it from her point of view.




THANK YOU SO MUCH Bishop and Sister Johnson!!!!!!!!! It was a dream come true for Andrew!!!!!

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Fall Soccer

Nonnie and Grandpa have been asking for video of soccer games played this Fall. So, here it is....and it's a little long, so you might want to get a few snacks and settle in for some fun watching. Andrew scores 3 goals in this video. He had a great season and had a fun coach and team.



Spencer was very excited to play soccer this Fall as he has sat on the sidelines for several years watching Andrew play. Practices were okay, but actually playing in a game was a bit too scary for Spencer and so he stayed on the sidelines cheering his team on to victory!



Way to go, Soccer Boys!!!!!

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Harvest Time

For Family Home Evening we went to our garden and harvested our pumpkins and gourds. Compared to last year, our pumpkins didn't do as well, but we have enough for our family. Our gourds did fabulous! It's always so fun to harvest what we have grown!

Before our harvest.....






After our harvest.


I LOVE Fall time!!!!!