Out Grown

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Cutest Cub Scouts

Thursday, was Andrew's first Cub Scout meeting as a Wolf. He was SO excited and thinks it's pretty cool that he gets to go every week now with his dad. (Nathan is the Webelos leader and Cub Master.)


When he got home he was thrilled to show me that he had made me a recipe holder and to explain that he had made it with three different types of saws. I LOVE Andrew's enthusiasm in everything he does!!

NO WAY!!

ALL of our kids LOVE to go sledding.....everyone except Benjamin. Every time we go sledding, we ask Benj if he wants to go and he always says, "No Way!", and so mom gets to stays home with him. Well, we all wanted to go on Andrew's birthday so Nathan told him that he could wear ski goggles (he loves goggles...so much that he wore his swimming goggles to go Christmas caroling last week) when we go sledding and he finally agreed to go. I love that we were actually able to capture on video him having SO much fun and then when asked if he wants to do it again, he says, "No Way!" So much personality!!!





It doesn't look like Spencer is having fun, but he really LOVES sledding so much that he doesn't even need a sled...he'll just go on his bum.

Andrew says, "It's Great to be Eight!!"

Andrew had a GREAT birthday! He got to open presents as soon as everyone was awake. (Nathan found Andrew sitting on the stairs at 6am and made him go back to sleep on the couch until everyone else woke up.) He got a BSU football from Benjamin, a Rubix Cube from Spencer, a book from Sarah, a BSU sweatshirt from Nonnie & Grandpa, money and cards from Grandma & Grandpa, Mom & Dad and cousins that he put towards a NEW MOUNTAIN BIKE.

Here is Andrew "trying out" his new bike. He and dad shopped for the perfect bike a few days before his birthday but he didn't get it until his actual birthday.

We went sledding. Andrew is getting pretty good at snowboarding.

To finish out an awesome day, we ate pizza, had Oreo birthday cake and then watched G-Force. Happy Birthday Andrew!!!

At our Book of Mormon party we told the waiter that it was Andrew's birthday (close enough, right?!) so they sang to him and brought him a yummy dessert. He LOVED it!!!

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"!!!

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!!

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??

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!!!!!