Merry Christmas from the Smith's

Smith Family 2012

Some adventures of our family can be read here.

Yes 2012 has been quite the year.

Hope it makes you laugh and smile too.

Enjoy our story we wrote it for you.

 

 Abby turned 5 and started school.

She is doing great in kindergarten and loves swimming at the pool.

She loves reading books with Mom and doing art.

Her most favorite thing is giving people cards to warm their heart.

Natalie is three and started joy school.

She took swimming lessons and loved the pool.

She can’t wait for sunbeams and primary too.

Her favorite things are playing with toys and her sister too.

Jared turned one and started walking.

He likes cars, airplanes, and talking.

He loves to tease Abby and Nat too.

His favorite things are blocks, balloons, and choo- choo’s.

Jess enjoyed being at home full time.

She returned to ICU in September to work part-time.

Serving in primary is always a treat.

Keeping track of all three kids is no little feat.

Ryan’s been working hard to provide.

Riding his bikes and shooting the camera on the side.

Still serving in Young Men’s with no complaint.

Doing home renovations to keep our house quaint.

 

Our family had many adventures this year.

A trip to Alberta, the lake, and the snake pits with no fear.

Going for hikes, sleeping in tents, cooking over the fire is never a bore.

We can’t wait to see what next year has in store.

 

Merry Christmas

Love, The Smith's

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

I can't believe it is so close to Christmas already. Most of the packages are wrapped. All the parcels are mailed. Christmas cards are sent and some baking is done. Some of my favorite family traditions center around Christmas!

At our church Christmas party the kids got their first visit with the big guy! Abby really wants skates this year, Natalie wants toy story characters, and Jared is happy with whatever!!
We went and cut down our Christmas tree sorry pics are at Poppa's house. We did our baking day with Grandma and we are busy making our homemade Christmas presents for Ryan's side.
I got to sing in the prelude to Christmas choir and it was awesome. I love singing in choirs at Christmas it totally gets me into the spirit of things. Right now we are doing our special secret 12 days of Christmas deliveries. We just started doing this last year and we love it. The kids get so excited to ring the doorbell and run. Another fun thing we started this year is to do a book advent calendar. I heard about this last year and thought it sounded cool. I wrapped up a book for everyday and so each morning the kids open a Christmas book to read. It has been really fun to read them by the tree every day.
Mostly we talk about our Savior and how special this season really is. Even though sometimes life is crazy with three kids I can't help but be grateful. Sometimes the world has horrible things happen in it and I can't explain why, what, or how but I can have faith and teach my kids to believe in our Savior so that they can face the future with faith and optimism.
Hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season!!!

We went trick or treating!

If you have been following my blog my last post was awhile ago and guess what I did find the garage door opener in my house in a place it shouldn't be but you know it's found so all is well in that department. This is kind of a catch up post before I post Christmas stuff!!

Halloween was so much fun this year. The girls were so excited. Abby now in kindergarten got to dress up twice and for school was a lizard and then for the big night was a robot. It was so fun to make our simple homemade costumes and she got a lot of comments about how cute it was. Natalie was a giraffe and she was super excited. Jared was a lion and he did pretty good for about a half hour.



Poppa raised a giant pumpkin for us which we had fun carving. It was a fun time!!

Have you seen the garage door opener?

Man I feel like life is so busy with good things these days! This girl started riding a two-wheeler on her own this month, she is doing awesome in kindergarten, and is growing up way too fast. We had our first parent teacher meeting today and the teacher asked if I would be willing to let her be in a group where she would teach English reading on top of her French Immersion. I guess this means she is doing okay. I feel so blessed to have her in our family. This month she got asked to her first birthday party on a Sunday. I felt sad for her that at 5 she already has to start making these kinds of decisions but she totally said,"Mom I can't go I have to go to primary on Sunday!!" Man do I ever feel like she is so strong and often teaches me!

Natalie started joyschool and I can't believe the difference it seems to have made in her. She has so much energy and has started using it to play house and make crafts instead of her old sneaking in the kitchen tactics. It took her a few long weeks to adjust to waking up early so we can walk Abby to school every morning but now she is waking up with a smile and I couldn't be more grateful.

This cutie pie turned 1 on September 25th. We just had Auntie and Grandparents over and he got some fun cute toys. He is such a mover now and is into everything and so curious. This stage is so fun and so tiring. Long gone are the days of being able to leave the kids alone for a few minutes. He has also decided to show his sisters who's boss. When the girls are watching their cartoons he will crawl up to the tv and turn it off then turn around to see if they notice. After Abby runs and turns it back on and he gets his reaction he goes and does it again. Should I be worried about this little troublemaker??

We had family photos done and they turned out cute but we haven't got them all printed and loaded on our computer but here is a favorite one of me that got taken. I realized that I rarely put pics of myself on here. Anyway I liked this one so here you go.

Now you are probably wondering why I entitled this post the way I did. Well I went back to work on September 19 and since that time I am constantly in a battle looking for things, misplacing things etc. One of which is my garage door opener. Such a pain. Anyway I know this is a crazy phase and I will blink and my kids will be in high school. I am trying to enjoy every moment.

So if you see my garage door opener just send it on down. Can't hurt to post it out there maybe some good samaritan found it on the road. JK!!!

Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and you are all ready for Halloween. We finally gave Abby an ultimatum since she has been changing her mind daily on what she wants to be. I won't tell you yet but they are going to be pretty darn cute!!!

 I guess I always knew this day was coming but it seems to have arrived quickly. Abby started kindergarten. She is pretty excited eating her oatmeal on the first day. We have been biking to school everyday and loving it. She is making friends and quickly learning all her French words. I found this idea on pinterest where every first day of school you write on a paper what they want to be when they grow up. Apparently she wants to be like her Momma when she grows up although she is strangely not letting me give her hugs and kisses at the school door. I thought I would at least get a few more years!! Oh well!

Natalie also started joyschool! It is my second year in joyschool as a teacher and it is such an awesome program. She did so great on her first day and is also growing up so fast these days. She loves tomatoes and sneaks them off the counter constantly. It is so funny!!






Here is my baby sniff sniff. He is going to be one next week already. I can't believe how fast this year has gone. I am back to work on Wednesday and am going to miss snuggling this little dude!! Thankfully he will be in the loving arms of Grandma's when I have to work and will be just fine!!

We went to the cottage!

We went to the cottage with Ryan's family in July. It is close to Hillside Beach. We spent a few days with the whole family and it was so fun. My kids were in heaven to have their Aunts, Uncles, and of course their Grandparents at their beck and call.
We played in sand dunes, swam at the beach, rode in a canoe, watched sunsets, rode a bike, took a first step, had a 3rd birthday party, picked wild blueberries, and had a fabulous time.

It was a really great relaxing holiday. Hope you are having a great summer!!

Summer Holiday in Alberta

We had such an awesome trip to Alberta last week. It was so fun to see family, be at the farm, go camping, and just to be together. We started off with some craziness. We decided to drive through the night so that we wouldn't waste a day. This turned out great because Grandma and Grandpa were able to spell us for some cat naps on Saturday. We headed to the temple on Sunday before church for our walk around and some photos!

We hit the Raymond parade on Monday. This is one of my kids favorite things to do in the summer. In Winnipeg we have the Santa Claus Parade in the bitter cold (usually) so my kids are all over a warm summer parade where they actually throw candy at you. It was so fun to see so many of my extended family!

These pics capture two of my kids favorite activities at the farm this year. The quad and the trampoline. I think Natalie would have spent every possible minute on that trampoline if she could. This year she is a little less spontaneous and was mostly sticking to jumping in the middle thankfully!!

 We went camping in Waterton for one night. We were going to do it for two but everyone got a nasty cold so we only ended up there for 24 hours. We did some hiking, eating, playing, and sleeping. It was an awesome experience and we will definitely be camping longer next time. The girls were so happy to be together running around with their arms wrapped around each other. Jared is moving not really crawling but getting places so he ended up in the camping supplies bin.He doesn't look too upset about it!

This was our campsite it had beautiful mountain views from every angle.










The week ended with both of my sisters coming down for a hike to the point, lot's of laughing, talking, and a campfire.

We had a great holiday and made lot's of new family memories on the farm. I will definitely miss the beauty of the country but it is good to be home again!!