Family Christmas Letter

Smith Family 2010

Some adventures of our family can be read here.

Yes 2010 has been quite the year.

Hope it makes you laugh and smile too.

Enjoy our story we wrote it for you.

Our Abby turned 3 and is quite the big sister.

Her imagination always leaves our home looking like a twister.

She took a music class and started joy school.

But her favorite things are the lessons in the pool.

Natalie is one and is very busy.

Always climbing and running keeping Mom in a tizzy

She loves being cuddled and teasing big sis.

She always loves giving a big sloppy kiss.

Mom joined the gym and is doing quite well.

Working part time in the ICU always a story to tell.

Serving in Church and being a Mom.

Visits from sisters and Mom are the bomb.

Ryan's been fishing, hunting, and biking.

Losing a job twice not to our liking.

Serving in church with the young men.

Blessings have come with a great job again.

Our chapter this year has come to an end it is true.

Hope you enjoyed reading our story for you.

May you be blessed with joy in the coming year.

Our love goes out to all of you we hold dear!

Merry Christmas

Love,

 The Smiths

Christmas Traditions

With Christmas fast approaching I have been thinking about all the wonderful tradtions we have and want to have. This year Abby is actually understanding Christmas a bit better which is so much fun. I feel a little behind this year but we will get there soon.
1. A real Christmas Tree- I love having a real tree. I love the smell of pine throughout my house and the pine needles filling up my vaccuum cleaner. I love having part of nature inside with me. This year we are going to head out and chop our own tree down. SOOO excited!!!!
2. Acting out the Nativity- I am not sure how this will go this year since we are the only ones in Ryan's family with kids and I am not sure how excited the adults will be to be donkeys etc. I am sure it will still be a blast!!!
3. The Christmas Train- We just started this last year and I loved it. It is a small train that takes you around a forest full of different light displays. Hopefully this year it won't be -30something it was a wee bit chilly last year. Super fun!!
4. Fondue- One of the traditions of Ryan's family that I love is having a fondue dinner. It is so fun to sit down and visit and eat slowly and just enjoy each other. Of course it is also very yummy!!!
5. Christmas Letters- Ryan and I started this tradition when we were first married of writing letters to each other expressing our gratitude etc. to each other and now we do it for our kids. It is a super fun thing. I know one day the kids will love reading the letters!!
6. Music- I love Christmas Music. This year I wasn't able to be in the choir due to work but I love singing all the Christmas songs and hearing them. I love sitting and singing away at the piano!!

Well those are some of my favorite traditions. This year is kind of exciting as Ryan's family decided to do an old fashioned Christmas and Ryan has turned into a little Santa in his workshop building all sorts of cool things. I will show you all after Christmas. It makes it so much more exciting when you actually make your own gifts!!!

I am so excited that in January my Dad will be turning 70. Oh boy and I get to go home. It has been over a year since I got to see my family and the farm and the mountains. Oh I love the mountains. Anyway I am uber excited even though Ryan can't come and it will be a long drive with two young kids but it will be so fun to see everyone!!!!

Hope you are all having a wonderful Christmas season.

Sadly our camera is on the fritz so no pics.


MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!!!

I couldn't resist we finally have some lovely white stuff falling and it feels closer to Christmas. I got out the old Reader's Digest songbook tonight and played some of my favorites. It brings so many memories of home and of my family and especially my sisters sitting and singing at the piano!!!

As a tribute to my Uncle Roger who passed away today from cancer I thought I would share my favorite memory of him. I remember when he came to visit and I must have been 7/8 ish and he was trying to teach me to have power over my body by not laughing when being tickled. My brothers would constantly tickle me and he thought if I could get enough power over my mind I wouldn't laugh and then the tickling would stop. Well it never worked and I am still ticklish but we had a great afternoon trying to train our minds. I am so grateful for the gospel and for the knowledge that families can be together forever!!! He will be missed!!

If you ever wonder?

Do you ever wonder if you are doing a good job as a parent? Well I often do and probably stress out about it more than necessary. Yesterday however Abby did something that made me think I must be doing pretty good.
First of all Abby is into making cards and most recently giving them away. We were at the gas station and she was coloring her card while the gas tank was getting filled. As we went into pay she was like Mom I want to give my card to the clerk. I was like why? He was a teenage kid who probably wouldn't care so I kind of blew it off.(Bad Mom) Anyway on the way out I was like how about the guy who actually puts the gas in our car. A nice retired gentleman who loves doing his job. Well Abby marches over and says thank you for always filling our car with gas and gives him a card. Who knows what he thought but as I drove away he had the biggest smile on his face.
All in all I think Abby is a pretty great kid and I was so happy she wanted to say thanks to someone for doing a good job.

I bet if you think about your kids you can see something in them that makes you realize that you are doing a good job too.

Trick or Treat

Halloween was an adventure this year. Abby had a party at her joyschool and then we celebrated on the Saturday with all our church friends. It was loads of fun for everyone.

First the costumes:

Abby the clown

                                                           Natalie as Little Red Riding Hood

And here is "The Great Pumpkin"

The best part of Halloween this year is the weather. It is amazing. Even yesterday on November 1, 2010 we went to the park in light sweaters to play on the structure. In Winnipeg this is amazing!!! Hope everyone had fun trick or treating!!!!

We started a new tradition of watching fun cartoon Halloween movies and I have to say I do love Charlie Brown's "The Great Pumpkin" A definite keeper in future years!!

The other best part of today is my husband got a job offer!!!!!! Hooray!!!!!

Still Here!!

I can't believe that it has been so long since I wrote a blog entry. It has been a crazy couple of months. On the weekend though we had Stake Conference and I was so inspired I was like I need to update my blog. More on that later.

October has been such a beautiful month. I think we have spent more time outdoors than in the summer.

Here's our Natalie. What is new with her? Well Miss Natalie is my explorer. She now loves to climb on anything. For example I was on the phone with my sister and I couldn't hear her playing so I went to check yep on top of the piano!! Another time on top of the bathroom sink. She definitely keeps us on our toes--or should I say running!! When we go for walks now she insists on walking because she is a big 16month old. She loves driveways because they lead to a big sidewalk known as a road to most of us but to Natalie it is just a big walking area!!! Oh my!! Her curls are growing longer although you can't tell because they are still super curly. She still isn't talking too much but she loves to communicate her love to her sister with big hugs and kisses!!! She also discovered the pots and pans drawer which is always lots of fun.

Abby has turned into a craft junkie. It is good for me since I have always felt like a non-crafty person so it has been good for me to explore my craftiness. She has been going to joyschool once a week and loves it. She gets so excited on her "school days" and packs her backpack and waits by the door even if there are two-three hours until it starts. She is busy with her swimming lessons and loves going to swim with the family even going down the big waterslide now!!

Anyway those are some new things about my two cutie pies!! So on the weekend we had this awesome leadership for Primary. I learned so much but it really hit me how important it is to just love people no matter what. Just love those kids and everything else in primary will turn out okay.

The Barfuss family were in town for the weekend and it was so fun. I would be lying if I said I didn't miss them. I feel pretty lucky seeing as I am family I will see them more than most people here but it still isn't the same as running over to my sisters house on a hard day her giving me some of her great advice and then leaving feeling awesome again. My sister even made time to do my hair for me which I can't even tell you grateful I am for that. Anyway they did this fireside and it made me miss them all over again. Lucky Calgary!!!

We are getting excited for Halloween. Abby is going to be a clown and Natalie is going to be Little Red Riding Hood. We have Abby's joyschool party and then a primary party on Saturday lot's of fun.

Happy Halloween!!!!

Fall is in the Air!

September is one of my favorite months. It is still warm enough to play outside and there are many beautiful colors and sights to look at. We have been enjoying the outdoors getting to the parks and going for walks and bike rides.



Abby roasting marshallows on our camping trip to Brandon.



Natalie trying to be like her big sister and ride a bike!!

Abby has now started swimming lessons and joy school. She is so excited!! You should see her on the days she has joyschool she is pretty much in heaven and asks every five minutes when is it time for school.

Natalie and I now have some time just the two of us and we have been having fun reading together and singing songs. She gives the best hugs and waves whenever I leave for work.

Hope you are all having a fabulous fall!!!