The Christmas Lights at Temple Square

I love the Salt Lake Temple at Christmas time!  

No matter what faith you are you can not deny how beautiful it is!  

We rode Trax in with the kids and Grandma and Grandpa Smith.  It was pretty packed!  We had to stand and nobody was ready when the train started off :o)  We had a few "bobbles" till we got our footing back!  It only takes once though and we were prepared for the next ones!

 All bundled up!

Micailey had a hard time towards the end!  She wore some old worn out thin canvas shoes and started complaining about how cold her feet were shortly after we started.  By the time we were getting ready to start our walk back, the complaining turned to crying, and then to sobbing!  Her feet were REALLY cold by the time we got back to Grandma and Grandpa's hotel room!  She had to soak them in warm water and that still made them sting.  Guess we'll have to remember this for next year!  Wear warm shoes too!!!!

Brinley's "Beautiful" Birthday

This year Brinley chose a "Tangled" birthday party! We have done this with both of the other girls on different years and she remembered how much fun it was and wanted to do it for her party this time. We took her and her little friends down to a salon and had their hair, make-up, and fingernails done. They were so cute and so excited! They looked like little princesses!

Waiting to get started

So gorgeous!

This is her "Tangled" cake. She LOVED it!

I had to post this one because she actually looks a lot like me in this photo when I was her age :o)

After the party and presents, no one had eaten any dinner ...

So we let her pick a fast food joint and she picked Arby's :o)

Brinley, I hope you enjoyed your special day! We love having your giggly, fun spirit in our home!

We love you tons!

Decorating our Trees

If you live by me, you may have already heard that one of our traditions in the Smith house is that each child in the family gets their own Christmas tree to decorate. Its so fun and transforms our family room into a magical Christmas forest! They get to pick what colors of lights go on and put them and the ornaments on all by themselves (okay~ so the littlest kids get a little help with the lights). They are so proud of their trees and show them to all visitors that come! I love Christmas time! It is by far my favorite holiday of all! I didn't get a picture of them all decorated this night... I'll have to look through all of my other pic's when it's not so late and see if I can find one :o)

This may be a little late but........................... HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!!!

Can you say.... way beyond behind!!!!! Better late than never though! I hope everyone had a great, yummy, loving, and thankful Thanksgiving! We did our own trial Thanksgiving at our own house the Sunday before and Rich smoked a turkey. It was YUMMY!!!! ... when it finally finished cooking! We have smoked them in the summer before and knew how long it took and planned accordingly... All the food was done and ready on the bar... waiting, and waiting, and waiting! Finally we ate~ with out the turkey :o) Apparently the temperature outside has a LOT to do with the speed at which the turkey cooks! But in the end~ It was delicious and all was well!

My "turkey" rolls :o)

Gotta LOVE Pinterest!!!

We enjoyed ours with Rich's side of the family this year. It delicious as always! :o)

Wow! Look what Dell and Connie have multiplied into!!!

Happy (late) Thanksgiving Everyone!!!

Mackenzie's 1st EVER Piano Recital

Mackenzie did so good! She was the only one of our 3 kids that take piano that would perform in the recital! I'm so proud of her! She was so excited and even invited her little friend from school to watch her! I took her out to her favorite food joint after ~Subway :o) as a reward for doing her best. Good job Mackenzie!!!

She played "Jingle Bells" and "Come Little Children"

50's Day at School

The cute kiddos all dressed up and ready for the 50th day of school :o)

They had so much fun! Ahhh to be young again!