Christmas Morning!

 Lining up to go see what Santa brought!

Opening their presents from Mom & Dad

The girls new dresses!

Dallas's new Pirates shirt

I posted all 3 of these because I love her face in the last one when she realizes what it is .... :o)

haha!  Cracks me up!

Jordan & Cohen's Cars stuff

Brinley's singing Disney Doll that was a bust!  The batteries in hers and Mackenzie's needed replacing immediately and didn't work for very long and now they don't work again :o(  They loved them while they worked though! 

Ry's Car ramp

The families Karaoke machine above and Ry's Drums's from Santa below!

Had to post his drums because he LOVES them!

Headed to church in their new matching dresses from Santa and all the boys in their new white shirts an ties! 

Looking Good!!!  

Notice... NO SNOW ON CHRISTMAS!!!

This was such a weird winter!!!

I hope everyone had a great Christmas 2011!  Sorry again that I'm so far behind!

Christmas Eve Part II

After dinner we came back home and had a chocolate fountain! YUM!  Rich had actually got me this fountain as a surprise Christmas gift... but... the kids found it on the door step when they got home from school and brought it in squealing after reading the labels and so excited that we now had a chocolate fountain!  Oh well! It's the thought that counts and it really was fun to test out on Christmas Eve any way! :o)

Yum!  Just looking at all these pictures makes me want to come up with a reason to celebrate and pull it out! :o)

After the chocolate fountain was all gobbled up, the kids were able to finally feed the reindeer their specially made food!  They love this tradition and get so into it!

The cookies are out and all systems are a go!  We are ready for Santa to come! (as soon as we can get them all calmed down and fast asleep of course!)

Merry Christmas to ALL and to ALL a good night!

Smith's Christmas Eve Dinner

 Every year the Smith's go out to eat at a restaurant, this year the choice was Joe Vera's Mexican.  We always have a lot of fun and the kids love seeing all of their cousins!

This is only one side of the tables!  

Dallas, Brinley, Micailey, and Mackenzie

Cousin Cooper and Jordan

Grandpa Smith and Cohen

Grandma, Dallas, and a grouchy Macie :o)

Cousins Marion and Lily

Cousin Clara

Grandpa Smith and Rylan

Dallas and Cousin Oliver

Little Hayden

Everyone is getting excited!  You can feel it in the air! :o)

Yes! It's Christmas in July at the Smith's house!!!

Well at least it is on the blog!  That's how far behind we are!   But, I have to post them to stay in order and so they will upload to make my blog book :o)  So, reminisce about your Christmas 2011 with me while I try to play a little catch up!  Sorry!

Since we don't have a mantel in this house, this is what we have come up with and I actually love it!  Every child's stocking hangs under their picture in the entry hall way :o)  It makes the whole house feel festive!

 Rylan and Macie admiring mom's "Formal Tree"

 So, we adopted a tradition that my sister does with her family of "sleeping under the Christmas tree".  We try to do it the Friday before Christmas.  This year... with the addition of Pinterest to my life... we extended on that tradition too!  We took a trip to the North Pole that night!  

We visited the barns where they mix the reindeer's food!  They put all kinds of amazing ingredients in it to help the reindeer fly, give them energy, and attract them to our home!

Each kid was able to mix their own reindeer food with just the right ingredients to sprinkle on the lawn for the reindeer on Christmas Eve!  

Next we had all of the reindeer games you could think of and NO one was left out!

And last but not least, we had the Gingerbread Square where the kids were able to build their own custom gingerbread home exactly how they wanted it!  (This actually extended a few days in a row for the extravagent builders!)  All said and done.... it was a ton of fun and we will definitely do this again!  The kids LOVED it!

Micailey & Dallas working on their gingerbread "beach" houses!

Dallas's above and Micailey's below

Mackenzie's gingerbread castle

Brinley's gingerbread house 

Jordan, Cohen, Macie, and Mom & Rylan's houses/stables

Just found a blog draft from 2009 that NEVER got published!!!!

Some of these pictures got published to the blog but some didn't!  I actually remember doing this which is crazy!  But I started doing a joint post about both girls on their baseball teams and then decided to split them and post them individually and I posted Micailey's and before I deleted this draft, luckily I checked to see if it had ever been posted, and Mackenzie's hadn't!  So here, speaking of being behind on my blog!, is a post from May of 2009!  Mackenzie (and a few of Micailey's, just in case they weren't posted) playing Tball!

Baby Macie (who is now 3!)

Out with the old, and in with the new!

Well, the old blog is suffering and I apologize!  It started suffering with the introduction of Facebook a long while back.  I would post the new fun pictures on there and then it would justify me in taking longer to post them on to the blog.  Then more recently came the introduction of my new iphone!  Now I have instant internet at the touch my little hand held device that is always next to me so I RARELY sit down at the "old" computer!  One huge problem is that all pictures are on that old device and they quietly sit and get forgotten!  ... It's May and I haven't even gotten Christmas pictures on yet!  So I apologize in advance when we celebrate Christmas in almost mid summer!  Just smile with me and reminisce about the good old days and know that I 'm trying to keep up the best I can :o)