Sword in the cake

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Lindsay's birthday treat creation

Don't worry,  I won't quit my day job ;)

But it was fun to involve the kids (esp julia&dean) in making this!

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   PieFace Cousins!  

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         Christmas for the CatTales!  

Brianna's thoughtful gift

She thought of this all on her own, knowing that my response when she asks what I want for Christmas is usually, "a clean house!"

Cousin dance party!

We are loving having the Arizona family here!

Snow much!

Marshmallow mushroom!

The Brians

Same name, same taste in clothes as they head over to help Stevie.

Big bro is super sick - gall bladder gone bad- so they administered a Priesthood blessing. I'm grateful this power is available for healing and comfort!

And I'm grateful for both Brians. And vneck sweaters. 

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   Gifts from Gma  

The cleanup!

You know it's been a good day when you're quite sure the cleanup job will take weeks to finish...

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   Gifts from G&G McKell   

Christmas hand tatooes

"It is a present! "

I love that he wrote this on his gift for Nathan :-)

2017 family calendars!

It takes hours and hours, but it's worth it! So fun to give these out to all my siblings,  parents, and grandma.This year's theme was the past fam reunion. Last year was the Baby edition.  Year previous was the SuperSmiths. Thinking of 2018 themes.... maybe a "Christmas past"....will be lots of work, hopefully I'll not save it til Dec 23 to make again :)

Workin the Christmas Eve! 💪❤💚��💚

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   Brianna and her friend Izzy :) They're playing while their moms do their favorite workout- chatting a million miles a minute so the time on these blessed machines flies by!   

Christmas piano lesson

I don't often get to stay and observe Brianna's piano lesson, but since school's out, we've got that flexibility!

I'm just so grateful for her teacher. 
She's skilled, patient,  kind, fun, lives a few blocks from us, and charges $10/lesson!
So perfect!

RACKing cars! #LightTheWorld

Brianna told me over and over how much she loved doing this! We got a couple dozen cars in the school parking lot :)

Christmas nails

Oh these little faces!
And little fingers!
I must paint them and play with them while they're still little!!

Still strong enough. Barely.

Wrestle daddy!

This might be my moistest favoritest photo ever

Sister lift

Martial Arts White Elephant & movie party

Mailing out Christmas jokes to relatives. #LightTheWorld

Sunday artwork

Annual ding dong ditch!

We have one neighbor who likes to leave a present and run away every year. Tonight we got blessed with dancing Snowman! 

WWW party!

The 2nd Annual Winfield Women's WhiteElephant party was a big success! I'm so glad that I chose to throw this again. I was feeling a little bah-humbug about it.... wondering if anyone appreciates it and if it's worth all the effort... but it ended up being so much fun for the ladies that came! Especially one neighbor, I had never really met her, but she told us that she had lost her husband on Christmas day 13 years ago. So since then, Christmas has been a really hard time for her. But she said that getting together with good people like us really helps her enjoy Christmas again.

So sad! I almost cried! 

It was worth every effort to throw this party (the hours pre-party running around like crazy getting ready) just to make this woman's  season a little brighter after such a tragedy.

 I love my neighborhood!

We played the game, "Never Have I Ever." Lots of fun! And the gift exchange was a blast. I'm already excited to do it again next year! 

Squirrel sightings

We spotted a squirrel carrying around a coffee cup in a tree in front of the library!
Then he dropped it right in front of us! 

Gift from a friend!

My friend and YW secretary Heather Barton gave me this long white shawl thing today as a Christmas present! 

I've never really worn anything like this but I think I love it.

 I rarely go clothes shopping for myself, and I'm pretty picky, so it's amazing that someone got something for me that I'm totally liking!  

My bestie

I just love this girl!! So glad she moved here! She gets me. She's real. Rare to find someone so genuine.

We had a great time Sunday after church doing lunch and games at mom's.  Her kids and mine (we both have 3 girls+1boy!) play great together!

Can't wait for our girls trip to Vegas in March!! BBB concert :)

Gift for the girls

Super excited about this gift . ...

There will be 7 little Smith cousin girls getting gift certificates to attend a Nutcracker Ballet Camp between Christmas and New Years day at a local studio! Tutus and wings included :) Can't wait to see their excitement!!

Winfield sledding

My friend Kim who lives on the opposite side of the park from us took this shot.  It's fun to see our antics from another view! I reallyreallyreally love that our home opens right up to the park in the backyard like this. Every time I think about moving because I don't love the spacing/layout of our home, I remember all it has going for it. At least while our kids are young, it's kinda priceless to have a 7 acre park with fantastic sledding hills right in our backyard.

a double slice of Heaven

I love snuggling up with these two anytime. But especially when we sing songs at the piano and read stories. 

We've got a 24 days of Christmas notebook that has a song, scripture, and story for each day leading up to Christmas. 

Brianna does a great job helping to read - she's even starting to get better at adding animation to her voice as she tells the stories. And I can tell she really wants to be able to play these songs on the piano too like me. She can pluck out a few notes, but needs to practice more. A lot more. I hope she'll be more motivated than I was and get better than I am!  We'll start piano lessons for the twins in September I think.  

Babies got back

I wonder if other families entertain themselves like this.... or if it's just mine that like to pretend they're fat ;)

Santa's Workshop Parent's Night Out

Geez I love our YMCA. In addition to the daily awesomeness they offer for the kids while I go workout, they do special events like this! I got to drop them off one evening for 3 hours of Christmas crafts, games, stories, etc. for about the price I'd have paid a babysitter. Except this is better because it's OUTSIDE of my house and therefore no mess to deal with :)

The timing was great - we had the adult evening session of Stake Conference, so Brian and I got to go together - kinda rare, usually one of us stays home with the kids. This was much better! 

I've failed as a parent.

The wrong your/you're.

I found this card she made for her friend. 

I was devastated. 

Which means I obviously have issues and need to get my priorities/perspective straight.

But still. We've got work to do. I just can't handle the thought of MY children committing homophone errors.  




I'm going to have to post this in her room. Or maybe just all over the house, to be safe.

Then definitely show forth an increase in love after reproving with this sharpness ;)

#MomLife

I don't understand why people always think I've got my hands full....

But I always respond..."Yep, full and happy!"

Ornament Party #LIGHTtheWORLD

Typically I wouldn't be interested in an ornament exchange party. Spending hours and hours putting together cute ornaments, then coming home with a stack of other people's cute ornaments...  not my jam.  Totally get why others would love it though. 

So when I got an invite to an Ornament Exchange party, I wasn't thrilled til I saw the twist - we all just had to bring ONE ornament, plus some money to put together to buy a tree, with the plan to donate this all to a family in need! So cool!

I really enjoyed making these #LightTheWorld ornaments. I just used the images the church had put out, slightly modified to fit, printed, cut out, and mod-podged onto some Hobby Lobby craft ornament shells. then added ribbon and bling. So fun! Brianna and Courtney loved helping me. 

I really like these ladies I get to interact with through church and outside of it a bit. Even though I don't have a ton in common with most, we have enough that a party like this was really fun. 

RS activity: a cookie exchange to #LightTheWorld

We all brought a variety of cookies....not to devour ourselves, but to plate all festively and pass out to neighbors. 

Then we played Christmas songs with handbells! Very fun. I'm grateful I went out and supported the activity despite reallyreally wanting to stay home. 

Sneaky Shoplifter

She took an apple right off the display , bit into it, then asked, "can I have this apple mommy?"

Charity is just a little excited about Santa....

Who needs to go to the mall?! Santa is all over the Northside this year! We didn't even plan on seeing him at Fred Meyer today, but he was there, ready to take pictures with the kids! And there was no hesitation with these two! (bummed I didn't have Brianna and Courtney with me! They were at a bday party).

Charity's giant cheesy smile was hilarious :)

Toys for Tots! #LightTheWorld

 Bennett and his buddy Dillon, learning that the best thing to do with toys is give them to kids in need :-)

SaturdaySnowday!

Time for some serious sledding, skiing, and snowman building!!!