Wow- December is gone!

Where did the month of December go? It has truly zoomed by! Where to start for the last post of 2009....? The boys had their first piano recital a week or so before Christmas and it was Christmas themed. Brenner played "The Twelve Days of Christmas" and Cayden played a rendition of "Jingle Bells". They both spent lots of time practicing and other than some nervous jittery notes, played like little Beethovens! Good Job Boys!

Brenner and the 12 days of Christmas

Push Pause on the player at the bottom, before hitting the play button.

Cayden playing Jingle Bells.

We made a fun Christmas trip up to the Blue Ridge Mountains with the Brantley's and had a blast just eating great food, playing fun games, and trying to keep warm in a little cabin all decorated for the Holidays in the woods.

It was so cold that the Polar Bears were out!

The kidos found a warm spot as long as they were submerged to their necks.

Wow- As the camera always seems to be fixed on the kids, just a picture of US! We need to take more of these!

Thanks, Page, Brandon and Family for such a great time! Let's do it again next year!

At the Stone Mountain Christmas lights. The lights seem to get better every year, and the kids are getting old enough to sit through some of the fun shows. Dinner at Miss Katie's, and all the kids caught their own "Flying Rolls".

Christmas Eve and home made PJ's made by Bing. It is so much fun to see a tradition that you hold dear passed on to your own kids~ THANKS BING! We love you and your Jammies!

Back at the house and the kids Christmas Eve gift swap.

Oh - Santa Delivered, what a Surprise!

Brenner Found the Christmas Pickle hidden in the tree and got to open the first gift of the morning (for the second year in a row now- good eyes!)

Mia and "Swim to Me Puppy" (More like Drowned in front of me Puppy) =)

Cayden and his Legos, He built that whole thing in less than 2 hours! (over 900 pieces)

Brenner and his Indoor Soccer Shoes. Now his "Style" will match is "Skills".

Holding up Mimi and Granddaddy's Money! Funny- Cayden asked this year if Santa really makes the toys or if he just "buys" them? Humm...? Just like his daddy, never satisfied with the "Simple facts of the story"!

After all the parties, lots of great food, cups of hot chocolate, all the here and there, all the wrapping and unwrapping, all the magic and fun in the eyes of young children and all that a "Family Christmas" Holds, it ended with some laps around a slot-car track and some late night Rips on Wii Rock Band with the kids.

What a great December, nice 2009 and just as the Christmas movie title- "What a Wonderful Life! We are truly blessed and thankful!

Christmas in full swing!

It is only the 6th of December and it seems that Christmas has already been around for over 2 weeks! As Thanksgiving was not hosted at our home this year, Nikki got her wish of putting up the decorations and trees the last week of November. I always use Thanksgiving as a logical reason to wait till the first weekend in December, but this year she got her way. It works out though because as the years go on and as we collect more and more Christmas Stuff, we need several weekends for the elves to get it all up! The picture above is a shot of the tradition of sleeping under the tree on the night it goes up (November 24th this year... Yikes!).

This is a preview of the possible Christmas card photo, but if this year is anything like the last, there will be at least one more shoot! The foyer is one of our favorite parts of the house every Christmas as it is always done in clear lights and holds Nikki's "Fancy Adult Tree". The new addition this year is some Mistletoe hung from the light above (can barely see it in the picture if you squint), I will let you all know if it really works the way that tradition holds! =)

Christmas Cookies have been baking.

The kids in front of the outside lights. As many of our outside lights were going on 10 years old, almost none wanted to work this year. I figured that it was time to re-work them and went from multi-colored to red, green and white. It looks Great in the day, and even better at night. Something Clark Griswald would be truly proud of!

Picture of the ever growing Christmas Village (just for Tara).

And last but not least- this years picture with Santa!

Items on their lists:

Brenner- Wii Games, R/C Car, Indoor Soccer Shoes.

Cayden- Nintendo DS and Games, and Legos, Legos and more Legos.

Mia- Baby Dolls, Swim to me Puppy, Dora Backpack, Play Kitchen, Elephants game, Little Baby LuLu Kitty and one of everything that she sees on the TV! She is really getting into the true spirit of Christmas this year!?!?! =)

So Very Thankful

We always have so much to be thankful for, but on Thanksgiving it seems to be at the front of our thoughts. We are truly blessed in so many ways, three healthy and happy kids, a comfortable roof over our heads, plenty to eat (too much at times) and lives that are always filled with excitement of one kind or another. We live in a wonderful country and in a beautiful state that provides us so much opportunity and freedom. And the greatest "thanks" is for our membership in the church and the fact that we have the gospel in our lives. What more could one ask for or possibly need? For all these blessings and for so many more not mentioned-

We give our thanks!

To all our family and friends, thank you for all you do for us and for all the love and support that we feel and receive from you-

You are the greatest and we are thankful for you too!

What's New?

What's new around the Smith House?

Mia has been playing with her new friend Morgan who moved onto our street several weeks back. This has been wonderful as there have not been any little girls her age around the neighborhood and now she has a friend that is just the right size down the street.
Brenner just finished another great soccer season and his team did very well once again. He is becoming a soccer pro and is loving every minute of it! Mom and Dad are also getting a "KICK" out of it as the older the boys get, the better the games get. They are lots of fun and exciting to watch!
And Cayden has not taken his nose out of the "Christmas Wish Books" since their arrival last week. He already has his "List" made out, but as things are added and subtracted daily, it is a work in progress! If he only knew that he is only registered for a shipment of coal this year! =)

Ho, Ho, Whatever!

Happy 9th Birthday Brenner!

On the 2nd (actual b-day) Brenner finally broke mom and dad down and got some Bakugan stuff for his Birthday. We have held off (except for a free one he got in a happy meal) as long as we could, not seeing the point of these expensive rolling battle brawlers. But now that we have them rolling around and are exposed to them a bit more, daddy does think they are pretty cool.... in a late 80's Transformer kinda way.
Brenner's friend party was the following Friday night and he decided to take some friends to Stevie B's for all they could eat pizza and to the slot-car track for some racing fun.

Six little monkeys at a pizza place.
At the Lego Store in Discover Mills.

ZOOOOOMMMM.......... Lots of smiles at the slot-car track. Full throttle on the straightaways but slow down on those turns boys!

Wow- We now have a 9 year old!

Halloween Fun

HAPPY HALLOWEEN 2009

The traditional feast, Hot Chili, Ghost white and Regular with all the fixings, Mimi's corn bread and bubbly drinks (thanks Stephanie for drinking root beer with me and the kids). This year Nikki surprised us all with Chocolate Melting Cake for dessert, Yummy! (The last night of the cruise, the dinning room matradee was handing out the recipe... Anything for an extra tip!) A new tradition perhaps?

The kids in all their Halloween spookiness.

Momma joins in the dress-up fun, sorry kids that daddy is a Halloween dress-up Scrooge! Lots of scary fun!

Funny side note: At most doors, Cayden, who dressed as an army guy was confused as dressing as a hunter. "Got yer deer yet?" they would say- are you kidding me! Maybe if he was wearing bright ORANGE! ONLY IN THE SOUTH my friends, only in the the Beautiful South! =)

Hey all, Thank You to all our family and friends who have made a link on their blogs/sites to our Club FHE site. It helps with search engine rankings and we love ya for it! It is also fun to see our logo on your blogs, so a Big Thanks again! So much support from so many!

Family Cruise 2009

We have all been looking forward to a bit of rest, relaxation and FUN, and the trip finally came. We decided to celebrate our 1oth anniversary by going on a family cruise to the Caribbean. We booked several weeks late so the kids would be out of school on fall intercession. Mimi and Grandaddy also went along with us (celebrating their 40th anniversary) and made the trip extra special.
Well as there is so much to post and many things to tell, I thought it best to do a slide show of the trip and it's highlights so take a look at the fun and craziness of a family floating at sea!

I really liked this Family picture as we were all dressed up.
Here is the slide show. As you hover over the pictures, captions will show up.

Oh Oh- Magnificent! (But sadly not for us)

The U2 concert last night at the Georgia Dome truly would have been as Bono sings- Oh Oh, Magnificent!

When we heard that U2 would stop in Atlanta as part of their 360 tour, Nikki and I planned to go. After many other U2 fans turned us down in going (yeah, you know who you are!), we thought just the two of us would still go, but never got around to buying the tickets. As the date got closer and closer, I still held out that we would go. In trying to figure out why we missed out on such a "Magnificent" experience, the only reasons I can muster are the following- the kids piano lessons and soccer practice were in the way, tickets/dinner/babysitting would have cost a small fortune, it was on a school night, and in the end, we would have had to ride MARTA into Atlanta because of very limited parking..... What....? None of that would have stopped me 12 years ago (the Pop Mart tour was so great)!

I guess that we are just not as young, care free, and spontaneous as we think and feel anymore.... is that a good or bad thing? I am not sure right now as I feel that I missed out on something! It did not make matters any better that when in conversation with a high schooler in our ward yesterday, she had absolutely no idea who U2 even was?!?! Thanks Lauren for making all of us 30 somethings feel very old! And shame on your parents for not teaching you about the fine things in life! =)

Well for those who would have loved to have been there along with us last night, but also did not make it for one reason or another, Click on the link below to see Bono and the Edge "Rock It" in Atlanta. I guess in the end I did "Rock It" with them- it was just in my own home wearing my pajama bottoms (and Pop concert T-shirt) in front of my computer for free on YouTube. I may be getting cheap, old and who knows what else, but I still rocked it in my own little way.... I guess.

Here is that link~ Enjoy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKij_97yp9Q

Take a Look at CLUB FHE!

Well I guess it is time to finally pull the sheet off a project that we have been working on for some time now..........

Drum Roll Please.........

~INTRODUCING~

Over a year ago we came up with an idea to have some sort of Online Family Home Evening Club that could help families with pre-done lessons and activities that would make Family Nights spectacular with much less effort! So after months of writing, research, planning, design, construction, many changes, and much ANTICIPATION.....

We are pleased to announce to our family and friends,

Check out our Website at

clubfhe.com

September Excitement!

A MOHAWK should deliver some excitement around here!

If there is a down month of the year it must be September. Nothing happens for us in this month, no Birthdays, Holidays (I guess there is Labor Day), and as school is getting into full swing, our schedule becomes very regular, repetitive and somewhat boring I guess. This is a picture of Brenner's latest hair cut (just for the picture mind you!). He wanted to keep the Mohawk to play his first Soccer game of the season tomorrow but we said NO! Brenner is back in Soccer and really excited about his Team after several practices. Both boys are back in Piano after the summer break from tickling the ivory's, Cayden has his first loose tooth and Mia is just getting to big. That is what seems to be happening around here. We are looking forward to next month as October brings some predetermined excitement again!

~Our 10th Anniversary~

Looking Back On Our Tenth Anniversary~

It is crazy but wonderful to think what 10 years of marriage brings. If we could only go back and tell this young couple what the next ten years would hold, do you think they would have still gone ahead?

Absolutely and Without a Doubt!
We have had a wonderful and exciting ride so far and can't wait for the next ten, twenty five, fifty, or for that matter~ bring on Eternity!

We had a great Tenth Anniversary and have spent some time over the last week reliving and talking about the past through family videos and pictures. It is very strange to be watching "our past" on video with three kids eating popcorn on the couch with us~ Wow! Who are those Babies they asked.

Well I had intended to have a little montage of pictures of the last ten years of the Smiths to post, but with all that keeps us busy, it did not get done. But check back as I still intend to do it~ how exciting, I bet you can't wait! =)

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Well, here is the 10 year picture play by play that I promised. As I started looking over pictures of the last 10 years, I thought I might just find one or two a year that would be an overview, but was I ever wrong. There are over three shoe boxes of the first five years and over 5,000 pictures on our hard drive of the last five years. Getting stressed and as I just could not decide which ones to post and which ones to leave out I have decided that just some anniversary pictures over the years would suffice. So Enjoy~

Oh~ for Our youth back! One of our engagement photos

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August 19th,1999

Our Wedding Day was truly amazing but just look at the picture above as it will keep me from scanning another. =)

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Our First Anniversary, and the Cake that had been in our freezer for a year was not to bad!?! =) We also knew that Brenner was coming in less than two months. Oh Yeah~ we did not waste any time.
We spent our 5th anniversary on a Cruise to Mexico and had a great time.

Although it is so much fun to look back and remember the past, what is really exciting is the future. And if our future can be made of more moments like those of our past it will truly be wonderful!