Christmas and New Years Recap

Christmas 2011 has come and gone. It always goes way too fast, and it's bittersweet for me each year to pack up the decorations and take down the tree.

My brother and his family flew from CO to be with the MN family for a week. They have 3 boys, a 3 1/2 year old and 1 1/2 year old twins. Yes, we had 7 young boys living in our house for a week! It was crazy at times, messy at times (or most of the time!), loud and obnoxious at times, but there were also plenty of moments of cousins playing and laughing together and aunts and uncles playing with a niece and nephews who they don't get to see often enough. When my sister and her family and my parents came over, we were a cozy group of 17. Not to miss out on any of the action, my oldest sister, Heather, surprised all of us and showed up the day after Christmas and spent 4 days in MN with everyone. It's always special to have the original Smith clan together.

We had zero snow on the ground for Christmas this year which was disappointing in some aspects, but kept my mudroom dry and clutter free. We were able to get outside on some milder days and play on the swingset and trampoline, took a night walk to the park, and enjoyed a Christmas day walk to the school playground.

Christmas Eve:

*Candlelight church service together

*Chicken Wild Rice Soup, salad and bread at Holly's, followed by a delicious plate of various Christmas goodies and opening of stocking stuffers

Christmas Day:

*Individual families had their own Christmas time before everyone met at our house for brunch. Some highlights include an early morning solo run for me, Brian spilling a gallon of milk and the boys sleeping in until 8:30!

How we spent our days:

*Trip to Mall of America and the Aquarium - it was spendy, but very cool! My brother, myself and Ben did the ropes course at the theme park, and Luke and I made it to the very top gangplank!

*Trip to The Blast - indoor play area. Overall this was better than expected...not too crowded and very inexpensive! All the kids could run, run, run!

*Lots of "Just Dance" on the Wii. Even Nana and Papa got in on the action.

*The dads and Ben did a lot of basketball shooting on Ben's birthday basketball gift.

*The dads and papa hit Lifetime to burn off some calories

*The moms did lots of outdoor running together, and we even introduced Katy to Tabata.

*Shopping

*Lots and lots of good food!

After everyone left, my parents spent their 44th anniversary helping us clean, take down Christmas decorations, making beds and vacuuming. We really appreciated the help and you wouldn't even know we had had a houseful of guests.

Today, New Year's Eve, has been a slow and nice family day. We spent time playing with the boys and some of their new gifts. It's calm and mild here today, and we got outside to get the lights off the house, jumped on the tramp, played basketball and catch and went on a walk together. We've ordered pizza for supper and we'll enjoy a night at home with games and a movie. We'll see if anyone makes it until midnight or not.

We have been abundantly blessed in 2011 and we are so thankful for our family and friends.

Happy New Year to you !

**I'm embarrassed to admit it, but I did not take even ONE picture this past week. : (

Eleven!

Our oldest is 11 today! Happy Birthday, Ben! We are so proud of you and love you more than you know.

It's hard to buy gifts for the kids as they get older, but this was a fun one to wrap, and hopefully he'll be excited to open it. It's an arcade style basketball game for 2 players. It should be a good winter activity when it's too cold or dark to be outside!

Yep, he's 11.

Did I mention he's 11?

No, he's not 16, he's 11! Here he was being the lead role of school principal in our church's children's Christmas program.

To a great son, we love you very, very much!!

Santa?

I can't decide if I'll do this for the boys or not, but a lot of people at school have been talking about "Portable North Pole".

I tried a sample for Adam. None of the boys have seen it yet.

Regardless if I choose to do it with our boys, it's a clever idea.

Getting Ready for Christmas

We love Christmas and all that it means and symbolizes for Christians. Yes, the presents are fun, too, but we really try to keep it in perspective and remain focused on why we celebrate Christmas. We also love the music, cookies, tree-cutting, decorating and snow! December is such a fun month.

Annual tree-cutting with Holly's family and my parents the day after Thanksgiving. This is so much better than any Black Friday deal!

Maybe this should have been our Christmas card?

I picked the tree this year, and Ben cut it down.

He only needed a little help at the very end.

After cutting, we always come back to our house for Thanksgiving leftovers and the kids have fun unwrapping the tree.

A few years ago, The Elf on the Shelf, (ours is named Lightning M.), made an appearance at our house and he returns every December. He loves to hide in clever places, and the boys have fun searching for him each morning.


He even made a snow-angel this year!

Ben and I You-Tubed how to cut fancy snowflakes. We went to TOWN the other day and had a great time getting better with our cutting.

A fresh snowfall this weekend helps it feel like Christmastime. We took Luke out to the backyard for his first sledding experience.

He loved it.

One of my Favorites

This picture was one of my favorites that Holly took a couple of weeks ago. We just needed Luke to look at the camera, but 5 out of 6 isn't bad!

Home Gym

Running behind on blogging yet again...

The boys are very much aware of the exercise that Brian and I do, and they've been to most of the races we've participated in. The only equipment we have at home is my sister's MIL's OLD treadmill and a few hand weights. The boys got creative not long ago and set up their own home gym and worked their way through some circuit training. I wouldn't quite close down the Curves for Women or Snap Fitness facilities just yet, but for these boys, it worked!

The barbell made of two milk jugs filled with dirt duct taped to a wooden rod.

It's always best to lift while eating a sucker.

Matt got smart and put some old couch cushions beneath him.

Pumping iron - believe it or not, this thing weighs 20 lbs!

Sit-ups with dumbbells

He's working it.

Kettlebell

Adam doing some form of a push-up

Ben & his buddy

Jumping jacks on the bed

The timer app they used. After each 20 second circuit they would hustle to the next station.

Math by Adam

Adam and I were working on counting by 10s. He needed a few prompts along the way, but the best came as we approached the end.

...70

...80

...90

...???

um....

tendy?

I love it! That's true number sense in a 5-year old kid!!

Sneak Peek

Christmas card time is approaching soon, and I scheduled a Target portrait sitting last minute. Studio pictures are not my favorite, but in a time crunch I was able to get in. The day of our session the weather was beautiful, so on my weekly Saturday run with Holly, I asked her if she would be willing to take some pictures of us outside with her nice camera. She agreed, so I cancelled our Target appointment, and I am so glad I did! I love how these came out.

I don't want to show all of them, so here is a glimpse of what's coming!

These shots capture our family perfectly!

There's so many of us, we barely fit on the boardwalk!

This picture was an accident, but I think it looks so cool!

He gets all the attention!

Our sweet 1-year old!

Halloween Party

I mentioned that we're not real big on Halloween, which is true. However, this year, Brian and I were invited to a party some neighbors were having, and costumes were mandatory. Holly and Jason were also planning on going, and they were able to resurrect a funny Sonny and Cher combo they've worn before. I wasn't willing to spend money on any costumes, so I was going to wear an old poodle skirt that I've used at school when we've had '50s themed things, and Brian was going to be a greaser. Well, about 2 hours before the party was to start, it came to me that if Holly and Jason were going to be Sonny & Cher, one of us should be Chaz Bono. He's been in the news a lot lately, but honestly, I only know him because I'm a fan of Dancing with the Stars. Brian made a great Chaz, and I googled a picture of his girlfriend, threw on a wig, and went as her. It was simple and funny, and we got some good laughs from people at the party!

A family affair

He really does make a pretty good Chaz! Notice the tattoo sleeve?

Cher and her grandson

Happy Halloween

We're not super huge on Halloween around here. We stay away from the blood and guts stuff, but we'll happily welcome the pounds and pounds of candy the boys come home with.

The boys tend to keep their costumes pretty low-key, and sure enough, this year was no different.

A repeat picture of our little vampire. This was a hand-me-down from our friend, Kari.

Adam got the Transfomers Bumblebee costume from Max & Anna for his birthday. He loves it and I love the efficiency of it.
This will be the 3rd or 4th consecutive year the skeleton has been used. $20 well spent several years ago. That's Matt in there.

Last year Ben decided to create his own costume, and he had so much fun doing it he decided to do it again this year. Our very own...iPad!

I Vant to Suck Your Blood!

He looks too stinkin' cute in this to wait until Halloween to post!

Birthday Recap

We had a fun and busy weekend celebrating Luke and Adam's birthdays. Uncle Rob and Grandma Marilyn were in town and Nana and Papa came over for cake and ice cream. Holly's family was down for the count with fevers and colds, but we managed to save some cake for them.

Earlier in the day I took Adam, Luke, and Adam's friend Dylan to McDs and then to a corn maze not far from our house. It was a beautiful fall day, and the boys had a great time running through the maze together. I love that we haven't set the precedent of big production birthday parties. Inviting a special friend over to do something a little different was a perfect way for Adam to spend his 5th birthday.

I'm not sure what we'll do in the future about celebrating together or separately with their birthdays just four days apart. This year we took advantage of the "free first birthday cake" from Byerly's, and went ahead and let Adam get the Transformers cake he so had his heart set on. We may not always have individual cakes, but for this year, we just had to do it!
I'm also not sure I'll schedule their yearly dr. visits at the same time ever again. I took both boys in with back-to-back appts, thinking I was being efficient. 2 hours and 7 shots later, we were on our way. Not real fun. BTW, our chunky monkey was 26# and 32" long!

Five!

Adam Charles is five today! Honestly, I don't remember him younger than about two. He's always been old for his age in terms of his wit and sarcasm. He is smart, funny, loving, mischievous, excited for kindergarten next year, a wonderful younger and older brother, and we love him so very much!

Happy "whole hand" buddy!