Smith Family

Cameron and Becca got us a new game for Christmas that we all love. It's called Cover your Assets. We've learned as a family we do best with just one round of a game... otherwise things can get a little heated and its no longer fun. Hopefully we're not the only family this happens to!

Just a few pictures I snapped of winter break.  Brandon has a ton of Pokemon cards in his binder but they were a big unorganized mess. So he and I took the time to take all of them out and organize them. I didn't get a picture of him on his go kart which was his big gift for Christmas. Well the go kart and head phones with a microphone so he can talk to and connect with his friends while playing video games. Unfortunately his go kart isn't working correctly. We got a warranty on it and need to take it in to get looked at.  Audrey took to sewing really well. She made a bunch of scrunchies for her friends. She isn't super comfortable doing it by herself so I need to get some more projects for her and I to work on. I would really like her to get to the point where she can sit down and sew anything she would like to.  For Audrey to get her Faith and God she had a couple goals to pass off and one of them was to plan a family outing. So she packed all of us a lunch ...

Bring it on 2020! We celebrated New Years without Elliott because he had to travel to the border for work. It was a bit of a bummer not being able to kiss him at midnight to bring in the new year like we've done for the past 13 years but I had fun celebrating with the kids. We had a blind pop tart test to see if they could figure out the flavors, toasted to the new year and did some fireworks. All 3 of them made it to midnight! This year we will have a 12, 10 and 8 year old. Audrey will be entering young womens, and Melanie will be getting baptized. In June we are planning to fly to California to see a Dodger game and visit Disneyland before driving to AZ to spend time with family. In September Elliott will move up to a level 12 at work which brings good opportunities. All around we are feeling optimistic and looking forward to what the new year brings.

The kids woke up to this huge box on Christmas Eve from the elves. Elliott and I had no interest in trying to assemble a trampoline all night so we decided to give it to them so we could work on it all day. They had a lot of fun being Elliott's helpers Meanwhile Audrey and I were in the kitchen baking some Christmas cookie and getting dinner prepped. We took a break and headed to Freddy's for some lunch. We opened up their Christmas ornaments for the year. Audrey got a Mustang because it's her first year at Hildebrant and that's their school mascot. Brandon got a Cub Scout uniform to commemorate his time in Scouts. Ellie got an ornament, I wish it wasn't turned around, that has everyone in our family. We had received an ornament very similar to this one is 2010 but it doesn't have Ellie in and she hates it. It makes her emotional every year when it comes out that she isn't included in the family ornament so we decided we would...

The kids looked so cute in their Christmas Sunday clothes I wanted to snap a shot. I wish we got a whole family one but I felt so sick. I had come down with a terrible cold but wanted to go to church because I was playing my violin and it's my favorite sacrament of the year. Next year I need to make sure we get a nice family photo on the Sunday before Christmas.

 6th Grade 4th Grade  2nd Grade

In Arizona it was a yearly tradition to go to Bass Pro Shop with my parents and the cousins to get a picture, play around there and get dinner together. We discovered there was a Bass Pro Shop in Katy which is about an hour away and an In and Out just opened up right next to it. The only In and Out near us. Pete happened to have an afternoon off so we decided to be spontaneous and head out.  I was a little concerned because in AZ the time slots to take your picture with Santa can run out but figured we would be okay. I would grab a time slot, we'd eat some dinner and In and Out then come back for our photo. Great game plan! Except when I ran in to get a time slot not only did they not have any, Santa was all done for the day and wouldn't be returning. We were so disappointed, especially Melanie. We decided to all get out and look around, snap a couple photos. Then we headed over to the new In and Out. When we turned into the parking lot there were police officers directing...