Nick turns 15

Nick turned 15 on December 23rd. We have a tradition of 'birthday spankins' around here that usually stop as the kids get bigger, but Glade had to let Nick know he wasn't too big! He took his lickins like a man. Since it's a crazy time of year, we let him pick some other time of year to have a party. I don't like for it to go uncelebrated, so we just do something small with the family. This happened to be the day we went to the Forgotten Carols, so we did a breakfast party. We had rubber pancakes and stuck his candles into those. I had already had in mind what he was getting and I was really excited to get him something that would be a great surprise and I knew he would love as well. Not too much before his birthday, he came down with a picture cut out of a paper, handed it to me and told me that's what he wanted. Nice. It was exactly what I had already gotten. Little Stink. Anyway, he got what he wanted. Happy Birthday to Nick!!

I guess the pictures doesn't show it to well. It's the bar that hangs in the door frame to do pullups on.

Chelsey's unofficial Senior Pictures

Chelsey got her pictures taken this summer in the studio and they turned out alright, but I'm too cheap to pay for much so we just got the basics and one for the wall. I will have to get them on here one of these days. I told her when the weather cooled down, we could go do another shoot outside somewhere. Today she decided she was having a decent hair day so could we go do it. It was almost dark when she asked, so we headed down to the local Burger King to take a few shots to see what we could get. They have this big wagon right in front that we thought would make a good back drop. It was hard not getting any cars or building in the pics, but I think they turned out pretty good. We were lucky to have clouds and a little color in the sky. I picked the ones I liked best to post, but the whole shoot is on FB. (It's easier to upload a lot of pictures on FB)

the Forgetten Carols

Last night was our adult family outing for Christmas. We started with dinner at Mi Amigos. I was the first one there and sat reserving a table for 15 people all by myself for 15 min before anyone else showed up. A little awkward, but eventually everyone showed up and we had a really nice time. Because some of the family couldn't come and we had already gotten the tickets, my mom and Kristi's mom were able to join us as well.

I have seen the show before on DVD so I already knew the story, but I don't think I could ever tire of hearing the songs. It was beautiful. One of our friends and his daughter were in the choir, what an amazing experience to be able to participate in that. I also got to hold Sherry's new 3 week old baby through most of the show. He just slept all snuggly on my lap. Heaven! The end of the show was the best. He came on stage and just talked and told a little history, then Jordan Bleuth came out and sang a powerful song called Arise and Shine Forth. Everyone stood and the choir sang it with him, so great. He was really funny and clever with his little tunes and had made slightly different lyrics to "Together Forever". Then he had the audience sing the chorus to that song. Very beautiful. He ended by having us sing Silent Night as he departed the stage. Just phenomenal, the whole thing.

After, we went for ice cream. We couldn't find anything open, so we settled for Carl's Jr. shakes. Not my fav, but whatever. We sat and chatted there till about 11:45. It was a late night, but what a wonderful one. I highly recommend it. Truly the Spirit of Christmas was emulated in that auditorium.

Family Christmas Party

Saturday we had our Smith family Christmas party. As always, it was a big success. Kristi so graciously hosts the entire clan for a shredded beef dinner with lots of yummy accompaniments. The cousins all draw names and do a gift exchange with each other. The older cousins all buy $15 gift cards and then play a dice game to trade and switch with each other. I didn't get any pictures of that this year. Lastly, we assign a family to be in charge of the program each year. It's supposed to bring some spirituality to the craziness. This year ViEtta was in charge, so she planned a beautiful program consisting of several musical numbers. She asked different members of the family to participate as well. At the end, she pulled out "bells" and gave each person one and then we rang them to different songs. The kids (and adults) really liked that part.

Instead of doing a gift exchange, the adults all do some kind of activity together. Tonight we are going to dinner and then to see the Forgotten Carols. I love it! I have it on DVD and have restrained myself from watching it this year since I'm getting to see it live this time. I'm really looking forward to that.

Bo and his cousin Jake dancing.

Whitley singing with Shyann

Kenzie, Dalin, Tyler and Amy all singing along

Brooklyn and Shyann getting some love.

Kelsey and Brooklyn

Katy didn't love the sing along as much as some did.

Ok, maybe a lot of the kids thought it was a little long. Too young to appreciate I guess.

This is me pretending to play along on the flute. I practiced and actually got it down pretty well. I didn't realize she was going to play the piano along with me so when that happened, I totally lost it. I couldn't keep my place for anything. Chelsey had a pretty funny video of me looking like I was playing, where you can see me asking her where we were now. It wasn't good. That disappeared when she dropped her phone in the toilet.

This is Katy pretending to play her flute. I thought that was too cute.

Chelsey and Whitley sang a song together. They left their music at home so they were kind of winging it. Still nice though.

Glade and Brooklyn did a really sweet duet together. She was a little quiet, but very nice.

Stephen and Bo doing exploding knuckles

Stephen ended the program with a solo. It was kind of rough, but he tried. Not really his range and it was a hard song to boot.

Younger cousins all waiting to open their gifts.

Katy got an easel made up of a white board and chalk board

Bo got a bag of rocks which totally confused him, but he grinned through the whole thing anyway. Then he got his real gift, a coloring set. He was so excited about that.

Rhett has been into the Lord of the Rings lately so he got the second movie of that series

Brooklyn got a messenger bag that came with iron ons to decorate it. She has been driving me crazy ever since. We finally got it done yesterday.

Dalin got a magic set which has been devoured by more children than him. Poor kid has no control. They all love that stuff.

We are very blessed to be surrounded by such great family.

Candy Houses

We were supposed to do this a week ago, but I haven't had time to go get the stuff and actually get it done. Today was the day. I tried to make sure they all ate a good breakfast so their day wasn't just candy, but I didn't succeed completely. Grandma came to help and the kids were way excited about that. We started with these little "Chinese" boxes as the base and covered them with graham crackers and candy. The kids were all very creative, except Stephen who just threw a bunch of candy in a pile on his tray. I nixed that quickly. It was funny to watch how often they ate the candy or frosting. I got pictures of almost all of them eating something. My complete collection is on FB. It only lasted about an hour, but they all had a good time and some of them were even eaten within minutes of being finished. My good camera had a dead battery so these are from my old one.


Chelsey started off pretty slow, but hers turned our really cute and Christmas-y.

Whitley was a master designer with a yard and everything.

Brooklyn also put a lot of thought into hers

Nick made a worm house. It has a worm coming out the front door. If you look closely, you may think there are phallic symbols, but it was purely innocent.

After destroying his "candy pile" he decided to create a scene of snow crashed skii-ers or something like that.

Rhett mostly did the yard cuz he said it was too hard to get it on the crackers.

Dalin's was a puzzle house. He struggled getting the crackers to stay on in one piece.

Katy's was just as cute as she is. Thanks Gram.

Bo never really did finish his. He said the gumdrops on top were lots of chimneys. We were cleaning up and he realized everyone was eating theirs so he went right to that.

This is our little village, minus the two that were already eaten.