Holiday and Fall Fun (catching up on blogging)

Thanksgiving with the Smith family

Todd and I hosted my family for Thanksgiving this year.  It was the first time I made a turkey without any help.  My mom and sisters brought all the sides.  I really enjoyed hosting and everything turned out really well.  It was a team effort and I would say we worked really well together.

Some Christmas crafts.  We made these Santas with the kid's handprints.  It was super fun to do and a great keepsake too.  In the background are the socks that made up our "advent calendar".  Everyday the kids pulled out a treat.  Some days it was something small like a quarter or bubble gum and other days it was something bigger like a game to play on the plane for our Christmas trip to Colorado.

What's in the sock???

A few years ago we started a new Smith family tradition.  We have a gingerbread building contest, boys against girls.  This year the boys made Jimmy Johnson's house with his race car having crashed in to it. You would think that the girls would be more creative than the guys, but they definitely get in to it and give us a run for our money.  The girls made a Mickey Mouse house because of our newest member to the girls team.  My niece (6 months old at the time) loves the Mickey Mouse club and squeals with delight anytime she hears the music or sees the video come on T.V.

Whenver the cousins are together for Christmas on Todd's side of the family, Joy has them dress up and act out the nativity. Some of Marcy's friends came over to join us this year.  The kids really enjoyed it a lot.  I think we have an adorable Mary and Joseph and some cute shepherds.  

The cousins in their Christmas jammies.

The kids skied again this year in Colorado.  They are really doing great.  As you can see, B got to add poles to his ski gear, which was a move up in his skill level.  H really did great skiing too.  Unfortunately, I didn't get any good action shots with her this time, but both of our kids definitely have their daddy's snow skiing gene.  Soon we'll find out if they like water skiing like their mommy.

 

B and H got this jungle gym for Christmas from Todd and me.  They are both such monkeys that we thought this would be a perfect gift for them.

 B and H in their Christmas outfits.  Man I love these kids!

HOLLYWOOD

Our little guy has been wanting to visit Hollywood. I think he was really hoping to see some movie stars, but had to settle for the stars on the walk of fame instead. He was excited to take a lot of pictures there . Our girl didn't want to take pictures with the stars. I told her that was okay, but if we saw Snow White's or another princess' star I was taking her picture. Well, funny enough about 10 steps later there was Snow White's star and I got my picture.


Grauman's Chinese Theater

We hiked (part way) to the Hollywood sign so the kids could get a closer look at it. We went by the Nickelodean building where some of their favorite shows are filmed and H-girl was thrilled to find the Hello Kitty store and get a little souvenir. We had lunch at Hard Rock Cafe and then browsed around the outdoor shops. B got a hat that will be part of his Halloween costume. It was such a great day. We were reminded how fun and important it is to take time away from the busyness of life to do something out of the ordinary together.

Cousin Time

Well I'm going backwards in time, but I wanted to post a few things about our summer (end of July, 2010). My sister-in-law and her family were visiting from Colorado so we all met up at my in-laws for a few days together. We had such a great time and the cousins had a blast! It's so great to see how close these four kiddos are despite the distance. Grammy and Bonka have a pool with a slide and the kids had a ball entertaining themselves! They put a big raft at the bottom of the slide so they could slide down and "surf like daddy/Uncle Todd." They seriously did this over and over and over. The slide was like an assembly line with the kids sliding down, lining up, sliding down, lining up. It was so fun to watch and listen to the happy voices and laughter while they played.


These two cousins are only 6 months apart
and are the best of friends.


I love this picture. You can see how much
these two love each other.


Joy brought Aunt Monica home for a couple
of days and we had a family birthday celebration.