Christmas beginnings 2011

Aww Finally I am blogging about Christmas even though it is the END of January! I will have to change my posting date to put it back into 2011. This is just a bunch of random pictures showing the start of our Christmas celebrations. There are a lot of pictures so enjoy! :)

Our Christmas tree the night we decorated.

All lit up!

Can you see us?

Katie and I made a Gingerbread house

We went to Macy's so she could mail her letter to Santa

In the mail it goes!

Beautiful trees with beautiful Katie

We made sugar cookies...Annie LOVED the frosting! :)

The first Santa of the season.  This was at the ward Christmas party. Katie informed all of the other children that this could not possibly be the REAL Santa...She is too smart for her own good!

Part of the Christmas party was the primary and nursery children singing Christmas songs while dressing up as different parts of the Nativity.  Annie is a sheep if you couldn't tell! :)

Katie as a sheep! 

Christmas in Disney World 2011!

Disney World at Christmas is very magical! The decorations are awesome but the crowds are a little much! We went this day and mainly just took pictures of decorations and different things, we hardly went on any rides but the girls still had a good day!

Well at least one of them looks happy

I think Annie was in a mood this day....

The Huge tree for all of the worlds in Epcot!

Magic Kingdom Main street USA.  If you look close you can see the castle behind us!

The castle lights at night

I know the picture is blurry but I had to post this.  We really wanted a picture at night with all of the Christmas lights and decorations but both girls were OUT! Oh well we took it anyway! People were laughing hysterically while they took this for us.

Camping Trip/Thanksgiving 2011

For Thanksgiving the Smith family went camping! We went with some good friends from the ward Kim and Brett who also brought along their two little dogs named Scud and Scruffy. Also in our party were two men from Italy.  The Italians (as we lovingly referred to them) are living with our friends while they are here in the states working on their masters programs.  We had a blast! The girls LOVED being outside all of the time and having lots of people and especially dogs to play with.   We went fishing, played games, went on little hikes, went to a parade, and for Thanksgiving dinner we went to a little country restaurant for the traditional meal.  We went for three nights and four days and it was a great trip although, I must say camping takes a lot of energy to pack and unpack all the stuff you need. :) After the camping trip both girls missed those little dogs so much...I guess dogs are in our future! Happy Turkey Day 2011!

Part of the camp site

Annie getting filthy!

Katie with Scruffy

Happy Thanksgiving!

our Friends Kim and Brett

Katie by the beautiful lake

The Grinch gave Katie this doll during the Christmas Parade we went to that was in the closest town to where we were camping

The girls in their camping chairs. I think they are so cute!

Family picture by the fire while roasting marshmallows...Steve and I look exhausted :)

The Italians Palo and Palo

Family picture at the Christmas parade

Annie with Scruffy her favorite dog!

Blog-A-Palooza #6 (Random Pictures)

Annie likes to feed herself and this is usually the result! Silly girl!

Steve swimming with the girls. I think this was at the end of September...we live in Florida!

One of Annie's favorite past times is riding this horse she goes up to it and says, "horsey neiiiiighhhh" while swaying here head back and forth just like the horsey does!

Blog-A-Palooza #5 (Disney in October!)

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Blog-A-Palooza #4 (Katie's First Primary Program!)

My little sunbeam! I don't know why but I was super excited for Katie to be in her first Primary Program. I am the singing chorister in my wards primary and so I was quite involved with our program. I sure love my calling it is by far THE best calling I have ever had!! I really enjoy the sweet primary songs and I love being able to play games and have fun with the primary kids each week. Katie's one line in the program was "The scriptures teach us that Jesus created the earth." We worked on it a few times (mainly just driving to and from church for a couple weeks) and Katie had it memorized perfectly. When my sweet little sunbeam got up to the microphone one of the women in primary began to tell her the line but Katie said (perfectly clearly in the microphone so everyone could hear) "Oh I don't need your help I have it memorized!" and then she said her line perfectly. It was hilarious and everyone had a good little chuckle! I sure love my Katie bug! Here are some pictures of her right before we left for church I curled her hair and I thought it turned out sooo cute (too bad it didn't last five minutes)! Annie got in on the photo shoot although she wasn't into smiling that Sunday...oh well! I am sure glad we have the church to help us reinforce what we are teaching at home.

Blog-A-Palooza #3 (Random pictures)

This blog post doesn't have any sort of theme just some random pictures that I thought should be shared!

Annie for the most part insits on feeding herself which makes for a very messy baby! In this shot she was calling her plate a hat. Silly girl!

We bought Katie a bike! She had a small tricycle that she had simply outgrown and she was dying to get a bike. We would have waited to give it to her for Christmas but due to circumstances around traveling that wasn't going to be a possibility so we thought we should just get it sooner than later so she could start enjoying it. She is quite good at riding and she loves doing it. I need to get some action shots of her on it outside actually riding.

Annie has become quite the climber and If I leave her alone for any amount of time she will usually wind up on top of something or into something that she shouldn't be. Annie also really likes to eat. I honestly think that she eats more than Katie does. So the other day after dinner I walked into the room and found Annie like this! Oh how I love her!

Blog-A-Palooza #2 (Amy and Landon come for a visit!)

Okay so looking back I guess we didn't have a very eventful year because I am already only about two months behind so ummm maybe this isn't quite a "Blog-a-palooza" that I thought it would be. Anyway in September Amy and Landon came all the way to Florida to visit us! Oh... okay they came because they were going on a cruise but also to visit us. I give them two thumbs way way up because outside of my parents they are the only two family members who actually made it out to visit us! We got to spend a couple of days with them and we had a great time! We played games, went to the beach and visited dining destinations that they don't get to enjoy in Utah. As always I didn't take nearly enough pictures :( but here are the few I do have! One of the more memorable moments was playing charades which caused a great deal of laughter! Amy especially is quite good at charades!hehehe! Remember Amy dee?????

Blog-A-Palooza #1 (Katie starts Preschool)

Katie started preschool! This year preschool is right up the street from our house which is very nice.  It is through a Christian church and so they also incorporate Christian values which I really appreciate.  Her teachers names are Miss Arlene and Miss Penny.  Both are nice women who really care about the kids.  This preschool is from 8:30-12:30 EVERYDAY so I kind of feel like she is in kindergarten already. :(  It is a little hard on me to let her go everyday but honestly katie has the type of personality where it is really good for her to have some structure in her day.  Honestly it helps me spend more one on one time with Annie as well as it helps me be a much kinder mommy to Katie once she gets home.  I try and plan a little activity to do everyday with Katie once she gets home so I still get my time with her!

At home before we left for school

Outside her preschool room

Halloween 2011

Halloween 2011 was pretty good for the Smith Girls.  Stephen had to work down south of us so during the month of October we only got to see him on the weekends. This meant it was just the girls and I on Halloween.  We still had a good time going around the neighborhood and trick-or-treating but we did miss Steve.  Annie was so darn cute running up to the doors just like her big sister and saying to the best of her ability "Trick-or-Treat" and then usually grabbing multiple pieces of candy out of the bowls presented to her.  I don't think people minded how much she took because she was just so cute! Katie enjoyed the night too although she got tired of it pretty quick. We stayed out as long as the girls wanted to (which wasn't very long) and then we came home to check out their stash of goodies! All in all it was a great night and we had a good time.

Annie was an A-D-O-R-A-B-L-E Lady bug!

Katie decided to be Minnie Mouse.  She looked so cute!

My Little Trick-or-Treaters

At the end of the night checking out their loot!