A New Years Revolution!

It's hard to believe that yet another year has come to an end! And, especially hard to believe that it is the year 2010!!! 2010 was ALWAYS the year of the future in the movies growing up, with flying cars and robots for maids (Now that's what I could really use!), but it's here, and things don't seem all that futuristic.
For New Years Eve, we went to our friends, the Browns, and had a great time. One of their fun traditions, is to make hats out of wrapping paper and ribbons and put them on to welcome in the New Year.
Last year, the kiddos made their New Year's Revolutions, as Ashlynn called them. Ashlynn set a goal to keep her nose cleaner, and she is looking much less crusty this year - yay Ashlynn! Dallin set a goal to be nicer to his sisters and be more respectful to his parents, and Talie planned to read her scriptures every day. Uuhhh, . . . Well . . . maybe those can be like most people's goals to exercise - and become their ongoing New Year's Revolutions. For 2010, all three of them set the goal to be better at remembering to say their morning prayers. Keep up the great work kiddos!!

Skiing

Benson has taken Talie, Dallin and Ashlynn skiing a few times this winter. It was Ashlynn's first time skiingand she loved it! - until the time that it was blowing cold snow in her face - she decided to spend the afternoon in the lodge with Talie while the boys toughed it out.

My Baby is TWO!!

Kennedi is two and all trace of baby is gone! And I think she wouldn't have it any other way. I think this would make me really sad, except that I'm having too much fun enjoying her little personality to be sad - and I'm still her best friend- which usually doesn't last this long =). Kennedi weighs in at a mere 21 lbs, bringing her to a 2% in weight (and 67% in height - every girl's dream, right?). We are through with diapers at the Smith house as she is potty trained -YAY!! Her best buddy to hang with during the day is Peyton - who has helped her become well rounded as she loves to play with dinosaurs, scale closet shelves and is skilled in shooting webs through her spider man fingers. She is fluent in English, loves to sing, wear princess dresses (but the costume is not complete unless accompanied by a cowboy hat), and is known to put her toys in time out for three minutes - hmmm, she must see that a lot around here=).
The other night, we were watching American Idol, and they showed clip after clip of hopefuls crying when they didn't make it to Hollywood. After seeing this, she observed, "Mommy, they're so sad." To which I replied, "Yes, they are sad, aren't they. Do do you know why they're sad?" she immediately answered, "They need their Mommy." Aaahh, life is so simple to a two-year old=). There is so much that I can learn from her. 1.It's always the perfect time to put on your swim suit and go sit in the hot tub. 2.If you don't know the correct answer to something, just say, "Good." and 3. Jesus loves me - the perfect faith of a child. We love "Kah Kah" Kennedi and are so grateful she came to our home!

Whenever we asked her what kind of birthday cake she wanted, she would just say, "chocolate", so we went for taste instead of look, and we obviously must have succeeded as this is what was left of the cake before we even sang Happy Birthday. Oh, and if you're wondering what is around her eyes, yes, it is green marker - but she's convinced it's eye shadow.

Yes, this is Kennedi. Some how she always has a finger up her nose, and usually it's more than one.

The Black Eye!

If you're wondering what happened, here is our "story" - Every Tuesday and Thursday morning, Benson plays basketball at the church. One Tuesday morning, at about 7:15am, the kids come running into my bathroom yelling, "Mom, Dad is bleeding all over!" I ran to the front door, trying to figure out if he was in a car accident or what happened. But it turned out that someone palmed his nose (instead of the ball) as he came down from making a basket. This picture was taken a week and a half after it happened, and it still looks this bad! Unfortunately, it looks like he will have to have surgery on his deviated septum, from talking to those that have had it - it's worse than giving birth =(. Poor Guy! At church, everyone thought it was the funniest joke, that I had had enough with Benson and finally let him have it. I don't know what's so funny about a 5 foot 3 inch woman taking down a 6 foot 5 inch man. All, I have to say is, "Honey, next time take the garbage out the first time I ask you to!=)"

Unfortunately, the other guy doesn't look worse

Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving this year, we all drove to Riverton, Wyoming. Spencer and Shayla just moved into their new home about three months ago, and so they invited everyone there for Thanksgiving, and everyone was able to make it - I don't think they thought we would all be there =). All in all, there were 32 people in one home. I have to admit I was curious how it all would turn out, but due to Shayla's good planning and organization skills, we had a great time! Thanks Spencer and Shayla!

All the grand kids on a beautiful day before a hike.




The kids ran around so much they literally crashed at night (Talie).