Lots and lots of pictures!

I know, it is true... I am a slacker! Now, it has been for good reason - we have been crazy busy (which is what I always say - but it is so true!). We have done a lot these last few months and I hope to give you just a piece of what we have been up to. Ok - I am warning you ...there are a lot of pictures to look through - but since this blog is also for family and friends we don't get to see very much, I feel justified in overloading you with lots of cute pictures!

I had to start with this one of sweet Ella - I think Andy did a great job at catching her inquisitive expression.

Mattie's 3rd Birthday

Ok - We will start with Mattie's 3rd birthday which was at the beginning of January. We just did a family party for her but she insisted that we drag the family to Incredible Pizza - her most favorite place to be. They start her off by having her spin the wheel of fun (whooo...) to win some sort of prize. She didn't really care about the prize but just wanted to keep spinning the wheel.

During your time there they do all sorts of contests to win tickets - Kate loves to boogy and danced for a good 40 minutes in order to win all sorts of bonus tickets.

Thanks to all the grandparents for showing up to help and to be there for Mattie. They each took Ella duty while Andy and I went crazy with the kids.

(Grandma and grandpa aren't sleeping on the job I promise... they are watching Mattie open presents!)

Not sure if I should be worried or not, but Mattie has this habit of lining up everything she gets. Presents included!

Dora is loved at our house. She picked this cake out herself!

Kate Turns 6

Next we go to Kate's Birthday. I let the kids have a friend party every other year and this year Kate wanted to do a cooking party - it was so much fun! We had 17 kids there (I know - I have a hard time saying no...) we decorated place mats, cooking hats, they made pizzas, decorated cakes and had ice cream sundays. It was so busy and maybe a little hectic but all the kids had a great time.

I think the party was so successful because of all the help we had that day. Thanks again to the grandparents as well as my too great friends, A'Lisha and Misty for all their hard work. It would not have been near as fun without you all!

These are the cakes we let the kids decorate. We have them cute little cake boxes to take them home in. This was definitely the hit of the party.

Katie really wanted a pinata - so we sent all the kids outside while we waited for the Pizza's to cook.

Cake decorating extravaganza!

This cake was decorated by one of the boys at the party - by far the most festive one there!

Happy Birthday to my sweet Katie!

Valentines Day!

We decided to decorate cupcakes for valentines. It was great fun and extremely messy.

Even Andy got in all the fun!

Guess who cleaned up that mess... hmmmm

Puppet show and Zoo trip My mom got us tickets to a cute activity at the zoo for the kids. They had a puppet show and did a craft after. The kids really did have such a great time!

Love the cheeks!! She was not exactly sure what was going on.

Posing with the stars of the show!

The Merry-go-round is probably the favorite part of the zoo for the kids (except maybe Ella - look below at the pic!)

Slightly nervous Ella...

School Award

Kate one an award at school for being such a great kid. The school emailed us earlier in the week to invite us to come to the school assembly but to make sure we didn't tell Kate what was going on. She was so surprised when they called her name and thrilled with her award.

Basketball Season

To all those fans who are baseball fans - I tried to get Thomas to sign up for baseball and he wouldn't do it - he only wanted to play basketball, so we gave it a try. He loves it and I have to say I love going to the games. He is a good player and really enjoys getting out there to run. I have decided that I am one of those loud sports moms - surprise! Not really... Anyway, he came to Andrew and I during his game and said that it was ok if we cheer but we can't tell him what to do because he already knows and really it is the coaches job. Ok - point taken. I still can cheer really loud. I love being a mom!

Slacking... I know!

OK - I haven't been on here for a month or so but for good reason. We have been battling illness after illness in our house... ARGHHHHH!!! Enough already! We have had colds and the flu and just recently RSV. I can really truly say I hate winter! Nothing ever good happens in winter - OK, minus the good stuff like Christmas, Valentines, family parties, birthday parties etc... Anyway, I think we may finally be done with all of this and I will get back to regular blogging. I do have lots of cute pictures from Valentines and from Kate's Birthday that I will get posted here in the next couple of days. So - just be patient with me as I work on getting life back to some normalcy - at least until someone else decides to get sick. I know, I must think positive!

"It's the most wonderful time of the year..."

I love this time year... in fact Christmas and New Years are my most favorite time of year. Don't get me wrong, I love presents just as much as the next person, however, I love the family togetherness that comes during this season. Those who are regular readers of this blog know how much my family means to me and it is during this time when stress is low and people allow themselves to relax that we really get a chance to have fun together just being together. I love Christmas... I love it for what it means. For the birth of our savior and the love he shows to me everyday. I also love Christmas because of the traditions that our family has. Our Christmas consists of many family gatherings opening presents, eating food, and just spending time with each other. I also love Christmas because it signals the end of something old and the beginning of something new. This year was a hard year for our family... but sitting there at one of the many parties I was reminded that it didn't really matter what happened during the year, but that we survived the year as a family and we are here together to start a new one. That is a great blessing to me and that is why I love Christmas! So to all you blog readers (hehe) I wish you a very late but very Merry Christmas. I hope your Christmas was filled with fun and laughter and family like mine was. This was definitely the best Christmas we have had in a long time and I owe that to my husband, my children, and my family (extended included in there, Blackburns!). I love you and wish you the very best!

Below are some pictures from the last several days. They are kind of in reverse order but I have not really figured out how to fix that - but it doesn't really matter anyway. Enjoy the pictures!

Ella's first present for Christmas morning. She loved this doll until I took it out of the package and took the tags off and than it wasn't near as fun.

Dad having to do an emergency hair implant on Kate's new doll horse. Some of the hair in the mane had fallen out so our handy Andy came to the rescue to fix it up for our Katiebug.

Make-up... need I say more? She was very excited to see she had gotten exactly what she had wanted.

Cute as ever (ignoring the drool/snotty face) - this kid had a great time watching everyone open presents.

This is the first year that Mattie has really gotten into the whole Christmas thing - she went to town!! I had to stop her several times from opening other people's presents because she truly felt they should all belong to her!

Andrew likes to give Thomas a tool for Christmas to add to his collection... any guesses on what this one is?

Thomas finally got his own radio controlled helicopter and promptly broke it upon ripping it from the package. Handy Andy to the rescue again (toy #2 of the morning).

Kate wanted an American Girl doll for Christmas but I still think she is a bit young so Santa found this pretty look-a-like at Target which was a hit for our Katiebug.

"SUSAN!!" Those who know my Mattie know that this is her most favorite show. You may have thought it was Monster's Vs. Aliens but no! It is properly called Susan.

About an hour into the gift opening extravaganza, Ella had had enough. She wanted her bottle and she wanted to be left alone. Still think she is so stinkin' cute!

Stockings... got to have stockings!

More stocking pictures...

Our beautiful Christmas tree! We put it in a different spot and though it was out of the way, both Andy and I felt we didn't like it much there - so next year we will move it back to its predesignated spot.

This is Christmas Eve at Grandma Bonnie's - Thomas was on the computer watching Santa the whole night. Both my kids were starting to question if Santa is real or not, but when Thomas saw him on the computer he shouts, "Mom - he is real, he is real... look there is a real life picture of him on his sleigh!" Well OK, another year averted from Santa questions.

Aunt Chris quickly became Thom's new best friend because she let him play her IPad

Emily and Chris doing girly stuff.

The newest members of our family. My brother Mike got married to Rebbecca in September and we gained two new nieces and a boyfriend!

Amongst the craziness on Christmas Eve.

Grandma Bonnie and Aunt Rebecca.

Little Ella and Grandma Helen.

Posing for the camera... so cute!

Well, that is our Christmas in a really small nutshell. We had all the grandparents come to our house on Christmas morning after presents and we had breakfast and just hung out for the day. After that, we went to our good friends - the Blackburns, to have a terrific dinner and to just visit. The kids got to do a pinata which they are still talking about today. So much fun!! Thanks to everyone who made this season so great!

With love from the Smart Family.

A Star is Born...

Ok... those of you who know my Katie may not find this surprising, but this kid loves the stage. She loves to dance and sing in front of people. This past week Kate had two dance recitals and she did awesome! She went up there and wasn't even scared, she new all of the dance, and made by far the best pouty faces I have ever seen (lol - ok, so I am a biased mom). She had many people come up to her after and inform her that she "stole the show" which brought on a whole new set of questions I wasn't exactly sure how to answer. Anyway, she had fun and we all had fun supporting our budding artist. She did inform me after this last dance recital that she wants to still take dance but also wants to take singing lessons and violin lessons. Uhm... I don't think so!

Patiently waiting for her turn to go on stage.

Kate and her class danced to "I'm getting nothin' for Christmas."

Best pouty face ever... I rest my case!

Santa was at her last dance recital. She had quite the list she needed to share but was so worried because she didn't have it with her. I told her not to worry - we could mail the list as a reminder to Santa.

Mattie sitting with Santa. Yeah, this one was not scared one bit of the big guy. She sat on his lap and had a full on conversation with Santa about his reindeer and Mrs. Clause.

Finally got Thomas in a picture (he would not sit on Santa's lap mind you). Dad got him good with the whipped cream from our Sunday dessert.

Thomas made a family of snowman at Grandma Helen's house. They were all very cute and thought they definitely deserved a place on the blog!