Happy 2010!!!

No it didn't snow in California... as usual we were in Utah for New Years. To all of our delight it was a very SNOWY new year! Rigdon is ready for some bigger hills, hopefully soon buddy!
Me and Livi are tearin' it up on the sled we found called "the Cadillac"
Here is Livi's intensity on the sledding hill...
Here is Rigdon's intensity ... but no one comes close to Annabelle-she is a maniac on the sled!
Ringin' in the new year with a little Martinelli's.
it's usually a party at grandma and grandpa's house, there was just a real excuse for staying up this time
I can't believe I get to stay up til midnight!!!
The late night crew (J/K half these kids were asleep by nine).
Sledding in the beautiful sunny and powdery snow of Utah! Our sledding hill is awesome and not too crowded (probably because it is a golf course and private property and the police came and kicked us all off) bummer! Not too worry we found another secret spot!
Snowmen in the Smart family are short too apparently.
We toured all over Salt Lake for two days when it looked like this!
Rigdon took his job shoveling snow very seriously, way to go Rig!
Here we are at the art museum. One of many museums that we visited over the course of two days. We went to a natural history museum, a dinosaur museum, a children's museum (which was awesome!) the planetarium (also very cool) and had the best lunch ever at the Lion House.
Here is almost the whole museum crew, we took a "scenic lift ride" up to a snowy blizzardy mountain top and spent the longest seven minutes of our life waiting for the next lift. (the lift itself was awesome, an indoor heated gondola) Next time we ride it hopefully we will be skiing: Cheers to a great 2010!

more odds and ends...

it's not Christmas without cousins and presents!
A favorite tradition is sleeping under the tree! We hope you all had happy holidays and that this year...
...has a little less sodium
...lots of quiet time in your snuggie...
...and lots and lots of love!

Christmas Odds and Ends

We made over 200 cookies this year to give away...whew!
Christmas lights and A LOT of people (more than ever before by a landslide) better go earlier next year!
Livi was Mary in the nativity scene at our ward party...she was CUTE!
Visit with Santa... everyone of my kids has cried with Santa at this age. Notice the reindeer taxidermy in the background, we really like this Santa!
Caroline at her pre-school performance. Have we mentioned that she is NOT a performer???

I'm back from the holidays!

In case you were wondering what it looks like at our house around Christmas... the trees were especially gorgeous this year !!!
Here you have two almost nine year olds in the third grade... one looks like an elf the other a WNBA star...
Two adorable girls...
Seven great kids and friends
Here is Rigdon in his third grade Christmas performance-he is quite the performer I might add!
Caroline thought she was in it with Rigdon (we had to remind her that she gets stage fright).
11 months already...Santa's little helper
All dolled up and ready to go
Hammin' it up for the camera ( I'd kinda like a smile!)

New Moon

I almost forgot to post this! I rarely do anything even mildly crazy, okay never! Actually I did cross the road before the crossing guard told me to the other day, no just kidding. Okay so now that I have your attention, I went and saw New Moon at the midnight showing!!! It was so fun! Everyone was so into it. Thanks for a fun night girls! Oh and by the way I am totally team Edward, but I do like Jacob. Okay, Okay I am TOTALLY team Rangi, then the other said people.

Fa la la la laaaaaahhhhhhh!

Christmas at Disneyland is so Beautiful. They really go all out, I love just going to see the decorations and ride it's a small world (it is all decked out for the holidays). We happened to get lucky and get awesome seats for the parade which Jillian was thrilled about!
Aaaahhhhhh!!! Rangi loves to see the kids scared faces- he snapped a pic from the Disney cam. Poor Livi, and what does she say when she gets off, "that was SO FUN!!!"
Here she is thoroughly enjoying Thunder Mountain!!! She is such a sweetie!

Oh Baby...

it's Christmas time again! I have this CD that has a song with this line in it. I have had this CD since I was a freshmen in college. The other day I was listening to this song and couldn't even believe that I have had that CD this long, which led to me to think about all of the Christmases that the CD has been through and how they have changed. In college and when I was first married, Christmas was so calm, I SAVED all my shopping to do in December so I could enjoy the "hustle and bustle". We rarely finished a cookie plate. I had tons of time to address cards and make treats. It was calm, it was easy to focus on the true meaning of Christmas while I was at home or in the car listening to carols. NOW... Whew! Now Christmas is a totally different story; let's start with the fact that our family polished off an entire cookie plate in 10 minutes! My kids were in three Christmas programs in ONE week (and I loved every second-quite honestly that is what I have looked forward to the most since having kids:} We have school projects due, class parties (I am a room mom) presents for the teachers and other school staff we are so grateful for. Church parties, way more cards to send because we know way more people, Christmas shopping and wrapping, wrapping, for so many loved ones! A lot has changed and sometimes it gets a little crazy, but one thing has not changed and that is the fact that our Savior was born in Bethlehem, he came to save a world from sin. He is perfect. Through him we can become perfect. I am so grateful for my knowledge of Him and I hope that no matter how busy we get at Christmas time, the other thing that will not change will be our desire to be more like him and to be an angel on His errand.

Have a holly jolly Christmas...

I don't know how everyone else stores their lights, but despite our best efforts we always get some like this; so of course I put my kids on the job of testing and untangling the lights (because what is frustrating for me is great fun for them). I look over at Caroline and she says take a picture of me I'm all lighted up. So much for helping untangle lights:)
All three kids take their turn putting the star on top before Rangi takes his turn and I tell him how to straighten it a million times before going to do it myself to find that it really isn't that easy. (maybe next year I will commit it to memory).
Sometimes I feel bad that my Christmas tree doesn't look like it came out of a pottery barn magazine... until I watch my kids take out all of the ornaments and reminisce about their whole lives. In Caroline's case she said, "remember when I made this ornament when I was in the first grade and I got married?" Actually you are still not in first grade, nor are you married, and you WISH you made the prettiest ornament we have that no one we know made. At any rate when the tree is all decorated it is the prettiest tree I have seen, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

(As my friend Lisa said...I can't wait to see what the tree looks like in 20 more years.)
Little Old Lady from Pasadena ??? That was my guess too, when she quizzed me. "NO MOM I AM MARY" I do collect Nativity scenes but none of my Marys wear glasses.

Beautiful day

We overlapped our Thanksgiving vacation by one day while my sister was here. We had a great day together. Here are all the grandkids (except Jilli and Penny) with grandpa.
Two beach bunnies
I love to capture people laughing... in this case me in 20 years, me in 50 years.
Hooray for vacations and families!

Post Script

I also forgot to mention that I am so grateful Rangi does NOT have a mullet...but who knew I needed to mention that until he surprised me with this!

I love him, but I do have my limits.

Thanksgiving '09

My little Turkeys!
Do you think she is excited to get her own personal Turkey?
Rachel and Danny played host to the kids table and my kids were thrilled to be so grown up. Maybe next year you guys will get your own turkeys!
Caroline was torn between eating hers and keeping it as a pet.
3 out of four not too bad. Have I mentioned how GRATEFUL I am for these kids?!
ALL eyes open and faces towards the camera...INCREDIBLE! I actually wish you could hear the amount of noise that went into this picture. Every adult in the room was doing their own personal "smile" rendition at the top of their lungs! It was hilarious. We are so grateful for these cousins.