Christmas!

OUR 2008 CHRISTMAS!!!
Never too late I guess?

I have found that the older my girls get, the more excited I get for SANTA to come! This was Rylee Jo's first year of grasping the whole Christmas concept... She was so fascinated by every aspect of it all season long. From the Baby Jesus, to Santa Clause & his Reindeer, the gift giving, and even all the different "reasons for the season"! We started/followed some FUN traditions:

Celebrating Christ's birth at the annual
Anderson Nativity!
(this years' performance by all the cousin-grandchildren).

ANGEL Rylee Jo could not have been any cuter!
She loved this angel dress SO MUCH, she wore it for DAYS:)

Christmas Eve:
Rylee learned that Santa likes to eat cookies! So, she often pretended to be Santa Clause (while me & Milly were her reindeer) at meal time, and would tell me things such as- "No, YOU better eat that 'reindeer' breakfast, and I'LL eat some milk & cookies". Ha ha ha:)
Here we are hard at work, making Santa some delicious cookies:

TO SANTA:
On our special new Santa plate, and the cup Rylee picked out. (Don't worry, Rylee was concerned as to what Santa's reindeer ate, so when she sat on his lap she asked him!)

Christmas Morning:

The excitement was AWESOME, as we read the notes Santa had left behind... a letter for each of the girls with a guide to who's wrapping paper would be who's!

THANKS, SANTA!
The girls rushed straight to their stockings that were sitting on their new little chairs!
Milly mainly loved the candy, and that's about ALL she cared about the whole time:)
(i guess we shoulda' fed her first?)

Rylee Jo was THRILLED to have gotten her "Baby Doll & Dress" she had her heart set on for so long.
It was exactly what she had asked for when she marched right up to Santa in the Mall, sat on his lap and whispered in his ear! Milly loved the look-alike Cabbage Patch Doll too.


Christmas with the Ralph cousins:

Christmas with the Smith cousins:

AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!

We rang in 2009 at the UofU basketball game, with the cutest dang cheerleaders those Utes will ever have!

Christmas activities...

Ice skating with the Jacobson's!

Rylee thought she would love ice skating, but turned out... not so much! Of course the adventurous side of me was a little frustrated that she wouldn't even put the skates ON. Well, little MILLY thought she'd try her sisters skates on... and turns out Milly LOVES ice skating!
It was hilareous- this little 1 year in these big skates holding on the me, movin right along the ice. She'd freak out any time i'd try to take a break and stop.

2008 Family Photos
If any of you are lookin to get your family pictures done, Sy Snarr did these pictures, and did an amazing job... Here are some of our favorites (other than the ones already on the blog page):

Family...


Sisters...


Ry Ry...

Milly...

Oh Ya, WATCH US DANCE!!!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

It's been a little while, and I'm due for a new post! I guess October was so dang action packed, we took it easy in November? But, you know us... takin it easy doesn't mean much! We still managed to do a few fun things:

Messy Mills... still:)

My friends met up at a condo for a GIRLS NIGHT!!!

Thank heaven for AWESOME FRIENDS!
Seriously, my friends are like sisters to me. People always tried to tell us- "you'll never see your highschool friends again..." Well, we've stayed pretty dang close! It's fun to have a group like ours where we all know everything about each other & we can talk about anything & help each other out. It's like a giant support group!
All our babies slept soundly in one room while we stayed up till 6am, laughing & talking about everything under the sun... Good times (except for the sleepyness the next day)!
*and thank you Jaclyn for your cute GIRLS NIGHT basket, and Kattie for your ever lasting BEAN dip... ha ha:)


Oh, & sorry BYU fans... GO UTES!
Classic Smith family TURKEY BOWL!
We love Thanksgiving, I guess cuz we LOVE to EAT:)

NEW TURKEY DAY TRADITIONS...
Well, this year was my first experience with BLACK FRIDAY shopping. Yes, I had to 'borrow' my out-of-town neighbors' paper. Yes, I found a deal of a century on kid sized chairs, and Yes, I fought the crowds & lines and LOVED IT! But next year i'm determined to make it a team effort, with matching t-shirts and everything.
Another tradition I have decided on, is THANKSGIVING CHRISTMAS JAMMIES!!! I can't wait till christmas eve to give my girls their matching holiday jammies then use them for just a few days... so, thanksgiving it is! (but that doesn't mean I won't be able to stop myself from giving them jammies on x-mas eve too)
And that friday after Thanksgiving, I have learned, is a GREAT DAY to bust out the Christmas music, the tree, the lights, the decorations.... AWH, I LOVE IT!
LET THE CHRISTMAS BEGIN!!!

Okay, milly was so stinkin cute with all the boxes of decorations. She was in her own heaven, gathering ornaments in her arms, pulling everything out of boxes (& into her mouth)... It was darling, and she LOVES the tree, well taking off & on the ornaments!

Happy Halloween WEEK!!!

TRICK OR TREAT!

Cinderella, Her Pumpkin & The Fairy God-Mother:

TRICK-or-TREATing with friends...

Amelia's first experience at Trick-or-Treating... SO DANG CUTE!!! She LOVED it...

First off, MILLY LEARNED: PUMPKIN BUCKET=CANDY!!!- Her favorite thing in all this world! She did NOT let go of this pumpkin all night, and would scream if you tried to touch it.
She held my hand to walk & at the door would hold out her bucket, saying "hi, hi"! When a bowl of candy was held out, she learned quick that all it took was to grab the candy & put it in her bucket as fast as she could till I stopped her!
What an awesome new concept for a kid: I hold out this bucket & I get TREATS?... At EVERY door I KNOCK ON???

She discovered that if she got started on a box of Nerds, she could actually EAT through 1/2 the box & suck the Nerds OUT... lets just say, she LITERALLY ATE 3 boxes of NERDS!!!

Princess friends going Door to Door: 

Rylee loved being the first to hop inside as soon as the door opened:)

Then, MORE... with the RALPHS cousins:


And finally... THE LOOT!!!

Amelia could not have been more in Heaven:

EVENTS LEADING UP TO THE ACTUAL DAY OF HALLOWEEN:
Okay, HOLY Halloween PARTIES! Wowsers... I had NO idea that the week of Halloween was as fun & party-packed as Christmas??? Man, there is SO many fun activities to do around this time of year!

Smith Cousins:


Ralphs' Cousin Party:
Thanks Grandma Laurie!


Ward party: FAIRIES!
(we thought we'd switch up the costumes for a night!)

PlayGroup Halloween Playschool!

Ghost, Ghost... BOO! A Doughnut walk!


We can say, it was a HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!