Family Pictures

When we went home for Thanksgiving we had Kade Schank take our family pictures. There are tons of photographers here in Utah but I loved the idea of having them taken at my parent's house. They turned out pretty great despite the fact that it was 15 degrees outside.

Mele Kalikimaka

Santa came to our house a few days early this year! He had to make the special stop so we could get our BIG family present of flying to Maui on December 24. The trip there and back went as smoothly as we could have hoped with the kids outnumbering parents. While we were there we mostly enjoyed the perfect weather, the pools and ocean, relaxing, and good food. Highlights of each day are below. Our family (and the Dunns) stayed at the Grand Champion condos but we took advantage of the pool and luxury of the Grand Wailea where Carol, Dave, Rick and Ali stayed.

Friday-unpack, eat, beach at sunset
Saturday-pool, amazing buffet at Grand Wailea, presents from Grandma
Sunday-church, fake beach
Monday-real beach, submarine ride in Lahaina
Tuesday-Robert scuba diving, magic show and dinner in Lahaina
Wednesday-Robert golfs, pools
Thursday-Karin spa, pools, Ruth's Chris, red eye flight home


brookie loved playing in the sand

mom and baby at the pool

best buds with our view of the golf course behind

Mackenzie jumping into their favorite pool which was a fake beach...

Christmas Letter 2010

Merry Christmas!

Another year is coming to a close…a great time to reflect on the month by month highlights of 2010.

January I’m actually going to start out with a lowlight…Brooklyn butchers her own hair. We have literally spent the whole year growing it back to normal.

February Mackenzie turns 4! She is our budding artist. We are amazed at the amount of time she spends coloring, drawing, and cutting. She is getting to the age where she loves to earn money around the house.

March Robert starts his own company, Black Mountain Enterprises. The first project he embarks on is the purchase of some residential lots in St. George. He has completed a beautiful model home there and taken many trips down. We girls have been able to join him a quite a few times.

April Marks the 2 year anniversary since we moved into our house in Taylorsville. We love our home but our neighborhood makes it even better. The girls both have kids their age to play with and plenty of babysitters for mom and dad (technically for the kids).

May We find out #3 would stay true to tradition and be a girl.

June We celebrate our 7 year wedding anniversary. Also an honorable mention is Brooklyn conquering big girl panties.

July Big California trip to Disneyland and Lake Tahoe! I am impressed with how much fun we had at Disneyland. Then we take a long drive north for a fabulous Christiansen family reunion.

August Brooklyn has successful surgery to correct urinary reflux. She bounces back incredibly quickly from her outpatient procedure at Primary Children’s Hospital.

September Charlotte Pierce Smith makes her debut on September 17. She is a doll. She would have to be to survive her older sisters. I can feel how special she is each time I hold her and I’m amazed how her tiny smile can make the whole family ooh and aah. So it goes without saying that I’m not pregnant anymore. Another highlight!

October Mackenzie and Brooklyn enjoy a multitude of costumes for school, church, friend and neighborhood parties: pink puppy, Fancy Nancy, Minnie Mouse, and Cinderella. Charlotte makes a great pumpkin.

November Brooklyn turns 3! She makes us laugh with her little lisp and happy personality. She loves princess dresses and play dough. We are glad she outgrew her phase of wearing only long dresses every single day.

December I am grateful to be celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ all month with my wonderful daughters and husband.

Much love to you all,
The Smith Family

2010 Thanksgiving

Jumping:


Christmas Tree hunting:



Pinata-ing:



Love Thanksgiving. I have to be a little sad that the festivities have changed now that my brother and my cousins all have kids. More about the kids, less about the parents. Am I allowed to be sad about that? At the same time it is wonderful to see my kids with their cousins and exciting to think they will enjoy the same traditions as I did growing up. Love my munchkins and hope they can make great memories like I have!

Cousins

It has been really neat that Donny and I have kids so close together in age. Especially these two newest. Blake is just 3 days older than Charlotte. How cute are they?!

Mackenzie and Brooklyn love Kate and Kylie. They talk about them all the time and it is great when we get to play with them. We may be far away but I know they will always be good friends and that makes me happy. My cousins were my best friends too.

I'm sure Annie loves when my girls teach hers things like "You can't come to my birthday" and "You're not my best friend anymore."

Such a good baby

Charlottle is 3 months old today. I would love her no less if she were a hard baby. But her being an angel is just the icing on the cake. We love you Char Char!

Happy #3 Brookie

Mackenzie and Brooklyn are always threatening each other that the other won't be invited to her birthday. Actually they threaten us parents as well. We were all happy that Brooklyn let us come to her birthday. We adore her.

Brooklyn had a blast celebrating #3.

She wanted Cinderella cake but was happy with pink cupcakes and princess plates:

She had a party with some buds:

She got to open presents from mom and dad:

She had treats with her preschool class. Here she is with Miss Jamie: