Christmas Dinner with the Buskirks/Johnsons

For the past several days we've been staying at Shari's house. We've enjoyed sleeping in until 9 or 10am while Shari has had fun playing with the little man. We've also made some delicious treats (the skookies with ice cream were delish!), shopped, and stayed up late chatting. We've relished every minute.

Goofing off while making dinner

Having fun shopping for a scanner for Grandma

While we were staying with Shari we had a belated Christmas celebration/dinner with the Buskirks/Johnsons. Andrew LOVED getting to see all of his cousins and Aunts and Uncles.

While we waited for them to arrive on Sunday we played with Andrew's favorite toy lately- a very old snow globe that has a train going around it and through a tunnel. The little guy will watch it for HOURS.


After dinner we checked out some of the new Christmas presents that the cousins got

and Andrew & Leah "played" with the train snow globe again... fortunately Leah didn't care about holding it, since Andrew wasn't going to let it out of his grasp

Uncle Randy goofed around with Andrew for a long time and the little guy loved every minute of it since he got so much attention!


Later on we opened some Christmas presents. Shauna made Shari the most awesome personalized puzzle from a picture she took on our Alaskan Cruise last summer. It was such a unique and thoughtful gift since Shari LOVES puzzles.


Little man got some super cool Tonka trucks from the Johnsons. They are perfect because they are loud and have buttons- his favorite.

"Stay away, these are my toys"

The girls got an Easy Bake Oven (I always wanted one)...

and several other gifts were exchanged. Kevin and I got the game "Ticket to Ride" from Liesl and Allen and we are now obsessed. We were up til late tonight playing the game with Jess. The competition was fierce and Kevin almost wouldn't let us go to bed because he never won (Jess & I each won once :)).

After the gift exchanging, the adults chatted and Andrew loved having playtime with his cousins. He is especially interested in the older boys right now and likes to follow them around. He seems to think that he is their age and tries to insert himself into their games. They are great at nicely telling him to watch... and he usually listens.

Rob is especially helpful with the little man.

Playing on the phone with Rob & Grandma

Andrew stole all of the balls from bumper pool and put them inside the foosball table. The boys were a little perplexed when they tried to play pool... eventually we figured out where the balls were and little man loved watching the big kids play.

I think it is so great that Andrew has so many cousins to look up! We love it when everyone can get together because we have such a good time.

First Snow & Tubing!!!!

My mom and I went running around 9am this morning and right when we were done it started to snow. It snowed almost all day, so we let the little man out for a few minutes to check it out. It was the first time he'd seen snow falling. He kept yelling "raining!" and saying, "bite" because he wanted to eat the snow. His expressions were priceless.


Didn't quite get why his eyelashes were getting so wet


Eating the snow



After Andrew's trip outside we ditched the little man and headed up to Soldier's Hollow with the Buskirks/Johnsons to go tubing. This tubing trip has become a new annual tradition after the success of last year's trip. (Thanks mom & dad for watching Andrew!!!)

Randy had to work :( so my sister Jess was invited to come along.

Jess & Kristina

K&K

Buskirks (and some random boys posing in the back)

Jess, Kevin, Allen, Kate and I all went down hooked together.
We went so fast bc of all the weight we almost wound up in the parking lot.

Shari, Shauna, Kev, Allen

On our last run we all hooked together (all 14 of us) and went down the mountain in one big heap. I am sad I didn't get a picture on the way down because Liesl flew off her tube and was dragged backwards on her back (holding on to 5 other ropes) in the middle of all the tubes. We are glad she didn't get hurt. It was funny and scary to watch as she sailed down the hill hitting every bump without any protection.


The day ended with the usual trip to Dairy Keen for fries, burgers, shakes, hot cocoa, and checking out the trains. We will all be getting to bed early! We are exhausted and stuffed!!


Shari, thanks for such a fun day!!

A few Christmas highlights

Waiting while Grandpa checked to see if Santa came. This was very hard for the little man. We watched Max & Ruby and that helped a bit... but little man kept saying "Hanta!"


Going upstairs to check out the presents with Grandma.


Such a pretty sight! All the presents were everywhere. There's no order so unwrapping took forever. I loved it!


The first gift! Aunt Jessie knew just what the little guy would like.


Brobee! Fortunately there is an off switch.


Taking a break from presents to chill with Grandma and Maddie


Tool time


Kevin got his jacket stolen/lost the last time we were in Utah. He's been jacketless this entire trip so far. He was very excited for this present.


Had to be one of Andrew's favorite presents... too bad it belongs to Aunt Jess. Little man loved watching the balls go around and around. He didn't even want to eat them.


Jules chatting with Scott & Cat while we open presents. We missed them this year!


Who needs presents when you've got popcorn and M&Ms? I think he ate most of the container while we unwrapped our gifts.


Jules with her stylin new pearls from my dad. He has such good taste!


A new cozy blanket! Andrew lied down and pretended to go nigh-night. He sleeps with his blanket every night now.


Relaxing after all the present unwrapping was done.



I think Elise won the cute twin award for the day. I looked a little scary.


Wouldn't be Christmas without snuggies and a Chia Obama.


Mom with her annual Almond Roca box.


The penguin race was another hit. I think we need to buy 2 or 3 for our house.

Little man, "seriously mom, stop taking pictures"

Opening stocking presents.
The jumping dog got the little man tired for his nap.

On Christmas afternoon we headed over to Shari's house for more presents, playing, and treats.

Andrew is obsessed with this piano. He will play with the buttons and sounds forever.


Grandma's reindeer. We will all be excited when this toy goes away after the holidays. I think Andrew-man played the song 20 times... but we love watching him dance.

This Christmas was definitely more fun because Andrew was so excited about opening presents and all the decorations. We had such a fabulous day with our families! As usual, we got so many great presents and our families were more than generous.

Thanks for such a wonderful Christmas!

Shooting Hoops

The footage you've all been waiting for. Here's my little MJ in his basketball video debut.



Hopefully he'll love basketball as much as I did when I was younger... but will also be blessed with the gift of height. (Enthusiam - height = being cut from the bball team). I am still not over it.

The little guy is leaning towards being a lefty, although it's still up in the air.

I love how he cheers for himself before he makes the shot and afterwards... and then compliments himself (?) saying "big boy!"

A Merry Smithkirk Christmas Eve

We had a fabulous Christmas Eve full of fun with our families.

We started it off with a trip to Outback Steakhouse for dinner with the Buskirks. Andrew loved seeing the girls, especially Leah. I loved that I got to eat french fries AND a baked potato.

Andrew, Kev, and Shari after dinner

After dinner we drove around and checked out the lights in the neighborhood and then we headed back to Shari's house for a little present opening.


Andrew loved his new hoop. Check out that form! I see a little MJ in there... don't you? (esp after I post a video clip of his skills in my next post)

Kevin and I loved the basketball hoop as much as Andrew did... I see a few 1 on 1 mom vs dad games in our future.


After a great evening with Shari, we headed back to the Smith Casa for some Christmas Eve fun before the kids hit the sack.

G&G with the grandkids...
this is the best pic I got even after many attempts and Aunt Jessie dancing around a lot

Elise & Maddie

Baby Santa with Grandma... isn't Maddie so cute?? I love it that she smiles so big when she sees me because she thinks I am her mom.


We read a few stories for our brief Christmas program. Aunt Jess took some liberties and did a great modified version of "The Littlest Angel." She got Andrew's attention for a few seconds, which we considered a success. Grandma talked about a cute story called "Penny's Christmas Jar Miracle." Andrew proceeded to yell "MONEY!!" sporadically throughout the rest of the evening.


Then we took a few family photos and talked about some Christmas memories. The little guys didn't really cooperate for the pictures, but they still looked really cute.

The Caffees

Kim & Jules

K&K w/ annoyed Santa

Santa working off all his holiday calories

We ended the night with some Sub for Santa delivering.
Dan got to do the door bell ditching this year.

As usual, the day ended with a late-night Christmas present wrapping party in our room followed by a K&K Christmas Eve reading of Luke 2. We finally made it to bed around 2am and little man decided he was really excited about Christmas and woke up at 4:15am and then again at 7:40am (too early for me!!).

The day was great and we love having our family so close together so we can see them all when we visit!