Christmas

This year we spent Christmas in Safford with Mark's family. It was nice not o have to travel for hours or drive in the snow. There was plenty of cousins around for the girls to play with. Unfortunately a few days before Christmas Hailey got strep throat and pink eye. Luckily we caught both really early so we were able to enjoy Christmas eve with the family. ( and thankfully no one else got either of the illnesses)

Christmas eve we had a dinner and the children and Uncle Jason acted out the nativity. It's always fun to see the kids dress up.





Hailey, Kaylee, Emily and Brock were the angels.


Audrey was suppose to be a wise man, but she wasn't really in the mood to participate.

After the nativity the girls got to open their new PJs and a present from Mimi and Papa.



Christmas Morning we opened presents at mark's parent's house. Hailey wanted a new Belle Barbie, and Audrey wanted princess makeup. Mark got a guitar and new football and I got a new wallet and a gym membership, both of which I love.

Locks of love

In November Hailey donated 10 inches of her hair for Locks of Love. She had been growing it out for a year. I took her to a salon to get her first professional hair cut. She looked so grownup sitting in the chair. We are so proud of her.

Graham County Fair

Last weekend was the fair and this year we enter about 28 things. Mostly we enter produce that we grew either in our garden or we planted at Mark's parents. The girls each got 7 ribbons. Mark got 5 or 6 and I got one blue for my grape jelly. We had a good time looking at exhibits and seeing the animals. I'm pretty sure the animals were the girls favorite part. They wanted to ride the carousel, but it was 3 dollars a person. Next year we hope to have even more to enter in the fair, now that we have an idea of how it works and what things we can enter.

General conference

I always look forward to general conference, however I don't look forward to entertaining the girls and trying to keep them quite so we can actually learn something. So we put up a tent for the girls to sit in and listen like the people did for King Benjamin's talk. They were both really excited. Audrey was a little too excited about the "camping". Hailey got the idea a little better. I printed off the church's conference booklet for her to color. I also gave her cheerios and a bingo game. She did pretty good. I've seen a big a difference in Hailey just in the last 6 months since the last conference.

I really enjoyed this conference, especially Elder Bednar's talk about family.

What do you want for Christmas?

Audrey is really interested in Santa lately. At the end of summer I went to pull out the girls fall clothes and I found a swimming suite that I thought Audrey could have worn this summer. I let her try it on and she danced around the house like a ballerina. (it had a little ruffle) Then she said "Santa gave this to me for my birthday." A few weeks later we were sitting on the back porch of Mark's parent's house watching the dogs and Audrey said, "Mom, Wucy (Lucy) doesn't have any eyes. Santa will bring her some for Christmas." The innocence of a child is so sweet. Now when I ask her what she wants for Christmas she said ,"Eyes for Lucy"

Nightmare

Early this morning I woke up to Audrey crying "mama!". When I got to her room she was thrashing around in her bed (still asleep) saying, "I want to brush my teeth!, I want to brush my teeth!"

Audrey's prayer

Last night when Audrey was saying her prayers before bed she said her normal, "bless Mom, Dad, Hailey and Audrey." and then she said, "bless the scarecrow and the apple that we can take a bite of it." The girls and I had decorated the bulletin board in their room with fall die-cuts and since Audrey doesn't close her eyes when she prays sometime she looks around the room to get idea about what to pray for.

Apple Picking

We went up the mountain to Angle's Orchard to pick apple again. It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed walking down the path through the apple trees. We picked a lot of apples, half were for eating and the other half were for making apple pie filing. The girls just loved eating the apples right there in the orchard.

Finally Fall

Fall is my favorite time of year!! I love the cool mornings and beautiful days. We have finally made it through the hot summer and now we can enjoy the great outdoors. The girls and I have been going to the park 2-3 days a week. Every year on the first day of fall the girls and I make fall leaf cookies. It's just a fun way to kick off the new season.

Temple

This morning Mark called me from work to tell me he had heard that they were going to put Angle Moroni on top of the temple in Central. We were right in the middle of making cookies. I told him we would try to get down there. About 20 -30 minutes later we arrived in Central. Before we ever go tot he temple I could see the line of . We found the first open spot along the rode and parked our car. We could see angle Moroni dangling from the crane. After a few minutes and a lot of pictures we decided to try to get closer. We were able to find a better spot. As we got out they were just about to put Angle Moroni on the top of the spire. I was so glad we were able to see it. As an old man said to us as we were walking back to our car, "This is a once in a life time opportunity." What a blessing it will be to have a temple so near.

Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday...

Hailey turned 5 on August 9....so we had a princess birthday party. All the little girls wore princess dress. We gave each of them a princess tiara and they made little princess wands. We put up our jumping house and we made them a fancy lunch complete with glass goblets. unfortunately the goblets were so tiny that we had to keep refilling them after every drink. The girls were pretty cute though, they kept saying cheers and tapping glasses before they drank their pink lemonade. I think their favorite part of the party was the Pinata. Some of the girls had never seen a pinata before. Mark and I made it a few days before the party. I also made Hailey's cake. It is suppose to be Cinderella's slipper, but it didn't turn out like I planned!!

Back to school

On August 17th Hailey headed back to school. After much (and I really mean MUCH) debate we decided to send Hailey to preschool one more year. Hailey is smart and a good girl, but I just felt like I didn't want her to be the youngest in her class. She loves school, but some days she's tired and wants a break so as of right now I'm glad we decided to wait one year. This year Hailey has been able to go to school with her cousin Kaylee. Kaylee's mom was on bed rest so Kaylee was staying we Mimi and Papa until the baby comes. The girls have really enjoyed playing together and going to school together. We sure will miss the girls when they got back home.

Glenwood and the catwalks

For our annual Smith family reunion we went up to Glenwood New Mexico for a few days. We stayed in some cute cabins call Double T homestead. We had fun visiting with family, playing games, BBQing and hiking the catwalks. Cathy, Mark's mom, did a wonderful job planning another successful family reunion.

Mark's birthday cake

Mark said he wanted an IPhone cake for his birthday. So I tried my hand at fondant frosting and this is what I came up with.

Nursing School pinning

Well I finally did it. After 3 years of school a 4 year break and one more year of school I am finally finished with nursing school!! I was afraid this day would never come. It was so nice, Mark's parents and grandma came. My parents and little sister Kelsey and her husband Kurt and new baby Ali also made the trip down from Utah to be there. I am so grateful for my family's support, especially during the last year.

Here Kitty Kitty cat

Audrey is a funny little girl. We say she's 2 going on 13. She is so independent and stubborn. Some days I just don't know what to do with her. She is in a funny stage right now. She doesn't like to watch TV except a few movies one of which is a Barney DVD. (and yes I was one of those moms that never thought she'd let her kids watch Barney) Well there are a few songs that Audrey just loves to sing and dance around the house to. One of them Says, "here kitty, kitty Cat, here kitty kitty" She does the dance and the action really well. She doesn't know all the words so she comes up with some of her own that sound the same. I'll have to get it on video.

I feel pretty....

Last week I put curlers in Hailey and Audrey's hair before bed. In the morning when we were driving Hailey to school she said, "mom I thought I'd look pretty, but I didn't know I'd look beautiful!

Marriage...Marriage it what brings us together today

About a month ago Hailey walked into the kitchen while I was making dinner and I could tell that she was upset. I asked her what was wrong and she said she missed her friends in Texas. I said,,"Well Hailey why don't you write them a letter or an email and we'll send it to them." She said, "But Mom they're all probably married by now." I was trying so hard not to laugh because she was so serious. Time means nothing to little kids.

St. Patrick's Day

On St. Patty's day we had our normal green breakfast. I also made green muffins in the shape of a shamrock. I opted not to make an all green dinner since lasts year's kind-of grossed us out. It's amazing how just changing the color of a food can make it all-of-the-sudden disgusting.

Snow Day

One morning in February Hailey came running into our bedroom and said it snowed. Mark's dad had told us the night before that snow was possible, but I didn't really expect to see it. We got the girls all dressed in their winter attire and they had a blast playing in the snow. They built an Arizona snowman.(notice the snow mixed with mud and dirt) After-wards we warmed up with warm cups of hot chocolate. It was a fun surprised, but I was glad it mostly melted by lunch time